#I just also really like the idea of the literal embodiment of death trying to save a life like. Oughh you know

[castielmacleod]

Fics I will never write: KING’S GAMBIT

King’s Gambit is a short canon compliant fic following Crowley through his last few days leading up to his eventual suicide. Nearly eaten alive by loneliness and self-loathing, the king of hell reflects on the past and tries to envision a future. When he ends up sitting alone in the bunker bandaging his stabbed-through hand, he makes a decision—only to be surprised by a visit from the new Death, who brings with them a peculiar proposition: a simple game of chess to decide his fate. Dark character study with themes of suicide, depression, social isolation, and unrequited love. Gen with minor past Crowstiel and unrequited DrowIey.

[sepublic]

It's been forever since I've done this, but I want to explore the idea of Krika as an eldritch Makuta, like I've done with others before.

In canon, his domain is the Northern Region of the Northern Continent; We know little else of this place and what it's like, save for the Tren Krom Peninsula. However, the Tren Krom Peninsula is part of the Southern region of the Northern Continent, and is Gorast's domain; So I've opted to leave those details for if I ever explore Gorast under this lens instead.

So if we cut out the TK peninsula, we don't really have anything regarding where Krika lives. But the thing is that there's a lot of emphasis on the word North; And sure, Krika's domain isn't the northernmost part of the Matoran Universe, it's tied with Zakaz and Xia for third place (although Karzahni is in second place, but Karzahni is supposed to be a myth so Krika's region is likely regarded as sharing second place).

But that aside: What do we associate with the North? Cold. Ice. In the North Pole, winter is eternal darkness without any sunlight, lasting for months. Fittingly, Krika is associated with cold in canon; He's white, the color usually reserved for Ice, but also he absorbs heat in order to keep himself tangible, making everything colder in the process. This is how ice works on a thermodynamic level; It's so cold, like a heat vacuum, that it steals heat from the surroundings and makes them cooler as a result.

So let's roll with this and give us the Makuta of the North; An icy being who is constantly draining the heat of the lands. The Northern Region is frozen over; Perhaps it wasn't always like this, but ever since Makuta emerged, he has inflicted an eternal winter that is slowly spreading across the continent.

Makuta is a creature of Ice and Shadows, and his enemy is the Sun, which embodies Heat and Light. Hot and Cold, Light and Dark; These dualities pair together. Light and Heat are energy; Cold and Darkness are the absence of that.

Not unlike MNOG Makuta, the Makuta of the North represents Entropy; He is the inevitable Heat Death of the universe, he is destruction. He is a simple fact, a force of nature that you can't deny. Canon Krika mourns that the Makuta can't be much else than destroyers, and his resigned to his fate; He is nihilistic. The Makuta of the North feels the same way; He did not ask to represent darkness and destruction. He is an aspect of nature but nevertheless fear and vilified.

This is how we can incorporate a more sympathetic, tragic take on Makuta, which is what Krika brings to the table in canon. The Makuta of the North is nihilistic, resigned to inescapable fate. There's no point in trying, there's no point in fighting or living, if it'll all end the same; This is like how canon Krika believes that nothing good will happen to him if he goes along with the Brotherhood or doesn't, so he just goes with the easiest flow.

Makuta is despair, he is resignation. Let things rest, stop rising up, let them go still and cold and dark. It's quite a draining mentality to be around; Literally draining, hence him stealing the heat as a vacuum, because he is indeed nothing. Makuta is pitiable because in a way, he can't fight his nature, or at least that is what he believes. He will happen anyway and be hated for it despite being just as natural, if not more so, than heat and life. He is Death, because without heat or energy, Life cannot thrive.

He is a spindly creature, hollow like a skeleton for he has nothing inside and is undead; His spines resemble piercing icicles and he lives underground, as far from the sun as possible. The closer you get to ground zero of Makuta's freeze, the colder it is, until you encounter an enormous glacier; Makuta resides at its heart as the source, having frozen even the air around him, and he navigates like an intangible ghost (like in canon) through this solidified world. You can't hurt him physically because again, he is entropy, he is abstract.

In canon, Krika's Kanohi is the Crast; The Mask of Repulsion. So maybe this theme carries through to the Makuta of the North as a vacuum who repels all substance to leave nothing in its wake. His glacial fortress 'repels' outsiders as well.

Makuta intends to block out the sun with his darkening blizzards, and eventually extinguish it entirely. In the meantime, those who oppose him will burn themselves out trying to combat his cold, so it'll be the same result either way; But our heroes try anyway, to fend off the inevitable because they believe in trying. A Toa of Fire would be a pretty obvious protagonist here, possibly functioning as a Toa of Light as well; A Toa of Ice would be interesting as someone who skirts thematically close to Makuta, much more than they're comfortable with; Maybe like Matoro in canon, with his secrets, partnership with Teridax, and usage of forbidden Kanohi.

So there's the obvious Fire and Ice duality, and the relationship between their respective Toa. Maybe like Matoro, this Toa of Ice makes a sacrifice to stop Makuta's destruction, restoring heat and light to their land... For now at least. Because in the end, Makuta will always come back. And eventually, he'll win. But until then, our heroes keep fighting and trying anyway, so they can live and enjoy their time together for as long as they can.

[rivetgoth]

I’m sure I’ll add more on this later but as I think on House of Leaves (finished it, loved it, listened through all of Poe’s Haunted and loved that too) I think the conclusion I’ve come to (and this isn’t a wildly novel conclusion, but ah well) is that it is at its core fundamentally an exploration of grief, and specifically grief of the loss of a family member. This is especially obvious because… Mark Danielewski has literally said that it was inspired by the death of his father. Poe’s album as well. So like, this is no secret. And I think this is invoked in the very obvious way of the fact that a house that should feel like a home but instead feels unsafe, surreal, and literally larger and emptier on the inside than it naturally should be is a very clear metaphor for grappling with the loss of a parent, right? But I think it goes deeper than that… I think House of Leaves also spends a lot of time dwelling on the weird, impossible to untangle intricacies of trauma, childhood and generational trauma especially, mental illness, and genetics… the things you carry with you and the things that loom over you from your family, especially those deceased who you no longer have direct contact with, left only with this awareness weighing down upon you.

I think Chad and Daisy are pretty clearly functionally author inserts of Mark and Poe, right? And Will Navidson then is their father? Both are even filmmakers. But I also think that Zampanò himself is Mark as well… his middle initial is literally… But complicatedly I’m not saying that Chad is Zampanò, I don’t think HoL is straightforward like that, it’s more like that’s another embodiment of the grief. The child experiencing that, the adult retelling it, grappling with it, imagining and reimagining it, and I think I believe that Tom Navidson is functionally an author insert of Zampanò into The Navidson Record, functioning kind of like a guardian angel to his childhood self, this sort of stand-in hero character who sacrifices himself to protect the innocence and life of the child self. I think the slippage of “me” within that one line, where he refers to Tom in first person, alludes to this, as well as his emotional outburst over his chapter where he tries to write about the relationship between Will and Tom. And in the very back of the book, there’s the fragment of a typed page where Zampanò considers an ending where Chad and Daisy die instead, are killed by the house, with this much more pessimistic tone (similar to when he gets upset about writing about Tom and Will), than what’s shown in the published/Johnny’s version of The Navidson Record.

And would it complicate things too much to say I think Chad, Zampanò, and Johnny represent a sort of trinity of different stages of Mark’s life—the child experiencing it in real time, the young adult trying (and failing) to cope with it all, and the elder now looking back and engaging with it from an aged perspective. I think Johnny represents that crushing weight of this impending, unknown genetic fuckery, constantly feeling the weight of this figure who died long ago but who you know lives within you, and you’re trying to figure out what’s traumagenic, what’s just this completely unavoidable tumbling towards fate—his mother died severely psychotic in an institution, is this unavoidable? Can he escape this future? How much of what he deals with is her, her influence, her fault, and how much is caused by trauma inflicted upon him. I really don’t like the theory that his mother/Pelafina “was” Johnny all along or that Johnny never existed or that he was a stillborn baby like in the story and she’s functionally created a Johnny headmate. I think it’s sort of silly, like I can see some interesting merit in it (there’s clearly a bizarre Oedipal psychosexual complex going on between Pelafina and Johnny and her writing these detailed accounts of her basically stillborn son’s sexcapades is a pretty fascinating idea), but I’m more interested in a sort of backwards-reading of that theory where the end represents Johnny kind of embracing or succumbing to his mother’s identity, for better or worse, and the idea of this baby in critical condition that maybe just maybe had a slim chance for life but dying the moment his mother asks him to revealing instead his relationship to her, the helplessness of those genetics and the control and power she exerts over him even in death. When Shilo Wallace says “You, I've mistaken for destiny / but the truth is my legacy is not up to my genes” at the end of Repo! the Genetic Opera, House of Leaves says… terrifyingly… what if it is? What if your genetics are your destiny? And then you lose that genetic lineage, it becomes just story, infamy, legend, but you’re there and alive and trying to grapple with it?

I kinda like the theory that Johnny rewrote the end of The Navidson Record to have a happy ending, or maybe Zampanò did. I think they both desperately want the story to have a happier ending. And honestly, I love the ending of The Navidson Record as published by Johnny. Though maybe cliché on paper I love the idea that there is a hopeful answer to all that emptiness and fear and a way to silence those endless inexplicable winding hallways and the answer is to replace that emptiness with genuine love. Like, to overcome that fear and embrace the ones you’ve loved for all that they are and that this love can fix all of that… It can make all of the fear and uncertainty of the empty, insurmountable, nightmare house literally dissolve... I think the end of Poe’s album (“If You Were Here”) speaks to that too.

Uh there’s obviously way more to it than that. House of Leaves is a lot of things. Duh. But I do think right now my primary takeaway is just how informed it is by the crushing helpless grief of the death of an immediate family member with which you have an extremely tenuous or strained relationship and the weight of family history.

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Assumptions and Headcanons - Pre-Canon Timeline

Consider this the intro before I finish the actual timeline. This section focuses on clarifications and ideas that enrich the Persona Timeline, specifically the Pre-Canon one.

Who created the Sea of Souls? Who lives there?

It's unknown who created the Sea. It either created on its own, or the Great Will had something to do. Every timeline is connected by the Sea, so this is your only chance to realistically crossover with FeMC. There might or not be a whale that lives there, depending on how canon you consider Trinity Soul to be. Its in the deepest part of the Sea where the Seal locking Nyx is located. The guy in charge (or closest thing in charge) is Chronos.

It isn't all that impressive when a higher being claims to come from the Sea. Every soul came from it and will return one day. They're probably taking advantage of the fact that humans don't know of the Sea to sound more important than they are.

This is why I consider PQ to be semi-canon, since otherwise Chronos wouldn't have been okay with the Velvet Assistants holding a dancing competition in the Sea of Souls.

That's right SMT fans, the Sea is the same as the River Styx.

Why couldn't Erebus reach Nyx' psyche before P3?

As mentioned in the timeline, Nyx' psyche was still scattered across the Collective Unconscious. Erebus could try all he wanted, but he would never find enough of her to call her physical body down to Earth. During P3, enough of Nyx' psyche was finally gathered into one single being: the Nyx Avatar (aka Ryoji). This caused Ryoji to be the literal embodiment of Death, since that's their entire purpose. I wonder what would happen if they met Chronos...

So, P3 happens and the Nyx Avatar is sealed by Minato/Minako before they can finish calling down Nyx' physical body. Erebus now knows where to find Nyx' psyche. There's a specific place now. However, the Seal prevents him from ever reaching it. Elizabeth thus comes annually to kick his ass and the Fall never comes.

I like to believe that a part of Ryoji is still fully aware in the Nyx Avatar after everything that happened, so Minato/Minako is not alone while being the Seal.

Neither may speak (one is being a Seal and the other one is being sealed away), but there is an understanding that they will never be truly alone. Just like when Ryoji was Pharos.

Did the rumors that became true during Eternal Punishment stay true after Nyarly's defeat?

I don't think so. The power to rewrite reality using word-of-mouth is really potent, but was only being powered by Nyarly. I believe the moment he was weakened, all rumors that came true dissolved into simple rumors once again. So, Kiyotada Sumaru stayed a fictional figure.

That was a low blow, Nyarly.

Where did the first Velvet Room attendants come from?

We know Igor was a doll, but if you ask me, Nameless, Belladonna, and the Demon Painter used to be human. Their exceptional and otherwordly talents in the arts made them stand out to Philemon to make them the "Muses" of the Velvet Room. Nameless was probably a German pianist (as a reference to a certain composer who also lost one of his senses), Belladonna was an Italian opera singer, and the Demon Painter was a painter from Sumaru City. It seems only Belladonna kept her human name. It also seems like you can leave your post whenever you want. It was confirmed that Nameless and Belladonna were still in the Velvet Room by P5, but no such reference was made for the Demon Painter.

Igor is almost impossible to pin down since his name is really old and dolls have existed everywhere since almost forever. Since he is sometimes referenced as powering the Velvet Room, I just placed the creation of velvet itself as a possible start for the timeframe of his creation. Can't have the Velvet Room without velvet being a thing.

Now, is the Velvet Room the same as the Black Lodge? Nah. But for fun we can imagine that Mark Frost and David Lynch have been to the Velvet Room.

If Tsumi to Batsu isn't canon, what happened to the Red and Black Books?

I believe the fun part lies in their unknown whereabouts, which serves as fuel for fanfics and other stories. For all we know they're in the hands of an unknown Persona User and/or another mysterious organization. Who knows? I mostly included them to fully connect Jung to Philemon and explain why he seems like such an important human to the latter. Igor may have begun to interact with humans under his master's orders and in part to look for the potential owners of the Books, but he ended up growing fond of his guests and attendants.

On a side note, can you imagine Philemon's heart attack when "The Red Book: Liber Novus" was published and mass produced in 2009? Before realizing, "Ah, this is just Jung's diary, not the magic book". Then again, the publisher was called Philemon Foundation, so we might have a case of ghost company in our hands.

Why did Stephen upload the Demon Summoning Program to a single high school instead of sending mass e-mails like in SMT?

I have a few theories: The first one is that there wasn't an urgency to gather Demon Summoners for an upcoming apocalypse. According to semi-canon sources, Thorman and Gotou existed at some point in the Persona Universe, but either due to Kandori's capitalist machinations or as a consequence between Phil and Nyarly's bet, they were never able to truly gain power. Adding this to my second theory, that Stephen used to attend Karukozaka high school, would explain why he tentatively only uploaded it to his old school's servers. Less desperation and more indirect experimentation, one might say. This would also explain why he became more of an offscreen mentor to Tamaki once she gained the program, since Stephen would have more time to continue developing and experimenting with it. One successful user was enough for now.

Personally, I believe he ended up working for the Nanjo Group after P1, who sponsored this and any future projects he had until his death. Considering he is apparently a trascendent entity, this cushy existence would have been a nice break from the other universes.

Wouldn't it be fun if Stephen was the original creator of beta Evokers but set aside the project due to the lack of a "supernatural power source"? And this project ended up in hands of the Kirijo Group after they split from the Nanjo Group? And then Kouetsu Kirijo only had to finish it by adding the Plumes of Dusk?

What was Nyx doing at St. Hermelin, anyway?

This is something I struggled with. In the end, I settled for someone finding a large Plume of Dusk, thinking it was a pretty rock, and getting the Snow Queen Mask made out of it. A Plume of Dusk this big ended up attracting a lot of Nyx' psyche, which made a mess when combined with Drama Club teenage girls as seen in the number of victims. In the end, it evolved into the Snow Queen Curse. For all we know, the Mask was trying to use the girls as puppets to help bring the Fall, but Nyx' psyche always got to them and they committed suicide soon after.

Personally, I would have stopped producing the Snow Queen at my school after the first two deaths, but to each their own.

Which war did Masataka Amano die in?

This is a huge supposition on my part since even the dates are approximates. I have four contenders: the Falklands War, the 1982 Lebanon War, the Second Sudanese Civil War, or the Sri Lankan Civil War. Pick your poison.

The game says that Gekkoukan was founded after the Kirijo Group laboratory exploded around 1999. The school logo says that Gekkoukan was founded in 1982. What is the truth?

The way I made this work was by making the original founding of Gekkoukan in 1982, like in the logo. Maybe it started as an actual learning insitution, where the graduates would have a possible career in the Kirijo Group. After the entire Death ordeal, they decided to hide the old labs by building a better state-of-the-art school building on top and relocating Gekkoukan there.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

omg since you’re taking off todya from studying can we hear some of your beatle hottakes?

ughhhhhhh sorry, these are so hard to come up with these days

meta take: I sort of wish we could have a genuine conversation about the blurry line between wishful thinking/headcanon and more objective (or, aspiring to be objective) historical analysis – I get the headcanons, I really do! but just in the past year, there's been several instances of people in good faith asking about sources or questioning "fan favourite" anecdotes and being shouted down for "ruining people's fun". If you want to engage with this stuff in a more lighthearted way, that's fine! but accept that that's what you're doing. Being rude to people trying to get to the truth is not a good look. Your imagination can withstand it, I promise.

more people need to jump on the Day Tripper tinhatting train. shit's crazy up here

the more I listen to Double Fantasy the more I'm offended that a certain brand of John fan basically only names songs from 1970/71 as his best. ditto with Walls and Bridges…

Again And Again And Again: best Denny solo-written Wings song ( it's hard to gauge how much is him and how much is Paul for their collabs. Anyways, No Words my beloved)

Sexy Sadie is kind of perfect… The lyrics, the chords, the distorted doo-wop it all embodies that DISAPPOINTMENT so well. The guitar solo is great, the high-pitched oooooooooohs. No notes, underrated song for sure.

the Mind Games album cover is soooooo deranged but so fucking good. That and Ram might be the best post-Beatles album covers.

this isn't exactly a take but the SADDEST part of Hey Jude is when John harmonizes with Paul. I can't not hear all the unspoken pain.

I kind of hope we get versions of Free As A Bird and Real Love with cleaned up John vocals like Now And Then. I don't want to erase those originals because the audio quality tells a story of its own, but Real Love especially suffers so much from it. I listened to it earlier today and nearly got teary. "No need to be alone" kind of gives me goosebumps. There's something so raw and emotional about all three of these songs…

This is almost the opposite of a hottake, but it kind of Doesn't Matter To Me who Now And Then is about. It could be about Paul, it could pretty easily be about Yoko too, and a few people I've seen say they think it's about May, which could be too! It perhaps not being directed at Paul doesn't take away from the song for me, because the song feels bigger than just its direct inspiration.

On that note, I sort of think that sometimes people could stand to.... Die on fewer hills? Like, the notion that Now And Then could be about Yoko doesn't negate John and Paul's relationship or most things people theorize they may have gotten up to. Now And Then Release Week bonus round, cause it's been long enough to talk about it a bit:

Paul (and Ringo and George! they also have a writing credit, guys!) making editorial choices about John's unfinished song with the blessing of his widow is literally fine. "But John might not have approved–" yes, this is how death works. John also might have found the song embarrassing and not wanted it released at all. It wasn't on Double Fantasy after all! Or maybe he would have specifically wanted to remove the same bit! (which I maintain is musically strange and unfitting at worst and at best a still really rough idea that would probably require a lot of work in of itself – echoing the chord progression in the instrumental bit is the best compromise I could imagine)

I actually really get the George girls who were a bit bummed out by the rollout of the song. He DID get the short end in this situation! but… what would have been better? I saw some people say Paul isn't nearly as good a slide guitarist at George. Okay well then… So Paul should've hired a session musician? How does that makes sense? Paul should've asked Dhani to find some random guitar bit George recorded 25 years ago and frankensteined it onto this song? I'm asking this honestly: what should have been done instead? Because… I sort of got the feeling from some of the criticism that the only acceptable solution was to not release this song at all. And TBH I don't think George "getting the short end" is worse than not allowing Paul and Ringo the closure of completing this song. This wasn't perfect but again: yes, this is how death works.

[willfulabyss]

Before the new update drops, I might as well post my feelings about the 2.2 story because unless they retcon it, I don’t think 2.3 will (or can) rectify my issues with it. I took a long break halfway through the story before coming back to finish it, and while the second half did get better, it didn’t make up for how disappointing the first half was.

Tl;dr: Why did they bait us with an incredible 2.0 and 2.1 and then fail to deliver on what they built up?

Major 2.2 main story spoilers ahead!

First off, the Misha/Mikhail story. Was anyone else seriously disappointed with it? This is the main reason I put off finishing the quest for a few weeks. I was so disappointed and underwhelmed with how it panned out. After so much buildup, it fell completely flat for a number of reasons, the biggest being all the horror buildup with no horror payoff. Himeko cheerfully walks us through the literal hellscape that is A Child’s Dream, all-knowing for whatever reason, and then we learn that Misha is just the escaped memory bubble of Mikhail’s youth, and that Mikhail largely lived a fulfilling life? Like, I suspected Misha may be Mikhail just on account of their names. But if there wasn’t something nefarious going on, why on Earth is A Child’s Dream so terrifying? Why did Firefly feel “an unwavering resolution in the face of death” or whatever while we were there? Why was “Death” (which was also kind of a letdown as a ferryman to the other side rather than the embodiment of humans’ fear of death, as it was described in the special program) lurking in there while putting on a horror show with all the TVs and lights? What’s the deal with all the text that appears in Death’s horror room—“Penacony must save itself,” “no, don’t come close,” “get him,” “help me,” “don’t let him get away,” “I don’t want to die,” etc.? Why is there a woman’s voice saying, “Mikhail said… do NOT open the box!” shortly after we open the box containing Misha’s puzzle piece? What’s so dangerous about the box and why did Mikhail say not to open it when it seems like that’s what he wanted all along? That was even a clickable textbox line, not some background flavor dialogue! Why is Misha so distressed and terrified in his disembodied voice lines in the dream, begging Mikhail not to go and to take him with him? What was he trying to finish for Mikhail in the workshop? All this for the mystery to just be that Misha is a Memory Zone Meme who was never in distress at all?

I think I set myself up for disappointment by watching a bunch of streamers play the first two acts over and over before 2.2 came out. All the details I retained and tried to fit together and theorized over ended up being only the most disappointing red herrings. I was really hoping/expecting that Misha was going to be a The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas situation where the Dreamscape was powered solely on his suffering. Sparkle called it “the real Dreamscape,” so I was sure it was the single dream sustaining the entirety of the sweet dream and that it was collapsing because Misha’s will to live was fading. Maybe Misha was Mikhail, or maybe he was his grandson, but I had the idea that Mikhail being considered a traitor by the Family led to them using him/his grandson/his extracted childhood essence in Memory Zone Meme form as the foundation for the sweet dream as punishment. And if Mikhail was Misha’s grandfather, the Nameless distress call in the invite could have been Mikhail/an aware third party like Gallagher (don’t even get me started on him) trying to draw people in to rescue the fading Misha before he disappeared forever. Maybe Misha could have been merged with a Stellaron like us in order to power the dream, and he’s been “alive” for hundreds of years, unaging and suffering just to keep the sweet dream going. It would have been an interesting way to incorporate the Stellaron rather than having it just sort of being there. Or Misha could have been kept “alive” in a dream pool a la Chadwick (which would have been great foreshadowing). And only recently, he’s started to astral project himself out of the real Dreamscape in desperation to find help, but he forgets everything except his day-to-day life as a bellboy once he’s out (which is kind of what happened anyway). Ugh, I don’t know. I just feel like there was so much potential in the plot line, only for it to end up being something so mundane and weirdly wholesome. Like, if you’re not going to make it a horror plot, don’t do the horror setup just to leave those of us who really took to that element disappointed. It felt like a team of completely different writers took over for this plot, and they only had a cursory look at what was already presented. Or someone decided they wanted to tone down the story at the last minute. Just… so disappointing.

Also not sure how I feel about Dreamflux Reef being a community you can just… enter, apparently? Conceptually, I like the idea of “unauthorized” dreamscapes in Asdana where people have created their own cities and such outside the reach of the Family. But, like, how does that work when so many people were taken there against their will? Why didn’t they leave? Can they? Surely plenty of them would want to go back to their family and friends and not start a new life in this place. How did word never get out that the “victims” of Death were alive and well? What happened to their bodies in reality? Does the Family cremate them after a certain amount of time of them being gone, thus making it impossible for them to return? Also, Mimosa in Dreamjoy Memoir says Dreamflux Reef was her home town. How is SHE, an Iris family representative, aware of SUD’s true identity, but the head of the Oak Family isn’t?? Maybe this is explored in the lore and side quests, but I haven’t done those yet, and I can’t imagine a way they could write it at this point that wouldn’t feel like a cop-out. It just felt like such a gaping hole. It would have been much cooler, imo, if the people who were “killed” ended up having to form their own city there in the hopes of being rescued, truly making it a “land of exiles.” Also, now it feels like the victims of Death have no meaning or purpose. Was Death going rogue and just grabbing people randomly? Did Gallagher, who seems to be able to control it, set it on random people? If so, why? After how tight 2.0 and 2.1 were, the whole first half of 2.2 felt like a scattered mess. I hate how any sense of trepidation and unease is shattered by how chill March and Himeko are. Like there was never anything to be afraid of at all in the Dreamscape. They even make fun of that Pepeshi who was just taken, like, “Wow, bro, you actually got scared by that many-eyed thing that murdered you, lol?” It also makes the whole plot Aventurine concocted feel pointless despite how high-stakes it was portrayed in 2.1. In the end, Aventurine getting himself killed in the dream was meaningless because he didn’t figure anything out and ended up lost in god-knows-where until Argenti—for SOME reason—finds and saves him. Why was Argenti roaming the Memory Zone wilds?? How did he save Aventurine, who apparently couldn’t save himself? I love Argenti and want to see more of him, but why was he shoehorned into this quest?? Why couldn’t we at least see his rescue of Aventurine? We’re just told it so off-handedly that it gave me whiplash. (And his EN voice didn’t even work, which made it even more anticlimactic.)

The second half of the quest was better. The stuff with Acheron and Tiernan was legitimately the highlight for me. Very well-done, great buildup, and a payoff that I didn’t expect at all yet that made so much sense. The final reveal really hit hard. The fake-out ending, as frustrating and anxiety-inducing as it was to play through when there were so many loose threads left hanging, was a nice twist with many people having theorized beforehand that we never truly left the dream after we first met Acheron. Robin was cool, and I like the role she played as a foil to Sunday. I really liked her story of getting shot while doing aid work and putting on performances for people on war-torn worlds. It was a surprising example of emotional strength portrayed as, well, strength, and it aligns with her belief that not everyone can be physically strong, but that doesn’t mean they’re weak or that their lives have no meaning. I really appreciate the focus on this type of nontraditional and stereotypically “feminine” strength, which is often denigrated as emotionalism. Despite not being a fighter, Robin is an active participant in the plot after her first appearances makes her seem like she’s going to be a damsel, and I love that she’s the one who saves her brother in the end. I’m glad I pulled for her. I loved the twist with the Order since that lore has been explored in the SimUni already. Sunday’s motivation felt sort of cliche and underdeveloped—a five-year-old could have told him that the Order’s perfect world he desired could never function the way he anticipated—but it was workable. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of him soon and learn more about how his ideals became so warped. Directly following after Aventurine’s incredibly complex mix of stakes and motivations, Sunday’s felt particularly flat. It doesn’t seem like his story is nearly over yet, so I hope MHY doesn’t fumble it. Admittedly, I’ve lost a lot of trust in their storytelling abilities with this update.

All in all, I feel let down by this chapter in a number of ways when I really wanted to love it, mainly because of the Misha stuff but also because the Dreamflux Reef and SUD reveals took a lot of the stakes and tension out of the story for me. 2.2 feels like it wanted to soften the previous two chapters, and that’s honestly a shame. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the rest of the plot elements/story as a whole yet, though. I’ll need to watch it again to refresh my memory. 2.0 and 2.1 were tough acts to follow, and maybe I shouldn’t have expected something that perfectly wove everything together, but I still feel like a lot of momentum was lost and plot threads were dropped or unsatisfactorily tied when there were so many better options with what to do with them. At least it wasn’t as devastating to me as Genshin 3.3 was? Sigh.

time to write another fix-it—or rather “destroy-it” fic?

[hotgirlstiles]

Genuinely how do you think stiles would react if he found out he and Paige were very similar? Would he ask derek something like do you think of her when you look at me?....

oh god you have NO idea how much this ask makes me so fucking crazy. Im literally the patron saint of making stiles suffer and go crazy. HES MY LITTLE DOLL!!!!

anyways. i think. god. yall already know how much i LOVE and talk about how both derek and the sheriff lost their ultimate loved one and how stiles is the literal embodiment of those two loved ones. i go batshit crazy whenever i think abt (after claudia’s death) stiles just missing his mom and maybe trying on her clothes in secret and her perfume and everything about her and it being one of the reasons why the sheriff (during his drunk eps) had absolutely. been so mean to him because that’s his wife and his son is the splitting image of her (physically and personality wise) and it just hurts

AND THEN YOU FACTOR IN PAIGE STILES AND ITS SO FUCKING. i genuinrly cannot even put it into enough words how much it makes me crazy. paige. jennifer. and how theyre both SO stiles. i just know stiles heart shattered when peter was telling that story and i KNOW stiles went on some research rampage on bh yearbooks and saw paige and just. this very devastating oh moment. immediately goes back and thinks abt every moment w derek and its like some slap to the face

i dont think stiles would outrigbt ask derek smthn like that but i feel like it would send stiles into a spiral similar to how or what happened w sheriff and claudia and i think thats such a painful cycle of just being this someone. the second choice almost—some kind of cheap copy of someone’s beloved because he was never really claudia nor was he really ever paige but sometimes does he try because he thinks thats all he is (some fake grade a copy of the original)

which probably makes it also insane because remember when the nogutsune split into two stile. sorry i dont even know how thats connected it just cane into my mind and now i had to say it

anyways im insane over this im genuinely always fucking thinking about stiles will always resemble derek and the sheriff’s lost loved ones and the implications of it to stiles, who has always been the underdog and has always received love in such thin barely there offhanded touches

ok apparently im not yet done cause i think When stiles found out abt paige canon-wise was like perfect since it was like that barely there conenction of sterek happening. oh my god if stiles found out abt paige during s3b itd be fuckkng DISASTER. imagine finding out you have frontotemporal dementia—essentially dying the same way your mother did, the EXACT same way your mother did right in front of your dad, aka he would experience his beloved’s death AGAIN—and then finding out your crush’s first fucking love literally has rhe same personality and looks as you. i would genuinely commit myself to eichen house at that point like i would never show my face to the sheriff and derek ever again

ok. on the topic of established sterek approaching that topic. i feel like it’d come randomly from stiles, like every topic does, and maybe on some quiet night just playing with derek’s fingers laying in bed and he’d just quietly ask “was paige pretty?” and derek would say some stupid shit like yeah you two looked very similar you two could be siblings which wohld set off stiles rockets and itd be castratophic basically. i dont even know how derek would fix the situation

[why-raven]

quiz: tragic play character — yiuno.

Misunderstood Villain.

Prepare for an onslaught of both the most dehumanizing and hateful takes, and flood of thirst comments. You’re chronically misunderstood; whether or not you’re actually evil is debatable. You may be acting out for revenge, to defend someone you love, or even just to protect yourself—you’re a pretty jaded person. You don’t trust or even really like most people—perhaps you did, at one point, but that part of you is gone, and you don’t go a single day without grieving it. You think a lot about what your life could have been. You’re stuck in the past—you’re angry and maybe you don’t even want to be, but this is the only way you can see to survive. You’re open, but less in a trusting way and more like a wound. You don’t like to let people see you, but the hurt spills out of you before you can stop it. You’re impulsive, even as you try hard to plan and prepare. Maybe someday your side of the story will finally be heard. Until then, you can convince yourself that being hated is safer anyway.

link to quiz.

Oh, wow. What an eerily accurate result.

Yiuno embodies many aspects of an anti-hero: be it common tropes (ex. Dark and Troubled Past), or tip the scales further into extremity (ex. Psycho for Hire and Femme Fatale), it’s really fun working on his characterization… as much as I struggle to comprehend his complex, multilayered nature.

I dunno if people see him as a misunderstood villain—guaranteed, this guy literally kills for a living, and he was a war criminal at one point (as a major participant during the Magi War in the Fifth Astral Era). His unique physical condition has twisted his perception of time, like he’s stuck in a psychological limbo akin to a living hell, for eternity. While the idea of eternal life has been explored many times in the game (both the MSQ and mostly the ARR side-quests), to an immortal like Yiuno, only death can bring him true peace.

Oh wait, sounds like Emet-Selch much? Not really—for one, Yiuno does not crave for the past (in fact, he wished he could erase it and start over again), and he doesn’t believe in utopia. While Emet tried to justify his genocidal acts as a “necessary ritual” to reclaim his lost paradise, Yiuno doesn’t even bother to sugar coat the war crimes he’d committed. Though Emet (in Shadowbringers, not Endwalker) did humor the idea of giving the current world a chance as he observed how WoL and the Scions tried to save the First, he never stopped to show outright contempt for the Sundered, calling them lesser beings unworthy of existing. Yiuno, however, never harbors any form of racism or social prejudice towards anyone—on one hand, he sees people as, well, just people; on the other hand, he may appear to be rather apathetic and detached (and hence why he could kill people as willingly as Emet, but for different reasons).

It also didn’t help that his childhood was equally fucked up. Born into a clan with an unconventional (and controversial) family system and societal rules, Yiuno grew up pretending to be a girl for many years just so that he could stay together with his twin sister for as long as possible. This twisted upbringing gave him a rather unique outlook to gender and sexuality—while he identify himself as biologically male and is very much aroace, mentally he feels disconnected and sees them as mere labels. It’s hard for me to explain in a way that people can understand, without radical folks jumping the gun and dissing me about “misrepresentation” and stuff, so I won’t go into details here. (If you want to know more, feel free to ask me in DMs!)

I guess the last line rings true—perhaps it’s easier to hate him for no reason at all. I mean, unless it’s his soulmate Y’shtola or the energetic curious child Sora, very few people have the patience and time to learn more about a walking history like Yiuno.

[theweirdoinurhouse]

Phobias, am I right?

Sorry for the bad title, but in my Ted Talk of the day I'll be discussing Tokophobia and thanatophobia (mainly this one). I've seen some talk about them, and want to share my own personal experiences with them and spread more light on the subjects.

CW: Talk of death, pregnancy, childbirth, and rape (very briefly) Please proceed with caution, I don't want anybody to have a mental crisis

So first off, what are tokophobia and thanatophobia? Tokophobia is the fear of childbirth/pregnancy, and thanatophobia is the fear of death. That one is pretty broad. I will section off talking about each of them. Warning, they might be long.

Thanatophobia:

I'll just get this one out of the way. I personally have thanatophobia stronger than tokophobia, and that's because it's literally unavoidable. And that's the main reason I'm so scared of it. Unlike other fears like heights or spiders or snakes, you can decently avoid those. But you can't avoid death. It's always looming over you, no matter how safe you seem. Not to say those other fears aren't valid or anything. They absolutely are. But nobody can avoid death. Not forever anyways.

Everytime I get home and open the door I'm scared someone might be on the other side with a gun. Or when I enter my room. Or whenever I'm walking I wonder if that maybe someone will drive by and shoot me. Lots of shooting thoughts, because it's one of the easiest methods. But no matter where I am I always have the looming thought of dying.

Then there's the fact about mortality. It absolutely angers me. Inside me are two wolves (sorry I have to joke to make myself feel better). One wolf thinks: Why do anything? We won't matter. We won't do anything that matters to the world or people. We're gonna die one day. We're not special. Why try so hard? The other wolf thinks: We're gonna die one day, so why not live life to the fullest? (Can you tell which one I listen to most of the time?)

I try my best to live my life to the fullest. But I'm always so stressed about everything. Then whenever I try to do something "cool" or think about doing something cool, I can only think of how that might make my life even shorter. I watched this one movie where this girl was the embodiment of "YOLO". Guess what? She died.

I don't want that to be me. I don't want to finally decide to do something fun and then die. But I also don't want to stay cooped up my whole life. Every thought I have contradicts each other and it's so hard to live with. I hate thinking about how we're all just going to die one day and that we can't do anything about it. And we have no clue what's after.

I'm not religious. And honestly? That makes this even worse. I have nothing to hold onto. I have nothing to look forward to. I have nothing. 😋😋 I won't talk much about religion. Like ever. But yeah, I don't have a belief of what's after, and it's makes the unknown so scary to me. I don't like not knowing. Just endless black? No consciousness? Nothing? Nothing.

I have oh so many thoughts about death. None positive. Sometimes I think about killing myself to escape this sad, non-satisfying world. When I was younger I made this idea with my step dad that when you die you get your own island in the sky and you can make it as perfect to you as you want. Sometimes I want to die to go to my own personal, amazing life. But what if that's fake? What if everything everyone has ever thought of about the afterlife is fake? Not having an answer is scary enough for me.

Earlier today I was helping out at a theater put away some stuff. I was standing on top of a latter. Then suddenly it was getting a little hard to breath and I was crying. Had to steady myself before getting off the ladder. So really other fears that can correspond to death scares me too. How diverse! 😄

Anyways that's the basics. Ill just stop it there before it gets too long.

Tokophobia:

This one will be shorter, so people who don't like reading a lot of words: here ya go.

Remember in thanatophobia I mentioned walking? Yeah sometimes I think about someone 🍇 me and (bc the government low key sucks) being forced to have a child. TERRIFYING!!! Honestly props to all the moms in the world, i could never give birth.

Whenever I think about pregnancy the first thing that pops up in my brain is that one scene from Alien. You know the one. There is a literal LIVING BEING GROWING IN YOUR STOMACH!!! WHAT?!

The thought just really grosses me out, and I just would have a mental breakdown if I was pregnant.

This one time in like 3rd grade my teacher was talking about her giving birth to her two daughters (no clue why she did). She had to stop because one kid was crying, knees to their chest and rocking back and forth. That child was me. I was absolutely mortified of the idea of giving birth. Still am. People call it the beauty of life. I call it absolutely disgusting (no offense. Omg opinions!!)

Anyway yeah. In summary: I don't like the world ☺️☺️

(I did not re-read this, so sorry for any mistakes in spelling or grammar!)

[waeirfaahl]

Interesting aspect about Aku's parts

One of the ideas I embodied in my stories and can mention now (and I even developed mechanism of infection and various aspects how it affects etc). Okay, I many times pointed out how deadly and poisonous Aku and hence his blood are. The brightest examples are "Birth of Evil" and "The Aku infection" episodes. It dries out, melts iron, devours its victim out of inside and absorbs, but firstly it takes control on its victim's mind (the authors described it as a virus, but decided to show Jack's fight metaphorically, i.e. in his mind — still one of my favourite scenes). This aspect with mind-controlling and consuming out of inside reminds me about parasitic insects (wasps and worms, for example) and fungus that control other insects or animals and later slowly devour. Simply saying, Aku's blood would take full control over Jack's mind and only after fully devour, absorb and dissolve him, if he wasn't strong enough mentally and physically to oppose (plus, the magical aspect with Jack's soul or whatever). I would argue that the black lake from "Birth of Evil" absorbed and exactly dissolved bodies of dinosaurs, humans and animals, who dared to come very close on its territory. But there's one interesting moment. You could notice in 4 episode of 3 season, how Aku catched Jack, so Jack some time was inside of the demon, but Jack wasn't infected or wounded by Aku's blood (obviously, Aku wanted to kill him exactly with his own sword, but then was utterly shocked).

Hmm, even so he could just choke Jack to death... As well as in other episodes, where Aku is among wild nature, his presense doesn't corrupt the nature.

So, how is it possible, if even the place of his birth literally created lifeless wasteland?

Well, I would tell that it is because Aku's body is covered with a harder, cooler and therefore harmless layer he kinda uses for own comfortable interaction with other objects (and even initially was born this way with this "safe" layer). But if you cut him or pierce or somehow break through this layer with your hands, congratulations, you will get serious burns and get infected. And this aspect actually gave me idea. In this "safe" state Aku's parts actually could be used in medicine as some kind of clay (membrane? patch?) that protects wound until it will be healed or whatever, i.e. it even can help to damaged tissues to be healed faster and even save from blood loss. Although his blood is a mix of acid and petroleum, it is also antimicrobial.

But there's one restriction — these "patches" are harmless and helpful only when the demon takes control over them. For example, if he is seriously wounded and hence weakened, he can lose control over his parts, so they will either stop to protect wounds or try to return to Aku, leaving a wounded person, or start to devour this person. I.e. if Aku's parts are not inside of a living organism, then there's a possibility for something really useful from Aku's side, but if it happens inside... no matter how long organism was infected, there still will be some harm to health. Even if Aku is aware of infection and has control over it, but doesn't want to kill this organism, his blood still like a cancer (or microorganisms of necrotic type) will harm a living organism, just way slower. He can order to his blood to leave this organism, but this organism still will experience pain some time.

So, the thing is in how long the organism was infected. Jack was lucky, since he had this virus a couple of days (and, well, Aku was unaware of the fact that Jack was infected by his blood).

[swallowtailed]

palisade 17:

holy shit.

let’s all take a moment to remember cori’s first kill this season, way back in the first arc, when she smashed a mech with a giant mace and then got a photo of her posing next to it to send to her dad

“you hit him first. you hit him on the backswing” is going to be emblazoned in my mind forever

i love when the storytelling in this show hits the kind of rhythm that it hit in that scene—the smooth handoff of the setup and the swing. (metaphorically and literally.)

and the music went tf off. fucking incredible. i’m really excited to hear more as the season develops—the soundtrack is getting denser and weirder with every new song.

also, asepsis taking devotion’s place in the mech when cori kills her dad… the embodiment of scouring purity replacing devotion to drive that swing, just as a triumphant moment is revealed to be tragic… i love the thematic meta bullshit enabled by divines. (not trying to draw a causal relationship there, but i think it’s interesting to compare devotion and asepsis and their approaches to in-groups and control. and to think about how much of the cult of devotion relies on ideas of purity.)

anyway playing a character who is so baby and so full of hubris and optimism in a game that you know is gonna fuck them up is a true joy and i wish sylvi many more episodes of handpicked horrific consequences

felt very pleased with myself when i noted that elle had a letter name like all the spies and then they were in fact a spy

also cori definitely had a crush on elle that she never admitted to herself, right

“this is like if a bouncer is restraining an avocado” i mean this deeply and sincerely: janine is killing it this season

“war-weary” feels very appropriate for phrygian right now. also another beat of the “it doesn’t stop” kind of horror that fatt tends toward—horror arising from scope and scale and the sense that nothing is going to change.

more settlers coming to palisade is actually a very scary consequence of not going to baseline! also, evidently the road to palisade had the dual function of giving austin more ammunition for pc deaths lmao

this is going to be an all-timer downtime

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 3

Corunir vs Eldacar of Gondor

Corunir:

Ranger of the North; part of Golodir's company. Waited for his trapped friends for years (Lord of the Rings Online character)

he's a ranger of the north who followed his captain to angmar despite aragorn very specifically telling them 'hey, angmar's super dangerous, Do Not'. most of his friends got stuck and/or killed by some haunted statues, and he kept trying to cross the statues to go help them (failed many times til they almost killed him) and just waited for them on the other side for years before he managed to get a message back to the rest of the rangers. love his friends So Much and will not stop following them into stupid dangerous situations

Canonically the ranger who would give the best hugs

he's loyal to a fault, staying behind (alone) in the dread-realm of Angmar just desperately hoping for word from his captain. He couldn't make it further east to where Golodir was because of a valley of powerful watching stones that killed like half of their company when they passed through them the first time. Corunir was trapped on the west side while the survivors made it east, but kept trying to pass them for years and years "until my very spirit was broken within me" as he puts it. like. dude. this poor guy! he kept throwing himself at the valley of death-statues for years and he somehow survived. he was broken by it but he did it out of that stubborn loyalty, because "I could not abandon my captain" :( he just wants his friends to be ok!!! I'm literally so normal about him. also he's somewhere on the aroace spectrum. this is canon probably dude just trust me. we love an aroace-spec king

Eldacar of Gondor:

The twenty-first King of Gondor, also known as Vinitharya. During his reign the conflict known as the Kin-strife occurred and he was forced from his throne for ten years.

The blorbo of all time actually. He’s the protagonist of one of the most interesting stories in the LoTR appendices, the Kin-strife, and everything about his life story is so fascinating! His father was the crown prince of Gondor and his mother was the princess of Rhovanion so not a Númenorean. As a result all the racist nobles of Gondor made noises about how Eldacar was of “lesser race” and wouldn’t live as long as a “true Dúnadan”. One of the most fascinating examples of fantasy racism in Tolkien’s works imo – the bigotry is awful but the bigots have a shield to hide behind! Obviously their concerns are actually valid because they just don’t want their king to die young! (Their concerns aren’t valid. But I think the worldbuilding here is great.) Anyway Eldacar was born in Rhovanion and given the birth-name Vinitharya, but when he returned to Gondor aged five he was obliged to take up the Quenya name Eldacar, presumably to pacify all the racists in Gondor. He’s the EMBODIMENT of mixed-race/immigrant child trauma my beloved. Eventually his father died and he ascended to the throne of Gondor, but then his shitty second cousin Castamir (all my homies hate Castamir he’s the worst) started the civil war known as the Kin-strife and usurped Eldacar’s throne. Eldacar was forced to flee north to Rhovanion but Castamir captured his eldest son Ornendil and had him cruelly put to death which is SO SAD. But Eldacar, being brave and resourceful and clever and extremely cool, put together an alliance with his mother’s kinsfolk in Rhovanion and after ten years reclaimed his throne, which turned out to be slightly easier than expected because Castamir was The Worst and all his subjects hated him. And Eldacar PERSONALLY fought and killed Castamir HIMSELF and AVENGED HIS SON which is extremely important when you consider all the cringefail elves in the legendarium whose quests for revenge didn’t really go anywhere at all. Then he lived to be 235 proving that all the idiot racists who were worried about his lifespan didn’t have any idea what they were talking about, as is par for the course with racists. Also the Kin-strife itself has such far-reaching consequences for the history of Gondor! The Corsairs of Umbar, Gondor’s long-standing enemies, are actually followers of the descendants of Castamir. And during the Usurpation of Castamir Osgiliath was sacked and burned, leading to the beginning of its decline as Gondor’s greatest city. Even though Eldacar’s story is, to me, ultimately hopeful, it’s also such a fascinating turning point in the history of Gondor. Also ALSO he’s explicitly surrounded by textual ghosts which is really fascinating. His father Valacar has “children” plural – so Eldacar had siblings!! What were they like? How did they react to it all? And his son Aldamir is described as Eldacar’s second son and third child, meaning that he had a daughter too. Who was she?? What happened to her? He’s such a blorbo and there’s so much interesting stuff to dig into around him and he has to win this entire tournament please please please❤️

Round 3 masterpost

[universestreasures]

@shachou Sent: A SINGLE-WORD HEADCANON Prompt (Accepting!)

Bond, Burden, Death, Guidance, Rejection for Mokuba

Bond

The bond between Mokuba and Seto is unbelievably strong and unique among the YGO siblings in the series. They are polar opposites who have a lot in common and, in a sense, complete each other. One cannot exist at their peak without the other, as we've seen in canon and we've explored in our canon significantly. The nature of their strong bond from my own interpretation (and that came about due to something Mokuba says in the anime) is that of the concept of Twin Flames. Twin Flames are the idea of two people being two halves of one soul split into two bodies, with the other serving as their complement and the other half. The way the brothers are in canon and especially how we write them is, in essence, this concept. Now, do I think Mokuba and Seto are this in a literal sense? No, not really. While split reincarnation is a concept YGO has done before (it was part of Arc-V's whole premise with Zarc with the Yu Boys and Ray with the Bracelet Girls, after all), it's pretty clear Kaiba is Priest Seto's solo reincarnation. There is just no evidence to support Mokuba has any part of his soul whatsoever, just like I see no evidence that supports the fan theory I've seen that he's Kisara (which as we've talked about I don't really like that idea at all for a number of reasons). So, the nature of them embodying the Twin Flames is purely symbolic and not literal. This symbolism is very much seen in how Mokuba and Seto can be associated with contrasting but balancing symbols and motifs. Dark and Light. Warm and Cold. Shield and Sword. Water and Fire. Sun and Moon. These are just some of the examples I can think of at the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more.

Their personalities are also much the same way. Mokuba is very extroverted and optimistic and wears his heart on his sleeve. Seto is very introverted and pessimistic and hides his emotions behind a cold front. They both have what the other lacks, which is why their such a force of nature when they work together.

We even see their duality and complementary nature in their character design. Mokuba has long, black, messy hair, is short, and wears baggy, colorful clothes. Seto has short, brown, neat hair, is too tall, and wears sleek clothes with limited color palettes (usually monochromatic with one pop of color). This is why they look so good next to each other despite their differences, and while as much as I love Mokuba in a suit in DSOD, he looks just a bit too similar to Seto's aesthetic and sorta lost a bit of his own styling (which is why I picked the specific style for Mokuba as he ages/took that into consideration when I designed his older design)

Anyway, that's how their opposite natures complement each other, but what about the other aspect of this? The 'they are in essence the same person' part? Well, I think that is pretty clear in their behavior and their teamwork.

Mokuba and Seto have some significant similarities in how they act, from body language to how they both wear masks to hide insecurities (they just both do it differently), but the most telling thing here is how they are towards each other. As I know we've discussed before, when faced with a similar situation involving the other, they'd no doubt act the same way. If one of them is sick the other will stay by their side and nurse them back to help. If one is being stubborn or reckless the other will call them out and try to reason with them. If one is in danger the other will risk everything to save the other. If one of them is struggling the other will drop all they can to help them. It's as I mentioned in the other ask you sent, they both sorta take turns being the parent with the other, acting as the other's support system. It's why they're so co-dependent and why separating them is hard. To wrap this section up, the Twin Flames concept I think symbolizes the brothers (and especially our brothers Ani) very well and makes a lot of sense. They are so close and so strong because they know how the other thinks, because they are a team who completes each other and makes up for what the other lacks.

Burden

I've discussed before about Mokuba feeling as if he's a burden to Seto and the symbolism associated with that, so I won't go into it here. Instead, I would like to discuss one of the significant burdens that Mokuba himself has to carry with him and has since he was born. That being his survivor's guilt due to his mother's passing.

Mokuba and Seto's mother, as I've mentioned previously, I HC, died in childbirth. And being a young kid who has a horrible tendency to think he's the problem or reason as to why bad things happen, it is sadly the case that Mokuba blames himself for his mother's death. He sees himself living instead of her being the root cause of everything horrible that's happened to his family. If she had just stayed alive, Seto would have continued living a happy childhood and wouldn't have had to grow up so fast.

This guilt is very heavy on him because of his selfless nature and endless love for Seto. He'd do anything for his brother. Anything. And if given the chance to reverse time and make sure she lived instead? He'd take it. 100% with no doubts. He cares that little about his own happiness when his brother's happiness means the world to him (a sentiment I know Seto shares but in reverse. The twin flames concept again).

It's one of the things he carries he speaks to no one about. Not his therapist. Not his friends. Not even Seto (Especially not him). It's something he feels he has to constantly atone for, and I like to imagine aside from his yearly visits to his mother's grave (as I know we've discussed), he can be found crying himself to sleep and talking to his mother in heaven some nights when the feeling gets too much, especially if its spurred on by an extreme struggle his brother has (like his coma, for ex). So curious how our thread exploring this is going to go!

Death

I was going to use this prompt to talk about how Mokuba would handle Seto's death if it were to happen before his time (like Post DSOD), but that's the basis for one of the AUS I'm working on (Codename for that AU as of RN is the Chasing Shadows) that's gonna involve some time travel shenanigans and Mokuba spiraling and taking on a different persona (codenamed KS). So, I'll save the exploration of that angst fest for that verse bio.

Instead, I'm going to focus on to talk about in general terms how I imagine Mokuba will die. I will preface this that this particular topic isn't something I'd want to explore in any RP sense. I love Mokuba too much to even dare attempt that, and writing permanent character death isn't really something I enjoy or want to do outside of very, very rare circumstances (such as if the death is a precursor or a reincarnation or rebirth, if the chr really deserves it, etc.).

Anyway, I think Mokuba would probably outlive Seto and die of old age (his 80's probably) somewhere before 5D's Zero Reverse event happens (let's say a good 5 years before). While he does have a sugar addiction, it's something that he'd manage to overcome with time and actually live a healthier and balanced lifestyle. I don't see him getting into the same workaholic tendencies as his brother, either. So, health wise he's pretty good.

While it is certainly possible some might try to kill him, especially after whenever Seto passes, I think he has enough trusted people to keep him safe by that point. If nothing else, he'd have the protection of Aktauski's buddy Byakuya, who I can see still staying in his protective service even after Akatsuki retires from being Mokuba's bodyguard (something I see him doing no matter Mokuba's future, btw).

In his final moments, who I hope would be amongst a loved one, I can see Seto being the last thing he thinks of and that he hopes to see him wherever he may be in the next world.

Guidance

Mokuba, in contrast to Seto, does seek out guidance from others. He is always looking to learn from someone else to better improve himself. It's something he starts to do so actively post Battle City, when he really starts taking an active role in KC.

His most recurring mentor is probably Suzuha since Seto is more of a role model for him to learn from by watching rather than an active mentor due to his constant work responsibilities. This applies to not just him learning about fashion and the importance of his look/appearance from her, but also about navigating high society, business, and game development. The prospect of this mentorship is, as we've discussed before for our canon, one of the central things Mokuba uses to try and convince Seto he should switch to Aibo. Because she will actively take time out of her day, even a school or work day, to mentor him in these areas, and going to the same school offers more chances for that to happen. Her dedication to the role shows not only how much she cares about Mokuba, but also how much she enjoys doing it. Her help is key to Mokuba becoming who he becomes later on, and he is very grateful for it.

Though, back on the topic of Nii-sama to wrap this part up, I do think one thing Mokuba would seek his brother's direct mentorship on is, fitting enough, game strategy. In addition to Seto having formal training in that, as told to us by Mokuba in the manga, his brother's playstyles are very much similar to Mokuba's own. Both are aggressive power-focused players who want to cripple their opponents so they have no chance of winning. Thus, it's only natural he'd seek guidance from him on this, and I'd be down to dive into that in our interactions. Curious how Seto would take that, and it be good build up to their Capsule Monsters Game on Mokuba's graduation night, which could serve as an indirect final test for his training even.

Rejection

It took Mokuba a long time to accept his new last name, Kaiba, after his adoption. In fact, until I'd say Post Duelist Kingdom, he always rejected that name and was and still is not a fan of being referred to 'Kaiba' by his classmates or by anyone else, for that matter. It's why we never see people call Mokuba by his last name really. He made sure to let others know that he does not like being addressed that way, even if it's what is common in their culture. The reasons for this rejection are pretty simple and understandable, considering the circumstances.

The first one is Mokuba's attachment to his family and past. Taking on a new last name would, in a way, erase who he had been before and where he came from. It feels disrespectful to their birth parents to even do such a thing.

The other one is because, for many years, Mokuba associated the name with Gozaburo and Death-T era Seto (as I've shown in our threads before). It soured the name for him altogether, and he didn't want any part of it attached to him. He didn't ever consider himself as Gozaburo's son, and he won't ever will.

It took Seto and him rebuilding KC from the ground up and making the name their own to really get him to be okay with it. In fact, he tries hard to be 'worthy' of it. Though, I'll be clear that he wants to live up to the Kaiba name due to its association with Seto and his achievements, not the name of the monster who ruined their lives. As far as Mokuba is concerned, the Kaiba name has been reborn and known by him and his brother, and they've detached themselves from Gozaburo completely (something Seto still struggles with to this day and that Mokuba wants to help him with).

[sil-and-seals-blog-something]

So, just to give actual like, stuff about my writing progress, both to motivate myself to continue writing this stuff and to let others know what I’m writing and what I have for it—

My Skyrim-DC crossover: I haven’t actually started writing chapter three, but I have an idea of what I wanna do for that. I will also be doing more art for it.

“Danny Becomes Ancient of the Speedforce” DPxDC: Chapter one has 1088 words so far. 3 out of 5 scenes are written. Scene 4 is in progress. A few scenes for chapter two are planned. After scenes 4 and 5 of chapter one are complete, I will be reading through and posting it. (I will be working on it after this btw-) I also have a few art pieces planned for Danny’s design that I will work on after I post chapter one, and I will likely be putting it on my other blog. (If anyone has a fic title idea, please send it. I really don’t wanna call it what I’m calling it right now-)

Those are the ones I actually have writing for. Once I finished Chapter 3 for fic 1 and Chapter 1 for fic 2, I will possibly work on these ideas below.

Idea One: Dead on Main. Sorta-Eldritch Danny and Sorta-Eldritch Jason (due to the weird reality fuckery with Danny’s portal death and a version of Jason’s revival {specifically the ‘Universe got punched’ one-}). Not exactly sure what else I want for that, but I really just wanna write a Dead on Main fic about these two coping with being embodiments of literal cracks in reality.

Idea Two: Danny is sorta Jason’s Pit Madness- an idea I’ve mentioned and talked a bit more on previously (I tried finding it, but it’s buried too deep. I’ll try again later-). Not likely to be Dead on Main btw, but like- mutual recovery fic? So, fun stuff?

ANYWAYS! Time to go turn on some violin music and write!

[dr0wning-in-hell]

Mate pt.3 - Jed

Summary: Jed tires to gain Y/N’s trust and wants her to know that there is nothing wrong with her, Y/N think’s its all a game until she doesn’t.

Word Count: 4.6k+

Warnings: cursing, some angst, fluff

Pairing/characters: Jed x heratic!reader, Hope, Lizzie, Josie, Landon, MG, Raphael, Kaleb, Dr. Saltzman

Prompt: a/n

A/N: I honestly did not think I was going to get so much feedback on this mini series! I do apologize for how long it’s taken me to write literally anything, but I’m trying to get back into it. Also!! If anyone has any ideas for part four pls let me know! Comment it or send me a message!

new masterlist| prompt list| color prompts| ko-fi

A few days after the incident in the cafeteria Y/N began to slowly talk to the witches and vampires, but still kept her distance from the werewolves. After what happened she didn’t want to give them any ammunition against her. For whatever reason, she noticed that Jed was constantly trying to talk to her or apologize for the events that happened days prior. She really didn’t want anything to do with him or his pack considering they were just trying to pick a fight with her for no reason, but Jed really did want to apologize to her.

Y/N had a study hall, which she generally spent with the twins and Hope. She was already sitting at their usual spot in the student lounge, working on her homework and waiting for the girls. Jed just so happened to have a study hall as well, but most of his were recently trying to figure out what he was going to say to Y/N. Today was the day he decided to pull on his big boy pants and just talk to her. Taking in a deep breathe he walked over to where she was sitting and sat in the chair opposite of her. 

“I know you probably don’t want to talk to me but I want to get to know you and apologize for what my pack did the other day in the cafeteria.” Jed said quickly. Y/N looked up from her notebook, a clear ‘I’m not interested’ look plastered on her face. “Please let me make it up to you.” There was a moment of silence before she let out a sigh and nodded in agreement. Jed grinned as he stood up, clapping his hands together. “Great, uh okay, tonight around seven?” Y/N agreed and Jed finally left her alone just as the other three girls showed up. They all eyed Jed, giving him a death glare as he walked by them.

Jade let out a breathe of relief as he went to go find Landon, Kaleb and M.G. After walking around the school for a few minutes he found them in Landon’s room, all of them arguing about which Superman actor was the best. 

“Nah man, Henry Cavil as Superman was the best, he just embodied it more.” M.G argued with Landon as he shook his head at him. 

Landon let out a grunt as he leaned back against his head board. “The original Superman was the best, I don’t get why you can’t understand that.” Their stupid banter was cut short as Kaleb looked over at an awkward Jed standing in the doorway. “Uh, hey man, can we help you?” Landon said as looked just confused as his two vampire friends. 

“I need your guys’ help with setting up a date tonight to make it up to Y/N.” Jed spoked quickly, his nerves starting to get the best of him. 

Kaleb snorted as he shook his head, “And why should we help you? You’re the one that fucked up with your little crush.” Kaleb rolled his eyes.

Jed balled up his fists and clenched his jaw. “She’s not just a crush.” He said as he began to calm himself down, “She’s my mate, and I feel horrible about what happened in the cafeteria.” He said softly, sincerity was laced in his voice which told the three boys that he was serious about making it up to Y/N.

As much as the three boys didn’t like Jed for everything he had done to them and how he treated all of them, they could tell by the way he was fiddling with his hands and tapping his feet, he was nervous and really wanted everything to be perfect. 

M.G. nodded as he stood up, “I’ll help, but only because Y/N deserves to know that she has people that care about her.” Jed nodded in agreement and glanced over at the other two students. They groaned as they grumbled a ‘fine’, all three of them going along with whatever was about to happen. 

“Do you at least have any plans? You’re not just gonna get her and not having anything to do right?” Kaleb questioned as he raised an eyebrow at the werewolf. Jed stayed silent. “So not only are we helping you get this ready for Y/N, we’re helping you plan the whole thing because apparently you can’t plan something as simple as this.” 

Jed rolled his eyes, “It’s not as simple as you think. She’s my mate and I messed up with what happened the other day, she deserves to know how I feel and everything needs to be perfect.” The three boys sighed as they put their belongings to the side and made a spot for Jed in their group. Jed walked over to where they were, taking a seat on the floor and pulling a notebook out from his backpack.

The four students planned the nights events during their off period and during lunch, making sure that Jed had all of his bases covered. They had decided to go with a night time picnic, making one of Y/n’s favorite dishes but also making sure to keep a blood bag cooled in the basket. They were going to set it all up in the witches hang out spot, thinking that it would be more romantic and secluded there than anywhere else. Everything seemed good so far, they had the place, time, meals, it seemed perfect. 

That was until someone told the rest of the werewolves and they were making it their mission to sabotage the evening. 

Jed and the other three boys began putting everything together for the nights events once school was over, which was around three o’clock. MG and Landon were on decorations out in the little witch hide out while Jed and Kaleb were on meal prepping. Though Kaleb hated the boy, he did have to admit that what he was doing for Y/N was sweet and he thought it was almost honorable that he was going to such lengths to apologize to Y/N. 

Kaleb let out an awkward cough as he walked across the kitchen to grab some ingredients for his side of the meal he was making. “You know man, I think it really is nice what you’re doing for Y/N. It shows that you really care about her.” Jed was taken back a bit, surprised that such kind words came out of Kaleb’s mouth.

Instead of saying some snarky comment he replied with a simple ‘thank you’, before the two fell back into silence. 

While the boys had been preparing for the night, they had managed to rope the girls into their plans and got them to help Y/N get ready for the evening. Yes she did know that her and Jed were having dinner that evening, but she didn’t know just how far he was taking it. When Lizzie began pulling out these fancy dresses she thought the girls were really just out here trying to get her laid. It aggravated Y/N that everyone else knew what was happening but she had no clue. Being left in the dark was her least favorite thing, it meant she couldn’t prepare for things.

“Hello, earth to Y/N.” Lizzie snapped her fingers in front of the heretic’s face, causing Y/N to snap out of her daze. Her eyes locked onto Lizzie who had an annoyed expression on her face since Y/N wasn’t paying attention to what she had just asked her. 

Y/N hummed looking at her like she had been listening, tilting her head to try and make it more convincing. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Y/N asked. 

Lizzie rolled her eyes as she held up two dresses.  One was a longer floral dress with a slit up the side, and the other was a slightly shorter floral dress as well. In Y/N’s eyes she didn’t see the difference between the two dresses, they were just clothes. Lizzie handed her the first dress since Y/N didn’t want to make a decision and told her to go put it on. Y/N did so with an annoyed groan. Did she think something spontaneous was going to come out of this? Y/N was only being nice to Jed and that’s why she accepted his offer for dinner tonight, there was nothing else to it. 

Y/N slid into the dress, sighing as she didn’t want to see what she looked like in it, she was never one to dress up and draw extra attention to herself. She got enough that being a heretic. She stepped out of the bathroom, smoothing down the sides of the dress and looking up at the three girls were gawking at the sigh in front of her.

“What? Does it not look good?” Why was she stressing over this? It’s not like this was a date or anything. “Maybe I should just put my other clothes back on.” As she went to reach for the outfit she wore earlier that day Josie stopped her by gently grabbing her wrist.

“You look amazing, Y/N. You should see for yourself.” She said as she turned her friend towards the mirror. Y/N looked up at her reflection, her own gasp almost escaping her lips. She did look good, really good in fact. The dress hugged her just right, every curve, roll, and dip of her body the dress perfected it.

Y/N could see the girls smiling behind her causing her to smile herself. She had never felt so.. happy with how she looked before, this was a first for her. The girls continued on their quest to help Y/N get ready for the rest of the evening. 

About an hour and half later, Landon came knocking on the door to see if Y/N was ready yet. Thankfully they had just finished up her hair and she was ready to go. She hugged the girls and thanked them as she walked out and followed a very speedy Landon down the stairs. He didn’t walk her all the way out to where Jed had set up their evening. 

Y/N followed the trail of fairy light along a pebbled path until she reached the witch’s hiding area. It was decorated quite nicely, even she would have to admit that the boy had put in a lot of effort to make the place look nice. Y/N’s doubts about the werewolf hadn’t completely faded as she hadn’t seen any sign of him, that was until she saw him lighting a few more candles around the edges of the small building to give it some more light.

“Looks like you’ve really out done yourself, huh?” Y/N said as she stepped under the roof. Jed quickly turned around, nearly knocking over a candle and setting the place on fire. She chuckled at his clumsiness and walked over to the table. 

Jed cleared his throat as he smoothed out his blazer. “You look amazing.” Jed’s breathe seemed to have a hard time returning to his body after his first look at the girl in front of him. Of course he thought she was beautiful anyways, but this? This was something else. Jed walked over to where Y/N was going and pulled out the chair for her to sit. She did so, mumbling a soft ‘thank you’. The werewolf walked back over to his seat and smiled awkwardly.

Yes, Jed had been on dates before, many dates to be honest, but this was his fist date with his mate. The person he’d be spending the rest of his life with if the world would to be so kind and allow that to happen. He reached into the center of the table and unveiled the nights meal, Korean beef bowls with fried dumplings. Y/N was a little shocked to say the least, Korean food was one of her favorite foods so the fact that he made her something she enjoyed was pretty unexpected. 

“Kaleb said you liked Korean food and I remember my parents teaching me how to make this so I thought it was a good idea.” Jed nervously explained as he handed one the bowls to Y/N. She took with a smile.

“It’s great thank you.” She said softly. Her hard exterior was finally starting to come down, something that rarely happened even if she was with close friends and family. Jed smiled as the two began to eat and make small talk, the two finally learning new things about the other. 

There was no doubt in Y/N’s mind that something was.. different when she talked to Jed. She felt safe, which was a new feeling for her since she had literally been hunted down and despised her whole life. She felt like she was able to talk to him about anything, though she knew she wouldn’t because of how bad of an idea it was, she still felt like she could. 

As the night went on Jed kept trying to figure out how he was going to tell Y/N that she was his mate. The one she was meant to be with forever. It’s not something to take lightly, and lord knows what a half witch, half vampire would think about this. Y/N would for sure thing Jed was playing another sick joke on her, something the pack put him up to. It was eating away at him on the insides, he just wanted to blurt it out and clear the air.

That’s kind of what happened.

Jed was about to explain everything to her, from why he was so mean to her on her first day, to the moment he invited her to eat lunch with him and the rest of his pack, to that very moment of the two teens sitting and enjoying a meal. That didn’t happen though. 

Somewhere around them there were pack members ready to pounce on their prey and ruin Jed and Y/N’s night. The girl from before, the one who had started trouble with Y/N in the first place, wanted revenge for being humiliated in front of the whole school. In the midst of her anger, she and a few other werewolves who weren’t too fond of the new girl, hatched a plan to completely ruin Jed’s wonderfully planned evening and to make his mate hate him forever. 

She nodded to her pack members as they emerged from a few bushes, all of them holding a dark colored liquid that resembled blood a little too well. As soon Y/N caught their scent she had stopped talking and narrowed her eyes at Jed. He was confused at first, and then he saw his friends. 

“Well, what do we have here?” The girl hummed. She swung the bottle around haphazardly, not having a care in a world what would happen if it splashes onto the two. 

Jed stood up in a protective type stance, his hands bawled at his sides. “What are you doing here?” Jed was pissed, that much was obvious. Y/N watched as they slowly became surrounded by the small group of wolves, all of them holding identical bottles. 

“Just came to see if you told your mate, what she is to you.” One of the other wolves sneered, “wanted to see if you told her the truth yet.” 

Y/N was beyond confused and looked at Jed with raised eyebrows, her arms crossing over her chest as she waited for a response. There was chuckling all around her as the wolves drew closer, encasing them in their circle. 

“It looks like you haven’t yet, have you?” They mused towards Jed, he looked at Y/N with a wary glance. Y/N looked at them, wondering if any of them were going to spit it out or not. They looked her dead in the eye as the opened up their bottles with a wicked grin. “He thinks you’re a nasty bloodsucker that he’s stuck with as a mate.” Without any further hesitation they doused the teens in a waterfall of the deep red liquid. It wasn’t blood, probably watered-down fake blood, but it still triggered Y/N.

Her dress, the one that wasn’t even hers to begin with, was now stained red as if she had just gone on a ripper rampage, she was just told this was all another joke and everyone basically thought of her as a monster. She couldn’t hold back anymore as her fangs released themselves and she made her way towards each of the werewolves.

The scene unfolding before Jed’s eyes could have honestly been from a horror movie with the way everything was moving. Before Jed had even realized, Y/N had put two of the werewolves on the ground in a whimpering mess. They were hurt, badly as it seemed to be. She took them out one by one, switching between her strength and then spells. She had the last wolf corned against the wall as they tried to back away from her as far as they could. Her hand wrapped around their throat, squeezing slightly as she growled at them, “You come near me again I’ll rip your hearts from your chests and use them as sacrifices, do you understand me?” Her voice was terrifying, menacing even. 

The wolf nodded as she threw him against the wall then skirted off with the rest of his pals. Y/N was never one to lose control the way she just did, but after all this torment from the wolves they needed to put into place. 

As if it was second nature, she calmed down with a few mumbled curses under her breathe before she turned to face Jed. This would not be easy to recover from. He saw her lash out, he saw what she could do and how utterly terrifying she can be. She was a monster, one that didn’t deserve a mate like Jed. 

The boy was still stuck in his original place, the blood drying to his clothes and staining them. Jed went to go move forward to Y/N, but in return she stepped back even more. She was trying to stop the tears forming in her eyes, though it seemed her body and emotions were getting the best of her. Jed looked sad, he felt sad. Why would his pack, his friends ruin this? They all go to same school, they all share the same walls of the school. Why was her being his mate so horrible to them?

Before Jed could even get a word in to Y/N they heard rapid footsteps approaching, turning their attention to the group of friends that stood behind them. Y/N turned around to look at their faces, sure that they’d all hate after how she lost her temper. 

“Oh my god,” Josie covered her mouth in shock as she looked at the scene. Though the wolves were no longer present, the blood stained clothes and tears in Y/N’s eyes said enough. 

“I’m so sorry,” Y/N whispered softly as she looked at the group, tears now falling freely down her cheeks. “They ruined the dress- I’m so so sorry. I can pay to have it cleaned, or buy a new one, I’m so sorry.” Y/N was rambling about something that didn’t even really matter, but yet she was still worried about it. 

Josie, Lizzie, and Hope walked towards Y/N as she stayed still in her place, not daring to move. “Y/N, we don’t care about the dress.” Lizzie said softly, “We wanted to make sure you’re okay.” 

At that moment she lost it, crying so hard her knees almost gave out below her. She shook her head rapidly, sobbing as loud as her chest would allow her to. “No, no I’m not okay. I don’t understand why they hate me so much, I haven’t done anything to them!” She exclaimed rather harshly. “I hate it here, I hate this.” She sobbed.

Hope looked at Jed who was still standing their quietly. The tribrid was giving him the death stare, and boy if looks could kill he’d for sure be dead. Jed was staring at his alpha, Raphael. He was begging for help, any help in fact. He didn’t like seeing his mate in pain, sobbing that she hated their school and possibly him. This was his chance to make up for what his pack had done the other day at lunch, but here they were again, his pack ruining everything for him.

Anyone with a good pair of eyes would be able to tell that Kaleb and M.G. were pissed beyond belief. Their eyes locked onto the young wolf, and if it weren’t for Raphael being there they would’ve ripped him a new one. 

Y/N turned towards Jed after a moment, her tears mixing with the dried fake blood, her mascara running down her face. “I no longer wish to be your mate.” She said in a dead tone. “I will not be treated like this, and if it is true that you are my... mate, I do not wish for this to go any farther.” She didn’t think that saying those words would have hurt as much as they did, but now she felt like she was having her crushed with a mallet over and over again. 

Jed’s heart fell to his stomach at her words. He was losing his mate, all because his stupid pack wouldn’t accept the truth. “No, no please I promise you they were lying. Not about you being my mate, that is true, but I don’t think you’re a monster. I want you as my mate, please.” Jed had managed to get within a few feet of Y/N and now she could see that he was also crying. Y/N looked down at her feet, refusing to look him in the eye.

“This was a mistake,” She mumbled towards so the ground, “it was all a mistake and I’m sorry it put you through so much trouble.” Jed’s heart was breaking, he felt like his life would end right then and there. Y/N turned back to her friends who were shocked that she had just ended with things, and more importantly that Jed was pleading for her to stay. 

Without another word Y/N began the walk back to the school, cloaking herself in the invisibility spell as she walked. The group followed, leaving Jed there in the dark to cry to himself. 

-

Days passed after that horrid night and no one had seen or heard from Jed and Y/N as the two had locked themselves in their rooms. They stayed there all day and night, only occasionally coming out to get food or shower.  

While the vampires and witches were trying to console Y/N and reassure her that she did nothing wrong and was not a monster, the werewolves were out spreading rumors about that night. She heard everything of course, between gossip and her advanced hearing, it wasn’t hard to miss

Jed wanted revenge. He was angry, pissed off beyond belief. These people were supposed to be his family, his pack, and they went out of their way to make his life a living hell so that he wouldn’t have his mate. No matter their reasons behind it, they were all probably insanely stupid anyways, he was going to get back at them for what they did and get his mate back. 

Most of the time he’d spend in his room he was hatching a plan to get back at his pack and teach them a lesson. He knew that practically all of the pack had not met their mates yet, the few that have had not gotten involved in the fighting over his mate. He’d hit them where it hurts and then go plead with Y/N to get her back. 

Meanwhile, Y/N was looking at other schools for the supernatural. She really didn’t need to be in a school for the supernatural, but she figured it’d be easier to go there then to a regular human high school. She no longer wished to be within the same walls as her mate, even if she barely knew him, having told him that she did not want to be his mate made her heart ache in ways she didn’t know were possible. 

Y/N’s music was playing softly in the background of her room as she looked at the dark web for the supernatural to find another school to go to. Any would be fine, there were a few out there, not a lot took heretics or mixed the species, but there were a few that did. Too lost in thought as she scrolled through a school in London had she missed the knock on her door. She ignored it, turning her music up a bit to drown out the person on the other side of the door, but unfortunately this person seemed very persistent. 

“Go away!” Y/N shouted to the person on the other side of the door. The knocking continued, making Y/N more agitated. She got up, slamming her laptop shut as she marched to the door and threw it open. “I said ‘go away’, do you not understand that?” She growled, her anger get the best of her and turning her eyes that vibrant purple. 

Jed stood there, mouth dry and heart racing. It took Y/N a moment to realize that it was him standing there and one her anger stopped blinding her, she shrank back a bit and stepped further behind the door. Jed was holding flowers and her favorite candy, the saddest most desperate look crossing his face as he looked at his mate. 

Slowly he held out the gifts as he stuttered out an apology, “I’m sorry for what happened the other night, I want you to know that and I want you to know that- that I don’t see you as a monster or anything like that. I see you as my mate, someone I want to be with until the day I die and I will do absolutely anything for you to understand that.” 

Y/N looked down at her slippers, the only shoes she had been wearing since that horrific night. “I- I don’t know, I don’t think this- whatever it is, would work. It’s just not in the cards for either one of us.” She mumbled as she was about to turn her back and close the door, but Jed’s foot got in the way of that. 

“Tell me you don’t feel anything, and if you don’t then I’ll leave you alone but I know you have to feel something.” His eyes were pleading for her to say that she felt something like he did, that she felt the connection but instead she shook her head and lied. 

 “I- I don’t feel anything for you. I’m sorry.” Before Jed was able to get out another word Y/N had the door closed and locked. The pain they both felt was enough to make them stop breathing for a few seconds. Both of them waited on their sides of the doors, hoping the other would continue to fight for their mating bond, but that is not what happened. 

Too much pain and heartbreak had been endured by these two teens, but there was still more to come..

[jet-bradley]

Yeah... Lora being absent in the sequel is the 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 of Legacy's narrative shortcomings.

Legacy is just completely devoid of... Everything but aesthetics. I know it's kind of not great to criticize movies on what they could have been instead of what they are, but... What even is Legacy? A daft punk music video? A tech demo? It succeeds at being both of those. But as an actual narrative, it just isn't that engaging.

Also, if I'm honest, I really don't think "Main character is the blood relative of a beloved character from a classic" should ever be used in a sequel again. It's a cheap way to draw in fans of the classic without doing the work to establish a reason to give a shit about them. But if you aren't a fan of the classic, it's really alienating and feels like you're just being told to care about the protagonist for no reason. Sam doesn't really have much going for him if you don't care about Flynn. He's some rich 20 something living off old Silicon Valley money. Watching the movie when it came out, I had zero reason to give a shit about anyone, especially Sam, and it honestly ruined the movie for me. There's a reason I only became a Tron fan as an adult, and it's because people introduced me to shit that wasn't Legacy.

The reason the bit about Lora pisses me off so much is because people treat 2.0 like the worse sequel because of how it treats its female characters. But like, IMO, Legacy isn't better. I've been trying to find the source to back this up, but IIRC, one of the actresses in Legacy took a fairly extended "break" from acting because of harassment she faced after being in the movie because of how sexualized the costumes were.

Quorra is the only female character who's an improvement over her counterpart in 2.0 (Mercury), because she has motivations that extend further than Sam or Flynn. But not much further. Clu killed her entire species because of personal beef with Flynn, and that entire genocide exists solely to pad Flynn's backstory. Quorra might have her own motivations, but she still gives them up entirely to help Sam find the End of Line. She's still only there to propel Sam from point A to point B, just like Mercury. But at least she's got human proportions, being played by a human actress? Is that a win for feminism? Good grief.

And again. I really think Lora's absence was better handled in 2.0 than it was in Legacy, or how Jordan's death was handled. Be honest, would you actually know Jordan was a character if you weren't a Tron fanatic? Most of the story in 2.0 is optional, it's hidden in emails which don't even contribute to Jet's version number (which is only affected by build notes). But the game does a good job of encouraging curious players to look for them, and it makes it really clear that Alan's motivations in working with the digitization system come a lot from losing Lora.

People overuse the phrase "haunt the narrative" but I think it applies really well here. Her voice is the voice of Ma3a and the games grid, and her work plays a direct role in propelling the plot and it's actually credited to her. Her death doesn't just give Jet and Alan a sad backstory, it provides stakes for what happens to Thorne, the Fcon trio, and even what could have happened to Jet and Alan. It becomes a story about how loss plays out in a world that's becoming more and more dependent on computers. She is still genuinely partially kept alive through her work, but it takes Alan and the rest of the digitization team to carry that torch so that her work can still help people, and to maintain it in a state that it can do that. If you've lost anyone in the past 20 years, it still hits kind of hard from that perspective. Like, it's still not good, but at least it serves its narrative SOMEHOW.

Comparatively, her and Jordan's complete absence from Legacy's story is... embarrassing. First of all, this whole idea of people being kept alive through their work is embodied solely through Flynn, and he's literally alive in the Grid, which takes away a lot of the meaning behind what happened to Lora. But despite the plot relying on Lora's work (with a laser system much more identical to the one she worked on in the original film), all mention of her is completely erased. Sam doesn't seem like he knows who she is, Alan never mentions her, Flynn never mentions her. The programs think of Flynn as the only User that matters to them, nevermind that digitization can only happen because of Lora's work!

So no, I don't think Legacy really holds up to this standard of being better for its female characters. Honestly, Uprising is the only part of Tron that I can see holding up to that at all, and they cancelled Uprising after the first season. Pretty much everything in Tron is built on disrespecting female characters at least a little bit, and Legacy isn't an exception just because it's more popular.