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lacrimosathedark · 4 years

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Hamilton Inaccuracies/Corrections (because why not?)

Okay so, I saw a post on reddit that was like, “what’s some inaccuracies in Hamilton off the top of your head?” and I got a whole bunch...and then I had to double check to make sure if I was right...and I’m pretty long-winded...and now I have this 5,000ish word monstrosity. And apparently you can only post 1000 characters at a time on reddit. Laaaaame. So here’s some Hamilton facts I’ve gathered in my brain. Since it was kinda off the top of my head despite being so long, it’s kinda vague in some places, so if anyone wants to expand on anything (or correct me if I oopsed somewhere) please do! Though nicely please.

Also I am also awful at citing things, but I know I learned some of this from @john-laurens and @ciceroprofacto so thank you.

LET’S BEGIN!

Act 1

Rachel Faucette was not a prostitute, but she was a “whore” in the sense that she did what she fucking wanted with her body. During her first marriage she may or may not have been sleeping around, but she refused to stay with John Lavien, her husband, anymore. So he had her arrested. And he could do that. Because patriarchy and theocracy. And she was essentially put in solitary confinement. You can see why she tried to leave, right? She tried to get their marriage annulled or get a divorce. I forget what the issue was but she couldn’t and eventually she just moved to another island where she met James Hamilton.

The intro song makes it seem like Alexander was an only child. He actually had an older brother, James Jr., but he kinda fucked off after their mother died, working and taking care of himself. They also had an older half-brother Peter Lavien, but I don’t think they really knew him other than as the son of their mother’s abusive ex who took everything from them when she died. John Lavien was able to do that because when Rachel was with James Hamilton, she had not been able to get legally divorced from him so she wasn’t really married to James Hamilton, so James Jr. and Alexander were illegitimate ie bastards. He was an asshole. I don't think Peter had anything against the Hamiltons, but I think he grew up to be a Loyalist so. He actually made some trouble in South Carolina for Henry Laurens, John's dad! But I think I read somewhere he also left money for Alex and James Jr. In his will, which is sweet.

This is more visual since it’s not specified in the song, but in the show, Hamilton’s cousin mimes hanging himself. Peter Lytton’s cause of death if I recall was inconclusive, but he was in his bed and there was a lot of blood. So, yeah, he didn’t hang himself.

Alexander did not punch the bursar. However he did return to Princeton later during the war and blew a canon through the school and apparently decapitated a painting of King George lololol. He was under orders, but yknow. Probably felt pretty good after he was rejected for accelerated courses. He wasn’t the only bastard rejected, though! Ben Franklin’s bastard son was too. The guy in charge of admissions, Witherspoon, hated bastards as a concept and Princeton was a very religious school at the time I believe.

It may have been the plan by Aaron and Esther Burr for Aaron Jr to graduate Princeton, but like, he couldn’t really be sure of that? He was like 2 years old when they died, and his older sister Sally was 4 I believe, maybe 5.

Hercules Mulligan met Alex in 1772. His older brother Hugh knew Alex’s old employer in St. Croix and helped him get to mainland America. Alex and Hercules lived together for a long while, and Hercules is actually who got him interested in the revolution.

John Laurens was in England in 1776. He wouldn’t meet Hamilton and Lafayette until he accepted his post as Washington’s aide-de-camp upon his return in August of 1777.

Lafayette couldn’t have met Hamilton before August 1777 because that’s when he met Washington, and he was appointed as a volunteer to the Continental Army only a week prior, and before that he had been in France. But Lafayette later declared their relationship to be like that of brothers, Alexander his closest connection in the states besides Washington.

Lafayette admired and absolutely adored Laurens and they were besties, but neither of them knew Mulligan. They may have met in passing, or heard about him from Hamilton, but nothing more.

“Lafayette” was actually a nickname based on his title of “Marquis de la Fayette”. In his autobiography, he wrote: “It’s not my fault I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.” I’m glad he thought it was funny at least. His name is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette.

Hercules Mulligan is not known to fuck horses.

The Revolution had already sorta started. Actually, Hercules and Alexander had been part of local militias before 1776.

This is more of a miscommunication since the actors are close in age, though the lyrics try to get it across. There’s a reason Mulligan says he’s got the others “in loco parentis”. In 1776 Hamilton and Lafayette would have been 19, Laurens would have been 22, and Mulligan would have been 36.

I think we all know “Laurens, I like you a lot” does not cover the scope of their relationship but that’s rather self explanatory so unless someone asks I’ll leave it at that. And for other clarifications. But at the very least I’ll share this: Anyone who saw them knew they were like attached at the hip (without knowing how attached *winkwonk*) and you could almost always contact one through the other. Laurens was notoriously bad at answering letters, to Hamilton too (and Alex did bitch about it because he is insecure and needs love), but it became quickly known he got back to Hamilton fastest so people would be like “Tell Laurens I said hi!” or “Hey, I need to get these to Laurens, you send them to him.” Which is hilarious. I just imagine Alexander going, “Why me?”

While all of them are Revolutionaries, Laurens is the only one you could solidly call an abolitionist, and Mulligan’s even shaky on the manumission part. He was supposedly part of the Manumission Society Hamilton helped start, but Mulligan also personally owned slaves and was never known to have freed them (One helped him with spy shit. His name was Cato!). In fairness, Hamilton and Lafayette wholeheartedly agreed with Laurens, and Hamilton was the biggest supporter of his battalion plan, and both of them did try to continue working towards equality after the war, but it was never the top priority for either of them and their lives kinda went to hell, so it fell to the wayside. Lafayette actually did some nifty stuff worth looking at, and Hamilton might have tried to keep one of John Lauren’s freed men from Henry Laurens! But as slavery stuck around for a while, it clearly wasn’t anything significant.

Angelica would meet and befriend Thomas Jefferson in Europe, but she would never manage to convince him to put women in a sequel because he’s a huge misogynist and told her in multiple letters that politics isn’t for women and I think he deserves a shoe up his southern backside. Side note, it always bothered me that Lin played up the misogyny in the musical. I mean, yeah, all of them would be misogynists compared to us, but for their time, Hamilton wasn’t so bad. If there was anyone to play up misogyny with, it was Jefferson, because he would tell Angelica for years and years that politics could never make women happy, and that the women in France were foolish for trying etc.. Hamilton would actually discuss politics with Angelica frequently and openly. And there’s a proto-feminist in the cast that was never recognized—Aaron Burr! He respected Theodosia Sr. as an equal and she was his most valuable political ally, and he made sure Theodosia Jr. got the same education any boy of her time would have. He actually respected women to a decent degree. Not to say he wasn't as much of a ho as Hamilton cuz yeah that's accurate (but they were both disaster bisexuals more on Burr's sexuality later)

Farmer Refuted was an essay Hamilton wrote arguing against Samuel Seabury's posts. They weren't shouting in the public square(but Lin got the sass right. I love his face when Hamilton and Seabury are fighting over the podium). Seabury was also really really old, not young and cute like Thayne, hence the line about "mange". Blech.

General Montgomery didn’t take a bullet in the neck, it was a grapeshot from a canon in his head (and his thighs), but close enough I guess. Side note: Burr actually served a short interim on Washington’s staff, but only for like 10 days because they hated each other lolol.

Alexander didn’t bring Laurens, Mulligan, or Lafayette to Washington. Lafayette joined up with the Continental Army in 1777 and quickly convinced them he wasn’t like the other French nobles; he was a glory-seeking kid with a boner for America (for some reason???). Laurens was requested by Washington to join his military family and he arrived also in August 1777 just after Lafayette. Like previously stated, Mulligan was doing shit even before Hamilton did.

Alexander would not have been in charge of spy shit (though may have been somewhat involved). Washington had people like Mulligan for that, who actually saved Washington a few times. But also, the "King’s men who might let some things slide" was the tactic Mulligan used. He was actually very charming, and his wife was very high in British society and he was a skilled tailor, so they were thought of well among the redcoats, and he got a lot of information through chatting with his customers. He also could usually smooth-talk his way out of trouble. Actually, Mulligan blended in so well, when the war was over, people in the city wanted him out cuz they thought he was a Loyalist. So George fucking Washington paid him a visit and commissioned I think a coat from him, and that cleared that up. He got a LOT of business after that.

Alexander would not be Washington’s right hand man, or at least, not his only one if Lin was using that to mean aide-de-camp. In that case, Laurens would also be Washington’s right hand man, along with many men not named in the musical.

John Laurens may have been reliable with the ladies (comes with the territory of being hot, rich, and a perfect gentleman), but he most certainly didn’t want to be. His father noted, rather proudly at the time, that as a young teenager he expressed no interest in girls. John was also married by 1780, and at least Alexander knew. (he told John he'd found out in the well-known April 1779 letter. You know... “Cold in my professions...find me a wife...the length of my nose...” That one.) Because John apparently didn't tell people he was married. Laurens. Sweetheart. Get. Your. Shit. Together.

John also would not be at this ball. February 1779 to March 1780 he is fighting down south, and this ball was early 1780.

The tomcat thing may be half true. Martha Washington did supposedly name a cat Hamilton, but it was an affectionate thing. The slang tomcat meaning ho wasn’t a thing at that time, so it couldn’t be named to tease Alex for his promiscuity. I believe this was one of the many things John Adams made up to slander Hamilton.

Hamilton and Eliza had met before 1780. They had met once two years prior at a dinner her father had hosted. Also, Hamilton had been courting her friend Kitty Livingston, and his friend and fellow aide Tench Tilghman had been attempting to court Eliza, and they’d actually done at least one sort-of double date (which is adorable). So this shouldn’t have been the first time they’d seen each other. Could still be when they fell in love, though, since they started courting after this. Which is cute to think about.

Speaking of Tench and Eliza! I don't remember when this took place but Tilghman journaled it, he went out on something of a hike with a few ladies and they got to a cliff. Of course, he had to help the girls climb up. Except Eliza who started climbing by herself like a natural to the bewilderment and likely horror of the other ladies. Elizabeth Schuyler was a bamf okay?

Of course everyone knows by now, Angelica was married before Eliza. During the Winter’s Ball, she’d already eloped with Jack Carter aka John Barker Church and run away to Boston.

Their courtship was not that fast. Not like, weeks. More like months. Fun fact, Eliza is the only of the five (yes FIVE) Schuyler sisters who didn’t elope and actually got her parents permission! But here’s a heartbreaking fun fact: while Alex was courting Eliza, Laurens was taken prisoner and then on probation. He wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Pennsylvania. He was mentally in a very dark place. Alex kind of procrastinated telling Laurens about Eliza, didn’t say he was courting anyone until they were already engaged.

I can't leave this alone if I'm sad you have to be too. Alex was hella depressed during this time too. Of course he was a soldier so he couldn't see Eliza as much as he'd have liked. On top of that, he kept pushing for an exchange for John and kept getting rejected because they couldn't show preference for him. And then Laurens was sending him very few letters, of course, and the ones he did send were very depressed, even suicidal sounding. He had to work while dealing with that. He had to keep begging Eliza to write to him to be reassured that she still liked him.

No one could show up for Hamilton for the wedding. Some sources say fellow aide James McHenry showed up, but he’s the only one. Alexander even invited his deadbeat dad, offered to pay all his travel expenses and everything, guess how that turned out. So Eliza’s side of the hall was packed and his was empty. God, can you imagine how sad that is?

Another heartbreaking fun fact! John Laurens was out of probation and could have made it to the wedding, was invited (Hamilton, I kid you not, jokingly invited him to a threesome with his new wife in a letter: “I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pensylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation.” (emphasis is original to Hamilton. As is the misspelling of Pennsylvania. Yes, seriously.)) and John did not go. Instead he went back to work trying to talk his way out of getting sent as an envoy to France and suggesting Alexander to take his place. You know. His boyfriend who just got married. Sure, he was right that Hamilton was better equipped for the job, but yknow. Another fun fact, one of the guys who voted for John to be the one to go to France was John’s ex-boyfriend Francis Kinloch. Who was a turncoat, and had been a royalist when he and Laurens split. How’s that for some twisty bullshit.

Sorry, this one isn’t about the musical, it’s a tangent, I just got excited about that quote. Both that style of innuendo and the misspelling of Pennsylvania are consistent in Hamilton’s writing. Listening to john-lauren’s podcast about the April 1779 letter can really help you understand how Hammy uses innuendo but also I just love listening to it it’s insightful and hilarious and I love John Laurens but y u do this and my heart hurts for Hamilton but he is also a ho but aNYWAY. As for Pensylvania...well, he kinda made that mistake on an important document. ...It’s The Constitution. He misspelled Pennsylvania on The Constitution. No big deal. Not like something that could haunt his legacy forever. Oh my god I’m so sorry.

Philip Schuyler did have sons. Five in fact. Two of them died pretty young though I think, considering there are three kids in a row named John Bradstreet Schuyler. The other two were named Philip Jeremiah and Rensselaer.

Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan were all married before Hamilton. Hercules Mulligan married Elizabeth Sanders in 1773. Lafayette married his beloved Adrienne in 1774. John Laurens was regretfully obliged to marry Martha Manning in 1776.

Sigh. Again with the misogyny. Anyway, I wanted to comment on the marriage as a loss of freedom. From what I can tell, Elizabeth helped Hercules with his spy work at home. John was literally fighting a war across the ocean from his wife, and probably having an illegal affair with Alexander (though to be fair to him, he was kind of running away from Martha because he didn't marry her for love, gosh, there are no winners here). Lafayette absolutely adored his wife but still was also fighting a war an ocean away, and had multiple affairs, at least one with his wife’s blessing. So yeah, losing your freedom with marriage? Bullshit.

Despite where it is in the musical and Eliza singing the beginning, Stay Alive is roughly about Valley Forge, which would be December of 1777 through June of 78. So before the ball and wedding. (Fun fact! A lot of people theorize Valley Forge as when Hamilton and Laurens’ relationship may have escalated into romantic and/or sexual territory. They may have had more privacy, as small temporary buildings were being made to better withstand the cold, and Hamilton was sick a lot during that time and did need tending a lot. West Indian boi did not like Northern winter.) But yeah, Congress being stupid and the army resorting to eating their horses sometimes and not being able to buy food and equipment? All true. It was a real bad winter.

Mulligan wouldn’t have to go back to New York, he never would have left. He remained there as a tailor and a spy throughout the war. He wouldn’t have been traveling with Washington.

Hamilton and Laurens didn't write essays so much as start working out John's battalion plan and writing letters trying to push for it.

This duel happened in 1778, so like. This timeline is so fucky.

Stay Alive makes it seem like Hamilton was the one who wanted to duel Lee, but it was 100% Laurens from the start. The off-Broadway version demonstrates it a bit better. Hamilton was Lauren's second to save his ass. Hamilton had a rough relationship with Washington, but Laurens admired him greatly and would have willingly defended his commander’s honor. John was a Good Boy who always bowed his head to his asshole father, even at first for his battalion plan, but John wouldn’t let even his father talk shit about Washington. Fun fact about this duel, Alex and John were late to the duel because they “got lost in the woods”. Oooookay. Suuuuuuure. And Baron von Steuben was straight. (Fact: Steuben was very gay and pretty much pushed out of Europe for it. And he actually also had challenged Lee! They talked things out before this.)

Aaron Burr was not Charles Lee’s second. His second was a Major Evan Edwards. Lin wanted a parallel with the final duel. To be fair, that was a really cool way to do it and I like it better that way.

Alexander Hamilton could NOT agree that duels are dumb and immature. He was in 10 duel challenges as a participant in his lifetime, 9 of which he was the challenger. One time he challenged two people at once. One time he challenged an entire politcal party apparently. No, I am not kidding. He had a bad day. And I think you know the one time he wasn’t the challenger.

Lee did not yield on the first shot, nor was Laurens satisfied. Lee was pretty much like, “It’s just a flesh wound!” and wanted to go another round and Laurens agreed, but Hamilton and Edwards managed to talk them down. Yes he was shot in the side. But that wasn’t all because Laurens absolutely roasted Lee at his court martial.

Lee: Were you ever in an action before?

Laurens: I have been in several actions; I did not call that an action, as there was no action previous to the retreat.

I love this man. So much. The sass of this man.

We don’t know if Washington was angry about the duel with Lee. We do know that Laurens, and probably Hamilton, had Christmas dinner with him two days later. When Hamilton left, it was because Washington had snapped over a misunderstanding (caused by Lafayette actually, and he really tried to make it better because Lafayette is a sweetheart), and then continued to deny Hamilton the command he requested, and he resigned. It was entirely unrelated to the duel and Laurens. However, the daddy issues are real.

I don’t know if Lafayette went to France for more funds and came back with more guns, but Laurens certainly did! Ben Franklin told him to chill, but he actually got super impatient and ended up supposedly disrespecting and maybe kinda threatening the court, demanding what he needed, and walking out. They were were kind of shocked and impressed into giving more than had been requested. Any existing deities bless John Laurens. I love him.

Lafayette actually nominated his own aide to lead the charge and Hamilton appealed for himself and Washington finally gave in to Hamilton.

Laurens was not in South Carolina. When he finally got back from France, he was sent to Yorktown. He actually was commanding the group Alexander led. (Power couple lol) He also helped with negotiations after the battle. Also, supposedly making the British play ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ on their way out was Laurens’ idea because boy is made of sass and spite.

Henry Laurens would not have sent a letter to Hamilton about John’s death. Even if he would have, he couldn’t. At that time, he’d been locked up in the Tower of London as a prisoner. We have no idea when or how Alexander found out, or who might have told him. We know he wrote to Nathanael Greene on October 25 and Lafayette on November 3 (literally 2 months after Laurens' death), and the mentions of Laurens were very short. It’s thought that he really couldn’t talk about Laurens. People have compared it to the stories of how Benjamin Tallmadge apparently couldn’t hear Nathan Hale’s name without crying.

After Yorktown Alexander resigned and John went down south to flush British troops out of the southern states. His group was ambushed at Combahee River and he decided to charge instead of wait for backup and he died. Many people think it was a combination of his usual recklessness, suicidality, and glory-seeking mixed with a desperation with the war coming to an end. It was such a small skirmish. He deserved better. He left his daughter, Frances, whom he had never met, orphaned, as her mother had died months earlier from sickness. She was adopted by John’s oldest younger sister, also coincidentally Martha Laurens (though married was Martha Laurens Ramsay).

The Levi Weeks case was years later than that, in 1800, though it was alongside Burr. Hamilton actually lost his first trial as a defense lawyer and was not with Burr.

The whole conversation where Hamilton proposes Burr help him write the Federalist Papers is fake. Lin made that up entirely.

John Church’s wealth kinda...varies. He was a gambler. At first, he was actually in quite a bit of debt. He did make it big eventually and he and Angelica moved to Europe. He really didn’t seem to be a lot of fun to most people, but Angelica eloped with him. She chose him against her father’s wishes. I don’t get why Lin kept writing lines saying she didn’t love him, at least at first. He also does this in the cut song Congratulations where she says “I languished in a loveless marriage” bish you eloped wat She also lived as a socialite and was adored by anyone who met her apparently, so like???? da fuq Lin. Didja really do Laurens dirty for these lies or at the very least uncertanties? Could you not prop up that romance without making her say she hates her husband?

Act 2

More of a personality miscommunication. Irl Thomas Jefferson was shy, quiet, and hypersensitive, nothing like how Daveed plays him. If you knew a guy like the real Jefferson in real life you might be endeared to him out of pity or because he seems sweet, but in the short time of a musical that would immediately be read as cold and unlikable. So the best way to portray “this guy is a likable asshole” is to make him loud and made of sass which is what Daveed does magnificently. So, not at all accurate to real Jefferson, but gets the concept of him across.

Thomas was not off getting high with the French. Probably. He was making negotiations for the Revolution. And abusing Sally Hemings (his, at the time, 14 year old slave, who was also his sister-in-law, and 30 years his junior, and was brought along to entertain his daughter). And actually probably chatting up with Angelica!

By the time Philip was 9, he had two sisters, Angelica (7) and his foster/adopted sister Frances Antill (6), but he also had two brothers already, Alexander Jr. (5) and James Alexander (3), with maybe another one on the way since William Stephen would be born next year.

The whole comma thing is backwards. It was Angelica who made the initial mistake. Hamilton pointedly and flirtatiously teased her about it before closing it with “Adieu ma chere, soeur” French for “Goodbye my dear, sister”. So it’s more playful and less lovey dovey in context, so the tone is all wrong. It’s not romantic, it’s teasing and snarky.

Say No To This feels like it’s over quick. The affair lasted a year, not just the summer Eliza was away.

Clermont Street wasn’t renamed until many years later.

I don’t know that Alex has always considered Burr a friend. Irl they weren’t as close, and Hamilton was keenly aware of how slimy Burr could be.

Lafayette was NOT fine. He was imprisoned a lot during the French Revolution, the poor man, and many members of his wife’s family were killed. HOWEVER! Hamilton was not just sitting by. Angelica and her husband did make an attempt to rescue Lafayette, and the Hamiltons fostered Lafayette’s son Georges Washington Lafayette (yes that was his actual name). So Hamilton also did not forget Lafayette.

Not all his defendants got acquitted, obviously. Stop being cocky, Ham.

People comment on how Jefferson whines about Hamilton’s fashion sense while literally dressed in violet velvet. The original plan was to have him in browns, but Daveed is just such a friggin star that they just had to give him something brighter and decided to go with a Prince-inspired look. Originally the browns were going to be representative of his supposed representation of farmers. Though note here: Jefferson’s agricultural representation is much the same as modern Republicans’ rural representation. More for show.

Actually, let's get political for a sec. I've done some research in my hyperfixation and in searches for Hamilton shiz I've ended up stumbling into far-right nonsense and I know how to recognize the degrees of nonsense from years of actually paying attention to it now because this is what I do apparently. Which is weird, right? Lin kinda portrays him like a lefty. Well, here's the thing. Any proud historically educated Republican will tell you that their roots are in the Federalist Party. Which is technically true. What they will neglect to mention is the flip between parties that happened when the Republicans decided to use southerners racism to their advantage in elections. Being subtly racist can get the racists and the non-racists on your side! Yeah, it's gross. Federalists are more like Democrats. The corporatists. They clearly care more about companies and Wall Street, but they put actual action into social progress on rare occasion. Democratic-Republicans are like Republicans, conservatives who don't want social change and rail against it and pretend they aren't for corporate interests while being just as bad as the other guys. But Republicans have a tendency to rewrite history to paint themselves as the good guys, or reclaim things that aren't theirs as their own. Just look at the Civil War! Or...literally just...America I guess. Yikes. But yeah, here's your warning. Don't just go looking at and trusting things labelled Federalist. It likely won't be friendly.

John Adams didn’t fire Hamilton, Hamilton left. Eventually. And this is not the only time this kind of verbal confrontation happens, and not the one that destroys the Federalist Party. That actually happens after the Reynolds Pamphlet. But John Adams hates Alexander Hamilton with the burning passion of a thousand suns and really kinda earns this.

I’m not sure if he specifically called Alex a Creole bastard but I wouldn’t be surprised, there were other similar racist and bastard-related insults. You know the tomcat thing mentioned above. He started the rumor of the affair with Angelica. He accused him of being a rake (male version of whore at the time). He also may have behind closed doors accused him of being a sodomite. His (probably gay) son Charles helped with that one, bringing back rumors from a dinner he had with Hamilton (who he was working for) and John Church because Church joked about Alex being fond of a guy. Adams probably thought working for Hamilton was what made his son gay and alcoholic (Charles was an alcoholic and may have died in part because of that; Hamilton was not an alcoholic, but he supposedly could not hold his drink. He was smol).

Jefferson, Madison, and Burr didn’t accuse Hamilton of speculation. It was James Monroe, Abraham Venable, and Frederick Muhlenberg. Lin wanted to keep consistent representation of the Democratic-Republican party. But anyway, the whole thing went to hell because Monroe sent the letters to Jefferson (or I’ve also heard Monroe gave them to Madison who sent them to Jefferson) who, the spiteful gangly fucker, started spreading rumors because fuck Hamilton, amirite? Hamilton challenged Monroe to a duel over that. And who stopped this duel? Aaron Burr. He gets to be the good guy now and then.

It wasn’t just total strangers that got Alex off the island. He was sponsored by his cousin Ann Lytton and his teacher Reverend Hugh Knox. Also, he was kind of expected to get an education and come back and help out the island...guess what he never did. Oops.

This one I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure. I think Eliza was upstate with her family when the Reynolds Pamphlet was released, away from Alex. I also know she had recently given birth to their son, William Stephen. A lot of people think Alexander had been keeping that in mind. Eliza had had a miscarriage once before, when she was under a lot of stress and alone and with the kids and he had to be away (Whiskey Rebellion), so some people think he made sure she was surrounded by her family and waited until the child was born to drop this on her, and gave her distance from him if she needed it. At least he knew he fucked up, and he really did love her.

Those weren’t Alexander’s guns. They belonged to John Church.

It was quite some time between Philip’s challenge and the actual duel.

Another age miscommunication; Eacker was 27ish and Philip was 19 when the duel happened. There was a whole 8 years between them!

Eacker didn’t shoot early. Actually, both of them stood staring at each other for a really long time doing nothing. But Philip went to make a move and Eacker shot him.

Alex and Eliza had made up from the Reynolds Pamphlet bullshit before Philip died. When he passed, Eliza was already pregnant with the son they would also name Philip in honor of his older brother.

Hamilton wasn’t really the deciding factor in the election of 1800. But he did say that about Burr and it did help swing the vote somewhat. But also, this was before Philip died. Philip died in 1801.

If a vote is that close, you can’t win in a landslide??? That’s not how words work???? Mister Miranda????? You are a writer??????? Sir???????

Burr actually held a term as Jefferson’s Vice President.

The Burr vs Hamilton Duel was in 1804 and was actually about another election and other things Hamilton was saying about him. Burr was running to be governor of New York and lost but heard about Alexander telling people the things he listed Alexander saying in Your Obedient Servant.

Thayne should not have played Alexander’s doctor. Sydney should have played Alexander’s doctor. Do you know why? Philip and Alexander had the same doctor when they died. Alexander took that doctor with him to the duel. His name was David Hosack.

While there’s evidence to suggest Burr experienced immediate regret (he stepped forward as if wanting to see if Hamilton was okay and supposedly asked after him and wished him well before Alexander passed) in the years that followed, until he was on his death bed, he expressed nothing but neutrality or even pride for having shot Hamilton. The ‘the world was wide enough’ comment could plausibly be entirely made up, and even if it were true, it was supposedly said toward the end of Burr’s life. Burr's life was quite a ride after Alex. He tried to make like his own empire out of Texas, and then of course was tried for treason, but he got out of that, but then everyone hated him for that ON TOP OF already hating him for killing Hamilton, so he had some crazy journey around Europe for a while. He kept a journal, writing entries like letters to Theo. The most notable things I think he writes he'd "been amused for an hour with a very handsome young Dane. Don't smile. It is a male!" which implies maybe Theodosia knew her dad was bi and was at least amused by it? And he spent a while living with Jeremy Bentham, who is generally accepted to have been gay (if you want more Burr gayness look into Jonathan Bellamy and Robert Troup. Troup knew Hamilton too!). Unrelated to his sexuality but I find it important, Burr spent, in modern cash, $40 on a coconut, in his own words, "like an ass." He returned to America eventually. I dont remember if it was before or after his foreign adventures, but his beloved grandson (also named Aaron Burr) died, and then not long after, Theodosia was lost at sea on her way to visit her dad. No one knows what happened to her. It's so sad. Anyway he married a wealthy widow named Eliza, spent all her money on charity, and died the day their divorce was finalized. And Eliza Jumel's divorce lawyer was Alexander Hamilton Jr..

Poor Eliza couldn’t go through all of her husband’s papers. Her son, John Church Hamilton, finished the work for her when she no longer could and put together the biography that inspired Chernow’s that inspired Lin’s musical. (He named a son Alexander and a daughter Elizabeth. He even named one of his sons Laurens! Aw.) And we have come full circle.

The End :33

There’s probably more but that’s what I’ve got. Thanks for reading!

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skellebonez · 3 years

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Monkie Kid Headcanons Part 2: Red Son and Demon Bull Family Backstory

Follow up to this post, with a lot more heavy thinking needed this time. Since these characters technically had backstories in Journey to the West, I wanted to really think over how to work those into what we have in the show (even though it kinda doesn’t 100% work and is really messy if you overthink it since the show throws some stuff to the wayside). This took me multiple days to work out so I hope it at least makes sense.

Warning: This one actually gets very VERY dark with emotional and psychological abuse detailed in the later half, so I am putting all of these under a read more. Seriously. I want you to be aware of this before you click that button. Do not ignore this warning please.

I PROMISE that part 3 will be a lot less heavy. I just wanted to get this out so I could finally move on from it.

First, gonna preface this with the fact we all know Monkie Kid is not 100% accurate to Journey to the West. Characters that are supposed to be dead are alive after all, and Red Son’s existence in the show itself in particular kinda makes no sense when I overthink about him. Red Boy is evil in his first appearance, but comes back redeemed way later in the novel (and with his name changed to that of an actual deity who had already existed outside of JTTW with a completely different backstory).

In reality, JTTW is fiction based on historical events and Monkie Kid is made to be a kid’s show and was never going to be accurate to the novel. Not even adaptations of JTTW are. So basically, I headcanon this: in the show, JTTW the novel exists as a highly accurate and very important piece of historical novelization (a non-fiction novel). But like most examples of real non-fiction novels (like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood), it is not entirely accurate and there are bits and pieces that do not line up. It is, however, incredibly close to 98% accuracy and anyone in it who reads it is impressed.

That being said, Red Son did study with Guanyin for quite a few years (though he was not entirely redeemed like his book counterpart, he was getting there). He actually did learn a lot and was pretty darn happy to be under her teaching at the time. Mostly because he didn’t know what was going on outside...

Unfortunately, later portions of JTTW confirm that Red Son being taken... completely ruined Monkey King and Demon Bull King’s friendly relationship. So that, combined with other events in the Fiery Mountains, it is incredibly likely that is why DBK was so bent on ruling and taking out Wukong for good. He wanted revenge for a lot of stuff Monkey King did.

Before we get into the depressing stuff, I personally headcanon that DBK was actually just. Dead. Completely dead. That is why he went from being covered in floof to being big buff body builder man. Hair does not grow back when you are dead. Removing the staff completely revived him. I needed a silly weird headcanon in here ok?

Since Princess Iron Fan calls him her husband, not her ex-husband as he had divorced her to be with Princess Jade Face in JTTW, I think they either reconciled at some point or PJF... didn’t exist? Since LMK is a kid’s show the later is more likely... but this is my headcanon. Given her personality in the show and book I think it is possible that they mutually divorced due to losing Red Son, DBK remarried, then realized he still loved PIF and wanted to go back to her and she took him back.

We don’t actually know much about PJF so... uh... I like to think she was shockingly chill about it and is just living comfortably somewhere else now. And never wants to see Monkey King again. I hope she is living her best fox spirit life.

Also unfortunately, DBK did not stand a chance and when he was sealed it took a major toll on PIF. She was left alone, her renewed husband either trapped or dead under a mountain and her son kinda sorta still arrested by a deity. This made her more distant to everyone and a lot more cold.

When news of what happened to his father reached Red Son, he pleaded with Guanyin to be allowed to leave her teaching to stay with his mother. He knew what isolation felt like and did not wish for her to feel the same any longer. Guanyin trusted her disciple and allowed him to return to his mother permanently, if he desired. Alone.

This was a mistake. Oh boy was this a mistake. Heaven should have either sent someone else completely or had someone accompany Red Son to PIF to help her because this one decision is why everything in show happens.

At first things go pretty well. PIF is definitely in need of support, but she is ecstatic to see her son again. And that lasts. For a while. Until she starts to project onto Red. She starts to blame him for being captured, for not being strong enough to take out Wukong when he had the True Samadhi Fire, for not being there to keep DBK from leaving her, for not being there to help his father fight Wukong a second time. Everything is Red Son’s fault now.

This simmers for a while before it starts to come forth to the surface. She starts being colder and more distant and giving Red little jabs in their conversations. She says them so sweetly it always takes Red a second to register what she says.

“Oh Red Son, if only your father were here to see this. Too bad you weren’t there to save him.” “I love you my son, even if you can be useless at times.” “Princess Jade Face would have loved you I bet, but you were far too busy with the celestials to visit. I understand.”

This starts to wear Red down after a while, until he starts to believe his mother. He WASN’T there when he father was defeated, he COULD have taken care of Wukong, he WAS the reason his father left his mother. She was as warm and loving to him as she was when he was a small child when he came back but now? Now she’s as cold to him as anyone else.

She is never outright physically abusive, that is below her in her mind. But other things? Like not having his meals prepared along side hers? Insulting him as casually as saying the sky is blue? Pointing out every mistake he makes when writing or working on a project? Taking his things and “losing” them, only to “find” them days later in a place she told him to look and telling him he needs to be more careful? “Mistakenly” locking Red Son in his room and ignoring his yells and pleas to be let out? Those are on the table.

And this is when he becomes obsessed with getting back in her good graces and starts to push aside his teachings from Guanyin. He just wants his mother back.

His mother does not come back... but his old self does.

Guanyin does not learn of this until long after it is impossible to convince Red Son to leave his mother. She has the kneejerk reaction to just take him back by force but... for some reason she does not. She lets him stay. Perhaps she does not want to make the wrong decision again. Perhaps she feels she taught him everything she could. No one really knows. She does not discuss this.

After a while PIF does lessen her emotional and psychological abuse, once she is certain Red Son will never leave her. She even starts to treat him nicely, like her son who she always loved, like a mother again, even praises and defends him from others again (and Red Son eats it up because this is exactly what he wanted and just fuels his determination to prove himself and stay in her good graces). And at the time the show begins she has come to terms with the fact Red Son was not, in fact, at fault for anything and even regrets this portion of her life.

Make no mistake, however, her treating him less bad, even well at times, now does NOT in any way absolve her of how she treated him in the past. She is still abusive and she has done nothing that could truly set anything right. She still calls him things like “her sweet useless boy” and pulls shit like the racing episode. It’s not really any better. It’s just not actively as bad as it used to be at the moment.

DBK in show did not notice how PIF had changed because in the pilot he was too distracted with being revived and as the show went on he was too distracted with the power of the White Bone Spirit calling to him.

Upon a rewatch he actually seems to be under WBS’s thrall multiple times before episode 10, such as the racing episode where we can clearly see his eyes glowing with possession blue, and I think this affected his personality a bit. Not much, I think he was still neglectful and cold to Red Son from the get go, but WBS probably exacerbated the worst parts of his personality long before taking over completely.

But I think he sure does notice NOW that the thrall no longer has him. Whether or not he does anything about this is up in the air, however. It is entirely possible he falls fully into neglect and does nothing to stop anything.

Red Son knows, very deep down, that his father is neglectful and his mother is abusive. He knows. He just won’t admit that not even demons are like this to their children. Won’t admit that he doesn’t deserve it, that he never deserved it. Because he loved his mother deeply before he left. He loved her when she convinced him he did. And he still loves her, and his father. He’s stubborn. He doesn’t want to give up on that.

It is going to take a LOT for someone to show him that he deserves better. But having his father back has not been everything he had hoped it would be and now... now it may be possible for someone to reach him. At least convince him that SOMETHING needs to change.

#I am warning you now #if you read tags before clicking read more #there is a lot of depressing shit and angst in here #monkie kid #lego monkie kid #red son #demon bull king #dbk #princess iron fan #pif #white bone spirit #wbs #headcanons #seriously #everything from 10 down is heavy #DBK and PIF are bad parents #that is going to be a recurring tag on this blog #get this family into therapy they need it #I'm going to be transparent here in the tags #i don't write this kind of stuff without either a lot of time and research #or personal experience #in this case it is both #I am basing how red son feels on how I used to feel in my own family relationship #I actually use my personal experiences #good and bad #for a lot of my writing #so I know exactly how messed up this dynamic is and that he needs outside help #i also know that if he does get outside help? He'll be ok #I promise he at least ends up ok in rainy talks #queued

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thanksfirefly · 3 years

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alright i have finally completed my quest to watch the pony film! AND..................

I RLY ENJOYED IT

like don't get me wrong, it's rough as fuck BUT i rly enjoyed it

so let's kick down this elephant in the room first, let's talk racism metaphors

it's..... fine it's fine. not great, i still think racism as metaphor is bad just as a concept, but after the uphill struggle of grappling with g4's racism, i will take my Ws where i can get 'em

when my friend was giving me her thoughts in real time, her biggest takeaway is that every animal is god tier, and she is absolutely correct

look at this king

the characters are all rly cute! i rly like this large friend-shaped gentleman and his gang of punk armadillos. what an amazing concept

all of the girls are amazing. hitch is fine too, i like him well enough, but yo i just love girls

sunny is adorable and a very charming protagonist, and izzy is a literal angel

characterization is a little rough tho, the movie is short at only 90mins and most of it is very centralized on plot

i feel like with infinite time u could polish this up to add more time and space for characterization, but making a movie is hard and things fall thru the cracks

but that focus on plot does hurt, and it makes certain parts of the film more frustrating than they need to be

there are very few scenes where the characters get to sit down and breathe and most of said scenes have to be spent on exposition and rushing thru necessary story beats

speaking of story beats! hoo boy the transition between story beats is GRIM

u can practically hear a loud clunk as the gears in the movie shift to a new story beat, like sunny and izzy will be talking about a thing that just happened then BAM we gotta do a new thing now

not enough time or focus is given to characters' internal thought processes, we kinda just have to infer why ppl are making some of the choices they make

and while it's easy enough to keep up with, it's harder to empathize with the characters that way and is jarring to watch

i like that the plot crystals were functionally worthless. like someone read the enchanted library lmao

tho it's a little frustrating that like, obviously we can immediately tell there's an earth pony crystal but the characters take like a year to realize it

also bcuz the story's plot focus leaves minimal room for characterization, the final bit where the ponies are supposed to become friends feels a little weak

i feel like there's room here to see the ponies all working together and getting to know each other, but we don't get that

which is kinda a big deal! that's sorta the whole point of the movie is friendship, and there isn't enough time spent on the actual becoming friends thing

i think that's probably my biggest criticism of the movie

also the racist ponies kinda got off the hook with no consequences,, like yea it's implied they're removed from power but like. only implied

also wow those ponies who benefit from whipping ppl up into a frenzy sure gave up on that fast

like again, u can make that work! u can show how and why these characters would change their ways, but we don't have time! we just don't have time!!

the biggest flaw with the movie tho is there's not enough pipp. i want more pipp, gimme a whole series about pipp

i want more fantasy stuff also. seeing all the ads in the pegasus world makes my eyes melt outta my skull

the movie's bones are honestly rly solid, but the rushed pace causes alot of the stuff i rly wanted to see get truncated or left by the wayside

as a pilot and as a movie, it falls short of fim's offerings on those fronts. but as a beginning to a new story, i'm into it!

this is alot of complaining despite me saying i enjoyed the movie, but i assure u it's out of love

i have strong feelings about ponies. i want them to be the best they can be! the film lays the groundwork for new stories with alot of potential, and i'm excited to see it realized

also the stinger teasing the existence of earth pony magic is *chef's kiss*

#g5 movie

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seancekitsch · 4 years

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Strictly Confectional.

a/n: part whatever of the prize buck series, slight spoilers of tua season 2 so you HAVE been warned but like if youve read the comics nbd, smut warnings, klaus being sorta dominant for once, slight sensory deprivation kink, unprotected norty bits (wrap it up folx), canon drug references, rehab references, drug use, cursing, the title of this fic is from a lemon demon song which warrants its own warning, my usual run of the mill warnings etc.

Halloween is a fucking ordeal when you work at an occult shop and date a personified ouija board, and that’s putting it lightly. Even more of an ordeal considering Klaus decides to go cold turkey for the holiday week without warning you. Of course it was easy to figure out what was going on. The his and her’s morning joints you typically had resting on the windowsill became yours and yours joints. He had exactly one beer since last saturday, and halloween was still a day away. It was starting to get a little spooky. Your boss Margie hated Klaus on a regular day, claiming he threw off the vibes her store was supposed to give off. She was a highly superstitious woman and you wouldn't put it past her to actually notice if Klaus agitated any of the spirits that were probably attached to the things you sell. Realistically, Klaus’ presence did in fact stir up the spirits in her store. Lots of victorian era mourning hair bracelets and taxidermy probably made before your birth would do that. He always claimed the store was extremely loud, but still liked to visit you when your boss was running errands because you were there, and he can't help that he gets bored easily. Klaus’ being there never went unnoticed by your boss, even if he was gone by the time she came back. But this whole cold turkey thing was new for him. Even Diego and Ben said he had only tried to do this one other time, and it was during the apocalypse that never happened that you still think might have been a case of mass hallucination. You weren't sure what his reasoning for it was, since he was just sober enough to conjure Ben any time enough for you to see him and speak to him, even if he was a glowing blue apparition that you compared to the Tupac hologram from Coachella that only appeared for a few minutes. This week was a lot of Klaus having the usual headaches and shaking that come with coming off alcohol, but probably heightened because you know the ghosts don't just shut up when he wants them to. He hasn't been sleeping well unless spooned by you and hushed to sleep with the cool beginnings of fall air blowing through the window.

Friday morning you get your first cryptic answer as to what's been going on with him.

“The veil is thinner on Saturday, I want to try something I haven't been able to do since the sixties,” is the only explanation he’ll give as he kisses your fingertips and holds the door open for you at the shop. Of course, it has something to do with the sixties. Normally you wouldn't pay much attention to his family’s antics because you knew something was going on there that probably didn't concern you, the exception being that time he pulled you back to the sixties briefly and you were handed a briefcase meant for an old man before ending up back at home. You still aren't sure how you made it back to your shift at work that day but Margie hasn’t looked at you the same since. She probably thinks you're a freak like your partner. Which, fair.

His answer doesn't give you that much clarification, but it's better than nothing which is usually what he gives you in warning for his ideas. But anything testing the limits of his powers is usually good for the both of you, because it's a testament to growth and confidence just as much as the pieces of furniture you're slowly accumulating. Sure, there are still bad days. There are still terrible days for the both of you. The more he learns to control his abilities and the more furnished your apartment becomes, it's almost more like you're becoming real functioning people and you can consider yourselves part of that human race you've heard so much about.

Your shift at work is… different. Friday is typically a slow day, but the holiday weekend packs your store in a way you can barely keep up with. The quiet baroque music generally wafting through the air is interrupted by quiet “ewwws” and “what is that?”s from people who normally wouldn't be setting foot in a store like this being dragged in by their spookier friends. You've sold hundreds more than you usually would, but the quiet almost holy spell of the place is broken today. At least the day passes quickly with all the sales you make.

You can feel Klaus coming before he even presses his face into the glass window, smushing his lips and cheek into the glass like one of those slugs in an aquarium. Maybe there is something to be said about the veil being thin and all that. When his tongue darts out to join the rest of his face on the cold surface, you giggle, but then begin to wonder if you're getting a taste of what all the ghosts see when he tries to get in contact with them. He pulls back and waves before putting a hand on the door, a silent question of if it's safe to enter. You shake your head no because your boss is in the back room, but he only has to wait ten more minutes.

Those ten minutes pass slower than the entire shift before that. Just knowing he’s outside has you almost itching for his touch. Since when were you so needy that ten minutes felt like torture? Blame it on the fucking veil or whatever. Your hands are clammy by the time you clock out and bid Margie goodbye,while she reminds you to show up at work in costume tomorrow. Only she doesn't know you fully plan to come dressed in one of your partner’s silly superhero outfits from when he was a teenager.

Klaus is all too happy to kiss you open mouthed the second your figure is out of your workplace, and you willingly ignore that it's the same mouth he just smeared all over the side of a storefront because you're all too happy to kiss him back. One thing about his little cold turkey experiment that you’ve been loving is how potent his sex drive has become. His hands grip your hips like a vice as you continue kissing on the short three block walk and up the flight of stairs to your apartment and travel down to your thighs as you fumble with the keys in the dark of the setting sun not facing the only window in the building that faces the front door of your apartment. It's always a testament to your will when he gets like this as there's nothing you'd like better than to just ride him on the steps in front of your door, but there's just something about doing it in the privacy of your apartment that you like better.

But it's seconds before you feel the key sink into the hole and the tell tale click of everything being pushed into place, and the door gives way almost not soon enough for the two of you to clumsily barrel through it. Now Klaus under normal circumstances is a sexual being, but this cold turkey sobriety and focus is new, and makes you feel wanted- maybe loved- in a way you've never felt before in your life. It's not just that he wants to get off, he wants you. He wants to get off with and for you. Specifically you. Which is the sexiest feeling in the world, you've decided.

You barely put your bag down before he's pulling your coat from your shoulders behind you and growling in your ear.

“Now we’re trying something new tonight, okay baby?” you barely get out an affirmative nod before he finishes, “good, just trust me, I've got you in safe hands.”

You let him take the lead as he strips you bare in the middle of the studio apartment, which feels much bigger than usual, maybe because he’s still fully clothed. His movements are greedy, hands sparing no touch on even an inch of your skin, grabbing and caressing as if it was his property, which in a way, you'd be glad to grant him ownership. He takes control of you, your body not moving in any direction he does not will himself.

“Close your eyes,” he whispers as his hands find their way to your chest, and you do. You hear him sigh, and maybe a breath of “that's right” as his hand slides up to touch your face, making sure you listen to directions as well as he wants you to. You can hear him start to breathe a little heavier as he presses his leather clad crotch into your ass. He chuckles as you return the pressure, wiggling your hips a little to entice him, before he spins you around and presses your hand into the buttons that hold his pants up on his bony hips. Your eyes are still closed, that’s good, he thinks as he rewards you with a kiss. Your hands make quick work of the buttons, despite your impaired senses, and he shimmies the pants to his ankles, where his boots prevent them from falling any further.

“Wait a tic- wait, just…” he trails off and falters a little, you notice, before commanding you again, “stand there and touch yourself. I gotta get these boots off but if you open your eyes it'll ruin what I have planned for us.”

You comply and focus on the smells and sounds of the room as you part your legs a little further and trail your fingers down. There's a heady scent in the air from stale weed smoked this morning and the sickening sweetness of the strawberry hookah set out and packed for tonight, which now would probably be left to the wayside, you note, as you feel wetness collect on your fingertips even at first contact. You focus on the sound of his laces as they smack the hardwood floor as your middle finger rubs slow calculated tight circles on your clit. You don't dare pick up the pace or try to touch yourself in earnest at first, unsure of his intentions for the night as a soft sigh of a moan leaves your parted lips. You hear a loud dull thud, and then another. He must be done, you think, as your fingers pick up the speed, just a little, just enough to make you whine at your own actions. And he is, his boots are discarded near the door, but this isn't a view he's going to give up that easily. Its not every day someone is obeying his commands, fucking themselves and whimpering his name uninhibited like this. He smiles as he watches, and you can feel his eyes on you. You wonder what you must look like, shameless, wanton, on display for him. But then you feel a hand wrap around the wrist of the hand that's between your legs and he pulls it away from your body. Then the chill of the fall air hitting your wet fingers, then his wet mouth engulfs them, sucking. The action sending shockwaves up your arm to the joint of your shoulder, the entire arm pliant for him to use as he wishes. This is what being with Klaus does to you. Your body instinctively wants him to use it. Once he's content with licking every drop of you off your fingers, he moves your hand from his mouth to on his shoulders, and surges up to gather you in his arms, yours moving to grab him and stabilize yourself in return. He carries you to what you assume is your bed and settles you on his naked lap, his hard cock finding shelter between your thighs. He kisses you hard and deep, focusing on his tongue greeting yours, then pushing it out of his way as he explores your mouth. You've been so good, keeping your eyes shut for this long, and tells you so as he grinds up, the head of his cock just barely brushing against where you want him most.

His hips rock up and down, up and down, tantalizing and teasing you. Your moans and keens whenever he happens to hit the mark are music to his ears, something he holds so incredibly dear to him. Even with your eyes closed, when he looks up at them he can still see the love behind them. It's an acceptance he’s been struggling to find in modern times, until you. It’s the full trust you give him with your body and mind. He remembers every scrap and detail you’ve given him since he first tucked you into bed that day in the clinic, and hoards it like treasure. The way you’ve slowly opened up to him like dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for him to follow, your willingness to work to give him what you can. You’re guarded for a lot of the reasons he’s so open. But you make the choice to be open to him, and he’s thankful. And as he shifts your bodies to thrust inside you, as your mouth falls open into an ‘o’ shape, he decides he wants to take everything you’ll give him, bask in the affection you readily shine on him, as long as you’ll shine on him. Tonight he wants to impress you.

You’re being so good, really so good. You haven’t opened your eyes once, not even to peek. You’ve just held on tight and let Klaus take the lead. It’s kind of kinky; really. Letting him be in control, losing one of your senses, blindly kissing the parts of skin you can reach, which you think is his chest and shoulder. Even as he shifts you, holding your legs now as he shifts the position a little more. It’s not uncomfortable, but never a position you’ve been in before. You can tell by the way your thigh muscles quietly burn that you’re pretzeled up in his lap, with him thrusting deeply up into you.

The way his thrusts hit inside you is delicious, each time he bottoms out earns him another moan falling from your lips against his skin, always vocal for him. This time your moans are uncontrollable, the way he controls the action is undeniably sexy and undeniably the Klaus of it all, the way he can toe the line between gentle and rough, the care he puts into every motion. He makes sure to use his entire body to get you off, and tonight he’s really trying to go above and beyond.

“Okay-“ a moan from deep in his throat, “open your eyes. Don't scream!”

The first thing you see is the blank white smoothness of the wall, specifically where it kisses the ceiling. At just above eye level. Your head has to be, what, inches from the ceiling? and. wait. What?

If you weren’t clinging to him for dear life, you certainly were now. He hisses then groans at the feeling of your nails digging into him, sure to leave shallow little crescent moon marks on the tops of his biceps. The ceilings are tall enough that Klaus can stand on top of it without his head brushing the ceiling, and you were somehow floating right up there.

Immediately Klaus sees the panic that crosses your features and shushes you, comforting, but not unlike how someone tries to calm a child or a pet.

“Hey, look! I haven’t levitated since 1963. I thought it would be a nice surprise, I can stop if you need, we can lay down,” Ever the sweet man, he’s instantly trying to make sure this is okay or if he’s crossed a line. But you shake your head no. Honestly, fucking freaky at first, but then its fucking freaky, and you are down with it. Up with it.

“No, no... I like this. Do your worst.”

The words are barely out of your mouth before he leans back, bringing you with him. Now you can sit up, and give your body a little bit more space than he had been giving it before. You figure you could ride him like this and push against the ceiling for support, which actually, was Klaus’ whole idea behind this. Great minds think alike or whatever. So as he keeps thrusting you start to shift your hips back to meet his. It’s weird not having anything below you for leverage for your legs, but maybe if he does this again you can figure something out.

Instead it’s this steady grind, him up, you down. Now its less of an honest to god fuck and more of a writhing midair to make each other come.Instead of his worst like you’d asked, its incredibly intimate in a way you usually aren’t. But that's enough for the both of you. The ceiling does wonders to help your arms press you down into his pelvis, rocking yourself up and down on him while your legs dangled. You were honestly impressed by the way he was able to keep himself so horizontal. Maybe his being trained in combat as a teen gave him core muscles you didn't realize he had. All of these thoughts of muscles are quickly swallowed by Klaus, Klaus, and nothing but the way Klaus was making you feel at this very moment.

If any one would have seen the two of you climax, which happened at the same time for once in the hundreds of times now that you'd fornicated, one would have seen from the top of your window two legs go rigid before two bodies floated down back to where human bodies should be with surprising grace, the owners of those bodies kissing everywhere one each other that they could reach. He kissed your neck, your chest, your face, long strong fingers brushing your hair soothingly as his back hit the mattress. He slides out of you unceremoniously, at which you pout at the loss of him, but only to shift and tuck you into his side as his arms still cradled you close.

“So, as lovely and thrilling as that was, why did the veil or whatever need to be thin for you to do that?”

“Well, it didn’t, but I wanted us to get in the holiday spirit a little more, like that scene in Poltergeist.” He punctuates the sentence with a kiss to your temple as he slides off the bed, and gingerly walks over to the kitchen. He’s turning on the stove, then using tongs to place a coal onto the heat.

“If I torch this for hookah, will you take this bowl with me?” as if everything that just happened was commonplace. An everyday occurrence.

All you can do is nod.

#klaus hargreeves x reader #klaus hargreeves imagine #klaus hargreeves smut #klaus hargreeves fanfic #my work #prize buck series

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gayspock · 3 years

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trek thoguths idk when i last did one babe

ok, literally- feeling rather under the weather so if this is incoherent god bless us all<3 but what i said,a few seasonsback...

i didnt rlly mind the THOUGHT of kira and odo: i was actually rlly welcome to the idea of them sort of ending up together, somehow, but then realising they rlly werent a right fit. it made sense- with bareil passing, and odo still trying to learn to navigate human relationships, and them being very close friends but somehow reading the wrong things into it, but its just.... idk they left it on the back burner way too long and that it really doesnt even make sense to do that now so this entire episode i was jsut like. :/ ok? bc its not offering much of anyhting any more to me, my love, im afraid and tht makes me go -_- bc now youvrjust ... kind of wacked them both together and i hope u arent insufferable with it, but when that happens and relationships are made between core chars with little intention then . well thats honestly the case. i mean i guess maybe theyre trying to go for like... them literally being endgame, he really has been there and she just needs to open her eyes- but god it jsut doesnt work for me..... i dotn think they make a good couple that would stay together liek tht. like i said i think they could have easily grown together much earlier on in some way and then parted ways amicably as besties but idk this just feels off to m now

furthermore with regards to shakaar and bareil... like honestly i dont mind kira having offscreen boyfriends- sorta like how sisko has kassidy , where shes more lowkey, but shes STILL a fully formed character its just shes sorta not the main focus like. im kinda fine with tht you know like.... again i feel like. hm.

i feel like as a general rule of thumb for me . if a character in question is motivated a lot or if a truly significant part of their life is defined by their dynamic with another, more minor character... then that other character does have to have some significant substance and agency. like if u want me to actively give a shit when ur char does i have to actually.... see a another char there, and not a cardboard cutout. its why i rlly rate them for fleshing out jake: lots of parent characters are just given flat, meaningless kids (or vice versa) just to endanger them or to pull on the heartstrings whenever which. really just kinda feels hollow. sisko being a father is a defining part of him- and so its really good tht they have jake fleshed out properly...

meanwhile then im just infuriated by the absolute disservice done to keiko and molly on the REGULAR when o'brien is supposed to be the family man. always presenting keiko in the way they do- its beyond unfair- and at this point in the show theyve literally forgotten abt her for seasons and shoved her elsewhere. and im like. -_- ok.

anyways my point is omg i went on a tangent. .. i think with kira, again- id be frankly FINE with bareil and shakaar being not that relevant at all, bc it really isnt sth that defines her however i WILL say tht... god on both accounts thye both just feel like lost potential. and maynwbe im sayin that bc im sorely missing the politics between ds9 and bajor? i mean- the show has grown so much over the past few seasons, so theyve jsut left it a little by the wayside which is fine but... wahrgh. i dont know i think the fact kira was dating two very politically powerful men- whilst i dont think it ever was to the detriment of her character that they werent fullyy explored, it reaaally does feel like a lost opportunity as does all of the relationships between ds9 and bajor. i guess the show just decided to go elsewhere with a lot of stuff and a lot of the stuff it is focussing on now is GOOD, like... hell i mean . even just episodewise. right now its like 2-3 mediocre eps (one of which might genuinely be. bad.) in a whole season which ... out of like 26? like so many of them are just so GOOD rn omg .... adgosndgpsdh

anyways this gor away with me.my point is idc abt kira and odo jsut dont fuckinf act stupid with it for the love of god

#egg.txt #star trek liveblog

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cordoniantrash · 5 years

Text

Once Upon Another Time

AU: In another time where the brothers Beaumont did not reach Cassandra in time, the waitress turned lady went back to New York to rebuild her old life. After finding an unexpected souvenir, she set off and joined her long lost family. Four years later, a newly divorced King of Cordonia arrives in New York in hopes of reuniting with his beloved. Instead of Cassandra, all he found was a postcard with the word Edgewater written on the back.

Hi! New series alert! So, this concept might be a little too over done, seeing as there are so many fics about this, but what the hell, I’m adding my own two cents in. This is an AU with a bit of cross-over (TRR and D&D) elements mixed in, plus my own headcanons on TRR MC’s family. Constructive criticism is very much welcome. Grammatical mistakes are my own.

Thanks to @thequeennefertipi for betaing!

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters, Pixleberry has that privilege, title for both the series and the chapter titles, plus the epigraphs are from Sara Bareilles’ discography

Pairing: Liam x MC

Warning: swearing

Words: 2755

Prologue: Manhattan

You can have Manhattan

‘Cause I can’t have you

Cordonia International Airport, four years ago.

The room was too bright. All harsh fluorescent lights and bare white walls. Its image brings to mind a hospital rather than an airport. A woman was sitting on a chair waiting for a flight to New York. A few feet away, men wearing black suits were casually leaning against a pillar. To a casual observer, nothing was amiss, not that they’d look around. Most of the people in that waiting area sat transfixed, either looking at some of the large TVs stationed around the area or else looking at their phones. It felt as though the whole room was standing still. It was, after all, the night that their crown prince was made the king.

For Cassandra Angeles, however, the world was spinning. It was barely an hour ago that she was escorted (with too much force) out of the Royal Palace and was ordered to go back to New York.

I left my flower on the bathroom counter, she thought, I should have taken it with me. Her gaze fell to the floor, eyes not seeing what was in front of her. Thoughts of what happened to the flower she’d worn in her hair tumbled through her head; did they throw my flower out? Did he? He’s probably too busy right now.

She remembered his shy smile, the way he carefully placed the flower in her hair, his sure hands helping her brush stray grass from her skirts, the way their cheeks had hurt from smiling too much. Those three words.

Cassandra breathed out a sigh. In the cool air-conditioned room, she felt numb.

A final thought lopped into the jumbled mess in her mind:

Did he really believe those photos?

An announcement blared from the speakers.

Cassie looked up as the PA announced her flight number. She could feel the stare of the two bodyguards standing a few feet away. With a sigh, she rose and took hold of her belongings. She took a deep breath, gripped her suitcase handle, and walked towards the boarding gate.

A moment later, the brothers Beaumont rushed to the waiting room only to be greeted by an empty seat and two burly bodyguards.

Back at the royal palace, the newly crowned King received a phone call. An hour later he set in motion a series of events he hoped would clear Cassandra’s name.

New York felt like a dream to Cassie. Surreal and hazy ‘round the edges. Not quite there. The city had always been home to her; now it felt unsteady. Home was somewhere else now. There had been moments when she felt that she was dreaming; that she would wake up and find herself back in her bed in Cordonia, Maxwell knocking on the door ready to drag her along to another social function.

After months and weeks spent in luxury, being back in her old life felt strange. It didn’t quite fit. Bills she had ignored for months resurfaced. Huffy landlords had to be placated. The carefully ordered world she made for herself collapsing and leaving ruins in its wake.

Amid all this chaos, Daniel became a welcome refuge. Her old friend had offered her a place to stay and a shoulder to cry on. After seeing her red-rimmed eyes and her hastily packed bags, he had mercifully kept from asking questions.

In the weeks that followed her return, Cassandra would wait every day for Liam and the others to contact her. A week passed.

Then a month.

Nothing.

Cassandra had entertained the thought of contacting them herself, but every time she tried, her last sight of the ballroom would always flash in her mind’s eye. Her heart would clench and fingers would hesitate before she’d put the thought away. In the back of her mind, a persistent whisper asked where is he now?

The start of the second month was when anger began to surface. Had they just discarded her? Was this all that she was now? A scandal to be buried and forgotten? Her stomach would roll and she’d feel sick at the thought. Was Drake right all along?

The third month came and with it, was desperation and countless what-ifs. As Cassie tried to establish order once more, placing one foot in front of the other, they would dog her very steps and whisper doubts into her mind. Cassandra had taken to visiting her grandmother’s grave when it got too much. Burying herself in the past just to escape a different set of memories.

It was after one of those visits when she received a phone call. Her heart jumped and her fingers shook. Could this be it? Her heart sank when she saw the caller id. It was from Daniel.

“Hey, Danny.”

“Cassie! You busy?”

“Was about to head back, actually. Why?”

“Well…” Daniel paused, “a package came for you. Looks fancy.”

Her heart jump-started again. Cassandra stood still at the gate of the cemetery. She swallowed. “D -- did you see an address?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah. That’s the thing. It’s from the UK.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “The what now?”

She can almost see him roll his eyes. “The UK Cassie. Focus! Anyway, I’m very curious and I got a shift in an hour, so don��t open it until I get back!”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “It’s my package dummy. I open it anytime I damn well please.”

“Ugh. You’re so British when you say that. But you’ll tell me what’s in it yeah?”

“Yeah yeah. Got to go. Bye!”

The package was just a package. Cassie had expected some grand old box with how Daniel said it was fancy. The contents were rather typical. Two tins of cookies, or biscuits as her gran would insist back then, all of them Gran Cece’s favourites, a well-knitted scarf, a nice woollen hat, an old postcard of some grand English manor and a letter.

The last one was strange.

The stationery was high end. Plain but elegant with clean blue lines and woven writing paper. A subtle scent wafted from it. Lavender. It was familiar, Cassandra mused, recalling instances in her childhood, (back when her parents were still there) when she saw similar papers clutched in her grandmother’s hands. She had been fascinated by the pretty blue of the envelopes and had asked her Gran about them. Gran smiled, small and sad, and said they came from her sister. That had been the end of it.

It was only when she grew older, after the screams and the twisted metal and the smoke and the knock that changed everything, that she realized they weren’t alone after all. Somewhere across the pond was family, and somewhere further east was her father’s whole past. On days when she got particularly lonely, she would daydream. Cassie had then decided that she would go and see the world. Meet her family wherever they are, her Gran Cece at her side. Then Gran got sick, Cassie got swamped in college and work and those dreams fell to the wayside, only to be revived by a pair of warm brown eyes and a trip to a small Mediterranean country.

After munching on some cookies, Cassie opened the letter. Who sends letters these days? She thought bemused. God, even the writing paper’s fancy.

My dearest Cassandra,

I know you might not remember me, and you might find it strange that I am only just contacting you after all these years. I’m terribly sorry about that. Your grandmother might have mentioned me from time to time, but if she hasn’t, then let me introduce myself to you now. My name is Clara Sinclaire-Harper and I’m your grandmother’s sister.

I’m sure you have questions. I’ll be more than happy to answer them although if you also want nothing to do with me and your grandmother’s past then I understand. The reason I’m writing to you now is to extend an invitation to you. I’ve heard of the unfortunate happenings a few months ago in Cordonia. My dear girl, I’m not here to bring you criticism or anything of that sort. What I’m offering you is an escape from that unfortunate incident. Should you wish it, you are more than welcome to Edgewater, our family’s estate here in England.

You are my blood and our family has been separated long enough. I understand if you are reluctant to trust a letter sent to you by some stranger. If you want to talk or to simply ask questions, attached to this letter is my personal contact information. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your reply.

Sincerely,

Aunt Clara

Cassie was still sat on the couch, cookie crumbs on her lap when Daniel came back from his shift.

“Please tell me you haven’t been stuck in that position for hours.”

Cassandra stirred. “Hhmm?”

“Earth to Cassie!” Daniel said over the sound of cupboards opening. “It’s my turn to cook tonight. What’re you in the mood for?”

“Oh. Uh. You pick Danny. I think I’m gonna lie down for a bit.” Cassie said preparing to get up.

“Nuh-uh sister. Sit the fuck down.” He makes his way to the couch. “What’s wrong?”

Cassie handed him the letter and looked out the window. She watched from the corner of her eye as Daniel’s mouth dropped in shock.

“Holy shit.”

“Tell me ‘bout it.”

“Did you know anything about this?”

“Kinda? I mean, I sorta knew we had family across the pond. And I think she helped with the funeral expenses back then, plus you’ve met Gran so…” she shrugged, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised?”

“But where has she been all these years?”

“In England you dummy,” Cassie said while rolling her eyes.

“Pft. You know what I mean.”

“I don’t know. Should I ask her that? It’s not too rude is it?”

“She’s practically inviting you to ask! Plus she owes you some kind of explanation. Grandma Cece died two years ago, where was she then?” he paused. “Are you gonna call her?”

Cassie sighed. “I mean, I gotta right? After dinner though. I need food to face this.”

It took two rings before she answered.

“You’ve reached the private line of Her Lady Harper, Countess of Edgewater. May I take a message?”

“Oh, um,” Cassie paused her lady? Countess? What the actual fuck? Silently she scrambled for the etiquette lessons that Bertrand dictated. After taking a deep breath she continued. “This is Cassandra Angeles. The erm, Countess is expecting me.” The last part sounded like a question. Cassie cringed.

“Oh, of course! Please hold for a moment.”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Cassandra fidgeted. A beat of silence then a voice.

“Hello?” The accent was smooth, polished, aristocratic and heart-achingly familiar. For a moment she remembered warm arms and chamomile tea, a tinkling laugh and a smile just for her. Then she was back in her shared apartment in busy New York talking to an aunt that she’s never met.

“Cassandra? Are you there?”

“Oh yes. Sorry ‘bout that. Um, I’m here yeah.”

“I see,” Cassie can hear a hint of amusement in the otherwise pleasant tone. “I’m so glad you decided to call. Did you like the package I sent you?”

“Oh, it’s the least I could do. I, uh really liked those. And the scarf! Was really nice.” Cassandra wanted to bang her head on the wall. Why am I so bad at small talk? Why are we doing small talk?

As if sensing her thoughts Clara (Aunt Clara? Lady Clara? Her Ladyship? What the fuck am I supposed to call her?) said, “I assume you’re calling not just to thank me for the package?”

“Erm no. I just – that is, I’m, uh, wondering if you’re really my aunt?” Why did you start with that?

Cassie heard her laugh through the phone, the sound so eerily familiar, “Oh that. Well, I’m technically your mother’s aunt. Grandaunt would be a more appropriate title, wouldn’t it? But it’s such a mouthful not to mention it makes me sound like some old withered crone! You can just call me Aunt Clara. Or even auntie! I’ve never been called auntie,” she paused, “unless you don’t want to of course.”

Cassandra cleared her throat. “I’d, um, I’d like that very much. Calling you auntie I mean.”

“Oh, that’s such a relief to hear! Now dear, unto other questions, yes?”

“So how was it?” Daniel asked, nearly buried under his pile of pillows. Cassandra plopped down and snatched the nearest pillow she could reach.

“Apparently there was some drama when Gran got pregnant with my mom. My great-granddad threw her out of the family and married her sister to their family friend so she couldn’t go after Gran. Then, get this, the guy that Auntie got married to? He just kicked the bucket, that’s why she’s suddenly contacting me right now. Crazy, huh?”

“What even is your family Cassie?”

Cassandra let out a laugh and said, “Tell me about it.”

“So does that mean you guys are actually crazy rich?”

“Heh. Here’s the thing. My Aunt Clara? She’s actually… kinda is titled?”

“What?” Daniel had bolted out his cocoon, scattering pillows across the small room.

“She’s a countess in England?”

“You’ve got blue blood, is that what you’re saying?”

“I mean, ish? Dad’s a nurse and the rest of his siblings’ in the Philippines if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, what I’m saying is that you’ve got a lady for an aunt! Does that make you her heir?”

“What? No. I’ve got cousins. They’re gonna be her heirs.”

“So, what now? Are gonna be one happy family?”

“She, uh, kinda invited me to stay with her. At the family estate. God, that sounds so weird.”

“Are you gonna accept?”

“I – I’m not sure.”

Shanghai, China

Meanwhile, amid all the glitz and glamour of an engagement tour, the fragile bond between a father and his son is torn apart by a conspiracy.

New York, the next day

Cassandra stood in front of a mirror, head bent, both of her hands flat on the bathroom counter. Her gaze pinned on two pink lines.

What do I do? Do I tell him? How? It’s gonna be a scandal! Oh, he’s gonna hate me. If he hasn’t already.

I need to get away.

I need –

She raised her head and met her eyes at the mirror. Cassie fished her phone from her purse.

“Hey, Auntie. It’s Cassie. About that offer…”

The JFK, two days later

Cassandra Angeles looked up as the PA announced her flight number. She finished typing her text to Daniel, took a deep breath and took hold of her belongings and walked towards the gates.

On the other side of the landing strip, a royal jet had just landed.

UN Headquarters, night time

King Liam of Cordonia stepped out into the balcony. The ceremonies have been finished and obligations dealt with. He was finally alone. He looked at the New York skyline. On the surface, the city looked the same as it was months ago when he first arrived in New York; Wide-eyed but resigned to his fate. Liam, however, had changed from the man he was then. The Liam that returned was even more at a loss than his past self.

I always thought I’d return here with you.

The thought of seeing her again, however angry she might be, was the only thing that kept him together all throughout the tour. Let her be angry with me if that’s what it takes. Just let me see her again.

His (their) friends have long since gone to Los Angeles in search of Tariq. For Liam, it seemed like this was the first time in this whole tour that the group had seemed united. He felt a faint flicker of hope. Maybe now that they’re here, they might find her. After all, he thought, it wouldn’t be too suspicious to run into her here.

Madeline had been suspicious but there was nothing she could do, yet a small voice in his mind added. After all, there had been no sign of Cassie, no contact, not that he’d blame her; Their friends had no inkling of where she’d gone, even though Drake had asked around her old bar and Bastien and his team yielded little results. This confession would mean little if she’s not there.

“Where had you gone?” he whispered. No one answered him.

I know its a bit wordy but if you guys wanna be tagged let me know.

#series: once upon another time #emgee tries to write #playchoices #trr #trh #liam x mc #king Liam x mc #choices: stories you play #choices trr #choices trh

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koalas-koalas-everywhere · 4 years

Text

Regarding Vulcans and autism

Since why the hell not make it a series with recognizable titles that will make it easy to look up and create links for if I ever make enough of them for it to be worth it. Disclaimer: it might be hard to understand what I’m getting at without reading the other posts since this isn’t supposed to be, like, a comprehensive analysis on how one is like the other.

Thing is, as an Aspie woman, I can see perfectly well how Vulcans expressing nothing but neutrality gets twisted in reception and interpreted as smugness/disdain, and autism (or at least Asperger’s, I am sorta more knowledgeable about one than the other) does tend to include self-awareness issues that leads to feelings of superiority and/or inferiority, and with the most recognizably “autistic” (either explicitly or through coding) being the Sheldon Coopers and the BBC Sherlock types, the assumption that anyone like them in some ways will follow in others (heck, might be why pop culture has accepted Holmes as an asshole at all, since he wasn’t that bad in the stories but he WAS smart and eccentric and every once in a while disdaindful of the people whose jobs he did better than them) is not unexpected.

The problem’s not really there because I actually have faith that we could have talked about it and raised awareness of not only this case, but also made people question why seeing a smart(er), seemingly cold but all-around just neutral characters or races made everyone raise their hackles to such a degree, assume that they’re actually mostaken about their skills (literally have seen people go “but what if Vulcans only think they’re some of the best scientists around bc they’re supercilious assholes and it’s just not true”)and wrong about life in general. Don’t get me wrong, I do get the impulse ever since Star Trek (2009), but, well, that’s just the thing, that’s where the problem is. Because we could have talked about it in fandom and be friends about it, but now there are TWO official canon sources that depict the Vulcans as intolerant, xenophobic, racist, ableist hypocrites, and not only is it harder to argue with actual canon telling you that you were right about your worst assumptions, but now you’ve seen them be actually WORSE than you first thougt, and to your faves, and in such a way that none of their positive/redeeming qualities (say, being all of that stuff sorta kinda messes up the whole IDIC thing, but it wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t doing it out out of malice, but out of ignorance and genuine misunderstanding, and if the only members who were shown to be sorta kinda decent weren’t at least partly from a different species (u.s., uh, I mean, us) and/or implied to have been influenced by a different culture) were shown. In fact, those good qualities, such as their pacifism, reverence for life, belief and respect for diversity, their curiosity and constant push for knowledge that probably wouldn’t let them just let a kid fall by the wayside becuase he was dyslexic (“there is no other wisdom, and no hope for us, but that we grow wise”), their deep attachment to their morality that’s even more important to them than to be liked by the other members of the Federation COUGH COUGH AUTISM MUCH COUGH COUGH were the first to be dropped in favour of what’s anathema to all of this, the last one in particular was turned on its head so it wasn’t that they used their logic to arrive to the most compassionate and fair choice, and it had to be logic since emotion would resist a sacrifice in a way logic won’t, making logic the compassionate choice (as they saw it, I don’t think it’s universally true, but also not universaly false), but that they were mich more willing to let people suffer and to look the other way and not be affected at all because, I don’t know, they mistook logic, which is a tool, with efficiency, which is a goal, I’d guess.

They lost the best things about them because freaking J J Abrams decided to make movies about a franchise he didn’t even like and then, even though all of it could have stayed in a parallel universe were, as many have proposed, Vulcans were worse because the Kelvin accident led people to know what Romulans looked like earlier so THEY were worse and everyone was just an asshole to each other, but then Discovery took a leaf out of his book and used his version of Vulcans and even changed old characters to fit this new version better (Sarek doesn’t disagree with Starfleet because of its bellicosity [you can’t even argue that he still disaproves of violence because he spent the worst part of the war following General Cornwell around and idk commiting mind crimes] or because he sees it as a rejection from Spock [since he says he’ll keep his distance because it’s what Spock would want and what the fuck even was that?] and he’s a cold bastard who’d take a child to a completely different culture than the one she’s used to purely for superficial beliefs and even then he’ll still prioritize his more Vulcan son, Amanda doesn’t think Vulcan’s is a hard but better way [and honestly she wouldn’t be justified to] so since she can’t be staying because of her children since they’re being mistreated, she must be doing it because of Sarek which is just so feminist, you guys, and ok, I better change topics before this becomes an “everything that’s wrong about Disco with a sidenote of everything that’s not objectively wrong but I still didn’t like”, but also, Vulcan brains can literally lobotomize themselves while dealing with trauma, don’t you think they’d take mental health seriously?) so now it’s canon in the original universe, too. Even with Enterprise (which, to be honest, I haven’t watched, I’ve only learned what was going on with Vulcans from Memory Alpha and the recounting might hace left events and/or the essence and implications of the plotline out), the tomfoolery was supposed to be Romulans infiltrating the government and twisting Surak’s teachings, all of this is supposed to be how things vecame after they got his katra back and went through the Reform.

And this got long, but the thing is: it’s not just about the Vulcans. It’s about the fact that some of the worst assumptions made about them were recognizable at least by this one Aspie as, among other things, a neurotypical’s response to an autistic trait and a long history of negative autistic coding, and now they’ve been confirmed by canon, so instead of having a nice discussion and maybe a bit of disk horse about this, we’ve gotta deal with the fact that now some people feel legitimally repelled by and resentful of Vulcans (insofar as any emotion applies to fiction) because they are now the bigots and oppressors - now it’s not a one episode race of black&white and white&black people ridiculously pointing at the obvious differences between each other, but Vulcans who have said and done bigoted things many people have been exposed to during their lives, and if they were ever willing to give them, and by extension us, a chance, now it’s ruined. I am not, of course, saying that if you hate Vulcans, especially now, you’re ableist, or that making them the Asshole^tm will turn people ableist. Just that it would have been nice to see people like me who didn’t end up justifiably despised.*

*Especially through character assassination, couldn’t you have at least made them unlikeable from the start?

#Star Trek #Vulcans #Spock #am I metaing yet?#I don’t know #it’s been bothering me #because I really love Vulcans and all of this seems like a permanent giant stain

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ofphcenixes · 5 years

Text

( ooc note about why i am the absolute worst ! )

this is such a random note i know, and admittedly i’ve spent the entire day composing this. so if it’s a little disjointed or illogical, i want to apologise in advance ! however i have included this nice gif of luke - it doesn’t have anything to do with the post, just thought it would make it more appealing dkjfgdf. admittedly this is going to be a bit of a Long Boi™, but it is kinda.... relevant if you’ve ever tried to write/plot with me, or are wondering what’s going on with nate. behold, all your answers are below ! i’ll put a tldr at the bottom plus a nifty little vine compilation for anyone that reads this but, please don’t feel pressured to do so ! ya girl is just a Mess dkfjgd.

the first thing i want to address is the elephant in the room; nathaniel ballantyne. i know a lot of people are curious about his fate, his place in the plot drop, why he vanished so much earlier than everyone else. is he actually guilty ? is he a martyr ? is he a red herring ? well, here’s the tea on mr nathaniel ballantyne:

he is on indefinite hiatus.

a lot of people probably wonder why. i will get into the specifics of the why in a little bit (when i said this was a Long Boi i was not kidding lmfao), but basically... he’s a very difficult character to write. i am not a veteran rper, and in all honesty, i can count on my hands the amount of rps i’ve been in. and there are only 5 characters i’ve ever written about and cared enough to remember. one of those is nate. for those of you that know him, he is a strange and eccentric character. entirely up his own ass at times, pretentious as hell. but he, to me, was a character i grew attached to. he was different from people i normally write, and despite how abstract he was, he was.... realistic to me. my deep rooted attachment to him is why it took me so long to see how hard it was for me to write replies with him, to understand the guilt i felt any time i plotted or wrote with him, and the fact he was so mentally taxing it would take five times as much time to write a reply for him than it would any other character. but the sad truth is, even though i only felt guilt related to him, even though i haven’t had muse for him honestly for months now, i kept him. because i love him, even if he isn’t loved by many others. and so part of the reason he is now where he is is the simple fact that i know he didn’t mesh with the group, and that’s okay ! he was a very difficult character to reply to, and now that he is gone, i feel that burden of guilt lifting already.

as for his plot related departure, the truth is i didn’t have the heart to kill him off, hence why he kinda is just out there in a weird in between space dkjfgdf. and ( as i’ll explain below ) if my life ever does even out at any point, i really want to bring him back should there be space for him. so this indefinite hiatus was made for many reasons, and it absolutely broke my heart to have to get to this point. i love nate, and i am going to miss him. and i hope that in due time, i will have the capacity to bring him back soon ! but in case i don’t, i just want everyone to know that i appreciate every second i spent writing with you all on nate, and that the time and effort people poured into him means the world to me. and i’m so, so sorry to the people who are disappointed in me for this, because i know there are probably a few. i have let so many of you down, and honestly this is a burden i am going to carry for a very long time. i am going to message people tomorrow when i am more Coherent so, i promise to do my best to atone for this kgdf.

but to segue into that a little more ( oh look, another elephant in the room ! what is this, dumbo 2: electric boogaloo ), as an admin, i know there are expectations we are supposed to meet. examples we should set. precedents we have to lay down.

and i know i have disappointed every single one of you in this rp.

from my slow ( to non-existent ) dash activity, for the anxiety that has left me unable to reply to dms or reply in the main group chat, to even the fear of godmodding in ask memes on a thursday. i know this seems perfectly illogical to most, and again, i completely understand the disappointment that so many of you feel towards me. and it’s that very disappointment which djkgdf ironically has made it harder for me to get on and be the admin that you all deserve.

the real difficult thing about all of this is, i love veritas. and for those of you who were in veritas 1, would know that this is not who i usually am. this experience is not representative of the person i want to be, nor the rper that i usually present myself as. but as to avoid going into too triggering content and bothering you all with tmi details about my life problems lmfao, please rest assured that these past few months have been. absolutely brutal for me. from almost losing my opa to illness, from ongoing family issues and expectations, being kicked out of home among a list of other shit, my mental health has been as low as gfkdgdf it has ever been in my life tbh, and it’s been the hardest thing in the world to get on. all my attentions with veritas has been in the main, as the main is a very taxing job ( as you know, we are very plot centric ! ) and i would more often than not get so worn out with being an admin, my characters fell by the wayside. not to mention, as sort of dkfgjdf touched on before, i have massive anxiety when it comes to messaging people. why ? i don’t know. especially as i have wanted to plot with all of you extensively and deeply since we opened, and reading every single app made my heart beat a little faster with joy. i am so honoured to be an admin here, and each and every one of you are such an incredible writer and person that i can’t help but feel overwhelmed and guitlty about how much i have let you all down. especially for those who sent me dms that i either forgot about or never replied to because i got so anxious, i feel so guilty every day about it all and i just wish i could go back in time and change it.

and the reality is, if i wasn’t an admin and co-creator of this group, i probably would have dropped out a long time ago, give the space to someone worthy, and i wouldn’t be filled with so much guilt. but the truth is, i am a selfish person dgdgdf. veritas has been that sort of dkfgjdf good, steady thing in my life that i looked forward to, and i couldn’t bear the thought of losing that. each and every one of you create the fabric that is this amazing atmosphere, and even though i’m less seen and heard compared to most others in this group, being part of veritas gives me a sense of belonging. and in a strange sense, a home. yes, i know i was selfish, and yes, i should have handled things much better than i did. but you all need to know from the bottom of my heart how sorry i am for everything that has transpired. ):

but i think the worst part of it all is that, my beautiful co-admin maaria, and my best friend. among letting you all down, i know i have let her down the most. and i just want to take my soapbox moment for a second here and really put light into how much maaria has done for this group. especially when my own life has been in shambles, and knowing she’s going through her own problems, she always provides for you all. she is always here, always online, always around to make you laugh or smile. she provides for all of us, and is honestly a miracle worker. i don’t think i will ever deserve her forgiveness for everything, but i hope she knows how loved she is, and i hope you all show her your sentiments too ! she is the heart of veritas, and fdjg she means the world to me, and i just really want her to know that.

but that was. a lot of emotions and obviously i haven’t talked about everything in my life ( i do not want to bore you and honestly i don’t wanna make y’all sad dkfjghdkfjgdfgdf ) none of this really means anything if things aren’t going to change. so get ready for some Bullet Point Action because here is my proposal:

nEw SkElEtOn: although nate is on hiatus and sorta just gonna, float out there in the void of time, and even though i really want to bring him back soon i don’t know if/when i will, i have felt immense guilt for hoarding his spot in this rp for someone who could be more active. hence, a solution: a new skeleton ! as i am not comfortable with nate’s skeleton being open, we have created a new skeleton with connections to all nate’s old connections, which should hit the main very soon !

new discord: this is probably unnecessary but dfkgjdfg i have a lot of anxiety about discord. when i get a new message i’m always like ??? AAH A GHOST. idk why. and because of that, i skip a message once, and now there are so many unanswered messages i have a heart attack every time i open my app. so, to prevent that, i am going to make a new discord account ! ( lilacrps #i forgot the number lmao ). i will be adding everyone as Friends and if you’ve ever sent me something i never responded to, or for some odd reason you wanna talk to me, a human mess, please know now that with a fresh slate i will ensure i can reply to you. i am not gonna let my anxiety win this time.

schedule: part of my issue is that i dfkjgdf always felt pressure to do everything all the time and then when i couldn’t, i fell under pressure. so dkfgjdf i am now having designated plotting and reply days ! so even though i hope to be far more active in both regards, i just need people to understand things won’t be instant, but i am holding myself accountable not only for myself, but for the rp - as that is what an admin should do.

this got super long and i highly doubt anyone is actually gonna read this lmao BUT. the main point is - i love every single one of you all so much, and i can’t apologise enough for how much i have let you all down. i know we all feel it, and i’m more than happy to accept my flaws and how blatant they’ve been in the past few months. so this is my pledge to every single one of you that i promise to do better (and if i don’t, you can kick me out dkjfgdf).

TLDR: I have been a terrible admin and friend, and I’m here to say sorry. With a new discord and personal plotting schedule, things are going to change.

If I can’t cure my depression, maybe I can cure yours.

#( ooc ; i have the power of god and anime on my side ! )#tw: depression #tw: mental health

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serenagaywaterford · 5 years

Text

i’m getting a little anxious about s3. and not in a good way. (don’t worry. i’m not talking about tuello/serena again.)

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

mostly cos there’s that article that confirmed basically what we already sorta knew: that june is gonna be at lawrence’s as his handmaid. (so at least no more ceremony rape which is nice.)

but forgive me... but i’m pessimistic about the fracturing of the main cast. that never really works well? and we’ve already seen how tht handles it. (not well lol)

now we have june, serena, nick, janine, and moira all in different places with divergent stories. (we know emily and nichole will join up with moira, luke, and erin. and likely sylvia and oliver. so there’s a whole canada crew.) i mean janine has never been a core player but she’s fairly important. and rita... will... likely go with the waterfords wherever they go.

but without june at the waterfords, she’s separated from serena, fred, nick, and janine all in one swoop. (but then of course the waterfords burns down so lol)

now, things i’m really not interested in which i feel are going to take up a lot of time because of this fractured cast:

- serena and fred’s failing relationship. call me biased but i honestly don’t give a shit. i don’t care about fred’s feelings in any way whatsoever. i don’t care about him being sad. or angry. or anything. i simply do not care about him. he needs to die this season. him being upset at his wife who hates him now is so dull. i love serena, i care about what is happening with her character but fred is an accessory to that, not the centre of it. i know there has to be something about him cos he’s tied to serena’s character in many ways, but i’m not here for Poor Fred’s Sad Times Manpain.

- nick being in the army or whatever. i just don’t think he’s a strong enough actor or character to carry scenes by himself. it only worked cos he was playing opposite powerhitters like moss, fiennes, and strahovski (even sweeney). without them to carry the scenes, i fear i’m gonna be bored af. even as a character, he’s just... not that interesting. sorry. the show has managed to actually strip the book character of his moderate complexity and made him into some flat love-interest cliche. who magically survives every treasonous thing he does. so for him to suddenly be a tough guy who is commanding a guardian regiment is fucking laughable. just plain batty. thus, because it’s so nonsensical, it bores me. nick, just in general, bores the fuck outta me on a good day. i dread s3 scenes with him. how nick isn’t fucking DEAD by now for all the shit he’s pulled on waterford it’s bonkers. at the very least, as an eye he should have been removed from that assignment. but i digress. yawn.

- lawrence/june stand-offs or lessons or whatever they wanna frame them as. “he’s testing her”. UGH. i mean, i don’t mind some of it (and apparently they’re gonna partner up)... but i really will be bored when every scene of her in a household is just a showdown of some kind with lawrence. quite frankly, again, maybe i’m just a misandrist but i give zero shits about lawrence either. i don’t wanna her about his pathetic man-struggles and his humanity. i don’t care about his regrets.

here’s how it goes: i do not care about the men. period. like, there’s no mystery about why men do what they do. there’s no complexity. their stories like this have been told 6,203,009,484,836,334 times already in fiction. we see them in our history books over and over. there have been a million psychological treatises on why nazi men did what they did. why lawrence went along with it, why he continued it, what his contribution was, etc. etc. --- i. do. not. care. i really don’t care about him teaching june the trolley problem or whatever the point is. if the general audience is that lacking in ethical philosophy they need to be taught this, maybe this show is too much already. i also am not here for him using this to excuse his fascism. so, basically, my issue is i don’t care about lawrence. i’ve heard his story a 100 times already. 101 isn’t gonna make it somehow mind-blowing. or even interesting to me...

- lawrence flashbacks will be the death of me, and not in a fun good way. do not show me them. do not waste my precious fucking time on this loser dickhead.

- luke... well, i do sorta care about how the refugees are doing. mostly cos the show has handled it SO BADLY THUS FAR. they made it look super easy and just. no. their canada-side of things has been shit and completely bogus unrealistic. (but then i suspect atwood is partly to blame for that lol.) but i mean, the last thing i need is another full episode dedicated to woobie luke’s woes.

- basically, i give no shits about manpain in this show. none. every second of manpain is a second that a woman’s story is sidelined.

so, my issue with the set up is that when you separate the core characters, they all become strangely boring. what is interesting is their dynamics. and the fact that unless you are june, your story is really thrown to the wayside if you’re removed from her. look how they treated moira last season. and luke. even emily to some degree (but not nearly as badly as moira). she got fuck all to really do or be. luke, even worse. (not that i’m really complaining about that tbh.) emily and janine’s colonies subplots were hack jobs just to show what a colony is.

now, fair play, i am 100% biased but the only character other than june that comes close to being able to carry a whole, complex story solo is serena. (hello 209). which, ofc, i’m not opposed to. but again, there is something missing in her narrative when she’s isolated from june for too long.

moira could, if they’d let her. but so far they’ve squandered wiley’s talents and moira’s potential.

it’s sorta exactly because of how they’ve dealt with moira that i fear what will happen when they pull apart the main cast to this degree. yes, it’s the handmaid’s tale. yes, the book was a june solo story. but the show itself has always showed itself to be about other handmaid’s and women in general, almost as much. and how all these women interact.

the thing is, the show is already treading dangerously into the ridiculous with half these characters even still being alive (june, janine, nick, emily), so it would take a shitload of magic for them to all stay together in one place. and when you pull them apart, it takes some magical deus ex machina shit to put them all back in the same place (hence that weird baptism thing when absolutely insanely they allow janine and the putnams in the same room lmao. plus june, serena, fred, aunt lydia... like yeah right. why doesn’t nick just show up too? hell, moira could stop in for a bite too. why not. nothing matters anymore.)

i dunno. maybe i’m just really cynical and pessimistic... but i don’t like the way it feels. pulling one character out is one thing. having two separate groups of different sides of the border is one thing. having every main character in their own story world is quite another. either the writers actually know what they’re doing after fucking moira & co. over last season, or it’s gonna be a rehash of that and we’re gonna be left with a lot of unsatisfactory, half-baked independent narrative arcs that don’t really weave back into each other in any sensible way.

on a completely separate level, i’m anxious cos of what they’re turning june into.

if the articles are to be believed, they’re making june become... some sort of rebel leader, loose with morality.

“You have to fight fire with fire,” Moss teases. “That’s become [June’s] journey in season 3. To fight against the people she has to fight, she has to become more like them.” Adds Miller: “We’re not doing a montage of June being radicalized — it’s 13 episodes. To see someone go through this process of becoming ruthless was a real challenge. We didn’t want to sensationalize it, or make it too morally easy, either.”

*sigh*

part of what i liked about june was that no matter how awful people were, she was always* very present and empathetic, and yeah she made stupid decisions, was selfish and narrow-minded at times, but inherently a GOOD--if flawed--character. i don’t wanna see serena 2.0. we have a serena, thanks, and she’s a bad person and the whole point is we want her to become a better person, not make june become a worse person to fit in with her lol. i don’t mind june harnessing some of that grit and power and cutthroat attitude, but serena is one of the weakest people and emulating her isn’t the best idea? am i crazy? i especially don’t need to see june turn into lawrence’s rebellious protege.

i dunno... it bothers me when every story about women ends up with “well they have to be more like men! that’s real power!!” (and i’m side-eyeing the male showrunner and male writers so fucking hard rn.) i’m not naive. i know some change is necessary, and to fight such a perverse system you have to infiltrate it, violently fight against it, and understand it. but you don’t need to become it. or again, maybe i’m just naive?

I DO NOT WANT “RUTHLESS JUNE”.

i’m sorry. i don’t. do some ruthless things, yes, that’s probably inevitable but to become a ruthless person? yikes. how has gilead not won then? it seems it has.

(*with the exception of eden. don’t even get me started...)

maybe i just need a cup of chamomile tea and to shut the fuck up until i actually watch it.

#i'm not tagging this cos... well

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thebibliomancer · 5 years

Text

50 More Days of Comics! 29/50: ElfQuest #6 (1986)

After long hiatus, I am return. Moving really threw me off my rhythm and this sorta liveblog just fell by the wayside. Possibly because the mystery box of comics ended up in a different room than I did and I apparently lack object permanence.

Soooooooooo. ElfQuest.

I do not know a thing about ElfQuest.

I read a few Xanth books back in Iwannasaaaaay ninth grade which had a character Jenny Elf who was all but explicitly said to be from the ElfQuest world.

Hahah, those books probably were not appropriate for a school library.

Also I just learned that infamous Cerebus creator David Sim illustrated an ElfQuest one-shot. The things you learn while googling a thing.

I’ve also also learned that all issues of ElfQuest pre-dating 2013 are free to read online. So that’s neat.

Anyway, ElfQuest is an indie comic. Its original twenty-issue run of magazine sized issues was republished by Marvel under their Epic imprint in 32 issues due to the stricter page count.

The Epic Comics imprint was intended for creator owned projects, so they could be printed by Marvel while letting the creators retain the rights. Apparently that requires a separate imprint? I confess I know little of the minutiae of publishing. Marvel also used Epic to print more mature material without running afoul of the Comics Code.

One such project was Steve Gerber’s Void Indigo which was called by one reviewer “a crime against humanity” due to its extreme depiction of violence. That was another fun thing I just learned.

But I’m getting off-track. Epic ElfQuest. Because Marvel was just borrowing it.

The issue “Wolfsong” starts with the Wolfrider elves sitting on top of a tall rock howling at the Moon. As they apparently do.

Lurking beneath them, Leetah of the Sun Folk is eavesdropping on them because she finds Wolfrider chief Cutter hot as hell. Also, she couldn’t really sleep because she could hear them howling all the way to her hut.

There’s the use of a word, Recognition, given importance through context, which leads me to believe that Leetah may have sex imprinted on Cutter. Or more mundanely just fallen in love with him. But elves are apparently psychic so she may have indeed sex imprinted on him.

Apparently she was together with another dude but then she sex imprinted on Cutter and Cutter then beat her other dude in some elf contest throught technicality so he left the tribe in shame so now Leetah just pines after Cutter and doesn’t give a fuck about whatshisface.

So that’s a thing.

The Wolfrider Howl is apparently about memorializing the dead in addition to keeping people from their Z’s. As this night Cutter declares the Howl is about his dead dad Bearclaw who is dead.

Bearclaw was a real “mean son of a she-wolf” apparently. That kind of trickster hero you’d love to hear about provided you weren’t being trickstered.

He stole a human baby once, for laughs, had the whole village chasing him, and then just left the baby hanging from a branch when he got bored of the jape.

A real ‘you had to be there’ kind of joke.

And he had a wife Joyleaf who was the patient to his reckless.

Anyway, there was an unnatural monster in the woods and it stalked the Wolfriders. Just out of arrow range and just quiet enough to make them doubt their senses.

And when it attacked, it killed the medic first. So you know its something crafty and dangerous.

Its name was Madcoil and its apparently what happen when a sabertooth tiger and a huge, black serpent are fighting and wild magic makes them unwillingly fuse into one creature.

Also, its psychic. Sending its backstory to the Wolfriders while it attacked them, disorienting and frightening them until they had to retreat.

But half the hunting party was missing after, including Joyleaf.

Bearclaw has an anger about his dead wife and decides that This Is Something He Has To Do Himself and sends the other Wolfriders away.

Bearclaw: “I decide what rights are yours! I am chief!! Either do as I say -- or send me to Joyleaf’s side! I don’t care which!”

Cutter though insisted he come along. That was his mom, dammit! Bearclaw concedes to the demand. Joyleaf’s brother, who also insisted he come along, can go get fucked though. He can’t come. This is a father-son bonding slash suicide mission.

Over many days, father and son track Madcoil down to its den and set up watch outside to ambush the monster when it returns.

Except when it does return, Cutter is having a nap and instead of waking him up, Bearclaw goes off to confront the monster alone.

No surprise that by the time Cutter wakes up, Bearclaw has been fatally injured and only has time to pass over his sweet sword New Moon and tell Cutter to finish the job.

At least he managed to wound Madcoil before he died a stupid, pointless, dumb death.

And then a wolf takes away Bearclaw’s body because why not.

And then another wolf howls the bring the Wolfriders to Cutter’s side because again why not.

The tribe appoints Cutter the new chief and because he’s not an idiot trying to die he asks them to help him finish off Madcoil. He has them weave strong nets out of vines and has them hide in the trees above the den.

And then he and his wolf stand in front of the entrance and try to provoke Madcoil out.

And that's a To Be Continued because ElfQuest issues were originally printed longer than Marvel standard and had to be split up when Marvel republished the stories.

So that’s an ElfQuest. Pretty interesting. And a large swathe of it is available online to read for free unillegally from the official website if it seems like your kind of thing.

I may take a look myself some time but I have night class, a book to edit, 21 more mystery comics to read, an Avengers liveblog to hopefully get back off the ground, and Guilder to frame for it.

I’m swamped!

#50 more days of comics!#ElfQuest #alas that ElfQuest was too early for its time #modern fandom loves sex imprinting as a trope #probably

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cartoonfanorwhatever · 2 years

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I posted 21.720 times in 2021

63 posts created (0%)

21657 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 343.8 posts.

I added 2.157 tags in 2021

#infinity train - 361 posts

#star wars - 288 posts

#amphibia - 274 posts

#bnha - 269 posts

#loz - 200 posts

#the owl house - 190 posts

#deltarune - 160 posts

#critical role - 141 posts

#adventure time - 141 posts

#legend of zelda - 133 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i hear a big reason they took away her shapeshifting/stretching/embiggening powers is so she isn't taking spotlight away from reed richards

My Top Posts in 2021

#FunnyDingDongdndPodcastStopmakingmecrychallenge2021

38 notes • Posted 2021-07-01 16:02:21 GMT

I refuse to apologise for the person i'll become once the Komi-san anime releases. Because i'll be 100 correct as a being

39 notes • Posted 2021-09-26 18:36:20 GMT

Yo i 100% recommend 'road 96'. I'm only 2 runs trough and i've been hooked. It's already been pullong on my heartstrings. And the messaging is biting, powerful and relevant. And it's only like 20€.

42 notes • Posted 2021-08-16 22:22:26 GMT

I kinda feel the need to post this before the finale tomorrow, but I think they seem to have rushed trough eldermourne kinda? It’s hard to put into words but since they got to Zelboldar they just started rushing trough character revelations and twist after twist and stuff. There where like at least to more arcs worth of setup done and they kinda just... resolved i the background.

Like as a small example Zirk’s quest for the all cure elixir, back when they where still searching for Zelboldar the characters talked about how they had powerful clerics that had powerful healing magic’s but that they probably did not have what he was looking for. And I thought, oh sweet Zirk will get some info to further his goal and in subsequent adventures he will get more hints and insights so that he will get his potion near the end of the show. But then they arrive in the city and boom here is exactly what he wants. I mean sure he still needs do some work for it to make it perfect and stuff but it just went a bit to smooth and fast for my liking.

and another, less specific example is ‘the capital’; a lot of plot-hooks had been set up for the third mates to go there, it’s where henry Jr. was headed, it’s where Walder’s reincarnation lived. and in general it’s been set up as a place with a lot of intrigue and suspense that is now just sorta dropped to the wayside. And some of those plot points where just dealt with in the background. (also speaking of just resolving things ‘off-screen’. They just ...whoop... saved Bookvar without any of the players being involved like it’s no big deal off screen; how crazy is that?) Like, checkov’s gun is kinda memeified now but it’s a thing for a reason. A lot of setup with no payoff is pretty unsatisfying.

The whole ‘the gods left a long time ago’ twist was awesome and felt a lot like the revelations from campaign 1′s ‘the nannerfly effect’. But that episode fell in like exactly the middle of that campaign and gave us alot of aftermath.

Here it kind of feels like if star wars had the twist reveal that Vader is Luke’s dad take place in the scene before he is taken to the throne room in episode IV. It’s like: “here is some grand new information, go deal with it here and now”

I sound a bit whiny and not super coherent probably but it’s mostly because I really like this setting and i feel like, with this campaign ending so suddenly they wasted a lot of potential. This world is so interesting and we barely got to see any of it. Murph created this awesome bloodborne-esque city continent with unique districts and stuff and added a great setup to do some “““monster of the week”””” type adventures defeating/helping put to rest ghosts and other unique and cool monsters while slowly sprinkling hints and clues to the big overarching plot sprinkled in. And than they spend like a good third or fourth of the campaign underground/in a pocket plane away from all that, and they barely got to use the awesome and fun ‘ghosthunter’ mechanic. I can think of maybe 4 times it was used or so?

Don’t get me wrong every single episode so far has been amazing and fun and i have no real individual complaints there. It’s just the grand narrative overall that i kinda feel started getting to quick in it’s pacing.

If they want to finish this story and want to move onto the next one power to them but I feel like I can at least be sad about what could have been.

tl;dr I kinda feel like Murph planned for this campaign to go on longer than it does now and he changed his mind about it not all too long ago making the pacing of the story kinda off in my eyes, and i’m bummed about it.

48 notes • Posted 2021-11-19 20:36:14 GMT

Exclusivity isn't a exciting feature, bethesda

461 notes • Posted 2021-06-13 17:08:42 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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greenishbucket · 7 years

Text

For Always

The wintery morning light is still so pale where it comes in through the window. Lardo can think of a million things they could do today alone, big and small and everything in between.

1.6k, also on ao3

Lardo wakes up for about half a minute when Ford gets out of bed at a quarter past five to shower.

“Shh, go back to sleep,” Ford says, a little husky from her own sleep, before Lardo has even got out her usual garbled oh shit dude it’s so fucking early why do you do this go back to sleep oh god.

“Mmmnuhgh,” Lardo says in reply, wriggling over to the warmth left behind where Ford had been and wrapping the blankets tighter around herself.

Ford bangs her toe against the bedside cabinet in the dark and swears loudly and efficiently, disembodied in the still dark room, and Lardo finds herself making some grossly fond face into the pillow. She just catches the beginnings of Ford’s almost-tuneful shower singing before the fact that it’s fucking five in the morning pulls her back into sleep.

Of course, once she’s been woken up once she’s not gonna be able to go back to sleep for long. Ford always makes sure to close the front door extra quiet like Lardo’s a baby she’s just got down to nap so Lardo usually misses her leaving but before long the neighbourhood wakes up and brings noise with it. When Lardo wakes up the second time, the apartment is still and cold and quiet, even for all the rumble of cars and people outside, and for a moment she feels kinda desolate.

It lasts for about a second. The side of the bed she’s migrated over to still smells like Ford’s products – and not enough like their detergent, she notes, so they’re probs going to need to change the sheets sometime soon – and it’s still early enough that she can feel the possibilities of the day stretching out before her. As much as Lardo likes to sleep in until the sun actually rises, she knows she always turns snappy and irritable when she wakes up way late to a day half gone.

Ford’s forgotten again to crack the window open to allow the shower steam out when Lardo makes it to the bathroom and the whole place, floor to walls to toilet seat, is slick with condensation. Lardo is going to make a sign and get it laminated and stick it somewhere Ford can’t miss, just so there’s more than a 20 percent chance they’ll get their deposit back if they ever want to move.

The air is shockingly cold when she pushes the stiff window open and Lardo wants to brush her teeth extra hard, plus mouthwash, and then take a deep breath in like she was a kid. When she does it sears her throat enough to make her eyes water, the mouthwash they have now a lot stronger than the for-kids version her mom had supervised her through using way back when.

She’s pretty sure the sweats and hoodie she pulls on after her own shower are both further down the line of should-this-go-in-laundry than she’d like to admit, but neither actively smell bad so Lardo figures she can stretch it out for today at least.

The kitchen is a lot colder than the humidity of the bathroom; they both forgot to pull the blinds down the night before. Again. Fuck knows what their neighbours have seen going on in their kitchen over the years.

Lardo’s just checking the apples in the fruit bowl through a series of pokes and squeezes when there’s the familiar scrabble-whine-clunk of the lock mechanism’s slow death – one day, they’re either gonna get locked out or locked in and everyone in their contacts is going to reply with nothing but a ‘told you so’, Lardo can sense it – and the sound of Ford throwing her embarrassing running fanny pack in the pile of bags.

She’s all glistening with sweat still when she comes in from the hall. Lardo appreciates most sport at a level of sorta to actual personal enjoyment, but her appreciation for Ford’s running is a heavy part aesthetic. Ford energised and keen and sporty in the still-early light in their kitchen strikes something emotional in Lardo’s chest, sure, because sometimes it’s still something to grasp that they’re really doing this, but as a concept it also falls pretty perfectly on the line between wow I wanna art her and wow I wanna make out with her. It’s a tricky balance but, in honesty, it plays a big part in how little Lardo complains about being woken up at bullshit hours three times a week, if the way Ford bounces on the balls of her feet when she talks about her running bros wasn’t enough.

“You’re up,” Ford says, pleased, like Lardo isn’t always up when she gets back, apart from the times where she only goes to sleep a little before Ford leaves.

Ford smells strongly of sweat when she leans in to fill her water bottle up in the sink and kisses Lardo on the cheek, but at least it’s the fresh and clean kind and not the stale and embedded kind that both of them swear they still catch a whiff of sometimes, hockey-kit free though their apartment may be. Lardo would try and pull Ford in for a for real kiss, because energised and keen and sporty and hot, but she’d just taken a bite of the least squishy apple and now juice is running all down her chin where Ford jostled her.

Ford wipes at the juice with her thumb for her, amused and apologetic, and says, “I’m going to shower and then we should eat.”

Lardo holds up her apple.

“Actual breakfast, I’m starving,” Ford clarifies. “Plus those apples are all mushy and grainy, I meant to cut them up for the birds the other day.”

Lardo shrugs; the apple tastes a little weird, but not too bad.

Ford’s singing isn’t as audible from the kitchen, but Lardo lets the hum of the pipes keep her company instead as she tries to piece together something filling from the remains of their grocery trip two and a bit weeks ago. It’s been a busy period, both of them in and out of the house at all kinda hours and too exhausted to do much but curl up on the couch in shared peace and quiet each evening, and groceries have fallen to the wayside pretty badly.

Breakfast manages to be toast: a savoury slice each with tomato-y paste and one slice of chicken on it for Lardo and two chicken slices for Ford because protein, and a dessert slice each with the last scraps of an apricot jam from Bitty spread as evenly as Lardo can. She puts some cereal bars by Ford’s plate to make up for it, and fills two mugs with the only herbal tea they can both agree on, feeling a mix of pride and warm, comfortable familiarity when she sets the mugs down not thirty seconds before Ford comes back from the shower.

“We need to get some groceries, huh?” she says, taking a seat and a bite of the savoury toast enthusiastically enough all the same.

“We’re all out of cereal, fruit, most vegetables, juice, almost all the bread and the milk,” Lardo confirms. “And we have a fuck load of rice but about a handful of pasta.”

“What about pancakes?” Ford asks. “We have the ingredients for those, don’t we?”

Lardo could spot the sneaky teasing look in Ford’s eye a mile off. “So it’s gotta be pancakes now? Stale chicken tomato apricot toast isn’t good enough?”

“Hey, I ran so much today already. Like, all the runs.”

“Out of your own choice,” Lardo reminds her. “You could’ve slept in with me. I can think of some fitness stuff we coulda done instead.”

Ford kicks Lardo under the table, leaves her bare ankle against Lardo’s after. “You don’t know the shame of the ‘we missed you!’ wall. I deserve pancakes and sex just for the exhaustion of having that hanging over me.”

“If you wanted pancakes and sex you shouldn’t have signed up for a running club that starts at the asscrack of dawn,” Lardo says, mock-sniffy as she can be around a mouthful of toast. “I don’t know if I’m in the mood anymore.”

Ford sighs and says, forlorn, “Where did the romance go, all that spark. They’re right, it all dries up in the end,” but her ankle is still pressed against Lardo’s and the corner of her mouth is turned up slyly, mutedly, like she can’t help it. When Lardo makes an unimpressed face at her, the smile emerges for real, her cheeks all bunched up like in the photos Ford’s mom insists on pulling out whenever they visit.

The wintery morning light is still so pale where it comes in through the window. Lardo can think of a million things they could do today alone, big and small and everything in between.

“Let’s go grocery shopping, and then we can buy something with a fuck load of sugar and split it after we have sex but before we have to get back to, like, actually doing shit,” Lardo says, the day unfolding in her mind. “How’s that for romance?”

“Be still my beating heart,” Ford says, dry, and steals the crusts of Lardo’s toast that she was gonna get to in a minute.

There’s a moment, then, where Lardo remembers time ago would have been the moment they would have shared an I love you, back when saying the words still had a sickening, jittery, breathless rush. It passes. They don’t need to, now; Lardo knows it like a bedrock truth.

Ford huffs a laugh to herself as she scrolls through her phone, mugs still half-full of still steaming tea between them on the table, and Lardo sketches out in her mind the laminated bathroom sign she’s gonna make so Ford remembers to open the damn window. She can already hear the way Ford will laugh, bright and caught out, and march back out to Lardo with the offending sign in hand, probs wrapped in the same ugly multicolored towel she’s had since undergrad, like a certainty.

#my writing #check please fic #uhhhhh #fordo

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thesportssoundoff · 7 years

Text

There was MMA this morning and SOME of it was awesome

All the results an dfunsies inside.

Lucie Pudilova UD Ji Yeon Kim

A very interesting fight kicks off the FP card. The striking of Kim took a while to get going but after about a round and a half of eating jabs and uppercuts, Lucie Pudilova wanted nothing to do with it. That led to Lucie Pudilova pushing forward to try and get her in the clinch against the fence. In the second round there was absolutely nothing doing in that regard but in the third she was able to take advantage of Kim's shaky work against the fence with some guillotine attempts. Neither were all THAT tight but in a round of no offense, those two submission attempts probably meant the difference. I've got it 29-28 Pudilova and so did the judges unanimously. Kim sort of gave the third round away and hopefully she'll learn from it. Not sure if Pudilova looked worse than her fight vs Lansberg or if Kim was just surprisingly good. Didn't show any jitters or cardio issues, just a touch of inexperience in a really tough round.

Naoki Inoue UD Carlos John de Tomas

There are certain things a fighter can do that simply can't be trained or developed in a gym setting. Naoki Inoue has a lot of that. We're talking about a guy who's lanky, swift and frenetic on the ground and on the feet. Against an opponent who missed weight, Naoki Inoue set a quick pace and cooked CJ de Tomas who had a good start to the first round. Be it inexperience or nerves, CJ de Tomas went away from his striking and pushed for a takedown that once he got, he couldn't do anything with and he was then utterly gassed out. It didn't help that Inoue's smooth no effort offense and grappling just wore him down and left him completely gassed. Good fight for both guys but Inoue is clearly the one to watch going forward. You can refine the tool set but the physical gifts and genuine talent are readily apparent. No idea what weight class de Tomas is going to have to fight at but there were plenty of moments where it looked like he had SOMETHING there.

Russell Doane TKO1 Kwan Ho Kwak

Hawaii is on a fuckin' STREAK fellas! Russell Doane is normally at the very least a really exciting fighter but he came out REALLY slow. He was just getting chewed up with leg kicks and combinations at range and then it was like a light switched on for him. He FIRED in a big left hand down the middle, Kwak was in the "I'm stung but not hurt" defense and Doane just poured it on him! Pressured Kwak, hit him with a knee down the pipe, got him against the fence the way Brett Johns did and then UNLEASHED hooks and straights until Kwak broke. Folded him up on the landing and then just poured it on until Steve Pearceval jumped in there. Doane is SUCH a good fighter that his problems have been so perplexing. Some of it is down to just poor fight IQ but man when he's committed, he's SO good. This is not a fighter who should be on the prelims, this is a fighter who should be somewhere in the top 15 of the division.

Li Jingliang UD Frank Camacho

Li Jingliang is a hero of the masses. End of discussion. What else can I say? Dude got bounced around like a human pinball in the first round then settled down and won the next two rounds by way of his versatility and cardio. Camacho was timing him up with overhand rights so Li Jingliang decided to go to leg kicks over and over and over until Camacho had no burst and snap in his punches. That plus the short notice aspect of the fight meant that Camacho had nothing in the third round. Watching Li Jingliang mix it up with all kinds of shots and just push forward and give a super tough dude all kinds of problems on the feet was really fun. Li Jingliang has won three in a row although a lot of those have come vs so-so competition. Still he's improving and I can absolutely see him and Wang Guan getting big pushes if they try to break into China again. Dan Hardy nailed it; Frank Camacho would probably be a serious type of fighter at 165 lbs if that weight class ever takes a step forward.

Ulka Sasaki 2nd round RNC sub Justin Scoggins

Mother of God what an epic fail from Justin Scoggins. Scoggins drops Sasaki twice, slammed him on his head at one point, was getting swamped on the ground and then Scoggins slips up once. All it takes is one as Scoggins gives up his back, gives up back mount and gets submitted with a RNC in the second round. Sasaki is a really good fighter so credit to him for pulling it off but Scoggins was dominating the fight and then just slipped up WHICH is sort of a pattern developing with Scoggins. Did the same vs Moraga and Pedro Munhoz. Ooof goodness. I'm curious to see how Ulka progresses at 125 lbs (or 135 lbs if 125 goes by the wayside).

Alex Caceres 2nd round TKO Rolando Dy

Kind of a bummer I suppose how it ended. Alex Caceres lands a perfect left hand which bonks Dy right on the eye and once that happened, Dy simply couldn't see out of the eye. The doctor thought he was fine but the ref said (rightfully) that Dy was fighting with one eye closed. I really love Caceres' offense when he feels like he can just march forward unmolested. He threw all kinds of steam and stank on Rolando Dy but Dy was starting to rally in the second round. Not much else you can say about the fight. Was a fine prelim filler fight with Caceres being a total wild man. Would like to see Dy back and I figure he'll get a shot in their Japan or the rumored November/December Korea card.

Walt Harris 1st round KO Cyril Asker

I mean easy peasy enough. Harris landed a few body shots, was buckled once on a counter club shot and then dropped Asker with two quickies. Ground and pound followed and game over! Harris should realistically be on a four fight winning streak because I think most people thought he beat Shamil Abdurahimov. Walt Harris feels like the sort of dude people have been trumpeting as a potential top 15 HW for forever now. Dude is improving and with his size, power and athletic ability, I can see him at least earning the opportunity to get some bigger fights. Harris is a fight finisher at the very least. I'd love to see Harris get a "big" name like whatever remains of Gabriel Gonzaga.

John Tuck 1st round sub over Takanori Gomi

The immediate winner is John Tuck but the LONG TERM winner is Rizin because Gomi's done and dusted on an elite level. Tuck blasted him to the body and hurt him badly, opening the door for Tuck to just beat the shit out of him. Tuck then just pounded on Gomi until the RNC opened up and game over! Tuck gets a big name and a win that sorta kinda doesn't do anything for him beyond that. Tuck's a fun enough fighter though and valuable as a mid card type act on these Asia cards so I'm fine with this.

Rafael Dos Anjos decisions Tarec Saffiedine

Good fight that after a string of finishes probably felt 30 minutes long for most people. RDA at 170 doesn't seem overly small for the weight class. Dos Anjos has come such a long way in such a short period of time and watching him pummel dudes with body shots and stinging knees is always refreshing. Saffiedine was the right matchup for him in his 170 lb debut because he's not the sort of guy who would really push a pace and despite being "bigger" than RDA, he's not going to try to outwrestle him. RDA fought a calm, composed and confident fight and I enjoyed watching him do work. Tarec Saffiedine was in trouble after the first round when his corner was seemingly chewing him out for zoning out. Saffiedine should be so, so much better than he is.

RDA might be a dude who would benefit from a 175 lbs because apparently he still cuts from like 200 lbs so dude's gotta change SOMETHING up.

Colby Covinvton decisions Dong Hyun Kim

Man....I admittedly fell asleep and had to re-watch this one. Covington is just one of those guys I can't get behind and it's frustrating because he's a very good striker when he wants to be. Instead he's just sort of one of those old school lay and pray position before submission guys. Just not for me and wrestling doesn't HAVE to be boring. Watch Kamaru Usman destroy guys on the ground with ground and pound and sub attempts. Cripes.

Marcin Tybura decisions Andrei Arlovski

Back to back stinkers. Not the sort of fight you want to have if you're Tybura. Marcin Tybura did what he had to do but you just want more.

Holly Holm TKO3 Bethe Correia

I'm reminded of the aftermath from Cro Cop vs Frank Mir. A great finish doesn't make up for a shitty fight but I think we all expected a shitty fight. Holm is a fighter who excels in highlight reels which can neglect the amount of point fighting/nothing she likes to do. In the end though nobody is going to remember this years from now, they'll just remember the headkick finish.

#MMA #ranting #Singapore #UFC #Holm #Correia

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as-be-low · 7 years

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Time for more headcanons lol

So I recently posted this as part of a reply to a comment on AO3 re: how Stanley and Carla got back together and had Stella, and it was so long it took two posts to completely respond. I figured it’d make sense to post it here, too, with the added benefit of proper formatting and a little more expounding where I forgot.

So after Ford managed to get Stanley back from the portal, things between them were still… uncomfortable, to say the least. He left with the understanding that Ford had brought him back as a sense of obligation, not because he actually truly wanted anything to do with Stan (Bill might’ve had a hand in that. A little tiny evil hand covered in bad feelings accelerant.*) So when Ford showed Stan the Stanleymobile, which he’d maintained and improved upon while he was missing, Stanley took it as a “Here’s your car, kindly get the fuck out.” When Stanley was 17, he drove off with an “I’ll show you! I’ll prove my worth!” mentality. This time, Stanley left with “Fuck it, if my family won’t have me, I’ll be my own family of one. All I gotta do is figure out what’s best for Stan.” as his new mantra. He left and got reckless in the sense that he did what he wanted for himself, and started meandering across the states he hadn’t been banned from yet.

As for Carla, I imagine that after she got all “hippiefied” by Thistle Downe (or hypnotized, as Stan put it, though I’m sure that was just him being salty about everything), she ended up leaving New Jersey and becoming a full-on hippie, and would have joined a commune somewhere down the line. Thistle Downe probably fell by the wayside somewhere along the way, but I like to think that Carla actually felt attuned to some of the ideals of hippie culture, and would have found herself a little commune out near San Francisco that she clicked with. I figure that at some point after returning from the wrong side of the portal, Stan would’ve bumped into her while traipsing through California (as one of the few states he hadn’t gotten banned from). They used to be So Close™ and they were together for quite a while before they broke up, and paired with the surprise of running back into each other, I doubt it took too much for them to start back to talking, then hanging out, then Hanging Out™, especially if Carla was still living as a part of a commune. He’d follow her back and tag along as a new member of the group. It was infinitely more desirable than living out of his car with the occasional motel interlude (or in whatever nook or cranny he could eke out back on the other side), plus it had the Big Added Benefit of Carla’s presence.

Stan had gotten reckless in living for himself and doing things he wanted without the ultimate endgame of currying favor to get back in his family’s good graces, which he honestly hadn’t ever done, and was sorta drunk on the feeling he’d superimposed over the concept so he was a lot more open to the free spirit, kinda hedonistic vibes, and so he and Carla spent quite a bit of time together, just being and doing and he loved every minute of it. He was doing well in the co-operative. He fit in well with the rest of the commune. Things felt right.

Carla was his first love, and he fell hard, so naturally he’d kinda daydreamed about that whole white-picket-fence-and-two-and-a-half-kids-and-a-dog thing and all, and when he ran back into her it brought all those hopes back. He's such a family oriented person, and he'd not had a family in so long, it was a wild dream of his to come home at the end of every day to Carla and whatever children they'd have (though that wasn’t something he’d say it out loud to her. They weren’t at that point yet). So when Carla comes to him after the better part of a year of them being together and announces that she doesn’t want to continue their relationship, Stanley is understandably distraught. She lets slip that she’s pregnant, and Stan’s initial reaction is something akin to "oh my god it's actually happening I can't believe something this good is happening to me," only to have it torn away moments later, when the realization sets in that “she doesn't want me or a child with me I am not enough.”

It didn’t stop him from proposing on the spot. That of course led to an argument (though no screaming, mostly just tears and fears on both sides). She was happy with Stan and they were happy together, but a pregnancy was too much for her and made her hit the brakes on the whole relationship. The thought of motherhood terrified Carla. It’s not something she was prepared or ready for, while Stan had been daydreaming about something like this for a while now. The way his life was set up, he didn’t think he’d find anyone he’d feel that same way about. After the incident with his short-lived marriage with Marilyn, he knew the chances of him settling down with someone were slim. But this baby was his and he knew he wasn’t going to get another chance at anything this close to normalcy, and he wanted to make it work.

He begged. His heart hurt more than his pride ever could, and so he begged. She couldn’t handle the prospect of being a parent, though it was the one thing that Stan truly wanted, and so she proposed a compromise. She’d give him the child, on the condition that she wouldn’t have anything to do with raising it. Stanley accepted. It hurt, but he accepted, and started stretching himself thin, putting all of his energy into working to save up for the baby and keep up with his commune duties at the same time. He still needed a place to stay and he still needed to stay close to Carla, in the meantime.

The compromise didn't make either of them truly happy, but that's compromise for you. Taking the child and leaving Carla hurt, but knowing that he could've been a parent but wouldn't get that opportunity would have cut Stanley deep. Carla didn't want that for him. Raising a child that she wasn't emotionally available or equipped to care for would have hurt both Carla and the baby, and Stanley didn't want that for either of them. So they settled. (This part I added in now because I forgot to do it before whoops)

I like to think that once Stan had Stella, things were still pretty decent for a little while (he didn’t have to, but he distanced himself from the commune; it was just too painful to stay there, knowing full well Carla didn’t want him or their child), but life has that way of creeping up behind you while you’re already in a chokehold and then punching you in the back of the neck.

*Ford did feel obliged to get Stan out. He hurt him. He hurt him and tossed him through a portal into a hellscape he couldn't properly fathom, how was Stanley supposed to know what was going on? He was the last person Ford could have trusted to help him, and he wounded him and threw him right into the pit of snakes he was trying to cover. He had to get him out. That was his brother. He might have ruined his chances of success and shattered his dreams, but he couldn't sentence him to death because of it. He'd ruined Stanford's life and his own, but that didn't mean Ford wanted him to die.

#screams into the void #thcm snippets #fanfiction meta #I think about this a lot #but why tho

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