#and she really did ask around

[softquietsteadylove]

Fo the mermaid au!

Thena asking gil how human reproduction works. Now that she knows what "the thing" in his pants is for, she wants to know what exactly is between her legs and why it feels so funny.

"Gil?"

Gil groaned, turning over in bed--trying to turn over.

"Gil!"

He blinked, finding a curtain of blonde hair around him as he stared up at the light of his life. He sighed, "yes, Angelfish?"

"I need to ask you something."

Light of his life, he reminded himself; he rubbed his eyes, "can it not wait until morning?"

"No," she whispered, still perched over him like a predator waiting to pounce. She waited until he was done rubbing his eyes to ask, "how does human reproduction work?"

"What?!"

She winced, his sudden outburst and the volume of it hurting her much more delicate senses.

"Sorry, sorry," he rushed, holding his hands over her ears and then her cheeks. She frowned at him, "I'm sorry, Thena. I just...didn't expect that."

"Well?" she implored, looking at him with those eyes. He had never really gotten to see them like this, but they had a faint, almost gentle glow to them in the dark.

He sighed again; it wasn't as if this was out of nowhere. But had he been doing his very best to avoid it for as long as possible?--yes. "What makes you ask that, sweetheart?"

Thena didn't move off of him, but did lean back from all fours to sitting on him. "I...was thinking."

Gil's hair stood on end.

"Of," she looked down at his chest, her finger moving through his chest hair idly. "When we were on the couch."

Gil blushed, but did his best not to rush, nor discourage her. He nodded, "okay."

"I have never taken a mate," she admitted quietly. She had said so before, but a veneer of vulnerability came with this statement, as well as what followed, "but I find myself...curious."

"Right," Gil sighed, looking up at his ceiling for a second, trying to think of how to approach the delicate subject.

"I know how it works for mers," Thena pressed on, leaning closer to his face again. "I have asked, I know what happens when one takes a mate, especially for reproductive purposes. But I have to imagine it's very different for humans."

"Very different," Gil murmured, mostly as he tried to think of how to retain his dignity and also answer her question honestly.

Like Thena said, she was a grown woman, and she wasn't so naive about mating and its many forms. She knew approximately how it worked. And as embarrassed as he was, he had no desire to lie to her or tell her some bullshit birds and the bees nonsense.

He adjusted himself on the bed, wrapping his arms around her. He could tell she had been asleep in the tub because her skin was cooler to the touch than normal. Sometimes it did make him wonder how she managed to get out of water so silently, though.

"So, the, uh," Gil blushed, grateful for the dark and the angle they were in allowing him to avoid her eyes. "The part of me-"

"The penis?"

"That," he sighed. It was better than 'dick'., he supposed. "It becomes engorged with blood. That's what makes it hard."

"And this happens during arousal," Thena continued. If anything, how straightforward she was did actually help to lessen the embarrassment of things. It did quite the opposite of set the mood, currently.

"Usually," Gil added. "Sometimes it happens with a surplus of testosterone. So, like, when I wake up from sleeping, sometimes..."

Thena nodded, connecting the metaphorical dots. She looked down at him again, "does this happen after every sleep?"

"No, not every sleep." Thank the seven seas for that one. "Just sometimes. Sometimes it just gets stimulated from light touches and it reacts. It's kind of...delicate."

"I see." And she had seen--she did see.

Gil shifted under her, trying to keep his mind out of the gutter and on the task at hand. "When the act of intercourse ends and the male reaches climax, he...ejaculates."

Thena tilted her head a few times, which was actually quite familiar and comforting in the moment. "The white stuff-"

"The white stuff," Gil confirmed, unwilling to let her go further with that statement. "For procreation it's done, um, in the-"

"Birth canal."

"Yep, yeah, yes," he confirmed multiple times, pushing all other thoughts from his head but the words themselves. He looked at her again, still charmed by the faint glow of green standing out in the faint moonlight. He put his hand to her cheek, "anything else, Angelfish?"

"Well..."

Gil's eyes strained in the low light as colour rose in her cheeks. She looked down at his bare chest again, and then the blanket which separated his skin from hers. She was wearing his shirt, at least; that was the rule. If she was wearing her legs, a shirt was required.

"I feel," she started and paused still, shifting her weight on top of him. Her knees squeezed against his ribs faintly.

Gil's heart picked up speed.

"Different."

He swallowed, trying to keep his eyes on hers, and on what she was saying, and not on the beautiful body seated on top of him. He nodded, "o-okay. What feels, uh...different?"

Thena wasn't really that shy when it came to most things. She didn't have the same sense of shame about bodies and their functions that humans did. Seeing her sheepish or embarrassed usually indicated something more personal to her.

Thena gulped as well, holding his eyes as her hips pressed into his, "h-here."

Gil held in a groan as she grinded against him through the blanket. "W-What feels different there, Angelfish?"

She looked away from him again, but her hips didn't stop. She braced herself with her hands again, nails digging into the bed on either side of him. "I don't know. But it feels...urgent."

Gil gulped. He had been thinking about this since that day on the couch. He had thought about it in passing before, of course, but always scolded himself. He had no business impressing anything onto Thena if she didn't bring it up on her own.

He didn't even know she had a...a functioning...well, clearly she did.

Gil let out a moan as Thena continued to move above him, both of them seeking friction against what separated them. He gripped her hips, "Cuddlefish, slow down."

"But," she whimpered, biting her lip but obeying. She looked down at him, "I want-"

Gil gripped her hips in his hands, under the shirt. He gulped as a certain scent reached his nose. He looked up at her, "Thena, do you want this?"

She nodded, diving down to kiss him. She pressed her hips against his again, gasping as the shape of him became more clear through the blanket. "Yes!"

Gil groaned, all but humping her through his blanket like a teenager dry rubbing for the first time. But it felt damn good for something so simple. And everything with Thena felt good.

Thena pulled his shirt off over her head, "my skin burns."

Under any other circumstance, he would be alarmed. But he knew exactly what he meant, this time. "It's okay."

Thena kissed him deeper, her tongue looking for more. Her tongue was a little more pointed and a little longer than his, actually. Now that he could feel it so acutely, that was to say.

Gil sighed as he felt her breasts press against his chest. The more their hips moved, the more ruffled it became. He groaned into her mouth as her breasts met his bare chest.

"Gil," she whimpered at the new sensation. She ran her fingers through his hair, kissing him feverishly. "What is that?"

"Here," he grunted, pulling her other hand off his neck and guiding it to her breast for her. "Touch that."

Thena whined as she did. "W-What-"

"Good?" he whispered in the dark, unable to see anything but the vague shape of her as they moved so closely entwined.

"Gil," she whined louder, moving against him more urgently. "Something--I-I want-"

Gil gripped her buttocks - surprisingly plump and also firm - in his hands, driving them together more firmly.

"Gil!"

Gil groaned as she writhed against him, coming from the sheer friction and stimulation. He wasn't quite there but goddamn did he feel good. He gasped for breath, as did Thena. She almost sounded a little wheezy, but he was pretty sure breathing hard with only her lungs made her miss her gills. "Angelfish?"

"Hm?" she purred, her face pressed into his chest.

"You good?" he whispered, pulling her off of the blanket on top of him and rolling them over. He manoeuvred the blanket around her completely limp weight beside him until she was also tucked in. "Thena?"

"Hm," she responded again, blinking those eyes at him. It was incredible to think that he would be able to tell if she was looking at him or not, even in the darkest dark.

"Angelfish, how do you feel?" he asked softly, looking for any signs of distress, or being overwhelmed, overstimulated. This was just as important a first as any of her other firsts as a human.

Thena shimmied over to him, kissing him languidly under the blanket. She really could purr, and it reverberated through him gently as their lips met. "That was nice."

He looked at her again, "nice?"

"Nice," she conceded, shrugging one of her shoulders. Some of her scales were popping up on her shoulders, and he was delighted to think that her concentration in the midst of things had...slipped.

Her finger traced around his nipple, which she had just discovered did actually have a purpose.

"I could...continue."

[aardvaark]

im so glad that we never get a clear picture of sophie’s background in leverage & i hope we never do. however i also really like making up various, often conflicting backstories for her in my head. perhaps they’re all backstories for an alias of hers, ones she laid to rest back in season two.

[ineed-to-sleep]

*me immediately after going through a terrifying and traumatic experience* haha yeah I guess it was rough but I'm fine now like I'm totally chill. It was kinda funny actually if you think about it

[cerealbishh]

"You really care about me."

"Yeah. I really, really care about you."

"I- I really care about you too."

"No, but... I like, really, really care about you."

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Name twinsies!

(Based on the community consensus about LWJ's grey horse's name)

[petrichorium]

pluvi begging you to expand on gojo not wanting what happened to his mother to happen to you 🙏

warnings: it’s all a dream so nothing is real aside from the flashback stuff but pregnancy as horror, (sewing) needles, implied gore/eye trauma, implied child harm, gojo is messed up yo!!! and its bc of his mama!!!

he dreams about her.

it’s an odd thing, really. gojo isn’t much of a dreamer—not much of a sleeper, all things considered, but it’s difficult not to give in when you drag him to bed and curl up in his arms. the soft rise and fall of your chest, the steady thump of your heart, the sound of your breath; it soothes him into slumber.

and he dreams about her. she was always young. he’s older now than she ever got to be. frail, thin; borderline skeletal, robes hanging from her body like webbing. she sits in a chair facing a window, swathed in moonlight, the silver of her embroidery needle glinting with each stab. her face is veiled. her stomach is swollen with child.

she doesn’t turn to him, but she beckons without noise. his feet take him easily to her, and he kneels at her side as she sets aside the embroidery hoop to let him place his head on her knees.

her hand is cold as it threads through his hair. it’s gentle, at first. then harsher a moment later. she grips firm, tugs him up by those electric white threads, stares down at him through all that elaborate lace.

he imagines she’s weeping beneath it. his mother never wept before him, but she was pretty in the aftermath, eyes puffy and pink and shining. they were a cold kind of loving when they regarded him. she must have been beautiful once, elegant and lithe and willowy, cruel like the heartless sea and sharp like a brilliant diamond, but whatever was there is long gone. he thinks all sons must empty their mothers, bleed them dry from within, because his was always a shell.

she trails her hand down the side of his face, and he turns into the palm and closes his eyes, and she is silent as she sets down her embroidery to lift her veil. she is silent and hollow and eidolic as her fingers brush down his jaw and tilt his head up to look at her.

but it’s your face that he sees when he opens his eyes.

it’s your hand against his cheek, your eyes pink and puffy and pretty, your stomach bulging by his own doing. it’s your fingers that pluck up the needle, still attached to a thread of brilliant cerulean, and raise it to his eye.

his mother never was able to pierce him with that needle. she stopped herself, each and every time, dropping it and tugging him close in shame. she never doted, never was kind, but she never did manage to harm him.

you do. he lets you. it’s only fair. whatever thing is in your stomach can’t be human—whether god or demon what does it matter, at the end of the day—and didn’t he put it in you himself? if his mother never got the satisfaction of spilling his blood, shouldn’t you?

but he wakes just as the tip pierces his iris, and you hold him in your lap, eyes wide with concern and not puffy from weeping, and you hold no child within you. your hands thread through his hair and they’re warm, your lips plush when you bend to press a kiss to his brow.

he turns inward to press his face into your (empty, blissfully vacant) abdomen. the wetness he leaves there, falling from his so very coveted eyes, is colorless.

he thinks it ought to be brilliant crimson.

[sea-jello]

hong kong miku,,,

[everysongineverykey]

i love how unfatherly crowley and aziraphale both are when it comes down to it. sure aziraphale is more than willing to give the young people in his life help and advice and be their friend but he and crowley spent six years (eleven in the book) practically raising a kid (you just know his parents weren't around that often) and by the end they didn't even like him. crowley even suggested they just fucking kill him. he turned three kids into lizards for annoying him right after he destroyed their house. like it was that or kill them obviously but he did NOT hesitate with the newts. that's so funny to me. they're just inherently disinclined to parenthood. we need more characters like them actually

[manglam-marfach]

dyke!Chilaios has me understanding breeding kink all of a sudden

[necrotic-nephilim]

I started in DC by reading fanfics, but as I began to read actual comics, I started to be unable to read the actual fanfic that got me into it in the first place because it's so out of character.

But there are still some stories that I love to read because I love the found family trope so much, even if it isn't really accurate to the source material.

As a comics purist (sometimes), are there tropes that you like enough that you'll still enjoy a fic even if it's not accurate to canon?

oh my god this is SUCH a fun question. bc while i started with the comics, there were certain characters and/or character dynamics where i was exposed to the fanon before the canon (just bc it's hard to read everything when you start out just to read some fanfic) and so i've definitely experienced the fanon to canon transition. (*especially* with Jason Todd. i had only read 80s/90s stuff where he was already dead or the New-52 bc that was on-going when i got into comics and man. the fanon misunderstandings i had about him before i got frustrated and sat down to read all his pre-Flashpoint stuff were absolutely bonkers.) and aside from that, whilst i tend to prefer canon over fanon, i'm not past giving fanon its flowers for occasionally having really interesting insights. occasionally. so some of my fanon "guilty pleasure" tropes would probably be

Morally Grey Tim Drake - this is one where if you try to back it up with canon, i *will* get salty about it. of everyone in the Batfam aside from maybe Bruce and Cass, Tim has the *most* black and white morals. often his internal conflicts are routed in such an inability to compromise his moral views and it can cause him to clash with other characters. he's *very* stiff and rigid in his beliefs and is *rare* to compromise in even the smallest ways. i mean, DC has repeatedly used Tim Drake of Tomorrow/Savior/Gun Batman!Tim for a reason. it's to demonstrate that of everyone, Tim *cannot* have his morals compromised. there's no grey area for him. he's zero or a hundred, so if he tips over the edge of "too far" he tips *all the way*, and doing so is one of his worst fears, how he could go "too far" if he let himself. a couple panels out of context from Red Robin (2009) (which was a grief spiral for Tim to begin with) don't change that. now that said. if it's done *right*, i sort of love Tim being morally grey in fanfic. it takes a specific flavor for me, and it's incredibly important to include that mental spiral along with it, of him struggling to justify it. i don't have any interest in "Tim Drake is loosy goosy with Bruce's morals and has the highest kill count and no one knows teehee" bc it doesn't play with the interesting parts of making Tim morally grey, which are fracturing his psyche. but all in all, i think it's fun to put Tim in a morally grey area and i will read it in fanfic and i enjoy writing it a lot

Joker Junior!Tim Drake - i've not written it on this account (yet) but on my main ao3 account one of my biggest fics surrounds this concept. this is one of those "well *technically* it's canon but only in a specific very divorced from the comics universe and would not work at all in the main timeline" so, i categorize it as fanon in that 95% of fics exploring the concept are not doing so within the Batman Beyond universe, but the main timeline. i just love it. I'll take any excuse to whump Tim, but this concept is so fun. psychologically breaking Tim will always be my favorite pastime. there are so many ways to explore the long-term effects this could have on him, how it could affect the Batfam. i'm not a fan of it being used as a "gotcha" to Jason or Babs' trauma with the Joker to paint Tim as the Ultimate Victim, but it is fun to see how their relationships would be affected by being mutual victims of him. (i have a vague JayTim idea where TIm fully retires from being Robin after being Joker Junior and killing the Joker, making Steph Robin for most of his typical Robin era and Jason still tracks him down out of curiosity bc he wants to know what happened and all. very underbaked but i've got thoughts.)

Renegade/Apprentice of Slade!Dick Grayson - this is another one where yes, this happened *sort of* in canon, but i highly doubt most people writing Renegate!Dick have read or are actually pulling from Nightwing: Renegade. it's just an exploration fo the concept fo Dick being Slade's apprentice and i will always eat it up in any capacity. whether Dick grows up with Slade from a young age, or chooses Slade for whatever reason later in life. it's not anything that works in canon bc it compromises Dick morally (similar to the above with Tim) and therefore will always come across incredibly fanon in most fics. but i can't say i don't enjoy it. it's fun to make Dick a little morally fucked up and see what you can make him under Slade's tutelage.

Jason & Damian Meeting in the League -there's no world where i believe this could work in the canon comics. (maybe in the Young Justice cartoon i suppose, but even then i think it's iffy) i would go as far to say it's wildly unrealistic. i don't see a world where Ra's would let Jason anywhere *near* Damian, bc Jason was Talia's pet project that he didn't approve of. that all said, there's something very interesting about how they *could've* met and them potentially bonding during that timeframe. them being somewhat brotherly during this time because Jason sees Bruce in Damian and sort of latches onto the kid and Damian is full of wonder hearing real stories about Batman and Robin, then that getting violently ripped away by Jason leaving the League is fun to me. it's fun how that could affect them within the Batfam and all. it's super fanon to me, but i do not care. i will eat it up

Bad Dad Clark Kent/Good Dad Lex Luthor - i will admit as a late, i've been less and less kind to this particular fanon bc of everything i've argued with people about, *this* one seems the most pervasive as misunderstood fanon. i don't mind when fanon exists, my gripe is when ppl try to claim it's canon. and the *arguments* i've had over this with people who can never seem to cite an actual comic are... frustrating. but that said, i think there is something fun to this strictly in fanon. the duality of who you expect to accept Kon and who you expect to hurt him being flipped is just sort of fun for the occasional guilty pleasure fic. it can make Kon's internal conflict a bit more interesting. the same goes for the Jon favoritism from Clark, it's not a canon thing (and i rlly wish ppl understood how complicated the timeline of Kon and Jon is and any distance from Clark toward Kon isn't malice, it's that Kon is from a timeline that Clark does not remember in the current canon so Clark just straight up doesn't know the poor kid.) but it's sort of fun to give Kon that complex of being overlooked and forgotten sometimes. making Kon just a *bit* more Luthor than Kent will *always* appeal to me in fanfic, especially if he *knows* it's wrong but craves approval from anyone who will give it.

Good Dad Bruce Wayne - i'll die on the hill Bruce is canonically a shitty father. maybe not to the extreme some people write him as, but he's not great at it. that said, i enjoy it in fanfiction. sometimes, i just want silly fluff or hurt/comfort where Bruce finally gets it right and manages to comfort whatever Batkid is in the fic. one of my favorite fics of all time is hinged on Bruce being a good dad, so i think it's just fun to explore how good the relationships *could* be, if Bruce was slightly less of an asshole. i usually prefer him as an asshole, but there are times i want low stakes nonsense.

Gotham Rogues Having Soft Spots for Robin(s) - just about every Rogue in Gotham has done something absolutely irredeemable, and most of them don't like or care about anyone in the Batfamily. but if there's a fic where one of the Robins inexplicably is sort of close with a Rogue and they have a cute silly relationship out of it? I'll eat it up i fear. Steph and the Riddler are besties? I'll believe it. Tim and Scarecrow get along pretty well? give me ten of these. Rogues protecting Robins just hits a spot. the unexpected nature of the relationship, as well as the fact they see each other regularly, can make a lot of good fodder.

[akkivee]

What are your thoghts on Shadamy?

this is such a crazy timed ask actually lmao i’ve been doodling them whenever i have the energy for it they are *falls to my knees* so much lmao

there’s a thread on twitter about their interactions in team sonic racing that i revisit whenever i need a serotonin shot lol that exposes how big of a soft spot shadow has for amy like it’s the way!!!!! he really wants her to rely on him and how proud he is whenever she accomplishes something with his assistance!!!!! like????? i mean????

something that’s been a little lost in translation over the years with amy’s character is that she wants to be an independent and wonderful lady and i’m hesitant to say we know what that really looks like for her, but what’s more important here is that shadow already acknowledges her as such based on whenever he’s teasing her in the game and like……. it’s just a refreshing dynamic for her to have when she’s been shown to struggle making a place for herself in sonic’s posse lol

[tennessoui]

In the assigned married fic, has Anakin even begun to process Padme saying that both of them will be moving to Naboo together? Like, they spoke earlier in the chapter about Anakin moving in with her on Coruscant, but Obi-Wan apparently spilled the beans about a much more permanent relocation to Naboo, and I am looking forward to Anakin's response to that, once he gets through processing everything else and remembers that part of the "conversation"....

i think padmé views moving to naboo more as a possibility than a future concrete plan -- the offer to be a permanent advisor on naboo is something she'd like to discuss with anakin as her husband before taking it or rejecting it. she says there's a lot of work she still wants to do in the senate, and she's probably thinking that it will be a few years before she would be able to go anyway. definitely after the war, but in her mind, she thinks anakin has every intention to leave the order after the war's over....because he kind of told her that. at least, in her mind he did: (from chapter 1)

“[Obi-Wan] asked me if I planned to leave the Order after the war,” he tells his wife. “And I lied, and then I think he began to support me. That’s what he looked like, anyway.” Padmé blinks at him, eyelashes falling slowly onto the jut of her cheek and then rising. “That’s good then,” she says, sounding hesitant. “That he supports us.” “Yeah,” Anakin replies, raising his hand to tuck a tendril of hair behind her ear. “Though…I’m sorry you had to lie,” she says, pressing forward until their faces are only a hand’s width apart. “Hopefully…” she trails off, biting her lip. Then she shakes her head slightly, and her mouth turns up into a smile as if she cannot help herself. “Hopefully he will not take the truth so hard.”

so anakin never says what lie he told obi-wan, he just says that he lied when asked if he was going to leave the Order, and that lie made obi-wan support him.

from an outsider's perspective, especially a biased outsider who is married to one of the insiders and believes them to have a future together, padmé's immediate understanding of this is that obi-wan asked if he was going to leave the order and anakin lied to him and told him he planned to stay and obi-wan began to support their marriage because he thinks he won't be losing anakin (padmé, who has three braincells, has long since realized obi-wan's obsessed with her husband)

and that's why she's smiling at the end (and also why they have sex at the fade to black) -- she believes anakin has just told her that when the war ends, he'll leave the Order to be with her and build a future together <3 so the offer to go to naboo is an option she can talk to her husband about, but she knows that anakin is going to no longer be a jedi....and if he's not a jedi, and she's not a senator....what's keeping them on coruscant?

BUT it's not just obi-wan that's feeling a bit catty during that dinner party scene, so i intentionally wrote padmé as putting this idea forward as less of a possibility and more of a done deal that she knows anakin will accept -- she talks about it like it's great big BACK OFF signs picketed around anakin because obi-wan is the biggest threat to their marriage in the entire galaxy and she's always known that

(but also no anakin has not begun to process that whole thing - but padmé, who now realizes they're NOT on the same page, is absolutely going to bring it up post-haste in the next chapter)

[chirpsythismorning]

Mike yelling at everyone for expecting El to fight for ‘no reason’ in s3… please Mike, share with the class what would qualify as a valid reason for El to fight?? Will being in danger perhaps? The plot of s1-2 perhaps?

[ilynpilled]

cersei believes in the one soul in two bodies thing only if there are no purple eyed men available she’s hilarious tbh. like this is her raison d’etre…for the most part

i find her love of rhaegar pretty interesting. like i think she fixates on him specifically for a lot of reasons. i think she did kind of turn him into an idealized robert anti-thesis for herself, which makes sense. this is something she is reconjuring, rhaegar is not really real and grounded for her, never was, like she doesnt know him as a person, but it is much deeper than just her being drawn to a very beautiful surface. he is more of an idea and dream, a childhood crush that she clings onto now bc he does embody a lot of things that she deeply desires and was promised (and she is also losing a lot of her previous crutches atp, being particularly frustrated with jaime, and the whole jc divorce era kicking in full force in general). the idea of rhaegar represents a lot of things that she wants and was stripped of (things that she does ultimately desire more than jaime as a lover and individual): the romanticized queen position and status, the throne and power, a “perfect prince” that only exists as a memory now so she cannot be disillusioned by him, and even a potential source of love that was ofc absent within her abusive marriage. but yeah, i also believe that it further deconstructs the jaime and cersei destined lovers narrative, especially when she uses the same narrative with rhaegar when she frames it as something “the gods intended”. but also shes a bishonen enjoyer

[plant-dad-sulu]

Elderly friend of my mother's, about a stranger in public: Is that person a man or a woman?

Me, quietly, not looking: I don't know

My dad, admonishingly: hey, remember where you are, suck it up

Me, thoroughly traumatized by having my gender publicly speculated on throughout my formative years and desperate not to do the same to other people:

[greenerteacups]

What do you think as Hermione's career would be post battle of Hogwarts? To me her being minister for magic really doesn't make sense. She does not have patience or tact to wade through murky waters of politics 😭😭

So hard to say! The Trio are so, so young when we leave them, I find it almost impossible to project their futures farther than a few years out. The job that suited me at 17 would be radically unsuited to me now. That's why of all the Trio, Ron's ending strikes me as the most realistic — he jumps straight into the save-the-world business again, burns out, realizes he's actually Done The Fuck Enough, Thanks, and pivots into a low-stress career where he gets to see his family a lot. Feels accurate! The others are weirder to me because they do seem to just... pick a lane and stay there.

With Hermione, you could spin her a couple ways. You could say that she leans into her bookish side and does research or teaching, which is not my preference for a couple reasons (namely, I don't think Hermione would like academia as a profession; she finds her classwork interesting and enjoys intellectual validation, but she'd be stifled and wasted in a DPhil program, and she'd be infuriated by the administrative politicking of your average higher-ed faculty). You could say that she gets disaffected with politics and ends up as a barrister or a lobbyist of some kind, but if anything that requires more political finesse, because you don't actually have institutional power, you're just handling the people who make decisions and trying to persuade them of your goals. This is not Hermione's preferred method of influence. She's not even particularly good at persuasion, she just happens to be smart enough (and right often enough) that people take her ideas seriously.

Or you could say her brashness fades with the years into a softened flavor of tell-you-like-it-is honesty, which some politicians actually do successfully trade on; as we see in British politics today, you don't have to be all that charming or clever to get ahead, you just need to be really driven and well-connected (which Hermione completely is; she fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the first postwar Minister and her bestie, the Literal Messiah, runs the Auror Office.) But I don't know if Hermione especially wants to be Minister, after the war. She's just watched years of horrendous bureaucratic incompetence plunge the country into a violent civil conflict. She's had not one, but two Ministers of Magic try to bully or shame her friends into complicity with fascism. Her view of government is... likely extremely dark.

But Hermione also isn't the kind of person who sees her life as a quest for happiness. Babygirl has a savior complex that makes Harry look selfish. (She basically kills her parents — yeah, obliviating is a form of murder, #changemymind — "for their own good," and justifies every batshit, vindictive, mean-spirited move she ever pulls on the grounds that it "helps" one of her friends.) She is a mean, lean, dragon-slaying machine, and she needs a dragon. After Voldemort, the Ministry is the no. 1 threat to muggle-borns and non-wizarding Beings. As a war heroine with basically infinite political capital, I'd be surprised if she didn't try to do something there. That said, Hermione is so vivacious and dynamic that she could potentially grow in a hundred different directions; it's possible that all of this, while true of her at 18, becomes completely inaccurate by 22. That's why I'm not too fussed about any particular fanon interpretation.