#again my issue isn't with these isolated plot points

[azurecanary]

She wrote a lot of Private Practice(IMDB can tell you exactly which ones) but HTGAWM was only produced by her Shondaland company she had no involvement in writing,casting,plot etc. The showrunner of that show is a gay man.

While I'd argue that being a producer means you have more than "no involvement" in things such as plot, i will retract my statement that Shonda was specifically responsible for the biphobic writing

That said, there is still quite the correlation between the two that i just find interesting

[leeny-leens]

Act ii: Soulmatism

pairing: poly!Moonkiller x f!vamp!Reader

summary: Barty Crouch is essentially your soulmate, the platonic love of your life even, but he's too fucking smart for his own good and it threatens your little bloody secret more than once. You grow through the years at Hogwarts with him and make a common enemy, until he tells you he kissed said enemy.

warnings: mentions of blood, animal death (not too descriptive), bullying of sorts, fainting

content: BartyVampy friendship ftw, Reader referred to as Fangs by Barty, mild Professor Sprout slander but it's for the plot I swear, are they friends or are they dating? Worse, they're in love but they don't know, Remus is straight up an asshole but it's not his fault??

wc: 6.1k

AN: this chapter got rewritten 5 times and I swear I was about to go insane oh my god??? Big shout-out to the absolutely lovely and amazing and talented sweetheart that is @revesephemeres for beta reading this, she's such a darlin 🤍 ANYWAYS YOUR THOUGHTS ARE APPRECIATED ON THIS TY

Taglist: @starrystormwritings @whimsical-mistakes @eneywey @hellokitty-girl666 @lettertovera

s. masterlist | Act i | Act ii | Act iii | Act iv | Act v

Attending Hogwarts as a vampire is not a walk in the park, and certainly not for the faint of heart. It comes with a certain set of challenges that invent themselves anew each year, just when you think you've figured it out and got the whole thing down. It all starts in your first year, where you're left with not a single friend for your first two months of attendance. It's boring, it's horrible, yet it most certainly breeds some sort of character in you —or at least that's what you wrote your mother in all your letters when detailing your daily life and lack of connections.

That issue is, however, quickly resolved, your saving grace emerging in the form of Bartemius Crouch Junior —Barty, if you don't want to wake up with bite marks all over your arm— who is something between a blessing and curse at once.

He's loud, he's unhinged, he's loyal to a fault and he's also pretty much your soulmate and the platonic love of your life.

Your fateful first meeting is in the library, where he sees you hunched over an ancient tome you smuggled out of the restricted section about poisonous herbs and their care. Immediately, he declares that you are 'best friend material' and never leaves your side again, sticking to you like velcro wherever you go.

There are no complaints on your end, considering you grow up isolated and lonely as a vampire. Having Barty around is like a dream come true; someone who won't leave you no matter what and is equal parts clingy and needy without a speck of shame. It's a match made wherever they produce touch and attention starved children with little to no social skills and regard for the concepts of societal standards to be upheld in your day to day life.

Barty is everything you’ve ever wanted in a friend; someone who listens to you when you talk, asks all the right questions that others might be afraid of, and most importantly; isn't scared of you or your habits. No, he isn't afraid to probe and ask and get to the depths of your mind, no matter how unhinged it might be for an eleven year old.

Soon enough, your names are whispered in sync, where one goes the other is bound to follow close enough. Together, you terrorise the halls of Hogwarts with quick wit, ambition and a certain lack of self preservation that proves to be a double edged sword when it comes to trying out new spellwork.

It gets to a point where all your professors raise their eyebrows in suspicion should they see one of you without the other, their alarms ringing with a sense of impending doom.

Overall, it’s a quite successful first year at the school for magic and wizardry, and it only goes uphill that summer. Through some sort of miracle —how, you still don't know to this day— your parents agreed to let Barty spend the last two weeks of summer break at your home. Somehow, even more miraculous than that, his father had agreed to send his son off to the Welsh Highlands to spend the end of summer in your little village. You're not quite sure how he'd been convinced into doing so, but you're fairly certain your own father had played a significant role in the whole process, considering he had various high ranking connections to the wizarding world, more specifically in the ministry of magic.

That summer is an absolute bliss that you spend exploring the forest with Barty, going on the occasional adventure down in the village and otherwise wrecking havoc everywhere you go. Surprisingly, there are only very few incidents that put your vampire identity at risk, and even then, you’re able to smoothly navigate the situation without having Barty grow suspicious.

It is one of the many summers yet to come that you would spend together, but it still serves as a great transition into your second year.

Your second year comes and goes with its own set of challenges, charged with the sort of anticipation that comes when you are about to enter a new phase of the unknown.

Looking back, this is the year where you make some of the most fundamental choices of your school life, ones that will come to haunt you for the following years.

One such choice is befriending the one and only Lily Evans.

Whispers of the most brilliant witch in all of Gryffindor don’t evade you of course, yet you are much too busy focusing on your academic achievements and your chaos-causing with Barty to pay her any mind. That is, until you fall out of a window and she saves you.

Well, okay maybe that's not exactly how it goes, but close enough okay? It isn’t even really your fault, honest! You were simply walking down the hall at a highly accelerated speed, because you may or may not have been trying to escape some Fourth Years you hexed during breakfast, when someone ever so rudely shoved you as you weaved your way through the masses. Unfortunately for you, this all transpired on the fourth floor. Even more unfortunate? You lost your balance and tumbled straight to an open window that you almost fell out from, had it not been for Lily casting a spell that saved you from across the hall.

She was sweet, concerned and every bit an exasperated older sister that you never had. Your bond with her solidifies itself quickly after frequent encounters in the library, turned to purposeful meetings. Quickly, you become part of her little Gryffindor friend group that consists of her roommates Marlene, Mary and Alice. The girls are sweet and fun to hang around with, a bit like chaotic older sisters that constantly help you out and give you all the know-how needed to survive anything from boring classes to sneaking under the watchful gaze of Professor's after curfew.

Still, they could never replace Barty, and your bond with him grows through various trials that year, such as —but not limited to— detention because you broke into Slughorn’s supply closet, sneaking out into Hogsmeade together as well as all the late nights you spend up at the Astronomy Tower talking about everything and nothing.

Unlike the previous one, your second year ends on a sour note. A foul worded letter from Barty's father arrives at breakfast during your last week, sending both of your moods down into the dump. And to top it all off, the so called ‘Marauders’ decide they need this year to end on a bang, quite literally. Fireworks erupt during the final breakfast, popping slime filled balloons over every table that coat your entire body in the green mess.

It smells weird, it's sticky and you can barley get it out of your clothes. A quiet, foreboding sense of anger begins to seethe under your skin the moment you fix your gaze on the cackling four boys at the Gryffindor table, all your instincts screaming at you to rip their heads off their neck. The hairs on your arms raise, a shudder runs down your spine the moment you lock eyes with one of them; a lanky boy with messy sandy hair and amber eyes that are darkened the moment they spy your features. The air shifts notably, almost like lightning crackling between the both of you and it takes everything in you to not fight him. Vaguely, you recall that this was the same boy who made you feel uncomfortable during the sorting ceremony last year, but there's no reason for you to feel so hostile towards him, even if he contributed to your misery.

That summer comes and goes, the boy named Remus Lupin no longer on your mind as you spend the probably worst eight weeks of your life trying to survive each day.

You see, the summer before your third year is when things really start to go downhill, a set of challenges like never before arising.

While you have to suffer in the trenches of puberty, you're also hit by the sudden development of vampire instincts, from one day to the other you start craving actual blood and feeling as if you might drop dead like a fly in the middle of the winter if you don't feed. The world, already much louder and sharper than your human peers perceived it, becomes a million times more enhanced, your senses at their full capacity now. Your mouth aches all summer long from the growing pair of sharp fangs in your gums, and the sensory overload causes headaches any time you spend more than five minutes in the sun. Your strength grows tenfold, which means you have to replace your bedroom door about 60 times that summer because you can't quite control it just yet and break it every other day.

Worst of all? The smell of blood clouds your mind at every turn, your rational thinking impaired significantly the longer you go without feeding. It scares you, especially when you find yourself wandering outside one full moon night, a dead rabbit between your hands when you finally come to your senses. You have no recollection of even exiting the house, and one look at your bloodied and messy state in the mirror back at home is enough to send you spiraling. A spiral so deep, you refuse to return to school out of fear you might lose control, might hurt someone or worse, get found out.

It takes a lot of reassurance, convincing and practice for you to agree to go back.

“My sweet Blooddrop,” your father had whispered, his hand gently rubbing your back as you clutched his back, your body shaking with silent sobs. “I promise, this is completely normal for any young vampire and with enough practice, you’ll be brilliant at controlling yourself.”

The only upside to the whole fiasco is your newfound ability to transform into just about any creature of the night —for now limited to bats only per your mother's instructions. It is technically possible for you to transform into any nocturnal animal, like an owl for example, but that would require much practice and years of patience to cultivate this skill so far. For now, you have to make due with learning how to fly and navigate the night as a bat.

With frayed nerves, and the tiniest bit of hope that this year might not be so bad at all, you start as a third year in Hogwarts. Initially, for the first three weeks, everything goes peachy. You make sure to feed before going to Hogwarts, and adjusting to the turmoil of student masses surrounding you is difficult but still manageable. Sure, Barty picks up on your disarrayed state, but it isn’t anything you can’t lie your way out of. He's observant, maybe too much for your liking, but it's nothing you'd want to change — not that there's anything you'd ever change about him, because Barty is perfectly okay the way he is. Still, it's a dull reminder of what you now have to keep a secret when he starts calling you Fangs, fascinated by the sudden growth of canines in your mouth.

“Wow, were your teeth always this sharp?” He asks one morning at breakfast, his attention captured by the way your fangs pierce easily through the food. Pre-development, you already had protruding fangs that are sharper than most people's teeth, but now, they’re larger, stronger and much more obvious when you open your mouth. You swallow thickly, shrugging his question off with a nonchalant expression. “It's genetics I think? My parents also have sharp canines,” you answer, mentally high fiving yourself when he accepts the answer and returns to his own plate of food.

The incidents begin to pile however, the closer the full moon draws. While you might not be chained to the lunar cycle, unlike beastly creatures such as werewolves that cannot control their irrational nature, you can still feel the way your bloodlust grows and your senses sharpen the fuller the moon becomes.

The week leading up to the full moon, Barty picks up on your agitated state of mind with worry and concern, constantly taking your hands into his own to prevent you from biting your nails and shredding your nail beds. He keeps a stash of lollipops on his person at all times that he hands you without a question anytime you begin to bite your lips, or your gaze becomes unfocused, voice fading as your mind begins to float away somewhere you cannot anchor back so easily.

It’s all sweet gestures, especially with how your thoughts stray into a million directions. Your senses are pulled into every place, each breath and pulse of living creatures like needles pricking your skin. And the sound of rushing blood? Your mind is almost gone by the time it's full moon. It makes it the tiniest bit more bearable, and it cultivates the hope that maybe things won’t be too hard when he is by your side.

Luckily for you, Dumbledore owes your mother a lifelong debt —you didn’t pay attention, something about a sister of his?— and thus, your mother skilfully manages to bend strict rules about Hogwarts attendance and what not. Before she sent you off to school, she’d given you a ruby ring, the intricate emblem of your family engraved onto the cool silver metal. It’s elegant, and a perfectly hidden object to be transformed into a port key that directly leads you to the woods of your home.

The night of the full moon, Professor Sprout picks you up in front of your common room way past midnight, hurrying you along the shadows of the hallways until you arrive at a hidden passage. Under the cover of the night, the both of you sneak across school grounds, all the way down to Hogsmeade and out to the ward border, where she sends you off with a small smile as she watches you make use of the port key.

And that’s how you handle it every month; you are essentially sent home for the night, meeting with either your father or mother —sometimes both if they had the time— and you use the night to hunt and feed to your heart’s content before returning to Hogwarts.

It works quite perfectly actually, save for the times where Barty swears he saw you sneaking with Professor Sprout out of school. The first time he confronts you, all wild and fiery in a dark corner in the dungeons, you nearly break under the pressure and tell him the truth.

“Fangs! You will not believe what I saw last night,” he faux whispers as soon as he sees you leaning against the wall, away from all the other students waiting for Professor Slughorn to let them into the potions classroom. You’re fidgeting with the ring, twisting and turning it as your mind recalls the time spent with your father running and chasing prey in the forest.

You look up, tilting your head as you dissect his expression. He’s nearly vibrating from energy, mouth pulled into a wide smile that others might find uncanny, yet all you can think of is how adorable it is. His piercings —ones you gave him last year in the bathroom of moaning Myrtle when he insisted he wanted to look more rebellious and cool, like the muggle characters from the movies you watched over the Christmas Break— glint in the light of the torches, a cold contrast to his warm hazel eyes that stare into your soul.

Without awaiting an answer, he leans in even closer, his breath hot against the shell of your ear as he whispers, “I saw you with Professor Sprout,” he declares, and it takes everything to not let his words affect you. Any change might give you away, so you do your best to act confused.

“Me? I was sleeping dumbass,” you snort, ruffling his hair as you push him away from you. He pouts at the loss of proximity, but immediately beams and grabs your hand, guiding it to his face and nuzzles into it.

“I did, I swear!” He whines, but you only pinch his cheek. “B, why on earth would I be with Professor Sprout in the middle of the night?”

He frowns, thinking about your words carefully and you take the chance to really drive your point home. “Where’d you see me?” You ask, eyebrows raised, praying your voice doesn’t waver in front of him. Even the subtlest of changes wouldn’t go unnoticed by this bastard, so you have to be cautious.

He thinks about it for a few moments, like he's trying to make sense of what he saw and what he knows logically to be true. “Somewhere outside? Looked like you were sneakin’ round,” he answers with a shrug and you burst into a fit of giggles.

“Yeah, because Stickler-To-Rules-Sprout will most definitely go out with a student past curfew,” you giggle, the sting of guilt aching like a burn when he flushes red and stutters. For good measure, you give his shoulder a playful hit and take his hand in yours, dragging him to the classroom when you spot Slughorn opening the doors, the conversation long forgotten when you settle into your seats, instead taking apart the lesson's topic.

Between dodging Barty’s relentless suspicions, acclimating to the monthly hellish cycle and surviving school, you don't think it can get much worse but boy oh boy, does life decide to prove you wrong.

It begins with a chance encounter a few months into the school year, just a week or two after the full moon. Your energy is at its peak, mischief is on your mind all the time and Barty is more than happy to participate in whatever little prank you want to pull. The both of you are on the run — as per usual— from a group of Ravenclaw quidditch players with neon pink hair that you may or may not have been at fault for, when you round a corner, cackling loudly as you duck and avoid the students in your way.

You collide against someone, the both of you almost sent to the ground tumbling were it not for Barty catching your arm and pulling you up at the last moment. Immediately, your fingers twitch with suppressed aggression, a sense of dreadful alarm engulfing you like a second skin in mere moments.

When you look up, a pair of hostile amber eyes are seizing you up, Remus Lupin glowering at the sight of you. He stands up, his friends orbiting around him with concern to make sure he is okay. He shakes them off, not sparing them a single glance as he locks eyes with you.

“Use your fucking eyes,” he spits out, venom so heavy you think it might’ve choked you if it were tangible. The tone, the words and his overall stance seems to take his friends by surprise, their jaws dropping to the ground in sync. Beside you, Barty bristles, ready to jump the bloke for the way he speaks to you but you hold him back, shaking your head softly. You give Lupin an unimpressed look, standing to your full height to match his imposing demeanour. “I use my eyes when there’s something worth seeing,” you reply coldly, your face souring with disgust the longer you look at him.

His jaw tenses, his hand twitching to reach for his wand and you mirror his stance.

“What? See something you wanna hex, Lupin?” You taunt, gleefully smirking at the way he grinds his teeth at the remark.

“I would be very careful with my words if I were you,” he quips, eyes darting past you with a small, condescending smile, “if not, you might end up in more trouble than you already are.” From down the hall, you can hear the Ravenclaws hounding you approach and you curse, grabbing Barty’s arm and make a run for it, but not before turning around to give Lupin the finger.

The news of your little spat makes rounds like wildfire, and soon everyone in the castle hears about how quiet and kind Remus Lupin is in some sort of feud with you. You hate that your name is being spoken in relation to that twat, but there’s little you can do to stop it, especially as your arguments and fights become more and more frequent.

Barty, ever the loyal attack dog that he is, makes sure to run Lupin and his band through the mud every time you clash, standing imposingly tall at your side, ready for attack should you give him the signal.

An incident that sticks to mind is near the end of your third year, when you attend the duelling club after class. It’s an extracurricular tied to DADA, an opportunity for advanced students from each house to use the theory in practice. The catch? First and Second years have it together, Third and Fourth years together and so on. You’re happy about it when you spot Lily waving at you across the Great Hall, but your mood immediately drops when you see Lupin leaning against the wall, spinning his wand in one hand, the other holding a book in his hand that he deems more important than the chatter around him. As if he’s equipped with a radar tailored to make out your presence, his head snaps up sharply the moment you walk in, his expression darkening when he spots you. Barty is chattering away by your side when he follows your line of sight, immediately frowning at the sight of your self proclaimed foe.

“Do you think I can get away with Avada-ing him?” You mutter under your breath, almost snorting at Barty’s enthusiastic nodding. He launches into a tirade about the best ways to get rid of the body and what excuses you could be using as well as intricate spells to layer to evade any suspicions.

By the time the meeting starts, you can almost blend out Lupin’s presence, thinking that if you just stand at the very far end of the room and avoid him, it might just be bearable.

It works for just about 20 minutes when you listen to your Professor explaining the rules of duelling and what spells might be useful, until he claps his hands and announces that he will be calling two students up to demonstrate at random. Immediately, you feel your body tense, a sort of heavy dread settling in your stomach as you watch him draw two names out of a box. He unfolds the papers, announcing the first name out loud.

Barty nudges you forward with a grin when your name rings through the hall, but it quickly falls when the second name is announced.

“Remus Lupin,” your Professor calls out with an oblivious smile, and the whole world spins and tips over. Somehow, you find yourself up at the stage, shrugging your robes off as you stand across Lupin.

Everyone holds their breath, a few snickers coming from his pesky friends but you pay them no mind, your entire focus zeroing in on your foe.

He grips his wand with a sort of casualness that is entirely misplaced for the atmosphere in the room, and it pisses you off to no end. Despite the Professor’s warning in the back of your head, reminding you that this is a demonstration with no purpose to hurt anyone gravely, all you can focus on is your instincts telling you to get rid of him right here and now.

As soon as the start signal goes off, you’re racing across the platform with inhumane speed, launching spell after spell at Lupin. His surprised face ignites flames of satisfaction in your mind, and he barely manages to dodge your attack before he begins firing his own spells. Flashes of blue, red, gold and white shoot across the platform at a dizzying speed, the calls of your friends barely registering in your moment as you duck and jump, counter and attack like your life's on the line.

It’s clear Lupin underestimated you, his reactions just a fraction too late each time you relentlessly send hex and attack after him, but what he lacks in speed he makes up for in talent. He takes you by surprise, firing four different spells at once that you try to dodge. One of them sends you flying against the wall, the air knocked out of your lungs at the sheer impact but there’s no time to recover. He’s standing in front of you in seconds, quicker than any normal human should have been able to move, and his eyes are void of emotions, only cold and murderous intent glimmering in the pools of amber. You can hear his heart beating, blood rushing at an uncanny speed and he points his wand at you.

“Forfeit,” he calmly says.

You falter, almost considering his demand but as soon as you see the twitch of his lips, you change your mind.

“You wish,” you sneer, channeling all your hatred for him, feeling the magic surrounding you like fine thread. You will it to pull and constrict around him, to ball like a web and with a jerky motion of your hand, he’s hovering in the air, his wand dropping to the ground. His eyes are wide with both awe and disbelief as you get up and limp your way to his wand, picking it up like it’s gold on the street. You hold it up like a trophy, a grin overtaking your features when you turn to the crowd. That very same grin fades into confusion when you see their eyes almost bulging out of their skulls, worried expressions staring at you as you spot Barty fighting his way through the crowd, shoving and pushing until he is up on the stage. He says something, or at least you think he does, because you can see his mouth moving, but strangely the words don’t reach you. Your vision goes dark for just a moment, your legs wobbling until your knees hit the wooden surface, slumping forward. Somewhere, it registers in your mind that you must’ve dropped Lupin’s wand, and him too if the thud that you feel beside you is anything to go by.

Barty is standing in front of you in seconds, dropping to his knees to cradle your face with worry. He speaks and talks but you can’t hear anything aside for a ringing in your ears, but you can tell he’s yelling at Lupin when he turns to the side and his expression grows furious. He props you up against a chair —where that came from, you don’t know— and despite the heaviness in your body, you still manage to turn to watch him grab Lupin by the collar and deliver punch after punch to his face.

You want to stop him, do something, say anything to hold him back, but your body won’t cooperate as your vision blacks out again, this time for good.

The aftermath pretty much solidifies your hatred for Remus Lupin, constantly picking fights with the bloke when your paths cross. It’s not like you want to, but you can’t help it when he looks at you like you’re some sort of scurrying rat, not even worth wasting his breath on. The both of you attempt to keep your sparring verbal, but who’d be at fault if one or two pranks go wrong and someone ends up with bright red skin for a week or comically enlarged limps?

You want to avoid him, you really do, but it doesn’t help that you’re friends with Lily and the other girls, because they frequently invite you to their outings, parties or study sessions. And of course, having one of the most brilliant witches in the castle explain the material of the year ahead to you isn’t an opportunity you’d pass up on. You make sure to not bring Barty along to those meetings, afraid he might actually jump Lupin if he sees him, and try to blend his face out of your line of vision. For the rest of your time at Hogwarts, you swear you’ll do everything in your power to not get involved with Lupin and keep time spent around him to a minimum. It’s easier said than done, especially when you make the unfortunate discovery of him actually being somewhat your neighbour.

It’s the summer after fourth year, Barty once again invited to spend it with you. Now that you’re older and had some time to master your vampire instincts, your parents are much more lenient with you going down into the village with no supervision.

They left on a week long business trip, giving the both of you heartfelt goodbye when they departed.

You mother embraced Barty and you, giving the both of you kisses to your cheeks as she made sure to list all the things you were to do and avoid.

“And remember, no skipping meals, you hear me?” She said sternly, ruffling Barty’s hair affectionately. He gave her a toothy grin, a salute with the promise to make sure to behave before your father ushered your mother to the car. Before he hurried after her, he turned back and gave you a hug, pressing a kiss to your temple. “Take care, okay Blooddrop?” He whispered, and the lump in your throat only allowed you to nod. He had let go of you, stepping to Barty who’d been observing the scene with an expression mixed between jealousy, awe and happiness.

Barty had grown taller in the first few weeks of summer, but he still was a good head and a half shorter than your giant of a father. He smiled, his hand a steady beacon of warmth on the boy’s shoulder. “Be careful son, wouldn't want you getting hurt while we’re gone, yeah?” If Barty’s eyes filled with tears, and if his arms tightened more around your father’s body when he embraced him, then that’s between him and himself only.

After the last ‘I love you’s’ were exchanged and you watched the car disappear into the horizon, you grabbed Barty and dragged him out to the lake. The summer of 1977 was uncharacteristically hot in your region, and so you spent every free second in the water. When the sun no longer beat down on you, a sort of cool breeze sweeping across the land in the fading rays of sunset, the both of you finally went back home, showering before taking your bikes to go into the village. You planned to have Barty sit through every single James Bond movie, horrified that he hadn’t heard of them before. You wanted to give him the proper movie experience, which required unholy amounts of snacks that you were to get from the corner store.

You drag him into the store after securing your bikes, giggling at the way his pupils widen and his mouth falls slack at the sight of the snack aisle. “I love muggles,” he declares, immediately disappearing into the ice cream section as you busy yourself with filling the basket with chips and sweets. You can hear him ramble in the aisle over, occasionally popping his head to ask you questions or excitedly show you different kinds of ice cream. His excitement is contagious, and it gives you a new found appreciation for all the things you grew around and took for granted for the longest time.

When you finally have all the things you need, you call for him and begin your search, stopping mid-step when a familiar sense of danger and disgust settles over you. You turn around, just as the sound of your last name echoes from the other side of the aisle, and your body tenses at the sight of Lupin and his friends standing at the other end.

“What are you doing here?” Potter asks, his voice tinged with suspicion and alarm. You narrow your eyes, taking in the very casual attire of the four boys, your eyes darting to catalogue every possible escape route.

“I should be asking you that,” you press out, focusing your attention on the way Lupin almost growls at the sound of your voice. “Are you seriously stalking me Lupin? That’s low,” you remark, satisfied at the incredulous noise he makes. He almost drops the chocolate in his hands, crossing his arms as he huffs. “As if!,” he shoots back, glaring pointedly at you, “You’re the one stalking me.”

You don’t get to reply, the sound of Barty calling for you growing closer until he spots you and is by your side in moments, rambling about the three different ice cream types he picked. He notices your darkened expression, turning around to find the source of your misery and immediately groans with too much theatrics. “Oh my god are you following us even during summer? That’s a crime and could get you in jail,” he chastises, subtly shielding you from their critical gazes. “What? No, we aren’t stalking you,” Potter sputters, clearly flustered by the accusation, “We are visiting Moony for the summer!” It takes a few moments for you to connect the dots that Moony must be Lupin, and you slowly look him up and down, a horrible thought forming in your mind.

“You are visiting Lupin? Here?” You ask slowly, watching as Lupin catches onto your train of thoughts. Horror creeps onto his expression, and under other circumstances you would’ve delighted in it, but not when you feel the same horror crawling across your skin. “Yes,” Pettigrew clarifies, none the wiser to the death sentence his words sign, “Remus lives here.”

Barty turns to you, eyes wide and mouth twitching at the revelation. You almost drop the basket in your hands, knees growing weak for a moment when the horrific reality hits you like a truck.

“Oh my god,” you gasp, “we live in the same place.”

A flurry of dramatic gasps comes from the Marauders, but you don’t stay to listen, dragging Barty off to the register before fleeing the store, biking back up the hill and then the winding path into the woods at lightning speed.

You religiously avoid the village after that, sticking close to the woods lest you run into Lupin and actually be sentenced into Azkaban for killing someone.

Barty, bless his heart, is on high alert the entire time, swearing that he’d help you flee the country should you really want to get rid of Lupin. Nothing money and a few well worded threats can’t do, he said with a wink, and you ever quite appreciated your best friend so much as you did in that moment.

The summer passes, and so you become Fifth Years, your OWL exams looming at the end of the year. They bring a certain shift into your dynamic with them, because despite the amount of time you already spend together, it somehow grows in that year. He follows you like a lost puppy, carrying the stacks of books you brew over when you study and offers helpful advice when you work on assignments.

But something else is different this year too, as if the summer had brought on a change in the way you operate together. The air is laden with unspoken words, charged with glances that linger a fraction too long, touches set your skin ablaze like the heat of the sun on a sunny summer day. You somehow realise for the first time how good looking your best friend is, especially when hoards of admirers follow him at every turn and corner, silently vying for his attention when really, there’s no one else he looks at aside for you.

The weight of his gaze is both dizzying and has your heart growing weak, you note, when he stares at you like you hold the entire universe in the palms of your hands. Perhaps, it’s not the way friends are supposed to look at eachother, but you tell yourself that you and Barty are just very close, very friendly and share an unshakable bond.

Soulmatism, you had once called it when Marlene teased you about the proximity between the two of you. It’s the word you chant over and over in your head when the both of you are the last ones left in the library, stowed away in some quiet corner under the torches.

It’s the word you chant like a mantra when he folds his arms on the table, resting his head on them and stares at you with that quiet reverence of his, like he would drop to his knees any second and offer you the whole world.

It’s the word that plays in your head on repeat when the phantom touch of his hands on your waist, cheeks and back has you aching and writhing restlessly in the dark.

It’s also the word that echoes in your head when he comes to you one day, a few weeks into your sixth year, and confesses he kissed Remus Lupin.

[willicemisc]

pov : willice rants about The Broken Code Jayfeather (SPOILERS FOR THE BROKEN CODE)

It's been a full year now that I decided to re-read every single Warrior Cats books, as a teenager I stopped at OotS, so I re-read all of TPB, TNP, PoT and OotS. I am done with DotC (I have many opinions) and just finished AvoS, so I am starting TBC (currently at book 2).

Clearly the Writing Team™ has big, big issues with how to handle Jayfeather and his personality. Jayfeather was meant te be blunt and to freely voice his anger and concerns with little respects for other feelings sometimes, but he was never meant to be outright mean and antagonistic, was he ?

He went from a personal favorite of mine in PoT and OotS to a very unlikable character in TBC. He actively bullies and isolates Twigkit in AvoS (when he was previously known to be patient with kits??), but I can tolerate this mischaracterization i guess

But TBC Jayfeather ??? I don't know if it's just the Writing Team™ being extremely bad at understanding his character, or if it's the first symptoms of the Onestar disease, but I am kind of scared of how he will evolve in the 4 following books :(((

In the first two books of TBC, Jayfeather can hardly go through a single conversation with / about Shadowsight without straight up insulting him, his intelligence and competences. He had opinions about Willowshine and Kestrelflight, but he would rarely, if ever, straight up disrespect them to their face like that. Now, he actively participates in all the gossip around Shadowsight and characters will say "Jayfeather said Shadowsight is just a featherhead !" because Jay's opinion is that valued and important. (idk the actual English insults, all my books are in French, so you will have to suffer the French horrors sorry guys 😔)

At some point, during a Gathering, Jayfeather just tells everyone that Mothwing doesn't believe in StarClan. In front of the five Clans, the leaders, the deputies, the other warriors, like, everyone. Just because he was personally pissed at her opinion.

Just as a reminder, the Clans are all extremely faithful and the lack of faith has been a plot point several times, showing emphasis on how important it is for all cats to show devotion to StarClan. Medicine cats are literally meant to talk to StarClan. And in general, the Clans are known to be agressive to anyone who doesn't respect StarClan, thinking that if you don't follow StarClan's commands then you don't have any moral values at all.

Another reminder, Mothwing is not only the daughter of Tigerclawstar, she is also an ex rogue. She got her medicine cat title only because her brother created a fake omen, because her status as an ex-rogue made her an outcast in her own Clan. Mothwing has been known to be more vulnerable to isolation than other medicine cats.

So huh, yeah, Jayfeather just put Mothwing, an already vulnerable she-cat, in extreme danger, throwing her under the bus in front of absolutely everyone, including her own leader, her own deputy, most of her clanmates, and most of the other Clans members. Mothwing is shocked, obviously, and quickly says that she does believe StarClan is real, just isn't devoted to them.

The response of the Clans to this revelation is so out of character and disconnected from their agressive violent culture that I had to re-read the whole thing a few times.

The Clans just go "weird flex mothwing, but ok" and go back to their business (business being : questioning why StarClan isn't communicating with them anymore). From what I know, the revelation Jayfeather just made is never going to impact the story ever again because Mothwing gets banished for the crime of being a ShadowClan cat's child. So this whole scene is just there to show that Jayfeather will use precious informations against others if he gets annoyed at them ??? I don't know if this is bad writing or character assassination at this point man😔my po3 jayfeather would never.

None the less, Jayfeather KNEW how dangerous such a revelation could have been. Every single medicine cat, including her own apprentice Willowshine, kept the secret, because they all KNEW it would endanger Mothwing if the Clans discovered the state of her faith. This was literally a plot point in TNP with Leafpool like COME ON WRITING TEAM™ YOU HAVE TO LOCK IN !!!!!

I know this scene is canon (sadly), but this depiction of Jayfeather is just so alien to me. Jayfeather knows what it's like to be different and to be special, why would he insult Shadowsight over and over again when the kid is obviously struggling ? Also Jayfeather has been accused of murder and was on thin ice at some point, he knows what it's like to be accused in front of a whole Gathering, why would he do that to Mothwing out of all cats ???

Do you have any opinions on this ? Do you think this is just normal Jayfeather behavior, or do you think it is the Writing Team struggling to grasp Jay's personality ? I would like to know what you feel about that because from all the fandom discourse I did read, no one ever talked about how flabbergasting Jayfeather's behavior would be

In conclusion the real impostor is jayfeather

[fractualized]

I finally got around to reading through another classic batjokes story: Lovers & Madmen, which takes place in Batman Confidential #7-12. I highly recommend it, particularly if you are interested in stories about Jack-era Joker. Batman first meets Jack at the tail-end of his first year as Batman, and we get all the batjokes goods, including plenty that aren't evident from the isolated panels that go around. (Plus cameos from aspiring med student Harleen Quinzel and aspiring asylum administrator Jonathan Crane.)

This isn't a full recap, so I hope my rambling will spur you to check it out.

(Beware of gore and suicidal ideations.)

The key thing to know from issue #7 is that Bruce's mission has been going incredibly well. He has been operating for only 42 weeks, and he can feel the city quieting down. He's so proud! So content!

And we can't have that. Enter Jack, goon for hire. Bruce comes across one of his murders and becomes obsessed with how clean the scene is, how little a trail there is to follow. He investigates and investigates and investigates and comes up with nothing to his dismay.

Meanwhile Jack is also having a sad at a bar because there's no challenge or entertainment to his job anymore. :( Luckily a nice server gives him a little pep talk.

Jack does give things another go at a bank robbery, but it's still no fun. He trips the alarm on purpose, but a shootout with the guards is no fun for him either. He's literally in the middle of asking a guard to kill him, when Batman finally shows up.

"He's an idiot. I love him." Nothing like infatuation to restore your will to live. #8 opens with Jack being sure to leave Batman a thank you note before he escapes.

And Jack must see the Bat again, and of course the only way to ensnare him is to commit a series of awful but perfect crimes. And Bruce is infuriated! Here he is taking out his frustrations on a mugger— with Jack watching from afar.

Bruce is just so mad he's been unable to stop Jack, like, "All those books! All that preparation! But crime man keep criming?!"

Batman and Jack next meet at a charity gala planned by Bruce's love interest in this story, Lorna, and boy do things escalate. Jack picks Lorna as his hostage, threatening to shoot her so he can get away, and Bruce ends up grabbing another gun and shooting Jack's gun out of his hand. But then Jack just stabs her good, and while Bruce can't leave her to die, he doesn't just let Jack escape.

Jack isn't even the goddamn Joker yet and Bruce has intentionally given him a Glasgow smile as punishment. And even more insane, is that Jack appears to verbally respond to Bruce's inner monologue.

With Lorna slowly dying in the hospital, Bruce goes to a professional to try to figure out what it is about Jack that makes him seemingly unstoppable— and of course that professional is Jonathan Crane, and his professional opinion is basically, "dude that guy is clearly just insane and you're doomed to fail lol."

Oh yeah? Would an insane man be this untroubled about his face being cut open?

"He'll have to pay for that. Then again… it's nice to feel something." Just summing up Joker's cycling feelings about Batsy in the years to come. lol

And here's the plot point that sticks out to me most, after years of reading Bruce stalwartly refuse to kill Joker, including in other versions of their first meeting:

Bruce has been Batman for less than a year and he's already like, "Fuck it! I give up! This guy stabbed my new girlfriend and made me lose faith in books! He has to die!" In a short time, Jack has burrowed so deep under Bruce's skin that Bruce tosses away the one solid crime-fighting principle he has. It's oddly refreshing??

So Maletesta, who is a crime boss Jack stole from, takes some goons and captures Jack at the doctor's while he's unconscious from surgery. They then take Jack to a pharmaceutical plant, and Maletesta starts beating him while he's still out. Except Jack is actually awake and just kind of bored by the torture attempts and slipping back into ennui. This issue, #10, really goes into Jack's struggle between wanting to live but not feeling there's anything worth living for.

As you can see, Jack does eventually escape his bonds to fight back. As he and Maletesta fight, they end up in the bottom of the vat.

Meanwhile, Bruce is being quietly insane.

Bruce. Bruce, what the fuck are you talking about. I have to unspool this because like, Bruce knows Jack has killed lots of people. But what he's fretting about is the ways Jack's madness has metaphysically harmed the world, maybe, and thinking, "I know he's caused so much damage, but what about the damage to my moral integrity?!" and putting that above all the material harm. I know Bruce already does this all the time, but it feels so much more explicit here, and it gets worse, and just... Sir. Sir. You are not well.

So Bruce arrives at the plant too late to save Jack but just in time to see him get doused in chemicals.

Jack spends more time thinking on whether or not he wants to survive, but we know how this goes.

Jack ends up on the riverbank, and there's a wholesome edge to his psychotic break.

And so begins the criminal career of… the March Hare!

Kidding. The issue ends there, with Bruce lamenting that his change of heart came too late, that even if Jack is still alive, something awful has happened.

But then when issue #11 starts, Bruce finds he's not sure what he saw on the bank, if anyone. He gives chase but…

But if Jack is still alive, then Bruce's soul may be intact. He keeps searching well into the day, but finds nothing.

When he returns home, though, he learns that Lorna will survive after all. He immediately heads to the hospital, to "the only good news in the world."

Ah, Bruce is finally anchoring himself to the bedside of his ladylove. After he colluded to get someone murdered and seemingly succeeded. And it's the fear of what that says about him that sent him to Lorna. Almost like he's turning to her less because of his affection and more to hide from his moral failure. Romance!

Jack does soon appear in his new clown persona, and Bruce keeps his word and refuses to leave the hospital despite the multiple horrors Joker commits. Joker is not happy that Batman is MIA.

Some idiot Joker's captured feels it's necessary to inform him that Batman tried to have him killed, and of course Batman doesn't care. Joker scoffs, because Batman doesn't kill.

Faith restored!

Back at the hospital, Alfred verbally kicks Bruce in the ass, pointing out that committing himself to an unconscious Lorna isn't helping anyone.

Bruce finally suits up to respond to the bat signal, but it turns out Gordon isn't the one who lit it.

My Telltale-loving ass like:

In issue #12, their fight commences, and after some mutual stabbing, we get Joker's real plan.

It's like a dozen Lornas! Only this time Joker is telling Batman to come at him instead of trying to escape, and instead of taking action, Bruce suddenly feels overwhelmed.

Joker says something similar earlier about Gothamites. They're "poor sickies" who can't even see the bunny on the moon. They need the same "medicine" that Joker got to see the big picture, to find true joy. Of course he wants to do that for Batman too!

But once Batman shakes the poison off and starts rescuing the civilians, Joker is also pretty cool with killing him.

Bruce survives, as expected, and Joker isn't really upset about it.

And destined to do this forever, you might say!

Joker goes on to say that Batman gave him a purpose, a world of color to live for. Bruce reiterates that Joker is murdering people and asks why. Joker asks why Batman saves them.

(This panel goes right to left, btw.)

Joker's got a ways to fall, so Bruce has time to contemplate letting him die. "Let it happen… Let chaos prevail for the six more seconds it will take for madman to meet pavement… or the rest of my life will be spent picking up the pieces."

Bruce has already had a moral crisis about what it would mean for his soul if he let Joker die. In the end, he simply doesn't accept there's a meaningful difference between someone who takes a life for personal gain and himself taking a life to prevent the suffering of others. The vat is the same as his parents' graves. Letting Joker hit the ground is the same as pulling a trigger. Bruce chooses Joker over countless future victims. He choose Joker over Lorna, who he'll soon break up with at the hospital, weaponizing the carelessness of his socialite persona. Bruce decides that, amongst all options, taking responsibility for the monster he created means spending his life picking up the pieces.

And he immediately accepts that fact, what's to come. Gordon talks to Batman about the total dead, saying, "Would've been worse without you," and Bruce responds, "Don't be so sure." Don't be so sure today and for the decades to come, because Bruce believes that if that clown dies, then so does his own soul.

Joker sees that future too, and he is delighted!

Interesting detail, the Jack and King visible in the hat, side by side. Brings to mind how not too many years later, Snyder will have Joker crown his Bat King.

So there's Lovers & Madmen. Again, much more goes on in this story, particularly Jack's suicidal ideations and how he links the "enlightenment" Batman bestowed upon him to his contempt for regular people and his need to separate himself from them (and reconciling that with a good deed he does for a future henchgirl). The issues are collected into one book, and if you enjoyed this post, I encourage you to pick it up.

[shannonsketches]

Here's my unpopular opinion nobody asked for but I think about a lot: I don't see Goku and Chichi as a heavily romantic couple and I don't think that's a bad thing. (And my opinion doesn't have to be your thing, either! Ship how you want, follow your bliss) I am once again referring to the manga.

This is not me saying their love isn't valid or their relationship isn't real! Quite the opposite! It's me saying I do not think of their relationship as having a typical dynamic, and I'm charmed by that idea.

Disclaimer: As an aroaspec myself, I'm biased! And I also know plenty of queer people who don't have or want prototypical relationships. This isn't an essay to disprove anybody, it's just me thinking about ship dynamics out loud and why I think of them that way.

Anyway, if that's something that interests you, I've rambled about it under the cut

I've always read Chichi as fairly conservative (not in the US politics way, the normal meaning = (of dress or taste) sober and traditional) and extremely shy and naïve in matters of the heart and body. Goku (in the manga, at least) historically has no interest in sex or romance to the point that he doesn't register a difference between sexes and genders throughout Dragon Ball, while everyone around him is thirsty as hell.

I know it's a hot button issue that Goku claims to not kiss his wife/thinks kissing is Gross, but it's not really out of character for him (in the manga) -- especially if you add the lore that it's very very rare for a Saiyan to be affectionate. imo that gag of Goku thinking it's weird and Vegeta being embarrassed by thinking it's normal is great if you consider that Goku is only being weird by Earth standards. But between two full-blooded Planet Vegeta-born Saiyans, Vegeta "I Kiss My Wife Regularly" The Fourth is the weirdo in that conversation.

(There's also something to be said for the very steady, overarching plot that Goku and Vegeta are heading opposite directions in their growth; Vegeta (Saiyankind's #1 Guy) being increasingly happy and content with his life on Earth and Goku (Earth's #1 Guy) being increasingly restless on Earth and wanting to fight and explore like a traditional saiyan would -- but that's a different essay)

I'm getting off track bUT MY POINT HERE is that it's very reasonable to think that Chichi and Goku, two socially isolated and extremely innocent-minded people, don't have an overtly sexual or sensual relationship. Chichi's prone to upholding temperance and romanticizing ideas, and Goku likes sleeping piles but doesn't like being physically clung to or stifled, so it makes sense to me that they might have a more subdued bond.

It also makes sense to me that kissing on the mouth may just not be Goku's cup of tea (maybe he tried it and didn't like it! He's not alone! Plenty of people don't like the physical sensation of kissing. Doesn't mean they're immature or dumb, it's just not something they like).

If you consider that almost half of married women in Japan "aren't interested" in having sex (due to reasons like fatigue, childbirth/pregnancy risks and issues, and it being 'too much hassle'), and Goku being the way Goku is anyway, it makes sense to me that Goku and Chichi are more of a snuggle up couple than a kiss kiss bang bang couple.

Toriyama was also very vocally self-conscious about writing romance, and I think that reflects very highly in Goku's personality and disinterest. He is noted as saying (to a lot of upset fans, I remember when the interview came out) that Goku sees his family more like friends -- which, again, I really don't see as an issue, knowing Goku and who Goku's always been (in the manga). He's not stupid, he understands his wife is his wife, and his children are children he fathered, but Goku's never been one for traditional roles, and I don't know why so many people were shocked to learn that also applies to his family life (actually I do, it's because Toei bends over backwards to write Goku like a family man when he absolutely isn't, but that is also a separate essay, in which I will complain so much about how they try to dump all of Goku's flaws on Vegeta, who enjoys being a family man so much it gave him a massive identity crisis. There was a whole plot about it, Toei. You were there).

But also: Goku loves his friends, they're the reasons he fights as hard as he does. He's never understood or subscribed to social hierarchies, and I don't think it's shocking to know that extends to his own circle. Plus, the first blood relative he ever met kidnapped his kid, threatened his planet, and then tried to murder him. Goku's family has always lived in his friendships. I don't think it's insulting to say Goku views his wife and kids that way. It's the highest form of love someone can give, in his experience.

It would also really highlight again that he and Vegeta are foils, as it's generally implied (if not by Toriyama himself) that Vegeta and Bulma are a much more sexual/sensual couple -- potentially due to Bulma's long history of embracing herself as a Modern Woman, and Vegeta being raised in an advanced society. They also do not have that same lack of hierarchy, or feelings about friendship, that Goku does. Both of them are isolated in that they don't particularly like Other People, so they have a strong preference for each others' company. It's not a More or Less Valid dynamic, it's just a different dynamic.

ANYWAY! All this to say that, a lot of people feel that Goku not being particularly romantic/physical/sensual is a bad thing or a weird left-field take from Toriyama, but it's not if you've

Read the manga and

Had experience with AroAce/A-Spec people

Had experience with conservative/traditional people

It's really not that weird to assume Goku and Chichi really aren't very sexual/sensual as a couple, imo. They both have a sort of charming naïvety about modern society, they both have a preference for views that run along more innocent routes, and they both seem more interested in play than anything else (Goku with his sense of battle, and Chichi, an extremely talented martial artist herself, seems super fond of playing house as a wife and mother in the way she imagines it has to be -- despite her not having that experience growing up).

They're both, in their own way, indulging in their own fantasies of what life is like, because neither of them really notice or care about what the rest of the world is doing. And they're happy! Chichi's only unhappy when Goku's shenanigans rope Gohan into danger, or when he's been gone too long and the money is drying up, which seems to me like more of her playing house (The Husband Earns the Money, You See (even though her father also did not have a job and just hoarded treasure, and Bulma is living proof that women can be breadwinners)).

tldr: IMO Goku is par the course for a Saiyan, and Chichi's playing house with him. She's held onto an extremely romantic notion about him since she was like, 10 years old, after all, and she's still doki doki real bad for him 30+ years later. I've always imagined their relationship maintains a kind of sweet child-like innocence to it 99% of the time, and sex is a very rare occasion in that very small house.

Plus, low-libido people exist! It's okay to headcanon characters with kids as low-libido. It doesn't have to be a 'marriage is terrible' joke, or an 'i don't love my wife/husband' joke. It can just be a "We're a 'cuddle on the couch after a long day' couple" vibe. That's how I always imagine Goku and Chichi's dynamic and it's super cute to me idk.

They just remind me of kids playing two completely different games on the playground, together, and then holding hands on their way back to class. Couple of little weirdos. I like them a lot.

[fraudulent-cheese]

Consider talking about the parallel lines of roti. PLEASE this is literally my roman empire and I'd love to hear your take

Oh geez, hope i can do them justice then!

So generally when people talk about the parallel lines plot in roti, it's to criticize it in various ways - and it deserves it, mind you - but a common pattern i see in those critiques is trying to find someone who's in the categorical 'wrong'. While i have entertained discussions related to that sort of thing with the other love triangle, im not sure it really applies here if you try to look at it from the character's perspectives themselves.

This isn't to say they're all innocent, they still make mistakes and aren't good at communicating (they're teenagers. duh.) Yes, Zoey's overly possessive of a guy she isn't even dating. Yes, Anne Maria gushing about Vito to Mike's discomfort during one elimination ceremony isn't great. Yes, Mike trying to actually talk it out would've helped resolve their issues quicker.

However... You can't really pin the full blame on anyone involved here. Yeah Zoey and Anne Maria fighting over a guy was dumb, but it makes sense in character; Zoey's both judgemental and was previously isolated, so i can see Anne Maria affirming she knows the "real Mike" really getting under her skin and overriding her people pleasing tendencies, while the other girl doesn't take any shit and especially won't take it from a girl who seems to think she's dating the guy she's currently seeing.

in my mind, they've ALL been screwed over in this situation in some way and it somewhat makes sense! Vito's being screwed over because he's an alter in a system with a host who's determined to pretending he's a singlet and doesn't remember what Mike does with Zoey. On top of that, no alter in the system is actually communicating at this point, so there's no real way Vito would know or care about it. Mike's being screwed over because of past experiences of telling the ones closest to him about being a system and rejecting him for it (it's heavily implied in one of his confessionals), a lack of memory for what Vito does and not wanting to screw up his friendship with/crush on Zoey. Anne Maria and Zoey are being screwed over because from the former's perspective she's in the right and trying to romance a guy who only seems to be truly himself around her, while from the latter's perspective it's almost like she's been lead on since both parts of Zoke are not subtle about their mutual crushes. Neither girl knows what's truly going on either since Mike won't tell them.

And of course, there was probably already going to be friction between Zoey and Anne Maria due to Zoey's own issues with making connections and projecting at least some of her baggage on the other girl and Anne Maria (reasonnably might i add) not wanting to take that. And also because the roti writters wouldn't allow the girls to be friends despite the things they could've bonded over but that's a seperate tangent and a half-

NOW i haven't been very critical of this plotline so far, and that's for a veryyyy specific reason; my biggest issue with it is how the narrative treats it. IE, by desperately trying to place Anne Maria as being in the wrong and siding very obviously with Zoke as the end point; they're already set up by episode fucking 1, Anne Maria doesn't get an arc or story outside of being the romantic rival, the alters in general aren't focused on as individuals throughout their short time on screen, zoke is literally the canon ship AND the campfire couple TWO SEASONS IN A ROW... It results in a plotline that is both predictable and boring to watch (for me at least.) and it's the origin point for most of the things wrong with it, at least the parts of it that aren't linked with writing issues that already plague huge parts of the show (cough cough the misogyny)

The saddest part for me though is that half the parallel lines don't get closure in the end. Vito and Anne Maria never talk again after Anne Maria's elimination, they never clear things up (on screen) between eachother, or even have Mike clear things up with Anne Maria! It's just never resolved, and it's never brought up again.

I'd like to think, even if it's post canon or whatever, that Mike/Vito went to talk with Anne Maria alone and tried their best to explain what was going on. It would take some adjustment and good communication to work-out, but i'd like to believe that it could! In my little brainhole i think that Anne Maria and Vito could just end up as friends who kiss sometimes for fun or are just close in general. Hell i could even picture Anne Maria and Mike + Zoey and Vito being friendly after the show's over and they've actually had a conversation about things. But alas, this is Total Drama, so the best we have to deal with these things is fanfiction and spinning the characters in our heads like microwave. Sad! Or joyous? Depending on your perspective.

[slayemal-na-nerate]

//Okay, so obviously, it's been more than a few weeks, but I've had a lot more complications come up that I don't feel like listing entirely right now, and my mental health continues to be a struggle. That being said, I've put out the majority of the most pressing fires, and I do think writing helps improve my mental health when I get into a groove with it, so I'm going to end my hiatus on a couple blogs in the next week or two, primarily Bruce Wayne and Garrett Hawke. Raven and my CW Flash oc, Leia Morales, might become active again as well if people show any interest in them. I'm not really feeling much muse for Aya right now, and Lavellan will have to at least wait until I finish Veilguard (even though I expect to be ignoring a good portion of canon based on spoilers I've been exposed to). My Star Wars and Riordanverse muses will remain on hiatus until I can muster up the enthusiasm to re-engage with the source materials. Whenever that eventually happens, I'll likely be focusing on Damus Tall, one of my Zabrak twins on this blog, because he's the least depressingly affected by his trauma, which is a nice break from how heavy things can get with my other muses.

In the week or two leading up to the hiatus ending for at least two of my blogs, I'll be working on replies I owe (although, I might need to pause a couple threads that don't come naturally to me and take more effort to write right now), trying to finish Veilguard, and working on the last of my especially pressing irl issues. I don't expect to get all that done, but the only official roadblock to the hiatus ending will be finishing replies. Most, if not all, of those are for mutuals on discord, so if it seems like I'm taking a while but posting little to nothing on any of my blogs, that's why. The week or two I've given myself is a generous estimate to allow me to not rush through everything and overwhelm myself. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to plot things in advance or send asks, though only the former will receive a response before the hiatus is officially over. Replies to asks and thread responses I don't already owe will start post-hiatus, again focusing on Bruce and Hawke only, unless Leia and Raven have any interest shown towards them. Fun fact: Bruce is actually meant to share a canon with Raven, which would make her 24 (same age as the mun) currently; I'll likely add a verse to explain what's gone on with her for the past decade, but I'd probably still default to her teenage self to answer any asks. Whenever I get around to reading the Nightwing comics with the old team back together, that might change, but the truth is, she's just not fun to write consistently during a time where the team isn't together, and I don't think it'd be fun for others to engage with that version of her all the time. It's the same reason I tend to default to act 2 or a relatively happy portion of act 3 for Hawke when answering asks, except at least his self-destructive behaviors can make for more interesting interactions than Raven's complete isolation from the world after their respective breaking points.

Anyway, TLDR: Batman and default purple mage Hawke from DA2 will be coming back in a week or two. Veilguard will be largely ignored and/or altered when added to verses for my Dragon Age muses, but I'm not bringing Lavellan back until I finish it. I always have a lot of muse for Raven and Leia, so they could come back too, but only if it seems like people might actually engage with them. All other muses are on the back burner. Hiatus on the aforementioned blogs will officially end after I finish any replies I owe (mostly or entirely on Discord). I expect that to happen in the next week or two. I'll reply to PMs for plotting, but asks and new starters won't be responded to until I finish what I already owe (still welcome to send them my way before then if you're okay waiting til then, though). Post-hiatus, anything left unanswered without a request to pause is just something I'm not aware it was my turn for. I'll work on a thread tracker eventually, but until then, just message me. Expect replies to be slow, at least to start, but I'll try to get back to each thread within a week. See you guys soon if you write for DC or Dragon Age!

[unladielike]

uwaaaa what a pleasant sight!! you’re a bit more active again !!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹

        UNPROMPTED ASKS. » always accepting!

adsahkjdshakdjas I mean, I am, but I honestly can't guarantee I would continue being more active, due to this blog getting traction maybe once in a blue moon? Like, I do intend on yapping about Vivian's emotional dysregulation issues in light of recent IC events that made me go, 'Oh, she's not all that well-adjusted actually', but at this present moment, my mind is more fixated on neurodivergence angst (mainly revolving around her struggles with understanding and navigating social cues, leading to feelings of isolation, loneliness, and difficulty forming/maintaining relationships on her part) and her toxic relationship with a certain character than tangible plot ideas involving other potential muses Vivian has yet to interact with.

She also hasn't really been all that happy as of late... and mood-wise, has just been struggling to hold herself together, so any opens I could potentially write for her would simply be her trying to commit self harm or experiencing dysregulation that I'm sure not every muse would be well equipped to handle. Like, Vivian would still act normal in the event she's asked stuff out of the blue, but I doubt she would start being extroverted enough to invade random peoples' inboxes again the way I previously had her do, just because she currently is hypersensitive, it's hard to predict what things would/wouldn't set her off.

Plus, when it comes to autistic muses, I notice the Tumblr RPC is more so avoidant towards ones that don't mask their neurodiverse traits and are depicted with some degree of realism like Vivian, who while capable of being friendly, is also super intense and takes things more personally than she really should. Coupled with the fact she isn't what I would call a girl's girl, to the point where I could see her easily hating on a female muse if they so much as rub her the wrong way, it's kinda up in the air whether she would be the sweetest angel, a total bitch, or plucky comic relief towards someone elses' muse... and with the RPC being conflict-adverse or unwilling to write their muse in more grounded slice-of-life scenarios, I don't expect people to wanna interact with her, especially when things like romance or sex wouldn't be on the table.

I mean, with Vivian being hypersexual, you would think she might be more smut-inclined, but naaah, you could not get this girl to make the first move most of the time when her autism and rejection sensitivity issues proceeds to further complicate things. Regardless, I'm happy you seem to derive much joy from seeing me and Vivian on the dash! Perhaps one day, she'll manage to befriend more people (and not get so stuck inside her own head).

@illholy

[woodchipp]

I guess this post's going to be a "sequel" to my post about Sunny and Mari because I have Thoughts about the game's potential again, this time concerning Sunny's other friends because god damn they're so underdeveloped and irrelevant 😭

Aubrey holds the "privilege" of being the game's only main character to have something vaguely resembling a character arc, and yet the execution of said character arc still leaves much to be desired. She has some makings of being a nice foil to Sunny (Sunny dealt with his issues by folding into himself in denial while Aubrey dealt with them by taking out her rage on Basil, Sunny's appearance is as bland and average as it can get while Aubrey's appearance is rather garish and visually striking) and I believe that kind of angle would've been really fascinating to work with. I'd have also preferred Aubrey being upfront about being a jerk - her incessant "noooo i'm not a meanie YOU are meanies >:(" deflections don't make her a Deeper character, they just become annoying after a while.

Maybe the game could've featured a flashback (an actual flashback, because Headspace isn't the most reliable source of information) where Aubrey defends Sunny or Basil from jerks harassing them at school and openly expresses her distaste for assholes who think it's okay to pick on someone who can't fight back... only to become that exact sort of asshole down the road. If Basil is the one she stands up for, this could even be their first meeting for additional irony!

Aubrey's rough home life is another aspect of her character the game should've elaborated on, especially given that its only purpose in the story is to be shorthand for "she's just a poor bbygirl please feel bad for her". What if Aubrey was closer to her father than she was to her mother? What if her dad left her mom precisely because the latter developed alcoholism and eventually became difficult to live with? What if Aubrey herself started using booze (albeit not to the extent her mother does) to cope with Mari's death, hating herself because she knows she's becoming exactly like her mother and turning into a person her beloved father would probably look down on? Honestly, the kids' parental issues would've been way more interesting to learn about than listening to them go "waaaa I miss my wife Tails Mari :'c" for the 1403rd time in a row as if we didn't get the memo already

Last but not least, before I move onto Hero and Kel, I'd like to echo @beevean's opinion about the whole "Aubrey shoves Basil into the lake" plot point - Aubrey absolutely should've been the one to save Basil after realizing what she's done. That'd have been a brilliant way to show that she still genuinely cares about her friends despite her violent exterior. This could've also tied into the reason she isolates herself on the final day - even though she makes no bones about being an asshole, the lake incident rattles her and finally makes her recognize that she crossed a line she never thought she'd be able to cross. She and her friends lost Mari already, and they would've lost Basil too, this time by her hands. The guilt overwhelms her, and she decides to shut herself off from the outside world since she thinks that she's a danger to her friends... sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? :)

IMO, Hero arguing that Aubrey still cares about her friends because she quickly dove into the lake to rescue Basil to break her out of her funk before the group hug would've made for a more solid point than "you care because you restored the photo album!", which completely ignores the fact that she stole it from Basil and bullied him for four years over it.

Speaking of Hero, the first thing I'd like to change is the reason for his nickname because the "he likes hero sandwiches lol" explanation is fucking stupid. It'd have definitely made more sense for it to be an in-joke for Sunny's friend group, since Hero's Just Naturally Good™ at everything he does. Maybe Kel or Aubrey could've created some sort of running gag by jokingly calling him "Hank", the decidedly less cool-sounding diminutive form of his real name, Henry.

I think that Hero apparently yelling "a lot of hurtful stuff" at Kel when the latter tried to help him stop being a recluse could've lent itself to some interesting characterization had the game bothered to explore it. What if Hero used Kel's biggest insecurities against him in his rant? He'd be the one to know his younger brother best, after all :)

Maybe the incident could have been used to establish a contrast of sorts between the brothers, with Kel having blocked out everything Hero said about him for the sake of his own mental health and Hero having the memory burned into his mind because he still feels very guilty about the outburst even four years after the fact. What if Hero spent said four years believing that Kel secretly hates him for what happened and being afraid of talking to him about it? Perhaps that would've explained Kel's remark about Hero being "a little more closed off now than he used to be."

Hero himself could've been an interesting character, mainly because his relationship with Mari isn't really touched on by the game, which is baffling since he was her boyfriend. Maybe the story could've tried to indicate that he still has trouble moving on from her suicide by him trying to abruptly change the subject whenever Mari comes up in a conversation. The story could've also tried to show the ways Mari as a person shaped Hero into the person he is (e.g. Mari is mentioned to have had a mischievous side to her, so Hero could've probably had an affinity for mischief too?) I think that sort of thing would've been nice to see in all of the game's characters, actually - the point is that even though Mari is dead, she "lives" on in a way through her friends and her brother, through the habits they picked up from her. Of course, that would necessitate Mari to have a personality beyond "picnic blanket" lmao

Maybe the game could've had Hero (unconsciously) start doting on Sunny as if he was the latter's older brother because, as part of him blaming himself for his friend group's dissolution, he feels especially guilty for "forgetting" about Sunny in his grief. I like to think that this, coupled with Hero picking up Mari's behaviors, would actually hurt Sunny even more, probably since a) it'd fuel his fears about everyone caring about him only because he's the last reminder of Mari they have left and b) every time Sunny sees Hero trying to be affectionate, he's just reminded of his sister, and it hurts.

You know, maybe the game could've even implied that Sunny harbors a bit of resentment towards Kel for having an older sibling in the first place. Sunny himself is aware that it's completely irrational and beats himself up over it ("oh my god, how could I even think something like that? he's my friend!"), but it's still there.

Kel loves his older brother. Kel has an older sibling to love.

Sunny doesn't. Not anymore, at least.

He had a sister.

She's gone now.

[luminiera-merge]

yknow what fuck it i'm gonna defend fury again bc it breaks my heart as an episode that it's hated

like, the premise alone is pretty intriguing, ie, a vengeful former member of the crew comes back to destroy the ship. not only that but it's the niceys one!!! the main criticism i hear of it is that it's "out of character" for kes but

why? why can't people change? kes was like 5/6 when she left voyager, and in fury she's near the end of her life (?) at 9 - that's 3 or 4 years. why can't someone change in that space of time? i mean, there's also just the question of "why can't people change?"

i never liked the idea of things being rigidly "in character" or "out of character" - it's more like "character" is some ship of theseus shit, and the way in which a personality develops is that "out of character" things are actually part of the process, and are part of this newer personality

anyway back on topic, years is plenty of time for a personality to do some, as mentioned before, ship of theseus shit. the show implies kes has seen some WILD things out....wherever she was? (was she even in the corporeal realm for most of those years?)

combine this new character with a motive - ie kes not being ready for whatever she saw out there, and eventually blaming it on voyager filling her head with ideas of exploration, because it's kinda just been her alone out there with nobody to set her back on the right path - and you get things like fury. new experiences are what drive a personality change

like sure it wouldn't be characteristic of season 3 kes because she wouldn't have either the motive or the experience, and she wasn't in total isolation. but would it be something expected of a 9 year old kes? seems so!! one axiom of statistical data analysis is that if you list off all the describing features of something, those things listed off ARE that thing. i worded it badly, but the motivations, the personality, the actions of fury's kes ARE her in that same vein

people don't always have to develop the better, and don't have to behave in a way the viewer sees as logical. you could go "but why would kes blame voyager for what she experienced out there??? that's out of character/a plot hole/dumb????" i mean to you maybe. but to fury's kes it makes all th sense in the world. it's less "ruining a good character" and more a character study on a kes with lots of offscreen development. god knows i've been through similar thought processes on stuff tbh. like yeah voyager did nothing but love and support her, that's true. that kind of illogic in coming back to destroy it is part of old kes' new character for better or worse

my overall point being. a character changing in a way you don't like or expect isn't always a "plot hole" or "bad character writing" sometimes people just do what you don't expect because ofc they would, they don't adhere to your logic

and i also think the idea of an episode in any show about the nice one coming back for revenge is really cool. even if, i'll be real, i thought the ending of the episode kinda sucked too and it had some Issues but the underlying concept and characterisation are really worth smth

also i like to see a person go through a villain arc. that too

[tenebrius-excellium]

Welp, I thought I was done talking about the Httyd books,

READ THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT'S MEATY and you might not like what you find.

So, a huge part of why I love the Httyd movies is because they explore those fundamental philosophical topics of war and peace, justice and mercy, friendship and romance, and even marriage, through a lense of traditional Christian values. Right? They contrast the ideal of what life should be with how it is and come out on top through radical grace.

Beware that I recently fell in love with God again after a long break of being bitter and questioning, so I am radicalized and on fire myself.

The books baffle me.

Because while they literally serve as the base inspiration for the movies, they don't exhibit the same values. The Httyd movies are idealistic and naive, the books are realistic and clever. The books are bold enough to pitch a boy against an archipelago, to explore all those large topics such as friendship, isolation, horror, abuse, and evil in depth, - they are intelligent enough to turn the Slavemark into a hero's symbol!!!, and yet - after a massive tale with the space of 12 volumes and digging into all of those vast discussions about the state and fate and nature of humanity - the plot arrives at the Gods and just... halts there.

Never explores them.

The Gods get mentioned and never explained! But that's an issue, because if there are no Gods, then letting the King's Things find Hiccup so mysteriously is strange, and letting his crowning ceremony be confirmed by a sort of God-like appearance doesn't make sense either, like... what is the point of teasing at that, then? What is the reason for having sages and sentinels and priest-like people? 'Spirituality' is too shallow, 'superstition' devalues Hiccup's claim.

For if the Norse Gods exist, hoooo boy, then two things about them are confirmed, 1. that they see what's going on and 2. that they actively helped by ordaining Hiccup III. king. But this then begs the question of why the vikings never asked their Gods for more help instead of waging all their wars by themselves!? Nor does it explain Furious' lament for the world, for if the Gods take care of it and guide the right people to the right places at the right time, then he shouldn't have to worry so much? If anything, he should be taking his complaint about the treatment of his dragon species to the Gods. But he just sort of... voices that. To no one in particular. Cuz Hiccup isn't God. The readers of the books aren't God either.

Let's look at option 3: The Gods can only intervene by using people if a person's heart is already in the right place. If there is no one with a good heart around, the Gods obviously can't crown a good person king. This would demand a change in humanity's heart so that it can be saved by the powers that be above. To be used for good, you have to want to be good. Otherwise, if the Gods just took hold of you and made you do things, you wouldn't have free will anymore. So for the Gods to be able to save humanity, humanity must first want to save itself.

This is certainly an option. But certainly not the one I was able to deduce from the plot of the books. The powers and presence of the Gods were just not fleshed out enough for that. There was no proper relationship between the mystic and the action plot; it sort of got smudged into one another without visible correlation. For a series of 12 books, this was not enough to satisfy me. I was left with the impression that the books are clever in the sense that they believe humanity must solve its own problems. As such, they do not gain my sympathy.

Because you cannot establish a conflict THAT huge, then introduce GODS, and then NOT THINK THAT YOU NEED TO ASK THEM FOR HELP.

The books scream of "we need help!!!!!! we can't do it!!!!!!!!!!! is anyone listening????" and then they shift that agonizing, desperate cry of the heart onto... mystic powers whose existence is never proven and who never even show their face. And then Furious basically closes with, "well, humanity's the one at fault - it's up to y'all, guys." And this is final.

To be so clever, to explore such deep and complex topics, and to then not be humble enough about admitting to need the help from a higher power is so outright selfish, presumptious, ignorant and blind that it is no wonder humanity can't save itself.

Thus, the Httyd books remain in senseless activism. To become overly Christian now: Sure, Valhallarama was able to powerfully turn a symbol around. But she was not able to abolish the symbol. This is what the world does (unironically look at it): We gather around opinions, around literal flags and symbols and icons and statements and ideals, but it only drives us further apart. This is what happens in the Bible in the book of Judges, where everyone builds their own little religion, feels entitled to take revenge on wrongdoers in their own little ways, and simply ends up making matters so much worse instead. Gathering around all these powerful symbols that cannot save the world is called idol worship, by the way. This is what the God of the Bible means when he says to not make a representative image of something. A single value can't save us. Standing behind a flag cannot save us, because that flag is limited to certain aspects, but not to the nuances of the human experience as a whole. The meaning of a flag can change in an instant, and you may suddenly find yourself on the wrong side, depending on whatever is popular right now. If you're proud of a flag and that flag then gets associated with atrocities (totally not speaking about ANY current world events right now or something), it has not been a stable thing to get behind. It's a house built on sinking sand.

God himself says to get behind his name for the sole reason that he openly and confidently claims there is no other name by which the world will be saved, and he has already proven it by having saved us himself but that is a story for another time.

To return to the Httyd books, after 12 books, when confronted with their fictional Gods who can clearly help them, it is to my understanding that the vikings refused and would rather do it themselves. And that - this kind of pride after a war this severe - is what I find appalling, depressing, the list goes on. This just means that there is no salvation for the book!verse, and then Furious was right. Because the humans did not think they needed to ask a higher entity for help, when its presence and benevolence was available.

Now the movies pursue a different narrative. Hiccup only arrives at a similiar stage in the moral dilemma at the end of the third movie, and that, too, doesn't get resolved. But it is clear that Hiccup hasn't stopped looking for a solution, and it is also clear that if ANYONE offered him his help, Hiccup would take it. His tribe is also humble enough to change their hearts, instead of merely having a single leader with a changed heart. This is still salvageable.

For the movies, I believe the next step would have been to make Hiccup the actual king of the Wilderwest by having him introduce law. Since it would then be outlawed to hunt and kill dragons for sport, the archipelago might have a decent future for a time.

If then further modern conflict arose and the law couldn't prevent people from breaking it, we'd be back at the needed intervention of a God. A good God who will change your heart for the better if you submit your free will back into his hand, to form and to mold it, because you trust him that this is best for you, and for everyone.

That is literally Christianity.

And I have the right to mix that into the Httydverse because Httyd literally asks those kind of questions. Httyd searches for idealism with realistic resources. Idealism, however, can only be achieved when we let the LORD take our flaws and let him gently show us a better way.

I stick to the movies because even though the movies never get to the point where some saving Gods would be a necessary option, the spirit is clearly there. This is the hope which the movies carry, - the hope of real, changed hearts, redeeming humanity bit by bit - and which the books don't.

Yeah.

[fontasticcrablettes]

Tagged by @hoskky! Well technically you tagged my main blog but I usually put fanfic things over here.

rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic? -10 -> very dissuaded 0 - don’t care either way +10 -> very enticed nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged. Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: Kinda ranges from 0 to -10 depending on what size age gap we're talking about. Like if one person is 20 and the other is 30 it's more of a 0, but 15 and 35 is -10.

Codependency: 5. Copying Hoskky's answer that if this is in a romantic context I don't really care but if it's part of some fucked up train wreck relationship that can be fun.

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: Same answer as above.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): 0. Just not something I care about

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: 7. I can't honestly rate this any lower when I've been the one-man-fandom for Alexei/Yuri for many years now. Though it's not a hard 10 because sometimes I'd rather the enemies stayed enemies. Like if my enjoyment of a villainous character is how fun they are as a villain I don't want to see them domesticated.

Friends with benefits: 0. I don't read smut, but if characters are fucking in the background of a story, that's, like, fine.

Sex to feelings: 0. Another "sure, that's fine." Don't care about characters fucking in general!

Fake dating/relationship: 10. I love a grand deception.

Friends to lovers: 5. I can't keep rating every romantic trope as a 0 just because I don't read romance fics so I'll give this a 5 because I'm not, like, enthusiastic about it but if there's going to be a romance in a story I like it if the characters are friends first and it grows out of that.

Found Family: 10 now that's what I'm talking about

Hurt/Comfort: 100 literally 90% of what I read is hurt/comfort

Poly, open relationships: 0. I care more about what the characters are up to than the specific arrangements of their relationships. Like, I have poly ships, but polyamory isn't something I care about in isolation.

Mistaken/hidden identity: 8. Once again, a grand deception! Oh, the drama.

Monsterfucking: nope. I don't read smut. Although, if it was more monster-loving in general and the fucking is just a side scene on the way to an in-depth relationship with a monster, now we're talking.

Pregnancy: 3. I'm not going to read something just for pregnancy, but it can add some stakes and additional issues to an already engaging plot.

Second Chance: 5. I really like characters who failed at something getting a chance to do it again some character growth.

Slowburn: 0. Yes I am continuing to rate all the romance things as "don't care," I'm sorry my answers are boring. This is really in the "it depends!" category, because if a fic is like, 100k of romance-focused slow burn.... yeah I'm not reading that because I don't read romance novels. But also, if a fic is slow burn then it's usually long, and that means there might be some other plot happening and the slow burn is the side romance along the way, and that's my preferred way to consume romance stories.

Love Triangle: -10. Unnecessary drama, x2

Soulmates: nope. In the long vein of "Nightfoot Overthinks Things," I am incapable of thinking about soulmates without getting very caught up in what the implications are for free will. I also just generally disagree with the idea that there can be one and only one person someone could be truly happy with.

-----

I think the general takeaway here is "Nightfoot is a deeply non-romantic person." Though, for a lot of these, my thought was very "Well, it depends on the ship! If this was for my OTP I would read it, if not I would have no interest."

So, question for the class! Do you read fanfics based on the tropes if it's not a ship you already like? Am just deep in rarepair hell that I can't imagine sorting through fics on the trope level when I'm used to having a dozen fics in total that are even about my fave ships?

Thanks for tagging me even though my answers were very boring. I'll tag @magicmetslogic if you'd like to :)

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~

Official Summary:

Venture into a reimagined steampunk version of 19th century London. Follow the adventures of the poison-skinned maiden Cardia, the men trying to help her, and the mysterious organization intent on capturing her.

Experience a visual novel adventure brimming with literary and historical characters including Victor Frankenstein and Abraham van Helsing. Will Cardia find love, or destroy those she cares for? Her story is in your hands.

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(Spoiler-Free) Luna's Thoughts

This game was ok! It wasn't the trainwreck that was "even if Tempest," nor was its storyline as convoluted as "Cafe Enchante." I liked the historical figures and other fictional references, and the art was lovely.

A small thing that annoyed me is that they keep referring to Cardia's skin as "poisonous." I believe poison has to be ingested, so it would be more correct to say she is "acidic," but I guess that's not very charming to say lol. There are also a few plot points that seem a bit silly, and I didn't think the true end character necessarily deserved that role.

But overall, this was a solid game. The steampunk London setting was cool AF and I enjoyed the emphasis on airships and steam power. All the routes were pretty different, and though I would have liked to see more crossover between them, none of them felt extremely out of line like in some other games I've played.

I wasn't excited enough about it to bother with the ample supply of bonus content on offer, but I did like it and would consider playing it again in the future.

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(SPOILERS) Common Route

Honestly, Cardia's backstory is the weakest part of the game as writers scramble to explain why she can't wear normal clothes or stay in one room for long. She can't eat with normal utensils, for example, but nobody is concerned that she might melt through her bed because her hair covers her back and her hair isn't poisonous for some reason. Some details were given a lot of thought and some are just explained away with "science" that happens off screen.

None of that is truly an issue, but I feel like it could have easily been more streamlined to say, for example, that Cardia can melt living things. That would still have the effect of making her isolated, alone, treated like a freak and unable to interact with humans. But it would do away with some of the more contrived details such as how she avoids melting into the ground.

The scene that should have been one of the most emotional — when Cardia tells the story of how she was trapped in a cave and accidentally killed her mother figure — ends up feeling frustrating, as you yell "just melt the rock!" at the screen the entire time. She does, but not until too late. "But she didn't know she created toxic air!" you say. Ok, but surely she didn't want to sit in the cave indefinitely? She could have just started work to melt the rock immediately. Maybe the result would have been the same, but at least it would seem more logical.

I thought the first choice to ignore Lupin's offer, which dead ends the game as Cardia sets out on her own adventure, was very funny. I also liked how she starts becoming more expressive as she spends time with her boys. My favorite part is how it shows her gaining skills and learning to fight and defend herself. That's refreshing compared to some other series where the protagonist is always being protected.

Below follows some thoughts on the actual routes, in the order I played them.

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(SPOILERS) Impey Barbicane

What I thought was going to be my least favorite route ended up being my favorite. Impey is the flirt archetype, and also the genki character of the game. His route was the lightest, as he carries the least baggage of all the characters, but his sincere nature got to me.

Unfortunately, his flirtiness makes him annoying in other routes. Like, boy, I'm romancing someone else, back off!!

I do wish Impey being a vampire was more relevant to the game in general. I know that angsting over the fate of the vampires was more for Victor, Helsing and Delacroix II, but having Impey be a vampire was basically thrown in for shock value and didn't end up being super relevant.

I did think Nemo was an extremely fun villain and his design and speech pattern are so unique. He was a good foil for Impey, as they have similar reasons for becoming engineers, but he becomes the typical "mad scientist" here and takes everything a little too far.

I'd say Impey's route was the simplest of the five, but for that reason, I also thought it was the most solid, and the one that left me with the least questions.

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(SPOILERS) Saint-Germaine

Call me nitpicky, but Saint-Germain is the character with the most baffling design choices IMHO. His hair is ridiculous. He only wears half of his coat the entire time. He has watches all over his arms that seem to do nothing. Truly some odd decisions were made during his creation.

Aside from Victor, I'd say his route was the most angsty as he rebels against his job and his nature to save Cardia. Unfortunately, this results in him being off screen for a lot of his route as he kills his way through the other members of Idea to save Cardia.

I thought the whole route felt a bit overkill-y. This is a man who essentially caused the Black Plague, who knows what one bad decision can do, and yet instead of choosing to stay by her side and defend her, he abandons her to preemptively fight the other Idea members, none of whom are given a sprite except Guinivere. (Side note: I adore Guinivere. Easily one of the most rad characters of the game.)

What's stopping any other of the Idea members from attacking Cardia while she's left defenseless? It falls apart under scrutiny. Perhaps this is because Saint-Germain's attraction to Cardia was the least convincing for me. I just didn't feel much of a connection there.

I do love how you basically only see his eyes on his route. It makes it all the more threatening when you do. And despite how critical I'm being, I did think the concept of the Apostles of Idea was pretty cool. I just thought it was a little far reaching for the framework of this particular game.

While one of the more interesting routes, I'd call Saint-Germain's route the least romantic.

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(SPOILERS) Victor Frankenstein

Personality-wise, Victor is my favorite character. He's got baggage but desperately wants to reverse the damage he's done inadvertently. And he's so sweet and wears glasses! I did want to know what was up with his headphones but they're never addressed.

Victor's route is the one where you have to deal the most with Queen Victoria, and at least for me, this kind of ruined her character for me. You learn she was the instigation behind a lot of dark incidents and has an even darker one planned that basically equates to genocide. While in the true ending she fesses up and seems to have grown as a character, it was hard for me to get behind her again after seeing how needlessly cruel she was in Victor's route.

I absolutely adored the development of the Queen's relationship with Leonhardt in this route. Honestly I ship them more than most of the characters in this game with Cardia. Even if you want to interpret them as having a more father-daughter relationship, it's still really sweet. He clearly cares so much for her and just wants to guide her down the right path.

But back to Victor. I like that, despite being the gentle nerd of the game, he can still fight in his own way, and even teaches Cardia to do the same. It was nice to see him come out of his shell and become more confident as the game progresses.

Victor's route was solid and his relationship with Cardia is very believable. After all, he's done so much for her. He's the reason, in every route, that she can eat with the boys and wear different outfits. Cardia returns the favor by forgiving him for being involved in her creation. I did think the brief "is Victor my father" storyline was pretty funny. I mean, he kinda is though.

All in all, one of the better routes in my opinion.

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(SPOILERS) Abraham Van Helsing

Man, I wanted to like this route more than I did.

Van Helsing is the closest thing to a tsundere in this game, so I thought I'd like him and saved him for last before the true end. Unfortunately, he's so cool and collected that he rarely breaks, and he comes across as cruel a lot of the time, even when it's revealed that he's doing so to keep Cardia out of it. She's kept at arms' length so much that I didn't feel the relationship developed naturally. She isn't present for a lot of the conversations, either, though we do get to see them off-screen.

Helsing's route is also the one that's least connected to the rest of the storyline. He's got a few tie-ins, most notably to the Vampire War, but his dealings with Aleister didn't relate to the overall mission. It felt a little disjointed to me.

I also thought we'd see more of Delacroix II in this route. I figured it would be Cardia helping the two of them become friends. Delacroix needed to learn that Helsing regretted his actions. But we honestly don't get a lot of that. I also figured it would be more angsty, with Helsing's death wish being relevant, but again, that didn't come up a lot.

I do find it extremely endearing that he can't cook to save his life. And I feel bad that his is the only route that ends without him being able to touch Cardia.

I don't think this was a bad route. It just wasn't what I was expecting so it made me a little disappointed.

.

(SPOILERS) Arsene Lupin

Lupin's route was ok. My gripes are mainly the same as with the true end of Collar x Malice: I don't think he's fitting for a true end character.

Not only is he visually the least interesting character, but his backstory is also not particularly interesting or impactful. A lot of stuff happens on his route just because it's the true end, and we have to wrap up the game. Lupin himself isn't particularly relevant to that.

He's a nice guy, sure. You can't help but like him and his positive attitude. I think his route is the one that most treats Cardia like a human, but this comes at the cost of not allowing her to do a lot. This could be seen as a positive, I suppose. She's spend most of the other routes convincing other characters that they should be forgiven, so it's fitting to have the final route involve forgiving Cardia herself for being created.

All in all, the game wraps up pretty well, and it felt like a suitable end for everyone. I just wish Lupin was a bit more interesting of a character.

.

(SPOILERS) Side Characters

Here, I'm going to comment on a few side characters in the game.

Finis

No notes. Flawless character design. My theory for why he looks like this is that the original Finis and Cardia were both female. Maybe this is explained in the bonus content, idk. I've heard his hair donuts are part of the headband and not his actual hair. Either way, adorable. More male characters like this, please.

Herlock Sholmes

Upset this character wasn't a datable option. Perhaps that's for the bonus content. Either way, I wanted to see more of him. I thought he'd be more relevant in Lupin's route, and you do get to learn a bit about him, but not enough IMHO.

Queen Victoria

Who approved this outfit? I just wanna talk... Seriously, this is the worst sprite in the game. I get that her whole thing is about bees and visually there are a lot of honeycomb references, but surely we could have a black and yellow outfit that doesn't make her look like she raided an antique store.

[wxtchpilot]

[ I'm actually very very sleepy and intend on going to sleep but needed to get this off my chest first.

Thing about all this stuff about the pacing issues? I totally get it and think people's opinions about it is valid. There are things that I agree haven't had time to breathe and that there's a lot of things that have been introduced where we don't have any sort of time to explore, as well as things passing by rather fast in some aspects.

Like, I totally get it, and I can understand people being upset about that.

Yet, I find myself sad about it instead of mad, like I see everyone else. Again, fine if they get mad, I feel like I get sad over it instead because I simply wished we all could have had fun with it instead haha. It sounds really childish, at least to me, when I say it like that which is why I avoid stating how I feel about it all now.

Guess because I really do love the show, I love the plot points and lore, I love the characters, and I adore Suletta to pieces, she's the reason I gave the series a try. So to see how things have evolved between the first part and the second part kind of just makes me sigh a bit, especially in terms of fandom opinion/atmosphere.

Now I can still find enjoyment despite the obvious pacing issues, yet I don't want people to think that because I still do that its me just ignoring any glaring issues. Yet I don't want it all to be about what I didn't find enjoyable and be negative about it.

Because yes, I also realize that even if we do get more of the series after the finale next week, the second part is still paced awkwardly and nothing will change that.

Trying to explain how I feel really is hard since I'm probably making things a bit more complicated for myself than need be. Guess the main thing is I wish part 2 was just as fun to enjoy with people as the first part. Of course I have specific friends that I talk to to help with that, but sometimes I let even strangers and their opinions get to me and if they aren't having fun, then it's a bit of a bummer. Its even worse when close friends aren't having fun, and again, I totally get why and I'd never want to force them to enjoy something that they clearly aren't.

One thing about media that gets me nowadays is that there never can be a neutral side. Sometimes it feels like people either make you love something entirely (judge you if you don't and possibly even ignore the flaws), or you have to hate it with your whole entire being, seeing nothing BUT the flaws. It feels like there's no in between sometimes, and most of the time, I'm in the middle where I acknowledge the issues yet still have fun with it. And I mean this with anything, not just G Witch.

It kind of makes me feel isolated in a way since I'm not one to state deep opinions like most, at least in terms of things I don't like since I don't focus my energy on that side of things a lot (again, that's just me, doesn't mean people who voice their opinions, negative or not, are bad).

I know the second part could have been better if they were able to pace things out better. There are things that I'd love to see more information on, or having plot points having the time to simmer and breathe. Yet at the same time, there are parts I find enjoyment in. I can even say that with how things are in the anime industry is the reason why the show is (so far) much shorter than apparently other Gundam shows(?) but then I know some people would be saying that's just an "excuse", or "coping" as the cool kids say. Lol.

I'm also not a fan of "comparisons", where people compare something (most of the time it being something they don't enjoy) to something else (which they DO enjoy) and just say "this show did it SOOOO much better" because it's like...just admit that the story they're telling, and the way they're telling it, isn't for you. It's totally fine if that's the case, your feelings on that way of thinking is valid. Comparing shows, even if they're under the same umbrella (aka the Gundam series), doesn't benefit anyone since every single entry tells a different story in a different way. I say this for seasons as well. If it's not for you, then it's not for you, and that's totally fine.

I've been exposed to a lot of the Gundam fandom by getting into this show, and while I don't regret getting into the show and loving it, a part of me is glad that it isn't huge on here (in terms of RP) and a lot of the people I've met are really nice and understanding people, regardless of opinions or even what we write. I've seen that its just too big on twitter, and I'm never truly on "a side", when people make it feel like you should.

But at this point, I'll just be repeating everything in circles. I'm sure there's some other point I forgot to make but it slipped my mind.

I should head to sleep, and I thank anyone that read this and dealing with my whole random "rant" haha. I'll try not to keep bringing this up. And also for interacting with me and following me.

I'm off work tomorrow so I'm going to try and be around more for interactions. Thanks once again for all the patience. ^^ ♥

Hope you all have a fantastic night/day, depending on time zones. Lol. ]

[zandyland]

You've probably been taught, as I have, that the story structure looks something like this:

It makes sense. Some boring stuff happens at the beginning, you get into the action until a Climax somehow happens, then things wind down until the story ends. It's a tried-and-true structure, and every story follows it, if your English teacher is to be believed. But I think the shape of this diagram betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how a story works.

Where is the problem?

In the words "Falling Action."

It's also known as Denouement (the untying), or Resolution, which are much less problematic terms. But the usage of "Falling Action" at all is puzzling, considering that the definition of Climax is the end of the Action. Again: there is no Action after the Climax. All the conflict has been resolved, and there are no fights left to fight. Sure, characters may busy themselves with different tasks, like cleaning up the loose pieces of the plot, but the protagonist has either gotten what they want or they failed to. They won or they lost. They've achieved their super-objective (their main desire, what they most want) or they haven't, and nothing they do afterwards will change that. If there's still a chance of anything happening, then the climax hasn't happened yet. The story isn't over.

Don't get me wrong. Characters can still do things after the climax, but it's all Movement. It's not Action, because Action serves the super-objective, the getting of things that they want most. It's just motion. It's static. It's not going anywhere.

So maybe the post-Climax portion of our story looks a little more like this:

The symmetrical nature of stories becomes much more evident. Stories are about change, but they're book-ended by a static world. To Bilbo, the Shire is peaceful before he runs off to adventure, but largely unchanging; when he returns it's different, but it seems the changes stick. It won't be the same again. The world changes during the action, but not before or after. The beginning is Exposition, which shows the world as comfortable, happy, and maybe missing something. The end is Denouement, which shows the world as changed, new, scarred, and broken, but with the seedlings of some type of hope. Things have changed, some for the better, some for the worse, but one thing is clear: these changes are irreversible.

Let's look at an example: Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012). If you're not familiar with it, I'll briefly outline it:

An isolated preteen girl, Suzy Bishop, runs away to meet a boy she met more than a year ago. A boy scout, Sam steals a canoe while at a camp on the island she lives on to navigate the rivers toward Summer's End, the northern point of the island on which her house rests. They hike through the woods while the island's only police officer, Suzy's parents, and the boy scout troop sweep the island to find them. Though captured by the adults, they are broken free by the boy scout troop, eventually gaining the support of the adults when it seems Sam will be taken away from the island by Social Services.

Moonrise Kingdom has certainly tricked many people into thinking it is a romance, thanks to it's dual-protagonist team. As more of a coming-of-age story, it seems we could choose one of the kids as taking a journey, with the other as their helper. Sam may be the first choice for many people. Indeed, given a male and female character, most people will focus on the male. Additionally, multiple characters have complete arcs, which muddies the issue further. The question of a main protagonist could be the subject of a lot of debate. But looking at the composition and structure of the film places Suzy squarely in the protagonist box, in my opinion.

The film begins with a montage, featuring her static home life. Her parents ignore each other, and their children. In each of these tableaus, her younger brothers play, while she listlessly stares out the windows in between reading. The inciting incident belongs to her, when she receives her final letter from Sam, urging her to run away. The fight between the scout troop and Suzy and Sam reaches its resolution when Suzy stabs one of the boys with scissors. The fight resolves little between Sam and his troop, which has gone on the same through most of the film, but fuels a pivotal moment where her parents lose status due to her daughter's violent acts. Suzy becomes even a mother-figure for the boy scout troop at one point. With Suzy as protagonist set out, let's look at how her beginning and ending moments reflect each other; how her action is completed at the end of the film at what that means for her character.

The Denouement re-visits this same home as the Exposition, even re-using the same camera locations as before. Suzy reads again, this time accompanied by her chosen family in the form of Sam, who has snuck into the house. Where before, Suzy's mother shouted up at her with a megaphone, now both parents share this role, unified. We follow the same beats, many of the same motions, and the world is familiar, but something about the motions is distinctly different. Partly, things have changed: her parents, for example. But for the mostly, it's our characters who have changed. Suzy and Sam, with the context and lessons learned from their journey, live their lives differently. The status quo has been destroyed and rebuilt. Many of the pieces remain, re-arranged in an unfamiliar configuration. There's a status quo on both sides of the action, which serves to demonstrate how the action affected the characters.

Wes Anderson practically bashes the audience over the head with symmetry. It is often noted how each frame focuses on symmetrical placement, but the symmetry hardly ends there. Even the music of the opening montage forces the audience to think about the symmetry: it is Leonard Bernstein's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, in which a narrator explains how a simple theme changes with different orchestrations and arrangements.

A story is symmetry. It has reflections across many lines. It's something that's not totally obvious, especially given what we're normally told about stories. Thinking of plot and Action like this makes the reflection self-evident, and hopefully helps in the creation of an ending. If the ending is simply a re-arrangement of the beginning, writing an ending becomes a much less daunting task.

And the super-objective? There's no way of knowing what Kara Hayward was using as her super-objective for Suzy during filming, but if we had to guess, it might be "gaining autonomy", "taking charge of her role in her relationships", or similar. So has she achieved this at the climax? It seems so. She grips onto Sam, the one she's most afraid to lose, sure she will jump off the church, in hopes they can escape through the flood. Finally, she lets Sam have some distance, with the understanding she'll be able to keep him around. She gets what she wants in some ways. She's still restricted to her home, but with the help of some adults, is able to take a more active role in her relationships with her family, related and chosen. This is the completion of the action.

And perhaps this is obvious to a number of people, but it wasn't to me from everything I'd been told about story from English teachers.

In Part II, I want to break down the term "Rising Action." I think that one is accurate, although not terribly helpful. What structure lives in that part (most) of a story?

[philippmichelreichold]

on People of Pele by Ken Liu

IT’S LIFE JIM, BUT NOT AS WE'VE KNOWN IT. PEOPLE OF PELE BY KEN LIU

The People of Pele (Ken Liu, Asimov's, Feb 2012) takes an original approach to the definition of life. The hills are alive not with sound but light-- piezoelectric scintillations as the inhabitants move/are moved about the planet. The approach isn't wholly unique, as any Star Trek TOS fan will note, but the original inhabitants of Pele aren't like the Horta except in being silicon-based. The Horta were basically silicon based humans—communication and mutual comprehension followed by cooperation quickly ensued, once it was determined that the Horta were sentient. The Peleans are beyond comprehension.

Sentience, the quality addressed less often these days in Sci-Fi, is not addressed and is not addressable in the context of the Peleans. They live on a vastly slower time scale than humans. Pohl's Sluggards in the Heechee stories are right with us by comparison. Once again, mutualism was possible once the obstacles were overcome between humans and Sluggards. The time scale differences between Pele’s two peoples are too vast for mutual comprehension to occur. This leaves an unfathomable gap between the humans and Peleans.

Even so, the colonists soon feel that they'll understand the rocks before they make sense of the orders they receive from Houston. They are ever more aware of the comprehension gap between them and the US national command authority on Earth. Pele orbits 61 Virginis, with a time lag of 28 years between the sending and the receiving of orders via radio. (No FTL. No ansibles. No quantum linked commo.) As in C.J. Cheryh's Downbelow Station, orders issued in the past have little bearing on the present. Personal messages from home only emphasize the sense of separation and loss and isolation felt by the colonists. Earth and its troubles quickly lose relevance in the light of the discovery of so different a life form under so distant a sun.

Pele is set in a future where nationalist prestige and competition demand the expenditure of 10% of GDP on a one-way, manned, NAFAL mission to an Earth-like planet far away. (Originally to be claimed for all mankind. Then they get "new orders" per the deteriorating political situation on Earth.) The Pele mission was sent by the US. There is a Russo-Chinese mission to Gliese 581 and a Euro-Indian mission to an unnamed planet. There is a three way cold war between these three power blocs. Anyone who lived through the US-Soviet Cold War understands the essential need of a country to one-up its rivals. What better way than taking resources that could be used to improve life here on Earth and sending a handful of colonists to 61 Virginis or Gliese 581?* * *

The story requires the development of anti-matter reactors to get 151 colonists to Pele and depends on an Earth power not developing FTL to enforce the old disorder the colonists increasingly wish to leave behind. The living rocks are so innovative that I can't quite overcome my scientific skepticism. (The scientists among the colonists have to wrestle with it as well.) However, the hardest point for me to suspend disbelief over is that anyone on Earth would put forth sufficient effort to colonize another star system. Whenever the subject of the Final Frontier comes up, I think of the Coneheads laughing at the notion of "astronauts on the moon". (Does my bitterness over the "space program" show? The Coneheads laugh and I sigh.) That’s why we read Sci-Fi, though. To escape the horrors around us and to search for better answers than the ones offered us. I look forward to reading more of Liu’s future history. It may be more fun than the one we are living in. I long for a future that includes space colonization. Certainly I envy the humans on Pele. This story is certainly more fun to read than the newspapers

The story, start to finish, is a pleasure to read. The characters and plot are just meaty enough to move the story along, interest the reader, and establish the theme without wasting a syllable. The nature of life on Pele is used masterfully to bring home the story’s themes and raises questions the scientists among the colonists struggle to answer. You see the command staff blown along by the winds of reality just as Pele’s original inhabitants are blown by the winds of Pele. The command team members face a hard decision, but are firm in their resolve when the time comes. I would not be surprised to see The People of Pele fleshed out to novel length. I'd look forward to reading that. Having also seen Liu's The Countable in the December Asimov's, I look forward to reading more of his stories. Both stories are tight, saying a lot without wasting words, and both pull the reader in to see what happens next. Liu’s writing is compelling and full of meaning, with sympathetic characters in original and imaginative settings.

References

The Annals of the Heechee. Fred Pohl. March 1987.

Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2012. ed. Sheila Williams. "The People of Pele." Ken Liu.

Down Below Station. C.J. Cheryh.

The People of Pele. Philipp Michel Reichold. APR 3RD, 2019

Star Trek (TOS). The Devil in the Dark. Season 1, Episode 25