#and it's just a very volatile political thing happening

[holyvirgilscriptures]

i think every celebrity needs to shut up like for real

[m1ndbrand]

"all it took was..." — The new President

WARNINGS: Coriolanus Snow is it's own warning(Snow after the 10thGames, 2 years after to be precise); Mentions of death and corpse(small description, nothing big).

SUMMARY: The 12th Hunger Games winner unfortunately fortunately gets the attention of President Snow.

WORDS: 1.384

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the franchise The Hunger Games characters nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used nor do I claim to own them. I do claim what I wrote and only that.

A/N: If you know the tragedy of Coriolanus by William Shakespeare some names will be recognizable...Also I'm sorry but this chapter won't be the continuation of their little...encounter— but I promise, it's going to happen!

TAG-LIST: @sorry-mrs-jacobs; @phoward89;

MASTERLIST

He was never someone who believed in the stars and whatever they might mean to some people.

It seemed completely idiotic and beneath someone from the level of education, you would get from the Capitol to have this belief that in his humble opinion, of course — was archaic and beneath him.

Fate and stories written on the stars were all but a way of fairy tales being made, a topic on some and even a very important one at that "merging" some characters together like the universe itself deemed them a pair, one in two.

Star-crossed lovers.

How he hated that idea, he couldn't believe he even fed it to—

Let's not dwell on that topic, he had better things to do, like arrange a new Games Maker for the 12th Hunger Games.

Doctor Volumnia Gaul is no more, some freak accident with one or more than one mutt; it wasn't clear, the body was far too mutilated to be recognised by anyone at all if not for the DNA tests and well...the place of the accident, a place only a few people were able to enter and of course Doctor Gaul was one of those people, him included in the small pool.

It was slightly weird however how the mulls were able to break free, the reporters debated it for the first days the case broke daylight, but the theory was quickly suppressed.

After all, mulls were still in being tested and we're highly volatile, their behaviour unstable and unpredictable. And of course, accidents happen.

But the world continues to go around and so shall the Capitol, he needed to find someone and fast. 

He should have looked more into it, the selection that is. But he had more important things in his place, strength the security in the several points of entry on all distractions, the training of the peacekeepers and the change of the uniform like he so petitioned for just to name a few.

The new and young president had more important things to worry about than some person who would probably be soon replaced if so needed.

The theme he chose ,he didn't even try to remember the man's name, was an advanced-looking arena; a sign of the year the Capitol got a new President. Coriolanus liked the idea. It painted his future reign as one that would lead them into the future, lead them into a better time.

It painted him as a good leader.

The reaping ceremony passed without a problem. Some students clearly didn't like something— their tribute lack of attributes to make them win or the idea of having to participate in such 'twisted games' as the rebel-like-youth liked to name his games. He honestly couldn't care less, blue-ice-like eyes looking straight at the screens with a fake polite smile when the camera twists at him, showing his all too polished self composed with a deep red suit and thick coat that made his figure even more imposing than it normally is.

He would soon return to his manor and actually work, the two hours of the opening ceremony put his work ethic behind schedule more than he liked to admit.

There was much to be done to make the Capitol and the Districts into the way he saw fit and Coriolanus shouldn't waste more time than he already has.

Not even a day later he would have the files of everyone who chose to review. For some reason the late president did this— the threat of the Rebels was still very much a problem and he was of course scared shitless by them so all 'useful' information was of course turned into two paper pages that it was his duty to read through.

Coriolanus was just about to skim through them all but the very first file caught his attention, District One female tribute.

Not the girl's image he didn't even look at it properly, he already saw every tribute face on the reaping ceremony... all looked underfed and clearly not fit for an entertaining games in terms of pure brutal strength, the mentors would need to sell them well to the Capitol. No it was her name. Her last name rang a bell.

A big warning bell was inside his head and it made his eyebrows furrow, hand picked up the two-page long file and flipped through the description of her family. Something was amiss, he could feel it in his bones. Something was wrong. 

Coriolanus could almost feel the hunger tearing at his stomach, his small sweaty hand tightly gripping his equally moist cousin's hand as they received the news of his father's death.

His other small hand gripping the files of several names of supposed rebels that could be the reason behind his father's death. Blond hair falls against his sweaty forehead as at that time he didn't understand why he had to read the names of random men.

Brutus.

His hand grips the file on his hand, veins popping up as his eyes skim through the contents of the file, once and then twice. He didn't even sit down, reading in silence for 10 minutes over and over again to look out for another word, sentence, or anything more.

Only two people are still alive from her family— grandmother and little brother, Valeria Brutus and Menenius Brutus, then they got the last name from her grandfather. His hand moves the paper right and left, trying to see if her grandfather's first name was there. But it wasn't. It probably wasn't deemed to be useful information since he is dead. Putting the papers down he turns with a sigh to his window, chin rising as he looks to see all the perfectly arranged garden of pure white roses in the front of his mansion.

No this shouldn't matter. It didn't matter, not now. He got what he wanted he won, the victor. He was still standing with or without his father.

The nostalgic feeling of feeling hungry regrows once again and it makes him nauseous, sharp eyes turning to the face of the girl on the page. She looked like every other girl he reminds himself as he starts a little too long at her face. Eighteen, one more year and she should have been safe from the reaping.

A smile creeps on his lips. Amusement dancing in his eyes like he had just read a good enough joke.

He couldn't sleep.

Coriolanus hated to be in need of something even if it was just a simple pill to go to sleep. He was better than that, he could sleep alone thank you very much.

Couldn't he just get the information he wanted? He could, he had the resources, and he had the needs to if he so pleases, so why not?

No.

No, he wouldn't lose to this...whatever this is, curiosity, need— want to know. Closure.

Maybe that was it. Know the person or people that did this to him. To his family. The people that made him starve and struggle. Envy and step on people that he knew were living better than him, growing to bring them down so he could feel himself high above them all. Know the people that in a way, made him the way he is now.

Rising he presses the inside of his palms to his eyes.

For fucks sake— Shut the fuck up! 

His mouth was open. Eyes shot open and hands grabbing tightly the silk covers, knuckles turning white. Did he shout those words? Wasn't it all in his head? His hands were shaking, face was slightly flushed red from anger.

It's one of those episodes.

Rising he curses under his breath, feet carrying him to one of the small tables with some pills on them. Deep eyes thin as he tried to look into the colours of the various drugs that looked like they were thrown there and he picked a deep purple one in the midst of the rainbow and quickly gulped it down without water.

His attention is caught by the silver-like glow of the moonlight slipping through his windows, blue tired-looking eyes looking up at the sky, they find the stars instead of the moon that sings for attention. Wishing to catch a stray star amidst the ones that stay. Maybe he could catch it as it falls.

With those thoughts, sleep would soon catch him.

Previous

[buckybarnesb-tch]

Alpha!Aemond Targaryen Meeting His Omega

~Everyone was so thrilled when he presented at 16 as an Alpha, the Targaryen's all being Betas for many years

•He was the first to be an Alpha in many years and his father was thrilled most of all, Viserys immediately throwing him a party a week later, complete with a huge feast and everyone in the realm that could make it

•Aemond was not at all happy that his elder sister had come with her family but Viserys insisted and they all congratulated him and he could hear from where he sat Rhaenyra warning Luke to stay as far away from his uncle as possible, that he would be even more volatile now and she was correct, his hate for the Strong boys burned hotter than ever

•Every Omega from every kingdom was brought with the important houses, and not just family members but Omega servants as well, Alphas could not be married off politically very often as there was no way they could be with anyone but their mates

•Aemond had often made comments about how he would do his duty, marry who he was told to and strengthen their family but now he couldn't imagine such a thing, his Omega was what he wanted and he would settle for nothing less, no matter what his Hightower grandfather thought about it, and for once his mother seemed to be on his side

~His father was happy of course but so was his mother, who looked forward to seeing her son happy, especially after seeing him in such pain for so long, hiding himself from the women in court after what Lucerys had done to his eye.  Most women couldn't stomach looking at it but Alicent was comforted by knowing Aemond's Omega would see no disability like everyone else did

•Aemond however was still concerned about it, before he had healed and could wear the eye patch the women that had seen his wound had been horrified, some even becoming physically ill

•He knew he would wear the eye patch every moment of every day if he had to for his mate, even if he had to sleep with it on to comfort her, he would never see her look at him like that

•He hated the idea that he was supposed to try and find his Omega here though, what are the odds his mate just so happens to be here tonight?  He thought it was ridiculous and would much rather be outside the castle, searching for her outside the Red Keep however he was proven wrong fairly quickly once everyone arrived

~Her scent was like nothing he had ever imagined as he sat at the head table people watching

•He wasn't mingling, still getting used to the truly insane sense of smell he now had and controlling it as it was in overdrive surrounded by all these people, his brother Aegon being one of the ones that bothered him most, heavy wine, sadness and whores.  Aemond wasn't sure how he could smell either sadness or what a whore smelled of but he did and he hated it from the moment Aegon arrived once he'd presented

•The smell overcame him a moment after the Stark family was announced in the hall, Cregan Stark and his family arriving along with their Omega servants, every family only having one, maybe 2.  Honeysuckle, mint and a sweetness he couldn't quite place and suddenly he was rock hard and completely alert

•His mother seemed to notice his change in demeanor as he straightened up, looking at where the Starks had walked to, standing from his seat and stepping around the table

•Aemond paid attention to no one's words or congratulations as he took steps towards that heavenly scent, becoming agitated instantly as people kept moving, that is until someone whistled, so loud almost every Omega groaned, their sensitive ears probably ringing worse than Aemond's

•"It seems as if my brother has caught the scent of something delicious!"  Aegon cackled, drunk as hell but for the first time maybe ever, Aemond didn't mind as he had frozen the room, even if everyone now stared as he moved towards the doors, seeing the head of the Stark family and looking at the faces around him. 

"My Lord Stark, present your Omegas to the Prince, if you would please?"  This time it was his mother who spoke and everyone shuffled back from the family, watching closely as Cregan Stark pulled a boy and a girl along.  Aemond recognized the girl as the Stark's niece but the other was very clearly a servant, although as they met his eyes he felt nothing.  Stark was looking around to his wife as if searching for something and that's when Aemond smelled it, the scent was fading, no longer in the room with them and faster than anyone would have deemed humanly possible, the one-eyed Prince was sprinting from the room after that delicious smell

~Aemond had heard of Omegas running when they smelled their Alphas, some said it was because they wanted their Alpha to chase and catch them and show he was a strong mate, he knew better however

•Aemond didn't need his Omega to tell him, he knew she was afraid.  She had probably come here with a promise from House Stark that it could never be her, what were the odds that out of the dozens of Omegas here that it was her, and now here she is with everyone searching the room for her while her Alpha stalked closer as if a dragon on a hunt, his Omega was probably terrified

•He turned down a corridor and moved quicker as the scent became stronger, knowing he was practically on top of her as he opened the door to the kitchens.  He didn't make a sound as he stepped in, seeing her filling a teapot with water, her face scrunched up adorably in frustration.  "Dōna mirre?"  She gasped, dropping the pot and whimpering which sent a tingle down his spine straight to his cock.  "No need to be afraid, I won't harm you...I know what I look like but you have nothing to fear from me, never you."  He swore.  He couldn't quite read her face in that moment but she wasn't running, he thought that a good sign.  "May I know my Omega's name?"

She paused before responding but not too long. “Y/n...my name is Y/n my Prince-"

"No need for such formalities, not between us...I am aware of what you must have heard about me but please? I ask that you give me the chance to prove that it is all untrue...at least most of it." She giggled at that and he decided right then that it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.

"I will not judge you on the words of others, that wouldn't be fair...if you promise me the same...I can only imagine what people are saying about me, the prince mated to a servant wench from the North, I-"

"Don't you ever say such a thing about my Omega again!" He demanded, walking closer and stopping himself before he touched her, looking down from his 6'2 stature and noticing she couldn't be taller than 5'4. "You, Dōna mirre, will be a Targaryen by weeks end and anyone who would ever say such things will have their tongues removed." He instantly expected fear as he realized he shouldn't have gone so far while trying to make her feel safe but once more she giggled and he knew he was going to have to survive dinner with a raging erection. "Do you think we could go back to the feast? Guards will be sent to find us if they haven't already-"

"Lest you steal my virtue on the kitchen floor?" She was teasing him and he loved it, smiling for the first time in a long while.

"I wouldn't do you the dishonor of even bringing it into question. Come, I'll have someone bring you tea." She smiled up at him, taking hold of his offered arm and walking back.

~Aemond escorted her back and when guards opened the doors everyone's eyes turned to them as they now all sat down to dinner

•His Omega clutched tighter to his arm as she felt the stares and he pulled her closer to his side as he guided her to the head table and around it to sit down themselves

•"My son!" His father waved them over and he kissed her hand.

"My father wishes to meet you, just breathe, it will be quick, I promise...my mother less so." She pinched his side as he teased her making him squirm before guiding her to the king. "Father. This is Y/n, my Omega. Y/n, this is my father."

"My king. It's an honor to meet you sir." As his sweetling went to bow he held his arms out, pulling her close and hugging the small girl. Had it been anyone else but his father he would have broken his hands at this moment but the growl that built up from his throat was uncontrollable leading everyone in close proximity, his mother, siblings, Daemon and nephews to look at him stunned though his father just laughed so hard he was thrown into a coughing fit. "You should sit my king." His Omega reached for his glass and held it up for him to drink making the sickly man smile and do as she requested, sitting with her assistance and taking a drink.

"A true, sweet Omega you are my dear. No more of this 'my king' nonsense, you are family now. 'Father' will do just fine, daughter in law." He held her face in his hands and everyone that looked on could see how happy Viserys truly was.

"I do not wish to offend my king, I-" he looked up at her, eyebrows raised and she quickly corrected herself. "Father...thank you for your kindness. Please don't let me interrupt your meal, I'm sure we will have plenty of time to know each other."

"Yes. Of course we will." As he turned back to the feast Aemond took her arm again, pulling her close though she was snatched by his mother who turned the Omega to look at her.

"You are just lovely my dear. Exactly what I pictured for you my sweet boy. You and I will get together tomorrow Y/n, we must start planning the wedding-"

"Mother!"

"What? Would you like to wait a few moons for your wedding my son? Or would you like to get on with it quickly? If so, it must be discussed, we'll need time to get everything in order." She looked at Aemond expectantly, knowing her son wouldn't want to wait long for the event and also knowing that if Y/n's heat hit her before the wedding no one would be able to keep her son from his Omega, better to get it done now, the Prince understanding her meaning instantly.

"I don't need much your grace, it can be small. Just family and a septon, it doesn't-" his Omega stopped when she once again saw the whole family staring making Aemond growl on purpose this time. "Or it could be large, why not?"

Aemond spun her around to face him and turned her face up, thumbs brushing her embarrassed red cheeks. "Whatever it is, as long as I'm with you it will be perfect my Dōna mirre." Rhaenyra, Helaena and Alicent all let out a small 'aww' at his display and it only made the Omega blush worse.

"What does that mean?"  She finally asked him as he sat her in a chair by his side, the opposite side Aegon was on.

"Sweetling.  My sweet little mate, too sweet for someone like me."  She took hold of his hand and pulled it close to her chest, holding onto him tightly.

"That's the second time you've put yourself down my mate and I will not have it.  You are wonderful!"

"You are too kind my darling but you see the same face every other person does and it's appalling, I'm not-"  The next thing Aemond knew his Omega had slapped him right across his cheek, head turning with the motion, not out of pain but more shock.

"I will not sit here and listen to this!"  The slap had alerted the looks of several people, his mother now looked on as well as Rhaenyra and Daemon, and his siblings though it didn't stop her as she grabbed his face, whispering too lowly for them to hear but Aemond absolutely heard it, every word.  "You are lovely!  You are a strong, handsome Prince, a dragon rider that sits atop the largest dragon alive!  Your lost eye is unfortunate and unfair, yes, and your nephew should pay for what he did but whatever disability you think it causes, you are wrong.  From what I understand my Alpha is the most skilled swordsman in Kings Landing, men fear you, and women, real women know how attractive you are."  Y/n turned his face towards her but moved her hand so no one else would be able to look upon his scar as she turned the eyepatch up to reveal a beautiful sapphire to her view.  "These ladies in court, they have their sensitivities, they faint at the sight of blood, flinch away from violence but a real women knows that scars on a man are arousing."  Aemond was stunned by this, she was right though, the only women who had ever seen it had been his family and a few ladies at these kinds of parties.  His mother had been right, his Omega wasn't disgusted by him in the slightest.

"I had thought I would need to wear this even in my sleep to avoid scaring you...I-"

"You will do no such thing, I would look upon my Alphas face every chance I get!"  She wasn't whispering anymore and he could see from the side even his nephews now looked at them.  "You are handsome and anyone who says otherwise will have words with me."  He saw her turn her head towards Aegon, looking also at Jace and Luke before Aemond turned her head back.  "My Alpha."  She whispered, leaning closer and rubbing her nose against his and he found it adorable.  "It is a lovely face you have...and after our wedding, it is a face...I would happily ride." 

And just like that his cock was practically screaming for attention again as he pictured his gorgeous Omega riding his face.  Unable to take in air as her pussy suffocated him in the most glorious way, her juices covering his mouth as he shoved his tongue as deep as her quivering cunt would allow, arms wrapped around her thighs and holding her down on him as she writhed like crazy and he could only imagine what noises she would make as he-

"Alpha?"

"Hmm?"

"You're imagining it, aren't you?"  He nodded his head, not having it in him to look sorry as she smirked, leaning close and pressing her lips to the scar under his sapphire eye. "Good. I'll be imagining it tonight...Alpha." Aemond growled as she set his eye patch back, calling him 'Alpha' had been doing things to him and she was lucky he hadn't carried her off already. He leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers roughly, pulling away as she whimpered, grasping onto whatever semblance of control he had left.

If this is what he already feels for her, he doubts he'll make it to the wedding.

Dōna Mirre-Sweetling

It actually means 'Sweet Thing' but there's no translation for the name I wanted so that's the closest I can get and I'm going with it.

[carionto]

Pressure and Release

Human: *hmm-ing at a set of dials and gauges*

Alien: What seems to be *translation unit catches up with the information they're displaying* OH MY GOD IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!!! GET TO THE ESCAPE PODS NOW!!!!

H: Shh, it's fine, I'm just experimenting.

A: OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE HORRIBLY!

H: Hey! Rude. *turns a dial causing a loud hissing noise* It's just air compressors and hydraulics.

A: *due to not dying, is beginning to relax* Why do you need up to 200 atmospheres running through these systems. We have invented alloy-specific magnetization mechanisms. Please, why do you keep insisting on these volatile and explosive means?

H: *turns the dial up* Because... *releases the pressure again, loud sudden hissing sound again* That's a cool sound.

A: Just because you think something is 'cool' doesn't make it-

H: *interrupts with another air build up and release sound without breaking eye contact*

A: *leaves*

H: *continues to play around*

_________________________________________

Okay, so I wanna get this off my chest. I find myself now for the fourth time starting a fun little activity, doing it for months on end, having a blast, and then almost suddenly dropping it entirely. First time I wrote some short stories or something every day for about six months and put it on deviantart. Then some longer form stuff started cropping in, sort of continuous narratives or whatever, and I stopped. Second was running a open D&D campaign with a persistent world but ever changing party, each session a sort of one-shot with a decision that would impact the whole world and what future sessions would exist. Not even 10 sessions in I felt under pressure to continue and build upon what I had already and just couldn't and stopped. Third was another kind of TTRPG, this time running my own server for Lancer. Again, open one shots, but less connected and I would hopefully get some of the players to want to run their own games within this freeform framework that I directly lifted from a D&D server I was in, even had some of the same people join as players. Few months later, I felt this massive pressure from myself to run games and come up with new scenarios that I just froze up. I cancelled game after game and just eventually abandoned the server and the resources I had made. Fourth time was here on tumblr itself. Back to writing some short form stuff on a fairly regular basis, almost daily for some time even. Had a blast, and then longer form content started creeping in. I thought I wanted to write some stories with an overarching plot and recurring characters and connected storylines, build up and pay off, that sort of thing. Again, I created this massive pressure by myself for myself of myself to do something I apparently can't. I created this sense of expectation of myself "Well, I started this, I should finish it, but where do I go, what do I do, how can I connect this?" And then this self-inflicted pressure got to me, again. And I stopped.

What I have known for a while, but couldn't put into words is that I don't want to tell a big long epic story or anything like that. I don't have one of those in me and forcing something like that only makes me shrivel up and run away. I have a world, several in fact, in my mind. Entire continents of a low fantasy character driven political intrigue and drama based world with tons of rules and restrictions, thousands of years of history, strong personalities for the main actors and so many individual scenes with them and the supporting cast, and a timeframe for when the overarching story happens and how it ends. But no story itself. Just scenes. I have a high fiction sci-fi world, again, with very distinct factions and races, most of the details I have written out back when I was a teen in a physical notebook with pen and pencil. Lots of historical points and events, how the races work, their domains if you will, near magical powers I try to explain with plausible science. Tons of specific details. Even drew each of their common symbols, how one of the languages is structured, schematics of how their cities are planned, and details on other planets in the system and how those might be important later. But, not a single individual character or story. Just dry facts. And then we have the loose sci-fi world I've created here. Bunch of different angles and perspectives, some comedic, some more serious, even put Cthulu in there. Many short and mostly self-contained stories and episodes of various humans doing things an exaggerated version of humanity would do. There is potential for a number of expanded and longer form stories here, some I attempted, and as mentioned, what ultimately made me stop. I don't have a book in me, and I don't want to write one. I just like to write little snippets and I want to get myself to accept this idea that, no, it does not need to become more than that. Because every time I start going down a path where it feels like it should be more than a one page thing, I seize up, start thinking that I need to do this, panic when I can't come up with anything, go silent, and give up. It just does not work for my brain. And that's fine.

[jbaileyfansite]

Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer's Interview for WMagazine (2023)

Warning: Spoilers for Fellow Travelers ahead.

Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey had a feeling their characters’ sexual escapades in Fellow Travelers would ignite a social media firestorm. But apart from some in-person encounters with fans who watched the Showtime limited series, both actors claim they’ve avoided going down a rabbit hole of reactions to their performances.

“The first week of just seeing a GIF of a toe was kind of alarming,” Bailey says in a joint interview with Bomer. “But when you’re doing a scene like that, you know what function it serves—not just in the story, but in the selling of a TV series. I call it the Trojan toe: You slip it in, get people watching, and by the time they get to [that moment], they’ll understand exactly what the show’s setting out to explore.”

Adapted from Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel, Fellow Travelers chronicles the clandestine romance between Hawkins Fuller (Bomer), a debonair State Department employee, and Tim Laughlin (Bailey), a wide-eyed college graduate, who fall in love at the height of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare in 1950s Washington D.C. As they weave in and out of each other’s lives across multiple decades, Hawk and Tim’s enduring relationship hurtles toward a devastating conclusion in the 1980s. Following Tim’s terminal AIDS diagnosis, Hawk visits his lover—whom he has nicknamed “Skippy”—one last time in San Francisco, where they both come to terms with the significance of their volatile romance.

“A lot of people feel seen—not just by the sex scenes, but by aspects of queer identity on the show,” Bomer says. “That’s the hope, right? That whatever you’re pouring your heart and soul into resonates with somebody or makes them feel seen.”

On a recent visit to New York City, Bailey and Bomer were affable and laid-back—a far cry from the brooding, tortured characters that have defined their respective careers. Bouncing ideas off each other, the charming costars spoke with W about their approach to telling their characters’ epic love story, the surreal experience of shooting their final scene together, and what to expect from Maestro and the next season of Bridgerton.

Why does Hawk and Tim’s connection make them question everything they thought they knew about themselves?

Jonathan Bailey: You will never really know what Hawk and Tim would’ve been like [as a full-fledged couple]. You can’t judge them on anything, because there’s a survival element at play, which reflects the brutality of the world they were born into. As [the show] expands and this liberation blooms, we see more of [Hawk’s wife] Lucy [played by Allison Williams] and the impact of Hawk’s decisions on the characters around him.

To me, it’s a love story for the ages because you can follow any thread and it comes back to the political backdrop. But ultimately, there’s a real meeting of souls between the two. They complete each other in a way that’s so painful. But in a world where joy, connection and absolution are so hard to find, especially in the ’50s for gay men, it becomes addictive, and there are toxic cycles that come from it.

Matt Bomer: There are aspects of their own personal trauma that are complementary of each other.

JB: And they feed the other’s insecurities.

MB: The sad thing is, when Hawk is finally at a place where he can be his most authentic self and be available and empathetic enough to be a real partner in a relationship, it’s too late.

Hawk has a very specific moral code as a gay man living a double life in the 20th century: He is clearly able to show genuine affection for Tim, but he needs control in his relationships and is able to code-switch in public. Tim doesn’t understand Hawk’s ability to compartmentalize his life, but he still finds Hawk irresistible. How did you want to embody the many contradictions of your characters?

MB: For me, it all went back to Hawk’s childhood and that horrific incident that happened with his father [and his first love, Kenny]. He refuses to be a victim, so he’s going to find a way to survive and thrive in whatever way he can. It all ties into the fact that he will never be the victim of a homophobic society or family again.

JB: What Tim’s really drawn to in Hawk is his center. Hawk is the epicenter of all these people’s worlds because he doesn’t afford them space to veer him off in any direction. Tim’s always there for Hawk when he needs him, but Hawk’s never really there for Tim, and that is something Tim is drawn to. Tim’s quest in life is his desperate need for a groundedness, and the choice I made early on was to physicalize Tim so that his inner and outer world were matched.

Tim finds it really hard to lie; he can’t not be completely transparent. The decoding of Hawk is something that fills all sorts of needs in Tim. But as he gets older and [society’s] way of thinking aligns with his need to disassemble the cards he’s been given, Tim finds a stillness and a calm, which is reflected in the way he can then handle Hawk.

MB: Hawk does have his allegiances and his own sense of empathy, but if it comes down to anything that’s going to threaten his survival, he can go full Scorpio and cut it off. [He’s] a little Mother Teresa, a little Tony Soprano. [Laughs.]

JB: And in the performing of [those scenes], Tim felt so much more love than I thought he would. In episode two, I think it became more confusing to play Tim in the best possible way, because when he says, “I don’t understand you” [to Hawk], it’s because he can see the palpable empathy, love, and compassion. That is just as real as everything else, and that is a bind for Tim and really hard to step away from. When they look at each other, there’s no one else that’s ever existed. And if you’re lucky enough to have that with someone, it’s really hard to let that go.

There are little details that anchor each of Hawk and Tim’s sex scenes—the eye contact, the importance of consent, the shifting power dynamics, the negotiation of how much of yourself you’re willing to give to another person. How did you want to subvert traditional depictions of queer intimacy?

MB: We were so fortunate that those scenes were just an extension of the story, that the relationship was never the same after one of those scenes as it was before. It was always an externalization of what was going on with the characters internally.

JB: I think it’s a rule that [creator] Ron [Nyswaner] learned on Homeland where every single scene has to further the story—and that’s true of the sex scenes. Because there haven’t necessarily been elevated, eight-hourlong gay dramas like this; there was space to breathe, and that constant negotiation between the two of them is so vital. I remember speaking to [executive producer/director] Dan Minahan in Toronto. We had a good few hours, and we ended up talking about intimacy and how you can capture it on film. The thing that I understand [from] enjoying love stories or intimacy on film is the moments where they surprise each other.

MB: Yeah! It’s not like Hawk’s pushing the envelope the whole time; Tim upends Hawk as much as Hawk upends Tim’s expectations.

JB: We basically started with the chicken soup [scene in episode one], when Hawk seduces Tim for the first time. By the time we were in episode four, we were really emboldened as a team. As Jonny and Matt, we were always whispering, “This is absolutely fine, if you want to do this.” For so many people, it’s bizarre to think of that as a job. But when the material is as rich as this, no stone will go unturned into [depicting] how intricate, sensitive, celebratory, and joyful those moments are.

MB: I believe everybody should get to play every role, but I think the fact that we’re both openly gay men lent an ease and an understanding of a lot of the aspects of the relationship.

JB: You can have conversations between yourselves of why your instincts are cropping up in those moments. It was a bit like when, just before they dive, synchronized divers do that thing where they jump up and clap.

MB: [Laughs.] That was us! And there’s no [going] halfway in scenes like those that are written in this [show]. You know you have to go all the way.

Knowing that the entire emotional weight of their relationship rests on the penultimate line, “Promise you won’t write,” what did you want to convey in Hawk and Tim’s final scene together outside the governor’s ball? What do you remember from shooting their goodbye scene?

MB: I remember everything about that day.

JB: Yeah, I do too. Everything was in hyper-focus. It was overwhelming.

MB: It’s one of those scenes that you’re really glad you didn’t have to shoot on day two, because we had five and a half months of history [with] these characters. It was one of the last things we filmed together.

JB: I left [Toronto] early as well [to shoot Bridgerton], so we didn’t finish [shooting] together. We finished the love story in that scene.

MB: Yes, that’s right. It was one of those days at work where you have to try to get out of your own way and trust that all you’ve invested in these roles and these relationships will be inside of you. You don’t have to try to force or push anything; you have to just try to keep it alive and spontaneous when the cameras are rolling.

JB: I think we filmed it in the first take, didn’t we?

MB: Yeah.

JB: There are moments in that scene when it was like the world melted away. It’s amazing to see Tim establish his boundaries and be really kind with it. In that moment, he’s fully centered and aligned, and Hawk helps give him that final push to go, “I know what I’m doing, and what I’m saying is the right thing.” He’s never really known that with Hawk.

MB: Yeah, Hawk is finally emotionally vulnerable. I had every intention of coming into that scene and not letting any emotional vulnerability creep through, but it’s just one of those things where the scene takes over and you don’t want to block it.

Have either of you given much thought to what a second season of Fellow Travelers could look like?

JB: What I hope this [season] will be is a trampette into telling other queer stories, because two white gay men are the way in [to start a larger conversation], and it would be so interesting to have a world explored of [Jelani Alladin’s] Marcus and [Noah J. Ricketts’] Frankie. They were such a massive reason why I was like, “Okay, this is going to be good.”

MB: They weren’t in the book, and it was so important from the creatives that we included that narrative.

JB: I would totally come back and support Frankie’s story.

MB: Yeah, I would come in and do two days—whatever they need me for.

JB: Frankie and Marcus up front, and I’ll be there.

Surely, we all deserve to have the two of you star in a rom-com together (with a happier ending than this one).

JB: If someone comes up with it... Who would be the dream?

MB: To direct?

JB: Yeah. Luca Guadagnino?

MB: Yes, Luca or Andrew Haigh.

JB: We’ll do it!

MB: We’re there. And Russell T. Davies, if it’s a miniseries.

Have you discussed collaborating again in the future?

MB: Listen, sign me up to work with Jonathan Bailey any time. [They shake hands.] I will bring a tray to his character at the dinner table in a scene.

JB: Stop it. As long as it’s [like] Upstairs, Downstairs…

MB: [Laughs.] Yes, exactly. I would love that. Next time, I have to be British though. And I’ll come to London.

JB: I’ll be a Texan cowboy. [They laugh.]

In addition to Fellow Travelers, you both have new projects that will be debuting in the coming months. Matt, what were some of your takeaways from working with Bradley Cooper on Maestro?

MB: Bradley is such a generous and beyond talented scene partner—and his style of directing is so electric and present. He wants everything happening on the camera for the first time. I feel like I was really the beneficiary of his process before I started work on Fellow Travelers because I got to watch him and Carey [Mulligan] travel through all these phases of their multidecade romance. And then, [I was] getting to work with Johnny—who’s so similar in many regards, so generous, always keeping you on your toes and bringing things to the material that make the scene richer.

JB: Has Bradley watched Fellow Travelers?

MB: I keep telling him to! And Carey says she wants to. She keeps asking me where it’s on in England.

The third season of Bridgerton will premiere in two parts on May 16 and June 13, 2024. Jonathan, what new layers of Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony’s relationship will we see in the new season?

JB: I’m a massive fan of “Kanthony.” There’s so much to enjoy for both of them now, and we explore that in season three. They’ve overcome a lot. [We’re] talking about the need for communication in a romance, and that study of how they communicate and how little they did communicate until the very end [of season two]. So now, we can see them completely celebrate each other for who they are. There are really lovely conversations about heritage and familial roles, and once you meet someone who understands you fully, having sacrificed so much for the families as they both have, how exciting [it is] to make decisions that might change the course for them [as a couple].

Source

[rmoonstoner]

***

Poisoned Empanadas

***

Pairing:

Moon Knight (Jake Lockley) x Spider!fem!reader

Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O'Hara) x Spider!fem!reader

***

Warnings:

18+, violence, strong language, mentions of death, mentions of depression, sexual themes, volatile emotions, part 2 of the sex dream, dats a big boi

***

Summary:

This one is a little different. It's a recounting of the first chapters, but from Miguel's point of view. When the reader is referred to, it will be with she/her pronouns, not you. It's going to be shorter, because I want it to fit the chapter sizes I have picked.

***

Chapter 4 - B - Fast food dessert type Empanadas

These are the most commonly marketed Empanadas in the food industry. Many famous chains have their own versions of these sweet and delicious pastries. Chains like Taco Bell and McDonald's. (Yes, I know that McDonald's version is technically a pie, but to me it's literally the same thing in a rectangle, with venting slits. This is not a plug for McDonald's, I just happened to be really fucking high on edibles and eating a McDonald's pie at the time of writing this. I added Taco Bell as an afterthought. I wanted one from Taco Bell, but our location vanished mysteriously in the middle of the night a few months back.)

***

Miguel was tired and grumpy. His life up until now had be hard, and the most recent hand had him almost folding entirely.

First he had been screwed over by his boss and was tricked into being hooked on a designer drug. Next, his fiance had cheated on him with said boss. And finally, his boss had forced him into doing research and tests on a subject he didn't want to do or agreed with.

Sure the subject had originally been his own choice, but his employer thought it necessary to make certain changes to what Miguel was doing. They all added up, and eventually Miguel began to hate his work with a passion, as it wasn't his anymore. He also hated his dependency on the drug.

Then to add insult to injury, his boss changed something in his current test setup, which was working in a cure for himself, didn't tell Miguel, then when Miguel ran the experiment, he ended up being pricked by something. In his panic to fix his mistake, he hadn't seen what had pricked him.

It was an alarmingly large vial of volatile Spider DNA, and it worked quickly to change Miguel's body and his very chemical makeup. It caused him to become sicker than when he was withdrawing, yet his boss still forced him into coming into work the next day, with barely any check up on the accident. In fact, his boss was actively trying to cover it up, and offered a bribe in return to keep his mouth shut.

But Miguel wasn't going to take that bribe. He wanted to blow the whistle and make his boss pay for everything he had done to him. He thought better of those plans, and decided to politely decline the offer with not much of a fuss.

Miguel didn't think his boss would take things further after he refused.

Unfortunately he was very wrong.

He was set up yet again to fail. The next experiment he conducted, one he chose and wanted to do, had somehow failed spectacularly. He suspected it was on purpose, and Lyla had informed him it was.

Just like his boss had planned.

Miguel didn't have time to ponder on the incident. He had been violently ripped from one dimension to another in a failed experiment. An experiment that he was conducting to try and rid himself of a previous condition he had acquired in the last test.

A massive explosion ripped through the lab he was in. It happened just seconds after getting into the chair to have the robotic assistant to inject him with a serum to reverse the Spider DNA infusion.

Well, needless to say, that didn't happen.

Shit hit the fan.

Red lights and warning buzzers went off. The meters were off of the charts, breaking the indicator needles in the process. Miguel had been caught in the blast and sent flying through the wall into another part of the lab. He ended up hitting a machine that held a casing of some sort of unstable material, and then he had blacked out.

***

When Miguel awoke, it was to the sound of birds chirping. More sounds of a bustling city started to bleed through. Cars, horns, chatter, footsteps, heavy machinery…

He was confused that it was dark, as it had been daylight when he started the experiment. Mid-morning to be exact.

His whole body hurt. Muscles ached, and a lot of his skin had been bruised and cut, but it wasn't as bad as it should have been. He felt sick and after emptying his stomach and he tried to figure out where he was, and why no one had come for him all day…

Until he realized where and when he was.

***

That day sucked. Miguel was lucky enough to have his watch, and subsequently his AI assistant, survive the explosion and sudden displacement. Lyla was able to worm her way into the primitive internet networks, and with a little tweaking, she made up a basic identification system for Miguel. By doing this, she unlocked a simple bank account for him and managed to syphon some funds into it. She even booked a prepaid mid-range hotel in the bad end of town to keep him busy.

He had a long shower the first day, did a bunch of research on the current time period and the customs. Laws, and basic things one would need to know if hurled back in time some fifty plus years, and then he slept for a long time.

***

The second day of the second week, he noticed he had a gnarly beard starting to happen. He didn't enjoy the scruff, which grew so much faster now than it used to, and he needed a change. Miguel went shopping and bought a razor and some scissors, along with some basic supplies to enjoy during his stay here.

He went home and cut his hair with Lyla's guidance and shaved. He went on to do more research on the local area, with Lyla compiling files on the local heroes, starting with the most well known first. The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, Hawkeye, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and every Spider-Folk there was.

Miguel found himself spending a lot of time on those ones, particularly the light Spider. He told himself it was because she had weirdly specific light related powers, and not the fact he really digged the way her outfit looked and hugged every curve.

His research led him to the more mythical or cosmic members, like Thor, The Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Master Wong, Captain Marvel, and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

He was amazed at just how many there were.

Then he went on to the lesser known ones. He went through a large list, and found a few that seemed quite absurd to him. One of them appeared to be a pack of ever changing and roaming knights that claimed to be the fists of Khonshu. Some of the sources he read into lead him to believe they were the same person with some sort of fashion crisis.

That one left a sour taste in Miguel's mouth and he had no idea why. He just didn't like them. How could he, when the knights left a brutal trail of blood and gore behind them wherever they went. Apparently there was a whole reddit thread dedicated to these lunatics. Miguel was suspicious that these weren't different people, and merely just one man running amok like a crazed Mr. DressUp.

The guy that was in a white tailored suit, he was reasonable, passive, and tried to talk his way out of situations. He still beat the shit out of people, but only when provoked. He also talked non-stop, and had a British accent.

The one in the scraggly ancient looking robes and bandages, he was quiet and well calculated. He had a purpose, and he would do his tasks with barely a word. He was fond of violence, and had no issues causing major bodily harm to people. He would only kill if it was necessary. When he did talk, his voice was a rough American accent.

But then the third outfit just looked exactly the same as the first one, but in a dark smokey grey. Everything was the same, but reversed. The stitching on the mask was on the other side, pocket square was on the left and not the right. He was the most violent of the three, being the only one to gleefully kill their targets while cracking lame jokes and roasting them relentlessly. He would use improvised weapons, firearms and knives, and he spoke fluent Spanish.

Miguel got lost down a rabbit hole concerning these guys. There were theories it was really three guys that worked as a team, but others recounted how they had witnessed one of them literally change his suit in the blink of an eye with the aid of some sort of magic.

Those stories were concerning to hear. That there was some madman out there fighting crime with magic, and murdering people without much consequence in the name of some ancient God. The problem was that the authorities thought there were three separate individuals, so nothing could really be done if they couldn't be caught.

Miguel spent the rest of that week researching and compiling the largest folder of data on these people as he could get.

***

In the beginning of the third week, he happened to be watching television in the sub par motel. It was a rerun of the Captain America musical, and Miguel was floored with how bad the whole thing looked. None of the characters looked like any of the heros he had seen in the paper. Just twenty minutes in, he was about to change the channel, when a Daily Bugle news bulletin came across the screen.

LOCAL SPIDER MENACE CAUSES A RAMPAGE WITH THE RHINO, AGAIN!!!

Miguel was confused at first, but as the television showed a bird's eye view of the aftermath of a warehouse that had collapsed, he found himself sitting on the edge of his seat. The camera panned to a major highway, with cars stopped all over the road and people running and screaming.

There was Spider-Man running after the Rhino down the road, and the Rhino appeared to be chasing another Spider-Man. The camera zoomed in, and Miguel was surprised to see it wasn't a man, but a woman in a black space patterned suit. She was making bubbles and disks of light appear, then jumping onto them, or using her webs on them to get away.

He was intrigued as the camera got closer. By now he figured it was a drone that was flying about covering this story. He could see how fast the space Spider was, and how she was purposely slowing down for the rampaging man to catch up to her. Every so often, she would let the angry man get so close, it almost appeared like she was either really good at her job, or like she was playing with death and hoping to get gored.

She would even toss out a snarky and sassy line at him, just to make him angrier and lash out. Apparently she was quite good at pissing off the villains and goading them into chasing her down.

***

For the next few days Miguel went out and about in his street clothing. Miguel was making note of important landmarks around the city. He scoped out Stark Tower, the Sanctum, the Daily Bugle, local laboratories and other such places. He took a look around the problem areas with high crime rates, and then he checked out the better neighbourhoods. He did it all by foot and it helped Lyla keep track of everything.

Miguel was so focused on these hot spots, that he never bothered to look up local restaurants or food places. He had gotten used to just going to the local corner store for all of his needs. It was usually mass amounts of junk food, soda water, and a couple of new drinks he had found, Mountain Dew and Monster energy drinks.

The Mountain Dew soda brand had all sorts of weird flavors. Miguel wasn't very fond of the original green one, but he very much enjoyed the ones from the cultural foods import section. His favorite was Baja Blast and Goji Citrus Strawberry. 

And the Monsters! Holy shock! They were delicious! Miguel ended up buying every flavor they had. He drank two right away, both being some sort of fruit punch flavor, he wasn't sure. He had the urge to go on a run, and he was out there for four hours, before he realized how hungry he was.

That's when he also discovered how insanely good pizza pockets and Heluva Good dip were. He spent the day working out and binge eating, much to Lyla's dismay.

***

On the seventh day of the third week, he was looking at clothing at a main street vendor, an energy drink in his hand, and he was making fun of a bootleg Spider-Man costume.

"This looks so awful. It looks nothing like the local Spiders. None of them."

"Miguel, it's a bootleg. It doesn't have an official merchandise tag on it." Lyla piped up and Miguel laughed.

"It's still shocking awful-"

"Help me! Please!"

A loud scream rang out from behind. Miguel looked over and saw a woman that was being hauled away from her car towards the alleyway. Miguel looked back at the tacky outfit and snatched it from the shelf without a single thought.

Within moments he had hidden his clothes behind a dumpster and had changed, before dashing off to help the woman. Somehow he was still carrying his half empty can of Monster. He grumbled about the tightness of the costume and how uncomfortable it was in all the wrong places.

"Maybe you should have taken the extra second to grab an adult size." Lyla snickered at him as he approached the suspect.

The suspect was surprised to see a large man in a very ill fitting and cheap spandex costume, and he shoved the woman at Miguel. Miguel caught her and apologized, then he leapt after the man on all fours. He caught up to him, and threw his can at the man. It missed, but the contents exploded all over the suspect. Miguel caught up to him while he was wiping his eyes and cursing, only to be flipped into a dumpster for his efforts.

With his luck, he managed to end up in a particularly gross pile of trash, with most of it being rancid food waste. Miguel hissed and let out a string of angry and bitter Spanish as he spent the rest of the day tracking the guy down. It was easy, because the man now stunk of Sweet Tarts, which subsequently was what the energy drink smelled like to Miguel.

It was nightfall by the time he caught up to the bastard and boy was he tired. By then, it was way too easy to take him down and subdue him. It was right before Miguel had dealt a kick to the man, took the purse, and sent him flying into some trash cans when he heard and smelled someone else's presence.

Flowers.

He smelled flowers. That was a pleasant and easy to spot smell, since he was covered in gross sticky garbage juice and body sweat from the day.

Then he could hear a heartbeat and breathing, along with gasps and a shuffle of shoes on concrete. He peaked over his shoulder and saw a small dark bump on the railing, and he turned back just in time to avoid an attack from the man he thought he had knocked out. He incapacitated the criminal and then secured him with his webs. Once done, he turned and addressed the other person's presence, and to his surprise, it was a woman. A woman that promptly hid from him.

He couldn't help himself, so he jumped up to check her out and see what her deal was and why she was creeping around on a roof all by herself.

And boy was he ever glad that he did.

There she was, that pretty little light Spider in her sparkling night sky outfit.

It was such a weird event, and in the end, she ended up sharing her identity, accusing him of being her ex boyfriend, yelling at him, her deciding he wasn't her ex, apologizing, and then buying him some pizza.

They talked all night.

Well, up until he bailed on her once he saw he still had that lady's purse.

Well okay, it was really because he was getting far too comfortable with her far too quickly. She felt safe, warm, and welcoming… After she stopped yelling at him. That got his attention, if you know what I mean.

He had openly stared at her, his eyes drinking in the way her outfit clung tightly to her body. He enjoyed the shape of her face, and how her eyes shined like the night sky. He was especially fond of the way she seemed quite feisty and foul mouthed, even if she used terms he wasn't accustomed to.

He decided it was best to stay away, keep a low profile, and hope she assumed he had left.

But things didn't go as planned.

***

Miguel had exhausted all his options, with his only local answer being Stark Industries. He set a plan into motion to try and get Lyla to jack into the place so he could snag the information he needed to get himself back home.

While he made mental notes on how to go forward, he made his way back to his hotel, collecting his lost clothes and bag from before. He had a much needed shower to rid himself of the stink he had been marinating in all night, and put the costume into the sink to soak for a few hours while he slept. Lyla had promised him she would work on something to replace it.

***

His dreams didn't help him at all.

Miguel ended up in an acid trip copy of the city, and he was stuck wandering the rooftops endlessly. He noticed the costume he was wearing, actually fit him perfectly, and the design had changed drastically. It was nice, and he made a mental note to let Lyla know.

He had no idea what the point of the dream was, but he could tell that there were lights coming from an especially dark area of rooftops. It almost looked like an aurora borealis, but only over that one rooftop. The one that was the tallest.

He decided to make his way over. His movements were choppy and almost like he was missing chunks of the journey towards the roof, and it didn't seem like he was getting any closer at all. It also felt like he was moving at fifteen frames per second, and he did not like it at all.

A flash of grey caught his eye. It was moving quickly, much faster than he was, and it was fluid and graceful. It was hopping over the buildings faster than he could keep up. At first he thought it was a shadow, but the more he looked at the streak of grey, the more he began to see it was a man in a well tailored suit.

A suit that looked freakishly familiar.

Miguel suddenly sped up and went at a full run. Everything sped up to the way he liked it to be. He wanted to get closer and catch it, and as he kept the chase up, the man that was running away started to look more and more familiar. The closer he got, the more details he could see.

The man was wearing a mask that covered his entire head. When he looked back at Miguel, he appeared to not even acknowledge him, or perhaps he didn't see him. Maybe he did,  and just didn't care. Either way, Miguel followed him, noting that, he too, was going for the lights on the building.

A sudden thought hit him like a bullet. Miguel had webs! He raised his hand and shot at the building above him. When it connected, Miguel yanked himself up and over the man in the dark grey suit. The man scowled and shot him the finger.

Triumph filled him as he zipped past the guy and drew himself closer to the light. He was filled with pride at how well he was doing. He had to make a brief stop to kick off the side of the building in order to keep up this momentum, and that's where shit went sideways.

The moment he shot out another web, it was met with a glinting metal object and it was severed. He tried again, but the same thing happened. He got angry and turned to peer behind him, seeing the masked man literally moving over him and kicking him right in the face as he used his shoulders to leap upwards.

Miguel yelped as he fell. The top of the building flew away from him, sending the light far away. He tried to shoot out a life line, but he failed to snag anything.

Darkness was threatening to swallow him up, when he tried a final time to grasp any sort of surface to save himself. The last rope he flung out managed to hit something, and he used the sudden change in motion to send him upwards.

Miguel slammed hard against a concrete wall, his claws digging in easily, like a spade into dirt. He huffed and looked up, feeling like time had shifted forwards again. He couldn't see the other man at all.

"I miss you, you know. Every night I think about you. It helps to keep me going, knowing you'll be there when I get back." Miguel heard his own voice, twisted and not exactly right sounding.

He snarled and pulled himself up, almost violently as he climbed higher and higher, similar to an angry bear chasing its prey up to the top. In seconds he had pulled himself up to the edge and looked over. His eyes focused on what was there and he grit his teeth.

There, in that fucking asshole's lap, was the girl that had bought him pizza. The pretty light Spider that he'd been thinking too much about recently. She was quiet as the guy spoke to her while his hands were all over her, grabbing and pawing, and Miguel snarled to himself.

"Do you know why I call you, 'mi estrella'? I consider you like the sun, and myself the moon. You're so brilliant and warm, and your greatness shines so brightly. It reflects onto me, making me feel like my heart is full."

The words sent Miguel's gag reflex into overdrive and he almost barfed at how corny and cheesy the phrases were. He didn't like it one bit and he began to drag himself up and to a standing position. As he stood, his eyes processed how she was reacting. She seemed distant, even though she was letting the man touch her. The lack of a response from her was maddening.

Even in his dreams, the woman he had met didn't seem too thrilled about what was happening. He wasn't either.

Miguel moved quickly. The action was so fast, the other man didn't see it coming as if time had slowed right down for everyone, except for Miguel. Miguel lunged forward, grabbed the man by the lapels, and yeeted him straight off of the building, before sliding into his place under the Galaxy Spider.

Time sped up again, and she looked surprised to see him there. Surprised, but pleased. His mouth began to move, words spilling out as she squirmed in his lap.

"Don't think about him. His pretty words mean nothing when he keeps breaking your heart." 

"Miguel." Her voice sounded like liquid silk to his ears, and he couldn't stop himself from pushing her back and kissing her with need.

He remembered calling her beautiful, and then the rest was a wild and vivid fever dream. He had been desperate as he clawed at the fabric of her suit and ravaged every inch of her skin that was revealed. She seemed to enjoy being bitten and manhandled, while he enjoyed the way she thrashed, bit, and clawed at him in return.

She made him throb with desire, and he knew that he was hooked, when he probably should have minded his own business. He knew he couldn't leave any time soon.

He enjoyed her sitting in his lap. He enjoyed it even more when he pushed her onto her back and ground into her to the point he heard the building crack, and she begged him for more. He made her come so easily, and he couldn't fathom why. It wasn't like he was a virgin or anything, but he didn't think sex could be this…

Well, pornographic and mind blowing.

His favorite part of the dream, was when he webbed her hands, feet, and torso up, then proceeded to make a makeshift sex swing. She also seemed to very much enjoy the contraption, and he made use of it for every position change after.

That dream lasted an eerily long time, and when it was done, Miguel woke up feeling like he didn't rest at all, like he was really there, actually doing that for hours. He was hot, tired, and very sweaty and sticky.

And so were his sheets.

"Good morning, Miguel. I take it you had a very… Explicit and pleasant wet dream?" Lyla chirped up at him, effectively startling him.

"Shock! Don't scare me like that. And, uh, nooo…"

"You don't have to lie to me, Miguel O'Hara. Your heart rate and blood pressure skyrocketed, you were tossing and turning  and the final evidence, is that you had a seizure like reaction and-"

"Alright already! Yes! Yes, I had a wet dream. Ya happy?"

"Oooo, was it about the lady Spider?" Lyla asked, but Miguel didn't answer.

Note:

***

Series Master List

***

I decided in this story, that Jake's Moon Knight suit can be different and ever changing. He wears his comic book one we didn't get to see in the Moon Knight series, and a version of Steven's suit, but charcoal and black. You might remember it from the sex dream Y/N had in a previous chapter. He won't be using the other one much.

***

Special thanks to:

Beta Reader:

@einno-arko

Proof Reader:

@iceclaw101

Ideas:

@theaussiedragon @howaboutcastiel @einno-arko

***

Tags:

@theaussiedragon @autismsupermusicalassassin @readingfan @missdragon-1 @marvelescvpe @lunar-ghoulie @cicithemess2000 @animesnowstorm @mahbeanz @dafuqelaine @bby-lupin @paranoiac-666 @konniebon @cl0v3r-s0up @seraphine-so-pretty @jupitersmoon167 @butterflypillows @ivystoryweaver @mintellaine @bxdbxtxh15 @badbishsblog @cleothegoldfish @xxmadamjinxx @bitchyexpertprincess @sakurayuki8655-blog @jklkverr @jkthinkstoomuch @oscarissac2099

[no-one-anon]

Incorrect quotes!

{fun fact: reqs are open - please I need ideas}

Y/N: L is for the love, I don't receive~

Soap: *Kinda concerned*

Y/N: O is something no one makes me reach~

Ghost: *Wtf is wrong with them*

Y/N: V is for, very very unlikely to get married

Price: *What the fu-*

Gaz: *Makes sense*

Y/N: E is I don't even know I try anymore. Fuck love

Soap:

Price:

Ghost:

Gaz:

Soap: Would you still love your partner if they were a worm?

Y/N: I have never asked him this question before

Soap: Ooooh~~

Price: That's a flex

Gaz: That is a flex

Price: So, do I write the politically correct answer or do I write the real answer?

Y/N: I mean, you are a worm.. you know.

Price: But it's hard to love you if you're a worm say...

Y/N: *BOMBASTIC SIDE EYE*

Soap: 😳

Price: 😨

Gaz: 💀

Ghost: 😀

Y/N: *writing*

Y/N: *still writing*

Price: Why's it so long? It's yes or no...

Y/N: 'Yes, and I will feed you <3'

Price: 'Yes'

Y/N: I get bonus points

Soap: I will feed you, TO THE BIRDS

Soap: I'm just kidding-

Y/N: CORRECT, CORRECT

Y/N: Price, allow me to interrogate them.

Price: Go ahead

*A few moments later*

Price: WE NEED THEM ALIVE -

Y/N: What I'm saying is, the missions bloody failed.

Price: *Sighing* I know but-

Y/N: There's some things we can do to make it out alive. Are any of them available?

Soap: I mean, may-

Y/N: NO OF COURSE NOT. NOTHING'S FREE YOU IDIOTS. GROW THE HELL UP. YOU'RE NOT CHILDREN ANYMORE.

Ghost: 😨

Y/N: I DIDNT MIND EXPLAINING THE MISSION TO YOU BEFOREHAND. BUT YOU'RE ADULTS, AND THIS IS AN ACTUAL CRISIS.

Gaz: 🧍

Y/N: GOT IT? SAFETY MODE OFF YOU IDIOTS.

The whole team except Y/N: ...

Y/N: Hey, you want to do a trust fall?

Graves: Sure!

Y/N: Alright, fall backwards

Graves: Alright!

Graves: Hey, aren't you supposed to be behind me?

Y/N: Do you trust me?

Graves: Uh.. yeah I -

Y/N: Do you trust me?

Graves: Okay ..

Graves: *falls backwards*

Graves: Oh, it's a mattress! I knew I could trust -

Y/N: *Gun shots*

Y/N: Trust no one.

Price: So Y/N said they found something last night. I didn't believe them until this happened.

Price: *Shows a recording*

Price: What do you have?

Y/N: *Laughing*

Y/N: I found a cat outside!

Y/N: *Has a raccoon stuck to their arm*

Y/N: *Still laughing*

Ghost: 😨

Gaz: 🤨

Soap: 💀

Price: Y/N's pieces of advice for the people.

Price: Number ten!

Y/N: Keep it real.

Soap: Number nine!

Y/N: No one's ever regretted a tattoo.

Gaz: Number eight!

Y/N: With foreign markets volatile, now's a good time to invest in bombs.

Ghost: Number seven.

Y/N: Go see toy story three, the toys are back in town.

Price: Number six!

Y/N: Always purchase missions through authorised retailers. That pay royalties to the team.

Soap: Number five!

Y/N: Don't get mixed up with drugs, gangs, or oil executives.

Gaz: Number four!

Y/N: Remember the magic words: please, thank you, and step off idiot.

Ghost: Number three.

Y/N: Money doesn't buy happiness. It buys crazy bloody happiness.

Price: Number two!

Y/N: If I sign something for you, and I see it on eBay. When you go home, I'm going to be under your bed.

Soap: And the number one, Y/N's piece of advice for the people.

Y/N: Don't waste your time watching this recording.

Gaz: 😀

Soap: 💀

Ghost: 😨

Price: 😀

Y/N: *Walking down stairs*

Price: *Also walking down the stairs, after just smoking*

Price: Ah, what's the wonderful aroma!

Y/N: I'm going to push you down these stairs..

Price: I'll beat you to a pulp.

Gaz: Hey, uhm could you go out there and get the ram-a-doodle?

Y/N: The ram-a-doodle?

Ghost: Yeah, yeah it's, uh. Right out the tent and to the right

Gaz: You'll see it

Y/N: Uh, okay

Soap: It's right out there around the corner!

Gaz: You can't miss it!

Y/N: Yeah, uh alright

Ghost: Today, please

Gaz: Come on hurry up!

Y/N: Oh hey uh, captain mind showing me the ammo boxes?

Price: Uh, yeah it's right out here..

Gaz: No! No! No!-

Price: *Gets water thrown on-top of him*

Gaz: Oh shoot!

Price: Soap, you're scrubbing the cars!

Soap: Captain- th- wha- d-

Ghost: What an idiot.

Gaz: 😮

Y/N: 💀

Ghost: Idiot's not a bad word..

Y/N: Yeah, but you have to be nice!

Ghost: Oh f....

Ghost: Shit!

Gaz: 💀💀

Soap: *Wheezing*

Y/N: *Cackling*

Gaz: You have to do it twice now!

Ghost: Goddamn it!

Gaz: *Laughing*

Soap: *Giggling*

Y/N: 💀💀

Ghost: Oh shit, what is that?

Ghost: *flabbergasted*

Literally everyone: 💀💀

Ghost: four pumps?!

Ghost: Shit...

Everyone: *Laughing*

Ghost: Fuck!..

Everyone: *Wheezing*

Gaz: Six!!

Soap: That's six!

Y/N: Stop speaking and start eating your peppers, bitch!

Everyone except Y/N: 💀💀

Price: What's goin' on?

Gaz: Can you please, take them to the hospital.

Y/N: Gaz, stop. I'm fine, I don't wanna go to the hospital.

Price: Well, unfortunately we can't force people to go to the hospital, uh some would consider that kidnapping!

Y/N: See! I told ya! You're just overreacting.

Ghost: Alright whatever, can you just please check out their foot before you leave, though?

Price: Yeah, of course. I'll definitely take a look and see what's going on. *Lifts up blanket*

Price: .. You need to go the hospital, right now.

Y/N: Why?

Price: There's a bone! Sticking out of your foot!

Y/N: Eh, it'll heal on its own!

Price: Wha- no it won't! That's not the way the hUmAn body works!

Soap: Sorry, price I can't get my gloves on-

Price: Is he being seriou-

Soap: *Faints*

Gaz: Hah ..

Price: Ugh...

Ghost: Told ya they needed to go.

Ghost: When it comes to vodka, I drank 105 shots.

Y/N: Вы ненормальный? (Are you insane?) *Wheezing, clearly drunk*

Gaz: Did you just speak in Russian?

Soap: Is German! *Also is clearly drunk*

Y/N: I'm sorry! *Wheezing*

Ghost: Why are you speaking in Russian, you idiot!?

Price: You just drank like two shots, and you already start speaking Russian!

Gaz: What the heck?!

Ghost: Did you bloody drink ХЛЕБНАЯ, dude? (Bread)

Gaz: What the heck are you drinking?!

Graves: You look like a piece of shit and you look gay.

Y/N: When?

Graves: Did you ask? Nice try idiot.

Y/N: Nah, when did your mom decide to abort you?

Everyone except for Y/N and graves: 💀

Graves: *Flabbergasted*

Y/N: *Pissed*

Gaz: *Sweating in a sauna*

Gaz: Dude, this feels like torture! Dude, this is like hellfire! Damn!

Soap: *Fully clothed, scrolling through TikTok on their phone and chilling*

Gaz: White people don't sweat, dude?!

[definesanity]

MY WORLD

Oneself was... an interesting addition to the suitcase.

They acted similar to Vertin, but was also more... volatile.

When it came to Sonetto, they acted very protective to her. Not to the point of choking, but it was very much noticeable.

Beyond that, however, they acted like a teammate... and one who got asked a lot of questions.

"You sure?" An-An Lee asked again, leaning back in her chair as Oneself looked at her boredly. In the sunlight, Sonetto could see how her pupils seem to be almost 'consuming' her irises.

"I am not a spirit, Miss Lee." Oneself replied evenly. "I may feel dead inside, but I'm still alive and kicking."

An-An Lee quirked her lips, humming towards the tall former Timekeeper, not believing her one bit.

A similar event happened with Regulus, mind.

"...Wait, how old are you?" she asked, and Oneself looked like she was going to answer instantly, before pausing.

"...Wait." she said, looking down at Regulus fully. "Guess."

"Thirty-six."

Regulus immediately lost any semblance of being polite, wheezing loudly and heavily at the shocked expression on Oneself's face.

"I-I'm sorry?!" they exclaimed in shock. "Who immediately jumps to the thirties?!"

"Heh, oh boy, hah!" Regulus wiped a tear out of her eye. "Sorry, just couldn't resist! How old are you?"

"Not saying." she deflected. And walked away.

In combat, they're a completely different beast.

Like Vertin, they also have tricks to assist, with theirs being called Final Melody; it makes the lead up to their strongest attacks slower, but allows them to reach stronger Incantations quicker.

Beyond that, they fought almost like a feral animal. They held Glasfeder in their right hand tightly, and used it well.

She did not recite poems, merely voicing words. Discontent, Hatred, Desolation, Sorrow... just a few words.

Not only that, but with her left hand, a snap of her fingers seemed to weaken their enemies. A strange ability that was unlinked to the Glasfeder.

She had never seen her most powerful move. Yet, facing down Manus... she let lose.

"I ask only one thing...!" she said, as mirrors start to appear around the enemies and behind Oneself. "Stay alive, JUST LONG ENOUGH TO SEE..."

The mirrors shattered.

"MY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD!"

Sonetto had never seen such a desolute world. If this was Oneself's world... she did not know what to say.

Oneself's pupils seemed to have gotten larger, and Sonetto saw something that had her stunned.

It was herself, on Oneself's shoulders... horribly disfigured. The fact the right arm was gone and the left arm's bone was showing already showed the tip of the iceberg.

Her right eye was gone, and her left eye hung out of its socket. Her clothing was ripped, and her organs spilled out, her heart still beating, and her large intestine hanging down to her broken legs. Or, broken leg, with one being ripped off just below the knee.

The only thing that was untouched was that familiar orange hair.

Sonetto did not realise that she took a long time to process that information, as the next thing she saw was Oneself looking down, almost ashamed of herself.

"...I scared you, didn't I?" she asked, her tone defeated.

"N-No, it was... w-who was...?"

Oneself blinked one eye at a time, looking surprised. "You saw Sonetto?"

"I did, yes... I saw Sonetto. Myself?"

"Themself." Oneself replied. They sighed. "They appear... I think. It used to be simple. It was Vertin and Sonetto. Nothing more, nothing less."

Oneself looked close to the beginning of breaking down. Not knowing what to do, Sonetto offered Oneself the best she could: a hug.

Oneself looked down, and slowly, began to shrink. Soon, Sonetto saw a shorter Oneself, appearing eerily like Vertin, but with... differences. Most notable being the hat tilting in the opposite direction, her blinking, and the gemstone having cracks in it.

She embraced Sonetto tightly.

"...I failed you, once. I won't do it again."

Sonetto hugged back, trying to hide the fact she isn't a very good hugger. Or one who hugs often.

"You won't. I... can't speak for Themself, but..." she held eye contact with the faded green eyes in front of her. "I'm proud of you, Vertin."

Oneself looked at Sonetto. Then, went back into the hug, placing their head into the assistant's left shoulder.

Dry sobs came from her, and Sonetto then saw Themself again. Oneself did not notice the mangled girl. But Sonetto saw her nod towards her counterpart.

"...How did she...?" Sonetto trailed off, and felt as Oenself growled into her arm.

"One word:" she said bitterly.

"Constantine."

[somerabbitholes]

hi! can you recommend some books by indian writers? both fiction and nonfiction. thank you

Hi! I read your other message and here you go (I've also linked other asks where there are more relevant books mentioned)

Fiction

[x] | [xx]

Serious Men by Manu Joseph — about a low-caste man in a chawl in Mumbai and all that he does for his son to escape the limits of his position; satire on caste and class, scientific education in the country

Raag Darbari by Shrilal Shukla (trans. Gillian Wright) — really, really good satire on an village in the north a few decades after Independence; looks at how systems fail on ground, how clearly incapable most of them are at dealing with problems; also about the early years of the nexus forming between criminals, politicians, and businessmen and corruption taking root

High Wind by Tilottoma Misra (trans. Udayon Misra) — about a Sanskrit scholar who in the 19th century moves to colonial Shillong; explores the changes happening in Assamese culture and society during the time, how different communities and 'tribes' take shape and negotiate the colonial order

A Burning by Megha Majumdar — how the lives of three people intersect at the crossroads of law, justice, class aspirations and in an increasingly volatile political atmosphere

Baluta by Daya Pawar (trans. Jerry Pinto) — a memoir by Pawar about being a Dalit and how the identity changes as it moves from the village to the city

Name Place Animal Thing by Daribha Lyndem — it's like a bunch of character portraits of people who are all connected to each other and together they paint a picture of one girl who's growing up in a turbulent community in Shillong

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee — an old and joint family in Kolkata in the 1960s; looks at how it adapts or fails to; it's really good at how it shows a very distinct social class in decay in specifically post-Independence Kolkata but also at the same time could be about similar stories of the zamindar/landholding class unravelling elsewhere

A similar but older take on the joint family decaying in Maharashtra is Old Stone Mansion by Mahesh Elkunchwar. I read the original and I do vaguely remember there being a translation, but I'm not sure so do check that out. I think it'll be in this.

Battlefield by Vishram Bedekar (trans. Jerry Pinto) — about a Hindu man and a Jewish refugee who meet on a ship going from Europe to Hong Kong just before World War II; looks at what it means to be in exile, what it means to aspire to nationhood

I would also recommend the Aleph Book Company series on Greatest Stories Ever Told. I've only read a few but they seem quite well curated.

Non-fiction

about northeast India | the revolutionary movement | military history | [x] | colonisation and aftereffects |

A People’s Constitution by Rohit De — how people experience the constitution; how they participate in the legal and political process; really great because it takes the constitution beyond its documentary role

India Trilogy by V. S. Naipaul — An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization, and India: A Million Mutinies Now; one of the best commentaries on 20th century but post-Independence India; also very different from other commentaries because Naipaul worked to see the country as something other than a former colony; also great because you get to see him traveling and changing his mind and arguing with himself over the three books

Sixteen Stormy Days by Tripurdaman Singh — about the first amendment of the Indian Constitution which has been a controversial one given that very soon after the Constitution being ratified, it put curbs on freedom of expression and property rights and gave birth to the Ninth Schedule

India: A Sacred Geography by Diana L. Eck — how precolonial and ancient Indians imagined the geography through religion and vice versa; how Hinduism and generally Indic religions are closely tied with the land

India Unbound by Gurcharan Das — it's a personal economic history of sorts where he looks at the post-Independence economic growth (or lack thereof) through the routes his life has taken; really good because he brings to a table the experience of living in a 'mixed' economy and can really get across why 1991 was such a big deal

Castes of Mind by Nicholas Dirks — essays on how caste and race interacted to reorder the social structure in colonial India; how law, policy, politics, and profit all worked together when it came to matters of social categories and identity

The Eastern Gate by Sudeep Chakravarti — sort of journalistic history on how 'mainland' India has seen the Northeast, how insurgency took root; how conflicts have been navigated, solved, worsened

Modern South India by Rajmohan Gandhi — South India from the 17th century to the 20th; a little information heavy at times but useful

Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita — memoir on the Kashmiri Pandit genocide; also see his Hello Bastar if you're interested in the Naxalites

Kanshiram by Badri Narayan — a biography of Kanshiram and through him looks at Dalit politics and the whole world of OBC and Dalit consolidation

The Emergency by Coomi Kapoor — like India Unbound, a personal account of sorts of living through the Emergency; and she was a journalist then so it's really in-depth

Army and the Nation by Stephen Wilkinson — the relationship between the Indian Army and the Republic; how India has managed to keep the military establishment away from politics unlike Pakistan, which to all intents and purposes, inherited the similar institutional setup as India

Happy reading!

[soloorganaas]

Hi! I know it may have been awhile but it just came up on my main page.

You were saying that you wanted to believe that sirius was a better person than remus. Do you think that relationship is unbalanced then? Or I guess what do you see that makes remus even ok or worthy of love? Or that he's really not and Sirius overlooks it?

I can't really word this the way I want to, so I hope it sounds ok and the gist of what I'm trying to say comes across bc genuinely curious.

Ty and hope you're having good day ❤️❤️

anon this ask made my day and i have been rotating it in my mind for the last 12 hours so prepare for a LOT of thoughts

I think that in the big ways Sirius is a better person than Remus, because he’s brave, devoted, and will compromise on nothing to care for and protect the people he loves. those are the values that are important to me and I think outweigh his negative qualities - being a rude arrogant asshole who makes no effort to be nice to anyone other than the three people he cares about (although I think these are still positives 🥰), volatility with a tendency to lash out when he’s hurt or angry, and a strong self-destructive streak.

Remus, on the other hand, is lovely to pretty much everyone he meets. he’s compassionate, thoughtful, considerate and fundamentally kind. he’s generally very polite, even in conflict, and by and large doesn’t lose control of his emotions in a way that’s upsetting for other people. but. he’s never dealt with the suffering and stigma caused by his lycanthropy and has let it manifest into self-hatred instead. he puts the blame both on everyone else for being unchangingly bigoted and on himself for being unchangingly dangerous and disgusting, and it allows him to get away with simply not taking responsibility. that becomes a fundamental trait - when things are tough, he ducks, runs or capitulates. it means he fails the people close to him, and Sirius feels that the most.

they’d have every reason to dislike each other or clash constantly because they simply can’t understand the way the other acts. but what actually happens is that they balance each other out, because they recognise and understand something in each other that no one else can. Remus’s condition is fundamentally deadly and a dark creature is literally woven into who he is - and Sirius isn’t scared of it. Sirius isn’t fazed one bit. because he also grew up with dark magic woven into him, the horrific scars of trauma from that, the capacity to lose control, and a perception that he will always be dark, dangerous and mad that he’s never able to shake. it’s such a unique experience that no one else will ever be able to understand - not even James, despite his open acceptance of them both, because he grew up in a happy, privileged world that shaped him completely differently.

so despite their differences Sirius and Remus are equals, because they can see the things in each other that scare the rest of the world so much and never be scared. and I don’t think you can underestimate the power of feeling that seen for two people who’ve been so uniquely traumatised. starting from that is how I understand the rest of their relationship. Sirius sees Remus’s respect and kindness and compassion, and ironically I think looks past his cowardice because he has a front row seat to what Remus battles every full moon. Remus sees Sirius’s fire and capacity to love, and brushes off his rudeness and volatility because of it. and, you know, they’re able to challenge each other and wind each other up and I think that makes for a lot of fun and passion and great sex.

there’s obviously downsides to being this intertwined and ever so slightly deluded about each other, and imo Sirius is the one who loses out the most. when he makes excuses for Remus and compromises on his own best qualities for Remus’s worst ones, he bears the brunt of Remus’s cowardice. he also just does what Remus says - and I’m not making this into some dom/sub discourse, it’s just about the fact Sirius is willing to give up a lot of power to Remus and it has the potential to be toxic or manipulative. but it also means there’s an enormous amount of trust between them.

this all cracks under the pressure of the first war and then for the next 13 years where Remus believes in Sirius’s guilt enough to leave him in Azkaban. but like I said - Sirius will justify a lot of Remus’s mistakes and take the responsibility on himself, and it’s part of why he so easily forgives him. but I think it’s also partly because Remus needs absolutely no convincing once he learns even part of the truth. he’s instantly and entirely at Sirius’s side when no one else in the world is. maybe that’s not commendable considering the past 13 years, but for Sirius it holds immense value. then wrt to what I said about trust - I think that capacity to go all in despite the immense emotional risks because they just know each other so well is how they bounce back so quickly after Azkaban. they want to look past each other’s faults, they want to love each other unconditionally and so they just… do.

so. I don’t think either of them are fundamentally bad people - I think they’re both good people, but my values align with Sirius’s so I view him as a much better person than Remus. (although maybe if I was in a similar situation irl I’d also let my own version of Remus off without realising, but I digress.) most importantly they’re good people to each other. Remus loves Sirius, and that’s what makes him worthy of Sirius’s love back. after a long-ass explanation, I think it’s really just that simple.

[balloonboyismyson]

*an angsty anon slides into your ask box*

Heyyyyy. So, uh, what's your headcanons on the animatronics' emotional status the very moment they learn Bonnie kicked the bucket?

ohh dear. Buckle up, kids :o(

They were never told he was gone- it was just a rumor at first. "He's just in Parts 'n' Service, he'll be back on stage tomorrow." It kept their thoughts in check. That must be the reason why they could not ping him or see his location. After 2 months, they had their suspicions. These headcanons take place after Management told them Monty would be filling his spot.

Freddy was...devastated, to put it lightly. His lover, his partner, his honey bunny- gone. What would he do? What could he do? Most of his time after was spent dissociating. He rarely spoke to anyone. He was in his room, silent, staring at the wall. At times he thought his internal clock was messed up; time was passing by too quickly to him, but he never told anyone. He always knew everyone was replaceable, but to not even give him a warning? Staff knew they were close. Maybe they were told to keep silent. He would at least give them the benefit of the doubt. To be honest, he came close to ending it a few times. If they could just drop Bonnie, maybe they could just make a new Freddy. He would stop himself, though. Thinking about his friends and the children, he needed to be strong. He was so, so tired, though.

Roxy was volatile. Each moment of free time was spent crying, yelling or being quiet. Any ounce of bad that happened in a day, whether it was just dropping her brush, would throw her over the edge. She leaned the most on Chica who seemed to be handling things the best. It felt like any day Chica could be taken, too. They had a lot of sleepovers after that. For a brief time, their charging stations were placed next to one another so they could still see each other during their recharge cycles. She got hyper into "being beautiful" after his leaving. She thought, well, if she was beautiful, they would have to keep her.

"Guilty" was the only word that could describe Monty. He was the one who called Bonnie to Gator Golf. He was the one who needed advice. The two were close. Freddy, Roxy and Chica were all usually too busy to deal with Monty. They were polite, but he did not consider them friends. Bonnie visited him often. He could count on Bonnie. It was an act of sacrifice, truly. Had it not been him, Monty would be the one decommissioned. Bonnie would offer him tips on how to calm down and keep his composure. He got a really good at it. Then Bonnie died. The walls of his room were covered. "GUILTY" "GONE" "RUINED" "SORRY" were repeatedly written on them. He stopped after a time. When he got his claws, staff was surprised when it started up again, but this time, much more permanent.

Chica, to the outside world, appeared okay. Roxy needed help, and she could offer that. She just needed to bottle everything up. She was the happy-go-lucky one, afterall. She needed to uphold that. When she was alone, though, she was a mess. This is when her eating habits truly came to life. Sure, she always appreciated a good slice of pizza (or three), but after Bonnie was gone, she felt like she needed to eat. Humans will always need food, so it will never go away. She hated the look of a clean plate because that meant the food was gone. She stopped using them after a while.

DJ Music Man was grief-stricken, but he hid it well. Out of all his friendships, he was closest to Bonnie. Bonnie liked to play with the Mini Music Men. When no one was around, he would play somber music from the back of his hidey hole. He only really has his MMMs now.

The Daycare Attendants were upset, but more from a friend of a friend perspective. They did not often interact with Bonnie. In fact, they did not find out until they saw Monty's new getup. Even then, they only saw him because he was walking to a birthday party.

[minecraftbookshelf]

How To Become Great Wizard of the Crystal Cliffs For Fun and Profit (And Dragons)

for @sleepingjasminetea

the copy+paste of the Important General Context Information...

Also a general note relevant to the succession criteria of the majority of the empires. Remember this whole thing, where Pix kind of accidentally changed the formal definition of war in the empires? That had a lot of implications for how royalty functioned in the Empires. While they still absolutely have internal duties and responsibilities and privileges, ultimately their most important job is that they stand ready to defend their empire and its people at all times. Part of this is that they also function as international ambassadors in a way, while most empires also have official ambassadors, the relationships and interactions between the emperors themselves are a very important (sometimes volatile) facet of international relations. A country cannot be recognized internationally as an autonomous nation without an official Emperor/Head of State.

The Crystal Cliffs are actually an Empire that grew out of what was initially a neutral territory.

That still shows in their open door policy, and willingness to welcome everyone, regardless of their origins, though they do not give second chances often or lightly.

The native population of the cliffs are primarily Illagers, some humans, and various hybrids. Most of the people who live there however, come from the other Empires.

They are the smallest empire, from population alone, if you do not count the Undergrove (which is still under construction and has a population of one (1) gnome)

The Crystal Cliffs is a fairly young Empire, originally founded in the aftermath of The Severing (the term for the events surrounding Pixlriff's appointment to Keeper of the Vigil and the Ocean Empire's retreat into the sea.) It was basically an emergency outpost of the mages and scholars of several different kingdoms getting together to figure out "where does this leave us" and "what happens now?". Over time it grew from an international research outpost into a library, then a school, and then, eventually, an independent Empire.

Their high council is made up of Seven Grand Wizards, with a lower council of Nine High Wizards (yes it would make more sense for the titles to be swapped, yes this is brought up at every single budget meeting for centuries) and they are represented internationally by the Great Wizard, who is primarily chosen for their academic and martial prowess.

The candidates for Great Wizard specifically are actually fairly few, due to the focus on more academic applications, most hopefuls aim for one of the council positions, as those are ultimately less likely to cut into your research time.

GeminiTay's ascension to the title is most notably marked for the almost feral single-mindedness with which she pursued it, the "rags to riches" nature of her backstory, and the fact that, once she was awarded the title (after defeating all comers in magical single combat tournament style) she became the youngest Great Wizard ever by a not insignificant number of decades. She attained the position after the mysterious disappearance of the previous Great Wizard, Gandalf, who wandered off one day and just...didn't come back.

He was somewhat known for being eccentric, so it took awhile for him to be declared MIA, which left the Crystal Cliffs in an awkward limbo position politically for a dangerous amount of time. So once she was crowned Great Wizard, Gem got thrown into the deep end. It helped that she had unquestioning support from the new King of Mythland and Count of the Grimlands, as well as the (almost immediately obvious) political leverage of having said rulers come running to her for help at the slightest inconvenience. Which quickly got her the reputation of, if not the official leader of the Wither Rose Alliance, then at least the one with the most influence over the others. (Not taking into account Fwip's impulsiveness and Sausage's...everything.)

-

AU Masterpost

[trillscienceofficer]

Thinking again about this whole scene I wrote years ago where I collated (1) the Trill symbiont secrecy thing before TNG (2) Curzon's strange vehemence in defending the reassociation taboo (3) Curzon's meteoric career rise as a diplomat happening when Sarek's own career was still in full swing (4) Saavik having worked with Torias before and having essentially witnessed his death (this last point is novel canon)

Basically Curzon introduces himself to Saavik on a lark while they're both at some kind of reception at Sarek's, and she's thinking 'Why is this guy being so familiar with me, is he trying to get my father's attention through me. Also I suppose Dax must be a common name on Trill'. Meanwhile Curzon obviously remembers her (via Torias) but he badly miscalculated the gamble of introducing himself because as soon as she mentions Nilani (as someone from Trill that Saavik has kept in contact with, long story) he gets an emotional sucker punch and has to flee the reception get some fresh air. So Saavik has to deal with this very improper manifestation of distress not understanding why would Curzon react that way (is he related to Torias??), and he can't explain it to her either no matter how politely she asks. He's also being a dick about it because it's Curzon, and he's just displayed his emotional volatility to a crowd of Vulcans, which was not in his plans. And all the while Sarek is eyeing them both with extreme disapproval.

Anyway it isn't in a good enough state to share it and it's part of a much larger narrative, but I think about it very fondly.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

i saw “Jiang Yanli is a well-written character actually” and i had to follow you

Thank you very much! I do very much think she's a character people give very little credit to in the fandom – I did actually start writing a meta on this last year, and because I'm not sure when I'll finish it*, I'll post an excerpt here:

She’s a much deeper character than people give her credit for, and part of that stems from just how coherent her traits are with her background. And I feel bad for her, because she’s so much more well-written than people give her credit for. And more than that, she’s just so very human. She’s like Lan Xichen in a lot of ways (and the way that the fandom treats them is very similar, too). They’re both sheltered and naive, and often wilfully so, but ultimately want the best for the people they consider family. The only problem is that they’re not willing to confront their worldview to do that until it’s too late – they want the world to be like the comfort of how they think they is, and ignore the signs that point to something else. And that’s a very understandable! It takes a lot of courage to confront your worldview and replace it with a truth that’s worse, and not very many people have the courage to willingly do that – and that makes them flawed and perhaps complacent, but not evil in any way.  And the best part about this in Jiang Yanli is that it makes perfect sense with the way she was brought up.  She was sheltered pretty much all the time in her early life – she doesn’t go to Gusu to study, she doesn’t go to the Wen indoctrination camp, she doesn’t really experience anything that broadens her horizons and perspective and forces her to face and confront the harshness of the world. Even when Lotus Pier falls, she doesn’t experience it first-hand – which may hurt just as much, but yet again she doesn’t have to physically confront the Wen clan’s tyranny. She’s not brought up as a cultivator who goes out to face danger and fight foes and inevitably experience the harshness of the world, she’s brought up as somebody from a wealthy clan whose role is to marry for political gain into another wealthy family, where she’ll presumably be sheltered all her life, too.  By that time the Fall of Lotus Pier happens, and everything else after that, she’s grown up and her mind isn’t as susceptible to being shaped by new experiences – her view of what the world is and how she thinks it is is already instilled into her, and much, much harder to change. And she wants nothing more to hold onto that world – she doesn’t want to venture out of her comfort zone or confront truths that may be painful. We see that all the time in her actions. During the Sunshot Campaign, during a war, what does she focus on? Her familiar childhood crush on Jin ZiXuan, and by extension the familiar life that was planned out for her; and her ability to make soup, something she made all the time at Lotus Pier for her family there. When Wei Wuxian is protecting the Wen remnants, what does she cling onto? The idea that nothing’s wrong, that he and her and Jiang Cheng can still be a happy family because that’s how it’s always been to her, even if that was never really the case, and even if it’s impossible; her soup, again, and it’s not just because she likes making the soup, it’s again symbolic of their childhood days in Yunmeng. During the gathering at Nightless City, why does she go? To see her brother one last time.  I think that that aspect of her also stems from the volatility of Lotus Pier – she wants things to be predictable, to be safe, she wants to be in control of her grasp over the situation. That’s why she de-escalates conflict the way she does, that’s why she stays ignorant to the more sinister parts of the world. She wants things to stay how she knows them to be. She does try to distract people from conflict rather than resolving it, which can do more harm than help, but it makes sense with her character – she grew up in the incredibly volatile Lotus Pier, with her parents arguing all the time, and of course that affects her! Of course she wants to avoid that! And she takes after the only example she has of someone trying to de-escalate conflict, Jiang Fengmian, who does the same thing. (September 2022)

*I'm saying this because 1) I know I've been very inactive lately, which is because currently my hyperfixations are on other fandoms (they always cycle back around, but it can take a while) so it's harder to make myself write content here; and 2) because I haven't read MDZS in a while so don't want to write using only use information from my memory without canon sources, and risk misinterpreting something or giving a reading that doesn't fit with the source material. I do plan to read it again, but I'm not confident in how accurate I can be right now, and I definitely don't want to spread misinformation. Even the excerpt above doesn't have evidence ie quotes, which I'd quite like to back up the claims I make. But yes, thank you very much for the ask!

[kishimotomasashi]

A symptom of having been in the online Naruto fandom for a few years now and having Sasuke as my favourite character means that I’ve been incessantly exposed (at the very least, on Tumblr) to arguments about Sasuke not receiving his due justice, being condemned by the narrative for expressing anger at the crimes committed against him and his family, and how the ending of the Naruto manga completely dropped the ball regarding any and all of its political plot threads, leaving the status quo intact, and the only change regarding Sasuke in particular is that he is now complacent with it.

These are arguments that I entirely agree with! And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with their frequent discussion, seeing as Naruto is a very popular manga and new fans will take the place of the old ones. It doesn’t surprise me that the discourse hasn’t slowed down, because new people are discovering it and will want to chime in. This is fine and natural.

But for me, from the perspective of someone who’s been here a while and has seen talk of this happen over, and over and over and over and over again, it understandably gets a little... exhausting. Especially since, as far as I’ve seen, the discourse rarely goes outside of “here is how Sasuke was wronged, here is how the shinobi military industrial complex is fucked up”, and so it feels like I’m seeing less interesting conversations regarding it and more parroting the same universally agreed upon ideas over and over.

It’s just... boring. Because even when the discussion goes outside of “this is why it’s wrong” and enters “here’s how it should have gone” territory, I rarely see it go anywhere beyond “Sasuke should’ve remained angry” “Sasuke should’ve never gone back” “Sasuke should have rejected—“ etc, etc. Sasuke and the Revolution discourse rarely goes beyond Sasuke’s personal vindication regarding Konoha. And to me, it’s just... is that really as far as our imagination extends? Is Sasuke’s anger really the most important thing to focus on? Should anger be the main driving force behind changing a world that is undoubtedly unjust?

My answer to all of those questions is, obviously, no. And I’m writing this to explain why, to propose an alternative to the vindication tunnel vision there happens to be regarding Sasuke vs Konoha/Shinobi System discourse, that I believe even the ending of Naruto (barring chapter 700 and onward to Boruto) provides a solid basis for.

First let’s talk about chapter 699, and Sasuke’s decision not to stay in Konoha but to journey around the world instead.

Now when people talk about Sasuke’s journey, they mostly focus on the part where he calls it a “journey of redemption” and so a lot of discussions concerning whether or not he should have stayed in Konoha revolve around that line and its reasoning. It’s all “he doesn’t NEED redemption” or “oh please journey of redemption is bullshit, stay in Konoha to heal with your friends”.

Which is a damn shame because what he says in the panels above? Before the “you have nothing to do with my sins” thing? Is significantly more interesting. In fact, I consider it a monumental statement for him to make, indicative of his development; it’s the culmination of all he’s been through to get him to this point.

This line is Sasuke recognizing his own limitations related to the volatile emotional state he was nearly constantly in beforehand; Sasuke’s view of the world was incredibly selfish. It was selfish in the sense that his own goals mattered before anything else, that anything slowing him down in his hurry to reach them was an obstacle; it was an incredibly unhealthy view of the world, one that ended up making him hurt himself and others. That his goals are sympathetic and understandable doesn’t really change the reality that he did put himself in danger and was a danger to those closest to him. When we meet him for the first time in Shippuden, at Orochimaru’s hideout, he says word-for-word:

“I don’t care what happens to me or to the rest of the world, so long as I can get my revenge. Nothing else matters.”

And even when the truth about Itachi is revealed to him, this doesn’t exactly change. It’s only his range of targets that expand, and what he did to get to those targets in the 5 Kage Summit arc are unarguably his lowest points in the entire series. While there is a double-standard regarding how Sasuke’s anger and hatred are treated in the narrative, it’s not incorrect to say that his laser focus on them were ultimately harmful in the end, and that to grow he could not continue to rely on them indefinitely.

In fact, Sasuke is always shown to be at his best when he’s not so angry his view of the world is only concentrated on what he alone can see. Sasuke when observant of others is kind, has compassion and understanding and a willingness to prioritize others’ safety: we see this when he protects Team 7 all throughout part 1, and when he protects Team Taka in the Killer B fight. When he’s not clouded by his own rage, Sasuke also has a better willingness to learn: when Itachi left him after their fight against Kabuto, he went out of his way to learn more about the village he’d come to justifiably despise, to understand Itachi’s own point of view, and to learn the point of view of those that had built it. Sasuke in general is someone who doesn’t accept things so readily and is constantly questioning things even when he’s set his mind to them, and he is also someone who does have a clear idea of justice: needless human suffering on a large scale is something he’s disgusted by (see how he reacts to Itachi before he learned the truth and to Orochimaru). When he’s truly of the mind to sit down and listen, that potential is increased tenfold. He came out from under the Nakano Shrine after speaking with Hashirama and the other Hokage seeing the shinobi system as something that causes needless human suffering on a large scale, and though he’s not quite at the ideal point yet, the idea to do something about it (to dismantle that system) is there.

And now here we are, chapter 699: Sasuke’s anger is no longer his main driving force, and he is learning to accept love back in his life, and what does he say? That he’s going to look at the world, now, with new eyes. That he’s going to take advantage of this new healing state of his, to properly observe the world because his perception of it isn’t obstructed by his unhealthy vengeance fixation anymore. Sasuke, who already has the capacity for compassion, who already has a sense of justice, who knows how to listen and observe, is now going to take the time to use these foundations to build himself a more expansive perception of the world. He’s showing willingness to look outside of himself!

Now before I talk about the point I really want to get to, I want to talk about anger. I know anger is often portrayed as something awful in many stories (including this one), as something that is a personal failing next to those who can just endure what is thrown at them with little complaint, and that it’s a narrow view of it. Anger is a very useful emotion, and sometimes a necessary one: anger helps you perceive injustice done to yourself or others, anger can help you prevent people walking all over you and help you to recognize that you’re not getting something that you deserve. I’ll never condemn anger.

And I don’t condemn Sasuke’s anger! I am very firmly in the “Sasuke was right” camp; I don’t think he has to kiss up to a government so cowardly it wiped his people from the face of the Earth in the dead of night, I think a system that can justify a crime that outrageous while it continues to perpetuate itself needs to be entirely dismantled. And I believe that though there are limits to how seriously you should take this shounen animanga, the fact that these plotlines were introduced in the first place as well as every other time shinobi militaristic violence was clearly shown as being evil but were given shitty resolutions means that it is both normal and in fact encouraged to point out that these introduced plotlines were given really, really shitty resolutions.

Though while anger and pointing out how wrong things are are incredibly useful, when you really want to start talking about revolutionary action, incentive to change the world, I think that anger alone is insufficient.

Specifically in Sasuke’s case, as I’ve said above, Sasuke’s anger is ultimately selfish. He sees how he himself was wronged, and that’s great, but like... he’s also not the only one who suffers under the shinobi system. He’s not the only one it’s brought incredible wrong toward. Even when he demonstrated growth during the 4th War and was willing to expand his own knowledge to better understand why Konoha exists as it is, he wasn’t sharing what he’d learned with others, he wasn’t reaching out to build connections, to build solidarity— he was working on his plan entirely alone.

(And yes, we can talk about how the narrative purposefully makes the villain characters seem more unreasonable though they have justified feelings on why the system cannot continue as is, but again, as I’ve said at the start, we’ve had those conversations at length already.)

I believe genuine change, the desire to see a better world, has to fundamentally come from the desire to see people in a better place, not from vengeance. I think to get there, you need to see how other people live aside from yourself, you need to work at helping them see their lives becoming better as well. “No one’s free until we’re all free”, etc. I think your outrage at injustice has to extend to everyone outside of yourself, and your fight against the injustice be also a fight for them.

As I’ve demonstrated, Sasuke in chapter 699 in the space where he can actually work at doing that, to work at doing direct, radical action. Travelling as he wants to do will introduce him to more people, to more perspectives, to more ideas on how to meaningfully combat the injustices of the shinobi system and to directly help people to escape suffering the worst of it.

Recently I watched the Sasuke Shinden anime, and though it was still incredibly imperfect in its politics, it introduced the idea of Sasuke doing the closest thing to everything I am saying right now: it introduces shinobi being forced to fight in a human trafficking coliseum, and Sasuke being told by one of the characters, Chino, that being an inactive third party to injustice makes you just as guilty to it, which leads Sasuke in the end to free all shinobi forced to fight in the coliseum.

It also introduced the idea (and I was genuinely surprised that anything Naruto-related was actually willing to go there) of the Uchiha Clan, and by extension Sasuke, being victims but also being perpetrators of the same system that got them killed. In Shinden, they were hired by a feudal lord to deport another oppressed kekkei genkai clan called the Chinoike (that Chino is apart of) to a land unsuitable for any human to live in, and rather than help the Chinoike escape this fate, they simply carried out the mission order, which caused suffering for the clan. While I don’t think that that plotline was handled as well as it could’ve been, it really hammers in the point of it being important to learn about the position and suffering of others and to do something about it, because despite your own suffering, your participation in the system that perpetuates it still makes you complicit. And Sasuke accepts this! When he learns about the Uchiha and the Chinoike, he relates it to when Chino told him about being an audience to injustice making you just as bad if you don’t do anything about it. I think Sasuke Shinden is a good, if imperfect, snapshot into the very potential I’m talking about.

In fact, all of this is why I really believe it to be important that Sasuke travels and works outside of Konoha rather than within it; because as we’ve seen with Nagato and Amegakure, being apart of the Hidden Villages themselves, fighting in their wars and participating in their ranks, makes you complicit in the crimes they commit against the other smaller nations. Everyone we’ve seen fight in the wars, the Sannin, Kakashi, everyone in allegiance with Konoha and yes, including the Uchiha Clan, share responsibility in the crimes the village commits, even if they’ve personally suffered at its hands as well. Nagato, Konan and Yahiko are certainly justified if they don’t care that your war buddy died in front of you since you both had a hand in the destruction of their village for your military village’s interests.

This is also why on my blog, I am constantly advocating for the potential Team Taka represented. They were all shinobi working outside of the framework of the Hidden Villages, with little allegiance to them, and given that Sasuke in the ending is open to apologizing for his behaviour and accepting bonds again, they could’ve easily travelled together again in the ending and done just exactly everything that I’ve been talking about in this post. And they could’ve become closer than ever!

I think it’s telling, in a way, that what finally got to Sasuke in the end was genuine empathy; acceptance to realize there are other people around like him, that might share what he feels, and this is done through Naruto, someone who saw his own loneliness in him but that Sasuke rejected because he felt (understandably) defensive that anyone should get how he felt at all. Sasuke healing in learning that he can understand people other than himself, safely, is a big step into learning to properly observe and accept others, and then that’s another step that could lead into genuine revolutionary consciousness.

My conclusion here isn’t that any of this was something Kishimoto was actually going for. It’s that despite everything, there are already interesting building blocks in Sasuke’s canon characterization in place where you could create a meaningful story about resisting oppression and fighting for change, one that doesn’t surround a myopic, vengeful idea of it. I dont think of that as an interesting path for Sasuke’s character, especially since he already spends most of the series with nothing but vengeance in mind. I think he has the potential to do better, and we have the potential to write fix-it stories in which he does better than that.

[rosesfox]

✿ a short review about this woven kingdom & these infinite threads. ✿

❥ alizeh has already become one of my favorite protagonists. she is extremely smart, articulate, and very kind. she has a strong personality, but that doesn't stop her from being polite. she is also quite independent and knows how to make her choices clearly, even being empathetic the way she is. she's refreshing in a sea of cliched female character archetypes. (really, the way she can butt heads with all the characters, including her romantic partners, is amazing to me. she doesn't shy away from anyone.)

❥ kamran reminds me of adam, but he's like an adam with personality. i was able to be moved by his feelings and feel empathy, but he is one of the most realistic monarch characters i have ever seen. his vision of the things that happen to him is extremely limited and summarized in his privileged life. it takes him a LONG time to understand that he can act entitled, and even then he doesn't really understand. something that bothers me a lot about his romance with alizeh is how easily he discredits her even though he makes such passionate statements. he looks so volatile. although this is understandable given his position as a prince, his love is not convincing enough for me. he doesn't need much to say that he wants to kill her, he never has concrete proof and always gets carried away by the situation. alizeh's friends seem to have more affection for her than him, despite the intensity of his feelings and his passionate statements. (also, i think his feelings are almost one-sided since alizeh doesn't spend much time thinking about him and there isn't much romance in the first book.)

❥ cyrus is by far the most interesting character. mainly, perhaps, because we don't know what his motivations are for doing what he did, he's a box of surprises. he seems to have a lot of story to tell. and he's so incredibly charming, being funny and provocative at the same time. he's a pretty easy character to get attached to. his romance with alizeh, for me, is one of the best parts. in this book (as he only becomes relevant in the second book) alizeh reacts to him as intensely as he reacts to her. from the start, the two disarm each other with ease and it's clearly mutual and something that seems to want to explode. the way he truly suffers for her from the beginning, and for his own choices in life, is quite moving and makes me hope that he has a happy ending with alizeh. there's something of a forbidden romance here that is breathtakingly tragic, and i'm so excited to see what happens next!

❥ the mythology of these books was so interesting to me. the way tahereh developed it is cohesive and linear for me. i have always admired her writing, going back to the first shatter me books, but for me here it is just spectacular. although it is a fantasy book, it was very easy for me to understand the story and acquire a fluid reading pace. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the saga!