#ell reads

[elevatorladylady]

Critical Reread - ACOFAS Chapter 17

Join me on a reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight.

Chapter 17 - Feyre

Feyre opens her birthday gifts from Rhysand. Cassian and Azriel drag Rhys away. Elain bakes.

“A drop of water compared with the wealth contained across his various assets.”

Blah blah blah. We’re so rich.

“Yes, I could buy that studio in a heartbeat with the fortune now in my name. But using that money so lavishly, even for a studio that wouldn’t be just for me …”

I know she’s talking about her personal wealth, but this makes me wonder if she’s also “fiscally conservative” too.

“I’d seen the Solstice bonus Rhys had given each of them. It was more than most families made in a year. They deserved every damned copper mark.”

I hope that Nuala and Cerridwen have their own lives outside of their work where they can spend this excessive amount of money.

[suntails]

hijo de la luna

[superfruitland]

i love these blue little shits, can i have 5 more? @intotheelliwoods

[ryan-sometimes]

One thing that caught my eye in the Heartstopper season 2 trailer, which I also loved in the comics, is that scene where Tao opens the door shirtless to see Elle standing outside. The thing that captivates me about that scene is how he covers his chest and desperately shuts the door afterwards. Because that’s something teenage boys do around teenage girls. They don’t do that around other boys, because they don’t need to. They change clothes in locker rooms constantly. We see Tao hanging around Charlie and Isaac prior to that moment and he doesn’t seem to care they’re seeing him shirtless. Because they’re guys.

The fact Tao instinctively covered his chest around Elle shows that he truly sees her just like any other girl. Tao knew her before she came out as trans, and was there during her entire transition. He’s cis and straight. He has a crush on Elle and treats her like any other teenage girl, because that’s what she is to him. A girl he has a crush on. It warms my little nonbinary heart.

[sofiaisanalien]

To all the people who might read this, I hope you will find beautiful friendships and sweet love stories with people who truly deserve you, I hope it will be just like the kind of relationships that Alice Oseman always tends to write about in all of her books, I hope that every Tori out there finds her Michael, every Charlie finds his Nick , every Tara finds her Darcy, every Tao finds his Elle, every Frances finds her Aled and I hope all Ben hopeS on earth would disappear.

Take care <3

[spacedace]

So I have an idea for a dp x dc fic and I'm going to throw it here since i need to get it out of my head and i'm not sure i'll ever actually write it (and as always if anyone finds my rambles interesting any/all of it us up for grabs to run with):

Elle ends up crashing into the DC universe while exploring, but despite all the dimension/multivariate nonsense that always goes down (or maybe because of it) she can't actually get back, and the levels of ectoplasm are a lot lower than most dimensions which weakens her quite a bit.

There's enough for her to survive, and use her powers a little bit, but using them too much makes her get really weak/maybe even causes serious harm depending on how much she uses.

She finds this out when she tries to open a portal home and both fails to open the portal & passes out as a result of trying. Cut to Elle waking up in Cadmus and realizing "ah, fucked up unethical science, I am familiar with this fuckery" and escapes.

In the process of escaping she comes across Kon, who isn't "finished" yet. He's alive and aged up to a teenager, but isn't quite done with his programming/whatever (this idea came to me based entirely off what I've gleaned through fandom so I don't know the canon of Kon's whole time with Cadmus). Elle immediately realizes "Oh clone baby, that's not good" and breaks him out and takes him with her.

Kon in this doesn't know he's a clone of Superman, he doesn't know a lot of things considering how early into the clone info-dumling process he was in when Elle broke him out. He barely knows language and how to read. What he does know for sure though is that Cadmus is Bad and Getting the Fuck Out is Good so he's down to go with Elle

Queue them becoming friends and being on the run together, learning about this world/dimension together and coming to see each other as family. Eventually they end up in Gotham because it's one of the places that naturally has a higher ectopalsm level and because if you're in the right area no one cares if you have no legal ID (in some circles it's a plus).

Kon gets a lot of odd jobs before eventually ending up working at a strip club or burlesque bar or something (my idea is that it's years after escaping so he's in his early 20s at this point and not just a fresh baby clone anymore and he gets into it because he likes it and it's good money) while Elle uses her ghostly knowledge/what powers she can to work as like a psychic or something like that.

Meanwhile Justice League (with alive again Superman) have found out about the escaped Superman clone and, along with Cadmus, are desperately trying to track him down. The info they have is a bit murky, so they think it's actually *two* clones, one that had Martian dnd also thrown in to the mix based off a short clip they managed to find of Elle phasing through walls.

My idea is that it'd all finally come to a head when Constantine pulls Tim (and maybe also Damian) in on a JL Dark case that involves the Lazerus Pit and for reasons ends up having to hire Elle to help. I'm thinking it's a thing that Elle is a pretty respected name in certain magic circles due to her expert knowledge on the Infinite Realms, though she refuses to work for most people who seek her out - even though the money would be good - because usually it's only evil assholes that want to hire her.

She makes a deal with Jon to help (in exchange for something that would let her get a message to Danny letting him know what happened or something like that) and Kon joins in because there's no way he's trusting a dude Elle calls the "drunk soul slut" with his baby sister unattended, he doesn't *care* if she could handle herself it's not happening.

Anyway, Tim/Kon (and maybe some Damian/Elle) shenanigans during a Lazerus Pit/demon hunting road trip where eventually everyone figures out who Kon & Elle are, Elle manages to get a stable portal setup so she can go home and come back whenever she wants (Kon getting adopted by Danny? Kon getting adopted by Danny) and Kon joining Young Justice and having a good relationship with Clark (who had a lot more time to deal with things before meeting Kon and learned about him as a person before learning he was Clark's clone).

Anyway there would be a scene at the end where Kon would be in his superhero suit for the first time and just:

Clark: Did you choose a hero name yet?

Kon: Yeah, I figured I'd go with Supernova.

Clark, feeling touched: Yeah? Any particular reason?

Kon: It's cool, it has 'Super' in the name, and really it just seemed the easiest option, I'm used to responding to Nova, so *shrugs*

Clark: Yeah? Why's that? Nickname?

Kon: I guess kinda? It's my stage name at the strip club I work at

Clark: what

Tim, brain shut down by this revelation: ...do you do private shows?

Clark: w h a t

[u3pxx]

[bad omens] angels (fallen or otherwise)

[liesmyth]

Is it better if John erased their memories, or if they came back that way and he just decided not to fix them?

It's immensely better if he intentionally mindwiped them. TO ME.

I'm a John fan. I think he's a tremendous tragic antagonist, and that everything he does in the HtN backstory is relatable if not painful familiar. He was under immense pressure, trying to mitigate the literal end of the world, having his mind and his whole self changed in ways he had no frame of reference to understand. He went from being desperate and trying to do his best to being carried away by circumstances to going absolutely fucking insane. There are many ways to rationalise John's actions all the way to the end, which is what makes it such an effective corruption arc. If you want to engage in some blorbo apologism, there are plenty of excuses to be found.

There's absolutely no fucking way to excuse mind-wiping his friends. THAT is why it's so important to me that he did it deliberately, in cold blood, justifying it to himself as a way to take their burdens upon himself so they wouldn't have to feel guilty. He removed their agency. He didn't want any peers in the world he'd created. He could have acknowledged what had happened, for better or worse, and tried to make amends - but instead, he chose to remove their knowledge that something had even happened in the first place. It's the turning point! I need him to go into that with his eyes fully open. He's doing it on purpose! He weighed the pros and cons and prioritised his comfort over his friends' identities.

EYE believe that his story arc is infinitely more powerful if there's a point we can look at and say "here is when John's story went from things happening TO HIM to John doing terrible things". Especially in a backstory that's ultimately about divine corruption and losing touch with your humanity, I think that turning point needs to be something that has a personal value to him, something that can't be chalked up to "he was high on death" or "humanity was doomed" or even "he touched the soul of the earth and went insane."

I think it's important, thematically, that one of his first actions after acquiring godlike powers was to make sure that no one would be able to remember his human self and challenge him on equal footing, even if he's still internally lamenting his own loneliness and wishing things were different.

Obviously, this is all coming from a known John Girlie™ and Eldritch Alecto Enjoyer — I interpret John's ascension to quasi-divinity as something that was mostly imposed ON him and he couldn't control, which is why I need him to cross the moral event horizon outright with the mind violation of his inner circle. Someone who views John as more directly culpable in the end of the earth might feel less strongly about the importance of the mindwipe in his story arc than I do, but TO ME it's the culmination of the tragedy. You've become the inhuman horror, baby.

/post that inspired the question

[raspberry-arev]

HEARTSTOPPER: PIGGYBACK RACE

It's finished! I made it before the end of Pride Month!! Here are our favorite Heartstopper kids having fun

Nick flexes his rugby-lad-ness. Darcy insisted to be the runner and firmly believes she can catch up with Nick&Charlie, while Tara is seconds from falling off her back. Tao is a short king and he is trying his best. Isaac is a good boy and we love him :')

(look.. the colors aren't the best, the composition is so-so, but I had fun drawing the kids again, and that's what counts) (as you can see im trying to get back into art through hand-drawn stuff. and alcohol markers from Lidl.)

[elevatorladylady]

Critical Reread - Chapter 18

Join me on a reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight

Chapter 18 - F/eyre

Lucien comes to visit. F/eyre finds out what the bat boys are up to.

“The last Solstice I’d experienced had been at the Spring Court. With Ianthe. And Tamlin.”

I really wish we knew more about what they did for Winter Solstice.

“Both trying to lead the humans who occupied the sliver of land at the southernmost end of Prythian. Left ungoverned for so long. Too long. No king or queen remained in these lands. No memory of their name, their lineage.”

This is the laziest world building ever.

“I wondered if the humans had taken to using only lord as a title thanks to the High Fae who lurked above the wall.”

What is F/eyre on about? Why would the humans adopt anything from the fae at this point? They probably still hate the fae.

“Vassa and Jurian are two sides of the same coin.”

Remember when F/eyre said this about her and Nesta because she didn’t actually begrudge her sister as much as the fandom does.

“You could come live here, is all I’m saying,” I pushed. “Truly live here, stay in Velaris for longer than a few days at a time. We could get you nicer quarters—”

She really wants everyone to love Velaris the way she does, doesn’t she?

“Lucien got to his feet. “I don’t need your charity.” I rose as well. “But Jurian and Vassa’s is fine?”

This is such a rude thing to say to someone who already feels like they are being offered something out of pity or obligation.

“Friends, I realized. They had somehow become his friends. “So you’d rather stay with them?”

Why can’t Lucien have friends outside of F/eyre? They aren’t that close. Did she expect him to completely fold into her life despite the fact that her life offers very little to Lucien?

“That you now feel more comfortable with humans than with the High Fae. If you ask me—”

And what is this bullshit? First of all, isn’t she supposed to be better than the fae that think they are better than humans? Second, she was human for all but one year of her life. Third, Lucien let himself be tortured to protect his human friend, F/eyre. 

“It seems like you’ve decided to fall in with two people without homes of their own as well.”

Why does F/eyre even say this? Is it because she does actually know that Lucien can’t feel at home in Velaris? To remind him of the home that has crumbled because of her actions? Or to suggest that Jurian and Vassa aren’t people worthy of being chosen as friends, just a bad crowd that he “fell in” with.

“You have a name for yourselves.” I fought my incredulous tone.”

Rich coming from a girl who was starry eyed over R/hysand’s telling her about his Court of Dreams.

“But I asked, “And what, exactly, does this Band of Exiles plan to do? Host events? Organize party-planning committees?”

He just told her about all of the work they were doing in the human lands. 

“Lucien’s metal eye clicked faintly and narrowed. “You can be as much of an asshole as that mate of yours, you know that?” True. I sighed again. “I’m sorry. I just—”

I feel like this is meant to absolve F/eyre of being an asshole just because she acknowledged it was true.

“I’d created that rift. Ripped it apart with my own two hands. I didn’t quite feel guilty enough to warrant apologizing for it. Not yet. Possibly not ever.”

Again, acknowledgement without accountability.

“You will need Tamlin as an ally before the dust has settled. Tread carefully.” I didn’t want to think about it, consider it, today. Any day. “My business with him is done.”

Lucien is one of the few people in this story with any sense. Of course they would need Tamlin, and F/eyre cannot avoid him forever if she actually wants to do anything for human/fae relations as High Lady.

“I’m sorry to have caused him trouble, R/hys said.”

I don’t think R/hys would have done anything differently if he knew it would cause Lucien trouble.

“Despite this Band of Exiles bullshit.”

I guess having friends is bullshit. Oh wait, sorry, friends outside of the IC is bullshit.

“I don’t like to see either of you unhappy.”

This is a good spot for F/eyre to land with Elucien.

“Let him live with his Band of Exiles. Let him deal with Tamlin in his own way. Let him figure out where he wants to be. Who he wants to be. The same goes with her.”

Good advice coming from Mor.

“I arched a brow. “And you—are you happy?”

Are we actually going to understand anything about Mor’s interior life when we get to her book?

[purpletrashcans]

rereading heartstopper just reminds me of how sad i am that Aled isn't in the show, like i love Isaac don't get me wrong, but i still wish Aled was there as well

[fornpt1]

i’m forever a high school girlie no matter what

[its-rat-time-babey]

Here’s an idea:

Dan and Dani meet, but they both have no idea exactly what each other are.

For Dani, she’d see a hulking abomination that’s clearly at least somewhat Danny with a lot of Plasmius mixed in there somewhere, and since she was created long after the events of The Ultimate Enemy she’d have no idea or reason to believe that he’s Danny from a dark future where he tore out his ghost half and merged it with Plasmius.

She’d take one look at this mixture of Danny and Plasmius and go “Oh cool another failed Danny clone”. Probably coming to the conclusion that Dan is some failed experiment that mixed Vlad’s DNA in there for whatever reason.

Meanwhile from Dan’s perspective, he was created way before Vlad started his cloning experiments and due to his actions, Vlad never even started making clones in his timeline, so Dani doesn’t even come close to existing. However, Dan may not know about cloning, but he DOES know about alternate timelines and he knows that alternate versions of you can exist and be wildly different from each other. Just look at him for example.

So he’d look at Dani and not see a clone, but another alternate version of Danny from another timeline, just like himself. (If you believe in the Trans Danny headcanons/theory, he could even come to the conclusion that Dani is a version of Danny that died and got ghost powers WAY earlier than normal, possibly pre-transition.)

[oceanwithouthermoon]

ive come to realise that i dont actually hate kubokai, i just hate the way people write them

[more-than-ideas]

Sunday reading ~ dandelion

[some-little-infamy]

(Read on AO3)

“How would you feel about getting married?”

Eddie doesn’t mean to ask the question, or at least not so bluntly, but the words tumble out of his mouth after spiraling around his head relentlessly for the last hour of his date night with Marisol. They’re cleaning up after dinner, Marisol beside him at the counter drying off the dishes he washed and put on the rack.

“Like, as a concept? Or…” Marisol questions, carefully placing the glass she was holding down on the counter before turning fully to face him.

“To me,” Eddie clarifies, choosing to double-down instead of backtrack.

“I mean… if I’m being honest, I hadn’t thought about it a whole lot. Yeah, it’s crossed my mind in a hypothetical future scenario sort of way, but… you’re not talking about that, are you?” Her eyes narrow as they watch the emotions cross his face. “You’re talking about right now.”

“Not right now,” he says. “But soon.” “Where is this coming from?” Marisol asks. It isn’t a no, but it also isn’t a yes.

“Christopher,” Eddit admits.

“Christopher wants us to get married?” Marisol asks.

“Christopher needs something constant. He needs something long-term. He can’t keep losing people… I can’t keep bringing people into his life who leave.” If he’s going to spring something like this on her then the least he can do is be honest about it. He knows how this must sound otherwise, bringing up marriage out of nowhere. They never spoke of it before, they barely planned for the next week or two, let alone months or years from now.

“Eddie…” Marisol starts slowly, and it’s the tone of a gentle let-down that leaves an immediate pit in his stomach.

“Don’t say no, just-” “I can’t say yes, though. And that’s the problem. I can’t promise to never leave, Eddie. We’re not there. Or I’m not there, at least. And if that’s something you’re looking for… maybe it isn’t fair for us to keep doing this.”

A silence falls between them.

“There’s no chance you’ll be willing to pretend this conversation never happened, is there?” Eddie tries, sensing the line they just crossed and already knowing what it means for them. It means the very thing he was hoping to avoid.

“I don’t think that’d do either of us any good, do you, Eddie?”

Eddie doesn’t know what to think any more. Every move he makes seems to backfire, no matter how good his intentions are, and he’s starting to think that maybe it’s just him.

“I’m sorry,” he says finally.

“Me too,” Marisol agrees. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“Me too,” Eddie echoes. If Marisol hears him she doesn’t give any indication, making her way to the door without turning back.

  “There are only two plates,” Christopher says as he takes his seat at the table. “Isn’t Marisol going to come over tonight?”

Eddie’s thankful that he has his back turned, scooping the potpie onto two plates at the counter. His face immediately pulls into a deep frown and he takes a deep breath for a second to steady his mind and his heart before turning to face Christopher with a small smile.

“Not tonight,” he says. “Actually… Marisol isn’t going to be coming around here any more.”

“But I liked her,” Christopher sighs.

“Me too, buddy. Me too.” Eddie forces the rueful smile to remain on his face despite every single instinct wanting to sigh right back.

“Then why did she break up with you?” Christopher asks.

“Hey,” Eddie says, feigning indignance. “What makes you think she broke up with me?”

“Because I heard you talking to Abuela when you dropped me off last night.”

Eddie winces. He remembers bits of the conversation he had with her - how he might ask Marisol to move in with him, or how he wondered if she might be ‘the one’. How much had Christopher overheard? How high did Eddie get his hopes up only to crush them the same way his own were the night before?

“I’m sorry, Chris,” Eddie says.

“It’s okay,” Christopher says.

“I know you liked having someone else around the apartment-”

“Now Buck can come over more often!” Christopher points out.

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees with a laugh. “But it isn’t the same.”

“Why not?” Christopher asks. “Buck plays games with me, and eats dinner with us, and helps me with my homework, and watches me when you and Abuela can’t. He even gave me advice about girls,” Christopher adds. “Much better advice than you or Marisol.”

Dinner is growing colder by the second, but Eddie doesn't seem to notice as the seconds of silence following Christopher's statement stretch to a minute, and then two, as his son's words settle over him.

“It isn't the same when Buck is around,” Eddie tries to explain, his words coming slow and carefully chosen. “As it is when I bring a date over.”

“You're right - Buck always leaves at night. But I wish he wouldn't. I like it better when Buck's around. You do, too. Right?”

The question is so casual, so innocent. Christopher talks between bites of dinner while Eddie’s own food continues to cool, untouched in front of him.

If he's being honest with himself, he has missed having Buck around as much as he used to. If he's being really honest, maybe he's been pushing himself to date to try and not think about just how much he likes it.

Likes Buck.

So when Christopher so easily points out that Buck is the most constant part of his life - of both their lives - Eddie wonders why he didn't realize the true weight of that sooner.

As if reading his mind, Christopher fills the silence.

“You should just date Buck. Then he'll never have to leave.”

Eddie's breath catches in his chest.

“It isn't that simple, buddy,” Eddie says.

“Why not?”

Why not, indeed. Because what if Buck doesn't feel the same? Because what if Eddie doesn't just ruin his relationship with Buck, but Christopher's, too? What if he runs the entire dynamic at work, and their friends have to pick sides or avoid him or-

“Areeee you okay, dad?” Christopher drags out the first word, waving his hand - fork and all - in front of him in Eddie’s direction.

Eddie is most certainly not okay, but he isn’t about to explain to his son that he’s having an existential crisis over the affections of a man Christopher is so certain of.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay,” Eddie says, picking up his own fork and taking the first bite of a dinner he’s no longer hungry for. It wouldn’t do to leave the table without eating at least a little, though, or else he’ll never hear the end of it the next time Christopher tries to boycott eating his own food.

“You’d really be okay if Buck and I… dated?” Eddie asks, tentatively easing into the conversation Christopher is already fully having whether Eddie wants to or not.

“Of course,” Chris says.

“And that wouldn’t be… weird for you?” Eddie continues.

“Nope,” Christopher answers, dropping another bite of food into his mouth. “Did I eat enough to go play video games now?”

Christopher eyes Eddie’s barely-touched plate as if daring him to say no.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Thanks!” Chris pushes back his chair and moves as fast as he can before Eddie can change his mind.

Eddie sits there another minute or two, head racing with everything that just happened. Every point Christopher made was not only valid, but also so painfully obvious looking back on everything. All of the nights they spent together, or days helping Chris with projects or sports over the weekends… hell, Eddie made Buck Chris’s guardian if anything ever happened to him, for fuck’s sake.

Eddie has no trouble admitting that Buck is the best thing to happen to the two of them in a long while, so why is he so hung up on taking that one step further?

His cell phone rings, jolting him from his thoughts for just a moment, but of course the name that lights up on his screen shouldn’t be a surprise.

Evan.

Eddie considers not answering it, but changes his mind at the last second, answering it just before it would’ve gone to voicemail. Thankfully, Buck can’t hear the way Eddie’s pulse picks up at the sound of his voice in the context of all the other thoughts running through Eddie’s head just then. “Hey, Buck,” Eddie says by way of a greeting. Now or never. The thought is in his head, the possibility of more, and he needs to know if it’s just him (okay, just him and Christopher) who’ve seen it and thought about it. “Just the guy I was looking for. What are you doing tonight?”