#also i have suspected DID so that whole identity thing is something I have to work on constantly

[snaileer]

Everyone Loves a 2-for-1 Sale Part 3

Part 1 & 2 (And original Prompt)

The dining room was suspiciously quiet for a Wayne breakfast when Danny walked in.

He glanced up from his phone, pulling one earbud out, “Oh feel free to continue arguing my morality like I’m an object, my music’s on full volume.”

Dick looked uncomfortable, “We weren’t-Look, Ti- Danny, we are just a bit curious as to why you’re…. here,” Dick finished, glancing at the others like asking if they’d share the plate of batguilt-fries with him.

“Surely the world could have done without a second Drake,” Damian cut in before Danny could even start.

“And we could have done without even one of you, yet here you are,” Danny glared, “Factory defects and all.”

Damian jerked upwards with a raised knife, narrowly pushed back down by Dick.

Danny rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to his phone-Tim’s phone-their phone. He held a folded paper out to Bruce with two fingers, still typing, “I have a list, if you want it.”

He continued typing as they opening the note and read it, he knew what it said.

To Do in Gotham:

1. Get to Gotham

2. Find original - don’t freak family out

3. -Find- Talk to Bruce

4. Convince Vicki Vale that Tim is/ actually engaged to Tam Fox

5. Get safe house

6. New identity? (what do clones do? - ask Connor)

7.

8.

9. Leave?

“What’s number seven and eight?” Dick asked, and Danny actively made sure his typing pattern didn’t change.

“Don’t know yet,” He answered with a shrug, the picture of nonchalance. Bruce probably didn’t believe him.

Didn’t matter. Dick did. Because Dick felt guilty.

Bat guilty.

About time he believed him about something.

And Danny didn’t care about Damian’s opinions one way or another.

He stepped away from the table, plopping another grape in his mouth as he walked past, “Welp that’s it for me, busy day, fake engagement, gotta find some crutches because I don’t think Vicki will accept my ‘you got new legs Lieutenant Dan-ny’ joke, all that,”

Danny slipped out the door past a sleep-deprived Tim with a jaunty salute, “All’s well in Clone Town!”

Danny kept walking, his brain running miles ahead of him, Ted Tobin steering the wheel with his fingers on the keypad of his phone as he moved forward and mentally filled in the list.

Number 7: Find Ra’s Al Ghul and the Lazarus pits.

Number 8: Stabilize yourself.

Danny continued up the stairs. He had people to see and rings to buy. Busy is the life of a saboteur.

—

Red Robin watched his clone linger in the jeweler’s store, trying to keep the frown from taking over his whole face.

He was making Tim’s life difficult. Tim suspected it was on purpose.

Largely because people would ask way too many questions if two Tim Drakes showed up in Gotham at the same time.

Hence, Red Robin being relegated to rooftop surveillance.

He turned his attention back to the clone, watching as he left the shop and turned down the street. Red Robin swept after him, following from above.

The clone remained focused on his phone- which was also Tim’s by the way, and stolen- as he walked down the street, turning into an alley without even looking up.

Tim tilted his head and swung to the rooftop, peering into the darkness.

“You could always just come down and actually talk to me, you know?”

Tim dropped into the alley, unsurprised to come face to face with the clone. It was weird to see his own face look so annoyed by him.

“Thought it was best to stay out of sight. We’re not exactly a daylight hero.”

Danny rolled his eyes, “Already annoyed with Vicki Vale?”

Tim nearly growled, “That is your fault,”

“Oh come on, you can’t tell me it’s not hilarious.”

“You’ve spent all morning in ring shops! I have meetings!”

“Lucius can handle them. It’s not like we actually did anything this last year anyways.”

Tim stared at him for a second, confusion in the squint of his eyes and laced with suspicion.

Danny groaned with a roll of his eyes, “Fine, you want me to stay put somewhere so you can do your civilian thing?”

“Yes.”

“I am not staying in the manor. You can’t make me.”

Dread filled him as Tim smiled, “Not a problem.”

Danny glared at Tim standing arms wide in the center of the room of his emptiest safe house, “This is so not what I meant and you know it.”

Tim’s face betrayed nothing, “Look, none of us are happy with this situation-“

Danny scoffed. Understatement of the century.

“But..” Tim continued with a pointed look, “It’s my fault, and I get that. So…compromise? You stay here, work on cold cases while I sort out my current job, and when I’m done, we’ll figure out what to do, okay?”

Danny sighed, feeling Ted Tobin stir to life with plans already forming.

“Fine.”

Tim nodded succinctly, reaching for a laptop and multiple cords, “Ok, here’s my old computer, -huh, I could have sworn that had a different charger- anyways- I’ll take this,” he plucks the phone from Danny’s hands in one smooth motion, giving a mocking smile in return to Danny’s glare, “Thank you very much, now I just have to-and find the guy who…”

Tim’s voice tapers off into mumbles as he heads into the bedroom to peel off his suit, fingers focused on the keypad of his newly reacquired phone.

Danny slumps himself down on the secondhand couch, dust echoing around him. This was fine, he could do stuff in the meanwhile, maybe help Tim with his case -or solve it himself, he bets he could- and then finish the new specs for the suit wings that Danny’s suit still didn’t have.

Tim fumbled through the doorway, now in civilian clothes, already on a call with Lucius probably, or Tam. Tam helped him a lot.

Danny slouched further into the silence.

It felt like being left behind by his parents.

They had bigger priorities.

Archaeology.

Ghosts.

Danny shook his head, opening the computer and letting Ted Tobin fish through the passwords for case files.

He’s nearly 3 hours deep when he really pauses for the first time, finally stopping the continuous notes sitting next him, each a different clue. Most for different cases.

The current case pulled up on his screen scratches at him, facts slotting into place with rapid fire precision.

The officer assigned to the case is a vet.

The case is perpetrated by a senatorial candidate.

The officer assigned served on three active fronts and 2 undisclosed.

The guilty candidate is running support for a bill cutting veteran supports.

Best of all?

It’s not in Gotham.

Danny smiles as Ted Tobin’s plan fills in, piece by piece.

—

Ra’s Al Ghul should really make it harder to hack into his confidential back market mercenary dealings.

Then again, maybe it was for the better. How else would he make sure Red Robin was able to intercept the assassin in time to save that poor officer’s life the night before his case-closing arrest?

—

“Detective, I assumed holding my business outside of Gotham would keep it from being the concern of you and yours,” Ra’s’ voice is muffled through the bag over his head, “It seems I was wrong.”

“Oh well, you know me…,” The bag is ripped roughly off his head, leaving him blinking rapidly against the light even as he smirks, “Always butting into things when I shouldn’t. It’s kind of what we do.”

“Tell me, Timothy,” Ra’s says, turning his back to him once more, as he waves his ninjas away, “What does this officer matter to you, more than a state away from your usual stomping grounds? What-“ Ra’s pauses as a different ninja approaches him to whisper in his ear. His body stills.

“Well, we’ll start there. First of all, as I’m sure you just found out, I’m not Timothy,” Danny says, standing up smoothly. He relishes the look Ra’s gives him as he turns around. “And secondly, the officer wasn’t what mattered. Getting you here on the other hand. Now that.. that takes a little more planning.” Danny brushes himself off, removing the cowl to leave just his own domino behind.

Ra’s al Ghul hums, his eyebrow twitching up even as his eyes narrow in suspicion.

“What? No sudden desire to stab? No impromptu attempt to put a sword through my chest?”

“You are curious. So much like the detective, and yet… my people tell me he is currently patrolling in Gotham with the Grayson boy.”

Danny scoffs, “Oh great, another fruit loop interested in me, like I need a new one of those.”

Ra’s’ stare doesn’t change. Albeit a bit more annoyed, but still flat and calm.

“You wanna know what makes me different from Timothy, Ra’s?” Danny pauses, taking a deep breath and letting the ectoplasm ripple inside him for the first time in months. “The difference between me and him,” When he looks up he knows his eyes glow fluorescent green, “Is that I’m stronger.”

—

Bonus Scene:

Dick stared at Tim’s clone as he left, sweeping past the original’s bleary form stumbling to the coffee machine.

“Are we sure he’s Drake’s clone? He seems… less of a fool,” Damian sneered, watching Tim stand listlessly in front of the cabinet, coffeemaker off, and tablet in hand.

He looked out of the Dining room doors, spotting Danny standing not far away in front of one of the closets by the stairs rather than the actual steps, fingers tapping away.

Damian turned back to his breakfast, “I retract my statement. Clearly his stupidity was simply blinding.”

[pix3lplays]

Okay so I’m hoping that you did the recent quest before I spill but: just imagine that Gallagher is the actual villain behind everything, I mean sure he’s teased as an antagonist but just imagine him doing the dirty work and just comes home to his lover who has no idea and he acts like nothing happens (like I’m in it for evil men who act sweet and genuinely want to protect those they love, for Gallagher imagine him just being all sweet with his lover but behind the scenes he goes stab stab like-) see even though I didn’t know I knew there was more to the reason as to why I am in love with Gallagher

Spoilers for Gallagher~

Cw! Violence and killing, blood

You’re on to something, I love that. Obviously we don’t know entirely what’s going on but clearly he’s Some Sort of antagonist, so…

Your husband, Gallagher, such a sweetheart, who works so hard to make sure you live a comfortable life…

You genuinely think he’s out there working Security…and the nights he has to be away…yeah your husband is also a mixologist, he works nights sometimes…he does his best to make you happy…

He always comes home so tired, but he’ll always, ALWAYS make time for you.

You can’t bear to ask much of him. He already does so much for you. You just want to give him a kiss on the cheek and pour him a drink and rub his shoulders while he tells you about his day.

Why would you suspect anything? Even when he’s gone a little longer than usual you’d never suspect a thing…he just tells you he had to work overtime and you leave it at that. He’s always so apologetic when he has to “work overtime” and his annoyance at being “stuck at work” instead of being able to spend time with you really sells it to you. Your poor, sweet husband…doesn’t he work hard enough?

How would you know that your husband is busy getting himself wrapped up in some serious trouble? Committing literal CRIMES, pursuing his own agenda…not to mention the whole “minion of Enigmata” thing…

“Gallagher” isn’t real. Just a perfect little collage of the Ideal, loyal members of the Family.

Those scars you traced so delicately? Fake. That soft brown hair that you enjoyed playing with? Fake. His enchanting eyes? It’s ALL fake. You’re in love with a lie. And if it was up to him, you would NEVER find out. He would keep you safe forever. From danger, from his true identity, from anything that might separate the two of you…

The reality is, no matter how you feel right now…if you ever found out the truth…you just couldn’t keep trusting him.

So he would just keep lying. Sink deeper and deeper into his own web just to keep you close to him. He really doesn’t want to hurt you. He would never hurt you on purpose. He’d KILL anyone who found out and threatened to tell you.

Who knows what his agenda is. But whatever it is, he wants you with him, by his side. He’ll do what he has to do. He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. But you don’t need to know about any of that.

He’s such a good little actor. He comes home after an unusually long shift, you put a hand on his face, and you ask him about his day, and he tells a cute little story about how he was hunting down bad guys all day. That he even had to skip lunch. It’s adorable the way you gasp and drag him to the kitchen so you can make him something.

You don’t suspect a thing.

You have no idea that the path he walks is soaked in blood.

How could you suspect anything?

He holds you so sweetly at night…you love your husband so dearly…he’d never hurt anyone…you know him the best…

[the-habitat-sysblog]

it's quite frustrating when you work up the courage to tell someone you have DID, but they hit you with "well, *i've* never noticed you switch" or "to me you're always the same person".

i think those statements are so misinformed to how DID (most often) presents. there are some things to note when observing DID from the outside:

not all cases of DID are overt. overt refers to your symptoms, switches & differences between alters being obvious to people from the outside. overt DID is less common than its counterpart *covert* (more secretive) DID. in covert DID, symptoms may be less noticeable from the outside, & that may lead to difficulty being diagnosed.

masking. masking is the ability some people possess to pretend to be someone/something that they are not. in DID, alters who are not the host part may mask as the host part to feel safe, undetectable, or simply out of instinct. before discovery of the system, this may be a subconscious effort; after discovery of the system, this may be purposeful in order to hide alter differences from others, for any reason.

complexity of identity. let us imagine that the host in a system is an ambivert - not quite introverted, & not quite extroverted. this host switches out, in front of their friend group, & a social part or other extroverted & friendly alter takes their place. their friends assume that they are just in a "friendlier mood", while in reality this person has switched. meanwhile this alter has a completely different set of interests, identity, & such, but since it is not brought up in conversation, the friend group does not suspect their friend has switched between separated self-states. identity is complex, & alters are (often, not always) able to feel & express a large range of emotions, depending in their mood. this can make it harder to tell the difference between an alter being in a strange mood, & a whole new part fronting!

so, next time you meet someone with DID, believe them. not all of our experiences are visible! edit: "DID" here can also be replaced with OSDD1, P-DID or UDD, but i just used DID because that's my specific experience.

[iamnmbr3]

So when first asked to identify Harry, Draco doesn't do it but he stammers a bit and kind of prevaricates. But now he doesn't hesitate. He's made up his mind. As surely as he is now certain that he is looking at Harry Potter he is also certain that he's not going to be the one to reveal that fact. And he actually turns his back and walks away and refuses to be a part of it. Even knowing what the means, what it will cost him and his family.

And remember, Harry's appearance is altered but not so much that the Snatchers didn't suspect his true identity. There is no way that Draco, who in 6th year identified Harry by a glimpse of his shoe and the sound of his breath, did not recognize him.

(Incidentally this is one of the scenes I love in the movie because you can see the moment the penny drops and he realizes exactly who is in his drawing room and the momentousness of this moment and of the decision he must now make.)

I think it's notable that Draco looks both reluctant and fearful. Obviously he's reluctant to have a hand in Harry's death. And I think the fear comes from several things. I think it's fear of what will happen if Harry escapes, and an even greater fear of what will happen if he doesn't.

Draco knows what he's risking by giving Harry a window of opportunity and he's afraid of the punishment he and his family will endure if Harry gets away and of course he's afraid of how much worse it will be if it's discovered that he intentionally withheld the truth about Harry's identity. And yet despite everything he has been taught and despite the fact that he's never prided himself on his bravery, he is still even more afraid of the idea that it will all be for nothing, that Harry won't get away and will die right here in Draco's own drawing room.

Also. Nobody else comments on how afraid and reluctant Draco looks so I think he does a decent job of concealing it. (Given that he's alive after this incident we know Voldemort certainly never figured out Draco didn't immediately identify Harry on purpose). Harry just knows him so well he sees right through it.

And my drarry heart LOVES how throughout this whole scene Harry thinks of him as Draco. He starts thinking of him as Draco when he sees him forced to tortured Rowle and only reverts to "Malfoy" during the Room of Requirement confrontation. Because in this moment something in Harry knows Draco isn't truly his enemy.

Also I wonder if Narcissa also saw through Draco's facade of ignorance and started to suspect how he feels about Harry - that what she once might have taken for jealousy or perhaps a shallow infatuation isn't that at all but rather something much more powerful and deeper. Maybe that's why in the end she expected Harry to know where Draco was, even in the midst of the battle.

[ooc-themis-cattails]

Can I just say how much I appreciate the diversity of ace identities in ISAT and all the detail about it?

(spoilers ahoy)

I love how at first Sif sees the porn scroll as "people doing fun things" but later admits it doesn't interest them at all. Their first response is to say what they know they're "supposed" to think it is, what everyone else is probably going to think it is. But then they learn that it's really ok to admit that they're not into it.

At first Sif is like "why does Beau like me?" but after a while they start to find him cute because they understand the emotion behind his feelings, and while they're not sure if they can actually take it as far as a sexual relationship, they're interested in figuring it out, because for them, that doesn't gross them out, it's just not a drive. This is so relatable to me and I love seeing it bc it's not the typical ace in fiction where like, this character is ace so we mustn't put them in a ship because we should assume it'd gross them out. Sif can be ace but not entirely horrified by sex, and Sif may be romantic (I don't know if even Sif knows whether they are romantic or not)-- I suspect they are demiromantic because it's the intimacy and familiarity of Beau's emotions that makes them start to feel things about the moment by the tree, to the point where they miss it when he doesn't try.

Mirabelle going through the dating service papers is the most wonderful scene because this is what it was like to be ace when I was in my early twenties. Most people didn't know it was a thing, and friends/family were very helpfully concerned that you should find a partner in order to not be alone, because the theory was that it was a basic human need for everyone. I did exactly what Mirabelle did, and had the same kind of reaction: "I have to pick one of these people to try dating because I have to figure out how to be sexually interested in someone so that I can do the whole partnership thing that everyone says you need to do in order to have a fulfilling adult life." Looking at pictures of people trying to figure out how to be attracted to them, or what you like, when the answer is really that you're just Not. And you're kind of torn because some part of you knows that this isn't going to work, but the other part of you legit believes that it's like staying hydrated, you have to do it for your own good even if you're not thirsty.

Mirabelle's being into fictional romance and shipping, just not into doing it herself, is also such a good detail. I'm not aro so I can't speak to that myself, but still, it's a thing. She's emotionally invested in the dynamics between people, she loves watching the details of how they play out, and that's completely separate from ever wanting to do it herself. I've seen it in others and I definitely get that from the perspective of an ace person reading smut-- you can very much enjoy a dynamic without wanting to BE in the dynamic yourself.

Sif coming to understand how attraction works from the outside: "Wait, you can't choose who you get a crush on? That explains so much!" The line made me wince because it's so self-deprecating-- they're probably thinking they're not good enough for Beau-- but I also very much appreciate the realism of how... nobody explains to you how attraction works because they assume you know what it's like, and you probably don't ask because it's embarrassing if they assume that you're an immature late bloomer with no experience of the world, rather than someone who will never have a libido no matter what they've seen. It's so easy to feel infantilized or to infantilize yourself if you're not comfortable with your ace identity. Both Mirabelle and Sif are young enough that they struggle a bit with whether this is really their identity or whether they've just not figured it out yet. In reality, at their age, this probably IS who they are. But they're also a bit hesitant to rule it out because it's really hard to know that you are NOT something, and (given that Mirabelle hadn't really considered the possibility that she's aroace) the culture doesn't seem to have a lot of representation or support for the idea. It's obvious to the player, well, if this is how they feel, then they're ace! But neither one of them can quite settle on that for sure. Because, unlike being attracted to someone where you can go "well that sure did happen", being not attracted to someone is a nonproof. So Mirabelle keeps trying, and Sif doesn't know that their reaction will seem valid to others (as evidenced by the change in how they describe the scroll). Odile, who is aro and who seems to be not entirely ace but isn't exactly the thirstiest plant in the garden, has a different position. She seems to pretty much know where she's at, which makes sense for her age, but we can't really tell if she's always been okay with it or if it's been an issue. We don't know if Ka Bu is a more uptight culture, or how long society has been normalizing non-hetero identities, but we do know she had no female role models, so if any of this heteronormative business was an issue, I imagine it contributed a lot to her feeling of outsiderness. I'd love to know more about how Odile's sexuality impacted her life but she's obviously not about to infodump it on a bunch of 20 year olds, so it remains a mystery. Nonetheless it's pretty great that there's an older aro character, illustrating that people have always been this way, it's just easier for young people to discover it now because they feel more allowed to not be heterosexual. [eta: @butterflyknifepoisoning reminded me that I've misremembered this and Odile isn't actually aro, she's had hatecrushes before and explained them to Mirabelle. Which I kind of sort of remember now! Not sure why I thought she was aro, my memory is crap sometimes. It's still a far cry from yamato nadeshiko, but yeah. Point taken]

...In the end, I find it extremely refreshing that there's a whole RPG party here and only ONE of them experiences sexual attraction, and it's a flamboyant gay-seeming dude with a poorly-kept-secret crush on an enby they/he. ISAT is so cool, it's the best aroace representation I have seen in fiction so far ever.

[hellomynameisghostface]

Defending Amber Freeman!!

Hello, fellow "Scream" fans. I would like to take a moment to defend Ghostface #8, Amber Freeman because people in the fandom LOVE to shit on her. They're always finding a reason to say she was a terrible Ghostface (some go as far as saying the worst.) While she does have her flaws (they all do) she is far from the worst and she's actually quite a decent Ghostface, in my opinion.

So let's start at the beginning. Something that always irritates me in this fandom is when people call Amber stupid for using her own phone to make the Ghostface calls but it's actually so smart on many levels. First of all, she's not using her own phone. She actually cloned her own phone and here's how I know. When Ghostface calls Sam in the hospital it comes from Amber's phone, however, in the next scene after the attack we learn that Amber was at the sheriff's station being questioned. Even if she wasn't being questioned at that very moment she would have had to sneak away from Judy and her friends to make the call, causing suspicion. I feel like that's something Judy would have caught. Therefore, this had to be Richie making the call. So he was just using her phone, right? Not quite. In the same scene we see Judy checking out Amber's phone and hands it back to her. When would Richie have had the time to give it back to her? It's actually a lot better plan when you realize they actually cloned her phone to make it authentic. On top of all that...it works! Maybe not for the know it all viewers but from within the movie, no one suspects she actually made the calls herself. Besides, Roman does a similar thing with his voice changer and no one say a damn thing. When talking to Sarah he uses his own voice and we, as an audience, are suppose to believe in that moment it's a voice changer because there's no way they already revealed Ghostface's identity.

Next, let's talk about Dewey. People are mad that this tiny little girl could take him out but did you not see the epic fight scene where she very clearly could not overpower him? Even with all his injuries from the past movies and him just being old and tired he still overpowered her, a young and healthy energetic teenager. It wasn't until she played dead possum and attacked him while his guard was down that she could get a stab in.

And no, she did not lift him off the ground. Please pay attention to detail before you start crying about shit. She pulled the knife up and Dewey's body's first initial response was to go up on his toes with the knifes to try and prevent it from happening as much as possible. In fact, they both had to go on their tippy toes.

Another reason people love to hate on Amber is because her kills on Tara and Chad failed. Meanwhile Billy failed to kill Dewey, Randy and Gale. Nancy failed to kill Dewey. Roman failed to kill Mark. Charlie failed to kill Kirby. Richie failed to kill Mindy. Quinn failed to kill Gale and Mindy. Ethan and Quinn both failed to kill Chad. Wayne and Ethan both failed to kill Kirby. On top of all that, they all failed to kill Sidney, Sam and Tara in their respective movies. Amber letting a few kills slip is fine. She was still smart and a brutal attacker, especially when she knew she had a stronger opponent and needed to go for a fatal attack. In the end she killed the sheriff, ex-sheriff and a deputy.

"Amber was so obvious..." as if that's an excuse. You know who was the MOST obvious Ghostface killer to ever exsist? The very first who this whole damn fandom holds up on a pedestal: Billy Loomis. I mean, my Grandmother who can hardly comprehend the movies or simple basic things anymore knew it was him. Mickey was also super obvious. I've watched so many reaction videos and everyone susses Billy and Mickey so fast so please come up with a better excuse if you're going to trash Amber. I had the movie partially ruined for me (I looked away from the spoiler as fast as I could but I knew it was a young girl with long hair so there was few options of who it could be) so I can't really give my full opinion on how obvious she was but quite honestly I didn't see much evidence that led to her.

Just as a bonus: she has the most epic reveal (fight me.) Even if you suspected her you couldn't have suspected the reveal at that very moment. The way she abruptly pulled out the gun had me shook! "Welcome to act three" = iconic. As much as I love Jill if I see one person say how iconic her reveal was I'll lose it. It might have been shocking and unexpected it was her but her reveal was just her taking off her mask and saying "hello, Sidney. Surprised?" It was just a knock off of Mickey's reveal.

Now this is another that grinds my gears. When Amber faces off Sidney and Gale in the kitchen she cries, begs and pleads for her life. People take this for weakness and consider it another reason she's a terrible Ghostface because "she's the only one to do so." Here's my take on it: the first time Amber pleads for her life immediately after, she provokes Gale by claiming Dewey "died like a pussy." Now if she was truly scared and begging for her life, why would she fuck it up so quickly? She switched up SO fast. It was clearly a tactic to distract them long enough to figure out her next move and it worked. She tried it a second time but it obviously didn't work but I have no doubt in my mind that if it had she would have just attacked them again. She wasn't sorry and had no intentions of ever backing down. Meanwhile, the same people who complain about this are Stu fans and he cries like a little bitch when Sidney tells him she called the cops because his mommy and daddy are going to find out. 🥺 (I love Stu, by the way. I know that sounded aggressive but it's his toxic fans that really irritate me.)

On top of all that, she killed everyone in "Scream V." In my opinion, from the way I analyzed the film, she killed everyone and the only people Richie attacked were Sam in the hospital and Mindy in Amber's living room. You can view my first post to go more in depth, if you're interested.

At the end of the day, if you don't like her then whatever. That's fine. It's your opinion and it's probably not going to change but just say you don't like her and move on. Everything you hate on her for has been done by past Ghostfaces already so go hate on them. Amber was a great Ghostface and Mikey Madison did absolutely amazing in this role. Her going absolutely unhinged at the end is what won me over and made Amber my favorite Ghostface.

[therealvinelle]

I love the Agatha Christie question!

Who are your HP/Twilight faves in the Christie universe? (Who’s the opportunist who knows too much and dies for it? Who’s the conman killer who courts the girl to avoid suspicion? Who’s just trying to take a holiday and gets caught-up in a murder? Who are the dynamic mystery-solving duo who realize they are in love by the end of the novel? etc.).

I mean, that is kind of what The Man Who Would Be King (and secret fic) (both cowritten with @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin) have already become. We have our murder victim, Alphard, a very rich man with a colorful family, and possibly his sister, we have our unlikely detectives in Voldemort, Lily Potter, and Alphard himself. It may not be the center of the story but it's a large part of it.

In other words my answer for Harry Potter would somehow spoil all my present and future fics so I won't.

As for the Twilight version...

I vote we do it wealthy dysfunctional family style, it's most natural.

A patriarch is poisoned

Carlisle Cullen, a very wealthy man with powerful enemies, nonetheless dear to those around him and blessed with more friends than most, is found dead in his office one morning. Cause of death? Murder.

The police, caught on the detail that Dr. Cullen was a vampire and vampires are real, what the fuck is this on the doctor's autopsy table and is he going to wake up again and drink all our blood?, are little use in the investigation. Scotland Yard is soon brought in, and using Chief Swan's connections with the family they get a better picture of Dr. Cullen's life.

His family wasn't looking to inherit him anytime soon, as he was immortal. None of them were having money troubles however, all were independently wealthy.

He had made enemies of a thousand-year-old clan of powerful vampires, who on hearing that his murder is being investigated like this get very upset. Supposedly the victim lived with them in his youth (and inspector Craddock cries when he learns the timeline for this murder goes back to the 1600s. Are they going to have to bring historians in on this murder??), he might have known something

Oh what's that? The victim had a whole network of friends across the globe, who are all killers, and he knew everyone's secrets? ... do we have the budget to investigate this?

The victim was also living next to a tribe of magical shapeshifting wolves evolved specifically to kill his kind. They liked him best and had a line in their treaty that "he dies last". Not sure what to do with this information

Rosalie Hale missing person case from 1933 solved: Carlisle Cullen adopted her. Was she recognised, did someone piece it together, and was Carlisle killed in retribution?

The victim lived a fake life of fake papers. Could be important, except it's the most normal thing about this case.

The police wonder how this man didn't get murdered sooner, and are stretched so thin the investigation is going slowly.

So, Renesmee gets to be our plucky detective du jour, as she decides to see if she can help. Surely there is no harm in her poking around, and she's well liked around the vampire world so there might be answers she can get that human police can't, partly because policemen keep getting eaten.

She slowly narrows it down to the horrible realization that it was someone in the family, and she learns terrible things.

Jasper Hale wasn't Jasper Hale at all! He was a friend of Jasper's in the newborn army who wanted a new life, and who in the wake of Jasper's suden and unexpected death assumed his identity. He had Peter bite his entire face so he'd be scarred like Jasper had been, and vouch for this blond vampire most definitely being Jasper Hale. Peter later had to die because he Knew Too Much, and so did Charlotte, regrettably. Fake Jasper did however not kill Carlisle.

Edward seems a prime suspect, he is an angry and resentful young man who acts out. Everyone thinks he did it, and that Bella should certainly marry Jacob, the safer option. Much upheaval is had, however, once Renesmee is able to clear Edward's name and he meaningfully links arms with Bella. They sail off into the sunset with their inheritance.

Rosalie is a beautiful, cold, intimidating woman, the femme fatale sort who's surely conniving. It's a bit of a mystery why she married that poor fool Emmett, but it's clear to all she doesn't love him. No clear motive from her, other than the money she would inherit, but she's just so suspicious. Her alibi is ambiguous, she claims she was with Esme and Emmett but what if Esme and Emmett are lying to protect their daughter and wife? Superintendent Battle wonders about that.

Renesmee is at a loss.

And then she realizes that it's not Rosalie who acts like she doesn't love Emmett, it's Emmett who acts like he doesn't love her! And Esme's grieving widow act is just that, it's an act!

Renesmee realizes that Emmett and Esme are lovers, and killed Carlisle together. Esme committed it while Emmett tricked Rosalie into giving her an alibi. Renesmee realizes this once she has a "But Rosalie couldn't have seen Esme from that angle!" moment.

The plan was too pin Rosalie for the murder, see her hanged, and then in due time the mourning widowers would marry, happily entitled to all the money they couldn't have touched if they'd divorced. Also Rosalie was Catholic so she wouldn't have agreed to a divorce.

The two lovers are confronted, and Esme pulls out a tiny pearl-studded gun from her shoe, says "We tried, my love. I regret nothing" before shooting first Emmett, then herself.

[zyzix]

There's this aspect of Joshua Kiryu's character arc that I'm sort of flabbergasted to realize might be basically un-analyzed these past 15 or so years. I still kind of expect someone will pop up and point to something they've already written, but i'll talk about it anyway. This might also create some analysis ideas for NEO?? Ideally, anyway.

Essentially, I think it's really likely that Joshua misunderstood way more about his situation with Hanekoma, Minamimoto, and Neku than people tend to think. Not only that, but the idea that he had these misunderstandings kind of colors his relationship with Hanekoma. It also adds to him and Neku being foils. Where do I even begin.

I guess just with this scene that always made me go "hm, that's weird." Joshua: Think he's got a thing for you, Neku? Neku: What!? How the hell do you figure that? Joshua: Oh, please! The way he follows you around? Neku: That's just because I'm a Player. Joshua: I don't see him chasing after the other Players. Neku: (He's right… So why me?) Joshua: …Or is it my fault? Neku: (What? That's right… He might be tied in with the Reapers.)

So, what's so weird about this? Am I actually proposing that Joshua really thought Minamimoto was following Neku when he asked this? YES. I AM. That might sound nonsensical, and that's because it kind of is! But there's a reason for that.

When you know what happened in the Udagawa back alley a week and some change prior to that scene, it's reasonable to ask "why would Joshua think a Reaper was after some random RG guy?" Minamimoto came at him with a gun! But then why did Joshua even ask Neku if Minamimoto was following him? If he's trying to trick Neku into thinking this, he wouldn't immediately propose the truth afterwards. Maybe he's trying to make Neku distrust him as he does earlier (Neku scanning him, general sketch behavior perhaps) but not only is that redundant, it still doesn't answer why he asked about Neku in the first place.

So what happens if we take Joshua at face value here? Are we to assume Joshua thought he was the target at Udagawa, but Neku is the target now? I have no idea what the thought process would be behind that. Are we to assume that Joshua thought Neku was the target the whole time?? That still seems illogical, but maybe instead of asking why Neku would be the target, we should shift our focus and ask "why would Joshua think he isn't the target?"

I find that a lot easier to answer because we have Hanekoma. And Joshua thought he did too, basically.

We know from Secret Report 9 that the only person who should know Joshua's RG identity here is Mr. H.

SR 9: Minamimoto knows the Composer's RG identity (secret even to the Conductor), and has chased him to the Realground. The Fallen Angel may also have supplied him with this information.

Even in this report, it's proposed (by Hanekoma's misdirection) that someone else, some other Angel perhaps, could know Joshua's identity. We know that there isn't another Angel who told Minamimoto this information though. It was just Hanekoma. The only person in the story for Joshua to suspect is Mr. H.

Yet he doesn't. Or, I don't believe he does anyway. Let's take a look at our options.

Why does Joshua not seem to be wondering who sold him out? We have two branching options to start with: "He already knows who did it" and "he doesn't realize he's been sold out."

Lots of people assume Joshua already knows Hanekoma revealed his identity to Minamimoto. Because like… how else would he have known? Literally what else is Joshua supposed to think after being shot at? I mean, I've been explaining what else Joshua could have thought, but the point is it's a fair assumption. The only issue is that Joshua doesn't behave like he knows Mr. H betrayed him until Week 2 Day 5.

That is a long delay between then and when Joshua should have first known this information (before the story even starts.) I don't know when definitively Joshua put it together, but W2D5 is the first time we can say we KNOW he knows. And it really might have been that moment, because what happens right afterwards?

Well, Neku and him get attacked by Beat and Joshua learns about Kitaniji's "special op." But what happens right after THAT?

Joshua tells Neku that Hanekoma is CAT. An eye for an eye, I guess.

Part of the idea that Joshua did know Mr. H betrayed him from the start is that maybe Joshua was just putting up with that fact. That maybe Hanekoma was too useful, and couldn't do more harm anyway. Or that Joshua really didn't have any other options. I can understand why people think that, but I don't think we can bet on any of those. There's no reason for Joshua to think Hanekoma couldn't do way more harm than just tattling on him, especially as the week goes on and Taboo Noise crop up. Also, while it's impossible to prove one way or the other, there's no reason to think Joshua couldn't have built his game plan sans Hanekoma from the start if he thought he'd betrayed him. All of this assuming that Joshua gives a shit about what Mr. H did, admittedly.

On the other hand, if we posit that Joshua found out later about Mr. H, and that he'd give a shit about that, there should be some kind of change in his behavior towards him. This seems a little hard to to prove because that scene on W2D5 is the last time we see them interact (or even see Mr. H at all) until the ending of the game. That said, it's probably very telling that in TWEWY Mr. H is Joshua's sole confidant, and in NEO Mr. H has no idea what's going on with Joshua at all. I find that very interesting, but we're gonna put a pin in that for later.

Aaaaaaaaaall of that's to say that I don't think it's very likely that Joshua knew Hanekoma told Minamimoto his identity from the start. He shares information with Mr. H too easily for me to think that's the case. What's our next option?

It's possible that Joshua believed he already knew who told Minamimoto, but he was mistaken. However, I said before that there isn't any other suspect in the story and I don't think we can give Joshua another suspect to focus on without just making stuff up. Haz and Coco come to mind as people who might be able to share Joshua's identity, but we can't escape the fact that neither of them even existed at the time Joshua's main character arc was written. We would probably also have to invent some connection they'd have to this particular Game despite them being absent. I think this option is less likely than Joshua knowing about Mr. H the whole time, so I'm striking it off.

What we have left is the "Joshua didn't know he'd been sold out" option. Aside from what I've been arguing, the only other option is "Joshua thought Minamimoto found out on his own somehow." There's no solid reason for Joshua to think this, but it's possible he did anyway. The only reason I think this is less likely than the possibility that he didn't realize Minamimoto was after him is because of how Joshua talked to Neku back there. We have evidence that Joshua might have thought Minamimoto was after someone else; we don't have evidence that Joshua might have thought Minamimoto was able to discover his identity on his own. That said, after the conversation Josh had with Neku W2D2 it's possible his assumption shifted from one to the other as he was trying to figure things out.

So yeah, I believe it's most likely that Joshua didn't realize he'd been sold out at all because that would require him to think Hanekoma would do that to him. Because of that, he believed for more than a week that Neku was Minamimoto's target when they were all in the RG.

You might think that this idea would run into a lot of inconsistencies but I've found it to be shockingly coherent. (Honestly the whole background plot of this game is shockingly coherent for how overt it's themes are. I guess that's beside the point.) Like, let's look at the scene in Udagawa.

It starts with Neku looking up at the tag mural. Then Joshua runs up with a gun from Neku's left. It appears as if Joshua may have been looking behind him. Then Joshua fires in Neku's direction. Neku falls to the ground, but he is unhurt. Then Minamimoto is revealed to be behind Neku with a gun. He is clutching his shoulder. Minamimoto raises his gun, and Neku shields himself. Then several shots are fired towards Joshua. Joshua stops the bullets with his powers, and silently threatens to shoot Minamimoto again. Minamimoto runs off, and Joshua shoots Neku while he is looking after him.

If Joshua already believes that his identity is safe, none of that would clearly contradict that idea to him! Why did Josh think Minamimoto shot at him? Because Joshua already shot Minamimoto. Why was Joshua running if he didn't think Minamimoto was chasing him? To get to his target before the Reaper.

Conversely, why would Joshua be running from Minamimoto if bullets aren't going to hit him?

To us it's obvious that Minamimoto was chasing Joshua and tried to cut him off at the other end of the alley. But to Joshua at the time, he thought Minamimoto was going for the guy in between them.

This does raise some other questions, but there's enough of a case here that I think it's worth speculating off of. Did Joshua even have a theory as to why Minamimoto would be after someone in the RG? Maybe he thought Kitaniji sent one of his Reapers after his potential proxy. Why would it matter to Joshua if Minamimoto killed Neku instead of him if he needs the guy dead? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Joshua only leaves that extra Player Pin-- his trump card-- on Neku after Minamimoto leaves.

Kind of wild so far, right? Well we're not done because I think this idea that Joshua may have had created ANOTHER oversight for him.

Week 2 Day 7: Minamimoto: I was hoping for a little reenactment. Same spot, same setup as last time… Neku: (Last time? Nrrgh! Not now!) Joshua: You OK, Neku? Neku: Waaaugh! [incomplete Neku death cutscene] Neku: It… it was you? Joshua: Neku… Neku: You killed me… You stole my life!

What's with Joshua's reactions here? Did he not realize that Neku was getting headaches around Minamimoto?

(yes)

It's understandable if you think Joshua is faking it here, but if you're with me about this so far you also have to admit that Joshua's surprise can be pretty genuine. I'll be honest, I thought this way before I thought anything else I've put in this essay so far just because Joshua and the situation seemed sincere to me. Why wouldn't Joshua notice this, though?

See, there are four times that Neku, Joshua and Minamimoto are all in the same scene. Neku gets a headache from all of them, and this is what they look like:

Maybe this is just me, but the sprite direction in all of them but the last one makes it seem like Joshua stays between Neku and Minamimoto, and that he does not take his eyes off of Minamimoto the whole time he's around. And compare day 1 to day 7. Even though Neku's sprite is the one in the middle, he retreats backwards when he gets the headache, giving the suggestion that he's actually sort of behind Joshua. That doesn't happen on day 7 though, meaning Neku is definitely far enough in front that Joshua can see him-- and that's when Joshua finally reacts.

How could Joshua misunderstanding Minamimoto's target contribute to this? Regardless of the misunderstanding here, it's clear to me that Joshua views Minamimoto as enough of a threat that he doesn't even glance at Neku while he's having a memory migraine. But the fact that Joshua does notice on W2D7 seems a little less random if that misunderstanding had cleared up for him and caused him to be less zeroed in on Minamimoto. Keep in mind that these four events split evenly into "before W2D5" and "after W2D5." That means that the first two, Joshua would have thought Neku was the target, and the last two are when Joshua knows he was the target all along.

It makes some sense that Joshua might be so focused on Minamimoto that he doesn't notice what's going on with Neku if he thought Neku was being targeted, but what's going on W2D6? Joshua should know by then it's not Neku that Minamimoto was after. Hell, Minamimoto saved both of them earlier that day so why is he so focused on him then but not the next day? I suspect it's because this was Joshua's first time talking to Minamimoto while knowing he tried to kill him, and he was very absorbed in it.

So on days 1 and 2, Joshua was totally focused on Minamimoto because he viewed him as a threat to his proxy. Day 6 Joshua is focused on Minamimoto but it's not about him being an immediate threat, and on day 7 Minamimoto is at his most dangerous, but Joshua thought he could relax more because he was the target and not Neku.

There is one more thing that might keep this from the list of "Shit Joshua Did Not Know About," and it's the fact that Neku… talks? He talks while he's in migraine pain. Joshua may not spare a glance Neku's way but he can hear. Would that not tip him off earlier than W2D7 if he wasn't just ignoring Neku? Funny that-- the dialogue is actually sort of clever here.

Neku talks a decent amount when he's getting that memory migraine around Minamimoto, but the most suspect lines Neku has aren't spoken by him out loud.

Week 2 Day 2: Minamimoto: You fractals have no future! QED. Class is dismissed! [Minamimoto leaves] Neku: (Finally… The pounding's stopped. What language is that guy speaking?)

Week 2 Day 6: Neku: !? Zetta… Neku: (Nrrgh! My head… again…) […] Neku: (The pain's fading… Are he and I connected or something?)

Earlier on (as in the two days Joshua is most focused on Minamimoto as a threat) Neku does also speak out loud about his brain suffering. If Joshua isn't looking at him as well though, they're all things he could interpret as Neku simply complaining about the Weird Math Guy Who Says Confusing Things Through A Megaphone. Neku doesn't like people being loud or people speaking nonsense after all, and uh… Joshua also didn't have the highest opinion of Neku's sociability. Assumptions are a hell of a thing.

So Joshua went into his Game with Neku completely unaware that Hanekoma betrayed him and that Minamimoto was trying to kill him specifically. Then he carried on for nearly the majority of this game without knowing that Minamimoto-- or perhpas the combination of him and Minamimoto-- was giving his proxy debilitating headaches. What does that mean for his character?

Little, but interesting things, I think. I find it pretty compelling that Joshua missed something big about Neku because he was so self-involved even while trying to protect him. It's a neat thing to point at and go "yup, Neku's not the only one who looks stupid for writing people off." I think it also lends well to the idea that they were both getting to know each other in week 2.

Also-- we're coming back to that pin from earlier-- I think it helps flesh out a difference between Neku and Joshua's situations at the end of the game.

Neku: I'm glad I met you guys. You made me… pick up on things, I probably would've just gone on ignoring. Trust your partner… and I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you.

If you've collected all the secret reports, after Neku's ending monologue and the credits, there's the secret ending. And I feel like the idea of "trust vs. forgiveness" is a palpable element when the ending is viewed as a whole like this. TWEWY doesn't touch upon the idea of forgiveness nearly as much as it does the idea of trust, but I can't help but see a distinction between the two in Joshua just as much as Neku. Only where Neku trusts Joshua but doesn't forgive him yet, Joshua forgives Hanekoma but doesn't trust him yet.

Think about it, doesn't "forgives but does not trust" perfectly describe all of Joshua's future behavior towards Hanekoma? He'll hang around Mr. H in the Room of Reckoning and 104, or talk with him casually about the destruction of a neighboring city. But he wont talk to him if he's upset, or tell him any of his plans anymore. He doesn't seem to hold any of it against Mr. H but he refuses to confide in or rely on him. That turnaround feels really strong if you look at how much Joshua relied on him beforehand. Or if you view his impression of his assassination attempt as contingent on his trust of Mr. H.

The crumbs of information we get about Joshua and Hanekoma's relationship after the betrayal might seem sort of circumstantial. Joshua doesn't want to talk about his feelings for Neku in the secret ending. That carries over into A New Day, and seems to be about Neku. And then in NEO Joshua doesn't give any information to Mr. H for… unknowable NEO plot reasons. But there's something else between og TWEWY and NEO to suggest that Joshua doesn't trust Hanekoma with shit.

A New Day- Hanekoma (over the phone): If that kid is who I think he is, then he probably doesn't know a thing. If he's who YOU think he is, then he probably won't say a thing.

At first this reads fine because Joshua spent his week with Neku tight lipped and evasive as hell. But still, isn't it a little weird for Mr. H to be saying this? He tells Mr. H stuff, doesn't he? Not anymore! It feels like this Hanekoma is talking pretty universally despite having been the exception. But he doesn't know shit and he doesn't propose he can help them know shit if it's about Joshua. And maybe Coco's fake Shibuya has something to do with that, but it's hard to say.

Honestly, aside from gaining the perspective to not destroy a whole city (important), it's easy to look at this and wonder if Joshua came out of TWEWY worse off. And… yeah, NEO really doesn't seem to help that. But I'm going to end this off with some really vague NEO speculation.

What if it's REALLY just Hanekoma who doesn't know shit about Joshua now? It's probably impossible to know the extent of this, but for some reason Shiki and Beat seem to treat Joshua with a slight sense of familiarity now…? The fandom also (quite reasonably) assumes that the real final day of NEO is the first time Neku has seen Joshua since the final day of TWEWY but we don't actually know that. Some food for thought.

[zetsubo-bani]

The Attackers and why I don't think it was rciel

The attackers of the tenth birthday is probably the biggest mystery in black butler. They are the ones ociel wants revenge against and their identities is a complete mystery. Which is why this is a popular topic to theorise about.

The most popular theory is the real ciel mastermind theory (rcmmt) which claims that it was rciel who either let the intruders in and commanded them or did this whole thing himself.

I myself strongly disagree with this theory and want to present why (as well as do little speculations about the real culprits).

Now then, why do people think it's rciel?

The panel that most people found suspicious are these:

The unknown expression on ciels face is what caught peoples attention and a lot of people thought that it meant he developed some sort of grudge against his parents because they "wanted to seperate him and his brother". But I think it's actually the opposite.

What vincent and rachel basically told him was "if you grow up and become a strong earl, you can help and protect your brother, even if you two are not in the same place" and I think that's what kickstarted rciels protective side.

We've seen in the blue memory arc after they got captured that rciel always held ociel in a very protective pose and with a glare to the hostile person.

And this moment is simply him realising that since his brother is a bit on the physically weaker side and doesn't have the title, that rciel can protect him instead. Some call his smile fake but I think it's genuine if you look at the background and how those little bubbles are drawn (which are always there in happy moments).

We also saw this protective side later during the attack .

Tanaka was supposed to pick them up at 6pm and as we can see, it's already 40 minutes after the time he was supposed to come. If a person who is usually very reliable is 40 minutes late, anyone would be suspicious and as we can see in rciels expression, he clearly suspects something is wrong.

We can see rciels protective side already kicking in by telling ociel he should remain where he is while rciel goes and checks. I couldn't include the next panel due to the limit but after that rciel says "it's my duty as the heir" which definitely ties back to what the previous pages caused.

So rciel basically walks out with no insurance that it's really safe while leaving his brother behind where he is (at the moment) safe.

Though after roughly 15 minutes have passed, ociel walks out anyways.

On his way he hears barking from vincents room after the dog sebastian has ran off.

What I believe happened was that the dog caught the perpetrator with vincent and started barking which caused the attacker to also kill the dog.

After ociel saw his dead parents and dog, he ran off in a panic, accidentally stumbling upon more corpses who were gathered around the whole house

Before hearing what seems to be the sound of blades clashing and running into tanaka.

Now this part is very important for the next page but think about this: if there is a sound of blades clashing and tanaka is not the one fighting then who are the two people fighting?

The answer is: it's rciel and the attacker.

Tanaka soon says this:

"master ciel is..." Indicates that rciel is in that hallway tanaka was in and from the sound of it, it doesn't seem that he was fine.

But you may ask now: "if rciel is fighting against someone and didn't seem to be doing well then why didn't tanaka help him since he is their servant and supposed to protect them?"

The answer is ociel.

Tanaka got distracted by ociel suddenly entering the scene. But most importantly look at what happened moments afterwards:

Someone stabbed tanaka in the back after he ran towards ociel (which was very likely the person who fought against rciel). But the important part are the hands grabbing ociel from behind.

Someone was following ociel and tanaka saw this which is why he left rciel on his own and try to protect ociel. But it was already too late.

After they got captured, rciel drops what I think is the biggest hint that he isn't the responsible one.

"if only I had more power", "if only I had the power to be invincible" pretty much confirms that he was indeed fighting against someone and got overpowered.

Now here is why I don't think rciel is the culprit:

1. Rciel has no motive to hurt his parents. They acted completely fine and like normal parents to him and that lesson after his tantrum is not nearly enough to serve as motive, especially because I think it served the opposite purpose and only spurred on his "I'm the big brother, I need to be strong" personality of his (which can be a common thing of older siblings)

2. Like I said the reason rciel went on his own was due to that personality and thinking he as the heir needs to deal with the possible threat. It wasn't to let in intruders

3. When they woke up, 40 minutes had already passed so the intruders were already on their rampage while the twins were sleeping (which caused tanaka to not come). Rciel couldn't possibly have let the attackers in if he was sleeping or while he was playing with ociel the whole time. He literally has an alibi.

4. That 15 minute timeframe wouldn't have been enough to kill off everyone in that manor because on one hand it is absolutely huge and on the other he is just 10 and lacks strength to fight against a grown adult.

5. Sebastian the dog obviously caught the intruder with vincent and barked. But sebastian already knows and likes rciel so why would he bark at his familiar? Because the intruder wasn't a familiar and most likely a stranger.

6. Rciel was fighting against someone which is the attacker. How can rciel be the attacker if he was fighting against the attacker?

7. Rciel was just 10. A little kid and most importantly the son of Vincent! Even if rciel had malicious intent (which he didn't) he couldn't have orchestrated it without vincent as the guard dog somehow noticing it. Tanaka or other servants were closely watching them and rciel wouldn't even have had the chance to meet and hire assassins to attack their manor on the tenth birthday.

8. Why would rciel cry over not having been strong enough if he was the mastermind? Even if he was and the attackers ended up "betraying him", it just feels strange that this would be what he complains and apologises for. The "not having been strong enough" is a big blow for him since he believed for years that he has to be the strong one for his brother. But the fact that he wasn't and they both got kidnapped, deeply hurts him which is why those tears in his eyes are genuine

9. Rciel having vincents ring is not a surprise if you think about the dog sebastian. Sebastian barked loudly which caught ociels attention who was rather far away. And it certainly must have caught rciels as well which is where he likely caught the attackers in the act and chased after them. This is what most likely broke out the fight.

The attackers are two or more people and by the size of the hands who grabbed ociel, they are most likely adults.

Besides consider this: Vincent requested diedrich to protect his sons if something should happen to him (which even diedrich found suspicious). Why would he ask that? Likely because he suspected something like this would happen.

It's highly likely that Vincent must have done something bad that he knew will cause his death. Which makes me theorise that vincent is the reason the attackers came and not because rciel orchestrated something.

Maybe I will add more reasons in the future if I think about more but I really had to get this off my chest since the rcmmt is my least favourite theory because it makes no sense to me. That theory is definitely based on some bias against rciel I believe.

But hopefully after this, you will see why it couldn't have been him.

[snonkerdoodlefizzy221b]

you know what i think is underrated? Aziraphale has courage.

He's been a sort of outcast among heaven for his whole life. They tell him that he's a terrible angel, and he buys into it. They treat him badly and demean him at pretty much every chance they get.

And yet, he still attempts to serve them. Is it trauma? Yes, absolutely. If you've been told one thing all your life from people who have drilled into you that THEY are the master power, of course you're going to believe that, and be extremely hesitant about believing anything else. But he still goes to them. Still faces them in his memos. Hell, he even participated in the Arrangement and acted like nothing was wrong. To people he had every right to be afraid of, and was probably scared to death of, he lied. That takes some serious balls, I'm telling you. He had the courage to do something like that.

He also had the courage to go out and face the world. Being a new angel must have been very difficult for him when he was learning human mannerisms and how to navigate the world. He must have had so many embarrassing run-ins with people while trying to learn how to go about seeming human. He probably had to put in so much effort. How long did it take him to become comfortable enough with the mannerisms of the time in order to make sure that he wasn't suspected of witchcraft?

How long did it take him to put aside his fear and prejudice against "sullying" himself with human (and viewed-as-sinful) pleasures? Probably a damn long time.

And then, of course, Crowley. He associated with Crowley from the very beginning--he had the courage to put a demon under his wing even as God watched. He lied to God's face. He kept going to Crowley, interacting with him, all while Heaven could easily see him and do him in. He started the Arrangement with Crowley, even though Heaven drilled into him that demons are bad. He became friends with Crowley. They both became so intertwined even as Heaven loomed ever closer.

Those chuckturds drilled into him that Armageddon was the one thing that his end goal must be. He averted it because he liked Earth too much.

He did all that. He had the courage to go against what he was being told to do. He had the courage to navigate the world when he didn't know anything about it.

Even as he is in the 21st century--he is seen as eccentric, old-fashioned, and probably a bit kooky by the rest of Whickber Street, and anyone who sees him. Maybe he isn't aware of their perception of him, but I rather think he is. I think that he is aware of them, and despite that he goes out and interacts with them everyday and keeps being himself. Despite pretty much everyone else (barring Crowley) looking down on him.

(The reason I'm saying this is because he has so much more courage than I do--than I could ever imagine. I am afraid of being myself because of all the things around me and I care a lot about what people say. He has so much courage even though people would probably perceive him as just as much of an outcast/weird person as I think they perceive me.)

He had the courage to stay and attempt to make Heaven better even without Crowley by his side. (Yes I know they've both done and said horrible things to each other not only over the years but especially in the bookshop scene and they both tried to degrade core parts of each other's identities there and both's end goals were right and a lot of the things they said to each other were wrong--that's not what I'm focussing on.) He went in without the one being in the universe who truly, wholly supported him. To that force that traumatized him so wholly.

And I want that courage to be a main part of him during Season 3--because how could it not? He has to challenge all the beliefs he's been fed from the moment he was created. He has to face the person he hurt and try to make amends--be around this painful thing and focus on the task at hand. He has to fuck shit up and try to make a change under the watchful eyes of the Metatron. You know what? He's shown enough courage at this point that the actions part (fuck shit up) won't be a goddamn problem. It is himself that is his own worst enemy--those beliefs and morals that were Heaven's but he thinks are his, his past and current actions in relation to Crowley and the weight of them all. He needs to face that, fix it, and go on and save the world. And he will. He has the courage to do it.

[bberry005]

THE BAD BATCH FINALE THOUGHTS

this goes without saying, but this post contains spoilers for the series finale of the bad batch. keep reading at your own risk. also this got so long like i had so many more thoughts than i thought i would.

okay first of all i LOVED the finale. it played out simultaneously exactly how i expected and nothing like i expected at all. my top moments from this episode were definitely the ending and the scenes where they found out omega freed the zillo beast.

okay now for a few rapid fire lists

things i loved: - the fact they absolutely did not let crosshair sacrifice himself. when i saw the "plan 99" tweet by jennifer corbett, i had a feeling it was going to be something like this and i've never been happier to be proved right - additionally, "clone force 99 died with tech. we aren't that squad anymore" was an amazing moment. i feel like some people might not like it much but i thought it was so fitting. i have so much to say about it i might make a whole post on it - THE RETURN OF HUNTER'S ENHANCED SENSES WHEN HE FELT THAT BLASTER BOLT COMING TOWARDS HIM. chat it took us three whole seasons but we finally did it! we saw his enhanced senses! - the humor was on point, as always - omega's entire character this episode. like all her tantiss part 2 moments, this episode really showed how much she's learned and grown and the person she's starting to become - ECHO AND EMERIE!!! they're such a duo and if star wars ever does any projects about the clone rebellion, i want to see more of them - all the fight scenes were perfect, as always - the clone prisoners all joining echo and omega to save hunter, wrecker, and crosshair - going off of that, i loved how the batch got stopped and they faced extremely high stakes and losses. it wasn't easy for them to get in and out. wrecker got severely injured, hunter nearly got crushed, crosshair lost his hand, and they all got captured. their losses stacked up with how insane of a mission they were trying to pull off. i was worried there'd be too many losses or they'd win too easily, but the balance was perfectly struck - the scene on the bridge with hemlock was AMAZING. no notes. i loved it. hemlock's death was also so violent like i feel like they don't show that much violence usually but they really just showed him getting shot until he fell off that bridge and you know what? it's what he deserved - THE ENDING. EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ENDING OH MY GOD. without getting too sappy, the very last scene reminded me of me and my dad when i left for college for the first time. obviously the context and stakes of omega leaving were VERY different and a lot higher, but just that similiarity made me cry

things i thought were okay: - nala se's sacrifice. it was kind of meh and didn't really feel impactful to me - rampart's villain moment was so high drama but again i thought it was okay - omega sneaking off and trying to leave without saying goodbye felt a little out of character but you know what? that's okay. i think it fits a little with parts of her character that weren't super explored in the show

things i thought needed to be addressed more: - that insane cx trooper reveal? like hello? those guys were INSANE and i loved how they were purposely designed to all mirror the batch in some way (also fellow "tech is cx-2" truthers we were absolutely incorrect and even if he was cx-2, he's firmly dead now so uh yeah) - but building off the cx trooper thing, having a cx trooper that mirrored each member of the batch and then revealing them in the last episode was odd to me. it makes me suspect there was supposed to be another season based on this plot line but said season got cut - the fates of some of the side characters. i was kind of wondering where phee went and what was up with her

things that we all thought were going to be addressed but weren't: - cx trooper (but specifically cx-2) identities - where the fuck is cody???? - how the fuck did wolffe join rex???

all in all, a beautiful ending to a beautiful show. to me, the bad batch has always been a father-daughter story at it's core. again, without getting too sappy and personal, star wars for me and so many other people my age has always been something that's introduced to us by someone older who we look up to, and for me that person is my dad. for a franchise i associate so much with my dad and being able to connect with him to tell the story of hunter and omega, a father and his daughter, really means a lot to me. so thank you to the bad batch for telling this amazing story and being the thing that fully launched me back into loving star wars again. thank you for this story about love and family and loyalty and sacrifice and for honoring all the core principles of this story in the finale. i can't wait to see where omega's story goes in the future, and as always, may the force be with you <3

[zimthandmade]

Sincerely curious! Since the kids in your AU have families and communities to go home to who know who they are, why the aliases at Wammys? Also - how did their parents react when Mello and Matt left for LA?

Ohh you're opening a book here haha I’m trying to answer as compactly as I can.

About my concept of Wammy’s, just so we’re on the same page: Instead of an orphanage for highly gifted children to become L‘s successors, Wammy‘s is a special boarding school for "twice exeptional“ children. They specialise in the education of intellectually gifted children with learning difficulties that are not able to fully unfold their capacities in a traditional school environment due to mental disorders such as Autism or ADHD or other issues. It‘s a tiny school, and probably the only one of this kind in the whole UK, with a maximum capacity of 60 students with approx. 20 teachers. L is still involved here but only really takes action on the best of the best. For the other kids, he’s more like a fun urban legend in Wammy’s and his name doesn’t hover above the kids as this unreachable and downright depressing entity everyone is so eager to surpass. No, these kids are just trying to live their lives.

About the aliases: Wammy‘s has kids from all walks of life from all kinds of different ethnicities and backgrounds. Multilingualism is absolutely common there. Many have difficult family relationships and have had a troublesome life. So, I think there's a high percentage of kids from immigrant families at Wammy’s, that maybe have names that are a little difficult to pronounce or have great potential for bullying and that’s Wammy’s way of tackling this? Or maybe Wammy’s sees this as a way for kids to practice self-expression? Maybe they’re just trying to get them all used to having to work with fake names, since L has his eyes on them to maybe one day replace him? Maybe it’s just a poorly executed gamification of daily life for kids that have it hard enough already? Like a neat little game of “How well can you keep something that should be easy to find out hidden from eveyone else”? And you know what the kicker is? The kids absolutely own this game. I’m not saying that Wammy’s is doing any good with their methods in my AU but at least they’re TRYING to offer the kids there some life quality (canon Wammy’s is a hellhole, let’s be real here). I’m pretty sure that the parents are advised to not use their kids real name on campus to not ruin that whole concept and they even go so far that they have seperate, relatively secluded parking places where parents can pick up their kids a little more discreetly. These are all pretty weak explanations in my opinion. But, you know, real life is sometimes stupid and boring too and things don’t always have to make sense. Or do you have a logical explanation to the alias conundrum? I’m grateful for any food of thoughts!

And about how their parents reacted when they left: Before his death, L suspected that some students from Wammy‘s House might pick up on his work on the Kira case. To protect their identities in case of his passing, he made arrangements for the families of the most likely candidates (namely Near, Mello and Matt but also some other kids) to be put in a witness protection programme asap. Overnight, the families were kidnapped, questioned, everyone was confused as hell and the agents could only tell them that their kid was "involved in a potentially compromising international crime busting whatever“. They just vanished and are now living in a different country under different names etc. They didn’t even get a chance to see their kid one more time. The authorities are still searching for Nikola (Mellos dad). Ivanka (Mellos mom) threw a massive tantrum and had several mental breakdowns at the news of her son being involved in serious criminal activities and even called Nikola (highly unusual, as they never ever have contact, ever!) in a moment of absolute despair and ranted about his bad influence on the boy. Ana and Jakov (Mellos siblings) couldn’t give two shits about Mello anyways and are more scared and angry about the whole situation now than they are worried about him. Chris (Matts dad) just hears “crime” and goes full “this is all my fault”-mode blaming himself for not being there for Matt enough. All of his optimism is suddenly out the window. Matt is such a weakspot for Chris, its heartbreaking. I’m gonna expand on that in a seperate little story about Matt and Chris’ life before Wammy’s. It’s gonna be adorable, promise.

Phew. Thanks for asking, taking the time to read and understand. Love you all <3

----

Mellos family | Matts family

[waytooinvested]

Forgotten, Not Forgiven - Chapter 12

This and previous chapters are also on AO3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Ms Luthor, I have a Nia Nal here asking to see you. Shall I make her an appointment for tomorrow?’

‘That’s alright Jess, please send her straight through.’

Lena put aside the copy of ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ she had been skimming through with a certain amount of relief. Even before she’d opened the book she had been aware that Freud was the wrong place to begin her dream studies, but it had also been the only even vaguely relevant text she could find at the only bookshop within walking distance from L-Corp, and since her computer was midway through an “out of hours” update that had been stalled on 3% complete for the past 45 minutes, it had been her only option if she wanted to get stuck into research without waiting for her online orders to arrive.

The office door cracked open, and Nia peered round it.

‘Hey Lena, sorry for dropping in unannounced like this, I thought you’d be finishing for the day. Are you busy?’

‘Not at all, come in, please, have a seat. Is everything alright? I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.’

‘I know, I was just passing on my way home and thought I’d come in and give you a quick update.’

‘Oh? Do you have a plan for how you’d like to work Kara’s dream session? I started some research of my own today to get a feel for dream work, but-’

She gestured at the book on her desk with a grimace.

‘-it isn’t going very well so far.’

‘You’re reading Freud? Lena I can promise you that that is not what dream-power interpretation is about.’

Lena chuckled ruefully. ‘I was beginning to suspect as much. Oh well, at least I can read something more worthwhile now. Anyway, sorry. What was your update? Is everything alright?’

‘Yes, totally fine. Well, I think so anyway... I told Kara I’m Dreamer today.’

Nia’s tone was despondent in spite of her mostly positive words, and Lena sat up straight, the remains of her Freud-induced stupor instantly dispelled.

‘Something went wrong. Did Kara display neurological symptoms? Headache, nose bleed, uneven pupil dilation?’

‘No, no it was nothing like that, sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. I don’t think it was a Supergirl issue at all. It’s probably fine and I’m just making a big deal over nothing, but she just… seemed a little freaked out. Well. She hugged me and said she was really happy for me and glad that I told her, but she was kind of quiet after that, and she left not long after. And… she left most of her doughnut.’

Lena bit her lip, trying to recall if she had ever seen Kara leave a doughnut before, and drawing a blank.

‘I see what you mean, that doesn’t sound like Kara. Have you talked to Alex? Maybe she just needs a bit of support to come to terms with the whole superhero thing. After all without her own Kryptonian identity we can’t be sure how much she is really aware of aliens and powers, beyond the obvious. From what I’ve observed it seems like all of that side of her reality is being filtered through the context of Alex’s job more than her own experience at the moment.’

‘Well, that’s actually why I came to see you. I thought you’d know what to do for the best.’

Because you’ve been on the other side of this.

Because you lashed out.

Because I want to know how to make sure that Kara doesn’t end up like you .

Nia didn’t say any of it, but the implication was there, just below the surface of her innocuous statement. It was unexpected, and Lena felt the brief, uncomfortable swoop in her stomach of missing a step going down. At another time, or with another person, she might have said something cutting or dismissive to regain the upper hand in the conversation and hide her fluster, but she couldn’t do that to Nia.

Not about her own coming out.

Instead she picked a fountain pen from her pen pot and rolled it between her fingers as she considered what to say, seeking the soothing familiarity of its cool, smooth weight in her hand as much as the excuse not to make eye contact.

‘I don’t think you need to worry about Kara reacting the way I did, even if she isn’t entirely comfortable right now. The two situations are very different, and in any case, Kara doesn’t exactly have the Luthor temperament.’

She thought she had done a good job of keeping her tone neutral and her response measured, but rather than looking reassured Nia smacked a hand to the side of her forehead in a gesture that was simultaneously comical and self-admonishing.

‘I just totally put my foot in my mouth didn’t I? I’m sorry, at this point I think it basically lives in there, but I honestly wasn’t even thinking about that. I just thought that since you’re her best friend, you’d be the person Kara would most want to talk to right now.’

‘Oh.’

That possibility had never even occurred to Lena, and now that it had she felt flustered in an altogether different way.

‘Do you really think so?’

‘Of course! Kara has been so much happier since the two of you started spending time together again. She’s even getting along better with Andrea now, and she talks about you and all the funny clever things you said last time she saw you pretty much constantly. It’s actually kind of adorable.’

Nia’s cheeks went a bit pink then, and she squirmed in her seat like she had said more than she meant to.

‘Uhhh, maybe don’t tell Kara I told you that. I don’t want to embarrass her.’

Interesting. If Lena didn’t know better she would think- but it wouldn’t matter anyway. It’s not like she would have been able to do anything about it. Not now.

‘Look, Nia, I really would like to help, but I just don’t think it’s a good idea. My friendship with Kara can only ever be temporary, so it wouldn’t be fair to push the boundaries too far. Besides, how can I go and reassure Kara about her reaction to you when I can’t forgive her for doing more or less the same thing to me? Even if it was much worse in our case.’

Nia tilted her head to one side, as if she didn’t quite catch Lena’s meaning and was checking whether a new angle might make it fit better with her perception of reality.

‘Why?’

‘Why is it worse?’

‘No, why can’t you forgive her? I get that there’s a lot of history between you and I don’t know the finer details of everything Kara did to hurt you. Maybe some of it really doesn’t deserve to be just forgiven, and that’s fair enough if it’s really how you feel. But from everything I’ve seen, you want her back in your life as much as she wants you in hers. You want to forgive her. So why won’t you? Who is it really serving to force yourself to stay mad when you could just… stop? Let yourself be her friend again. Be all of our friends again. Just come back.’

Just come back.

As if she had merely walked out early on a night out, and could choose to turn around and go back to the bar any time she liked, to be welcomed in from the cold with hugs and warmth and an easy acceptance that she wasn’t sure she entirely deserved.

‘It’s not that simple.’

It can’t be... Can it?

‘Sure it is. If you want it to be. Lena… you do know that we want you back, don’t you? Not just Kara. All of us do.’

Lena opened her mouth to respond, and then closed it again. Because no, she didn’t know that. She knew that, with the exception of their latest meeting, they had all been getting along well, and that she had enjoyed the time she had been spending at the DEO far more than she expected to, but she hadn’t allowed herself to think beyond that.

Now she did.

She thought about it, and what came first, as always, was the flash of anger and sting of hurt humiliation that echoed what she had felt on first finding out how much of an outsider she truly was among her supposed friends. She had believed they were all on even footing, only to discover that every single one of them had been part of a circle of trust that did not include her, and that when push came to shove, they were perfectly happy to drop her from their lives the moment she walked away from Kara (because they were her friends, first and foremost, and Lena had been allowed to tag along only because Kara had wanted her there, not for her own sake).

That came first.

But this time, it didn’t stop there.

Because things between them had been different since Atlantis.

With Alex first, who had been the most unsympathetic when she first cut Kara out, and yet had also been the one to reach out to her after the kidnapping, and to keep on reaching out, even when Lena had snarled at her and tried to push her away. Alex had accepted her anger, and apologised, and somehow turned it into something less like hatred and more like catharsis. From there the others had followed easily in her wake. None of them had treated Lena the way she had expected them to (with reproach or recrimination, even suspicion that she really had had something to do with Kara’s condition), and without Kara beside her to be the focal point of Lena’s attention she had been getting to know all of them properly in their own rights, and found that she liked them.

Now she was giving space to the idea, she had to admit that they seemed to like her too, and not just for what she could do for Atlantis or the DEO, or as a tacked on extension of Kara. It had been starting to feel like she was really one of them…

Only then Kara had been hurt and she had let her guard down too far. She had exposed a raw, volatile part of herself that they had not been meant to see, even implying to her girlfriend’s face that Kelly's life mattered less than Kara’s. The memory made her wince (not least because although she really, genuinely liked Kelly and knew that the suggestion had been neither reasonable nor fair... she had meant it. She still meant it), and she couldn’t help worrying that the lapse had knocked them right back to square one.

‘Even if that was true before, I’m not sure it still can be after the other night.’

‘What, because of the Atlantis meeting?’

Nia sounded confused, as if she really wasn’t sure what Lena meant by ‘the other night’, and Lena nodded without looking up from the pen she was now holding too tightly in her fist.

‘Lena, that was nothing, you were just sticking up for Kara, we all knew that.’

‘I don’t think J’onn would see it that way. Or Alex.’

‘Pfft, J’onn’s like 300 years old and used to be Alex’s boss, he can take a bit of snark. And Alex actually told me after you left that she was glad you were there, because she had to speak for the DEO and National City as well but you were just 100% there to advocate for your friend, even if you did go a bit “hangry Kara with eyes on the last potsticker” about it. That’s in her words by the way, not mine.’

She couldn’t help it. A slightly guilty laugh bubbled out of her at the hangry Kara comment (that sounded like Alex alright), and it diffused the tension enough that Lena looked up at last, finding nothing but frank openness and conspiratorial amusement in Nia’s returning expression. Her grip on the pen eased along with her anxiety, and she let herself accept that maybe she had been making the whole thing much bigger in her mind than it had been in reality.

Still though…

‘I am sorry you know, for getting so confrontational about it. I think I may have skipped a few steps on the negotiation spectrum and let myself forget that I wasn’t in a room full of Luthors, and no one else there wanted Kara hurt either.’

'Yeah but it was about Kara, and she’s your- well, she inspires strong feelings in people who care about her. And it’s not like you’re the only one who lashes out sometimes, we’ve all done it at some point. You calling J’onn a fucking idiot doesn’t mean we don’t like you anymore.’

‘I did not call J’onn a fucking idiot!’

‘Oh really? Huh maybe that part just happened in my head, which is kind of a shame because it was honestly hilarious, I was ready to grab popcorn.’

‘Nia Nal!’

Nia laughed, mischief written all across her face until she noticed that Lena wasn’t joining in, then she turned sombre again.

‘Okay, but seriously. Even if you had said that, it wouldn’t mean we would kick you out the group. That’s not how friendship works.’

Isn’t it?

That had always been more or less exactly how it worked, for Lena. Maybe not over one simple argument or a heat-of-the-moment insult, but there was nothing simple about their broader situation, and her whole life had taught her that to give second chances was to invite nothing but further betrayal, manipulation, and, on more occasions than she cared to dwell on, assassination attempts. She had learned at her mother’s knee to be unforgiving and unforgivable, and for the most part she had been right (look what happened when she tried to give anyone in her family the benefit of the doubt).

But now she was being told that she wasn’t unforgivable after all, and she couldn’t help dwelling on Nia’s question of who does it serve to force yourself to stay mad? Because it wasn’t serving Lena. It was making her miserable, and lonely, and unlike all the times she had known that withholding her forgiveness was the right thing, this time the moral high ground she was standing on was becoming increasingly shaky underfoot, because this group wasn’t embroiled in some evil plot to wipe out aliens or turn the sun red. They weren’t ruthlessly ambitious business tycoons or social climbers out to wring what they could from her. Whatever else they might be, Lena truly believed that they were good people. Messy, complicated, caught up in their own baggage as much as Lena was in hers and capable of doing things that were intensely hurtful, but at their centres… good.

She still didn’t think Nia was right about forgiveness.

Not entirely.

But… maybe she wasn’t entirely wrong either.

She rubbed her temples with the fingers of one hand, unsuccessfully trying to press the conflicting instincts inside her into a single coherent train of thought.

‘You’re far too young to be full of all this sage advice, you know.’

Nia pulled a silly face that both lightened the mood and slightly undermined the compliment by making her look practically Ruby’s age, and anything but sage.

‘You are really not that much older than me.’

Lena smiled a small but genuine smile, feeling crinkles that would one day be crows feet appear around her eyes.

‘Aren’t I? I feel ancient. I found a grey hair last week.’

This earned her a snort and an eye roll, and her smile grew an extra quarter inch.

‘Maybe that’s because you never freakin’ sleep. You’re probably about 50 in awake years, but that’s not the same as being actually old.’

‘Hey, I sleep!’

Only about four hours a night at the moment, and not always consecutively, but Nia didn’t need to know that.

‘Uh huh. So how come that time I was awake for 46 hours straight during the whole Midnight debacle, you were in the DEO lab every time I went by. I drank like 6 cans of Monster the second night and was going loopy, but you were just in there doing your science like it was totally normal.’

Lena remembered the occasion Nia was talking about only too well, and wrinkled her nose in rueful acknowledgement. She had hit a snag with the Q-wave generator and had refused to budge until she solved it, even though it had meant rearranging several meetings and going an ill-advised amount of time without sleeping, eating or showering. In the end she had only conceded her need to rest after Brainy had told her very seriously her that exhaustion was making her behave like a fifth level intellect, and if she didn’t get some sleep soon she would be no better than the average Daxamite (she maintained that a desire to beat her former-rival-for-Kara’s-affections Mon-el in every conceivable measure had nothing to do with the decision, and she had merely been concerned about making mistakes).

‘This seems like a bit of a pot/kettle situation given that you just readily admitted to staying awake for 46 hours straight yourself. And if you think I was unaffected you clearly didn’t see how much espresso I got through, or hear me talking to my screwdriver, apparently. I gave it a lecture for not being the Philips head I was looking for.’

Nia laughed delightedly. ‘See, this is why we need you back in the group for real, you’re the only one whose sleep pattern is as messed up as mine is. Just think of all the 3am shenanigans we could be having.’

‘Nia, I…’

She wanted to say yes.

She wanted to, but the word stuck in her throat, and she couldn’t bring herself to step over that edge.

‘No, I know, I’m sorry. I’m pushing you and you’re not ready. I’ll drop it for now. Just… think about it, okay? And in the meantime, do you want me to call Alex to go and see Kara?’

‘No.’

Somehow the no was easier. Too easy, because for all her complicated feelings about the rest of the group, Kara was the one who had actually betrayed her trust, and should therefore be the person Lena was least willing to break her established boundaries for. And yet she had answered Nia’s question instinctively, the word slipping out without waiting for her to think through the implications of the choice.

But it was the logical solution, wasn’t it? Someone needed to talk Kara round so that she would be comfortable doing dream-work with Nia, and Alex was so busy at the DEO it might be a while before she could spare the time to visit her sister. Besides, it would be a way to contribute to Project Atlantis now she was no longer working on the Q-waves. It didn’t mean she was committing to anything more than that.

And... as much as she told herself it wasn’t relevant, she couldn’t help dwelling on the part where Kara talked about her when she wasn’t around, and seemed happier for the time they spent together, and where Lena was the person Kara would most want to talk to when she was upset.

Then there was t he part where she could have died , and Lena had felt in that moment what it would be like to truly, irrevocably lose her, and the horror of it still reverberated through every cell of her body like a struck cymbal that would not be ignored .

She shook her head and repeated in a more measured tone ‘No, I’ll go. Thank you, Nia.’

Nia beamed back at her as though Lena’s decision about Kara and the rest of them was already made, and got up to leave.

‘You’re welcome. See you at the Atlantis meeting on Monday?’

‘See you then.’

Lena waited until Nia had gone, then buzzed through to the outer office before she had time to think better of it.

‘Jess, I know I said I’d be in until late tonight, but would you mind letting the lab team know I’ll have to stop by tomorrow instead? I have somewhere I need to be right now.’

‘Of course Ms Luthor. Would you like me to call you a car?’

‘Yes please. And if you could arrange for them to pick up a box of doughnuts en route, I would appreciate it. Anything that has an obscene amount of chocolate and more sprinkles than could reasonably expected to fit on them should suffice.’

‘Right away Ms Luthor.’

[oneatlatime]

Still thinking about The Storm

You know an episode is good when you're still chewing on it more than a week later.

Something occurred to me re: Zuko's scar that I'm surprised I didn't think of as I was watching: that scar is for life. That scar's context is for life. Every time Zuko sees his reflection, and possibly every time he uses his two main senses, he's going to remember where that scar came from, how he got it, and who gave it to him (I haven't caught it being acknowledged in-episode but there's no way he doesn't have reduced peripheral vision and a serious case of cauliflower ear AT MINIMUM). Unless he can find a way to redefine what that scar means to him, that's a trauma that will get repeated every time he's reminded of the scar's existence. That endless repetition will make it harder, or maybe impossible to heal and/or move on mentally.

It also goes a long way to explain why he's so snarly: everyone he ever meets, for the rest of his life, is going to see scar first, Zuko second. A good way to get around strangers' unwanted (at best) pity is to go on the offensive - if the sight of the scar is quickly overridden by a dominant personality, then people will remember Zuko as That Asshole rather than That Poor Boy. It's a way he can have control over how he is perceived, despite having an injury that practically writes a heart-wrenching backstory in the minds of anyone who catches a glance at his face.

I'm only 12 episodes in, but I suspect that identity and the self are going to be themes with Zuko. He's going to have to redefine what that scar represents to him. We see in his behaviour in the end of The Storm (saving the crew at the cost of catching the Avatar) that (one of) the lessons the firelord meant to impart by scarring him didn't end up sticking. He still cares about the "fresh meat," the common soldier. So maybe he's already redefined what the scar means in part?

I promise not to go too far down the rabbithole of applying real world science to cartoon characters, but indulge me a moment. Though scars in general are a fairly understudied phenomenon (in psychology, don't know about other disciplines), there have been some studies done into the mental impacts of facial scars and they are NOT GOOD, mostly in that they cause heightened levels of anxiety and self-consciousness that don't ever fully go away, particularly in scarred individuals with minimal or no outside support. There's a good study (x) done on people with facial lacerations (not burns) that concludes as much. To quote extensively from another study (x):

"The majority of respondents were unhappy with their scar's appearance due to their perceived stigma and psychological associations, and thus adopted different coping behaviours to hide or compensate for them. Often this made them unsociable and interfered with their communication skills, personal relationships, work life and leisure activities. Concerns about the diagnosis and persistent nature of scars were common, ..."

Sound like Zuko? Someone on this show did their research.

This is not to blame all on the scar; Zuko has plenty of other problems to bring him down too. No support beyond his uncle, an impossible task, and responsibility for a whole crew - and he's only sixteen. But these are things that, for better or for worse, are in some way temporary. His uncle won't live forever, and he always has the possibility of finding some other source of support. The impossible task became possible for the first time in a century during episode one. Once the task is done, he'll presumably return to the fire nation and no longer be responsible for his crew. And he won't always be sixteen. But the scar is forever.

[hippolotamus]

7 and 8 for the wip ask please !

Hello dear anon and thanks for your patience!

7. Eddie: i might like it, can’t hurt to try, no harm do- oh shit, what now? This would be a new religion or what I affectionately call the Eddie lace fic. Where Eddie discovers he likes wearing lace and definitely does not have a whole ass (heh) queer identity crisis about it.

He’s going to. He wants to. Eddie knows he can tell Buck anything and will never be shamed or made to feel guilty about it. But how is he supposed to talk with his partner about what he wants when he can’t even let himself look? When his skin tingles and his face flushes and his body temperature soars at the mere possibility.  It doesn’t help that Buck is so goddamn confident and sure of his own kinks. Since long before they got together. Eddie’s definitely been on the wrong end of hearing about them played out with past relationships and hookups enough times to know. Not that he ever thinks Buck said these things to hurt him or make him jealous. Regardless, the point is that he feels like they’re unmatched in this particular department. The sex is incredibly hot and Eddie is usually on board with whatever Buck wants to try. By that reasoning it shouldn’t be a problem the other way around.  But this isn’t lusting after his best friend (which came with its own set of ingrained beliefs to work through). This isn’t even wanting to be spanked or restrained. Or discovering how much of a relief it can be to submit to his boyfriend when the world is too much and he just needs someone else to take over. No, this is something else altogether.  This is Edmundo Diaz — a man raised on the ideology that boys don’t cry, don’t become romantically or sexually involved with other boys, and they certainly never show interest in anything girly or feminine — deliberately wanting to cross that imaginary gender barrier. To reconcile former soldier, father, and firefighter with the current iteration who might want to slip on lace panties once in a while instead of his everyday briefs. Even if just to find out if he would like it or not. Though he strongly suspects he will.

8. Buck: wait, where the fuck did you come from? you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Also answered here. I wish I had more to give on this one but I sadly do not! Maybe one day soon.

tagging some peeps who have shown interest in this one @diazsdimples @disasterbuckdiaz @daffi-990 @tizniz @theotherbuckley @fortheloveofbuddie @lemonzestywrites @your-catfish-friend @shortsighted-owl (if i forgot anyone i'm so sorry)

[princess-of-the-corner]

Was Wes just this one off unnamed side character who called out Danny or?? How did he get made, what made people want to make him?

AHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAHAHAHA

SO LIKE

Wes doesn't. He straight up doesn't exist at all. He's not really even a character.

So like. I was here when it happened so here's what I remember:

The phandom was kinda joking about some background characters having similar character designs to Danny and the idea of one of them kinda. If someone did realize that Phantom had a secret identity, these kids would also be suspects right?

The one that had been used in the example was this background character:

And the joke kind of evolved from the kid just getting accused of being Phantom's secret identity, to him being the only one who has realized Phantom=Fenton because 'um it's so obvious???' but ironically no one believes him because he's a much more likely candidate.

While spitballing this character, the phandom decided that he needed a name.

They chose 'Wes' based off a scene with.... Okay I forget the episode, but Danny had talked to his dad about something and his dad was like 'ah you're trying to ask out a girl! Obviously you're asking out Sam it's fine we all know your mom and I already got you an engraved ring to give her!' so yeah there's a ring that has 'Sam' engraved on it.

But Sam gets it... somehow? I think Danny handed it to her for safekeeping. But she looks at it and reads the engraving upside down as 'Wes' and is like "who the FUCK-?!"

And then the 'Weston' came in because the name 'Wes Weston' is goddamn hilarious.

Wes's exact character did evolve into a bit of an asshole conspiracy theorist who happens to be right in this one instance. And every writer kinda takes their own spin on the details past that.

Things also kinda devolved into other lore like making various other background redheads his family (If i remember there's at least one brother named Kyle and then there's a dad that everyone decided works for Vlad) but those are more up to interpretation in his lore.

So yeah 'Wes Weston' is an OC based off a background character model that the Phandom as a whole kinda created and has now gaslit people outside of the Phandom that he's a real character