#I shouldn't had said anything

[pickletrip]

No one in Dead Friend Forever is innocent. Absolutely no one. Everyone played a part in Non's disappearance/death. I was really holding out on Jin and Phee, but Jin, my boy, that's not something you do to someone you love. Phee, I get that you are extremely hurt and really really upset, but don't say "Go die".

[lord-squiggletits]

I need to reread the comics again to have specific arguments/evidence for this, but like

I feel a bit like I could've been sympathetic to the way other Cybertronian colonies view Cybertron, if it weren't for the fact that at least several of them (as in, ones that get notable dialogue/screen time) are so low-key self-righteous?

Like, idk... there's a lot of criticism of Cybertronians because they're so "warlike" and how their obsession with violence and vengeance is just dragging the whole galaxy down with them, but uh. The Autobot-Decepticon war was basically a product of societal ills bubbling over for like 6 million years beforehand and then finally boiling over into a 4 million year war that lasted as long as it did because the people involved had immense social/psychological trauma from being "raised" in an oppressive society.

So when the colonists come in being all 'omg you people are so violent and uncivilized why don't you just like, stop fighting' it kind of pissed me off a little bit as a reader/person like. Idk the colonists really came into this society of people full of massive amounts of trauma where even before the war society was super oppressive and no one has any experience of living "normal" lives unaffected by violence and bigotry. And the colonists were like "ummm wow why don't you guys just??? stop fighting???." Like idk it wasn't EVERY SINGLE MOMENT, in fact I think that when it was played for laughs it's quite a funny "fridge horror" type element. It was just annoying because like.... IDK???? It's just really annoying to watch a bunch of people who lived relatively sheltered lives on their own planets come to a different planet full of traumatized people and be like "omg why are you people so fucked up" IDK BRO MAYBE BECAUSE THEIR SOCIETY WAS OPPRESSIVE AND THEY LIVED THROUGH A LIFELONG WAR???

It also doesn't help that the colonies were literally founded based on imperialism and conquest so like, it's fucking rich to hear colonists scolding Cybertronians for their violence ruining the whole galaxy while literally sitting on planets that their Primes colonized from others. The hypocrisy of this is briefly mentioned in Unicron (literally the FINAL STORY OF THE SERIES) but like, that's basically the only time Cybertronian characters are given a reprieve of sympathy from other characters in universe and it's so tiresome.

I've talked to other people who didn't like the colonists and thought they basically (narratively speaking) existed just to shit on the existing characters, and it's actually really easy for me to sympathize with/outright agree with that assessment of the story considering how much of exRID/OP seems to be preoccupied with "Cybertron/the Primes/Optimus sucks" with very few reprieves for anything positive happening and even fewer chances for characters to get to explain themselves and experience a little bit of justice? Like, as the audience, it's just very frustrating to see the characters you spent hundreds of issues keeping up with get shit on by a bunch of "literally-who"s and then not really get a chance to ever defend themselves, either by literally defending themselves in conversation or having some sort of narrative thing happening that vindicates them at least symbolically

[standfucker]

not gonna lie yall, it feels like all I do is either work or recover from work and it's bumming me out big time

[xhanisai]

I am so, SO happy that I'm seeing more people on twitter defending Alya and talking about how SOME people have done Marinette dirty in s5 and how said snakey characters continue to get their feet kissed by the fandom and have their actions blamed on "bad writing uwu"

There is a reason why the only characters I give a shit about are Marinette, Adrien, Alya, Nino, Tom, Sabine and kwamis atm

Many people need to understand that their fave characters aren't affected by "bad writing". They're just shit people in general sometimes lol.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[pericky; a look into ricky's head during their meeting.]

---

"I'm glad you came, I wasn't sure you would." The wine pours, the sound of it drowning out the missing word in that sentence: back.

Of course, is the response, and the part of Ricky that's spent twenty years tearing itself apart to understand why vibrates with relief. It doesn't matter anymore. Of course, of course, he thinks giddily along with the words. He never needed to wonder why Pericles wasn't coming back in the first place; he was always going to.

I'm happy you invited me, and of course he thinks again. A lifetime of pretending he wasn't always going to either falls away. However harsh and lonely the world has been, all's right with it again; and the shy voice of the boy inside him that he's tried so hard to kill says, so quietly, I missed you.

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

alright i have a mild dilemna that i need advice on

on my course we have to post these weekly self-reflection things responding to the themes of the week's class and some questions about it. i posted last week's and yesterday the course convenor replied to it in a way that implies i was wrong (in my SELF reflection) and just generally misunderstands my point/takes it in bad faith. i've shown these posts to others on the course and they agree that my original post adressed the things her reply asks about and that she has misinterpreted me, in quite a "cheeky" way

my issue now is: do i reply and try to explain myself better? or is it better to just let it go?

i don't want to dig myself in deeper if she's really opposed to my viewpoint, but at the same time i do feel like i answered the questions thoroughly in the first place and the things she's accusing me of aren't fair

[lloydfrontera]

canon divergence and transcended noviel au!!

Where Lloyd complains out loud about wanting a normal marriage: so he asks Noviel to do something about the 'competition for the lady that deserves Lloyd Frontera's hand in marriage' challenge that Alicia hosts amdmxnd

btw long ask i am SO SORRY

Noviel at first asked why not just marry Alicia and live a good life as a king, but after much explaining earth customs he's convinced that Lloyd's making up excuses to be able to live at the Frontera estate freely, so he obliges anyway, just because he wants to see Lloyd truly happy, too

days before the competition Noviel makes an announcement to leave the barony for a month, much to everyone but Lloyd's shock, especially bc of what the Queen's planning to do, but either way Noviel leaves to do some 'work', and when he's fully gone, Lloyd's nervous, and Javier's delighted to finally be rid of his presence, albeit for a month

Fast forward to the day of the competition and Lloyd's sweating bullets bc Alicia's completely dominating the entire fight bc swordmaster queen(we stan🙏), but then. Suddenly, a challenger who wears an extra translucent black veil to cover her eyes, and adorning a very foreign looking dress appears, and??? Begins to show prowess in swordfighting?!?

the spectators watching immediately comment in awe that it's the fabled daughter of noble from a faraway continent, labelled the "slient beauty and power" of her family as she almost never speaks, yet is blessed with an ultra affinity for swordsmanship as a swordmaster AND beauty, to the point she needs a veil to 'ensure nobody immediately falls in love at first sight', and that the reason why she's here despite how the competition announcement had been only out for days was bc she roams around fighting challenges to find someone who can defeat her one day

inevitably, foreign lady and Alcia clash in the final spar against each other, with foreign lady showing sword techniques completely unknown to everyone, flashy yet practical moves, and just giving off pure power with every strike, and yet, somehow looks like she isn't giving her all in it, just fighting to prove something

Watching her fight, Javier's completely unnerved at the thought of another grandmaster in the making, and yet, silently grateful at the fact that Alicia won't marry Lloyd- and was about to comment on the tevhniques looking a bit familiar to Lloyd but.

Lloyd's completely enthralled at the fight, and dare Javier says with a pain in his heart, Lloyd's completely in love with the Lady, if the look of admiration, longing and shock on the other's face has anything to say. So he doesn't say anything out loud, and just watches the fight silently

meanwhile Lloyd's having the time of his life, completely flattered and extra grateful, because he knows that the lady that's slowly taking her time to defeat Alicia to prove a point is none other than Noviel, dressing up as a convincing lady. Lloyd's affection is definitely over the moon since Noviel didn't HAVE to put in so much effort for this one request, but he did;

Needed a competitor? Noviel dresses up as a lady that covers the eyes so nobody knows how he looks- oh but her identity? Spreading fake rumors days ago about a travelling swordmaster, genius plan- and most importantly, Noviel just. Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️, so of COURSE Lloyd's completely invested and enchanted during the whole fight, unbeknownst to everyone except Noviel and him :)))

The competition ends with Alicia being horribly defeated by foreign lady, the entire magentano kingdom congratulating and praising for foreign lady's win, and Javier's heart being broken seeing Lloyd excitedly going down to 'meet' her

Lloydcs in full fanboy mode completely praising and just so goddamn happy when speaking with the foreign Lady, even though she never replies, just chuckling silently

and later post competition, much to the shock of the spectators who know of "her story", after Foreign lady whispers to Lloyd to relay what she says to the crowd- Lloyd, using mana voice amplication, tells them all that the Lady who fought in the competition is none other than 'Lady Ione", the swordmaster who's only here to look for a challenge, and thus had never intended to marry Lloyd in the first place

However, she said, that any lady who would dare court Lloyd in the future will be challenged by her again, as she expressed deep interest in him (Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities)

Before Lady Ione leaves, Alicia requests a formal audience with her, along with Lloyd and Javier for a lowkey interview

After explaining her story on a paper as 'a young orphan who was discovered and trained by the "knight of blood and iron" and travelling around under his wing, until a noble family had decided to take her in after owing the knight for saving their lives, and from that point on, grew up as the adopted noble lady from a faraway continent, as a student of the "knight of blood and iron"' which explains how she's so strong and then saying that the Knight is now being held accountable by her family for her sudden disappearance, since she 'requested' him to distract her family so she could compete in the queen's competition (bc who DOESN'T pass up an opportunity to beat up a monarch right???)

Alicia's lowkey mad at the fact this competition basically meant nothing to her, Javier's glad that she doesn't want to marry Lloyd, and Lloyd's dying inside(gratefully) bc how the HELL does Noviel come up with such a convincing lie and getting away with it?!??!??

And if they needed evidence to back up the fact that Noviel and 'Lady Ione' are two different people, Lady Ione would show a pre-recorded intelligent video thing(like the one that happened in chapter 227 of the webnovel) of Noviel, with a helmet ofc, doing paperwork stressfully while communicating with everyone lmaoo

Eventually, Lady Ione leaves the lorasia continent for yet another 'challenge' and bc of her story, no one questioned this or stopped her- and when Noviel returns looking haggard a few weeks later, nobody has any suspicions against it, so it ends with (almost)everyone getting what they wanted 😌✨

Originally i was going to make Javier do the crossdressing but it would be funnier if Noviel did all this snnxndnd

Also about how the Noviel au works in the last arc of the novel ..... Let's think about that ina another time i can't handle the heartbreak yet mamzmsns

i have literally nothing to add to this it is perfect just as it is oh my god i am obsessed!!

like!!! noviel not only participating but actually winning the competition for lloyd's hand??? holy shit ajskdhksa

and like yeah he would! at this point he'd absolutely move heaven and earth for lloyd so this is like. nothing in his eyes. sure, he'll beat every challenger in the continent if lloyd asks him to, no problem.

AND JAVIER BEING DELIGHTED ABOUT NOVIEL LEAVING AHSKDASJKD i can just imagine someone half heartedly suggest getting another bodyguard for lloyd while noviel is gone and javier nearly biting their head off because how dare they, isn't it enough he has to share lloyd with noviel, that one is already superfluous enough as it is, no, this is his master he can protect him all by himself thank you very much

(altho coming back to what we said the other time about the novel ending with javier being literally unable to protect lloyd at the end,,, maybe javier would feel a little unnerved about noviel going away even as he tried to pretend he isn't. maybe he gets just a little bit more twitchy, a little more paranoid. maybe he gets a little more anxious about lloyd being out of his sight. noviel is annoying but at least javier knows he wouldn't hesitate to protect lloyd with his life. mmmmhh thoughts for another time)

ashdkja and oh my godddd lady noviel!!! yes yes yes yes i love that!!

i love the idea of javier being unsettled by some random lady suddenly start winning every fight and advancing through every stage with seemingly no difficulty. because at this point he would've been like. not happy but. at least resigned to alicia winning and marrying lloyd because at least he knows her. he knows she would be able to protect lloyd and he trusts her with him. but this lady?? who the fuck??? is she???

i can just imagine him quietly start wondering where the hell did he left his own dress lmao

AND THEN HIM THINKING LLOYD FELL FOR YET ANOTHER MYSTERIOUS MASKED STRANGER OH MY GOD his heart just sinking when he sees how mesmerized lloyd is by the lone lady and jumping to the wrong (and yet completely right) conclusion that he's in love jasdksafd

because yeah!! lloyd is very much in love!! but because he already knows that's noviel who went out of his way to give him an out from the whole thing just because lloyd asked him to and!! it's just so much for his poor little fanboy heart ashdksa

Showing off moves that were only described in the original "knight of blood and iron" just as a tribute for Suho, who always wanted to see how it looked in real life♥️

i love that his implies that suho gushed about it to noviel at some point and not only did noviel listened to him but also remembered it <3 like oh my god that's so sweeeet

Lloyd's unsure if the last bit was an act or if it was genuine, so he's completely flustered either way, Javier's planning to train harder, and Alicia, though accepting defeat, plans to know more about her abilities

noviel making his claim on lloyd i am Screaming lloyd would be an absolute blushing mess like face bright red even tho he convinces himself noviel is just saying it to get him out of the compromise ajsdkasd also love that noviel basically said "get on my level" and alicia and javier both said "bet"

and noviel's fabricated backstory for the lone lady is so fun, i love it, this man is lying his ass off and he's enjoying it, he's had plenty of experience already pretending to be a whole another person, this is easy in comparison (but also i kinda like the idea of noviel not being very used to lying before meeting lloyd but learning to do it very quickly, except that lloyd doesn't notice it and he thinks noviel is still a bit rubbish at it so when he sees him fabricating an entire backstory he's just like :O he didn't know he could that :O )

ahsdksak imagine if once noviel comes back javier just,, asks him,, once in a while,, after the lone lady. like just casually. out of curiosity you see. totally not because he's worried she'll change her mind and come back to marry lloyd and then javier will have to have lady ella challenge her in a duel and make a whole mess out of things. absolutely not. nothing like that. he's just curious.

FUCK I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING IT WITH ME

also a tiny doodle cause i couldn't help myself <3

[irregularbillcipher]

going over old fic notes and outlines and character talks with friends and it's always really funny when i get to the stuff i was developing early-mid 2019 where bill just literally kept kryptos around to rag on, and he genuinely just. did not like the man. like was just completely annoyed with his general existence. boy have things changed

[coolerdracula]

I sort of miss the transcoutf2 username era. the way the letters run into each other is fun

[spook-e-snail]

Ramblings in tags

[undertheknightwing]

I loved their short-lived "I hate this fucking family" scenes

[running-in-the-dark]

really kinda feels like I just never developed my own personality. I copy what people that I like like. I pick one person at a time to get obsessed with (actually not a choice, but), and then I become them. unconsciously and unintentionally. and it feels bad. real bad! when there's no one it feels like I'm not even real. there's nothing underneath all the pretending. I'm just not there.

[theforgottendaydreamer]

doctors and nurses should be forced to work in retail before being allowed anywhere near patients

[janiedean]

the more time passes the more it's obvious why I'm shit at expressing emotions and why I loathe doing it openly and it's a damned shame neither of my damned parents reads fantasy because maybe if i told them the more you are like this the more i end up like stannis baratheon's reincarnation if the damage isn't done already they'd get the fucking point

[dykeinthedark]

is it embarassing that i'm starting college and still don't have a driver's license? no actually

[navree]

i think the issue is that, because the dance of the dragons would be seen as a pretty black and white issue for any modern audience (is there anyone who reads fire and blood and ISN’T on team blacks), and because the showrunners wanted to make this more of a muddied water situation, they have put a lot more effort into characterizing and fleshing out “the queen’s party” than they’ve done with “the party of the princess”. we learn a lot more about and get a lot more character work for people like alicent and aemond and helaena and even aegon, far more than we ever do about jace or luke or joffrey or baela or rhaena or even rhaenys, and don’t get me started on how just fucking confusing daemon is half the time, and what we know about people like corlys is pretty one note. rhaenyra’s the only one of that side who’s getting anything fleshed out, as opposed to literally everyone else opposing her where we get things like otto’s ambition warring with his love of family, while everyone on her side of the board is ridiculously flattened out to one or two character traits, or basically being furniture, where we get things like me being genuinely confused over which of laena’s twins is betrothed to who and how does she even feel about it, who knows. 

and it’s ending up in this bizarre situation (for me at least), where intellectually i’m on the side of the blacks because they’re just in the logical and moral right of the situation that’s going to create the dance, the matter of the succession, but i’m so much more emotionally invested in the greens and in their desires and growths and struggles.