This might be the most "well duh" statement in history, but something I'm really looking forward to in Alecto the Ninth is.... Alecto.
We've seen little glimpses of her here and there, through the Body and through Nona, and the picture I see them painting is definitely of someone who has been hurt very badly, and who is very angry about it, but there's more to it. She's more complicated than that.
She's conflicted about necromancy itself:
It's not that she hates or fears necromancy—it "feels nice", she has positive associations with it, but it also makes her sad that Palamedes is capable of doing it at all. Is that regret? Does Alecto regret having introduced necromancy into the world? Does she consider herself to share in responsibility for the consequences?
Does that have to do with why she's frightened of herself, and of who she thinks she'll become if she remembers herself? She's understandably afraid to remember what was done to her, but she's also afraid of the person she'll be once she does. She thinks that person—Alecto—is incapable of love.
And it could be that her fear is only of being a person who has suffered. That she doesn't want the pain. But this series has never been shy about complicating that narrative. No one in this story is a perfect victim. Very few characters have avoided suffering terrible and undeserved harm, and few have avoided causing it.
I want to know who Alecto is. Why Nona thinks that Alecto, who is defined by love, whose final words were "I still love you," is incapable of loving. Even more, I want to know why Alecto's later actions make that fear seem kind of.... reasonable. Why the Body—who was never anything but gentle and kind to Harrow—hurts Harrow on waking, and seems to not even understand hurt has been done.
Who else has Alecto hurt, and how does she understand it? What harm has she caused, and how is she going to face up to it? What role will Harrow and her relationship with Alecto play in that?
I have some ideas, but I don't really know. And I dunno. I'm pretty stoked to think we might find out.
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Synastry/Composite placements as I’ve experienced it.🥂
Aqua Moon conjunct Aqua Sun - I was the moon person and they were the sun person. I felt very comfortable with them and felt like they projected my inner thoughts/behavior. They felt very zen & accepting to me. They were also very understanding and fun to be around. Overall very familiar energy.
Pisces Sun conjunct Pisces moon - I was the sun person and they were the moon person. This really goes both ways with me. I either find them extremely childish and overly sensitive or quiet reserved, kind and humble. Anywho, they somewhat feel like an extension of me but a more sensitive one. (I literally feel like I have to walk on eggshells around them most times💀)
Pisces Sun opposite Virgo moon - I was the sun person, they were the moon person. Ugh I can’t express how many times I tend to clash with these people. All I’m for they’re against, all I’m against they’re for. I like that they’re punctual and practical people which is great, yet some of them nag too much and tend to be straight pessimists…
Leo Rising - I have this with my best friend whom I've known for almost 7 years now and it's honestly the best composite rising I've experienced so far! We're always cheering each other up and on to do great things and have fun. We always have each other's backs. We like to troll people sometimes and act like comedians. 😂 We exaggerate things and agree to each other's delusions. Act like we're on top of the world and we can take on anything/anyone together. And there's this strong sense of loyalty between us. Literally ride or die placement!
4H mars/8H mars - My mars falls in my best friend's 4H and I'm very affectionate and nurturing towards her. I listen to her and make her feel validated. I also feel like I've gotta protect her in a way. It comes as no surprise that she sees me as a sister, given the 4H is related to family. On the flip side, her mars falls in my 8H and she acts protective over me. Like if someone said something that hurt my feelings or if they just started the minimalistic of arguments, she's quick to jump in at my defense. Ironically, her Natal mars is in her 4H and mine is in my 8H so maybe that's why it also feels pretty natural to us.
8H asc/6H asc - So, I have this step cousin who's rising falls in my 6H and he acts hella reserved. Not specifically cold, just doesn't talk to me much. My rising falls in his 8H and I always feel so shy around him for no reason. I'll wanna say something but just keep it in my thoughts. Very indirect talking and shyness. We have Virgo rising in composite.
Aqua Venus - If it's in water houses (4/8/12) there's a more affectionate nature, bonus if it's at a water degree. That goes for all composite Venus anyways. Aqua Venus tends to feel like there's emotional detachment. Like when you get too close they pull away or vice versa.
11H asc - I can't begin to stress how awkward and uncomfortable this overlay isss. It depends though, me being a Gemini rising, I find it more uncomfortable with Leo risings sometimes, than I do if my rising falls in a Cancer rising's 11H. I love Leo risings though.
Gemini Rising-Gemini Venus - My ex's Venus falls in my 12H and doesn't even touch my rising, yet it was love at first sight. He loves telling me about his day, playfully teasing me. He's also hilarious and has a very similar sense of humor as mine. We have Aries sun/mercury/venus in composite.
10H Pisces Venus-Pisces mars - My ex's mars conjuncts my Venus and he used to be very protective of me. Very much the "my girl this, my girl that" type. 😂 Because Pisces falls in my 10H, I've always seen him as very chill, responsible and easy going.
Cancer rising - There's always a nurturing vibe there, no matter the other placements. I had this with an ex and we talked a lot about having kids, there was also a sense of family there. It tends to be a very sweet placement, where one of you (or both) are sweet talkers.
10H mercury - I had this with an ex and they thought I was very smart and would often ask me meaning of certain things. 🥲 I also find others who have their mercuries in my 10H are very well spoken and give off sophisticated vibes.
3H - I am a suckerrr for people who have placements in my 3H *cough* Leo placements *cough* I just find them so intriguing and that we tend to have a lot in common!! I usually bond with people over music, so I find that Leo venuses/mercuries have the best taste and put me onto a lot of music! Leo moons that fall in my 3rd house, opposite my 9H Aqua moon and I tend to get along with them better than those that fall in my 2H. Leo suns that fall in my 3H feel like those curious siblings that wanna share and know everything! Definitely a personal fav!!
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I think I've found the most tragic ship in BG3 and I need to rant about it
I've seen a decent number of people discuss and write about Dark Justiciar Shadowheart, but they always focus on what she's like post-game when she's fully committed to Shar. Which is a fine thing to focus on! Especially when you're writing smut where she's a mean domme. Post-game DJ Shadowheart is a fascinating character. But I feel like people neglect to consider what she's like during the transition phase of Act 3, where she's become Shar's Chosen but hasn't yet Done The Thing that caps off her personal questline. And there is SO MUCH potential for angst and drama during that time frame.
IMO the most important aspect of this stage of her development is that she is not evil yet. She simply made a single bad decision and now she feels like she's in too deep to do anything but double down on it. She's spent her whole life trying to "fake it 'till you make it" and she's only just now starting to transition out of that and into sincere belief. All the misgivings and insecurities she's shared with you are still there, just buried deeper. That desire to love others and do good hasn't yet been completely stamped out. In my Dark Justiciar Origin run, I try to do good things whenever possible as long as I can find a way to rationalize it as benefiting Shar.
(but I still ended up saying enough evil-sounding things to make Minthara incredibly horny for me)
So where does Karlach fit in?
Well, turns out when you play as Origin Shadowheart, Shar doesn't make you break up with your partner. In fact, Shar says absolutely nothing to you about your romantic situation. This is really weird if you're romancing anyone other than Karlach, but I think it makes perfect sense for Shar to tolerate a relationship with Karlach for the time being. It's the ideal opportunity for Shar to prove a point. Karlach is dying, and no matter what Shadowheart does, this relationship is going to end in painful loss. Shar wants Shadowheart to fall in love with Karlach only to have that love abruptly ripped away from her. It perfectly demonstrates everything Shar believes about love: that it's fleeting and will always hurt you in the long run. Better to just avoid it entirely so you don't get hurt.
And Shadowheart knows all this. She's studied Sharran scripture extensively, after all. She knows that Shar is trying to teach her a lesson, she knows that the longer the relationship lasts and the more emotionally intimate it gets, the more the end is going to hurt. So why doesn't she break it off? Partly it's because she loves Karlach and doesn't want to end things; she's probably in denial at least a little bit. But I think it's also partly because she's a bit of a masochist. She thinks she deserves to suffer because she knows, at least subconsciously, that she's still not a very good Sharran. She can see the loss coming and she hopes the experience will bring her closer to Shar.
You'd think Karlach would be unwilling to put up with DJ Shadowheart's fanatical bullshit, but personally I think Karlach would stick it out for a whole mess of reasons. Number one, she can still see the good in Shadowheart and she refuses to give up on her partner. She's clinging tightly to the hope that Shadowheart can still be redeemed, even though she probably understands that it's a long shot at best.
Number two, she blames herself. When you play as Tav/Durge or another Origin, Shadowheart will have a conversation with you before deciding what to do in the Shadowfell. But if you play as Shadowheart, none of your companions says a word to you. In the context of this ship, I choose to interpret that as Karlach being too trusting. She's seen the good in Shadowheart, after all. She's so certain Shadowheart will do the right thing that she doesn't think she needs to speak up. It's not until too late that she realizes what Shadowheart needed was for someone to say "hey, are you sure about this?" So now she feels she needs to make up for that failure somehow by continuing to try and nudge Shadowheart in the right direction even though it seems impossible.
And number three, Karlach's just plain lonely. As fucked-up as this relationship is, she's still getting companionship and intimacy, and she doesn't think she has time to cultivate a new relationship if she breaks up with Shadowheart. She wants someone to be with her and hold her hand at the end, even if that someone is a brainwashed cultist.
In sum, both of them know that their relationship is extremely unhealthy; that it's hurting them now and will hurt them more in the future. But they both refuse to end it for their own reasons. And good gods, the ANGST. ARE YOU FEELING IT NOW, MISTER KRABS?
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The Queen of Attolia (plus some WoT comparisons)
Haha, it's been a few months but I got my chance to read the next book in the Queen's Thief series and it was so good! I am going to have two sections in this review -- my overall thoughts and then some specific thoughts that are mostly for @markantonys due to the series being her recommendation and I have a lot of thoughts about the comparisons between the Queen of Attolia x Eugenides and Mat Cauthon x Fortuona, because you can really do a point by point comparison, though I don't think it was intentional -- I think that Megan Whalen Turner and Robert Jordan were both going for the same idea but Turner was, imo, wildly more successful than Jordan at it.
But first, thoughts that don't particularly relate to The Wheel of Time:
We open with a tense cat and mouse chase between The Thief and the Queen's guardmen and that is really the heart of this book when it comes down to it -- a cat and mouse game between two extremely complicated people, and how they have to navigate in the world that they share.
Turner is really good at writing these fun action scenes where you're very much in the PoV of the character.
The (apparent) foundation that is laid here (that later gets overturned because Gen got to me again and he was once again acting on personal information that he kept from me for the majority of the book, lol, love him for it) - is very much beginning as enemies who have respect for each other's skills. At this point in the book, I knew that they would end up married due to spoilers and I know that it's considered a good romance, so I was really looking forward to seeing the journey, especially since I did get spoiled about the huge upcoming traumatic event.
But we start from this strong narrative place where they are aware of each other and have respect for each other but they belong to two separate counties that have some political tensions and they are both important parts of those countries and can't set that aside.
Because of how bold Gen is, Attolia has been backed into a corner by his actions and we actually see this affirmed by Gen's cousin (the Queen of Eddis) and her thoughts on the matter -- she is aware that Gen going into Attolia's country to spy on her is a dangerous thing for him to do.
And then the cutting off of his hand. This is brutal, and it feels brutal, and then we also get these hints of Attolia's reaction afterwards (that we get into more later) but especially her reaction when he begs her not to hurt him anymore and you can really see her feel the impact of what she did. She doesn't allow herself to show her remorse but even this early on, we're getting hints of it as readers.
Then when Gen goes home, we actually see that the Queen of Eddis also maintains a mask in public, just like Attolia does, so we see another hint here that Gen understands that kind of masking. Eddis looks just as cold and impenetrable to Attolia's guards who return Gen to her, as Attolia looks to everyone else.
I really appreciated how long the recovery time was after the loss of Gen's hand and how much time we spent with him to feel him get used to the changes (and how economically Turner is able to pass that time). We get these tiny looks at Attolia as well, and her difficultly sleeping at night, which we expand on later.
Then we get the return of the Magus from Sounis! It was really nice to see him again, dropping in to visit Gen, but he's also here to give us that continuation of the division between personal and political -- as a person who genuinely likes Gen, the Magus was upset about what Attolia did to him, but as the advisor to the king of Sounis, he knew that they would be able to use Eddis's reaction to Attolia's act on the political stage.
But what a way to learn that the two countries are at war!
It takes some time for Gen to really believe that Eddis went to war over him, and we see him processing that over the course of the book as well, and they talk about it more. I do think that Gen does not always realize how deeply other people care about him.
Turner really is so good at giving us these pieces of information that reframe the earlier story -- now we know that during all those snippets of Attolia that we had earlier, she was also dealing with realizing that her actions with Gen led to the war that she's currently embroiled in.
The progression of the war was really well done (again, Turner is very economical with her narrative here), with what details she chooses to focus in on, and we see that Gen, even though he has gained more of an ability to have that cold and impassive mask like Attolia has, still does things like make sure that no one is on the ships that he's destroying, because he doesn't like getting people killed.
Turner also does a really good job showing how destabilizing the war is to all three countries involved, and how the war is hurting everything.
We take a little mythology story break here in the narrative, which was a fun story about love and choice, both of which are very relevant. This story definitely does end up applying pretty heavily to Gen and Attolia in the themes, and I like the style that Turner tells these stories.
I love how perceptive Gen is once he's been apprised of the situation and we get to see the thought process that leads to him blaming the emperor's ambassador more for the loss of his hand than he does Attolia herself, because he sees that ambassador understood that seeing Gen maimed and returned to Eddis would be more like to spark a war than just killing him would, and a war is exactly what he needs in order to try to justify getting his troops onto Attolia's land. All the politics here are pretty complex but I feel like the book does a good job explaining the reasoning.
And this is also the point where it's really confirmed that Attolia knows that the ambassador is underestimating her, and that she also understands a lot of the things that he thinks that he's pulling over on her. But because of the fragile position that she's in, she needs to entertain the ambassador's advice and his attempts to sidle in on her country.
Quote about Gen: "It was like him that if he had to have a thing, to have the fanciest thing of its kind."
I really like all this about the cost of war; the price of war; and why this outside party has been trying to urge war on the three countries.
We also get Eddis admitting to Gen that she thinks that she could have possibly controlled herself and not started a war if he had only been killed, rather than treated in a way that she finds so insulting, and that it made her so angry that she made a choice that had now brought a lot of damage to their own country that she wishes could be avoided. And Gen can see, basically, that the ambassador of Medes is the one who put both Eddis and Attolia in this trap, and he was used as the tool to start this war.
We really move into Attolia's PoV and we get the story of the broken amphora (she thought about it when she saw Gen after she'd had his hand cut off) -- it was, essentially, the moment that marked when her life changed and she couldn't be a young girl anymore.
This really is a heartbreaking story -- how after her brothers died and she was the heir, her father essentially sold her off to be married, and her fiance was actively plotting against her father and how to suck her country dry for his own benefit after they were married. And how she kept herself quiet and small and just listened, but then poisoned him at their wedding feast, also having her captain of the guard kill the next man who tried to force her to marry him. We also see here that she only trusts loyalty that she can buy in gold (because every other kind of loyalty failed her).
Then we finally get the big reunion! This scene is so tense, with both Attolia and Gen wearing these cold masks (we later realize that Gen has pretty much directly modeled his mask on Attolia's) and we get this private negotiation that is only for the two of them. And this moment when it is literally just them, together on a boat, with no one else to interrupt them... just exquisitely done.
It's been implied before, but this is where we get our confirmation that Attolia has been just as haunted by Gen this entire book as he's been haunted by her. They've been separated for most of the book but constantly haunted by each other. I gotta share the quote:
"He was too young to have bones that ached. No matter what he thought of himself, he was hardly more than a boy. A boy without one hand. She reached up to push the wet hair out of her face, wondering when she had sunk so low that she had begun torturing boys. It was a question she had asked herself night after night, lying awake in her bed or sitting in a chair by the window watching the stars slowly move across the sky."
We've been seeing her do those things the entire book, but this is the first moment when we're told what she was thinking about in those moments.
We also get our Big Revelation here that Gen has had feelings for Attolia since before the events of The Thief! How does he hide these things from us so well! Gen! We learn here (and we get even more detail later) that he's been feeling drawn to her for literal years. That part of the reason that he made those trips that she thought were mockery was because he wanted to be close to her and get a look at her and see if she really was the monster that their spies reported that she was, or if she was just a woman who was being forced to make difficult, maybe impossible choices.
And then we get our story reversal where Attolia gets 'rescued' by the ambassador and his people, and we get to see how she behaves in these circumstances where she doesn't believe that she can trust Gen (sure, he said he loves her, but she cut his hand off! And he's a known liar! how can she trust him?) vs this dude that she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she absolutely cannot trust.
The moment when she tells her handmaidens not to put on her golden bee earrings, I knew exactly what she'd done, especially when we got Gen's reaction. The writing doesn't have to tell us in the moment what's occurring (that she put on the earrings that he left for her one time and that she said she would only wear if she'd decided to marry him) for us to know, and I love that. This coded sign that only he will understand.
It's the most unique and fascinating marriage proposal I've ever read. Well done. Haha, and I did guess that the gray-haired man that he fought so well with was his father. <3
Love the moment when we see him process that marrying the Queen of Attolia is going to mean... that he'll be the King of Attolia. He just wanted to marry her because he liked her! <3 <3
And everything after that was just so delightful. Working together for the double-cross and then the process of Eddis and Attolia working out the treaty and Eddis trying to convince Gen that they can have the treaty without the marriage, and his rejection of that, and then essentially testing Attolia with that offer as well.
I also really like one of the moments when Attolia realizes that she can trust Gen, which is when Eddis tells her that of course Gen also lies to her. Constantly. And I feel like that reframed a lot of her interactions with Gen for Attolia. Realizing that Gen wasn't being maliciously deceitful towards her; he's just Like That With Everyone. Plus, I can't forget the moment when, after the battle is won, Attolia and Eddis return to where Gen is being held and Attolia believes for a moment that he's been poisoned as a parting shot by the Medes ambassador and we can literally watch as her heart completely shatters and she is completely undone and devastated in her head and even shaken where people can see her. It's beautifully written.
And we get the moment with the gods (who are very real in this series but very carefully choose how they interfere) and it's just as well done as it was in the first book. The windows in the palace shattering as the goddess responds to Gen's sacrifice! And basically laying out to him that his suffering was required to reach this ending and would he trade it back if he could -- if it meant that Attolia would have been forced to make that deal with the Medes ambassador. And Gen would rather have Attolia in his life and wanting to marry him than have his hand back.
Just that whole final section that leads up to the ending of the book, with Attolia really being able to believe Gen when he says that he loves her... it's so good. How the narrative (and Eddis and Gen) are able to tease out Attolia's feelings for Gen, and how we end on that final quiet moment between the two of them. Really powerful ending.
It's a really good book and it's a really good romance. Gen and Attolia are both fantastic characters and even with all the twists and turns and revelations, their relationship felt incredibly captivating and believable. I really believe that Gen wants to break through Attolia's walls and, just as important, I feel like there's a person on the other side of those walls who is worth being loyal to and loving. You understand why Gen wants to be Attolia's husband, even after she ordered his hand cut off, which is very impressive storytelling.
Hopefully I'll get the chance to read the The King of Attolia soonish, and not in, like, four months.
*
And now onto the Wheel of Time/Mat & Tuon comparison section of the review for @markantonys 💖
It really does feel like a point-by-point improvement on Mat & Tuon, though I suspected unintentionally (it looks like this book came out 3 years before CoT).
Starting with the characters: wow, Attolia really is so much the person that I would have wanted Tuon to be. And she feels like the person that Jordan wanted readers to believe that Tuon was. Every place where I was going through my WoT reread and going "footage not found!" about something the narrative tried to claim about Tuon is something where the footage is very much found for Attolia. While Tuon's potentially heartbreaking backstory really is just backstory and ends up have zero impact on her active storyline, Attolia's tragic backstory is the entire spine of what her character is going through and what Gen can help her with.
We get to see and really experience Attolia's context, which is not something that we got with Tuon. Jordan makes an attempt, I guess, with Karade's sob story about Tuon and the doll, but he made the bizarre choice to frame this story in Karade's PoV (Tuon's slave), not from Tuon's PoV. For whatever reason, Jordan always insisted on making Tuon the most insufferably smug person in the world in her own PoVs.
With Attolia, we get those breaks in her mask that I kept desperately wanting us to get with Tuon but we never did. Again, this is mostly only for the reader, not even for Gen -- the reader gets to see behind Attolia's mask. And so Attolia is captivating and fascinating and I understand why she felt like she had to do these horrible things.
With Attolia, we actually get her being removed from her power base and feeling helpless, which Jordan never had the guts to do with Tuon (when Mat kidnaps Tuon, he lets her take her slave along with her, and then some of his allies decide to support Tuon over him despite having zero narrative or character-based reason to do so), which means that when Attolia regains her power, it has a much bigger impact on the narrative, while it felt like Tuon never really lost hers. Attolia and Gen both manage to be scrappy underdogs, in their own way, and that's something that Tuon never was.
Both Attolia and Tuon commit horrific acts, but while we see Attolia's remorse and how it torments her, Tuon always seems to shrug off the horrible shit that she does. It doesn't ever affect her emotionally and she never seems to think past it after it's done. She is a character without remorse or reflection (I think she vaguely thinks that it's a shame one time when she's pondering how she will break Mat's spirit but that's about it). And Attolia has those two qualities in spades. Attolia feels like a real woman to me in a way that Tuon never did. We see the brave face that she puts on, we see her regret and remorse, we see her loneliness, we see her jealousy over the Queen of Eddis, who is able to trust the members of her court in a way that Attolia has never felt she could trust her own. Tuon just feels really shallow in comparison to Attolia.
Even in the first cat and mouse scene with Attolia and Gen in this book, you can see the push and pull and the narrative equality of the characters. Gen has been in and out of four different strongholds of hers, and she feels that he's pretty much taunting her with his abilities. There's a mutual respect for the other person which was one of the big things that was missing for me with Mat and Tuon. In her final PoV in KoD, we learn that she has not had an ounce of respect for him during this entire journey -- it's not until she sees how the Band respects him that she considers whether or not there may be more to him than just being a pretty and dumb sextoy. And the big problem with that is that was the period when the 'romance' was being developed. During the time when she didn't have any respect for him as a person. And that makes it very difficult to find their relationship compelling, even apart from the fact that I found Mat himself profoundly unlikable in CoT & KoD.
Now, Mat being a terrible person (in CoT & KoD) and Tuon being a terrible person (always and forever) are not things that would stop me from shipping them in general. I am capable of finding Awful4Awful pairings compelling (like Louis and Lestat from Interview with the Vampire). They don't have to be good people, but there has to be something in the relationship that grabs onto me at any level, and that's where Mat and Tuon failed.
We can see in Attolia's thoughts that she envies the relationship that Gen has with the Queen of Eddis -- she envies that loyalty and wishes she could have something like that of her own. That sort of envy was also missing from CoT & KoD (I am going to mention, briefly, that some of these elements were present in the Mat & Tuon relationship in AMoL but at that point, it was just too late for me to give a shit about their relationship, because CoT & KoD thoroughly killed any interest that I had in them). Whether because of his own personal kinks or because of the plans that Jordan had for the Outriggers, Jordan made Tuon too much of an island; too much of an wall. The way he wrote her made me feel like nothing Mat could do would ever really matter to her in any way; that she was content to use him up and then throw him out and that's just not my thing. It may have been Jordan's kink but it is not mine.
So I definitely understand @markantonys's point about this feeling like a well-written version of Mat and Tuon! It really does feel like this is the sort of relationship that Jordan wanted to write with Mat and Tuon but didn't have the skill at romance writing to pull off. Something like Mat and Tuon is Hard Mode Romance and Jordan wasn't even always good at Easy Mode Romance.
Two of the key elements that really makes Attolia and Gen work for me is just getting to sit and exist in Attolia's emotional reactions to the wrong that she has done to Gen; and Gen acknowledging and processing the harm that she'd done. And both of those things were desperately needed with Mat and Tuon, both as characters and as a romance.
A major major part of why Mat and Tuon failed for me is because I didn't feel like Mat was actually reacting to her realistically for the vast majority of their page time together; she threatens to invade a city and he laughs it off, she assaults his companions that he freed from slavery and he thinks it's hot?!?, she talks about how she likes to torture women and he ignores it.
If Tuon had cut off Mat's hand, the way that Attolia cut off Gen's, it feels like Jordan would have just had Mat shrug it off and then buy her a puppy as a reward or something as his response. Here, we get Gen begging Attolia "please don't hurt me again" after she cuts off his hand and then we have months of separation and recovery and processing before the narrative takes him anywhere near her again. And Attolia is forced to reckon with what she did, first by being haunted by the memories of him crying from the pain and loss, and then she has to face it directly by seeing his stump, seeing the pain that he's still in (because of her). She has to admit (not just to herself but to him) the damage that she did before they can move forward together. This is something that Tuon never shows herself capable of on any level. Tuon is never allowed to grow as a person the way that Attolia is, or to be vulnerable with the audience or with Mat.
I definitely still really felt the Mat-Gen comparison in this book too. Lots of places, but there's a great moment in the meadow with him, Eddis, and the Magus, where Eddis explains that Gen has deliberately made people believe that he can't fight but he also still gets miffed sometimes if people fall for his carefully constructed facade.
And the moment when Gen tells Eddis that he plans to steal the Queen of Attolia. It really feels, again, like this is the sort of vibe that Jordan wanted us to believe existed between Mat and Tuon: "She may be a fiend from hell to make me feel this way but even if I've got to hate myself for the rest of my life, this is what I want. I dream about her at night." This intense draw and this pull that he feels towards her. Jordan appears to want us to believe that Mat feels this kind of draw towards Tuon at the end of KoD but has not created any kind of foundation in Mat's characterization as to why.
We also got the long separation between Attolia and Gen where they are haunting each other with their absence. Attolia and Gen just get the time that is needed to develop this relationship in a way that's believable. Time in the story, not page time. This book is shorter than CoT & KoD, and probably shorter than if you made a "Mat and Tuon" novella out of their scenes in those books. It's the actual 'in world' time that matters, that gives Attolia and Gen time to think about each other and miss each other in a genuine way.
For another comparison -- Gen 'steals' Attolia to marry her like Mat kidnaps Tuon, but the context is so incredibly different on every level. Mat gets, essentially, tricked into kidnapping Tuon by the 'finn (it never would have happened if he hadn't heard that prophecy) while Gen acts with intention the whole way through. Technically, in both cases, Gen and Mat are 'saving' Attolia and Tuon by kidnapping them, but we feel the weight of it with Gen and Attolia in a way that we don't with Mat and Tuon. And a lot of that is because the bulk of Gen and Attolia's build-up happens before the kidnapping, during the times when they're separated and haunted by each other. So once the kidnapping happens, it's quick-paced and moves the plot forward rather than, you know, just fucking around with a circus for a month.
We also know that Attolia has complicated feelings about Gen already. I talked about this with @markantonys but that really is something that needed to happen with Tuon so much sooner than it does in the books (there are two big Mat & Tuon scenes in AMoL that desperately needed to happen back in CoT, imo -- Tuon trusting that Mat isn't trying to kill her; and Tuon going wild trying to protect Mat in the command tent).
Attolia and Gen also genuinely have things that they can each offer the other person, while with Mat and Tuon, none of the things that Tuon offers are things that Mat actually wants (slaves bowing to him; being dressed up like one of the Blood; being formal at all times - these are things that some of Mat's fans want for him, but not things he wants for himself) and she just feels like this ravenous black hole that constantly takes and takes and takes and gives back nothing of value. When Gen is startled at the realization that marrying the Queen of Attolia makes him the King and he'll have to actually be a king, it's this incredibly sweet moment, because it illustrates so clearly that he wants Attolia for herself and not her country. When Mat reacts against the idea that marrying Tuon makes him royalty, it just kinda makes him look dumb, because we've been given nothing of value in Tuon herself as a person, and no reason for Mat to care about her.
With Tuon, Mat talks about how she's better than other nobles, but nothing she actually does on the page is better than any other Seanchan noble. It's all 'footage not found'. By contrast, every single positive thing that Gen says about Attolia is backed up by the text and we even get shown additional positive qualities that no one needs to talk about because it's right there in the text.
With Tuon, it feels like Mat is attempting to gaslight me (and himself?) into believing that an interesting character exists there despite all the evidence against it, while Attolia simply is a compelling character based on what happens on the page.
That fact that there are so many raw similarities between the two pairings, but my reaction to them are so different really does illustrate the importance of execution, imo. Attolia and Gen's romance manages to travel so much further than Mat and Tuon's, while also being considerably more economical with how many pages it took to get us there.
The point-by-point comparison (aka WoT's failure of execution):
Tuon's interior life is poorly illustrated in comparison to Attolia's; because she starts off as an even worse person than Attolia but so much less character work is done on her than on Attolia, who is haunted this entire book by how she has "sunk so low as to torture boys" (on that note, Turner's choice to make Gen the younger and more openly vulnerable one really works here).
Seeing that Attolia's handmaidens are genuinely affectionate and protective of her at the end of this book is so incredibly touching, because she had no expectation of their loyalty (she believes in the loyalty of gold, and gold alone, for the most part). Tuon, otoh, has slaves that she expects to be subservient and loyal unto death, so her slaves' affection for her (that was trained into them) is something that completely fails to move me. This difference in the expectations of the character also makes a huge difference in how their PoVs come off -- Attolia's walls are due to her internal vulnerability and we get to see that vulnerability in her PoVs; while Tuon comes across as full of herself and incredibly arrogant, taking everyone around her for granted.
We're told that Tuon is smart and perceptive but rarely get any evidence; while Turner shows us Attolia's intelligence and how she sees a lot more than people like the Medes ambassador believe that she does. We get to see Attolia's intelligence in how she tricks the Medes ambassador into believing that she's so much less perceptive and intelligent than she truly is. This is another place where Jordan's unwillingness to ever place Tuon into a genuinely vulnerable position really hurt the character. Turner wasn't afraid to make Attolia the underdog and knew that it wouldn't undermine her as a character, it would strengthen her, because we would get to see who she was in adversity. The set-up of Crossroads of Twilight should have led to us seeing Tuon in adversity but Jordan was allergic to allowing her to be truly vulnerable, and gave her people to hide behind (Selucia & Setalle Anan) the entire time.
Mat as an agent of chaos is wildly downplayed in comparison to Gen as an agent of chaos. The Seanchan end up getting spared the chaos that the end of the Age brought to pretty much every other society, even though Mat seems clearly positioned to bring their society crashing down even as late as Winter's Heart. Gen's actions, otoh, are constantly throwing other people's plans off.
Mat does not behave realistically to the horrible things that Tuon says and does -- with Gen, even though we find out towards the last third of the book that he was already in love with Attolia before the book begins, we still get his raw reactions to her doing things that hurt him. He has nightmares after she orders his hand cut off, his pained begging of her not to hurt him again, and how he develops his own mask of impassiveness that is modeled on her own. Gen also never throws away his moral code in order to try to force himself to be at peace with the relationship -- he grows and changes as a character as a result of his trauma, but he stays himself at the core.
Something else that Jordan could have used more in the books that would have helped develop an understanding of why Mat believes that something exists beyond Tuon's 'cold Empress mask' would have been to make the comparison between Rand's mask and Tuon's mask more clear in the narrative. Because there's too much separation in time between Rand and Mat's interactions with Mat and Tuon's interactions. In this book, seeing that Eddis also needs to put up a queenly mask of not caring about Gen at first (in front of the Attolian guards when they return him to her after his hand has been cut off) helps illustrate why Attolia needs the mask that she uses -- Eddis doesn't trust the Attolians, but Attolia feels like she can trust absolutely no one, and so she always needs the mask and feels like she can never take it off. That's compelling! It could have been compelling in Tuon too, if it had been written better.
On that note: Turner personalizes the damage that Attolia's cold mask and her ruthless defense of herself/her country is doing by having her hurt Gen directly, and that being something that she struggles with over the course of the book. With WoT, Jordan basically did everything he could to hide away the damage that Tuon/the Seanchan were doing from Mat in order to try to justify why he could ~fall in love~ with her (was it intentional? to set their relationship up for a fall later in the Outriggers? we'll never know) without ever actually changing Tuon/the Seanchan for the better, which also meant giving Tuon no reason to have any internal struggles over the choices that she's made.
Gen and Attolia get another thing that Mat and Tuon desperately needed but that Jordan refused to give them: privacy. They negotiate getting married (after Gen has kidnapped Attolia in a much more narratively satisfying kidnapping than Mat and Tuon's!) in privacy, just between the two of them; when we get the conversation about their feelings at the end, again it happens in private. That makes a huge difference. Jordan being unwilling to ever actually yank Tuon away from her full power base and her slaves was a huge hindrance to ever allowing her to be vulnerable. And I do chalk this up to unwillingness and not failures due to plot set-up because there is no good reason to have Selucia tag along on the kidnapping and then it's even more bizarre in CoT & KoD, when the character of Setalle Anan goes from being fond of Mat to all of a sudden acting like he's the worst person in the world and she must protect poor helpless baby girl Tuon from him.
Both Attolia and Tuon get tricked by their respective love interests about who they are as a person because of the facade that they put up, but Attolia still has respect for Gen and his skills, even as she doubts his character, and it is Gen's own actions that show her who he really is and make her believe in him; while with Tuon and Mat, she spends over a month with him and still refuses to look past his surface until she literally has her face rubbed into it by seeing the Band's reactions to him. This difference is a key one in making Attolia's failure to see Gen as a failure due to the protective walls that she has up; while Tuon's failure comes across as her just not being very perceptive or intelligent. And the fact that we don't get the moment when Tuon begins to have even the faintest shred of respect for Mat until the end of Knife of Dreams just meant that I felt even more like all the pages time that Jordan spent on the two of them in CoT & KoD was a complete waste of my time.
We got to have genuine reactions from all of Gen's loved ones about the relationship! This is a huge place where, I guess, Sanderson is the one who failed for a change instead of Jordan because wtf was Perrin's "lol you married now bro? haha" reaction to Mat being married to a slaver? Though Jordan also does this to a certain extent with Thom, who we are supposed to believe is in love with Moiraine, and yet who never calls Mat out on courting a woman who would enslave and torture Moiraine if she had the chance. By contrast, Eddis is genuinely hesitant and worried because of everything they've heard about how cold Attolia is, and because she's the reason that Gen's hand was cut off.
We get to see Attolia and Gen develop a shared language and see behind each other's walls. The moment when she wears the earrings that he left for her, and he knows that it means she's chosen to marry him of her own free will is such a huge and impactful moment, and the only people who are aware of what it means are Attolia and Gen! This is really a failure that happens based on earlier failures of execution: because Mat and Tuon are never allowed to be alone together, it's impossible for them to develop this kind of shared coding and shared language.
12. We also have the 'footage not found' issue, where one of the characters (mostly Mat) tries to tell me something about Tuon but the narrative completely fails to back it up: this is the case with Tuon being intelligent and perceptive (in the narrative shown to us, she never picks up on anything until her nose is forcibly rubbed in it); and this is case with Mat thinking near the end of Knife of Dreams that Tuon belongs in the same 'better than other nobles' bucket as Talmanes when she has never shown herself to be willing to make better choices than other Seanchan nobles: he is still, at this point, worrying that she might enslave him and turn him into her cupbearer; she has not only threatened but actually assaulted his companions; whenever she's placed in a position of power over other people, she takes advantage of it and them. We're told that she's not a child but she also throws a tantrum (and pottery) at Mat at the start of Crossroads of Twilight. This could have worked if Jordan had leaned into the fact that Mat is deliberately lying to himself in order to make his marriage bearable, but that's where things like randomly having Setalle Anan go over to Tuon's side messes with that narrative.
13. When Jordan has Mat think about how Tuon dying would be a deep loss to him, it's just baffling because she has not done a single thing the entire 'courtship' that has shown why in the world Mat would feel that way. All of the attempts at reaching out during the courtship are Mat's, while Tuon just smugly accepts it as her due. Because Attolia doesn't just accept Gen's love as her due, because she actually doesn't believe him and challenges him on it, we get to hear his justification of it and why he feels that way, and then we also get to see her reciprocation. The relationship is a two-way street in The Queen of Attolia.
14. Which ties into the fact that Jordan chose to make Tuon not just a slaver but an enthusiastic slaver who enjoys the slave-breaking process and that is an incredibly dark place to start a character but it could have worked if it had been the beginning of Tuon's character arc and we'd actually watched her change and grow from that position. And she had the narrative set up for it! In her very first chapter, the reader learns that Tuon has the ability to learn to channel! She was created with the narrative juice to have a compelling arc about accepting the truth about herself and her people. And then Jordan gave that arc to Bethamin instead, lol.
15. In both of these stories 'fate' does kinda serve up Gen/Mat to Attolia/Tuon on a silver platter, but the execution of the storylines makes the reveal that fate was acting to push the two of them together so much more effective in The Queen of Attolia. Choice is a much larger consideration in Attolia and Gen's relationship than it is in Mat and Tuon's. There are elements of the higher powers of the world at work in both relationships, but Attolia and Gen have to put in the work themselves and have to face hard emotional truths in order to get us to the satisfying ending. I get the impression that Tuon wouldn't know an emotional truth if it spit in her eye. We actively see both Gen and Attolia consider and reject the idea of solving their main problem (about the war) without needing to get married; we see them choose their marriage and each other.
With Mat and Tuon, this is a lot more muddled. Fate/the Pattern/the 'finn want them to marry each other but we never get any kind of payoff as to why, and this is primarily because of Jordan's other storylines imo. He should not have had Rand already willing to make peace with the Seanchan in his separate storyline. Convincing Rand to be willing should have been Mat's job (because that also would mean that Mat would need to make the arguments to convince the readers). Jordan showing at the end of KoD that Rand is willing to make a deal with the Seanchan, even at the cost of giving in on the matter of slavery, basically completely voided any narrative reason for Mat and Tuon to get married, but without the satisfaction of seeing the two of them grow to a place where they would actively make that choice rather than being motivated by what they believe is necessary (due to prophecy).
There really were the bones of a potentially compelling story with Mat and Tuon, and I really do hope that the show (when we get there) is able to take those bones and turn it into a genuinely compelling story.
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OKAY OKAY OKAY YOU GUYS BUT WHAT IF!!
What if, in the last few minutes of 7x10, we cut to Frank in his office. The camera is focused on him so we don’t know who’s on the couch across from him.
He’s mentioning the last time the person was there, that they were talking about intimacy & their partner and worries about the future (throwback to Athena on the first episode & Bobby in the cruise ship arc), and Frank asks the person how it’s going…
AND THEN IT PANS TO EDDIE IN THE ROOM LOOKING UNCOMFORTABLE AND UPSET AND KIND OF A MESS AND HE SAYS SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF: “I realized I couldn’t commit to Ana or Marisol in the way I thought I should because they’re not what I wanted. I don’t think I like women.” A pause. A breath. “And I think that’s because I’m in love with my best friend.”
END SEASON ROLL CREDITS YOU’LL HAVE TO COME BACK IN S8 TO SEE HOW IT PLAYS OUT.
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Whb characters reacting to Mc teaching them a cultural dance
I'm in an Erasmus as I'm writing this and I need to put my pookies in every scenario of my life to be complete.
Satan is very open to learning about other cultures. He would follow in your steps making sure he doesn't make a mistake. He's surprisingly good at this and he'll swoop you away with his smooth moves. Would teach you traditional dances from Gehenna as well so you'll be able to understand your cultures better. Starts with the hardest one so you'll get annoyed at him. It's not his fault you don't have the stamina of a demon.
Sitri would gladly do anything you ask of him. He's also very good at dancing and he's a swift learner, which makes him a wonderful dance partner. He would tell you a lot about how he remembers all the other dances you (read: Solomon) thought him and he's more than happy to remind you of them. As long as you're in his company, he's the happiest demon alive.
Gamigin has two left feet, so, please have mercy on his poor soul. He'll get the hang of it eventually and he'll be so happy for doing so. If it's a dance that requires more people, he'll gladly take the whole of Paradise Lost and dance alongside them. No, the staff stays with him even during the dance. He's very excited to learn about your culture and he'll bombard you with questions left and right. Would constantly ask you if you want to dance with him once more or if you know other dances. Asks Jjok to record him dancing with you and even though the video ends up blury, he'll still treasure it for all the years to come.
Morax is another bad dancer (if we're being honest, only Lucifer can dance from Paradise Lost and he's not doing it for free.) It's fine, if he steps on your feet or hurts you in any other way, he can cure you instantly. He's stiff, and his moves are akward, almost forced (since he has wounds everywhere) but he'll try his best and have a blast doing it. Would hug you at the end of the dance and thank you for sharing it with him. Very polite gentleman.
Barbatos is all for it. You show him a the moves and he picks you up and starts dancing. He's very flexible and willing, so he can bend in whatever way is neccessery. He'll dance with you constantly and he preferes faster dances since he can flex more that way. Would totally ask you to dance with him in the sun, feel your bodies touched by the sun's warm rays as you enjoy eachother's body (not in that way).
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got a request via comment for a part two with the undatables for this mangled wings prompt! been working at trying to incorporate raph into my works so this will be my first post with him in it! part one can be found here
if you haven't done lesson 76-19 (yes i did have to look up the exact lesson haha) there are spoilers below for simeon
enjoy!
Mc with mangled wings p.2
Diavolo
he's always been very empathetic, and he immediately tries to help you in any way he can
he offers you all the moral and emotional support he can offer
he also tries to help you work through it and may know the right people to help you restore what you once had
whatever you need, he will help you as best as he can
Barbatos
when he learns, you're not so sure about how he feels since his expression remains exactly the same
but inside, he's filled with a seething rage that he rarely feels and is something only few can recognize
suddenly, all those that hurt you are begging for forgiveness
when you ask him, he says nothing and offers you a tea party with all your favorite things at it
Simeon
he's very open about how
however, something he'll never tell you is how afraid he was of suffering a similar fate
he's grateful he didn't fall like the brothers did, but now he's just floating in a weird in between
it's an odd bonding moment between the two of you, being outcasted, but part of him feels like you could connect more with the brothers than him
Luke
he's so horrified that people that you once trusted could do that to you
he hugged you and almost started crying while apologizing
after he learns what happened to you, you suddenly find a lot more specialty treats left on your bed that are always right up your alley
while he thinks it might bother you to bring it up directly, he's always asking how you are and how you're feeling
Solomon
he's seen a lot during his lifetime, so while this doesn't phase him too much, that doesn't take away how upset it makes him
he hates seeing you in pain, and as a human, he's known a lot of that
even though you're not, he feels as if the two of you can bond over understanding each other when nobody else does
he hasn't suggested it to you yet, but he's been trying to create something that may help you to restore what you once lost...
Mephisto
you've never seen him act more sympathetic
his facade drops and you can see how much he actually cares about you
with his heart on his sleeve, he shares everything
he lets you know you're welcome in his arms anytime if you need anything, and while he won't admit he had the conversation with you, his actions change
Thirteen
at first she's outraged, but eventually calms down once she sees that you're not as upset
don't give her any names or she might accidently knock over their candle while working
when it comes to be their time naturally! she emphasis naturally, you can come help if you want
reaping is something she does respectfully and this is no exception, but she'd do anything for you
Raphael
he's very serious as usual when he offers to hunt down who did that to you
he wants to seek vengeance on your behalf
even if you tell him not to, part of him will always be thinking about doing it anyways and is always listening for details about them
from then on, anything you ask for, he's getting it done 100% if not already
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So, it finally clicked that while the average person does in fact broadly comprehend that people are neither good nor evil - they're good and bad, and have free will - they also can't understand why some people would fully commit themselves to completely awful causes or to being a terrible person throughout their entire lives. They can't really picture how this works, because they can't imagine themselves choosing to die on a hill of Being A Terrible Person.
This void in their comprehension is where the myth of the Ontologically Evil Person is very likely to come and settle in sooner or later, because it seems to finally provide an answer that makes sense of otherwise senseless cruelty and violence. Agonizing questions like "Why would my boyfriend spend so much energy on making me feel like shit and breaking me down?" "Why would this historical figure decided to kill all of these people?" and "Why would this guy go start a cult and murder everyone?" are finally given an answer, and the formerly-bewildered person finally has some peace of mind.
Because of this, the myth of the Ontologically Evil Person is incredibly hard to get out of people's minds once it takes root. For one thing, bad ideas are like bad habits; it doesn't really work to tell people to Just Stop With Them, because without something else to take its place? They're going to fall back on it.
And if somebody's been traumatized from abuse? The last thing they want to hear is that they're basically dehumanizing their abuser and that's not cool, because it feels to them like the other person is taking their abuser's side and telling them to get fucked. Even if this not what's happening, the survivor's brain is currently operating on fight/flight/fawn/freeze mode, and a brain operating fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode is keyed to making snap decisions to try and remove you from the danger as soon as possible, which means categorizing everything into black and white. This person couldn't care less about the history of eugenics right now; literally all they care about is being safe.
"Okay, so if the Ontologically Evil Person doesn't exist, how the hell do you explain those fuckers over there?" some of you are probably asking.
Here's the deal. Literally every human being alive can and will do terrible things if they're sufficiently scared and desperate. They're in no position to appreciate that nearly all asshole behavior can be explained by a lack of critical social and self-management skills, or by a lack of access to self-improvement (including being too traumatized to trust means of self-improvement).
People who are scared, insecure, and under high levels of stress will often cling to anything that makes them feel better, because they want to feel safe and secure and not in psychological and/or physical agony. (Stress does an absolute number on your body, too.)
Being reliant on a shitty behavior, belief system, or product for some measure of feeling secure and safe is how you get people saying things like "If I didn't act mean, everyone would just walk all over me!" or "I was really depressed before I found this, so if I gave it up I'm going to get depressed again, and I might hurt myself." (And there might be some truth to this one! This might indeed happen if they give it up cold turkey, and without finding an alternative!) It's how you get people conducting """scientific""" studies to """prove""" that their bigotry is totally justified and not at all irrational. ("Well of course these people are genetically inferior, they wouldn't be poor and disease-ridden if they weren't... what do you mean, systemic inequality and uneven healthcare access? No that's obviously fake and made up by More Bad People.")
People also act in unhealthy ways to deal with personal insecurities implanted by parents or society. You have people out there whose parents drummed it into their heads that second place was for worthless losers, or that no one would love them if they didn't look or act a certain way. You have people who absorbed the idea that acknowledging the basic humanity of shitty people means that they have to forgive them and personally help them get better and just suffer through the abuse in the meantime.
This is how people choose to die on the hill of Being A Terrible Person. They weren't ontologically evil. They were scared, and they thought they saw a fortress on the top of that hill that would keep them (and perhaps also their loved ones) safe.
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TSC has been in my greedy hands for almost 48 hours now, and I managed to read it two and a half times already.
So many things to say about it, so little words I have to be able to do that. So, first of all
1) "Neil is such an unreliable narrator" not true, but can we talk about how Jean is just as much as "unreliable", but in a very different way? In the first three books we had a boy who cared so little about anything that wasn't exy (or Andrew) that he just didn't know/notice/cared enough to even acknowledge important things. In TSC we have a boy who knows SO LITTLE about anything in the World after being isolated for such a long time, that he sees everything through a distorted lens, and even when facts are right in front of him he just doesn't get it. They are not unreliable, they were forcefully taught to focus on things different than the whole picture.
2) Jean to me is so much a mixture of kevandreil it hurts me. He went through so much and yet gained so little it hurts. He has the same desperate will to live as Neil, the same "do what you want to me but keep X out of this" as Andrew (+ a lot of traumas), he has so many mental issues only Kevin can understand and a similar attitude. This not to say he's not "original", he's a very different person from the original trio, but he just... Has all of it. He combines other's main visible issues in one single person and it just hurts to see how much he's hurting but still wants and needs to carry on.
3) Neil X Jean scene at the end hits too hard on my heart. I do not presume to know exactly what my Goddess Nora was attempting to do with that, but my mind has found multiple possibilities on why Neil did what he did, and after all the times I read AFTG (which now amount to at least 35 rereads in a span of 3 years) only one has managed to grab my heart and never leave it. So, the main ones:
- As Jean thinks, Neil took care of Grayson because he is valuable in Ichirou's eyes, so Neil felt the need to protect Jean.
- Neil is aware of what Jean went through and is human enough to care for him, now that he knows he's not just a dick, and is willing to make sure Jean feels safe.
- Neil, being the person he is and having seen what Drake did to Andrew's mind, is not going to let Grayson do the same to anyone, especially someone he knows. As someone said here on Tumblr, "Neil is not gonna let a rapist alive if he can".
As I've come to understand the characters, for the first one, not even Neil is that cold that would just care about a person if they are valuable enough to him. In the second hypothesis, Neil is not the type of guy to just care that much about someone outside the foxes lot, but it's still a realistic idea, considering what Jean did for him in TRK. Third scenario, the most realistic and authentic one to me, he's not willing to let anyone get away with forcing themselves on another, even less if it's someone he knows and can do something about it. Which is also the reason why I'm obsessed with this scene and I would pay gold to see it in Neil's pov even when I know it's not possible.
4) Last point for this useless rant, CAN WE TALK ABOUT WYMACK? I swear to god that man is my absolute nightmare (in a good way), I just can't get over how much of a saint he is with those idiotic children he cares for + Jean. I just love him so much. He is rude and raw and can't be truly nice to save his life, but he cares, he cares about them with all his soul and he's not going to leave them alone when they need a helping hand the most.
I kind of wish coach Rhemann was like him, but at the same time I don't because a) if he was he would probably be at PSU, and b) I want him to be a completely different kind of dad to his boys and girls. (but I'm still going to cry on all of his scenes because that man is just too much for me (and for Jean), understanding but not pushing, being respectful of boundaries and "This was the belligerent stare of a man who’d haul Lucas out of there by force if Jean indicated he didn’t want to be alone with him.". )
So, yeah. I'm probably going to read it a third time tonight.
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I would apologise too if James Potter ran me over with a car and then I would get on my hands and knees and worship him.
Would you like to start a JFP cult with me?☀️
(Also pls bless us with your fav James hcs)
i would worship him too.
yes I would love to start a cult. apply to join our cult here: weallneedhelpasapwe'reobsessedwithjamesfpotter.com
god my personal james hcs... here we go:
he's a hopeless romantic. like through and through. he prays and pleads for people to like him back. he's very delusional about it. (remus has to keep him in check)
he's a mommas boy, but not in a bothersome way. in a, writes his mother letters home three times a week because he worries about her, way.
he and his dad sometimes struggle to connect, but they try their best, and like to attend classical music concerts together. james isn't really a big fan, but he knows his dad is and wants to make him smile.
he's the mom friend, but like all the way. he's always there to remind remus to eat, to help sirius with his panic attacks, and to draw peter out of isolation.
he always makes sure everyone is included because he understands how it feels to be just on the outside of a conversation and feel like you can't speak.
he cares too much, and tends to latch onto things heavily because he doesn't want them to go away. he clings to people like that but won't admit that he does. he's terrified of being left behind
he entertained a person's crush on him for three months because he was too scared to tell them he didn't like them back. he didn't want to hurt their feelings.
he's absolutely obsessed with quidditch. he lives and breathes quidditch. he will wake sirius up in the middle of the night with strategies and ideas to defeat the Slytherins. even though sirius likes his beauty sleep, he always gets up and sneaks out to the field with james and marlene to try the ideas out.
james, marlene, and peter grew up together. they have all these inside jokes that make some people feel left out. sometimes james feels like they are the only people that understand him
he likes to dress in muggle clothes because he finds them fun. he and sirius like to match. he really likes maroon converses.
thank you so much for this ask omg!!
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Amelia Rose Thorndyke (movie Amy Rose)
I know there’s a slim chance of this happening but I think it would be interesting if they gave the human characters from Sonic X another chance, the Thorndyke to be more specific.
Context: (probably take place in movie 3)
Backstory- Just like in the show, Chris is a pretty lonely kid until Amy Rose crashes into his life 6-7 years ago (literally crashing into their family pool). After a late-night rescue, Chris takes in the small pink hedgehog to make sure it’s OK. Chris originally wanted to keep Amy a secret but those plans ruined the very next morning when Chuck, Ella, and Mr. Tanaka discovered her when Chris was trying to find food suitable for the little pink hedgehog. They were a bit skeptical at first, but after some convincing from Chris’s end was allowed to stay until he could confront his parents about it. Chris was concerned that their growing friendship would be cut short once his parents returned, luckily Amy managed to warm her way into the hearts of everyone in the household, even his parents and uncle. Years later Amy Rose is considered a part of the family and is spoiled with love thanks to Lindsey and Ella. Over the years Amy was able to chase away Chris’s loneliness but unfortunately not her own. Although Amy spends much of her time with Chris and her family, she feels isolated from the outside world. She understands the rules set by Mr. And Mrs.Thorndyke to never go outside to keep her safe, but she still can’t help but feel sad that she can’t meet anyone new or someone like her.
Those feelings come to an end when a shocking new cast reveals three beings that were like her, the blue hedgehog the most. The second the story was over Amy rushed over to her parents begging them to take her to green hikes to meet these heroes. They immediately shoot down the idea, saying it’s too dangerous, and it could be a trap. This leads to a heated argument between the three ending with Amy being grounded until further notice. Feeling defeated Amy goes to her room as told. Left alone with her thoughts once again she came to one conclusion, she was going to take things into her own hands. That night she runs away to find the three heroes and hopefully go on an adventure to remember.
Sonic and Amy- unlike other iterations of Amy and Sonic's don’t see eye to eye as much at least at the start. Before Amy met the gang she built this image of the heroes that don’t quite compare to who they are. Despite this she gets along with knuckles and tails (though they are nothing like she imagined) it’s Sonic she has a problem with. Not only did he fail to meet every expectation she had for him, he’s also a jerky, reckless idiot in Amy's eyes. Sonic was always doing or saying something stupid getting them into trouble. Not to mention he always left her behind and never took her seriously (that is no way to treat a lady). This prompts her to prove him wrong by jumping head-first into danger that she believes she can handle (she is a bit of a hypocrite). On Sonic’s end, he sees Amy as a spoiled reckless brat who doesn’t understand anything. It’s a bit harsh but it's hard not to think that she is constantly getting into trouble when she can barely control her powers and keep making things difficult when he tries to leave her somewhere safe (sonic is also a hypocrite). Worst of all she left behind a perfectly good family to go on an “adventure”. Sonic would have done anything to have Tom and Maddie as a family on day one, so Amy's drives frustrated him. These frustrations grow during the adventure eventually leading to a heated argument between the two hedgehogs (similar to the argument Sonic had with Tom in the first film). Amy leaves the team hurt and conflicted by her original hope and goal.
“Was she selfish for running away in hopes of meeting others like her? Should just return home where she’d be safe and out of their way?” She couldn’t help but feel guilty for her behavior towards the team (specifically Sonic) and her parents. She had come all this way to meet them only to show how much of a burden she was and she probably had her family worried sick. Wanting to set things right she decided to head back to the team to give them a proper apology before returning home where she would be out of their hair (quills) for good. Before she can do anything she gets kidnapped by Eggman or Shadow.
Back with team Sonic, Knuckles and Tails are disappointed by how Sonic handled things. They agree that Amy can be a bit of a handful at times but she has also proven to have her strengths (though there’s room for improvement). Tails even insisted that they have a lot in common if they BOTH take the time to get to know each other. Sonic disagrees that he’s anything like her until he crosses paths with Chris.
It turns out that as soon as the Thorndykes found out Amy Rose was missing Mr and Mrs Thorndyke heard straight to green hills while Chuck and Chris followed their trail to find Amy ( behind Nelson and Lindsey's back of course). This leads to them eventually catching up with Sonic and the gang but still no sight of Amy.
Upon meeting with the humans, they both learn that Amy has been kidnapped. Like everyone else, Sonic shares concerns for Amy's safety, though he lets slip an offhanded comment about her getting into trouble again which Chris and Chuck don’t take lightly.
On the way to rescue Amy, the team gets to know the new humans leading to a heart-to-heart between Sonic and Chris (this could work with Chuck but I think Chris needs some redemption after his Sonic X iteration). Chris let Sonic know that there’s more to Amy than her sometimes feisty nature. She’s always proven to be the most kind and compassionate person he has ever known and is always doing something amazing when no one‘s around to appreciate it (foreshadowing of the scene with Shadow and Amy). He also laments his mistake of not noticing sooner how lonely and isolated Amy felt which caught Sonic’s attention. As Chris continues he reveals to Sonic how having a family from the beginning Amy never had as much freedom to explore or had any friends of her own. She didn’t even know there were others like her a couple of weeks ago. Knowing this Sonic felt he owed Amy a second chance and maybe an apology.
Fast forward after rescuing Amy, Shadow, and Amy’s scene, the team saves the world (this going on long enough)
With the day bringing save and families reunited Sonic and Amy meet face to face once again. Before Sonic can voice his apology Amy starts to tearfully apologize to Sonic about her behavior. To comfort her, Sonic hugs Amy telling her he’s sorry he wasn’t the nicest guy either. Sonic even suggests that they could start over and she can join the team. Amy agrees to start over but suggests that she hold off on joining the team for a bit. She doesn’t believe she’s ready to team due to her lack of control over her abilities (at the time sonic and Amy didn’t know about the impact Amy had on shadow and how it helped a lot in the long run. Amy also feels she needs a lot of self-reflection after their adventure (she’s still guilty for causing so much trouble for the team and possibly being responsible for Shadow's sacrifice himself).
After some parting banter (less rough compared to their first meeting) Amy promises when they meet again for their next adventure she’ll be stronger than ever.
First thing when the hedgehogs arrive home both get teased by their siblings/family about their new friend).
Bonus content:
Chris and Amy have a sibling relationship, so like siblings, they can get on each other's nerves from time to time.
Nelson and Lindsey both help fund the Wachowski’s expenses that the government won’t help cover for Sonic, tails, and knuckles. Chuck also helps fund tails projects cause he has taken a liking to the little fox (though the project Chuck and Tail work on together can get a bit wild).
Chris, Chuck, and Tails whenever they visit each other work on new inventions together. This may include an explosion or two, much to the concern of the adults (between the Wachowskis and the Thorndyke).
Although Sonic and Amy are on better terms they often have a hard time complimenting each other face to face stating that it would “go to their head”. Occasionally a compliment sometimes does slip out from one of them which causes both of them to become flustered whenever it happens.
Sonic and Amy, both still share banter, though it comes out a bit flirtatious to onlookers which knuckles, tails, and Chris happily teased them about.
After their adventure, Amy loses a bit of confidence in herself and holds a lot of guilt for nearly costing Sonic his life (when Sonic got shot into space trying to rescue Amy) and the loss of shadow. This is one of the many reasons Amy is hesitant to join the team even when she gets better control of her powers. When Sonic learns of this, he isn’t having it, giving Amy a heart-to-heart talk about how she should give herself more credit ( and maybe mentioning how he’s been through something similar).
Sonic eventually learns about what Amy did for Shadow and other “small” deeds that helped the team a lot more than Amy thinks. Sonic gained a lot of respect and admiration for her after that. (He’ll let her know that whenever Amy is being too hard on herself with her shortcomings).
Whenever Sonic and Amy go on their “not date” dates Sonic offers to pay for the expenses despite Amy being loaded. (Amy’s not sure if he's just being a gentleman or he forgot she’s rich but she’ll take it).
Despite having a rough introduction with Ella(Amy nearly gave Ella a heart attack when she first arrived), Amy and Ella have the strongest bond, especially in the kitchen. They both enjoy cooking delicious meals and baked goods for the whole family to enjoy. And whenever Sonic and the gang come to visit she always appreciates the extra hands she gets in the kitchen. The boys also appreciate the food Amy and Ella make for them when they visit.
Mr. Tanaka serves as a butler and bodyguard to the Thorndyke household. He gives both Amy and Chris self-defense lessons to show that he cares about his own and to keep them safe. Mr. Tanaka was originally on the fence with Sonic due to Amy losing so much of her confidence in herself the last time she interacted with Sonic. Once he gets both sides of the story, he’s more understanding, though he is still protective of Miss Rose when Sonic is around.
Sam Speed and Amy often have a hard time seeing eye to eye with each other due to Sam’s blunt and overconfident nature. Similar to Sonic x Sam developed a rivalry with Sonic once learned of Sonic's super speed.
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Hello!! I was just wondering about something...we don't really have a understanding of Elvis' personality, yeah we have books, videos and articles about the people they were around him but I'm talking about REALLY getting a hold of what personality he had is what's been circling my mind lately.
I don't know why, I've been really interested in personalities recently lol specifically Elvis'😅
Hi, sweetie! Yours is a good question to keep in mind, really. I like to wonder on this topic too. I guess Elvis' personality is very difficult to summarize because of the way his actions contradicted themselves in the messages they give. He was mainly a good person, as we all know, but also incoherent and even scary at times. It's frustrating trying to describe him because nothing seems to fit well-enough to describe how intense he was.
One thing we know for sure is how dual Elvis was - and we all are, no doubt, but Elvis's duality was very prominent, very much like changing one thing into the complete opposite in no time, as if there was no middle ground, just this or that.
The way I see it, EP was like a whole universe with all it's wonders and scary truths put together at once; like white and black, the good and bad, fire and rain, light and dark, a desert weather and a harsh winter in just one little space. He could be a spontaneous, extroverted open person, very sweet, generous, peaceful, attentive, warm, easy-going, friendly, supportive, affectionate, loyal, very wise, meditative, spiritually fervent believer in God, family-oriented, just an ingenuous little boy with a soothing peaceful and loving energy that could calm the most anxious of hearts that approached him, without even meaning to, and yet at the same extent he could also be shy, a loner, mean (here and there, both in words and actions), freezing cold, selfish, a loner, unreasonable, hot-tempered, promiscuous, sly, hopeless and lost, a control freak and a reckless disturbed man with such intense energy people could be afraid of doing something that could unleash the beast in him (that's why very, very little of his friends or family were brave enough to go against any thing Elvis would say/do or with his way of thinking), and then again he would turn into something else... He would look so confident, so strong and self-assured, a very powerful entity, but around the ones he trusted just enough he still let himself be vulnerable, acting just like a baby, begging for someone to take care of him, to show him patience, understanding, to make him feel safe, to hold him and never let go.
With the little knowledge we have about EP, we could use those and many adjectives to describe his personality but we can't summarize Elvis Presley better than to simply say he was human. Elvis was "too much of everything"... overwhelming, in a good and a little bad way too. The way he was such a good person, the way through his friends, family, co-workers and fans' memories Elvis sounds like one of the best people one could ever have the pleasure of meeting in this life, his moments of irrational and hurtful actions (towards people and himself) confuses us when we try to understand what Elvis was really about. I bet it was very confusing to understand him even for his family, lovers and friends, so it wouldn't be easy for us to understand him when we not really met him in person.
The King's personality is so intriguing! That's why there's books with analysis in both scientific medical and social fields, psychologists and psychiatrists wrote after studying Elvis' behavior patterns and what they tells us about him. Much beyond the stories their friends and general acquaintances told and how they portrayed EP in those many books and interviews we read/saw over the years, I think those psychological studies are the best way to go in depth about Elvis' personality. Even so I don't believe one single book can do all the accurate, proper work on it, one of those books I can mention now is "The Inner Elvis - A Psychological Biography Of Elvis Aaron Presley" by Peter O. Whitmer Ph.D. - I haven't read the book myself because I want to finish the friends and family books, the most important ones at least, before going deeper into Elvis' personality analysis but I've read parts of it and it's interesting. I would recommend you, if you haven't yet, to read this book.
Anyhow, I think we'll never have an accurate picture of Elvis Presley as a person, friend. One: Because people in general are difficult to understand. We contradict ourselves all the time, according to the situations we face. And two: Because nobody, for the best they can be at reading people, can really tell us what goes on inside another one's heart and mind.
I guess being such a mystery is another wonder of Elvis. Another thing we can be sure of about him is that he was even not close to be a boring person.
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I can fix him (No really I can)
This is written for The Tortured Potters Department, also part of the Several Sunlit Daylights Challenge! @corneliaavenue-ao3
Read below or on AO3
I can fix him.
Ginny could see other people think it, sometimes they said it out loud. Not literally, but they said it all the same.
I can make you happy.
I can make you forget all your troubles.
I can make the scars fade.
They very well could. They all looked at Harry and saw a man in need of change. They wanted to fix the scars, inside and out. They wanted to take him on adventures and make him forget all the things he had gone through. They wanted to placate him. They wanted to chase the nightmares away and replace them with wonderful dreams. Some others wanted him to embrace his fame for once, or rise to power, be the man they thought he could be.
Ginny looked at him and saw someone she already loved.
She didn’t try to make him happy.
She didn’t try to make him forget all his troubles.
She didn’t mind the scars, the way he didn’t mind hers.
She loved on the scars the way she loved on the rest of his body. They were marks of his past, of the things he had been through, not things to hide or be ashamed of. Their existence didn’t scare her.
She knew he didn’t need an adventure, didn’t need to escape his life. He didn’t want to forget his loved ones, dead and alive. He spoke of enjoying time in the garden, and long walks enjoying the setting sun. Some things that some people may find terribly mundane, but it meant everything to him. They didn’t understand why it was important to him.
His temper was difficult for people to deal with, but Ginny always met him with equal power. She did not back off, and she wasn’t afraid to tell him the truth. She didn’t need to placate him, she needed to push back and meet him in the middle.
When he had a nightmare, she didn’t tell him it wasn’t real. She held him and sat with him until he felt better. They would talk about it and mull it over and let out bitter laughs over their misery. The nightmares followed a long time after the war was done, and she’d be there to work through them. Slowly but surely, tirelessly.
She didn’t want him to embrace his fame and attend event after event, knowing how it would torture him. She didn’t want him to grab power he never wanted. He did not crave it, he did not go looking for it, and she did not expect it of him.
Harry never asked to be changed. He didn’t need to become a new person, didn’t need to escape his life. He held onto the memories of lost loved ones and honoured their memory every day. He did not want the fame, or the power. And on most days, he just wanted to be normal.
But that’s not what people expect of him. They can fix him, or at least that’s what they think.
She did not need to fix him. Some scars never faded but they did not hurt him. Having his own home and settling him brought him peace. It gave him a place to come into his own and grieve the people he had lost. Sometimes it was the simple things, like hanging a framed picture up in the living room or making their favourite food. A place where he could be himself, where he wasn’t worried and where his emotions could flow freely. A place where the nightmares got soothed by comforting arms and softly spoken words, a cup of hot cocoa or a refreshing glass of water. And they could exist, and be talked about, and it would help him. A place where no one expected him to take the lead and have an answer to every question.
He spoke to her, softly whispered confessions in the middle of the night. She held him, and he kissed her softly.
“You make me so happy.”
She carded her fingers through his hair.
“You make me forget all my troubles without even trying,” he sighed. “You make me feel at peace.”
She pressed a kiss against his temple.
“You helped me love all of my scars.”
He never needed to change. She always loved him, flaws and all. Time healed many things, and she was there for it all, but he was never something to be fixed.
I can fix him , she thought. No, really; I can. It was never my intention; I would have loved him all the same.
“You fixed me.”
She shook her head and smiled at him. “I love you.”
He looked at her fondly and pulled her a little closer. “I am pretty sure that’s the same thing.”
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hey, long time no been here. I'm sleepy, but I have something to say
I will abuse google translator a little cause I originally wrote all this in spanish :p
I haven't had energy the last few months. I am currently in a not very good state of mind so I will allow myself to be somewhat negative below.
I have lost interest in continuing with art, or at least the motivation is at the lowest level it has ever been, my only real reason for continuing is because it feeds my family, my pets and me, its reason enough to keep going , I fervently believe. But this doesn't stop me from feeling like I'm not going anywhere, that I'm stuck. Drawing has never been so exhausting, so tiring. I loved it, it may not be a permanent feeling, but currently I do not feel love for my drawings, for my current style, although I like it I feel that it is not mine, that it is not me, that I am not being sincere.
My dream is to reach that level of skill, like the meme, a rookie artist drawing something super rendered and complex and the senior artist drawing the most simplified style possible, I want to be that senior artist x'D.
How socials are treating and overshadowing artists lately also has a lot to add here, to hell with the numbers, I'm not interested in them, I'm not interested in the algorithm, I don't quite understand what it's about, I don't want to be tied down all the time , I want to come and go freely, that's all, I don't enjoy loggin into networks as i used to be.
Sometimes I would like to go back in time, when I felt free to create, when I was looking for to experiment and had fun. Today just thinking about holding a pencil makes me want to run away to the comfort of my bed or go play with my cats or to want to climb a mount and never coming back. And not to mention the damage I have done to my eyes and my hands, sometimes I can't do anything but overdo everything, and therefore hurting me, I foolishly force myself to accomplish deadlines that I have imposed on myself and that I am aware of its a short time.
I'm in a situation where I can't stop drawing, it's my job, I can't simply take a rest. I practically survive with what I earn (which lately is little), prices for many essentials are going up to the stratosphere and beyond (the price for cat food is so ridiculously expensive that I have started opting for homemade food) I have not been able to save anything, if I stop drawing and taking commissions, I don't know what else I could do, looking for alternatives is also tiring. I just want to sleep.
Apathy, that is my current state.
Fatigue.
Drowsiness.
A bottomless abyss, although when I say it out loud it makes me laugh x'D
Going to therapy has crossed my mind, I know there are issues to resolve, but thinking about the absence of money and next month's expenses somehow overlap everything else.
I think there were more things to add, but I can't think anymore.
I will not abandon art, it is clear to me, but if these last few months have been slow (in terms of making art), they will be even more so in the future, so you better do not miss me too much, you have been warned x'D
ty for reading
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Hello after seeing your post about breaking up with the bros I was wondering if you could please do a hc for the boys finding out that mc fell in love with someone else in the human realm and mc is really happy with their new s/o?
Thank you and have a great day ,and please take your time on writing this💞
This is one of my favorite kinds of prompts - I absolutely live for angst or bittersweet writing. What that says about me, I’m not willing to discuss. I know this is insanely late (got chronically ill) but I hope you see this and that it does your request justice.
Lucifer: It’s going to be hard for Lucifer to see initially; his ego is as hurt as his heart is. It’s very easy for him to fall into the role of bitter ex-boyfriend who talks about how you’ve absolutely downgraded. You’ve settled for a human partner and one that is not nearly as attractive, smart, charming, talented, etc. He disparages this new partner relentlessly to the point where Diavolo and his brothers know his rant by heart. He would definitely think about trying to win you back, to show you how much happier you would be if you came back to him, but…Lucifer knows that smile on your face. You’ve always seen the best in people and there’s nothing he could ever say that would convince you to leave your new partner so he saves himself the embarrassment of trying to win you back and decides to watch from the background, willing to bide his time until your new partner makes a mistake and he can come sweeping in.
Mammon: Mammon is heartbroken, there’s no way around it. You’re his and he’s yours, that’s how it has been since the beginning and that’s the way it’s always supposed to be. He has been so good for you, tried so hard, and he knows that you love him. Loved him? Mammon has been pining for you and waiting for you to one day return to the Devildom like he knew that you would and here you are, already moved on and in love with someone new. It makes him feel like he never really knew you at all because if you loved him even half as much as he loved you, you wouldn’t be with someone else. He tries to play off his feelings but everyone around him is aware of his devastation and they’re all doing their best to cheer him but no matter what they buy him or how much Lucifer raises his credit limit, he can’t stop thinking about how he lost the only thing he ever really cared about and feels like the absolute fuck up that everyone’s always told him he was.
Levi: Levi can’t stand to see it and he’s going to absolutely pull away from your friendship the moment he knows there’s someone else in the picture. He’ll play at normal for as long as he can but he’ll talk to you less and less as he drowns in his self-doubt and fears that you’re only talking to him out of pity while you secretly laugh about the stupid demon who is still hopelessly in love with you when you’re clearly not even interested. Hell, you were probably never interested in the first. You probably couldn’t wait to leave Levi and the Devildom behind and find some super cool, charming normal human who didn’t stutter or spend hours gaming or act like an idiot around you. There’s no way you ever loved him and Levi isn’t going to stick around where he’s not wanted. He goes back to hiding away in his room, swearing off love forever since it’s a stupid normie illusion, and there’s nothing anyone can do.
Satan: Wrath. It takes Satan several days to get out all of the fury he’s feeling and, honestly, everyone is afraid to be around him until he’s finally settled down. Satan can’t believe that you’ve been able to find someone new, especially someone like that. Satan, like Lucifer, knows he’s the better choice and he doesn’t understand how you’ve not only apparently gotten over him just like that but also chose a partner that was so utterly beneath you. Satan, despite his sin, is rational though and he actively avoids his urge to maimkilldestroy your new partner out of respect and love for you. However, he is keeping an eye on you two and he will make that partner of yours disappear if he gets even a hint of you being mistreated.
Asmo: Asmo thinks it’s a little cute honestly. You chose a cute new partner and Asmo can understand why you would be attracted to them. Of all people, he understands how attraction and affection aren’t limited or controllable. You’ve been home for a long time with no guarantee you’d come back to the Devildom, he can’t blame you at all for being with someone new. You seem so happy you’re practically glowing with it and Asmo thinks you look as beautiful as ever. However, that doesn’t mean Asmo is going to leave you alone. There’s always room for him, right? You and your partner could potentially even share, depending on how much he ends up liking them. It’s only if you reject Asmo for this new partner that he becomes both outraged and hurt. He can’t fathom you choosing anyone else over him and he’s going to stay your friend if only to wheedle at you constantly and try to temp you back to him.
Beel: Beel is really just happy that you’re happy. There’s this twinge in his chest when he sees you with someone else and the everpresent hunger in his stomach grows to an almost unbearable sensation as he starts to realize that you will never be his again. You’re gone and you have a new partner that you seem to love. That’s great, it really is. All Beel wants is for you to be happy and well taken care and safe; it seems like you’ve found someone who can give you that. He loves you enough to want you to be happy, wherever and however you find that happiness. As much as he truly believes that, he still can’t stop the pit in his stomach from growing whenever he thinks about you. He eats and eats, more than he has since he first came to the Devildom, but nothing is filling the emptiness inside him and he lives with the scary idea that nothing will ever be able to fill the space that you’ve left behind.
Belphie: Belphie doesn’t care. You’re just a stupid human. You hung out with his family for a while and you were great to have around for a while, it was…fun. That’s it. They all knew you wouldn’t be around forever and that you’d eventually go home. Belphie, of all the brothers, is the most aware of your humanity; you’re mortal and vulnerable and your time is so limited. Belphie knew to never put much stock in the idea of a future together; he expected this to happen one day and so he’s prepared for it well enough to not react when he sees you with your new partner. But, despite all of his internal preparation, deep down, Belphie feels the loss acutely. He’s reminded of Lilith and the loss of the one of the best people he’s ever known and he feels his walls against humans building back up; he always ends up hurt by them in one way or another.
If you decide you want the dateables as well (or if anyone does), just let me know!
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Not understand what happen right now but have friends try explain and understand that bad things happening people in countries around Palestine, Amy can pray for everyone be safe until Monday and then go to mayor office ask him not help make more bad things happen and think him probably not listen because nobody listen ID people not talk smart but Amy can go and say it anyway and also pray lots and hope FairuzFan and all family friends safe.
Something also Amy worry about because live place lots people get mean to Muslim friends and think maybe now more people can think okay to be mean jerks hurt Muslim friends so want make sure Muslim friends online and real life safe even places like America Canada stuff like that and hope FairuzFan safe not have people be mean.
Thank you so much Amy. That's very very sweet of you, I appreciate it so much. I wish you the best of luck with your mayor and I'm sorry that you go through that. I hope we all are safe, all the people who are worried for their own safety and their families'.
I guess a very quick explanation is that Israel hit an Iranian embassy and Iran hit back... may people from Arab countries (both Christian and muslim!) Are very worried for their family because some people say there might be a bigger war in the Middle East that goes to all different countries where our families live.
Thank you again for writing this, I think about your messages often, Amy, when I'm feeling down.
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