#They have an actual ship name now that isn’t by weird bullshit!

[thecousinsdangereux]

Dear Beatrice,

Have you ever been to IKEA?

I saw a movie once where this couple was pretending to live out their lives in a bunch of fake IKEA sets and in retrospect it was a little weird, probably, and super inconvenient for everyone around them, but that’s the point, right? That they were so in love with each other that they were selfish in a way that was okay.

I want to go to IKEA and not care about anyone else or anything else. I want to be dumb and cheesy. I want to inconvenience people in ways that doesn't lead to the world ending. I want to get a free pass for being young and stupid and in love. I want to be selfish like that with you.

Do you know where I’m going with this?

I don’t. Not really. Not right now. But you will, by the time you’re reading this. Because I’ll have told you that I want you to go to IKEA and dance in the rain or share a plate of spaghetti with someone under the moonlight or spin around on hilltops while singing about the sound of music or spread your arms out wide and shout something from the front of a ship. Or… honestly, hopefully I’ll have told you something way better than all that because I’m still working on how I’m going to tell you and I don’t think movie references are the way to go. But you know what I mean. Hopefully, I’ll have told you that I want you to do the things I couldn’t, that you couldn’t, that we couldn’t do together. Hopefully, I’ll have found a way to tell you that doesn’t sound stupid or make you cry or make it seem like I'm taking the easy way out. Hopefully, by now, you’ll know that I love you and in a movie, that would be enough to change the universe and give us a happy ending. But here, we are what we are, and it isn’t.

That’s okay. Or… okay, fine. It’s not. It’s bullshit! It sucks! I want to be selfish and I want to be with you and I want to do all this stuff together! But it is worth it. I’m not going to make it through this, but if you’re reading this letter, that means you do and that’s worth it. Though... not fair. I know it’s not fair. But I’m doing this so you can live your life.

Maybe that’s what I’ll say to you. Because that’s actually pretty good, isn’t it? And it’s the truth too. I’m doing this so you can live your life. It doesn’t have to be the movie stuff that I always put on my dumb to-do lists. But it has to be something. The only way I’ll be able to do this is if I know that you’ll go on and do something that will make you happy. That’s a pretty shitty burden to place on someone, I know. But you can handle it. You can handle anything. (I'm sorry, but that's the truth too.) And I think it’ll be less of a burden in the end, because I think you’ll find something beautiful out there.

So… go to IKEA. Get a tattoo. Help a baby turtle make its way back to the sea. Spend an entire day reading in bed and eating ice cream. Swim with whale sharks. See the northern lights. Go to a drive-in theater and see the end of that stupid movie that I don’t remember the name of.

Live your life, Beatrice, and I promise you’ll find something every day to keep living for. Because the universe owes you that much. And by now, it owes me that much too.

I love you. If you’re right about everything that happens afterwards, then I’ll still be loving you when you read this. I think maybe I’ll love you forever, even if you’re wrong.

[nightglider124]

titans fans think they own the dickkory tag but seem to forget that in no way did they invent it. Dickkory has been the ship name for decades for the two characters for the comics. It so happens that other versions of the ship (like titans) have tacked onto dickkory tag to make it easier to enjoy content. Robstar is used solely for the 03 cartoon. I don’t mean to hate, i like titans as well but it comes off as belittling other media forms to prop up others. Ie putting down the cartoon for the show even though they are completely different but still star our favourite dc characters and the reverse as well. I dont get why fans fee the need to be negative like cartoon fans hating on titans - they are completely different but they are both still valid. Just cos you don’t like one of the versions, doesn’t mean they need to be dicks about it. Sorry to vent, night but I see the bullshit on twitter and now here too. Its so stupid.

Sigh. In a way, I feel this, anon. I get what you mean with the end part of that - it is stupid. Titans, 03 show, ttg, dcau, comics… at the end of the day, i stay out of that bs drama with what is better or whatever cos that is childish af.

I very clearly have a favourite version which has always been the cartoon. Its what got me into DC and i grew up with it when fics and fanart were going strong and it was back in the early 2000’s, you know. The good ol’ days. 😂 But, despite that being my favourite, I also really enjoy Titans cos its a gritty version that is aimed at an older audience. I think that is what a lot of fans who prefer comics or the cartoon etc struggle with. I think they lean towards flat out disliking it bc it isn’t what they know and it’s different. There’s nothing wrong with not liking Titans. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; hell, i dropped it for s3 bc i was so uninterested in what they were doing by the end of s2. I also did not care for all the side characters taking spotlight over the main ones but I digress. But, keep it out of the fan’s faces, you know?

Its rude and really annoying when you have fans shitting on your good time. Titans has had a good time so far with dickkory and so fans are allowed to enjoy that. The fact that other dickkory fans who dont like Titans are being dicks about it is weird, in my opinion.

Same as, i think fans who try and shit on fans who love the cartoon are lame af. Like so what if its old? So what if it was aimed at younger audiences? So what if you dont like it? Point is, other people do so leave them to enjoy it. My biggest gripe with the cartoon is people saying it was childish considering it actually tackled some deeper topics, despite being a kids show.

Main point here is, people who gatekeep tags and shit are losers. Like, no one owns anything and anyone acting like that is sus, imo.

I get so sick of seeing people fight over different versions of a ship considering at the end of the day, its all the same?? Like dickkory for example. You may not like them in one format but you do in another. Personally, i am so fucking starved for dickkory content, i will take it from anything. Any version is allowed to be in the tag, old or new like jeez.

They are all valid formats if it means i get to see my two idiots in love.

A lot of people hate the DCAU but i really enjoyed those animated movies cos of, you guessed it, dickkory. They showed their relationship so nicely in that. It was wholesome as fuck but was also a little flirty so it was aimed at the adults more so. I think some people see animated stuff and immediately think its shit and childish which literally isn’t the case at all.

The comics are the og sources for these characters and I’ve seen a lot of ‘comic gatekeepers’ moan about other forms of the characters as well through the years. Now, i’ve got knowledge of the comics but im not some purist who has read every single one, more so bc fuck, I can’t keep up and comics contradict all the time cos of dumbass writers (looking at you T*m T*aylor 👀) but, i still appreciate the comics being the thing that started it all off. Without the comics, I wouldn’t have my baby Koriand’r 🥰 so anytime something remotely to do with dickkory comes out in comics, im rooting for it, purely cos i like seeing some form of life for my ship.

TTG is also valid; its silly and fun and that’s okay too. The titans are like a chiller version of the justice league and they are a team that notoriously is a bit less serious in all formats; they still have very serious storylines but they are the younger team ya know? Again, i think thats why a lot of people don’t like TTG either which is FINE but dont be going into ttg tags and mouthing off about how shit you think it is. Like its bad fandom decorum. Personally, I don’t care much for ttg; i did at first. I liked it and watched it regularly but now i just dont. But again, im not out here bitching about how it isnt the og cartoon so its crap or it isnt titans so its stupid.

I didn’t mean to rant like this but I just find it so fucking ridiculous that we’re still at this point in fandom where people can’t just let others enjoy shit. It is pathetic especially when shit like this comes from people who are literally adults like come on ffs. Get a grip.

I will continue to stay in my dickkory bubble, enjoying it in all forms which I advise fans to do lmao, it’s much less annoying and bitter when you just let yourself enjoy your ship In whatever formats there are.

Need I remind people that dickkory, despite being hella popular and loved, hasn’t had anything substantially canon in a long time so if shows like Titans are feeding fans, don’t be a dick and rain on parades. It’s not fair when people just wanna enjoy it and it just makes you an ass.

Sorry, this got hella long lmao. Also, anon, i would avoid twitter. It’s too toxic there, i have found in the past. Though Tumblr has had its moments too and by the sounds of it, people be just as bad here. 🙄

I could literally write a book on this, that’s how many thoughts I have. I’ve been around the DC fandom and dickkory tags for a long time and I can’t believe people still can’t help themselves. Just let people enjoy things all round, ugh! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[faithdragon36]

Faith faith faith gimme some c!faith lore I wanna know more (hey that rhymed)

OKAY SO c!Faith is a world jumper!! She’s got three main worlds that she hops between, those being Lunightia (my singleplayer world, her home world), a server called Wander SMP that is whitelisted and has its own lore (I employ a popular fandom trope called “story magic” to explain how this can be the same character even with all of the insane bullshit that goes on over there, and why it doesn’t follow her between servers) and Islandcraft! Which, for our purposes, also has story magic, although it’s gotten pretty out of control since it involves near-total amnesia and is affecting the server’s Admin(s).

She does not have any control over her powers and most of the time does not remember jack or shit about what goes on on the other servers she’s on, the rare exception being that she might sometimes remember stuff while on Lunightia, have dreams/nightmares about her other servers, get deja vu for no reason she can understand, or if it makes a joke work. You know how it goes!

Before she managed to settle with Lunightia as her home world, she jumped through a lot of worlds, usually with a specific person whose name and face she can no longer recall, but alone on occasion. (This is based on my experience playing Minecraft on Xbox 360 and Pocket Editions before they shut down, lol)

I’m assuming you’re not looking to hear about Lunightia, though, you want to hear about Islandcraft right?

Well.

She, like c!Kitty, is trapped within the narrative. That being the giant, semi-unstable time loop they’re both stuck in. Fortunately for them, the precise combination of how my headcanons work means that neither of them will permadie because of this arrangement (a combination of “Players are immortal,” “Story Magic can fuck with time,” and “I mean, is it really a time loop if you’re not resetting everything, down to the biological level?”)! That doesn’t mean there can’t be Angst, though >:3

See, c!Faith is a water dragon. She has gills. She shouldn’t, really, be able to drown at all. But her fate in this loop is to drown with c!Kitty, every time. She shouldn’t need a ship, but she’s a pirate- she could hardly sail without one, right?

And yet. She’s only a pirate after meeting him for the first time (the tenth, the twentieth, the hundredth time). She has to relearn it all, every loop.

How to swordfight. How to rig up the sails and the ropes. How to aim the cannons, how to read the maps, how to find the long-forgotten treasures, how to steer the ship from all the way in the back. It’s not second nature, even now.

One thing she knows, though, is that the world shouldn’t be like this. It’s weird. Sand doesn’t come in pink and blue and black. There is no yellow biome in the Nether. She knows this. But… How does she know? She can’t remember a time before the world was like this, can’t remember any other worlds at all. (She doesn’t think about it. Don’t think about it, just let it simmer, quietly, driving you slowly, steadily mad as you struggle to remember something, anything-)

Unfortunately for her, she’s not going to be getting any answers any time soon! This world is just slowly mutating and she is powerless to stop it :)

Fun fact about c!Faith! She’s 2’10 (picture a Maine Coon but a dragon) and adores endermen even though you’d really think that such a small creature would be at least a little intimidated by the height difference. She can also walk quadrupedally, if she wants to, but mostly doesn’t because being able to use your hands is actually pretty convenient and, shockingly, it’s really difficult to do that if you’re standing on them.

Now, to be clear, the premise we’re building Islandcraft on is that this has happened before, and it will happen again. This isn’t even close to the first time they’ve played through this song and dance. It won’t be the last. These pirates and their Vaguely Desperate Godlike Entity are going to be running this whole shebang for a good, long while yet. That being said…

…This is our first time playing this out, so not all of the details and plot holes have been ironed out yet. Also it’s, like, really late, and I haven’t consulted literally anyone else about all of the things that I just said, so if there are some small contradictions please assume that the other person is right

[sukibenders]

yeah the two little bitter betty Edwina stans you fuck with love Kate so much they constantly wish and revel in the idea that Kate and therefore Simone will be shafted in future seasons and publicity of the show, those silly little immature mean girls who giggle as they pat each other on the back for coming up with the name “kantoni” to talk about kanthony like I’m sorry but you are the company you keep and you keep company with dumb bitches who subtly and overtly hate on Kate and by extension Simone oh but you’re all just so misunderstood, you’re all so fair in your criticisms, it’s all bullshit and y’all know it. The root of your problem isn’t Kate, it’s that she’s a widely adored character despite your best efforts and wishes, I know it eats y’all up inside.

Man somebody really pissed in your food because now you're coming up with shit that I have, and other Edwina fans that I talk with, never said. Like where are you getting this information from? Because it surely is not on my blog. And "Kantoni"? Did you just make that up for some point of yours? Because it's always been "Kathony", but if you were really a fan of the ship you would know that. And where have I ever said that I want Kate or Simone sidelined? Like that's a weird thing to say, especially because there's no proof of that anywhere on my blog. Unless you see me making headcanons about Edwina, most of which have her living a life of her own and in no way overshadowing Kate (but getting that through your head sounds tiring), so it mainly seems like anything that involves liking Edwina is a problem for you. Oh well, it'll continue to be if you keep stalking my page 🤷🏾‍♀️.

And you're really one to talk about "silly mean girls" when you're in my inbox, anonymously, and spreading misinformation while also calling me names. Idk about you, but that itself screams mean girl to me so....do what you will with that. I could be wrong, but you sound oddly similar to another hateful anon that I received earlier. I could be wrong but still....🤔.

And, as you said I am the company I keep, most of whom have been nothing but nice and actually have better communication skills than you (eg. not sending hate to others through anon, but rather actually talking things out, etc). And most of the things they have said about Kate have, surprise surprise for you mainly, involved 1.) giving her more plot and justice than the show 2.) having connections with her family (including her sister and Mary bc you guys like to include them but go off ig) and more, but you and others like you, the company you keep per your words, wouldn't know that. You make it your job to be hateful to random people, but then use it as the guise of defending a character who wasn't even being as torn apart as you believe.

It isn't that hard to criticize and love a character at the same time. Also, maybe this is just me, but if you don't like the things that I say or whatever wouldn't it make more sense to just block me and carry on? Wouldn't that seem less stressful than what you're doing now? To each their own.

[phoenixyfriend]

ok. karin vs anakin's genome being 50% the Force. go

Jesus fuck, okay. Uh, fair warning, I know very little about this subject, so it’s 90% bullshit. I am in no way qualified to talk about biology past the high school level.

Anakin's sixteen. He's part of a set of Jedi assigned to a weird mission regarding making contact with an isolated planet of near-humans with superpowers but no space travel. He doesn’t really have a Job here and now, he’s just there as Obi-Wan’s plus-one. There's an underlying plot about Sidious trying to acquire people from Ninja Land, but none of the Jedi are fully aware of it. Mostly they're distracted by all the ninjas and their bitching.

They call it the Shinobi Planet, because nobody can agree on a name for the planet when they ask and the last major international alliance was named after the shinobi profession, right? Good enough, you can change it later when you idiots can agree on literally anything, oh my god. The Samurai are very offended and it's a whole thing.

Anakin wanders a lot. He runs into various strange people and is mostly polite because, listen, half his friends are distinctly not human. When your immediate circle includes nautolans and besalisks and twi’leks and whatever the fuck Yoda is, you’re not gonna blink at a Hoshigaki or... uh... okay that kid just turned into a giant fox, is anybody gonna--no? That’s normal? Just him? Cool, cool, cool.

There’s a kage summit involved in the negotiations going on. IDK what’s being negotiated, probably something to get the ninjas to set up a singular spaceport so there’s somewhere to land WITHOUT ships being regularly shot down by village defense systems powered by that massive flaming purple skeleton warrior or the girl who punched down a mountain or the.. the literal desert? There’s a guy that can control the desert? Is there any way of keeping him away from Anakin?

(Gaara’s tickled pink that the reason someone wants to stay away from him has nothing to do with fear or respect for authority, and everything to do with ‘he is also from the desert and fucking hates it, so he’s staying away from the sand powers,’ because it’s very novel and kind of funny.)

ANYWAY where was I. Uh. Right, kage summit, lots of villages, they invite smaller villages to pitch in, but nobody ever ever ever wants Orochimaru anywhere near this situation, for hopefully obvious reasons, so Otogakure sends Karin.

Really, who else was it gonna be? Suigetsu? You want Suigetsu representing you on an interstellar political field? You want Juugo before he’s stabilized? You want Sasuke, master of ruining kage summits? You want these idiots representing you at the big kids’ table?

They send Karin. She’s a bitch with a temper, but at least she’s not as big of a political risk as... literally anyone else from the snakepit.

Anyway, Anakin wanders around, meeting people, trying foods, showing off when asked for demonstrations. He doesn’t have an Entire Protocol Droid, but he did cobble together a little floating helper that can do translations for him. Assume all translations are accurate and being done by the little helper bot. Bot’s name is G1-0T. Anakin calls it Glot.

He runs into Karin at one point, who’s not super into the whole situation, but at least Anakin’s interesting. She’s not interested in him, because he’s sixteen and she’s like... mid-twenties. And his hair is stupid. But! All these force-sensitive people feel weird to her, because sensor stuff, and it’s not chakra but it’s... something. Anakin is, of course, the weirdest.

(There are non-sensitives in the envoy, so she knows it’s not just a space thing.)

She strikes up a conversation about it, because hey, she hasn’t made it this far to not lean into... you know, being the kind of person who barges ahead with Weird Questions that might lead into fun science stuff.

Anakin is like. Well. This woman’s very strange, but it’s not like there’s anything against talking about midichlorians to random people. It’s easy enough to look up in the core. Not everyone knows about them, but it’s not a secret or anything.

“Wow,” Karin says, though not in so many words, “that sounds incredibly strange, and actually a lot like it functions completely differently from chakra, though maybe it intersects with nature chakra somehow. Can I take a blood sample?”

Anakin doesn’t want to give a blood sample to a stranger. Karin isn’t stupid enough to try to steal one. She’s seen what this Force Stuff can do, and this kid’s got a lot of it. She hasn’t got enough information on hand about it to know if he’d notice.

“How about I let you look at the blood of a guy that can turn into water?” Karin asks, because she’s not going to let him look at her blood. “I’ve got it with me.”

“...why?” Anakin asks, reasonably disturbed.

“He owes me,” she says, and does not elaborate.

“What, there’s nothing weird about your blood to share?” Anakin demands, like the ornery little bastard he is.

“People took my blood against my will for over a decade,” Karin says, with the kind of smile that threatens a stabbing. This is not secret information. Her healing factor is in the bingo book. Plenty of people still want her dead. “Nobody gets my blood except me.”

Anakin has no idea what to do with that answer. Most people wouldn’t know what to do with that answer. It’s not exactly a standard answer.

“So there is something weird about your--e chu ta what the fuck are those scars?”

Karin looks at her arm. She looks back at him. She raises an eyebrow.

“What do you think they are?”

He stares a little longer, and then very carefully does not say anything as she pushes her sleeve back down.

“So can I look at your blood?” she asks again.

“Uh--”

“You can look at mine under a microscope,” she wheedles. “You can’t take any, though.”

Anakin... does eventually agree. Eventually.

-----------

There is a very angry redhead yelling at a machine, and Anakin does not know what to do.

“Is something wr--”

“What the fuck is your blood?” she demands. “It’s glowing in ultraviolet. It burned the dye up. I tried to sequence your genome--”

“Woah, I did not agree to that.”

“--and look at this. Look at this!”

“I don’t know how to read your graphs. None of this is a language I know.”

“It’s garbage,” she hisses at him. Glot takes a few moments to process it. “Look at this. This is supposed to--fuck, where’s the Jiraiya file, he’s standard--this is what it’s supposed to look like for most humans with chakra. And this is a civilian, and a few bloodline users--”

“Do you just carry these around with you?”

“Shut up, you don’t exist. You have--you have more in common with summons than people. I ran a blood test on one of your human diplomats, the ones that aren’t monks--”

“When did they agree to that?”

“They didn’t, I’m just sneaky.”

“I should tell Obi-W--”

“STAY THERE, I’M NOT DONE YELLING YET. Do you see this? Do you see this shit? This is the one and only time I’ve managed to perform any kind of analysis on a bijuu. They don’t usually have blood. Shukaku is sand. Matatabi is literally just fire. This was almost impossible to make happen, but I did it because I’m a dedicated biomedical resea--”

“Because you’re unhinged.”

“--rcher, and you know what? You know what I’ve found?”

“What?”

“Your blood looks like you’re half demon,” she says, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking, a little wild-eyed and clearly pissed at him. “Half of it’s human! Half of it looks like the non-physical chakra manifestations that were torn-apart remnants of a godlike demon. The fuckers can’t die. They also can’t breed. They don’t have reproductive organs! This isn’t just demon-tainted like a jinchuuriki, I’ve got that analyzed--”

“Why?”

“Because my cousin’s a moron, don’t change the subject. You--you shouldn’t exist. Your blood is stupid. Fuck, is this what I’d find if I analyzed the Sage of the Six Paths?”

“The what?”

She ignores him, frowning at papers. “Is--I need to call Haruno, she might still have some of Kaguya’s blood dried on her old gloves from the war, I know she kept those as a souvenir from the whole ‘punched a god’ thing.”

“I’m sorry, the what?”

“There was a thing a few years back, godlike alien demon princess who got sealed into a moon by her sons a thousand years ago, but her immortal sentient goo child brought her back with a giant tree that consumed all the tailed beasts-the flaming fox you saw earlier is one of them--and then used a giant eyeball to reflect off the moon to put everyone in a hallucination at the same time so she could eat our life-forces,” Karin dismisses. “It’s not important.”

“There is--what?”

Jedi see many things. Many of those things are very strange.

This is a little much even for Anakin.

“It’s over, if you want the actual details, talk to my idiot cousin,” she huffs. “But now I need to run comparisons between the actual nonsense that is your entire existence and the actual nonsense that is my cousin’s existence, and maybe Sasuke’s... fuck this is going to be a mess, I’m going to have to cross-reference all the clans with bloodlines we know are derived from Kaguya, she’s the only angle we have on gods like that, unless... maybe there’s still some black Zetsu goo somewhere... Orochimaru must have kept a sample...”

“Uh, can I--can I go? I’m not comfortable here.”

“I need to find Naruto so he can call the Sage of the Six Paths out of the afterlife so I can see if I can get blood from a ghost to compare to yours.”

[relaxxattack]

hey im the anon who sent you the link of Ranboo saying the boundaries of character shipping

good job not answering my ask and just ignoring it entirely and instead reblogging all of you're 'ran and jackie arent beeduo' bullshit. Real mature to not even attempt to open a debate.

It doesnt matter how much backstory that you wrote or who the characters were based off of, it is still their tftsmp characters, and Knifetrick breaks boundaries.

hi friend. honestly i didnt feel like opneing a 'debate' with you because i've been 'debating' all week, and honestly? i'm tired. it may be immature, but it's true, sorry

anyway, it's as simple as:

1. ranboo said don't do anything weird with his character (i have seen the clip many times)

2. therefore i do not under any circumstances do something he hasn't done with his characters before. i only follow his example, to be extra safe, because i'm a paranoid person, and i care. i don't think anything he himself has done with his character before can be considered weird.

3. i know you don't believe me but like. ran is so far removed from ranboo i honestly forget they even had a link in the first place (until this drama started that is). like, if i were to read a fanfic about she-ra, aimee carrero would probably not be on my mind? if i were to read a shipping fic about TAZ characters, i wouldn't picture them as the literal mcelroy brothers? that's kind of... weird?

like, i really doubt i'm gonna change your mind, especially because you seem to be pretty ticked off already. but i have a whole group of people and a lovely editor who hate weirdos who would have murdered me by now if knifetrick was actually weird, so i think the fact that i'm alive is a good sign.

i'm really truly sorry, but, i don't see how it's my fault that you don't know the difference between actor and a one-off character they played one time? maybe that's too harsh idk :/

i could see it with c!ranboo because they share a name and are way too similar for comfort, but like. ran... isn't... ranboo. i'm sorry.

i don't even know why i'm explaining since i'm pretty sure you'll just get more mad.

anyway, i'm sorry about all this, and i'm sorry for making you uncomfortable.

[randoimago]

Can I have Fjord, Jester, Caleb, Beau, Yasha, and Molly react to a siren reader who can hypnotize people by singing (preferably "Come Little Children" from Hocus Pocus)??

With a Siren Reader

FANDOM: Critical Role

Character(s): Beauregard Lionette, Fjord Stone, Caleb Widogast, Yasha Nydoorin, Jester Lavorre

Type of Request: Headcanons

Word Count: 589

Note(s): I only take 5 characters at a time so sorry Molly!

Didn’t know if I should tag this as “Spooky Season Asks” or not cause it’s D&D, but decided not to because it is D&D and that’s for every season, not just Halloween. I love the idea of Sirens though, they’re really cool.

Beau

I mean, she thinks you're pretty hot. The whole tail thing is kind of weird but she can deal with it.

Okay but hypnotizing people through song, it sounds like the bullshit stories she read when she snuck out of her home.

Definitely warns you not to pull that shit on her. Like she's cool with you, but she has enough mind fuckery going on in her life.

Does want to know why you'd hypnotize people at all? Like is it worth it at all? Why would you care about hypnotizing people anyway?

But Beau is cool with you. Just don't mess with her people or innocents and she won't punch your lights out.

Caleb

Caleb is rather interested when he meets you. Sirens are only in stories that he had been told once upon a time ago.

Would like to ask you questions about if your magic is innate or something else. But he doesn’t ask you those questions because he doesn’t know if he can trust you.

He’s cold and aloof because the stories he had been told about Sirens. Are you actually going to be amicable towards him or are you waiting for him to lower his guard.

Also the hypnotizing aspect brings back very very bad memories for him. 

So there’s a huge barrier that you both have to get over if you’re going to be “friends”. 

Fjord

He’s a sailor, he knows the horror stories behind Sirens. He also knows that stories aren’t always accurate.

So he’ll try to be more friendly towards you because maybe you can be nice. Maybe you will be helpful and decide to be kind towards him and his group.

Fjord does have an Eldritch Blast prepped just in case.

When you tell him that you only hypnotize by singing, it does make him feel a bit better because then he can be more prepped in case you do turn on him. 

Honestly trusts you more easily than a lot of the others which could be his downfall if you decide to turn but for now, it’s kind of nice to have a new friend.

Jester

Oh my gosh, you’re a Siren? That is so cool. She’s read stories of Sirens and her mamma has told her about Sirens and The Traveler has told her and oh my gosh!

The most excited about meeting you and definitely the most friendly. 

Lots and lots of questions from her. Like how is life as a Siren. Have you sunk any ships lately? What’s your favorite song?

Would probably try teaching you some classics from Nicodranas so you can expand your music vocabulary.

You two are best friends and she is going to use Sending every day just to talk to you and check up and make sure you’re eating well. Also gives you the names of ships owned by people she doesn’t like so it’s okay to sink those.

Yasha

Also thinks you're hot. Sirens are cool and she loves the stories behind them.

What she doesn't love is the hypnotizing aspect. She's been through a lot of manipulation thanks to hypnotizing.

So she doesn't want to hear about it when she's around you, no offense.

Definitely a lot more weary when she's with you too. Just because she doesn't know the extent to trust you and she's gotten paranoid with magic.

Does find the singing aspect kind of cool but also, should she trust that. She’d like to hear you sing but again, she isn’t too trusting of magic so she’s kind of conflicted.

[cloudninetonine]

Cogito, ergo sum

Chapter: 2

Pairing: Connor (RK800) x fem!reader

A/N: Hey guys! I want to apologise for the long wait between chpaters but seeing as I’m on my last year of college my school work is coming before everything else so it’s a little hard working between them! Don’t worry, I’m not dropping this series or anything just expect chapters to take a little long to be loaded and everything! Also, this chapter seems a little too far paced for me, so sorry about that as well!

Tags at the bottom once again!

I do not own Detroit become human this is merely fanficion

Warnings: Bad language, physical assault, threats (?), hints of abuse, (Name) being weird like always, also angry (Name), mentions of drugs, there’s a bit of slander against drug abusers that I do not condone!

Undercut babes!

It’s fascinating, it really is, the way her beautiful gaze follows you as you round her, studying her feverishly, your eyes wide and bright.

She’s...well, words cannot describe her. Her beauty lies beyond your imagination and you’re not quite equipped to say anything that her magnificent ears deserve to hear, your words are below her and she’s just-

Wow.

“Ms (Last), please-”

You raise your hand towards the younger engineer, silencing with a small utter of ‘hush’ and he’s shutting his mouth, falling back to the side of your desk with not much else to say.

The android you’ve been un-shamelessly ogling for the past 10 solid minutes is still very quiet, she’s just watching you in her manufactured attire, shy, nervous, scared- everything you really wish she wasn’t right now because there is no way you want her to see you as some sort of threat, far from it.

“Henry” Turning back towards the engineer, he stiffs up like a board, sweat forming on his brow “Why didn’t you dismantle her?”

It’s rude, it’s horrible to say and it sours your mouth when you form those words, but it’s an honest question, you want to know why someone would do this, keep her alive, see her for all her glory.

The public spoke strongly about their opinions of androids, like toys to be played with, slaves to be worked, not the thing you so desperately wanted people to see them as. The masterpieces that stood beyond human comprehension.

The android lets out a noise similar to a whimper as Henry stammers out.

“I-I couldn’t she- um- I-” Finally, he sighs with frustration, Henry makes eye contact with you “She said was scared and...I couldn’t”

You snap back to face her.

“Is that true?”

She hesitates, one second, two seconds, three seconds, four- it takes a whole 30 seconds before she’s finally responding. “Yes…”

Your chest bursts in excitement.

“You’re incredible” Henry deflates in relief, placing a hand against your desk while you grasp her cheeks, her warm grey eyes glancing between your two hands then meet your own stare, confused. “Amazing, beautiful, fantastic, so, so much more”

“...thank you”

You sniff, then you’re pulling away, trying to keep your tears abay. You really can’t believe that your work has gone so far, that new forms of sentient are evolving from a human’s hand, you’re so overjoyed by it all but you’re also kind of realising how weird you’re being.

“Sorry, I’m becoming the creepy stereotypical scientist, let me just-” Pulling off your lab coat, you throw it over her shoulders, pulling it tighter around her for her dainty hands to grasp and hold, a smile growing on her face in gratitude. You’re really still in awe of it all but send her a giddy smile back “Henry get Kamski I’m sure he’s gonna love this”

When the man disappears, closing the office door behind him, you guide her to a chair, kneeling before her kindly.

“Tell me” She waits patiently for you to continue “What’s your name?”

When she opens her mouth, you interrupt her, grasping her hands “No, not the name you were given, the name you have chosen. What is your name?”

You’re at the beginning of history right here, you can already see the books that are yet to be written, all starting at this very moment, with you and her. This android, this amazing, piece of living metal, is the start of something great and you can’t wait to be a part of it.

“My name is….”

-----------

“(Name), I’m sorry, but there isn’t really anything I can do”

Your hands come down on the desk, expression unbelieving.

“But he attacked Ortiz in self defence, it’s not fair for him to be shipped to Cyberlife! That hellhole already has enough test subjects with other deviants, why can’t he be let go!?” Pushing yourself back up, you drag your hands down your face in exasperation “He’s a victim! He was defending himself, why can’t we let him off with a lesser offence?”

Billie sighs, shutting the file softly. “Because in the eyes of the law, he’s not a victim. He’s property and there isn’t much we can do about that. Besides, because Ortiz is dead, his ownership basically goes back to Cyberlife, so they have the authority to take him back”

Billie’s right, you know that they’re right, but it’s just so frustrating, so vexing that this is the case. An android, in the eyes of society, is nothing more than their components, why should they be given the same privilege as those who eat, shit and breathe?

Billie may be a judge, but they didn’t make the law.

You remember years ago, when something like this would have been seen as detestable, that the masses would have stood up to fight this kind of horror, but for some reason, with age came stupidity and ignorance it seemed. What the fuck had happened to you all?

You open your mouth, then close it, then open it again before huffing, taking the file from their desk and ripping your coat off the hanger.

“I’m sorry, (Name)!” Billie calls and you wave them off, shouting back a ‘Don’t worry about it’ then close their office.

The courthouse is only a few blocks away from the precinct, a good walk away, a good way to calm yourself down until you’re having to face the frustration that comes in with having to work in such a high strung place. It’s funny really, you used to say ACAB when you were younger, still believed it too, so it’s really a wonder as to why you joined, but then again sometimes to make change you have to become the very thing you hate-

“Detective (Last)-” 

You scream, almost dropping your files and jumping a meter within the air. Passerbys don’t even spare you a glance, a generation raised on the weirdest websites like Vine, Tiktok, Youtube and god forbid, Tumblr, have them desensitised to whatever shit people like to play at now-a-days.

“Oh my God, Inspector Gadget” A hand falls to your chest, checking your racing heartbeat “You can’t just sneak up on a bitch like that”

Connor, the big old puppy, tilts his head in mild confusion “But I called your name twice, detective”

Oh.

“What are you doing here, Connor?”

The android joins your side and you continue your way. “Lieutenant Anderson informed me that you were heading to the courthouse, so I decided to come and brief you about a new case”

A new case, of course a new case, deviancy keeps popping up all over the country rapidly but you can’t hold your surprise about the fact that it’s been a  few days and there’s already a new case.

“Deadass?”

Wait, you hadn’t mean to say that-

His eyes narrow “Deadass?”

A snort escapes you “Oh my God I can’t believe you just said that, it sounds so cursed coming from your mouth. I meant, seriously?”

You swear on your life, on everything that may be above and so much more, that the android lets out a laugh when he continues, explaining the details as you finally enter the office.

You realise, as he talks, you feel a whole lot lighter than you had earlier.

-----------

“This guy is as scummy as it gets” 

Unfortunately, you can’t help but agree. Todd Williams is about as charismatic as a dumpster fire, messy hair, messy face, stained clothing and the stench of alcohol clung when you finally met him, having to hold back a wince of disgust.

You don’t usually speak ill of others, but you know his type, from the way he carries himself to the way he speaks. You’ve had to face men like him before, his whole demeanor brings back bad memories and you’re so glad that you’re not the one having to get details from him, to have to speak to him.

One thing’s for sure though, you don’t blame whatever deviant decided to book it from him.

“Why doesn’t he just...get a refund from Cyberlife?” You take a sip of your milkshake, staring at Hank, Connor and Mr Williams who looked to be ending off their conversation. “They do that for deviants, don’t they?”

Yes, if you remember, the new flashy CEO of the hell corp spoke it for all to see, that deviance is guaranteed to offer you your cash back.

How inhumane it all sounded.

Gavin scoffs, drinking his coffee “You think a guy like that cares about refunds?”

No. You know why he’s doing it. It’s all about power for fuckers like that.

Mr Williams leaves, Hank is looking through his notes, Connor is heading your way, probably to refer all the information back to you and Gavin is taking in a breath to start his bullshit again, despite your civilness that you had been sharing.

Eh, peace was never an option-

“Your metal boyfriend is heading this way”

The noise you make isn’t human, it’s a mix of a wheeze and scream, like you’ve just choked on the air your breathing and in all honesty, you have, but you’re not letting that mother fucker get away with catching you off guard, especially when he starts laughing.

“Shut up, furry”

Your actually feel the air from his head snapping towards you. “I’m not a fucking furry, quit fucking saying it!”

You pat his shoulder “It’s alright, Reed, we all know you wrote yiff fiction in your spare time-”

You dodge his fist, running away from his red, angered face and petty insults, dragging Connor away from the break room to the side, all while laughing up a storm.

Having your attention on the android again brings back Gavin’s words, his tease of ‘boyfriend’ which makes your face heat up, in what? You’re not quite sure, but it’s enough to make Connor notice your oddity.

“What were you and Detective Reed-”

“Nothing” You cackle, patting down his shoulders to distract yourself “He’s just being an arsehole again, nothing to worry yourself over”

And worry himself he didn’t, because he couldn’t of course, android and all.

Connor was quick to fill you in, an AX400 by the name of Kara had stolen (the word kidnapped comes to mind but you know that the robot detective will just ‘correct’ you on your wording) another android, Mr William’s ‘daughter’, model YK500 named Alice after assaulting him the night before. Mr Williams had been knocked out after the ordeal, as to why it had taken him so long to report it. 

“Were there any signs of assault that you could see? Ones that could lead to a potential take down or unconsciousness?” Connor takes a moment before shaking his head “Yeah, I didn’t think so”

What a lying fuck.

“Let’s head to the briefing room”

Hank is there, as well as a whole group of other police officers, talking amongst themselves as you situate yourself behind the podium, screen remote in hand and smiling brightly. Your partners are at your side, Connor in his usual stoic stance while the old fart has his arms crossed, bored as always and you’re ready to debrief the many uniforms but they keep talking, even after you clear your throat.

You’re not one to get angry at being talked over, annoyed, yes, but anger leads you nowhere with a crowd, so instead, you use your most favourite tactic to date

“Pay attention to me or I am gonna start screaming people” You sing. Not a threat, but a promise. “And you all know I will screech like mother fucker”

The room is silent in the next second.

“Great! So-”

The door to the room bursts open.

“Fucking really-”

“Detective (Last)'' It's the front office assistant and by the looks of it, he is panicked, worried even, as he addresses you. You suddenly feel your stomach knot up  “I’m sorry, but there’s been an emergency with your relative Carl Manfred”

You swallow, hard. “What?”

The meeting ends right then and there.

-----------

Hank hurls to a stop right outside the entrance. You’re already halfway out of the car when he shuts off the vehicle, Connor is taking off his seatbelt and you’re already racing down the soaked concrete path to the front door, rain pelting down on you.

You barely feel it though.

You startle the receptionist when you slam your hands down, eyes wide in panic, breathing coming out in fast, short pants and just looking as though you faced the masses to make it to this spot, right in front of her.

“Carl Manfred, he was brought here about an hour ago is he-”

She interrupts “Are you family?”

“Yes, please, I-”

“In what relation do you have to the patient?”

Is she really fucking serious right now? You debated leaning over and strangling your answer out of her, letting her know what kind of fucking pain you could put her through in this very moment-

But the hand that is placed against your back keeps you still. It’s warm and comforting and keeps you from mauling the fucker right out of her chair, though it doesn’t calm your anxiety, no, but at least it’s there.

You turn to see Connor, who nods towards you politely.

Huh, what a twist of events.

Hank leans over from your other side, looking just as angry as you feel, though he keeps his voice civil when he speaks “Listen, her old man’s just had a heart attack, could you drop the formal shit so she can see him?”

Her voice is sharp, just like her stupid fucking face and she snaps back “I can’t let you in unless I know your relation, unless you’d like to be escorted out by security”

Damn, she’s playing with fire and you’re ready to throw oil all fucking over her.

“I don’t fucking think so-” Pulling out your badge, you slam it against the desk, with nothing short of a growl “Police. Now, tell me where my fucking dad is or you’ll regret the next words that come out of your mouth”

You never abuse your power as a cop, it’s inhumane and back in your younger days you sneered at the disgusting police who would use their authority for their own gain, so you hate to admit but the nervous look that crosses her face when she sees your badge and Hank’s when he pulls it out for extra effect scratches an itch you begged to be scratched.

“Floor 3, the front desk will inform you what room”

“Thanks” You spit, already rushing to the elevator, the other two following.

Connor is quiet, to your surprise. Honestly, you expected him to speak out about your behaviour, your attitude, your unprofessionalism, but he says nothing, just trails after the two of you in silence, obediently, just like he was made for. 

It’s comforting having him here, even if he’s just following orders.

The next receptionist is kinder than the last (she even scowls at the mention of her coworker) and points down the hallway, to where two officers stand with cups of coffee within their hands. They stiffen in surprise at your arrival, but you pay them no mind, pushing your way into the room where you finally pause, taking in the scene of your beloved father figure, laid still within the bed, pale, heart monitor beeping occasionally. 

The doctor by Carl’s side looks up at you. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

Hank and Connor wait outside.

“(Name) (Last), Carl’s daughter and emergency contact” You explain, walking further into the room “Is he- Can I-”

“He’s fine” She explains with a comforting smile “And yes, you can come closer, though the medication has him knocked unconscious so he won’t be talking any time soon”

The relief almost has you collapsing, brings you back from the panic attack that threatens to kick your arse right in front of everyone and you finally breathe normally.

“Thank you, and you are?”

“Dr Collins” Collins offers her hand and you shake it weakly. “Your father is going to be okay, (Name), but he’s going to need a lot of rest. Cardiac arrest at this age can be fatal, so we were lucky that he lived so close”

You nod, tiredly slinking to Carl’s side to drop into the cushion chair, taking his hand in yours. Kissing it lovingly, you place it close to you in comfort, in reassurance.

‘He’s fine, he’s fine, he’s going to be okay-’

“What are you doing here?”

Your anger shoots right back up, as does you head when you turn to look at the doorway.

“Leo” The name is dragged out of your mouth, it’s spoken with a heavy coat of venom and dirt and for all the participants who are about to see this wild shit show, is a clear indication that you’re far from happy to see the man that stood there. “The fuck are you doing here?”

He scoffs “I’m family, what else am I here for?”

“Oh I don’t know,” You’re standing, stalking closer to him with a raged gleam in your eye “To mooch off him a little bit more?”

The tension can be cut with a knife, everyone can see it, feel it, even Connor, who looks ready to intervene at any given moment.

“No, detective” One of the officiers starts, cutting in in hopes to keep you both calm. “He was there when it all happened, he saw everything-”

“He was there?” No, her words only add fuel to the fire and you’re glaring at your brother once again “You were there? The fuck were you there for? You did this?”

“No!”

“Please calm down” Collins cuts in “I understand the anger but the other patients-”

You ignore her, glancing around the area when a thought struck you.

“Where’s Markus?”

Connor’s the first to respond, “Who’s Markus, detective (Last)?”

“Dad’s care bot” A pin drops, no one is speaking, the two cops are quiet, Leo is scowling, but he’s not looking at you and your anger is quickly making room to fear, cold and stabbing when you push again, harsher, angrier “Where the fuck is Markus?”

The second officer speaks this time, hat in his hands and you know what happens next is not going to be good.

“He was leaning over your father when we walked in detective, Mr Leo Manfred told us he attacked him” The man gulps, hesitating. He’s not nervous for what he’s done, no, he’s nervous about the dark look that seems to be slowly taking over your eyes, “I shot him”

A beat goes by. Then another, another, another, another, another-

“Why were you there in the first place?” It’s soft, curious, but the rage behind it is big, your need for an answer is keeping it back “What was the call for?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t-”

“Answer the question, officer”

His partner offers up the answer “....A break in, ma’am”

There’s silence, then you nod in understanding.

No one is quick enough to stop you from shoving Leo into the wall, hands wrapped tightly around the lapels of his jacket and holding him up so you can scream at him properly, face feeling hot from anger, eyes wild from rage, practically feral. 

“You fucking did this! This is your fault, you good for nothing fuck!” You pull your hand back and punch him right in the face, he’s too in shock to react but everyone else is trying to pull you off “What?! Were you off your shit from snorting that fucking powder again, you damn druggie!? Huh!? HUH!? You high right now, too!?”

“Jesus fucking Christ, (Name), let go!” Hank yells but he’s fucking impressed by your resistance.

“He could have died because of you, you good for nothing cunt! Worthless piece of shit! Now, Markus is fucking dead because of you, the person who was actually fucking taking care of him! This is all your fault! He’s in that hospital bed, because of you! You! Did! This! All for those stupid drugs! You’re fucking pathetic!”

You’re finally tugged off by someone, their arms slipping under your own to stop you from going back at him again. The officers are acting as a wall between you and your brother, Dr Collin’s is checking his nose as blood drips down his face, Leo is still in shock and Hank is leaning over, hands propped onto his knees. That leaves...

“I’m sorry detective (Last), but I’m going to have to restrain you until you calm down”

You scream in frustration and try to fight against it, but damn, you have to admit in a moment of clarity, Connor is fucking strong.

“Lieutenant Anderson, if you could take her legs, we can escort her out of the building without much trouble” Hank huffs something under his breath probably a grunt of ‘fucking android’ but complies, glaring at you when he leans down.

“You kick me and I’ll kick your ass”

Your respect for him makes you comply, but the anger doesn’t stop you from cussing both him and the android out, naming every threat under the sun as they carry you out of the building, back to the car which you are shoved placed into.

“Let me out of this fucking car, Hank!” You bellow, glaring at the man with sharp eyes who stood outside the vehicle, leaning against it “I’ll break this fucking window, I swear to fucking God!”

“You can try, but we both know you won’t!”

Once again, you’re screaming, tugging frantically at the door’s handle that you know is locked, but are way too angered to care right now.

Connor sits by your side, a good distance away to not antagonise you, silent, waiting and watching as you slowly fall from angry to desperate, tears welling within your eyes and falling down your cheeks. It only takes a few more moments for you to stop altogether, your shoulders shaking as you sob, quietly but strong.

The android finally speaks “Detective (Last)-”

You’re on him in a moment, arms wrapped around his frame, face buried into his shoulder, wetting his suit jacket as you cry, shaking.

It’s a new one for Connor. An android built for detective work, to sniff out the bad deviants, to question suspects and actually built with a comforting feature for victims of crimes. But this is a first, a first he’s seen anyone to tears, more importantly, a first of seeing you so broken. Sure, he had seen you defeated those few days ago, but this is different, you’re not trying to hide conflicting feelings behind your bubbly smile and weird jokes, you’re just...crying. Nothing more, nothing less.

His arms are hovering at your sides, hesitant, unsure and it’s not until Hank gestures from outside the car to ‘fucking do something, you stupid machine’ that the protocol finally kicks in, his arms coming to wrap around you securely and comforting, reassuring you through your whimpers.

Connor is a robot, a machine that feels nothing.

But seeing you cry isn’t something he can just let happen.

Software instability.

-----------

Tags: @dillxpixkles @1950schick @pinkittwice @iris-suoh @loveflowsthroughme @thatlonelyalto @starcatcher-kay​ (ya’ll I’m half asleep if I forgot you in the taglist I am SORRY-)

[aeondeug]

So while I was reading GtN and HtN I occasionally stopped to be like “Wow, it’s great how these can be just so gay!” And like. That is really great. Super great. I love that about them. But I also remember at least once stopping and going “Wow, it’s great that there’s no homophobia here!” And like at the time I just kind of nodded along to myself. Around when I just finished GtN, I remember being very fond of the bit after the book with like the guy explaining like. The deal with necro/cav relationships in The Media and throughout history and how actually none of these things have ever been romance. This is just a pure relationship, unaffected by naughty things like ROMANCE. WHY DOES EVERYTHING NEED TO BE ROMANCE?! shouts the author of this paper. And I laughed at this. Because it reminded me a lot of people who do this shit with queer love. They do it with history and just go “Why does Sappho have to be gay, why can’t she just have passionate feelings for her BFFs”. Which is mindbogglingly stupid to me and anyone who has so much as LOOKED at some of the poem fragments. But like people do say that shit. And they do this a lot over like queer anything in fiction unless it like punches you in the face with rainbows immediately. “Why do Bubblegum and Marceline have to be gay? They’re just friends!” is a take that I legitimately saw on the day of the finale. And not just once. I saw it a few times. And I’ve seen that happen over so many ships in so many things, whether or not the ships end up canon. “Why does it have to be gay?” and the specific sort of outrage over it I’ve seen in essay length posts is just common, and that sort of outrage reads very similar to the argument that dude made about necro/cav relationships. It reads like that and close enough so that I made a joke about it even. I didn’t think too, too much on this at first though because I mean. We have Abigail and Magnus. They’re right there. A man and a woman, a husband and a wife. So like I was able to simultaneously go “omg it’s just like those why can’t they just be friends WHY DOES IT NEED TO BE GAY people” and also “wow it’s nice that there are spooky negative queer experiences of SADNESS here”. Which has got me thinking. Ok. So we have that essay. Now what else do we have in the books? I suppose could point at the entirety of Gideon and Harrow’s just furious refusal to admit that they might actually be in love with one another. Even though it appears to be obvious to literally everyone else in the galaxy. And is obvious to the readers. Hell, Gideon even has a moment of feeling like she needs to tell Harrow something the day before she dies. Something which is heavily romance coded, I don’t know the word for it. But like a “Wow I feel a need to tell them something and it’ll be my last shot” before a death just kind of always reads “It was an ‘I love you’. They needed to say it and didn’t get a chance”. So we’ve got that and, specifically, we’ve got their outrage at the suggestions. Gideon stresses that she’s JUST Harrow’s cav. And she’s very fucking insistent on that. Part of the why is that she knows Harrow is in love with a fucking dead girl in a casket but like. It just hits a certain way. There’s also Harrow’s just repeated disgust she expresses towards the concept of necro/cav relationships. She needs to explain away to herself that like, well, Abigail and Magnus were ALREADY married before he was named her cavalier primary so maybe that makes it fine. And even then she’s not like super duper comfy with the idea. A taboo has been broken, Harrow feels, and she needs to get really rules lawery to find any comfort with that. Other small things that feel of note to me here are the nature of the ways we know that these two are gay outside of like. Their weird thing for one another. With Gideon we’re introduced to it basically immediately with her joke about titty mags. Harrow specifically makes a comment at some point that some of the magazines Gideon gets are very gross, yes. Her interest in women is explicitly made sexual from the get go, and the idea that The Gays are just weird sex fiends and there is no love there is a frequent one. With Harrow meanwhile we know because she says she’s in love with the girl in the Locked Tomb. Who is very much dead. A thing that is fucky enough that like there is an entire song and dance about “GIDEON THE FIRST IS MAKING OUT WITH A CORPSE??????” and how Harrow is a hypocrite for being so offended by that all. Also the girl is behind the door. She is something that isn’t supposed to be seen or known about or, heaven forbid, woken up. That is all the ultimate taboo and Harrow not only fucking broke that but she looked at the girl and went “Wow I’m in love” on the spot. So we have this collection of things that could be read as some sort of metaphor for like...The taboo nature of queer love. “Why can’t they just be friends?” and issues of purity and the lack thereof. And we have characters who are very clearly in love but who can’t just admit that because they think there’s something fucking wrong with that. Gideon’s JUST her cav and Harrow is also in love with a dead chick. We also have Magnus and Abigail around who are just like. Happily married and fine with things regarding their whole necro/cav aesthetic. Ianthe doesn’t seem to give a shit that Gideon’s into Harrow at all. There’s a fondness for necro/cav relationships enough that there’s an entire romance genre centered on them and like characters in the cast are fond of those, some of them. Things appear to be Fine, at least as far as their friends are concerned. Maybe the asshole writing the essay that kicked this pondering off would have an issue and a stuffy old grandma would pitch a fit. But like their friends don’t have a problem with necro/cav shit. But we still very much have Gideon and Harrow being “Well no. We’re just a necromancer and their cavalier. GOD.” Now part of what got me thinking about this is that I recently decided to start watching Bly Manor. Because fuck it we haven’t yet. And specifically part of why is I remember seeing an analysis of it done by Rowan Ellis which had this bit where like the argument that “Bly Manor proves you can do queer stories without homophobia being a part of it!” is brought up and like...Ellis is like “Ok but we very much do just lock a queer woman in a literal closet while she screams to be let out”. And lo and behold in the first episode we very much do just lock a queer woman in a literal closet while she screams to be let out. In an episode showing that she’s like just unable to go back home for...some reason. And that she has some sort of difficulty with her relationship with her mother. No, the show is not having the character literally go “Wow I sure am in the closet and I kind of fucking hate that woe is me I am so gay”. But figuratively? It’s all over the place in that first episode. I’m not sure about the others because I haven’t watched them, but it is there in the very first one. And that’s something horror does very well. It takes things that are scary and uncomfortable and bundles them up in shades of metaphor. It hides them from  you by showing you the thing cleverly disguised. Maybe you do not notice it the first time through perhaps. Maybe you felt that a certain thing like the closet scene resonated very hard with you and you’re not sure why. But you perhaps don’t consciously go “Aha! It is the horror of being closeted!” Upon looking back on it or back through it though you might notice it. And be like “Oh that was there. Holy fuck.” Now maybe you’re also someone who isn’t like. Comfortable. With straightforward depictions of specifically queer suffering. Maybe it’s just too scary. But with this show hiding it in a metaphor you got to sit through that. You got to be brave enough to sit through a very, very scary thing. And afterwords you go to think about it. This is the power of metaphor and it’s something horror has been very, very good at doing for ages. Maybe racism or homophobia or whatever else is too nerve wracking for you to look at face on in media, but maybe you can watch a movie or a show where the horror of those things are very much there but cloaked in metaphor. And so maybe we are getting that with Gideon and Harrow’s weird issues around how “taboo” their feelings are. Two people who are just unwilling to believe that it might be that thing, in part because that thing is “taboo”. Except instead of the taboo being literally “They’re lesbians, Harold,” it’s instead cloaked in a comforting metaphor of necro/cav relationships and some dude who is really fucking offended at people’s space ao3 fanfictions about his historical favs. Which is important because every fucking scrap of anything one gets is an argument. It can’t just be that they’re in love. It’s that you must PROVE it and some asshole with a degree or just a bone to pick is going to come by and be like “WHY CAN’T THEY JUST BE A NECRO AND A CAV” about it all. And like I’m someone who’s known they’re into other women for a long while now. At least half my life. We have conquered that hurdle. But we haven’t entirely unpacked all the weird little societal bullshit that is still in there. Hiding. Lurking. And that societal bullshit specifically frames that sort of love as something gross and taboo and “Why Can’t They Just Be Friends?”. With that last thing hurting a lot. I’ve constantly run across people going “Why can’t they just be friends?” or going “They just have a sisterly relationship!” about things I shipped. Even when those things involved shit like the characters kissing on screen or mentioning that they’ve been dating in a sequel series. I can’t simply like my ships. I can’t simply see myself in romance. Because my sort of love is so taboo that it is, in itself, a debate. Maybe being shown the thing cleverly disguised as another thing might help me unpack that. At the very least it helps me look at it. When it’s something that hurts a lot to this day.

[autisticcassandracain]

🔥 kori

dickkory sucks but not for any of the reasons dickkory haters say it sucks. most dickkory hate is literally just ppl hating on kori disguised as a 'personal opinion' on ships and usually those opinions make it extremely obvious that they never bothered to like, actually read The New Teen Titans lmao. 'dickkory was mostly sexual' is especially a terrible take because not only is it blatantly untrue, it's also based in the slut-shaming Kori has received over the years for being sexually open, and the mischaracterization she's received bc people saw an opportunity to reduce a female character to a sex object with a thin veil of plausible deniability in the form of 'characterization' and took it.

Most arguments against dickkory I've seen focus on the idea that Kori didn't offer Dick much, which is HILARIOUS because you have a MUCH better argument for the reverse, which is exactly what I will now proceed to argue.

got long, is under the cut, you know the drill. TL;DR Kori and Dick's relationship was badly built up, Kori provides more emotional support for Dick than Dick provides for Kori, Kori was more important to Dick's development than Dick was to Kori, and I don't think it's ever even been stated why Kori likes Dick.

Also donnakory was built up way better than dickkory and I'd argue Donna has had more of an influence on Kori than Dick ever did. That last one isn't explained in-depth it's just important to me that you know this.

Dick and Kori barely interacted prior to getting together, and yet we were supposed to believe this narrative that Dick was definitely in love with Kori and just couldn't admit it. I literally did a double take the first time Kori mused to herself about being confused Dick 'wouldn't admit to being in love with her' like I'm sorry WHEN did that get established??? I'm too aro for 'love at first sight' bullshit you have to actually make them interact or I won't buy it. This lack of build-up was my first problem with dickkory, but I was willing to ignore it if the actual relationship appealed to me.

It didn't. Dick and Kori's relationship is marked by a pattern of what, to me, is incompatibility. Dick is the type of person who, when stresses, lashes out at others and pushes them away. He's seen doing this multiple times to Kori in The New Teen Titans, most notably shortly after they got together when he was stressed due to having too much on his plate, and in the Return to Tamaran/Karras/Marriage arc. Kori consistently reacts to this behavior by blaming herself for it. The first time, she comes to Donna to ask her if she's done anything wrong, after which Donna reassures her that Dick's just Like That, and Kori resolves to be as supportive as she can.

The second time bothers me much more; on Tamaran, Dick is so mean to her she ends up having a full-on breakdown, which she first seeks support for from Joey, but later, she just stays depressed until she can return to Earth. While Dick's behaviour was influenced by his brainwashing, we never get confirmation of how much of it was influenced, and on top of that, the comic repeatedly and consistently frames Kori as having 'hurt Dick' during this arc afterwards, making her say this repeatedly, while never refuting it or addressing the ways Dick has harmed Kori during this arc.

While Dick did man up and apologize in both circumstances (I think the second apology was lacking, but the first was quite good), it still established a pattern that I find uncomfortable. Dick is rude to Kori, Kori takes it personally and wonders what she's done wrong, Kori tries to talk it out with Dick, Dick snaps at her and pushes her away, but eventually realizes he's been mean and apologizes. What bothers me the most in this pattern is the part where Kori consistently blames herself for Dick's behaviour, and assumes she's done something wrong to make him behave this way. Every time this came up in the comics, it made me deeply uncomfortable, because I've seen enough real-life relationships with a very similar dynamic to this that were deeply unhealthy to make this set off all my alarm bells.

I want to stress that I don't think dickkory is actually unhealthy in canon, but it reminds me of enough unhealthy relationships I've known for me to be personally uncomfortable with it.

That's not the only part that reminds me of those relationships: I feel like Dick is getting way more out of this relationship than Kori. Kori is consistently shown to support Dick when he goes through tough situations, even when Dick responds by trying to push her away or being rude to her. Similarly, Dick has stated that Kori was the one who helped him open up about his emotions, and has had a tremendous positive effect on his character development as a result; he even goes so far as to name her one of the elements of his Nightwing identity. Kori pushes Dick to explore new areas of himself, and supports him when he has problems.

Dick, by contrast.... doesn't really do this with Kori. When Kori needed support, Dick was consistently either absent or actually rude to her. Again, this is most prominent during the Karras arc; during a time when Kori desperately needed someone to support her, Dick was only concerned with his own hurt feelings. And again, yes, he was brainwashed during this, but again, we never actually got confirmation on how much of this behaviour was due to brainwashing, and much of the writing afterwards framed Kori was the one in the wrong here, so my point stands. This was the singular most important moment Kori needed support, and Dick blew it, and the narrative basically let him off the hook for it.

The only time I can think of when Dick supported Kori in non-battle related situations was right after the Wildebeest arc in New Titans, but that was also the start of Kori's character massacre for the break up arc, so I don't exactly have fond memories of that. I'm sure there's been more minor moments where he's supported her that I'm forgetting, but I shouldn't have to have this much trouble coming up with times Dick has emotionally supported Kori.

Furthermore, Dick hasn't had a similar effect on Kori's character development to Kori's effect on Dick. While Kori did develop while she was with Dick, this wasn't really due to Dick. Her short-lived change of heart about the morality of murder was due to her personal experiences, and while Dick probably aided in this decision, so did Donna and even the rest of the Titans. It was not something that was uniquely Dick, the way Dick opening up about his emotions was uniquely Kori. Her distancing herself from Tamaran and embracing Earth was also not uniquely Dick, and was in fact a realization that mostly took place in his absence. Other parts of her character development follow this pattern.

I'm not saying Dick has had no effect on Kori's character progression, but he wasn't instrumental in it the way Kori was instrumental in his. Kori's character would've likely progressed in an extremely similar fashion even without him, and I can't say the same for Dick. If anyone influenced Kori's development in a similar way Dick influenced Kori's, it was Donna, who was the one to introduce her to Earth culture, supported her through various tough times and insecurities, helped her find a job (albeit it on accident) and frequently worked with her later, etc. etc. And even then, I don't think Donna's effect on Kori was quite as dramatic as Kori's effect on Dick.

The final nail in the coffin for any interest I may have had in dickkory is the fact that I, honest to god, have no idea why Kori likes Dick. I don't. Dick has several internal monologues about how much he loves Kori for her passion, her drive, her openness, and the way she pushes him to explore new parts of himself and open up, but Kori... doesn't really do the same for Dick. I can make guesses as to why I think Kori likes Dick, even fairly educated ones (I think Kori likes Dick at least in part because his intellectual approach to life is new and interesting to her, for example), but they've never stated it explicitly the way they've stated what Kori likes about Dick. And for a series that'll state practically everything explicitly if it can, up to and including what's happening on the panel right now, this is very weird to me.

Any of these problems, isolated, I could've gotten past; even a two of these problems I could've probably ignored. Three would've been pushing it, but all of them? No chance. Any good will I had towards the relationship was buried with the Karras arc, and then shot in the head for good measure when they continuously talked about it as if Kori was the one at fault there.

All of these problems combined make it very clear to me that Kori was not the primary concern in this relationship. Kori was invented as a love interest for Dick, and it shows. This entire relationship is about what it does for Dick, how it helps Dick. The only thing Kori gets out of it, at least to me, is the happiness she gets from being in love, and frankly, she could get that with literally any other character.

The fact that people keep reducing her character to this relationship also infuriates me and makes me even less inclined to like it, especially when they can't even bother to remember Kori was the one who broke up with Dick and instead treat Kori as the one who was left heartbroken and has never gotten over it, while Dick gets to move on with his life and other love interests.

I think this relationship had potential; I think their contrasting personalities could've made for an interesting relationship, and I've enjoyed some isolated moments and fandom portrayals of them before. But after reading The New Teen Titans, I just do not understand why so many Kori fans like this relationship so much. I went into the series neutral on the relationship but hopeful about being won over, to straight-up hating it.

Also that one time they used a relationship between a man who was about to shoot his wife for cheating on him as a direct and obvious parallel to dickkory was SO GODDAMN AWFUL. why the hell did they think that was a good idea. why.

[wonkyyslush]

SHIP YOUR MUTUALLSSSS I WANT TO SEE THE DRAMA

*evil laughter* instead of paying attention I wrote all of this down during my classes you’re welcome.

I tried to do people you wouldn’t really expect either

And I’m indecisive so some people have two my bad 👩🏾‍🦲

You should also pay me for this I worked hard

I’m never doing this shit again I need a nap omfg 🗿 if you weren’t included in this and you want to be you gotta wait a month for my brain to regenerate sorry besties

@uniquabackyardigans I was stuck between both Aran Ojiro from Haikyuu and Shoto Todoroki from mha so I just picked both.

Todoroki is emotionally unavailable already your type. All jokes aside he would be really soft with you and it’s like a whole different side of him other people don’t really see often. If you were upset about something he probably wouldn’t know how to comfort you (I feel like he’s bad at comforting people in general) but he’d try his best. Also he’s probably touch starved just like you <3 have fun with his conspiracies.

I feel like people think that Aran is mean because of his resting bitch face and also this face -_- he occasionally makes. So when they see how nice he is with you they’re so confused ?? Also remember when you were complaining about your ass in your jeans? He’d say it does make your ass look like a square just to make you mad :) you too also probably think flipping people off is a good date idea 🗿

@king-tobiyolo I ship you with Sakusa Kiyoomi (is that his name?) Now hear me out it would probably be a opposites attract sort of thing. You make shit jokes he’s a germaphobe you’re a menace he’s less of a menace. He hated you at first, you and your bad jokes annoyed him. So when he started catching feelings 👩🏾‍🦲 Theres never a dull moment with you two. You get him to loosen up a little (not a lot but it’s still noticeable).

@lilies-and-rosies I ship you with Megumi Fushiguro. You and Megumi have a interesting dynamic. You’re either done with everyone’s bullshit together or he’s done with your bullshit. You send him the dumbest things (I’m talking about those weird people you find 🧛🏾‍♀️) and he hates to admit it but some of them actually makes him laugh. I feel like he’d be the type to be embarrassed over over the slightest things such as hand holding so you’re gonna crack him out of his shell 🥸. Also you’re a Tsukishima Kinnie? No problem who else would he date he has Yuuji Gojo and Nobara on his ass. LMAO IM SORRY THAT WAS FUNNY TO ME. I also ship you with Hange Zoe but I’m too Lazy to explain further I’ve been at this for hours

@sao-tom3 I ship you with Itadori Yuuji. I don’t know if you’ve watched Jujutsu Kaisen yet but I feel like you and Yuuji would be a cute couple. He’s in love with your cat obviously not more than he’s in love with you but it’s a close call 🤩. He cooks for you (period get yourself a man who can cook). If you have a specific comfort meal you like to eat when you’re sad he’d gladly make it for you and do whatever he can on top of that to cheer you up. He’d also be the type to randomly go “Do you wanna do my make up for me?” Do his makeup bestie 🤬. Have fun with Sukuna bothering you two though. 🦤🦤🦤

@angeldvst-amajiki I ship you with Armin Arlert. I can’t explain myself on this one I just feel like you would be his type (his type being intimidating woman, not saying you’re intimidating but you did say Tamaki would be afraid of you NOT THAT I THINK ITS TRUE THOUGH) um anyways you and Armin would be that couple people didn’t really expect but once they see it they love it. Armin would constantly reassure you that he loves you wether he says it to you straightforwardly or coveys it through his actions. His love language is either quality time or giving out gifts and when I think of Armin giving you sea shells enjoy bestie

@shawtyybae I ship you with Akaashi whatever his last name is. Doesn’t he just look like mega mind? 🥸 But Fr Fr it’ll take a very patient man to deal with your bs. At first I thought that Akaashi would probably go for someone who isn’t a menace (yes I’m saying you’re a menace) because he already has bokuto giving him migraines but you’re an exception I guess? Most of the time he’ll go along with your jokes because why not but other times he’d be like 🧍🏾‍♀️. Akaashi is also a over thinker proven buy bokuto himself 🙄 so I feel like he’d overthink your relationship and then need reassurance that you still like him (I have a ton of Akaashi conspiracy theories but that’s not the point)

@starrjin I ship you with Inumaki and Kita but I don’t feel like writing these anymore so I’m only gonna explain Inumaki 🗿 You and Inumaki in my opinion would be good for each other. He can comfort you without even having to speak somehow and for him he finds your presence comforting. His love language in my opinion is physical touch and acts of service. He can’t speak? He’ll make up for it with his actions.

@melichios I ship you with Eren Jeager. Why you may ask? Because I read your about me and you’re basically into edgy people and who’s edgier than a mass murderer? Also “men with long hair” Last time I checked Eren has some pretty long hair 🌝 He also finds your interest interesting (see what I did there? 🤩) like your biotechnology. Loves hearing you talk about your interest. I mean he’ll fall asleep on you listening to you talk about it but he loves it nonetheless.

@hoodsokka I ship you with Sero and Denki from Mha but I’m only explaining Sero 🗿 You two would be a comedic duo. He wouldn’t even mind the accidental dick jokes in front of his mom (haha get it because you accidentally told a dick joke..in front of..okay) He goes along with whatever impulsive urge you have except having a baby at 17 (haha..get it because..okay) Wether this is a platonic ship or a romantic ship that’s for you to decide.

@aphroditeparadisesstuff (WE SHARE SO MANY OF THE SAME INTERESTS) I ship you with Tsukishima Kei. I read your about me thingy too and it says you’re sarcastic. Who’s more sarcastic then Tsukki? 🤩 You like reading too so library dates yaaaaay. Every now and then he recommends books he’d think you’ll like. He loves hearing about the things you’re passionate about seeing you rant about something like mythology makes him smile. Also “I’m shy” great you two can stay at home together :)

[medea10]

My Review of Flowers of Evil

How did I get into this anime? Because Flowers of Evil is something no one says, “Oh I want to see that, this looks like a masterpiece”! Oh, I was well familiar with the rotoscope nightmare stories from this and hoped to God my randomizer wouldn’t curse me with watching Flowers of Evil. I was however intrigued to learn that there was a yandere in this anime that’s on Yuno Gasai AND Shion Sonozaki levels. But intrigue can only get me so far when you spend 13 episodes watching…

THIS!

No this is not an exaggeration. Everyone has this kind of cringe face throughout the entire anime series. Be afraid children.

So the story is about this guy named Takao Kasuga. He loves to read and he loves the class smarty-pants Nanako Saeki. He doesn’t just love her, he sees her as his muse and his Venus and all that bullshit. But this is an admiration from afar. Pretty sure Saeki doesn’t even know he exists! One day, Kasuga forgets his book in his classroom. And on the ground, he notices a gym bag that belongs to Saeki. Oh come on, he’s not gonna go down the perverted route and steal a girl’s gym…

So he steals Saeki’s gym uniform. And surprise, one person knew what happened. The class loner, Nakamura! She forces Kasuga to form a contract with her. It wasn’t written or anything, just verbal. However, that doesn’t stop Nakamura from forcing Kasuga to do whatever she wants. But does Nakamura really like Kasuga or is she just into torturing this shit-faced pervert?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: You know, I’m too thrown off by the animation here that it has temporarily paralyzed me from catching voices or even giving a damn. I’m familiar with only two of the cast mates and the rest is literally my first time hearing it. Okay, I have one comment here. I often forget Mariya Ise could do some damn-ass scary characters like Nakamura. And when she does those murderous screams, forget about it! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Kasuga is played by Shinichirou Ueda

*Saeki is played by Yoko Hikasa (known for Bea on Pokemon Journeys, Rias on High School DxD, Mio on K-ON!, Hina on Domestic Girlfriend, Kirigiri on Danganronpa, Frieda on Attack on Titan, and Diana on Little Witch Academia)

*Nakamura is played by Mariya Ise (known for Bonnie on Pokemon XY, Levy on Fairy Tail, Ray on The Promised Neverland, Stocking on Panty & Stocking, Mika on Durarara, Dorothy on Black Clover, and Yuuko on Yuri on Ice)

SHIPPING: Oh please, anime Gods, do not turn this into another School Days fiasco. I find myself praying for this a lot these days. But in this anime’s case, please do not go down that route!

So, it was clear from episode one that Kasuga had a crush on Saeki. But this got very perverted very fast when he stole her gym clothes and that lead to the contract with Nakamura. Now is Nakamura romantically invested in Kasuga or is she just a crazy bitch. Let’s chalk this up to a 50-50 split here.

It wasn’t until the fourth episode where Kasuga and Saeki actually spoke to each other. And one episode later, they go on a date and end up in a relationship. One has to wonder if Kasuga would have one day acted on his own and ask Saeki out. All of this happened because he was being forced by that psychopath Nakamura. She tortured this kid and forced him to do so many unethical things. Stripping him naked and putting Saeki’s uniform on him for one! Who does that? So would Kasuga have done these sporadic actions if Nakamura wasn’t in the picture? After he stole that uniform, anything is possible. Now here’s the crazy shit here, Saeki loves Kasuga and she doesn’t care that he stole her gym uniform and did fuck-knows-what with it. She’s mad that Kasuga hid it, but still loves him.

Girl, the fuck is wrong with you?! You must be some special kind of crazy!

By the end of this series, you do see a shift in Kasuga and who he wants to chase after. Saeki or Nakamura?! Let’s just say that during a running away scene, Kasuga was going to go home with Saeki until he saw Nakamura and he chases after her. That’s a pretty good sign that Kasuga has switched gears on who he likes. I won’t delve any further than that as the anime only gives us so much and the rest of this love turmoil between these three characters is covered only in the manga. Probably a sign I should read the manga!

LOOOOOONG NO DIALOGUE MOMENTS: Dude, I know you’re trying to set the mood for certain moments, but I think you can dial it back a bit. This complaint isn’t just what happened at the beginning of episode 9; it took forever to get the main gist of this story in the very first episode. I had no idea what the main premise of the story was until the last five minutes of the first episode when Kasuga stole Saeki’s gym uniform.

Now I’m not knocking serious moments where there is no dialogue between characters for a long period of time and we just watch the animation of them walking or doing something. Hell, Neon Genesis Evangelion had famous scenes like that. But the elevator scene didn’t last six fucking minutes. Neither did the scene where Shinji kills Kaowru. In episode 9, we watch Nakamura and Kasuga walking from the school to home and watch the whole walk after destroying the classroom. I guarantee you, you could leave this episode running, fix yourself a bowl of cereal and toast, eat it up, go to the bathroom to have a good yank, then finish it off with watching a Che Guevara documentary…and Nakamura and Kasuga would still be walking home! I’m exaggerating and I don’t care. I feel like being an asshole here.

OH DEAR GOD, WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!: Very rarely will I ever look at an opening or ending theme song in literal fear. In fact, the last one to be so morbid was with Attack on Titan’s second season ending. I mean, the imagery alone should tell you that this is full of spoilers and possessed by the devil itself. Now that I think about it, that’s still undefeated. But Flowers of Evil’s ending theme is a close fucking second. Have you heard this thing? It sounds like Bjork singing in Japanese, synthesized, while a cat walks on a keyboard and having a seizure at the same time. Thank God there are no actual visuals for this other than the flower featured on Kasuga’s book. I don’t think we can handle anymore animation from this nightmare fuel.

ENDING: The writing is on the wall!

And the floor, the ceiling…that classroom is just a fucking mess!

Kasuga’s one bad deed led to another and another in a domino effect. And instead of a little devil on his shoulder, he has a classmate that’s a sociopath. Kasuga has guilt about hiding so much from Saeki in this relationship and he wants to tell her everything he did. Nakamura says, “Nah, you’re going to write it all over the classroom and let the whole world know what a piece of shit you are”. Let’s just say Nakamura and Kasuga went overboard and completely destroyed their classroom. Kasuga gets a bit of a lucky break as the other vandalism covered up his name on the chalkboard confession. But two people have caught onto Kasuga’s crime, Saeki and Kasuga’s mother.

Saeki put two and two together when she noticed the ink smearing on the ground resembled the flower art work on Kasuga’s book “Flowers of Evil” and her stolen gym uniform was placed right there. As for Kasuga’s mother, she put two and two together when she heard what happened to his classroom and noticed Kasuga’s behavior and dirty clothes from the night of the crime. Won’t be long before everyone knows what Kasuga did.

What now, shit-face?

Run away with Nakamura to the next town. Yeah, why the fuck not?! Saeki ends up tracking them down and tried to convince them to come back and for Kasuga to be truthful. Saeki wants Kasuga and I almost want to say the same, except hanging around this psycho-bitch for a while has caused him to try to stop Nakamura from leaving. Having Saeki see Kasuga go after Nakamura isn’t really a good look! At this point, it really feels like his love for Saeki was nothing more than lust.

Dude, isn’t there a rule about not messing with crazy…like, don’t stick your dick in crazy?! This dude has got one crazy bitch on psycho-yandere levels and the other that’s about to turn into Kotonoha from School Days in about five seconds. Well, no one left town today as the police were called to look for Saeki because her parents are overprotective types and they take the other kids in.

We get a small time-leap of one month after the night in the police station. Nakamura’s been ignoring Kasuga and Kasuga ends his relationship with Saeki. Dude, stop trying to stick your dick in crazy! Kasuga tries to speak to Nakamura again and it fails. So he visits her at home and meets Nakamura’s father and grandmother. Then, he sneaks into her room and reads her private journal that talks about Kasuga a lot. Dude, you are stepping in uncharted territory! Drop the journal and get the fuck out before Nakamura comes home. So Nakamura comes in her room and finds shit-face reading her journal.

*sighs*

First, I would like to acknowledge that Mariya Ise has one hell of a throat to scream as much as this crazy bitch does. Second, the fuck did I just say, ya dumbass?! Here we get another chase scene between Kasuga and Nakamura. What follows is…I can’t place my thoughts on this. Weird imagery, out of place dialogue, and possible scenes of future stuff to happen! A rape scene involving Saeki, a festival, a hideout, a knife, and fire! Thanks for the cryptic message guys, really appreciate it! Either the anime ran out of money or they’re fucking with the audience. Kasuga says he wants to form a contract with Nakamura and that’s the end!

Hmm, this anime came out in 2013 and it is now 2021. All the buildup and no word on a sequel! We all know that sequel ain’t ever coming. You have a better chance of a continuation to Haruhi Suzumiya than you do with this hunk of shit.

Okay, maybe ‘hunk of shit’ is too mean. This wasn’t a terrible anime. It was weird as fuck, the animation leaves a bad impression, but overall it wasn’t that bad. Now the manga to Flowers of Evil is a favorite to many. Probably because the characters don’t look like a cringey meme and there aren’t so many awkward pauses with no dialogue. Unless there’s a whole volume of Flowers of Evil out there where we just look at pictures of Nakamura and Kasuga walking home where they don’t say a fucking thing! I am not letting that go! Charlie Brown movies didn’t go to that level you guys did!

I was interested with each passing episode to see what Nakamura was going to do next and what she was capable of. I couldn’t make out if she was going to be homicidal or suicidal or just impact psychological warfare on her prey. It was the latter for this series, but I heard of some attempted seppuku going down in the manga. I’d like to think maybe one day a different studio would pick up this series, but I seriously doubt it with the rotten reception this adaptation received. It was said that the director to the anime saw this more as a live-action series than an anime and that’s why we have the rotoscope animation. It wasn’t until 2019 that we got a live-action adaptation to Flowers of Evil. Not sure how people felt about that adaptation, but even I have a feeling that it was much better than the anime. Hell, a Netflix adaptation probably would have turned out a better product. It would be nice for this to get a reboot, different studio, different director, and smash everything that has the word ‘rotoscope’ on it

Yeah, if you can get over watching the animation, give it a watch. Episode one drags, but it picks up the second Nakamura confronts Kasuga.

If you would like to watch Flowers of Evil, Crunchyroll and Hidive have all 13 episodes available for streaming.

Okay, now that I’m finished with that sociopathic nightmare let’s pick another Sentai Filmworks anime.

HELL NO! I am not reviewing, “My Teacher Accidentally Made Me Horny”. That’s what I’m calling it and you should all do the same. NEXT!

Okay…I have no idea what the hell this anime is, but it looks harmless enough.

[loafaethernaut]

I’ve decided to try live-blogging my reactions to the remaining season five reloaded intel so we’ll see how this goes:

-Game one: I got Armada on world three

-THIS FIRST REQUIEM AUDIO IS RIGHT AFTER MAUER AND GREY DOESN’T KNOW WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING TO SAM

-Weaver how DARE you shut down Grey like that she hasn’t seen her girlfriend in months SHE IS DOING A CONCERN

-Carver doesn’t like Ravenov? I’m not surprised. Ngl for a while there after Firebase I thought Ravenov was kind of sus… I hope he’s not though. I love him.

-Grey was practically silent for the rest of the meeting after Weaver shut her down regarding Sam I’m gonna-

-Yeeeeah I don’t trust Zykov. I do have a weird HC that he’s Ravenov’s grandpa though

-I almost felt bad for Strauss there in his little audio log… keyword almost. Still a nazi and a dick though.

-CARVER GOT RAPTOR ONE CHOCOLATES WHAT

-OH MY GOD THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY CUTE NEW SHIP ALERT DO WE HAVE MORE GAYS IN COD???

-THE BUTTERSCOTCH I CAN’T

-I agree with Sam’s VA every time I say the word Peck even in my head I feel like spitting

-KRAVCHENKO YOU DICK

-Okay so update I couldn’t find anymore intel during that game so I went to bed. It’s the next day and I’m gonna try again wish me luck

-Not really intel related but I’m pretty sure the lost soul in the black box world event is Pyotr. Saving him while playing as Maxis is actually really sweet because she told him to never lose faith. And he hasn’t… I’m already crying-

-Just got to Collateral on world three again, I heard there was more intel here so wish me luck-

-I find it hilarious that literally nobody on Requiem likes Strauss.

-Okay Strauss does have a point but the fact that he of all people is trying to be holier than thou to Carver is just… wow he’s a dick.

-This game won’t stop giving me reasons to hate Strauss.

-How does Ravenov know the location of Operatsiya Izbavital? I know Sam was able to get intel on Outpost 25 just by sneaking around but isn’t there like a national manhunt still going on for Ravenov?

-“Trying to do the right thing.” Every time somebody says that I think of Monty’s agenda in the old Aether timeline and I get nervous.

-Yeah I hate to say it… but I don’t know if Ravenov is trustworthy anymore.

-Yes I am very very salty that none of the Requiem audio logs gave us more story for Grey. How come Strauss got a solo entry where he repeats the same nihilistic bullshit he said to Carver over again and Grey got NOTHING.

-Why do Peck, Gorev, and Kravchenko all sound like a bitter and petty love triangle AND JAGER’S JUST SITTING THERE GETTING ALL THE TEA I’M DYING

-I can’t tell if Jager has some kind of angle or if he just loves being an agent of chaos. Either way he gives me strong Ultimis Richtofen vibes and I actually kind of love it

-I love Samantha Maxis so much-

-OH MY GOD OH MY GOD HE

-No… Sam… She’s crying. I… He threatened to kill Grey.

-My heart is racing oh my fucking god… like I theorized that the director threatened to hurt Grey in some way and that was what caused Sam to break but oh my fucking god I DIDN’T THINK I WOULD ACTUALLY BE RIGHT

-AND SAM

-POOR BABY IS BREAKING DOWN WORSE THAN IN THE DARK AETHER

-DIY ALESSA GILLESPIE FROM SILENT HILL SHUT UP LOAF THIS ISN’T FUNNY

-Sam literally did that. She really did that to herself if it meant protecting Elizabeth.

-I figured at some point we’d hear Sam truly cry but wow. Just… somebody PLEASE give Sam a hug. Specifically if your name is Elizabeth Grey.

-I’m gonna make a whole separate post about that one audio because wow.

-If Grey ever finds out about that… oh no…

-I JUST REALIZED SAM WROTE THE GREY LETTER WELL AFTER THAT TOOK PLACE AND I BURST INTO TEARS

-OH MY OH MY GOD OH MY GOD THAT WAS WHY SAM WANTED NOTSO TO BE WITH GREY IT WAS THE NEXT BEST THING SHE COULD THINK OF TO TRY AND KEEP HER SAFE-

-Okay had to exfil I’m gonna try and get the remaining Sam Audio log with my friend now will come back later with updates

-Uh okay update got the last Sam audio… she wants Notso and Grey to be in the same place. WAIT WHAT IF SHE TELEPORTED NOTSO TO GREY AND THAT’S HOW GREY ENDED UP WITH HER?????? Oh my god oh my fucking-

-Anyways the director of Requiem is a dead bitch walking I will strangle this man myself. How dare he hurt my child this way. AND NOTSO??? THE DOG????

-I am not emotionally ready for the final map.

[fairymadnessyeah]

Clone High

I rewatched Clone High today, after finishing a fic, and it gave me an idea for a second season, or a reboot season, if it ever happens. Warning: this will have JoanFK shipping in it.

So, in this season, everything is almost the same as the first one. The names of the episodes and what they are about, is all basically the same, except: all the students have a weird sense of deja vu. For example: when the students talk about something that happened last year, they get confused, and they all remember something cold, but they can’t put their finger on it. Mostly they shrug it off. However, feelings don’t disappear, so... Abe is a little more aware of Joan, Cleo wants Abe more, Joan is more hopeless about Abe and developing a weird crush on Kennedy, and JFK the same.

So...

Episode 1

Things go pretty much the same.

The hotline happens, JFK’s ultimatum, and Abe wanting to get Cleo.

But this time, Abe get real alcohol. He vaguely remembers failing to do so before, so he somehow gets real alcohol.

The party goes pretty much the same, and Joan tells Cleo to get with Abe.

But this time, when JFK offers her a drink, she accepts it with the idea to forget this night. She gets a bit tipsy though, and ends up making out with JFK.

The police come, but they take Abe and Gandhi. Joan was nowhere to be seen, since she was making out with JFK at the moment.

Principal Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron crash the party, but only to see what effect would the alcohol make in the clones. 

The fact that the clones lost a year is supposed to be a mystery.

Episode 2

This episode is almost the same.

Except that when Abe takes the sponsor, the brand goes: “Didn’t that kid look familiar? I feel like I have seen him before...”

Joan still goes to JFK, and he is more like: “I uh see you are back for more,”

The episode still continues the same, but at the end, Joan and JFK are seen talking.

“We will never speak about what happend at your party ever again,”

“Why uh not?”

“Because it’s never going to happen again,”

Next scene, both of them come out of a the school with their hair and clothes messed up, and lipstick all over their mouths.

Episode 3

The episode goes the same, but Joan doesn’t end like a speaker.

She instead goes to the Grassy Knol to sorrow in her embarrassment.

Marie Antoinette helps her a little. She tells her that she isn’t confused about her future or her past, but she is confused about her present. 

Also, Scudworth is there to see what the clones remember from the past year. He is happy to find out they don’t remember much.

Episode 4

So, the school film festival, and pretty much is all the same.

Except, Joan’s entry is about her confusion between JFK and Abe.

Lincoln doesn’t get it, but Kennedy does.

Joan, who is tired of Abe’s bullshit, enters a friends with benefits agreements with JFK. He can still be a player, and acts as her stress reliever, or rebound fuck.

Also, Scudworth gets visited by some ministers. They were in charge of the secret board of shadowy figures. They haven’t heard from them in a while, and they are suspicious. Butlertron saves the day, again.

Episode 5

The PJXTs come around and things go like the Episode did.

Except for a moment a moment in which JFK calls Joan ‘Dolphin Tat’. 

Episode 6

So, Joan’s learns about the team not allowing girls or animals on the team by JFK, on one of their meetings. 

She still dotes her incredible disguise, and Cleo still hits on her.

The episode finishes with JFK realizing he is not into guys, he is simply into Joan. He likes her.

Episode 7

Again, the episode goes like the original. But at the end, we see Joan go back to JFK for comfort.

Episode 8

Joan becomes homeless, and moves in with Cleo. They don’t get along, but it’s not as bad, because Joan is moving on from Abe.

Cleo does find out about them, when Joan sneaks out and comes back smelling like JFK’s perfume. She plans on telling the whole school, and things get ugly.

They start fighting, until Joan threatens to publish Cleo’s puberty pictures on the school’s newspaper. They kind of form a truce.

Meanwhile, JFK and Gandhi also fight. Gandhi wants to go spy on the girls, but JFK stops him. Only he get to stare at Joan in a girl on girl action.

Episode 9

This is the episode that completely changes. Not because I don’t like the episode, but because I love it too much to change it.

The episode is still a musical.

Fritz Habers clone (the inventor of the mustard gas) gave out cards that had a mysterius dust in it. It was supposed to be a prank, with the dust making them stink, but something else happened.

The people who opened the cards, started acting like love-sick fools. A few were saved. Gandhi, cause Fritz thinks he already smelled bad. Abe, cause his neck is too long and he didn’t get to smell it. And Cleo, cause Fritz thought he might get with her, if he was the only good smelling dude.

The dust works as a watered-down sex-pollen. It might make you horny, but not to the extent of stripping in the middle of a crowd to have sex. And it makes you blind to everything else but that person.

The first song is the group seeing the student under the dust for the first time. Thing of ‘What’s this?’ from Nightmare Before Christmas, but with love themes. 

What’s this? What’s this? There’s smooshing everywhere.

Fritz finds the group that hadn’t been contaminated, and he explains what happened. They search for a way to create an antidote, and they find a journal that might have the answer, but it’s in french.

They start looking for Joan, who Abe knows hasn’t opened the letter yet. Here come the second song. It’s a version of ‘If you seek Amy’ by Britney Spears.

Oh, oh; Tell me, have you seen her?; Cause we, oh, oh; Don’t know how to speak French!

By the end of the song they find her, she is opening the card. There is a whole slow-motion montage as the dust hits her and the others go: NOOO.

Joan blinks for a few seconds, then looks back at the group, and the next song comes. It’s ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne, but instead of saying Girlfriend, it says GirlfriendS. And for a while, they think she is singing it to Abe. But when she is in front of him, she pushes Abe aside, and runs to JFK that was behind them.

I also like to think that the rest of the people around are dancing and doing the chorus every time there is a song.

We cut to Principal Scrubworth, who is looking at all of this from his office. He also sings a song, ‘Crazy=Genius’ by P!ATD. 

While he sings, he dances around his matchines.

Then we go back to the crew who are at the Grassy Knol sad, while the other are all around being happy. Then, Marie Antoinette comes and translates the journal.

The next day, the students come into the school. The last song happens, it’s ‘Walking on sunshine’ by Katrina & the Waves. By the end of the song, the fire alarm goes off, and the sprinkles wet everybody with the antidote.

When they snap out of it, Joan and JFK are embracing. She notices how everybody is staring, and decks him, before leaving.

They break off their arrangement, bc everybody knows now.

Also, Fritz is taken to the frezzer by Principal Scrubworth.

Episode 10

We see Ponce trying to cheer up JFK since Joan rejected him, but he still dies.

I would find it funny if this is a recurring joke. That ponce dies every season, and after a while it becomes a thing of, ‘has he died yet? this is the longest he’s gone- oh no, forget it, he died,’

JFK mourns him. Joan has been avoidig him since the dust incident, so he goes to the other perso he once had for comfort, Cleo.

Abe is mad. He is more annoyed at JFK in here, bc he thinks that he took advantage of Joan. He is actually jealous.

The episode continues the same way, except for the end.

When Abe goes to console him, Joan is already there. He starts feeling something in hid chest.

Episode 11

So, Snowflake day comes. Joan doen’t like the holiday, and Abe needs to get an expensive gift for Cleo.

JFK tries to show Joan how good Snowflake day is, and they go all around town doing things.

JFK is trying to win her over, but Joan is still confused. She likes Kennedy, but she also likes Abe.

She understands the meaning of Snowflake day by the end of the episode, with the help of a trashy celebrity. Maybe a Kardashian?

And she also gets a gift from JFK that he made himself. Since she doesn’t like the consumerism of the holiday.

Abe, on that regard, instead of buying Cleo an expensive gift, he buys her a gift with some extra cash he had. The rest of his money went to buy an expensive gift for Joan. He saw it and thought of her.

It’s nice, but Joan likes JFK’s gift more. Cleo is pissed.

Episode 12

Abe is in thin ice. He has to do an extraordinary promposal to Cleo, but he can’t stop thinking about how Joan has nobody to go with.

The only one who asked her was JFK, and she is thinking about accepting.

He tries to help her get a date for prom, one that isn’t Kennedy.

They go through multiple makeovers, but in the end, Cleo takes matters into her own hands.

If she gets Joan to go with somebody else, then she gets her promposal from Abe and she wins. 

She gives her the same makeover from before, and asks Napoleon to take her.

When Abe sees her, he realizes he might have feelings for her. But she is with Napoleon, so he respects that, It’s better than JFK.

Episode 13

Abe makes his Promposal, and Cleo accepts.

JFK tries to asks Joan again, but before he can, Napoleon interrupts.

They go to prom, and Joan is clearly not having a good time. She isn’t acting like a giggly vapid slut in here, but it’s clear she is not happy.

JFK sees her sad, so he goes to talk to her. She tells him that she misses him, and that she would have accepted his invitation.

Abe sees them talking and tries to stop it, but Cloe jumps him, promising sex.

He leaves with her, but the only thing he can see is Joan.

Meanwhile, Joan got rid of her makeover, and is talking with JFK. He compliments her, telling her he doesn’t need a makeover, and the two kiss.

They agree to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and they go to dance.

Abe come looking for her sees them, but becomes dramatic, and gives a speech about locking himself in the frezzer, to forget all about this.

When he goes to do that, however, he unfrezzes the secret board of shadowy figures.

The season ends there

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 74 Rundown

Code Geass: So we’ve got another one of those “wacky bullshit student activities” episodes, though this one seems to ride the hardest on “shit is going down, the world is ending but haha Shirley romance drama” though admittedly it does have a nice character arc for Milly so that’s cool. Lelouch is worried that the Knights of the Round are here to investigate him until he realizes both of them only have one braincell between them so it’s fine. Cornelia’s also murdering her way through religious fanatics so that’s cool. And last but not least we have Shirley and Lelouch finally getting together right before Jeremiah Geass Cancels her amnesia so she knows Lelouch is Zero and killed her dad and presumably the other stuff that Charles put in the whole school’s brain somehow. I’m sure this will end well and their romance will survive in a way that isn’t insanely tragic.

Inuyasha: We’re still in fillertown and it’s another SangoxMiroku episode. Man we get a lot of these in filler huh? I kinda don’t remember which Sango/Miroku moments are canon at this point. I’d kinda laugh if it was just all filler and some manga-only fans were bewildered when they ended up together in the end. Anyway, Feudal Lord has a thing for Sango because he has great taste and Kagome ships Sango/Miroku so she doesn’t want her to go, Miroku’s like “Hey it’s her choice, she’s been through enough, she can choose her own life, I’m not gonna get involved” which is pretty mature but the girls still hate on him for it. Sango’s just like “Dude even if I wanted to stay I still have this Naraku-slaying quest to go on and I’m not about to sit around all day and be royalty while my friends go kick Naraku’s ass for me.” Which is how most love confessions in this series go. Also Sango suplexes a demon bear the size of a building with her bare hands and it’s pretty great. In the end the lord doesn’t give up going after Sango but they finish the bear stuff and are on their way. I like how they don’t go out of their way to demonize this guy in the end to prop Miroku up, he’s still a good guy, Sango’s just got shit to do and is more the type to like a warrior who’s got her back. There’s some really cute shipping shenanigans here and all in all it’s fun filler.

Yu Yu Hakusho: We’ve got a three for one deal here as Yusuke and Kuwabara assblast their way through the Dark Triad in one episode, continuing their power play of beating villains with little effort while the boss man bets that they’ll completely wreck his guards which is still a pretty interesting dynamic. We’ve got cringey 90s trans commentary, an invisible dude that gets blindsided easily and a hostage ogre that gets beaten by Botan taking off her coat. Honestly for these guys being supposedly minibosses they kind of went down easier than some of the grunts. But now Kuwabara’s in contact with Yukina because his bullshit power of love connection actually works for some reason and they’re in on the final fight with the Toguro brothers. With this many people betting the GDP of countries on the fight there’s no way this isn’t rigged. I really like how YYH basically makes shonen fights just part of stupid black market deals for a large part of it, just like in real life everything’s decided by some old rich guy.

Fate Zero: Kayneth’s still fucked up and has Rock Lee syndrome and can’t use jutsu anymore so his wife’s like “Yo buddy you can’t give Lancer the magic cummies anymore anyway, lemme take control of your hunky knight manslave or I swear to god I’ll rip your arm off and jerk him off with it” which since she asked so nicely he just kind of does. With Lancer still kinda being uppity about Kayneth having dibs on his soul and Sola-Ui being weirdly horny and increasingly yandere for him I’m sure this’ll end well. Saber and Kiritsugu are still pissy with each other because Saber wants to go after Caster to stop the child murders which is fair but she’s also injured and shit and she’s mad at Kiritsugu for not teaming up with Kayneth to just take down Caster right there and I mean I don’t think he really had time to suggest a truce while getting attacked with Terminator 2 goo, he’s not really the asshole here. Meanwhile and more importantly, ISKANDAR HAS PANTS! Nothing can stop him now and they crash Caster’s child murder party and are jumped by Assassin’s Forty Thieves (they aren’t named yet but I’mma just assume) and Iskander’s just like “Yeah no I’m not fighting five ninjas knee deep in child guts.” And they just burn the whole place down.

Konosuba: So in a bizarre Interspecies Reviewers/Food Wars crossover, Kazuma goes to a succubus house and instead of just getting sex they do dreams and shit which seems more complicated but I guess it’s less morally gray. Anyway, naked Darkness and contrived hentai plots ensue. They sprinkle in some good character stuff for Kazuma which is nice, it’s always kind of hard to pin down where his principles lie. Like he’s generally a scumbag and will take the easy way out of anything but he’s not evil and will give Darkness an out on their encounter if she wants and will get his ass kicked to protect his local sex worker. The Principled Scumbag approach is kind of neat for him, I wish a few more of these moments didn’t feel the need to immediately undercut themselves with a joke but that’s the nature of the series. I feel like one or two more genuinely sincere moments throughout a couple episodes would do wonders but either way it’s still amusing.

Sailor Moon Crystal: We pick up right where we left off with Tuxedo Mask throwing himself in front of the Kamehameha for Usagi and then she goes Super Saiyan and cries pokemon tears to bring him back to life. But the bad guys are somehow like ‘yoink’ and steal him from her lap through a barrier somehow (that still kinda pisses me off) and for some reason the crystal that booped its way into his chest isn’t there anymore and Usagi still has and and Usagi’s going through a lot of shit right now between processing the trauma of a millennia-old kingdom falling that’s partially her fault, working through her romantic feelings and having a Steven Universe identity crisis about how to process her identity as a reincarnation of someone a lot cooler than she is, so most of this episode is Usagi crying, as most episodes are, but at least she has a good reason.  Then we get a Girl Squad Roll Out montage because fuck it we’re going to the moon somehow.

Durarara!!:  Apparently everyone knows about where Celty’s head is but her because she visits Izaya’s office where the head is just kinda behind some books on his bookshelf and she doesn’t know but Shinra’s dad has enough time to mug Namie after telling Shinra and Celty off for their weird interspecies relationship and tell Izaya to have fun fucking around with the head. Also people have shifted from being worried about the Dollars to being worried about Saika and ALSO being worried about the Dollars maybe being at war with the Yellow Scarves. Celty’s looking into it and Shinra shows some character development in just coming out with it that Saika was the sword that severed her connection with her head… I don’t know how you cut the soul of a head that’s already cut off but okay, at least Shinra’s not hiding shit from here anymore. Also Saika’s about to seriously chop up Anri and Masaomi comes to visit his girl in the hospital finally.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Reflecting Light

Chapter One

Chapter Eight

Remus wasn’t really thrilled with stopping at an orphanage.  It tied a little too close to his fake backstory for him to be comfortable.  He had no clue what he would say if someone expected him to know how they worked for some reason.  But there were apparently a ton of orphanages around that didn’t get enough food or supplies, so they had a couple as part of their rounds.

That was complete bullshit, for the record.  Remus had picked up a lot of things about his former home from his new life as an accidental rebellion member, but it was easy to say this one made him the most angry.  The food hadn’t been spectacular in The Light, but they’d always had enough of it.  Definitely enough leftover to supply a place that took care of orphaned children.

Remus spent the morning with Janus as they both organized the supplies they were dropping off.  Janus looked irritated and a little exhausted as he finished counting the last one.

“We’re gonna have to stop at home before we finish our rounds,” he said, glancing at Remus.  “We’re almost out of food, and we need to pick up supplies for our next stop.  Have you ever been to the rebellion base before?”

“I can safely say I never expected to go to the rebellion base,” Remus said with a wide smile and a nod.

Janus chuckled.  “That’s fair,” he said.  “A lot of people end up in the rebellion by desperation or by chance.”

Or by both, Remus thought, although he didn’t say that out loud.  “I would like to meet you and Virgil’s father,” he said instead.  “I’ve always wondered what kind of person runs the rebellion.”

It wasn’t technically a lie, because he had always wondered that.  Granted, there was also some context missing there.  Namely that Remus had wondered such as someone from the opposite side.

“Just don’t ask him about any embarrassing kid stories and we’re all good,” Janus said.

Remus grinned.  “I make no promises.”

Janus sighed, writing one last thing down and setting his checklist aside.  “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud with you in the room.”

“You’re learning!” Remus called happily, following Janus out of the storage room.  They both headed back up towards the deck of the ship, where everyone was preparing to land soon.

Remus had somehow ended up with an official position that didn’t have anything to do with the actual movement of the ship, meaning if he wasn’t desperately needed no one would ask for his help.  He therefore decided that while Janus and Virgil were busy at the wheel he was going to sit next to Jackson and comment on everything he was doing wrong, which made Jackson shoot him several delicious glares throughout the process.  But Jackson was his favorite person on board to mess with (barring Janus and Virgil of course, but they were busy), so it’s not like Remus was going anywhere.

When they finally landed, Remus gave Jackson a firm pat on the shoulder.  “Alright, I have some notes, but overall, that was passable.”

“Suck my dick.”

“Oh, if you insist!” Remus said, moving like he was going to pull his pants down.

“Ugh, gross, stop!” Jackson exclaimed, but he was starting to smile.  “God, I should really know not to say that kind of stuff around you by now.”

“Yeah, everyone else does, keep up.  So you’re coming with today, right?”

“Yep,” Jackson said, giving Remus a smile.  “Only cause the rest of you are too weak to carry the boxes yourselves.”

“Oh, is that so?” Remus walked forward and scooped Jackson up bridal style.  “Well allow me to help you down to the cargo hold so you can carry all of the boxes then.”

Jackson sputtered indignantly, and Remus cackled before he dropped him straight onto the deck.  “Come on, I can grab a couple,” he said, and started down to the cargo hold as Jackson pushed himself up off the deck.

Remus beat him down there by a couple steps, and grabbed both of the boxes that had the food they were dropping off, as Jackson picked up the ones with the blankets and the clothes.  They both carried the boxes down off the ship, where Virgil and Janus were waiting with a cart to put the boxes on, since they’d have to travel a little further to reach the orphanage.

Remus set the boxes down on the seat and hopped on top of them to sit, where he was joined by Virgil a second later.

“You make me carry the boxes and then make me walk the miles to the orphanage too?” Jackson asked, looking up at them where there was no space left on the box.

“That is correct,” Remus said with a grin.  “Go talk to Janus, I’m sure you two will have a grand old time.”

Jackson grumbled in irritation, and Virgil laughed from where he was sitting beside Remus as the horse that was pulling their cart started off.

“So, this has got to be weird for you,” Virgil said as they started moving.

Remus looked at him for a moment.  “No, why?”

“Oh, I just assumed it would be a little different for you to come back to an orphanage after so many years.”

Remus swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck.  “Eh, not really.  I mean, this isn’t the orphanage I grew up in.  I’m more looking forward to meeting your father at the next stop.”

“Fair enough,” Virgil said with a nod.  “I’m sure that will be mortifying.”

“You say that so casually.”

“I’ve accepted it.”

Remus laughed.  They both continued to chat for the ride through the town and out the other side, then the little bit of distance into the countryside that ended with them pulling to a stop outside the orphanage.

Remus hopped down from the boxes and picked the same couple up again, as Jackson did the same with the other two, looking thoroughly more exhausted than Remus, which he was definitely going to be teasing him about.

Janus knocked on the door, and a second later a woman pulled the door open and gave Janus a bright smile.  “It’s good to see you sir.  I was beginning to worry.”

“We’ve been running a little behind lately,” Janus said with an apologetic smile as they both stepped inside.  Remus followed and set the boxes down in the doorway.  Jackson did the same and then turned immediately with a call that he was going to sit in the cart until it was time to leave.

Virgil walked in behind Remus and moved to lean against the wall as Janus continued to talk to the woman.

“Oh, you dears can help yourselves to a glass of water,” the woman called over to them.  “Kitchen is right through there.”  She pointed towards the back of the house.

“Thanks,” Virgil called, pushing himself off the wall and heading towards the back of the house.  Remus followed.

“Hey, Virge, do you think we should bring Jackson a glass of water?”

“I think we should, but we should hide his until he starts complaining.”

“This is why I like you,” Remus said with a grin, reaching out for the door and opening it.

There was a cry of surprise from the room and the sound of something falling and shattering.  Remus pushed the door open the rest of the way to see a kid who looked about ten years old, staring at both of them in terror.

“Woah, hey,” Virgil said, starting forward past Remus and towards the kid.  The kid scrambled backwards, away from Virgil, and kept looking between him and the glass, like he was expecting—

Oh.  Oh, Remus got it.

“Hey, Virgey isn’t gonna hit you, kid,” he called.  Virgil turned around and stared at him in surprise.  “He’s too nice.”

“What?” Virgil asked.  “What are you talking about, why would I—” he paused, and turned back around to see the way the kid was staring at him in wide-eyed fear.

Virgil’s whole demeanor shifted immediately.  “Hey,” he said softly, kneeling down.  “Hey, do you think I’m gonna hit you?”

The kid didn’t say anything, just moved further back and pressed himself into the counter.

Virgil moved back too.  “Can you tell me your name, buddy?”

The kid was quiet for another moment before he squeaked out, “I’m Thomas.”

“Thomas.  Okay,” Virgil said.  “I’m not going to hurt you, Thomas.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Well, that depends,” Remus said.  “What do you normally get hit for?  There is a standard to uphold.”

Virgil turned around again, staring at Remus like he had two heads and one of them had just exploded— shock and a little disgust.

“Remus,” Virgil said.  “Go wait with Janus.”

“What?  Why?”

“Now.”

Remus flinched at the anger in Virgil’s tone and backed out of the kitchen, seeing Virgil turn back to Thomas as he did so.

Janus was still talking to the woman, and they were looking over a couple of papers, using the boxes as something to write on.

Janus glanced up at him as Remus approached.  “No water?”

“Nah, Virgil got mad that the kid in the kitchen has been hit before.”

Janus stood up straighter.  “I’m sorry, what?”

Remus shrugged.  “This Thomas kid dropped a cup and got scared Virgil was gonna hit him.”

Janus turned back to the woman he’d been talking to, who had suddenly gone very pale.  Something in her face must have bothered Janus, though, because he immediately dropped the paper he was holding and moved towards the kitchen, the woman following right after.

Remus stared after them, not sure what the big deal was.  Yeah, the woman was probably gonna be embarrassed if she got caught in the fact that she hit Thomas, but if the kid had done something to deserve it, what was the problem?  But after a moment, he heard a lot of tight, angry words.  Oh, that definitely wasn’t going to help the kid calm down.

Sure enough, a couple seconds later, Thomas sprinted out of the kitchen and into the living room.  The second he spotted Remus, though, he backed up again and moved towards the wall as far from both the kitchen and Remus as possible.

Remus sighed.  Well, shit.

“I’m not gonna hurt you kid,” he said, holding his hands up and shifting backwards so he could move from the boxes, because if Thomas was anything like him he didn’t want anyone near him right now.  “Promise.”

Thomas didn’t quite look like he believed him, but that was okay.  Remus would just move as far away as possible and keep his hands behind his back.  He wasn’t sure what else he could do, he didn’t want to leave the kid alone right now.

Eventually, Thomas seemed to understand that Remus really wasn’t going to hit him, and he jumped up and sprinted across the room to hide behind Remus’ leg.  “Are you going to let her hurt me?” he whispered.  “I didn’t mean to drop the cup, I promise.”

Remus sighed.  He didn’t really know enough about this kid’s life to make a proper judgement call, but he did know that he didn’t like seeing Thomas scared.

“Nah, I got you, kid,” he said, patting Thomas on the head.  “Don’t worry.”

Thomas whimpered and buried his head against Remus’ back.  Remus reached his hand behind and offered it to Thomas, who held onto it and squeezed it tightly.

The door to the kitchen had been left open enough when Thomas ran out that Remus could now hear the shouting coming from inside.

“You don’t understand, he doesn’t listen!” the woman was exclaiming.  “I had enough children already before he showed up out of nowhere—”

“I don’t even know where to begin with how that’s not an excuse,” Virgil snapped.

“Virgil.”  Janus sounded much calmer, though he still sounded more pissed than Remus thought he’d ever heard from him before, which was baffling given the situation.

Thomas hid further, behind Remus’ back, and Remus squeezed the hand he was still holding.  “Hey, Thomathy,” he said.  “Do you have a favorite color?”

“I like red,” Thomas said quietly.  “Why?”

“What do you like about it?”

“Uh… it’s pretty.”

Remus nodded like that was logical, which it decently was, to be fair to Thomas.  “Good reasoning.  I like green, it looks like puke.”

“What?  Ew!” Thomas exclaimed, in a voice much less scared, which was what Remus was going for.  “Why is that your reason, gross!”

“Oh come on, who doesn’t like puke?” Remus asked, shooting a grin over his shoulder.  “It looks so delicious.”

“Ew ew ew no it doesn’t!” Thomas exclaimed, waving his hands out in front of him, even as he started to grin.  “You’re disgusting!”

“Why, thank you,” Remus said with a grin of his own.  Thomas laughed, which was exactly what Remus was going for.  He turned around and scooped the kid onto his lap, and started asking him other basic questions, like favorite food, favorite shirt, if he had a best friend.  Thomas answered with what sounded like essentially any kind of treat, the one he was wearing at the time which was coincidentally red, and no.

They talked for another couple minutes and managed to avoid any of the arguing going on in the kitchen until Janus and Virgil emerged from it.  The woman from before didn’t come with them, but Janus and Virgil both looked thoroughly ticked enough that Remus was pretty sure he got her reasoning.

“Okay,” Virgil said.  “So Thomas is going to be coming with us now.”

Remus raised an eyebrow.  “He’s going to what?”

“Come on, let’s head back to the ship.  You and I have to talk about something anyway,” Virgil said, starting for the door.

“Woah, hold up a second,” Remus said.  “I understand you’re upset.”  Still didn’t understand why, but he could work that part out later.  “But maybe we should consider asking Thomas his opinion on the matter?”

He got a confused look from Virgil, but looked down at Thomas anyway.  “Hey, kid, do you want to stay here or do you want to come with us?  I promise we’re gonna take your feelings into account, okay?”

Thomas looked like he was very overwhelmed with everything that had just happened in the last 30 seconds, and Remus couldn’t say he blamed him.  But Thomas seemed to still give the question a moment of thought before he wrapped his arms around Remus’ neck.  “I wanna go with you.  Even if you like green for a gross reason.”

“I’ll try not to be offended by that,” Remus teased, standing up and taking Thomas with him, who he shifted around behind him so he could ride piggyback style back to the cart.

Virgil and Janus both gave him bewildered looks as he passed, but Virgil followed him to the cart, and Janus gave a small remark that he was going to get whatever belongings Thomas had.  Jackson was sitting on the cart when they got there, looking much less exhausted than earlier.

He sat up a little when he saw Thomas.  “Remus, why is there a child clinging to your back?”

“He’s coming with us,” Remus said, letting Thomas hop down onto the cart, and then onto Remus’ lap again once he sat down.

“Remus is gross,” Thomas announced to Jackson, as if the rest of the crew didn’t know this already.  “But he’s nice too.  I like him better than Ms. Weston.”

Virgil gave Remus another baffled look as he sat down.  “I was in the other room for three minutes,” he said.  “What the hell did you say to that kid?”

“He looked scared, so I asked him his favorite color,” Remus said.  Thomas started to fidget on his lap so Remus offered Thomas his hand, which he proceeded to play with.  “You were all yelling kinda loud, you know.  If someone’s scared of getting hurt, loud noises are not going to help.”

“What— but you—”

Virgil was cut off by Janus pushing the door open and walking out, holding a bag.  He carried it over to the cart and set it down at Thomas’ feet before climbing in next to Virgil.

“Thomas, sweetheart,” Janus said.  “Do you know if Ms. Weston was hurting any of the other kids?”

“Wait, what was happening?” Jackson asked in shock, and Virgil shushed him.

Thomas considered that for a moment, then shook his head.  “I don’t think so.  I just stress her out because she has to deal with all the other kids, so she said she needed something to be a stress reliever.”

He went back to playing with Remus’ hand after that perfectly normal sentence, but everyone else in the cart all seemed to exchange looks with varying levels of sadness and horror.  Remus wasn’t going to question it at this point.

“You don’t think she’s going to pick another kid, do you?” Virgil asked.

Janus seemed to consider that for a moment.  “I think we put the fear of God in her,” he said finally.  “Threatening to stop bringing supplies is a serious thing.”

“You threatened to stop bringing supplies because she was hurting one kid?” Remus asked in shock.

Virgil shot him another glare, but Thomas reacted to that before he could reply.  “Please don’t stop bringing supplies!” he exclaimed.  “None of the other kids did anything wrong!  I mean sure they could be kind of mean to me sometimes, but it’s okay!  I’m fine, I don’t want them to starve!”

“Hey, no one said we were going to let them starve,” Virgil said.  “We’re not going to stop bringing supplies, okay?”

“Promise?” Thomas asked, sounding so scared at the prospect that Remus was a little awed.  Damn, this kid had compassion.  Sure, he wasn’t going to accuse Shane of something horrible when Remus had done everything to deserve his treatment, but if he was given the option of letting Shane and everyone else who had ever been horrible to him starve to death… he honestly had no idea if he’d protest.

“I promise,” Virgil said, sounding a little in awe himself.  Thomas sighed in relief and took up Remus’ hand to start playing with it again.

There was a moment of stunned silence, before finally Janus took up the reins and flicked them, prompting the horse to start moving, and then turned them around towards the ship.  They made the journey back mostly in silence, after which Janus took Thomas to the ship to let him pick out a room, Jackson headed back to start preparing to launch with everyone, and Virgil grabbed Remus firmly by the arm and dragged him up to the top of the ship.

“Remus,” he said, sounding so furious Remus actually took a step back.  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Remus blinked at Virgil a couple times.  “Do you want an actual list?  I could give you one but I’m not sure what you’re actually referring to right—”

“I’m not fucking joking, Remus.  Did you actually ask an abused kid to his face what he normally gets hit for because there’s a standard to uphold?  What the actual fuck made you think that hitting a child under any circumstances would ever be an okay thing to do?”

Remus blinked at Virgil a couple more times.  Was he joking?  He had to be joking.  But he had started that statement with “I’m not fucking joking,” so what the hell?

“Well…” Remus started, then stopped.  “Well, if a child screws up, they have to be punished, right?”

“Punishment and abuse are two very different things, Remus,” Virgil said, still sounding like he was ready to murder him.  Okay, maybe Remus was wrong.  Maybe Virgil wasn’t too nice to hit someone.  He took another step back.

“But if—”

“No buts.  No maybes, no ‘just this once’s, no nothing.  That’s a line that you don’t cross, period.  For any child.  Ever.  There is never a circumstance where hitting a child, or you know what, fucking anyone for that matter, as a way to punish them, is ever, ever, okay.  Do I make myself fucking clear?”

Remus felt like his world had tilted off axis.  Virgil’s words weren’t quite processing, but he sounded so absolutely furious and certain that Remus couldn’t find it anywhere in him to doubt what he was saying.

“I… I was never going to hurt Thomas,” Remus said weakly.  “I swear.”

Virgil must have sensed the genuineness in his tone, because he finally seemed to calm down a bit.  But he still looked firm even as he took a deep breath.  “I believe you,” he said finally, and something in Remus’ chest loosened.  “But you might want to make that clear to Thomas.”

Remus nodded, still dazed.  “Okay,” he whispered.  “I um, I need a minute.”

Virgil took another breath.  “Okay,” he said.  He took yet another breath and crossed his arms.  “I’m sorry I got so angry, Remus, I know that’s not easy for you.”

“It’s… it’s okay,” Remus said, still feeling kind of like he was about to collapse.  “I kinda deserved it.”

“I’ll tell anyone not to come up here, okay?” Virgil said, his tone significantly softer than it had been at the start of this conversation, and Remus was pretty sure this was what emotional whiplash felt like.  “No one’s gonna bug you.”

Remus nodded, and walked back to the back of the ship as Virgil adjusted the wheel to put it on autopilot, then headed back down to the main deck.

Remus sat down straight on the deck and leaned back against the side of the ship, trying to process any single one of the thoughts racing through his head.

Virgil had just indirectly said to him that what he’d gone through wasn’t okay.  That what Shane had done wasn’t okay.  But if what happened with Shane wasn’t okay, then… then… then what?  Then that made him some kind of victim?  He didn’t want to be a victim.  Didn’t want to consider what that might mean.  If he didn’t deserve to be hurt, then why was he?

Shane had seemed to have perfectly valid reasons all throughout his life.  Remus had messed up the mission, so he got a black eye as a result.  He accidentally got someone else hurt, so he got a broken leg so he could understand what the other person was going through.  He had failed his guard duty, so he had to explain what he’d done wrong and accept a worse punishment if the same thing happened again.  It was just cause and effect.  Logan would call it logical.  But now Virgil implying that none of that was okay?

Well… Remus paused.  Now that he thought about it, the idea of what he’d gone through not being okay wasn’t totally alien.  That had seemed to be Patton’s viewpoint when he first found out.  Had that been why he wanted to tell someone else?  But Patton had learned that telling someone was a bad idea, Remus had just also kind of assumed he’d learned the whole situation wasn’t as messed up as he’d originally thought it was.  But what if that wasn’t the case?

Remus sat there and breathed for a while, trying and failing to decide how to feel about everything.  Maybe for now he should just do what Virgil said and apologize to Thomas for implying that he deserved to be hurt.

He stood up and walked back towards the main deck, trying to decide how to ask Thomas to talk to him, but it turned out he didn’t have to worry about it, because Thomas was already on the main deck, and the second he saw Remus he lit up and ran over.

“Remus!  Remus!  Guess what, I get my own room!  I’ve never had my own room before, how cool is that?”  Thomas ran up to the top of the deck and started bouncing in front of Remus, beaming up at him.

“That’s pretty cool, kid,” Remus said, smiling weakly.  “Hey, Thomas, I need to apologize, buddy.”

Thomas tipped his head.  “Why?”

Remus tried to think of a way to put this.  Eventually he took a couple steps backwards and sat down on the deck again.  Thomas walked over and sat down in front of him.

Remus considered what to say for a minute, and sighed.  “I used to live with this person named Shane,” he said finally.  “And Shane would hurt me, just like Ms. Weston hurt you.  I thought that was a very normal thing, and I just realized that it might not be like, half an hour ago.  So I assumed your situation was the same.  But Virgil is right.  There’s nothing you could have done to deserve getting hurt.  Not a kid with a big heart like you.”

Thomas looked at Remus for a minute.  He nodded slightly.  “Yeah,” he said quietly.  “It’s really hard not to see yourself as the screwup, huh?”

Remus blinked.  Okay.  Yeah.  No one was ever going to hurt this child ever again.

“Yeah, it’s pretty hard,” Remus said.  He smiled a little at Thomas.  “Maybe we can try to get there together.  How about it?”

Thomas beamed, and threw his arms around Remus.  “Yeah, that sounds good,” he said happily.  He pulled back and sat himself down in Remus’ lap.  “Sorry you lived with a jerky jerk who hurt you.”

“I’m sorry you did too,” Remus said, ruffling Thomas’ hair.  Thomas smiled up at Remus, which quickly turned into a grin when Remus smiled back.

“Hey,” Remus said.  “You want me to teach you how to navigate the ship?”

“You can do that?” Thomas asked, eyes widening.

“I had this friend named Logan growing up who knew all the constellations, so I know how to use the stars for navigation.  I can show you tonight if you want to.”

“That would be amazing!” Thomas said, beaming.  “Do you know all the constellations too?”

“Oh, yeah, I learned them years ago,” Remus said, leaning back on his hands.  “I can show them to you tonight, it would probably be easier if I can actually point them out.”

Thomas seemed very enthused by that idea, and started happily talking about the one constellation he knew, which was the big dipper.  Remus wasn’t sure how he’d react when he explained that it was actually part of Ursa Major, but that could be a problem for that night.  For now he could sit and watch this child who was too adorable for his own good get excited about the stars.

Chapter Nine