#apparently the main stars’ choice but still would’ve been better for them to have one

[bikatsukiyuuri]

so many people are so wrong about anora it’s breaking my brain. have you seen how that movie ends. it’s not “pro-prostitution” lol. also it’s a screwball comedy for like a good third of the runtime and i think that rocks

[yuesya]

“The Zenins finally named an heir?”

“Yup, seems like they finally got around to it,” Satoru laughs. “Or maybe their clan head just did it on a whim?”

It’s an amusing thought. The current head of the Zenin Clan is an extraordinarily difficult person to pressure into doing anything –as this sort of thing tends to be, when the person in question is apparently of the opinion that ‘murder’ is an excellent solution to most of her problems. For all that the Gojo elders are constantly grumbling over how the Zenins’ clan head should technically belong to them and not the Zenins, Satoru doesn’t doubt that there are a number of them who are also quietly relieved by not having to deal with someone who has no qualms about killing and isn’t afraid to make her stance obvious. Or act on it, for that matter.

Suguru tilts his head. “The Zenin clan head… oh, I think I remember her. She came around the Tokyo campus once before, didn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Satoru grins at the other boy. “You asked me if she was one of my clansmen, remember?”

Suguru flushes slightly in embarrassment as he snaps, “Well how was I supposed to know? The two of you really do look alike, I can’t be the only one who thinks that!”

“Mhm. You’re definitely not the only one.” Zenin Shiki has what’s considered the ‘classic’ Gojo look, all silvery-white hair and light coloration, instead of the Zenin appearance. Ebony hair and eyes, as dark as the shadows that the Zenins pride themselves in.

That still doesn’t change the fact that she’s a Zenin and not a Gojo, though.

“Sorcery clans tend to intermarry with each other,” is all he offers in explanation to his civilian-born friend. Usually, when there are such unions between well-established bloodlines of equal standing and prestige, there are certain vows in place –such as children being returned to the mother’s clan should they turn out to have inherited signature techniques from the mother’s side of the family.

In the case of Zenin Shiki, however, the Gojo Clan discovered that there was a loophole. She possessed cursed eyes, yes, but they were unprecedented in the long history of the Gojo Clan. Therefore, as the Gojo Clan had not demanded that all children possessing cursed eyes be relinquished to them as part of the vow, it stood to reason that new abilities born of the union would be considered as belonging to the Zenin Clan.

To be fair, cursed eyes were rare, and the only real case that still existed among sorcerers in this day and age was the Six Eyes. Which were rare enough already, and usually only found in the Gojo Clan’s main family.

No one had thought that there would be a Zenin granddaughter of a Gojo-Zenin union resulting in a pair of new cursed eyes.

The Zenin elders had probably been unbearably smug about the whole thing, up until they’d been slaughtered by the girl when she ascended her position over her former clan head’s cooling corpse. After which it had probably been the Gojo elders’ turn to wipe their brows and be thanking their lucky stars over having narrowly dodged a bullet there.

Or not, as the case may be; there were still some old fogeys laboring under the impression that the Zenin Clan had simply ‘raised the child wrong’ and that she would’ve turned out to be so much better had the Zenins admitted their own inadequacies and surrendered custody of the girl to them.

Pfft.

Well, it wasn’t as if any of them could turn back time. What’s done was done, and now they had to live with the consequences of their decisions.

Interesting choice for Zenin Shiki to name Zenin Naoya as her heir, though.

Ordinarily, a new clan head who’d supplanted their predecessor through force would want to establish their own bloodline as the new ruling family, but clearly Zenin Shiki had foregone picking one of her close cousins to be her heir. None of them had been specifically elevated to positions of power, either. She herself also had not chosen to marry into one of the more influential Zenin bloodlines as part of an alliance through marriage.

The only strength I need is my own, was the message that Satoru was seeing here.

… Or perhaps not? After all, the unexpected choice of Naoya as heir was definitely going to give people thoughts. Especially those who’d been very unhappy when Zenin Naobito, the previous head of the Zenin Clan, had been killed by a small slip of a girl. A girl who was distinctly Gojo-looking in appearance, despite her Zenin blood –the Zenins likely still had hang-ups about their clan head being killed by a Gojo, given the… historical precedent behind such a thing.

Hmm.

… Well, whatever game Zenin Shiki was playing here, it didn’t have anything to do with Satoru. And hey, maybe she wasn’t playing any games at all –maybe Zenin Naoya was just the strongest Zenin in the younger generation, and she’d made her decision based on that?

Who knows?

[tryandbehappy]

Oh my god. What utter bullshit.

Do you realize what they did? They made Nick the fucking scapegoat with no closure, no resolution, no development, nothing. And the worst part? It’s all completely OOC.

Why?

Because if they wanted to show that he was some kind of villain June became disillusioned with, then they should’ve actually shown him being shady and doing something really unforgivable and irredeemable at least. They should’ve given him a real “dark side,” a secret life, something ( i honestly can’t even imagine what it could’ve been —considering she forgave Lydia and Serena for things that were so much worse. But okay. At minimum, he would’ve had to personally shoot those girls and assault someone right in front of her for this level of rejection to make any f***ing sense)

But they didn’t.

All we ever saw were things that made us feel sympathy for him, compassion for him.

And then what happens?

June throws him away like a fing dog. Even when literally everyone else is defending him (even Luke and Serena) She’s like “nah, f that, it was his choice, he deserved it” 😱

Completely erasing everything they shared. EVERYTHING. Don’t get me started to list everything he did for her.

I genuinely don’t even have words for how f*ing absurd that is. So what are we left with?

A message that her love for him was… what? Fake?Unacknowledged? That he was never really good? That it meant nothing?

Because apparently, “all commanders are evil.”

Except wait — not all of them. Lawrence is fine. Rapists are evil — but not Lydia, not Serena. THEY get redemption. THEY get forgiveness. Even from June herself.

The hypocrisy is off the charts.

Nick gets destroyed for one single mistake. (And it wasn’t even really a mistake)

She knows his circumstances. She knows he has no one outside. She left him. She knows he has a wife and a child now. She knows all of that.

So if the goal was to make him look like a monster then WHY give him a wife and child he actually cares about?Why show that he values loyalty, family, love? Why frame him as the one man who stayed decent in a hellish system only to punish him for it?

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build a character whose entire arc is about being emotionally grounded, loyal, protective and then expect us to believe he’s evil because he didn’t abandon his child?

In his final scene, you have ROSE pressuring him to protect his child and that was his motive. And now we’re supposed to go, “oh yeah, that’s a bad guy”?

WHAT???

It just…It doesn’t make any f***ing sense. And let’s be real — this episode told me nothing I didn’t already suspect. They planted those dumbass lines earlier:

“the winning side,”

“June asked me to leave Gilead.” It was already clear they were setting him up for a fall.

So what’s the takeaway?

The entire show used us — used the fanbase’s love and trust and compassion for Nick —

just to keep us watching. Just to keep us emotionally invested. So that in the end, they could drop this cheap lazy f***ing twist where he’s suddenly “the villain” not because it makes sense, but because they wanted shock value.

And in doing that, they made the main character June look like a coward. A hypocrite. A bitter woman who never actually grew, never evolved. An ungrateful disgusting woman.

She judges based on labels (only Nick btw), even though she, of all people, should understand the gray areas —better than anyone. Her mother doesn’t. Luke doesn’t. But she lived it. She knows.

And still, in the end, she chooses the white coat (strange she wasn’t wearing it like when she was watching the fucking ballet)

She turns her back on Nick.Betrays their entire story. Over one thing. ONE decision — a situation she herself put him in. A father of her child. Made out of love! (She said it herself)

It’s disgusting.

And the message it sends? Absolutely revolting. I don’t even know how to comment on this anymore.

F*** them. They deserve a f***ing avalanche of 1-star reviews, internet rage, and public backlash.

Because this, this is how you butcher a legacy.

[angeli-marco-writes]

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆  Tom Holland - Just Friends?  ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

A/N - posting for the first time in forever, this time with a Tom Holland imagine that’s already been on my wattpad for a loooong time. Go check that out though, angeli.marco because I have whole ass collections on there rather than just the odd few one shots. 

Warnings - drinking, very light mentions of drugs, swearing. Also its like 5k words so it’s long as well.

Summary - you and tom have been best friends for a long time and inseparable for just as long. The boys welcome you as one of their own, and you’re basically a part of the family. That’s your main issue, because when you begin to harbour feelings for your best friend, you’re not sure if he feels the same.

YOU AND TOM HAVE AN INTENSE FRIENDSHIP, there’s no denying it. In fact, the intensity worries his family, it all happened so fast.

The two of you met about a year and a half ago at your local supermarket. You were just going shopping for some food as you moved to London, and you saw Tom there. You recognised him, but you of course didn’t want to be a bother, so you began to hyperventilate in the bread aisle, thinking you were alone, just when Tom poked his head around the corner. 

“You okay, Miss? You sound like you’re dying.” Those were his very first words to you, and you couldn’t even look him in the eye when responding.

“I-I’m fine, tha-thanks Mr Holland.” Could you have been any more awkward? 

However, Tom, thankfully, found it endearing, and to this day he still does. A day hasn’t gone by for the last 18 months that the two of you haven’t spent together. Within a week of meeting, you were on first name terms with all of his family and friends, and every second of your lives are spent in each other’s company, simply platonic though - at least for him.

He spends his time with you on pranks, swiftly followed by an apology cupcake (never handmade, at least not by him), and in the evening, he hauls you up to the roof of your apartment building or a spot on his house to get drunk and look at the sky. It’s what you love about him, he incorporates everything the both of you enjoy into your daily lives and it creates this brilliant, inescapable routine of happiness and hangovers, and almost every morning that you wake up with him on the other side of his bed or yours, only to find him half hanging off it, you feel this intense happiness in your chest. That feeling is immediately shut down when you realise that to Tom, you’ll be nothing more than his friend. And in a few months, your whirlwind friendship will be over and he’ll be a stranger to you, a big star you stalk on Instagram, he’ll never be your Tom.

Today, you’d planned to go over to his house as soon as you woke up after spending one of your only ever nights apart, since his parents were out with Paddy, meaning it would only be you two and the boys, whom you also got on well with. He left his door unlocked when he knew you were coming over, something else that confused you, and why would he want you over whilst his parents were absent? Yes, he’s a 23 year old actor, but he’s still a mummy’s boy. You trusted that nothing would happen even though you secretly hoped it would.

On your walk to his house, you text him and get a reply almost immediately, though not what you expect.

YOU - Nearly there :)

TOM - I nicked his phone baby, see you at the door. Harry x

You smile in spite of yourself, shutting your phone off and shoving it in your back pocket with the elegance of a hippo, stumbling over his drive before you even reach his front door. You take a heavy sigh while gathering your dignity, looking up at the house. In the attic, Harrison’s sitting in the window seat, his head in his hands while holding his phone between his shoulder and his ear, another fight in paradise apparently, Sam is in the front room, Tom’s in his bedroom (more precisely in his wardrobe), and Harry is nowhere to be seen. That can only mean trouble.

You open the door and kick your shoes off in the porch, closing the front door as you cautiously open the second, only to be tackled and restrained. Your hands are held behind your back with a strong arm winding around your waist and hot breath fanning your ear.

“Surrender your sweets, baby, or I’ll text your mum from Tom’s phone.” Chirps a voice, cracking a little because you know he’s trying to keep a straight face. How does he always know?

“My back right pocket, be careful or Tom will kill you for laying a hand on me.” You say, and the smirk in your voice is obvious. Within seconds, you’re freed but pulled to the ground by a laughing Harry, laughing so hard his cheeks are a magnificent red and his breathing laboured. “Lovely to see you too Harry.” You say, passing him the packet of skittles that you always carry with you. He takes them gratuitously and stands up first, pulling you up off the floor much to the disappointment of a scowling onlooking Sam, and you race up the stairs to Tom's room. 

“Knock knock,” Upon entering, a childish grin is all over your face.

“Did you get my phone off Harry on my way up here?” Tom asks solemnly, not moving from his position virtually inside his man-sized wardrobe. You flop down on his bed which just happens to be far more comfortable than your own, and sigh.

“No, Harry threatened me with it but he loves me enough to hand it over if you want me to get it.” You grin, your eyes glued to him, but he just doesn’t move. “You okay?” You ask and he nods.

“Yeah course baby, why wouldn’t I be?”

There’s something up that you can’t place, so to snap him into action you mention something guaranteed to get Tom riled up. “Your brother trapped me on my way in, if I hadn't made him laugh he would’ve been grabbing my arse to get hold of my sweets.”

Tom spins on his heel, leaping onto the bed beside you. He starts to trace a calloused finger down your face and neck, only stopping at the neckline of your jumper. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

A lump forms in your throat. His touch electrifies your body, making your mind go lax, but you can’t be complacent. You’re just friends, right?

“Of course he didn’t. Now what are we doing today?” You roll off the side of the bed and away from Tom, folding your arms secretively across your chest. You look out the window at the houses across the street, watching cars go by and seeing the leaves flying in the gusts of wind that come every so often, London really can be pretty.

Tom stands up and follows you, his eyebrows knitted together in concern. He places a hand on your shoulder and tilts your chin up to meet his eyes. “Did Harry hurt you? Tell me, please.”

You smile sadly, shaking your head. “He didn’t, he never would, I promise, I just don’t feel great today,” This ends up being the wrong thing to say, because Tom proceeds to place his hand on your forehead and then the sides of your neck, followed by a chaste kiss to your head which makes your whole body feel weightless. His lips are so soft.

“You haven’t got a temperature, maybe Sam’s lunch will make you feel better.”

For the next two hours, the two of you sit a little too much of a respectable distance apart on the sofa while watching your favourite show, LOST. You don’t talk much, but you find his baby brown eyes looking at you and his mouth gaping like a fish every so often, making a fiery blush heat your face and neck. Harry decides to sit in the empty space between the two of you, shortly followed by Harrison who sits on the arm of the sofa with his arm around your shoulders, only leaving when called to help with the lunch by Sam.

“Harry, can you piss off please?” Tom says after a string of continually failing attempts to push his brother from the sofa space between the two of you.

“Why, so you can sit with your girlfriend?” Harry teases, once again making the wrong choice with an already aggravated Tom. The pair leap to their feet, neither wearing slippers, and start legging it around the house.

You can hear the painful thuds of the pair no doubt slamming into walls and leaving dents, the harsh skids of the tiled floor when their socks fall down their heels, the shrieks and yells of disdain between the brothers, and finally the crash, crack and groan sequence of them piled on the floor, with Harrison entangled in them - you can tell from his posh sounding squeak of despair.

Begrudgingly, you stand up and leave the comfort and warmth of your sofa crease and make your way to the kitchen where Sam is blatantly ignoring the existence of his brothers and their imbecility. 

“Smells good Sam, sorry about them, it’s my fault.” You say absently, crouching down to untangle the pile of tangled limbs.

“Yeah,” Sam responds with a snort, “it is your fault, they keep fighting because they’ve fallen so madly in love with you and can’t decide who should have you.”

His words make you stop dead in your movements and cause an eerie silence to settle over everyone. For a solid, lengthy minute that feels like an hour, no one moves or speaks or breathes, and you’ve never been so confused in your life. Slowly, you stop trying to help the boys and you stand up.

“I- um, he was joking baby.” Tom stammers, watching you stand up to leave. What is it with that nickname making you feel things? 

“Yeah, slip of the tongue love.” Sam adds, leaning over the stove to catch your hand on your way out. You turn to face him, only to have him shoot you an apologetic glance.

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll be upstairs, come find me when you’ve grown up.” You say finally, closing the kitchen door on your way out.

As soon as you’re securely in Tom’s room, you clasp your hands together and release a long held groan of desperation, sliding down the back of the door. Circumstance is killing you, why can’t life just be simple? You look around Tom’s room at all of the framed pictures of the two of you hung from his walls, propped up on his window sill, and a special one in a heart on his bedside locker. Since you met, he’s been your one and only. You haven’t even thought about another boy, well, man. What Sam said has to have been a coincidence, Harry can’t like you, or so you tell yourself. It’d be far easier to date Harry than Tom, but it'd ruin your friendship with them both. You let out another groan and sprawl yourself out on Tom's bed. It’s so familiar to you - the duvet, the mattress, the smell that can only be described as Tom, your makeup stains on the pillows, just everything, including a dress of yours in the wardrobe in case you need to get ready at his house. 

Your eyes flutter closed and your mind spirals back to the day you met. Even then you were surprised at how laid back he was, until it came to his brothers.

──⭒─⭑─⭒──

You look all around your new apartment for a snack, but there’s nothing. Literally nothing except for frozen rice. With a disgruntled moan, you grab your coat and walk down the five flights of stairs to get out of your new building, and walk in the cold London weather and wind to the nearest supermarket. You look inside before entering, and it thankfully seems to be relatively empty, so you shrug off your hood and go inside, only to be met with the sight of your favourite actor, the gorgeous new Spider-Man, Tom Holland. You suffer an internal debate of whether to talk to him or not, and decide against it when your lungs and mind decide to conspire against you.

You quickly run into the bread aisle and think of anything possible to calm you down, but your lungs still don’t want to work, causing your every breath to come out as a laboured whistle. You begin to browse the loaves in an attempt at normality - wholemeal to white, rolls to wraps, but your overdriven brain won’t stop reminding you that your celebrity crush is literally feet away, scrap that, about one foot now since he’s come around the corner.

“You okay, Miss? You sound like you’re dying.” he says to you half jokingly, smiling crookedly at you.

“I-I’m fine, tha-thanks Mr Holland.” you stammer back, immediately face palming and turning away from him, but he’s just laughing at you. “I was hyperventilating because I saw you, even more suave and gorgeous in person.” You say as an attempt to recover, and he seems flattered.

“A fan then. Nice to meet you, now let's shop because this place closes early on Sundays. '' he laughs and swoops up your basket that you’d forgotten about and left strewn across the aisle. 

You follow wherever he walks, watching the way his calves tense when he leans up to the top shelves, the way his arse clenches when he’s deep in thought, the way he smiles at you like a newly rehomed puppy whenever you compliment him or try to be humorous.

Towards the end of your shop, you haul him to the alcohol aisle and pile spirits and mixers into your basket by the gallon. “Game recognises game. Wanna get pissed and watch the stars?” He asks, examining a strawberry vodka that you threw into your basket that just so happened to be mainly alcohol with only a couple of essential food items.

You’re more astounded and taken aback than you can ever remember being, but with one look at his beautiful face you agree with a little too much fervour, subsequently knocking your hair free from its bun and making Tom laugh again. You get the urge to elbow him but withhold in order to preserve this new friendship. While you pay, Tom texts his brother who parks outside and collects the shopping from Tom, but not without warning you that he can be a little tactile. You brush him off with a smile and lead Tom back to your apartment.

He insists on carrying all of your shopping bags into your building and convinces you to take the lift up to your flat, wherein you dump everything but three bottles of alcohol before he’s dragging you up the roof and unscrewing a bottle of echo before you even have the door open.

He collapses through the door and out into the fresh air, taking your hand in order for you to follow suit, though a little more gracefully. He passes you the wine and finds a dry piece of roof, upon which he places his jacket down and crashes onto it.

“How come you’re not treating me like a celebrity?” He asks, pulling you down to sit beside him. You think for a moment and eventually shrug, your eyes trailing back to the sky.

“Because you don’t act like a celebrity I suppose.” You respond, taking another swig from the dreadful bottle of wine. “You act like a normal guy, doing grocery shopping, helping me shop, bringing a minging fan such as myself back to my flat and insisting on drinking with me. You act like a nicer version of every other lad our age.”

He leans over you, engulfing you in a hug and grabbing for the vodka and coke. “I think we’re going to be very good friends.”

The next morning, you find the two of you hungover and fully dressed on top of your bed, glass liqueur and wine bottles decorating your floor. All you remember is going shopping, meeting Tom, and getting incredibly drunk while stargazing. Too drunk to viably do anything besides sleep and throw up, the latter of which you hope to god did not happen.

Tom stirs soon after and just hugs your stomach while groaning and rubbing his head, complaining that he’s never going to drink again - which you know will last approximately twelve hours.

You proceed to eat a make-do breakfast, followed by a heavy dose of paracetamol before Tom walks you to his house. He helps you up the step and just shouts, “this is my new best friend, we’ll be in my room!” 

You see his family's scepticism from down the hall, but Tom doesn’t seem bothered about them or calling you his new best friend, and that's how it all begins.

──⭒─⭑─⭒──

“Lunch!” Comes Sam’s voice from outside the door, snapping you out of your reverie, followed by a click and some footsteps. He sits down beside you on the bed, stroking your hair. He doesn’t need to ask if you’re okay or not, he’s just exceptional at reading people, and he really genuinely cares about everyone. He sits you up and hands you a plate with the kindest smile. You don’t need to tell him how you feel, he can tell that you’re confused and tired and in love with his brother - that happened fast.

“They’re locked in the dining room with Harrison. Honestly, forget about them, my brothers are complete dickheads.” He says, sliding you a plate.

“Trust me, I know. They’re worse than that, I think that's why I love you and your family so much.” You sigh deeply, a tear forming in your eye as you rest your head against Sam’s shoulder and he wraps his spare arm around you. He’s a friend to you, one that isn’t messing with your feelings.

A rap on the door breaks your and Sam's discussion, and Tom enters with his back hunched and frowning. “Hug?” Is all he says. Maybe it's best if you don’t discuss it and go back to normal with both your Tom and Harry, maybe the intensity will die down and you’ll be able to go five minutes without each other.

“Hug.” You say, clambering your way off Tom’s bed and subsequently melting into his grip. He hugs you tighter than ever before, borderline crushing your shoulders and temporarily preventing you from breathing, but hearing the steady thrum of his heartbeat inside his chest is enough, feeling his chest and arm muscles tense and release around you makes you forget what this was all about, it just makes you crave his smell to be all over you, makes you crave his kisses on every inch of your body and not just your cheeks; being this close to him makes you crave the parts of him that you’ve been denied, flaws included.

“I’m gonna leave before something worse starts, catch you downstairs baby.” Sam says, collecting your plates and leaving you chuckling into Tom's chest, still reluctant to let go of him, and he seemed to feel the same. You tilt your head up a little so you’re at the perfect angle to examine every feature of Tom’s face - everything from a tiny part of his face that he missed while shaving, the twinkles of his eyes, his decidedly haywire eyebrows. You lose track of the time that you remain in his grip, but it feels right, with this being quite probably the longest you’ve gone without speaking and your first form of disagreement.

“I love you baby.” He murmurs, squeezing you momentarily tighter before holding you at arm's length. Baby, the nickname that all the Hollands and Harrison insist on calling you, but it ignites a raging fire of longing in your veins whenever Tom says it, especially when it follows those three words.

“You too, T” You reply with a faint hint of sadness tugging at your heart, so you jump up when his back is turned and scruff his hair. “Piggyback please.”

Tom proceeds to give you a purposefully bumpy piggyback down the stairs and out to his garden, where the other three are huddled suspiciously close around a collection of golf clubs. You climb down from Tom’s back and glance up at the winter sunshine, making Tom look borderline ethereal with his smile illuminated by Sol, Norse Goddess of sunlight. He looks perfect, and that's what kills you, you wouldn’t deserve that level of perfection anyway.

You waste the afternoon away by playing back garden golf with a twist, if you miss three shots in a row then you take a shot, it does not end well. The boys swiftly get too competitive and have to drink, leaving you the only sober one between four tipsy lads in their early twenties, and their level of intoxication makes it easier for you to continually beat them.

Early evening comes by, and Harrison seems on edge, making him run upstairs to the attic to answer a phone call, no doubt from his girlfriend. The four of you watch him from the garden - his sighs turn to yells, and his yells soon turn to crying into a pillow.

“Who’s turn is it?” Tom asks, and you raise your hand. You turn to take one last look at the three brothers, all with the same sad smiles and fretful eyes, and you run up all the stairs to the attic where Harrison is now just standing blankly, staring at a wall. Instead of asking or making him talk, you do what Sam did for you, just hug him.

──⭒─⭑─⭒──

You wake up in Tom’s arms after a long nap on his sofa post-golf, the other three boys asleep on the sofa beside yours. You smile at the sight, gently nudging Tom awake despite your not wanting to stir him. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps despite his snores. His eyelashes always flutter and his nose twitches while his hair creates all sorts of patterns on the pillows he lies upon.

“Let’s go to the roof, you grab the wine.” you say, watching his perfect brown eyes open and a smile instantly grace his lips upon the sight of you. 

You grab some blankets and make your way to the second floor bathroom window where you leave the window propped open for Tom. Just outside is a patch of flat roof that permits the two of you to sit or lie there, stargazing and getting drunk, you’ve even fallen asleep there once or twice, not to mention the mildly illegal substances that you’ve smuggled in.

Tom arrives minutes after you just as night is properly settling in. The stars twinkle in the sky as far as the eye can see, certain stars shining brighter than others and those are the ones that you and Tom have studied over the past year.

“Nigel’s on fire tonight!” He exclaims, pointing towards a star just south-west of Sirius. You stifle a giggle, looking at Tom who passes you a bottle of nice red wine, a rarity for the two of you. 

“It's Rigel and you know it.” You return, laying your head on his broad shoulders. He lies his head atop yours, placing kisses to your hairline. You involuntarily let out the faintest hum of agreement, turning your focus away from the longing that’s filling every pore of your body and returning it to the stars which you worship so profusely. You take a swig of wine, handing your bottle back to Tom who just places it down and turns to you.

He looks solemn, business like, this is a Tom that you’re not a fan of at all. “What Sam said earlier…” He starts, but you turn away from his gaze to trace the whole Canis Major constellation with your eyes, focusing on Sirius to will yourself away from crying. Just the thought of what Sam said being true makes you simultaneously joyful and sullen, it makes you want to reach for the stars and cry, but most of all, it just makes you sick, and you know it's not the wine talking.

“Don’t say it, Tom.” You begin. “Don’t you dare start to talk to me about that when I’ve been so painfully in love with you since the moment we met, don’t act like you can brush off what he said as a joke, because if you don’t want me then maybe Harry does.” 

You know it’s wrong to be saying all of this, so wrong, but all of a sudden, your mouth stops doing what your brain tells it to, and your heart takes over. 

“God. And for a second there I had hope as well, maybe that's the worst part. Or maybe the worst part is that we haven't been able to spend a second apart, and the only time we did was when you were too embarrassed to follow me after Sam had a slip of the tongue. You can’t blame your brothers, Tom, the same way that I can't blame the alignment of stars and planets for us never being together when it’s my fault for not being enough. But none of that even scrapes the level of longing I have for you when you kiss my cheeks, when you hug me, when we play fight, when we sleep together, when you just do something as simple as calling me baby. I can’t talk about this anymore, so leave or tell me to go, or you can stay here and we really can act like this never happened.”

Unsurprisingly, he chooses the latter, but there’s a certain rigidity and tension in his movements, made worse by the dark cloud looming over the two of you after your unladylike outburst. You want to apologise, go back in time and take it all away, but you surrender in the only way you can, you cry. Just a single tear cascading your cheek before Tom wipes it away and lays his pinky finger just over yours on the roof, pressing down a little to let you know that it's okay and he doesn’t love you any less, at least that’s how you interpret it .

You remain on the roof, unmoving, side by side, staring at the stars for what feels like hours. You finish the wine in silence, barely brushing each other’s fingers with every touch and too full of scepticism and fear to meet each other's eyes despite how much you crave getting lost in Tom’s very own chocolate rivers.

It's getting late now, really late, and no doubt the boys are all awake inside and curious as to where the two of you are hidden, no doubt assuming that you’re up to something forbidden. You dare to turn your neck and look at tom, only to see him staring at you longingly, his lips slightly parted and his cheeks tinted rosy, and that’s not just from the cold night air

You smile in spite of yourself, but it's a shy smile, one full of uncertainty, but nonetheless you take one deep breath, your eyes fluttering shut, and you turn to face him again, only to find his eyes still trained on you.

In a sudden leap of faith, you reach your arm across his body to grasp the side of his stomach and you turn him full bodily facing you. The stars reflect in his eyes, dancing around and twinkling, almost as though they’re cheering you on, so you do it. You tilt your face slightly and lean towards Tom, capturing his lips in the most intense kiss of your life. His hands grip your waist and pull you closer to him, chest to chest so that you can feel the gradual synchronisation of your racing hearts. He only has to nudge your lower lip with his tongue for half a second before he’s granted an enthused access. His tongue sweeps your mouth, dancing with your own in a fight - not of dominance, but of passion. 

Your kiss extends and passes through so many emotions and the pressure and urgency of it changes so often that it's hard to keep track. Lust switches to desperation, then do admiration and candour before returning to a long denied flame of passion, and finally, love. The way his lips massage your own is magical, the way he tastes fills your senses with a satisfaction that gets swiftly replaced with a yearning for more, the way he loves you drives you crazy and relights the longing that you feel in his arms.

His lips slow down and apply less pressure to yours, allowing the two of you to gasp for air however subtly it may be, but only for a second before he kisses you one final time, filled with nothing but a deep and unrequited adoration, until you told him, and it became true.

You stay perfectly still while gathering your bearings and breath, your nose nudging Tom’s and your clammy foreheads pressed together. You daren’t open your eyes for a while, not until his mouth gently ghosts over yours in what can be described as nothing less than an exchange of breath. Now you know what he tastes like, you never want to stop tasting him.

Before you can even open your eyes though, you hear a round of applause and cheers from down below. You look at Tom with terror etched on your every feature until he squeezes your waist a little tighter, and just that gesture screams trust me. So you do. You look down to the garden to find Tom's parents, Sam, Harry, Paddy, and Harrison all applauding the two of you - even Tessa is there, barking and howling at you.

You let another tear escape while a burning blush prickles at your cheeks and ears. You move your hand from Tom's waist to his shirt and pull him closer, one final kiss before you settle your head in his chest.

“You really love me then?” He asks incredulously, though part of you can tell that he’s joking. You nod your head and hear his heartbeat increase in his chest.

“I’m in love with you too, since the day I first laid eyes on you.” he whispers, holding you as close to him as possible. You don’t even need to look around to know that the stars are twinkling in their own form of applause for the two of you, and your instincts tell you that both Harrison and Mrs Holland are both probably crying while the others pretend to be sickened by you, but they’re secretly happy you got together.

“Not just friends?” You ask tiredly. 

“Never just friends. I love you, I promise.” You smile at his words

“I love you, T.”

[jess-the-vampire]

I've seen people try to defend Etars actions in the finale with "well she wasn't trying to kill magic" and that the magic is just constructs but still, when if you can erase the star committed genocide thing, I still feel like there are a lot of problems with this act.

“wasn’t trying to kill magic?”, star explicitly said multiple times her goal literally was to “Destroy the magic”, the entire plan she had was around killing the magic, she had to have know what she was getting into while doing this.

it’s hard to buy into the idea star was somehow both a smart magic user that was as powerful as eclipsa but equally stupid enough to not know what destroying magic would do.

She knew it would seperate people because of the marco thing and she knew magic creatures would die because of what gloss said in the last few episodes, so she HAD to know going in because the conflict of losing marco and gloss would make no sense otherwise.

Not to mention, let’s say star doesn’t know any of this somehow.....isn’t that more of a reason NOT to have her make a choice like this? Why allow her to make the choice to destroy an element of the universe she apparently doesn’t know enough about to say if it would cause issues or not?

like?????

look, i’ve heard MANY arguments trying to defend cleaved, and not a single one has ever made any actual sense.

Most of them boil down to 

“Star didn’t kill as many as you’re assuming she did”:

 The show explicitly states magic goes to multiple dimensions, we meet a being who literally survives off eating magic that isn’t even from mewni, the crew even states all the spells died. It seems WAY more outlandish to assume out of the many dimensions proven to be linked to the same magic that only the ones we met died and were the only ones to actually exist. 

Sure, you can def claim somehow more ppl didn’t die but there’s no proof of that, even if we didn’t already know magic affected other dimensions and you somehow based it purely off what we saw.....it’s basically our words against yours and at the very least ours are actually backed up.

Plus this doesn’t change the fact multiple dimensions are separate forever, meaning friends and family are separated forever, but no one wants to address that part of it as being a problem i guess.

“Earth is goofy in the series, the cleaved thing is being overexaggerated”:

Look, i can see that ending working in other shows, but not star for a simple reason. Literally one of the main plots in star revolved around colonialism and race relations. Yeah, star has a goofy world and the earth ppl don’ react to her magic much, but it’s extremely serious about it’s conflict and it’s very much grounded. You can’t spend seasons talking about how monsters were driven from their homes when mewmans came and it caused a long war with death and genocide, and then merge that with regular earth and tell me that somehow both monsters and mewmans are gonna be just chill with it when they’ve never been that way about their own conflict.

Plus in the ending you can SEE HUMANS SCREAMING AND BEING CHASED BY MONSTERS. Clearly they aren’t very happy at all, like if the mewmans are gonna make a big deal about being evicted from their homes why does anyone think they’ll be chill with their homes being missplaced from a merger from a different dimension??!

“Star had no choice”:

Yes, yes she did.

There are so many amazing fan ideas that make sense in universe for star to do to save the day without destroying magic, and they all would’ve been far better and had far less causalities.

And even if they didn’t i’m sorry but why was “mass genocide” star’s FIRST plan? she didn’t try anything before this point, she just jumped into straight up genocide to fix this serious issue.

Our hero, would put the most dangerous plan that kills people and might cause massive problems before trying anything else.

i hear this same very annoying argument every time and no one seems to counter my points with anything other then “Well magic sucked anyway and it was bad”.

Like no, it wasn’t, magic is an element of the universe in this world, it could be weaponized but it had other uses, but yeah sure, i guess it was worth a genocide and separating millions to keep only a few explicit people from causing issues.

I’m sure there wasn’t any other way you could keep these few people from causing problems.

and these people claim they aren’t “Pro-genocide” but keep telling me genocide was the right move in the long run,

and don’t come to me saying other dimensions could be evil when you’re claiming magic “Didn’t affect that many people”, if you wanna pretend the butterflies and mhc were the few who ueed it outside of the spells and unicorns then that only makes it more apparent how much this issue was trying to fix something small with a nuke that affected every other dimensions that had nothing to do with this conflict.

Look, if you like cleaved, more power to ya but there’s no defense for it that actually makes sense. At the end of the day the crew looked at this idea and thought it made sense and we the fans wouldn’t take issue with it at all even though it erased most of the worldbuilding, made star look terrible, and made star’s universe significantly less interesting.

it’s a very poorly thought out ending, no beating around the bush.

There’s a reason i refuse to even keep it in my au, even the reverse one.

[jenjentheboscostick]

How I Met Your Mother Thoughts Part 2

11. Robin left the group until Tracy died and then started coming around again.  Proof: In “Bad Crazy”, the time jumps are 4, 12, 14, 16, and 17 years.  4 is right after the divorce (2017) where she’s trying to stay connected due to Lily’s insistence.  Then the very next time jump is 2013 plus 12 = 2025, the year after Tracy dies.  She’s hanging around again because Ted’s available.  Of course he’s hurting, and not open to moving on (as he has a ten year old and eight year old to think about), so, it’s another two years.  Still not ready, two more years.  Then one year when he’s getting closer and closer to being ready, which is why she hangs out with them more and more.  

Also, further proof: Penny at five has no idea who Robin is.  She calls Robin “The bus lady”.  This is right before the deleted scene where Robin asks Ted if he wanted to continue with the forty deal (and Ted then decides it’s time to make Tracy his wife).  BUT in earlier episodes, and in general, he refers to her as “aunt Robin” and says she starred in their colored pictures.  Since they were 9 and 7 when Tracy died, it still makes sense that Robin would star in their pictures if she started coming around, again.  

Side note, Ted’s not the reason Jeanette is crazy, she was crazy before.

12. It was cruel of Robin and Barney to have Ted as their best man.  Especially, after he told her he loved her the year before.  It was even worse for Barney to ask him to be his best man, but then take it away without even talking to him.  The entire episode of “The Broken Code”, Barney was being unnecessarily cruel to Ted.  A) because Barney broke the code first, and B) because without breaking the code, the whole wedding wouldn’t happen.  Especially when it was Barney’s fault he wasn’t there for Robin, Robin fault that she called and she was grabbed his hand, not the other way around.  His hand is face down on his knee.  She reaches over and grabs it.

Side note, why the hell wasn’t James Barney’s best man?  Either from the beginning or when the “code” was broken.  James should’ve been his best man.  I’d be offended if I was James.  Especially when James/Tom relationship was part of why Barney was warming up to marriage in the first place.

13. Ted’s decision to move to Chicago was stated to happen in “Something New”, but I think it actually happened in “Romeward Bound”.  Why?  Because his best friends are moving to Italy for a year, and there’s that moment where Ted knowing Robin better than Barney, tells Barney that the whole “look don’t touch” thing is not okay with her.  As we know from her aversion to strip clubs and her reaction to Barney’s declaration that she’s okay with it the first time they dated, she is definitely not okay with it.  Even Lily says the same thing, but Barney was cold when he told Ted to back off.  This was the moment that Ted realized without being able to talk out his frustrations with Marshall and Lily, he’ll go crazy.  Just like the year before when he left the apartment because he needed a change, he needed to leave New York, no matter how much he loved it.  Seeing how quickly he changes gears to stay, it’s clear that he just needed happiness and/or at least a buffer.  If Marshall/Lily weren’t planning to move, he wouldn’t either.

14. I’m rewatching Season 2, so this might be a little ranty, but seriously, Lily was so wrong in “How Lily Stole Christmas”.  First of all, Ted was right to call her names when you consider that she waited 9 years to decide she needed to find herself, and when you’re angry, especially in that situation, you’re going to say awful things to make yourself feel better (and Marshall needed to hear bad things about her to start moving on, he had put her on pedestal and she needed come off for him to move on).  Second of all, she wasn’t just punishing Ted, she was also punishing Marshall, who did nothing to her.  

Also, she lives with them (something that has been going on for six years since they moved in there in 2000), and if she kept being so petty, she was going to break up their long lasting friendship because he had the right to be angry over her abandoning Marshall since he was dealing with the result of her actions (and clearly supporting Marshall because he laid around all summer drinking).  I’m not saying she couldn’t be angry about what he said, but stealing Christmas away from both Ted and Marshall was wrong.  Anyway, that brings me to another point.

15. Lily’s Credit Card debt.  This is a second reason that many people, at least on Reddit, attack Lily, and I have to say that I understand how she ends up in so much debt.  First, it’s the clothes, but the main issues are A) paying for apartments and utilities that she’s not actually living in because she needed it for her independence  B) not working for a private school to make more money and C) she tends to ignore her debt entirely until she has no choice.  Both she and Marshall spend money as soon as they get it, even when they were in debt from the wedding, school, and Lily’s shopping sprees, which only makes it worse.

16. Making the Wedding that Ted met Tracy at be Barney and Robin’s wedding, while makes sense from a story point of view (since it starts with Robin, so letting go of Robin makes sense to be able to move onto the love of his life), was a bad decision for the show.  Why?  Since Ted was ready to be married from Pilot and Barney was the anti-marriage guy for the first like four seasons, it caused Ted’s plot to basically pause until Barney caught up and then surpassed him.  The last 3 seasons focus on Barney’s development from one night stands to being a one-woman man, meanwhile Ted, who’s already at the commitment point is stuck in pauseland because his story needs Barney to surpass him.  For me, having Ted be a bystander in his own story, makes the story drag.  I really don’t like the last few seasons because of the focus on Barney’s development when I’m here for Ted’s story.

17. “Lucky Penny” is a good episode, except for the annoying completely unprofessional Airport Personal and glaring plot holes regarding the timeline. I also don’t like the scene where the kid with a broken leg, the old lady, and the pregnant lady are all practically demanding that he get up, like they own his seat. He had every right to that seat, jelly legs or not.  However, I really like the idea that Tracy actually dropped the penny, and even more that is why his daughter’s name is Penny. I also like the connection - this wouldn’t have happened if that hadn’t happened, and that wouldn’t have happened if that other thing didn’t happen. Basically, this is the entire series.  

If Ted never met Robin, he would never date her, if he never dated her, they wouldn’t break up, if they didn’t break up, he wouldn’t have gotten the Butterfly Tattoo, if he hadn’t gotten the Tattoo, he never would’ve met Stella.  If he hadn’t met Stella, he never would’ve gotten left at the alter, if he hadn’t gotten left at the alter, Tony wouldn’t have given him the Professor Job.  If he never became a professor, he never would’ve met Cindy, if he never met Cindy, he never would’ve prompted her to realize that she’s a lesbian, and then randomly running into her allowed for Tracy to be the band at the wedding.  I think I lost track after Cindy, but the entire story is all if this happened then that happened.  

18. Ted helping Victoria run away from her wedding was totally Out Of Character.  Ted was left at the alter and it nearly destroyed him, but he randomly decides to run off with Victoria, completely allowing Klaus to go through that same pain?  It just doesn’t make sense.  He got closure in “The Ducky Tie”, he didn’t need to go out with her again.  Also, the fact that she blamed him for her cold feet and decision to run off from her wedding soured me on her.  It was her decision, her freak out, she did not have to answer the call or show up at the bar, and she certainly didn’t have to use Ted as an excuse to leave.  Besides, Klaus also left, so it was going down the drain anyway.  Also, I got irrationally mad that her dad apparently expected Ted to pay, uh, no.  That’s on Klaus and Victoria, not Ted.

19.  Speaking of!  Going back to Season 1  “The Wedding”.  Ted honestly thought that he checked plus 1, so I get why he worked so hard to get Robin to go to the wedding, but the fact that it sparked the Temporary End of Stuart and Claudia was not his fault.  He would not have owed them the money back, especially when their relationship was clearly fragile if that fight on the eve of their wedding could end it.  Also, they clearly should never have gotten married, seeing what we see of them later on, it’s really obvious they are not compatible, and they would’ve been better off with other people.

20. In the “Duel”, Ted and Marshall are passive aggressively fighting about the apartment, which was brought up again in Season 9 “The Poker Game”.  Apparently, despite living together, they cannot discuss things openly and honestly, which is hilarious, how do you live with someone for most of your adult life and not learn how to talk?  

So, anyway, the reason I bring up “Duel” is that Barney tells Ted that he’s being edged out, and asks him if he’s going to still be his (Marshall’s) roommate when he’s married, and fun fact, for the first year and a half of their marriage, he is their roommate.  Also, in that same time period, they are apparently fighting over the wedding present that Ted didn’t get them, even though A) they live together B) How would Stuart know what Marshall’s favorite Coffee Maker was and C) Ted gave them 2 grand to finish their hardwood floors in their new apartment.  It doesn’t make any sense for Marshall and Lily to be hung up on a specific present when Ted SOLD his new car and GAVE them a lot of money for their new apartment, even though he would eventually be down a roommate (well, 2) and have his rent go up (because he’d now have to pay Marshall’s half).  I love Marshall, but come on, dude, no need to be so...what’s the word?...Greedy?  

                                                       ***

Anyway, I still have more thoughts, but have no idea how to be less wordy, so new post will eventually come.

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Hey Hey It’s Walker

I think I found out how to not speak in symbols

I wanted to ask if Rai suddenly feeling seeing stars was your fault but seeing the letters I know it’s Genesis

I never heard of Genesis before tho

Hey hey do you wanna know what Dream said to us they said that there was some sort of apotheosis event where everyone died and it’s all Inklings fault I know right it’s so crazy that Inkling is a weapon but I think they revealed that already when they got cuckoo

Rai’s sitting down right now he finally is going back to work but I think the Skie thing is still altering him and making his mental health disintegrate

Oh Rai’s reading my letter hold on

Hey, it’s Rai

What the actual fuck is that bullshit at the beginning, does Walker know anything about punctuation?

And what the hell are these word choices???

Anyways, I guess I can’t lie to y’all, yeah me and Skie aren’t exactly best pals right now. We said things to each other that hurt each other and we aren’t really addressing it, it’s fine, it’ll work out.

Also, I should probably explain Walker.

You know how Entities insult each other using age, like how they constantly call each other young ones and brag about how old they are?

There going to have a field day with Walker, apparently he’s only the same age as I am, and has been with me since I was born. He just wasn’t able to interact with me until he got in contact with more powerful Entity magic, I.e, the letters, and other things sent back and forth.

He’s kind of like a creepy ghost, constantly looking over my shoulder. I usually can’t understand his weird language, but I can understand what he’s feeling.

Until now, with his, incredibly shitty English

I should probably detail what happened in my convo with Dream, but I’m tired, I’ll do it later.

Signing off,

Rai

I can do it I can summarize conversation?

What is that. a question mark! It’s used like that right,

So so Yu idk if you remember but we were talking with you before Dream and Rai got pissy and asked what I said to you and you told the truth and there was a semi challenge but Rai doesn’t like to challenge so he backed off and then you two discussed the logic’s and stuff I don’t care about and then you faded away

Dream rose up and then Rai told them everything and then asked for advice and then they got angry about sentient weapons and Rai thought they were talking about the Flower idea and apologized but it turns out they weren’t so it was awkward and then we found out about the Assimilator

The Assimilator was some kind of hive mind entity with it’s only goal being to eat and it almost ate everything in the universe and apparently Inkling was created to kill that entity and once it was killed it was kind of left to it’s own devices which seems like a really stupid idea now

We already know that Inkling gains power off of attention but the question Rai asked was why did it bother using such a gorey method but Dream did have an answer so there’s that

I think that’s all

That’s all for me folks;

Walker

Walker,

Let me preface this by saying that I am very, very tired, halfway insane, in agony, and still recovering from those fucking bees. I am not going to be a good conversational partner right now.

That said. Whaddya got for me.

Yeah. Genesis is new to the letters. Despite being very old chronologically. I dunno. I got nothin. Feeling seeing stars? Uh okay don't know what to make of that one. My mind was put through a fucking woodchipper sue me.

I read sort of about that in the hell letter. Think Dream was too pissed to go into detail in the main letter though. You probably have more info than most others right now.

Damnit. They're still at each other? I am so bad at dealing with things like this. Ask me again when I'm fucking sane please.

Hi Rai.

Yeah I got that by now. You two are ten types of not fine though. Take it from me, the master of "I'm fine", you're not. ...Sorry. That was blunt. But I'm leaving it because it's true.

Ahaha yeah. Then again young entities can be pretty big threats too. I mean. Inky. Fuck, would that thing banging outside the inside of my head SHUT UP? So, sort of a "guardian angel" figure-ish thing? Looks out for your best interests and all. Except it took the letters to kickstart him.

You're definitely not the only tired one here Rai.

Yeah I remember our conversation. Luckily.

The Assimilator...? That sounds nasty.

So that was what Inky killed. That makes sense. What better to face down a hivemind than something that eats attention?

Well. If the Assimilator ate everything who could've been there to keep Inky from wandering off to do whatever? I mean I guess the other could've blocked it but it didn't want to. It made it.

Damn. Would've been nice to know that. Oh well.

Okay. Bye. Nice talking to both of you.

—Yuvon

[koorinohebi]

I am curious: how would you describe Kiomi's relationship with Jiraiya? And with Koji Kashin? What you've shared about them so far seems very interesting and I must know more!

Thank you for dropping by and asking about my life blood for Kiomi! xD

Kiomi's relationship with Jiraiya is by far one of my most favorite things (it ties with Sarutobi Arai, another OC whom she formed a really strong bond with over the years, to the point where they are like sisters).

A little tidbit before I begin; to be perfectly honest, with the amount of stuff I dish out that's Jiraiya related, one couldn't have guessed that he was one of the characters that I absolutely HATED back in the day. Whatever admiration I have for Jiraiya mostly stemmed from Kiomi. 

Now, where do I start...

JIRAIYA

I have 3 verses for Kiomi's interactions with Jiraiya. One follows the anime/manga, one is my main verse for her which follows my RP with the Jiraiya she came to know as her sensei, and then one verse with which I've started a long long time ago (and still ongoing with @ambitiousparagon​). Since the most fleshed out is her main verse, I'll be talking about that. 

Truthfully, Kiomi's relationship with Jiraiya is supposed to border on platonic going to enemies. However, fate has a funny way of letting the stars align.

The initial plot for this was Kiomi's desperation to prove herself useful to Orochimaru that she agreed to not only get intel on Konoha, but also take down one of the 2 remaining Sannins. A suicide mission, I know. Since Tsunade had value to Orochimaru as a healer, and someone whom he believed he could still EVENTUALLY sway to his side, her lord instead sent her after the most rumbunctios one of them all. He wasn't going to tell her how to do it. Since she’s so eager to prove herself, he allowed her to plan everything. Which she did, starting with pretending to be a defector from Otogakure. Kiomi had plotted with a few of the Otonins to help her out, set an attack, do as much damage as she could while she escaped to Konoha with pretty valid info (about Sasuke, and maybe a few plans here and there) to try and earn their trust. And while she was accepted, Konoha wasn't so stupid as to simply believe a previous underling of Orochimaru. SO. In order to prevent her from doing any sort of damage, and at the same time to keep her under surveillance, Tsunade had assigned Kiomi as a "student" to Jiraiya who had just returned from one of his reconnaissance missions. And with Jiraiya being a person who doesn't stay long in the village, it seemed like a good course of action to take, one which also worked to Kiomi's advantage because it brought her closer to her goal.

Their student-teacher setup starts out very platonic. Kiomi has always been quite the curious kid. She does her best to learn whatever it was that she could. With her arrangement of being a student, it allowed her to work closely with Jiraiya who, well...being Jiraiya, mostly had his nose stuck in a hot spring somewhere. This made her wonder if this was some kind of weakness that she could exploit when the time was right so she kept a close watch. She'd been warned about his lecherous ways, but since she was a teenage kid who didnt really see herself much of anything, she could care less about his reputation. In fact, there are times when she would wonder if his so called "research" was worth all the broken ribs and bones. Often times she would also use Jiraiya’s love for women and sake as motivation to head to a new village for whatever work they need to do.

Eventually though, the more they traveled the more they kept ending up in trouble's very welcoming arms. And these were the moments when a bond of trust formed between the two. Kiomi had been very open about her principle of not caring about other people's live. Who died and who didn't. After all, she was groomed to be a tool. Her mentor, however, was not having any of that nonsense. Jiraiya instills in her repeatedly the value of human life. True enough that taking one was easy, but preserving it along with learning how to understand one another despite all the differences was the goal of being a shinobi. He also pretty much treats her like an actual human being rather than just someone expendable, which sparked Kiomi's curiosity all the more. Because while Orochimaru had been kind (manipulative), Jiraiya was a very warm individual who didnt seem like his kindness had any strings attached. He also allows her to just bloom into her own person, encouraging her to rediscover herself as more than just a Shinobi, but as a living breathing human being. More than being a mentor on jutsus and other skills, what endeared Jiraiya to Kiomi was how much values and lessons about life she learned from him. To the point where she could no longer push through with her mission of assassinating him, and instead permanently defecting to Konoha. It also helps that Jiraiya hinted that he knew about her supposed betrayal. Where one would have normally sentenced her to execution because she was the enemy, the Toad Sage believed in her, and it was that benevolence that ultimately defeated her.

So it went from platonic to an eventual slow burn of becoming a ship. Which was all accidental, because apparently, due to all the trouble they got into, and due to always having each other's back, the sage developed his own brand of protectiveness over the girl and vice versa. That ended with him being half in denial and half in acceptance of what he was feeling, despite knowing it was probably wrong. He doesn't act upon it though as their bond as Master and Student was what was most important. At the same time, Kiomi who is as dense as a rock had no idea about what exactly it is that she feels. But when she realizes what it is, she tries to avoid it at all cost, as being Master and Student was also more important to her. Every once in a while though, a little bit of their feelings slip through. Mostly when one of them is half dead. (And they get into so much trouble that at the end of a specific arc, one of them is either REALLY injured, or near death, and in one occasion actually died.) There are also times when it just slips on its own from either side, due to careless words, or perhaps impulsive actions that creates a bit of awkward situations.

Here is an example of when Kiomi gives in a little to her own feelings.

===

What am I doing?

She couldn't sleep. She ended up shifting for a while there, turning to look up at the stars that Jiraiya had been so keen on seeing. Everything was pitch black which made her, for a moment, appreciate the little specs of light that seemed to glisten in the vast distance of space. Pretty. However, beautiful as they may, they gave her no comfort. The moon that had so graciously lent them its light was now hiding behind the midnight clouds, shying away from her sight. I can't sleep. At this rate, there would be no rest for her for the entire night.

That was when she felt just a slight shift beside her. Curiously, she took her first glance of him after that short period of silence. A soft sigh passed through her lips. At least, one of them was getting some sleep after a long day of training and misunderstandings. Still, from the looks of how his face was contorting, his slumber didn't seem all too pleasant. I'll check just a little.

And so, she sat up, silently and cautiously moving close enough so that she ever so slightly hovered over him. He didn't look like he was having a good time at all. See, this is why bed was the better choice. The mental note was made. Maybe she should wake him up, just in case he was having a nightmare. In that moment wherein she wanted to call for him, no words came out. Instead, a free hand moved on its own in an effort to touch his face. But they stopped. Just inches away from his cheek. Kiomi remembered the way that he had caressed her own (when he seemed under a delusional trance), but she had no courage to do the same. Even when her mouth moved to speak, only soundless words came out. And even those, she couldn't even finish. Again, she bit her lip inwardly. She didn't have the right to say them. After all, the expression on his face from earlier...the one that enthralled her to the point where she couldn't think straight, wasn't even meant for her.

So instead, her hands retreated to a few strands of hair that was long enough for her to take. Gently, just pressed her lips against them before finally relenting, retreating back to her own spot. And apparently just in time, since a few moments after that, she felt him move. Heard him speak. She had to hold her breath for a moment. Again, pretend to sleep. Closed her eyes.

What...am I doing?

===

In this main verse (where Jiraiya survives through the 4th Shinobi War), we've gotten to a point where they've admitted to what they feel (above is a prelude to said revelation), BUT! More than the awkward lovers they end up as, what's most important first and foremost is their relationship as teacher and student. It’s always the main element, everything else is basically secondary. Their relationship whether it's platonic or romantic, has always been one of learning.

And as proof to that, here is a scenario wherein Kiomi and Jiraiya were having a small lecture on the workings of the heart-- affections vs. unconditional love. She, out of curiosity, blurted out the question, "Isn't it frustrating if you can't touch the person that you love...?". To which the answer came as such:

===

"Hold that thought." He replied as she spoke the last of her words, wanting to take the time to address the prior question which was awkwardly blurted out on her behalf earlier. "It's very frustrating, yes, but...if you can't touch a person's heart with sincere feelings first, then no amount of hugs, kisses, or anything else can fill the void inside of you. There were many things that kept the woman that I loved and I apart. War. Misunderstanding. My own personal faults, but I find that I would've given anything within reason, even not being allowed to touch her in ways that would've held significant meaning for us both, just to be accepted as someone that she loved and was genuinely in love with."

Indeed, he had harbored those feelings for someone else. The unrequited love of the century, in fact, but what was worse in his mind was to succumb to the despair of not being accepted, was giving up on the prospect of being loved or in love at all. This was the man who believed that a ninja's worth was measured in his determination not to give up on their mission. So come what may, this brief skirmish of feelings with Kiomi had strengthened his resolve to maintain that belief system all the more no matter what the outcome between them would be.

"The better question is, why are you alright with hiding so much from yourself?" A contrast sharper than the edge of the most menacing blade, the internal conflict that she was experiencing was the true focus of his next words. "In other words, you won't get anywhere in life if all you do is hide from what you feel for anything." There were no exceptions going to be made, because this was suddenly about far more than mere affection or literary prowess. It was the central issue of Kiomi's very being which needed addressing in its own due time. Jiraiya felt that in the moment, it was his duty to plant the seeds which might otherwise allow her to consider the best options about how to confront and move past so daunting a thing. And there, without ever needing to say a word, his argument was given it's apex example. It didn't matter what realizing the truth of that matter cost if she could manage to pull it off. No price would be too high to pay, even their sacred bond, if it meant that she could grow past the limitation of inhibition which had placed a virtual strangle hold on her heart and mind.

===

Obviously talking about Tsunade in the first part. She feels an irrational bout of jealousy over a person who didn't even choose him, and feels her own emotions to be ugly. It's definitely a different type of envy compared to when she's jealous of Sasuke being Orochimaru's choice for a vessel.

And Jiraiya here made a really good point. The more she hides from what she feels, the more she doesn't get anywhere, which is why in verses where he is dead, Kiomi is left with an overwhelming regret of never having the chance, let alone courage to admit to her feelings and confess. Because she knows that he loves Tsunade, she is prepared for any sort of rejection (and knows that it'll even probably legitimately make her cry all the tears she can cry). If she had just allowed herself that little bit of honesty, then she probably wouldn't be stuck in the mud, unable to move forward in the years to come.

Ultimately though, Jiraiya's happiness is what's important to her. Which is why after the war, Kiomi works closely with both Otogakure and Konoha in order to protect the place and people that her mentor loved and died fighting for.

At the end of it all, I believe that for these three verses, the finality of her relationship with him is one of absolute trust and loyalty. Whether or not her feelings are reciprocated, she has already accepted the fact that Jiraiya ignites a flame within her, not necessarily one brought about by romance, but in the trust that he puts in her. He never was the type to give answers directly. It wasnt a mind game, but Jiraiya's brand of teaching encourages a belief in one's self to find an answer that the student can believe in, something in which he too comes to have faith in.

Kashin Koji’s route comes in a separate post. 

[megucarecord]

Rating Genshin Impact Character Designs (Pt. 1)

Hey y’all! I’ve been thinking of doing this for a really long time and I decided to finally stop being lazy and do it. So this is going to be a review of all the playable characters in Genshin Impact from a design perspective. I don’t really have any prerequisites to make this list worth anything (unless you count one year of a fashion/sewing class in high school lol) but hey idk, seems fun?

Gonna be super long (10 characters) so putting everything under the cut.

Disclaimer: I don’t actually hate any of these designs, nor do I consider my opinions “fixing” them, this is just for fun. 

Character: Lumine

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about this design. The hair and basic build are fine, very generic but that’s unsurprising for any character that is working at least partially as a pseudo self-insert. The color scheme is also very bland - and is one of the reasons I originally thought that Aether was automatically Geo traveler and Lumine was Anemo traveler. I think that adding more colors would’ve been a good thing, but also would’ve required a revamp of the dress itself, so maybe not the most practical thing, even if I think the dress is a bit too busy. The biggest changes I would make would be to get rid of the fancy part of her stockings as well as the extra flow/ruffled back of the skirt, which is just a bit too much considering the top layer of the skirt is already quite detailed (in a very nice way) and that could’ve just been extended. I also have to admit that though the scarf is very impractical and showy, but it reminds me of a costume from a series I like so I actually like it a lot, although you could definitely term it unnecessary.

Rating: 7/10

Character: Aether

Okay ngl this character design kinda slaps. Firstly, I love that Aether has long hair, it’s a good contrast to Lumine’s cut (and contrast should be super important with characters that are siblings/parallels of one another) and idk long braids are kinda cool. I love that the outfit has distinctive colors, which give the character personality and keeps him from being washed out. The design is much more streamlined than Lumine’s, and although I’m not a huge fan of midrifts (a theme in this post I’m sorry) there’s not actually much I’d change in this design. Except maybe make the cape a scarf to better match with Lumine. This is definitely the superior design in terms of the siblings in my opinion and I think the lack of intricacy fits the image of “traveler” better. It’s not my favorite and there isn’t anything that really stands out in the design, but it’s really solid and I like it.

Rating: 9/10

Character: Albedo

This design has a lot of potential, but I think in the end it’s just a bit too busy (which will be a theme in this game haha). I like the hair - in general I’m glad Genshin isn’t scared to try a bunch of different lengths and styles on guys because if not everything would become painfully boring. I also like the clothes for the most part. The boots are especially sleek, and I like that despite being a Geo character they gave Albedo a bluer, darker color scheme. I think it fits with his mysterious sort of quietly menacing vibe (this man is Frankensteining something I know it). But it really starts to get a bit too much with the coat. I think he needed a coat, again it fits the character, he’s in the middle of a frozen tundra and he’s also a magic scientist man, he needs some sort of coat. But I think the chain and the strap across the front is a bit too much. If I were the designers I would’ve continued with a sleeker theme, make the sleeves longer, the gloves shorter, if you wanted some ornamentation maybe a pack of vials on his belt. Overall very good design, greater color scheme, too busy. Also can we appreciate his banner art? It’s so good I love it.

Rating: 8/10

Character: Amber

Okay first I’m gonna say her card art is super cute. Love the pose, love the style. All gut. Now let me say that this outfit had potential but then it sorta... fell flat. I like the color scheme for the most part, except the white cause idk white is boring and in the game it looks kinda latexy, but I understand wanting three colors and black might be too close to brown. That being said, I hate stockings. Stockings are just the worst, they’re impractical, hard to put on, uncomfortable, should only be worn with dresses. No knight of Favonius needs stockings. Might I suggest pants or shorts? Or like cool pseudo armor plates like with Lumine. Also though I do like the jacket and the leather stomacher design, I think a bomber jacket might suit the character better, because idk they’re cool and they make me think of Amelia Earheart, although that’s such a culturally distinct thing I can’t blame them for not thinking that way. Again the jacket is still very cool, love the stomacher, and love the cuffs.. The belt is lovely and like I said love the embossed designs, but ultimately this design is too impractical, and too bland to get away with being impratical for me. So... yeah.

Rating: 5/10

Character: Barbara

Barbara! Our fav crazy nun. First I’m gonna thank her for having an attack of pure magic then I’m gonna say I hate the color white apparently because I also didn’t like it here. I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be a novice (could be wrong), so I’d flip the colors, have the accents be white and the main color navy. But idk that’s just me. Overall I quite like her design. It’s a pretty good balance between simple and detailed. I don’t even hate the stockings. I’d say the least good part is the top, the bow and the weird collar is just... ehh? but I don’t think getting rid of the collar would help though. I’d say ditch the bow, make the dress connect to the collar, keep the off the shoulders cold sleeves. I really like the ruffled part of the top skirt. Idk it’s the best part of the design. The hat makes her look like a nurse not a nun though. maybe make the hair ties for the ponytails little veils, might fit better. Overall mostly nitpicks, it’s a strong design.

Rating: 8/10

Character: Beidou

Firstly I’d like to apologize to the Beidou I pulled before never using her (forgive me ily); next I’d like to admit I don’t love her design. I haven’t really harped on the lack of armor on these characters - because I’m not sure how I’d integrate armor into all them without making them bland af, no one wants people running around in full plate armor how tf you supposed to climb in that - but I still wouldn’t’ve put her in a leotard and boots only when she’s a canonical fighter, without even the armor accents on most of the other character. I know that traditional qipao would probably be terrible to fight in, so I’m not going to complain about them slitting it - I actually quite like it I think it’s cool and sleek and fits her vibe - but I will complain about them putting her in a leotard underneath. As someone who dances I can assure you no one in their right mind would want to fight in a leotard, which yes I know isn’t the point and I can’t blame them for not thinking that way. Anyways, I think leggings/stockings and tall boots are quite cool so that’s prolly what I’d do, streamlines the whole design too, gives it a sense of connectivity (idk I’m weird and I don’t look at this character often so yeah). I like the top of her design, although I’d prolly replace the fur on the cap with a large collar, sort of pirate-y or Navy-like. Also let me just say I love the hair and eye patch. Fits her reckless sort of character to hate her hair whipping around, and the eyepatch really sells the concept of her having fought for years. The hand guards didn’t need to be flared, but I don’t mind them being there. Especially since handling a Claymore would definitely rip up your hands if you didn’t have protection. Also the boots though impractical are very cool so... yeah.

Rating: 6/10

Character: Bennett

One of my main team and prolly the closest thing I currently have to a DPS I have conflicting opinions on Bennett’s design. I think it’s a pretty good design all things considered. His belt and all his packs would be busy if you didn’t know Bennett’s character, but considering he’s a wanna be adventurer, I think it works pretty well. Although I don’t know why his extra belt straps are so long... or even exist?? Idk kinda weird. His top is... ehh? I don’t really like it, I think partially because I don’t think Bennett would wear a midrift shirt like this (midrifts where there shouldn’t be midrifts or, as I like to call it, being MagiReco-d) and partially cause the color, though understandable in such a busy design, is kinda bland. I think that’s why the collar works instead of being too busy, we needed some color. If I had to changed the design I’d get rid of the midrift and get rid of those weird extra belt things. Also that one random dagger star thing on one side of his blue collar is just so weird and random and like why does it exist? But overall I like the design, and it doesn’t bug me when I’m playing with him. I think it’s a good example of how busyness can accurately portray a character. Well done.

Rating: 8/10

Character: Chongyun

Another character who I own but have never played, though my friend has him on their main team and they look super cool. I’m not gonna lie I love this character’s design. Firstly the color palette is so good, the white feels like it works to offset all the blue hues - which I love that even the darkest parts of his design are blue not black - so it doesn’t feel bland or irritating, especially with the gold giving it a sense of luxury. I also like the choice to have a tunic that extends to the pants, I think having only white pants would be too bland - again white it a meh color for designs - so it really gives it some necessary details and color. I also like the jacket, again it gives the design a sense of detail while being simple enough not to feel like too much. Also I have no idea what the outfit would look like without the jacket and I have a feeling that answer would be Not Good, so... yeah. Some nitpicks; the left arm band thingie golden cuff is kinda too much and seems impractical and irritating. And... that’s it. I know the slippers are impractical, but I think they work, he is an exorcist not an adventurer after all. Overall, probably second favorite design in the game. Great job

Rating: 10/10

Character: Diluc

Give Diluc a high ponytail, I’m begging you. Lol anyways personal preference aside (which is impossible this entire post is personal preference) I like this design. I think the color works and the whole outfit is a good reflection of Diluc’s character, closed off, luxurious while also a bit ragged and uncontrollable. Yeah. I like it. I do think the thing chain accessory is kinda random, and I don’t think there’s anything about the design that knocks me off my feet, but I do really love the design overall. Also the gloves, good gloves. Suggestions? High ponytailed Diluc. Nothing else. Also though he’s not in this post I like that this outfit is very streamlined and simple compared to Kaeya, it’s a good portrayal of their differing views and opinions through fashion. Because unlike with the traveller siblings I think these brothers have a dynamic where contrast is better than parallel.

Rating: 9/10

Character: Diona

Okay so though I’ve never interacted with this character I skimmed the wiki and I love her backstory it’s hilarious. Also since I never interact with her I don’t have many opinions about her design except why does she only have one sock on? Honestly relatable moments. I think the extra ponytail is kinda weird and excessive considering the hat and I’d prolly make the hair orange to match the ears but overall very cute design. What do bartenders look like? Idk. Oh and also there are a bit too many colors roaming around, but I get it. Overall fairly generic but kinda cute. I still think midrifts are bad.

Rating: 7/10

And that’s it! I hope this didn’t come off as “lol these designs are gross and I’m superior and we should fix them” because no. No one should take any of these suggestions seriously. Except maybe the ponytail one lol. Anyways I hope at least one person likes this cause this took forever and I kinda burned out after a while. Next post if I make it will be interesting cause it includes my least favorite design. May you all have lovely playing and if you love a design I don’t honestly more power to you. Bye!!

[hrh-selene-r]

Who is the protagonist in the new Star Wars trilogy, Kylo/Ben or Rey?

It’s something I’ve noticed after re-watching the movies finishing off with the rise of Skywalker. We start the series with Poe getting a map to Luke and being intercepted by Kylo Ren, our “antagonist”. Over the course of the movie we find out that he was Ben Solo, son of General/Princess Leia Organa and smuggler/war hero Han Solo, and that he has a personal stake in finding the map to Luke. In his attempts to get the map he meets Rey, a scavenger who’s recruited(?) into the resistance and he finds out that she’s strong with the force because of.....reasons (plot?) and tries to convince her to join his cause. We learn his backstory of how he was born to an absentee father and a workaholic mother, making him a child of neglect, and how he was strong with the force (both light and dark) since his gestation. His parents fear that he could be a new Vader and so they fear him and what he can be capable of, so they send him to boarding school with his uncle, effectively cutting off any parental affection during a delicate age, instead of...I don’t know having Leia train him and console him or Han reassure him....Like a normal parent would do. (I mean Kylo wasn’t Damien in the Omen. He didn’t kill anyone.)

So Ben is in Jedi boarding school and we learn that his uncle/teacher/parental figure grows to fear his potential and in a very unjedi move he contemplates and attempt to kill Ben, but before the blow could land, Ben wakes up, catches his uncle in his murder attempt and is able to block/retaliate in order to run away. He’s chased by the other students when Ben joined a sith like gang “The knights of Ren”. At the end Ben kills out of necessity and finds a sith master; Snoke, who teaches him the ways of the sith and helps him move on from his past to forge his own path. This is when he expresses his lack of agency and how even his name doesn’t feel like his own and takes up the name KYLO REN. Dun dun dun 🎵

During the course of the trilogy Kylo learns that he’s just being used by Snoke and his ambitions to gain agency grow, making him want Rey to join him in an alliance that could truly powerful, she rejects his proposal but he still murders his master to save her, bumping him up to Supreme Leader. This isn’t a result of Kylo’s love for Rey, but more of his own emancipation from all his toxic parental figures; Han, Luke and Snoke. I don’t include Leia here because he still has a relationship with her, albeit an strained one. This type of relationship usually happens when your mom is the head of an opposing faction in a civil war. So Kylo ends up alone and is now the Supreme Leader of the self proclaimed first Order....

Now Kylo’s his own man, free from the influence of others; they can’t tell him what to do, now he’s free. His first order of business?? Track down oppositions in his own ranks and destroy anything that could challenge his position. Basically he wants to consolidate his power as the new Supreme leader. This brings him to search for Palpatine on Exegol to kill him and cement himself as his own authority. During this time Kylo learns that he was nothing more than a puppet to his master, who was, in turn a puppet for Palpatine, who’s been influencing and nudging Kylos path since he was a child, revealing that the character who is desperately looking to gain agency throughout the whole trilogy never had it. Palpatine offers him candy (I mean a naval fleet of star destroyers) and basically unchallenged control of the galaxy (ultimate POWA!!!!) The weird thing is that instead of killing Palpatine, even though he was aware his offers bullshit, he looks for Rey.....okaaay? Keep in mind that at this point Kylo is compelled towards Rey because of his natural curiosity of Rey’s potential while not having a single class in force usage and because he feels a kindred spirit in Rey’s loneliness and good nature. Is there some sexual tension there.....maybe? Then he tells her that they’re a dyad in the force as a way to explain their connection, which feels utterly forced (if you pardon the pun).

So Rey and Kylo meet in the water planet while Rey looks for a mcguffin and they fight, ending with Rey giving Kylo a cheap stab to the belly. Now Kylo’s being the superior fighter would’ve and should’ve won hands down by he senses/sees his mother through force Skype and he gets distracted enough to leave an opening. Rey heals his mortal wound, saving his life before leaving him presumably stranded there to die. Now, we’re expected to believe that because of her selfless intentions saving him, Kylo decides to forgive himself for his acts, including killing his biological father. He throws his awesome lightsaber into the ocean showing him abandoning of the sith or at least the dark side of the force and HE’S A GOOD GUY NOW!!! yay!! Whooo!! 😒

So he goes to Exegol, fights the knights of Ren and joins Rey in fighting Palpatine, gets his life force sucked, gets thrown down a pit, comes back out and then gives his life up to save Rey....okaaay? You can kind of see it from the whole, she saved her enemy and now her enemy is grateful and will repay his debt, hence Kylo sacrifices his life to save her; redeeming his character while having honor...so that angle works and when you look at it that way this is one of the few choices that Kylo makes that are truly his. It’s a waste of one of our most complex characters but sure...

Now, after that whole rollercoaster, let’s talk about Rey. What do we know about Rey??

She’s a scavenger

She’s friendly and nice....so yay altruism.

She makes the best of what she has.

She was abandoned by her parents on Jakku and waits for them in vain...she knows this subconsciously.

She’s strong with the force because of....reasons

She looks to Han and Leia as parental figures because....reasons. Granted Leia started to train Rey, but it wasn’t that long so they barely know each other still.

Luke was her first master and he started to teach her about the force....for a bit.

Palpatine’s her grandfather via cloning.....Although this sounds like a really contrived way to explain her affinity with the force, and it sounds like they made it up on the spot. Plus, that’s not how cloning works!

She an amazing pilot and can fly anything, despite never having flown before the first movie because....reasons.

She’s a great mechanic who can fix anything, despite not being a mechanic but a scavenger....I mean I can take apart a computer, it doesn’t make me an IT genius/engineer.

She can fight with a lightsaber and has beaten Kylo Ren in combat twice, despite having no formal training and having never used a lightsaber before as opposed to her enemy who’s had decades of training and combat experience and studies, because......being strong with the force is like the matrix, so she automatically has the theory, reflexes and muscle memory needed for combat?

She joins the resistance not because she has an emotional stake in this, believes in the resistance’s cause, or has a grudge against the first order; it’s because....she had nothing better to do that day? The gave her free food?

And she’s a dayd in the force with Kylo Ren because.....Reasons. They never explain that it just is because Rey is the rarest thing in the whole universe apparently.

She spends a short amount of time training and reads the Jedi texts, and now she’s a full fledged Jedi at the end of the trilogy...because she’s Jesus? Like remember when Jedism and the ways of the force was a way of life and people spent lifetimes learning and training in the force? Remember how anakin was to old to train as a LITTLE BOY? Or how her enemy in combat has been trained/did studies in the force since he was a child, decades ago?

See how short that was compared to Kylo Ren/Ben Solo? Now, do any of these characteristics help you know Rey? They do a bit, but this is what we know about her, not of her. The problem with Rey as a protagonist is that she’s too bland; she has no negative aspects and, as a consequence, has no character arc to overcome. Kylo searches for emancipation from peoples expectations and to have agency, to be his own person under his freedom. Rey doesn’t change in the whole trilogy.

The only reason she’s even invested in the rebel cause or the people is because of the plot, because other characters (and hence the author) tell her she has to. As opposed to Luke who goes with Obi-Wan because he knew he was destined for something bigger, wanted to get out of Tatooine, and found out his father was a Jedi killed by our main antagonist, motivating him to be like the father he idealized but never met.

Thats’s 3 different motivations to help out Obi-Wan and the rebellion, right there. Rey was just bored, I guess.

So I started to think: “What if our main character is a tragic one like anakin? What if our protagonist is Kylo Ren and Rey is just a proxy for the audience?” I mean, it’s no secret that Kylo got his comic book series (that sold out) apart from becoming one of the most popular characters in the franchise. When you look at it that way, it does make sense; Kylo has a relationship with almost all of the main cast in the movie in one way or another and he’s the most compelling one; the one that changes and goes through a character arc. The most interesting thing about Rey is whether or not she’ll join the dark side. So as much as I hate to say this; Rey is obviously a Mary Sue

The problem here is that the creators didn’t know on who to focus, she so special and flawless that it’s makes her uncompelling and boring. And to add insult to injury they kill of our protagonist, not in the service of a greater cause or to save what he has left, but to bring back this bland sack of Jedi abilities. This isn’t to insult Daisy Ridley, if anything Disney and the writers did them a disservice. Kylo’s story was supposed to be the reversal of Vader, but in the end it was the same story, down to sacrificing himself to save the Jedi fighting Palpatine.

Now, am I anti-Reylo? Kind of, if we go by the movies. My problem is that Rey isn’t a compelling character, so I fail to get invested in her or to even care about her at all, and the sexual tension/kinship that she has with Kylo isn’t a Romance make. You could say “oh they’re a dyad.” That’s not romance, it’s just a bond; you can have a strong connection and not have romantic feelings. Their relationship is about as well executed as Anakin and Padme...and even THEY had conversations in their trilogy. The whole reason Kylo (I refuse to call him Ben at this point) turns good is love, selfless love. From who? The negligent parents that abandoned him, or the scavenger he barely know? Adam said in the documentary that he chose Rey because no one has shown kindness to him, so the moment she shows that kindness and performs a selfless act (which is really not selfless at all, considering she stabbed him while his guard was down) makes him turn good and choose her, he know that if he’s with her he’ll be alright....How is he gonna be alright? Is it because of her Mary Sue powers....If the writers took their time to develop their relationship, maybe we could have something here, but as it’s stands Kylo and Rey have as much romance as Edward and Bella; they have little in common, but god damn they can’t run away from one another! 😒 And that’s not even addressing the troubles of falling in love with someone actively trying to kill you/trying to win a war. So even IF they do have a well developed romance to ship, Rey (being the good guy she is) has drank the Jedi cool-aid so much that it boarders on fanatism and she won’t even consider Kylo’s side or choose an alternative path. If anything Rey could’ve died saving the galaxy, making her a martyr and having Kylo left to forge his own path; not as sith or as a Jedi, but something in between.

So what do you think? I know this has been discussed to death but still...How would you improve the new trilogy? Let me know.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk 😘

[sinister-loving]

Ethereal (Monster! Yandere! OC X Hunter! Reader)

Never enter the forest alone

That was the latest piece of superstition being spread around your village, mostly by old widows and young children, but you never believed it. For one, you'd been in the forest dozens of times by yourself and nothing happened. No giant snarling monster, no secret portal to the other worlds, no secret murderer waiting to slice you into a million pieces. The only odd thing you saw there was the baker's wife kissing the blacksmith, but after a bribery of fresh bread, you chose to delete that memory.

The forest had long provided your family with food and shelter, and you saw no reason to fear it, unlike the more urban citizens of your village. You were raised in that forest, you knew every branch from every tree like the back of your hand, and it made you a bit upset that people would start spreading such an awful rumor about the place you loved so dearly.

Jumping over a puddle that had formed from the thunderstorm last night, you walked up the main street of the village, your adventure pack resting somewhat heavily on your shoulders. You'd packed to be in the forest for quite a while since it was prime hunting time, but as the rough fabric of the pack suddenly shifted and brushed against your already sore shoulder, you began internally scolding yourself for overcompensating the trip. You glaced up at the giant arch that marked the boundary between the village and the forest, took a deep breath, and entered.

Desperately trying to avoid getting caught in the sticky mud of the main trail, you paid close attention to the ground, stepping on places that you presumed were solid. Your intuition only failed once or twice, and thankfully the mud didn't go any higher up than your heel. It wasn't long before you found yourself at your spot.

You glanced around the small base camp. There were probably dozens scattered around the forest, each belonging to a different brave soul that dared to traverse into the woods, but a quick glance at the trees forming a barrier around the camp was proof enough that this was yours. Each adventurer was given a symbol, and yours was a star, and unsurprisingly, messy stars had been carved into the trees. Hey, you were a hunter, not an artist.

You quickly tossed your survival pack down, taking a break on one of the nearby stumps as you looked for a granola bar. You hadn't eaten breakfast, a choice you quickly began to regret, but the problem was solved as you pulled the snack out of the bag, quickly unwrapping it and shoving the wrapper into the front pocket of the pack, knowing better than to litter in such a sacred place.

Once you finished your small snack that would probably hold you over until you made your first kill, you took a small roll of fabric from the inside of the pack. It was clear that it took up most of the room inside, as the minute it was removed, the dark forest green bag began to withered and sunk in on itself. You placed the fabric on the ground and rolled it out, revealing all manner of parts for a crossbow. Having done this countless times before, it was no problem assembling the weapon, and before long, you found yourself getting ready to leave to hunt.

Throwing your bag inside the small tent you were provided, you grabbed the bright orange scarf from a branch you'd hung it on last time, and wrapped it tightly around your neck. It was a wonder it was still there. Sure, it was taboo for hunters to mess with other's camps, but you would've guessed an animal would've snatched it down or the storm last night would've blown it away, but miraculously, it was as dry as a desert, and hey, you weren't complaining.

You turned around, holding your crossbow close to your chest as you loaded it with a fresh arrow, the snap of the arrow falling into place filling you with a new adrenaline rush which fueled your journey deeper into the forest. You were careful to watch for the sudden sparkle of silver, an indication of a snare, as you proceeded, your attention darting from the slightest noise to the slightest tremor in the leaves. It wasn't your first time hunting, you knew what to look for, but today, you were oddly on edge.

Had the rumors gotten to you? No, no way. You weren't that dumb, it was just a silly kid's tale and besides, it wasn't even a scary rumor. It was just a provision to not go into the forest alone, it wasn't like some giant monster was going to crawl out of the undergrowth and devour you if you take the wrong step. These woods were practically your second home, and no silly rumors were gonna keep you away from them, nor make you fear them.

Attempting to get out of your head and focus on your objective at hand, you took another step forward, completely forgetting to check for snares.

Within seconds, you were upside-down, at the complete mercy of the metal wire that was now digging into your skin like an arrow into a deer's soft flesh. You let out a hiss of pain, and attempted to grab your dropped crossbow. If you could just get the arrow, then it would be no problem for you to slash the wire, but your fingers just barely grazed the smooth wood of the bow. With each swing, a new wave of pain shook your body, the initial adrenaline of fight-or-flight wearing off.

You tried to reach the tree beside you, just to provide some relief from the blood rushing to your head, but as your fingers brushed over the bark, you could feel yourself becoming tired. It wasn't normal, it usually took a few hours upside-down for you to faint, which caused the singular panic alarm in your body to ring at full volume. If you were left here, you would die.

Your survival instincts kicked in, and you desperately thrashed, attempting to grab at anything within your reach, which only resulted in more blood sliding down your leg and dripping onto your face. If you kept going like this, you would have your foot sliced clean off by the wire, and just the thought of that made you feel even more lightheaded. Before you knew what was happening, black fuzz swarmed the outside of your vision and finally filled it to the brim, and you fell unconscious.

When you woke up next, you thought it would be in the afterlife.

You wished it were the afterlife.

Forcing yourself to open you eyes, another rush of adrenaline proved that you weren't dead, but you certainly felt like it. Every muscle in your body screamed, scolding you for the lack of blood and oxygen you provided. You didn't ... feel any different, until you looked down at yourself.

You were dressed from head to toe in a robe similar to that of the priestesses that roamed the prayer tower. The fabric was an almost blinding white, with a light pink trim around the middle, provided a bit of contrast and color. Your hands, legs, and neck had been wrapped in bandages. Odd, because you only remembered your ankle being injured. Beneath the bandages, you could feel some sort of paste, and from the ones on your arms, you could see it was a thick plant mixture of some sort. Your crossbow was nowhere to be found, and neither was your scarf, which you really needed as the freezing cold air of the room soon became apparent to you.

You glanced down at your surroundings. A tall cave-like room that was eerily similar to a burial tomb you'd seen in a history book. Sliding your feet off of the cold rock and onto the ground, you winced and let out another hiss of pain as you mistakingly put pressure on your injured ankle. However, the only thing you wanted to do was get out of this chamber, it reminded you of death, something you'd so narrowly avoided, and you didn't want to be here anymore.

You hobbled to the door, putting as little pressure on your ankle as possible and peering outside of the chamber. The opening lead to a small hallway, and at the end was a warm yellow light that reminded you of the lanterns at your house. Forcing yourself to move, you went to investigate the light, hoping that whatever was causing it would be the way out of here.

You hopped into the hallway and watched as the almost suffocating walls opened up into a much larger cave, with a large opening to the forest directly infront of you. The sun had set, and the forest looked more terrifying than usual, or at least what you could see from beneath the thick vine covering layering the opening.

"What are you doing up, little rabbit?"

A cheery voice from behind you sent chills down your spine, and your instincts kicked in, causing you to spin on your good foot to face the disembodied voice, swinging your arm to attack.

However, your attack was quickly dismissed as the figure wrapped a surprisingly strong hand around your wrist, stopping it about a few inches from contact. You glared at the figure, taking this moment of weakness to try and analyze what you could.

The figure was actually a male, who had a sickeningly sweet grin on his face as he simply stared at you. Odd pastel pink hair flew everywhere and remained a mess on top of his head, with stands sticking out in random places. His slightly darker rose-colored eyes were locked with your own, and the spiral pattern inside only made you more uncomfortable as you ripped your hand back in one last act of defiance.

"Oh, I'm so glad you have a little spunk left in you, darling." His voice was laced with an affection so sickly sweet it almost made you recoil, but you'd been through worse, you could handle this.

"Don't call me that. I don't even know who the hell you are." You snapped, before your eyes flicked upwards to something you hadn't noticed before.

Horns.

Resting on top of the stranger's head were two sets of horns. The primary ones were the largest and were directly on top of his head, and curved inward at the tip. Directly beneath those were smaller horns that grew slightly sideways and curved upwards. To confirm your suspicion, you glanced down at the ground. A long, thin, whip-like tail with a fluffy tip was swishing back and forth with an unknown emotion, and kicked up a small cloud of dust around the ground.

"You- you're a-" Your throat felt dry, you couldn't bring yourself to say anything.

"A what? A god in human clothing? An incredibly kind and nice person? Aw, thank you, sweetheart. You're always so nice to me." The boy grinned, revealing a set of long pointed fangs, only confirming your suspicion more.

This boy was a demon.

You didn't think they were real, they couldn't be real. Demons were things in storybooks, not living and breathing creatures. Only a figment of some twisted person's mind, nothing you ever worried about. Yet, as the boy reached out to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, your blood turned cold once again.

This was no joke.

You were dealing with a real life demon.

"Don't touch me." You quickly slapped his hand away, remaining eye contact to prove you weren't afraid when deep down, you were terrified. You liked to picture yourself as somebody who had a plan for everything, but you never once had a plan for something like this.

"That's not nice, little rabbit. You wouldn't like it if I did that to you." The boy's expression turned from happy to cold within seconds. He took your temporary petrification as an opportunity to finish what he started, gently pushing a strand of your hair out of your face. Your eyes shot from the hand withdrawing from your face to the one he kept by his side, the one you hadn't seen move yet.

The one tightly wrapped around the handle of a knife.

Another wave of adrenaline and you backed up, and he seemed almost remorseful that you'd do such a thing.

"Little rabbit? Why do you look so scared? It's okay, you're safe now, you have me." The boy took another step closer, becoming more visible in the bright lantern light.

He was thin, and pale, but he was still taller than you by a few inches, a fact only proved when he took another step closer. He was dressed almost as oddly as he acted, with a puffy pastel purple long sleeve shirt adorned with upside-down crosses and a short black and lavender miniskirt. White knee high socks with bright pink bows contrasted from his outfit, but they were covered up mostly by the knee high combat boots that made a very prominent thud when he stepped forwards once more.

Another step closer.

What disturbed you the most, however, was the pale pink choker wrapped tightly around his neck, with a heart charm directly in the middle. In the center of the heart was only one thing, and it made your blood turn cold again.

Y/N

He had your name carved into his choker.

"-won't ever have to worry about going back to that dangerous place ever again, I promise."

You zoned back in to find him practically on top of you, and you felt terrified. You felt helpless.

You felt like a prey animal.

"Get away from me!" In an act of self preservation, you used almost all of your force to shove him away. He landed against the wall with a thud, and you backed up, the pain in your ankle bringing tears to your eyes, but you quickly wiped them away to focus on the task at hand: getting away from this lunatic.

"Ow. You sure are feisty, aren't you? But I get it, it's gonna take a while for you to adjust to your new life."

"Shut up! You're speaking nonsense!"

"You should've thought about that before you started courting me."

You fell silent, appalled by what this creature was suggesting. You, a human, court a demon? The very thought of it made you sick to your stomach.

"Leaving out all those teeth, bones and feathers just for me. You're so precious, you know that? It's a wonder another demon didn't answer your call." Before you knew it, the boy was back on his feet, rubbing the back of his neck with that same sickeningly sweet grin of his.

"That was trash, I never meant to court any demon!"

"Silly, silly, silly little (Y/N), your innocent facade is so cute! That's one of the reasons I fell for you so hard. And you fell for me too! You wouldn't have left that 'trash' out if you didn't love me right back." The boy purred, getting closer to you once again. You thought about running, but you would never make it. And plus, you didn't have the upper hand here, you didn't have a knife.

"Oh dear! I get it now! You must be so embarrassed that I answered your call! It's not every day your crush returns your feelings. Well, darling, you couldn't just be my secret admirer forever, I had to admit my feelings for you too one day. But, I am a demon after all. I can't just waltz into your civilization."

"So, I waited. I attacked any adventurers who weren't you. I know how attracted to danger you are, my little rabbit. It just happened to be my luck that you fell into my trap! Had it been anybody else, they would've died instantly from the curse I put on the wire, but imagine my delight when I see my cute little darling waiting for me!" The boy finished his monologue, and once you recovered from the initial shock, you couldn't stop yourself from crying. All because you left out some hunt remains, you'd almost gotten your ankle ripped off and now some demon was instant that you were now in a relationship with them. All over some trash. Not to mention, the adrenaline was wearing off and your ankle hurt like a bitch. Everything hit you at once and you felt the tears streaming out of your eyes.

"Oh, come now, little rabbit, don't cry. I hate seeing that pretty face like that. Besides, there's nothing to cry over! I love you back! I love you so much! And now we can live without any disturbances, because I'll take care of you for eternity." You felt yourself being pulled into an unwanted hug and no matter how much that voice inside your head told you that this was wrong, that you needed to get away, you finally ended up melting into an emotional puddle while your captor silently whispered reassuring words, a little comfort in a time like this, especially from the one it was coming from.

"It's okay now, (Y/N), you've got me here now, like it was always meant to be."

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see faint lettering on the collar. You already knew that your name was engraved on the heart in the front, but the faded letterering on the leather made you curious. Between sobs, you were able to focus your eyes enough to read the name on the side of the choker.

Lunaris.

[the-blackest-spider]

SEND ME A 💗 AND I’LL TALK ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OUR MUSES HAVE.  | Accepting

@shieldshawk​ left a message:  💗 -because I adore Tasha and so does Clint.

My first Clint ever and the longest too on this blog, seriously you’ve been here forever and both Natasha and I are glad!

And the adoration is returned ♥

Clint is just, everything. Natasha wouldn’t be the person she is now without him in any of her verses. He’s shown her humanity, he given her chances when he shouldn’t have. He’s given her a family by making her a part of his and she owes him more than she can ever repay, even though she tries.

They love each other, but it’s not a sort of love that can be defined by the typical ways, it is its own sort, special and unique.

MCU: There’s still a part of her that will forever be in a state of disbelief that he gave her the option to as he no doubt put it “come with me if you want to live”. Some days she’s certain he made the wrong choice, but then he’ll remind her of the fact that no, no he didn’t. She knows she however did not make the wrong choice. Clint saved her. He helped her find her way and was the second person in her like that got her to see she was more than just the weapon the Red Room made her to be, the first of course being James Barnes when he was training her and they fell in love. But Clint advanced that fact, had the chance to more than Bucky did obviously given situations. Clint reminded Natasha of her humanity that she discovered in the arms of the Soldier.

When he got taken and brain washed by Loki, she was so angry, mostly at herself. She should have been there and taken his place and she was willing to do so. She almost asked Loki on the Helicarrier to let Clint go and take her in his place, but the situation didn’t progress in a way that she could do so and she wasn’t certain Loki would be of his word if she offered. So instead she ended up playing things a different way and managed to get her best friend back in the long run. That is one of three times she’s held back slightly in a fight (the second was trying to stop Bucky in Civil War and then against Clint again in Germany).

If it hadn’t been for Clint in dealing with Ultron, Natasha isn’t certain she would’ve recovered as well as she did from Wanda’s attack. Again Clint saved her, another debt to be paid.

She wasn’t surprised to find Clint on Steve’s side of things when they faced off, she expected it. And she has a feeling he knew she’d play the traitor in the end and help Steve out. Clint knows her the best after all.

She will never regret sacrificing herself on Vormir not only for him, but for everyone. She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she had allowed him to fall. It had to be her, there was no other way even if he refuses to believe it.

Clint has brought so much to Natasha’s life, he’s helped her in more ways than she can even count. She’s grateful to him endlessly so. She understands the meaning of feeling blessed by being an honorary Barton and being an Aunt to his three amazing kids and having a sister and sometimes Mother figure in Laura.

Star Wars-

Jedi Stuff:  Again best friends, I’m sure that Clint decided this quiet girl with the pretty red hair and green eyes was going to be his friend and determinedly made it happen. He’s always hitting her up for adventures, making sure she’s having a good time and not always being super serious. Natasha knows she can find Clint when she wants to laugh or feel better about something. He’s a nice constant.

Jedi and Bounty Hunter: Annoying Jedi. But she adores him, he’s so… not the typical Jedi and why he keeps hitting her up for things is beyond her. But he does and she allows it because he’s nice, funny and interesting. She likes how easy it is to be around him and that he doesn’t act like he’s superior or anything like that, what she’d expect from a Jedi. He makes her laugh and again breaks that serious veneer she likes to hide behind often.

Final Fantasy VII- At first Natasha was a little reluctant to get paired up with someone, but the more she worked with Clint the more she couldn’t imagine not working with him. Sure she still does her deep black ops stuff solo, but regular Turk work, it’s nice to have someone to carry the load with and to keep it entertaining. She also never expected to get basically adopted into his family, but that’s how it works apparently and family dinner nights can only be missed if she’s on an assignment…

Well until she makes her choices in their main verse, but she still keeps an eye on him as best she can from the shadows, same as she tries for everyone else. She’s grown to love him same as others she has and he will always have a place in her heart. He’s another one that she needs to face, but somehow she knows they’ll be okay despite what she’s done. But at the same time she doesn’t want to put him or his family in any sort of danger and so she keeps her distance for the time being.

As for other verses, don’t think she doesn’t know he dropped in on Cloud! Natasha both can and can’t believe Clint did that, but then again he’s as protective of her as she is of him (in all the verses everywhere), and so it makes sense he’s popping up and checking on the other people in her life, especially those who seem to really capture her interest and her heart.

Also thank Shiva for Barton specialty cookies because sometimes she’s sure she nor anyone on the Turk floor would survive some weeks without them.

She’s also pretty sure Vincent, in that little verse saw to it that she got partnered with Clint because he knew that the fun loving, but down to business when necessary Turk would be beneficial for her situation and help her further in ways she needs beyond what he as a trainer could do and after Vincent disappeared, Clint was there and willing to keep looking with her for him if they could have.

---------

All in all, Clint is very vital to Natasha. One of those important figures in her life and her story, the second of those figures being James Barnes. Both these men helped her remember that she is human and capable of more than just being a killing machine. Natasha is all too certain that if Clint hadn’t come into her life, she would’ve ended up dead a very long time ago.

[handmaidensofnaboo]

“Ultimately, it is very apparent this novel was noticeably, lovingly, and carefully crafted by a Prequel fan, a Padmé fan, a Handmaiden fan... Queen's Shadow is a fitting tribute.”

❦

Queen's Shadow had a somewhat impossible task for me as a handmaiden “super fan,” a potentially “tough critic,” so I commend E.K. Johnston for willingly providing me with an early copy to share my thoughts on it with you all... I was nervous about how Queen's Shadow would turn out to be honest, but EKJ was up to the task...

I'll preface this review by saying Handmaidens were my first real community engagement in fandom. My older sister and I joined the Royal Handmaiden Society on TheForce.Net boards back around 2001 when I was about 14. The RHS was the reason I went to my first convention (Celebration II) and although the group isn't as present online as it once was (please follow @royalhandmaidensociety​), I made life long friends and it forever shaped and changed me. It was an overwhelmingly positive fandom experience at a very impressionable age and for that I'm forever thankful...  So for those of us who have such deep roots to this, who have, for the past 20 years, analyzed the handmaidens’ every micro expression, every costume, and have carved out our own understanding of them (from what little information that would could find), this book might be a bit "complicated " to process.

 At least it was for me.

With the announcement of Queen's Shadow, I was of course initially ecstatic, validated even, that they/we were being seen and heard, finally!! Yet mixed feelings slowly sunk in too. Despite us RHSers long lamenting the lack of content—handmaidens unjustly being overlooked in both Star Wars official media and for a long time in mainstream fandom—it also became this amazing small community space for each of us to freely imagine and play in. It’s been a kind of safe haven I've come to greatly appreciate. With a book featuring them... That could all potentially change. This fandom could change. I found myself wondering a few weeks ago, "Will I even like these girls? Will I love these new versions of Eiraté, Rabé, Sabé...” Something I've previously never had to consider. My fictional friends were about to be exposed on a larger than ever level, and reshaped, officially, forever. I was worried.



I knew I had to go into this book open minded, no way could EKJ take each one of our different headcanons and fantasies and appease us all in one ultimate text—but to my surprise, there were certainly select striking scenes, moments, I had while reading, where (for me) she did accomplish just that.  

After both the prologue and the first chapter in particular (which were centered around my favorite Handmaidens, from TPM), I had to put the book down for a while because I was so overwhelmed in the best kind of way. It truly was so close to capturing what I have wanted all these years that I just wanted to bask in it. Maybe that sounds silly but even simply one chapter filled with handmaidens, is an overwhelming amount of content for us to receive, let alone an ENTIRE book. This little fandom is just so used to excavating for scraps. I reread the beginning of the book again the next day, out of pure enjoyment, before I continued on.



The unbelievable news, the great news... Something I can't believe even is real... Is that Queen's Shadow starts with handmaidens and ends with handmaidens, and there are handmaidens in… NEARLY? Every. Single. Chapter. I really never thought I'd never see the day. I’m stunned. Yes, they are different then I imagine them, but I'm happy to see them, I still like them, just the same. And Padmé, who has also been sorely ignored, unappreciated, and underutilized within general Star Wars media/merchandise, is also finally getting the spotlight she deeply deserves.

❦

Queen's Shadow is woven like an intricate tapestry threading together Padmé's stories throughout the entire prequel trilogy (especially the first two films), and highlights some of my favorite stylistic and thematic choices within them. Similar to the prequels (especially TPM) it reminded me of a period drama, with it's more formal dialogue, richly detailed costumes, ceremonies and politics, and admittedly a more contemplative pace than the swashbuckling fairy tales of the OT (but still engaging in it's own way). Also like the prequels, you get that occasional ominous foreboding, that sense of pieces being moved behind the curtains by shadowy figures, of unclear motivations by supposed "allies," of tragic destinies being spun—but still find yourself swept away by moments of hope and idealism, despite it all.  There is a particularly heartbreaking yet beautiful finale moment of this book with her that was so fitting to George Lucas' vision of Star Wars, it was, as he once said, "like poetry—it rhymes." Anytime something can capture that Lucas approach to storytelling, I am thankful to be reminded of why I loved Star Wars in the first place. (Especially in the Disney era years when I've felt a bit "post break up" about the franchise, to be honest.)

Queen's Shadow is foremost about Padmé's work, shifting and hardening herself into her new role as senator. It does justice to the themes and qualities that originally enchanted and inspired me about her: fulfilling her duty to her people, her compassion for vulnerable communities, and fighting for what's right—through language, through political and inner power, strategy, and unexpected partnerships. And as always, Padmé is luminous. 

There is one cause in particular she is advocating for that is notably poignant in its connections to TPM. I was incredibly pleased it was there, relieved even. It was so important and needed for her character. It enriches the choices she makes in the later films. And it is just one of a number of political themes in the book that are timeless and ever relevant, but wasn't inserted into the story in a heavy-handed way. I love that the main audience for this book (young girls), will get these meaty concepts presented to them through our beloved political heroine and the diversely talented women supporting her.  While we do see the various skills and character moments of Padmé and her handmaidens, I admit (and this is just my first read impressions) they all still did feel somewhat at a distance for me. I personally would've liked to have dug deeper into their personalities. I'm not sure how to properly articulate it, but I just felt a bit left "wanting more"—for more walls to come down, to have gotten further into their inner thoughts... But I think it's partly the challenge of the large number of characters, the book’s YA length, and a personal preference of writing style. Which, in EKJ’s defense, does compliment these particular characters, who have long had these kind of untouchable, unknowable presences, these masks over them (and she does address that). I think as I reread it, my feelings on may improve as I retain all the subtleties better. But if they remain elusive, that gives us room to fill it out with our own head canons, which is something many of us all ~clearly~ enjoy! It is part of their appeal, part of why we first loved them after all. 
It's also important to note the impressive attention to various Star Wars lore that is entwined throughout Queen's Shadow, from remnant gems of "Legends" handmaiden lore (and even RHS in jokes), to architectural details found in Battlefront II, to various appearances by Clone Wars characters... And many more I’m sure I’ve missed. Yet thankfully I can't recall any of it is done in a way that comes off as showy, elitist, or hard to follow (if for example, you're like me and admittedly haven't watched hardly any of the Clone Wars).  Additionally, here and there, there were some scenes or lines that didn't quite hit the mark for me personally, one minor set of changes from "Legends" handmaiden ages irked me a bit (we had so little to cling to ok! lol), frustration at already established lore (such as Panaka and Clovis, which EKJ can’t help), and other things that were simply just creative choices of the author (which of course happens for me with almost every Star Wars spin-off). 



Regarding the last point, that was the only other occurrence where I put the book willingly down, this time because I needed to get some space—to process something I decidedly didn't like. It was about midway through the book regarding a particular minor storyline. I don't want to spoil, but I will say it involved a new character that, for me, was taking up too much room in a book that already had plenty of amazing characters I wanted to spend more time with. I just felt he wasn’t exactly needed, or that others easily could've substituted his place and it would've been more meaningful to the lore.  These critiques are relatively minor however, and most of them are easy to move beyond, especially when I consider the bigger picture, and the majority of scenes, quotable lines, and pivotal interactions in Queen's Shadow that do seamlessly work. Those more than make up for the handful of things I struggled with.

 Ultimately, it is very apparent this novel was noticeably, lovingly, and carefully crafted by a Prequel fan, a Padmé fan, a Handmaiden fan. For this I'm deeply thankful, because it's easy to imagine if it wasn't—How poorly or sloppily Padmé could've been mischaracterized or the possible omission and/or confusion regarding the handmaidens… The latter of which BOTH the revered Dave Filoni and Timothy Zahn are woefully guilty of, (full offense). It hits me sometimes how so much damage could've been done were this in less capable, less attentive hands, with an author that would've cared less. EKJ clearly cared a lot. Minor issues aside, that's really what mattered most to me, at the root of it. So I'm very glad.



The more open minded you go in, the more you will enjoy Queen's Shadow, and (I say this for myself, as much as for anyone else who can relate) we can still make space for and enjoy our old head canons alongside to the new lore, or even mesh them together... I admittedly struggled a few times, but I definitely enjoyed reading it overall, particularly all the scenes on Naboo (and another planet that will go unnamed for now)... 

If you love Padmé, the handmaidens, Naboo culture, prequel politics—this book is a must read. The more time that passes, and as I reflect back, the more I feel that Queen's Shadow is a fitting tribute to Padmé and our handmaidens, let alone the prequel era itself. Queen's Shadow will be comfortably situated on my bookshelf beside our other established classics: Queen Amidala's Journal and Queen's Amulet, and I’m looking forward to revisiting it again when the audiobook comes out (holy heck we're finally gonna hear almost all the handmaiden names pronounced??! Have we been saying them "correct" all these years?? Stay tuned lmao...) I'll probably be posting my spoiler thoughts on Queen's Shadow after the book's release on March 5, 2019. Pre-orders are available online, though I really recommend purchasing it at your local independent book store if you can, and/or requesting your local libraries get a copy! Please share your own pictures/thoughts/reviews on here, twitter, instagram etc. and tag it. We gotta encourage Disney to give us more, because this book definitively ends with an invitation for a sequel or spin off of some sort, and I, a bit desperately, want it!!  The more we can support Queen's Shadow with the language Disney knows best ($$ and exposure) the better chance of future Padmé and handmaiden content, and they deserve it!! All of it—books, comics, Disney+ streaming miniseries, video games—Give them the legacy Rogue Squadron got. It's their time.



Again, thank you so much E.K. Johnston for creating this beautiful book, and going out of your way to provide me a copy. I'll always treasure that moment when I got that surprise package in the mail, a book nearly 20 years in the waiting. I was 12 years old again, that snowy day on my porch.



Can't wait to read everyone's thoughts. MTFBWY. ✨✨✨

Thank you for reading,

@handmaidensofnaboo​

❦

♕ Pre Order Queen's Shadow 

♕ Purchase Queen’s Shadow at your local independent bookstore

♕ Follow author E.K. Johnston: website | twitter | instagram | tumblr

♕ Follow cover artist Tara C. Philips: website | twitter | instagram | tumblr

[helenamayhathaway]

it’s me again. okay, this is another movie request but if you have seen warm bodies oh my gooood i tried writing one on that and got like 4 chapters in but i couldnt finish it

okay well warm bodies is my favorite book of all time so i think i can manage this one:

He doesn’t remember his own name. It kind of got lost in the whole apocalypse thing. He knows it definitely had letters in it. Maybe a syllable or two. But words? No. It might be nothing, or it might be everything, but he remembers a G sound. There was a significance of the letter G at the very least.

Juuuuhhhh-

Geeeeehhhh–

Something like that.

It’s not a very important thing when you get down to it. Who needs a name, when a letter does a perfectly good job. G.

G knows very little of his past life, but again, it’s unimportant. There’s an apocalypse outside, it’s not like he’s going to miss work. The only thing he really cares about these days is food. His food happens to walk on two legs and scream whenever he gets close. He used to be one, but that was a long time ago.

***

He’s a little bit of a romantic, or at least that’s what M tells him. M looks a lot like him, G thinks. Maybe they knew each other before it all.

He’s romantic in that he still cares about the old world. He doesn’t really want to eat the people that he chases after, he just wants their memories. They’re the closest link he has to how it used to be. Blue skies, green grass. You can still find that sort of thing everywhere, but G can’t appreciate it. He can’t feel the sun anymore. That’s a bummer.

They call him a “zombie.” That’s the word he gets from them. You can feel their memories, know their stories once you crack open their skull and get to munching. G is maybe a little bit too infatuated with the remembering. They’re not his memories, but they become his, because who else will take them?

***

M makes a grunting sound as he points to the building. There’s a sense of warmth to that building. It’s not something you could put to words. It’s just a knowing that the other people in the group know. Living are in there. Maybe what they feel is the heat from their blood, through walls and walls of a storefront in disrepair, there’s a warmth to them. 

The message is clear. Dinner.

They would swarm if they weren’t zombies, he supposes. G is quite spry, but that’s because he died young. He’s not going to outrun a living, breathing person, but he’ll outrun most every dead person in what is known as a “heartbeat.”

They wind their way through the building, knowing that whoever is here, is waiting for them, fearing them, hoping maybe that the zombies will just go away. But it’s a little inconsiderate, because zombies need to eat to, and what are they going to do with their brain? It’s selfishness, really, that’s all it is. 

G isn’t the first one to throw open the door, luckily, because if he had been, he surely would’ve been the one to have his entire head shot off with a shotgun. Luckily, G flanks to the left and manages to avoid the human with the shotgun who isn’t able to reload in time before M takes a big old bite old bite out of his neck.

G sees a few people in the room, about his age, he supposes except they’re younger of course, because G has been dead for a good long while. Not quite long enough that he’s a Boney, but still very much dead.

G’s first instinct is to pull at the legs of one of the people who standing on a desk firing his weapon at all of G’s friends, because shooting people is not nice. That’s something he knows from all the brains he’s absorbed. Shooting people is very rude.

This person screams in terror, and scrabbles for help from his friends, but they are either all dead or preoccupied with the act of dying to help him. G would consider himself to be a very talented dead person. It takes him only a few seconds to get the skull broken for dinner.

Maybe before he died he would’ve thought it was gross. All that blood and bone and skin and sinew. It’s not very flavorful either. The good stuff is what’s inside. Pink, soft, very smooth bite, nice mouth feel, and the leftovers are to die for. 

The act of eating isn’t the important part. Nor, really, is the sustenance that it provides. He has to eat, because he’s hungry and that’s what you do when you’re hungry, but he couldn’t care less about the flavor. What he really values are the memories.

Suddenly G sees through his eyes, or the eyes of him from many years ago. He’s not school, that’s not quite it. It’s a camp maybe? But not a sleep away camp with a fire and a tent, this is a different type of camp. Everyone else here is learning how to survive, just like he is. 

He remembers holding a gun for the first time. He was afraid of it. It was heavy, and when he fired it, it blew back, and he almost hit himself in the face. Frank had laughed at him.

Frank?

He and Frank sat and ate their meals together a lot. Frank complained about the peas, but he had joked that at least it was better than eating a person. Frank had laughed at that too.

He and Frank snuck up to the rooftop one night. They weren’t really allowed after curfew, but what were the zombies going to do? Jump 20 stories to the top of the football stadium where they had set up camp? That’s what this place was, a football stadium. Frank said he would love to see a game, because he never got the chance too. The world had ended before Frank was even born, so he doesn’t even know the rules to the sport.

The two of them had laughed and sung out to the heavens, because it didn’t feel like the world was over in that moment. It just felt like they were two people on the edge of the world, trying to count stars and naming them.

It had been Frank who leaned in. He’d never been kissed before, and he knew Frank hadn’t either, because they’d shared each others backstories long ago. Frank’s dad has driven them here from a place that was once called “New Jersey.” He had been born in a different sanctuary that got destroyed some years ago.

When he and Frank kissed, none of that mattered. They were the only two people, alive or dead, in the entire world.

G swallows the matter too quickly. He wants more of the story. More. He wants more of this Frank, whom he’ll never get to know. 

He looks around at the zombies around him, only a moment or so has passed since he took his bite, but a lot of memories can happen in only a few seconds. He sees M, chowing down on a brain like it’s all dies for, which is fair, because it is. G almost wants to chastise him for eating too quickly, not savoring the flavor and juiciness of it, but he’s not good at talking. The most he’s ever managed was four syllables, and all of his zombie friends had been impressed with him.

But then, G sees him. hiding under a desk in the corner, apparently not yet seen by anyone. It’s him. The boy from the memories that G just tasted. Frank. 

G stops where he is, grabs whats left of the brain so that he can have it later and walks over to the desk.

“Ffff-” G says. It’s all he can say. He tries to get the rest of it out, but it’s not coming, so he decides that’s good enough. 

The boy sees G coming, and he gets a terrified look in his eyes. G can understand why, he thinks that G is going to kill him. And strangely enough, as G walks over to him, he can tell that he doesn’t plan on doing that at all.

“H-h…” G tries. Frank is cowering even more now, a look of total terror that G doesn’t recall from any of those memories. “Hhh- hee- helll-ppp y-y-y-yooouuuu.” He’s very proud of himself for all that work, thank you very much. Those are real words! That he spoke out loud! Wait until he tells M. It’ll take a really long time to tell him.

Frank just looks at him with the same exact fear, the same terror, when G holds out a hand to him. He wants to help him out from under the desk, he doesn’t know why, doesn’t know what he plans to do with him after, but he knows he wants Frank to take his hand.

“Ffff” G tries again. “Ffrrr-rr-aannnk.”

That only makes Frank look more scared, which G didn’t think was possible, but here they are.

He knows he needs to try one more word. One more very important, very human word. 

“Puh-puh-puh-leassee.” G holds out his hand once more and gives Frank the only smile he is capable of giving, which he’s sure is terrifying.

Frank doesn’t look at all happy or eager to oblige him, but he seems to understand that he doesn’t have a choice. G helps him from under the table, as Frank looks around at the carnage around him, sees his friends dead around him, as G’s friends polish off their main course. 

G has the realization all of a sudden that Frank smells very much not dead. It’s one of the only smells that G can actually sense, but Frank is lousy with that stench. Being the smart zombie that he is, G brings his hand to his own face, feels quite a bit of blood on his chin and mouth from his own dinner, the boy that remembers kissing Frank, and he smears the stuff on the living Frank’s face. Frank makes a gagging sound at the gesture, but hey, what can G say? He’s a romantic. 

Send me an imagine or a piece of dialogue and I’ll write a ficlet!!

[oetravia]

elizabeth chynoweth, og max evans, tess harding, rnm kyle valenti

Oooh, you’re trying to make me controversial??

Elizabeth Chynoweth

How I feel about this character?

Sad. Sad is my main feeling when it comes to Elizabeth. She made a lot of mistakes, many of which were definitely avoidable, but, more than anything, she was simply a product of her time. Which apparently an abhorrent crime where a lot the Poldark fandom is concerned.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I’m not sure how much I ship her with any of the men she’s romantically connected with, if I’m being perfectly honest. None of them had a clear picture of her, and actually coveted whatever ideal they had created in their heads rather than Elizabeth herself, and that’s just tragic. 

With Ross, I wish so much in their relationship had gone differently, and more than anything, I wish they’d both had the strength to let the other go completely.

With Francis, I wish they’d had a better chance. Once Ross came back their’s was never going to be a happy marriage, but they could’ve had a chance if Francis in particular had gotten out of his own way. I genuinely think if he’d lived, they’d have ended up okay. They’re such an almost relationship it’s painful.

With George, I just wish Ross hadn’t gone to Trenwith that night, I wish Agatha had thought of the broader consequences of her actions than just hurting George, and I wish George himself had had a clearer understanding of Elizabeth when he’d married her (and that part of his desire for her hadn’t been about hurting Ross - because, while I genuinely believe he did love her, I think that was always part of what made her so desirable to him).

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I don’t think I have one. I just wish show!Elizabeth’s friendships hadn’t been all about other narratives (particularly Ross). I especially wish her dynamics with the other female characters had been more positive; especially Caroline.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Ross’s visit to Trenwith wasn’t her fault. Could she have handled the whole situation with Ross finding out about her engagement to George better, absolutely, but the placing the entirety of the blame for that night on Elizabeth’s shoulders is absolutely unfair.

One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon?

I wish she’d gotten to raise her daughter. I wish Valentine hadn’t lost his mother, and been left to deal with George’s shifts in attitude towards him alone. I wish she’d gotten to meet Amadora. 

Max Evans (OG)

How I feel about this character?

He deserves a LOT of the criticism thrown at him, but I think a lot of it being directed at the character is unfair, and should instead be levelled at the uneven writing and characterisation of S2/3

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Liz Parker. That’s it. Sorry. He was so focused on Liz, even when they weren’t together that I don’t think any other relationship would’ve ended happily.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Michael, obviously. Their bond is absolutely incredible, and they make me cry so many times over the series.

And also Maria, because Maria. The development of their relationship between S1/2 was so unexpected, but so welcome. It’s such a gorgeous dynamic. I love that they not only support each other, but are 100% willing to challenge one another. It’s incredible. I wish we’d gotten the pea-pod scene from the books.

My unpopular opinion about this character.

Max made a whole bunch of mistakes, and behaved like a five star prat a lot during s2/3, but I think a lot of people forget how young the character is supposed to be. He’s, what, 17/18 by the time the series ends. Imagine yourself at seventeen, could you have dealt with all the pressure he was placed under without screwing up, and being an utter muppet sometimes? I highly doubt it. I certainly couldn’t have dealt with everything he had to deal with at 17.

That’s without mentioning the fact that he spends a large amount of S2 being manipulated by many of the other characters (even Liz; though her actions in 2x05 came from a good place. But she ensures he sees her with Kyle, effectively breaking his heart, and quickly wants back into his good graces). By the time Alex dies, he probably doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.

And bonus mention; he never gets to properly deal with the trauma of the white room. Granted, we see he’s in therapy (at least, I assume as much from the start of S2), but it’s not as if he can be honest about his problems, is it? We see that in the cold open of S2. Even in therapy, he is having to lie about his trauma. And, as we hear in the Christmas episode, the trauma of what was done to him lingers through S2.

Now, none of this is to negate his actions or behaviour, but context is important.

One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon?

A real frank discussion with everyone about what had happened during s2, and again during S3. We never really got one, just quick apologies that were pretty quickly forgotten. 

Tess Harding

How I feel about this character?

She was unfairly treated by the writers, and I’m still bitter about how her character development was thrown out the window like that. But…I loved Alex, so I’ll never be able to like her. 

All the people I ship this character with romantically

I did like her with Kyle…but I loved the family dynamic she had with the Valenti family more.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

The Valenti family + Tess was so heartwarming. 

I also wish she’d been allowed to have a better relationship with all the female characters. I think it would’ve been really good for her - especially if she’d been able to have a relationship with Liz (and Maria) that wasn’t about their respective feelings (or imagined feelings - sorry but I don’t believe for a second Tess ever really cared for Max as a person. She’d been told she loved him, and so she thought she did. I don’t think she ever really wanted to get to know him as a person, as Max…she only cared about who he had been, and who she hoped he would be again when they got back to their planet. Max with added humanity was of no consequence to her - only to enable her plan to get home) for Max.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I honestly don’t think I have any unpopular opinions about her. Other than maybe what I said above about her feelings (or lack thereof) for Max? But I don’t think even that would be particularly unpopular.

One thing I wish had happened to this character in canon?

I wish she hadn’t had to sacrifice herself to have some sort of redemption arc. 

I wish she’d realised it was okay to care for humans, and to feel safe and happy around them, the way she did with the Valentis, and had a realisation, like Michael’s, that home didn’t have to be their planet. It could be Roswell, where she’d found a family.

Kyle Valenti (RNM)

How I feel about this character

Kyle Valenti is the best person in Roswell, and we don’t deserve him. I said what I said.

Honestly though, he’s just the greatest isn’t he? Wonderful character development, both on screen and off it during the ten years we haven’t seen yet. And he’s not afraid to admit he was wrong, or own up to his mistakes. A MAN.

(I mean…the boy does get confused between Star Wars and Star Trek, so he does have some flaws…)

All the people I ship this character with romantically

Hmmm, I still ship Kyle/Liz a little bit, even though Max/Liz are the clear winners there. The fact that he supports her no matter what is lovely, and he makes her feel safe which is so tender, and important. I just love their dynamic, romantic or otherwise.

And how could I not ship Kyle/Alex. Their relationship is just so great to watch, and now that he’s done the necessary growing since high school (and apologised sincerely for his behaviour towards Alex during those years), I genuinely think they could have an interesting, healthy, and meaningful relationship. And Alex could get him to actually watch Star Wars, because BOY.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Kyle/Liz and Kyle/Alex, to be perfectly honest. 

Make it Kyle/Alex/Michael because that dynamic was hilarious, and I very much hope we get to see more of it!

My unpopular opinion about this character

Again, I don’t have any, I don’t think.

I mean, he’s probably the character I feel has most in common with his OG counterpart, and it works very well (in a way that making the other characters more like their OG selves wouldn’t), but I don’t think that’s unpopular…

One thing I wish would happen with this character?

Give Kyle a love interest worthy of him! Don’t leave him as Liz’s second choice/handy on call hookup. Trevino’s acting is too good for that, please don’t waste his potential the way it was wasted in TVD (bitter? me?!)

My gosh this got long! Sorry! But thanks for the characters, Lucie, this was fun!

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode four

Second Month of Spring, Days 3-4

The snow stops falling in the night, and the next day dawns clear, but still cold. A few people sit together by the berry bushes as they eat what’s currently passing for breakfast. Thanks to the berries and the jerky from Uhura’s trapping the crew is in no danger of starvation, but no one’s exactly real happy about the quality of food they’re getting either.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy, Chapel and Rand sitting among the berry bushes, eating from plates of square purple berries.]

As everyone sets to their morning work, a new villager arrives. This one has 5 Mind, 5 Body and 5 Spirit, and the Courageous trait (they get a happiness boost after defending the town from enemies). That naturally makes them best suited to being a combat unit. This does raise the minor problem of what to name them; we’ve got most of the main crew here by now, and while there are any number of characters in Star Trek whose job it is to fight things, most of them don’t tend to stick around long enough to leave much of an impression. In the end, he gets named after one of the show’s more frequently recurring redshirts, Leslie. Leslie doesn’t ever have a first name mentioned onscreen, so I named him after his actor, Eddie Paskey.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie, a villager with short light brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes. His character page is open, showing that his mood is Content, he has the Pioneering Spirit happiness buff, and he has a trait called Courageous, as shown with the icon of a little cartoon sword and the caption, “Courageous: Ed Leslie loves to save others, and puts the safety of the town as paramount.”]

In other news, Uhura has made it to Level 2, which means she’ll no doubt soon be bringing a lot of pets home.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box titled Nyota Uhura has Leveled Up! The text in the box reads, “Nyota Uhura has achieved Trapper Level 2!” Below are three icons: a pink square with a cartoon rabbit with hearts for eyes, with a caption reading, “Charm Pet: The trapper will occasionally choose to turn a particularly fine animal into a pet!” a blue square with a red and white bullseye above a cartoon animal trap with the caption, “Job Opportunities: The trapper now qualifies for advanced jobs. Click the promote command for details,” and a red cartoon heart with the caption, “Max Health +10.”]

By the next day it’s warmed up again, but now it’s raining, which isn’t improving anyone’s mood much. McCoy sets out to go gather some more berry bushes and move them into the camp, but winds up falling asleep on the ground before he makes it all the way back.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy sleeping on the shore of the lake with a berry plant in a pot at his feet. The info box at the bottom of the screen reads “Leonard McCoy—sleeping on the ground.”]

mood

We don’t have enough food and net worth to attract a new villager today, but never mind that right now, we’ve got another problem: water. We’ve run out of all the drinks that came with our starting rations, and with no other source of drinks, everyone’s getting pretty thirsty. (In my defense, this wasn’t even an existing gameplay mechanic the last time I played, so I completely forgot about it until the negative mood modifiers started piling up.) At the moment we don’t have the ability to brew up anything fancy, but we can at least dig a well for water.

The well is set to be placed next to the tavern, near the kitchen door. Only problem is, digging the well counts as a building project, and since the tavern was placed first, everyone’s prioritizing that. It takes pausing the construction of the tavern entirely before anyone—Leslie, specifically—will address the well.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie digging a well outside the partially completed tavern walls. The unfinished well, a simple post with a bucket attached to a rope, hanging above a hole in the ground, is visible but transparent to show that it has been placed but is not yet built.]

Once (finally) started, the well doesn’t take long to complete. Soon, everyone’s stopping by for a nice cool drink of water.

[ID: 1. A screenshot of Chekov sitting on the ground next to the well and drinking from a simple cup. 2. A similar screenshot of Kirk sitting on the ground and drinking from a simple cup.]

But Kirk’s break is rudely interrupted by another attack. This time it’s a group of Entlings, who are much like the Stonelings except they’re little tree dudes instead of little rock dudes.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk holding his sword ready as he fends off four Entlings, which resemble blocks of wood with arms and legs, about half Kirk’s height.]

For some reason, Chapel decides this would be a great time to strike up a conversation.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk fighting the last Entling, with a red heart over his head that is three-quarters full, showing his depleted health. Chapel is standing behind him, while the info box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Christine Chapel—talking to James Kirk, Log-Splinter.”]

No, go on, I’m not busy or anything.

Apparently this distraction isn’t enough to deter Kirk from handily wiping out the Entlings. The achievement even earns a title for both him and his sword. Not sure who hands out these titles, but hey.

[ID: A screenshot of two message boxes overlaid together, titled James Kirk has achieved a new Title! And Practice Sword has achieved a new Title! The first box reads, “James Kirk...is now James Kirk, Log-Splinter! They killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title one of your citizens is using by right-clicking their name in their character sheet or the selected unit window. The second box reads, “Practice Sword...is now Practice Sword of the Forester! It killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title this item is using by right-clicking its name in the selected unit window. You might also consider giving Practice Sword a fancier name to go along with their new title by left-clicking its name in the selected unit window.”]

But the newly acquired accolades aren’t enough to make up for the rest of Kirk’s morning. He told a joke that didn’t go over well, his drink was interrupted so he’s still thirsty, and now he’s all scratched up too. What a lousy day! Now he’s glum too. So are McCoy and Chekov, but that’s probably just them being themselves.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk’s character information window pulled up over the villager information window. Kirk’s mood is shown as Glum, with one positive mood modifier (“It’s raining...+3”) and five negative mood modifiers: “Very thirsty -8”, “Pain (Scratched) -6” “Tough crowd -5” “My meal was raw -5” and “Slept in a shared bed -2.”]

Apparently, the joke was told to Sulu.

[ID: A screenshot of Sulu’s character information page, showing that his mood is glum and he has several negative mood modifiers. One of them, “Had an unpleasant talk -3” is highlighted, showing the caption, “I can’t believe James Kirk said that!”]

The bad moods don’t last too long, though. Once everyone’s gotten a drink, they start to feel better. By evening, they’re all back up to content. Meanwhile, work on the tavern is progressing nicely; by now the walls are up and work has started on the roof.

Also, as predicted, Uhura has already brought home a pet: a rabbit, named Thumpy.

[ID: A screenshot of a small brown and white cartoon voxel rabbit sitting on the ground, with the crafting stations and stockpile behind it. The information box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Thumpy—befriended by Nyota Uhura.”]

Not really the choice of name I would’ve gone for, personally, but you do you.