#Love how they canonically fell down the hole on the same day the first episode came out

[mia-st-clair-deserved-to-kill]

Happy 10th birthday The Realm of Arragara

[give-grian-rights]

HERMITCRAFT 8 LIVEBLOGGING

fifteen hermits worth of liveblogging. i am losing my mind. LONG POST AHEAD.

JOE HILLS (First HC8 Video)

Mumbo did the speech. he forgot everything he was supposed to say <3

Pearl and Gemini were just .in a pit . having stuff thrown onto them

Every Hermit is staying on the same continent !!

FIRST DEATHS VERY QUICKLY, Iron Golems took out Tango and Etho (maybe more?)

Joe seems to be the only one looting the chests

Evil Jevin !!

Evil Xisuma appearance on Jevin’s 60 second video!

Pearl has something planned for an “archeticual wonder” for a resupply area upon death?

Stress, Xisuma and Joe are capturing villagers and starting up a resupply debut.

Bdubs is killed by Cleo and is now OUT FOR BLOOD

First death counts- Etho, Tango, Bdubs, Cleo?

Cleo was killed by Keralis

Joe has now supplied Cleo with weapons and food . She left but not before saying “Time to kill BDubs again!”

Gemini was killed by Bdubs! They both died and are now at spawn.

Pearl was killed by Cleo

Pearl is planning a respawn inn !!

Cleo was killed by Iskall

Cleo was killed by Pearl

False, Stress, and Gemini team up??? AA!!! they brought a delivery of supplies to Joe <3

i wish i knew what was happening on that end .

APPARENTLY XISUMA IS ONTO MAKING THE SECOND VILLAGER BREEDER ALREADY ??

Iskall is the first with Diamonds??

Breathe in that ash !

WAIT IS TANGOS EYES LIKE THAT RN BECAUSE HES TEAMED WITH KERALIS AND BDUBS ???

KERALIS, BDUBS, AND TANGO TRIED TO DO A SHAKEDOWN ON JOE. HE TRIED TO DROP LAVA, GOT HIMSELF ONTO TWO HEARTS BECAUSE HE PLACED IT ON HIMSELF, AND IS NOW SWIMMING OUT INTO THE SWAMP

the big eyed trio are now off to shake down Gemini

Joe fell in Lava in the Nether

Joe Death To Lava Two: Electric Boogaloo

Joe drowned trying to kill a glowsquid

WATCH JOE’S VIDEO OH MY GOD SEAN HILLS RECAP RAP??? MY BELOVED????? i am gonna be streaming this unironically later LIKE OH MY GOD THIS SLAPS. ALSO THE CREDITS AT TEH END IS HILARIOUS

Zedaph Episode Recap

Zed gave us a recap of the continent every Hermit will be living on !!

Wouldn’t recommend Zedaph as the first video for the season, he skips the intro/speech but it’s Zedaph and hes making it fun!! Lots of nice editing :)

~SCIENCE TIME !~

Zedaph.. why is your starter base made out of concrete ?

There are no sheeps whatsoever on his mountain

Hes calling his lab an icecream sandwich..yeah i see it

Zed tried to make a portal underater...f

Scar died to a creeper </3

Zedaphs base is gonna be tracking how long hes there/someones loading the chunk!

XISUMA LIVE BLOGGING

A cool cinema scene of him becoming an axolotl!! <3

NOW I CAN SEE IT, GRIAN WAS THE FIRST DEATH!! Death by Iron Golem!!

XIsuma’s baseplans need over 45 THOUSAND BLOCKS TO BE PLACED

He’s also planning on making a shulkershell farm!!

i’m not gonna lie ! talking axolotl X is horrifying ! thanks !

Day one Villager Breeder... chaos.

Xisuma Derp! looked straight at a buncha wool and said how badly he needed beds and then walked away

THE GIRLS CAME OVER AND CONVINCED HIM HE NEEDS TO MOVE THE DESIGN OVER MY FIVE BLOCKS FOR SWAMP VILLAGERS..

THE GIRLS ARE JUST LAUGHING AT HIM AND HIS VILLAGER TROUBLES

day one and Xisuma has got his axolotl!!

Very pretty starterbase!!

XB’s

..I’m not gonna lie theres not much to say!! He’s very calm :) he says hes going into it without a plan, and htat last season was the only time he had any thought of what he was gonna do.

He made a real nice starter house and thats about it!

Cleo’s

Bdubs: “She ain’t gonna hurt me!! i’m invincible, babey!”

Cleo learnt that BDubs will never hurt her even if she deserves it . I am starting to realize why she kills him

SHE DECIDED SHES GONNA BE A PROPER CHAOS GREMLIN THIS SEASON...

AISDJASID CLEO GOT PAID TO KILL BDUBS?? HDUIAIHSI SCAR WHY

“Alright I found my mission for the season! Murder.”

Cleo, Mumbo, Grian, and Scar are all holed up in a cave together!

..Scar died from a skeleton !

Cleo has now split from Grian and Mumbo! Scar is missing in action

CLEO FOUND A GOAT

SHES KILLING THE GOAT???

she got a HORSE <3 and Joe gave her a saddle! I think her name is..Widget?

She LOVES the candles for shamboo n waterbottles and bits n bobs for her armorstands!!

Got her Armorstand stickgod book <3

Geminitay POV

NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT NEW HERMIT!!

She has a LOVELY voice!!

The pov of her in a hole . being surrrounded . is kinda hilarious

It might’ve been Etho who was first death?? I GENUIENLY CANNOT TELL BECAUSE OF EDITING

All the murder was just for heads!

Seriously her voice is. wow

WE LOVE A QUEEN WHO KNOWS HOW TO CRAFT A SHIELD WITHOUT USING THE GUIDE <3

False, Gemini, and Stress are on the great journey for MOSS !

Gem just blew their minds with the moss.

TANGO KERALIS AND BDUBS ARE BACK Keralis: “Show the diamonds show the diamonds show the diamonds!” Gem: “Keralis. This is not how you make friends.”

The boys suecessfully recieved a diamond each

Etho n Iskall are travelling together!! You dont see those two together often

Etho got a glowsquid head!!

Gem: “Etho doesn’t share, is what i’m learning..?”

Etho hooked her with a fishing rod and said she has to do what he said .

In order to get the diamonds, Tango, Keralis, and BDubs placed down a sign saying “Gem is Great!” and Gem used a glow inksack on it.

Etho: “So..What is this? Do you have an ego, or this a motivational thing, or..?” He said, while laughing

Iskall: “I think its really funny that you have set your base up in the middle of a birch forest.” Gem: “I love birch forests! Do you not like my birch forest? Iskall: “I love it, yeah.” Gem: “This is the best biome in the game, Iskall.” Iskall: “Mmmm..” Etho: “I’m pretty sure I heard Iskall talking earlier that like, of all the biomes in the game, there was one he hated more than anything. Gem: “Oh really? And what was that one?” Iskall: “..Taiga.” Gem: “Taiga.. That’s true, thats a good one, thats a good one.” Iskall: “Don’t like Taiga.” Gem: “Mhm.” Etho: “Which one do you hate more than anyone?” Iskall: “..Diorite fields. Thats a bad one.” Etho: “Yeah thats a bad one.” Gem: “Didn’t know about that one. Well make sure to avoid’em. Birch forests are really good.” Iskall: “I’m a big fan of birch forests.” Gem: “Yeah, me too, me too. I’m glad we’re on the same page :) This is so beautiful! All the white and- and the like zebra stripes! is fantastic.” Iskall: “I..Um.. Yes.”

OH SHE’S CANADIAN,, ETHO HAS A FRIEND /j

She’s still in college :O SHE’S A SCIENTIST?? SHES WORKING AT A HOSPITAL?? POG!!

She accidentally found an enchanted golden apple in a mineshaft!! she thinks its the first she ever found in survival!!

She has a cow, sheep, and a few crop farms set up!! Her starter house has INTERRIOR!

SHE CHANGED HER SKIN AND ITS SO PRETTY AND HAS OVERALL AND I LOVE IT!!

shes doing a cottage core inspired base!

WOAHH!!! SHE MADE HTE MOST GOREGOUS CUSTOM TREE I’VE EVER SEEN ??

BDUBS IS HERE and he is so so so impressed by the tree ?!

also hes carrying a clock.. :(

He’s here with a present!

HE BROUGHT BAMBOO!

she thinks its so funny that he stops conversations to sleep AOIDHFEAUI\

SCARS

WE GOT A TRANSITION SCENE!! the canonical reason for the bed in his old village always being occupied is because underneath it, was his wizard portal!

Bdubs: “It’s a new season! You’re the little guy now!”

They are all very amused by that ^

they’re rubbing the fleece of bdubs jacket .

Bdubs: “Have a nice rub :)” PLEASEAHSIOJDIUASLDHIASDA

His starter base is gonna be a wagon and he wants the end game to be a bioshock esque skyscraper!

he confused a horse for a player . flashback to iskall thinking mumbo was a mob

PEOPLE THINK MUMBO DOESNT HAVE PANTS ON.... </3

Scar, Mumbo, and Grian.. have NO braincells. at all. THey just placed a crafting table with a boat on top with a bed on top with a boat on top .

this is what BROS FOR LIFE looks like.

BOATEM POLE !

SCAR IS STUCK UNDERGROUND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IRL AND HAS NO PICKAXE..

AND HE DIED TO A CREEPER .

it seems like Grian, Mumbo, and Scar are working together !!!! HOLY SHIT !!

THERES SO SO SO MANY FARMS???????

he died several times trying to catch a skeleton with a sword

FIRST CHEST MONSTER OF THE SEASON <3

SCAR JSUT TOLD BDUBS HE LOOKS LIKE OSCAR THE CROUCH... BDUBS CANNOT EVEN ARGUE

OH NO.... GRIAN WENT AFK IN A HOLE . WITHOUT A HELMET .

THEY PUT A  GLOWSQUID HEAD ON HIM

OH MY GOD MUMBO MADE A NOTEBLOCK SONG?? AJUDA

SCARS BUILTING IS SO SO SOOS GOREGOUS SERIOUSLY GO WATCH THE VIDEO OH MY GOD ITS HUGE

its a giant ass house boat wagon . its pulled by a llama . that killed him . so now its trapped, pulling hte agon, forever

Grian: “..Thats a very big house, for a very little hat.”

GRIANS SUPER SPECIAL EGG??

SCAR PUNCHED IT..

they really came out here . and killed the egg already.

Scar: “..I touched the thing”

TANGO POV

We see the three big eyed boys forming <3 they interrupted Tangos intro

THEY’RE BULLYING HIM ABOUT HAVING SMALL EYES AHIDUIASUHDWIS

HE TRIED TO CALL THE TRIO TEAM BUG EYE... THE OTHERS ARE VERY OFFENDED

they found an axolotl and Bdubs was TERRIFIED just screaming “WHAT IS THAT YELLOW THING?!”

BDUBS IS ATTACKING IT ???

okay nope Bdubs caught one and Tango lost it

Bdubs is naming his axolotl Idiot

AMAZING HOUSE. WHY IS TANGO SO GOOD AT BUILDING AND REDSTONE??

Impulse POV

MUMBO TRIED TO PLACE DOWN A BERRY BUSH TO HURT IMPULSE . HE FORGOT HOW BUSHES WORK..

I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE THAT IMPULSE WAS IN THE BOATEM POLE

so it looks like those four are hteo nes who grouped up together

PEARL BROKE THE CONSTITUION SHE GOT IN THE WRONG BOAT SMH

THIS IS SEASON EIGHT! FIVE BROS !

So its gonna be about five people in the same area!!

YOO!! Fantasy build for Impulse!!

G gave Impulse a spyglass, they had a fun moment of zooming in on eachothers face and complimenting eachother IHAUDIHAW

Grian and Impulse worked on an xp farm!

ASHDUIWAHISD GRIAN JUST LOGGED ON INFRONT OF HIM

a pillager stole his boat . not just any pillager . the one with a banner. </3

he has to live with Mumbo tuning a song .. </3 haha

Mumbo POV

it took fifteen seconds until Grian ran in during Mumbos intro

CONFIRMED? GRIAN WAS FIRST DEATH?

SECOND PERSON TO THINK MUMBOS PANTS ARE SKIN COLOR. GRIAN..

Grian: “Can you..Briefly explain why you’re just wearing a hawaiian shirt?” Mumbo: “Uh- what do you mean ‘just wearing a hawaiin shirt? I have shorts on as-well, dude”

FOLLOWED BY

Mumbo: “Can you explain why you’re wearing a red jumper?” Grian: “You know- you know i was born with this!”

MUMBO AND GRIAN STOLE THE BOAT LOOT FROM RENDOC

I THINK RENDOC JUST STOLE THE DIAMOND MUMBO THREW??

Grian: “Is that Scar?” Mumbo: “I can’t see past your giant waffle!”

DSFSDFJIOA they did an edit where they placed down a boat, both Mumbo and Grian got in, they made noises and then bopped up on top of the ravine they were in <3

THEY HAVE NO BRAINCELL THEY JUST PLACED DOWN A BENCH AND SAID “THIS IS THE MARK OF OUR VILLAGE!” and then placed a torch and a boat and a bed and aANOTHER BED..

..Mumbo is trying to be a pacifist this season!

Grian’s taunting him with beheaded things

And obviously part of being pacifist means he’s gonna be vegetarian in minecraft!

..he cannot use monster farms because pacifisim..

Mumbo was in the middle of reading the magical Timmy shack that Tango made (did i remember to mention that? who knows) and IN THE MIDDLE OF GETTING TO THE PART ABOUT IF YOU REMOVE STUFF FROM THE CHEST, NOTHING WILL BE ADDED IN IT AGAIN. Grian opened the chest . Mumbo SHOUTED HIAUDHUW Grian jumped man

They renamed it “Cave of Do Not Enter” HIAUEDUH

Mumbo and Scar BOTH did not know- at least Mumbo didn’t, Scar forgot,  that podzol spawns from two-by-two spruce..

him and his guitar song to be played underneath his house.. it goes with the aesthetic i suppose

MAN HE NEEDS SO MUCH HAYBALES I FORGOT THATS NEEDED FOR THE TUNE HE WANTS

Mumbo: “What.. On Earth.. Scar, it’s meant to be a starterbase, buddy! What is this? This is many things, many many things, a starterbase is NOT one of them!”

HE LITERALLY DIDNT KNOW THAT THE DRAGON EGG TELEPORTS... WHEN YOU TOUCH IT...

BDUBS

nothing special we havent seen yet!! just him screaming about axolotls.

He was working in the Mesa in his intro, skipping the “speech” from Mumbo

He released Idiot the Axolotl and lost it .

Him SCREAMING “Gemini” is HILARIOUS

While Gemini gave away those three diamonds, Keralis got so excited he won a bet with Tango and Bdubs, that he gave back . two of the diamonds . and none of htem released until well after they left

Bdubs: “That’s why i have my mwoss skin!” PLEASE I LOVE THE WAY HE SAYS IT.. make the moss hood.. REAL..

it took me a while to figure out what his base is but i LOVE IT so so much!!!

Nothing much new to add !!

Stress pov

please i love her . very good !! False seems to have joined her sheerly because Stress sounded like she knew what she was doing. she does not.

False felt peerpressured and asked Stress for permission to fight her because everyone was killing eachother .

It ended up with Stress following False. they found a village!

ISKALL only saw him one other time today!!

JEVIN APPEARS AGAIN !

XISUMA FELL INTO HTE BREEDER AND IT WAS SO FUNN IUAHHYIAUSD

Ren: “Ya look goregous, Stress!” Stress: “Thanks! Don’t murder my dog!”

She’s so proud of herself for caving!! (with False n Gem

Iskall blew up!

..Iskall fell from a high place

Stress has a LOVELY ravine base!!

False

False wants to become pirates with Stress <3

gatekeep gaslight girlboss

BIG OL MUSHROOM HOUSE !!

it looks like a mushroom church and i LOVE IT.

Nothing new we didn’t see from Gem. She does want to come up with a banner design for her base, though!

Grian

..Mumbo just thought Grian had a purpose so decided to follow him <3

ALSO HIS INTRO, AS HE JOKED ABOUT IN THE OTHERS VIDEO, WAS, IN FACT, THE BOATEM POLE

Grian is SO PROUD of the fact taht they got good loot from a treasure map. Ren and Doc are NOT IMPRESSED

Grian: “Lets go, potato boy!”

Mumbo: “I don’t have to replace everything I break! Peace Love and Plants- are these plants..?” He says, mining amethyst

pants

he who controls the egg, controls the server... Grian.. you’re doing great sir

...He decided.. his goal.. is to make his OWN..caves and cliffs update... HELLO..?

Grian was the first one to kill the enderdragon, MAN. Speedrunning career WHEN? /j

Grian: “And now [Mumbo] is flexing on my bed!”

he might not have a base. but he has an egg.

It is now 2am. i cannot do this anymore. This will be continued.. tomorrow!

[irelise]

Yassen Gregorovich - Books vs TV

With the excellent new Alex Rider tv show out, I thought I would make a comparison post for one of my old favs, Yassen Gregorovich, who has a somewhat different feel in the books as compared to the show! This post will largely cover the first book Stormbreaker and should theoretically contain no spoilers for the potential future arcs of the show, since the events of Stormbreaker are presumably non-canon now. (Spoilers abound for the episodes of the show already out, though!)

If there’s any interest, I’ll put up a second post covering Eagle Strike and some parts of Russian Roulette that delves deeper into Yassen and his complicated relationship with Alex. Just let me know!

Much like the show, Yassen was the one who killed Ian Rider. Unlike the show, however, he’s known to be active on the field and the first time we “encounter” him is prior to Alex’s first mission, where Mrs Jones gives Alex a warning:

She took out a black-and-white photograph and laid it on the table. It showed a man in a white T shirt and jeans. He was in his late twenties with light, close cropped hair, a smooth face, the body of a dancer. The photograph was slightly blurred. It had been taken from a distance, possibly with a hidden camera. “I want you to look at this,” she said.

"I’m looking."

“His name is Yassen Gregorovich. He was born in Russia, but he now works for many countries. Iraq has employed him. Also Serbia, Libya, and China.”

“What does he do?” Alex asked.

"He’s a contract killer, Alex. We believe it was he who killed Ian Rider.”

There was a long pause. Alex had almost managed to persuade himself that this whole business was just some sort of crazy adventure…a game. But looking at the cold face with its blank, hooded eyes, he felt something stirring inside him and knew it was fear. He remembered his uncle’s car, shattered by bullets. A man like this, a contract killer, would do the same to him. He wouldn’t even blink.

[…]

“Why are you telling me this now?” Alex asked. His mouth had gone dry.

"Because if you see him, if Yassen is anywhere near Sayle Enterprises, I want you to contact us at once."

“And then?"

“We’ll pull you out. It doesn’t matter how old you are, Alex. If Yassen finds out you’re working for us, he’ll kill you too.”

I always thought this was a pretty good introductory scene -- Yassen has a very deadly reputation in the books, which is established at once then hammered in over and over again. Other traits which come up again and again include his coldness and his dancer’s body which is totally something I’m into, gotta love those “elegant and deadly assassin” tropes

(also, yes, Yassen is blond in the books and definitely not a brunet or even a redhead as in the movie. he also doesn’t have a distinctive facial scar!)

Yassen doesn’t actually have many scenes in Stormbreaker, although the shadow of his presence looms pretty darkly over the narrative. Alex only runs into him twice on the mission: once from a distance -- A lean, fair-haired figure dressed in black detached himself from the assembly line and walked languidly toward a door that slid open to receive him -- and the other encounter also occurs from a distance, when Alex is spying on a mysterious delivery at the docks in the dead of the night...

And then the tower opened and a man climbed out, stretching himself in the cold morning air. Even without the half-moon, Alex would have recognized the sleek dancer’s body and the close cropped-hair of the man whose photograph he had seen only a few days before. It was Yassen Gregorovich. Alex stared at him with growing fear. This was the contract killer Mrs. Jones had told him about. The man who had murdered Ian Rider. He was dressed in grey overalls and sneakers. He was smiling. He was the last person Alex wanted to meet.

[…]

Meanwhile, the guards from Sayle Enterprises had formed a line stretching back almost to the point where the vehicles were parked. Yassen gave an order and, as Alex watched from behind the rocks, a metallic silver box with a vacuum seal appeared, held by unseen hands at the top of the submarine’s tower. Yassen himself passed it down to the first of the guards, who then passed it back up the line. About forty more boxes followed, one after another. It took almost an hour to unload the submarine. The men handled the boxes carefully. They obviously didn’t want to break whatever was inside.

By the end of the hour they were almost finished. The boxes were being repacked now into the back of the truck that Alex had vacated. And that was when it happened. One of the men, standing on the jetty, dropped one of the boxes. He managed to catch it again at the last minute, but even so it banged down heavily on the stone surface. Everyone stopped. Instantly. It was as if a switch had been thrown and Alex could almost feel the raw fear in the air.

Yassen was the first to recover. He darted forward along the jetty, moving like a cat, his feet making no sound. He reached the box and ran his hands over it, checking the seal, then nodded slowly. The metal wasn’t even dented.

With everyone so still Alex heard the exchange that followed.

“I’m sorry,” the guard said. “I won’t do that again.”

“No. You won’t,” Yassen agreed, and shot him.

Largely a reaffirmation of what we saw from the photograph scene, this time in person: Yassen is generally quiet, understated and deceptively relaxed -- up until the point he murders somebody without blinking. I think the show does a good job capturing that aspect of Yassen, with scenes like Ian’s death and Dr. Greif in the car coming to mind in particular. Gotta love that pairing of Yassen’s generally calm demeanour with the bursts of restrained yet lethal violence!

Some other minor but interesting character notes: despite being one of the most highly-paid and successful assassins in the world, Yassen is perfectly comfortable doing grunt work (passing boxes, dressing in shitty grey overalls). Similarly, despite being (presumably) more comfortable working alone, he’s also at ease with giving orders and coordinating large groups of people.

Now, moving onto the last time Yassen shows up in Stormbreaker. This is right at the end of the book after Alex successfully foils the plot of the big bad (Herod Sayle), only to get kidnapped by him while his guard is down. Sayle takes them to a rooftop where a helicopter is coming to whisk Sayle away, but first he wants to have some revenge...

"That’s my ticket out of here!” Sayle continued. “They’ll never find me! And one day I’ll be back. Next time, nothing will go wrong. And you won’t be here to stop me. This is the end for you! This is where you die!”

There was nothing Alex could do. Sayle raised the gun and took aim, his eyes wide, the pupils blacker than they had ever been, mere pinpricks in the bulging white.

There were two small explosive cracks.

Alex looked down, expecting to see blood. There was nothing. He couldn’t feel anything. Then Sayle staggered and fell onto his back. There were two gaping holes in his chest.

The helicopter landed in the center of the cross. The pilot got out.

Still holding the gun that had killed Herod Sayle, he walked over and examined the body, prodding it with his shoe. Satisfied, he nodded to himself, tucking the gun away. He had switched off the engine of the helicopter and behind him the blades slowed down and stopped. Alex stepped forward. The man seemed to notice him for the first time.

"You’re Yassen Gregorovich,” Alex said.

The Russian nodded. It was impossible to tell what was going on in his head. His clear blue eyes gave nothing away.

"Why did you kill him?” Alex asked.

“Those were my instructions.” There was no trace of an accent in his voice. He spoke softly, reasonably. “He had become an embarrassment. It was better this way."

"Not better for him.”

Yassen shrugged.

“What about me?” Alex asked.

The Russian ran his eyes over Alex, as if weighing him up. “I have no instructions concerning you,” he said.

"You’re not going to shoot me too?”

"Do I have any need to?”

There was a pause. The two of them gazed at each other over the corpse of Herod Sayle.

“You killed Ian Rider,” Alex said. “He was my uncle.”

Yassen shrugged. “I kill a lot of people"

“One day I’ll kill you.”

“A lot of people have tried.” Yassen smiled. “Believe me,” he said, “it would be better if we didn’t meet again. Go back to school. Go back to your life. And the next time they ask you, say no. Killing is for grown-ups and you’re still a child.”

He turned his back on Alex and climbed into the cabin. The blades started up, and a few seconds later, the helicopter rose back into the air. For a moment it hovered at the side of the building. Behind the glass, Yassen raised his hand. A gesture of friendship? A salute?

Alex raised his hand. The helicopter spun away.

Alex stood where he was, watching it, until it had disappeared in the dying light.

HOO BOY where to start! This is a longer scene compared to the rest but I love it so much, it’s probably the best part of Stormbreaker for me and obviously it’s fairly different from the show. I adore the last scene of the show since the tension was delightful, but this hit in a different way. Alex! And Yassen! Actually talking!!! It’s a sparse scene (like most of AH’s writing), but very atmospheric and loaded with meaning all the same.

Let’s start with the obvious stuff first - book!Yassen is fair-haired and blue-eyed (or grey, depending), and has a very measured way of speaking without any accent at all. He very much falls into the archetype of “inscrutable Russian assassin with a mysterious connection to the protagonist” and it’s delightful.

I do like the fact we only really see Yassen in person for two scenes in the entire book, and both times he kills someone ruthlessly and efficiently. (...yes, he did kill Sayle while piloting a helicopter) His reputation is well-deserved and I think the show does an excellent job with that too; every time we see Yassen on screen there’s a feeling that shit is about to go down and somebody is about to die.

The show also does a pretty good job hinting at the connection between Yassen and Alex (ughh Yassen’s expression when he sees Alex for the first time kills me every time). In Stormbreaker, Yassen does (initially) seem colder towards Alex, emotionless, just a man on a job. But even then, we get little hints of warmth shining through such as the way he smiles when Alex promises to kill him, and of course the salute! It’s pretty clear that Yassen has some measure of fondness for Alex, because no way an assassin would normally just let somebody go after they promised to kill him, even if that person is only a teenage boy (especially considering that teenage boy is driven by a desire to take revenge on his uncle’s killer). I also think it’s interesting that Alex reciprocates his salute. He’s clearly aware (even if only subconsciously) of the connection between the two of them.

Though I think what hits the hardest for me is the fact Yassen is the one to tell Alex that he belongs in school, that he’s a child and he shouldn’t be part of this world. Alex in the books is much, much lonelier compared to the show. There was no Jack or Tom there for him, since Jack was kept completely out of the loop and Tom doesn’t even exist in the book. Wolf and the K-Unit largely either ignored or bullied Alex. As for Blunt and Jones, Alex just saved thousands of kids in England yet the only thing MI6 tells him afterwards is that his actions can never be revealed to the public, his youth will make him useful for future missions, and then the only thing they give him is a doctor’s note(!!!) to explain his absence from school.

If that sounds all sorts of terrible and unfair, Alex agrees:

In the end the big difference between him and James Bond wasn’t a question of age. It was a question of loyalty. In the old days spies had done what they’d done because they loved their country, because they believed in what they were doing. But he’d never been given a choice.

Nowadays, spies weren’t employed. They were used.

And of all the people to point out how fucked up the whole situation is and how Alex needs to get out...it’s Yassen, the contract killer, his uncle’s murderer. And Yassen says it straight to Alex’s face instead of just making token protests about how wrong it is to send a teenage boy into danger and then doing it anyway. I think the moment had a fairly big impact on Alex, and I was sad it wasn’t included in the show, but ah well. Another time, maybe?

BONUS

OK i know this was meant to be a book vs tv show thing BUT I WOULD BE REMISS IN MY DUTIES NOT TO LINK TO THE LAST SCENE AS DEPICTED IN THE OLD MOVIE

‘2 minutes of questionable everything’ from the video description about sums it up. the violins. the closeness. the long lingering looks. “i’ll never forget you.”

Anyway, hope this was interesting and at least a bit informative! Do let me know there’s any interest in a part 2 of this post covering Eagle Strike and maybe a bit of Russian Roulette!

[loser-writings]

Helloo, hope you're doing well. Are you taking requests for best jeanist? If you do, can you do Omega Best Jeanist who was actually pregnant with a pup when AFO blew a hole in his stomach and then alpha reader didn't know that he was actually pregnant.

Heyyo! So heads up, i had to change this request slightly, I hope you don’t mind! In canon, Hakamata gets hit in the lung and loses it, so I couldn’t think of a way to transfer that in a way where he would lose his lung and his baby. I hope this still works though!!

TW: Miscarriage, depression, severe injury, spoilers for S3 Episode 9

Tsunagu Hakamata, better known as pro hero Best Jeanist, was actually thrilled when he found out that he was pregnant. Despite never actually sitting down and discussing pups with you, he knew that you would be more than accepting and would be thrilled about the news. He instantly had a thousand and twelve ideas on how to tell you, but for now he decided to keep it a secret. Just until the drama started dying down and you could stop worrying so much about him. 

He doesn’t tell anybody about the pregnancy, instead deciding to just keep to himself as time went on. He did take notes of how the alphas seemed to subconsciously react to him and how the Omegas were quick to ask if he needed anything. He wouldn’t lie, He absolutely adored the obedience and attention. Even more so when it came from his favorite Alpha when he got off work for the day. 

He walked into his shared apartment with you only to be greeted with your warm scent, instantly forcing a purr out of his omega as he entered the house and stripped himself of the layers of denim before rushing himself to the bedroom so he could change. Normally, he hated wearing sweats but today was an exception. After throwing on the baggy pants and a fairly large blue T-shirt, he made his way to you. 

You were trying to cook for him, a habit you had started since he always seemed to work late, and only noticed him after his arms wrapped around your waist. You didn’t really react to it though, only leaning back more on him as he pressed his nose against your scent gland.

It was always so peaceful when he got home, yet he couldn’t help but notice how you seemed to be more attentive to his wants and needs. He wouldn’t complain though, simply smiling and relaxing as you massaged his sore hands while watching some shitty reality tv. His soft and deep purrs only only mixed with yours, causing him to completely melt with all of the attention. He wished every day could be like this.

That was never the case though.

The next day, Katsuki Bakugo was kidnapped by the League of Villains. God help anybody who passed by Jeanist in private, because he seemed extra uptight. Despite his disapproval of Bakugos behavior, he was still a child that looked to him for guidance. The Omega in him was absolutely panicking because in his core, Bakugo was a child he actually wanted to see thrive, and knowing he was in the Leagues hands only made him more stressed by each passing second. 

When they finally ambushed the league, His body was on high alert. Any noise had him ready to react, like prey under the eyes of a predator. It was only when he finally saw him, All for One, that he let his body snap. 

Within seconds, The man was tied up but Jeanist couldn’t react. This man just made his stomach roll and for a split second, he felt his mind switch to the baby before quickly moving to the situation at hand. He watched the man, ignoring Mt. Ladys words until he saw All for One move ever so slightly. Within a blink of an eye, Jeanist was able to toss away the heroes and take the majority of the blast, unknowingly pushing his body to a breaking point.

It wasn’t until he was laying on the ground, struggling to pick up his head, when he knew he had fucked up. His body was in survival mode now, focusing just on surviving, yet he had to continue to fight. He is a pro-hero, and pros don’t make excuses for failure.

As he tried to sit up and attack once more, a sudden piercing pain through his body caused him to gasp for breath. He had no clue what was happening, but he knew something was wrong. As he collapsed back on the ground, his body went to overdrive despite him passing out.

When he woke up, he instantly felt the aching in his chest. It was intense and strong, forcing a weak chirp from him as he tried to move around. His body felt so heavy, he had begun to panic but one soft word was enough to calm him down again. It never failed to surprise him. How one simple “Omega?” could cause a wave of comfort to wash over him.

As he moved his head, he could see your panicked face and could only smile. It was a small, yet genuine smile that was a weak attempt to comfort you. Even now, in a hospital bed, he still was pushing his hero persona instead of himself.

“Tsunagu, don’t do that,” He could only grin, albeit more genuinely, when he felt your hand caress his cheek. “You know I hate when you try to hero me.” He did know that, yet he couldn’t let himself relax just yet. 

“Did...We win?” He asked you softly, voice weak and pained as he tried to take a deep breath only to feel pain instead. Another pained chirp left his chest but he didn’t react to it, instead just wanting an answer. He heard you sigh which made him chuckle and cough, yet he gave you a comforting look as he waited for your answer.

“Bakugo is safe...and All Might has retired. He defeated All for One, but I can’t really say if you guys won. If I’m honest, my darling, I think we may be in for one hell of a fight.” Your tone was so calming, so comforting, almost as if you were delivering this news to a pup. A pup-

Oh shit. His eyes snapped open as he suddenly felt a wave of Nausea come over him. His pup- No your pup- fuck, wrong no “Our pup” he labeled in his head as he pressed his hand to his stomach, eyes widening as the familar ache returned to his chest. This wasn’t from All for one, but instead his Omega constantly clawing at him to notice what was wrong. He knew, deep down he knew, yet he didn’t want to acknowledge it. Your voice distant, yet slowly pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Hakamata.” His head snapped to you and he saw concern once again, quickly shoving his emotions back down in order to calm you. Yet he didn’t fall for an idiot. He fell for somebody who knew him well enough to know something was up. “I’ll be okay...I promise” He lied once again, god he hated lying to you, but he was a hero first and a man second. He needed to be strong once again for you.

You stayed by his side until he was released from the hospital, yet he had to stay at home so he could adjust to his new handicap. Having only one lung was hard at first since he would get dizzy easily and had to learn to slow down, but being forced to stay at home also gave him with you. Normally he would be thrilled at the thought of being with you, but now? God, looking at you was bitter-sweet.

You were still the same alpha. The same one he fell so deeply in love with years ago. The same one who sat by him as he climbed up the ranks as a hero and waited for him until he felt secure enough to give himself to you. You were still the same alpha whose eyes sparkled when he said your name. You were still the same alpha who would give him the world if he were to ask. And knowing that you would do anything for him, even forgive him for failing to deliver the baby you had given him, absolutely destroyed him.

At first, you had just assumed it was just Tsunagu being stubborn since he was always one to complain about making excuses, just wanting to do things himself. But then you noticed how he would shut down and refuse to talk to you, something unusual since your Omega had always been great at communicating with you. It was starting to make you worry, but you refused to push your concerns because the more you pushed, the more he would push back with his hero persona.

After about a week at home, Hakamata woke up feeling heavy and completely emotionless. He didn’t know why, but the thought of moving caused severe pain to shoot through his limbs and the loudest chirp he had ever released to escape his chest. At first, panic shot through him. He never chirps and that was such a loud, distressed chirp. Why was he chirping? Why wasn’t his body letting him move? Why wasn-

“Omega?” Another wave of comfort washed over him as his mind went blank. All of his worries left as soon as your voice hit his ears, yet he felt so guilty once you came into view. You were so concerned, and he could tell just by your eyes. He hated worrying you. 

“Honey...Something is wrong. You need to tell me.” You forced him into your arms, yet he still refused to move, only letting out another distressed chirp before he finally noticed it. His scent was burning horribly, enough to make his own face cringe in disgust...Yet you remained calm as your hand found its way over the Omegas hip, softly massaging circles into it as you tried to help comfort your mate.

After what felt like an eternity, Hakamata finally felt himself starting to let go. Let go of all of the control he worked so hard to keep together. Let go of all of the shit he forced down, and it all started with one single tear. He didn’t even notice it until it was dripping down his cheek only to be followed quickly by a sniffle. 

He could smell the shift in your scent and subconsciously pulled himself closer to your neck, whimpering as more tears suddenly fell. He could tell you were surprised but quickly adapted, wrapping your arms gently around his trembling form until he was as close to you as he possibly could be. 

You never pushed him to explain what was wrong, but just let him get the words out on his own. Slowly but surely, he told you about the pup. How he found out he was pregnant and was just so happy because he finally was going to give you the life you deserved and the life he always dreamed of. He was in the top 10. He was successful and financially stable. He was finally ready to give you both the family you had desired, yet he forced you to wait for until he was ready. 

Your heart broke hearing the news and he could sense the shift in your scent, but you never got aggressive or mad. Instead, you wiped his tears and gave him a long, gentle kiss. He wasn’t even sure if you could call it that since he was sputtering and crying while you pressed your lips to his, but he couldn’t deny that you trying to comfort him made his heart swell once more. 

Slowly, you explained to him that you are proud of him. Proud that he tried to stay strong and proud that he did everything he could to make sure you were happy, but now he needed to let go and let himself grieve. Tsunagu nodded and wiped at his eyes, now swollen and red from crying, but he smiled when you complimented them once again. 

After his breakdown, he slowly let himself recover. He allowed himself to take a moment and slow down, enjoy his time with you. Instead of being the 3rd top hero: Best Jeanist, he allowed himself to be Tsunagu Hakamata. He let himself open up to you again, talking to you about possibly trying for another pup in the future when things calm down and he feels secure enough again. He let himself have his imperfections, god he knew his cooking was one of them, and he finally let himself relax with you. You let him sleep til noon if he wanted, You didn’t care that when he woke up, his hair was a mess and his breath was kinda funky. You still loved him and treated him like a prince.

When it comes to the pup he had lost, he refuses to let himself dwell on it. After you bought a small stuffed wolf, Tsunagus favorite animal of course, he let himself move on from the loss. It sits on his desk back in his office for many people to question yet never ask about, but he uses it as a reminder for what he is working for and why he is a hero. He wants to help make the world a better place. A world where he can come home to you and your pup after a long day. 

Until that day comes, He will do everything he can to try to make the world a little bit better.

[dolphindiluna]

𝗜 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 The cell continued to ring. He should talk to Sam, let him know that he was alive. He laughed bitterly at the thought, was he really alive? He didn't feel that way. He was flesh, bones, tears and blood. But alive? No. Living had just taken on another dimension. The point is that he died so many times that he lost count, but for the first time he knew what it was to really die, this death that people talk about, death in life.

How many important people fell on the way?

His mind returned to the day of his mother's death. Even though he was not in his room that day, his father had counted on so many details, on a night of drunkenness, that he didn't even need to see with his eyes, his mind "saw" much more than he wanted.

Then the father. That father obsessed with killing the damn demon who took the life of his beloved wife. The father who raised his children to save people, hunting things, the family business. The father absent for loving too much.

And Ellen and Jo. Pamela, Bob, Kevin, Charlie. And so many others. Many…

And again the father and mother.

And Sam. Each time he lost his brother, a piece of him died together. Sam, who kept calling over and over.

- Sam, I'm fine.

- Dean! What happened? Why did it take so long to answer the phone?

- Sorry, Sammy. Are you ok?

He heard the sound of his brother swallowing the words, those few seconds hanging over them like a sharp sword. Dean knew, he always knew.

- Sammy?

- Dean, everybody's gone, everybody. Charlie, Bob and even Donna. It's just me and Jack.

The brother's voice was weak. Sam who was so dedicated to protecting everyone, even with the weight of Eileen's loss on his shoulders. He wanted to hug him. He wished he could go back in time when he carried Sam in his boyish arms and rocked him, promising to protect him from danger. "Take care of your brother, Dean" had been the main task his father had given him, and he, as a good soldier, never deviated from his mission. Taking care of Sam, protecting him, was what gave him the strength to get up every morning.

- Sammy, come home.

- Dean, is everything okay? What happened to Billie?

- Billie is dead. You and Jack, come home soon.

- Okay, Dean.

He hung up the phone and put his hands on his face again. He was not able to tell Sam the whole truth, because telling what happened was having to face reality, and he was not yet ready to say goodbye.

The silence in the dungeon choked him, but he didn't have the strength to leave. Maybe he didn't want to leave. Somewhere in his heart, a fragile flame continued to resist. He looked at the wall, hoping the black hole would regurgitate what The Empty had stolen from him.

"I annoyed an ancient cosmic being so much that he sent me back."

Dean remembered those words as if they were said yesterday. He clung to them in despair. But deep down, he knew, he knew that The Empty would not give up again.

Why didn't he tell the truth? Why?

Why did he push his feelings into some dark corner of himself, not even allowing himself to think?

Why didn't he give himself the right to believe that he could be loved, be happy?

All that fury that has weighed on his chest since childhood, that anger that he thought defined him.

"Everything you have ever done, the good and the bad, you have done for love."

Even now he couldn't see himself that way, because that meant he was always a coward for not having struggled to take on what he felt.

Coward. He had been a coward until the end. And now he paid the price for being afraid to say the same words he had received.

The chest pain increased. He needed to get out of there, he needed to breathe. Shivering, using the wall as a support, he stood up slowly. The first steps were unstable. He managed to reach the chair in the middle of the room, held it in search of something solid to keep him on his feet until he felt he could walk without fear of falling.

When he finally reached the door, he couldn't resist and looked back again. That flame in his chest had just gone out. The pain increased, crushing his heart.

"You changed me, Dean ... I love you."

He ran out of the room, his hand over his mouth to stifle his sob.

He didn't want to be that anymore. He no longer wanted to be the Dean who assumed all the responsibilities and suppressed any feeling that his enemies could use against him. He was tired of being strong, of trying to be invincible.

He heard Sam calling for him. He needed his brother, needed this time to reverse logic, needed Sam to take care of him, to protect him from pain.

- Sammy.

Your voice so weak, so different from your voice of thunder.

- Sammy, Sammy!

He arrived at the library without strength. His brother was near the big table in the lobby.

- Sammy, please.

Sam ran towards him, followed closely by Jack. His frightened eyes were filled with concern. There, in the center of the library, the two came face to face.

He couldn't take it anymore, everything around him spun. He saw Cass in every corner of that place. Cass hugging him when they met after Chuck and Amara left. Cass sitting next to him in one of the few moments of peace, celebrating Jack's life.

Cass, smiling through her tears, saying goodbye to never come back.

- He's gone, Sammy.

Finally, the heavy tears broke through the barrier and he fell to the floor. The weight of defeat weighed on his body. He punched his chest several times in penance.

Sam didn't know what had happened, but he suspected it had to do with Castiel's absence. He knelt in front of his brother, pulling him into his arms. He always feared that this day would come, the day when Dean would accept his own feelings, but that Cass would not be there to receive them.

- He's gone, Sammy, gone. And I didn't say. I didn't say, Sammy.

- Put it all out, Dean, don't keep it anymore.

The brother's words allowed him to be the Dean that Castiel once loved.

- CASS!

The aching cry tore at his chest.

Jack watched his parents' pain and felt powerless because there was nothing he could do. All he wanted to do was bring Cass back, but he had no more powers. He no longer had Castiel. His father had died.

The strength with which the angel's name was said in that place full of magic, had the power to transcend the walls and resonate beyond that plane. In heaven, the angels wept for the loss of yet another of them. Castiel had been a friend and also an enemy, in the end being just another puppet in the hands of God.

In hell, Rowena stopped in the middle of a lustful laugh. His eyes watered. After all, the angel also became his boy.

But it was Chuck who was pierced by that spear of pain. He, who in his arrogance despised his own creations, who played with their lives, now felt the agony with such violence that it surprised him. In her mind, Amara's voice, full of bitterness, prophesied:

- Brother, you can lie to yourself as much as you want. But the truth is that you lost your most loyal son, the one who loved you so much, the one you wickedly despised. And I know it hurts you. We feel Dean's pain. And as long as we exist, we will carry that pain as a reminder of how bad we can be.

Chuck turned his eyes to Dean and for a moment hesitated in his firm intention to destroy everything. The weight of loneliness as a reminder of your choices. Sitting on his mythical throne, he was the image of a defeated god.

In the library, Dean continues to cry hugging his brother, his face buried in Sam's chest. It was sad to see that they had switched places, Sammy was taking care of Dean as Dean had always done for him.

- Dean, you need to vent, you can't have all that feeling with you anymore.

The pain, like fire, rose in his throat and was finally released.

- Cass, you are the only one I want to have, my true happiness. Cass, I love you ...

Words can transform. Words heal.

In The Empty, where angels and demons rest, dreaming eternally of their past, Castiel, in his serene sleep, dreams of the words he wanted to hear so much. His lips curl in an affable smile, while a tear escapes his sleeping eyes.

- I always knew, Dean … ----------------------------------------------------------------------------  I wrote this story a few days after the episode aired, listening to "I Will Never Be The Same" (which became the title of this story) by Melissa Etheridge, because this song, for me, is the synthesis of what happened to these two characters. These were, as they have been ever since, days of sadness and anxiety. The question the fandom keeps asking itself: is it really the end? Did the series make Destiel canon to kill Castiel soon after? As a fan, especially as a fan of Destiel, I am still waiting for the return of our beloved angel in the last episode, to finally find happiness with the man she loves. Because these two definitely deserve to be happy after everything they've been through. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  English is not my first language. Please forgive any mistakes I may have made. And I don't know whose illustration it is. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can give the artist proper credit.

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Drop the Evie essay you wrote

okay so first of all it wasn’t really an essay the way some of my ramblings are, more like just me writing down all of my thoughts in a vaguely coherent manner bc my brain was running too fast to really organize it 

and second of all, just to be on the safe side, these are the potential trigger warnings that I would give for the essay — I don’t know if they all actually come up or not, but better safe than sorry, so proceed with caution!

Potential TWs: being outed, parental neglect, character death (canon), suicide attempts (semi-canon), eating disorders, lots of mental health issues, and lots of general trauma and feelings of never being good enough, and canon typical references to drinking/drugs/partying/etc

so just like a fun fact, Evie’s vitamin water of choice is zero sugar strawberry lemonade and yes i spent too long reading reviews on different flavours all because gossip girl did an entire product placement episode

anyways now onto real thoughts let’s go lesbians let’s go

so okay evie has a... very negative experience with Lily’s various boyfriends and husbands.  When Evie was younger she was always hopeful that this time would be different, that they’d be a family, that her mom would actually stick around, and every single time she’s been let down and left heartbroken.  When her mom starts dating Bart, Evie is very against it but she just can’t be bothered to even try to talk to Lily — Lily will date him, maybe get married, play house, abandon her children, then get divorced, and the cycle will repeat, and Lily will never give a shit about how her children feel about it.  Bart is just the latest rich man for Lily to set her sights on.  Given the overall shittiness of most of Lily’s exes, Evie had figured she would be a lot more vocally against Lily dating again, but Bart... 

Bart himself may terrify Evie, but Evie’s unwavering faith that Chuck will always protect her outweighs that fear, and Evie has long since given up on her mom caring about her opinions so she just takes comfort in the fact that Chuck will be there and tries to just ignore the rest — and the fact that Bart is pretty much always away does help with that.  That being said, she was very distraught when Bart spends season 1 christmas with them, but then Bart’s “present” for her was flying Chuck home for a few days because Lily mentioned that Eric was teasing Evie about being excited about having Chuck as a brother, and he's trying to semi-win over the kids (aka bribe them into accepting him as Lily’s fiancé)

Evie speaks several languages!  She started learning French and Spanish at a very young age, and then picked more up from Lily’s various husbands.  She’s not fluent in all of them but she can hold conversations in eight languages — and four of them were from Lily’s boyfriends (and italian was half pieced together from French and Spanish), and she just keeps learning more because she tries to keep herself too busy to think at any given moment

Rufus is her favourite step-dad by far, but Chuck is her favourite step-sibling (and second favourite sibling, after Eric).  That being said, Bart was surprisingly decent to her because even he quickly figured out that Evie has the innate ability to get Chuck to do basically anything, and he wanted her on his side, only he underestimated how much Evie hates him for treating Chuck like shit — as she says in 2x07, “if you want us to be a family, you should learn how to be a dad”

Evie has a bit of a thing for stealing coats lmao — it’s not unusual to find her stealing Chuck, Eric, Theo, or even Nate’s jackets when she gets cold or starts feeling particularly self conscious.  At the housewarming party she actually gets to bothered by all the media watching her constantly that Chuck goes and gets her one of his blazers to replace the cropped one she was wearing, and she immediately feels a bit more at east

Evie is a jock like it’s understated but she’s on multiple sports teams at school and plays outside of school too — she’s also in dance classes several times a week, along with private vocal lessons, and being part of every theatre production at Constance Billard (musicals and plays), and is on the yearbook committee.  Basically, Evie needs a fucking nap, and with a lot of pushing from Chuck and Eric and Theo (to balance out Blair “do absolutely everything in the name of Yale” Waldorf) she does eventually ease up on her extra-curriculars

She holds far too much power in the Constance-St Jude hierarchy.  She’s a freshman, but it’s well known that Evie is completely untouchable.  Some people (cough Jenny) might try to cross Blair, but no one is stupid enough to go after Evie — she’s not just Blair’s protégée, she’s also under Chuck’s protection.  And when Jenny does try to cross her in season 3 (physical and emotional bullshit, public humiliation, telling the entire school she’d tried to kill herself and had been at Ostroff not “in florida”), well... she learns that even being family won’t stop her entire life from being destroyed

Speaking of Jenny... that’s a very messy relationship — I want to like Jenny, I really do, but I just... don’t so far.  They’re a very sweet relationship early on, neither of them had dated before and they were just really smitten with each other and things were good.  There were definitely some issues because of the Jenny-Blair war, but they’d been okay — or so Evie had thought, until Jenny dumped her by means of introducing everyone to her new boyfriend, Asher.  Then of course there’s the party and Jenny outing her, and then just not talking to her for months until she needs something from them (an in to the White Party).  Eric manages to convince Evie to play nice, but he does so under the impression that Jenny had apologized to Evie — he didn’t know she’d only apologized to him.  Eventually Jenny does apologize and Evie tries to forgive her, and she keeps giving Jenny more and more second chances (especially once they become step sisters), but Jenny really just keeps hurting Evie to get on top because with Blair gone, Evie immediately becomes the new queen, and Jenny cares more about being queen than being nice.  Little does she realize that part of why Evie became queen with no challenge is because she’s nice.

and regarding Evie’s other relationships... so serena was a really good big sister when Eric & Evie were kids — Blair was the responsible sister and Serena was the fun sister, but it was a good balance and it worked.  But when the twins were around eleven and Serena was around 13, she became besties with Georgina Sparks, and everything went to shit.  Serena started getting into partying and drinking and drugs and became just as flighty and unreliable as Lily, which takes a significant toll on the twins’ mental health — side note, one of their therapists at the Ostroff Centre believes that their significant codependency stems from the abandonment issues they have as a result of Lily and Serena just up and leaving them whenever anything “better” comes along.

And unfortunately for the twins, this was around the same time (grade 6) that Theo got sent to boarding school, so really they lost both their sister and their best friend at the same time, and Theo leaving also messed up the overall group dynamics and they half lost Nate too — he was still in their lives but he went from being the dad to Blair’s mom to being more of a big brother, and there was this sort of hole that didn’t get filled until a couple of years later.

And of course, a lot of it then fell to Blair to try to fill that hole and the holes left by Serena and Lily and went from being sort of “mom friend big sister” to “literally the closest thing we have to a mom”, which is also just a lot of pressure for a thirteen year old girl and part of why Blair and Chuck got a lot closer after he ended up becoming their dad was because she finally had someone that she could talk to too.

Also like full disclosure, Chuck never really intended to become their dad.  He started off as a reluctant big brother because he was Nate’s best friend and Nate was the dad friend when they were younger, and Evie just kind of decided that she loved him and like no one can argue with Evie so all of a sudden he was part of the family.  He doesn’t really become dad until the van der Woodsens move into the hotel because suddenly Eric and Evie are just always there, and he doesn’t even realize it until months later, after Serena is gone and he realizes that he’s been skipping parties to like play mario kart and shit with the twins and Blair is just like “lmao yeah buddy you’re the last one to get this memo”

and then there’s this list that I made of the NJBC’s roles in raising the twins and theo back when they were younger

Blair: holds their hands to cross the street, teaches them not to talk to people who wear sneakers or to strangers, teaches them how to dress themselves like respectable people, makes them finish their homework before watching tv, hates all of their nannies and only trusts dorota to take care of them Nate: teaches them to tie their laces and their ties, plays video games and sports with them, helps them with homework and doesn't get impatient when they struggle, lets them use his notebooks to draw in when they're bored Chuck: will destroy anyone who hurts them, teaches them street smarts and how to tell when someone is lying, is the one who lets them do dumb and reckless things because he'd rather they do them when he's there to get in trouble, still refuses to believe that they know what sex is Serena: reminded them that it's okay to have fun and draw outside the lines, stood up for them when lily was being a shit mom and always tried to protect them from the worst of her neglect, came up with games to play when they were sad to take their minds off whatever is upsetting them

And Theo!!!!!!  Theo has been their best friend for their entire lives!  They’ve known him since they were babies and the three of them have always been inseparable!  Like highkey they were just a more functional NJBC lmao, and we love them for it!  Theo getting sent to boarding school was really hard on all three of them but they stayed in constant contact and whenever Theo is back in the city, it’s almost impossible to see them not together.  Theo does know that they were in the Centre, so once he’s back full time, he’s spending as much time visiting them as he can!  Even when Eric and Theo are dating (and later when Evie and Theo are dating), the group dynamics really never change!  It’s still always the three of them, and sometimes Jenny in s1, they’re still each other’s family, and they’re still just a bit too interdependent to be entirely healthy (it’s the trauma and neglectful parents)

on a slightly related note, neither of the twins drink anything other than champagne and sometimes wine, and neither of them touch drugs at all, and it’s entirely because of Serena.  They’ve both seen how much she’s changed since she got into that scene, and especially since ‘liking partying’ turned into ‘alcohol addiction’, and they’re both too afraid of ending up like that to even take the risk.  It’s something that definitely sets them apart from pretty much any of their peers, but they’ve gotten very good at just laughing it off with a “hey, I just don’t want to end up on Gossip Girl tomorrow” which people generally accept

(that being said, Evie did smoke for a while pre-canon bc cigarettes curb hunger, but she hasn’t smoked at all since ending up in the Centre, and once she’s out too many people have an eye on her for her to even try, and she does want to stop)

(TW ATTEMPTED SUICIDE, fairly detailed discussion) so okay the breaking point for the twins... lily had just gone awol again and Blair was away visiting her dad and evie was at the archibalds’ house hanging out with theo, who was home for a weekend, and eric didn’t want to call anyone because lily’s disappearance had left him in a spiral of feeling annoying and like people didn’t really want him in their lives and there wasn’t a specific trigger but instead of the spiral slowing down or evie/chuck/blair being able to pull him out of it, it just kept getting worse until he was slitting his wrist in the bathroom — only Evie had just gotten home and when he didn’t reply to her calling his name, she got freaked out and started looking for him and when she saw him, she just... couldn’t deal.  She called 911 for eric but then she was just in the bathroom and covered in his blood and she didn’t know what to do and she needed to calm down so she grabbed a bottle of valium that she thinks was Lily’s but instead of just taking one pill she ended up taking all of them and downing them with a bottle of vodka serena had hidden — once she realized what she’d done she called Chuck and basically just said “I think I fucked up” and Chuck freaks out (understandably) and rushes to their suite and gets there basically just in time to see both of them being loaded into an ambulance; he claims he’s their brother and rides with them to the hospital where he calls blair, and arranges for his jet to pick her up asap, and then tries (unsuccessfully) to get in touch with lily

[fandomlurker]

A Ponderous Rewatch: Prologue

You know, I didn’t think this would happen. I didn’t go into bingeing the 2020 renewal of Animaniacs with the thought “I’m going to watch this and then go and watch the original Pinky and the Brain shorts and spin-off show and do a rewatch and loose analysis on the whole franchise with special attention on queer subtext and themes”. What I initially set out to do was simply watch the renewal and see if it lived up to the show I watched pretty regularly as a kid in the 90s…or at least what I remembered of it through the haze of decades worth of time.

Pinky and the Brain was my favorite set-up on Animaniacs back in the day. Back then I probably wouldn’t even have been able to tell you why beyond “I think it’s funny and the characters are fun to watch as they screw up trying to take over the world”. Other segments were funny to me back in the day, too. Slappy the squirrel was great in that she was basically just like the classic, near-timeless Looney Toons a la Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, but as an old lady toon who’s seen it all and tries to relate to the changing world while proving that the ol’ slapstick ways still work. The Goodfeathers were entertaining despite the fact that I was a literal child and didn’t even know that it was a big ol’ spoof of Goodfellas. Hell, I’ve still never seen Goodfellas, but three pigeons trying to carry themselves like macho tough guy mafia folks while being goddamn pigeons is still funny with or without that context. And as for the Warner siblings themselves? Their skits were pretty consistently great as well. Lots of that Bugs Bunny-like energy of putting terrible folks in their place when they annoy you while coupling it with the dynamic of three child siblings who are very, very active and much too clever for the average person. It was fun!

But as I watched the 2020 reboot with its stripped-down cast now largely consisting of just the Warner siblings and Pinky and the Brain segments for the season (And I’ll be honest, some of the segments from the 90s like Katie Kaboom, Buttons and Mindy, and the Hip-Hippos are ones I’ll be happy to never have return because they were godawful even back then), it brought into focus the strength of those segments compared to most of the others from the old 90s line-up: The strong dynamic and chemistry of the relationships between the main characters of those skits. The Warner siblings are a trio of kids who, despite being truly cut from the same wacky cloth as the most beloved of Looney Toon characters, also very much tap into a very realistic depiction of sibling relationships. Sure, they get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Sure, sometimes they have disagreements on how they view a certain situation. At the end of the day, however, they care about each other more than anything else and work in such perfect sync despite differences in who they are individually.  Sure, Yakko is a talkative theater kid jackass who sasses back at the drop of a dime. Sure, Wakko is kinda quiet and spaced-out and he has the appetite of a garbage disposal. Sure, Dot is adorable and witty and loudly and proudly feminist with an oddly feral streak. But if any one of them is inconvenienced or picked on or threatened in any way by someone, even if that someone is a powerful celebrity of some sort? You bet your ass the other two will immediately back their sibling up and make their tormentor’s life a living hell for the next however long the skit lasts. They’re little gremlin children who love one another, and have a surprisingly tragic backstory that actually speaks to a lot of fans on several levels.

But, okay, the bond between the Warner siblings is great and fun. What about Pinky and the Brain? What makes their dynamic stand out?

Folks, that’s where things get a little more…interesting. To me, at least.

So, watching the beginning of the 2020 reboot got me to slowly remember the parts I loved about the Pinky and the Brain skits from Animaniacs…were actually from their spin-off show. And the things I remembered most clearly from the spin-off were the more heartwarming moments that showed how much they cared about and loved one another, despite Brain being exhausted by Pinky’s dimwitted antics at times. And for a supposedly continuity-light cartoon show, there was a surprising amount of consistency to the main duo and their motivations. There was even a handful of reoccurring side characters the audience was expected to recognize from past episodes, as well, which is a bit strange to have for a show that initially seemed to aim to be strictly episodic. I remembered the odd amount of depth there was to the series. Nothing groundbreaking, mind you, but definitely something more than the average comedy cartoon.

So after watching the first few episodes of the reboot, I took to Tumblr to see if anyone remembered the old 90s show and to see how they were reacting to the new one. In doing so, I came across this post:

“i love that ppl make jokes abt a pinky and the brain version of the destiel confession because that. already happened....... the only difference is that brain pulls pinky out of superhell instead of dying on a barn nail”

Now, look, I’ve never watched Supernatural and only know it through Tumblr cultural osmosis, and at the time we were all riding off the high of the madness that was the finale of that show and the fallout from it. But ANYWAY…

This piqued my interest because 1. I didn’t remember watching an episode of Pinky and the Brain where anything like that happened, and 2. I was already picking up strong gay vibes from the reboot only a few episodes in. So, basically, I just had to hunt down this episode to sate my curiosity and see for myself if there was subtext in this 90s cartoon that I hadn’t quite picked up on as a kid.

I found the episode and started watching it. “Wow,” I said to myself, “this is a lot gayer than I remember…” And after finishing the episode, memories came flooding back to me:

That time the Brain fell for a girl mouse that was looked and acted lot like Pinky.

All those moments where Pinky would wear drag to disguise himself as Brain’s significant other in one way or another to further their plans for that episode, and how I could never remember it being ridiculed.

That one time they accidentally had a child together via a science mishap.

The ending of the Christmas special!...

And as I sat there, dumbstruck and searching Tumblr’s tags to see how far this particular rabbit hole (mouse hole?) went, everything finally clicked in my little bisexual mind.

This was one of the big reasons as to why I loved the Pinky and the Brain skits so much above all the others on Animaniacs all those years ago when I was a kid. It was the same sort of thing that subconsciously drew me to many of the cartoons and anime and media in general I loved as a child, back before I had the proper knowledge and self-awareness to know or express it.

Looking back on my life, I’d always gravitated to and resonated the most with stories and media with queer content in text or subtext. And sure, this cartoon was/is no Sailor Moon or Revolutionary Girl Utena with explorations of gender roles and queerness. It’s no Steven Universe or She-Ra with out and proud queer characters. It’s no The Little Mermaid or The Happy Prince where the stories were made by queer authors and subtextually about queer experience.

However…

However…!

I was surprised to find how deep the gay subtext went with Pinky and the Brain. Hell, I still am. This little Warner Brothers, Looney Toons-pedigree, continuity-light show about two lab mice trying to take over the world in bizarre, hilarious ways has such a weirdly continuous, heartfelt, touching, engaging, and sometimes outrageously raunchy queer undercurrent to it. All done in the 90s! It’s kind of baffling.

This is not to say that the creators and writers of the shows deliberately set out to do this. I don’t believe that anyone involved sat down and said to themselves “I’m going to make this so fucking gay!”. Sure, the voice actors of both Pinky and the Brain have said that they played the dynamic with “the energy of an old gay couple” and they’ve said plenty of suggestive or outright not safe for work things in the character’s voices in interviews and at convention panels. I firmly believe that they’re just having fun as the characters, just as much as I believe the writers were probably just having fun and putting in the gay subtext and suggestive lines as a kind of long running joke and seeing how far they could take it.

(By the time of the Pinky and the Brain comics, however, I’m not so sure. Some of the stuff they got away with in those issues is…amazing, to say the least.)

Regardless of actual intent, I think the writers of Pinky and the Brain (both old and new), have accidentally created a sort of subtextual, yet pretty powerful love story. And you know what? I want to rewatch this story for myself and write down my thoughts as I go along. I tried something similar quite a while back with Droids, and while I kind of ran out of steam as my life got busier and never finished, I have time now for something like this.

I should also say that I’m not out here to, like, convert anyone into shipping cartoon mice together. I imagine most people see Pinky and the Brain as nothing other than very close friends, and that’s a completely valid viewpoint to have. I doubt there will ever be some sort of canonization of a gay relationship between the two, as I imagine most of the writers on the new show (and hell, on the old one) are heterosexual themselves and would view such an idea as “ruining the comedy and the dynamic of the characters” or something similar. I’ve been in the fandom game long enough to know better than to hope and expect any media to sincerely tackle queer relationships in stories that only have the subtext there, especially in comedies.

I guess I’m doing this more to explore something I loved as a child and to see if I can find just as much if not more enjoyment from it as an adult, albeit maybe for different reasons. Hell, it’s also an opportunity to peek into a kind of time capsule from the 90s regarding how far queer subtext could be pushed back then, even when heavily couched in comedy. This is just a little project I wanna do for fun in my spare time. And hey, maybe a few of you out there will have some fun reading it too, who knows?

Either way, see you sometime soon in the new year.

[claudiafekete]

This is another ordinary story of “how xxx fandoms changed my life” -

- or maybe not. you decide. I want to write it down.  trigger warning for politics, discussion of sexual violence, mild gender dysphoria It’s also horribly long. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

When I first came to tumblr, I had just graduated from APH. Short for Axis Power Hetalia. I learned about it in the form of manga. For years it was my everything - I learned what fanfic or fanart meant and I learned the basic online etiquette. As I grew in years, it accompanied me.

Until it didn’t.

Shortly after I fell into solangelo.

It’s a fun story, how I picked up PJO years after years of absence. My brother was whining about something written in Magnus Chase. “What do you think the Norse Gods were going to do to Percy that Annabeth was crying?” He demanded. I expressed my confusion. He kept on with his different theories and I made the decision to look it up online later.

My online search of Percy Jackson’s fate soon revealed something unknown to me before: solangelo. The first canon gay ship I ever knew. Therefore, at the ripe old age of 19, I threw myself into this endless hole called “tumblr” for the first time.

It was the most LGBTQ+ friendly place I had ever been. I joke you not. It was also the place where I was taught not only how a healthy relationship should look like, but also how sex should or could be like.  You don’t learn anything healthy about sex in Chinese or Mandarin using fandom, at least during the years I was in them. There were rigid 攻/受(roughly translated as top/bottom) stereotypes that everyone rushed to squeezed their characters into them. A lot of time though both person might ship A with B, they wouldn’t interact because one thought A should top and another thought B should top. Their different topping designation resulted in depictions of the characters’ personalities so dramatically differed that you couldn’t recognize them as the same characters.  Other than the refreshing relationship dynamics, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard offered me a chance to take a look at my gender identity. I had known that theoretically non-binary people existed outside of binary gender, but I hadn’t known how one might live as one or describe themselves as one. I’m not trying to claim that Alex Fierro’s story is the only story of non-binary people. I’m trying to say that it was the starting point for me to make exploration and find the label  “agender” for myself.

I stayed in APH for 6 years. I had expected to stay in solangelo for longer.

Entered June 2019 with its whispers and anxious demonstrations. Entered folks pouring into streets in Hong Kong. Entered tear gas and facemasks and sticks and a bullet scarcely missing the heart and journalists beaten by police. Entered young students not of age disappearing mysteriously. Entered people dressed in white attacking citizens and not arrested by police. Entered dead bodies that were probably “被自殺 (being suicided)”.

Entered a city falling into the hands of tyrants next to your door, and you didn’t know how to help. You didn’t know what to do with yourself with your clean and spare hands. You were so far away from the frontline, you were angry and helpless and hopeless for that.

It was the first time I witnessed, first-hand, how the Chinese government directed the discussion online, so that it seemed as if there were random mobs who were disturbing the peace of Hong Kong and possibly taking money or being trained by US.  “Bullshit. Would there still be so many kids hurt on street if we have received any kinds of training for this?“  Of course, the majority of Chinese people inland wouldn’t hear that. Hong Kong is a former colony. Any calls of outrage toward the present government must be made by disillusioned young people who were unaware of colonization and imperialism. 

That was why I took refugee in Good Omens. I needed to run some where to stop myself from scratching myself to blood. I needed to some works for these clean and spare hands to do so that they wouldn’t pick up something destructive, such as a knife.

If the PJOverse fandom had felt the best place on earth, well, the Good Omens fandom lifted me into paradise. 

I’ve never seen so much kindness being showed under one tag. The creators and actors were all kind and interacted with the fans in their own ways. We were encouraged to do everything, anything, to build art with it however we liked. We as fans were recognized. We were seen. We were ... cared for. It was overwhelming, in a good way.  For that, I would be forever thankful to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and Michael Sheen and so many others in the production. I would be forever thankful to artists who liberated body types and freed the ties between gender expression and genitals. I would be forever thankful for the fantastic creators out there.

Would it seem as if I’ve only cherished the mutuals I met in Good Omens fandom? It wasn’t my intention. There are friends I keep in touch long after I fell out of love with APH. There are mutuals I got to know through solangelo and I feel, I hope that we are friends. Everyone who has chat with me I do my best to remember. (Though I do left conversation in weird places, become so ashamed of my incompetency that I do not continue them.)

What I’m trying to say is, as good as the solangelo fandom was, I still ran into biphobic posts here and there. It was only once or twice – but it was a constant reminder that being bisexual didn’t seem “valid” to some of the other LGBTQ+ members out there. Who cares what cis-gendered, heteronormative people said? Bullets that shot from friendly fire hurt the worst.

Besides, with a large and vibrant fandom like Good Omens, it’s easier to feel less alone and more… seen.

Damn right. Even after writing more that 5000 words in English it is still so easy to fall back into the comfortable nest of mother tongue. I can read simplified Chinese characters as well as the traditional Chinese characters I grow up using. There probably will never be getting the accent right but soundlessly devouring words in front of a screen? I excel at that.

That was what’s happening when the days rolled into January, 2020. I flew to US as an exchange student and exchanged long letters with a young Chinese woman I met in Good Omens fandom. I’ve never felt so alone in life. English as in creative writing has never come more naturally for me. The words burst in my head and arranged themselves freely on screen or on papers. I’ve never felt more hopeful about my writing ability.

The days rolled into March, 2020.

The first time my mom told me to come home over home, I laughed. The second time, I frowned. Before she pleaded me for the third time, I had grabbed a ticket.

I hadn’t imagined the disease plaguing China and its neighboring countries would affect the whole world.

You lived the rest of the story. I fled back to Taiwan.

 That was where Doctor Who came in. Or David Tennant. Such a strange time. For fourteen days I was the only living human in the house. I watched Casanova – or was it later? Hamlet definitely came before that. Then I could live with my family again. I handed in my homework and wrote in a different language than the people around me were speaking. My parents were working. My little brother was in school. When there was no one to talk to me I either read or watch Doctor Who to pass the time. I fell for Thirteen. I fell for twissy. Falling fast and hard and completely won over by their glamour.

I started internship. There were some small breaks where I could catch an episode or half, but never as much time as before. I dipped into fandom wiki and found that no matter how much research I did, there would always be details I overlooked simply because I could not afford hours watching all the episodes. No matter how hard I squeezed my schedule for time, no matter how much I devoted myself to the series, it would never be enough.

So I gave up, and let it go. For the first time in quite a while, I willingly gave up something for the simple reason of “I want to live a more comfortable life”.

 Came summer. Damp air combined with biting heat and piles after piles of biochemical terms made life agonizing. An ordinary kind of pre-pandemic “agonizing” which felt like a luxury in a world that was ending.

Hong Kong fell.

It was bound to happen. Once I heard protestors fought their way into the legislature I knew, for almost an year I knew, nothing good would come out of this. CCP would never allow its subjects acting out of hand. With such open despise to the authority, CCP would take nothing but a full conquest at the end of it.

See where we are now. As long as you’re “interfering” the political climate “inside” China, it doesn't matter which nationality you hold or where you were or how long it has been since you made the statement. “According to the law”, China can come for you. No, better, it can tell your country to hand you over. What a clever empire. What a graceful empire.

What a horrifying empire.

With the news I spiraled down fast. I kept away from the young Chinese woman I was exchanging letters with, I kept away from any kinds of Chinese social media, and the worst of all, I kept away from Good Omens, for it was sweet and kind and hopeful, for it reminded me of a time where fighting seemed to make a difference. I was empty and exhausted and a husk. Something must come out to fill the void. Someone needed to paint me in colors so that the world wouldn’t notice I was fading away.

I was surprised at who took the brush.

 After ten years, the first man I ever have a crush on strolled back into my life.

He was over thirty, but I always pictured him in his early twenties. Dark hair, eyes of grey or silvery blue. Loud laughter that sounded like a bark. Swift and elegant. Intelligent. Prideful. Stubborn. I embraced him as I’ve done ten years ago as a little child.

When I looked past him, I saw someone else.

Worn, weathered, with wry humor. Attentive and considerate. Tortured by the world yet never stop giving out kindness. Countless scars. Grey hair unfitting to his age. I didn’t pay him much attention ten years ago. This time, I looked.

Let me introduce you Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, my very first crush and the man who is too much like my last crush.

 2020, a month before Fall semester started, I trekked cautiously, timidly back into Harry Potter fandom.

The fandom of August 2020 was very different from fandom of 2010. The lack of author, for one – it became mandatory to denounce the author’s transphobic statement and other bigotry setting. I’m glad that everyone is doing their best to make it a friendly place for minority groups. Though I’m afraid, by making it a white or black situation with short statements and no discussion, it wouldn’t really help people understand why she is wrong in this. However irrefutable the author’s guilt seems to us, it is not something obvious to those who are unfamiliar with the subjects.

But it does feel good to see blogs and fics with the introduction such as “If you support the author’s transphobic bullshit this place does not welcome you”. It feels reliving.

The second was, I found the type of work I’m actively pursuing changed.

Back when I was young – when I was so little I didn’t even know what the word “fandom” meant – I read Character x OFC and some M x M. During the APH period I read an alarming amount of M x M and countless historical AU. When digging through solangelo, beside the canon divergence stories, simple AU like coffee shop grabbed my attention. Coming out stories were my comforts. The best of Good Omens fics were either in canon verse discussing desires, bravery, humanity and mortality, or setting in an AU with the promise of sweet, fluffy endings. Doctor Who almost always focused on Time and Space. Love was twisted and so often tainted by anger. Monster and god were very alike.

I came a full circle back to the Marauder era, and found myself not looking for heroes, but for young fighters struggling desperately in a seemingly hopeless war. I looked for people who were frightened but never, never ever going down without a fight.

I used to find characters and events unfolding in foreign places, now I want  characters who are close to what I am or what I want to be.

---

So, that’s it, my grand journey through multiple fandoms and basically a journey of self-discovery. It’s messy, sometimes painful, but always with so much joy blooming along the way.

Something doesn’t change. I’m still obsessed with words. I’m still a sucker for happy ending. I’m still wishing someone will come and love me the way I need to be loved.

Something does. I stop imagining that some magical power will come into my life and solve everything. I stop looking for others to save me from myself. I start believing that though wounds hurt, some of them do teach us to be a better person.

Long ago, I saw my friends and I as rabbits, without proper weapons to defend ourselves. That wouldn’t do. I thought. For my friends I’ll grow into a snake with fangs to protect them. Maybe I have grown into a snake. Maybe I haven’t. But I do hope I won’t stop fighting for those I love, with those I love.

I hope I won’t give up.

[shirokodomo]

✍️ X 5

For every ✍️ received, I will mention a mutual and write about my favourite thread/OOC interaction we've had together!

Alright!! Let’s start with the one who sent this ask <3

@archeracrosstime | Rarity was legit the very first person I followed after I made this blog and she was the source of inspiration for a lot of stuff I did at the beginning, both for graphics and writing. Must confess though that I really thought the headers for the verses was something common among this RPC community and I kinda jumped on the boat for that x’D 

Favorite Thread: Hard to pick, we haven’t had much Hakudoshi-Kagome interactions, we had more with Kohaku and Kagome and the post-canon interaction with Kohaku asking Kagome for help due to a new demon helped me build off how my post-canon Kohaku would be. Other than that, I am currently really liking the Towa and Hakudoshi thread, looking forward to continue it soon!

Favorite OOC Interaction: I can’t just pick one tbh but I would say when we are screaming/ranting about the Yashahime episode and theories are my favorite OOC interactions so far!! We’re surviving this hell of a sequel together XD

I will continue this under the cut!

@withagentleheart | Ella. We started off in a random thread because our muses never once interacted in canon, then came the relationship meme where I mentioned that I had gained interest in Hakudoshi/Rin in a romantic way, after that we both fell down this shipping hole plus the love we both have for Kohaku/Rin. And now we’ve joined all that in one beautiful OT3 ship.

Favorite Thread: Definitely, definitely our berries thread, I mean seriously I don’t think I ever started a ship in such a cute and funny way! Love for berries brought those two together.

Favorite OOC Interaction: I have many but as of lately it’s definitely the screaming over the Naruto episodes!!

@senpujin | Emma. I was so happy and excited when I saw a Setsuna blog appearing on the community that my follow was instant, the series hadn’t even started yet and I was already adoring Emma’s Setsuna, I really loved her portrayal overall and even now that we have seen Setsuna on screen I think she has nailed her Muse really well.

Favorite Thread: Any thread with Setsuna and Kohaku are my favorites, doesn’t matter really if it’s just crack, random, chief Kohaku or dad Kohaku they always put a smile on my face and warm my heart!

Favorite OOC Interaction: Very much like Rarity, I love when we discuss our theories and analyze the new and old episodes of Yashahime together!!

@slaheir | Zee. Legit when I saw a Hisui blog had followed me on Kohaku I legit screamed, like with Emma’s Setsuna the series hadn’t started yet but it made me so dang happy to see someone deciding to portray MirSan’s baby boy (funny enough days before Zee followed my blogs I had thought of creating a Hisui RP blog x’D)

Favorite Thread: Every single one that expands and explores the bond between Hisui and Kohaku! Since Sunrise and Yashahime are not giving us what we wished for, we are feeding ourselves with feels and fluff with the uncle and nephew duo.

Favorite OOC Interaction: I would say definitely the rise of the Mizuki / Kohaku ship for the Yakuza verse, like it started as something random and funny that Zee wrote to me and then I was just “...why not tho?” and now here we are sobbing and loving these two dorks too shy to confess.

@slayerled | Shadow. Well I had to complete this with almost all of my Taijiya fam members. Shadow I adore every single one of our interactions both IC and OOC, let’s keep being siblings in the dash games because I absolutely love when we get the same results xD

Favorite Thread: Slowly on-going but it is definitely Sango trying to soothe her little brother about his crush on Rin, the poor boy is a ball of anxiety who doesn’t know what to do with these feelings and only his sister can help him xD

Favorite OOC Interaction: uM every single shanenigan we have in our Taijiya server, seriously all of you guys in there make me smile and laugh and I thank you all with your endless support!!

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

I.T. & Grace Monroe (Again) Chat

Thank you for such a great response! I can’t every imaging the suspense waiting a week for each episode! Lemme tell you the first season I was annoyed with tulip but understood when she was used to expose the trains true meaning /use. MT/Lake story was equally annoying but I appreciated how they used her brattiness to reenforce the methods of the train. What seems impossible to handle in real life becomes more palatable on the train...it brakes it down into bite sized pieces for the passengers to understand and consume. It’s a vr problem solving machine(who would want that). But the major flaw becomes visible to me, by the end of season 1, adults do not fair as well as kids. Amelia did not fair well, her mind was so fixed on the outcome she wanted, that she overlooked any lessons from the train. She forced a square peg into a round hole and her numbers started rising. When she ran into Grace as a child even though is seems like a brief interaction, Grace was already primed to become another Amelia. Her background of affluence, she knows exactly how adults change the world around them to their liking. She already knew the game to be played, so seeing someone with power and influence in that train car , save her, control the enviroment (like her parents would) and have the most numbers she knew what to do. I think she was there to learn not to live to please others, not to feel abandoned and powerless, that not all attention and power is good, that she can stand alone in safety. When she met Simon, she was right back to her old behaviors. What was sad is that by the last episode of that season you know that his real life situation was full of hate and abuse. Grace fell into her enabler and Simon thought he found a mirror. They trauma bonded. It looked like he even developed romantic feelings for her. Still every chance the train sent her to learn those lessons she literally did that opposite of what she wanted. She did what she and Simon agreed to do, Simon looked like he was the mastermind behind all of the Apex rules. I can imagine them trying to figure out how their gang would run with Simon saying something and Grace agreeing then adding to it. I bet Simon felt judged, inferior and misunderstood in real life, because he just could not adapt to seeing Grace form a bond with Hazel and Tuba. The fact that his numbers were decreasing along with Grace’s at one point due to him following her lead was a telling, he was there to learn to find and accept the similarities with the train’s life forms (sorry I forget what they called them) and to build a found family based on that. His attacks on Grace were so brutal, he went to the cat with intent to find something to make Grace fall back inline, to force her back into his ideal world. He rallied the Apex kids to turn against her. He couldn’t even accept the conductor, the ‘god’ of his reality when he met her he just wanted what all adults wanted on that train, to make his world his way. So many adults do this, it’s got to be the reason the train exists right? Catch them as kids, teach them how to find the solution to their problems and send them back into the real world to teach others. Like a gigantic roomba for mental health issues lol. I didn’t expect that Simon wouldn’t make it but there was no way he would have ever left that train on his own. Grace was his way off, and I think he knew that deep down. Makes you wander just how bad his life was, or if he just had an untreated psychosis. Grace’s relationship with Hazel and Tuba became stronger the moment she accepted what she wanted and not what was good for the gang. The years that passed and the numbers that accumulated were undone in a few weeks by that bond, and Simon was watching his world crumble right before his eyes. I really love watching interracial couples on screen, and it’s been great to see how they made Grace and Simon. BwWm (or any combo of black and white or biracial) relationships don’t all have to be racism struggle or forbidden love. It can be as unique as this, scared kids in a new environment. Love it!

You know, to be frank, I shipped this as a ship before it became a season. Whenever I saw them last time, I was like, “Well, they seem cute n’ cozy.” Then, of course, whenever they were revealed to be a hate group, I was like... Well... I hope we find out more because I definitely fucking feel a way about them now. I don’t have very good history with hate groups. My activism hasn’t allowed it, my hometown didn’t allow it - I just have too many bad experiences with hate groups and so since I was reading them as such, my main purpose of watching their season was to see how the train was going to help to change them.

I honestly was like, “Ship be damned,” by the time we got to 6-8 and was just hoping for maybe some friendship building and growth together as better humans. Like. I could care less about a ship on just about any given day (which is why even whenever “my ships” fall apart (and mine always involve Black girls, so that’s like a what 98% failure rate, just because creators never like to see Black girls or women happy anyway), I’m usually fine with it not taking place IF the girl is in a good place and/or there aren’t hella people around her all boo’d up while she’s the strong single. Shadowhunters, looking at y’all bitch ass with a hard side-eye. You as well, Glee. You as well, Battlestar Gallactica and True Blood... Y’all killed the bitches for really no reason. ANYWAYS, I was fine with them not being a ship if it meant growth...

I was shocked that he died, but I also didn’t feel as hurt as I would have had he not done EVERYTHING in his goddamn power to overthrow and murder this girl. Because, I had to repeatedly be like, “This dude is technically a goddamn child,” but then again, so is she. They never grew up in any healthy environment, and I ABSOLUTELY envision Apex creation and building exactly as you did. See, it’s something we got as older Black women looking at this story that the girls just be missing. The signs were so obvious to me that he was the muscle and she was the face, but a lot of people were extremely convinced that she had somehow strong armed this poor, innocent boy into her belief system, even though she literally was always the one with the soft voice.

They read this as manipulation a lot, and perhaps because I’ve been in situations where I knew, “If I don’t charm this person, it is gonna be a very bad day, indeed,” I just didn’t read her actions as harmful. I didn’t see her using her charms to get someone killed or anything dangerous. Only to cheer him up when he was moody, get him to go along with something that wasn’t bad for him at all, etc. So, I mean, whatever, if it’s manipulation, oh well. We do it on a daily basis in the real world whenever we try to let folk down gently as to not get shot on the side of the road, so I’m never jumping to any conclusion that any girl, especially not a Black girl is manipulating somebody without actual evidence, which, I saw none of. She was labeled as his motivation for being a villain from the moment she appeared, so the petty Black fangirl in me rejoiced that canon shot that all straight to hell, and then I received icing on the cake when she not only did not die, but got a redemption arc? YASSSSS BITCH. GIVE MAMA MY THANGS!

I’ve seen a few “fix it fics” and AU’s, but only reading a few of them. I didn’t need anything fixed. I’m just enjoying a little side content (as best as i can anyways. I generally check out if anybody feels like they about to rewrite to go ahead and try to make Grace look responsible for any of that boy’s shit. That fuels my wrath. Because, people really think that they only do shit like this theoretically with fiction, but you not gon’ make me believe that the same people who want to overlook Grace’s trauma, and the way that Simon intentionally harmed her, or downplay her guts to face him head on and try to speak to him about changing and being wrong and not even attack him? (Which, tbh could have been because it’s her instinctual response to protect and care for him, because she’s been doing it since they met and also, nobody is convincing me that he *changed* into this person. That person was always there and Grace had to manipulate his ass into staying docile), but to try to take away that aspect of the story, which is super important to escaping abuse, escaping cults, and building up self - I can’t commit to stories like that. Those are the same people I equate with the people that my ex was COMPLETELY right about whenever he told me that people were always gonna believe him over me because he’s white, smart, and nice. And if we’re being 100, they don’t have to be all three to get people rally behind them while they literally try to hurt and kill you.

So, I just appreciated that the story rallied around the right one and that they didn’t make any room for for blaming his target, although fans will lie and say that they did. That’s just the regular degular misogynoir coming out to play. After leaving a situation in real life with someone like this and having SO MANY GODDAMN PEOPLE try to tell me how the fuck I was wrong, I don’t have patience for that shit. Honestly, if a roach dog monster could have melted and disintegrated Josh, I’d have had a fucking party. And maybe Josh was emotionally and mentally stunted and still a boy dealing with trauma, so that’s where my gray area comes in. It’s like, it’s sad that he chose not to change, but also like, had he been real and did what he did, I definitely would say he should die and not feel bad about that. So, gross scene, but I haven’t a lot of sorrow about it, either. He didn’t give ME much room to feel that bad for him, personally.

Girl, I’ve talked more about Infinity Train on this blog than any other series. Lol. 

[t100ficrecsblog]

an interview with @elora-lane  (she/they) content warning: mentions of mental illness and past physical injury

what are you working on right now? what’s something you’d like to write one day? 

Right now, I am working on a Bellarke A/B/O period fic called Surely, You Must Know. I am also working on my Bellarke for BLM Prompts. The first one was posted a couple weeks ago, and I have a bit written for my Bellarke improv/roommates au, and the Josie/Bellamy Bellarke fic (where Bellamy goes through the wringer with an abusive Josie, and Clarke is there to help him heal). 

Something I’d like to write one day... I have a book idea about a genderfluid, bisexual individual based in the early 1820s. The main character (she/her, they/them) was born female and finds herself ostracized after she kisses her best friend (a female), when her friend says she is going to school elsewhere. It takes place over years, and involves the main character falling in love, her love being killed in front of her, having a child and ending up with the very same friend who couldn’t accept her own sexuality (the best friend is a lesbian). 

I’m not sure If I’ll get around to writing it, but I have it all planned out and the characters already live in my mind.  

what is the fanwork you’re most proud of?  Hmm... that’s honestly very difficult for me to answer because I’m rarely happy with my writing in the long term. But I’d say I’m proud of The Governor’s Daughter, which was written for Garcy (timeless, Garcia Flynn/Lucy Preston). I had a three-part story planned out for this fic, but I’ve since gotten so absorbed with Bellarke that I changed the ending so it wouldn’t torture fans. But in the original ending the main character is pregnant when she is kidnapped, and her husband is recovering from a gunshot wound himself, when shots are fired in her home. 

The main character leaves thinking everyone she loves is dead. 

I was rather proud of the fic because it’s the longest thing I’ve written- and I don’t write long works. Beyond that, it was about two individuals who should never have met. But did and fell in love despite all odds. In the story not everything is as it seems. I did a lot of research for it and wonder if I got it right (the language probably needs some work). I sorta get obsessed with research, although I know it’s not perfect. 

The Bellarke work I’m most proud of is probably How Not to Quarantine. I went into it wanting to write something smutty. But it became a bit deeper than that and dealt with issues of battling societal norms, sexism toward both women and men, and miscommunication. 

why did you first start writing fic?  I got inspired by Garcia Flynn and Lucy Preston from Timeless. I got inspired by the idea of time travel, and how the future is never as it seems. I’ve always written poetry, and very short stories. But fan fic has been my first time really writing stories with somewhat significant plotlines. I wanted to fill a plot hole, and well... I haven’t stopped writing since. 

Another aspect of it was that I was new mom and unemployed. I have twins who are toddlers now. But when I first started writing I had horrible post-partum depression and anxiety that lasted two years. Writing helped me funnel all of that and be the new mom I needed to be. The lovely comments and encouragement I got from fandom friends played a part in keeping me on the road to recovering from my worst depressive episode. 

what frustrates you most about fic writing?  Honestly, not to sound mellow-dramatic, but me. I frustrate myself. 

I’ve mentioned it a little bit, but I had a few head injuries and I have bad ADHD. It’s a lot better than it was when I first started writing about two and half years ago. I would revisit my works and there were so many errors and things that just didn’t make sense. After my last head injury (I fell 8ft on concrete right onto the back of my head about eight years ago), I would write papers that made sense to me in the moment, and then my instructor would show me what I wrote, and it was just totally jumbled up nonsense- some of it wasn’t even words. Needless to say, I had to drop out of college. 

So, as frustrating as it is, I’m proud of myself for continuing to write enough to retrain my brain (of course, it also healed, and anti depressants helped my brain chemistry realign). I still make errors and my brain gets tired quickly on some days, but I’ve come a long way. Grammarly is a huge help, too! 

what are your top five songs right now?  Oh boy. I totally blame @star-sky-earth for the first three... here is a list. 

Body by SYML

Touch by Sleeping at Last

Let Me by ZAYN

Bulletproof Weeks by Matt Nathanson

Nashville by Noah Gundersen

That was so hard to decide, thank you for the challenge!

what are your inspirations (books, songs, other fic, really good cake?)?  Music is huge for me. I’m very sensitive to the mood that music puts me in. A good tune can help me think of an entire plotline. Usually, it’s the music in a movie and the visuals that inspire me, and rarely the dialogue. 

Anything by Jane Austen is inspiring for my Bellarke ABO period fic. My fav JA book is Northanger Abbey, but I rewatched the film version of Mansfield Park, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility (the BBC three-parter) all in one night! 

Bonus note: the new Emma has a really good kiss scene that is just 100%... Muy Bueno. Loved it. ed’s note: the new Emma film is very good

what first attracted you to Bellarke? what attracts you now? Well, frankly I was attracted to Bellarke fic before I liked them in the show. But some of the Modern AUs and some of the Canon Divergent AUs have power dynamics that really get me. I love fics where one of them is a king/queen or boss, and it takes time for them to fall in love, but the one with the power is gracious and caring and uses that to help the other. Even if it takes a while to get there, I guess kindness and compassion attract me. As does conflict resolution. To me, conflict is worth it if it gets a good resolution. 

I also like other themes like loyalty, perseverance, transformation, epiphany and absolution. 

In the show, season six hooked me. 

BESIDES Bellarke, what character or pairing do you like best on t100?  I’m gonna answer this from a fic writer perspective. Honestly, I’d love to see season six Echo continue the road to absolution and end up with Gabriel (I mean, it’s a pipe dream, but Gecho, c’mon...). I’m okay with where she is in season seven, because I can’t control it. But it’s not what I would have done. 

Roan/Echo is fav of mine. 

I also would have loved to see Gina and Raven. Or more Gina/Bellamy. I really liked Gina. 

As far as 100% actual ships, I liked Linctavia. I do like season seven, too. Although it feels like a totally different show. 

why did you decide to start writing for bellarkefic-for-blm?  I decided to because it allows me to use something unique for the good of others. I try for the most part to help others.

what’s your writing process like?  Chaos. 

Writing for me is like cracking open a coconut. It’s tough to get there, but once you do it doesn’t stop. And if you hit it too hard, the stuff just goes all over the place. 

what are some things you’d like to recommend?  In general? Umm... Calm Magnesium drink, it’s super relaxing. Like last night I started having all this anxiety and drank some. It calmed me down enough to sleep (also listened to the sound of a snowstorm and crackling fire). 

I also recommend introspection and reflection. If you do that a lot, I recommend art or writing. Life is all about balance.

You can find @elora-lane here on Tumblr, or at their ao3 here. Request a fic written by her over at @bellarkefic-for-blm.

[singledarkshade]

Nightmare Scenario

Summary: How do you live in a world you don't belong to? Rip does his best to survive while running the Time Bureau, while Sara does her best to make sure he doesn't disappear into his work. Danger however is on the horizon and Rip's life is about to be torn apart once more. A Season 3 rewrite. Author’s Note: Rip Week Day 2: Perfect Episode – Rip left the show too soon, so give us the ideal episode that we never got. Alternatively, you can fix something to make it better, or give us that perfect scene that we never had. Canon compliance optional. I chose to rewrite the beginning of Season 3, this may be continued but until then, enjoy.                                ********************************************* Sara stared at the man who appeared through the portal before them. He was wearing the same blue suit as all the people who suddenly surrounded them, his hair was shorter than she’d ever seen it and he was clean shaven, which frankly Sara thought just looked odd on him.

“Well,” he stated as he removed his sunglasses, “You really buggered things up this time.”

“Rip?” was all she could manage to say as she stared at the scene around her.

Ray however demanded, “What’s going on?”

“Crossing our timeline fractured time forming anachronisms,” Rip stated, “I created The Time Bureau to deal with them.”

“Time Bureau,” several voices echoed in confusion.

Sara frowned, “You left the ship fifteen minutes ago.”

Rip shrugged, “To you maybe but building the Bureau has been the focus of the last five years of my life.”

Not sure how to reply, Sara worried because knowing the man before her the fact he had been alone without the team, but especially without Gideon, for that long was not a good thing for him.

“I suppose it’s only fitting, since I created the team,” Rip continued, “That I dissolve it. Your services are no longer required.”

“What?” several voices around her yelled while Sara stared at him.

With that said Rip turned to leave. He paused, turned back and added, “That means you’ll all be looking for jobs. Can I interest you in positions within a time travel organisation?”

Sara rolled her eyes, “How long did you work on that for?”

Rip shrugged, “Longer than I care to admit.”

Six Months Later

 Sara walked through the Bureau’s main building towards the offices, it had been a long day and she wanted something to eat but had to do one thing first. Reaching the office, Sara walked in without knocking.

“Gideon,” Rip said, not looking up as Sara entered, “I thought we agreed no one has access to my office without my say so?”

“Miss Lance has an appointment to meet you for dinner,” Gideon replied, with that smugness she got at times which Sara loved, when it wasn’t directed at her.

Rip frowned and looked at Sara, “Since when?”

Sara shrugged, “Since Gideon feels you’re not eating properly or taking time off work. So, put whatever you’re doing down for two hours and come have pizza with me.”

He continued to stare at her.

“I’ll tell you all the gossip,” Sara grinned before adding, “And if you don’t you know Gideon will start doing the passive aggressive thing you hate.”

“Director,” Gideon spoke up, “You have not eaten anything substantial since early this morning.”

Rip rolled his eyes, “I’m not going to get any peace if I don’t join you for dinner, am I?”

“You are smart,” Sara teased.

With a long sigh, Rip rubbed his eyes and stood, motioning Sara to lead the way knowing Gideon would lock down his office while he wasn’t there. Sara watched Rip as they walked through the corridors to the carpark. He looked tired but these days he always did. His decision to create a replacement for the Time Masters, one that was better than his former masters, put a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

Sara did her best, along with Jax and Ray to get him out of his office every so often, just to remind him there was a world outside of it.

Officially he lived in one of the apartments at the top of the Bureau’s main building but, in reality, was living on the Waverider again which was berthed in the lower levels. Gideon did her best to look after him in their new circumstances. Ensuring that Rip was forced out of his office every so often for dinner with one of them and on occasion persuaded him to take the ship out on a mission.

 Rip sat on the armchair in Sara’s living room stretching his legs out and closing his eyes. He knew he fought against it but, it was nice to get out of the office for a while.

Gideon worried about him, he knew this. She was concerned that he was isolating himself from the world, but Rip couldn’t get too involved or he could accidentally change time more than he already had.

He didn’t belong in this century.

He didn’t belong anywhere.

Other than on the Waverider or at the Vanishing Point.

“Pizza is on its way,” Sara announced as she appeared and handed him a bottle of beer.

Taking the bottle, Rip nodded.

“You know,” Sara said, dropping onto her couch and curling her legs beneath her, “Friends talk to one another, tell each other how they’re doing, how their day has been and other things.”

Rip took a quick drink before replying, “I’m doing fine, and my day has been busy.”

“Master conversationalist as always,” Sara rolled her eyes.

He shrugged, taking a long drink before asking, “And you?”

She chuckled, “Mission went well, but I’m sure once Agent ‘Dull and Boring’ gets through with the report she’ll give you the lowlights.”

“I really wish this feud you have going with Ava would fizzle out,” Rip sighed, “It is…” he paused before settling on, “Irritating.”

“Sharpe is the one who started it,” Sara said innocently, “I believe she took offence to my style of training agents.”

Rip sighed again, he’d had this discussion with them both far too many times in the past few months, “Well you were trying to train them for the League of Assassins.”

Sara laughed, “Just wanted them to know how hard their job will be.”

Shaking his head Rip finished his beer, “Did anything happen today that I should know about?”

“No, it was pretty standard,” she assured him before changing the subject, “You know Martin has invited us all to Lily’s baby shower on Saturday.”

“Gideon told me,” Rip replied, becoming very interested in the bottle he was still holding, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to go.”

Sara didn’t say anything for a minute before sighing, “It’s a get together with your friends, Rip. Time away from work which will be good for you.”

“Sara…”

“I know,” she interrupted him, “That the whole baby thing is hard for you but, it’s going to happen more and more. Especially since you ensured the Bureau didn’t follow the Time Master’s policy on agents not marrying.”

Sadness filled him, the pain tugging against his heart reminding him of the hole that would always be there.

“You can’t avoid it forever,” Sara continued softly, “And Martin has been asking after you. This is just an excuse he’s found to get you there for a few hours. You have to start living in the world at some point.”

“Sara,” he sighed, “This isn’t my world. I survive here because I must. My home is gone, along with my family.”

“But you have friends,” she reminded him, “We’re here for you. You need to remember that. You’re not alone.”

 Rip bade Sara goodnight, accepting the cookies she handed him and opened the portal to the Waverider. Stepping through he felt relief fill him to be back on board.

“Did you have a good night, Captain?” Gideon asked as he made his way to the galley and stored the cookies in the cupboard.

She had taken to calling him Director within the Bureau but here on the Waverider, he was always Captain.

He shrugged dropping into a chair, “It was nice to spend time with Sara, but could you stop scheduling things without talking to me first?”

“Since you continue to ignore everyone’s attempt to socialise with you,” Gideon noted, “Then in order to follow my directive to protect, and keep you healthy, I sometimes need to push.”

Rip couldn’t stop the smile that touched his lips, “Is that what you call it?”

“You require sleep, Captain,” Gideon reminded him, “You have an early meeting tomorrow morning.”

Nodding Rip headed to his room, he knew he would have to take the ship out soon, it wasn’t fair on Gideon to be trapped down here but he needed her to be with him. Gideon was all he had left and losing her was something he could never contemplate.

Readying himself for bed, Rip slid under the covers and closed his eyes. He fell asleep becoming aware of another presence at his side. Gideon wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head against his shoulder.

“Sara is right,” she said after a few minutes, “You should spend more time with the others, you shouldn’t be alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Rip sighed, his fingers tangling with her hair, “I have you.”

“Rip,” she reminded gently, “I’m not human, I can’t be with you physically outside your dreams.”

He hugged her tighter, “I don’t need that. I just need your support.”

“You always have it, my dear Captain,” she told him, “But you also need people you can interact with in the real world. Going to Lily Stein’s baby shower will be a good thing.”

Rip nodded, “And I’m betting you already ordered a gift from us?”

“It is a lovely gift with all the necessities Lily will require,” Gideon replied, making him smile.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Rip sighed and closed his eyes, “I need to sleep properly.”

“I know,” Gideon murmured, “Rest, Captain I am watching over you. Always.”

                                 *********************************************

 “Well, this is a sight I did not expect,” Martin laughed as Rip stood in the doorway, “Welcome to my home, Captain Hunter. Sorry, Director Hunter.”

Rolling his eyes, he suggested, “How about just Rip?”

Martin nodded, “Come on in, Rip.”

Walking into the house Martin had moved to in Star City only a few months before so he could consult with the Bureau, Rip smiled to see Sara, Ray and Jax were already there.

“I’m guessing Gideon has something to do with you being here?” Sara asked as she handed him a glass filled with what appeared to be fresh orange juice.

Rip shrugged, “She bought a gift. I had to deliver it.”

Jax and Ray began to chuckle while Sara grinned, “Of course you did.”

Shaking his head Rip sipped his drink as he looked around the cheerfully decorated room, suddenly realising there was no one else there.

“Am I early?” he asked.

“I thought we could all have an hour to catch up before the rest of the guests arrived,” Martin told him.

 Rip enjoyed catching up with his former team. He knew what Ray, Jax and Sara were doing within the Bureau but rarely got the chance to talk to them. Even when they dragged him out his office for dinner, they mostly talked about work.

Martin looked happy, being at home with his wife and seeing his daughter engaged with a baby on the way. Jax was working part-time within the Bureau’s engineering department while taking college courses. Ray was looking for a way to separate them from the Firestorm matrix, so they didn’t have to meet up so frequently while also helping in the Bureau’s labs.

He sat and listened to the others talking, joining in the laughter as he caught up on his friend’s lives.

The guests for the baby shower began to arrive and as the others mixed with the guests Rip took the tea Clarissa had made for him, sliding out the back door into the garden.

“You know the party is inside,” Lily’s voice made him turn.

Quickly moving to help her to the nearest seat, Rip shrugged, “I’m not a party person.”

“Me neither,” Lily confessed, “But my mom wanted to do this. She’s so excited about the baby. Personally, I just can’t wait to not get kicked in the kidneys every time I lie down.”

Rip smiled slightly, “As long as you put the baby in the crib. Because trust me, babies tend to know instinctively where to hit you.”

“It was nice that you came today,” Lily said, “My dad misses talking to you. He says you have an interesting way of looking at problems.”

Rip shrugged, “Your father is a brilliant man. And from what I hear you are making waves in the scientific community as well.”

Lily smiled, “I had a great teacher.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Lily sighed, “I suppose I should go back inside since this is my party. Help me up?”

Rip offered his hand to pull her to her feet before letting her take his arm escorting her back inside.

“And tell Gideon thank you for the present,” Lily told him, “It was beautiful.”

“She’ll be pleased you liked it, but I warn you now, she will want you to visit with the baby.”

 Ray and Jax intercepted Rip as he was about to leave escorting him back to the living room after the other guests had left.

“You’re not going back to work,” Ray told him, “Sara has already called Gideon who won’t let you into your office until tomorrow morning.”

With a sigh, knowing he was defeated before he even tried, Rip accepted the bottle of beer Sara handed him and took a seat. He listened to them chatting, speaking every so often so they didn’t try to entice him into a full conversation.

About an hour later, Martin was in the middle of a story about some of his new students when the doorbell rang, Clarissa slipped away to answer it.

“Martin,” Clarissa called, making them all turn to see several cops following her inside along with a familiar man.

“Dad?” Sara jumped to her feet, “What are you doing here?”

Quentin Lance gave her a quick frown before turning, “Rip Hunter?”

Rip stood confused and nodded, surprised when he was seized and handcuffed.

“What the hell are you doing, Dad?” Sara demanded.

Her father shook his head before he looked at Rip again, “You’re under arrest, Mr Hunter.”

“On what charge?” Rip demanded coldly.

“The murder of Miranda Coburn and Jonas Hunter.”

[spicy-ryls]

Ranty TROS stuff below. I wrote this on and off days so it might sound disconnected but yeah. Sorry it’s kinda long and my spelling and grammar might not be the best but I just wanted to let my feelings out.

I’m still trying to accept this movie. I watched it on the night of 19 December, the premier date for Malaysia, and I still remember my visceral feeling towards this movie. I remember feeling so empty, baffled, sad and shocked, almost like I just lost a relative or one of my cats, and I’ve experienced that multiple times in my life and it sucks.

Sometimes I think, how could I be so attached to this trilogy? I’ve literally spent so much energy defending TLJ and the ST from the backlash in the local fandom to the point where I couldn’t stand it anymore and I removed myself from the local fanbase as much as I could. But I’ve never felt so betrayed and almost embarassed that I was so invested into it.

I never grew up with Star Wars. Instead, I started watching TFA while I was in that age period between 19-20. I was a little shit and I was still adjsuting to adulthood, so it pretty much was almost like in the process of being born again as an adult. At the time I was making a series of webcomics under the title ‘Gods Among Men’ and I was pretty much drawing almost exclusively Hades/Persephone stuff and I was drawing Hades as this typical tall, dark & handsome guy. At some point, my friends and I just joked at how much I loved that trope that’s it’s like my type in fictional guys, and yes I still love it.

So my friends just said to me “hey, watch the new Star Wars, you’ll love it!”

And I was HOOKED.

I got so into it. I watched all of the other movies, even the Christmas Special. And I loved the character of Kylo Ren so much. Initially I wasn’t instantly into Reylo. But after some fanart or fanfic or two I fell down the rabbit hole of this ship that I loved so much and the two characters of Rey and Kylo/Ben whom I had such a strong connection to.

Q4 of 2017 was the best year for me as a fan of this franchise. I was so excited for TLJ. I was super involved in a lot of local Star Wars related stuff and at that point people just knew me as “That Rey (cosplayer) who liked Reylo and Kylo Ren a lot”. I had made many friends and acquaintances over the year. And then TLJ came.

And the community was divided.

A lot of male fans I knew were so enraged by the movie. “TLJ ruined my childhood!!” they shouted on their facebook wall. “RJ and KK ruined Star Wars” they yelled. It just cemented the Star Wars Fanboy trope so badly that it was laughable that grown men 3 times my age with family AND KIDS were yelling about it for TWO WHOLE YEARS and because I was the one publicly championing the ST, all they talked about to me was about how much they hated it, and it’s still brought on in passing conversation to this day. I hated having to meet these people at events because my encounters are always unpleasant.

Time passed. The Reylo community was prosperous and it really was a golden age of content. We were excited to see how the ending of a saga was going to be, with a definitive Ben Solo redemption and Reylo being canon. And then came the announcement of JJ returning to direct Episode IX. I instantly had a gut feeling that it was not gonna be good, but I will hold my trust to him since he directed TFA. BOY I WAS WRONG.

The TROS panel at SWCC ended in a somewhat hopeful note. Later in the year, interviews were being published, and in the beginning it was all fine and dandy. I can’t remember when the news of reshoots started popping out, but even then I gave them the benefit of the doubt that because this movie was going to tie in all of the other 8 movies and surely they had to do something right about it. Then came in a lot of red flags in merchandising, marketing, cast interviews, etc. Daisy’s and John’s infamous interview felt so OOC for me that I couldn’t believe what I was reading. And at this point, my hopes were very low. I felt something was very off in everything and I was almost inactive of soc med or any TROS news because I wanted to watch the movie with no outside influences. I didn’t even read any leaks and only heard about it in passing.

Then came the week of the premier. I was putting my expectations super low. I just thought of all the bad things that could happen like Rey Palpatine or Kylo/Ben dying and I went into it with that thought. Before the movie, I had to sort of minggle with the crowd of a private screening event as Rey. But I just had so much anxiety before I could even get in costume to the point where I did cry. And it didn’t help that some of the other cosplayers and minders had already seen the movie the previous day and were having borderline spoilery conversations, which did upset me further. Eventually I calmed down enough, but I was still feeling a little down. It sort of helped that the attendees who are usually normal people are usually the kind to take pictures with the more masked or sith-looking guys or my friend who was masked Kylo so I could usually be left alone.

And finally, it was time to watch the movie and I can still remember how dumb I was for thinking this movie was going to be smart. There was just too much going on and I was so in shock of how poorly written, edited and directed it was. There was hardly any cheer or gasps in my cinema throughout the whole thing, although there were one or two who tried to whoop at the Lucasfilm logo but they kept quiet for the rest of it too. It was such a different experience from the one I had of my first TLJ screening. 80% of the time I just had a blank expression on my face and the only time I sort of got excited for were the Rey and Kylo/Ben scenes, except that ending. I really did not like this movie. I did not feel hopeful at all and the ending the just felt so off. I was relieved to see that I was not the only one who thought of it that way.

This movie effected me so much that I had trouble sleeping, loss of apetite, loss of focus and random bouts of crying in my car for how hollow I felt for about a week+. There was a huge convention on the same weekend and everyone who knew me pretty much came up to me and ask how I was and what I thought about the movie, and a simple glance and head shake was enough to convey how much I felt, and I just did not want to talk about it on a busy con day. But after a busy con weekend, I went in full force on venting it out on Twitter and finding myself in discord support groups and I’m glad I was not alone.

Now it’s been 11 days since I’ve watched TROS and I’ve sort of clamed down from being mad about it. But I don’t think I could accept an ending to a saga for how botched it was which stemmed from fan pandering and corporate greed. But I have never been so proud to be in the Reylo community, who are tirelessly finding concrete evidence on how badly edited it was and just how messy things were behind the scenes. I’m glad to have met all of you and even befriend some thanks to this ship and our love for Rey and Ben Solo and every character in the saga. I am very saddened at how badly treated every character was from Rey to Leia and everyone in between, but it’s not going to stop us from creating good fan content and what we’ve had so far is incredible.

Stay strong and save what we love. ❤

[flightfoot]

Reconstructing Chameleon: Lies We Tell (Ourselves) - SPOILERS for Chapters 1-12

I’ve read my fair share of Chameleon fics, and more notably, Chameleon salt fics. They were impossible to avoid in the months after Chameleon aired, and even now, a year after it originally aired, it’s still extremely common to see fics pop up taking down Lila and often the entire rest of the class with her.

In Chameleon itself Marinette had a bad day. Her classmates didn’t consider that she might be upset about her seat being changed to be alone at the back without asking. They fell for Lila’s INSANELY stupid lies in the cafeteria. Lila threatened her with making her lose all of her friends, leaving her alone and isolated. And to top it off, Adrien gave some advice that while well-intentioned, was based off of the assumption that Lila wasn’t actively malicious. Since she was, it was counterproductive.

But at the end of the day, everything’s okay. Marinette’s still friends with everyone, all of her friends still like her and think highly of her, that’s it. Lila barely even comes up for the rest of the season, being relegated to cameos except for Oni-chan and Ladybug. Marinette doesn’t bare any grudge against her classmates for falling for Lila’s lies and her classmates still care for her and try to support her. The major negative impact from Chameleon is highly localized to that one episode.

In come the Chameleon salt fics which deconstruct the episode, showing the full effects of those actions on Marinette. The bullying Lila puts Marinette through is exaggerated, and the callousness of the class moreso. They often show the full feelings of betrayal from being dismissed and passed over in favor of a liar, and how they would affect Marinette moving forwards.

A lot of the time the characters are exaggerated and warped in the process. Adrien becomes a victim-blamer who takes Lila’s side and tries to defend her even when she’s obviously and maliciously hurting Marinette, or just doesn’t do a thing to help her when Lila’s targeting her. Alya ignores Marinette’s pleas to listen to her, dismissing her as simply being jealous and thinking that she’s just targeting poor, innocent Lila who’s done nothing wrong. The rest of the class just generally kick Marinette to the curb, completely forgetting their previous strong bonds and simply believing every awful thing that Lila might say or imply about Marinette without question, and lashing out at her when she attacks their new awesome friend.

Marinette arguably gets hit with this worst of all, since there’s really not much basis for the way her character can become warped. She becomes bitter and hostile, setting up situations or taking advantage of whatever situation she finds herself in to take down Lila - but taking the class down with her, often including Adrien and Alya. Marinette even intentionally and deliberately sets up circumstances SPECIFICALLY to hurt her (former) friends, reveling in their pain.

At first it seems like Lies We Tell (Ourselves) may be treading familiar Chameleon salt territory. Marinette’s stopped trying to poke holes in Lila’s lies, following Adrien’s advice. But she’s paranoid, afraid of what Lila may do to try and drive her friends away. Then when she finally gets the courage to confess her feelings to Adrien he turns her down immediately.

In a regular salt fic Adrien would be made out to be a horrible person for this. He’d be twisted into a caricature of himself, becoming someone who will gladly try to silence Marinette when she’s hurting and caring nothing for her feelings when he rejects her. MiniMinou doesn’t do that. He feels TERRIBLE about needing to turn Marinette down, knows that he COULD fall for her, but... he’s in love with Ladybug, and he can’t just change targets. Especially since it would be unfair to Marinette to return her affections when he’s still in love with someone else. He tries to tell Marinette this, that it really isn’t her, it’s him, but she’s still upset and heartbroken. But she doesn’t think any worse of Adrien for it. She can’t stand to see him or be near him for awhile, but she doesn’t think he actually did something wrong.

As for Adrien’s advice about Lila? He honestly has no idea that her lies are having a negative impact on people, much less that she’s maliciously trying to harm anyone. When she tries to manipulate Nino into DJing her party for free a second time by dangling the possibility that XY might show up and recognize his musical talent, Adrien starts to see that something’s up. That Lila’s lies aren’t as harmless as he originally thought.

It’s not unusual for a saltfic to have Adrien find out that Lila’s lies are harmful. But MiniMinou reconstructs this by showing WHY Adrien thought that simply lying wasn’t that bad. Because he’s a liar himself.

He has to lie to protect his secret identity of course, but it goes deeper than that. Adrien has to lie in order to spend time with His Lady. In order to spend time with his friends. The whole persona he puts on as Chat is a mask he wears, one that he enjoys wearing, but - there’s still an element of it being an act. Sometimes he can almost convince himself that yes, this is who he really is, but then his father says or does something that shatters all the bravado he’s built up as Chat. Not that being Adrien is any LESS of an act. He has to be the perfect son in order to get any scrap of love thrown his way. If he fails the act, not only will Gabriel not give him even that, but he’ll pull him from school and the few people in his life who DO give him affection and care consistently. The only one he can’t be isolated from is Ladybug, and even then he has to lie to his father, Nathalie, really everyone in his household about what he’s doing, often setting up music to make it sound like he’s practicing the piano.

Like Lila, he lies often and pervasively and doesn’t feel bad about it because it’s the only way to get any of the love he’s so starved of. He believes that Lila’s the same way, as he never saw her use her lies to hurt others until the incident with Nino. At that point he thinks of speaking up, though it proves unnecessary since Nino has it handled. But the seed was planted. Even earlier when Ladybug was describing the situation with Lila to him (in general terms of course) he was FURIOUS with Lila. Not so much for lying - he’d be a hypocrite if that was his reason - but for deliberately hurting the person he cares for most.

That’s the thing about MiniMinou’s reconstructions - her versions of the characters engage in some of the same things that the salt versions do, but it’s explained WHY they believe and do those things, and it’s never malicious. They’re not perfect people of course, they can make mistakes and sometimes they just don’t realize how they’re hurting others, but they’re ultimately good people and good friends who want to comfort and protect each other, even when mad. They just come at the situation from different viewpoints and with partial knowledge which can lead them to say or do things that end up hurting others in their ignorance, even when they think they’re helping.

Alya’s the starkest example. In Chameleon salt fics she tends to get hit hardest and most frequently with the ‘become a terrible person’ stick. MiniMinou’s Alya starts off with the same basic knowledge and premises that Saltya usually does. She believes Lila’s lies and thinks that Marinette’s hatred towards her is due to jealousy. She tries to push for a reconciliation between the two of them, even asking for Marinette to invite Lila to her group gatherings, so long as Lila does the same.

The differences are, Alya actually has good REASON for believing Lila, and that ultimately Alya doesn’t abandon Marinette, even when she thinks she’s wrong. It’s revealed that Lila told her that Rena Rouge was the reason half the Miraculous team got akumatized on Heroes Day, something that Lila couldn’t have known unless she was there or asked someone who WAS there. And since Lila was supposed to be in Achu and there weren’t any civilians or cameras around to watch the scene and possibly tell Lila that information (well, in MiniMinou’s version. In canon Prime Queen was streaming the whole thing), then logically it made the most sense that Lila was telling the truth and that Ladybug had told her that information. Especially since it matched up with how Ladybug seemed to be mad at her, avoiding her whenever they crossed paths. Making Lila, Ladybug’s supposed BFF, mad didn’t seem like a good idea, especially if she ever wanted a chance to be Rena Rouge again. Not to mention she just doesn’t want Ladybug to be mad at her. She looks up to Ladybug greatly, she’s her idol and her hero! She wants Ladybug to like her.

While her motives here are slightly selfish, Minou never portrays her as a terrible person for it. Her priorities can be slightly skewed, but it’s not a bad thing to want to be a superhero or to enjoy being a superhero, so long as it’s ultimately for good reasons.

And still, Alya stays with Marinette. She comforts Marinette when Adrien rejects her. When Marinette lashes out at Lila for asking her whether she wants to switch seats to get away from Adrien, Alya follows her, even though she’s unhappy with the way Marinette had just treated Lila. When Lila invites everyone to a party except Marinette, Alya elects not to go because it would hurt Marinette. Alya’s caught between two friends who are fighting for reasons she doesn’t understand and tries to do right by both of them; but when push comes to shove, she chooses Marinette. She makes mistakes mostly due to lack of knowledge and some slight tunnel vision rather than any malice, and tries to do the right thing as best she can. It’s just not always clear what the right thing IS.

Lastly there’s Marinette. She too has some characteristics typical of her salt version. She’s bitter and feels betrayed that no one believes that Lila’s awful and that Adrien advised her not to keep trying to expose Lila. She wants someone who’s completely in her corner, like Chat Noir is. Add on being rejected by the love of her life, and it’s not long before butterflies start chasing her.

So like in saltfics, Marinette is DONE. She can’t afford to be akumatized. But unlike with many of those fics, she doesn’t try to take it out on others. She just... retreats. She can’t afford to feel angry or bitter or sad or even too stressed, so she suppresses her feelings and tries to emotionally isolate herself from the situation, at least when she can’t be certain of getting the support she needs, of having people who will fight for her. Unfortunately, that includes Alya. She can see Alya’s perspective on the Lila situation for the most part, but she can’t make herself emotionally vulnerable enough to truly empathize with her position and figure out how to turn things around. She can’t AFFORD to make herself vulnerable right now.

But she never tries to hurt Alya or to wish harm on her, and when Alya’s at the end of her rope after her akumatization, with Nino, Ladybug, AND Chat Noir all seemingly angry at her, Marinette reaches out and throws a movie night to comfort her, like Alya had been comforting her after being rejected by Adrien not long ago. She even pushes through her own discomfort to invite Adrien to the movie night. Marinette’s a bit bitter and feels betrayed, but Alya’s still her friend and she wants the best for her. Marinette just doesn’t have the emotional bandwidth to be understanding about the Lila situation right now.

Marinette does, luckily, have an outlet. An escape from the heartbreak of Adrien’s rejection and Lila’s machinations. She lets herself be Ladybug for fun, playing tag with Chat, pulling tricks, and just talking and hanging out with him more, even setting up a special texting app so they can message each other as civilians without blowing their identities. And Chat has her back completely, and she has his. She knows that he’ll fight for her, though he can’t really help her against Lila, he can give her the level and kind of emotional support she’s been craving, and she in turn gives him emotional support that she didn’t even know he needed.

Marinette’s tendency to give and give and GIVE of herself to others to her own detriment also comes up, with Lila spreading a rumor that Marinette was working on new costumes for Kitty Section, setting Marinette up to either disappoint her classmates when she doesn’t deliver on a promise she never made, or to work herself to the point of exhaustion in order to make them, also conveniently taking up all of Marinette’s free time so she couldn’t think about Lila, much less have time to try and do anything about her. But Marinette puts her foot down - gently, but firmly. She tells Rose that that was a mistake. She resolves to put herself first instead of giving so much of herself to other people that she has nothing left. Especially since her classmates seem to take her for granted a bit.

But the bitterness doesn’t fester. She’s putting herself first, but she’s not dragging anyone else down to do so. And while Rose is disappointed that the rumor wasn’t true, no one tries to guilt trip Marinette into making them anyway. She said she had no plans to do so, that it wasn’t true, and that was that. Marinette still feels a compulsion to help everyone and guilty when she doesn’t do more, but she clamps down on it, helping others so long as it doesn’t mean hurting herself.

Minou took some of the bits from Marinette’s typical salt versions - her bitterness, her feelings of betrayal, her desire to escape to people who will be completely in her corner - and tempered them. She’s bitter and feels betrayed but still cares and values her friends and classmates. She wants to escape and be given total emotional support, and she succeeds, but it’s provided by her partner and not OCs or minor characters made prominent by the story. Ultimately however distressed Marinette is she never intentionally sets out to hurt others, and doesn’t believe that anyone’s a bad person besides Lila and Hawkmoth.

MiniMinou’s “Lies We Tell (Ourselves)” is a breath of fresh air after the deluge of Chameleon Salt that started flooding the internet a year ago. It acknowledges the problems and consequences that would logically spring from that episode if the themes carried forward into consequent episodes more, while not warping any of the characters and providing good reasons for their actions. Even when the characters DON’T act 100% altruistically or logically, their actions and mindset remain relatable and make sense from an emotional point of view. It rebuilds what the Chameleon salt tore down, acknowledging the problems and trying to fix them.

And really, that’s what “Lies We Tell (Ourselves)” is at heart; a fix-it fic, aiming to fix the mess that both canon and fanon have been left with, finally rebuilding and repairing what was damaged by canon and destroyed by fanon.

[syncopatedid]

Kazetsuyo Novel Translation: Excerpt from Chapter 6: The Voice of the Soul

(Pages 282 - 288)

At Joji’s suggestion, everyone at Chikusei-so had decided to gather at the Twins’ room two days before the qualifier for a casual drinking session. For these members, drinking was the fastest way to relieve tension and foster team unity.

Since the landlord held the token title of coach, he was invited to join as well. Therein lies the problem, however. The money that the landlord had given to Kiyose to fix the hole awhile ago had instead been passed on to Shindo, who used it to subsidise their expenses for the Hakone Ekiden; all the money they had would still not have been sufficient to cover their transport and accommodation costs.

And so, as the landlord was about to step into the entranceway, Jota had deliberately intercepted his path, flashing the gravure page of a magazine to catch his eye. Distracted by the swimsuit model, the landlord took off his shoes and entered the house without so much as glancing up at the ceiling, following closely behind Jota while he made his way up the stairs. The strategy was a success! Watching from the kitchen, Kakeru and Joji gave each other a silent high five.

Prince had been instructed to sit on the hole, on the orders of Kiyose and Shindo not to move from that spot in the landlord’s presence come hell or high water— not even if an earthquake occurred or if he needed to go for a bathroom break — hiding the evidence while he read his manga.

“The coach will now give a speech!” Kiyose announced, tipsy from the alcohol.

Hugging his bottle, the landlord wobbled to stand on his feet. Seeing him act like a real coach for the first time, Kakeru waited eagerly for him to speak.

“Since the qualifier is approaching… I shall share with you the secret to winning,” the landlord declared in a dignified, husky voice. “The secret is… to alternate between your left foot and your right!”

The room fell dead silent. 

Detecting their dismay, the landlord concluded, “Keep at it, and you’ll reach the finish line eventually.”

“That’s it?!” King waved his glass, gesticulating wildly. 

“Is this person okay?” Yuki bemoaned.

“Can’t we find ourselves a more decent coach?!” Nico scoffed. 

“Ahhhh… there goes my motivation…” Jota whined.

The grumbling noises were escalating. Kakeru quickly diverted the conversation to Kiyose. 

“Haiji, from the very beginning, you believed that all the members here had a real shot at Hakone, even though I thought there’s a fifty-fifty chance we wouldn’t make it… why were you so confident about this?”

“Hmm?”

Kiyose looked up from his glass, grinning ear to ear.

“Because you guys can really drink!”

“Huuuuuh?!”

The room stopped complaining about the landlord and turned their attention to Kiyose.

“Long-distance runners tend to have greater tolerance for alcohol due to their high metabolism… and you guys drink like a fish, you know? I’ve been observing you lot alllllllllll this time, so I knew you could do it for sure…” 

“I can’t believe you!” Shindo threw his hands up in the air. “If you’re looking for a drunk, there’s plenty of them in this world!”

“You dragged all of us into the mud for THIS reason?!” Yuki was beyond livid.

Kakeru groaned. He had expected Kiyose to say something inspiring to lift the team’s morale, but it went in a completely opposite direction instead.

“You mean to tell me we ended up here because of our drinking habits?! Are you serious?!” Prince was so agitated he almost got up, but saw Shindo staring daggers at him and quickly planted his rear end back down again. “How is this any different from building a house on quicksand?!”

“It’s not jusssst because of that, of course…” Kiyose was slurring in his speech. “I could tell you guys possess the latent talent to shine! I could feel it!”

“You’re drunk, Haiji…” Kakeru sighed.

“Hey, can’t we talk about something a little more light-hearted?” King sprawled on the tatami, lamenting out loud.

“Ah, that reminds me! How are things with you two and Hana-chan?”  Musa egged the twins.

“With Hana-chan?”

“Things are well, I guess?” the twins answered innocently.

They don’t get it. These two totally don’t get it at all. The whispers were unanimous.

“So do you two have girlfriends or what?” Nico, who had been chewing on a piece of dried squid earlier, casually raised the question again. “If you do, you should get them to come cheer for us the day after tomorrow!”

Such topics were seldom brought up in Chikusei-so. Given their living space was as cramped as it is, one would tend to be mindful not to pry into another’s private affairs. Besides, even if they didn’t go out of their way to talk about it, if someone among them had a girlfriend, the rest would likely have sensed it somehow.

But then again, the team had been busy training this half a year; so no one has had an inkling as to the status of their teammates’ love life; not that any of them ever brought their girlfriends back to their rooms before—since anything said or done behind thin walls would certainly be heard. 

“We’re accepting applications!” the twins replied together.

If you’re “accepting applications”, then for crying out loud please notice the “candidate” that’s right in front of you!, thought Kakeru exasperatedly.

King had gone silent, curling his body into a ball.

“And what about you?” Yuki threw the question back at Nico.

“I don’t have the strength to deal with that kinda thing right now.” Nico mused, scratching the stubble on his jaw.

“As for me,” Shindo hung his head down, “I’ve been running myself ragged with the negotiations between the committee and the university… I think it’s just a matter of time before she breaks up with me.”

“You’re dating someone?”

Kakeru was stunned. He would never have pegged a plain and honest guy like Shindo to be basking in the brilliance of romance.

“Shindo already got himself a girlfriend when he started university,” Musa explained. “I am hopeless though… I can’t even get anyone to come back to my hometown with me…”

Do things really need to move that fast……?!  

“Don’t you have a girlfriend, Kakeru?”

Kakeru shook his head at Musa’s question.

“I’m not popular with the ladies.”

“Doesn’t seem that way to me.” 

“Um… what about you, Prince?”

Kakeru tried to draw attention away from himself, but Prince’s head remained buried in his manga, not even bothering to look up.

“I’m only interested in 2D girls.”

Even though you were born with an idol's face, what a waste…

Prince gave Kiyose a sideway glance.

“More importantly…. have you heard the rumours about Haiji floating around the Lit department? He may look like this, but he’s actually quite a —— ow!”

With a flick of his fingers, Kiyose sent a peanut flying right between Prince’s eyebrows. Prince let out a tiny yelp and clammed up. No one else was brave enough to probe Kiyose for details after that.

Kiyose gave a thin smile.

“How about you, Yuki?”

“I’ll have you know I’m of good character, plus I’m not too shabby in the looks department either. Far as my future goes, I’ve got this in the bag.” Yuki stated matter-of-factly.

King had retreated even further into his shell.

“Aren’t you boys going to ask about me?”

As the landlord poured himself another cup of shōchū, there came a ringing sound.

(Continued)

=====================

Footnotes 

1. I have SO many thoughts about this scene regarding Kakeru and drinking and it got long it became its own post, hahaha. 

2. This passage was definitely among my top 10 favourite scenes in the novel because, in a span of seven pages, you could pick up on nearly everyone’s character quirks. Also Me@Kakeru this entire exchange regarding Hana and the twins: SON can you even hear yourself in Chapter 10.

3. Elements from this scene have been split into two separate drinking parties in the anime - one in episode 5 (where Shindo mentioned he’s got a girlfriend and the squad was completely wasted), and the other in episode 15 (where Coach Tazaki made his speech). Yuki also received a call from his mother immediately after this scene and I… hope to get around to that bit sometime… soon. Maybe.

4. Even though some of the Haiji and Ouji moments in the anime are original material, I like how it’s quite canon aligned to their level of familiarity in the novel. Akane seems most privy to Haiji’s conduct outside of Aotake, and in my personal experience, juniors and seniors in university don’t usually mix even if they’re from the same department, so for rumours of Haiji to reach a second year like Akane would imply that Haiji’s name gets around even among the juniors. It’s either that, or Akane’s lurking skills are next level, and he’s able to pick up rumours circulating amongst the seniors and/or he actually hangs out with Haiji (and Haiji’s peers) after class for whatever reason. Well well well…

previous translations in my tag: #Kaze Novel Translations

[amadgirltm]

V.8: Tangled Verses

V.8A ( collecting stars and dreams );

Pre-Queen for a Day

        Lady Allison Jones. It’s a name that not many people would think twice about. Which was exactly the point of her name. The name ‘Jones’ has been passed through her family for generations, as well as her status as a Lady. After all, who would think someone named ‘Jones’ was actually a descendant of Lord Demanitus? 

        Scrolls and notebooks all written in code, passed down through her father’s line until they eventually ended up in her arms. Alice has been given a rather important task: mean nothing to the world, be polite, give no one reason to look at her strangely.

       For someone else? That might be easy. For Alice? It’s a bit harder. After all, she fell through, what she thought was a rabbit hole, and spent a bit too long in a strange place of nonsense, where she happened to met a woman with seemingly intense powers. While Alice was too young to truly understand it all, and while it’s a bit hard for her to remember it all, you can often find her still talking about ‘wonderland’, the ‘queen’ who wanted nothing more but to ‘cut off her head’, and she always says to never trust a Cheshire grin. Strange, isn’t it? 

V.8B ( shine brighter than the sun );

Stardrop Verse

      Here’s the Link to the OG post! Nothing has really changed except that Alice’s family history now follows 8A.

V.8C ( woke up into a nightmare ); 

Post Canon-Adult

         Follows Verse 8A, unless tagged with 8B. Alice is now an adult, and yet it feels like nothing has changed. She’s still struggling with her home life, and her mother is still as terrible as always. While Alice is being perused by a young man named Daniel (whom she despises), Alice is preparing for her own final test to prove she herself is worth being a guard. 

V.8D ( they’ll pay if it happens again );

 Saporia’s Role 

 Everything happens the same until Queen for a Day: Varian ends up trying to get Rapunzel’s help with the Amber, however, She doesn’t help him (Just as in canon). He goes back & Ends up trying to free his dad himself but instead gets himself trapped in the Amber. Cue Alice finding him, and trying to get Rapunzel to help, again She doesn’t. She has to put the whole of the kingdom first. Alice does not fight Rapunzel, instead, she starts planning things, and then Rapunzel leaves on her journey to find her Destiny. Alice spends this time working, and studying up on Alchemy, and trying to figure out what exactly Varian used.

                   Alice ends up in jail a few months later due to stealing stuff from the castle, more specifically she finds her way in and steals the flower. She ends up in the same cell as Andrew. She’s already figuring out how to escape, but they end up talking. He offers his assistance in freeing Varian and Quirin since none of her attempts have worked, He also promises a chance to get back at Rapunzel & co. Alice accepts, saying that she’s in charge though. And Proves her point by using her vorpal blade to get them out of their prison cell. (It’s magical, of course she still has it).

                 They end up taking over the kingdom, Alice leading and planning things out the whole time. Unlike Varian, Alice actually is in charge due to her sword, her skills, and her lack of obvious remorse over hurting people.

>Verse will change depending on if Rapunzel returns, and if Rapunzel is willing to help Alice >Possible variant of verse: Rapunzel frees Varian and his father before stopping the Saporians, meaning that Alice is still in charge of the kingdom >Can take place during any point within this timeline

V.8E ( pull your knife out of my back );

Season Two / Early Season three

        Alice had been turned away from the guards every time she attempted to see Varian, leaving her feeling lost and a bit hurt. However, she didn’t give up on him. Not until he was suddenly taking over the kingdom, and working with the Saporians. Alice attempted to talk to him, only to be taken away by a few saporians (ordered by Andrew) to the mines, where she was forced to work for three days without breaks or food. (Varian did not know about this).

        After the first episode of season three, Alice no longer trusts Varian, and believes it was him who forced her out of his life, and believes that he betrayed HER trust. She is very upset, and is not willing to talk things out, she’s angry, and depressed and feels alone. She’s not willing to trust ANYONE again (besides Feldspar). However, she still believes there’s good in him, and wishes she could trust him again. It will not take much to befriend her again, but a sincere apology and perhaps a bit of bribery by sweet treats may sway her back to his side. (How can she ever deny being such a sweet boy’s friend?)

V.8F ( i will guard you with my life );

Adopted Verse

       Rumors circulated Old Corona, that Helen Kingsleigh was hurting her daughter. Quirin, being in charge, ended up looking into the manner, and found the rumors to be true, although he couldn’t prove it. The daughter was easily given up, with Helen claiming she couldn’t take care of all three children. Taking the young girl home, he found himself unsure what to do. He already a three year old son, and had recently lost his wife- he couldn’t take care of another child. He called upon the Captain of the Guard, who came and met the four year old Alice, deciding to take her in himself.

      Alice grew up alongside Cassandra ( @moonstonetm ), whom she looked up and admired greatly. However, Alice also finds herself constantly comparing herself to her sister, and finds herself increasingly jealous of Cass. Her love for her sister is never a question, but she tends to act out in order to try and get attention in any way she can from her sister (typically at Cass’ expense). These dark feelings have come from the voice in her head has been telling her to not trust her for a VERY long time. While Alice tries to ignore the voice, it constantly seems to want her to distrust her sister. These has caused a small rift in their relationship, which might only get worse with time.

       In this AU, Alice is being trained to be a guard as well, and while she is excellent, and even exceeding, at swordsmanship, she does not have the temperament or attention span to be a guard. However, Alice is still often assigned duties and jobs just as Cassandra is. She is never given an official position, instead she often sneaks out of the castle grounds and into the town, and even to Old Corona sometimes (often getting both her and Cassandra in trouble). 

V.8G ( there’s hell to pay );

Role Reversal 

               Alice is a brilliant young inventor and alchemist, living with her father in Old Corona. Her favorite pastime is decoding the notebooks and scrolls kept in the safe in their basement, and she adores attempting to rebuild the blueprints she finds. Sure, her father tells her it’s best to not do so, but he also can’t stop her from engaging in such an old family pastime.

             She’s not the only alchemist or inventor either! Nearby, lives the genius Varian, whom she often shares ideas and supplies with. Together, they’ve earned quite the reputation, labeled as a wizard and witch, who deal with dangerous and rare magic. However, they often work at Alice’s house more than his, due to her father being much more accepting of their unique hobby. While Varian often overlooks things, Alice tends to be much more particular in what they do, and will often stop Varian before his projects get out of hand. Together, they’re a real force to be reckoned with.

Then, Rapunzel showed up on their doorstep, asking for answers for her hair. Unlike in the series, it wasn’t one of Varian’s projects that caused them to receive no answers: no, it was a miscalculation, that neither caught, that ended up labeling her hair as a rock instead. Varian also has no need during the expo to look for a partner, as he already as has Alice willing to work with him.

However, the events of Queen for a Day play out VERY Differently, as Varian and Alice are both working diligently on trying to fix the rock issue. and Alice’s father comes to check on them, letting them explain what they were doing, before testing a new serum. As far as they know, it doesn’t do anything, and Alice’s father sends Varian home, also Sending Alice upstairs to eat something. This is when the Amber encased him.

Alice proceeds down Varian’s route within the show, slowly descending into her own madness and using manipulation, alchemy, Dinah, and her inventions to fight and try to find a way to free her father. Unlike Varian, Alice also uses her skills in both alchemy and magic to run away at the end, and get away from the Corona guard before she can be arrested. She’s currently holed up in Demanitus’ tomb, sifting through his blueprints and notes.

Whether or not Varian helps her, decides to leave her, or fight against her is up to who ever interacts with this verse

V.8H ( practically perfectly replaceable );

Rapunzel Replacement         

Helen never wanted the blonde girl, and it didn’t take much to convince the local ‘mayor’ of sorts to take her. After all, a baby is so much work, and what use for it does she have?

          That’s how Quirin ended up swaddling the baby, only a few days old, in the Throne room of the Corona Castle. Unsure what to do with the child, given that he had his own to take care of.  The King and Queen took one look at the child, and felt their hearts stop. She looked so similar to the lost princess, until she opened her eyes, and bright blue stared at them instead of green. Sure, she was a few years too young, but she was still, practically perfect. Like a gift sent to them from the heavens.

                    The kingdom was growing worse every day, yes they prospered, but without the princess, and without security of knowing what would happen if something happened to the king and queen? Well, things were tense to say the least.

                           So, they decided to take the young blonde, Alice, they were told her name was. But that would be the most well kept secret King Fredrick had, along with who she really was. After all, the next day, it was announced that the Lost Princess had been found, by Quirin, along with the witch who had stolen her, and had kept her young. They displayed the long blonde locks, and the small baby that looked just like she had when she had been stolen. The Kingdom rejoiced.  Finally, Rapunzel was home.

           Growing up in the castle, trained in protocol, and royal duties, Rapunzel was practically a perfect princess. The only thing was that she always kept her eyes down, and out of sight at all times.

              Plus there was the growing issue of that VOICE in her head.

            Imagine EVERYONE’S surprise when Flynn Rider shows up with a woman named Rapunzel, with short brown hair and green eyes, whom he claims is the real princess. And the younger, fake Princess Rapunzel’s whole world is twisted, and suddenly she’s now the lost princess, just metaphorically.

V.8I ( Swear to the Moon ); 

Brotherhood Adopted

           Alice was born, and instantly forgotten. She was found as a child by Hector. She was trained by him to be a warrior, a fighter, a killer. At age ten she was sworn into the brotherhood, pledging herself and her life to the moonstone, and to the dark kingdom.

          Hector, having to stay to protect the Great tree, has given Alice the task of locating any other members of the dark kingdom. Not to make them return, but to be sure that they’re alive.

          Alice has no knowledge of Corona, nor the people within it. She has no prior emotions for anyone. And is likely to treat others with hostility, and violence, have a lack of manners, as well as speak in a bit of strange ways. She also has a pet Bearcat, whom she rides, and who she calls “Teddy.” Her family history has no place within her, except for the ever growing threat of the voice in her head.

V.8J ( WAKE UP ALICE );

Nightmare Trapped

          Alice wakes up being told that it is her Wedding day. When she looks in the mirror, it not her sixteen year old face that looks back at her, instead it’s some woman. One that she wouldn’t recognize without that typical blue ribbon in her hair.

    No one in Corona sees anything wrong with this, In fact, everyone is acting as if the missing four years had happened. Apparently, somewhere down the line Rapunzel and Cassandra had made up? Alice had gotten engaged? Eugene was prince now? Alice didn’t live with her mother.

           Honestly, it didn’t sound TOO bad. Actually, it was a dream come true. Which was Alice’s issue with everything. No one just FORGETS four years of their life, and when Alice shows up on time somewhere?

                Well, she realizes, it’s time to wake up. And to figure out who-or WHAT- is trying to keep her here.

Who ever wants to interact with this verse can either:

                    A.) also be ‘awake’ and be aware that something is wrong

or

                     B.) try to convince Alice that everything is fine and okay.

V.8K ( i’d give anything for you );

Late Season Three

Soon after the events of “Be Very Afraid”, Alice will have changed quite a bit. Realizing her own fears, and who she was actually afraid of, Alice will force herself to face it.

            In doing so, she has begun to stick up for herself much more. By this I mean, Alice has officially stopped living with her mother and family. She now lives in the Castle as a squire.

           The guard she is currently working under is quite strict during the week days, but is also quite caring and understanding and much more relaxed than other guards. This means she has weekends off, once she has finished doing her work, allowing her to walk around Corona, and do what she pleases.

           While most squires are typically teenage boys, due to Alice’s skills with her swordplay, she was given a pass and allowed to study, and to one day become a full fledged Corona Guard.

              She has also taken up extra time studying with the now retired Captain, allowing him to decide when and where it will take place. As well as constant running between the Castle and Xavier’s for training in blacksmithing.

            While Alice has not forgiven Varian, fully, she is much more willing to work with him, talk to him, and so on. However, this is mainly due to her need to be willing, and listen to orders. She does still wish though to fully make up with him eventually. 

V.8L ( these voices these strange noises );

Post Canon

         Life in Corona has seemingly gone back to normal. Cassandra is gone, and everything seems okay.

            That is until the small voice in Alice’s head begins talking. Random black outs, and actions unlike herself (or perhaps too close to herself?). Alice is struggling with the long lasting effects from her time spent in, what she now knows is called, the lost realm.  She’s trying to become a guard, a knight if she gets that far, but the way things seem to be going, it appears her madness is taking it’s toll. Who knows if Corona will ever truly be normal again?

And worst of all for her, it seems she might have to put her trust in the very person she wishes to keep at a distance.