#So he hasn't questioned his assumption that it could never happen

[tswwwit]

[About the ask where you said that dipper blurted out "I'm pregnant" To bill and his immediate response is panic]

Does this mean that bill has impregnated someone??? Or the other way around??

Bill's never sired or sprouted any offspring, and has no intention of doing so!

Dipper was pulling a prank, and it worked very well - because Bill's been around the block enough to not dismiss the supposedly 'impossible'.

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC PROMPT #28

(#) = Notes at the end of post

✦

Chartreuse

Due to the high levels of ambient ectoplasm, all the citizens of Amity Park gained a permanent change in eye color. They don't glow or flare in response to rampant emotions like true ghosts or the halfas though. They're just an unnaturally bright yellow-green.

The thing is, nobody else on Earth has this eye color, and it's never been seen in the human race until the recently graduated Amity Parkers started branching out to other cities to find jobs.

Nobody paid this any mind at first, though. Many just thought the individuals liked strangely colored contacts or it was a trick of the light. It's not until Danny and Tucker are both hired for positions in Wayne Enterprises that questions start popping up.

At first, the other employees thought the two might be related. It could happen, it's not that strange. However, when both of them said they're nowhere near related, just childhood best friends, it left everyone confused. If they aren't related and they aren't wearing colored contacts, then what are the odds of too completely unrelated people having the exact same strange and unseen eye color?

After a while, everyone just stops asking questions. After all, both men are easy to get along with and are excellent at their jobs, so a strange eye color isn't really something to complain about. Their stares were just a bit more intense than most people, and honestly, they've seen stranger things.

It helps that they've started seeing other people with the same eye color popping up in celebrity, sports, and activist circles. (1)

However, It's not until the power goes out during a late meeting/presentation, and Tim Drake accidentally turns on and shines his cell phone light into Tuckers eyes, that he starts seriously digging.

Needless to say, the animal-like green shine of his pupils scared the shit out of him and got him wondering if two of his new employees were part of a previously unknown alien race that'd recently settled on Earth without anyone noticing. When he looks into the middle of nowhere town they came from, this idea is even further cemented when he sees every person he finds a photo of have the exact same shade of chartreuse eyes. Ignoring the ghost rumors and "sightings" as just a strange tourist trap for the strange little town to make extra income, he brings the info he found to the other bats and birds.

They aren't exactly welcomed when they go snooping around Amity Park, unfortunately... (2 & 3)

✦

Now. To make this a bit more cracky, when confronted, do Danny and Tucker just come clean or do they milk the idea of them being aliens for all it's worth? (4) Add in a few strange, but perfectly normal for them, things they do that have people scratching their heads and make the assumption even worse/more irrefutable. This includes the unexplainable eye shine Tim discovered.

✦

(1) Paulina became a supermodel and is coveted for her striking eye color and beautiful complexion. Dash became a coach for a well known college in Metropolis, while Kwan became a fitness trainer and sponsor for health related items that actually work, also partnered with the college Dash coaches at. Sam became a notorious environmental activist and is the enemy of many companys who are determined to turn the world into a toxic wasteland. With the help of Danny's parents, she's found many eco-friendly chemical compounds that dissolve many of the toxic substances damaging ecosystems around the world. Etc, etc.

(2) Ectoplasm exposure has made everyone a bit more territorial over the town, including their protectors. They don't need outside heroes/organizations interfering with their work and don't/won't take kindly to the sudden interest hero organizations gain over them and their strange little town. That hasn't worked out too well with other government sanctioned organizations in the past and they don't want a repeat, thank you.

(3) Maybe Team Phantom even established themselves right around the same time or even before the Justice League was formed and they just flew under the radar until now. Maybe Amity Parkers feel a bit superior due to their seniority in having an excellent team in the know about the supernatural/non-human side of the world/universe? Who knows? You pick! Amity Park has been through a lot by themselves, so it's no shocker if they have an extreme amount of solidarity towards those they call their own.

(3 cont'd) Also! Since Amity Park has become so rich and saturated in ectoplasm over the years, they were eventually annexed/became an outside part of the Ghost Zone. Jack and Maddy are border patrol and any ghosts coming through need a passport now. Amity Park is basically a vacation hub for ghosts? Ghosts can freely roam the streets, they just don't wreak havoc anymore. That'd basically be terrorizing their fellow citizens at this point anyway and that's a no no. That means jail time with Walker. Amity Parkers also aren't afraid anymore and in fact CAN hit back now. This does not stop the Bat Clan and eventually the Justice League from thinking they're a town full of aliens tho. Some are just more human looking than others. Or they've been on Earth and procreating long enough with humans that their hybrid offspring have also started looking more human, is the ongoing conclusion.

(4) The Anti-Ecto Acts are not an issue here! Team Phantom already dismantled and annihilated the GIW years before they even thought of leaving Amity Park on its own. Before graduating highschool even. Yes, Team Phantom is perfectly self-sufficient and able to handle their own problems and have kept the city-wide ghost infestation pretty isolated outside a few events that were handled quickly and with the world none the wiser. So the world is still pretty ignorant of the existence of ghosts/the Ghost Zone. Would Team Phantom and Amity Park prefer to keep it that way though?

[ineffable-endearments]

From "And furthermore, I don't think it's our place to start suggesting that there should be a suggestion box!"

I'm not even entertaining the idea that anyone else could possibly have ideas more worthwhile than whatever Heaven's upper brass is telling me God wants. The System is perfect.

to "You can't judge the Almighty, Crawley."

OK, so not everything God does makes moral sense, but that's just because it's too ineffable for us to understand.

to "I don't think that's what God wants. And I don't think you want it, either."

I don't always believe Heaven is right. Something in me is incompatible with the System. I'm hoping there's a greater good than the bureaucracy I work for.

to "I'm not consulted on policy decisions, Crawley."

I'm tacitly admitting that I don't like what Heaven is doing here, but I'm powerless within the System.

to "If I were thwarting you, Heaven couldn't object!"

You've helped me believe Armageddon isn't part of the Ineffable Plan after all. Now I believe I CAN do something to stop it.

to "I have no intention of fighting in any war!"

I'm making my own personal decision here, without consideration for what the System wants.

to "I can make a difference!"

I'm certain that I personally have ideas more worthwhile than the rest of Heaven. I can change the System.

The growth is happening. I know it's slow (well, if you're a human, anyway), but it's happening.

I am wondering if this character development is going to work like a huge outward (inward?) spiral. Take steps to add a new perspective, then use that to start working on the next Big Problem, then circle back to the old problems and start dealing with them with the new perspective. Things are kind of circular, but on a different level every time, hence the spiral.

The first three are like: Refuse questioning Heaven's judgment on moral grounds -> Accept that some questioning is natural but God/Heaven are always right -> Accept that maybe my personal judgment is not always compatible with Heaven's. OK, now I've tentatively accepted that I have my own morality outside of Heaven's, but that is SO uncomfortable.

The second three are like: I have my own moral judgments, but I have no way to enforce them because of what is expected of me -> Maybe there is room for my own judgment in Heaven after all -> Actually, my judgment is important enough to refuse to do what is expected of me regardless of anyone else's Plans. OK, now Aziraphale can use his own judgment within the System.

And I don't know for sure, but maybe - hopefully? - the last three will be like: I trust my own judgment -> My judgment never succeeds when I try to force it on others -> Everyone needs to be free from coercion and I'm going to help that happen by doing things to undermine the System.

That last bit is written with an assumption that the Ball and Gabriel and Beelzebub's ultimate decision are a little bit of foreshadowing: Aziraphale seizing control in a way that is sort of scary, having a bunch of Experiences(TM) with other people including Crowley, then realizing that the only reasonable way to handle people "outside the system" is to let them do what they want. If that's NOT foreshadowing, or if it's different foreshadowing than what I think it's going to be, obviously this is completely off.

Also, I feel like if I'm right, this could illuminate the horrible things Aziraphale says in the Final Fifteen a little bit. I believe he has moved up slightly from thinking Good and Evil are absolutely inherent and immutable, and now believes they are literally Sides that can be chosen. Of course you wouldn't choose to work for the side that has explicitly characterized itself as Bad, even though we both know you didn't have a choice to start with! I'm giving you a choice now! He hasn't "gone backwards." It's just that he's embraced the "doing good is a choice" lesson without internalizing the "you can't divide people into Sides and enforce it using a system" lesson.

[sizzleissues]

I loved the Paris special and all the hype leading up to it and after it and I just love how it went. I was so afraid it would disappoint my expectations, do something basic and trite but no, it went for something and I loved it.

Like for the most part the art, discussions and fics I saw previous to the airing were kinda goofy. We heard 'evil Marinette and Adrien' and constructed two evil little guys to swing around while we waited. They were bratty and overly dark and unapologetically cruel and conniving. Of course people did explore the possible reasons for them being different but we didn't know what the reverse world was like, where it broke off from our canon so we could only make guesses. People concluded they either did it for the heck of it, or that it was a lashing out against their circumstances. Whether the behavior followed them into being civilians, especially before all the designs were released, we didn't know and we made beautiful noise based on assumptions.

Then we got the episode.

The two kids weren't evil for the heck of it. They were tricked by someone greater, similarly how Master Fu told our Marinette and Adrien to use their power for the greater good, to better the world, the Supreme told them to use it for the greater evil, with some sort of reward in return for accomplishing this goal. It pit them against each other. They couldn't wholly work apart, neither were strong enough to do that, but they were never entirely together because if they worked together, they would simply turn against the Supreme. By telling them that only one of them could get what they wanted, the Supreme became a far cleverer and eviler villain than whatever Gabriel became by the end.

Bad Marinette and Adrien became trapped in the cycle of abuse they likely faced in their civilian lives. Marinette lived under the thumb of Chloe and her worse world and instead of being empowered as Toxinelle, she was trapped in a cycle of failure as it slowly killed her for ever wanting a chance at something better. She has the same capability as our Marinette to be good and to be resilient but the power of one toxic voice is demonstrated in her fall. At the midpoint of the special she knows that how fucked she is and how its entirely by the Supremes' design but she can't do a single thing about it other then finish what they came to do. It takes the hope Ladybug installs in her for her to overcome the manipulations of the Supreme. Bad Marinette loses the chance to get back what she wanted in the first place, whether that be freedom from Chloe or something in her home life but she accepts that she can improve things in a different way. Find Alya, join the resistance, carve out something new for herself. The lack of mention of her father makes you wonder and the bitterness about her mother is another open question. Is her Sabine mean or did something else happen to strain their relationship?

Adrien similarly became trapped in his grief and instead of Griffe Noire being a release from it, he toyed with his life in desperation to get his mother back, like our Gabriel did towards the end. I don't think Good Gabriel was a terrible father like our Gabriel but he was misguided. I think he likely didn't want to address Emily's death because by the looks of the opening, it was quite emotionally distressing and having to face that would mean admitting some terrible things (like that his actions resulted in her death, and that Adrien's 'birth' was the catalyst that had her killed). So he stayed silent and allowed Adrien's resentment to build. This Adrien is also still home schooled. I think again that Good Gabriel does this because he thinks allowing Adrien out into the world would put him in dangers way, since the Supreme obviously hasn't reclaimed the miraculous yet. But again he doesn't explain why, evidenced by Adrien working for the man responsible for his mother's demise. Adrien doesn't know, he thinks his father is pretending like nothings wrong and keeping him cut off from the world. Its likely that the one day Adrien runs away to school, the Supreme finds him and gives him the miraculous before he's whisked away again. Proving Gabriel right, but he doesn't know it.

The Supreme is also just fucking with Gabriel. He knows Gabriel's identity so he's using his son to fuck with him further. He kills his wife and then turns his son against him. His son who is now doomed to die if he doesn't retrieve the butterfly miraculous.

Both character's now reflect paths our versions could have gone down. Yes the world isn't run by the Supreme but miraculous has taken time to show the other ways the city can be terrible. Their Mayor's corrupt controlled by the whims of his daughter and investors, a greedy business man holds a monopoly on artists and the cities biggest fashion designer works with the smartest business woman in town to make rings to spy on everyone, who is literally a super villain with no known motive. Things are pretty shit and it’s not like the show isn't directly pointing to these things as terrible.

Ladybug and Chat Noir see this steaming pile of shit and decide to save it anyway, overcoming their personal challenges along the way. Like why not overthrow the mayor, why not take down those who don't need to be akumatised to be evil? It’s proof of their inherent goodness, even with everything they'd been through prior to origins that they don't do this. Versions of them are only compelled to be evil because someone different gets in their ear, someone promises them better "if they paid only a small price". Neither want to do it, but its all they have left after choosing that path instead of the other. We know that this darkness is in our versions as well. Adrinoir asks why not use the wish to solve everything? He could have his mother back, his father would revert from this cold mess to his distant but loving father. He acts out, plays a different character and doesn't think when he should. Maribug is constantly tearing herself apart trying to balance things and ends up abusing her power occasionally (especially in the earlier part of the show). She sometimes acts selfishly and is misguided. These aren't two entirely different sets of people, but the same set if the wrong traits are amplified.

And omg I love this show.

Instead of going, look at these two evil guys, doing evil things for no reason we get these morally complex renditions of our favorite characters. There's nothing wrong with the previous interpretation but it says little about our own characters in turn and only offers a chance for some hijinks and fun before the episode ends. (I wish they'd been dating and revealed like all our hearts dreamed but if that would have been true they'd have been too powerful and defeated Better fly in like five seconds so they could get back to making out - this lovesquare is even less functioning now)

Anyways be cool, watch miraculous

[i-guess-im-into-this-now]

The Apothecary Diaries

S1E18 First Watch

Here's where I watch The Apothecary Diaries for the first time and give my thoughts, analysis, predictions, and occasionally I stumble into a joke.

To start at the beginning:

Episode 1

My character/locations cheat sheet

Suiren - Jinshi's attendant

Lakan - master strategist

Pairin - one of the princesses at Verdigris House

Luomen - Maomao's physician father

Meimei: one of the princesses of Verdigris House

Suirei: court lady who doesn't like Maomao

Woah. Okay so that's a loaded exchange.

Jinshi: How does one decrease the value of a courtesan? Maomao: In the case of pregnancy, it would reduce it to nearly zero.

There are 7 seconds of silence in this show after that. Yes, I used a stopwatch to time it. That is a freaking insane pause.

Jinshi makes a move to... I don't know exactly, reach out maybe? Reassure Maomao that he's not planning on doing this? I'm not sure. There is a shit ton of subtext to this conversation, that I'm not sure I have completely figured out but I will try.

Jinshi is the more obviously bothered by this statement, by a lot. Maomao is just observing to see how Jinshi responds to it. Essentially what she says is that a man could rape a courtesan and impregnant her to bring her value down, to ruin her. It would bring her value so low that anyone could afford to buy out her contract at that point. Jinshi has not provided any context to why he asked this question, and Maomao is studying him closely to see what he does with the information. I don't believe she thinks he would do this personally to a courtesan, or she wouldn't have told him. But as it appears, they've arrived at a brothel where Jinshi stopped her before going inside to ask this very fucked up question. She has to at least examine the possibility that she is wrong about Jinshi. And I think he passes her scrutiny, but not without damage done. She's disappointed that he is planning on going into this brothel, and that he asked such a depraved question. It hits particularly hard, because just prior to this they were having a nice moment where she opened up about her father. Now she is likely backtracking, either wondering why she bothered, or scolding herself for behaving inappropriately.

As for Jinshi in this scene, he hasn't revealed why he wants the answer to this particular question so badly. But boy does he want it. He let himself and Maomao fall into Lakan's trap just so that Lakan would tell him the answer. But Lakan didn't answer. Instead Jinshi asks Maomao, knowing that the question is inappropriate. He risks damaging the regard between the two of them so that he can get this answer. He's risking widening the rift between them. But why? What use is this answer to Jinshi? Does this have to do with the story Lakan told? Is he concerned about what may have happened to a courtesan in the past? To Maomao's mother? Is there a courtesan in the present that Jinshi is concerned about? Who can say.

In any case, Jinshi can see the damage that asking it has caused. He tries, I think, to backtrack, but it's too late. Maomao is retreating from him. She wants to flee, this conversation hurts for reasons she doesn't want to examine. Thank god Jinshi is emotionally intuitive. He can't let her walk away like this. The rift between them is too large, there is no telling if it could even be fixed if she leaves now. Jinshi grabs her arm.

Jinshi: You're leaving me now?

Maomao explains that her presence would compromise whatever plans he has in the restaurant. And Jinshi has to agree that makes sense, even if he can't put into thoughts or words why his heart is breaking right now.

Jinshi's critical error in this moment is that he is trying to keep Maomao out of what he's up to. He wants to protect her from whatever he's involved in, yet doing so is harmful too. He never tells her why he is visiting this place. He never explains why he asked the question. She is left to fill in the blanks with her own assumptions, with devastating results. In his effort to protect Maomao, Jinshi has harmed her. Jinshi cares for Maomao, but he hasn't learned to fully trust or respect her. And there will never be a relationship without trust. He's still got a lot of work to do before a real relationship can happen.

Maomao: It's fine. I didn't show any emotion when I spoke.

Maomao!!!

Her heart is breaking here too. I'm only surprised she is willing to admit it to herself. Perhaps the anguish of this moment has become too great to deny? For as sad as this scene is, that Maomao is aware and acknowledging her emotions is a major breakthrough! I suspect she's in for some painful moments now that she has to feel her pain, but you can't heal what you don't feel. She's on a path of healing now! Yay!

Oh my god, she even turned around to watch him walk into the building. So good Maomao. You're doing great girl!

Maomao: I truly hope you enjoy your evening good sir.

Maomao you dirty little liar!

Okay so maybe we only get to see a tiny step forward for Maomao, but a tiny step is still progress! I'm just so happy to see anything that pokes past the impasse that Jinshi and Maomao have been stuck at for ages.

The fuck kind of nightmare was that?! No wonder Maomao doesn't like to feel her emotions if she gets horrible flashbacks. Was she the baby in that scene? It looked like someone who was horribly injured tried to kill a baby. Apparently they couldn't go through with it. Was this Maomao's courtesan mother? Was she burned or scarred in someway? Perhaps to bring down her value? Or was the baby the product of rape? Was she trying to get rid of the baby to allow her to what? Return to being a courtesan? Seems unlikely with the injuries. Because she hates how the baby was conceived? Because the baby reminds her of the man who did this to her? Maybe to kill the baby so it couldn't be abused by someone else? Maybe because the woman in the scene was planning to kill herself after killing the baby?

Maomao looks at her hand, then thinks about the conversation she had with Jinshi yesterday. She then says of the nightmare that she brought it up. So there is a connection between the conversation and the nightmare. I'm guessing that what Jinshi asked about is exactly what happened to Maomao's mother, which triggered her memory. Why look at her hand? Does this have anything to do with her bandaged arm? Does the neglect or abuse of her mother have something to do with Maomao's low self-worth and the reason she is willing to self harm for her experiments? Or is she looking at her hand just to ground herself in reality, to try to fight back the traumatic memories?

After being awoken by her nightmare, Maomao is comforted by the familiar sight and routine of her father working in the apothecary. He asks her to take a package to Verdigris House.

This is maybe as good a time as any to ponder if Maomao's connection with Verdigris House is greater than that of an apothecary. I mean clearly it is, she considers the people here to be her family. But could she have had blood family that lived here as well? Was her mother one of the courtesans? I think that has been hinted at fairly strongly now.

Maomao is welcomed back with open arms. I'm so glad too see it. When was the last time someone gave Maomao a hug? Was it the last time she was here at the brothel?

Pairin is being harassed by granny to make a choice on something, and Maomao uses the opportunity to sneak away.

Pairin: Is she going to the annex?

I fricking hope so! I've been waiting for this!

Okay, so the annex is part of Verdigris House. And it looks identical to the room in Maomao's nightmare. So this must be where Maomao's mother lived. Perhaps where she died. And Maomao lived here, at least as an infant. How did she end up with Luomen?

Oh shit! Her mother is still alive?! But in a terrible state. She has some terrible illness. And it's not confirmed that this is her mother, but isn't it implied? Either way, Maomao used to be chased out of here by this angry person though it seems she no longer has the energy.

And hold on, I remember a scene from the last time Maomao was in the Verdigris House where granny asked her to tend to what I thought was just an ill courtesan, but perhaps it was this person in the annex.

Maomao's mother patient seems to be in the end stages of her illness. She no longer has energy to even speak. Luomen's once effective treatments don't offer relief, and there is nothing more that can be done. Though she may have been dealing with her decline for a long time Maomao will soon have to deal with the death of her mother. This may not be a healthy relationship, but there will still be grief. We grieve for people even when it's complicated. We also grieve what could have been, what never was. And there is never a good time to lose someone, but certainly some times are worse than others. Much of Maomao's life is uncertain right now, and she just took an emotional blow from her interaction with Jinshi, causing her to dip into the emotions she tries to avoid, now this on top of it. When it rains, it pours.

There is a troublesome customer visiting the Verdigris House. Meimei has been tasked to meet him. How foreboding. It couldn't be Lakan could it? His history with courtesans makes me ill.

Okay so maybe this lady isn't Maomao's mother, maybe she is. Maomao explains that the woman has syphilis. At least Verdigris House takes care of their own. I love that. Luomen may have been able to do something for this woman if he had arrived to serve the brothel during an earlier stage of the illness. There is a flashback here, where we get a glimpse of young Maomao in the brothel. No one trusted the eunuch doctor from no where, even if he could have done something. After contracting syphilis, the lady had to go on serving customers until the sores spread over her whole body, and she was locked up in the annex.

The woman tried to hum a tune, but is unable to to speak. I wonder if Maomao recognizes it.

Little girl: Big sis wanted you to know that the weirdo with the monocle is here, so you should avoid going out there for awhile.

Oh no! It is Lakan! Why is this little girl telling Maomao specifically so she can avoid him? Does he have a history with Maomao at the brothel? I'm trying to recall all of the things that Lakan said about the courtesan he used to visit at Verdigris House. That he could beat her at shogi, but not go. That she never sold herself but that she had an arrogant expression... I mean, I could be looking into it too much, but that... could be Maomao? Did she work as a courtesan here before? Is this why Jinshi is so determined to find out how someone might have reduced the price of a courtesan?! Did he know she used to work here? Does he worry that something terrible has happened to Maomao here? DID IT! Oh my god! It would explain so much about her fear of working as a courtesan, and her trauma. What the fuck happened in this brothel?! And who all knows about it! I demand answers!

I'm going to pull it back a little bit, and return to an earlier theory that Lakan is actually Maomao's biological father. He may have a history with Maomao at the brothel but that may be as a man who was somewhat interested in the daughter he fathered. Understandably, Maomao wants nothing to do with him. We learn here that Maomao knows who Lakan is though. Thank god they didn't run into each other in the palace. Can she really go on avoiding him? He can follow her in the palace or in the Pleasure District.

Maomao refers to Lakan as a long time customer of the Verdigris House, an old acquaintance, but that if she just stays put in the annex, she won't run into him. Okay, but tell me why you don't want to run into him....

Maomao has had a rough day. She's still reeling from her conversation with Jinshi and now she has been trapped all day in the annex with a woman who maybe hates her, so that she can avoid Lakan. She's had nothing to do but think about all the really painful emotions that she usually stays busy to avoid. Meimei finds Maomao hiding out in the annex, and lets her know that Lakan has left. Apparently he has brough up an offer for Maomao?! Maomao hates it, and so do I!

Maomao worries that if she didn't have her job that the madam of Verdigris House would have sold her off to Lakan by now. She thinks that Lakan's interest is the main reason that the madam wants her to become a courtesan. So Lakan is a major contributing factor to why Maomao is so fiercely opposed to being a courtesan. Her terror takes on a new shade of meaning now. If only we knew what has transpired between Maomao and Lakan in the past, we could understand.

Meimei has been given offers to leave the brothel, but has as yet turned them all down. She's getting close to retirement age, but isn't ready for that yet. Maomao asks why she doesn't just leave? To Maomao the freedom to choose would be preferrable to any offer that a customer could make. Maomao thinks that Meimei is holding out for love. Perhaps she is in love with someone already, and is waiting for an offer from that person.

Maomao: Maybe it's love. But if that's the case. It's not a rabbit hole I want to delve into. That's an emotion I'm sure I left behind. Back in the womb of the woman who birthed me.

Nearly every example of romantic love that Maomao has is heartbreaking. She's seen heartbreak after heartbreak in the brothel, with courtesans having promises made to them, and then broken. We don't know the story of her parents, but if her mother is the dying woman in the annex, or if she has died already, then then there is heartbreak in her story as well. Even the concubines in the palace don't have the love of the emperor, instead they merely battle for his attention and favor. The sole example she has seen is that of the concubine who was able to escape the Rear Palace when her military beau was able to secure her release.

Maomao is not open to the idea of love, in fact it is something she tries to avoid, disdains even. This view of love is one of the reasons we have seen her repeatedly shut down any tender emotion she's had, and why she is so willing to read any other explanation when love is directed at herself. And she tells us here, that it stems from her parents. How is she ever going to trust someone enough to love them and be loved in return?

And what a way to talk about one's own mother. "The woman who birthed me." So there is a story there. It sounds like one of abandonment, neglect or abuse, as we've already guessed.

The princesses want to pamper Maomao, and she adores the attention. This girl is so touch starved. I wondered about Maomao's need for physical touch, way back in episode 2 when Jinshi touched Maomao's hair and breathed on her neck. He did it in an effort to try to seduce her, but her reaction was interesting. She didn't get disgusted or freaked out as she did with his flirting. She just kind of let it happen. Now we see it with the courtesans that she considers family. Meimei is scrubbing Maomao's back and she is relaxed and smiling. The courtesans love Maomao so much, I wish she could have this kind of affection all the time.

Hard transition to Jinshi. A man who maybe has never had a hug in his life, except for the back hug he stole from Maomao when he was drunk. He's regretting that his date went so terribly, he didn't mean to give the impression to Maomao that he was trying to hook up with someone. He tells us that it definitely wasn't what he traveled there for, which is really unnecessary. No one who has been watching this show believed he was. I would like for him to tell us what he was up to though.

Maomao has retuned to Jinshi's residence, and Jinshi steels himself to face her. He's embarrassed and knows he's once again put space between them, when all he wants to do is find a way to get closer. Plus, it looks like he's carrying that jug of... beverage that Lakan left. He presents it as a present from a weirdo. Their conversation lacks all of the usual banter, and is perfectly polite, which for these two is a disaster. Jinshi watches her walk away. He's not sure where to even begin to repair this. He's frustrated. Maomao is doing her best to pretend like Jinshi already left. Gaoshun is there listening closely. Suiren is there watching Maomao and wondering what has changed, but knows it's some bullshit because she says:

Suiren: For goodness' sake.

Yeah Suiren. I feel that in my bones. But when I say it there is usually an F bomb in there somewhere.

Maomao is having very complicated feelings about having seen her mother the woman in the annex. It's distracting her from her work. It seems bad, but it's a good sign that Maomao is starting to face her emotions and try to process them, rather than avoid them.

Suiren thinks Maomao's distraction has to do with the master of the residence so she decides it's time to say something. Suiren realizes that hints and subtly don't work so well for Maomao when it comes to herself. She needs very blunt advice, which Suiren provides.

Suiren encourages Maomao to ask Jinshi for some space for her apothecary supplies.

Suiren: You may appear apathetic, but you're keen. You know where you stand, and how to play the game.

Yes! Call her on her bullshit Suiren!

Suiren: Because somebody was born noble doesn't inherently make them any different from you or me.

She's telling Maomao to quit looking at Jinshi as some lofty official, see him as a person.

Suiren: If you view everything in terms of status, then you'll miss opportunities.

Thank you Suiren! Internalize that Maomao. Put it in your head and keep it there.

Maomao has an errand to run at the court pharmacy, and she's delighted. She'll sparkling here. If only Maomao could be employed here.

The odd court lady that smacked Maomao in the head a few episodes back has arrived. Maomao figures that this lady works in the guard house and handles herbs in her job, which is why she had a bitter smell earlier, here I thought she was on drugs. Maomao ponders why the lady dislikes her so much, when they've had so little interaction.

A little casual classism for flavor. The pharmacist bemoans that the court lady is required to come pick up drugs herself. Then realizes he said it in front of Maomao and tries to back track. It's not okay work for a court lady, but fine for servant. That comment right on the heals of Suiren's much better advice about class.

Maomao discovers that the item she was sent to pick up was potato flour and wonders why Jinshi needs it. She pieces together a few things about Jinshi's actions. She suspects his actions are part of a purification ceremony that would be used to perform ceremonial rights. Something a nobleman might do. Something that would be strange for a eunuch to do. I'm tired of this theme. Moving on.

Gaoshun and Jinshi are trying to piece together the mystery of Luomen, but Jinshi can't stop thinking about how things are so distant and confused between himself and Maomao, right now. And just to make sure Jinshi never gets a moments peace, Lakan arrives.

Lakan is in the same house where Maomao is right now, and on the one hand I'm hoping they don't run into each other for Maomao's well being, but on the other hand, let's get this plot moving along. It's time to throw Maomao to the wolves.

Question: why does Lakan bring his own beverage whenever he visits? Is he afraid of being poisoned?

Jinshi isn't even bothering to hide how irritated he is at this visit. That's telling. And maybe a mistake. Or maybe intentional.

Jinshi: It seems to me, that you had engaged in some dirty trickery. Lakan: How very rude. That's rich to hear from a thief like yourself.

Gasp! Jinshi a thief?! Go on!

Oh no! Lakan really was trying to get Maomao. He spent a decade trying to get Maomao? Maomao who is what? All of 17 or 18 here? Has he been trying to get Maomao out of the brothel since she was a child? With good intentions or bad ones? Lakan feels he's been made a fool. He tell Jinshi he's upset with him over this.

Jinshi is worried, pissed, and oh so intent.

Jinshi: So do you want your prize returned?

I'm fairly certain that Jinshi wouldn't do that, and is just moving the conversation to find out Lakan's intentions.

Lakan: Not quite. I will pay whatever it is you ask.

That's... a hell of a look from Jinshi. So intense! Jinshi fucking hates this guy.

Jinshi: And if I refuse?

Lakan: Well then, I suppose there is nothing I can do is there.

Which is a threat to wreck Jinshi's life! It's a declaration of war. Holy shit!

Lakan: How many people could defy a man of your rank? I could count every single one of them on one hand.

The imperial family maybe? Yup that's it. Jinshi knows that Lakan knows his true identity.

Oh my god. Lakan knows everything!

Lakan: I'm just concerned you know. About what my daughter would think.

He's threatening to expose the truth about Jinshi, and hits him where it hurts the most: Maomao. Jinshi was worried that Maomao may be this man's daughter, and Lakan just confirmed as much.

Jinshi is tense. Hands balled into fists, posture wary, as Lakan asks to meet Maomao. This asshole has been following Maomao. First at the brothel and now to Jinshi's residence.

Everyone one of Lakan's moves were so well played, and Jinshi... is trapped. He once again has to make a choice between the obligations of his station and his own personal desires. He can give this official what he is asking for and go on business as usual, after all what is one servant over another? It would be an easy decision for someone else other than Jinshi, if it were about someone else, other than Maomao.

Jinshi looks deep in thought when he comes upon Maomao while the sun is setting. Is something ending here?

Jinshi addresses Maomao as "apothecary." It's respectful in that it acknowledges her for her skills, she may even like being called this, but it's another sign of the distance between the two. I don't know the last time he called her by her name.

Jinshi seems very nervous to bring this up to Maomao. You can hear the tension in his voice. Unusual for Jinshi, when he is usually bold and shameless when interacting with Maomao. It's a sign of just how precarious things are between the two right now. Also, a sign of just how divided Jinshi is about even bringing this suggestion to Maomao.

Jinshi: There's... an official who wants to meet you sometime soon. ... It's...that weirdo I've been telling you about. His name's... Lakan.

A pause. Then a fricking jump scare of Maomao's intense glare! This glare isn't giving Jinshi chills in the fun way. She looks legit scary. It reminds me of a frightened animal that has been backed into a corner and has no choice left but to fight. Lakan is a line she will not cross. An absolute boundary. With one look she declares that there is nothing she won't do to avoid that meeting.

Jinshi: I'll find a way to let him down gently.

Jinshi, Jinshi, Jinshi.... what the hell are you going to do? If you can't convince Maomao to see Lakan, and you won't force her to do it, then your other choice is to go to war with Lakan.

Jinshi: I've never seen her make a face like that. I never want to see it again. Ever.

I hope he means that as I'm going to do everything I can to keep her protect her from Lakan. I hope this is a turning point for Jinshi, where he chooses Maomao in a real way. I hope he won't waver again on this, allowing Lakan room to maneuver Maomao and himself.

Maomao is distressed that Lakan has found her again. She goes to collect medicinal herbs. A familiar and comforting activity.

She is approached by Suirei who cares for the herb garden near the military officers' part of the palace. Maomao questions what Suirei is growing here and Suirei claims she planting a medicine for resurrection?

Maomao has a VERY strong reaction to that. Who has died in Maomao's life that she is that desperate to get back? A family member? Someone she loved? A patient she couldn't save?

Suirei claims to be joking. What a strange lady. Are we absolutely sure she's not on drugs? The music is unsettling in this scene and so is Suirei. She asks how good of an apothecary Maomao is then tells her she's going to plant morning glories here. I happen to know that those are poisonous! Is Suirei hoping to make a poison? Will she try to get Maomao to do it?

The sun is setting over the palace and the music is ominous. Is something serious about to happen in the next episode?

To start at the beginning: Episode 1

Next Episode:

Episode 19

[misc-obeyme]

Hey CC I have a question!

I'm tryna create my own character who is based on Beel. It has been years since I played Obey Me, I don't really remember Beel's or others personalities.

What I wanna focus more in his innocence, what makes him so naïve? Does expressing you're feelings for him or flirt with him work? Does seducing work on Beel? If It's MC or another person who likes Beel. What else could he be naïve for?

As I'm tryna out this innocence to my own character as for other traits between Beel and my OC are very different.

Hi there, anon!

Hmm. Well, in my opinion, Beel isn't exactly naive so much as he's just... willing to be vulnerable. And a lot of people read that as naive because it means he's putting himself out there, which could lead to him getting hurt. So I guess he's very truthful and honest with his feelings without being overly guarded of them. He wears his heart on his sleeve.

Expressing your feelings for him would definitely work. If you told him directly how you feel, without couching it in confusing language, that would actually make him very happy. Especially if he feels the same way. He'll tell you right then if he hasn't already.

Flirting will also work, but perhaps not too subtly. Beel isn't stupid, but he's also not likely to make assumptions about how you feel unless you express it clearly. It's less that he doesn't understand and more that he doesn't even register that flirting is happening because you haven't indicated to him clearly that you feel anything other than friendship for him. He doesn't try to read your mind or figure out how you're feeling. If you don't tell him, he assumes you don't feel that way. If he's uncertain, he'll ask you.

Seducing will also work. In this case, he might be flustered if you do it without indicating any kind of feelings previously. If he thinks you're just friends, he'll be confused by you trying to seduce him. He'll know what you're doing immediately, but it won't make sense to him. And in this case, he'll ask you about it, too. He might not ask you how you feel in that moment, but he might say something like, "Are you sure?" or "Is this what you want?" He's willing if you are, but he wants that clear reassurance. This guy doesn't do mind games.

What a lot of people see in Beel as innocence is really just honesty.

Because when it comes down to it, it's risky to be completely honest with how you feel or what you're thinking. You're always opening yourself up for potential hurt when you do that.

And by not being guarded, it makes it feel like Beel has never been hurt. Which in turn can make him seem innocent.

But we know that Beel has been hurt. He watched his own family turn on each other. And yet he's still able to be vulnerable, still able to take that risk.

I think it's because for Beel, that painful experience didn't teach him he has to protect himself. It taught him that he has to protect everyone else. And in his eyes, being honest with you will prevent you from potential hurt though misunderstanding. Even if it also leads to him being hurt.

And this is how he would be especially with MC who has earned his trust and friendship. That's a person he wants to protect. And if that means exposing himself to possible pain, he would do it willingly.

Wow anyway, not to get too into character analysis here, but this is how I characterize Beel. The game gives us the very edges of this, but this is how I've come to understand his character when writing it for myself. Hopefully it helps with your OC! Feel free to ask me more questions if you like, though!

[stillness-in-green]

Hello, I like your posts and I want to ask you something. I don't think there is any way AFO knew from the start that other people besides him couldn't handle as many quirks as he could, so when he decided to offer someone many quirks, he ended up harming them instead. Do you think the original plan was for this to have been included in AFO's backstory as one of the factors for his villainy, rather than having him evil in the womb (though even him being inherently evil is debatable).

Hiya, and thanks for the kind words! 

To answer your question, the tl;dr is that I don't know what Horikoshi was originally thinking for AFO's backstory (but we could compare him over to a certain movie villain if we want to hypothesize about it!) but I don't think you or I or anyone else is obligated to care. Your proposal seems to me like it fits fairly neatly even into canon as we have it, give or take it being "a factor in his villainy," so you should feel free to include it in your headcanons as-is.

Also included below: several paragraphs about why I personally fall on the side of AFO being inherently evil as he's depicted in the canon even though I heartily believe it's a stupid-ass depiction and people should freely elect to ignore it.

Hit the jump.

People sometimes being harmed by multiple quirks came up in the same conversation as the idea that One For All could not be stolen but could be forced on someone, back just after Stain.  I don’t know how much we can gather about Horikoshi’s original plans from that, but it must be said that these days I’m pretty cynical about any information in the series being able to withstand close analysis.

For example, I always assumed that All Might knew OFA could be forcibly passed because at some point it had been, because how else could he possibly know? But while that hasn't been strictly disproven, it's certainly the case that none of the vestiges ever act in a way that suggests they never wanted this to begin with and had it forced on them against their will. So could we not as easily say that both the “forcing OFA on the unwilling” and the “too many quirks can harm people” factoids were literally just there as set-up for Shigaraki and Spinner’s respective endings?

On the other hand, that conversation happened all the way back in 2015, with Spinner’s existence only just having been hinted at in a single panel, and we know Horikoshi had a different ending in mind at one point.  Maybe back then, he was still thinking in terms of that different ending when he wrote that conversation?  We know the original ending eventually got recycled into the second movie, Heroes Rising, which came out four years after the conversation in question.  We don’t know exactly how it would have looked if integrated into the story proper, but if you’re wondering about All For One potentially being slated for a more sympathetic origin, it’s worth comparing him to that movie’s ending—or, more specifically, to that movie’s villain, Nine.

For the longest time, I took Nine for a sort of proto-Shigaraki, but that’s because I was working under the assumption that Shigaraki would be the Final Boss, and thus that Nine was “Shigaraki as Final Boss from a time when the Villains were just meant to be scary and alien.”  I had not prior to this very post given any serious thought to the idea of Nine as a proto-version of Final Boss All For One.

It does make a certain amount of sense, though!  He’s got the multiple quirks, he’s hunting for a specific quirk, he was given surgery by Ujiko, he has an unstable body, he has white hair, he has megalomania…and, most pertinently to your ask, he was even born in the most grinding poverty imaginable with no indication of any parents being in the picture for him.  So then, how did Nine react to the circumstances of his birth, and could we extrapolate any of those reactions back onto Canon AFO to see him in a more sympathetic light?

Unfortunately, Nine’s takeaway from his backstory seems to revolve around the idea that he has a great, powerful quirk, so he really ought to be on top of the world, but because of the circumstances of his birth, he isn't—instead he and the rest of his friends are living on the streets or in shitty trashed apartments or being chased by mobs or what-have-you.[1]  That sense of specific grievance is much more akin to All For One’s evil than it is the more sympathetic tack taken in the portrayal of the League.  The League never wanted to be powerful/famous/rich; they didn’t think that they deserved to be on top of the world but that the circumstances of their lives/the unfairness of the world deprived them of that golden life.  Their grudge is a result of their own suffering and how that suffering was ignored by the world around them, not (give or take some elements of Dabi’s story) the sense that they were denied something that was “rightfully” theirs.  All For One, though, does have that sense of grievance and denied ego.

1: It is, of course, very easy to also track elements of other Villains to Nine’s crew.  Chimera was a victim of heteromorphobia and (Spinner), while Slice was either living the hikkikomori life (Spinner, La Brava) or had trouble controlling her quirk (Toga).  Mummy is the vaguest of the three, but given the flashiness of his clothes in the single flashback panel we get of him, I might guess he got drawn towards organized crime, like various of the disenfranchised Shie Hassaikai characters and, one might argue, Twice.  So even here, those elements of societal failure are present; they’re just rationalized differently by Nine's crew on their journey from victim to Villain.

Of course, that doesn’t necessarily reflect on what Horikoshi would have done with those scenarios in the long term—the movies are historically extremely disinterested in having Villains with a lick of moral nuance that might make Deku & co. hesitant to do anything other than punch them out of commission ASAP.  So Nine boiling down to, “I want to take over the world because my godlike quirk means I deserve to, and I only wasn’t already ruling it because the world figured out how to cage allegorical lions,” doesn’t necessarily mean All For One’s story would have been—or was always intended to be—the same!

In the end, though, as I said, I’m pretty cynical about Horikoshi and his “original intentions,” so I think if you want to dream up a more sympathetic backstory for All For One, you should just go for it!  I don’t even think it’s entirely out of bounds, canonically speaking.  After all, we know that AFO is capable of feelings resembling affection for people he thinks of as “his”—who’s to say he didn’t discover that giving people too many quirks would hurt them when he gave some favored subject one quirk too many and it broke them?  Sure, I think that in canon his reaction would be that of a spoiled child who accidentally broke a toy, with any actual sense of guilt willfully buried beneath anger and pique that he can’t have another one just like it.  But it’s still plausible!

Heck, you could even add in that his and Ujiko’s Noumu project wasn’t about strengthening the body solely for AFO’s sake, to outrun the quirk singularity, but also so that the people he liked and wanted to keep around could get multiple and/or powerful quirks without going catatonic.  It makes sense, even—if the quirk All For One is all that’s necessary for AFO to get all the quirks he wants with no downsides, why would he care about the quirk singularity?  It could only have been because he wants to preserve humanity for his rule (because he’s desperately lonely but also desperately controlling).

Really, I’m all for takes on All For One that try to give him any nuance and humanity at all—which brings me to your aside about the debatableness of AFO being intrinsically evil.

(I don't know where you stand on this, anon, so don't take this as aimed at you personally so much as the people I've seen on Twitter who say things like, "Anyone who thinks AFO was born evil missed the whole point Horikoshi was making about Villains being created by society.")

I have all the respect in the world for people who try to argue that Horikoshi didn’t intend AFO to be read as evil in utero, I truly do, and I very much see where they’re coming from. However, in this specific matter, I think they are giving Horikoshi more benefit of the doubt than he deserves. We know good and well that Horikoshi can set up a good juxtaposition between the reality of a character’s situation and the “narrative” the world is enforcing on them, and that juxtaposition is just not there in the depiction of Baby!AFO.

Look at the contrast between the “Who Was Shigaraki Tomura?” program and Spinner’s breakdown about Shigaraki being his friend and hero, or the art of young Himiko just existing and being Himiko as her parents call her a demon, a monster, and a deviant.  Conversely, think of the ironic juxtaposition of Edgy!Deku, covered in grime and muck, a terrifying presence but still being extolled by the narrative as a Hero trying to help and save people.

None of that duality is there with Baby!AFO, who is drawn with bulging, creepy, blank eyes and twisted expressions from the exact moment of his birth and constantly throughout his childhood, compared to his younger brother, who’s just drawn like Horikoshi normally draws babies, who gets to be a normal adorable child compared to his obviously-drawn-to-be-unsettling older brother.  This accompanies a narrator telling the reader about how AFO was “imbued with hubris and a disrespect for others” from the moment he was born; it constantly describes AFO in ways that ascribe him agency that he as an infant could not possibly have: he “stole” his mother’s quirk just like he “stole” nutrients from his brother.

From the moment of conception, he’s talked about like some kind of alien monster, a horror movie parasite fresh off a meteorite. The text says of the twins’ mother that she couldn’t feel “what had taken up residence in her uterus,” which is just about the most garishly dehumanizing way I can think of to describe a pregnancy!  AFO is a “what” instead of a “who,” and he “took up residence” instead of “was conceived.” Seriously, it’s like I’m reading the worst dregs of posts from the old childfree livejournal communities that had their own nasty slang to use for mothers and babies that anyone outside of their community would look at and ask, “Hey, what’s with the fucking gross language you’re using to describes other human beings here?”

There are so many ways that Horikoshi could have—and, I expect, would have!—done differently if what he wanted was to demonstrate that even AFO is a victim of the world he was born into.  He could have kept the narration as-is but visually depicted Baby!AFO as just a normal infant who became twisted due to the events of his youth.  He could have kept the alienating visuals but had the narration be more sympathetic, telling the reader how AFO was born a little different but still might have grown up okay if he hadn’t had the deck stacked so badly against him from the beginning.  He could have just let readers draw their own conclusions and dropped the narrator entirely because there is no one in all of the setting’s history (least of all the usual narrator, Future!Deku) who could actually be a reliable narrator about AFO’s infant years.

Instead of any of that, what we have is Horikoshi indulging the part of him that likes horror with an omniscient narrator lecturing us about how AFO was a greedy parasite of unknown providence in the womb, and art to match. It's only made more clear by how sterling and saintlike Yoichi is despite his only consistent model for human behavior being All Of That.

Listen, I am all about trying to wring the story for any and every excuse I can find to write apologetics for the Villains!  I will take an inch from Horikoshi and run a ten-mile marathon with it!  I totally support being critical of the story of AFO as we were told it! But I just can’t get behind the read that Horikoshi was challenging us to look beyond the surface with Baby!AFO, and that only readers who misunderstood what he was saying with his Villain plot could possibly think that AFO was written as an Evil Baby.  I’m sorry, people who want a non-evil baby!  I’m sorry, people who want a Horikoshi who wouldn’t write an evil baby!  But canonically speaking, AFO was an Evil Baby. Every element of his story was chosen to hammer that in—the scenario, the writing, the art, the narration, and the fact that only real juxtaposition present in any of it is in Good Baby Yoichi.

Aaaaand that’s all the more reason why Villain-appreciators in this fandom should feel absolutely free to disregard any and all pieces of canon they think are stupid lazy bullshit that Horikoshi ran with because grappling with e.g. “relatable motivations” or “the difficulties of treating antisocial personality disorder when the only medicine you were taught is punching” would make the story too complicated.

Honestly, “AFO didn’t realize his toys could break before he broke one,” is easy to fit into the canon compared to some of the back-breaking twists I’m prepared to undertake with a straight face.  Go nuts!

Thanks for the ask!

[abybweisse]

Ch206, Any chance of outside help?

⚠️ Long post ⚠️

I'll look at three things here:

Might a reaper help Snake?

Might someone from another assignment help?

In the event of no outside assistance

Last night I had dreams about this, and when I woke up I had to recall what I'd considered and needed to research. Mainly about question two.

1. Might a reaper help Snake?

I doubt it, but it could be possible. We haven't seen any obvious reapers during this assignment with Finny and Snake, but there could be one there... trying to figure out if there is a bizarre doll at the orphanage. It would be horribly sneaky if there is a reaper there who hasn't made themselves known to the readers.

Just now, I realized why there probably isn't one already stationed there: the children are being bled out and killed off-site, then their bodies and blood are being returned to the orphanage for further processing. That means reapers are collecting souls somewhere other than the orphanage... if Undertaker isn't collecting the souls before reapers can get wherever.

And we don't even know what tipped off the reaper organization there was a bizarre doll at the sanatorium; how did they know to send Ronald there? People weren't expected to die there, except perhaps the two men that Baldo shoots. Ronald seems to be aware that Baldo will be saved by Ada and Lau. At one point Ronald says he was investigating the place for a bizarre doll, but he doesn't say why one was suspected of being on-site.

We also have to keep in mind that these assignments are largely overlapping, meaning that Ronald and William are presumably fighting Layla/Al around the same time that Finny and Snake are dealing with the staff and Doll underground. If Othello hasn't yet received Layla/Al to examine, then he won't yet know what to look for in Norfolk or elsewhere. So, if Grelle and Othello show up to collect from Snake, will they know to fight Doll?

Even if they recognize Doll as a bizarre doll, it doesn't mean they would choose to save Snake. We haven't seen a shinigami pass yet, and I'd love to see one, but I won't hold my breath for that. The only scenario I can see for them saving Snake is if they get an emergency "call" to go to the orphanage, since an unexpected death has just been reported. They realize the killer must not be human (anymore, at least), helping to explain why the death was not intended to happen -- why they just now found out, instead of having it predetermined or predicted. Given the strange circumstances, as well as Snake's uniqueness, they might argue against collecting his soul.

That's a total long shot.

2. Might someone from another assignment help?

I woke up trying to remember what I needed to look at, from my dreams. I needed to look at a map of English counties, so I could look at Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk, and East Sussex (where Brighton is located).

There are four parts of Yorkshire, and I don't know where Heathfield Manor is located. I want to say North Yorkshire, since some of the largest heather (heath) moors are located there.

Then we have Norfolk, where the orphanage is located, much farther south, along the eastern coastline. Wiltshire, where the sanatorium is situated, is farther south and way off to the west. East Sussex, home to Brighton and that resort hotel, is back east and along the southern coast.

We never saw our earl and Sebastian explain where everyone is to meet up again after they have completed their assignments, did we? I don't think so. I've been under the assumption that our earl would stay where he is, in Brighton, waiting for the others to come to him and report. But this might not be the case. It's unlikely any of the other pairs would end up passing through Norfolk, let along intending to meet there. So, I'd be a bit shocked if Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao took any route through there on their way back towards London or Brighton. Besides, they might be at a loss to help Snake. Whom Snake needs is Ada... and she's very busy.

In fact, Wiltshire left us on a cliffhanger, since Lau offers an escape to China, and the others (including Baldo) seem interested, but we have yet to actually see them escape from the sanatorium before Polaris shows up, investigating the missing blood shipment. We could still see deaths there before anyone can get out to make a report... if they even plan to make a report. Honestly, I expect Baldo, if he lives, to ultimately decline the offer to go to China, as he still feels a sense of duty to our earl and Sebastian.

Our earl and Sebastian are unlikely to head towards Norfolk, so unless Sebastian uses his powers to detect something is wrong, demon-travel his way there, save Snake, and get back to Brighton for tea time, even he is unlikely to save Snake. In fact, with Brighton so close (across the channel) to France, they are more likely to go there than they are higher north.

In the event of no outside assistance

As rough as it sounds, Snake's best chance is for Doll to be so upset over cutting him that she lets the top students and Finny attempt to save him. But how would they?

Oliver is probably the best at embroidery and sewing, so if they have anything to serve as string and needle, he'd probably be the best choice for stitching the wounds... if he can see and get to where he needs to sew. Martial arts training might also give him some clue on where to apply pressure to slow the loss of blood.

Theo would probably be the one who has read any medical books, possibly including works on human anatomy and surgical techniques. So, he would instruct Oliver what to do.

Artie might have decent knowledge about proper cleanliness for the procedure.

I'm not sure what Mabel would do, unless she also knows something about applying pressure to stop the bleeding.

As someone else (sorry, I forgot who mentioned it) pointed out earlier, at least one of his snakes might have the sort of venom that could help stop the bleeding at the wound site. That would be very risky, though, since the venom could spread to areas where it's not needed and could cause more damage.

Doll or Finny might suggest setting Snake up to receive blood transfusions, but then one or both should recall that Snake and Finny were initially turned away from the orphanage because their blood types didn't match any of the four blood types in the system. Snake cannot safely receive blood transfusions because they don't know what kind of blood he needs, and they likely don't have it anyway. This is a big clue early in the assignment that not only is Finny's blood permanently affected from the old drug tests... but that Snake probably really isn't quite human. Some hybrid, I suppose. Either that or he was born human but also got stuck in some experiment that permanently changed his body, perhaps altering his DNA, which determines the type of blood he has, as well as the antibodies in his blood that would attack foreign red blood cells. Even if they manage to patch him up, he might not make it, due to a lack of blood.

It's truly not looking good for Snake. I hope his snakes help to avenge him. I hope Emily gets to show her loyalty to Snake by finally turning on Doll....

[linnie-laakso]

Good Omens Season 3

Well. Here we are. Let's just say I didn't expect to feel this heartbroken reading rumours of S3 potentially getting cancelled. I was fine, I swear I thought I was fine.

As any Terry Pratchett fan, I'm used to continue living years and years - heck, decades even - of my life under the assumption there's a Good Omens thing under discussion to be made that ultimately never sees the light of day. Forgetting there was a Guards TV series and if I remember, then with contempt and sense of superiority of a person who hasn't even seen the trailer and still is judging it.

When a Good Omens adaptation got made, with real actors involved, and stayed close to the original, I was amazed. I recall preferring Crowley all those years ago (probably because I was younger and he was cool). Here, there was David Tennant as Crowley. And he HAD HIS PLANTS! They kept his plants in the adaptation! And Aziraphale... I LOVED this version of Aziraphale, loving, delighted by life, short-tempered, second-guessing everything but his superiors and his taste in style and food. And then Shadwell who was everything I imagined and more. I loved the additional flashbacks. Not a fan of how the air base final stand was handled I could live with that (I'm a person who has issues with parts of Peter Jackson's adaptation of LotR, a feat not managed by many).

When S2 got announced, I was sceptical but the end product was good in general. Felt more like a coffee shop AU or a beach episode (if GO was an anime). But still enjoyable and what's more: there would be a S3.

A story created by Terry Pratchett! One of those things he devised deemed lost forever to see the light of day! With rendition of characters I loved dearly, his take on religion of today's USA! It felt like a gift, one I looked forward very much because S2 (mostly Neil Gaiman filler project) was watchable and now we were in for the REAL DEAL, with a story line! 😭😭😭😭😍

When Neil Gaiman SA allegations surfaced, I just shrugged. Either S3 will get made or it won't. If it gets cancelled, it would be the same as Terry Pratchett's hard drive getting run over by a steamroller... But now we are here and it HURTS. Destruction of Terry's hard drive felt like a nice conclusion to his life story; honouring and celebrating his work and his wishes.

But this... it's a gift from heavens being taken away from us. I want it, I need it. If it happens, it happens, I'll still have Raising Steam and Shepherd's Crown to read but this was such an unexpected occurrence of world procuring something nice for us, for a change, it hurts when it's disappearing.

I am disappointed in Neil. You know, the usual way.

The podcast form was less than ideal, in parts questionable, especially the hosts' take on BDSM as demeaning for women when they very well could have educate people how Gaiman's alleged conduct violated several basic practices of BDSM scene (communication, beforehand cleared consent, safe words, aftercare), yet they brought the receipts and it was obvious Neil and Scarlett's accounts matched. He was immoral asshole, at least.

(I have no problem with his practice of having sex with fans, nor do I discourage 20yo women from sleeping with 60+ yo men if they so fancy. If both parties get turned on by the thought, go for it. Not my thing but I'm a demisexual lesbian and even I can acknowledge Gaiman has a lovely reading voice. I can see the vision... in theory.)

Scarlett's story as told by Tortoise Media felt... confusing. How could Gaiman know she didn't feel like doing sexual things with him if she later sent him messages she enjoyed them? I can see why New Zealand police entertained only SA charges for his hot tub advances. It was obvious she was not in a place where she should enter any romantic relationships. Gaiman, being the older and more experienced of the two, should have known better. But he didn't know better because he FREAKING PROPOSITIONED HER NOT EVEN A DAY INTO KNOWING HER. Yep, all cool. I can see how he could think sex was implied when inviting her into a bath. I can also see why a young woman didn't get up and leave immediately when he approached her, wanting to stay on polite terms on a guy whose kid she was working as a nanny for and whom she admired.

Gaiman's side citing Fifty Shades of Grey as an example of BDSM being mainstream made me lose all respect for him. It's not good literature, it's even worse as good BDSM example.

And then came Claire's account brought by someone else and the pattern became obvious. Gaslighting, distorting boundaries and very obvious practice of repeating multiple times she could stop any time she wanted in order not to be liable. Did he get more desperate for sex later as he aged? Later, when Tortoise Media published her story, it favoured Gaiman more, made the situation feel more dubious again.

And then came the allegation he had implied eviction every time his counterpart attempted to ghost his sexts. Evil and pathetic. I hope he got careless and left some paper trail because the other stuff is hard to prove/ disprove but that is not even sexual assault, it's extortion.

I want him to face consequences of his actions. Criminal consequences.

At the same time, I'm mad at him for destroying the work he himself did. His personal campaign that every creative person writes a will about what should be done with their art after their passing is very much needed.

World right now was so ready for Sandman and Wanda's improved story. The actress chosen for her is beautiful. A trans woman as a hero everyone falls in love with... 😭 If it's gone, it's gone. I'm just mad at him.

Mad, and sad for people who took comfort in his creations who are now forced to grapple with what their moral obligations is, and that is not positions they chose to be in.

And for those who are virtue signalling and complaining people care about TV shows or are writing more about their feelings: FUCK YOU. There's nothing we can do for the victims. They seem to have good support network. Let people be sad. You're the only properly righteous, according to your standards? Well, good for you! Stop mocking others for having comfort TV show, you tool. Your will to live doesn't depend on fandom of a show/ book / hobby and those who find themselves in that situation are stupid?! Again, FUCK YOU! I have never been suicidal but there was time when I only got out of bed because my pets depended on me. I felt as if I couldn't breathe freely, totally burnt out at work... There was very few things that made me feel anything but I had to get up eventually because my guinea pigs needed hay and vegetables. There was a day I wouldn't get up, crying they would die because I ran out of hay and couldn't make myself get up and walk 5-8 minutes to the store to get more.

If someone finds solace in NG's work and you mock that, you're not bettering the world, you're just an asshole. So what, they don't denounce him every second sentence or don't address the situation at all because they're over their head in their own problems? Let them be, you freak!

[sightkeeper]

hey! first off, js wanna say that i LOVE your art and style, and having just binged chosen faces for the first time, I am. smitten.

and so I had to ask you this question- feel free to ignore it if it somehow has spoilers - but ik that you don't plan to cover s2 apart from short scenes that spark your interest, but do you think your aziraphale would've made the same... decision that he made in canon? towards the end?

also can he take metatron in a fight :D pls say yes :D

Oh man oh man, this one really made me think! I don't think answering this is spoilers in any way, as we already know I'm following S1 canon (even if you don't know what changes to events I've yet to make). So the question is whether or not Chosen Face!Aziraphale would have accepted the Metatron's offer, and tried to convince Crowley to join him and become an angel again. Granted, as of now, we do not know the full story of why TV Aziraphale reacted the way he did. We didn't even get to truly see the conversation he had with the Metatron on the offer, only what he tells Crowley. And I don't trust him to be a reliable narrator. Let alone that we never see him say 'yes'. He just says 'I don't know what to say.'

There's a lot of really interesting theories about the new season and why characters act the way they do, but for the purpose of this ask I'm going to go with the assumption that everything we saw on screen is accurate, without anything happening in the background or death threats or spiked coffees to explain their actions. And to this end, I'm going to bring up these past two responses to Q&As:

Because I started this comic pre-S2, I have their very first meeting being on the wall of Eden. CF!Aziraphale never met angel Crowley. He has no assumptions of how happy Crowley was prior to Falling.

TV!Aziraphale is complex and fallible, which is why I love him, but he also has shown that when faced with the ultimatum of running or facing the threat, he'd sacrifice his own happiness for what he felt was right (the bandstand). The end of S2E6 felt much the same to me in this. The Metatron is obviously manipulative, and Aziraphale has a lot more growing to do (as does Crowley, whose response was again to run off together), but at his core Aziraphale wants to do good. It's just whose definition of 'good' and to what end that he wibbles over. Would CF!Aziraphale react the same? Well, kinda no, but also unfortunately yes. I'm so sorry. I don't think the setup could have been the same. CF!Aziraphale doesn't harbor any notion of Heaven being purely good, and hasn't for a good while. But he does want to believe that God has a plan, and that if he can figure out that plan, he can win the game. By this I mean, Aziraphale's initial goals were to be on the "right/winning" side of the game, so he joined the angels as a tactical advantage. But as he grew to love earth and genuinely wanting to be kind, winning the game meant less of being a "victor", and more "If I figure out the game plan, I can subvert it if need be." He doesn't know what the plan is. But he does think the Metatron would know. So an opportunity to infiltrate their ranks and be able to make real structural changes that wouldn't break reality? Yeah, I could see him taking it. And since giving Crowley the holy water, Aziraphale has trusted Crowley to keep himself safe even when he's not around.

howling screaming slashing at the walls

As for whether or not he'd still present the question to Crowley, I think he would (but without the implication of how nice it was back then). He'd present the option only because it is an option, and he wouldn't want to take away Crowley's ability to choose that fate for himself. After all, he chose to be an angel and found a home in that identity. He'd want to offer Crowley that same courtesy, if that's actually what he wanted.

He doesn't want to control Crowley and make decisions for him. And if Crowley's decision means they have to separate for a time until he can figure out The Plan? He'll be heartbroken but he'll accept it.

Okay but the real answer you're looking for: could CF!Aziraphale take on the Metatron and win?

YOU FUCKIN' BETCHA THAT FLOATING HEAD IS GOING DOWN

[chasing-chimeras]

Preview of Chapter 19 of Green Zone - "Woven Into the Lives of Others"

below the cut

Liam’s lips are on him. Liam’s lips are always on him these days. On his neck, his collarbone, his left ear, his hands, his hip, his stomach. Liam blankets him in kisses; chapped lips against his skin. He leaves spots of dampness in his wake, which Theo dutifully pretends to be irritated by. The truth is that he could be drowning in Liam and he’d never come up for air.

That should terrify you.

“Let me?” Liam pulls Theo down from the heights of his dangerous delight with hands on his waist, thumb prodding at the button of Theo’s jeans.

“We talked about it,” Theo says without elaboration. They did. Sort of. It was more like Liam badgered him with endless attempts to get into his pants and Theo finally conjured up a rational explanation as to why he's hesitant. Not a true reason, but one that would make sense to any normal person.

Liam's not normal, so the lesson hasn't really stuck.

“Theo, I’m dying,” Liam whimpered and pressed his hips into Theo’s torso as the older boy placed a kiss right above his bellybutton.

“What happened to ‘waiting never killed anyone’?” Theo referenced back to their conversation between the pallets.

“You can wait as long as you want.” Liam’s tone fell to a flat sincerity that felt so alien in the darkness and sluggish heat cradling their bodies. “I just want to know why? It’s not like I can get you pregnant,” Liam complained, immediately earning a derisive sneer in return.

“There are a lot of assumptions in that sentence,” he spat back, trying to conceal the flattered heat in his cheeks. Luckily, it was Liam, so he was overwhelmed by his own disordered anxieties.

“I don’t know how any of this works!” Liam complained, hoarsely, dropping his forehead to Theo’s stomach.

“I don’t know Liam, but I’m pretty sure you don’t volunteer the other guy to take it up the ass.”

“You’ve been gay for a week and you’re suddenly an expert?”

Theo had raised his brows in response, holding back a smile.

“I could just…you know?” Liam lifted his head and followed up with the most grotesque and excruciatingly humiliating miming of what he wanted to do to Theo, and that’s not even mentioning his poor technique.

“I want to wait.”

“Okay.” Liam dropped his pushing, affecting indifference, but Theo could feel the disappointment rolling off of him.

“It’s just not safe,” Theo lied in attempt to console him. It wasn’t. Not for the usual reasons, but because of what Theo might do to Liam; how he might see him in the aftermath of an act which has never been anything but pleasurable friction and release for him. How could he be certain that the consuming pull, magnetic and tortured, wouldn’t be diminished if he and Liam were to go to that sickeningly casual place together? Nothing with Liam has been casual.

“I’m a virgin,” Liam pathetically reminded Theo. He was no longer pushing, having accepted Theo’s rejection and crawled back up to lay beside him. “I don’t have anything. Is…” He froze, realizing the degradingly invasive nature of his question.

“I’ve always used condoms,” Theo said, erasing that fear before it could take root in Liam’s imagination. “I’m pretty sure that I’m good on that front. But you never know, I guess.” It was as good enough a reason as any. And Theo would rather Liam think he’s partial to a healthy over-caution, rather than knowing that he’s terrified of sex that wouldn’t be just sex.

“Is…” Liam paused to think, but typical to his nature, didn’t think hard enough to reel back his sincerity. “Is it bad that I kind of don’t care?”

“Jesus Chr—yes, Liam! Yes, that’s very bad. Didn’t you have like a health class in school or something? What is wrong with you?”

Liam shrugged. “There are zombies outside. I feel like there are bigger things to worry about than STDs.”

“Even the kind that slowly rots your brain over decades?”

“That exists?” Liam’s eyes widened and his lips parted in dismay.

Theo shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Better to play it safe.”

That reignited Liam’s fire to fight and he set his jaw, staring into Theo’s eyes with grave solemnity. “If I get bitten by a zombie and die a virgin, I’ll have rotting brains anyway. Would you have sex with me then?”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Sure Liam. If you get bit, I’ll sleep with you in your final moments.”

“Really?” Liam sounded almost touched.

“I’m gonna kill you myself.”

[blackjackkent]

OK, took a long rest before resuming Hector's adventures; a couple of interesting camp developments:

First of all, there was no cutscene, but when we woke up, Jaheira announced, apropos of nothing that I could discern, "Turned to mist. The spawn share in some portion of their master's power."

I'm not sure what to make of this. Was there a cutscene that got bugged out? Or am I supposed to interpret this to mean that Cazador's people were hanging around our camp and got spooked by the sun rising? Perplexing.

Second, I just noticed that Volo hasn't been around since Act 3 started, and apparently he left a note!

LOL. I'm not surprised he finally bailed. All he ever wanted to talk to me about whenever I tried to interact with him was his ocular surgery plan, which Hector was never going to go for. I guess this means we'll run into him again somewhere in the city though.

Third, a brief dialogue option with Jaheira. Hector said, "You mentioned there might be another way to find Minsc," and she answered, "There might be, but... it is not a path I'd tread until we must. Let it wait until the city proper. Perhaps I'll have had a better idea by then."

Apparently my assumption that we were in the city once we got past that first watcher at the gate was incorrect. Sadly this also seems to mean we can't immediately boot finding Minsc to the top of the priority pile since I don't yet know where the entrance to the "city proper" even is yet.

Fourth, a VERY interesting conversation with Astarion:

Hector: "I want to discuss the Astral-Touched Tadpole."

Astarion: "We both know what it is capable of. But I'm not touching it."

Hector, more than a little surprised by this: "Unlike you to be so unwilling to receive a new power..."

Astarion: "That was before I knew the cost. Before I knew it meant transforming into some grotesque beast. I remember how it hurt when I turned into a vampire. My body writhed and warped while I was utterly helpless, the grip of death owned my heart as it beat its last. I-- I don't want to turn into anything else. I can't do that again. I can't watch my body be taken over."

He looked, and sounded, SO incredibly upset, the poor guy. :(

Hector, to be honest, was more than a little relieved because he has considered Astarion the most likely to want to indulge in the illithid powers (and control the elder brain, later) no matter the cost. But he also feels terrible for having gotten him so upset, and of course quickly backed off. "All right, I will speak no more on the matter."

"I had nothing for so long. Nothing. Not even my own body. I will *not* give it up, now it's mine again."

Poor guy. :(

Also had a quick chat with Wyll about Stelmane. He doesn't believe that she was actually willing partners with the Emperor, just that it must have made her an offer she couldn't refuse. He also mentioned having met Stelmane twice; that she was lively and beautiful when he first met her as a boy, but weaker and struggling when he met her later. He said his father explained it as her having suffered a stroke. Hector had enough insight to gauge that Wyll questioned this story somewhat, but not enough persuasion to pursue the discussion any further right now. So we'll tuck that away for later.

Finally, Gale had an exclamation mark over his head. According to the dialogue history screen, he had a whole speech here: "So the devil himself is pursuing the Crown. As for whether it's truly the Crown Karsus forged? Well, I think it's safe to assume we shouldn't take anything Raphael utters at face value. We *must* claim the Crown of Karsus for ourselves, before anyone else does."

Which is a perfectly reasonable bit of dialogue, but the speech glitched out and so all that happened when I clicked on him was that he stared directly at Hector and snapped, "We *must* claim the Crown of Karsus for ourselves, before anyone else does!" without any other context. Which was pretty funny. XD

Anyway, back to city explorations!

[sapphire-dicson-official]

[ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE THINKINGS]

oooooo boi, do I have thoughts about spiderverse.

like oh my GAWD

okay, so, first I wanna talk about Miguel's ideology with cannon events and how breaking them is "bad"

we see, some evidence in the movie that would indicate he is correct about this assumption, however there is also big damming evidence that this assumption is VERY FUCKING WRONG.

I'll first address the shown evidence that indicates any semblance of truth to Miguel's fears. First, we meet Pav, great introduction, action sequence, stopping death and most destruction, and Miles stops the one death that is "supposed" to happen: the death of Captain Singh. Nearly immediately after the day is saved, we see the fabric of Mumbattan start to break a little bit. So, we have a case of cause and effect right? cause: "cannon event" didn't happen, effect: reality does a fucky wucky and splits like a banana.

I don't think it is, and here's why: before Captain Singh's life was ever in danger, we had the event of Spot activating the Mumbattan collider. Remember what happened in into the spiderverse when a collider was activated? reality started getting REALLY fucked. I think the reaction of spot activating and interacting with the collider was the cause for the sudden rip in reality to open up. It's a deceptive clue hidden by the writers, at least in my opinion.

okay, if not the cannon event of Captain Singh's death, then what about Miguel's backstory?

I don't doubt for a minute that Miguel believes he caused the destruction of an entire world because he interacted with it too much. That is what he BELIEVES happened. That doesn't mean there weren't other causes that led to the webs of a world to disappear and break. I honestly don't think we've seen enough of Miguel's time in that world to use it as evidence that he's right. Spiderman, ANY spiderman, can't see everything that's going on all the time. there could have been things afoot that he didn't discover before the collapse.

So now, what evidence do we have that Miguel is wrong?

Miles 1610 and Miles 42. The existence of both of these characters and the worlds they inhabit still existing is proof that Miguel can't possibly be right. Don't follow?

Let me explain.

Miles from earth 1610 was never supposed to get bit by the spider, therefore every single action Miles makes as spiderman is a "non-cannon event" and yet earth 1610 has been stable from the moment the collider was shut down in the first movie. If any characters from different spiders' worlds made it into 1610 there would have been some indication of it mentioned to plant clues for the next movie, it would be foolish not to. Miguel is only meant to appear right, it's how it's written and how Miguel presents it to the other spiders.

And earth 42 with Miles 42? He was supposed to get bit, he didn't and now he's the Prowler of earth 42. If we assume that every action Miles 1610 does as spiderman is a "non-cannon event", we must also assume that every action Miles 42 does as the Prowler is also a "non-cannon event". World 42 still exists, and still hasn't seen hide nor hair of and reality ripping since the collider incident.

There is something else causing the rips and tears, and there's evidence that it's the colliders and the Spot.

now I'd be remiss if I neglected to mention the beloved Hobie Brown. A lot of my evidence is getting pulled from This video here a character analysis of SpiderPunk and his depth in the 5 minutes of screen time he has (great video, watch if you have the time).

In his 5 minutes of screen time Hobie plants seeds of doubt for both Miles and the audience. He acts as the writers' hands to get us to question what's really going on in the Spider Society before we realize what's wrong. Hobie recognizes the patterns of fascism in the society and the autocracy in Miguel and actively works to combat it. He secures tech to make a watch so anyone can world hop even if they aren't in the spider society, he tells miles how to break barriers so miles can escape and break barriers between himself and other spiders, Hobie warns Miles to really understand what he's signing up for before fully committing to it, and he congratulates Miles when Miles saves Captain Singh fully knowing it's an event that's supposed to happen according to Miguel.

By the end of the movie we know Hobie is solidly a good guy, we know because he gives Gwen the watch to allow her to find Miles. this watch frees Gwen from the grips of the Spider Society, provides a means of communication, and a means of traveling where ever the good spiders need to go. Because we know that Hobie is a good guy, a hero we're meant to root for, we know that he can't oppose Miguel's ideology if any point in Miguel's argument were true or could be justified, even if Miguel doesn't know he's wrong.

The other thing I want to talk about here is Miguel's idea that Spiderman isn't Spiderman without having the trauma of losing someone important to them. Nicque Marina made an excellent video discussing her thoughts on this concept and how bullshit it is, and I very much agree with her.

The idea that we need Trauma/abuse to make us stronger has been a concept that has held our society, not just the Spider Society, for far too long, and it also isn't true. We see it in the movie with Miles 42, instead of becoming the hero he was "supposed" to be after the death of his dad, he became a very bitter angsty teenager. Having trauma from abuse or tragic events doesn't automatically make them a good person, there are plenty of serial killers and villains with traumatic backstories and pasts who prove this wrong.

If trauma doesn't make a Spiderman, then what does? The decision to not standby as there are problems only a Spiderman can handle actively happening. Spiderman doesn't need a death, they don't need the "great power, great responsibility" speech from their Uncle Ben or their stories' equivalent of him. What makes Spiderman a Spiderman as well as a hero is the realization, acceptance, and actions of knowing they have the power to do something so people don't suffer or die.

With that said, you can make a good argument that when the spiders join the Spider Society they stop being the spiderman they once were because they ignore one death that they can prevent. Heroes are not meant to look at something they know is bad, they know is suffering, and turn the other way to let it happen. As the lead of the Spider Society, Miguel actively and vehemently insists on the spiders knowing a death will happen and ignoring it. It's safe to say that in Miguel's pursuing of what he think's is right, he's forgotten what it means to be Spiderman, he has lost who he was.

TL;DR : Miguel is wrong about cannon events and the idea that you need to have trauma to be spiderman.

[symphonyofsilence]

i feel like post resurrection wwx just keeps running away from everything and it's kind of frustrating

Exactly!

And he would so like what he's doing to be "moving on" and "forgetting it" because "It's all in the past". Except that he wakes up after 13/16 years of death, and he doesn't even spend a minute to digest all that's happened in the past. He doesn't shed a single tear over JYL, WQ, WN (as far as he knows at that time), his relationship with JC, or himself. He doesn't even think about how he died we only hear about it when he says to WN that JC wasn't the one who killed him. And he clearly hasn't moved on since he keeps avoiding JC like the plague but we get the whole story of the past via WWX seeing someone breathe and thinking "Ah we used to breathe together with Jiang Cheng when we were together..." *start of the flashback*. Everything reminds him of LP and the Jiangs. He even says he goes back to LP in his dreams. In the extras, he asks after JC & JL from the Juniors and he wants to ask more but he stops himself (if only he could...you know...go to see them.) The way he immediately turns away from JC before JC can say anything after WWX thanks him for his flute after the Guanyin Temple is very much not like someone who has moved on. And I believe his happiness will never be complete without LP. (As he says it himself. And is obvious by how thrilled he is when he finally gets to go back to LP and excitedly shows LWJ around)

And I would totally get it if at that time right after he got resurrected he was too exhausted to face it all and processing all these things together would have taken too much, but the thing is, in the case of Jiang Cheng it was not for WWX to decide whether they had that talk or not. He was not the one who's been wronged. JC was the victim & WWX was the culprit. JC had every right to be furious. WWX had some explaining to do. Instead, he talked back to JC without showing an ounce of remorse (at least for what he said to JL earlier if not for the whole thing that happened 13 years ago) and antagonized JC who frankly was being much, much more lenient than anyone else would have been in his situation, and just wanted his questions answered and was actually asking WWX why he didn't come to LP after his resurrection.

WWX didn't get any closure about anything. And even when he could get some closure when he was literally being held hostage and JC, crying on the floor and withstanding LWJ's pushes against his wound (that he took protecting Wangxian) finally succeeded in talking to him and getting the closure that WWX intended to withhold from him because again, he liked to run away even then, WWX didn't actually listen to JC and didn't spend any second to try to understand him. His mind was still running away from that conversation. He had the assumption that JC hated him and no words and no evidence to the contrary would convince him otherwise because that would require processing new data that WWX was not ready for.

It would have been fine if he postponed facing things and took things at his own pace as long as "his own pace" wasn't bottling up everything until the resentment in him backfired and killed him/he threw himself off a cliff. But alas he doesn't really show any sign of change after the time skip even in the extras, and as long as he was the one who had to decide about sorting the matters out and others (his victims) weren't being harmed by his running away. But he keeps running away not just from a complicated past but from the people he's harmed & from the consequences of his actions and it IS very infuriating!

[lakesbian]

Sorry, I’m the one who asked the awakening question. You posted some thoughts about the start of 1.7 a couple of days ago, so figured you had finished the chapter by this point. Again, sorry about that, I’ll be more careful in the future.

ohh fair assumption. yeah i didn't think he was gonna do it that soon i thought he was going to get into some more silly shenanigans with the gang (rose) first. and also i am the slowest reader on the planet at times due to comical amounts of executive dysfunction and propensity for distraction. it's no prablem. anyway here's my thoughts about their different metaphorical assignments 2 the items as per requast:

the dagger: "war" is an obvious and common concept 2 ascribe to weaponry, nothing much interesting to note about this one. if i really wanted to read into it i could suggest that they went for "war" instead of "murder" or whatever because war/mass-scale conflict is already on the mind due to they sort of just got dropped into the middle of of a magical battlefield + have nukes to cold war w/ on hand.

hourglass: to quote blake, "Something we didn’t have enough of, something dangerous, foremost in our thoughts, with its association to Laird."

dreamcatcher: blake picks like. the most basic-level interpretation possible (dream), whereas rose's "fate" read indicates that fate has already been smth on her mind. i'm not great at reading into rose yet but there is the whole thing where blake actually has a life outside of The Horrors, despite still being fated to experience 'em, but rose exists pretty solely because of The Horrors. i think she's feeling the pressure of fate much more than blake is + is more concerned w/ the future overall than him and subsequently brings it up here

skull: "doom" from blake and "death" from rose are largely synonymous but i Can get something out of this. i've mentioned before that i don't think blake has fully processed the consequences for a misstep--he's aware of them, but he hasn't genuinely processed them imo. he's very "one step at a time" about everything and very prone to making hasty decisions when he feels trapped, immobile, or like he's not doing anything, and he explicitly counts "sitting down and researching" as "not doing anything." every time he wants to make a rapid decision--or just goes ahead w/ one w/o rose's consent--she's the one to express outright fear of death*, whereas he's more concerned with reducing his immediate psychological stressors (i.e feeling immobile). i think this indicates that he's thinking in significantly vaguer terms (i.e "doom") whereas she's extremely concerned about concrete possible outcomes (like Literally Dying if blake runs off and gets himself killed).

*i think death will probably seem like one of the more pleasant things that could've happened to them later on but i digress

coin: this one is p straightforward. while they obviously both have the same shitty family, blake is a man who subsequently didn't actively fight for the inheritance as a child, so he already doesn't have the same negative association w money rose does. in addition to that, he already absconded from his family when he was 17, and after time spent being homeless + being in very poor financial shape even after he gets an apartment, he associates the idea of money significantly more with positive emotions and good luck than with the inheritance. rose, however, never left home like blake did + was a girl who was expected to fight for it. she witnessed firsthand everything the promise of the money did to the family. hence: blake associates money w/ fortune, rose associates it with ruin.

rose: this one is. exceedingly straightforward, to blake a rose means his grandmother + rose (family), to rose a rose means herself. adding this one to my brain soup alongside padraic's rose metaphor and stirring but i'll need more data points to write anything coherent. I Am Remembering though.

also someone wanted to know my thoughts on maggie so far. i don't really know anything abt her i only saw her for 2 seconds but i think it's so fucking funny that wildbow made Her the part of pact that gets referenced in worm and not blake. like blake is so sopping pathetic that despite being the protagonist he doesn't even get a feature when his own damn book is being easter-egged somewhere else. sorry blake you're just not personable enough. maggie is all plucky and charming and says things like "drat." all you do is stumble around cursing and bleeding. you don't have being a YA protagonist in you.

[evilwickedme]

so @briefcasejuice asked me a question about my two blorbos which I thought was interesting:

gail i'm asking abt a concept: murderdock x wade? what's that like? would it work? both like in terms of personal preference of the kind of person that should be dating either character or in the literary sense where it would make a good story and analyse their characters pretty well

and I asked her permission to post my reply and she said it was fine so here are my personal thoughts on deadpool/murderdock

so basic hurdles aside we're assuming there's a Deadpool that's pretty much identical to our Deadpool in earth 65 which is a lot to assume, but a supplanted Murderdock into 616 would be a shock to Murderdock's system that's unparalleled so that's the safer assumption. even though the wolverine situation is far from identical weapon X still happened, deadpool exists with his healing factor, and I guess in my mind in a low super world he hasn't really had the opportunities to improve as a person the way he has in 616 so he's still pretty morally bankrupt

now, could Wade find Murderdock attractive? 100%, Murderdock is actually his type. while early dp goes for the occasional heroine, modern Deadpool (post 2012) usually goes for people who are dangerous, can cut him in half, or both. would Murderdock be attracted to wade? debatable. in canon Murderdock only shows attraction to one character - that universe's version of silk - and that's in one kiss that is never brought up again. honestly, I think main canon Murderdock is either asexual or has such intense amounts of trauma that he finds the idea of trusting someone (with his body or with his heart) incredibly unappealing

however! that, in itself, could be something appealing about wade. Imagine a fwb scenario. they run into each other on a job and Murderdock finds the body in front of him simultaneously disgusting and interesting, so he just touches, and wade pulls back because consent, but Murderdock liked what he touched so he propositions him. Wade isn't trustworthy, so matt doesn't bother to trust. this is about bodily needs only. And yeah Wade is funny but more importantly he can hire wade to kill his enemies, no problem. AND Murderdock doesn't have to worry about Wade dying because of his powers

(gabbie replied to this by saying "not friends but there are benefits type thing?" which was too funny not to include I'm sorry)

anyway the thing is Wade is flaky as fuck so I imagine it wouldn't end in a break up as much as just... an unintentional ghosting? and Murderdock wouldn't have gotten attached in the first place so he'd be like. okay. and hire Deadpool again next time he's in town

but that's just one man's opinion (mine)!! if any of my beloved murderdock mutuals has a different take on this (so far non-existent) rarepair I'd love to hear it!!!