#formatting is garbage

[owlisbuffering]

A Study in MC

Genre: fluff, introspection?, pre-relationship

Pairing: Satan x reader/MC (who is not present)

Word count: 2051

Summary: While retrieving your belongings from the Human Realm, Satan gets more glimpses into who you are and reminisces how his perceptions of you have changed.

Notes: reader/ MC is gender neutral; memories/ flashbacks are in italics; this is my first fic in years, be gentle with me

Cross posted on ao3

Satan scowled and directed a rude gesture at Lucifer as he walked through the portal. It promptly closed behind him and he closed his eyes, releasing a deep sigh. A satisfied smile grew on his face and he turned slowly, taking in his new surroundings.

Though you'd been in the devildom for quite some time already, it had only now been determined that someone ought to retrieve some of your personal effects from the human world. It may never have happened at all, but somehow Lord Diavolo had learned about "homesickness," and he immediately determined that measures must be taken lest the dreaded ailment befall the precious human.

Thus, Lucifer had you compile a list of items you wanted along with their locations, and Satan was tasked with retrieving them. Lucifer would have taken it upon himself, but Lord Diavolo needed him to compile reports for an urgent last-minute meeting. That meant he had no choice but to assign one of his brothers to the task, and though he was loath to admit it, Satan was really the most reliable option. Mammon would undoubtedly steal some of your things to attempt to sell them, Levi and Belphie were out for obvious reasons, Asmo would probably go through your closet and drawers and post everything to Devilgram, and Beel would empty your kitchen.

Naturally, Satan was affronted when Lucifer informed him how he was to spend his afternoon and argued, citing a distinct lack of consideration of his time and schedule and how huge an inconvenience this would be. Truth be told, it was entirely for show: Satan was intrigued and thrilled at the prospect of seeing your home, especially your room. A person's room said a lot about them. Sure, he was intimately acquainted with your room in the devildom, but really it was only just starting to become yours rather than just the room you were staying in. In contrast, now he'd get to see the room you'd lived in for years, that you'd arranged and decorated and filled with things that you chose, everything coming together to paint a unique picture of you: your habits, your hobbies, your tastes. Yes, Satan was eager to say the least, but he wasn't about to let Lucifer know that.

The portal had deposited him in what appeared to be your living room. It looked much as he had anticipated, and as he surveyed the room, an array of pictures on one wall caught his eye. He approached them for a closer look, and to his satisfaction found it was a collection of family photos, many of which featured younger versions of you. He couldn't help a chuckle as his eyes fell on a baby picture of you having a bath, conveniently censored with a washcloth. He snapped a quick photo of it with his DDD, plus a few of some of the other photos, then turned his attention to the list.

Almost all of the items you wanted were located in your bedroom, aside from a few bathroom items and your favorite mug. Instead of any actual descriptive terms, next to "mug," you'd simply written "You'll know it when you see it." Interest piqued, he headed to the kitchen. Glass panels in the top cupboards removed the guesswork of which one contained the mugs, so he opened it and began perusing the surprising assortment your family had stowed. There were many novelty or souvenir mugs, ornately patterned ones, and some with humorous or snarky sayings, but none of them really struck him as befitting you. Then-

"Hello, what's this?" He reached into the back corner and withdrew a mug adorned with the original illustration of Alice talking to the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, along with the quote "Well, I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice, 'but a grin without a cat is the most curious thing!" A closer examination showed that the cat seemed to be a slightly different color than the rest of the design. Curious, he moved to the faucet and ran the hot water. After deeming it hot enough, he filled the mug and waited. Sure enough, as he watched, the Chesire cat's body disappeared from the picture, leaving behind his smile.

Satan was elated! This alone was worth the trip. He found himself wearing a grin to match the pictured cheshire's as he dumped the water out and dried the mug, then carefully stowed it in the travel bag he'd brought to hold your things. It was enchanted to hold as much as he needed it to, as well as to ensure nothing would break or get damaged, but just to be safe he placed another spell on the mug itself to protect it.

As he moved toward your bedroom, a memory from early in your acquaintance came to mind:

You were staring at him again. This had been happening with great frequency as of late and was beginning to get on his nerves. He'd just finished discussing the most recent exam with the Devildom History professor; the fool had completely bungled the dates of the Brimstone Treatise, and while it was a more obscure event, wasn't accuracy part of this demon's job? But, ever the gentleman, he kept his polite smile on his face all through the infuriating conversation and now presently turned this smile to you.

"Is something the matter, MC?"

For a moment you just kept staring, your head cocked slightly to the side. Satan's irritation was on the verge of morphing into flat-out anger when you finally responded.

"You're a Cheshire cat."

That was unexpected. He managed to keep his smile in place despite his suprise, but just barely. "I beg your pardon?"

"I can't help but think of the Cheshire cat when I see you. I've watched you with plenty of different individuals, in all kinds of situations- flirting, debating, ordering, teaching- and you've always got that smile. If I didn't know any better, I'd bet it would remain if you vanished...which makes me wonder: how would you look without it?" You gave him a small half-smile, then grabbed your schoolbag and left the classroom. 

Ironically enough, that's when the carefully crafted smile fell from his face.

That interaction was a bit of a turning point in how he saw you. If you actually wanted to see his genuine expressions, then it wouldn't be a stretch to assume you wanted to know what he actually thought. And if that was the case, then couldn't it also be hypothesized that you cared what he thought? And so, he decided maybe it might be worthwhile to test his hypotheses. For research.

At the door to your bedroom, he paused with his hand on the knob. Why did he suddenly feel nervous? How odd. He took a deep breath to settle himself, then opened the door.

The room was in dissarray. Not messy per se, but perhaps a somewhat organized chaos, not too unlike his own room without the towering stacks of books. No sooner had he thought this than he felt his foot bump something. Looking down, he saw that a small stack of books had tipped onto his shoe. As he bent to right them, he discovered no less than four more book stacks of varying heights near your bed, with another five books stashed underneath the bed, nevermind the two large bookcases you had, both completely full. He let out a loud laugh at his discovery, only for it to turn into a gasp when he heard a plaintive "Meow!"

How could he have forgotten?! He knew you had a cat; he'd seen pictures and heard stories about it. He'd just gotten so caught up in his other discoveries about you. But there on your bed, curled up on what appeared to be an over-sized nightshirt was your cat, blinking at him blearily.

"Did I wake you? My apologies. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you."

The cat stretched and sniffed Satan's offered hand, then meowed and gave it a lick. Satan sat on the bed next to the cat, making a mental note as he did so that your mattress here was a bit softer than the one you had in the House of Lamentation. The cat got up and climbed into Satan's lap, sniffing his jacket.

"I brought new smells with me, didn't I? You probably smell MC on me, too, don't you? Yes, MC and I are very.......good friends." he finished lamely.

To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure what term fit the two of you currently. You'd gone on dates and flirted often, but he didn't think you two were considered a couple. He wanted to be, and if the brushes of fingers and lingering gazes were any indication, so did you.

Your cat started purring loudly while Satan scratched its chin. "MC says you always slept with them. That's probably why you're curled up on their pajamas, isn't it?"

He glanced over at the nightshirt and had to smile again. Now that your cat had moved, he could see the design: a person sitting on top of a stack of books, reading, with the caption "So many books, so little time."

He held his bedroom door open, granting you entry. Technically, you'd been inside a few other occasions, but they were very brief instances. This was the first time you were able to actually gawk and really take in the sheer magnitude of books Satan had. Staring at the towers the many stacks formed, you moved forward slowly, so thankfully you managed to catch yourself before toppling one. Satan turned his back to you and rolled his eyes, waiting for the inevitable remark about the clutter and precariousness of the state of his room that everyone seemed to feel obligated to make upon spending more than a few moments inside. When it didn't come he turned to look at you.

"You're not going to say anything about my too many books or how I choose to house them?" he asked with some impatience.

You didn't even glance at him, still staring around his room with a look of awe and reverence. You gave an appreciative little nod. "I get it."

He felt warmth creeping into his face and had to turn away again.

Satan shook his head with a small smile. You got it, indeed. Slowly looking around your room again, much the same way you had done in his, he was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to see you. Best to not take too much time so that he could return to the House of Lamentation about the time you'd be finishing your tasks for the day.

He looked down at your cat, reluctant to lose the feline's company. After some quick mental math, he determined he could allow himself three minutes to indulge himself. Once the three minutes were up, he heaved a deep sigh and gently picked the cat up and placed it back on your bed, then set about gathering the rest of the items you had listed......and some you hadn't: all of your books were put in the bag. Even if you didn't necessarily wish to have them, Satan intended to borrow them. As he collected the items he made sure to give your cat a scratch or a pet every time he passed it. He was sorely tempted to bring the cat with him, but you had foreseen that and had emphasized in no less than three places on the list, in all caps and with ample exclamation points every time: "LEAVE THE CAT!!!!!!!!!" Honestly, he still may have brought it had he not had the realization that if he did, the cat would undoubtedly monopolize your cuddling. While you and Satan may not have been quite to the point of cuddling, he did not wish to make it any harder upon himself to get there, nor could he help the mild jealousy that arose.

Finally finished, he sent Barbatos a text saying he was ready, gave the cat a final scratch and bid it goodbye, and walked into the portal that opened a moment later. A small, sincere smile stole across his face at the thought of returning to you.

[bdoubleowo]

we're having a 3rd life watchparty 2day and um. we're having a time

[majimasleftasscheek]

merchhh movie flyer, staminan cup, kurohyou manga, prequel movie, y5 newsletter, and the digsta figs 🙏💖

[pinkmasquerade]

I wish that it wasn't a movie but it made Kenma's arc so much more real. You know that there's only so much time left; you know that it has to end soon. By your own hand, by theirs, or by something completely out of your control.

But you don't want it to end. You just can't. You just can't let it end.

[frankehstein]

JESSICA DE GOUW as THE WITCH HOLDA

Gretel & Hansel (2020) | dir. Oz Perkins

“Women know things we’re not supposed to.”

[dropofmidnight]

made a variant for fire genasi! info text is typed out in the alt text

[spearxwind]

Hi hello I have two questions for yall

does anyone here know decent book editing software that isnt indesign because i cant afford indesign and its a little incomprehensible (pretty much I'm looking how I can edit a book with spread pages and images) nothing insanely fancy, I am just looking to turn one of my big lore google docs into something nice and art-book looking I wanna be able to do something like this, for example

what I am looking to do is basically turn my challenger deep lore doc into an actual lore book so I will hopefully do some illustrations for it down the line for each section of it. so the next question is then:

would any of you be interested in purchasing that? it would be digital (unless there's an insane amount of interest for physical editions, in which case I will consider it)

[azol-otl]

Hewwo azol 👋 can you choose a 500 word snippet from one of your published fics and give us some director's commentary / insight into what you were thinking when you wrote it?

Oh, this required like, a lot of actual thought on my end. So the fic I had chosen (used a random number generator to choose) is Not Into It.

Okay as background I actually wrote this based on the picture that's in the fic. Ben and I were both late in making Soup's birthday gift and I had zero clue on what to do and Ben showed me his progress on his gift and welp. I ended up writing what I wrote.

So the snippet I chose is the first 500 words (because that's such a big selection holy shit).

So from "Jason has spent more time than he cares to think about on his back." to "This isn't the weirdest thing you've done, he reassures himself. Dick wanted to try this, you promised him you'd try it."

Starting with that first sentence, well, it's a common headcanon (and easy interpretation after Jason's GA appearance and BftC of all things that supported it) that Jason had suffered csa, or more specifically was a child prostitute.

I started off with this statement because I wanted to make it clear that Jason wasn't someone who'd never had sex before, and was someone who generally didn't like to think about that time nor looked upon that era of his life fondly. It would also contrast greatly with his relationship with Dick because this time Jason wants it, wants Dick.

The next paragraph was adding onto that contrast between the two. I know, I know people like to make Dick a sex symbol and that he's a freak in bed and good in the sack and blah blah blah.

I wanted something different and have long held the belief that Dick is probably one of the most repressed people in comics from the amount of expectations he and others have on him. I wanted it to be clear that he'd repressed any "undesirable" or "weird" kinks and fetishes, like enough that he didn't even go looking for them or think about it because that's weird. (Yeah this is reference to how a lot of pretty tame kinks and fetishes like feet, chubby, or body hair is considered weird to large swathes of the Internet). It was also just fun to show that Jason's view is biased via the line "...hang ups that Jason didn't completely understand."

The next paragraph was mostly for laughs. Looking in on the fact that that they're doing is already taboo "...Dick was already a kiddie diddler" but also because despite what people think, Jason tends to be pretty blunt and not lie to himself to pretty up the reality of his actions).

The next paragraph is just perfection to me because they're just my thoughts about the situation lol. It's biased because Jason doesn't know the full truth, but Starfire genuinely was created to loosen Dick up/give him a love interest. And in the non-meta read, she was the way he started exploring and taking the stick out of his ass via her open emotions but also sex.

The next few paragraphs are just Jason talking about the things they've done. It was a) because I did not want to write them trying all that. B) to show that they've been together for a while and it's been a general escalation to get to this point. C) that Dick trusts Jason. D) I just don't think Dick would be kinky. I think he's pretty vanilla overall and any spice would have to be introduced to him delicately like you'd approach a spooked animal. The guy is repressed and with the right key it could unlock a man looking to try everything the same way any man with controlling guardians would desperately look for everything he had been barred from. Except the key is needed cause Dick would just Bruce himself really.

And then I took a sledgehammer to Jason's pride because Dick finally asked for something Jason had never done before. And Jason folded because he cares for Dick.

"This isn't the weirdest thing you've done..." Jason thinks it's weird despite his views and experiences because people keep thinking this kink is weird overall. Usually being the butt of a joke.

But also "Dick wanted to try this, you promised him you'd try it." So I love when couples share a kink. Very hot. Easy to implement into a fic. But I think what I really really like is trying something out because you love the other person enough to give it a shot despite not getting it. Because that's normal, that's human. People aren't always into the same things, and people won't always get why someone is into something. If I had done a sequel to this it would have been Dick trying something Jason was into that Dick didn't understand.

Maybe one day, or maybe someone else can write it for me 🤭

[thebreakfastgenie]

The lyrical synergy between Tomorrow Is Today and Got to Begin Again makes me insane. He usually writes albums in sequence, so it's pretty likely Got to Begin Again was written after Tomorrow Is Today and this was intentional.

But putting Nocturne in between is what really makes it work for me. You have this buffer of time passing between these two songs, you can believe his feelings have evolved during that time. Also "and although my hands still play" being followed by that stormy, melancholy instrumental drives me absolutely insane.

[auphelia]

Taken care of - Cyno

Warnings n tags: f!reader, bad pun, academics, biologist!reader, amurta!reader, dendro vision!reader, fluff, pure cute, first fic ever, not proofread, selfship coded, dont think readers appearance is specified except for being ‘soft’ and in worse physical condition than Cyno

Note: I just needed this out of my system, it is the first time I’ve ever written a fic, so if you actually read it, please expect nothing! Also, minors DNI

Word count: 1200

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was your first time venturing further into the desert than Aaru village, and you had honestly been dreading this trip ever since it became clear that you would have to go on it. The scorching heat almost made you wish that you could've either kept your big mouth shut or at the very least swallowed your pride. All you had wanted was to pick a poorly understood subject for your thesis, being an Amurta student, you'd practically had your ears cried full of withering zones and the different families of fungi. And you'd had enough of that, not wanting to spend your entire life studying some obscure detail just for your research to be 'new'. So you'd pitched an idea to your supervisor, you wanted to investigate what effect proximity to an oasis had on the evolutionary path of scarabs. After some bickering back and forth, they had agreed to let you pursue this, but under the condition that you were willing to change subject if you'd made no substantial progress within two months. It had now been one month and the only discovery you'd made was, that the litterature on scarabs, or anything from the desert, was sparse at best. And that's how you ended here, boots full of sand, dry skin, probably a good sunburn, and more than a little bitter. But samples wouldn't collect themselves! Luckily, your protective boyfriend had offered to escort you, not liking the thought of anyone else being responsible for your safety. Of course, as soon as the rumor that the General Mahamatra was taking leave to escort a student around the desert started spreading, you were met with more than a little malice from your peers.

The first morning you woke to an unfamiliar sight, what appeared to be an Eremite standing with their back towards you, Cyno's jackal helmet laying discarded in the sand. "What did you do to the white haired man? Speak, or I will set you ablaze!" "A single night, and already my precious flower has turned into a cactus" As always, Cyno's voice was even, but you had known him far too long to not notice the subtle hint of amusement in his tone. When he turned to face your, the satisfied smirk he wore only fueled your annoyance at his antics. "And what would you have done if I had not bothered asking but simply attacked?" "My flower, you have a dendro vision, explain to me how you plan on setting me ablaze? Besides, I do feel confident in my ability to dodge a sleepy student in uneven terrain." He winked at you while motioning at the sand between where you were sitting and where he stood. "Fine. Just warn me before you pull such a tasteless prank again" "This? No.. I.. I mean... I heard what they were saying behind your back. This way, you can say that your escort was just another mercenary." You noticed a light dusting of pink reach his cheeks, and with that all your irritation dissipated.

The second day went smoothly, Cyno surprisingly being able to guide you to many groupings of scarabs, sheepishly explaining that he had always found them fascinating.

By the third day, you were both tired. Cyno kept insisting that he would keep watch for most of the night so that you could be well rested for your fieldwork. He was undoubtedly hiding it better than you, but the slight drag of his feet as you walked towards the next observation spot gave him away. That and how he had been cursing at his hair for getting in his eyes all morning. You couldn't help but giggle at the memory of the oh-so-dignified General Mahamatra fumbling about in the morning sun, swatting at his hair while threatening to cut it off unless it behaved. He had undoubtedly thought you asleep. "If you have breath to spare on laughing, we should be going faster" his voice sounded like he had been inhaling sand instead of air. You couldn't help the whine that left your lips at the thought of your already tired legs picking up the pace. "Cynoooo, I'm just a feeble scholar, I wasn't made for field work". This statement caused him to stop dead in his tracks and turn around with a wicked grin. "Really? Because in my experience -" You cut him off by slapping a hand over his mouth, already knowing his next words, feeling how dry his lips had become from the desert air. Looking into his eyes, his exhaustion became increasingly clear to you. He'd been working himself half to death before going with you, and this clearly wasn't the break you had hoped it would be for him. "We are stopping at the next oasis we reach. Research be damned, I need a rest"

You plopped down with your back against a palm, closing your eyes and relishing in the shade the overhanging leaves provided. As you opened your eyes, a deep frown settled on your lips, there your idiot was, standing guard in the sun. Gently pressing a hand to the trunk behind you, you decided to not give him the opportunity of refusing a rest. The roots sprung to life and crept towards your beloved General. In one fell swoop they wrapped around his ankles and pulled, causing him to fall to the ground. He merely let out an exasperated groan and did his best to flip onto his back to avoid getting a mouthful of sand. As he came to rest with his head in your lap the roots gently untangled themselves from his golden skin and disappeared back into the sandy ground. You wasted no time gaining access to his white mane of hair as you started gently scratching at his scalp. Cyno almost purred at the action, letting his eyes remain closed, it was almost obscene to watch as his face contorted until a peaceful expression finally settled in his features. "You are a wicked, wicked woman" he couldn't fight the smile on his lips even as he tried to sound stern. Your only response was a soft kiss to his cheek, only serving to have him melt further into your soft form. "If anyone sneaks up on us I am blaming you" this time his tone was more serious, but with the sleepy expression on his face you only rolled your eyes at him and mumbled a quick apology. "Worry not General, I'll keep watch while you rest" as you gave him a final pat on the head, you moved to get up, only to be met with Cyno holding you down with an impressive amount of strength given his state. A hand snaked up your body and closed around one of your breasts, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Don't go, it seems we have plenty of securi-titty" You plopped back down in utter shock, remaining completely quiet. "Ahem. You see, I took the words security and ti-" You cut him off with a loud snort followed by laughter. "It seems you will be to blame if we are ambushed General" Your amused tone made his ears take on a reddish tint. Cyno looked up at you with eyes full of adoration. "For this, I am willing to take the chance of being caught unaware" He grabbed your hips and pulled until you were laying next to eachother. After a little while in silence Cyno's breathing evened out and you smiled to yourself in satisfaction.

[ilynpilled]

do u ever wonder why jaime never told tyrion or cersei about the wildfire plot?

Alright, here’s the thing. A lot of the story will not function if this is known by other people, so I won’t not acknowledge that maybe it is a plot convenience. The caches of wildfire under KG is a Chekhov’s gun leading to something big, we cannot have it removed from there. Jaime’s story relies on the fact that a whole kingdom despises him for his “finest act”, which also falls apart if the context of that act is known, especially with Tyrion dropping it earlier to the reader in his POVs (would be kind of odd if he never mentions this lmao). Not to mention that if certain powerful people are aware of it, it could shift the game entirely. But still, that does not mean that we cannot make sense of it. I just think George neglected to give us an actual concrete explanation (perhaps intentionally). Maybe this is very deliberate and speaks to Jaime’s characterization.

A big factor is that he was a traumatized 17 yo when it happened. This event really messed him up. He represses, dissociates from, and compartmentalizes things. The way he reacts to the act of confessing during the bath scene is further proof of this. His thoughts communicate that he thinks he is so out of it that he can no longer check himself from admitting it to someone, including himself. Like he does not even think about the wildfire plot before the confession, even though we are in his head. Wouldn’t he want to justify it to himself in his own head when he gets judged by Brienne early on? Look at just how the confession even happens, he is completely out of it, his walls fall down, he acts like it is out of his control, it is like a part that was buried for years bubbling to the surface:

Wildfire and its qualities are also not very well understood. Barely anyone is familiar with how it truly works, and how volatile it is, as showcased by Tyrion’s ACoK chapters. I truly do not believe Jaime is aware how much of a threat they are still, and thinks it is the best if they remain ignored, hidden in jars under the city.

This is the most direct way that his silence about it is addressed:

Making “Lannister pride and stubbornness” the main, or only, explanation is something I always found a little vague. Same with his smart-ass response about oaths. It feels like deflection, and Jaime’s pathetic return to his bitter posturing. Especially how this justification of his does not really work for keeping it from Cersei and Tyrion. In fact, it mostly only works with Ned, and then he seems to become consumed by the bitterness of that specific interaction until he hurts himself and faints (loser). Also, I am curious as to how this holds up when Jaime gradually climbs out of his bitterness and cynicism and is making attempts to change his self concept later in the series. If people read Jaime as exclusively more concerned with the way he is perceived than being an actual good person, I feel like dropping this fact post bath confession to remedy his image would have certainly aided in the desire to have a better reputation (or would it be too late? I do not think so. It certainly worked with Brienne). Would anyone believe him? Is there a point? Is it his pride in confict with his desire to be humanized in the eyes of others? I think it is way more complicated. I think it is about hopelessness. I think it is just a general disillusionment with the concept of honor and morality and how it operates within this system. Jaime has no faith in these institutions at that point. We see it in the weirwood dream. He confesses. He tells the truth. Yet he is damned by his heroes all the same. That results in his fire going out, and there is no coming back from that.

Him not telling his loved ones in specific is interesting though. Including his father. Maybe it is the fact that they never judged him for it or they do not care. However, what I do find pretty interesting is that Tyrion and Cersei make use of wildfire as a weapon within the story.

I really read, or believe a big part of, Jaime’s decision to bury the existence of the caches is making them essentially unavailable. He knows that nobody is aware of them, because he went out of his way to kill everyone who was:

Jaime is so deeply traumatized about Aerys, and this whole situation is so monumental in his development, that I think there has to be a deep fear of anyone making use of it again. Including his own family. Therefore, I think he is willing to essentially bury the secret with him, despite its personal consequences. This of course paints him in a pretty moral light, which you can disagree with.

I feel like to justify this reading I also need to address the perspective of “that doesnt make sense bc jaime doesnt care about the innocents he just did it to save his father/self preservation etc”. This might be a reading exclusive to very Jaime critical circles, but there was a GoT (i know. i know. i shouldnt give a shit😭) video essay with views in the hundred thousands that claimed this so it might not be so obscure.

First of all, I dont think that makes sense with how the confession is structured and written at all. Second, idk how that reading would benefit his character writing. We start out with a comically villainous character that is unveiled to be a complex individual. Why must there be another twist on that that subverts this and goes like “no, actually he is that comically villainous individual that would be fine with 500k people being burned alive at age 17”. I am not a fan of the woobification done to him sometimes either, but there comes a point where people feel the need to misconstrue and add twists to scenes that obviously had a specific purpose for the character. What would this scene gain by having the added twist of “oh he EXCLUSIVELY did it to save his father/self preservation”? Genuinely what would such a strong moment of recontextualization gain from this? Jaime was supposed to be all about his immediate family to the ruin of everybody else. The reveal serves the purpose of recontextualizing his character and adding dimensions to it by showing that that is not entirely the case, while also delineating his trajectory thus far, especially regarding his cynicism concerning feudalistic moral constructs. What is the purpose of telling us “actually, he saved KG” only to go “this does not change how you should view his character though, circumstances just perfectly aligned for him so he committed a heroic act.”

On top of that, the logistics of removing wildfire is something insanely complicated. Him telling Ned? Sure, great. But then who else would they need to tell? The point of the wildfire under the city is that it sentences KL to death. There is really no solution. I think metaphorically it is about the culmination of corruption. That place was on a trajectory of doom, and it was never really saved, Robert, its supposed savior, was nothing but stagnation. The city is filled to the brim with corruption. Someone would abuse that power, if it is not set off during attempts at removal. Ntm even the exact locations are not known. You cannot make the caches disappear. The closest thing to it is burying the secret with you, which is what Jaime is doing. Mind you Brienne knows it too now, yet she is not eager to tell anyone either. Neither of them know what a ticking time-bomb it is. But even if they did, I think the point is that you cannot really do anything about it at this point. KL was sentenced to death and it is at a point of no return.

For the rationale of “Jaime never justifies it in such a way in his own thoughts, when he could.” Well he also never justifies him pushing Bran with “I wanted to save the lives of Cersei and our children.” Even though George believes that is the case. Jaime’s denial and posturing is not exclusive to his words, but also his thoughts. This man also deludes himself, not just those around him. He detaches himself from truth constantly to avoid vulnerability. You are hit in the face with this repeatedly in ASoS. He even lies about his motivations for things he does after they happen, which is just hilarious because we are inside his head when he decides to take certain actions and know what he is thinking and know that he is full of shit. So I do not think this contradicts my interpretation.

[sophieswundergarten]

So. Everyone who yelled at me yesterday for making a ramble on Reynie going blank and then not resolving it, this is for you: (@lemondropletters, you have been tagged)

Also, it's in a Google Doc because it was definitely too long for a Tumblr post, and ~~I don't know how AO3 works~~

The (vague) premise is that, instead of Constance seeing Curtain's broadcast, they all get to the compound mentally sound, but once there, they split up to look for Mr. Benedict, and instead Reynie finds Curtain. This is the wrap up of what would have happened in the last episode.

[askmerriauthor]

Y'know, I keep watching Star Wars shows in hopes that even one of them might have learned something from Andor, but noooooo...

[insleywinsley]

The Well. 2023. Insley Smullen. 

[mystiika]

i just found a page & a half long script of a mafia!jungkook x reader type beat that i wrote for a friend as a joke a few years ago but why is it actually structured well ??