#anyways i’m just reading for lore and side characters basically

[luvrism777]

i miss the crows

[adriberry]

Thinkin' About Blot Monsters

So I’m gonna dive in without a lot of pretense here since I've already talked about how in the Twst canon, Yuu is twisted from Mickey Mouse. And I've been stuck in the hellscape that is the battle maps of Lilia's dream in Book 7 for like a year now because, surprise surprise, I'm actually awful at this game, so I've gotten plenty of time to think about these guys:

I've had a suspicion that the blot discussed in game is a reference to one particular character from the Mickey Mouse comics canon for a while now and these guys confirmed it. The blot, the in world magical buildup and manifestation of a mage's bad feelings, when personified is twisted from The Phantom Blot.

And The Phantom Blot is the first real villain (not antagonist like Pete or Mortimer) to beef with Michael Mouse.

More Blot talk under the cut.

The Phantom Blot was introduced in the Mickey Mouse comics as a villainous thief with a camera smashing problem. He's sort of like a serial killer but instead of murder, he breaks the crap out of cameras and the police are trying to stop him. Mickey is also involved in stopping him for some reason (he was an adventurer in he og comics and also his best friend was Horace Horsecollar, not Donald or Goofy but that's a story for a different time). Now I don't know the details because I haven't read it, but I do know that from this comic on, if the Phantom Blot appears in a story with Mickey, he's getting his plans foiled by that mouse.

He increasingly gets more evil with every appearance, eventually seeking world domination and hoping to murder Mickey. He shows up in other comics too where his vibes are matched more like in Ducktales and Darkwing Duck where supervillains are more common.

He's also made appearances in a few cartoons with the most prolific being the Mouse Works short, "Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot" which sounds like it takes a few story beats from the original comic. It was also my first exposure to the Phantom Blot when it was the main cartoon shown in the House of Mouse episode "House of Crime" where he causes chaos at the club and kidnaps patroms. Since then he's been a cameo in the Mickey Mouse Shorts and a supporting character in DuckTales (2017).

As a side note, it's hilarious to me that a supervillain is targeting such a little guy because in something like Fantasmic where all the villains are going after Mickey, he's basically a powerful god of the Disney Parks. Like, imagineers originally wanted Mickey to walk on water during the show but the CEO at the time, Michael Eisner, said no mostly because the mouse would look too much like Jesus. In most of the other cases the Blot encounters Mickey, he's just a guy. He's a regular guy with really good or really bad luck, depending on how you look at it.

Anyway, if you saw these guys in Twisted Wonderland and thought "Woah, like in Epic Mickey!" you're actually right!! Because the Shadow Blot from Epic Mickey, the big monster that appears after Mickey accidently destroys Wasteland, is based on the Phantom Blot. Epic Mickey takes a lot from the old Mickey comics- including treating Horace Horsecollar and Peg Leg Pete as "forgotten characters" even though they've still hung around- because of its emphasis on forgotten and old concepts in Disney and Mickey Mouse history. Their original parts for their old series were mostly undiscussed by the Disney Company until after the game's release.

I am glad that the Phantom Blot is getting another cameo even though it's as a fucked up ink monster in another game. This would be the second ink monster appearance out of three through because apparently ink is an important part of Lorcana?? Just learned that while looking up the recent Lorcana card for him that inspired me to write this. Is he part of their ink lore too???

No real ending here, so have this picture of the Phantom Brat, the Phantom Blot's daughter. She has a Blot Doll. It's darling.

[dilly-dahlia]

"if y’all want more on specific characters just drop an ask i will gladly answer because it forces me to think about it" Okay.

Vylad.

(please)

guys i’m being so serious but Vylad has actually been so hard for me to figure out because he has such a pivotal role in my rewrite (even if he doesn’t show up for the beginning part) and i need to get like. that good feel for him which I DONT HAVE 😭😭

anyways. as opposed to the more sure “this is Vylad” post like I did with Garroth and Laurance and Dante and whoever else, this is kind of gonna be me throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. it’s also gonna be me going over some concepts i have for him, even if they’re ones i decided not to go with. you will see me connecting dots in real time. but i promise Vylad is so important and i want to get him to a point that feels right for me!!

okay so we keep the basic mcd lore. affair baby, shadow knight, brought Adelaide (Aphmau) into the world, all that. but i’m gonna start at the beginning

okay, affair baby. i very briefly entertained the thought of Vincent being his birth father, especially since I think the two could have some neat parallels and like obvious similarities yk. plus (and this is more minor) there’s the fact that like, all of the Ro’Meave kids have a name that starts with the same letter as their parents, so like… V and V. ykyk. i decided not to do that cause i feel like that’d be a useless plot line anyway. i’m thinking more like Zianna sort of had a fling with a maritime merchant that often visited O’Khasis

so it’s obvious that Vylad is an affair baby. not only because of his very different appearance compared to his brothers but also because Garte literally announced it and humiliated Zianna. i haven’t figured out the exacts of that but he publicly humiliated her to teach her a lesson

it’s also widely known that Garte hates Vylad. however despite this, Garte took Vylad in as a subtle manipulating “look how kind i am taking in a child that isn’t mine” kind of way yk?? and in the public, at least when Vylad is young, Garte seems to treat him like his own. but in private it’s clear that Garte does not see Vylad as equal to the rest of the Ro’Meave line and kind of shuns him. like he doesn’t give Vylad the same resources his brothers had, especially in academic fields. so Vylad is kind of pushed to the side. Zane kind of plays into that to appease his father

he spends a lot of time with his mother, and with Garroth when Garte allows. Zianna and Garroth actually taught him to read, which is something he’s thankful for because he doesn’t think he would have learned otherwise. Garroth was also the one that was always protecting Vylad from harsh punishments, and a large conflict for Garroth about going to the guard academy was leaving his brother to fend for himself

but Vylad and Zianna spent a lot of time together. their favorite place to frequent is Zianna’s palace garden, where she teaches him the meanings of all sorts of plants and stuff. and when Garte locks Zianna away for whatever “lesson” he’s teaching her, Vylad always finds a way in to keep talking with her. that’s how he got so good at sneaking around later as a shadow knight

okay so as he got older he was sort of excluded more and more from public events. his absence kind of solidified in peoples heads like “oh Garte DOES NOT like this kid…” but Vylad doesn’t mind because he wouldn’t consider himself to be made for these events like the rest of his family

okay so his death. it was something that was semi-planned?? so this kind of serves as a double purpose to also build tensions with Tu’la and all that. so what had happened is that a Tu’la spy infiltrated the O’Khasian guard. and that spy rose through the ranks and became one of Garte’s most trusted and Garte was eventually confiding in them that he wanted Vylad gone, even bringing up a premeditated assassination. the spy took it as an opportunity to kind of put O’Khasis against itself and took it upon themselves to kill Vylad. so his death wasn’t exactly planned, but it was on its way.

so Vylad died when he’s about 16. and he’s actually one of the reasons i have shadow knights age the way they do because I considered having him be like forever sixteen, but i didn’t really like that. i don’t remember why though because i think that’s a fire idea now i might change it…

anyway he’s 16 when he dies. that’s also another reason Garroth isn’t very happy about his marriage to Nicole, because she’s the same age his brother would be, but that’s another topic i’ve already yapped about

back to Vylad!! so he was turned into a shadow knight because it was known that he’s a Ro’Meave, or at least introduced as one. because of this, Gene and whoever else (i haven’t decided who’s in charge) resurrect him assuming he has the blood of Esmund the Protector. when they discover that he doesn’t, they also kind of discard him and hide him away

Vylad eventually breaks out. idk how. but he does. and the thing is he had devised this entire plan to start a new life for himself because he was getting tired of constantly being pushed to the side because he isn’t who people want him to be. so when he breaks out, he steals an orb and herbs that Gene had been working with to plant false memories in someone. Vylad steals this stuff, goes to the Overworld, realizes he doesn’t have a clue what to do, and goes into the sacred forest seeking the help of Hyria

his plan is to give himself a new slate. erase his memories and fabricate a new life for himself to live—one where he would never disappoint anyone or be tossed away. he asks Hyria to help him, and she agrees

before she does that, though, she starts talking to Vylad about the Divine Warriors, warning him about dangers that may come with the memory change. she kind of sort of manipulated him into instead reincarnating Irene, and she kind of used the fact that Vylad is a people pleaser that just wants to be Vylad to convince him to take Irene.

he agrees. with the help of Hyria he created a fake life for this reincarnation to have lived and experience and hides those memories in the orb he stole. and then he starts his journey to find where to place her

now obviously we know he chose near Phoenix Drop. he chose this place because he had been scouting it out for a while beforehand and actually had the suspicion that the head guard was Garroth (who had faked his death at this point, but Vylad didn’t know). so he places the staff or whatever nearby and is absolutely appalled when a whole person just comes out of it. he panics and then she starts waking up and Vylad doesn’t know what to do and he remembers the orb and very quickly does the spell Hyria told him to do

and when she wakes up the first thing Vylad says to her is “Good morning, Adelaide. How did you sleep?” and he comes up with this whole story that she’s a mercenary and then whatever else i decided that i can’t remember now

and. Vylad named her Adelaide, and he named her that because it was a name his mother loves. she always said that if she had a daughter her name would be Adelaide, so to put some goodness into this new being he named her what the most good hearted person he knows would have

and until we get a proper introduction to him in my rewrite, Vylad will be a recurring motif. i haven’t decided what exactly he’s going to mean, but he will often come to Adelaide in dreams or Adelaide will often talk fondly about the person she travelled with before settling in Phoenix Drop

overall Vylad is very insecure. he has this looming fear that everyone he comes across hates him and in an attempt to get people to like him, he ends up being a people pleaser or quiet altogether.

and that’s all i have for him 😢 i wish i had more for you anon because i love Vylad so much and he’s so important to me but alas. i hope you enjoyed this regardless

once again if you wanna know about a specific character just drop an ask! if be happy to answer :)

[crescentpaws]

i genuinely don’t understand what is so appealing about gethen?? imo, there is absolutely nothing that makes him unique. i’m curious as to why some of you guys think he’s more interesting or more cool than FINTAN of all people. (i know fintan is still the more popular character overall but obviously there’s been a lot of gethen posting lately)

(yes this is a rant partly inspired by the keepblr sexyman comp but also i’ve been thinking this for a while anyway so. the comp was just my motivation to actually write this down. (though if i’m being real it seems like a lot of the support for gethen in the poll was a result of wanting fintan to lose, rather than actually wanting gethen to win) anyway here we go)

gethen is. not interesting at all to me. he doesn’t have a backstory or a reason for joining the neverseen or anything, he’s just There and for some reason y’all love him for that. even fucking UMBER has more lore than him atp and we don’t even know her real name or what she looks like (and she’s not even alive anymore 💀). he does crimes. that’s about it. i don’t understand. every other member of the neverseen also does crimes. gethen hasn’t done anything to set him apart from them character-wise. what’s his motivation? what drives him? what is he hoping to get out of this? i have no fucking clue and frankly it just makes him a boring character to me. just your classic “haha evil villain” guy that has absolutely no depth. and most of the things people think he’s cool for are things any of the neverseen members could have done. it doesn’t say anything about his character specifically. he tried to kidnap sophie in book 1? so did everyone else. sophie punched him? sophie would have punched literally any neverseen member at that point. he’s hot? so is literally every single elf in the entire series. he killed mr. forkle? fintan killed kenric (also, i don’t understand why people think he’s more “willing” to kill people than fintan is? are we all forgetting the time when fintan was fully committed to killing an entire species…? (+ humans count too) fintan has 100% done worse things than gethen has. no one ever talks about “gethen’s big plans”)

every time gethen has shown up in the series so far it’s been like okay… so you’re just here with your buddies to carry out a plan that you didn’t come up with. cool. meanwhile fintan is out here doing dramatic reveals and giving evil speeches. gethen has literally NOTHING going for him y’all i’m sorry 😭 even the way he talks is similar to fintan. like he genuinely has no unique character traits. who is this guy. he’s just a follower. and even if he IS planning on taking over after vespera & gisela, that doesn’t make him special. i’m sure MANY neverseen members have been waiting for the leaders to doom themselves. it once again doesn’t really say anything unique about him

the only prominent thing i actually ever hear gethen fans talk about is his fucking sword. which. again. is not a character trait. and yknow what? the only reason he uses a sword in the first place is because he doesn’t have a cool ass ability like fintan does. i actually can’t think of a moment where gethen’s telepathy has been remotely useful (other than in lumenaria, but his extra mental energy is a side effect of his ability, so it doesn’t count as using the actual ability itself. not to mention he had help taking down the castle. oh right and whose idea was that again?? and sure he read tam’s mind when he was with the neverseen, but that was because gisela basically kidnapped him. gethen played no part in carrying out the actual plan. plus… the neverseen didn’t even seem to actually do anything with the information they got from tam. what was the point of that)

fintan is in prison because he was knocked unconscious after grady made him beat himself up. peak pathetic sexyman material. you have all been brainwashed by propaganda!!!! /j

tldr: everything gethen has done is something fintan has done too/is something fintan is fully capable of doing. which makes fintan the better character. & he actually has lore. and personality. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[rockybloo]

As I’m doing this ask, I’m just watching Jack the Giant Slayer and making me SEVERELY wanna read Beanstalked, I’d love a passion fueled essay/reason from you why I should read it! (I’m gonna ready it anyways)

OH BOY I GET TO DROP MY LIMITERS

For starters, Beanstalked is a fantasy slice-of-life with a sprinkle of adventure and action. It does feature swearing, violence and gore as well as some body horror and existentialism. So just a heads up.

The main plot is basically that Lore, the planet that Beanstalked takes place on which exists directly parallel to Earth, has an event every 100 years where individuals are selected to become Bookmarked. This is where they are assigned roles from fables and legends from our world and gain secret weapons known as Märchen for self defense. This event has gone on practically forever under the watchful eyes of the Sun and Moon, the gods of this world.

But that all gets disrupted by an evil fairy called Nevermore who is bored of witnessing the same fairy tales happening over and over again. She has rounded up Bookmarked villains and the occasional misled protagonist to assist her and her army of ink stains as she aims to rewrite the world and rid it of happy endings.

The newest generation of Bookmarked are very unlucky as it is their turns to live out their assigned tales due to their stories all having been screwed up due to Nevermore's interference. Jack is one of these unlucky Bookmarked, who has just recently come to learn he has been assigned the same Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. Much of Beanstalked follows hm as he learns about the magical side of the world he lives in, how to use his own Märchen, his own family history, and what exactly a "Happy Ending" is.

Beanstalked is meant to somewhat explore fairy tales and how suddenly becoming a figure in one can affect one's life-whether it be good or bad. It's also, at its center, a story about learning more about one's self and figuring out what truly makes you happy.

If you are a fan of fairy tale retellings then Beanstalked is a good pick for you. Especially if you are a fan of retellings that:

Aren't just mean spirited spins about the original tale

Aren't completely dark and gritty retellings of the source material for the sake of being edgy

Aren't just rip offs of Disney designs and characters

Or if you are petty like me, don't want to read another story about a protagonist having fallen into the land of fairy tales

Every Beanstalked character is meant to be based off either a direct character from a fable or a stock character. And for each fable, I try to bounce off the original story if there is an author (Like Pinocchio novel) or the oldest retellings as many fables don't have direct authors and simply have collectors that put their own spin on things.

So if you are worried about another fairy tale retelling story where each fable is just based off Disney's spins-DON'T WORRY BECAUSE ROCKY GOT YA' COVERED!

Beanstalked also contains a lot of found family elements, such as the entire village of Briar Patch being a community of Bookmarked who watch out for one another.

There are also cool af battle scenes due to the existence of Märchen (because Rocky grew up watching too many shounen anime and now has to put battles in everything), a ton of world building (I've had this story for nearly a decade now), a lotta characters with melanin (many being black), and a cast comprised of bi and pan characters.

ALSO ALSO...if you are a fan of pretty black girl love interests that kick ass (and may also be a monster girl with sharp teeth and claws and whole big monster form) then you will enjoy Beanstalked as Jack's love interest, Nana, is all of said above mentioned things.

SO if any of this happened to catch your attention-GO READ BEANSTALKED! As of right now I've rebooted it from the original 2010s version I had so it currently only has chapters 1 and 2. Which means you don't have a lotta catch up to do!

I have also handcuffed myself to this story which means I will be working on it till I finish it. I am on a mission. So if you want a webcomic and don't wanna worry about it suddenly being cancelled or disappearing one day-DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF CITIZEN as I am unhinged about my fairy tale babies and am in for the long haul.

[actiniumwrites]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐘

synopsis: you and kaveh were best friends for years, studying together at the akademiya and working side by side as established architects. after the devastating incident at the palace of alcazarzaray that leads to a harsh falling out, neither of you have seen each other for years. it isn’t until one day, when a multi-millionaire offers the two of you a job that could flip your lives around, that you’re forced to reconcile and maybe even become something more

characters: kaveh x gn! reader

wc: 10k

warnings: angst, fluff, ex best friends to lovers, arguments, drinking, mentions of vomiting and blacking out, mentions of being drunk/ tipsy/ alcohol in general (nothing major), swearing, inaccurate and unrealistic depictions of architecture, probably general writing errors (since this is 10k words and i’m not proofreading it three times)

notes: um so basically i got this idea one day when i was staring at the genshin map and then suddenly an entire plot just entered my brain. and y’all know i love writing fics that somehow shove the reader into the lore and then have a super angsty dynamic with one of the characters 💀 anyway, this somehow ended up being like 10k words and took me 3-4 months to finish, but i told myself i had to finish it before fontaine came out, so here it is!

“Delivery!”

The sound of beads being pushed aside and footsteps padding against the wood floors alert you quickly. Your head rises from the arm it was leaning on to meet the face of the mailman who never failed to show up weekly with a smile on his face. It’s friday and it’s dark out, the moon peers through the window, but this happens every week. Same day, same time. Always the last delivery. Always at 8 PM sharp.

Your hand reaches to the left to dip the pen you’re holding into the black liquid in the tiny pot by your elbow. Without hesitation, you’re signing off on the sheet of paper he’s given you. When you return it, you find him giving you a smile and placing the boxes and a few neatly stacked envelopes on the counter. He walks out soon after and you call out to him, “Thanks for stopping by!”

But as soon as he’s out of your eyesight, the smile on your face drops back into the bored expression it was in before he entered your shop. A sigh escapes you as you carelessly sort through the mail, tossing the boxes to the side to look through later, already knowing it was just shipments of product for your tiny store. If you were being honest, you were ready to just set all of it to the side and head home for the night, but you carried on. Dark bags and gentle creases made theirselves at home around your eyes as you stared down at the envelopes. A deep exhale falls from your mouth as you tear each and every one of them open to look at their contents. Most of it is nothing new, aside from the very last one that has bright red peeking through the paper.

EVICTION NOTICE

“Fuck,” you angrily mutter to yourself, “this better be some sort of sick joke.” But it becomes very apparent it isn’t a joke as your eyes scan over it. There’s a burning sensation behind them when you finish reading it. It lands harshly against the counter when you slam it down, crumpling a bit at the middle. You knew you were barely making ends meet, but this? This was a whole new level. The house you had been renting was small. It barely even fit you and the little things you had left after selling most of it off. The rent was cheaper and the place wasn’t great, but it worked. If you were being evicted from this, where were you supposed to go now?

The shop you had was too small and wasn’t safe for sleeping in anyway. The thought of crashing at one of your friend’s place crosses your mind, but having to rely on them sounds less than appealing. Besides, many of them would be far too inconvenient. Tighnari had been a long time friend of yours, but he lived too far from the city which meant you wouldn’t be able to get to work on time. Same with Candace, or even Dehya, who resided in the desert. Of course, there was Nilou who was always wiling to offer you help, but you know her place isn’t big enough for two people and she needed her space for dancing. Then there was Alhaitham. That option was an absolute no for many reasons, but mainly because of the fact that he lives with your ex-best friend who was the entire reason you were in this mess.

“Ahem,” someone awkwardly clears their throat in front of you.

You jump back and away from the counter where the cursed piece of paper sat. The notice had completely distracted you from the fact that someone had walked in. Noticing you had knocked down an envelope in your sudden retreat, you reach down to pick it up while addressing the person, “I apologize, but we’re closing in around two minutes. I’m afraid you’ll have to come back tomor—“

Your sentence falls short as you rise from the floor. Red eyes stare back at yours, one of the prettiest shades of red you have ever seen. You could never forget those eyes.

Speak of the Devil.

The blood in your body runs cold when reality finally smacks you in the face, “Why are you here, Kaveh.”

It’s less of a question and more of a demand. You watch as his brows furrow and you can’t help but wonder if he was expecting you to be friendly with him. If he was, it wouldn’t surprise you. Kaveh was always like that — trying to see the best in people no matter the situation.

“It’s…uh, it’s been awhile,” he stumbles over his words awkwardly. It’s unlike him, you think. From what you can remember of him, he never really stuttered or mumbled unless he was drunk. Loud and clear was always more of his thing. He wanted to make sure he was known. Maybe he changed, but for the sake of his own good, you really wish he hasn’t.

“Yeah, it has,” you purse your lips as you turn around and take the boxes the delivery man had brought to the tiny back room of the shop. Earlier you decided you would deal with them tomorrow, but honestly, you’d rather deal with them right now than with your ex-best friend, “I won’t ask again. Why are you here?”

Kaveh clears his throat and averts his eyes. You watch as his hands begin to interlock and fiddle with each other. His weight keeps shifting from one side to another as he speaks, “I need your help.”

You look at him incredulously and scoff, “No.”

“What? You haven’t even heard what I have to say yet!”

“I said no,” you stand firmly, furrowing your brows at him as you gesture to the shop around you, “Don’t you see what my life has become? I don’t care what you want or need help with, I’m not helping you.”

Kaveh glances around at all the little shelves. There’s a bunch of tiny models and little figurines, things he assumes you designed yourself. You were always talented at that sort of stuff. He preferred the flat blueprints while you had a knack for creating 3D models filled with details like no other. It was no wonder you had used that ability to your advantage.

He notices how small it is. There’s other vendors around your shop, he noticed them as he came in. They all had bigger shops with more shelves and more room, better organization even. He liked yours though. As much as Kaveh enjoyed extravagance, the warm home vibe your store gave outmatched the others. It reminded him so much of the way you made him feel back then. Even so, he can’t help but see what you were talking about. This store isn’t what your talent should be wasted on when you were destined for far more. Both of you were. Yet here you are, both barely scraping by.

“I know and I don’t really have the right to be asking you for this, but will you please just hear me out first?” He begs with desperation in his eyes. You sigh and look off to the side before giving him a slight nod, a gesture for him to continue on.

“There’s a man named Zakai, a multi-millionaire businessman here in Sumeru who’s looking to have a custom mansion made for himself and his pregnant wife,” he explains. It’s beginning to sound all too familiar far too quickly and you can feel your willingness to let him explain slipping away from you.

“Kaveh.”

“Just listen, okay. He sought me out but wanted you too. Said something about admiring our work on the Palace of Alcazarzaray and he wants something similar but smaller with a different look.”

“Are you joking? No. There’s no way,” you refuse, waving your hands in the air as you shake your head.

Kaveh continues to plead his case though, “He’s not like Dori, I swear! He actually has empathy and his request is a lot more reasonable. Besides, there’s a lot of money involved in this. Even split between us. It would cover the debt we owe. Guaranteed.”

“You’re empathetic, Kaveh, and you’re a perfectionist. Millionaires don’t care about us. Can’t you see where this is heading? I don’t know about you, but I am not very fond of the fact that I’m wasting my life away trying to work off an insane amount of debt. What happens if another mistake occurs in the process? Hm? Our lives will be ruined ten times more than they were last time and I’m not willing to take that risk.”

“Ten times worse? Really?” He exasperatedly scoffs, throwing his hands up in the air dramatic as ever, “Of course I hate how I live right now. I mean, c’mon! Honestly, who wouldn’t? But you and I both know we don’t really have anything left. Take a look around you and tell me you wouldn’t take the chance to get out of this mess.”

The glare you’re sending him is icy cold, Kaveh falters a bit under it, but you both know he’s right. There’s a plate full of money right in front of your face and you’re so close to being able to call it yours, and yet you’re denying it? A life without debt is nothing but a dream to you at this point, one you’ve had nightly since you watched all your money slide away from you and down into Dori’s mischievous little hands.

Kaveh tests the waters when he speaks again after the brief silence, “You’re the only other architect in Sumeru that is capable of working on this job. You saw what we accomplished on the palace. We can do it again, no mistakes this time. And if it does happen…then I’ll take the fall for it. I’ll take the fall for all of it.”

Your brows furrow and you sigh for what felt like the thousandth time. The small part of you that was his best friend from all those years ago reaches out to him, “You know I can’t accept that, Kaveh. We may not be friends anymore, but I’m not going to watch you destroy yourself all over again if something goes wrong.”

“Please,” he pleads, entirely brushing off your words, “I’m doing this for the both of us. If you want out at any point, then we’ll back out together. Just…consider the offer, okay?”

The red from the letter catches your eye again and something suddenly feels like it’s pulling at your heart. An eviction notice followed by a job offer promising wealth feels like one big coincidence, but it’s not one you can ignore. You really didn’t have anything left now — aside from the tiny store you had going. And if this does turn out to be a success, your life would be entirely back on track to what it was all those years ago. You could live freely again.

One more glance at Kaveh finalizes your decision.

“I’ll do it.”

The next few times you meet with Kaveh seem to bleed well into the night. Blueprints are scattered across the floor of your shop during the after hours, a closed sign out front. Your legs are crossed over one another and your head rests atop your hand. Kaveh is standing up, muttering words you can’t quite make out.

“No…that won’t do, but…well? Dark wood? Ugh…wait! No, nevermind,” he paces back and forth, sifting through papers in his hands.

You place the outline you were looking at on the floor and glare at him coldly, “Can you stop? I can’t focus.”

Kaveh sighs and sets down the blueprints he was holding in his hand, “Sorry, I just can’t make up my mind.”

“Clearly,” you mutter.

“Here,” he picks up a pile of sketches off the table and hands them to you, “What do you think of the wood choices on these? Oh, and the color of the paint we’d use on the outside.”

Your eyes inspect them carefully as you flip through each one. They’re all relatively the same aside from a few of them. The ones that stand out the most to you are the simple ones. They’re darker and more elegant looking, exactly what this guy seemed to want. On the other hand, the rest of them are more flashy and had an air to them you couldn’t seem to take a liking to.

You slide him two of the papers, side by side and tap each of them simultaneously, “These two. They’re cost effective and fit what he wants. I say we go this route, but maybe with some slight changes.”

“What? No! Those should’ve been scrapped,” Kaveh’s eyes widen at your choice. He scrambles to grab the papers back but you slam your hand down on them before he can.

You squint your eyes, “What do you mean? These practically check everything off his list. How are we going to deny the client what he wants?”

Kaveh groans and a hand slides down his face, “These don’t even look rich. It barely screams money at all! We’re making a house for a rich man and you want to do something this simple?”

“Yes! This is literally what he wants! And it does look rich. Just because something isn’t bursting with color and fancy embellishments everywhere does not mean it doesn’t have opulence to it!”

Kaveh’s face visibly falls at your response and he can’t help but be reminded of all those years ago when you were still friends. Sure you still argued then, but it wasn’t like now. You weren’t hostile toward him and he could stand to make some changes based on your suggestions. But now, it felt like everything was going in one ear and out the other.

“What if we compromise?” he asks regretfully, not willing to give up what he wants, but still wanting to get this job done. Contrary to his cynical and provocative roommate, arguing was not something Kaveh enjoyed, and Kaveh didn’t want to strain your relationship any more than it already was.

You hesitantly nod and point to each of the sketches, “Okay, which parts?”

“Keep it extravagant, use cheaper materials?”

“No, I just said that isn’t what Mr. Zakai wants.”

“Well then what are we supposed to do?”

You roll your eyes when he isn’t looking. Sometimes it felt like you were arguing with a child.

“Simple. Choose the more plain design and maybe add a few more embellishments, while keeping it cost effective.”

Kaveh inwardly groans, but stops himself from saying anything else. He thinks for a moment, going back and forth between different ideas in his head. There’s a temptation to just grab the sketches and run off with them, leave you in the dust and forget all about your past with each other. It’s the same part of him that sits on his shoulder, whispering in his ear that maybe, just maybe, all of this is a mistake.

The other part yearns. It’s something he can’t help as he stares down at the sketches, but really, he’s looking at you from his peripheral vision. He misses the way things were when you were best friends. When you would laugh for hours on end with each other, talk about the big mansions you would build for each other some day, and the lives you were going to have. All of those visions, every thought he used to have, they all included you.

Kaveh doesn’t remember when things got so bad between you. Yes he knows the exact date, the time, the place it all went down. But when did you start really hating each other? When did your smile begin to fade into a frown whenever he showed up? And when did he start feeling a painful ache in his chest whenever your name was mentioned?

Why do things have to be the way they are?

Kaveh shuts the door in the temptation’s face. He wasn’t going to run from you or shove everything aside like he normally would. If he was granted any wish in the world, it wouldn’t be to get rid of his debt or become the richest man in the world. Because Kaveh would let himself he the poorest man in the world if it meant he could be with you again.

Mr. Zakai had come to him with an opportunity of wealth and opulence. It would make them one in the same if he could play his cards right. Wipe away his debt and his past. He could be free again. But more than that, Kaveh would have you back.

And as his ruby red eyes catch yours once more, he realizes there is nothing more that he wants than you.

“Wow, I mean, Archons. This design is just unbelievable.”

Your eyes widen ever so slightly, not quite sure if you should be scared or relieved. Mr. Zakai’s tone doesn’t give away what he’s feeling, and you’re terrified. Kaveh swears he can feel you shaking next to him in anticipation…or maybe it was the anxiety. He glances once your way and then back to Mr. Zakai before glancing at you again and awkwardly laughing, “Ahaha, I hope that’s a, uh, good ‘unbelievable?’”

Mr. Zakai throws his hands in the air and laughs brightly, “Yes, yes! Of course! This design is utterly beautiful. It’s like you took the picture from my mind and captured it right onto a piece of paper.”

Both of you sigh of relief simultaneously, clutching a hand over your hearts, but smiling nonetheless. “That’s wonderful to hear,” you say and gesture to the open land behind you that has long since been designated as the construction site for his home, “If you’d like, we can get to building as soon as possible. We already have a team prepared and everything. Just say the word.”

“Let us begin!” he cheers.

Beginning to build the actual mansion was like a dream come true for an architect. The smoothness at which everything was running was beyond belief for the both of you. All of the materials had been safely delivered with care, and although they weren’t the best of the best, they without a doubt exceeded Kaveh’s expectations. Alongside that, the plot of land being used was absolutely beautiful and the perfect place for a home.

It was a perfect distance from the main city, nothing too arduous to travel to. There was a beautiful lake nearby that was adorned with various flowers, fish, and fruit trees surrounding it. And the best part, there weren’t any cliffs or waterfalls nearby. No signs of a withering zone either. It was something Kaveh had specifically checked for before accepting the job, terrified of having a repeat of the entire incident that put you both in this mess.

It had only taken around a week and a half for the skeleton of the mansion to be built. But already, it was turning out wonderfully. Thanks to the team both of you had and your newfound ability to compromise with one another, both of your guys’ morale had been boosted immensely. Things were finally beginning to look up.

“It’s beautiful,” you whisper in awe, staring at the team working on the house just feet away from you. Kaveh stands next to you, clipboard in hand and a pen eagerly scribbling away at the paper on it.

His eyes look up from the papers he was shuffling through to glance at the house and then glance back at you, “It really is, huh? I’m glad we were able to compromise on the final design. I think it’s turning out really great.”

“And to think you wanted all those embellishments,” you laugh as you reminisce.

Kaveh scoffs and leans into your shoulder with his, “Shut up. Sometimes the blueprint version isn’t a good representation of the final product. How was I supposed to know your ideas would look so good?”

“Oh? What was that?” you cup your hand around your ear and smirk, leaning into him, “Is that you finally admitting my ideas are better than yours?”

“Hey! That is not what I said.”

“I think it is. Just admit it, my dear friend, I have always been the better architect.”

My dear…friend?

Kaveh stops in his place, blinking at your words. He breathes out and looks to the ground. He isn’t sure what you mean. Perhaps it was a slip up or just a joke, but he chooses not to take it seriously in order to protect his feelings. So he teases you, ignoring the slight ache in his heart, “Oh, so now we’re friends again?”

“Ugh, please. I couldn’t be friends with an architect that isn’t on my level,” you jest. It was indeed a slip up on your end, and you realized it the moment you said it, but like Kaveh, you knew it would be better to just brush it off. Push it aside along with any other newfound positive feelings you had toward your old friend.

“Pft, yeah right,” he rolls his eyes and turns away from you again. You both begin walking toward the house, ready to tell everyone that it’s time to pack it up for the night. The sun would be completely set in about an hour and you knew they all had families to get back to. Besides, both of you were tired and you weren’t even the ones building the damn thing. You couldn’t imagine how tired they were if you were already feeling exhausted.

Footsteps dragging against the gravel alerts the crew of your presence and they all realize what time it is. Several of them hop down from the upper layers while the rest of them begin picking up their things from the ground floor. Many of them already begin to bid one another a “goodnight,” and “get home safely.”

“Great work today, guys!” you excitedly call out to them.

Kaveh smiles a bit and joins you, clapping his hands together as he reminds them, “Please go home and get some rest. We have a busy rest of the week from here on out! We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

Before either of you can walk away, one of the girls that was working on the building rushes up to you both, “Sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to let you guys know about the progress.”

You recognize her as one of the leaders for the construction crew when you turn around. She was in charge of the more specific areas of progress when it came to the actual building aspect, while you and Kaveh had oversight on the entire thing.

“Oh?” Kaveh confusedly asks, unsure of what she had to share, “What about it? Is something the matter?”

“No, no! Nothing bad. I just wanted to let you know that at this rate, the house should be completed within three months. We’re making an exponentially great amount of progress, especially with the wonderful crew we have working on it. You guys should be proud of yourselves,” she smiles.

You and Kaveh quickly turn and high-five each other, pleased with what she was saying. But as quick as it came, it was gone. Simultaneously, you clear your throats and take a step back from one another.

“Ahem, I um — thank you! That means a lot,” you say through a strained smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes. Kaveh doesn’t say anything.

Instantly, the girl can feel the awkward tension in the air and takes a step back herself.

“Of course, I’ll uh, be going now. Have a goodnight!”

When she walks off, Kaveh turns back to you hesitantly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Let’s just pretend that never happened, yeah?”

He hums in agreement and starts to walk alongside you, “But, hey, I was thinking. She is right, you know? We should be proud of our progress so far. Maybe we could go to the tavern tonight? But only if you want, of course!”

You pause, but nod slowly, “Yeah…yeah okay. We can do that.”

“Really?” Kaveh tilts his head to the side, not quite believing you.

“Sure,” you shrug, not thinking too much into it, “Let’s go.”

You could feel the alcohol running through your system as you spoke, laughing along with some stupid story you were telling. Kaveh and you had been at the tavern for nearly two hours and it had long since been dark outside. You didn’t even get the chance to change out of your work clothes before getting there.

It didn’t take long for either of you to find a glass of alcohol sitting in front of you alongside a bunch of different dishes. Although neither of you really had the money to spending like this, it was a congratulatory meal and you couldn’t help but splurge a little.

“I know! Oh my god,” you slur a bit, “Do you…do you remember that time that one guy in our class plagiarized his entire project all the way down to the 3-D model? What was his name again? Bahar? No, that wasn’t it…”

“Oh, Baharak!” Kaveh exclaims, jumping from his seat a little and pointing at you before sitting back down. Leaning against his seat, he lets out a nostalgic sigh, “Archons, how could I forget that guy?”

“Baharak, yeah! Man, I can’t believe he really thought he wouldn’t get expelled for that,” you say and take another sip of your drink.

Kaveh hums in agreement and takes another bite of his food, “Wait, do you remember that professor we had? The one that took my library book away?”

“Really? You’ll have to refresh my memory again,” you say, struggling to connect memories together. Neither of you were drunk, but you were sure as hell getting there. Lambad already had to tell both of you to ease up on the drinks, aware that you both had work the next day. But truly, he just didn’t want you making a ruckus in his tavern again.

It had been years since you both visited together, but he could never forget the messes you made when you were both students at the Akademiya. The days where you would drink until you blacked or vomited, the nights spent drunk crying over bad grades or shitty professors, or the time you accidentally fell asleep on the bathroom floor and he didn’t realize until after closing because Kaveh was too drunk to realize you even left. It was safe to say that you weren’t his favorite customers, despite being fully grown adults now. Lambad was not willing to have repeats of any of those incidents.

It continues on for another hour or so, just sharing stupid stories from the past and what your friendship used to be like. It almost feels as though you are friends again, even if it’s just for a brief moment.

Your smile is wide when you’re talking to him and your laugh isn’t some fake laugh that you always use when someone comes into your store or when you’re talking to literally anyone else. Your legs are bumping into his under the table too, contrary to a few years ago when he was much shorter. It’s weird, you think, how much everything has changed.

It’s not until someone at a table nearby makes a comment about you two that you really digest just how weird it all is.

“Look at that cute couple over there,” they say in awe from somewhere behind you, “Don’t you miss when we used to be like that?”

Within seconds you feel sobered up. It almost embarrasses you how one much one small comment could have an effect on you. Your heart drops into your stomach and your laughter fades out. This isn’t right, you think. You can laugh and drink all you want, but it doesn’t change what happened all those years ago. It doesn’t change the incident or the things Kaveh said to you that night or the things you said to him. It doesn’t change how hard you cried and how your life suddenly went from being on a high to dropping to the lowest you’ve ever been. You can barely survive day to day because of that day…because of him.

No. It doesn’t change anything at all.

You stand up abruptly and grab your bag, slamming some mora onto the table and glancing around hurriedly before beginning to walk out on him. Kaveh stands up too and goes to reach for your arm, but you pull away before he can make contact with it, “Hey, what’s wrong? Where are you going?”

“I can’t do this,” you mumble to yourself, rushing away out of fear.

“Can’t do what?” Kaveh’s eyes are bursting with confusion and terrified that he may have done something wrong. Something to upset you. But you’re already out of the building before he can get an answer.

It had been about a week before you saw each other again. Luckily for you, it wasn’t required that you were at the build site as long as one of you was there. And with Kaveh’s naturally perfectionistic personality, you knew you weren’t needed there. He was also smart enough to not coming looking for you either after everything that had occurred not only earlier that week, but in the years prior. There was a reason you got along so well before everything came crashing down.

No one knew you guys like you knew each other. There was no doubt about that.

The time you had been gone in the past week was spent running your store, something you had been neglecting anyway. Despite it not being the most successful business ever, it was something and you still had customers to take care of.

Today had been rather slow, being a Thursday and all. Most people were out working their other jobs and kids were in school, so there weren’t really many people to be out shopping anyway.

Aggressive footsteps catch your attention, but you don’t bother to look up at whoever had just entered, figuring it was probably some elderly guy again there to scold you like the one last week.

“Welcome in, I’ll be with you in a moment,” you call out from your spot at the counter, signing away at some documents for the store. The footsteps don’t stop and look around, however. Instead, they march right up the counter and slam your binder shut.

“Is this seriously what you’ve been doing? I get it I may have pissed you off or whatever at Lambad’s earlier this week, but leaving me at the site like that is just shallow,” a familiar voice scolds you. You look up to see Kaveh seething. Although, the longer you look in his eyes, the more you see he’s less angry and more terrified. Of what? You’re unsure.

For a moment, you have the urge to extend a hand out to him and ask him what’s wrong, but you catch yourself before you can. Besides, it would defeat the entire purpose of you being at your store instead of the mansion. Instead you scoff, regaining your anger for him, “Okay? It’s not like you really needed me there this week. All the crew is doing is just finishing the skeleton. Stop acting like something bad happened or whatever.”

Kaveh purses his lips and leans closer to you, leveling his eyes with yours. The seriousness in them is unmistakable and it shakes you a bit. You haven’t seen him like that since…well, since that day. “That’s the thing…something did happen. I came here to tell you abo—”

“What?” You cut him off, eyes widening.

“Stop,” he hushes you angrily, “Please for the love of God just listen for once. Something happened to Zakai’s wife. I came here to tell you that we need to meet with him today because it’s urgent and I barely know what’s going on myself. So please, just put our differences aside and come with me.”

Your lips shut themselves before they can speak again. There’s shock in your eyes at his slight outburst, but you gulp and nod at him. Picking up the binder from earlier, you slide it under the counter in one of the locked drawers before walking around to the other side where Kaveh stands. A quick glance around and you’re walking out of the store. Without hesitation, you flip the sign that reads open to the side that reads closed.

And although you weren’t the firmest believer in the Gods or any part of Celestia, you bowed your head and prayed to the Dendro Archon that this wasn’t what you thought it was.

Your leg bounces in anticipation as you sit next to Kaveh at the Cafe. It’s dark out, and there aren’t a lot of people around which you’re grateful for. There was a certain nervousness in the air and you weren’t ready to find out where it was going to take you.

“Thank you for meeting with me,” Mr. Zakai says sadly and sits down, sliding you both a mug with what you presume is tea. Kaveh thanks him and bumps his knee with yours from next to you.

You fall out of your thoughts and clear your throat, “Oh, uh, yeah. Of course.”

He looks down at his lap solemnly, seemingly speechless. You turn to Kaveh who’s sitting on your right and frown at him. Kaveh returns the expression but nods his head, wordlessly telling you to just wait and see. You nod back and turn to sip at your tea.

Mr. Zakai’s voice is shaky when he speaks again moments later, “I…I don’t know where to begin. I suppose I should just get to the point so I don’t waste your time.”

You both wait in silence, urging him to continue. Practically waiting on the edge of your seats at this point.

“I have to suspend the project.”

You swear you can feel your heart drop into your stomach as you breathlessly whisper a tiny, “What?”

Kaveh turns to you quickly to gauge your reaction before turning back and swallowing deeply, “I’m sorry, could you please explain what’s going on here? I mean, c’mon, we barely started this thing and now you’re backing out?”

He waves his hands in the air and coughs, “No, no! I…I’m not backing out, dear God, no. I just, I need to wait a bit. It’s my wife, she’s with a family doctor. You see, she’s pregnant and there’s been some terrible complications. I’m afraid she’s fallen ill and I can’t afford to be spending my time building some mansion when she needs me.”

“How long?” you ask firmly, “How long are you suspending this?”

“I don’t know, I’m sorry,” he regretfully apologizes.

Kaveh tries to stay calm but you can feel him shaking next to you. His hands shakily put down the tea cup and he shuts his eyes while he speaks, almost like this is just one big nightmare that he can’t wake up from, “What does this mean for us? The crew? The materials we bought?”

Zakai stutters and sighs over and over again before he can get anything out, “I promise I will pay you…eventually. I have medical bills to pay and for now, I can’t pay either of you.”

“So what? You’re just leaving us then?!” You push him further.

“I’m sorry, really, I am,” he stands up and backs away slowly, “I need to go visit my wife. We’ll chat again soon.”

Hurriedly, he rushes off before either of you get the chance to go after him. Your breathing is heavy and labored, but neither of you move from your seats. There’s a lump in your throat, one you’re desperately trying to push down as you whisper, “I should have never agreed to this.”

“Hey, it’s not over yet,” Kaveh tries to reason as he places a hand on your shoulder. You shrug him off and stand up, shaking your head as you turn around to walk away.

Kaveh quickly springs from his seat and rushes to catch up with you. He pleads with you desperately, “I didn’t know this was going to happen, I swear. This is all my fault.”

“Yeah, it is,” you spat at him, stopping in your tracks and turning to him, “That’s the problem with you, Kaveh. Wherever you go, bad luck just seems to follow. I should’ve known better, honestly. You’d think after all these years I would’ve been smarter. And now…now my life is even more ruined than it was before. Thanks a lot.”

“You know what? No. You agreed to this, so you don’t get to treat me like dirt on your shoe just because something went wrong. Don’t you realize my life is just as ruined as yours is? You’re not the only one with problems!” He yells suddenly, taking a step forward toward you. A few people stop and stare but quickly keep moving when you turn and glare at them.

“My life was ruined in seconds!” You dig your pointer finger into his chest as you match his volume.

“Yeah? Well so was mine! You’re not the only one who’s been suffering all this time.”

Silence washes over both of you. You take a step back from him and remove your hand from his chest hesitantly, angry tears beginning to sting your eyes. Kaveh feels the same prickliness too, a dull ache in his chest as he stands before you. This wasn’t what either of you wanted deep down, and you realize that as you turn and walk away from him again.

There were so many moments of failure in Kaveh’s life, but you had an equal share as well. Yet, for some reason, neither of you realized the other was hurting just as much. Perhaps, like Kaveh, the real reason you accepted the project was so you could rekindle your friendship, bring back a relationship you missed dearly.

You look up at the moon as you walk away, leaving him somewhere behind you where you don’t care to look back to. And as you stare at its presence in the sky, you can’t help but feel like it was just like you and him. He was the sun, and you were the moon. Beautiful in their own ways, but bound by fate to never exist at the same time. Never to coexist.

Maybe this time, the tiny thread that still connected you had finally tethered for good.

The day it all happened was both blurry and clear in your memories.

That day.

Everything seemed to irk you from the moment you awoke that morning. The sheets on your bed weren’t quite placed right. The temperature in your house was miserably warm, even worse, humid after you accidentally left your window open the night before. The ingredients you had planned on using for your favorite breakfast had miraculously grown mold overnight. Not to mention, you were already late five minutes to the build site and everyone knew how particular Dori was about being punctual.

The clouds were a depressing gray from what you could remember. The rain was normally one of your favorite things. After all, you chose to live in the rainforest for a reason. But that day, the gloomy sight stirred a sense of anger in you that was impossible to shake.

You could remember the way Kaveh was avoiding you in the weeks leading up to it all. It was justified in your eyes because well, you were avoiding him too. Neither of you seemed to be able to stand the constant arguments that would break out between you. Most of them were pointless too — small things that could be resolved without a bunch of yelling and insults. Yet, every time you looked at him, every time he spoke, every time he even breathed, you felt anger seep into your blood.

At that point, the both of you had worked on several projects together. Houses, libraries, stores, gardens, you name it. The Palace of Alcazarzaray was the first real project you had both worked on. It was big, flashy, and was going to make a statement about your capabilities to all of Sumeru. Fame and riches were plastered all over the opportunity. The magnum opus of both of your careers.

It was this very reason that you both fought so often. There was so much to plan. So much to work on. At first, things had gone well considering you were both great friends — the best of friends, even. Any outsider or non-architect would probably make the naive assumption that, if anything, it would bring you even closer together. But with so much pressure, the opposite happened and you grew apart. The conflict was too much to handle on either side and you couldn’t keep up with it. Neither of you could.

The rain was bothersome when it started.

It started with a few drops here and there. You could remember hastily wiping them from your hands and face before peering up at the sky with a frown. Within a mere few seconds, the sprinkling rain became aggressive and thunderous. Lightning flashed in your eyes as the afternoon sky faded from a light gray to a deep blue and black.

It was hard to hear the yelling of all the crew members over the rumbling of the thunder overhead. The water below the structure began to thrash rapidly and the cliffs had a slight shake to them. Up until that part, everything was clear to you.

Then the rain was in your eyes and your breathing was heavy as you aimlessly ran around. Eventually, everyone had evacuated the site to a nearby area. Everything had happened so fast you couldn’t even remember how you ended up there, wrapped in a blanket and shivering in the corner of a small tent with a few other people. Soon after, everyone got sent home for the afternoon in a bad mood.

It wasn’t until hours later that a majority of the crew had returned. Your heart dropped within the first few steps you took as the palace came into sight. What had once been turning out to be a luxurious palace was crumbled down into nothing but ruins. Forest Rangers surrounded the place, evaluating it and dragging some equipment away. As soon as Tighnari spotted you, he jogged over to you, carefully explaining what happened.

After the rain, the withering made its way to the house and destroyed just about everything. Within hours, everything you had been working toward for months vanished out of thin air. Kaveh had been walking up to the both of you when the news was relayed to you. What he overheard stopped him in his tracks, allowing him to fall to his knees in anger, frustration, but most importantly, denial. Part of him could process it, while the other part wished he could wake up from whatever nightmare he seemed to be having.

If there was one thing you could remember better than anything else, it was the silence that followed. Everyone dispersed from the area with crest fallen expressions making their way home to their families for the second time that night. You and Kaveh stayed behind, sitting quietly within the ruins on your knees, surrounded by rubble, praying for a miracle from the Dendro Archon.

Tears fell silently down both of your faces as he leaned against your shoulder, arms wrapped carelessly around your abdomen. You had no energy to return the action, and so you sat there in the still silence without so much as a sniffle. Your head was bowed to your chest, unable to look at the place anymore in fear of breaking down in a way that seemed worse than the way the palace had broken.

Both of your tears’ had dried with the morning sun. There was a pounding in your head as Kaveh dragged you back to his house to collect his savings and prepare to sell his house. You had done the same after making a hesitant agreement with him. A tingling sensation covered your body as your chest and stomach ached. Anxiety was written all over your face and you couldn’t help but feel regret over your actions. There was no other way out, you thought.

The arguments hadn’t stopped even after everything had been settled with the money and the plans to rebuild the palace came into fruition. You still had a hard time being around him and he felt the same way. Despite that small moment of desperation where he clung to you in the ruins, there wasn’t much left of your friendship by the end.

Ultimately, one thing led to another and a snap happened. Kaveh was the one to snap first, turning around on you one day and just hurling insult after insult. You followed suite, not backing down for the sake of your dignity. And at that moment, you just wanted to make each other hurt. There was nothing more to it. No real reason to be arguing anymore — not even over small trivial things like misplaced blueprints or an empty paint can being knocked over. It was pure hatred at its finest.

Coincidentally, that was the last day you ever saw each other. You both unknowingly felt bad about hurting each other like that. You were supposed to be best friends afterall. Some part of you even wanted to be more. Not that he ever knew that, though. There was a time in which you tried to apologize, but the residual anger that burned in your heart prevented you from ever seeking him out.

And so, everything you had come to know of him ceased at once. Kaveh was no longer part of your life and you were no longer part of his. The Palace of Alcazarzaray was finished by the crew and anytime either of you ever had to meet with Dori it was always separate. For years, you hadn’t even caught so much as a glance of him.

There was nothing left. Absolutely nothing.

Three weeks had passed since Zakai had reached out to either of you. History seemed to be repeating itself with you and Kaveh as well, seeing as neither of you had crossed paths at all within that time.

You were back to quietly running your tiny little store. There was only a week left until your eviction went into effect. The few things you had in your house had been moved into a small section in the back of your store where you had settled to live temporarily. There wasn’t much room and it wasn’t the safest, but you would find a way to make it work for the time being.

“Um, hi,” a timid voice squeaks out, catching you off guard, “I have an urgent delivery. Could you please confirm your name on the envelope?”

Your eyes lift from the paper they’re staring at blankly. Your brows furrow and you nod at the young boy who didn’t look to be older than fifteen. “Do you know what this is about?” You ask him as you turn to find a letter opener from behind you.

“Not exactly. It’s from my uncle Zakai, you know him right?”

“Yeah, something like that. Thanks,” you mumble. He hums before awkwardly walking out of your shop. When he’s gone, you eagerly cut open the pristine envelope to find a paper inside. It’s a letter, you realize as you begin to read it. It’s addressed to both you and Kaveh, so you assume he must’ve received one as well.

Inside the letter details a meeting at a specific time and place. It’s the build site, later this afternoon at three o’clock. Most of it is just jumbled up, redundant apologies that you can’t resist your eyes from rolling at, but the end of the letter catches your eye. Moving back up a few sentences you had scanned over, you reread it carefully.

“He wants to start the project back up?” You ask to no one but yourself. The letter falls from your hand onto the counter and you stare out at your shop in contemplation. On one hand, you could return to the project and see it through. Maybe hope nothing bad happens again. On the other, you could ditch the whole thing out of fear that history could repeat itself for a third time. It would mean you could avoid seeing Kaveh again. Because, as you angrily spat at him before, bad luck seemed to follow him wherever he went. You were far too scared of what the outcome of seeing him again would be.

Minutes later you had your answer as you found yourself flipping the sign outside the shop to closed and locking the doors.

It wasn’t worth it, you realized, being scared of someone who was only scared and sensitive himself. Joining the project again couldn’t hurt you any further than it already had. There was no contractual agreement that would force you to be friendly with Kaveh again either. Perhaps you could work merely as coworkers and nothing more. Speak to him only when you have to and get this job done once and for all.

“I’m glad to have you back,” Zakai shakes your hand firmly as you fall into step with him.

“Happy to be back,” you lie. Hesitantly, you turn to him and clear your throat, “If you don’t mind me asking, is your wife alright? What made you come back to the project?”

Mr. Zakai sends you a fond smile as he thinks of her, “She’s perfectly fine. Thank you for asking. There were a few complications with the baby, but she made it through and everything is going smoothly now. The baby is actually due in a few weeks. Can you believe it?”

“Not at all,” you smile halfheartedly.

“Anyway,” he says as you reach the site with him, “I came back to the project because I am a man of my word. I said I wasn’t going to drop it, so here I am. Besides, I’m impressed with yours and Kaveh’s work. I truly hope we can finish what we started.”

You nod silently to yourself. Before you or Zakai can say anything else, Kaveh jogs up to you both out of breath, “I’m so sorry I’m late. My annoying roommate took my key again and I couldn’t get back into the house to grab my things, so I had to go track him down and get it back.”

“That’s okay,” Zakai laughs and holds out his hand for Kaveh to shake, “It’s good to see you, Kaveh.”

“You too,” he says before turning to you. Kaveh nods at you silently. Hesitantly, you nod back, averting your eyes quickly.

It doesn’t take long for everything to return to the natural swing of things. The crew was happy to be back and building and Zakai was more than pleased with how close the house was to being completed. Over the next few weeks, everyone works diligently to get it completed.

Day in and day out, neither of you spoke to one another just as you had hoped for. No arguments, no silly jokes, no talking about ideas…nothing. Sometimes it felt a little lonely, even when you were standing right next to each other. There were times where you had seen something on the way to site that you wanted to talk to someone about, rant about your day, whatever. Even when you were still in the period of “hating” each other before Zakai temporarily left the project, both of you still felt more comfortable speaking to each other.

You want to hate him. You really do. But after everything that has happened, after all the emotions you can’t seem to restrain anymore, you’re beginning to wonder if you ever really hated him the way you said you did.

On the final day of the project, it rains again. You aren’t worried this time, however. Not like how you were with the palace. The house was built, inside and out. The only thing left to add was the remainders of Zakai and his wife’s furniture and any other little embellishments he had requested. A pay check was already in the mail for you both, your ticket out of the miserable life you’ve both led for two years.

You’re walking away for the night when footsteps pick up from somewhere behind you. Most of the crew was in front of you chatting away under a ledge shielded from the rain. There’s a hollow feeling in your chest that leaves you feeling dissatisfied with it all as you walk away, no umbrella and shivering furiously under the pouring rain. Eventually, the mysterious person catches up to you and falls into step with you. There was only one person it could have been.

A few weeks ago, you would have swatted him away or sped up so you could get as far away from him as possible. But now, just like that night in the ruins two years ago, you had no energy to push him away anymore. So, silently, you both walk side by side until you reach Sumeru City.

A bolt of lightning landing on the ground a few feet away causes you both to jump back. Thunder follows suite and suddenly the rain turns more into a storm that threatens to flood the city. Icy hail begins to fall not even seconds later, harshly landing against both of your backs as you rush into the city.

Kaveh’s hand gently grabs yours and eagerly drags you away with him. He’s yelling something, but you can’t make out what he’s saying. And before you know it, you’re both sitting in a booth at Lambad’s Tavern soaked and shivering.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers into the air, “We should stay here until the storm dies down. It’s too dangerous outside.”

“Yeah,” you quietly agree and nod quickly, eyes stuck on the table like it was the most interesting thing ever. Kaveh’s looking at you, but you ignore his gaze.

Minutes later, Lambad walks over with a sympathetic expression on his face as he sets down two hot chocolates. He makes some small talk about the storm which both of you indulge him in as you sip on the hot drinks, acting as if nothing was wrong between you. Eventually, he goes to leave but stops to turn back, “I’ll bring out two more on me. Please, stay as long as you need.”

“Thank you,” you both say simultaneously. It goes quiet when he leaves.

For the first time in two years, it feels like the silence is warm and home like. It’s no longer awkward and cold. It reminds you of the time when you were still scholars at the Akademiya, studying late at night at your house in your room. He would sit in your bed while you studied at your desk. There was always something so comforting about it despite the fact that you had to study. Being with him was your favorite thing in the world. And even though it felt like you both had been thrown into the pits of hell with each other, forced against each other over and over again, sitting across from him now felt like none of that had ever happened. For a tiny moment, it felt like you were friends again.

“I never wanted you out of my life,” Kaveh breaks the silence suddenly. Your eyes meet his for the first time that night and they’re brewing with a certain determination, sadness, and anger all at once. You can feel it in yourself too.

“What?” you breathe out. Your brows furrow as you take in what he’s saying, “You never wanted me to leave? But I thought…after everything, I mean. After what we said to each other back then, you didn’t hate me?”

Kaveh frowns and his mouth falls agape as his hands slam against the table dramatically. The words fall out of his mouth before he can stop them, “Hate you? Archons no! How could I hate you when I was in love with you?”

“Wait—you…? You were in love with me?”

His face falls instantly, hands waving in the air, “Shit, I didn’t mean—”

Your eyes glance back and forth between his, desperately searching for any sign of a prank or some sort of sick joke. Fear pangs your heart when you can’t find any, “Kaveh…why didn’t you say anything?”

“You were you and I was me. It never would’ve worked no matter how much I wanted it to,” Kaveh slumps into his seat, scoffing as he forces himself to look away from you, “You know what? Can we please just forget I ever said anything?”

The realization of what all the years you spent together meant hits you hard as you sit across from him. The rain pounding against the windows makes your head pound even harder as you try to make sense of it all. Because, no, this was not some sick joke or some prank. Kaveh was wholeheartedly in love with you at some point and you had no idea.

There were times where you felt the same. Staring at him from across the room, his beautiful blonde hair messily sprawled across your bed as he complained about the project you were working on. The times when he would be going on and on about his passions and you couldn’t help but zone out and just admire him in all his glory. Or when he would bring you food just because he knew you had forgotten to eat again. All the trinkets he would buy you because they reminded him of you. The way he made you feel so loved and cared for. Over the years, you had unknowingly fallen for him too. Kaveh may have only ever been your best friend, but in moments like those, moments where the light hit him just right, you wished he could have been more.

“No.”

“No?”

You lean across the table slightly, forcing him to look at you, “I can’t just ignore that. I can’t pretend you didn’t say it or that you never had feelings for me. I hate to admit it, but Kaveh, I had feelings for you too back then.”

It’s silent for a few moments. You give him the chance to speak, but he doesn’t take it. You take in a deep inhale and hesitantly speak, “I know it’s been a long time — years to be precise. And it pains me to say this, but I’m really happy the project worked out how it did. That opportunity from Zakai gave me more than I could ask for and…I’m glad it brought me back to you.”

“Yeah,” Kaveh scoffs playfully, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, “Only after a painstaking amount of convincing.”

“Oh please, I had every reason to say no to you,” you refute, crossing your arms in defense, “And I wasn’t finished. What I was trying to say, was that, even though it’s been so many years, I don’t know where to go from here. But I…I don’t want us to go back to the way things were.”

Kaveh sighs, “I know. I don’t either. Obviously we both have things we need to work through. But, if you’re willing, I’d like to start over again. Not completely, of course. But I want us to be friends again, maybe one day even more…If you’ll have me, that is.”

“Okay,” you breathe out with a small smile. Although it took years and a painful amount of fighting, tears, and money, you had found each other again. Perhaps you couldn’t love each other now, but the feeling was without a doubt there. The pounding in your hearts and ache for one another was concrete proof of it.

And as Kaveh reaches out and takes your hand again for the first time in two years, he knows he’ll never let you go again.

[fight-ingforsurvival]

Hm? What’s this?

I don’t even know where I got this phone from- (*sigh* whatever…) So, social media, huh? Well, I have nothing better to do. Might as well spend some of my spare time here..

———

Hi, hello and welcome to this small (side-)blog of mine!

It’s just a silly thing I did because of my current hyper-fixation on SE:TD/Sonic, and everything is still severely a W.I.P! I’m @callmeclara235 by the way, and I don’t really care if you follow me there or not (and please don’t jump me for being so inactive lol xd).

So. yeah. A Sonic.EXE: The Disaster AU! It has some loose lore from the game here and there and a handful of headcanons, but I still hope you enjoy the occasional doodle or text post of mine!

———

/!\ RULES /!\

- Basic DNI (p3d0, z00, LGBTQ+phobic, etc.)

- No NSFW (whether in asks or anywhere else on my blog)

- Don’t be rude to me or anyone else on here, this is supposed to be a welcoming space for anyone. Spread kindness instead of hate!

- I’ll be happy for any gifts/fanart! Don’t be afraid to show me anything cool you have, maybe just any other (Sonic-related) art too.

- I don’t mind interacting with anons, other roleplayers or just other users. This is supposed to be a roleplay(/ask) blog after all!

- Magic Anons (aka you being able to influence whatever here) are allowed, unless you go overkill with it

(A lot more info under ‘read more’!)

———

» !? « Notes » ?! «

- There’ll be a handful of headcanons of mine and tweaks and adjustments to some lore or world-building here and there, so don’t be too confused if anything seems very OOC!

- I might doodle something here and there (I love drawing hehe), but I can’t say that it’ll be a constant thing I’ll do. I’ll try to add some doodles to asks/replies tho!

- I don’t mind most ships, though I prefer Sonadow. You can talk about them if you feel like it, just don’t go overdrive with it. Also, if you hate the ship or just feel generally uncomfortable around it, feel free to dip out. Not forcing anyone to stay here!

- Small Disclaimer; I do not own the (original?) characters nor am I associated with Sega or the creator of the Roblox SE:TD. They belong to their rightful owners. This is just a fun, little AU about a game I’m currently hyperfixated on.

/!\ Warnings/Triggers? /!\

Things that may get mentioned here:

- Character Death

- Violence / Murder

- Blood / Gore(-y stuff)

[ . . . ]

———

( Friendly reminder that everything is still a W.I.P, so characters are prone to change in looks/personality/backstory and so on + I just recently joined the Sonic fandom and don’t know apesh[!]t about most canon lore. )

Alright, so now that we have that- onto the characters!

. . .

. . .

. . !

[ Main Cast/Survivors: ]

★ Shadow ; An exhausted and brave teammate, still continuing to protect himself (and his team) against the dangers in this terrible, hideous world. He has lost a lot, yet he continues on until he can finally meet Maria again…

＋ Cream ; A scared, probably traumatized little rabbit girl who has lost many people close to her. She misses the days when everyone was fine and when everything was still colorful and friendly. Many mobians who have already passed are surprised that she has survived for so long — and she is too, but who knows when her time eventually ends?

☆ Rouge ; A sly, daring and sneaky bat lady who has decided to play a lot more serious and take the lead. She, alongside with Shadow, leads the team and tries to not die too soon. She is a tough one to get, but she knows that one day, her demise will meet her too.

♥︎ Amy ; A kind, strong girl who tries to protect what’s left of her old life — her friends. She’s brave and can swing her hammer around, but everyone has a weak spot. One miss-placed step, and it’s over. She knows, it scares her, but she stays strong to help her team out. It’s the most she has left anyways.

□ Knuckles ; A though, nearly fearless warrior who fights for himself most of the time, though he helps the team out sometimes. He’s strong and doesn’t hesitate to defend himself against the enemies. Not the most sentimental echidna, more of a dense block-head, but he knows when it is time to do the right thing. I think.

. . .

. . .

_-/ ! ! ! \-_

[ EXES / MONSTERS / DEMONS / WHATEVER YOU CALL THEM: ]

。□１ [ SONIC.EXE | ( dislikes ->) ' SMALL ' / ' (ALA)CRIT ' ] ; A murderous demon…? who took the appearance of a certain someone. It likes to cause chaos, trouble and massacre anywhere, anytime. Is a rather a silly fella when on a non-murderous rampage, open for some chit-chat or silly jokes. He likes toying with his victims and gets pissed off when they fight back.

＊。◆ [ KOLOSSOS | ' KOLOSS ' | ' KOLO '] ; A mute yet dangerous entity who could kill you in a few strikes. Is calm when unbothered, open for some yapping or jokes. Not as energetic as Small. Just a chill, spooky guy who could maul you on sight.

～／／／☁︎ [ TAILS DOLL | ' TD ' / ( dislikes ->) ' DOLLY ' ] ; A possessed doll it seems. Mischievous little guy who is an absolute menace. Loves playing around with the survivors, tricking them into its traps or just flying around them like a mosquito (that’s what some of them keep calling him!). Annoying at times, but it’s rather tolerable most of the time. Doesn’t mind talking to others, doesn’t talk a lot though.

-_\ ¡ ¡ ¡ /_-

Aaand that should be all! I mean, sure, the minions exist too- but maybe they’ll join in later :p Though, for now, have fun (or not) interacting with this silly AU of mine!

[cha0ticlesbian]

𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊 Welcome to my blog! 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊

Hello! I don’t really know what I’m doing, but this is supposed to be some kind of intro thing to my blog and what I’ll be posting! :)

about me: Harley, she/her, lesbian(obviously), autistic + incredibly anxious all the time

Likes and Interests!

[My hyperfixations can change quite a bit so probably expect this blog to be kinda chaotic at times and don’t be surprised if I start posting about one topic a bunch out of nowhere lol! I do have many long term special interests though so there’s still somewhat of a reoccurring theme.]

Marvel/MCU:

-Carol Danvers(#1 fav ever<3)

-Valkyrie and ValCarol(ship)

-The Marvels <3

-lokius/lokixmobius(ship)

-the avengers

-agathario/agathaxrio(ship)

DC (comics and other):

-mostly harlivy(Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy)

-Margot Robbie Harley<3

-batfamily

-the Lego batman movie😭(it’s my fav ok)

-titans (tv show and comics)

-whichever comics I’m reading tbh

Supernatural:

-Castiel <3 (my bestie)

-destiel/DeanxCastiel (they make me insane)

-Charlie Bradbury (literally me)

-Team Free Will (Dean, Sam, Cas)

-the wayward sisters

-basically all the side characters

9-1-1 show:

-currently in mourning for my tv dad💔

-I love the entire 118<3

-henren/HenxKaren (my favs!) (hen i love you sm ur so underrated)

-bathena/AthenaxBobby (MOM AND DAD😭😭😭)

-buddie/EddiexBuck

-also currently watching lone star

Dropout tv:

-genuinely my favorite streaming service right now

-they bring me so much joy

-fav shows are Game Changer, MSN, D20 <3

-big fan of Brennan and all his nerdy stuff

-also mountport the musical my beloved!!!

-I usually livepost whenever I’m watching new stuff lol

The Hunger Games:

-always been a big fan of the movies but never got a chance to read the books so currently working on that!

FNAF:

-I usually only ever post about Vanessa in the fnaf movie but I am a big fan of the lore 👍

Baldurs Gate 3:

-one of my favorite games ever

-occasionally yapping about it

-on my 3rd playthrough

-Karlach my wife <3

-I also occasionally post about DnD itself and the DnD movie in particular :)))

Minecraft/mcyt:

-I barely post about this but I I’ve been a big fan of Ldshadowlady and Smallishbeans for years!

-absolutely love empires smp and a bunch of the other series they’ve all done and generally am a fan of Lizzie and Joel’s other friends (jimmy,gem,scott etc)

Stranger Things:

-the fruity four!

-ronance/RobinxNancy (ship)

-Robin is my all time favorite and I relate to her so much

-also am in love with maya hawke and her music! (I went to one of her concerts<3)

The Umbrella Academy:

-I used to post a lot about this show but after the last season I was utterly devastated by the horrible ending and it low key ruined the whole thing for me so I don’t anymore but who knows! Maybe the hyperfixation will come back one day

-big fan of klave/klaus :)

I’ll probably be adding more later on if I find another big interest but yeah! These are some of the things I’m very passionate about!

Sometimes I make memes

I also tend to just yap sometimes

Disclaimers:

Feel free to send me asks and/or dm me if you wanna talk about any of my interests and whatnot, I don’t mind! As long as you’re being respectful and not trying to start an argument then I’d love to chat. I am a little slow on the replies sometimes tho😭

And just like basic DNI’s like don’t be a racist, homophobic jerk yk?

Also no Brie Larson hate will be tolerated here!

Anyways! I think that’s it so yippieee have fun here I guess? Byeee!!! <3

(literally me)

[knight-says-nanana]

Alrighty the sequel to this let’s go

✨Inventing a backstory and character analysis for Gotham 2014 Harvey with all his 5 minutes of screentime and optional comic lore✨

Or, GTV Harvey Dent’s Biography

The issue with a lot of Harvey’s comic backstories is they don’t fit into the little we do see of him in Gotham. The show is an AU where Bruce is 12 and villains exist anyway and it’s just inherently very far off, so we have to take liberties

I’m using the method of picking up his presented tv and comic character traits, and then building up a backstory that would get us to those points

Here we go-

Canon information:

Starting off with canon information, he’s 26

“Occupation: Assistant District Attorney”

That is absolutely insane. Even if he went as fast as physically possible through law school and graduated at 24? He would have graduated at 24. How does one go from student to assistant district attorney in two years?? Youngest irl has been 31.

The only answer I’ve been able to scrounge up is a timeline from the DC Continuity Project with the answer that bad dads are a powerful motivator if you’re a nerd in Gotham City.

It’s. Fine. This works, Ed is a forensics specialist for the GCPD at the same age, we just have to suspend disbelief sometimes, whatever.

The shitty parent backstory does make for good motivation to get through school and into a successful job as fast as he did. But how were they shitty? Why were they shitty?

He is shown to care a lot about youth, he spends his spare time convincing kids that it’s worth at least trying to get through life. Hes very intent on doing the right thing and the merit of persistence.

In canon he is also very fond of his double sided coin trick, it’s like- his favorite way of tricking people into having a good day.

Picking apart snippets from comic backstories:

Picking up with the coin- There’s no negative association. He likes it. So the one backstory with his dad being physically abusive with the whole coin game thing wouldn’t work. Also he really doesn’t seem like a guy who accidently killed his brother. At all. I’m not even sure the brother thing exists in his usual backstories.

But! In some timelines he does have a brother. We can work with this, we can build on it

A favored older brother would mean he’s probably gonna be stuck trying to catch up forever. It would add to his insane overachievement speed at the very least.

It’s usually made a point that Harvey was basically abandoned when his accident happened. He was horrifying to look at and no one other than Bruce showed up for him. So for this his family would have to be the sort not to bother checking in if their son got acid thrown at his face, even if said acid throwing never occurs in canon. And this is a universe where he never had Bruce there to be his friend.

I just think it’s important to maintain that Harvey is abandonment issues central. People did not choose/want him often.

It’s also typically canon that Harvey himself has bpd, and things like that are genetic. It would be interesting if he got it from his mom. From what I can tell a few of his backstories involve her being very critical of him, but not consistently. Mushing them all into one, it kinda reads as mood swings.

And you know what? A LOT of rouges backstories are centered on physical abuse. Which. Yeah that happens sure but if we’re making all this up then I’d like to spin it around to emotional abuse instead. To spice things up.

Something new for Gotham 2014 specifically:

His parents don’t have the best marriage. His brother was born before things started falling apart, so they both make an effort not to let the drama impact the kid’s life. Harvey? Not so much.

I say Harvey was a whoops baby. Debatable if his dad is actually his dad. It would provide cause for his father to be dismissive/neglectful in favor of focusing on his older brother.

His mom doesn’t ignore him like his dad does, but she does blame him for her marriage falling apart. So her being more involved isn’t exactly the best thing. Now, bpd does NOT inherently make someone abusive and I need that to be clear here, but when an abusive person has bpd it isn’t pretty. The idea of her flip flopping in how she treats Harvey is one worth considering.

And it’s not their fault he didnt get much attention as a child. No, no you see accidents don’t have much going for them to begin with. His brother has a future, so it’s just so much more important that they focus on making that a good one, you know? It’s so reasonable.

So when he’s older and in school it’s just a consistent barrage of trying as hard as possible and collecting all the achievements he can, only to gain no reaction. Of course, they did help fund his college tuition, but that’s only because appearances are a very fickle thing and really they just can’t have Harvey making them look bad.

He succeeds, becomes assistant DA at a record age, it doesn’t change anything. But the salary is high and he’s able to move out, so things do improve for him in a way.

Additional:

He’s so passionate about encouraging kids because he didn’t get that. He is, by and large, a success story. An example. Yes this could absolutely tie into his mild obsession with chances and probability and fairness why do you ask-

I’m sure there gaping holes here that im forgetting to fill but I’m way too tired to deal with that. But the way we know the Gotham public/press latches onto Harvey is something that rots my brain when applied to this.

He’s liked because of his career and his looks, and those are both impermanent. Any support is contingent on what he has to offer, never who he inherently is. He’s nicknamed Apollo and it’s so fitting because in the same way as mythological figures turned into figureheads, no one actually cares about him.

Gotham tv why didn’t you give us the acid attack Gotham why would you leave us hanging there. A universe like this where Bruce isn’t there for him when that happens?? Oh my g o d. Gotham why. Gotham. Gotham come back to me.

[starsapphire]

i’m curious now about your thoughts on geoff johns’ gl run 👀

i got so excited when i saw this ask and then took a week to answer it 🧘‍♀ typical. anyway i have a lot of thoughts about geoff johns' green lantern run. mostly bad. not all bad! but mostly bad.

i will point out before i start that there is a difference between johns' green lantern specifically and other concurrent runs (i.e. tomasi's green lantern corps) but ultimately those runs build off of johns, who was more or less running the show. okay let's get into it

my main grievances stem from the fact that johns is just not good at playing nice in a shared canon like dc comics, where being able to say "yes, and" is arguably just as important as being able to come up with your own stories. as a rule, he generally refuses to acknowledge what are often massively important parts of canon and character history if he doesn't like them or they don't fit his specific canon. he LOVES ignoring things, and he LOVES retcons. and to be clear, johns is NOT the only writer who does this, but there is a point where it becomes particularly egregious and unfortunately johns lives on the other side of that line. this isn't just reserved to gl by the way; you can also see this in his flash run (bringing back barry, sidelining wally) and with how he wrote kon (and bart and cassie) in teen titans (2003), re: the notorious "is luthor his human gene donor?" letter and subsequent 50-50 dna retcon.

most notably, johns ignores most of the changes and plot in green lantern (1990) and basically from the moment he was in charge of green lantern he fully sidelined kyle to the point of almost ignoring his existence.

one example of this: all of the guardians besides ganthet died during emerald twilight. later, after kyle became ion, he gave up the ion power to resurrect the souls of the guardians. these guardians were 1) no longer solely male and 2) infants. ganthet, being one guy, cannot raise all of these baby guardians alone, and so he reconciles with the zamarons (huge!) and brings them to oa to help him raise them. johns fully ignores this, and when his run starts, suddenly all the guardians are adults, have always been of both sexes, and (from what i remember) seemingly never died. and the zamarons are totally written out.

in fact, the zamarons are also now blue, distinctly inhuman, and evil! johns ignores over 50 years of star sapphire lore, involving both the zamarons and, especially, carol ferris, to what is actually a heinous fucking degree. i really wanted to get into this but it would be a whole essay in and of itself and, frankly, thinking about it pisses me off. it's an essay for another day. it's so bad. it's so fucking bad.

and the thing is, i DO think the star sapphire corps idea really could have been done well and been a great next step. but johns botched it by not caring about women and again, being totally unable to play nice with the canon he's choosing to work in. i think his main issue is that he's so obsessed with the silver age comics he read as a child, and so attached to the interpretation of those comics that he had As A Child, that he hates anything that deviates from that idea he has in his mind — every superhero should be the ideal All-American Man, who does no wrong and gets every woman he wants, and there should be no changes: barry should be the flash, not wally; hal should be The green lantern, not kyle or guy.

and the end result is just. this total cheapening of everything about hal. everything. the biggest example is the ignorance and retconning of hal's parallax era to make hal 100% a perfect hero without mistakes "again" — rather than being a tale about grief, the pressures of being a hero, and human fallibility, the events of emerald twilight are now suddenly entirely not hal's fault at all because actually, he was possessed. characters are even treated as being in the wrong and holding onto grudges unfairly for being upset that hal killed people even though he apologized.

johns also ignores basically every single thing about spectre (2001). i would genuinely be surprised to learn that he even actually read it. and this very much does include the meditations on gender that take place in that series. johns' hal jordan is a shallow caricature of manliness. he's strong, he's all-but-infallible, he's macho, he gets all the ladies, he loves beer, he loves america. geoff johns' hal jordan is not a complex human being, he's a child's ideal of a Cool Adult Man. he's like... what a little boy sees his father as before he learns his father is just a man.

i can also get into the fact that, being an american comic book run written in the wake of 9/11, there's a huge turn toward a focus on the us military to the point that johns retcons both hal and john into being soldiers. people have been surprised when i explained that hal was not in the air force and john stewart was not a marine until johns retconned their backstories in the 2000s. john was just an architect before johns' green lantern! hal was a corporate test pilot! but johns' idea of a Manly All-American Hero is a us military member, so that's what john and hal now are. hal is depicted as being a hero for bombing a foreign country, on panel. he gets a medal for it. (and i would just like to say: how is hal supposed to have been working for ferris air all this time if he's in the air force and always has been? how the fuck does that work? hello?)

and i should be clear that i don't hate it entirely! i think the spectrum idea was creative and actually quite clever and the premise of blackest night (which is kind of the magnum opus of johns' green lantern era) was also clever and creative. i even kind of like his creation of the emotional entities and how he worked that into the story. but at the same time, i honestly think that his motivation for creating the entities was not to add to the story, but to make hal "perfect" again — the retcons to/creation of the predator entity ultimately was a massive disrespect to carol's character history; the creation of the parallax entity was just a huge cop out to make hal innocent and infallible; and the creation of the ion entity was basically a giant fuck you to kyle rayner, because instead of kyle becoming ion because of his own immense willpower and light, it actually had nothing to do with him.

and i also personally think some of the emotions he chose were kind of stupid but that's just me.

[theratisbackanditsinyourkitchen]

not to cause drama or anything but I HATE SCYTH ASMR! (Tw fictional domestic abuse, and fictional abuse of power)

Hate is a strong word, and my feeling might be a little over the top but, I do wanna talk about some of his stuff. I was a big fan of his when his first V vid was made. I joined the discord and followed all his posts. And then he posted a video that happened to have domestic violence in it, MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING FOR THAT PAST THIS!!!! this vid has the listener character “cheeky” (I will not be calling her that cus that’s is a cringe ass nickname btw) and V, the romantic interest training, then after some flirting (one sided on V’s part, I’ll get into this later) a cargo truck full of scientists drives by! V quickly gets into the trunk and kills everyone in there, the listener character tries to stop him from killing what she think is an innocent person, he kills the guy in front of her, and then throws her out of the car, chokes her, talks about how he’s going to kill her and pin her death on the people in the cargo truck, and then says “how about one more kiss before you go” before letting her go. He then afterwards explains that the reason he killed all of them, was because of some in story lore about werewolves. It’s explained that what they did basically caused a werewolf to go feral and become evil and kill people. So obviously! These scientists who were probably forced by the government to do this, deserved to die! That makes sense! Anyway the moral of this vid was that the listner character should always listen to V no questions asked! I hate this vid for a number of reasons. The biggest one is the number of comments sexualizing and romanticizing the fucking horrible and traumatic abuse this listener faced, even bigger then that was the fact scythe audio fed into it.

The worst comment (trigger warning, victim blaming)

As you can see, scythe not only condoned this behaviour, he feed into it. This comment makes me sick. I accidentally watch this video without reading the description and became very triggered at the video. (this is not scythe audios fault, I must make this clear) seeing people make jokes like “I asked to be choked but not like this” and talking about how the listener character deserved and even enjoyed the attack was and still is repulsive.

The relationship between V and the listener character was also extremely abusive, but it was always shown as loving, or something like that. The listener has to stay with V and basically do whatever he asks (including kissing and I assume sexual favours) or be tossed to the streets to be picked up by either the evil shadow government or the actual government. Both wanted her dead. So, she’s trapped staying with a man who threatens violence if she doesn’t follow his every whim, who sexually harasses her daily, who diminishes her trauma, and who treats her like trash, just so she doesn’t her tormented and eventually killed. My issue with this isn’t the fact he’s an abusive ass hat, my issue is that instead of giving him any actual character growth, V was given orphans. He was made into an adopted dad to a shit ton of orphans cus he has ZERO REDEEMING TRAITS OTHER THEN HOT. Scythe audio must have realized this guy was his money maker and realized he had to make this guy actually redeemable if he wanted to have him to keep Marlon him money. Anyway it was unconvincing cus right after introducing the fact there were cute kids in the equation, he dropped the domestic abuse.

Another thing, less about the videos and more about how he interacted with fans. His discord sever had rolls for age! They specifically had one labeled “16 and under”, now, I’m not against having minors in asmr fandom spaces, but having minors especially such young ones in a sever he made? It just felt like a weird choice, especially seeing as he had and still has, and I’m going to say it bluntly, porn up on YouTube. Now you can say “but the video said 18+!” We all know that has never ever stopped a minor from doing anything. With this said, a large amount of his fandom was under 18, I’ll give him this, I don’t think i ever saw Scythe interact with an under 18 fan, but he knew they where there, he knew they watched his content. And yet knowing this, he wrote stories that glorified domestic abuse as a way to teach your partner how to fall in line he wrote stories glorifying the horribly toxic relationship that was V and the listener character. This type of thing affects kids greatly, especially if they have no clue it is abusive. Even in the video with the domestic abuse the description says “this may be triggering to listeners in regards to domestic based violence” not “Trigger warning, this video contains Domestic abuse!” It says it more like “it’s kinda domestic abuse, but only if that triggers you”

In Redacted, the description will always tell you what to expect. “Gaslighting, manipulation, toxic relationship” he will make sure you know that a toxic relationship is toxic, he makes sure your aware that the abuse shown, isn’t love. The most scythe does is say “well V is a villain! He’s not a good guy!” And yet her tries to make him redeeming so people like him.

Now, I get that this was over 2 years ago, scythe audio could have totally moved past this weird glorifying abuse thing, who knows! I mostly wrote this as a vent cus my friend reminded me he existed. Anyway if you made it this far have a nice day. If you where or still are a scythe fan, tell me what you think of all this (without being mean please) if you happen to be scythe himself block me I don’t want you near me. Anyway have a nice day!

[princesssszzzz]

I liked your video and your right. I’m so disappointed!

So many annoying people in the fandom are claiming they want Rhaena to do more and having a dragon is a good change to the story. I’m going to be so pissed if they ruin Nettles.

They’re only saying that in defense of Rhaenyra. They don’t actually like or care about Rhaena or really any other character, I mean it’s pretty obvious how this fandom behaves. It’s very bizarre and I don’t understand why considering GRRM’s universe should be known for ensemble characters who will have their own moments and motivations. Like how does anyone watch GOT or read AGOT and then comes to the DOD expecting simple and juvenile type writing of literally everyone on team black just doing absolutely nothing expect supporting one person. It makes no sense. They definitely don’t care about anything close to a good show adaptation and don’t want characters to seem like people. Even the dragons are doing their own thing 😭 It’s basically impossible to end House of the Dragon without Nettles being exactly the way she is in Fire&Blood. Not only does that effect HOTD, but also dragon lore just throughout the universe because I do believe Nettles was supposed to be like the legitimate PROOF someone can ride a dragon without having Valyrian blood. It’s just very obvious, it’s almost impossible to misinterpret but they found a way to do it anyways.

Also the people saying they want Rhaena to “do more” *side eye* My definition of Rhaena doing more is not the same as them and I know why they claim that. Their definition is creating a team black robot. Rhaena is actually related to these people and kinda stuck no matter how horrible they act. Nettles is not related to these people and doesn’t HAVE to help them, and legit is able to walk away when they aren’t. This is clearly a threat to Rhaenyra extremist who want every other character to just be a cheerleader with nothing else going on and no other motivations. That really can’t be forced onto Nettles. So Nettles and Daemon having a relationship that’s NOT by blood is very impactful vs Daemon just not wanting his failing wife to execute his daughter which is like an obvious no shit situation. It’s not very impactful emotionally. Daemon defending a girl who everyone is claiming he shouldn’t give af about has way bigger implications. Nettles is one of the few dance characters that don’t have to be expanded on because we already have enough. There’s no reason to alter anything about her. Any bad writing Nettles gets is an intentional fuck up because F&B laid it out perfectly, someone would really have to go out of their way to ruin it. I’m now seeing these same weirdos d x r extremist shipper weirdos claiming Nettles shouldn’t be cut like stop the cap we all saw who was creating anti-nettles agendas. They were actually the ones who created the Rhaena claiming dragons “rumors” because it was them trying to manifest it. They wanted her to claim Sheepstealer and then started saying vermithor so rhaenyra won’t have to deal with people being traitors. They need to accept their favorite characters and their storylines for what it is. This is why people need to stop pretending like they can portray a character like rhaenyra as better than she is because now it effects other characters…..

GTFO, sorry but that trailer was such obvious fan service

If they want Daemon to work on his relationship with Rhaena then the way I would do it is getting it out the way before she even goes to the Vale in ep7. There’s too much going on after that for that to be an ongoing issue atp. Then his relationship with Nettles really has nothing to do with his daughters, or really anyone outside of Rhaenyra getting pissed.

[patrocles]

hii, i saw on ur twitter account where u said that the amethyst empress/bloodstone emperor theory was dumb can u elaborate on why im just genuinely curious because i personally find the theory plausible and every person i've met is of the same opinion ur like the only person i've met who dislikes it and im just so curious on why?

hey there!!

so first let me just say that if i sounded dickish and mean spirited about it, that was not my intention. i never wanna yuck anyones yum, i personally love a wacky theory!

(also when i say ‘you’ i mean the general, not you personally)

don’t get me wrong, there are parallels or similarities between the two side by side, but I think it kinda ends there? i think a lot of the DEEP lore of twoiaf, one can read as having echoes and similarities all over over the map, but i dont think is meant to be taken entirely literal.

but really, why i don’t like that theory is because i think it totally misinterprets what the Dance was about and why it’s important to the overall lore of asoiaf and the themes of the main series.

i think it also kind of unfairly paints the story as Good v Evil, which again, wildly misinterprets and simplifies the Dance as a big evil done to Rhaenyra personally by an evil little brother Aegon.

it’s about The Family and how it tore itself apart under the weight of its own hubris and the feudal system that built the tinderbox for the whole thing to implode eventually.

it’s very much about the unfolding tragedy one after another after another until all that’s left are two deeply traumatized children. it’s about the dangers of dragons and why history doesn’t remember them fondly. it’s the pretext on which arianne tries to put myrcella on the throne. it’s about the needless deaths of innocents over a family squabble that got out of control, and the fundamental flaw of a feudalist system that nation could be torn apart because of an inheritance dispute. it’s a History Story. it’s not really about the Long Night at all.

Plus this kinda wildly misinterprets Aegon as a character? he has a lot of flaws, for sure, but the harbinger of primordial evil because he got caught up in a bit of legal drama? that’s giving him way too much credit lol.

And again, I really dont care about theories, even if they’re ones i dont personally agree with. i’ve been in the general asoiaf sphere for a very long time so that’s nothing new. but i think what irked me about this one, is for a number of people, having this specific theory and framework in mind totally alters the way they watch and engage with the show at all.

so like when the posters were dropped, people are genuinely mad that it was rhaenyra and alicent and not rhaenyra and aegon bc duh its about This Theory … and it’s like? no? you made that up..

so if people are watching the show with that theory in mind, then it does completely cloud how you think about these characters and i think restricts one’s engagement to a Good/Evil dichotomy. and if i’m being really honest, a lot of people who i’ve seen go really hard on this theory are people who already hated alicent/greens and invented it to justify diminishing alicent’s role in the story, and amplifying why rhaenyra is basically the main character of twoiaf, second to dany. which is doing just too much.

but the big, and i think the most important one, is that it’s absolutely absurd for people to confidently and definitively say that THIS is what the show is about and the marketing/show not aligning with that is a total failure based on niche asoiaf lore that most show!watchers don’t even know about, wasn’t even mentioned in the previous series, and only exists in a separate book of lore and stories that may not even be true anyways.

[deluxeloy]

Rory's Awakening

[I wrote something! A friend invited me to try a new ttrpg system (Mage: The Awakening 2e) and I got lost in the lore almost immediately. I came out the other end with a fun character, I think, and had to get some backstory out of my brain so I could function in real life again. Plus, I promised some people I'd post it online, so here's we go.]

[It's a little bit surreal, and you probably don't know the setting and definitely don't know my character, so prepare for a confusing read, and enjoy.]

---

Piece of shit.

We barely made it a mile, and I can already hear you choke. You stutter and hitch for no goddamn reason. I changed your oil, checked every gear, I flushed your fuel lines, again, less than an hour ago. What could possibly be your fucking problem?

A pathetic sob is my only response, and your engine stalls. Again.

I’ve replaced more parts than I care to keep track of, at this point. Sunk cost fallacy, I think they call it. Every time, I’m sure I have it, and every time, you disappoint. Were you this much of a needy bastard to Grandpa? I’ve seen him ride around on you, faster than anything. Just a dust cloud in the cornfields. So I know you can handle dust – asphalt should be a walk in the park for you. What did he do right that I’m doing wrong?

I force you to start again, and it’s like dragging a limp, crying toddler around. The spark plugs work fine, I tested them individually. I tested everything. You should work. By my word, I’ll make you work. Dad told me to give up on you, but I know I’m close. I’m close to a breakthrough. I could have gotten nothing when Grandpa died, but I got you, and I’m not just throwing you away. He knew that. Dad knows it. And I think you know it, too.

I’m not giving up, no matter how much you insist. My helmet only blocks out so much of the setting sun, but I’ve taken you down this road so many times this year I could do it blind. There’s basically no cars here, either. Just straight road and the occasional old factory. Perfect for your little tantrums.

As if on cue, you falter again, but this time you pull a new trick. Your handlebars wrench themselves out of my hands as the fork violently jerks to the left. Your front wheel screeches to a halt, tipping your center of mass forward, and me with it. I don’t think I even hear my head hit the asphalt.

---

The bank of a river. The waters are deep, utterly pitch-black, and its shores are barren and raw. The sky is a sickly, greenish gray, completely uniform in all directions. Across from me, on the far side of the river, are people. Hundreds, thousands, more than I could possibly count. They do not move, or speak. They just watch me, eyes without faces.

I get up, and start walking.

I don’t even think about where I need to go. I’ll get there. In a moment of lucidity, I know that this is a dream, or like it. I understand what is happening, or at least enough to know what comes next. The dead watch me as I stumble along, and the ferry comes into view.

The ferryman greets me as I approach. Tears well up before I even recognize him, but I’m too numb to cry. He’s not like the other dead. The wrinkles in his face deepen as he smiles, and he holds out a liver-spotted hand, missing the middle finger.

“Took you a while, Red,” Grandpa chuckles.

He pulls me aboard, and his grip is as strong as I remember. Waves ripple out across the void. When I let go, there’s something in his hand. Small, dull gray, and dented. A coin for the ferryman. Grandpa nods, and pushes the boat away from the shore, gripping the oar with both hands now.

“He doesn’t mean it like that, you know,” he finally says.

I stay silent. I said my last words to him, I thought, at his funeral. Whispered, more like. I didn’t think I’d have to follow them up. But it doesn’t matter anyway. I feel like we both understand each other anyway.

He continues, paddling idly with the stream. “He wants to help you. Really does. He wants to trust you. He just can’t, yet.”

“Then what do I do?” I finally manage. “Nothing works. I’ve tried everything. It just keeps breaking.”

He laughs, softly, but with that same mischievous streak he always had. Like he knew something you didn’t. Grandpas always tell you they know everything, but with him, it was easy to believe.

“You’ve asked him what he wants,” he explains, eyes glinting in the dark. “But you never wait for an answer. You need to listen, Rory. He’ll tell you.”

I don’t even notice the boat has docked, until he steps onto the pier. I follow, unsteady, still unfocused but aware of everything. On the island stands a lighthouse, its rough bricks glassy and black. The light is off. The door is open.

Grandpa leads me inside, and I follow him like a sleepwalker. He chuckles again, like he just heard something funny. There is no furniture within the lighthouse. Only dust, machinery, and a winding staircase to the top. My feet are on autopilot, but Grandpa calls me back.

“You’re forgetting something.”

He hands the coin back to me, and it’s heavy. Impossibly heavy. My arm barely moves, but I feel my energy draining as I look at it. A crowned skull gives me the side-eye, disappointed with my slow grasp of things. I turn over the coin, but the other side is blank. My thumb passes over the surface, smooth and cold. When I look again, my fingerprint is stamped into the metal, reflecting a strange, iridescent sheen. I flip it again, and the skull is gone. I blink, and the coin is no longer a coin.

Grandpa nods. I hesitate a moment, but then turn to climb the stairs again. My footsteps fall heavy, muffled by the dust. I spiral, clockwise, upwards. Each step is grief, loss, but I keep going. Not even because I want to. I just can’t give up. Sunk cost fallacy. Any step could be the last.

By the time I reach the top, I have aged a lifetime. The beacon sighs hollow expectation at me. My hands tremble, and I fall to my knees. Then, I get to work.

The machinery is simple, primitive even, but incomprehensibly complex all the same. I know I’m not just working a simple gearbox, or any other mundane machine. This predates all of humanity’s inventions. And it will outlast them. But, in this moment, it is my hands that must bring it to task. I work, without understanding, but knowing that it will work, until I can do no more. Then, I ask the dead metal what it wants.

It replies, and I obey.

The coin Grandpa gave back to me is no longer a coin. It is a gear, with my fingerprint still on the back. With unprecedented certainty, I insert it in the final gap, and its teeth happily grip into its neighbours’. The machine groans into action. The beacon shudders, then slowly starts to spin. And finally, light blossoms at the heart.

---

Pain worms into my head first, followed closely by conscience. My eyes shoot open, and nothing much changes at first. Night has fallen a while ago, street lights are sparse. I muster up the strength to lift my head, then my body.

Blinding light.

It only lasts a moment, as a distant lighthouse I know doesn’t really exist sweeps across the street. In that instant, I see everything I need to see. The shattered remains of my helmet across the asphalt. You, sprawled out in-between. The gear in my hand. My blood, pooling below my face, dripping still.

I crawl forward towards you. I listen, this time. The cap on your fuel tank eagerly comes loose. Red goes into the dark. And for the first time in years, I hear you purr contentedly, steadily. You’ve tasted my scent. I know you’ll never lose it. You’ll bring me home, with no complaints. You promise.

---

When I reach the lights of the city again, things look different on the way back. Where I remember abandoned factories, I now see the vast, rotting carcasses of human ambition. Every pothole – that you effortlessly weave between – is an open wound in the ill-maintained skin of our society. The dead line the road, though, to my relief, not nearly in the same numbers I saw across the river. They don’t judge me here, either. They’re lost themselves.

You don’t let it get to you. You finally know your purpose, know me, and sad scenes blitz past with unmatched ease. You rumble steadier than ever. No more tantrums, no more breakdowns. Just movement, the way you like it, carrying me through the night. I idly wonder what else you can do.

When I get back to the garage, I expect my dad to be worried sick. Furious, maybe. I’m still bleeding when the door rattles upwards for me, and I don’t have a lie to tell him. I don’t expect him to be slumped over the workbench, snoring softly. I most definitely don’t expect the garage to appear under water, with sunlight refracted through the waves dancing on the walls. The masked stranger sitting cross-legged on the roof of a customer’s car is, likewise, a surprise.

She stares me down, despite never moving her head or opening the eyes behind her mask.

“You’re Awake.”

[havikshoochiemama]

My Star Wars Acolyte rant >:(

This shit is not proofread LMAO it’s 5 am i’m mad leave me alone just me being the hater that i am 🤭

I originally wasn’t gonna talk about the Acolyte because clearly the show was just another emotionally immature shitty Disney cash grab with horribly written characters BUT DUDE i keep seeing ads and stuff on my tumblr NONSTOP and i’m actually sick of it .. most of you guys saw one Tumblr Sexyman and just went ham with that…We as a fandom need to stand up because Disney doesn’t care about star wars imma keep it a buck they just want to make their next mcu and they just greenlighting anything at this point

“oh but i like Andor” yeah that’s like what ever 10 shows they make they make one good one that’s not good 😭… anyways like i was saying they are literally pulling shit out their ass they are getting shit from the star wars legends that’s it’s own universe and putting it in…like excuse me ??? those books don’t follow the events of the movie so why would your show that allegedly takes place before the movies (I said allegedly because writers can’t even get characters ages right ) also i’m talking about that bs w the helmet that stops lightsabers… apparently it’s called cortosis from legends never once mentioned in any of the movies (i’m not watching them live action shows idgaf i like SOME of the animated ones) but they use it as a Mcguffin when they want bc they never built on this they just stole it from legends LMAOAA you just can’t do that  i’m literally about to pop a blood vessel 😭 i’m not watching that show again but let me critique the shit i do remember… also the “Gayest Star Wars we ever made” KEEP MY PEOPLE OUT YOUR SHITTY WORK !!! but after that man who’s to edgy for a name killed all her friends she “loved” she’s sees his face and is like wow 😍 literally thinkin with her pussy very hetro of you 💀 gah this show just pisses me off star war at its heart is a fuckin space opera and i dont think disney understands that. i literally fell in love with star wars back when i played battlefront and watched all the movies read as many comics and books as i could get my hands on and seeing something you love become something you hate is fuckin sick and crazy it’s started with me from the force awakens that movie is horrible you bitches say pretty graphics and said oh good movie 😍 NO NO it literally was just a new Hope setting everything that luke did back making him basically useless LMAO and they butchered the old characters to help the new ones which are really not that great 💀 i’m still mad that them used Finn as a token black person 😐 i could rewrite the force awakens better same characters and all and yk actually do something better (joking i would if Disney paid me to)LMAO also i hate kylo ren don’t get me wrong i love my cry baby tantrum throwing villains but he’s nawt it LMAO i’m sorry this is a rant about the shitty show YALL NOT READY FOR ME TO SPEAK ON THE FORCE AWAKENS 😭

yeah i hate that show i literally don’t wanna talk about it anymore heart emoji 😝 remember when people said the Phantom Menace was bad yeah…  at least it have character development atleast it had good world building atleast the universe was establish and yk i liked it but the prequel’s have always been my favorite clone wars literally came out on my birth year >:3 it was made for me 🤭 but i’m just a whore for world building and lore yeah… umm idk to me start wats ended with the return of the Jedi 🗣️

dont @ me idc this is my opinion and if you want to continue meat riding corporate greed that literally is ruining my fave franchise pop off if you liked the show i don’t care good for you (your def new gen star wars fan)

also Darth Plagueis ?? LMAO WHAT they just doing anything i see and why where all the jedis fuckin morons … okay ? and your main character sucked you don’t get the satisfaction of character arcs like “her joining the dark side” if there was no character building to begin with like ? it not to late Disney just burn it get it over with. Also it’s all so Fuckin boring LMAO also i can talk shit about character development and arcs all i want bc i’m writing my own novel and i’ve did a lot of research even tho this whole rant is a mess it’s 5 in the morning give ur girl a break i just really like my silly space movie okay 🥹 i literally spent a band on the Star Wars encyclopedia leave me alone

Um if you wanna argue my comments are open <3 i love arguing i’m somewhat of a scorpio myself

[jaxdoeswhimsyart]

hey! i thought your oc posts (esp the character sheets) were super interesting! do you have a intro post/synopsis of your story somewhere i can read?

AHHHHH THANK YOU SM I HAVENT HAD ANYONE ASK ABOUT MY OCS IN SO LONG 💖💖💖😭😭

Ngl I haven’t written down their lore in forever but here I’ll explain some of the basics of it (since it’s still in major development lol)!!!

The story takes place in the early 1900s (mostly 20s-30s) and follows a young farmer named David Smith. He’s always been a bit cold and kept to himself, however after an incident in 1924 which resulted in him losing his best friend/lover (Jonah Arc), his barn being burned down, and several families being torn apart, he has become unusually distant.

David dwells a lot on the past and is quite literally haunted by the people he used to know, but he’s also petrified by the people currently in his life to the point where he avoids them as much as possible. His deteriorating mental health results in him having vivid hallucinations which are heavily influenced by how he views others. He is most often tormented by visions of Jonah leaving him to become a successful singer which may or may not be a fictional memory… especially because he also has hallucinations of Jonah’s ghost haunting him, implying that Jonah died sometime around the incident.

I often refer to the successful singer Jonah as “future Jonah” which honestly has become a bit of a passion side project of mine that I might make a separate post on because in technicality a lot of it isn’t confirmed to be canon yet and I’m on the fence over it because I don’t want this story to become too complicated if I make it into a comic or something 😭

The angels are also very significant but I’m gonna make an updated post on them later because I’ve added another one since making the ref sheets :)

But yeah the story is mostly about dealing with guilt and the torment of one’s mind, especially when your mind twists your perception of people to the point where the version of them in your head in nothing like who they really are. And although it often seems more like a background detail, the story is kinda centred around the idea of learning to accept and explore one’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Like literally none of my characters are both straight and cis!!! Maybe a few of the minor characters but definitely not the main ones.

Btw if you have any questions about my characters sexuality or gender please feel free to ask I’ll do my best to explain it but also I’m open to people having their own interpretations!! However it does sting a little whenever people don’t recognize Jonah and David as a lesbian couple 💔😔 (YEAH I KNOW THEYRE VERY MASC PRESENTING TO THE POINT WHERE THEY HAVE PRETTY DISTINCT MASCULINE FEATURES BUT GUYS-)

Um anyways thats kinda all I guess! Oh and obviously this story has a happy ending eventually but I’m kinda just messing around with stuff rn and drawing what ever comes to mind. But don’t worry David will learn to love himself and others!! Also other characters will have their own individual arcs too because I’m not leaving anyone half developed!!! 😤

Oh and one last thing! The story is called A Far Cry From the Rest, I don’t think I’ve ever said the full tittle on here because I mostly refer to it as AFCFTR.