#but like literally nothing else about him is waif like

[introspectivememories]

you know i believe in neteyam having a tiny little waist too but more importantly i believe in making sure it doesn't look like RCDart drew it

[warmblanketwhump]

unexpected (villain x sidekick)

inspired by this incredible prompt from @ive-got-whumperflies

“Target has been captured and is en route.”

Villain couldn’t help the smile that crept into their cheeks. Finally, finally, they’d be another step closer to taking down Hero. Get to their beloved Sidekick, rough them up a bit, and get all the intel they needed. They might even be able to lure Hero to their headquarters for a futile rescue attempt - oh, it was just too much to hope for.

“Target has arrived,” the muffled voice said over the comms system.

“Bring them up. I want to say a few words before sending them down.” Over the years, Villain had realized that there was nothing quite as wonderful as holding all the cards and seeing someone's face when they realized it.

The door buzzed, and a body was roughly shoved through the door and fell to the ground. Villain stood from their desk and came to where Sidekick lay on the ground. They had their speech all planned out: a hint at the torture that awaited them, a couple threatening jabs designed to really break their spirit, and then a last chance to turn on Hero and divulge their plans before–

But Villain's plans were shattered when Sidekick shot up from their prone position on the floor, wrapped their arms tightly around Villain's legs, and began weeping inconsolably. Villain could barely make out the words, but when they did, their jaw dropped.

thank you, thank you, oh god thank you –

This blubbering went on for a minute or so, and Villain marinated in the sheer awkwardness of...whatever this was, which was most certainly not what they'd planned for.

"Alright. Sidekick. Calm down." Villain patted their head stiffly and pried Sidekick's grateful arms off of their legs, now sore from how tightly Sidekick was clinging to them. They deposited their captive on a nearby chair, and there, Villain could size up who they were up against and what they could inflict.

But from the looks of things, Villain had - quite literally - been beaten to the punch.

Sidekick's face sported a black eye, a split lip, and several nasty-looking scrapes and gashes. Their usually spotless outfit was torn and dirty, and Villain could see bruises on their exposed skin. Sidekick clutched their left wrist to their chest and shook uncontrollably - whether from fear or the over-air conditioned room, Villain couldn’t tell.

"Did my associates do this to you?” Probably from the struggle of the capture - they made a mental note to berate their lackeys for disobeying them yet again. “I told them not to touch you before you had a chance to turn–"

Sidekick shook their head earnestly. Well. Not Henchman, then.

And there was more to this scene that unsettled Villain. The uniform hung loosely on Sidekick's thin frame, and Villain could see the hollowness in their drawn, pale face. And there was something about their demeanor – cowering in a chair, not quite meeting Villain's eyes, that was so different from the defiant fireball they'd met in their previous clashes with Hero. Villain frowned. Something wasn’t right.

"Then who did this to you?" Sidekick seemed frozen. They opened their mouth, but no words came out. "Is there another Villain I need to watch out for?"

Sidekick nodded - yes. Their eyes filled with fear, and Villain felt something in their heart clench. They were no saint, but they'd never seen someone so afraid. The truth was, they really only loved to torment the defiant ones, the arrogant ones who refused to admit that they could break like anyone else. But this one – this one was already broken. And there was just no joy to be found in that.

Villain knelt before Sidekick, whose tears began slipping from their eyes in earnest.

"Sidekick. Who did this?"

Sidekick released a shuddering sigh. "Hero," they whispered. voice cracking.

Villain's head spun. No....it couldn’t be.

Couldn't it?

Hero. The one who'd mocked them endlessly when they were children, making fun of their clothes, their hair, their unconventional ideas.

Hero. The one who cheated them out of the coveted top spot at the local training school all those years ago .

Hero. The bright, shining example that the city worshipped while Villain slunk in the shadows and did their business in a less...conventional manner.

Hero. The one that everyone trusted, loved, revered, when only Villain knew the truth.

“Hero did this to you?”

Sidekick nodded, and the tears came freely. They told their tale - how they’d accidentally come across some of Hero's shady dealings and thought it was a mistake. But when they’d confronted Hero, Hero had turned on them - told Sidekick they were being irrational, unfair, judgmental, that they didn’t understand what it took to have the weight of the city on their shoulders, all but confirming that it wasn’t a mistake at all. Sidekick had been heartbroken, and set out to redeem the mentor they idolized.

For months, they'd tried to help hide what Hero was doing. Siphoning money from dark places, putting their friends in power and defaming good, honest people who stood in their way. Hiding behind a perfect smile while manipulating everyone around them into perfect submission. Sidekick fought every day to try and redeem the good person they though they knew, but it was no use - that person didn't exist.

But the worst came when Sidekick tried to leave - and Hero wouldn't let them. Villain swallowed hard as Sidekick described what happened - nights, starving, alone, and locked in a cold cell. Dangerous missions where Hero forced Sidekick into danger, only to rescue them at the last possible moment. “Trainings” that lasted for hours and left them bloody and bruised. All from the person Sidekick had looked up to. And if they said a word, it was Sidekick's family who would pay the price.

Until Villain came, swooped in, and stole them from a situation that they couldn’t see any other way out of.

“So...now I’m here.” Sidekick met Villain’s eyes warily, cheeks slightly reddening with embarrassment. “And I guess...you’re gonna hurt me too. But I never would have gotten out of there without you. And at least now, my family's safe. So...thank you.”

Villain had never felt this before - the quiet gratitude of someone who’s life they’d accidentally made better. The ache of sympathy for the thin, shaky waif in front of him, who had nowhere else to turn. No, this was very new. And terrifying. And it felt...good.

"No."

Sidekick’s eyes clouded with confusion at Villain's sudden outburst. “What...what do you mean?”

“I’m not gonna hurt you.” Villain met Sidekick’s eyes, feeling like a fire was being stoked in their gut. "I'm gonna take Hero down. Once and for all. Will you help me?"

Sidekick met their eyes and nodded, a new understanding filling them with a light Villain never thought would return.

Villain buzzed their comms system, and Henchman answered with a grunt. “You want me to come in and get started?”

Villain cleared their throat. “There’s been a change in plans. I have some...new intel. Bring up some soup, a couple blankets, and a first aid kit. Sidekick and I have a few things to talk about.”

[worldwidemochiguy]

Reticence (soft! Yandere Hoseok)

Summary: You were always terrified of getting kidnapped when you were younger, and now that you’ve been taken by a man who claims to want to take care of you, you recede within yourself so far you refuse to even eat... but Hoseok is determined to let nothing hurt you, not even yourself.

Warnings: Kidnapping, kind of Stockholm syndrome, mentions of not eating so if you’re sensitive to that kind of stuff pls be careful <3 Yandere behaviour, though I am kind of romanticising it in this fic, please remember that that is all it is: Fiction. Obviously in real life this behaviour would be unacceptable and horrifying. 

Word Count: 2.2K

Masterlist :)

a/n: my first hobi fic!!! this is for @kpopgirlbtssvt​ from a request made about a billion years ago (sorry :/ ) for made-for-each-other verse! Yandere Hobi with a shy reader who wouldn’t talk even though he begged her to, and then him coming home from work to her telling him she missed him and was glad he was home. this was a lil less fluffy and a lil more angsty than i intended, but its still a ‘happy ending’ bc im a weak bitch with simple pleasures, what can i say lmao

Reticence

“What do you want for breakfast, sunshine?” 

Silence. 

Hoseok sighed, then straightened up again, walking over to the refrigerator. You remained sat by the kitchen island, empty gaze fixed on the marble countertop. 

“Omelettes it is, then!” He exclaimed with artificial excitement, trying to be cheery in the face of your taciturnity, but even the sunshiney optimist that was Hoseok was finding it more difficult than he expected. He had hoped that by now you would’ve accepted him, but you remained as quiet and unresponsive as the day he brought you home. Not that you thought of it as ‘home’ yet, but he hoped you would eventually. Hoseok was not a patient man, but he was willing to wait forever for you. 

You didn’t even blink when he set the plate down in front of you. It didn’t seem like you were going to attempt to eat it either. Hoseok sighed. He could understand if you didn’t want to talk to him yet — even though it had been months and he’d been nothing but kind to you — but he drew the line at refusing to eat. 

You had lost weight. The cute cheeks he loved to watch bunch up as you smiled were now sunken. Your beautiful figure which he had admired from afar was starting to become worryingly waif-like. Hoseok frowned, a crinkle between his brows forming for the first time as his usually exuberant features warped with agitation.

“Listen, Y/n-” Hoseok sat down at the kitchen island across from you, bracing his forearms against the table and leaning forwards. “You have to eat. I promise there’s nothing in it that could hurt you. Look, I’ll even eat it myself!” Hoseok carved out a small piece of the omelette and popped it in his mouth, exaggerating his chewing and swallowing. “See?” You offered no reaction, and Hoseok felt his disappointment join the omelette on its way down to his stomach. 

“I can understand that you maybe aren’t so happy with me right now, but that doesn’t mean you have to punish yourself. Just, please, please stop shutting me out.” His pleading tone did nothing to move you. You just sat there like a ghost, and a groan of frustration slipped out of Hoseok. 

“Please! I’m begging you! Just eat! I don’t understand, all I want to do is take care of you! All I want to do is love you, why won’t you accept me? Why won’t you even talk to me?” 

The only sound was Hoseok’s harsh breaths after his outburst. If he couldn’t see the slow rise and fall of your chest, Hoseok would think you weren’t alive at all. He slumped in his seat, allowing himself to wallow in self-pity for a moment, before forcing himself to get up and ready for work. When he passed through the kitchen again on his way out the door you were still sitting there, staring at the countertop. 

The front door banged shut, the sound echoing in the apartment. Then, silence. And then, very quietly, the noises of cutlery moving against a plate and chewing. 

~~~~~~

“I don’t know what to do~” Hoseok whined, his head buried in his hands. Around him, his shocked friends were gathered in an informal circle. Each of them had an expression with varying degrees of surprise and confusion — they had never seen Hoseok, the literal personification of sunshine, so dismayed. 

“It’ll be ok, Hoseok. I know it’s bad at the moment, but you just have to wait until she trusts you. Once you achieve her trust, you’ll both be the happiest you’ve ever been.” Taehyung reassured him. Taehyung was obviously the source of authority, since him and his wife were basically the perfect couple. 

“But what if she never trusts me?” Hoseok fretted, before groaning again. “She won’t even eat! I don’t know what to do, I’m just watching her slowly starve in front of me and she won’t even look at me!” The rest of the group paused as they digested this new information. It seemed this girl was particularly stubborn.

“Force feed her then.” Jin shrugged and Hoseok’s head shot up in outrage.

“No! I could never hurt her like that!”

“You’re hurting her by letting her starve.” Jeongguk pointed out, and Namjoon smacked the back of his head, chastising. Meanwhile, Hoseok looked like he was about to cry.

“Listen, Hoseok, are you sure this girl is the one?” Jimin questioned, bracing his clasped hands on his knees. 

“I know she is.” Hoseok replied with a conviction he rarely used. “The second she came into my life, it was like I was born again and she was the first thing I saw. The only thing I could see. Her face- God, it just… glows. She’s like sunshine. She’s an angel. She’s so beautiful and kind and fragile and I want to protect her from everything, and I don’t deserve her but no one else does either and I know we’re meant to be together. If I thought I could’ve let her go, I would have. But I can’t. I have to have her, she has to be mine.” 

The circle of men was quiet for a second, before a quiet chuckle broke the silence. 

“Well then,” Yoongi rasped, “if she’s all that you say she is-”

“She is.” Hoseok interjected fiercely.

“Then all you can do is have a little patience.”

~~~~~~~~~~

It was incredibly boring being kidnapped. Especially when your kidnapper did nothing interesting except make bad food and dance along to music from the TV surprisingly well and cry sometimes when you wouldn’t look at him. Frankly, it would have been easier if he were more of the torturey-type, because it was really hard to stay stubborn in the face of his sparkling eyes and radiant smile.

When you were younger, there was a poster up on the wall of your homeroom at school. On it was an old man with an ugly sneer and a beige trench-coat, with the slogan ‘DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS’ superimposed in glaring red letters. You used to stare up at the poster and wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to talk to someone who looked like that. 

You were never afraid to yell ‘STRANGER DANGER’ at the highest decibel your little lungs could manage whenever a person brushed too close to you in the mall. It was almost a habit — you were avidly fixated on your own personal safety, much to your mother’s chagrin and public embarrassment. Being banned from all the surrounding stores within a 20 mile radius had two consequences:

You had to drive forty minutes for a new pair of socks.

You stayed at home a lot more than you went out.

You became a homebody, and it was certainly not something you were unhappy about. Staying safe in your room meant there was less risk for someone to kidnap you. The comforting layer of your blanket was a shield from everything bad in the world. When your parents were arguing constantly, screaming at each other every other night, you would just tuck yourself in and read a bedtime story on your own since they were both occupied. When your parents eventually divorced, you buried yourself under your duvet rather than answer their questions about who you wanted to stay with, and what your preference was. When your mom died in a car crash, and your dad started drinking, your mattress was the shoulder you could cry on, your blanket was a warm arm holding you close. You had always felt safe in your bed. Perhaps that was why you were having such an averse reaction to being taken from it.

Hoseok was not a man with an ugly sneer and a trench coat. He had an impeccable sense of style, and his smile was breathtaking on the few occasions that it appeared. You more often saw his face twisted into a pained grimace. For a kidnapper, he was awfully sensitive. You were pretty sure it was reasonable for you to be holding grudge, and it’s not as if you were actively fighting against him or anything. You were just refusing to acknowledge him. You were highly skilled at repressing things, or ignoring them, and you were resolved to do the same now. 

By 7 o’ clock, your resolve was slightly eroded. Hoseok always arrived back at half-past 5 on the dot. He was a very punctual person, and you felt an unwelcome sense of worry curl along the edges of your mind as the clock counted away the seconds of him not being there. You remembered feeling the same way when you waited for your mom to pick you up from your dads, watching the clock hand sweep past the numbers, increasingly taunting. Of course, you hadn’t realised that she was at the time caught in between a lorry with a drunk driver and a very steep incline. You wondered if you were being similarly clueless now. 

When the door clicked open at quarter to 9, you had to restrain yourself from exhaling in relief. Hoseok came in looking slightly disheveled, his collar undone and his hair mussed as if he had ran his hands through it over and over again. He gave you a quick once over to see if you were alright, shot you a small, forced smile and then went straight to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

That was odd. He never closed the door to his bedroom. He had always left it open in case you needed anything, despite your refusal to acknowledge him. First, his late arrival and now yet another uncommon action? You felt curiosity bubble within you. That was it. Curiosity. It’s not that you were at all worried about him, you were just being nosy. Of course. 

You tiptoed towards the door, tracing a finger around the door frame lightly. What if he didn’t even come out again for dinner? You doubted he had dined out without you, he had been eating his meals sitting across from you while you refused to touch yours since the day he stole you. You really should check on him, if only for the fact that if he dies then you’re trapped here with a high chance of starvation.

Before you could convince yourself not to, you opened the door and stepped inside. The only light-source came from the moonlight filtering through the window, casting Hoseok’s form lying on the bed in a deep blue. His eyes, which you assumed had been closed previously, shot open to observe you as he propped himself up on the backs of his forearms.

“Y/n.” He rasped, and a pleasant shiver ran down your spine. “D-do you need anything?” His tone was both excited and confused, probably because you had literally never directly interacted with him before. 

You didn’t speak, and for the first time your silence was due to speechlessness, rather than a conscious desire.

“I-I, uh,” You stuttered, and Hoseok sat up ramrod straight, hearing your voice for the first time. “You… were late home.”

Hoseok felt like he couldn’t breathe. Your voice was so soft and pretty, fuck, and you were actually looking at him, you were actually talking to him, holy shit- and you called the apartment home. You said he was late ‘home’. Hoseok somehow managed to keep his shit together. 

“I was?”

“Yes.” You confirmed with a small nod of your head. Fuck, you were so cute. “You normally come back at half five. It’s almost nine now.”

“I’m sorry. I was working late.” He was staying at the office because he felt guilty for not taking proper care of you and wanted to avoid seeing the proof of your unhappiness, but you didn’t need to know that. 

“It’s ok.”

You remained standing at the foot of the bed, locked in his gaze. The bed looked so comfortable, moulding to support his body, and his warm body was exactly the comforting presence you were searching for all those years ago and you found yourself asking,

“Can I sleep in the bed with you?” 

It was a quiet, timid suggestion but Hoseok reacted to it like a bombshell. His eyes practically popped out of their sockets and his entire body tensed. You were about to rescind your offer when he reached out a tugged a corner of the blanket down, welcoming you into the warmth. 

You awkwardly sat on the edge of the mattress, nudging off your house slippers with your toes before slipping under the covers. The relief was instantaneous, shrouded in comforting and familiar warmth, and you couldn’t stop yourself from plastering yourself against his side, arm reaching out tentatively to rest on his chest. You felt his muscles jump under your touch, before his arm slid under you and tucked around your shoulders, drawing you into him closer. You closed your eyes, letting out a quiet little sigh, and you let yourself say the words you wish you could’ve said all those years ago when your mother never returned.

“I’m glad you’re home. I missed you.” 

[wisherbysharlight]

WHAT IF... SANDERS SIDES BUT MAKE IT A TROPEY TEEN BEACH AU

Endgame!LAMP. Dukeceit, Remile

Just 2k stream of consciousness words from a plunny that grew legs TW for v slight underage drinking, one joking mention of violence, and a non-specific discussion of intrusive thoughts

-Janus has just moved there because his parents wanted to start a new "adventure" and he is a Stereotypical Teenager. Very "ugh MOM I wanna go back to my FRIENDS for my LAST SUMMER BEFORE COLLEGE"(most of his friends suck. He should not spend time with them. He does not know this)

His Parents buy him a surfboard and tell him to try it out as a way to get him to Shut Up

Hes a Skater Boy(cue music) so he picks it up super fast from like,,, youtube videos

 -He gets told to Get a Job if he wants to like, keep buying surf gear?

All the local kids work at like one restaurant/yacht club type place right on the beach

Janus gets hired as a host

 -Logan is a beach badge checker, Patton, Roman, and Remus are beachfront restaurant waiters but Roman just Really Wants To Surf, Emile and Virgil are Lifeguards, and Remy is a bartender

 -Janus is Very Good At Customer Service because Fake Smiles

Patton recognizes this Immediately

He shows him the Rage Closet which is a tiny room with an arm chair that locks from the inside where you can punch a pillow on your break when it gets to be Too Much

-Janus is Attached now and there is no getting rid of him

Patton Fully Endorses this and introduces him to the rest of the group

Janus Knows Immediately that LAMP is In Love but says nothing because he aint no snitch

-Remus surfs, but he also always wear a thong while doing it

Roman wears a full wetsuit and somehow still gets Board Rash. Remus is somehow immune and it infuriates him

 -Janus, not knowing that the twins live right on the beach cuz they are RichTM: Hey Ree I kinda wanna learn how to surf would you be able to teach me 

Remus, who religiously watches Janus surf every morning, but is absolutely willing to play this game: Yeah absolutely

Patton, later: “lets rinse off at the twins they’re right here” Janus: theyre.... What?!

 -Meanwhile, elsewhere, Virgil and Roman are double teaming Logan to drag him into the water with them cuz he’s pouting about losing a debate with their manager about how he didn’t really be mean to the dudebro who wanted to get his buddies onto the beach without paying, he was just enforcing the rules. And if the dude was so offended by Logan’s Very Accurate Dragging that he complained to management then, well, that’s his problem not Logan’s

 -Logan is never without a book. Ever. And its always a different book. Janus is starting to think he owns a library

One day he is just... reading a Physics textbook. Not taking notes or anything. Just reading. 

Roman is Very Very Alarmed by this because he is Gay and Math is Scary

"Roman I'm also gay that is not a determining factor"

"Yeah but you can't drive"

"...fair"

 -the first time janus has a shift with the twins, he cant stop staring, not just because hes like,,, super attracted to Remus but also because they are like Chaos Incarnate and yet somehow get the most tips??? He doesn't understand???

It's just cuz they are both Huge Flirts and Flatterers and the patrons dont care that they're not-so-subtly beating the shit out of each other right there on the dining floor because theyre just so charming

 -one of the bartenders gets aggressively snapped at by a customer and called "sweetheart" and before Janus can even begin to react Remy is there, sunglasses off, fire in his eyes, telling them to settle their bill and get the fuck out

Janus, used to City Restaurants- "Wont you get in trouble with the owner?!"

Remy, who knows Nothing Else But This- "What?? Not likely I only did it cuz Thomathy wasnt here to do it himself"

 -the restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday so that is the Pseudo Weekend for the staff where everyone hangs out at the beach

Emile and Virgil take Tuesdays off but still work Monday’s cuz they feel better being the one watching over their friends

 -Roman, staring at Virgil on the lifeguard stand: ugh he’s so pretty I almost wish I was drowning just so he could give me cpr 

Janus: you wanna potentially get your ribs broken just for lip contact? 

Remy, staring at Emile on the lifeguard stand: listen, if that’s what it takes, I’ll take it

Remus, immediately going up to the lifeguard stand because he has 0 impulse control: hey my brother and cousin want you to break their ribs 

Virgil and Emile: excuse me?????

 -Patton will literally spend hours in the water. Logan physically drags him out to put sunscreen on him every two hours to the minute. Patton does not admit that he purposely "forgets" just so Logan will do so

Logan is Dark and has never used sunscreen ever but Patton is so pale and he just gets so concerned about him. Patton thinks its adorable

He has pages of research on proper spf determination.

Roman and Remus use spf 15 just on their faces and have never once burned in their lives

Logan wants to submit them for scientific study because that shouldnt be possible

Virgil calls Logan out on the fact that he also should be wearing sunscreen and Logan like... blue screens he cant believe in all his research he missed that

 -Patton is like... a ridiculously strong swimmer. Virgil still has a heart attack every time he goes for laps when there is the slightest hint of an undertow

Patton Knows This so he tries to stay in Virgil's sight line for the most part if there is an undertow. Or just dives over the waves again and again.

His nickname is Ariel. He thinks its just cuz of the swimming and the fact hes a red head. LAP all separately also tack on that its the swimming, the red hair, and the hnng pretty 10/10 would follow out to sea ala Prince Eric

 -first beach bonfire Janus goes to Remy is Fully In Emile's Lap like... half an hour in

he has had like maybe a sip of a beer

Remus says he still claims this is because he is a Clingy Drunk

no one will call him on it, least of all Emile

 -there is truth or dare. Roman may or may not skinny dip you have no proof

 -Logan gets infuriated that he cannot roast a marshmallow properly

Patton does it perfectly every single time but its ok cuz he shares and Logan eats it right from his fingers and Roman and Virgil are just in the background Trying and Failing not to be the Most Jealous

Patton thinks theyre upset they didn't get marshmallows and makes some for them too and there is lots of Significant Eye Contact involved

Janus is going to spontaneously combust if they don't get their shit together

 -Janus is out walking on the beach one night on a full moon cuz he cant sleep with everything so quiet around here when he sees a bright green patch out in the water and goes ...wait

he calls out to Remus and he comes into shore and is like "waves are perfect at night you should join me" so janus goes back and gets his board and they surf and chat for like the entire night

Janus finds out Remus couldn't sleep cuz intrusive thoughts were keeping him awake

Janus listens and doesn't judge, just lets Remus talk it out

They go back to shore and fall asleep on the sand next to each other like mid sentence still talking, now about whatever creative business idea Remus had, and get woken up by Logan's morning rounds like "come on guys you know you're not allowed to sleep out here" but they dont care theyre both just *blushing emoji*

-Logan Always Has A Notebook right? And a regular book he reads. And everyone assumes they are like Notions and Observations, but no, it’s actually blank paper and he uses it to sketch and then one day he leaves it behind and someone either Virgil or Patton finds it and flips through it and it’s all sketches of them and Roman and they’re like??? Actually really good? Anyway that’s how they find out Logan is actually minoring in art even though he’s majoring in something Very STEM 

And he never told his best friends because like almost all his pre college art is Them and he doesn’t want to be caught having Feelings and by the time it gets to college it’s been too long and he can’t tell them now 

Roman takes one of the sketches of him surfing and makes it his profile picture on All Social Media He Has and Logan is so flustered he nearly breaks his damn phone

Patton is so offended he didn’t get invited to Logan’s first showcase that he doesn’t talk to him for like two whole hours 

Virgil quietly asks if there is any art of all four of them, finds out there is, and makes a print and keeps it on his bedside table

 -They are all Pining Outwardly Now and its Worse

 -Remus : you have known them since pre-k please ask them out I beg of you 

Roman: You just dont get it 

Remus: I asked Janus out after 4 weeks what is your problem

 Emile: Virgil, I love you, you are my Partner in Anti-Drowning but you are so stupid 

Virgil: What???? All I said is that you and Remy are really cute and I'd love to be in a relationship like that 

Emile: I am not a violent person, Virgil, but I have the strong urge to smack you

 Patton, in the Rage Closet: They're all just so hOT and ReSPEctFUL 

Janus, waiting for his turn, trying to act like he cant hear him: I Am Looking Elsewhere

 Logan: I just don't understand why they were more upset that I didn't tell them than that I'd been making art of them for years?? Shouldn't that second part be worse??

Remy, who has been partial to Every Single One Of AMP Waxing Poetic About Logan: Yeah, no idea /s

 -the twins get into a surfing competition as a pair and everyone goes to see them and support them

Thomas airs the competition on every tv in the restaurant cuz he’s Proud of his Bois

They WIN cuz they are Creative and Talented and came up with all sorts of crazy tricks while they were fucking around in the water but it earns them Major Bonus Points for originality

 -Roman does the run off the podium and into Love’s arms trope with just like... whoever’s closest lets go Patton because he is a Waif and forced himself up front so he can see

The other two are Devastated because well shit but then Roman pushes through the crowd, still holding Patton’s hand, and gives them this smile and is like “remember in like second grade when we said we’d do everything together and made a pact on this beach”

Analogical: uhhhhhh yeah

Roman: holding you both to it. No take backs. This counts. Now kiss me, dammit, we WON and they DO MANY TIMES AND ITS REAL CUTE

 -Meanwhile dukeceit have Mysteriously Disappeared and No One wants to be the ones to go find them. They show back up, eventually. Janus has a branch in his hair and remus' hair is sticking straight up and when he opens his mouth roman glares at him and tells him in no uncertain terms that they do not want to know

 AnYWaY these are my children and I will gladly answer any questions about them. I left out Janus Backstory and Creativitwins Angst and Many Individual LAMP Scenes and Remile/Dukeceit getting together and Epilogue but can absolutely provide such things on request

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

The soul stone war is a game that I've seen before and its on my list. Was wondering if you coudl tell more about how you feel about it, especially the villain romance if you chose that one.

Uuh, sure. I'll do it in a bullet list cuz it's been a while since I've played it and I can't really be bothered to put a whole coherent post together.

I should also encourage you to read some reviews on the Steam store page. They basically repeat a lot of the points I'm about to make.

The main character is a useless waif. Like, even if you pass the skill checks, there are multiple instances where you're forced to pass out, be injured, kidnapped, or otherwise victimized. They're so helpless and out of their element that it becomes hard to believe any of the much more capable and skilled people around them would ever find them compelling or interesting and consider them anything more than a burden. Yet you’re somehow also the most important person in the whole squad, and they keep protecting and helping you no matter how you treat them. Because hey, that’s the protagonist!

On that note, the romances are dull as hell. All characters are vaguely nice and friendly, some are just more snarky/broody than others. You can "friendmance" people, which is a good concept in theory, but in practice it involves your character being unaware of their own emotions. It further adds to how incapable and clueless they seem. Plus, it never becomes clear why any of the ROs would be romantically interested in the protagonist, especially when they have established connections with other people on the squad already. You’re playing a rando who just shows up one day, bumbles about uselessly, but then becomes the most important person ever to them. Sure.

The plot is filled with contrivances. The main one being that the main character is involved in it at all. They're basically forced into it despite showing no particular skills or talents, and the only excuse we ever get for them sticking around is ... uh ... the big-booby elf lady said they were cute. The author simply didn't bother coming up with a better reason for them to be involved, knowing that there would be one eventually that would justify it in the end, but giving us nothing to work with in the moment, no personal reason and no agency. It feels very cheap.

The world and worldbuilding are basically the most generic fantasy thing you can imagine. The author even answered some questions on their Tumblr about the political structure of the land as "You know Skyrim? Like that." Elements and character dynamics and even minor phrases and words are lifted wholesale from franchises like Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls. One of the first things your character can say is a reference to Dragon Age, but it's never brought up again and we never get an explanation for what it means in this universe or why the character would say it. One of the first lines in your "own" unique world shouldn't be a tee hee cutesy reference to some other well-established universe.

The tone is all over the place. One moment you're joking around about something the big-boobied blond elf said, the next your character is being tortured by some werewolf woman or some god-entity, and there’s nothing they can do to escape, so you just sit there and have to endure all this torture porn. And then it’s right back to the repetitive jokes and snarky narration.

I’m serious about the torture porn. One of the MC’s backgrounds includes their transgender friend being murdered for being trans. Another includes your character almost getting sexually assaulted. The third involves your younger brother dying. There’s no reason for any of this to be included other than to show how dark and edgy this world is and how your character is running from their past or whatever.

Speaking of dark and edgy, the villain gets a lot of screen time, and it’s mostly him brooding about how evil he is while the narration creams itself over how hot he is, also. But the author acts surprised over how he’s the most popular character in the fandom, and deflects most criticisms for his route as “it’s self-indulgent” and “it’s a secret route just for me, I didn’t think anyone else would play it.” Bro why’d you put it there, then? With instructions in-game on how to reach it?

The writing is genuinely some of the worst I’ve read. I hate to use this word unironically, but it was cringeworthy at times. It’s supposed to be this epic fantasy, but most of the time it feels like it’s chasing the high of a found family in a video game squad, without actually knowing what makes those particular tropes work. It’s simplistic and extremely repetitive, relying more on character tropes and “tumblr meme” interactions than genuine character building and conflict. It also tries and mostly fails to be funny, but that’s more subjective, I guess. Take a shot every time the text goes “thank you very much!” and you’ll be out in a few clicks.

Pacing whomst? Everything happens in the span of like a week or a month, but suddenly your character and their RO are like, in love and all weepy about it? Oh no I almost lost you my dear darling baby, let me tearfully declare how important you are to me. Nevermind the fact that we met four days ago.

The villainmance is the only vaguely interesting thing in the story and it's pretty evident it's the author's favorite thing to write. They've said how it's just a "self-indulgent" thing that wasn't supposed to be popular (I do not believe a word of this), but it's by far the most interesting thing just based on the fact that it's not only the most plot-relevant romance, but it's also the one with the most stakes and drama and the most varied dynamics. There’s genuine, justified angst and emotion in the concept of it at times that is missing from literally every other interaction and grimdark moment.

That being said, I wouldn’t say the villainmance is healthy, so don’t go into it looking for that. The dynamics are way off-balance and a lot of the route in the first game is your character being attracted to the man who’s torturing them and wanting to be tortured again just to interact with him. If you’re into that, then you might be into this story, but if you’re not then you’ll be put off by it.

The Asian-coded character has a "yellow" skintone and is a half-dragon.

The reason there's transphobia in this world and the player can't be trans is is because the "gods" of this world don't want any mortals to have the ability to "change their gender" because that would make them too similar to the gods. However, nonbinary characters are fine, and you can play as one. Because as we all know, binary trans people are just out there "changing their gender" all willy nilly. That's how that works, right? While nonbinary characters are always born nonbinary and nobody assigns genders to their children in this world? Idk how any of this makes any sense but go off, I guess. This isn't in the actual game AFAIK but something I read on the author's Tumblr, so take it as you will. The actual transphobia is in the game, though. Because reasons.

Overall, it’s a lot of half-baked concepts, unfunny writing, and needless torture porn for the sake of torture porn. Plus it’s not even a whole story, it’s just the first part of a series/trilogy? Maybe it’ll get better as it goes, but I wouldn’t hold my breath tbh.

[misterbitches]

I ship muren and li cheng bc i only saw it through gifs then i watched this episode cos i was like im only starting this show if they kiss im waiting and they did and it was nice and i got so anxious that i was about to fucking vomit. I really like them together. The top/bottom shit is dumb and i hope if they must mention it they all build a bridge and get over it so they can switch cos who gives a shit. I didnt realize how large they all are like most “tall” men on tv are lying. But bc that kid is so thin and tall and the other one (idk the stepbrother) is huge too. Li cheng is shorter than them both but more ~manly~ but still short so why doesnt he take a DICK UP HIS BUTT XD since that’s all that fucking matters and there’s only 2 genders and 2 eays to have sex lmao so nothing else otherwise ur screwed

Hd a terrible past couple of weeks personally and because i keep seeing my peopl eget murdered and things ripped from us ^_____^ anyway here’s Some libertatrian communist dumb bitch discoars so i’ll tag it:

keep in mind these are my opinions’”” when i engage in discourse. I am not the end all be all and I don’t need you to agree. There’s some shit I am non-negotiable on but thsi is just exchanging of information. Any authoratative tone I take on comes from my beliefs, my life, my experiences, and what I choose to cultivate as a person and an artist. I dont have control over your feelings, you do. If it hurts you then either tell me the issue and be PRECISE about it, understand that context matters which is why i type so much in engagement, and do not fucking lie or misconstrue my words. Do not call me western ever in your life either. I am a black-american. I have adhd and bc i am a black woman if ur automatically thinking im brolic i am accepting money in my paypal for ur wellbeing to get me to shut the fuck up.Thanks.

The stepbrothers storyline is stupid and lazy writing. I really want to counter people that say it’s written well and that it’s interesting because it isn’t. Even if it was illicit and fucked we can write a story out about this. Let’s rethink what they could have done shall we:

- become stepbrothers at about 16 and their parents mismanage the relationship and they fail in trying to get an integrated family together (this is what happened in the #iconic transit girls and that was fuckin’ weird but hey dude guess what we watched it and it was weird but not unethical and we know one is like 19 and the other is 21 and a girl so it’s like wow you avoided so much and handled their stepsister story very…….um lightly given the end lmao but it was there and people had AGENCY)

-OR you realize that freak is obsessed with him and then he realizes it and is like “bitch i swear to god” and in typical shtity trope BL fashion they can find a way from obsession, to loss and independence when you lose your obsession, to “love” if they choose

- have the fucked up shit but make it clear what the issues are and you literally cannot write your way out of it so do not try

But why can’t fucked up things be shown? Also this is realistic.

0. Well according to you but no one said that they can’t. So that’s on your interpretation of critique (that is, again, not bullying or harassment.) They can, i just gave plenty of scenarios in which it is affective and not just annoying to witness, trope-y, and frankly ridiculous and offensive. Sorry! They don’t do it well. You can come up with alternatives too. See #2 btw.

1. No it isn’t doing a good job of reflecting life because life has consequences. The exaggeration in drama doesn’t mean the arc shouldn’t be there. Almost always things that aren’t heavy with the message or meant to be sobering in a deep way are COMPELLING. The realism is the basis for art because we are human. This is not the way real humans act.

Someone said Tharn Type was mature and I had to laugh because no, no one acts that way and is “in love” if they act that way that means they fucking hate each other and they’re immature and frankly it’s just not that interesting for many of us to watch because the dramatization of the “realism” is fucking bonkers. That was such poor writing it is unbelievable and someone has the audacityt o say it’s how real adults act. Fucking murder me if I’m with someone for 7 years and we break up over a miscommunication and for some reason I am not as horny as my always horny boyfriend. The fuck? What kind of lives do you lead? Either you are not an adult or you are an adult who needs therapy.

I also hear the “realistic” argument but then people try and temper it with “but also it’s fiction.” What do you think fiction is? Why do you think filmmaking exists? Number one, it’s propaganda in the sense that you want others to buy into your presentation and see what you see. That means that the creators are telling people and influencing them WITH ART BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT IS about their feelings around a situation. That’s why it is imperative to be responsible as a filmmaker and artist and underline the deepness of creepiness if that’s what they want. If they want to relay that rape sometimes ok and psychos are crazy so they get boy (??!?!?!? BITCH?) then they achieved it with no innovative information. We know people get raped bc we are human beings and many of us live with that fear. You know, being the target demo and all. And bc BL loves that trope it’s rape fantasy peddled to young people and women. Just like shitty wattpad fics or NYT best sellers. Hooray, what now? Or are you trying to purport that this isn’t glorified fanfiction? Which it literally is

2. This is the issue with these shows. No one is saying that fucked up shit cannot be shown. There’s a film about a woman who is raped and she falls in love with her rapist (because he was masked but i think we find out later that she knows. Binoche is in it.) I have no desire for that film—i think it’s by a man and i extra dont care—but I hear it’s sort of powerful for many. I heard it was a good film. But the act itself is always eschewed and the conflict comes from how fucking ridiculous it is especially finding out that she knows. The power imbalance adn the possibility. They may not have handled it in a way I would have cared for but it was there.

There’s simply no imagination because these people do not care that much and aren’t great writers and filmmakers because they simply do not have to be. Sorry.

The industry doesn’t rely on the best they rely on efficiency (this is everywhere.) You can tell by the camera angles, the editing, the camera itself (idk if it is multicam but the flatness is typical soap flatness without the glowboxes to soften their faces.) Simple constant lighting. Now the surroundings are mostly beautiful. But even to some of the costumes. And those edits are abysmal, some of that camera work.

So with all that said even with the couple I extremely enjoy I see its (H4) faults. Add into that a lazily thrown together “shocking” love and if they are trying to get us to feel a type of way about its sexiness they fail. This is why movies like 50sog, 365 days, etc aren’t enjoyable to people because it’s fucking strange situations that they dont want to entangle or make enjoyable to viewers across the board. They know what people will take. It’s just that bitch what are we here for if even the sexiness isn’t there for ur stupid story.

At least with that teenager and 30 yr old man in MODC (which i do not love but i like them in theory if it wasnt totally repulsive to me and also if it was developed in a way that was good TO ME) they had their, er, “sex appeal” i talk about this as well the main couple in MODC to me, visually, was a miss. Not bc whatshisface was small and stuff but bc he was so sickly and they needed that to propel the story but it was just not appealing given how the story progressed. A missed opportunity in tying the two together besides making him look waif-y and sickly only to have the “did ur mom die in a car crash? No, cancer” type of move in not another teen movie. But the opposite. And not funny. Wayne tho????? GORL. Eggs. Cracked.

fandoms have a very warped sense of harrassment and discourse.

Most fandoms have harassers who are “protecting” the cast and crew who don’t need their protection (or maybe the crew does since they probably dont get paid well but why the fuck would anyone care about that lol) but very few have the people who have concerns or massive critique about the show are not going to be “bullying.”

If people are saying “if you like xyz, u suck” then sure it may suck for you to see but who fucking cares. Either talk to the person or don’t be friends with them. That is not bullying or harrassment. Things that are shitty get criticized. Fuck, things that aren’t shitty don’t. Get away from this idea of cancel culture and people misunderstanding the story. We have the ability to.

Think beyond your noses of personal preference. You don’t have to convince people of what you believe. Discussing it is good but critique is not bullying, harrassment, or hate. Neither is fucking roasting shit because even this shit I like (manner of death lets say) deserves it. Art is meant to be critiqued and if you dont fucking like the bullshit people make then say it. They know stupid stories like this are scandalous and they don’t give a shit in how to present them.

And guess what? You won’t like everybody. Many people can’t stand me i’m sure. Oh well. I mean frankly I don’t like that and I feel very unsettled when I don’t feel understood. That’s ok! I have to temper it. Sometimes calm myself down. I won’t get anything and everything I want. And you won’t like every opinion and sometimes it’s like “man am i a dummy?” But the part of growing up is fucking maanging that and beng honest about “bashing and harrassment” and “bullying” and growing up. Yuo can like what you want the “let people like what they want thing” is so fucking juvenile and THAT is not the real world. Which is probably why so many people feel that way, they dont want to live in the real world. Unfortunately, you do.

Think beyond our noses of personal preference and what we feel emotionally in conjunction with others. You don’t have to convince people of what you believe. And you can say things that you believe to be true but it doesn’t make them so or maybe it isn’t received that way to people. And many times we learn new things in the discussions “oh shit i didn’t see it that way” right? Discussing it is good but critique is not bullying, harrassment, or hate. Neither is fucking roasting shit because even this shit I like (manner of death lets say) deserves it. Art is meant to be critiqued and if you dont fucking like the bullshit people make then say it. They know stupid stories like this are scandalous and they don’t give a shit in how to present them. Usually the “opposition” in these situations aren’t the popular beliefs that permeate through society. Trust me lmao

Antiblackness

Antiblackness is a thing. It permeates everywhere. It permeates in this genre and it permeates in fandom. Get it the fuck together. Also do not conflate cultural relativism with being repsectful. They are not barbarians, they are smart human beings either making work or deciding to. We all have diff cultures but we have fucking sense in what is respectful and not. And if we don’t we fucking learn. You cannot excuse things and say “oh culture” when you have 0 idea of that culture or actual people who are radical etc and are fighting against it. Additionally the word westerner is an ignorant term when referring to people in the US or UK who are black. Because we are not. We extend sympathy to other groups and empathy since we know so there is no inherent power imbalance between a black viewer and their subject. Don’t suggest that because it’s wrong and ahistorical and contextless.

FIRST the fallacy of representation as freedom makes people fucking complacent, individualistic, and doesn’t let them think critically. Consumption and discourse around consumption is not helping material conditions of the marginalized communities in your home, the black ones who are ignored, those intersectionalized in these communities. Groups talk about art and what it means for them outside of just what we see and because we also don’t have access to a bunch of Thai reviews or what movements or going on we are less likely to know if we don’t FUCKING SEARCH for it. Because art is constant...which leads me to....

Representation is difficult. It matters and it doesn’t.

Tthese shows are not meant to overturn the LGBTQ+ community.

There are queer filmmakers and artists in these countries. Deep illustrious film careers or even TV that is moving and deliberate. We can even see it with the dude from “your name engraved” in their short series he was in beforehand. BL is no wa pejorative because it is simply not “qu**r” storytelling whatever that means. But know it has always existed everywhere and there are also out artists or radical artists in all these countries who do no respect mediums that are cash-grabs and poorly made.

ex: As much as “Like in the Movies” sort of isnt for me and is a bit hamfisted you can tell how much love goes into that. Love of the characters, acting, and message. Yes it’s cringey to see some of the lines (like very tbh subtlety wasnt exactly their strong suit) and yea naming them after lenin and marx is just 0ihgoaudgijposkagjihou BUT GUESS WHAT? THEY FUCKING DID IT. THEY TRIED. And class was a large component as well bc u cant fuckin ignore it. The show is aware of the machinations in its world as a show but also in the philippines and for a fuckin reason. And duatarte? Loooooooool so like yea not so sure bl makes him love his ppl but the show isnt trying to do that

It’s not a transgressive genre and it has no reason to be. No ethical anything under the way we live it’s just trying your fucking best to be. That’s it. They serve societal ills and capital’s purposes. Which is fine but it is not revolutionary.

These countries in SEA or even SA do not have as big budget for even mainstream dramas—though things are changing and that’s bc REVENUE like revenue from kpop is fucking huge for SK and again so much about that is bc of what happened in their history from japanese imperialism to WWII to the US—so for “queer” stuff it is sort of now important to make that an export and it sure is one. Not only globally or to the west but a lot of these places make their money within asia (duh!) outside of their countries. OBVIOUSLY. so BL is a way to output and gain money. The thing is, it doesnt seem to be put back into the industry at all. For people in all these countries to make works that aren’t for mainstream or wont reach as many people there’s a difference between trying and just shoving shit in your face and going here it’s gay you like it right? But dont antagonize the inherent patriarchal nature of BL.

Another thing: did you guys know thailand was never colonized? You should look it up. There’s little hints of things in ITSAY to represent french influence still. Isnt that fascinating? Find out why. It’s certainly interesting that the representation, though damaging and dubious many times and also incorrect like any media, is huge in asia and this isnt a commodity here (the US) exactly. A lot of that has to do with colonial ideas of gender of which I am sure. But listen………lmao

Sometimes people dont give a shit. And it very much shows. Here is the thing once again. GOOD TRANSGRESSIVE WORK exists.

Een within the capitalist Bs paradigm or you can see people trying (I can sort of applaud parts of lovely writer) also queer media has always existed everywhere the reason you don’t know about it is because it gets takena nd commodified into a mainstream product. We hvae little incentive, particularly if we are not fans of cinema or art in gen, to search fror others when the output is right here. Being dictated by others and the state and who will give you money. No longer an effort of a cast and crew who want to convey things. But google [any country] independent cinema, radical cinema, queer radical cinema, or even retrospectives on the cinema and rethinking what is queer and radical in film. What if we took that, diluted it, got rid of the creators who put themselves through all the work, ignroe al the nuances and do……………….two actors who are conventionally attractive with no chemistry making out.

It’s the same here lets say daniel kaluuya winning the oscar for the film about the BPP. I heard it was okay and not too offensive but it still isnt’ enough. It still isn’t like hwood isn’t trash, nnati black, misogynistic towards BW and women, and all that other shit. It was pushy but it can’t be enough where we are. Black KKKlansmen i think won an oscar, by circumstance i fuckin hate these award shows they mean nothing, and i like the film a lot but he has his misogynoir still resting in his films even if it is poignant. And it was a film that honestly wasn’t really made for black people. And should all art be a response to direct trauma or trying to make ourselves palatable when we’re just human?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and it’s importance (capitalism) but also sorta individual responsibility

Considering a lot of these actors are rich and then just dip that’s another problem. Mainstream isn’t what sustains marginalized art ever. It doesn’t change in the vast ways we think it does. What changes is the people of these groups pushing, fighting, forcing and then capitalism trying to make it work under capitalism. It will not. It cannot.

This is why artists and labels often don’t mix or you see people like Sonic Youth doing whatever they want and pissing off their label but making them give them money. Same with Nirvana. Vince Staples. The thing is they can fight and make good shit but what capitalism helps people….not care? They don’t respect the audience? We’re getting those returns on poor executed product placement, lighting, editing, framing, fucking acting. And you surewon’t see mixed black asians in these shows. WHY R U is the oNLY one i have seen it in and he just disappears (but that was pretty cool.) so who the fuck is this representing? And before you start: asian countries are not homogenous the way we believe them to be. There are marginalized communities outside of even mixed people that are harmed. So you can skrrt cause on that one: you’re wrong buddy. But it gives us the IDEA of a paradise which is what they NEED.With representation and visibility comes consequence and responsibility as artists. What it allows them to do is coast and not think complexly because why should they; it’s mostly the fantasies of some older woman who probably has money and much less interaction with the world. It’s bonkers. And what that allows even further is for them to say YOU ARE THE THING THAT YOU CONSUME and the THING THAT YOU CONSUME IS YOURS. It is not, it is not your identity, form a close bond but figure it the fuck out. Especially for adults who are hellbent on twisting their minds into pretzels and can’t acknowledge what’s just laziness in art and not giving a fucking shit. Truly.

There’s damage that has been done from Parasite as he was supported by CJE&M and the bullshit obsession america had and eveyrone’s poor interpretation of it if they are rich. BJH is a socialist and he is a filmmaker. He has made films that are outstanding and cost a lot of money. But now a fear for indie filmmakers is just not being able to raise that much or have that much attention. Getting funding that helps them instead of expecting the Next Big Thing that is a fad because capitalism is trash. Yes this funneling of money is absolutely harmful to us artists. Even buying in is strategic. Additionally, that film is probs one of the most radical films to have that wide release and accolade (unlike “Sorry to Bother You” which i have a lot of thoughts about. One being that asian exports are acceptable but black ones are not. This is an overall art critique and global media critique. Blackness is removed, not respected.) However, filmmaking isn’t green, it can’t be socialist, and it’s a lot of work. They used tons and tons and TONS of water to do a huge beautiful feat but we still know there is a cost. We have to figure that out because it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t go back into the crew’s pockets the way it should and the work becomes that of the director’s and actors solely. It’s fucking hard. We have to do our part but it doesn’t mean we are doing it perfectly. We just have to try to do better. So does BJH cos he needs to not be a misogynist but anyways i digress.

additionally and this is something some users fail to understand: people in the media sphere generally have fucking money. I went to film school that was international with super fucking rich kids. Taiwanese kids, kids from south asia, china, thailand. They had money. No not upper middle class money, not “rich” money, not some paltry 1m that’s chump change. Fucking money. Fucking RICH-RICH. MILLIONAIRES. BILLIONAIRES. WHICH IS DISGUSTING MIGHT I ADD. The domestic people didn’t have the money for school (in the UK) and i am in a massive amount of debt like every other black student that went there. You do not understand how much money is needed to survive so people who turn to these crew positions even casting etc need this fucking money usually. OKAY. A lot of the people that do well in these dumb shows or even on a larger scale HAVE MONEY. The reason these industries are small and struggling is because of lack of people and lack of resources to independent shit because oh gee it takes money to make things.

Why should I try? Well you don’t have to really if you have money or a name. Yet...

We can tell when like those Tik Tok shows or DCOMs dont give a shit (anymore.) You know how frustrated we get when content for young people is garbage? Well, see, BL is literally that under that system. Occasionally we will get something good now but there is virtually no need in any sector in the world at this point to truly figure out how to make it better and what to do to enhance artistic literacy, outreach, teaching people new things, getting people from these communities there and having true realistic says. Art and culture is IMPERATIVE TO WORLD LIBERATION but not when it is so stiffly trying to bend to capital’s idea of progressiveness. No. Neoliberalism. No.

That’s why in a way ITSAY is a huge feat; it takes from films etc and they clearly had money (the actors rae rich too which….lmaooooo j’aime pas) but it was a respected fucking script, acting was important, blocking, framing. There’s very little to critique as a visual medium for that because I understand what they are trying to do, their market is going to be mostly young girls, but they RESPECT THE FUCKING AUDIENCE. And guess what guys? You can make money from it!!!! WOAH! Since that may be the only goal which is disgusting and repulsive.

HOWEVER AND THIS IS WHAT IS SAD: itsay is an ex of a great show however knowing the actors backgrounds and the pseudo trouble it stirred when they weren’t supporting people protesting against the coup in the summer it really put a damper on my enjoyment. And this is how we can see that:

a) it’s honestly just a show and a good one but b) now what?

These kids (actors, who are like idk 19? 20?) are rich and not saying anything while countless actors, who were filming, did. Even tul who has $$$$ and the thing is the protesting against the coup legitimately attacks the rich. As it should. The protests going on were cries for help, against a dictatorship and fucking coup, asking people to get fucking help for covid, having kids be able to live. There’s a mini on VICE about this and it probably doesnt go too in depth but there’s a kid in there who talks about his friends getting into drugs and how he just wants to make music, have fun, skateboard. And it’s harrowing to see. This is a direct example of what these things do and don’t do. Yea we know a good show is here, we know growing up and slice of life, we know this is a bit of escapism and idealism but the idealism is reflected in the way these actors also choose to live their lives. So what progress? To who? For who? How is this helping me? What purpose does it serve? I say ITSAY serves its purpose as a piece and a glimpse into possibility of growing up but i do not say it antagonizes a broader issue that needs to be relevant in some sense but simply is not. It’s very singleminded and, well, it’s sort of like “besides my sexuality, what do i have to worry about?” But for real humans like....a lot. I do not respect their decision at all.

Why can’t we do our jobs and make something decent and respect our audience? No time, gotta make that sweet sweet sweet cash baybee. Look how progressive we are! Don’t look at history and material conditions. Thanks in advance, management.

History 4 does not have that respect. Many of these shows do not. Sometimes we hit good, sometimes we don’t. But in the end we cannot settle. And I won’t. If I am critiquing something I will not be shy and if I am meant to enjoy something as escapism then these shows NEED to highlight that and it’s rare sometimes (the best twins is a good reminder like that show is bad but man do i Brain Empty when i turn it on and i like that and there’s not much in it that makes me want to kill myself from annoyance but there are transphobic jokes i dont love however the whole show is a comedy about this dude’s crazy homophobic sister and she is constantly positioned as wrong and they talk about the aforementioned trans women as the actor was in drag. Interesting that they can manage that, huh?)

Oh btw.....taiwan has a very complicated history but ignore all the bad stuff it’s good now you can kinda sorta get married and stuff. KMT? You know how i learned that? I care about human beings and read about it lmao. I am not Taiwanese and look at that. So now I have historical and DIALECTICAL~**~*~****~*~*~ context so i can judge it as an artist, a black woman from america, and from the knowledge i have to pick up on their history to see if this fits into a broader picture besides the micro-one of sexuality on an individualized level. And this is kinda where it comes full circle: these shows are not you, you are not them, they do not exist in a vacuum because nothing does. The failure to critique now means continuing on as it has and it will still do so. History and time are not linear in the sense we think it is. Someitmes things are better, sometimes things feel more austere. We are not living under liberation though and these shows are not going to do so. So they are not US nor are they for a nebulous “us” of which the groups are all fractured and have diff opinions anyway (my opinion as a black american is going to vary from an asian woman’s say and that could really clash and i do not feel solidarity with all those in every community i am for several reasons.)

Final thots that have taken up my time and the only thing i actually wanted to write but got distracted:

Anyway my dissertation is that I ilke Muren and LiCheng a lot a lot and i like how cute they are and how truly dumb li cheng is. This is an example of mostly good writing, decent actors, nice chemistry, and sort of a calmness to them. And I super enjoy how Muren is pretty forward with LC in the sense that being together is like very important to truly be together. When he was like “no i didnt forget!” Or when LC asked him something in the office I forget it was 6 am and again i almost threw up and muren nodded and then LC leaned on him. Very cute. I want more of them tho i may have to skip that othre couple (the cameo the ones from MODC) but omfg the younger one HIS HAIR GREW SO MUCH HE LOOKS SO MATURE AND CUTE OMFGIJ0HUG9SAOGIJPKOAGJSIOHUAGIJP hahhaha the one good thing i will say about THEM.idk how old the actor is i figure he was young idk it makes me happy to see him he’s very cute. I hope he’s in something i can watch and not gag at. Is he hot? Who knows but he is a cutie!!

Anyway muren and lc have a good thing going it’s nice to watch ho\pe they dont fuck it up but im truly a sucker for some true finds 2 luvas i think some user on her\e was like i’m not a fan of friends ot lovers bc it doesn’t seem like they’re actually friends and maybe they were referring to this show idk. But it made me think and it was a very good observation. So i think they are friends and also luvrs <3

[jazzythursday]

More Things I Would Change About/Add To The Loki Series If I Could (but now I’m just having fun)

This is a continuation of this post I did right when the series ended titled My Take on The Loki Series, And All The Things I Would Change About/Add To It If I Could (in vaguely chronological order), but branches off from most of my more thought out points into “haha this would have been cool I think” territory if you catch my drift. A lot of them exist in separate versions of the show unless specified.

When the paperwork scene happens it goes:

“Please sign to verify that this is all you’ve ever said”

*Defiant silence* from Loki. The workman taps his pen rigorously on the desk in apathy as Loki grows annoyed.

“Fine. Just- give it here.”

…

“Wait, that can’t possibly be everything.”

“Of course not, this is just the index for all the folders we have for you in the back room. You Asgardians can sure say a lot in millennia. Poor Frank had to spend decades organizing all of that, didn’t you Frank?”

They turn their heads and Frank nods sadly.

When watching the tape of Loki’s life, we see his fall from the Bifrost, and a shot of Loki floating through the void. Then we see real Loki’s face in reaction to this go stone-cold-fear-style and before we can see anything else he makes Mobius stop the tape. They have a brief discussion about what happened back then that ends with:

“What scares you so much that you, you, can’t even face it?”

“Well, Mobius ‘Mr. self proclaimed Loki expert’ Mobius, you’d know, wouldn’t you? You’ve seen it.”

Mobius, stoically, “Screened it. But yeah, yeah I have.

“Well then, you’d know that there was something far worse at the end of it.”

Loki getting angry in the time theater about how his family lied to him and always treated him differently etc. and holding his ground about how they most certainty did him wrong and never apologized for it.

“Well technically, you don’t know that they didn’t apologize. Haven’t lived it.”

“And now I never will? That supposed to make me feel better?”

…

“Did they, then? Apologize?”

“No, they didn’t.”

When Sylvie and Loki touch, they both start to go blue. Loki conspicuously spends the rest of the episode/episodes avoiding touching her.

- I talked about in my other post the possibility of Sylvie and Loki enchanting each other, and how if Sylvie enchants Loki it would lead to a memory of the day Odin took him. In this scenario Loki would have to be okay with them both shifting into frost giant form for it to happen, so it also makes sense why that memory would be triggered.

- Or, OR, Sylvie and Loki grab hands on Limentis 1 and shift into frost giant form intentionally as they accept their fate, but also themselves, and this is what starts their Nexus Event.

- Another way to address it would be for them to need to do ice magic to defeat an enemy, and grasp hands to both shift and to enhance their power.

Loki’s outfit change in episode five comes from a closet in the Loki Bunker pieced together from different things that have fallen into the void (no longer titled the void). He tries on a bunch of increasingly ridiculous outfits, most of which are references to both other Marvel characters/comics, as well as Loki himself. I’m talking classic movie makeover sequence here complete with the other Lokis inserting their opinion and critiquing each look (Classic Loki is of course a very vocal participant). The final outfit is a small nod to AOA Loki but with more of an MCU Loki twist.

“Well, you can’t go out in that.”

“Right. Huh, I suppose I’ll need something more… suitable for fighting giant cumulonimbus dragons.”

*that British smile™*

“We’ve got just the thing.”

- I’m thinking a bit more rugged than his usual looks, the cool belts and green coat but less devil-may-care than AOA Loki. Either this is where he gets the broken horn helm or he gets the helm pre-break and breaks it in the fight with… something. Then he has an interaction with Classic Loki where afterwords he says:

“Remember what you said before, about our being the ‘god of outcasts’?”

Classic Loki nods.

“Well, nothing so bad about that. All of us outcasts, we can be alone together, can’t we?”

In the same scenario, Classic Loki is later hiding out back with the other Lokis as they bicker (A mild take on the scene where all the Lokis start fighting) while thinking about his conversation with our Loki. He mobilizes the other Lokis to go help Loki and Sylvie and gives a very inspiring speech I don’t have the patience to write. Mostly I’m just imagining this slow zoom towards his face (that replaces the god-awful one we got at the end of the series) where he’s visibly fighting over the decision before standing up abruptly and deciding to try, and to accept both himself and all the other Loki’s for who they are, as they are, thus reinventing the way he thought of the title ‘god of outcasts’.

“ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU! IS THIS WHO WE ALL WANT TO BE? A bunch of petty braggarts bickering over nothing?! Well I’ll tell you something! I wanted to be more! I… I tried to be more…”

- Okay actually expanding on earlier when I said “… something”, what if there are sort of waif-y demon creatures that prowl the void (no longer titled the void) and prey on anything Alioth hasn’t gotten to yet. Obviously makes being out at night there a lot more dangerous, and gives Loki a chance to help out in a fight, which is when he loses one of the horns. (Ooooh I like that!)

Mobius convinces the other Loki’s to leave the void (no longer titled the void).

(No Sylvie here) Loki ends up meeting an IW Loki variant who’s trying to get back to his Thor. They talk, they have revelations about whats important to them and how their past isn’t the only thing that can dictate their lives, etc. Lots of IW Loki reparenting our younger Loki. Honestly this is just the interaction that we all wanted when they said they were making a Loki series with time travel, so just imagine that. 

Loki and Mobius (again, no Sylvie) find proof that the timeline isn’t just one Sacred Timeline and that a multiverse already exists. This is what jumpstarts Mobius’s acceptance that the TVA is not what it seems.

Time travel shenanigans in the library of Asgard with Mobius. Serious Loki magic gets to happen here. Also he disguises Mobius (in the absolute ugliest outfit he can think of) for the purpose of blending in. He uses his female form as most people in Asgard wouldn’t recognize it (I sort of head-canon that Loki used his female form most often when venturing outside of Asgard to explore/ have fun).

The return of pilot!Loki, because I love him.

Slightly crack-ish I know but Loki and Mobius time travel shenanigans where they end up stuck somewhere that has a beach and Loki tells Mobius to just get on with his jet-ski fantasies already. While he’s waiting (maybe getting a drink and people watching or trying to find a way back by fixing the broken Tempad or getting the Tesseract to agree with him he runs into trouble and by the time Mobius comes back Loki is ominously nowhere to be found.

“Well, would you look at that.”

“Wh- no. No, Loki, I am not getting on a—”

“Why not?”

“…”

“No way back as far as I can see, no apocalypse coming to destroy the place. Honestly. Honestly, what harm is it really going to do?”

“…”

Loki finds a way to use the Tesseract in the TVA but accidentally drags Mobius along with him (yes I’m basing this on the jet-ski idea above). More shenanigans ensue.

Loki and Sylvie both get trapped in their “ideal versions” of life that Kang offered them and have to fight their way back. Maybe Loki ends up needing to convince Thor of what’s really going on and gets his help. Brotherly bonding ensues??

They literally blow up/burn the TVA to the ground, resulting in everyone having to evacuate. In a very tense sequence, Loki saves the cat on the way out.

[elareine]

batlantern model au

Here you go!

Bruce Wayne prided himself on his agency, The Dark Knight Presents. It was his baby, the one thing he built from the ground and could be rightfully called ‘his.’

A veteran model himself, he’d specialized in people who brought more to the table than their measurements. Everyone who worked here had become one of his kids, in a way, from Dick Grayson, their best-selling male model, to Tim Drake, who preferred to work behind the cameras. Then there were Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain (always racing for the title of ‘Queen of Sportswear Ads’), Harper Row (definitely more punk), Barbara Gordon (elegant and the best at faking ‘cold and regal’), Jason Todd (the man for all those cowboy jeans ads), Damian Wayne (rocking a suit) and Duke Thomas (quirky or sophisticated—a face for everything and everyone.) TDKP could offer something to every photographer or company that came asking.

(Bruce made it a policy to send Jason whenever someone asked for ‘young, waif-ish, barely legal if you know what I mean.’ For some reason, those clients still ended up paying. Bruce had no idea how Jason persuaded them, and he’d like to keep it that way.)

Yes, all in all, Bruce had his life together, and he liked it very much.

If it wasn’t for fucking Hal Jordan.

Literally. Bruce did not swear (much). He should not have fucked Hal Jordan.

They’d done shoots together, way back then. Apparently, photographers liked the ‘way their dynamics and opposing styles played off each other.’ Which meant that they had disliked each other on sight.

Hal was… everything Bruce was not. A player, an egoist, someone who flirted with the camera and kept it shallow. Modeling at its worst. And he got Bruce’s goat like no one else ever did, always riling him up, making fun of everything Bruce loved until Bruce had no choice but to bite back.

Hal had always looked weirdly pleased when that happened. Bruce tried not to think about how he’d recently found out that Hal liked it when Bruce bit, literally.

It was just one night. It shouldn’t have mattered much. Not even when they were doing a shoot like this, one of only four Bruce had agreed to this year, because it was for a good cause and because his friend Clark had personally asked him to.

He was suspecting ulterior motives there now.

“Stand closer,” the photographer said. Hal obeyed with an alacrity Bruce had seldom seen from him, inching forward until they were mere inches apart, looking at each other. The tension felt thick enough to cut.

Bruce was an honest enough man to admit that Hal being shirtless wasn’t helping.  

“Okay, that’s nice and intense. Now dial that down. I want intimacy.”

Immediately, Hal’s head tipped back, his eyes going half-lidded and heated. It was a come-fuck-me look, and Bruce had seen him turn it on so many people before, but only ever once on him. Not to be outdone, he let his own expression melt into something more private, tilting his head just so, inching closer until nothing was separating them but a breath… just like that night, when Hal had moved in and suddenly everything had been heat passion want you yes yes always yes—

“Jeez guys, that’s a bit much. We’re doing a charity calendar here, but not the naked kind.”

They sprang back. Bruce read his own embarrassment in the on Hal’s neck. Hal wouldn’t be Hal, though, if he let a little thing like shame stop him. “Hey, so… I saw a rather large broom closet on the way in. How about it?”

Bruce had to fight to keep his expression sober; if he didn’t, the photographer would surely scold them again. “I think that can be arranged. Once we’re done here,” he added severely, “not on a break.”

He was going to spring for a hotel room, though. His kids would never let him hear the end of it if he was caught in a broom closet.

Besides. Bruce was thinking he might like to take his time, this time. Once might not be enough.

“Guys, I’m serious, stop it with the bedroom eyes!”

[spidercakes]

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Warnings: Peter is underaged (17), mentions of abusive relationships/ abuse, feminization (Peter).

*

Peter looks at his phone because Quentin won’t stop textinghim and this is getting annoying. Its been like four months, he didn’t think he’d have to tell him to take a damn hint given that his lack of response to anything Quent has done in that time frame should be clear enough. Of course its not, why would that be enough for Quent to fuck off? He’s never been good at taking a hint. Liz looks worried and he’s pretty sure Ned has drawn up actual murder plans not that he’d ever follow through and Peter’s mostly just annoyed with this.

“Maybe you should like… talk to someone about that,” Liz says and Peter shakes his head.

“Cops can’t actually do anything unless he hurts me so what’s the point?” Its not like he hasn’t looked it up and he doesn’t really have much faith in police anyway, they kind of suck at any kind of omega relations. And also relations with most other groups but that’s a whole other thing.

Liz goes to open her mouth to speak but MJ cuts her off. “He’s right, best he can get is a retraining order and you think Quentin’s going to listen to a piece of paper? Probably not,” she says.

“Well I don’t think he should do nothing, he keeps following Peter around like a lost dog,” she says.

“He stopped following me home after May yelled at him so there’s that,” Peter says hopefully. MJ looks vaguely disgusted and Liz doesn’t look less worried.

“Maybe May should yell at the school to do something too,” Ned says. “I miss having normal Quentin free lunch breaks.”

Peter frowns, “you haven’t had Quentin free lunch breaks since like, last year.” When they started dating, really. And at first it was nice that Quent wanted to spend time with him, but then it got annoying because Quent wouldn’t leave him alone about where he was every god damn hour of the day he wasn’twith him. That’d been weird with Tony, who really only seems to ask if he wants to know more about Peter’s day. Which he actually asks about because he isn’t a jackass.

“Yeah, exactly. He’s like a barnacle and it’s the worst,” Ned says.

Peter’s phone buzzes again and he gives it an annoyed huff. “I swear to godif that’s Quent,” he mumbles, picking it up and finding a text from Tony. Predictably like seven more come in right after each other because he had a bad habit of not sticking what he wants to say in one message. He claims it ruins the dramatic effect.

Lol saw your ex

Told him he looked like compliments Jake Gyllenhaal

He was PISSED

Tried to claim you were cheating on me

Which is ridiculous

But also his proof was worse lmao

I was literally with you the day he chose

And also the picture he tried to pass off as evidence was old

Does he think I’m stupid?

No, he doesn’t think Tony is stupid he thinks everyone else is as much of a reactive dickhead as him. Still though, Peter’s stomach squeezes because he knowshe kind of cheated on Quent a little bit. A couple of pictures isn’t much but its still something so he figures he’s given Tony a reason to be suspicious.

I’m not cheating on youhe sends back, hoping that Tony believes him because he’s not, he wouldn’t. Tony is… well, soft, compassionate, smart, funny, and Peter likes the way he feels when he’s with Tony. Like he’s the most special person on the planet. Tony always gives him these looks, and he’s always giving him these small touches like he can’t stand to be away for too long, and he always compliments Peter’s outfits. And he knows Tony keeps his pictures too and not just because he thinks they’re sexy, he actually pays attention to the composition and Peter likesthat Tony actually cares about things that are important to him. Ned tells him that’s normal stuff and MJ told him that he should have higher standards than that. They’re not wrongbut Peter hasn’t had anything like that before so its nice, compared to Quent.

His phone buzzes and thankfully its Tony again.

Lol yeah I know

You wouldn’t do that

Also Rhodey has banned me from sexiling him again

So I guess we need to follow his schedule

I don’t like when he whines and cries

Its annoying

And a little sad

Peter snorts, shaking his head. On one hand he feels bad for accidentally forcing Rhodey out of his shared space with Tony but on the other hand he honestly can’t believe Tony has such a hard time remembering Rhodey’s schedule. For a genius he’s got the memory of a sieve.

“If we just throat punched Quentin this wouldn’t be a problem,” MJ says, drawing him back into the conversation with his friends.

“We’re not throat punching Quentin, MJ, we’ll go to jail,” Peter says.

Liz snorts, “not, we’llgo to jail. You’ll be a cute little white omega waif the judge lets off with a slap on the wrist and I don’t think throat punching Quentin will solve anything but it would make us all feel better. Take one for the team, Parker,” she tells him and he can’t believe Lizsaid that. It’s the kind of thing he expects out of MJ for sure but Liz is the normal one, the voice of reason, the one who points out when they’re all acting like fools. And Quentin has pissed heroff enough to want him to get punched in the throat.

“You gunna punch him or not?” MJ asks.

“Can I film it?” Ned adds, leaning forward in interest.

“We’re not throat punching Quent guys, he’ll get bored and move on,” Peter tells them. “Hopefully anyway because now apparently he’s trying to convince Tony I’m cheating on him,” he mumbles, sulking.

Liz looks like someone has just slapped a puppy, Ned rolls his eyes so hard it’s a wonder they don’t roll out of his head and out the door, and MJ looks more annoyed. “Throat. Punch,” she says with emphasis.

*

Tony doesn’t really gethow he got so lucky considering Peter came out of literally nowhere but he’s also not complaining when he’s got Peter in his arms kissing him like that. Godhis ex is such an idiot and not just because of all the sketchy shit he does either, he’s stupid for giving Peter up let alone all his other kind of fucked up behaviors. Peter pulls away and Tony pulls him back, giving him a soft kiss before letting him pull away again. Peter’s cheeks are a little red and he’s grinning wide, “godI missed you,” he murmurs.

He tightens his arms around Tony’s neck as he pulls Peter closer. He’s got one hand settled on the back of Peter’s thigh toying with the garter belt he finds there and the other on Peter’s ass because fuck being appropriate. “Missed you too,” he murmurs, leaning back in and kissing him again.

“Yeah, as adorable as you two are can you not look so ridiculously lewd on fancy cars?” someone asks and Tony pulls away to find MJ standing there looking as unimpressed as usual.

He grins, “you’re just mad its not yourcar,” he says because he knows she has a thing for fancy sports cars. She denies it but she knows too much about them to have a passing interest.

“Uh huh. Mind giving me a ride home, I missed the bus because Liz is a hoe and I had to win that bet,” she says.

“Sure. We can try and convince Peter there’s value to movies that aren’t animated,” he says and she tries her best, she does, but she can’t help the loud snort she lets out.

“Oh that is a losing battle but you bet your ass I’m going to try anyway. What’s first on your list?” she asks.

“Don’t judge me, but V for Vendetta but not the way fuckboys think its good,” he says, trying and he thinks mostly succeeding in abating her fears about him being one of those jackasses who apparently missed the point of the movie.

She nods, “not a bad choice. I was thinking Sorry To Bother You,” she says.

Tony wrinkles his nose, “aw come on, give him something normal before you jump in with capitalism criticizing sci-fi flicks, we gotta ease him into it, not scare him back to Snow fucking White.” Not that he doesn’t appreciate a good Disney film but damn, thatone? He’d been happy when Ned and Liz started ripping on Peter about it first so he didn’t feel bad in affirming that his friends have better taste than he does.

“I watch live action guys, I like Star Wars and like, a couple other things,” Peter says in his defense.

MJ shakes her head, “sometimes I think he’s got more beauty than brains,” she says.

“Oh, he’s definitely got brains but he selectively uses them,” Tony says. Something in that must appease her because she nods to herself before pulling her backpack off her shoulder.

“So, can I drive?” she asks and Tony snorts.

“Absolutely not.” It’s athingwith him and Peter knows its because his parents died in a car accident but its not exactly something he advertises.

MJ looks disappointed, “and here I was, ready to approve of you,” she says and he thinksshe’s joking so he looks at Peter. He looks amused so she must be but that’s not what really catches his attention.

“You painted your nails,” he says, looking at the dark red nail polish Peter had chosen. Not his favorite shade of red but it does look nice against Peter’s pale skin.

He looks down at them and then to Tony before he grins and Tony already regrets mentioning it because Peter has a habit of being a total tease, not that Tony would ever call him that. Turns out that’s yet another thing his shitty ex did, except Tony doesn’t actually mind the teasing, he just pretends to be put out about it.

*

Peter has discovered that Tony has a thingfor Peter in his lap in any capacity but he seemed to take a special kind of delight in the way Peter straddles him now, body weight pinning him down as he kisses Tony feverishly. Its not just that he’s had a shit day, and its not just that May won’t be home for another two hours, its also that Tony responds so damn well and Peter likesfeeling wanted. He feels like its been forever and Tony is never short on any kind of praise so Peter soaks it up as he presses Tony into his mattress.

“So pretty,” Tony murmurs into his mouth, “gorgeous.” Peter smiles as he noses at Tony’s jawline, not pushing his limits but Tony tilts his head to the side a little so he considers it. The last time he tried anything like this it was with Quent, who hadn’t taken at allkindly to Peter trying to scent him. Didn’t seem to stop him from expecting Peterto be fine with being scented, but he doesn’t really want to repeat the scene. But Tony isn’t Quent either, and hedidtilt his head a little, almost like a silent invitation and Peter has always wanted to do this. Well, maybe not alwaysbut since he figured out what scenting wasanyway. Even if apparently omegas aren’t supposed to be interested in that type of thing. Which he thinks is total bullshit but whatever.

After a few moments of deliberation he noses the space just under Tony’s jaw, testing his limits. Tony tilts his head further to the side as his breath hitches up and Peter lets out a soft moan at Tony’s pliability. This time he doesn’t hesitate as he kisses his way down Tony’s neck, gasping a little when Tony moans loudly, arching into Peter as he slips a hand up his skirt, grabbing his ass tightly. “You like this?” Peter murmurs, nipping at Tony’s neck and he shivers at that too. It gives Peter a little thrill, the almost role reversal in the action, and he finds that he likes it, likes Tony under him with his neck bared panting as Peter scents him.

“Yes,” Tony tells him, near whining when Peter pulls away some. “Peter,” he says, dark eyes almost pleading and Peter grins, shifting on Tony’s lap just a little so he can watch the way his head tilts back a little as his mouth falls open. “Peter,” he says again, with more meaning this time.

“Yeah?” Peter asks, lips barely brushing over Tony’s. Tony tries to press into it but Peter is already gone. He lets out a soft sigh of disappointment at the loss and pouts. Tony looks adorable when he pouts.

“Kiss me,” Tony tells him, unafraid to ask for what he wants.

Peter sits back in his lap, hands on Tony’s chest and he likes the way that looks, his pale hands against Tony’s dark shirt with the dark red of his nails to break it up a little. It’s a pretty picture. The hand Tony has on his ass squeezes a little as the other comes to settle on his thigh. “Baby,” Tony murmurs, going back to pouting. He trails his fingers up Tony’s arm, covering the hand he’s got on Peter’s thigh with his own.

“You want me to kiss you?” he murmurs, weaving their fingers together.

Tony nods, “yeah baby, I want you to kiss me,” he says softly. “Scent me, tell me I’m yours,” he adds and Peter bites his lip hard to hold in his moan.

He leans forward again, taking Tony’s hand with him and pinning it over his head. Tony lets out a sharp gasp as his hips tilt up a little so Peter figures he can safely assume Tony likes that. He looks down at Tony for a moment, leaning in close before pulling away at the last second as inspiration strikes. He presses forward, putting more of his weight into pinning Tony’s wrist. “You want all that, hmm?” Peter murmurs and Tony nods. “Then beg for it,” Peter tells him, almost willing to ignore his own request because Tony looks so damn hot like this, spread out under him with Peter pinning him down.

“Please baby, want you to kiss me you’re so god damn stunning. Want you all over me, please,” Tony says, arching into him again and Peter kisses him hard, moaning into it becausewowthat’s hot and he didn’t expect the sharp flush of arousal at that and he wants to fuck Tony nowbut he thinks he might be able to get a little more fun out of him first, even if the rest of him is ready to go.

He pulls away again and Tony straight up whines. Peter bites his lip again because its hot, watching Tony whine for him, wanting him thatbad. He’s about to open his mouth when the door to his room bursts open and he jumps. Underneath him Tony does too, clearly as surprised as he is but he doesn’t quite think anyone is as surprised as May.

“Get your hand out of my nephew’s skirt!” she tells Tony, who promptly pulls his hand away in horror. She turns to face him and Peter is sure he’s a shade of red no human was meant to be. “Peter, what the fuck?”

[bigskydreaming]

Tbh, as much as I don’t usually talk about Tim on his own, like, I feel like fanon does him just as much a disservice as it does Dick. Because this painfully shy, socially awkward kid who had no real experience with social interaction before he became Robin and started working with Bruce and Dick and Alfred?

Like.

Source????

Tim has always had friends, and always been capable of making friends, he didn’t need to learn social interaction from the rest of the Batfam. He had friends like Bernard and Darla, and there was a whole story arc about one of his friends that was killed by a couple of school bullies, that Tim tracked down and proved had done it. He’s actually had quite a few love interests, like Ariana, a girl from his high school, and of course Steph...with him actually being in a love triangle of sorts with Ari and Steph for a time..and then Lynx, a gang leader, etc. Speaking of, he’s gone undercover without even running it by Bruce on multiple occasions, such as when he successfully infiltrated a street gang pretty early on in his tenure as Robin....not something one successfully pulls off without social skills. 

He never had problems making friends with other members of Young Justice and then the Teen Titans...like he clashed with some of them initially, like Kon, but that was more about like...who should be leader and butting heads because they were all very strong-willed..but pretty much all of the problems that arose between him and his superhero friends in the 90s like...had nothing to do with his inability to navigate friendships, and tended to be fallout from Bruce’s actions in the wider superhero community, trickling down to the team via their own mentors.

This shy, nervous waif who entirely lacks in confidence until he became Robin, like....you don’t GO KNOCKING ON A SUPERHERO’S DOOR AND TELL HIM WHAT YOU THINK HE NEEDS TO DO at age 12 or 13 if you like....lack confidence, y’know? LOL. The very fact that he was ABLE to insert himself in Dick and Bruce’s lives is due to the fact that he very MUCH was possessed of a great deal of confidence, conviction and determination.

Similarly, even from early on as Robin, he never was shy about expressing his opinion with Bruce or contradicting him, not to mention completely going against his orders. Tim does what he thinks is right, regardless of what anyone else says. He criticizes Henri Ducard straight to his face, like...all of this is fairly early on, too. Not to mention after Janet dies and Jack is in a coma, and Bruce first offers to adopt Tim, Tim refuses (the way Dick is usually characterized as not wanting to replace his father and that’s why Bruce never broached adopting him as a kid or teen...like, no, that’s far more accurately a description of TIM’S stories than Dick’s). Tim didn’t want to even entertain the idea of even LOOKING like he was replacing Jack as his father while he was still alive, even if he was never expected to wake up again....to the extent that Tim hired an actor to play his uncle and manage things with CPS so that he’d be able to live in his house on his own and everyone assume he was living with an adult relative. That’s not something you even THINK of doing, let alone pull off....if you’re lacking in confidence and initiative. 

Tim certainly questioned whether or not he was capable of being Robin and living up to Dick and Jason’s examples, once he was in the role, but that was like....a SPECIFIC thing, where due to circumstance of course he was going to compare himself to his predecessors, who let’s not forget, were both literally extraordinary teens themselves, far ahead of the curve, like.....they weren’t your average ‘peers’ and thus its entirely expected that Tim would be nervous or unsure about how he compared to them....but that doesn’t actually translate to a general lack of self-confidence nearly as much as people tend to act like it does, IMO.

Even before he became Robin like, he had hobbies, Tim used to skateboard and other things, he wasn’t just a nerdy little kid who ran around taking pictures as his one singular passion. If anything, its more that Tim was just so far ahead of a lot of his peers and so sure of himself when it came to what he wanted to do, that like....his general lack of a WIDE social circle, like the only reason he didn’t have a LOT of friends but more just select individuals, like....it wasn’t because he couldn’t make them, it was because he didn’t want them. Because he was already preoccupied spending most of his time on his more solitary hobbies that he couldn’t easily explain to others or invite to do with him, like...y’know...stalking Batman and Robin.

But tbh, I do really feel like Tim’s gotten the woobify treatment to make him more fragile seeming and thus sympathetic, but like....he doesn’t need it? He’s never been nearly as timid as fanon tends to portray him starting out as, IMO, and like, I’d honestly argue he was MORE put together than either Dick or Jason had been by the time he sought out Dick and Bruce in person.

Like yes, he definitely was neglected by his parents for most of his life....but this resulted in making him extremely capable and independent from an early age. Like, he shouldn’t have HAD to be, there’s no argument there....but that doesn’t mean that the skills and capabilities and CONFIDENCE to look after himself wasn’t all there, just the same.

[gascon-en-exil]

Joining the Game Late: S8E3 “The Long Night”

Synopsis

The two dozen or so named characters get about that many tracking shots so we know where they are. Melisandre randomly shows up with +fire damage enchants, then sets up the end of the battle. The Dothraki are swallowed up by the budget-saving fog of war, then the zombies break out of the fog and it’s dragon breath vs. a blizzard. Arya sends Sansa down into the crypts. Edd’s dead, and everyone else retreats inside while the Unsullied provide cover like the good generic soldiers they are. Again with Melisandre’s fire magic, which the Night King has his forces put out with their corpses. Sansa is cynical about being holed up with the women and children again, and still doesn’t like Dany. Bran comforts Theon and spies on the Night King in a not at all helpful way. Sandor is triggered, but Beric snaps him out of it to go after Arya who’s trapped in a horror movie sequence. Sam is wearing his strongest plot armor and survives dying three times; Lyanna Mormont isn’t so lucky, but she kills a giant on her way out.  The dragons come down from the clouds, and Dany meets the one being she can’t burninate. Beric dies protecting Sandor and Arya, Theon dies protecting Bran, and Jorah dies saving Dany - it’s kind of a thing. As Jon looks on everyone realizes that hiding out in the crypts was a stupid idea as the Night King builds up a new army. Sansa and Tyrion have a moment that leads to nothing, Jon yells at a zombie dragon, while only Arya is doing something useful as she OHKOs the Night King and his whole army with him. A dozen or so prophecies fulfilled, Melisandre takes off her collar and collapses into dust, mercifully without nudity.

Commentary

Let’s talk about Arya, because when it comes down to it this is really her episode.

Solely in the context of her own story this is a fantastic conclusion to Arya’s arc. Revenge motivations notwithstanding, ever since Season 1 (which Melisandre calls back to here) death has been positioned as Arya’s greatest antagonist, and as suddenly as it comes everything in her journey and in her actions in this episode specifically build to the moment where she stabs the Night King using the Valyrian steel dagger she received from Bran - a sort of twisted family heirloom that ties this action back to the political conflict upon which most of GoT’s non-zombie-related storylines hinge. She gets to break out the specialized spear Gendry made for her to whack zombies using the skills she honed with the Waif before being overpowered and forced into a monster movie segment where she has to stealth her way around a wight-infested library and get rescued by curmudgeonly father figure Sandor. Beric uses his last life to save her because prophecy, another of Melisandre’s prophecies tell her what she has to do, and then the episode forgets about her right until the last pivotal moment where she uses the technique from her sparring practice with Brienne to surprise the Night King and one-shot him. There’s likely a bit of Eowyn’s killing of the Witch King from The Lord of the Rings in here too, with a young woman who’s chafed against the restrictions of femininity all her life taking to the battlefield and unexpectedly defeating one of the greatest forces of evil in her world. It’s perfectly staged and backed by one of those excellent piano scores that GoT only breaks out in its biggest moments and, in short, epic. Punctuated by the melancholy of Melisandre’s end it ends a really tense and brutal episode on about the best note it could have possibly managed.

Now, I say that because in order to make this battle the culmination of Arya’s story the writers had to throw just about every other A-lister under the bus, with disappointing and at times hilariously bad results. I say A-lister so as not to discount the deaths of Theon and Jorah, which were telegraphed, satisfactory ends to their respective journeys. No, it’s the main cast who suffer the most. Daenerys grounds the Night King and learns that he’s immune to dragon fire, but after that she lets zombies swarm Drogon in the process of saving Jon and has to be rescued in turn by Jorah. Sansa and Tyrion look like they’re going to go out and stab zombies in the crypt together, but then nothing comes of it. Jaime might as well have not even been there for as little as he does this episode, which does track with his not being the fighter he used to be - but he’s still alive! Sam almost dies three times but survives purely because authors (and the showrunners adapting their work?) are kind to their self-inserts. Bran does nothing more with his incredible supernatural powers than provide a cutaway to the Night King’s whereabouts and absolve Theon of his crushing guilt so he can run off to die. And Jon, poor Jon...I’m not going to pretend that I ever cared much about the guy, but could the writers really think of nothing better for him to do at the end than have a screaming match with a zombie dragon? For all the setup of a personal antagonism between him and the Night King Jon was shockingly useless in this fight.

I get it, I really do. This was the inevitable consequence of developing a dozen or so fairly disconnected storylines across the show’s run and then trying to compress them all together into a single finale. Some characters still have their big swan songs to come in the back half of the season, true, and honestly I’m much more interested in seeing those both because they concern conflicts more relevant to my interests than ice zombies and because I hear that they contain the greatest concentration of inexcusable crap in the series. For the time being however I consider this episode’s extreme focus on Arya to be both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Yeah, weaker than the bad lighting which was more of an aesthetic choice (literal fog of war!) and was also a problem in the series’s earlier nighttime battle episodes; weaker than Daenerys’s non-white followers making up most of the first casualties, because the show made that white savior bed back in the Slaver’s Bay arc and now has to lie in it; weaker even than the decision to hole up the people who can’t fight in the crypts, because of these characters only Jon (and Tormund and Edd? I forget) has seen how the Night King’s reanimation powers work firsthand and it’s not like they had a better option anyway. Those are all issues I can excuse, or that at least were problems much earlier in the show’s run that couldn’t well be fixed at this late stage. It’s the characterization issue that bites the most, particularly knowing as I do that some of those shafted this episode will get solid resolutions in the last three.

(This is the last big battle episode, right? I can’t stand writing about these, totally out of my element. All that meticulous choreography and CGI work and I’m just glad I can mostly make out what’s going on.)  

[ambitionsource]

Misc headcanons about the gang?

guess we’ll go full random here, but let’s see what i’ve got:

Shawn has a special attachment to the focal class because they were the freshman class when he was brought on as lead technician. He hated the job at first and didn’t believe he would grow to care about anything at school, then suddenly he’s the estranged uncle to a five-foot bulldozer, a snapback-wearing feral cat, a neurotic production design gay and his goofball guitar-playing boyfriend (who come as a matched set), a potentially mute waif of a costumer, a brainless Sasquatch, a sarcastic ace third wheel, and the only sane one (Jeff). He’s like… for real? This is what I care about now?

However, when they all make their techie crew bracelets together and then gift him one that says “Mr. Scruff,” you know he’s gonna wear it forever.

Asher and Farkle both skipped a grade in elementary school. They’re canonically a year younger than most of the A class, Farkle being the youngest and a full 2 years younger than Lucas, who is a year older than everyone else due to his transfer situation.

Dylan is a really good cook. When he’s not doing vlogs about AAA, he’ll do cooking / baking videos. (Oh, in case I haven’t said it already, Dylan is lowkey a popular vlogger. By the time he’s in college he’s internationally well-known and has like sponsors. He’s gonna be Asher’s trophy husband with a career of making stupid videos and he’s okay with that.)

Part of the reason Riley blends well between techies and performers is because at her old school and in middle school, she often did tech for productions as she was too shy to audition for any actual parts.

Charlie’s prior relationship experience before arriving at AAA in freshman year was with a girl at his Catholic middle school. It was the kind of relationship where you say you’re boyfriend and girlfriend, but then don’t really talk to one another or acknowledge each other’s existence. Suffice to say, it didn’t last long (3 weeks, to be exact).

Farkle, Lucas, and Isadora have never had a romantic relationship prior to the events of S1 (and still after that, for two of them).

Zay has had three previous relationships (one silly one in 5th grade, one in middle school, and one during his freshman year at AAA). It’s a… mixed bag and definitely colors his approach to relationships now. But this is something to unpack at a later time.

Riley has had minor dates and her first kiss from middle school, but nothing substantial.

Maya dated a boy for three minutes in 7th grade, said “I’d rather die,” and hasn’t look back since. She doesn’t feel she’s missing out at all.

Maya has done a true style glow up over the years. Whereas her look is perfectly curated now, she was known as “raccoon” for a few months in middle school while trying to figure out eyeliner for the first time.

Charlie had a crush on Lucas in freshman year.

So did Asher. So did Dylan. So did Farkle, although he classified it as loathing.

Zay, on the other hand, was not impressed.

Dave is the tallest student in the junior A class, standing at 6′ 3″. The shortest is Yogi, at 4′ 11″. Ironically, they’re best friends.

In fact, below you can see the full height layout (recommend opening in new window for quality sake because tumblr is demonic). EDIT: Tumblr is literally evil and not letting me post this, so I’ll just share as a photoset in a second. Whatever.

– Maggie

[wackygoofball]

Can you tell us why you’re so positive? I’m having a hard time imagining any positive scenario with Jaime being dead now but I wasn’t wondering what you’re hoping for in the last episode that we can hope for

Well, my positivity comes from the very fact that no matter what, I have an awesome fandom experience. I made the most amazing friends with whom I now share connections reaching beyond the shipping material of my choice, JB. I’ve had and continue to have illuminating and interesting discussions, share in crazy theories, make fun edits and enjoy my wacky life. I never had that until I was guided to the beacon of hope of the JB fandom, and now that I am a part of it, I wouldn’t want to miss a single thing.

So I don’t really see why I would be feeling negatively? Why I would lose all hope, fall into despair, curl in on myself ino a tiny wacky ball, and never dip my toes into the JB fandom again… I can’t see it because I have those things and literally no one other than myself can take them away from me again.

It’s actually the exact opposite for me. I may have come to the fandom because of JB, but I stayed for the whole package. I stayed for the social and emotional connections I made with fellow shippers. I stayed for the debates, not just about JB but all kinds of things. I stayed for the fun and the fanfic, for the gift challenges and roundrobins, for the fanvids and latenight chats.

And so I continue to stay for my friends, I continue to stay for what we canonically have and what can otherwise be explored within the realms of fanon, fanfiction, fanart, and the like.

Because, to me, being part of the JB fandom grew to be so much more than being a fan of Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth, it was becoming a part of a community I don’t want to lose ever again.

But now, I guess your question is more aimed towards what gives me hope for show *canon* turning out satisfactory for JB in any so such way, considering the current… brick odds. Since that post turned out longer than it should (it’s currently 3.00 a.m. and I should be sleeping… so please excuse additonal rambling), I will put this below the cut:

I mean… let’s go through the scenarios from worst case to best case (at least some, there are too many variants to list, really), but for the sake of the argument, let’s roll with the following selection:

1) Even if show canon now ends with Jaime having died last episode and that being the end of it, I have all the opportunity in the world to read and write fix it fanfic and theorize about those what ifs canon would then have left unexplored. So I don’t see why I would be angsting about it. I’ve been to other fandoms before, I shipped pairings I either knew would never become canon or was iffed about when they did not. However, that then leaves me with the sometimes hard but productive task of going back over my earlier theories and see where I went wrong, perhaps, in my analyses to draw the wrong conclusions, where I may have led my shipper goggles distort the source material too much. That can be a kind of painful experience, but it can also be greatly rewarding as it can help me sharpen my views for future analyses of other source materials I may come to enjoy. However, even if we stick to the in-canon expectations here. JB have made love to each other, more than once. They had a beautiful journey together and unless Bran sets it all back in time and we start over somewhere else, no one can take that away from us ever again. And that is amazing.

2) A more hopeful scenario: Jaime still stays dead but either through Tyrion or Bran we at least get the in-canon acknowledgement that Jaime *was* in love with Brienne and also went off to King’s Landing to protect her. Imagine, for instance, a scenario whereby he was being told that Brienne bears his child now. Jaime may have felt like he was a danger to that child (considering the Bronn situation) and/or may have found himself unworthy of that kind of life and may have wished to remove himself from the equation. He may even have been pushed into it by Bran in a number of ways. That would at least give us some kind of closure. It may stil hurt as hell, but the one thing that lies in the air in the narrative at present is that neither Jaime nor Tyrion, in any fashion, addressed his relationship with Brienne. Tyrion didn’t even bring it up during their conversation in the tent, which I would have fully expected as the show bothered to have Tyrion in the know about Jaime’s relationship with Brienne. Why didn’t he ask him something along the lines of “Why do you want to die with Cersei now? You had something good there with Brienne, it made you happy. Why did you just leave that behind?” But no such conversaion took place. Why? I don’t know. I remain puzzled about it. And that is where I am curious to know whether there is something else to that other than “we didn’t have the time to address that” or “we forgot/didn’t bother” storytelling-wise.

3) Jaime may still die but he is not dead as per status of episode 5. He will die of the injuries, but not until Brienne held him in her arms (”to die in the arms of the woman I love” as opposed to holding his sister in what I truly found a way of him acting like a brother to her who was trying to console a hysteric woman who knew she was close to dying and became younger and younger inside her mind the deeper they went). Still all the more tragic, still would suck ass for Brienne as she would have the Renly scenario almost exactly as before, but she held Jaime before he died. They made love before that. So this may at least be the acknowledgement that by the end of the day, Jaime and she had something true, but that circumstances kept them apart and that Jaime would have liked to stay with her in another life, if only life hadn’t made him make certain choices that led down this road.

Now we dig into the really more hopeful scenarios that suggest he is not dead. There are reasons that support this thesis (I don’t call authority to them as, per Occam’s razor, the simplest solutions are ofentimes those that hold the greatest truth). So again, I am not holding my breath for any of those options, all that is to say is that the options *exist*. That is not to fall into hopeful hyping, only to be disappointed if it does not come around, but plainly pointing out arguments that support the thesis.

Reasons that may be used in support of the hypothesis:

a) the show’s really outdone itself to stick a letter to Jaime’s back reading “dead man walking”: Brienne assumed he’d ride to KL to die with his sister, Tyrion said he’d die, Jaime said he’d die, Euron said he’s the one who killed Jaime Lannister, Cersei saw his wounds and kind of implied “you ded”, and then bricks ex machina. Like. Say it one time, foreshadowing, perhaps. Say it two times to make sure. But 4 fuckin’ times is like beating us with a stick.

b) This show has had characters survive despite greater injuries, and now I am not even pointing to Jonesus or Daenerys being fireproof in the show. Remember how Arya got stabbed repeatedly, fell into the water and bled out fast and still she did fine and later on did parkour with the Waif and killed her? Good times. Jon, even after the Julius Caesar stabbination, had it a lot of times when he he should have been dead of injuries and/or pneumonia (see Suicide Squad Beyond the Wall). Arya had buildings drop on her and fire spew at her the whole episode and she got the pale horse showing he the way out (I still hope the horse is Jaqen H’ghar). Tyrion had a ship’s mast drop on him and he did not die. List goes on and on and on. Also, Euron brought a long ice pick to a sword fight. Dude may have missed some major arteries, is all I’m saying.

c) Speaking of injuries, what was the point of having him gravely injured, for what looked and sounded like at least 1 collapsed lung and his kidneys likely looking like a pincushion? The guy still made it all the way up to the map room and then all the way down again without breaking down just once. While Cersei had a sudden unexpected surge of caring for the dude she sent an assassin after not long ago (seriously, let’s never forget that tidbit), the blood on his shirt was not as much as I would have expected from the injuries he’s received. But more to the point: Why have him so gravely injured if the upshot was, all along, he gets there, they get trapped, and then they die together. Why go through the lengths of having Jaime so greatly injured if there is no pay off for him dying of those injuries? Why is it then death by bricks? Why the overkill? I find it odd, is all.

d) There was no single verbal or otherwise recognition by either Jaime or Tyrion about the JB relationship. There was no “tell her I am sorry” or “Could you send her a raven on my behalf?” Nothing. They didn’t even mention her.

e) Jaime seemed awfully jumpy with his reasoning for being there. First he says the odds are even and Cersei may win, implying that he’d want to support Cersei against Daenerys in some way, or rather, keep damage at a minimum by trying to ensure his sister doesn’t pull anything that puts the people in danger. Then Tyrion goes on about how Daenerys will win and Cersei will die. Jaime switches back to Tyrion’s (and Brienne’s) suggestion of him wanting to die by Cersei’s side, which is contrary to his first statement. Then Tyrion points to the people. He says he doesn’t care. Which directly contradicts what he did to save the people of King’s Landing when he slew Aerys. For the sake of that argument, let’s just never forget that Jaime Lannister is one of those characters who builds on “say one thing, mean the other” many, many times. Why am I to assume that there is no hint of that in this cryptic converstaion he’s having with his brother?

f) Why does Tyrion try to get a promise out of Jaime to get Cersei and himself out of KL with the boat? Why does he make him swear? Shouldn’t pointing out the opportunity be enough to convince Jaime to go with it?

g) Others have theorized about it before, I also came back to it. There still is the BATB trope that JB have been following *a lot*. And by that I mean their trajectories were largely reliant on it. Now of course, just because characters are inspired by a trope doesn’t mean the author/writer is obligated to continue it till the very end, but it’s odd how we’ve been following almost all beats, only to stop at what would now be the fakeout death of Beast for Beast to be reborn.

h) Outside of what’s going on within the show’s narrative - NCW’s been all kinds of excited about his arc in season 8, and he’s expressed frustration before, which nearly always related to Jaime staying with his sister for longer than is necessary. This scenario, as it stands right now… does that sound like something NCW would be totally hyped about? I don’t really know. Also, the guy’s been seemingly gagged by HBO in some basement full of free T-shirts since there are no goodbye interviews as we have seen them for Conleth, Pilou and Lena. We only got a couple of instagram posts, but other than that? Am I the only one getting the “Jon Snow is totally dead, guys!” vibes? Perhaps to throw us off, but again, it is something that would support the hypothesis.

i) While we now got a MUCH darker Daenerys *ahem*, and it may well be that she will be wiped off the slate next episode, but that’s another topic… isn’t it AWFULLY neat how that basically removed “all the bad guys” from the narrative? Gregor dead, Euron dead, Qyburn dead, Cersei dead (furthermore, look at all the other baddies we put in the ground, and even those with redemption like Theon are now biting the dust). And then we have Jaime. A character who’s been hated by most for what he did to Bran and for the incesting, a character who continued to be hated by many parts of the viewership based on that, no matter the deeds he did thereafter. The point being, it seems awfully convenient if all the “good guys” lived and all the “bad guys” of varying degrees were to die. GRRM aimed for that bit of dramatic fantasy realism where we have morally gray characters, some grayer than others. Odd enough that this would leave much of the so-perceived morally more or less sound members of the clan right where they are. If I were writing such a thing, I’d keep some of those ambivalent characters, if only to show that the good vs. bad dichotomy does not hold in the real world and that in the real world, sometimes, do not only good guys die but also not-always-good-guys live.

j) What was Jaime’s plan? While he came back to “I am the stupidest Lannister”, Jaime is… not. He outsmarted Tyrion in terms of battle tactics. He is a gifted commander. He certainly is not as dumb as Cersei claimed him to be as she herself was not always the brightest pebble with an evil T’Pol haircut. He’s covered his hand with the glove when he rode away from King’s Landing at the end of season 7. He covered it again until he came back into King’s Landing and then took it off, for what it seems in the hope to use it as a VIP card to get the soldiers’ attention and thus entry into the Red Keep. That means he was in possession of the glove by the time he was captured by Daenerys’s forces. Why would he not wear it, then? Did he want to be caught? Why would he? Was he told by someone with the power of foresight that he needed to be there, that he needed to learn what signal was to be given (the bells) in order to give order to have them ring? We don’t know if he gave the order, but it’s not unlikely. Did he have a plan he didn’t let on even in front of his brother? Was there information Jaime protected and was that the reason why he seemed somewhat off? Who knows. Only the next episode will tell.

k) We are still due some kind of a reaction from Brienne.

l) Where the fuck is Widow’s Wail?

m) Why did the show bother giving us JB making love and playing house if the entire idea was to have him run back to his sister and just die by bricks? Why wait with this till the very last episode, to make it, for all it seems, the literal FINAL big bang of the series?

n) There is something to be said about how realism is not just “everyone dies and all is terrible”. Right now… everything is. We are in worst case scenario land for basically everyone. Jon became complicit in a mass murder, he could not prevent what Jaime did when he slew Aerys before he could nuke the city. Daenerys… committed a mass murder (she lost everyone safe for angry Greyworm and and is now a Queen of the Ashes). Cersei was cast down. Jaime coudln’t make his happiness with Brienne, for all it seems. Varys, for now, it seems, is proven right in that he hoped to be proven wrong and that shit would not go down like it did. Tormund won’t ever get his Emobear back. Bran is an emotional vegetable. Arya just had houses drop on her. Sandor died in fire, aka his worst enemy. Sansa may just have helped put Jon and/or Arya in danger if Daenerys continues to be crazypants. Hundreds and thousands of people got burned, injured, raped, murdered, kabloomed. Tyrion may just have lost his entire family, may still face the wrath of his Queen and continues to be kind of a stupid idiot. This is not some balanced kind of scenario of good and bad, this is just… bad.

o) If we only consider POV characters from the books, there are only three pairings where they are both major POV characters, the three Jays: JC, JD, and JB. And of those two… two are varying degrees of incest, as Varys would otherwise point out to you, and the other barely left the ground before bricks came raining from the sky. The point being… am I to believe that no single 2-POV-romance has any kind of a future? I find it odd.

The list could probably be longer but I am getting tired here. Suffice to say there are a number of reasons that *support* such a hypothesis.

Back on target of scenarios that give me hope - the Jaime lives somehow edition:

4) We may still be in for a Branception. He may pull back time and try to right things (he may also turn out the ultimate villain whose only goal, from the beginning, was to obtain the IT for all we know). He may have seen the worst case scenario unfold as we saw it now, and we may go back to him trying to make it right this time. But those are scenarios that involve a kind of mojo that continues to leave me far too baffled to dive into further. Suffice to say, he may have his hands in that somehow. 

5) Suppose both of them survive somehow. Further imagine a scene of someone waking up on a boat, blinded for a moment, only to come around and look at a very scowling Brienne of Tarth, only to realize that yup, we are seeing things through Jaime’s eyes. And as he turns around he sees a dishevelled but alive sister in the boat, and a very pissed off sellsword turned assassin who complains about how he did not sign up for nearly getting buried alive in those tunnels if not for that warrior woman forcing him to wait out there and pull Jaime and Cersei to safety in the skulls or whatever else when it mattered. Evidently, this would have to be followed by some kind of trial for Cersei as she remains a shitshow of a person who held a city hostage, kabloomed a sept because she could and smirkily drank wine while doing so and gettting helluva murderboners over this. AKA her ending with Jaime still sounds to me as far too nice for a woman who’s done so much horrible when there was no need for it and did nothing really other than supposedly being pregnant with a child (will continue to believe that it is/was a tumor until I’m proven otherwise… even then I will stick to it because history parallels are awesome!) to deserve a “nice” and somewhat comforting exit with her brother by her side, without a single sign of acknowledgement of her being a shitshow of a person. Anyway, that leads too far astray. The point remains on the idea that I wouldn’t even exclude Cersei living at least for a longer while (end of episode 6), but ultimately proving that Jiame will outlive her (as was kind of hinted at by the book’s weirwood dream).

6) Since we have Davos and Tyrion in place as well as a body that conveniently is deposited near the Red Keep now and maches in height and so and such, and since Daenerys would not want to see Jaime Lannister alive right now… how about the good old switch game? Demolish Euron’s dead face a bit more, cut off a hand, stick the golden one on, maybe crispy him a bit more and present that to Daenerys. Would she ask questions beyond that? The point being, I can perfectly see a scenario whereby Jaime will emerge from the rubble (either by sheer luck or by having dived or been pulled into one of the dragon skulls) or will be pulled ou of it, and everyone has to be quick to get rid of him to hide him from Daenerys’s wrath. Off into a boat and let him be brought somewhere to heal and live a silent life where nobody knows what became of him. Tarth is supposed to be beautiful around the season, hm? 

7) Brienne pulls Jaime from the rubble. He explains himself to her, believing he is about to die, just that he isn’t. Maybe he will ogle at her, going on about how Bran even told him how he was destined to die and how there was no future beyond (for him). Only for Brienne to drop it on him that there is, if he decides to live at last because sure as hell she won’t be taking care of a kid they both made and have responsibility to. Perhaps Jaime recognizing that Bran hinted at that the baby he was referring to was not Cersei’s (if there is) but Brienne’s. And that all that needed to happen so he could be reborn.

8) Jaime being the one to ring the bells becoming some kind of unsung hero alongside Brienne if she has any part in getting rid of the current usurper. Imagine Brienne badass-single-handedly getting rid of the living nuke aka dragon.

9) In a scneario whereby Jon offs Daenerys or Daenerys offs off to Essos and Jon does not push the claim… and if we hopefully overlook Gendry because the guy should not be assigned manager jobs he does no have the expertise for (*eye roll*) - I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Gendry but he is by no means a politician or anything close to it… just briefly imagine of the reborn Jaime Lannister, the former Kingslayer, suddenly being confronted with the reality that he is heir to the Iron Throne. Just for funsies. Hm?

10) All ends with Jaime waking up next to Brienne, dozing in bed with their ten kids sleeping in the other rooms of Evenfall Hall, going like “Brienne, honey, I just had the shittiest dream ever.” And then the two cuddle.

Yeah no, for real now though. I can spin myself more scenarios than that, all of which bear hope in some capacity, both within the canon as well as how I have set up my shipping habits. Which means I basically feel invincible right now. The worst that can happen is that I am dissatisfied with how their arcs will conclude, in which case I still have my community and fanfic to fix it. If it ends tragically but at least with recognition of feelings for one another, I will be sad but satisfied. If Jaime survives at least long enough to see Brienne one more time, I will cry like a baby but I will be okay because it will make clear where his heart was at last. and how it will always be hers. If it’s one of the more and most positive scenarios, I will be a happy customer and may gloat more than I should.

My most basic hope is that we get coherence where I currently find myself confused as to where the narrative is heading. There are things I don’t understand or can’t currently, based on the limited information we have, make sense of. I would hope for the show to clear up that much.

My more elaborate hope is that we get the confirmation of their mutual feelings for one another. That can go a multitude of ways, as outlined above, but that’s something I would really want/need to feel like their arcs came full circle, even if Jaime winds up dead.

My HYPE hopes are of course the rebirth scenarios. I don’ find them unlikely, but I don’t hold my breath for them to happen. If they do, I am happy. If they don’t, I won’t be disappointed enough to be sadder than I ought to be. I will try my best to use it as inspiration for fanart, fanfic, and editing.

So yeah… how can I go wrong? How can I be anything but hopeful? I hope for the best, accept the worst if it comes, and simply go on with my fandom life because that is the important aspect about it for me personally. I have amazing friends in this fandom and I can look back on years of one of the best shipping rides I ever undertook. We are canon in every sense of the term and that can’t be taken away from us (as someone once said so elegantly: you can’t unfuck someone). So my hopes are that I simply get to go on enjoying my fandom life in this fandom, then waiting for the books and taking the liberty to dissect the narrative in the light of its full context instead of only ever theorizing based on limited information. My hope is to continue to have awesome, inspiring, and productive discussions and theories and headcanons.

Those are my hopes, and I don’t see how they will ever be disappointed, no matter what may happen in the show next week, or in the infinity and beyond it will take for GRRM to finish those books. And I think that’s not just wishful thinking because the power to remain hopeful actually lies with me. I am the master of my shipping experience, of my fandom life, and as such, I can have all the positivity no matter the canon outcomes.

So yeah, I am a happy Wacky right now and I will continue to be.

And I do hope that some of that positivity will reach you, anon, and anyone else currently feeling like… a bunch of bricks are raining down on them. Sorry, I have to cut back on those puns, I know.

Anyway. To close now.

I am hopeful because I put my hope in my fandom experience, and in that way I cannot possibly lose - and anyone who decides to follow down the same path, you can’t lose either! So how about we continue to win together? I’d very much like that.

[chrysalispen]

light they bring you in the dark;

[she-wolf-of-highgarden]

Um what’s up with “3″ in ASoIaF?

I was doing research for a meta and realized it comes up an oddly numerous (haha get it?) amount of times while she is Braavos. 

“His father was shouting orders. Sailors scrambled up and down the three tall masts and moved along the rigging, reefing the heavy purple sails. Below, oarsmen heaved and strained over two great banks of oars. The decks tilted, creaking, as the galleas Titan's Daughter heeled to starboard and began to come about.” - Arya I, AFfC

“Maester Luwin had taught them about Braavos, but Arya had forgotten much of what he'd said. It was a flat city, she could see that even from afar, not like King's Landing on its three high hills. The only hills here were the ones that men had raised of brick and granite, bronze and marble. Something else was missing as well, though it took her a few moments to realize what it was.” - Arya I, AFfC

“She saw huge flat-bottomed barges too, heaped high with crates and barrels and pushed along by twenty polemen to a side, and fancy floating houses with lanterns of colored glass, velvet drapes, and brazen figureheads. Off in the far distance, looming above canals and houses both, was a massive grey stone roadway of some kind, supported by three tiers of mighty arches marching away south into the haze.” - Arya I, AFfC

“I know," said Arya. Jaqen H'ghar had granted three of her prayers once. All I had to do was whisper . . .” - Arya II, AFfC

“He never told her his name. Neither did the waif, the little girl with the big eyes and hollow face who reminded her of another little girl, named Weasel. Like Arya, the waif lived below the temple, along with three acolytes, two serving men, and a cook called Umma. Umma liked to talk as she worked, but Arya could not understand a word she said.” - Arya II, AFfC

“The stern face never smiled; his eyes were pale, his lips full and dark. The handsome man had a beard of a different color every time she saw him, and a different nose, but he was never less than comely. Those three came most often, but there were others: the squinter, the lordling, the starved man. One time the fat fellow and the squinter came together. Umma sent Arya to pour for them. "When you are not pouring, you must stand as still as if you had been carved of stone," the kindly man told her. "Can you do that?" - Arya II, AFfC

“By the time the three of them climbed down the ladder from the room beneath the eaves, Brusco and his sons were out in the boat on the little canal behind the house. Brusco barked at the girls to hurry, as he did every morning.” - Cat of the Canals, AFfC

“After that, she had nothing to do but sit and yawn for a long while as Brusco and his sons pushed them through the predawn gloom, wending down a confusion of small canals. The day looked to be a rare one, crisp and clear and bright. Braavos only had three kinds of weather; fog was bad, rain was worse, and freezing rain was worst.” - Cat of the Canals, AFfC

“Learn three new things before you come back to us," the kindly man had commanded Cat, when he sent her forth into the city. She always did. Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Braavosi tongue. Sometimes she brought back sailor's tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching. Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of this trade or the other. And every so often, she would learn some secret.” - Cat of the Canals, AFfC

“All men must serve." And so she did, three days of every thirty. When the moon was black she was no one, a servant of the Many-Faced God in a robe of black and white. She walked beside the kindly man through the fragrant darkness, carrying her iron lantern.” - Cat of Canals, AFfC

Guys...this goes on for a while. I dont have the patience to do all of them, I’m not going to lie. It comes up again and again and again. Three three three. And i went back to look, it’s not just in Braavos. 147 times there are three somethings in Arya’s chapters. Dany mentions it 188 and Tyrion mentions it 183 and Jon mentions it 177 , so i thought it might be a Key Five thing...but it doesnt seem like it since Bran only mentions it 84 times and i checked Sansa for fun and she mentions it 82 times. 

So hey, George, what up with you and the number 3? I figured 7 would be the most mentioned number in the book since there is literally a religion with gods called “the Seven” but 7 only comes up 727 times while 3 comes up 1514 times in all the books...

[megsironthrone]

Pleasant Company

Based on this request:  Hi! Would it be possible to have a Jaqen H'gar and reader, where the two meet and decided to travel together and they get close? Not necessarily in love but they like each other company? Thanks and I really enjoy reading what you write! And sorry for the error, english is not my first langage! by @darkjedipoptarts

Masterpost

Here you are! I do not own Jaqen. He belongs to George R.R.Martin. 

Warnings: It’s short. I literally could not think of anywhere else to take it. 

Pairings/Characters: Jaqen H’ghar x reader

When you first met Jaqen, you were a little wary. He had a mysterious way about him, down to the way that he spoke. Still, you had seen him fight first hand and knew that there was probably no one better to travel with in the entire world. You weren't sure exactly how the subject was brought up, but you ended up asking Jaqen if you could travel with him, wherever he was going.

           "This one's path holds many dangers. Are you certain you are ready?" You nodded eagerly. Maybe you could even convince Jaqen to train you a little bit better. You'd had some basic combat training but nothing like what Jaqen could do. Granted, you were certain that Jaqen had been training his entire life whereas you hadn't. "Then, it is time to go." You hiked your pack up on your shoulder and followed after Jaqen.

           While you traveled, the two of you learned a lot about each other. It took a while, but Jaqen revealed to you that he was a Faceless Man from Braavos. Most people would have been frightened. You'd heard of them before. But you weren't afraid. If Jaqen had wanted to hurt you, he would have done so already. Besides, he only killed to appease the Many-Faced god. Your name wasn't on the list at the moment, so you were able to breathe easy.

           But your favorite part of traveling with Jaqen? The nights. At night, when you would make camp, Jaqen would get very still and quiet. You could hear everything around you in such clarity. Everything from the owls in the trees, to the whispering of the brook and the rustling of leaves. Jaqen would sit there, sometimes with his eyes closed and just take it in, prompting you to do the same. He taught you the value of silence in those nights.

           One night, you sat next to the fire and sighed in content. Jaqen opened his eyes and bestowed a soft smile on you. "A man has given your request thought. Are you still willing to be trained?" You jerked your head toward him and nodded vigorously. "Then you must travel with this one to Braavos. To the House of Black and White. The journey is long and difficult, but, should you succeed, you shall prove your worth to study under the Many-Faced god." You beamed at him.

           Jaqen continued to sit in quiet reflection until you fell asleep. Then, he sighed lowly. He wasn't used to traveling companions. Yet, you were different. You weren't overly nosy or loud. You let him be during his quiet moments and you didn't try and force conversation. You never looked at him like you were afraid of him. Unlike most of his former acquaintances, Jaqen found that you were rather intelligent, ready to take on whatever the world threw at you. You were prepared to adapt to a life that wasn't always easy. All-in-all, he found your company very pleasant. He only hoped that would continue on the journey to Braavos.

           He wanted to believe that you could handle what was coming. Since the death of the Waif girl at the hands of Arya Stark, Jaqen had lost some of his faith. He hoped that, maybe, it could be restored with your help. The thought brought a smile to his face as he lay down to sleep across from you.

           By the time the two of you boarded the ship for Braavos, you were certain that Jaqen was the closest friend you'd ever had. He knew everything about you now. He was a little more reserved that you, but you figured that was just his nature. After all, he was a Faceless Man. Everything in their past was pretty much erased by the time their training was done. Not that he didn't remember it, but he had no time to dwell on it when he had to assume the face of another.

           "Jaqen? Will I be a Faceless Man like you?" He looked up from his staff and gave a little nod. "If you are willing and determined. If you obey the laws of the Many-Faced god, then you shall be No One." You nodded and sat down. The two of you sat there in silence while the crew bustled around you. "Thanks for this, Jaqen. You really are a good friend." Jaqen shook his head fondly and chuckled. He'd never been called a friend before, but he was certain you were his. Still, he said nothing as you sat there, just enjoying each other's company.

(a/n: I know it’s short, but I hope you like it!) 

@brewsthespirit-blog @gameofwinters @line-viper @littlemisscaptainfandom @frozenhuntress67 @etherealpotter @obsessedwithgot @cd1242