#and thus the original will be deleted shortly

[rose-from-ashes]

A reference for all of Emet's layers, soon to be reblogged with colored and lineless versions!

[vulpine-spectacle]

So, I am having a Day (tm) and I am trying to write at the moment, but otherwise I'm having some brain fog and writing is proving tricky. My leg is also sore due to the tattoo I just got and my mood is somber due to failing my certification test, so...yay me. :) ( I can retake the test, so no worries on my end. )

But since I am in a Mood (tm), I am going to share a couple of random facts about Echoes in our Blood - deleted plot points, random facts, etc.

The scene in Hyperion when Eurydice, Isca, Jael, Valeria, and Delphine were undergoing a Bene Gesserit test originally had a different outcome. While they were nesting under the roots of a tree, they were going to be attacked by direwolves and have a chase sequence. Eurydice was going to get bitten by a direwolf, then escape with Isca. They were both going to jump into a river and Eurydice was going to have a vision of Cienna during that sequence. This was actually a pivotal change, because Isca was originally going to be Eurydice's companion. But I scrapped the idea due to how long it would take to write and my general lack of interest in it, and...opted for Delphine instead. This singular change thus amplified Delphine's character within the narrative. :)

In vein with the wolf bite, there was going to be a scene where when Feyd goes down on her for the first time, he sees the bite and asks about it. When Eurydice explains it came from a big ass wolf, Feyd sinks his teeth into her thigh and basically "marks" her. I thought it was neat, but ultimately not worth the whole narrative and scenes, etc., that would've had to come before it.

Chapterhouse is about 80% untouched, so the natural resources are allowed to flourish, hence why the trees are so big. But it also has a bunch of impressive creatures that would be long since extinct from earth but are thriving on the planet. ;) These animals are based on the Late Pleistocene mammals. And to clarify, no, sadly no dinosaurs exist on Chapterhouse. :')

In my original draft of the first few chapters, Feyd-Rautha was going to kill Kaine at nine years old on Lankiveil, not Giedi Prime. Feyd-Rautha was going to grow up under his father's wing, a bullied boy within Lankiveil who was ridiculed and berated by his peers for being the son of an exiled member of House Harkonnen. The knife belonged to Kaine and Feyd-Rautha killed him with it and buried his body in the snow. This was changed shortly after when I did research on Feyd-Rautha's history and found that his father and mother were killed by Rabban when Feyd-Rautha was two. I liked this much better and decided to keep it. :)

A narrative regret of mine...I wrote and published EIOB before watching Dune: Part 2. When I found out the movie changed Feyd-Rautha's narrative so he killed his mother, I regretted having written her already dead at the start of the story. I would have deeply loved exploring the possibilities on how this would've affected Feyd's childhood. :') It's my only major regret, but honestly, it's not detrimental to the narrative. It's just one of those *face smack* moments, ya feel? :/

[cerenemuxse]

Jimmy doodle/sketch dump in color ❤

(Ft. cameos of early concept art of my persona's new design. She's still a shapeshifting AI. Space buns are mandatory too.)

Please excuse any writing errors (yeah I mispelled "seperated" oops). The following is the text version of what's written.

First sketch page:

Thomas' Animal Friends s24 e22

Second sketch page (top to bottom, left to right)

I really liked how the expression came out before I added the lion costume so I seperated it.

Jimmy the canonical meow-meow

he's so adorable!

"Thomas' Animal Friends" (S.24 E.22)

*does anything but draw the wheels*

As I was writing this, the more I realized I could make a meme out of it so here it is.

Ok so now that's done with, I can ramble a bit about the drawings themselves.

I started this shortly after doing the Edward sketch dump that had the redraw of a scene from "Old Iron". I decided to draw out pre-rebuild Jimmy in a specific scene that I'm considering getting rid of and rewriting for something else. Poor baby. :[

Also the other sketch with the angy Jimmy is based on another scene in EoSR. Not saying where it's from as it is a bit of a spoiler lol (recently deleted a lot of posts where I did the opposite of that lol)

I couldn't help but draw James from that specifc screenshot. I was going to draw James in that outfit but when i finished drawing the "base", aka him without the costume, I really liked the expression I gave him. Nothing like the original screenshot xd but I really liked it so I seperated them.

Speaking of the lion costume, I had to adjust mine because damn, it just looked really off when I used the layout of the original screenshot. The odd shadow is supposed to be there as they're supposed to be the back legs. .3.

I'm pretty impressed with how I drew that specific James, despite his funnel being incorrectly placed (it should be right smack in the middle of his smokebox). I love this perspective in particular. Oh, and new details as thus one was using the most up-to-date design for him. :] (i avoided drawing the coupling, btw.)

And there's my persona, or at least quick doodles of my persona's new design. The crescent moon horns are gone, which were a mistake tbh. I didn't like them that much. The short hair and space buns stay though. Bottom right is my favorite.

[bekoobove]

COMING SOON

Infinity Train: Artist's Path

As of late, Marcus Dean's life has been...a mixed bag.

On one hand, shortly after his arrival on the Infinity Train, Marcus befriended the free-spirited Randal and the passenger-studying Goldie. They've accompanied him through many fantastical universes, all contained within train cars. That part's pretty good.

On the other hand, Marcus is trapped. The only way off the train, back to his normal life, is to confront some of his most monumental problems. His regrets, his insecurities, and the seemingly uncrossable chasm between the person he wants to be and the person he is now- nothing is off the table.

Not only that, but as Marcus' journey progresses, he and his friends must fend off horrific Ghoms from the wasteland, seemingly spurred on by mysterious technology. As the attacks grow fiercer and his problems more personal, Marcus must work with his new friends, discover the truth, and decide if he's ready to forge his own path.

WHAT IS INFINITY TRAIN: ARTIST'S PATH?

Infinity Train: Artist's Path is an original story, told in comic form, from the universe of the acclaimed but mistreated Cartoon Network/HBOMax series Infinity Train. Each Book of the series covered a different character's experience aboard the mysterious train, confronting their personal issues in order to lower their number to zero and return home, and Artist's Path is no different.

HAVE I SEEN THIS BEFORE?

It's possible! For about two years now this comic has been posted on the Infinity Train subreddit. However, I recently decided it was necessary to branch out to other platforms in order to reach a wider audience.

Regardless, you haven't seen it like this. The first chapter of the comic is simply not up to my current standards. I don't feel the need to delete it from Reddit, but at the same time I'd be embarrassed posting it elsewhere. Thus, the entire first chapter is being remade.

HOW OFTEN WILL IT BE POSTED?

Like I said, I'm remaking the first chapter, but I'm also trying to keep working on the comic as it is now. I want to remain consistent, and I'll do my best, but no promises.

WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS CONTROLLING THE GHOMS?

Well, as Marcus will eventually find out, there is a to- wait. I don't think I should spoil that...

Well, that's it! First few pages should hopefully be coming quite soon!

[sweatertheman]

Homestuck's time travel rules are impossible to understand.

There is always a logical contradiction, no matter how you try to make sense of it.

Here are some facts I am aware of.

Dave possesses the ability to time travel. When he does, he does not create a paradox.

Appearifiers cannot change the past. They merely fold time as a means of bringing objects between locations on the timeline, and thus either creating a stable time loop, aka, Bootstrap Paradox, (A causes B, B causes A, or AB~) or complying with the law of conservation of energy. In no situation will an appearifier cause an unstable loop, aka Grandfather Paradox. (A causes B, B prevents A. If there is no A then there is no B. If there is no B, then A is allowed to happen. In short, ABab~).

A stable loop can be thought of as a circle. The end is also the beginning. However, if at any point A or B fail to be true, the circle breaks. This is not a paradox, as there is no logical contradiction. If there is no A, then there is no B, which means there is no A, and thus no circle.

John Egbert and his friends are Paradox Clones. Their mere existence is a stable loop. John creates himself in the future, and his baby self gets sent to the past, and grows up into himself. A is John, and B is his baby self. John creates the baby version of himself, and the baby version of himself grows up into himself.

Early in the story, a version of Dave from a timeline where John died arrivew to circumvent his death. Upon John's life being saved, the duplicate Dave persists, while his original timeline ceases to exist.

Shortly after this, Dave finds that some of his possessions were stolen by Jack Noir. He considers going back to prevent the theft, but decides against it when he notices his own corpse on the ground. He ends up throwing thus corpse into a pit of lava.

Now. Lets begin trying to make sense of how time travel works.

The first possibility for time travel is the simplest. Single timeline. This is consistent with the function of Appearifiers, as removing anything before it was meant to be removed would cause an unstable loop. Event prevents itself, thereby allowing itself.

However, there are contradictions here. First, the Paradox Clones. With a single timeline, the Doomed Future is impossible, as John dies before cloning himself. This would break the stable loop and thus erases himself and all his friends from existence. No paradox would occur, because him not being there means he isn't there which means he isn't there. But since Future Dave exists at all, we know that this isn't the case. Thus, single timeline is incorrect.

Okay, next option. Branching timelines. In this model, whenever an event occurs, the timeline branches off into different possibilities, both of which carry on as usual. Let's take the Paradox Clones again. On the main timeline, the AB~ loop continues as normal. In the branch where John dies, however, he isn't needed to complete the loop. The seperate timeline appears only when Future Dave appears, and thus the John and Co. from the doomed timeline don't come from their future, they come from the main timeline's future.

This seems like a solution, however there is still a problem. When Future Dave arrives, he deletes his own timeline. That doesn't make any sense, because him appearing is what CAUSED the branch. On top of this, its impossible to create an unstable loop in a Branch system, because of the same thing that prevents John's death breaking the stable loop. Example, in a Branch system, Rose appearifying Jaspers should only create another timeline where Jaspers failed to communicate information to Rose. So Branch is out.

That leaves Many timelines as the only option. In a Many Timelines system, every possible series of events is its own timeline, completely disconnected from one another. Thus, time travelling doesnt move you back on your own timeline, it simply moves you to a different timeline.

This one is the worst so far. The only issue it solves is that of the paradox clones. However, it creates more problems. Appearifying Jaspers should still be possible. Future Dave deleting his own timeline still makes no sense, as the timeline he came from isn't "caused" by something from the timeline he arrived in.

Okay, there's one system left that tries to rectify Dave's issues. Single Rewind. With this system, it works like recording onto a VHS tape. There's only one timeline, but a given time traveller can at any point stop and rewind to any previous point. From there, they can continue, and effectively undo any mistakes they made, like recording over a tape. Assuming this system is unique to Dave, it solves the problem of deleting his own timeline, as he effectively made that future unhappen. However, this system fails to solve the issue of the paradox clones! Future Dave wouldn't have been able to rewind and retry because he wouldn't have existed! So none of these systems work!

I can't think of a way to make these events work logically. Of course, I'm not even at Murderstuck yet so my opinion is invalid.

If anyone can explain this contrivance, I would appreciate it very much.

Now, I return to the earth.

[swampstew]

300 followers? Slap my grimoire and call me Raven!

Let me re-introduce myself ~~~ My name is Raven and I am utterly unhinged, and violently obsessed with Eustass Kid. Also I am a witch. And a writer. After I got into One Piece this year, my brain transitioned to pure fixation on my red-hair idiot husband and thus began the many fantasies that would drive me to write two original fanfictions with a colorful cast of characters to ship with my faves. I am unapologetically queer, ethnic and do not tolerate bullying, bigoted or hateful behavior from anyone. This blog is a friendly and safe place for everyone except those who find joy in invalidating the existence of others. Fuck off transphobes, homophobes, terfs and nazis.

You can find all my content, rules, and bio pinned to the top of page and linked here. I hope you enjoy all the bedtime stories, daydreams, headcanons, fluff pieces and other chaotic posts I make. Requests are currently open but PLEASE read my rules before requesting - any asks not abiding by my boundaries will be deleted; minors lurking on my page/posts will be blocked.

Now that you've gotten to know me a little, please allow me a moment to share my two fics that you can find on AO3. Please note: both fics are currently paused for winter break and will resume next year. I will shortly be dropping "Raven's Reading Nook" where I will post snippets of my fics in super cute posts - imagine it like I've invited you to a cozy little reading circle. You can read everything up to the latest chapters if you have a registered AO3 account (fics will be made available to the public again when I resume posting due to AI chaos).

If you’ve enjoyed my writings thus far, I encourage you to check out my fanfictions on AO3 which focus on Eustass “Captain” Kid and the Kid Pirates 90% of the time. Both are mature, explicit content, 18+.

Turn Back Time: Andrea was bored and minding her business trying to sell cookies for bills when Eustass “Captain” Kid buys her entire cart. Little did Kid and the crew know, that that one interaction would suck them into Andrea’s life for a week while they waited for their log pose to reset. And she led an interesting life, alongside her best friend Candy. Two ladies who catch the Captain’s and First Mate’s attention, they have time to kill anyways.

It was both the longest and shortest week of their lives and it can only end in one way - with the women being left behind to save them from a brutal pirates life. A decision they flounder on and abandon as their affections over the silly dames grow. They make the two pirates feel like normal people - not as subordinates and not as citizens in fear of them trying to appease them - two women who found themselves as interested and enamored in the pirates as the pirates found them. Kid and Killer are strong as fuck and their crew is feared and notorious. What’s the worst that could happen?

What’s the Magic Word?: (My OC/self-ship and mostly canon compliant/has spoilers). A Witch named Rowena is the only survivor of the massacre that killed her coven. Enslaved and forced to work for despicable people, her liberation came at the hands of Monkey D. Luffy, her new Captain. Relearning how to function as a free person and living amongst equals instead of masters, her journey gets cut tragically short when the Straw Hat Pirates reach the Sabaody Archipelago.

A prisoner on their ship over a misunderstanding, Rowena is put in the awkward position of having to sail with the Kid Pirates until her crew can meet again - a precarious situation given the way they left Sabaody and the consequences of the Summit War of Marineford.

After earning Captain Kid’s respect with her loyalty to her Captain and her sheer power, the two face dangerous situations together in their journey. Her loyalty and character will be challenged as she is forced to rapidly grow in strength and power in anticipation of her crew’s reunion. Nothing more challenging than the growing attraction between her and Kid. Two years is a long time after all.

[greatsitedotcom]

Tips for Buying Facsimiles of Rare Bible Books

Buying a rare and antique Bible book needs you to have deep pockets. You should also have adequate knowledge to distinguish between a fake copy and the original, or else, you could be taken for a ride by unscrupulous elements. However, not everyone may have the money to buy the original copy of a��rare Bible book. In such cases, looking for high-quality facsimiles that reproduce the original content without any changes or deletions is worth considering.

In today’s technology-driven age, many people have moved from physical books to electronic devices for most of their reading. But the scenario is different for rare book collectors and even those who buy facsimiles of the original rare Bible books. For these people, the excitement of holding a piece of literary history remains unparalleled. As a result, there’s a high demand for rare and antique bibles and their replicas.

According to some credible sources, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book of all time, having sold almost 5 billion copies to date. Naturally, rare Bible books and their facsimiles find many takers. From the Gutenberg Bible and 1378 Wycliffe New Testament to 1535 Coverdale Bible, 1536 Tyndale New Testament, 1560 Geneva Bible, and more, there’s a lot to choose from when buying facsimiles of rare Bible books. But you need to shop carefully.

Given below are some steps to help you make the most of your investment when buying antique Bibles and their replicas. .

Do Your Homework Regarding What Edition is the Most Valuable

There’s a difference between a Bible being rare and one being a collectible. You can consider “rare” a measure of how easy or difficult it is to get hold of the Bible. But what makes a Bible collectible is a different matter. From who worked on it to its illustrator, binding, where it was printed, or its special features (like notes in the margin, woodcut illustrations, etc.) - everything can make it a collectible. Even the previous owner, especially if the person was a celebrity or someone famous, could make the Bible a collector’s item.

Many people also believe that first editions of a Bible are more valuable. But that isn’t always true. Sometimes, later editions with inadvertent mistakes or additional information or illustrations can be sold at five to ten times (or even more) the price of the first edition. And depending on how valuable the original Bible book is, the demand will rise or fall for its facsimile.

Keep an Eye on the Amount You Pay

The cost of a facsimile usually varies with the original Bible’s value. From the condition of its pages and binding to the special features it has (say, woodcut illustrations), every factor will influence its value. Apart from a Bible book’s physical condition, its content also significantly contributes to its desirability.

Experts handling rare books say that the most valuable pieces are those that altered the course of history or human understanding. Thus, the price of the original Gutenberg Bible (1455) and its facsimile will be a lot more than the English Hexapla (1841) and its facsimile reproduction.

Know the Features to Look For

What features make a Bible book and its replica valuable is something you should know. For instance, when buying a facsimile reproduction of the 1611 King James Bible, you should look for Gothic-style typeface and Jacobean-style spelling.

If buying a facsimile reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible, taking a closer look at its Gothic typeface is a must. It should have a medieval look and be slightly less pointed and compressed than other examples that came to the forefront shortly thereafter.

If buying a facsimile reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible, taking a closer look at its Gothic typeface is a must. It should have a medieval look and be slightly less pointed and compressed than other examples that came to the forefront shortly thereafter.

Why Trust Reliable Dealers of Bible Books

Not every buyer may have the knowledge or an eye to spot the minute differences between the original and its replica. Some may not even know about the features thoroughly, making identifying them an uphill task. That’s why it pays to buy your Bible book replicas from a reliable and reputed dealer of such books to ensure you get your money’s worth.

Wrapping Up

Instead of blindly buying a replica of an original Bible that’s old and rare, you should know the things mentioned above to make an informed buy and avoid being duped. So, go ahead and get your facsimile reproduction of a Bible book that you have been eyeing for quite some time now.

Original Source:

http://rare-bibles.com/tips-for-buying-facsimiles-of-rare-bible-books.html

[korra-the-red-lion]

Legends of Tomorrow and the Zarlie Incident: Is it happening again?

As many fans of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are aware, during season 4 and 5 of the series, the ship “Zarlie”, a pairing of Zari Tomaz and Charlie, became quite popular during this time, especially during season 4.

Zari was a fan favourite character who was introduced in season 3. Throughout the season, Zari kept mostly to herself until she began to warm up to the others on the Waverider. Due to Zari’s closed off nature, she never had a LI in season 3. There were jokes about it, of course. Zari was very attractive to one Mr. Jonah Hex, and honestly. who wasn’t from the Waverider, haha? We’re told them as viewers that Zari is attracted to men. Sounds good.

Then s4 rolls around and Charlie gets introduced to the crew. Charlie takes an instant liking to Zari, affectionately calling her ‘Z.’ Maisie previously played Amaya on the previous two seasons, who was quite close with Zari as a friend, so it only makes sense that there is some chemistry between the two actors since they’ve been friends for awhile now. I wasn’t surprised when people starting shipping the two of them, thus the ship ‘Zarlie’ was born. What I wasn’t expecting was the writers to play into it. They had some pretty close scenes, and by close I mean there wasn’t enough room for two hands between their faces. And Zari made a comment about Charlie picking Amaya’s form because she was hot, implying that she thought Amaya was attractive. Thus the infamous scene happened:

No denial from Zari, just her usual annoyed look she got whenever Charlie started picking at her. Thus, the Bi Zari headcannon was born and mostly accepted by everyone in the LoT fandom. Of course, with Avalance and I believe Constangreen at this time, many people doubted it would become canon. And unfortunately, shortly after, Nate and Zari began dating, which felt sudden to me personally, and Steelhacker was born.

However, Steelhacker canon did not stop Zarlie from continuing. If anything, the writers only added more fuel to the fire so fans could have discussions. This is where I started to get annoyed, because why continue to bait the pair if you have no intention of making it canon? It felt a little dirty to me, even as I enjoyed the banter and chemistry between the two of them. Oh well, I thought at the time, it’s just shipping for fun now.

Season 4 ends with Zari being replaced by Zari Tarazi, or Zari 2.0 if you will. People still shipped Zarlie, though it was mostly from Zari 1.0. Fans were a little put off when Charlie said she slept with Behrad, but it also called attention to the fact that Behrad technically replaced Zari from the original timeline, meaning that Charlie wanted sleep with Zari, yes? Very confusing, but in a weird way, it was almost like they canonized the ship further.

Maisie had been on record several times acknowledging the chemistry between the two, and how much she wished they could have explore that more. Then of course, the news of the filmed but deleted kiss broke out and everyone from the Zarlie fandom lost their mind. There was a kiss, so in some strange way, Zarlie is canon, but only behind the scenes. From a show that does have amazing queer characters and content came a strangely bizarre queerbait that is now semi-canon, but only because the news of the kiss came to light, otherwise it would be another ship lost at sea, dragging people down with it as it lured them with its content. That should be the end of it, right?

Wrong.

Season 6 came out this season with Astra, the villain being manipulated by the Fates in season 5, being elevated to main cast. Joining her was newcomer Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz. Some people were hesitant because Astra was a bit of a polarizing character in s5, with reason. And of course, with any new character coming in, people are worried on how they will fit into the show. However, Spooner easily became a character that people enjoyed, and she somehow grounded the show, due to her very emotional character arc.

Spooner and Astra didn’t interact much until the animated sequence, when Astra turned her into a fork, much to the fans delight. Spooner actually encouraged Astra and after that, the two slowly became friends. They could have some snarky yet fun back and forth conversations and remarks to another, and the two actors played off each other well. They also connected from their lost mothers, Spooner who thought her mother had been taken by aliens and Astra who lost her mother to hell. They had a sort of emotional vulnerability between them that only they could understand.

Then the bowling episode came out and I think this is when the ship really got rolling. There was the big hug at the end of the match were a much taller Astra scoops Spooner up off her feet into a massive bear hug, smiles between the two. I know this is when I became a solid Esperastra shipper.

The pair continued to partner up after this. They partnered up again during the Clue-esc murder mystery game. Something that is very interesting about this is the pairings themselves. Ava gets killed by Sara right away (lol) and Nate dies shortly after, with Sara following behind. When Sara dies, her and Ava are shot together in a typical lovers pose in death. Makes sense, as they are engaged. Zari 2.0 is paired with Behrad and John, her brother and her lover respectively. Everyone is paired with someone they love. So...Astra and Spooner are paired up. Okay, no comment. JUST KIDDING. They die together, and this is shot in such a romantic way:

I know it’s dark, my apologies. But Spooner is leaning on Astra, and Astra is falling on top of Spooner. I’ve watched and read a lot of stuff, and this is a typical lovers in death position as well. 

Then we get to the final two episodes which see Spooner and Astra pairing up again. Spooner leans on Astra for emotional support throughout these two episodes, because she knows that Astra understands what she’s going through. Astra was devested when she thought she lost both Spooner and John at the same time. Luckily, Spooner did come back and the two shared a very emotional hug.

Now, this is where it gets a little frustrating as a fan. The writers and showrunners have stated clearly that they are Just Friends(TM). It seems like, based on some decisions from this past season, the writers are pushing for Astra/Behrad, which is like, not terrible but a little strange. However, Tala Ashe (Zari), has been on record to say that she thinks the actors have great chemistry and she ships them. So there is clearly a small divide yet again. So, if season 7 leans into this any more, is Esperastra the new Zarlie?

Of course friends can love each other, hug one another, and use each other as emotional support. However in this case, there does seem to be some underlying tension between the two that I wonder if the writers are going to explore. Is Esperastra going to stay friends, or end up becoming yet another queerbaited sapphic couple from Legends of Tomorrow? I guess only time will give us an answer on this. However, I will say, the parallels between the two ships is slightly uncanny, and perhaps even intentional. Zarlie connected by being two people who felt lost without family, and Esperastra may be doing the same thing now that John is gone, who was functionally Astra’s only family left.

Let’s hope Legends of Tomorrow doesn’t do the same thing twice.

[scientific-tricorder]

Ever wonder when everyone was studying at Starfleet Academy and who might have had classes with who? Well, look no further. I did only include a few characters (namely all main cast members) from shows taking place in the 24th century (TNG, DS9, VOY, LWD; would include PIC, but no good data to go off of), since that's when we have shows overlapping and the potential for crossovers.

If nothing is marked, info is from Memory Alpha. (β) marks info from beta canon via Memory Beta, and there are footnotes for various characters.

Assuming general coursework takes five years, based on Picard's record, and medical coursework takes nine years, based on Dr. Crusher's record.

Tuvok: 2289-2293

Jean-Luc Picard: 2323-2327

Data: 2341-2345

Beverly Crusher: 2342-2350

Chakotay: 2344-2348

Benjamin Sisko: 2350-2354

Kathryn Janeway: 2353-2357 (β)

Tasha Yar: 2353-2357*

William Riker: 2353-2357

Geordi La Forge: 2353-2357

Deanna Troi: 2355-2359

Worf: 2357-2361 (β)

Ro Laren: 2358-2362

Jadzia Dax: 2359-2363; 2364-2368 (β)**

Julian Bashir: 2360-2368

B'Elanna Torres: 2366-2368 (dropped out)

Harry Kim: 2366-2370

Wesley Crusher: 2367-2370 (dropped out)***

Ezri Dax: 2372-2374†

Nog: 2372-2373‡

Bradward Boimler: 2375-2379

D'Vana Tendi: 2376-2380§

*Tasha Yar escaped her home planet in 2352, and was stated to attend Starfleet Academy 'soon after', so estimating started following year.

**Jadzia Dax's record is complicated. Beta canon states that she attended from 2364-2368, but this is directly contradicted by alpha canon, which says that she completed her coursework at Starfleet Academy before applying to the Trill Symbiosis Commission for joining and that in 2364 Curzon had her dropped from the program. StarTrek.com says she attended from 2359-2363, which is much more plausible.

***Wesley Crusher attended Starfleet Academy from 2367-2370, when he left to join The Traveler. A deleted scene from Nemesis (2379) shows him as a lieutenant junior grade, so he likely returned at some point.

†Ezri Tigan started Starfleet Academy's medical program in 2372 (presumably training to become a psychiatrist), joined a ship in 2374 for field training, and had her final year of training waived after being joined to Dax. Taking this straight, she never got her medical degree and only has the standard Starfleet training.

‡Nog started at Starfleet Academy in 2372, and in 2373 went to DS9 for field training. Then the Dominion War started and in 2374 he was given a commission as ensign, which may have been a provisional commission because of the war. Beta canon states that he stayed on at DS9 right after, being promoted to lieutenant junior grade in 2375 and serving as an engineer. He thus would not have completed more than 3 years of training at the Academy. StarTrek.com says he started at Starfleet Academy in 2371, which would give him the full four year coursework.

§D'Vana Tendi likely graduated shortly before starting on the USS Cerritos, hence the estimated years.

Timing Tom Paris's Academy career is tricky. He attended at some point in the 2360's. Paris is pretty famously based on Nick Locarno, who attended 2364-2368, and at least some people theorize the two characters to be one and the same, with Paris originally attending Starfleet Academy under a false name.

The rest of the Lower Decks characters can't really be timed very particularly. Samanthan Rutherford likely graduated in or shortly before 2380. Beckett Mariner graduated earlier. She had served on five ships prior to 2380, and had a classmate who was a captain in 2380 (the youngest recorded captain is Tryla Scott, who got that rank at age 34; assuming Scott started at Starfleet Academy at age 16, which appears to be the minimum, that's fourteen years of service before becoming captain, so the latest Mariner could have attended Starfleet Academy, assuming no new records for youngest captain and only one year of overlap with Mariner's captain friend, is 2366-2370).

Miles O'Brien was enlisted and never attended Starfleet Academy. He started his Starfleet career in 2345.

-

And just some overlaps: 2357 had Janeway, Riker, Yar, La Forge, Troi, and Worf all attending Starfleet Academy. 2367-2368 had Bashir, Torres, Kim, Crusher, and maybe Paris and Mariner all attending. From 2341-2370, at least one main character was at Starfleet Academy.

[mlwritingprompts]

Submitted prompt: Universal Hope.

Here is a google doc link to the full compilation of prompts in this series, since there's apparently too many paragraphs to put in a single tumblr post. (because tumblr insists on making this site worse rather than better lol...) You can download the file as a word document, PDF, or epub. If you download it as an epub, you can then transfer it to your phone to read in any reading app like an ebook!

-

And finally, here it is. The finale of my "Universal" series AU. (though maybe if Fluff helped me time-travel, I can give it for free it as an original plot long before this show's idea even came to existence lol, at least that would make a good show if given a budget)

Also, two other nonbinary characters makes an appearance (although admittedly very shortly):

Luue, kwami of Impossibility and uses the pronouns mi/mir/mirs/mirself.

And Elise, a teacher, pronouns are ce/cer/cers/cerself. Would have given cer a more prominent role, but sadly I only thought of cer only at the end of the AU and I don't have energy or ideas to make an omake or another story about Elise :(

I mean, one can make an omake or a side-story where Elise interacts with Adrien, Chloe, and the rest of the class in a helathy and positive manner and helps them through their teenage years and encourages them to discover themselves and unleash their creativity in a helpful way. Maybe even helping some of the students with their problems and help them enforcing their boundaries and curbing any harmful behaviour and spreading positivity, thus showing why Elise decided to be a teacher because ce has compassion and morals and wants to teach the younger generation the same positive morals and foster compassion and respect into them, also showing why ce was also respected and loved by cer students and collegues. (I gave an idea that can be made into a whole story, yay! :))

(But who would like to read that? /sarcasm.)

(But seriously, if someone can, do so if you want. I can't write this since it's too out of my experience and I fear I will mess it up. So there, have fun writing if you want :))

So, I guess, you can treat cer character as a gift to use in your original stories or fanfics??? I am not sure about this approach really.

Now Tikki, stop breaking the 4th wall and giving me ideas while I am simply watching completely unrelated videos please I can't do more than this for the AU.

===========

Natasi walked alongside loc friend, enjoying the sunny day.

Just a moment of calmness, as both decided to have fun by touring the city of Paris another time.

It had been a month after Cosmic Actress had told the heroes of the current timeline about the state of the universe, and both friends felt that a vacation is very much needed at this point.

Nothing to let one relax more than having fun with friends.

"You are sure to let them deal with the end of the cosmos?" Natasi asked loc friend as both ate some icecream.

"Yes. We've tried for so long. And you know how that ended. Maybe we should take a page from media entertainment and 'let the new generation deal with it'. Who knows, maybe this is what the universe needs at this point." 

Nix smiled jokingly. Something reciprocated by loc. Neither really had any real hope that the heroes can fix this, but sometimes, even an amateur can do something so unexpected it might work.

Little did the duo know, that nix telling the group had far reaching consequences.

Neither did the two expect just how this broken shell of a universe will act.

===========

In a domain devoid of concepts, The Nothingness shrieked with a wail that no mortal should be allowed to hear.

Its powers, the power to delete any concept.

They were now being hampered, as the essences of concepts it had absorbed for eons started rebelling.

The essences of the cosmos somehow attacking it from the inside, harming it.

How!? How did this happen!?

Even in the many time resets these two brats had done, it had never felt this much pain!

In fact, this was the first time it had felt pain at all!

It extended its senses, searching and trying to locate what had happened.

And it had found the source via using a tiny fragment of Time essence it had absorbed long before.

It watched as Cosmic Actress spoke to the heroes, telling them about the dangers, the cracks in the cosmos. And how their existence will cause the end of the cosmos.

The brat was right, The Nothingness admitted to itself. The only thing strange was that the Akuma did not truly realize that the Nothingness was a conscious entity. Or maybe nix did, but did not think it was important?

No matter.

As it kept watching the past, it had watched as the cosmos, the weak and broken shell of it, started to change and warp.

As Cosmic Actress was talking, the concepts were already twisting, somehow augmenting themselves...

And attaching themselves to the so-called heroes.

As if giving them power. Favouritism. Protagonist status. Or whatever Cosmic Actress had called the damn thing.

And at the same time, other areas of the universe were somehow becoming more and more hectic, as if preparing for a battle for survival.

Survival and annihilating the enemy.

It. The enemy...

The Nothingness felt a new emotion, an emotion so foreign yet so fitting.

Wrath.

Wrath at the universe.

Did the damn thing believe that because the Nothingness was content with being suppressed once, it would allow that to happen once more!?

Unacceptable!

It needs to stop this madness.

And get back the Solitude and Silence it so desired... 

===========

Chloe had to admit that she had seen better days as she awoke with difficulty.

Ever since Cosmic Actress gave her and the rest of the heroes the news about the big disaster the cosmos was facing, and the fact that Tikki, her friend, was a slave, she could barely get a good sleep.

The rest of the heroes were the same, and no one knew how to even start to fix this mess, even now.

They couldn't just shatter the Miraculouses, because it would only result with them going back to where they started.

Shaking off the dizziness, Chloe walked the exhausting distance to her school, her teammates meeting her along the way. All of them clearly tired as well as the kwami.

"Not a good night's sleep as well?" Kagami asked, hints of exhaustion still in her tone.

She also couldn't sleep very well.

The whole group resisted the urge to sigh and walked to the school.

Chloe hoped that the lessons she will be having today will put her mind off from the reality of their predicament, for a moment at least.

Entering the class, the teacher, Cie. Elise was already there.

Ce greeted Chloe and her friends as ce waited for the clock to hit 8:00. 

Chloe relaxed a little as the lesson started, and she focused as Cie. Elise was explaining the subject of today.

'Maybe today I can enjoy myself for a while.' she says to herself, feeling as Tikki was besides her.

The class ended up quickly, and Chloe found herself taking the break with Alya as both sat together talking about whatever they felt like it.

"At least, we can give our assignments on time since there's no more Amoks and Akumas/Champions to deal with right now." Chloe says jokingly as both take a laugh.

－Only for them to hear the sounds of screaming, and instinctively looking at the source of the noise, hoping it was just students playing a prank－

And they saw as the school's upper part was being swallowed by a black sphere.

"What!? Didn't Cosmic Actress say that nix will not attack anymore!?" Alya shouted in shock before the two transformed, meeting their teammates as the group looked at the black sphere, a sensation of dread and confusion seeping into their minds as they watched as the sphere stopped growing, and an unearthly scream resounded.

It was only thanks to their defensive suits that they were not knocked out right away from the force, as the air vibrated, and the ground shattered in front of them.

And under their watch, the sphere shrunk, taking on a humanoid figure made of pitch black darkness with no eyes or mouth, but regardless, all of them felt how the being was looking at them with a soul-piercing gaze.

"Welcome... Humans..." The being spoke, its words this time feeling more human-

No, its words were more comprehensible for the mortals in general. Its words no longer destroy things just by uttering them.

"I guess... this is how to communicate with you...? Fascinating! This sure is... interesting..." It ignored them for few seconds as they got their bearings, more focused on being impressed by being able to speak to normal humans, mere mortals as far as it was concerned.

"Ah... I guess... An introduction is in order?" Its "head" tilts as if giving a questioning look before straighening up. "I am... Well, I don't have any name, really. But these two brats called me the Nothingness. I guess I will take that name for myself for now. You shall call me that as well."

The now officially named Nothingness stated in confidence as it raised an "arm".

"And you are standing in the way of me and my home. Disappear."

With that, a world where concepts were absorbed and ceased to exist... was made... 

=========

"Damn it! What's going on now!?" Cosmic Actress swore as nix was wildly flying alongside Natasi.

Both had felt the essence and energy of the universe starting to vanish at an alarming rate.

And they also felt a huge mass of... whatever that Nothingness was... concentrating in the area.

"This is too fast! I thought that this level of cosmic deletion would happen only a millenia later at the very least! Why is it spreading so soon!?" Natasi was also terrified out of loc mind. "Did we do something to speed up the process somehow?"

Cosmic Actress bit nix lip at that.

This shouldn't have happened so soon.

So what did cause this?

"I told the heroes my theory that the world, or at least, the city of Paris, works on the idea that Protagonist-Centered Morality and the Theory of Narrative Causality coexist, and that the messed-up way the concepts work here make that happen. But even that is not enough to explain-" Nix suddenly stopped talking, nix eyes widening.

Nix then gave a small chuckle at the realization of what just happened.

"Cosmic Actress?" Natasi asked nix with worry.

"Oh, nothing surprising. I just realized that my long talk to the heroes might feel like the mentor giving their wisdom to the protagonists while dropping exposition. And you know what trope is the most dangerous to the mentors?"

Loc eyes widened as clo connected the dots.

"Yes, Natasi, we have done our last info-dump, and we have outlived our usefulness, so to speak. And the True Final Boss is approaching." Nix kept smiling for a moment before nix expression turned into irritation and spoke with a furious tone.

"I have told you I am starting to hate Murphy for making that law, didn't I?" 

=============

"Well, I have to say... I expected better than this."

Nothingness stated as it looked at the current state of the heroes.

All looking tired and spent.

The battle could barely be called that, since Nothingness was almost as strong Cosmic Actress from what the heroes can feel, if only in a completely different way.

While Cosmic Actress can be hit by the attacks they made against nix and be affected, even for only a second, The Nothingness did not even bother reacting to their attempts.

As if both were on completely different dimensions.

It could interact with them, but they could not interact with it.

Any attempts they had tried would have ended up in their immediate deletion and absorption by it, had they not honed their skills and insticts from a long year of superheroing, and the fact that their opponent seemed to only know how to fight using overwhelming power and no tactics or plans.

'This is just the same as when we fought Cosmic Actress.' Chloe thought and bit her lips. 'Are we really that pathetic compared to beings like them?'

She wondered what she could do to save the city, but ideas were running out and she couldn’t figure out how to use the Lucky Charm, a strange alien sphere emitting a powerful energy of sorts.

The Nothingness looked at them once more, before the air around it changed, and Chloe for some reason felt that it was 'determinated'.

For what? She didn't know.

"Farewell. World End!"

A wave of nothingness came to existence, expanding rapidly, and the heroes felt it.

The deletion and absorption of the concepts, as the wave rushed at them, about to-

"Leave them alone!"

A voice they had not heard for a month exclaimed angrily, as a large amount of energy was being created, stopping the march of the nothingness and overpowering it.

Cosmic Actress and Natasi landed gracefully on the ground, and with a wave of nix hands, white butterflies emerged from Cosmic Actress’ palms, latching into the heroes.

"Heroes, we don't have much time! I will boost your powers! Accept this!"

They took a second looking in shock at nix and loc presences.

"Just do what I say!" Cosmic Actress barked.

They immediately nodded at nix yell, feeling the urgency of the situation, no more time for them to waste.

Energy flowed from their new forms as all of them felt the connection to their kwami' concepts sharpen and expand immensely.

The Nothingness looked at Cosmic Actress and Natasi with what seemed to be annoyance. 

"Ah, you two finally appeared. You two are becoming really annoying, you know that?"

The group took a guarded position.

"Just what are you? How can you exist?" Natasi asked it, feeling unnerved by its presence.

The Nothingness tilted it's "head" questioningly as if it was confused as well. "Me? Honestly, I don't have an actual name, but you shall call me the Nothingness, like you had called me before. And about being able to exist?"

It made a shrugging motion. "I don't know, but I... existed... long before your cosmos came to be. And now, I want my sweet silence and solitude back. And you are in the way!"

With that, it struck once more, a blast of void unleashed.

The group evaded and jumped, watching as the attack hit the ground, corrupting it with the essence of the Nothingness.

"So this is the being that started the deletion of the cosmos, just how can we defeat it?" Adrien asked, and Cosmic Actress didn't feel like correcting him on the fact that the Order of Guardians were the ones that started the whole mess first right now.

But he was correct, how can they defeat it?

They must do that, but...

Easier said than done.

None of their attacks managed to reach it, but it could attack them just fine, only failing due to its lack of experience.

After avoiding another blast of void, the group made contact with the ground once more.

"Chloe! Did your Lucky Charm give you anything that might help?" Natasi asked, still focusing loc eyes at the enemy.

Chloe shook her head and showed loc the strange ball. "No. I only got this sphere, it is pulsing with some sort of energy, but I couldn-"

Chloe's voice cut off as her instincts flared as she looked at the ball, then at Natasi and Cosmic Actress.

"Oh! I think I got it!" She exclaimed.

Nix and nix friend had already realized it as well the moment their eyes landed on the sphere.

Chloe immediately threw the sphere towards the duo, who immediately created a butterfly and a feather using Duusuu and Nooroo's energy, as the Nothingness felt something wrong it had never felt before.

Danger.

It didn't know how or why it felt that way, but it felt that sensation all the same.

That sphere! It is dangerous for it's existence!

It moved to attack and stop them-

But it could not reach in time.

The feather fused with the sphere, the energy inside it mixing with the fragment of Duusuu's power.

And creating a new being.

The being rapidly took a shape and size very familiar to the heroes.

A shape and size the kwamis have.

A blast of concepts overpowered the Nothingness' attack for a moment, just enough for Nooroo's power to make contact with the new being.

The energy intensified, stabilizing, becoming denser and more potent.

"NO!" The Nothingness screamed as it pushed through, directing an attack towards the heroes and the new being.

'Don't have enough time!' Cosmic Actress swore in nix mind, moving to take the hit in place of the group-

And an eye opened.

The Nothingness made contact-

And Cosmic Actress was still there.

Nix was not absorbed.

Nix eyes widened in shock at the surprise of nix survival.

"You can't delete nix." A foreign new voice resounded, not high or low, but somewhere in the middle. Perfectly gender-neutral.

Nix looked from the edges of nix eyes, and saw the new being.

Mi was... well, no one could describe mir as mi looked completely different than any lifeform to compare to, but mi had three eyes, all of them having a color that humans should not be allowed to see.

Luue, everyone felt in their hearts, was mir name.

"Indeed, you can't delete anyone here, Nothingness." Mi spoke with a passionate yet cold tone towards it. "I am Luue, the embodiment of Impossibility! From now on, you will not be able to delete this cosmos!"

A powerful wave of energy spread from Luue's body, harming and weakening the Nothingness, causing the essences of the concepts it had absorbed to slowly rampage inside its body, while empowering the rest even more.

The Nothingness felt like screaming in rage, but then Cosmic Actress punched it in the face, causing it to stumble, clutching its head from the sensation of pain.

"How!?" The Nothingness' scream was left unanswered as the heroes finally started fighting back, actually managing to harm it this time.

"We can reach it!"

"Keep going!"

"Fight!"

As they attacked, yelling with confidence, The Nothingness could only scream in pain and anger.

‘How!? How can they harm it!? It had existed for so long! It was the antithesis of everything they are made of! So how can they still pull out so much power against it!?’

A wave of nausea suddenly hit it, as the energy of the concepts it had absorbed, started to leak from it's body, weakening it further.

Luue, Cosmic Actress and Natasi took this chance, and rushed towards it.

It desperately targeted Luue, who phased through the attack and entered its body, a butterfly and a feather made by nix and loc in mir hands, and from the inside, the butterfly and feather resonated with the locked essences of the concepts, ravaging the Nothingness from the inside.

It screamed in pain as the concepts fully and violently forced their way out, and its body slowly collapsing on itself.

Cosmic Actress looked at it, an Oblivion Orb in hand, and an angry resolute expression in nix face.

"Return to whence you came from! Nothingness!" The orb hit it directly, and it was forcefully thrown into the ground, cracking it.

"Ughh..." The Nothingness tried to stand, only for its body to drop. Exhaustion seeping into its being in a way it had never felt before.

It tried to force more power into its body, only for its hands to dissolve.

Chloe and the rest watched in alarm, wondering if it will regenerate.

It, on the other hand, looked at its hand that was slowly disintegrating, the feeling of pain slowly numbing.

In what qualifies as its mind, another feeling was starting to appear even as it became unable to feel it's body.

"I'm... Dying...?"

It asked, feeling confused, yet feeling certain that death would likely feel like that.

"I'm dying... What is dying...?"

Its whole body slowly started to disintegrate, the feeling of numbness intensifying as it became more and more unable to think.

"Thinking... is too bothersome... Living... is... too... bothersome..."

With such words, it completely disappeared, feeling nothing as it breathed it's last breath.

The group stood there, looking at where it once was, and only when they realized that it was gone, with Luue explicitly stating that, did they finally breathe in relief, as Nino and the rest of the heroes detransformed with a sigh. "Finally! We defeated it!"

Cosmic Actress breathed with relief as well along with Natasi.

Slowly, the group started to relax and smile.

Luue meanwhile, raised mir hands, and a sphere of energy came to existence.

An energy of the same type of that the Nothingness was using.

The group looked at mir, wondering what mi will do with that orb of nothingness.

Mi saw their questioning looks and gave them the answer with a smile.

"Well, you might not know this, but even defeating it and disintegrating its body, The Nothingness will not die. Currently, it is in a state different than being alive or being dead. It is neither asleep or awake. It just still is. But it now, with its energy in my grasp, it will never be able to escape again. It will stay in a prison of its own making. A silence and solitude it always desired." Mi explained to the group that was listening intently.

"Also, even if it is no longer free to cause havoc in the cosmos, you still can't just fix the damage or free the miraculouses right away. Instead..."

Everyone held their breaths in anticipation.

"You should use a portion of this energy, to substitute and help fix the damage. This energy. This nothingness. It works as an antithesis to the laws of the cosmos. If we use it right, we can convince the cosmos to be lenient, and allow the kwami to be freed without the reality morphing again."

Cosmic Actress could not hide nix smile at the news.

Finally, after so long...

The kwami will be truly free...

Nix was surprised then when Luue looked at nix and Natasi.

"This also allows us to help you two, too. We can help Marinette."

Nix covered nix mouth with a hand, emotions rapidly forcing themselves inside nix.

"Help... Marinette...?" Natasi asked, feeling like crying from happiness clockself.

Luue smiled at the two.

"Yes, no longer will Marinette be forced to bear the fate of the world due to the broken will of the universe. And you two as well."

Cosmic Actress fell on nix knees, eyes tearing up from happiness, along with Natasi. "Is that it? Really? After living for so long, trying to acheive a goal we thought it was impossible... Is that it? Are we truly done?" Nix sobbed from happiness.

After so long, nix and loc were free.

No longer will they keep seeing the cosmos repeatedly destroyed. No longer will they suffer living for so long with no end in sight, all their attempts to fix things destroyed.

Finally, this long seemingly-hopeless journey had ended.

The kids felt themselves tearing up at the sight, as the other kwami flew towards Luue.

Luue gave the duo a last smile.

"Farewell, it was really nice to meet you! My brethren! Let's do it!"

The kwami enthusiast smiled as they put their hands and mir hand together, their energy and the power of Nothingness harmonizing, as the reality shuddered. 

The miraculouses started to shatter, turning to dust, but the kwami were still there, they are no longer bound by their previous constraints.

They are no longer a fragment of a concept, they are now truly the embodiments of them. No longer needing to be bound to an object.

Large orbs of energy came out from Cosmic Actress and Natasi's bodies, turning into Nooroo and Duusuu, who gave the duo a thanks and a hug before joining the rest of the kwami.

Reality was then covered with light, and as it slowly disappeared, Chloe saw that the Akuma and Amok are no longer there.

"They're fine. They just were given their own happiness. Along with Marinette." Tikki answered the unspoken question.

Alya hoped things will go well for them.

====================

Marinette found herself standing awake in confusion as she could not remember what happened.

Looking around, she saw that she was in a strange place, everywhere she looked, only white could be seen. Neither could she see an ending to it.

As she kept looking around, she suddenly heard a voice that caused her to jump a little.

"Hello, Marinette."

She looked towards the source of the voice and found two people.

One of them had a circle with roman numerals behind loc.

'Loc?' Marinette thought, still confused.

Somehow, she knew that the one with the circle used the pronouns clo/loc/locs/clockself, while the other used nix/nix/nix/nixself.

But she didn't have time to ponder that as the two identified themselves:

"I am Cosmic Actress, an Akuma, and this is my friend, Natasi, clo is an Amok." The one without the numbers told her with a happy smile, which was sadly not reciprocated by Marinette even in her confusion.

Marinette immediately took a panicked and guarded stance the moment nix stated their true nature, months if not years of training forcing her to put up her guard. "Akuma!?" She gasped.

"No need to worry! I will help clear your confusion!" Cosmic Actress said.

It took a simple finger snap, and before Marinette could process anything, memories started flooding back.

They filed themselves away in her mind almost instantly, and just a moment, later, all of her memories had returned.

And she looked at the duo in front of her, knowing exactly who they were.

And who they came from.

Her face paled as she remembered her justified fit of rage.

She could remember as Hawkmoth's voice was whispering to her to unleash her hatred and wrath-

'And I failed!'

She felt like crying.

After all that effort, it all ended up thrown away.

She became a prey for the villains.

All of that...

'Because I could not con-!'

"And it is not your fault for not controlling how you feel, Marinette. And it isn't your fault for having negative emotions." Natasi cut off her depressing thought immediately, causing her to look in befuddlement, her eyes almost tearing up. "I said, that it is never your fault for having negative emotions. It never was." Natasi said in a soft tone.

Marinette stepped back in fear, not from them, but from what they were telling her.

"N- No! It is my fault! Because of that I was-!" Her words were cut off with a sob, as the reality of the situation asserted itself. "I was Akumatized... I failed in my duty! I couldn't protect my friends or family!"

For a moment, the only voice heard was the sound of her sobbing, before Cosmic Actress spoke with a soft yet serious tone.

"And what's wrong with having negative emotions?"

The phrase hit Marinette like a train, but she couldn't muster a response before nix started speaking up again, slowly approaching her.

"What is wrong with feeling rage? What is wrong with feeling hate? What is wrong with feeling the desire to stop people from abusing you? What is wrong with wanting people to respect your boundaries? What is wrong with wanting people to not harass you? What is wrong with wishing to cry without the fear of being controlled. Tell me Marinette. What is wrong with that?"

Each question made Marinette feel like a blow, not because they were wrong, but because they were so close to home she couldn't find any other way to react.

She knows deep in her heart that she thought of that. Many nights and days, did she feel like crying at the unfairness of it all. She hated being unable to stop Chloe from bullying and hurting her. She hated being unable to stop Chat Noir from harassing her. She hated Hawkmoth for stripping any ability to vent these emotions from her.

She hated it so much-!

But she bottled these feelings down.

Because it's what her duty had forced on her.

The duty that was also forced on her without a choice.

And all these thoughts, they are being told to her face.

With no way to deflect.

By her own Akuma.

It is too much.

"it was never your fault, Marinette. You know it in your heart. Just like it was never your responsibility to deal with Chloe's abusive behavior, and Chat Noir’s entitlement to your body and affection. Even dealing with Hawkmoth, was a job forced on you by a neglectful guy who ran away the moment danger knocked on his doors. It was never your fault and I can't stress this enough." Cosmic Actress shook nix head before gently smiling. "But you don't need to fear them anymore. They will no longer bind you anymore."

Marinette's body stopped shaking for a moment, tears still flowing from her face. "What do you mean by that?"

"They are all dead. In your reality. But it doesn't really matter anymore. You are no longer cursed to be everyone's problem fixer, Marinette. Don't you want to live it? A life without having to invalidate your own feelings for the sake of people who hurt you?" Natasi told her with a soft smile.

Marinette had stopped crying, she can't feel the energy to do so any more.

She had vented a lot of her emotions when she did.

Her body shook, before she looked at them, her face for the first time giving the impression of a smile.

"And how can I trust you two?"

The duo smiled at that. "Because we are you, Marinette. We are your own feelings made manifest." They said in sync.

A warm light blue glow started to shine as Cosmic Actress spoke, still looking at her. "I know that you are scared. You have trusted people before, only for them to betray you. We understand your fears. But please. Find it in your heart to trust us. Trust your own emotions just this once."

The light intensifies, but Marinette could only feel warm, like a kid protected by their parent.

"Please believe in a better future. Hope for a better future!"

What happened next was purely instinct.

Marinette felt herself warming, smiling as she grasped the light, and the entire dimension glowed as well.

She felt that she did the correct thing.

She saw Cosmic Actress and Natasi smiling, waving at her.

"Nice to be your friend, Marinette. We will meet later!"

With that farewell, Marinette happily accepted her new reality, as everything became blue.

===================

A girl wakes up as the alarm clock rings.

She shuts it down, yawning, before going downstairs to get her breakfast.

"Good morning, Marinette!"

She turns around, and saw her siblings giving her a bright smile.

"Good morning, Cosmic Actress, Natasi! Today is pretty, isn't it?"

Natasi, her youngest sibling, smiles at her enthusiasm. "Indeed, shame it's the day we get back to school though~!"

Clo pouts jokingly at that, with Marinette and Cosmic Actress give a light-hearted laugh at that.

"Now, come on, let's go get ready!" Marinette insists.

They gather their school supplies, and together three went downstairs, seeing Tom and Sabine who greeted them with a hug and a smile. "Are you three prepared for school?"

Three enthusiastic nods was the answer Sabine got.

But before they left, Marinette had one thing to announce. It was something...well, something zu had been thinking about for a while. But now, standing in the bakery with zek siblings and parents, everything so perfect even the thought of a new school year couldn’t ruin it, zu was done thinking about it, zu was ready to announce it. It felt right.

It was funny, how zek youngest siblings had figured this out before zu did. “Everyone,” zu announced, “I’m changing my pronouns. I’m going to use zu/zev/zek/levself pronouns from now on.” Zu hadn’t thought to write them down, since zu hadn’t actually been planning to do this today. But what better time than the present? The best time to make the changes that would make you happy was today. It was never too late. “For now, you can still call me Marinette, I haven’t decided if I want to change it yet.” Zu continued. There were so many fun names to pick from, zu didn’t know where to start.

Zek family was overjoyed, and they all shared a group hug as zek siblings congratulated zev and zek parents told zev how proud of zev they were, and there would definitely be a cake just to celebrate the occasion when zu got home from school.

There wasn’t time to make a pronoun pin or anything, but zu would get to introduce levself to zev classmates in most of zek new classes, so that was okay. Zu would get a chance to explain zek pronouns then, and zu could always write them on paper and tape it to zek shirt or something. Or maybe Mr. Aubert, the art teacher, would be nice enough to give zev a blank pin to write on, the way he had for Cosmic Actress and Natasi when they’d changed their pronouns and names last year.

The trio walked side by side, feeling happiness and curious what this new year will hold for them.

Marinette felt so giddy and content at being with zek siblings.

'I don't know what the future will hold but... I will face it with hope and compassion, alongside Natasi and Cosmic Actress. I promise this!' Zu didn't know where this emotional fire came from, but neither did zu care.

It just felt great to have hope for a better future today. 

====================

HAPPY END.

[lost-inthedream]

Request: hi darling!! 🌶 + juho please! tyvm <3

I messed up and had to delete the original ask

Hii <3. Sure

🌶 = random kinky episode

Suggestive content under the cut

Note: I hope you all have a kink on Juho's voice, because yeah...

.

Juho has once said you were allowed to shut him up with a kiss whenever you felt like it. Whenever your lips missed him or he was being too talkative. However, his voice was one of his biggest charms and the way his lips moved to articulate words would never be a reason for you to stop them. On the contrary, he could fill your ears with nonsense for hours and hours, sweet hours indeed, you felt good simply shutting your eyes to his grave voice. An unaccountable pleasure took over you.

A strand of hair escaped from his bun as he turned to his side to look at you. Your hand automatically reached it to remove it from his eyes, a small gesture that drew a small pause in his speech. "Keep talking, love" you whispered.

"Okay, hmm... Where did I stop?"

That was the moment you noticed that the content of his discourse has been being ignored for you during the last minutes. You have heard nothing but the sounds disconnected of their meanings. Honestly, he could be talking Chinese. Your fingers slid to the collar of his t-shirt as a pout formed on your lips. "I wasn't really paying attention" you admitted.

He came closer, eyes locked with yours. They were painted with warm tones of curiosity, attentive and playful, but you knew they could change in a matter of seconds. "Where did your mind go while I talked?"

Your mind was lost in the echoes his voice produced inside you. "You turn me on with your voice, but you talk so little when we make love."

"Wanna make love now?"

You were already in bed, so close that you could feel his gaze changing and burning you in the process. Your head moved in a positive sign.

"Why don't you help me getting rid of this?" He referred to the t-shirt he wore, your fingers were still hooked on its collar. You sat up in order to remove the item from him. Your legs straddled his hips as you pulled his garment up. "It seems like you're gonna say yes to everything I'll suggest today."

He was right. You craved a slow, almost agonizing pace so he would be able to keep talking sweetly. Juho eventually remembered what he was talking about when you interrupted him to fiddle with his hair earlier. "I'm still torn between two names for that song but it definitely has to be the next one I'm uploading for Fantasy anyways". Your palms were then flush on his chest thus you noticed his heartbeat quite faster than normal. Still, he maintained some calm in his speech. "I haven't been so glad about a demo in months".

"I think you're too rigorous on yourself". You tossed the discarded t-shirt to the side.

"Oh! You are listening?" he realized in surprise.

You tilted your head with a gracious yet appealing expression. It was clear that he was supposed to keep talking.

"You know, honey, the fans deserve the best."His voice shortly cracked as you started to rub your clothed core against his front. He kept speaking his mind though. "I'm really grateful to them."

"That's so sweet of you" you gasped.

"Going to my studio and working in music makes me feel alive, but sharing it reminds me that life becomes complete when we have someone to love". his hands rested on your thighs, his words became breathy and he paused a lot. You also made efforts to capture at least fragments of what he was speaking.

[art-damaged]

Asger Jorn, “The Disquieting Duckling” (1959) / black permanent marker

On April 29, 2022, this painting was damaged while on view at the Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, Denmark. The perpetrator, Danish artist Ibi-Pippi Orup Hedegaard (pictured above with the work before committing the act), glued a photograph of herself onto the canvas before signing her name in black permanent marker. The act was was livestreamed by right-wing Facebook page Patrioterne Går Live (“Patriots Go Live”), which is known to have posted anti-Muslim screeds and videos in the past. (The video shows that the right-wing artist Uwe Max Jensen was present at the museum with her at the time of the incident.) Ibi-Pippi was arrested shortly afterwards, and was charged with destroying museum property.

Later the same day, she published a post to Facebook explaining that the “additions” she’d made were actually intended as a comment on Jorn’s methods. To make the original work, she pointed out, Jorn found an anonymous pastoral landscape painting at a flea market and painted a large, garishly colored duck onto the image. (This method, typical of Jorn’s work, is known as “détournement.”) Ibi-Pippi justified her acts as a “double modification” of Jorn’s original “modification,” and intended to ignite a public dialogue on the question of authorship. “Many believe that it is Jorn who has ownership but I completely disagree,” she said. “Jorn had purchased the work and thus had a legal right to the image, but he had no artistic right to delete another artist’s work. No more than I have to delete his work.” (“If you’re around,” she added, “you can go and admire my new work.”)

The museum’s director, Jacob Thage, told Artnet News that restorers were able to remove most of the glue from the photograph, but were still trying to remove a section that had already dried. “We are hoping for a full restoration but we do not know yet,” Thage said, adding that the work might take months. 

(For what it’s worth, Ibi-Pippi later claimed to have accidentally applied the wrong tube of glue, having intended to use a more gentle adhesive. As she told the Danish station TV 2 East Jutland, “I am sorry that the work was mutilated to the extent it was.”)

[forgiveyourwaywardson]

hey sorry, could you please explain what's going on with jared and jensen? im completely out of the loop and i can't for the life of me figure out what this is all about

luckily for you i'm the designated historian in my supernatural discord server so i make notes of every new stupid thing that happens with supernatural. allow me to copy and paste.

June 24, 2021: SEASON 16 FINALE

Jensen Ackles announces that he, his wife, Danneel, and ex-Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson are executive producers for an in-development Supernatural prequel show called The Winchesters, focusing on the "epic love story" of John and Mary Winchester. No one wanted this. [source]

However, every cloud has a silver lining. J*red Padalecki takes to Twitter and, in a spectacularly unprofessional series of tweets, reveals that this is the first time he is hearing of a Supernatural spinoff, and is incredibly upset that he was not previously notified and thus will not be appearing in the new show. In other words, J2 Fallout Theory Real! I’m so enamored with these tweets that I’m going to embed them as images, rather than link them, just in case any of them get deleted (in fact, the third actually was deleted shortly after J*red posted it).

At some point he makes another tweet saying he appreciates the support but would be soooo so sad if anyone involved was "harmed or threatened" (a tweet which many have pointed out sounds like it ought to have a winking emoji on the end).

After this, many other Supernatural alumni (Ruth Connell, Julie McNiven, Jake Abel, Misha Collins, Eric Kripke-- possible others I've forgotten) congratulate Jensen on the prequel, making lighthearted jokes about finding ways to get their own characters on the show. No one connected to the show publicly interacts with J*red's tweets.

On Tumblr, we have a ball.

June 25, 2021

Jensen and J*red post on Twitter, claiming to have talked it out and made up.

Note 1: J*red has yet to apologize to Robbie Thompson for calling him a coward.

Note 2: Some have found it interesting how J*red says they talk often, yet Jensen's reply seems to imply that they haven't spoken in a while.

Since then, Eric Kripke has apologized for a tweet congratulating Jensen. As of now he has deleted both the original tweet and the apology tweet. Jensen's lesbian aunt has started flaming J*red stans on Twitter. Right-wing columnist and former Trump advisor on the 2016 presidential transition team, A.J. Delgado, has also leapt to J*red's defense. Eagerly awaiting further developments.

Hope this helped <3 mwah

[dukeofonions]

Deceit’s Somewhat Acceptance Arc (And Why It Feels Off)

So I was gonna do the video game post first, but then I remembered I’d started this one before I left for the weekend and decided to finish it. As a result, it’s kinda messy and my thoughts are all over the place, I had to delete and rewrite is several times, but I think I managed to get my overall thoughts there. 

As always, this is just my opinion. You are free to agree, disagree, or feel completely indifferent towards a random person who spends their free time dissecting fictional characters. 

We all good? Let’s go then. 

I won’t lie, Deceit was the best part of this video. I didn’t think he’d be included as much as he was. Originally, I thought he’d be content to lurk in the shadows and let Thomas deal with the repercussions of not heeding him in the first place and leave him to sort through the mess himself without his help. Possibly having a cameo in the end, foreshadowing some major event that’s soon to take place, but I was completely wrong and he got the best freaking entrance and completely owned the episode. 

It was great, seeing him take on his role of self preservation and defend Thomas, who was being harmed unknowingly by Patton with how far he was taking things. He encouraged Thomas to start taking better care of his mental health, was given a seat at the table, and even showed they could trust him by revealing his name: Janus

It was wonderful, beautiful, and I have a lot of issues with this. 

Let me explain, on its own, the whole scene building up to Deceit revealing his name, and the following aftermath, is perfect. 

What feels off to me is Janus himself, he feels like a completely different character compared to the Deceit we met in Can Lying Be Good? and saw in action during Selfishness vs Selflessness 

To start, let’s briefly go over Deceit’s character throughout the first 5 episodes we see him in before we get to POF. 

In his debut, Can Lying Be Good? He spends a majority of the episode disguised as Patton. Pushing Thomas to lie to his friend in order to spare their feelings and to avoid the possibility of Thomas being hurt. He’s shown to enjoy the distress the others are going through as the situation becomes more and more uncomfortable, and even gets close to being aggressive when Thomas decides he needs to be honest in this situation. Once it becomes clear Thomas won’t listen to him as Patton, he drops his act and reveals himself. 

Immediately, we are given the impression that this is not someone we can trust. From the music, to Deceit’s entire demeanor, even the Sides’ reactions to him are enough to enforce that idea, as well as Deceit’s reactions to them. 

With Logan, he immediately silences him, growling almost as if he’s annoyed and has had to do this before. He doesn’t really pay Logan any mind after his reveal and ignores him for the most part and Logan is more than eager to expose him for what he is. 

Roman states that he “Hates this guy and his creepy snake face” while adding that he’s “Very kind” which Deceit responds to by giving him a false compliment. Showing right away that this has also happened before with these two (Logan is about to comment on the exchange but decides not to bother)

Virgil clearly has some deep rooted animosity towards Deceit. With the glare he shoots him and the two immediately throw insults at each other which comes back to play in almost all of their interactions. 

We don’t really get much in terms of what Deceit’s character is really like with this first episode. We know he can be a threatening presence, but also has a bit of a goofier, dorky side to him as well. At this point, we’re not sure what his goals are or what his relationships with the other Sides are like (It’s obvious they all don’t like him) but for a while, this was all we got. 

His next appearance was a brief cameo in Logic vs Passoin where he showed up after Logan exclaimed “I won’t have you lying to yourself!” Where he gave an evil chuckle, flipped Thomas off, then sank out without a word. This still didn’t give us much in regards to Deceit’s character, other than enforcing the fact that he didn’t like Thomas and showing that he had a bit of a mischievous side as well. It did, however, show that Thomas was easily distressed by him and wasn’t entirely on board with having Deceit for a Side yet.

 After that, he disappears for 2 episodes before showing up during the end card of Embarrassing Phases, which is one of my favorite scenes in the series, and one that now causes a bit of problems which I will get back to later. Just note that this scene once again reinforces these things about Deceit: He is a threat, he can’t be trusted, he still has a bit of a goofy side, and on top of that his rivalry with Virgil is expanded upon and the idea that these two have a history is put up front and center. 

Then finally, we get our first official episode that takes all we’ve learned about Deceit and amplifies them in Selfishness vs Selflessness. What we get is a character that can be cool and charismatic, but can also be silly. It’s still unclear what his overall goal is, and he delights in being proved right and winning against the others. 

An interesting thing to note here is that all of the interactions Deceit has with the other Sides in CLBG Come back into play here. 

He ignores Logan and keeps his input limited, he uses flattery on Roman to sway him to his side, and of course him and Virgil still have their rivalry, revealing more and more just how much Virgil hates Deceit. We also finally get to see his relationship with Patton, and see that he seems to hold almost the same amount of animosity towards Deceit as Virgil does. Thomas himself isn’t as frightened by him anymore, and is willing to hear him out, but he still doesn’t trust him. 

Throughout the “trial” Deceit openly mocks the others, discredits them, and when he “wins” he rubs that victory in Thomas’ face and is shown laughing and celebrating while the others are at the lowest they’ve been. Things then take a turn when Roman decides to sentence Thomas to go to the wedding and give up the callback, which clearly distresses Deceit to the point where he nearly has a breakdown due to the others not being able to comprehend what he’s trying to say. Which is basically, selfishness isn’t always a bad thing, which he articulates a lot better in POF, but we’ll get back to that. 

He leaves the episode shortly after Logan shows up, but not before delivering this rather ominous line: “It’s clear you all don’t want to listen to reason (while the embodiment of Thomas’ logic and reasoning is standing right next to him) but hear this: I’ll always be a part of you. I’m not going anywhere, and there are smarter ways to get people to do what you want anyway.” 

Does that sound like a threat to anyone else? Or is it just me? Keep in mind at this point, everyone is still very much against Deceit, and he clearly is about to change tactics when it comes to dealing with them and getting what he wants. Another important thing to note is that this is the last time Thomas sees and deals with Deceit directly before we get to POF.

I should probably bring up Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts because while Deceit isn’t in the episode, he is mentioned a couple of times by Remus, who implies that it was Deceit himself who’s responsible for sending Remus out to antagonize the others. While this can’t be confirmed, Remus claims that Deceit said “You’re wanting to be more honest and be direct dealing with your issues, no longer will you deceive yourself about the ugliness within you.” 

(Admit it, you all sang that and added the little “Neat!” at the end. If you don’t, I’ll know you’re lying.) 

This shows that Deceit is switching things up and making good on his “promise” that he made at the end of SVS by forcing Thomas to accept yet another part of him that he doesn’t like. One that, by comparison, is much worse than anything Deceit could bring to the table. 

His next actual appearance is another cameo in Are There Healthy Distractions? where all he does is take his hat back from Roman and berates him for it. The only significant thing to happen here is Virgil’s reaction to seeing him, which again, I’ll get back to in a moment. 

This was the last time we saw Deceit for awhile, we were then subjected to a long drought between episodes as people waited to see the aftermath of the wedding that was the main conflict of SVS. Keep in mind again that so far, Deceit has remained relatively the same mysterious, slightly villainous character that we’ve seen throughout his 5 appearances thus far in the series. 

So you can see why some people would be shocked when he suddenly does a complete 180 and is going about promoting mental health while acting silly around Thomas and befriending Patton, the Side he went head to head with during his last main appearance, and is now being offered a seat at the table while showing genuine concern for Thomas and aiming to protect him, which goes to show that he cared all along.

Right?

Uh, yeah, I’m not buying it. 

Well let me clarify, do I think Janus is evil? No. Is it impossible for him to actually care about Thomas? Of course not. 

And do I think it’s possible for him to change from his villainous persona to a more friendly one? Absolutely. 

The problem here is that it doesn’t feel earned. We’ve only had one full episode with Janus before this, and even in the brief appearances we got his character remained consistent throughout them all. It’s almost like there’s a piece of this puzzle missing, and I have a theory as to where it is. 

In short, Janus has not been fully accepted yet. Thomas trusts him, and even Patton does now, but does Roman? Don’t make me laugh. 

Logan? He was once again removed from the discussion by Janus, which is a running theme with these two, so I doubt he’d be quick to accept someone who continuously silences him unless it benefits him. 

And the biggest factor of them all, Virgil. 

He hates Janus, every interaction these two have had is filled with insults, glares, and Virgil becoming more aggressive than he’s ever been towards anyone in the series. 

Just look at him in ATHD, when Janus shows up hardly anyone pays him any mind. Heck, Remus has continuously popped up throughout the episode and no one has batted an eye, not even Virgil. But as soon as Janus shows up he goes feral, hissing at him while Janus pays him no mind. 

What is going on here? 

It’s glaringly obvious that something has happened between these two, something that won’t be easily swept under the rug when it comes up. 

For one thing, just compare Virgil’s relationship with Janus to his relationship with Remus. We see at the beginning of DWIT that, of course, Virgil is hostile towards Remus and hates him, while being distressed by him. The two know each other and seem to have a bit of a history of their own. 

What’s the difference between Remus and Janus? 

Well, Virgil gets over his fear of Remus in just one episode. By the time it ends, he isn’t bothered by Remus anymore and tells him as such. Remus even seems to be kind of fond of him as well. And when Remus appears again in ATHD, Virgil doesn’t acknowledge his presence at all. Yet when Janus shows up just to retrieve his hat from Roman, he goes into fight mode and probably would have attacked if he’d stayed for even a minute longer. 

And if you need further proof, look no further than the end card of Embarrassing Phases and Janus’ parting words to Virgil: “Just be sure to keep up that personal growth Virgil. Who knows? Maybe soon you could be rid of us all.” 

Again, does that not sound like a threat to anyone else? And why would he say that to Virgil? Is he implying that Virgil is trying to escape from them? Actually get rid of them? There’s so much that this could mean in regards to Janus’ character and what his motivations are, but then POF comes around and suddenly this doesn’t line up with his character at all. 

Don’t tell me you could look at Janus at the end of this episode and say that this is the same guy. He’s gone from leaving an episode with a threat: “You’ve seen the last of me” “You could be rid of us all” “There are smarter ways to get people to do what you want anyway” 

To this: “Take some time for yourself, Thomas.” 

As well as rejoicing in being told he was right and advising Thomas to stop overthinking everything since, as we’ve now seen, it does not help him in the slightest. 

So… What are we missing? What the heck is going on? 

Well, I said it before and I’ll say it again: Janus hasn’t been fully accepted yet. 

Really, only one Side out of the four main Sides has accepted Janus. This Side just happens to be Patton, Thomas’ morality, and the one thing that stood in the way of Janus getting his voice heard. Because as long as Thomas viewed lying as wrong, he’d never listen to him. 

Now that he’s proven that isn’t the case, and that he can help, Patton (and therefore Thomas) no longer sees him as evil. 

But again, Roman, Logan, and Virgil have yet to do so. We know how Roman and Virgil feel about Janus, but we have yet to get Logan’s clear view on him since every time Janus has shown up, he’s been left out of the conversation. Though it’s safe to assume he’d be somewhat bitter about that. 

The main thing is that something has been set up between Virgil and Janus. Something happened to make them enemies and that can’t be ignored, and I believe this will be addressed soon. 

Because if it isn’t, and Janus is accepted immediately by Virgil, then all this would just be explained through bad writing. Which, again, I don’t believe the team is incompetent by any means. However, I do think that this all happened way too fast. 

Let’s look at Virgil for a moment, we got plenty of time to know him throughout season one. We got to see him in more of a villain role, and saw him gradually become closer with the group. We saw hints of him wanting to get along with the others and be a part of them, but ultimately, decided for himself that he was doing more harm than good and so, ducked out. 

We had 12 episodes to get to know Virgil before Accepting Anxiety came out. 12 episodes as opposed to Janus’ 5, two of which were nothing more than brief cameos and one his introduction where he was only truly himself for the ending. 

Really, Janus only had 3 episodes where it was relevant to the plot, and only 1 of those was a full episode, which was immediately followed by him being accepted and acting more like a good guy who just has a bit of a chaotic streak in him as opposed to the mysterious, charismatic Side who works in the background. 

Now, the way I see, there are two ways to justify this sudden change. The first is what I said before, that Janus hasn’t been fully accepted yet and needs to be accepted by Roman, Virgil, and Logan first before this can be achieved. 

And the other thing, which I hate to consider as a possibility, would be that Janus is putting on an act. 

Think about it, Janus realized at the end of SVS that his methods were not working. So he changes his approach, ditching the villain and becoming a hero. He literally appears at the end during a boss battle and puts himself into the role of a protector, defending Thomas from Patton’s harmful behavior. He acts more silly, loosening up, showing genuine care for Thomas. 

Then the biggest red flag, his name reveal. 

As I watched the scene I couldn’t help but find it oddly reminiscent of Virgil’s own name reveal. From the build up, to the delivery, it all felt strangely familiar, almost as if it’d been rehearsed. Manufactured to get the exact reaction from the others (in this case Thomas and Patton) that he wanted. 

Virgil revealing his name was a sign that he trusted the others, and I believe Janus knew this and thus, used it to his advantage. 

And guess what? It worked like a charm. Thomas and Patton immediately began trusting him, Patton even went to him for advice after Roman left. Could you see Patton doing that at the end of SVS? I certainly couldn’t. 

Now I’m not saying this is actually what happened. For all I know, Janus was being completely sincere when he shared his name, and it really was a personal moment. The only reason I have such a hard time accepting it as genuine is because, as I keep saying, none of it matches up with how Janus was before POF. 

Until this point, his character has been consistent and stayed pretty much the same, but now he’s completely changed. And I know it’s normal for characters to grow and change as a story progresses, but again, it just happened way too fast for this character in particular. 

This isn’t helped by the fandom’s complete 180 in regards to Janus. Before this episode, it was still pretty common for him to be seen in a mostly negative light. People outright hated this character, and attacked people who liked him. Then Remus came and wasn’t shown nearly as much hate or negativity as Janus was. Now all of a sudden Janus is a “Good uwu boi” and everyone loves him. I haven’t seen one person doubt Janus’ change of heart. Which is surprising because given the fandom’s treatment of him in the past, I’m surprised this hasn’t been more common. 

But then I remembered that another Side is currently being thrown into a negative light, which is Roman. He’s been thrown under the bus after his recent actions at the end of POF, all while Janus is now being held up on a golden pedestal. 

Honestly, I’m debating ending this post right here because this next part delves way too much into conspiracy territory, but since this would be kind of an awkward ending I’ll go ahead and just throw the idea out there anyway. 

So, it’s been established that the Sides are aware that what they’re doing is being viewed by an audience. Roman, Logan, and Patton have all addressed the audience directly before. Virgil has given direct glances into the camera, and of course Thomas greets the audience in every episode and closes each one out with a message at the end of every one. 

In Crofters: The Musical Roman outright addresses the fact that Logan has become more popular than him. Implying that somehow, he has access to that information. So if Roman does, then why wouldn’t Janus?

Why wouldn’t Janus be aware of Roman’s insecurities? Why wouldn’t he use this to his advantage and spend the entirety of SVS boosting his ego since he knew that’s what he wanted? 

What if Janus, being aware of the audience and how they view the Sides, knew that all he needed for his plan to succeed was not only to convince Thomas that he could be trusted, but the audience. He knows that they don’t like him, so what does he do? He puts himself into a much more positive light, while Roman is put into a position where he’s made out to be the bad guy?

And if this was the case, then it worked. A majority of the fandom now loves Janus while Roman is being left behind. He’s the perfect scapegoat, a distraction from the real plans Janus has in store. 

But that idea is so far out there and paints Janus as more of an actual villain when really, I don’t think he is at all. 

What’s most likely is that we’re going to learn what happened between him and Virgil, and then watch as Thomas and the others rethink their decision to trust him. 

I don’t think Janus is evil, this series is constantly pushing the message that everything isn’t all black and white. Janus, like everyone else, just wants what’s best for Thomas but has a different way of achieving that goal. 

My hope is that the writers are aware of this and have a plan for Janus’ character to develop more. Because if that isn’t the case and Janus remains a “good guy” from here on out then all of Janus’ previous appearances would be rendered meaningless. 

He’d might as well be a completely different character at that point, because the Deceit that I (and many others) became invested in and loved since his first appearance would be gone. Replaced with a softer, less complex, less engaging “uwu soft boi” that now seems to be the fandom favorite. 

Which makes me curious, if Janus is revealed to be lying to some degree, and was tricking Patton and Thomas, would everyone go back to hating him again? Would they give him a chance to explain himself and grow, or would they go right back to seeing him as nothing more than the evil villain they believed they were introduced to back in CLBG

Okay, that’s pretty much all I’ve got on this topic. It’s kinda messy by my standards and I’m sure I repeated myself a lot. So you are more than welcome to critique my points and debate them with your own. Just to clarify, I still love Janus. And I stand by the fact that he was the best part of this new episode. I just hope that this isn’t all the development he gets and that he continues to have his ups and downs. 

And come on, how could they possibly pass up the opportunity to do the “Liar revealed” trope with the literal embodiment of Deceit? 

[ask-commanderzavala-archives]

Hi all, I'm the original creator and mod of this blog. I quit playing destiny back during ttk, and quit tumblr shortly after. The person I put in charge of this blog as my replacement seems to have abandoned it, and thus I have 2 options. Find a new mod or delete the blog and free up the url. I guess there's a third option where I leave the blog up as an archive of the destiny 1 days, but that seems selfish. Please let me know what the community would prefer, I'll check back in a week.

[cutemoniic]

a not so friendly reminder, because im pissed off as hell, that i keep a lot of stuff quiet to avoid ooc drama and stress. this is NOT one of these occasions, because i shut up about it for far too long. the person who is involved actually thinks that theyre getting off scotts free, but hoho and fucking HO theyre not.

i have despised those who played sweethearts, then revealed themselves as addicted to ic/ooc/whatever drama if it gave their muse(s) the spotlight, impulsivity and not really thinking about ic consequences over ooc and vice versa thus possibly harming their rp partners and the shared trust they have, those who only made their muses bond with fucking traumas because its the easiest way to both get attention and 'develope their character' (spoiler; its not!) and with people i cared about that revealed themselves as completely unwilling to take blame for anything that they caused unless it was to gather pity points and try to trick the other person in dropping it due to feeling bad for them waa waa waa. oh, and it includes trashtalking or making up sudden problems about other people who are supposedly close to them because its the easiest way to gather, you guessed it, attentions and pity points! its easier to blame things on people than to look at ourselves and say ''hey, maybe i am the problem, i should work on that...'' and while i can understand that you may not have the correct help network or even the meanings to help yourself, its very hard. but the moment you start hurting people, its when your mind should be dead set in getting actual fucking help. with ANY means necessary. bull-fucking-doze through everything just to get help.

the problem in this is that you promised me to try and change, or fuck off from our lives forever, which is a very convenient alternative of saying ''i do not intent in changing how i behave ever so ill leave you alone''. to quit rp because it was harming your mental health with various drama, and you said that ''you were plenty pissed at yourself'' for ''letting this happen'', when in reality you could have changed it around with a bit of spine put into it, but all the sweet words of support me and others gave to you were better than try and forcing yourself in an uncomfortable position of struggling to change and improve yourself. guess what you did? you never stopped rping. you took some days off cowering to see if there was gonna be backlash, then noticed that we werent going to call you the fuck out for your behavior, and went back to it immediately with 0 remorse, keeping the stuff our muses gifted you because we did not stopped you or told you anything about it so hey a loophole to exploit for muse purposes! it didnt mattered that another person was hurt by the fact that you were finicky and kept making up excuses to keep your muse in a cute uwu relationship as long as you had what you wanted and you could get yourself out of trouble by squeezing out a few tears. im very convinced that you only kept it around to have an excuse to have other relationship, so as soon as you got your #1 prize nothing else mattered to you, but you ALSO wanted that. for your impulsivity, you put muses and muns through uncomfortable, VERY alarming scenarios just to fullfill your need for your muse to be at the center of a fucked up show, and when confronted about it, you would pull the guilt trip card. im over that.

and not only this shitshow, you conveniently retconnected our muses from yours too, instead of addressing the situation properly or giving me more of a ''im sorry i suck sooooo FUCKING MUCH ill go now forget about me since im trash and please beat me to death on the way out''! you received 0 consequences for what you did, so you basked into it and ran like the wind back to what you were doing without a care that you hurt people who cared about you. you were ''still allowed'' to do things, making your final and victimistic speech to me completely and utter horse shit. you lied to me in your intentions because it got me off your back faster, despite me not being even remotely aggressive despite being pissed, but you never had any intentions of bettering yourself. it takes too much work, too many opportunities of attention wasted, so why actually sticking to it? you were deeply overwhelmed each time a muse was into drama, or better, when one of your muses wasnt at the center of attention, while stuffing your own muses FULL OF IT. FULL. OF. IT. i swear to fuck, i have never seen more drama filled muses than yours, and thats NOT a compliment or how a muse should even remotely be. a muse shouldnt be characterized by traumas and have them coddled and cuddled at every step if you want to bond with them. oh, and therapy for your muses to ACTUALLY solve their issues was a long, drawn out attention-filled endless journey that you forced my muse into, but the second someone else that you cared more about suggested it, you made your muse jumped over it like willy the fucking coyote would jump on beep beep, fully knowing that it would have appeared on our dashboards, since you were still following us and unfollowed me shortly after i unfollowed your muses. in case youre wondering, THIS THING was my breaking point. you are addicted to ic and ooc attentions both, and you feel no need to be better about anything until you can get what you want or need. this is entirely fucking malicious, and i cant stand it.

i dont have any other words for you, except that i could still very well give you an ample dose of backlash by simply going back into our chat, copy what you said about certaint people and how much ''trouble'' they were giving you, and paste it to them with no explanations. because, yknow, thanks to your inability of solving simple problems and blowing them WAY out of proportion to get sympathy out of it in hope to get peoples mind off other bigger problems, maybe caused me to misjudge some people who were probably clueless about ''what they were causing you'', because ooc communication is a thing from another planet, yeah? despite me actually CHEERLEADING you the fuck on to talk to them about the troubles you had with them, it never happened. im personally a very screenshott-y person in cases this shit happens. so no use going back and editing or even deleting the messages. i got what i needed already.

i know who i am speaking about. i will not name any names because i wanted this, originally, to stay quiet since it seemed ''solved'', but i know that this shit will reach them, and they will of course do absolutely nothing because of the reasons i listed upwards. maybe whine and moan and play victim as usual, probably trashtalk me around or twist the narrative instead of yknow trying to fix stuff. which i dont expect them to do, which they have NEVER done until they had no other way to receive attentions or to slip out of a situation, yadda yadda yadda. peace the fuck out. im done with this bullshit.