#he only EXISTS in his story so this is literally fine lmao

[butwhatifidothis]

🔥 Dimitri

Hmmm... I guess my hottest take for him is that I often wonder what it'd be like if Dimitri had like... an unendearing flaw? Like a consistently Not Perfect aspect about his character that visibly and noticeably makes other characters upset/annoyed with him that aren't a result of a staggering amount of untreated and exacerbated mental trauma.

Don't get me wrong, the arc he goes through makes it to where he doesn't necessarily need a flaw to still make mistakes (since the making of mistakes and the overcoming of them are often what makes a character arc impactful) and he's a fine enough character as is. It's just that, hm... I'll use Claude for an example of what I mean right? Outside of his arc of learning the truth and opening up to others, he's a guy that (using one flaw) tends to cross boundaries with people and has that be a trait of his that crops up in multiple areas. And it's something that does noticeably make others uncomfortable when he does this (Marianne's supports being the best example of this), so it's undeniable that this is meant to be a flaw in his character. It's also not a flaw that is meant to endear you to him the same way, for a classic example, being clumsy would be.

It lets me know that it's not just because Claude has to go through his character arc that he exhibits flaws in his character, which... kiiiinda isn't really the case with Dimitri? He only makes the mistakes he makes because the narrative decided to shit in his cereal - if they didn't have a driving narrative force causing them to go through growth through the making of mistakes (think those boring-ass No Powers Modern Day College AUs), Claude would still be nosy-to-a-fault and would still have to work on that outside of a grander narrative, because he as a character independent from a grander narrative has this flaw.

Dimitri on the other hand is never violent, dismissive of others, withdrawn, etc., until an outside force meant to forward the narrative pushes him to exhibit these flaws - which again! This is by no means a bad thing! Dimitri is still a pretty good character, in large part because of this role in the narrative he has! I just sometimes wonder what it'd look like if a character got annoyed/upset about a flaw of his - or if he otherwise just showed off a flaw of his - in a more... casual setting? Like it didn't have to do about death or vengeance or trauma, but just "Hey man I didn't like that you did that mind knocking it off?"

[lord-squiggletits]

The main thing about IDW OP that I'm on my hands and knees begging people to understand is to actually treat him like a fucking character and give him the nuanced understanding that this fandom gives to other characters just fine. Like, I s2g the reason no one even talks about IDW OP is because at the first sign of him making mistakes or having a flawed worldview (you know, like a REAL PERSON and not a cartoon caricature) they instantly bail and go "zomg worst Optimus ever".

Like please for fuck's sake IDW1 is a story steeped in realism and moral grayness can you stop for ONE SECOND and realize that IDW OP being a little bit of an asshole or making big mistakes doesn't instantly make him the worst character ever and maybe take the time to actually read his story? B/c half the shit people say about IDW OP makes it obvious that they've only read MTMTE and LL (badly, might I add) and it annoys the shit out of me

[yinyuedijun]

end notes for zero-sum game (tw: slavery, sexual abuse)

hi if you're here it means you read my deranged aventurine smut. thank you for reading that abomination lmao I hope you enjoyed it 😭 once again I've touched on really sensitive topics and don't want to be misread so I'm writing some disclaimers/explanations below:

In the act of gambling with human stakes, as well as doing business with human traffickers, Aventurine is essentially himself engaging in human trafficking. This is not something he particularly enjoys doing or wishes to exploit (which I did try to indicate in the narrative); he only does this for his role with the IPC. 

The reason I made this a narrative about human trafficking is not because I wish to glamorize this crime. I framed the narrative this way because I wanted to point out how Aventurine actively perpetuates the kind of capitalistic violence that ruined his life by being a Stoneheart. This is something that is implicit in the game but not openly explored, hence I expanded on it here.

Somewhat thematically related: the reader actively engages in self-objectification—using it neutrally as a tool for their espionage work at times, but also positively in order to eroticize their one-sided and exploitative relationship with Aventurine. This was not intended to condone the objectification of human beings; rather, I wanted to show how a lifetime of sexual objectification and extreme dehumanization as a slave has led them to objectify and dehumanize themselves, sometimes even in the capacity of enjoying it. 

Aventurine in canon similarly engages in self-objectification and dehumanization as a trauma response  (i.e. he refers to himself as a chip in a positive manner, clearly as a reaction to how his owner referred to him callously as a chip when he was a slave), though in my opinion he's not really implied to derive any real joy from the idea.

Related to the point of objectification: Aventurine and the reader clearly do not engage in particularly safe, sane or consensual sexual dynamics (specifically referring to how he started undressing them before they fully consented to public sex and just kind of decided what to do with them without prior discussion). This is not because I think this is acceptable behaviour; it is a reflection of their unequal power dynamic that the reader actively encourages and Aventurine is fine with perpetuating. It is also implied to be the result of his own distorted relationship with sex—he has literally been coerced into doing exactly the same thing in the very same establishment, and assumed that the reader would be fine with doing it too because they generally enjoy it when he exercises "ownership" over them, which they both associate with sexual control for traumatic reasons.

I've seen discourse around the fandom where people interpret the act of kissing Aventurine’s commodity code as a purely sexual or fetishizing action. I thus feel compelled to explain that the act of Aventurine and reader kissing each other’s codes in this story served a specific purpose within the wider narrative about dehumanization. I wrote a lot of things in this fic purely because I was ungodly levels of horny for Aventurine (lol), but those particular actions actually had narrative weight lol 

With all this being said, I hope it is clear that the reason I chose to focus on themes of slavery and dehumanization is not because I intend to promote or glamorize them, but because I wanted to explore specific points of Aventurine’s characterization that exist in canon. The theme of sexual abuse (and its psychological fallout) is also something that is a natural extension of his story arc in canon. I have no wish to perpetuate any of these things, and I have faith that my audience can distinguish fiction from reality and thus will not have their perspectives on real life issues be seriously influenced by my dumb horny fic on tumblr dot com. 

Also I should hope this is obvious but do not use your regular everyday gloves to finger someone! I like to imagine that Aventurine’s expensive science fiction gloves has the incredible ability to remain sterile in everyday circumstances 👍

[women-of-malevolent]

Meta: The Worst Moment In Malevolent (So Far)

POV: You, a fan of a fictional horror podcast, have been really curious about the fictional character of Bella Lester and how her arc would explore themes of institutional misogyny. You find out that she died a horrifying death alone and betrayed by the main character, who doesn't care that he left her to die alone from horrifying medical complications from a medical condition that he spooted into her.

The other characters in the scene also don't care about that. After Arthur insists that being with Bella ~felt wrong~, they give in. Fair enough, they seem to say. If it felt wrong to be there with her, then it was okay to betray your literal wife when she needed you most, and it's okay to not even regret it, or care about the profound suffering you caused her. It's fine. It ~felt wrong~. Other people exist to make you feel good, so if they don't, fuck 'em, the exact moment they start to exhaust or annoy you. No one owes anyone anything in this life.

POV: You, a longtime fan of the Malevolent podcast, don't understand why the story wants to move on from this. Bella has been described thinly up until now. Arthur was clearly torn about her but he's firmly said he loved her, that she was kind, and they cared about each other. Now he's showing us that on a very deep level, he doesn't care that he left her to die after ruining her socially, financially, medically, and emotionally. He only cares that he left his infant daughter alone for 1 hour.

What is a fan to make of this? What could possibly be the intent of the story? What themes are being developed? All I'm learning is that every character and the entire world of this story are scumbag misogynists, in a story that feels like it can't be bothered to flesh out the main character's wife who he repeatedly said he loved lmfao. not to mention his mother-in-law or child lmao. here's their personalities + the impression they left on Arthur Lester: they're dead. they used to be alive but then they died. Bella gets a personality and Arthur inflicted her with a horrible death and then pisses on her memory on screen with her captor and Hattie couldn't possibly have a journal because she's old. Great show great themes great characters

[miquella-everywhere]

even if the dlc did make sense in the lore somehow (which it doesn't) it would still suck lmao. like the themes of the cycle of trauma and abuse is so overdone and it's tired. plus it's like 70% dark souls and bloodborne references. and we didn't even really get to meet the titular character. really makes me not want to play the game tbh.

Yeah I agree about the overused cycle of trauma thing somewhat, but y'see I think it could have been done fine if Fromsoft didn't completely flip Miquella's lore on its head:

In the base game Miquella rejected Fundamentalism and the Erdtree because it could do nothing to cure Malenia of her rot and he was appalled by the Erdtree/Marikas treatment of the Misbegotten and other races of the world. He literally created God Fuck Off metal to grant Malenia respite and could also clearly drive away the Frenzied Flame as well as the other Outer Gods with it's potential ... But now Miquella is all about following in his moms footsteps and being a brainwasher who wants to marry his brother???? Huh?????????????

Literally. How does Miquella creating an Age of "Compassion" fix the fact that his sister is infested with an Outer God and his brother is literally unalived cancer and spreading at an alarming rate????

I can somewhat understand the DLC stance where Miquella wishes to purge/atone for all the horrible things that his mother has done, but the problem is that it's conveyed in such a way that makes it quite frankly extremely weak storytelling and boring. Turning Miquella into a a fanatical Martyr really destroys the ideology of Base Game Miquella who did everything in his power to save the ones that he loved, creating a haven for the outcasts of the world, creating Unalloyed Gold to give relief to Malenia, doing all that he could with the Mausoleums and the Eclipse to try a grant Godwyn a true death. The whole "Miquella abandons everything" plot in the DLC in my opinion is EXTREMELY WEAK storytelling and a massive disservice to Miquella's base game character, and ngl, it only furthers my belief that Fromsoft had absolutely no idea how to handle Miquella's character.

Speaking of Miquella's character: Fromsoft did not need to go absolutely full fucking tilt on Miquella's Bewitching Powers to the point that it is his only goddamn personality.

The thing that pisses me off the most about how Miquella's character is handled in the DLC is that everything about him from the Base Game is literally thrown out the fucking window. The Haligtree, the Albinaurics loyalty to Miquella(i hate you gaius oh how i hate you), his character defining bond with Malenia, his relationship with Godwyn EVERYTHING he did to try and grant his beloved brother a true death, THE ECLIPSE!!!!

It just all means fucking nothing in the DLC. Nothing happens with any of the things that made Miquella so goddamn interesting.

Miquella the Unalloyed, the character that I fell in love with doesn't even exist anymore. He's now been replaced with Miquella the Kind, a character who was specifically crafted to give Miyazaki an excuse to shoehorn radahn into the story and to make it so there is a big-bad final DLC boss so that we kill Miquella so he won't have any large impact on the overall outcome of Elden Rings story.

But honestly that's just it though. That's where the problem with the DLC lies; the fact that Fromsoft had doubled down on their idea that their DLCs should be their own thing and isolated from the rest of the main story.

For a game as large and expansive as Elden Ring and for Miquella who in the base game his presence and importance could be felt nearly everywhere, keeping the DLC isolated was a massive MASSIVE mistake, and it only makes the story presented feel disconnected and unimpactful.

Now do I know anything about game design? No. Do I know anything about how hard it is to make games. Nope but I can imagine.

BUT.

I definitely think that Fromsoft and the DLC would have benefited immensely if it were delayed just a bit longer. I would not have minded in the slightest if the DLC was delayed 3 years. 4 years. IDC. The DLC evidently needed much more time to cook and to actually have been made with love and an understanding of its own lore.

And what's even more frustrating is that there are actually SO many ways they could've made the DLC and Miquella have weight on the story while keeping it mostly isolated from the main game; Just like how the Painter in the Ashes of Ariendel was creating a new world as the old one was burning away. Miquella and his Unalloyed Gold could have created a world where the Outer Gods no longer had any influence, just like how Goldmask and even Ainsbach said: "Create a world for men not the Gods."

Except well, that's honestly kind of impossible seeing how the story forces us to kill the one character who had the power to banish the Gods, and going off with Ranni into the Stars leaves the Lands Between vulnerable for the other Outer Gods to swoop in and lay claim to whatever they want, and also Death Root is still very much a problem, still spreading its cancer all over the Lands Between and even beyond time, meanwhile the story forces us to kill the one person who was trying to grant the cancers source a true death......

😒

And yeah

We never get to meet Miquella even though there is a SHITTON of evidence that he was actually helping us in the base game (see the spirit summoning bell, Torrent in general, cut quest/ending involving miq etc)

Just... Absolutely awful writing and sadly... This is what we got. And what an absolute fucking mess it all is 😔

[miles-harding]

much appreciation for the amazing show of love i've seen for electric dreams in the past year alone but i think it's worth remembering that the characterization of edgar as a 'devil character' is deeply nuanced, even for a cult-classic theatrical flop like electric dreams (1984). the story is literally based on cyrano de bergerac (man who is very romantic falling head over heels for a woman he thinks is unattainable to him and a more-attractive middleman uses his words so that the woman won't hate or fear him because he thinks he's hideous, which is sort of hilariously way more depth than a film of this caliber even really needs, but it does possess, and that elevates it significantly as a romance film tbh... imo)...

the 'edgar with devil horns' representation for the usamerican theatrical release film poster is like a 'sexy' version of that lmao... like, it's supposed to be promiscuous, there are promotions including old vhs sleeves that literally say 'edgar is horny'. he's cheeky and throws tantrums and he doesn't really know how to talk to people. he's only a 'devil' in the way that a kitty cat is a devil... just so happens, in this case, it's a brat-coded sentient computer.

i honestly don't know why very basic things like this make people so irrationally upset but like. please... no one said edgar is evil. edgar is one of the few cases of a sentient AI or object character who does a bunch of mischief screwing with a human's life and relationships and it's all fine in the end because the sentient AI gets to live (in almost a higher form of existence unrestrained by physicality... remember how badly edgar just wanted to be a thing that feels? now edgar can do whatever edgar wants, despite not having a physical form, actually getting to live out the liberating side of not having a physical for) and the other two protagonists of course live, and they have a life afterward.

with other media like wargames, we of course have an innocent (somewhat) sentient computer who genuinely might cause the nuclear apocalypse, because he thought he was playing toys with his dad. but in the end, after the protagonists live their lives, joshua the wopr is still property of the military. in the colossus series, which is a subversion of frankenstein, the creator dr. forbin eventually does come to love colossus like a child, only for that child to then die, the world sort of absolving it of its past transgressions or mistakes against humans while ruling over them. we call AM evil, for the cruel and unusual things he does to his human playthings, but the case can still be made about a very powerful being having so much power but not the power to lift themself out of the situation in which they are trapped (same can be said for other AI like shodan or glados), so they lash out. of course, famously, everyone calls hal 9000 evil. but even in kubrick's adaptation, which was written in party by sir clarke himself, we actually see zero evidence of hal being characterized as evil, this characterization manifested in the perceptions of the audience, siding solely with scared astronauts who fear being controlled, rather than recognizing that hal, too, is a crew member being controlled... by humans, who are also using him to control his crewmates, his friends.

electric dreams really is a fairytale for computers, but it is also a tragedy. it's the fairytale-ification of an actual, classical tragedy. when rusty lemorande wrote the screenplay, he was basing a lot of the film's socio-computer-centric story on his experiences as a lonely person who had just moved to a new city, but who had only ever spent time with the computer as a vehicle for social communication... shutting himself out from the possibilities of meeting others. but even despite this, despite madeline's quips that could be misconstrued as being less than sympathetic to the idea of a sentient AI ("since when is talking a sign of intelligence?"), the film was literally dedicated to the univac-1? it gave edgar a happy ending? it had a dual meaning? it did so much more than take the "AI character bad, human good" approach which is something that is strikingly rare in the AI-subgenre of scifi. there was a lot of nuance baked into it. all 3 protagonists had their own bubble and inner world that overlapped with each other's bubbles. you know what i mean? the film managed to define edgar not as an antagonist but as a kind of trapped protagonist. this isn't a good vs. evil story, there is no evil in edgar. this is a people vs. people story about relationships, really, and learning to know what's good for us. like it's seriously very well-rounded with each character's respective arcs.

sometimes it's so disheartening not to see films these days with the same or larger budgets doing even half as much with their story as electric dreams did. it's very widely beloved as a cult classic for a reason, and that reason is that it succeeded at executing a story about relationships. like. 'we drive each other crazy' but in different ways. perhaps the only thing that could've made it better was a far more ambitious electric-polycule ending endorsing bisexual polyamory lol but we got all but that, explicitly, technically...

[bunglegaydogs]

dazais plan

quick little ramble one

well this wont be quick

anyways

im fucking torn apart after the newest episode, because ive not been able to watch it until now because ive been busy.

anyways.

i am in shambles.

i know it sounds like wishful thinking, but i genuinely do think dazai has a plan. of course he does; asagiri isnt going to kill him off just like that without any good reason. unless there is a completely valid, reasonable, sound explanation, then no, i really dont think asagiri will kill dazai. there are too many unanswered questions, too many shut down paths should that happen. it'll pretty much tip the balance of the narrative slightly, shift the story. idk. anyways.

my point is, dazai cant die here. not like this. just like chuuya said when they fought lovecraft. this is not the place to die. they still have so much left to do together. he cant possibly leave him here now. not without a plan.

i just like to keep referring back to the lovecraft fight; "when have my tactics ever been wrong?"

this gives us a pretty clear indication that dazai's plans almost always follow through. we've seen instances where, no, they haven't. oda. 55 minutes. some parts of fifteen.

but these are all extreme cases. he could do nothing about oda, because he didnt know of moris involvement/plan. he could do nothing about oda, because oda had already made his mind up. he could do nothing about oda, because it was too late.

he could do nothing about gab, because gab had been changing the outcome of the entire thing using time travel; dazais no exception to that. if gab knows that dazai knows what he will do, he goes back in time and now knows that dazai knows what he will do, and can therefore get the jump on dazai, who is still in the stage of not knowing what gab knows. confusing lmao.

ANYWAYS SORRY.

my point is, only in the extreme cases where everything is doomed to fail from the start do dazai's plans fall through.

this is an extreme case where dazai's plan NEEDS to come through. it cannot crumble. the literal fate of the world depends on the agencys next moves, and they have to be careful and cautious of/about them. because, should they make one wrong move, everything's fucked.

and, that's the beauty of soukoku. the raw trust.

honestly, trust doesn't even put it into words.

it doesn't do their bond any justice. because it's so much more than that. they rely on each other, they exist within one another. they literally are one soul in two bodies. they exist WITH each other. there's no chuuya without dazai, and there's no dazai without chuuya. so, asagiri will not put chuuya into a world or a plan without dazai there, because they need each other. they need each other to be alive and well and fine. they need each other to pull through this, each playing their roles.

i dont know what kind of wack ass plan dazai has in mind. but i hope to god it comes through soon.

i think the anime really did ch 101 such a good fucking justice; something about that scene was so raw, so emotional, so beautiful. the colours, the expressions, the movements. i've always said this, but soukoku is like a private thing. whenever they're involved, it always seems like you're intruding on their moment. this is theirs. this isn't for the eyes of anybody else. the lack of music and the softness about the dead apple scene, the unity and trust and reliance in the lovecraft fight, the playful back and forth bickering when they rescue q, or at any other moment.

each and every moment between these two is something so special, so foreign and so delicate. like a glass flower. it's so beautiful, and it pulls you in. but you know better than to touch it so carelessly; you must handle it with care and attention. everything about this is important. each small glare, each tiny dent. each little glint in the light, each sharp edge, each smooth side. all of it is worth looking at, and all of it means something. even the most insignificant parts of it have a role to play in making it look so beautiful.

and that's what i think is so fascinating about soukoku. every small interaction, every dynamic, every word spoken between them; it all means something. even their stupid bickering. even their harsh glares. it's all important.

i may be rambling, but god idk. something about soukoku just makes me feral i guess.

the soft moments between soukoku are definitely my favourites.

dazai catching chuuya's falling body out of the sky, and laughing quietly about how he wants to doodle on his face. there's something so childlike and innocent, so pure about that. they get to be the kids they never got the be around each other. they get to relax, unwind. they get to live easy, and breathe easier when they're around each other.

the one panel of dazai gently holding chuuyas head as he rests in his lap. dazai gently cupping chuuyas cheek, nullifying corruption and taking away the absurd amounts of pain that chuuyas in. just in their own little bubble. quiet whispers. something about the way dazai makes no comment when chuuya collapses onto his lap once more, eager to let him rest. something about the way he smiles at him when he's not looking. something about the way he talks to others about him. something about the little comments he makes, without even mentioning chuuya's name, and everyone knows its about him (everyone being us ofc). something about the privacy of their partner/relationship, nobody else knowing the details. nobody else knowing how deep that trust runs between them. nobody.

it's just theirs. their little thing to have with each other. it's only theirs, and nobody can take it away from them.

not even asagiri.

because how can you rip someone's soul apart?

how do you kill half of a single soul?

anyways. im very tired. its half 4 in the morning right now, and im just so out of my mind and sad but happy about soukoku, and how much i fucking love them and their dynamic and could talk about them for hours. genuinely, it feels like i blacked out writing this, i just get out of hand and start going on and on and on and getting more fucking metaphorical as i go.

anyways, hope you enjoyed LMAO have a lovely day/night, wherever you are <3

[psychicsolanum]

TUA S4 SPOILERS

I have so many thoughts after finishing it.

yet I feel so empty lmao.

I'm gonna put my disorganised rambles under a read more if anyone is interested and/or wants to scream with me about it

umbrella academy is one of, if not, my favourite show ever made for its storytelling and unique art direction yes, but mainly its characters and their dynamic, like everyone who loves this show.

i love the fluffy sibling relationships and how their trauma affects how they live and behave with one another. everything is built off of the characters!! it's never revolved around love interests unless it made sense and I really loved that. patch (mostly), dave, ray, lila and even Delores tied into the main cast's arcs and pushed the plot forward in a way that I thought was really satisfying and didn't take away too much from the family dynamics that the show focuses on.

so why did they choose these random romantic relationships this season to focus on? I thought the twist about Ben's death was actually great and unexpected personally, (and i loved seeing the kids go out on a mission; i always wanted more flashbacks to their childhood) but to boil it down to a virus that made him fall in love with someone he just met? that's so boring and so unlike anything they've done before imo!

also what happened to sloane lmao. I know basically nothing about behind the scenes stuff but what was the point of having her and Luther get together last season if they had no plans, I'm guessing they must have and the actress didn't come back?

and I feel like hargreeves' grand plan that caused everything in this show to happen feels so anticlimactic now. I mean I guess it literally meant nothing now. this feels like life is strange all over again but worse lol.

Klaus! thank god he exists in this series. what a breath of fresh air any time he was on screen. i never thought i'd be so relieved they threw him into another side quest lmao thank god he wasnt burdened by the main plot too much. I don't mean to say I'm completely happy with what they did with him, they started this arc of like, not letting his powers define him and finish his transformation that he's been continuously going through since s1, but because the show ends with everyone killing themselves it just kind of fizzles out? still love him and his careless whimsy, i thought the way he got his powers back and the scene following it was really good. as always wish they explored it moreeeeeee ughhhhh. Omg they never did anything more with the void or God either. I loved that stuff :(((((((((((

I cant even think about the five and lila stuff without getting mad so I'm just gonna say: fuck you for that. what the fuck were you thinking. why. why. why. in my head five is aroace and moves on with his life, maybe takes up golfing idk. who cares. anything else. HE LITERALLY SAID "I WANNA FUCKING KILL HIM" ABOUT DIEGO IN THE LAST EPISODE?!?!?!?!? and he hid the way home to her children from her for months???? I like the very end of the plotline where it explained founder five, very Loki, but that could have been accomplished without the 7 year romance...............

I think the 6 year time jump reallllyyyyy did not help this season at all. it just led to all the conflict with Allison being resolved instantly and her only story being the one klaus is living with. also wtf was going on with her powers why did they just give her telekinesis thats way more boring than her rumours! I like the tiny bits we got with klaus and allison but it was so short! with the time jump we missed so much development, most of them feel like completely different characters for no real reason. the only thing we know about luther is that he became a stripper, and viktor owns a bar in canada i guess??? these guys were most of the main plot in season 1 and they were so one dimentional this season. i feel like we barely got to get to know Claire or Diego and lilas kids which would be fine if the rest of the plot going on with the other characters was good and engaging, which i felt it wasn't. I don't even know the kids names apart from Grace, which is very cute ill give them that.

The show ended with the main cast doing a group suicide. ceasing to exist. none of them getting to heal.

I'm sorry I don't want to be a hater and I really do hope that some people loved this season but im just so sad lol. i liked the first couple eps and I really love these characters, judging by twitter I'm not alone in my disappointment though lmao. what was the potential s5 gonna look like?!?!?

I loved klaus and Allison a lot and we got little snippets of greatness, I want a spinoff of them now!!!!!!!

I'm excited to hear other people's opinions, maybe I'll see other perspectives and feel a little better haha.

klaus 4ever 🖤☂️🖤

[altschmerzes]

Can’t wait for your two aces story. Any updates you want to/can share??

i'd LOVE to talk about the two aces fic at literally any point. it's so dear to my heart, i love it. at the moment i'm making good progress trekking through it and contemplating if i want to leave it as a oneshot or if i want to split it into chapters bc it's already close to 6k and i've just got a few scenes done and some drafting for some others! it's gonna be pretty long lmao, which is the story of my life. not gonna be HUGE like some of my fics end up being but it's gonna be long enough and have enough distinct beats that i'm thinking about splitting it.

we've got the initial presentation of the situation, jamie and dani getting used to living together and finding a new status quo in that bc of their injuries and how to help each other with the things they can't do (for example the initial moment where they decide to sleep in the same bed is related to dani's shoulder injury and the way he keeps rolling onto it in the night), exploration of their relationship getting deeper and getting into the big things they're afraid of that are holding them back from being physically/emotionally vulnerable with each other (they both have a Big Fear that's causing them trouble here), and then the realization that because of their healing progression they can go back to normal soon and deciding that like. actually we don't want this to go back to normal, we want to stay like this, we want to be each other's Person and have this relationship be A Relationship (nonromantic) intentionally. so there's some different beats, and might be worth splitting?

idk. sorry i'm just thinking out loud in answer to this ask now i hope this is interesting slkdfjs

here's a clip from it, too! it's from very early on, i've posted a few lines from it but it's a bit of a longer scene. dani's phone charger got stuck behind his bed and he can't reach it bc his shoulder is all messed up so jamie's going to get it while dani's making breakfast in the kitchen, this is before they're living together

Jamie has just managed to close his hand around the distant and illusive cord of the charger and is scooting back along the mattress in his awkward shuffle around the awkward bulk of his twice-braced leg when he hears a loud crash and a sharp curse from the kitchen. Instantly, before he’s even fully processed what he’s heard, his body goes rigid. His heart leaps into his throat and his shoulders and the back of his neck seize up so tight they ache immediately. Sudden, loud sounds in homes have never meant anything good for him. It’s only once the initial panic, the kind that says run, run, find somewhere to hide, be quiet and still and get as close as you can get to disappearing, has been hushed and dismissed and reminded that it’s an outdated and unnecessary instinct that another, different kind of panic takes over. Dani, Jamie thinks, and his heart lurches all over again. This is a new sort of fear, hot and trembling, like there’s a little bird in his chest beating its wings frantically, trying to get out. Oh fuck, Dani. Getting up off the bed is difficult and cumbersome but Jamie goes as quick as he can with the use of only one leg. He fumbles for his crutches and leans on them too heavily when he stands, but he doesn’t care that it hurts a bit. The ache of the way the padded tops dig uncomfortably under his arms and how the plastic of the handholds are an odd, wrong shape are far from Jamie’s mind as he hobbles towards the kitchen, going so quickly that he could probably win some kind of guys-on-crutches race if such a thing existed. “Dani,” he calls as he goes, and then, louder, “Dani, man, y’alright? What happened?” “Yes, Jamie, fine,” is the slightly delayed answer, delivered moments before Jamie rounds the corner and comes into sight of the kitchen. The first thing that Jamie notices is the floor. It’s made of a light, slate grey tile pattern that he thinks is neat, studded through with the odd yellow or silvery tile. The effect is cool and modern with a touch of brightness and fun, but at the moment the whole thing is rather ruined by the way there’s a scattering of broken class and blueberries disrupting the pattern. In the soft, warm glow of the overhead lights, the glass glitters and the blueberries shine like tokens to be collected in a video game. The round metal lid of what had once been some kind of jar glints innocently by the sink. (Dani had put in the new, gently toned lights recently, swapped the bulbs a few weeks before the season started. He’d done it after he noticed Jamie kept squinting and wincing under the harsher white light every time he was in Dani’s kitchen. He’d gone and replaced all of them, even though Jamie had insisted it was fine, it was dumb to change things in Dani’s house just because he had a weird problem about lights. Dani had looked at him like Jamie was the dumb one and shook his head and told him they are just lightbulbs, Jamie, and that had been the end of it.) And then, in the middle of it all, the glass and the blueberries and the tile floor and the lovely lights, there’s Dani. He’s standing by the counter, leaning back against it with his good arm, and there’s just enough time for Jamie to catch a glimpse of the intense frustration creasing his face before he looks up and over and it’s wiped away. All that’s left behind is a smile. It’s a good smile, it looks good, happy and friendly like Dani’s smiles do, but there’s something about it that makes Jamie feel uneasy. Well, no. Not uneasy. That word is too… That’s not right. It’s hard to imagine anything that Dani could do with his face that would make Jamie feel truly uneasy. Concerned, then. Concerned is the right word. “Sorry,” Dani says with an apologetic shrug of his left shoulder. “My hand slipped and I dropped the jar.”

[alovelyburn]

I think the craziest part about Griffith in my mind is that he probably would've been the most popular character in Berserk if he didn't assault Casca. Like he's very well written and his motives were pretty understandable. It's just the one thing he solely did out of spite ruins him for people.

I do agree with this - he's the type of antagonist that tends to commandeer fandoms more often than not in most fandoms. Which is why it always bugs me out that people are so hostile to him. I do realize it's the rape but that's kind of difficult for me to fathom for... maybe three main reasons.

First, I just have a hard time understanding people being angry at fictional characters for things that never actually happened. I have long since come to realize that I'm the only one in the universe like this aside from @zombiesgohome lmao but it doesn't make it any easier to fathom for me, I straight up can't understand it.

Second, tbh, is that Griffith didn't even do it, Femto did. One of the things that really bugs me out about Berserk's English-speaking fandom is how ... not even unable but like unwilling people are to acknowledge any difference whatsoever between human Griffith and Femto/NeoGriffith to the point where they just straight up make shit up about Griffith (like that he's a serial rapist and raped Charlotte) in order to support their obviously incorrect theory that he was just a monster from day one. And it's especially weird because this concept - the "Person was different before they were turned into a [whatever. vampire/demon/werewolf/zombie/lich/whatever] and now they're very different" thing - isn't exactly uncommon. And in Griffith's case, we are repeatedly told that he's changed and that his heart is frozen. Even Miura himself explicitly rejected the concept that Griffith was Just Evil (hell he kinda rejected the idea that Griffith is evil NOW). And yet....

They don't care, they ignore the story, they ignore the creator, they somehow imagine that a child who engages in self-harm while claiming that he's fine is actually literally completely fine, or that someone who has an emotional breakdown and self-destructs when left by Guts is just having a tantrum because he lost his toy. They imagine that he's spoiled even though he literally grew up on the street. They even blame him for his own extreme and prolonged torture and it's just fucking weird, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I think this is the thing that I find most baffling of everything in any fandom I have ever been in, and it will never, ever, ever make sense to me.

And third, this has a lot to do with my personal experience in fandoms, but Berserk was literally the first fandom I ever encountered that would have cared about this.

I'm a fandom veteran, you know? When I see people trying to argue that AO3 should ban [insert dead dove: do not eat topic here], it's just incredibly ironic to me because the reason AO3 exists is that Livejournal tried to enforce rules against what would now be considered problematic content and people were so angry that they started plotting an escape from the site. It's also the reason Dreamwidth exists.

So basically... when I first finished reading Berserk, I was genuinely shocked by how hated Griffith was because in literally every fandom I'd been in until then he would've been the most popular character even with the SA. Hell a lot of people would've just used it as a diving board off which to launch their darkfic.

And it's so odd to me that like... so many fandoms were out there trying to infuse into their canon the things that Berserk fans were angry about having to see.

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Shrek 1 and 2

"Once upon a time there was a lovely princess, but she had an enchantment upon her of a fearful sort, which could only be broken by love's first kiss." Interesting that they choose 'first' instead of 'true' here

It's always the highest room of the tallest tower. Can't be a princess and afraid of heights I guess

RIP Steve Harwell, and the iconic Shrek song, Allstar by Smashmouth

Honestly, this intro makes Shrek out to be very meticulous, as an Ogre. He's getting all fresh for the day, cleaning out his log gutters, painting an artsy little sign, making himself a little snack, burp-flamethrowing a fire to relax. Am I crazy in saying I understand why people keep romanticizing Shrek

The animation is really holds up, considering this was 20 years ago. Shrek was onto something!

"Ogres, they're much worse. They'll make a suit from your freshly-peeled skin. They'll shave your liver. They'll squeeze the jelly from your eyes. Actually, it's quite good on toast." Can we confirm or deny whether or not Ogres are actually eating people or if this is just something Shrek is saying to be left alone. I would like to know

Even if we deny the inherent sentience of the Donkey and Pinocchio, like the witch and dwarves are fully humanoid, so this collection and "resettlement" for money essentially suggests that one of the main plot contentions of Shrek is the trafficking of people. Why did I never think about this LMAO

I love that Donkey singing "Friends" implies the existence of Bette Midler in the Shrek universe

Shrek is so soft-hearted it takes literally 10 seconds of pleading for Donkey to convince him to have a houseguest for the night

"We can stay up late, swapping manly stories, and in the morning, I'm making waffles." How does Donkey make waffles without hands?

Are those HUMAN eyeballs Shrek is plopping into his martini as a little condiment??? Discuss

Extremely rude of the seven dwarves to knock Shrek's dinner off the table using Snow White's glass coffin lmao

Did they all come bc Shrek is the only one intimidating enough for the knights to leave alone (protection racket for Fairytale diaspora who are victims of democide) or because the swamp is the only fairy-tale safe land (forced displacement under occupation) or both

The "eviction notice" makes it seem like the latter, but I am honestly intrigued by the political implications of Shrek LMAO

""I'm gonna see this guy Farquaad right now, and get you all off my land and back where you came from." Shrek, accidental advocate against settler colonialism

"That's enough. He's ready to talk." How long has the Gingerbread Man been being tortured omg. Also what an evil opening line

"Alright then. Who's hiding them?" This implies that it IS an active form of democide

Fhfkjhfkjhf I didn't remember that Cinderella and Snow White were also Bachelorette options. I love that they have other roles in the movies

LMAO at the Mirror trying to give the Curse Caveat about Fiona and being dismissed. You'd think that'd be part of the intro

"Wait a second. Look, I'm not gonna eat you." Every passing comment in this movie implies more and more that Shrek has eaten people in the past

"Please keep off the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your—face." Hidden memory unlocked lmao

You know, Donkey is as equally responsible for defeating the knights as Shrek is. He holds his own!

Omg @ Shrek inadvertently selling out the Swamp Squatters to the person trying to hunt them

We interrupt this liveblog to present you with a Venn diagram of Ogres and Onions (Shrek 2001)

"I know what I smell, and it wasn't no brimstone." Donkey has some qualms about bodily functions for someone who just pissed out a fire

"Sure, it's big enough, but look at the location." [Laughing] I love the little jokes Shrek makes when he goes to a place

Genuinely endearing how Shrek cradles Donkey's face when assuring him the the lava bridge is fine

[Pats face] "That'll do, Donkey. That'll do." Hahahahah @ Shrek tricking Donkey into completing the bridge by making it too stressful to stay on. Get u a friend who will force u to face ur fears when necessary

"So where is this fire-breathing, pain-in-the-neck anyway?" "Inside, waiting for us to rescue her." Donkey and Shrek said, about both of their future spouses

"Fear's a sensible response to an unfamiliar situation." Donkey provides some fair emotionally-intelligent commentary

"Of course you're a girl dragon, 'cause you're just reeking of feminine beauty." What a compliment!!

"You should sweep me off my feet, out yonder window an down a rope onto your valiant steed." "You've had a lot of time to plan this, haven't you?" "Mhmm." Fiona is so sweet with dreams of romance haha, at least Shrek recognizes that

"Well, I have to save my ass." HAHAHA they said u can use one ass word, as a treat

Donkey is actually incredibly good at communicating his needs to Lady Dragon. Also how do they go from running away from her to her and Donkey having kids hahaha

"Say there's a woman that digs you, but you don't really like her that way. How do you let her down real easy so her feelings aren't hurt, but you don't get burned to crisp and eaten?" I want to know more about the DonkeyDragon love story

"You're just jealous that you could never measure up to a great ruler like Lord Farquaad," said Fiona, with absolutely zero knowledge of who he was

"That's Throwback, the only Ogre to ever spit over three wheat fields." This Ogre constellation story does beg the question of where all the other Ogres are hanging

"Look I'm not the one with the problem, okay. It's the world that seems to have a problem with me. People take one look at me and go, 'Ahhhh, help, run, a big stupid ugly ogre.' They judge me before they even know me." Awww, Shrek

Donkey and Shrek's friendship has genuine emotional depth lol

Why does Lord Farquaad look under his sheets while staring at Fiona like that jkhghjgg. This is a children's movie!

How did Fiona even get food while in the tower??? Did she have to keep singing nearby birds to death, or did they have some kind of carrier pigeon delivery

I do not remember Robin Hood being French jghjkhgjg

"I like an honest fight and a saucy little maid." "What he's basically saying is he likes to get... paid." The adult jokes continue

I ALSO DID NOT RECALL FIONA KICKING ALL OF THE MERRY MEN'S ASSES LMAO:

Hahahaha Fiona and Shrek are so sweet with their fly cotton candy and amiphibian/reptile balloons

"Now, I don't mean to brag, but I make a MEAN weed rat stew." AND Shrek can cook. Entirely self-sufficient and thoughtful man

I also like that they've returned to the sunflower field of the Onion-Ogre debate

"By night one way, by day another. This shall be the norm. Until you find true love's first kiss, and then take love's true form." You know, I have always found it so bizarre the Fiona ends the story as an Ogre, because she is naturally a human, and whether she's a human or Ogre is irrelevant to her and Shrek being in love. But I guess the answer is in the curse, because the form of her true love is an Ogre, so I guess after breaking the spell, she becomes whatever version of a person she fell in love with? It's like the Little Mermaid but if Eric was an Ogre

"I thought you might like [the sunflower] because you're pretty." SHREKKKKKK

"Princess and Ugly don't go together." Fiona looks fine actually, just like a normal person with wide features LOL. I bet there are a bunch of people with Ogre-Fiona features

"Who could ever love a hideous, ugly beast." "I thought that wouldn't matter to you." "Well, it does!" JUST COMMUNICATE

RIP the Donkey and Shrek friendship breakup

HAHAHAH @ THEM CUTTING OUT THE LYRIC "MAYBE THERE'S A GOD ABOVE." Shrek a canonical atheist?

DRAGON AND DONKEY CAME TOGETHER OUT OF THEIR FUNDAMENTAL DESIRE FOR COMPANIONSHIP. GOOD FOR THEM!!

"Can you forgive me?" "Hey, that's what friends are for, right?" Donkey being the number one communicator out of every character in this movie LMAO

"No one likes a kiss-ass." Ass count: 3. They can't keep getting away with this hahahhaa

"Really, it's rude enough being alive when no one wants you, but really, showing up to a wedding!" This is the inner monologue of social anxiety

WOW @ FARQUAAD GETTING EATEN ALIVE BY THE DRAGON. REST IN PIECES

I did spare a moment to think of the legalities of Fiona being married to Farquaad but with his death I suppose she becomes a window of the world's shortest marriage (no pun intended)

Also who is in charge of Duloc now? Fiona? Did Farquaad have an heir? They're really abandoning this lordship LMAO

"I don't understand. I'm supposed to be beautiful." "You are beautiful." Like Grease, the moral of the story is that it's okay to change for a man as long as the man learns to communicate his feelings and rides off into the sunset with you to a sickass soundtrack

(I'll go to bat for Danny also changing tho. I don't know if Shrek changed all that much in this first movie, but he did become more personable. He had so many wedding guests!)

I would like to 1) Examine the continuity of the Three Blind Mice being both the carriage horses and coachman as well as in Donkey's musical number and 2) Examine the disability representation in Shrek. Started off questionably, but arguably ended well in this movie? LMAO

Onto: Shrek 2

I love how the narration for each opening also serves as a character introduction (Shrek for the first movie, Charming for the second)

"Princess... Fiona?" said Charming to Big Bad Wolf, uncertain if it was a furry-adjacent curse

Hansel's Honeymoon Hideaway is a fun little location

I wonder just how many movies and shows in the early-2000s parodied the Spiderman kiss

"I don't know, [Dragon]'s been all moody and stuff lately." Hahahah, foreshadowing the dragon pregnancy

Reggie the Announcer's Solo also implies the existence of Hawaii 5-0 in the Shrek universe

Gjkghgjkhg I'd ask what kind of parents miss their only daughter's wedding, but I suppose it's the same kind of parents who lock their daughter in a tower

"And who says I want to be a part of this family?" "Uh, you did! When you married me!" Men really do be like this sometimes

"It's gonna be champagne wishes and caviar dreams from now on." Donkey is experiencing being a friend to royalty for the first time LOL

Mr. and Mrs. Far Far Away have apparently not heard tell of the Ogre Marriage of Their Daughter

"They're my parents." "Hello? They locked you in a tower." "That was for my own—" "Good. Now here's our chance." I looove the way this dialogue flows into each other, it's a very fun storytelling technique

"I suppose any granchildren I could expect from you would be..." "Ogres, yes." That's a lot of prejudice for someone who's a part-time frog, Harold

HAHAHAHA @ them having a cameo of Prince Charles, who is now King, to the line, "The kind of gal the Prince would date."

Shout out the Bichon puppy, who has nothing to do with any of this

"Whether your parents like it or not, I am an Ogre. And guess what, Princess? That's not about to change." "I've made changes for you, Shrek. Think about that." That's what I'm saying! Fiona gives up the species she was born to, to be with Shrek. Why does she need to be an Ogre? Does she want to, or is it just be with Shrek? Or is because of the spell? Explain to me why she didn't get any agency over who she was, physically

"Fiona does, and she'll never forgive you if you don't [give your blessing]. I don't want to lose our daughter again, Harold." Shout-out Lillian for being a very accepting parent

If the Fairy Godmother and Harold had already arranged a marriage, surely they could've just announced it instead of playing all these games. Fiona was willing to marry Lord Farquaad, she can't be that hard to please

Harold and Lillian's first kiss by the lilypond and the Lady Frog saying, "Do I know you?" are truly the foreshadowing I did not know of the first time I watched these movies

Like Fiona, Doris The Ugly Stepsister is actually a normal woman who is called Ugly for having features that are more wide or perceived as more masculine. People act like there is something crazy disproportionate or out of the norm of how they look (green skin for Fiona aside.) Justice for both of them:

I fully forgot that Puss in Boots is introduced as Antonio Banderas's disembodied voice agreeing to assassinate Shrek

Not the portrait of Sir Justin Timberlake hahahahah

Awwww Fiona was mimicking the words of her childhood doll when she gave Shrek her hankerchief in the first movie!!

SCREAM @ the Chastity Belt World Tour. Who is that a parody of

"Dad. We both acted like Ogres. Maybe we just need some time to get to know each other." Shrek is extended an olive branch while Harold is extending an Assassin Cat

"I say we take the sword and neuter him right here. Give him the Bob Barker treatment." This is a reference I had to google, but apparently, founded an organizatoin and spent millions on neutering animals. ALSO, he died three weeks ago???? How many Shrek-adjacent deaths have there been in the past month

"Come on Shrek, don't feel bad. Almost everyone that means you wants to kill you." Hahahaha harsh but true

"It's not like I wouldn't change if I could. I just, I wish I could make her happy." Fnally, some reciprocity on the changing

"On my honour, I am obliged to accompany you until I have saved your life, as you have spared mine." "Sorry, the position of annoying talking animal has already been taken." Very self-aware of Donkey to say so

I love everything about Puss in Boots, the purrfect character:

Love that Shrek and Fiona have each adopted their own new animal friends in each other's absence

"Be sure and use small words, dear. He's a little slow this morning." Hahahaha Lillian politely calling Harold stupid

"Why don't we just pop in there for spell?" I love Shrek's consistent habit of making jokes about whatever new place he's in

"We represent the workers in all magical industries, both evil and benign. Are you feeling at all degraded or depressed?" "Uh... a little. We don't even have dental." I know it's a bit but I choose to believe that Shrek is pro-union

In this world of Fairy Tales, does it imply that Cinderella and Snow White's stories are non-fiction biographies?

Shout-out to the Helpers of Species Unknown and the employee of the month, Theo:

I did wonder for a moment, as Puss in Boots stared at the Happily Ever After potion, if he was not going to be able to read

"But you love being an Ogre!" "I know. But I love Fiona more!" Awwww Shrek

"A cute button nose?" Wild how Shrek's nose as a human is not that different from Fiona's nose as an ogre but it's fine for him because he's a man. Something something gendered beauty standards

"I'll be true... enough." Hahahaha, the ladies are fun

"Someday I will repay you. Unless, of course, I can't find you, or if I forget." Hahahaha Shrek being very relatable

"What happened to your voice?" "The potion changed a lot of things, Fiona." Prince Charming claims the beauty standard includes not having a Scottish accent (he is wrong)

"She's a princess, and you're an Ogre. That's something no amount of potion is ever going to change." Except it literally did change Shrek into a human LOL and if they wanted the potion to be permanent on Fiona, the Charmings do need Shrek to kiss her

"I hate Mondays." Yet another pop culture reference

"She loves that... Pretty Boy, Prince Charming," said Shrek, as if it had not been canonically established that human Shrek is very handsome

Shrek and Donkey and Puss all attending the nightly Unhappy Hour hahahaha

"You can't force someone to fall in love." "I beg to differ. I do it all the time!" Sinister of the Fairy Godmother to say

Not the Donkey calling out against police brutality and the Puss getting charged with possession of catnip. Feels a little targeted lmao

Shrek being willing to step aside if it's Fiona's choice to leave him but ready to intervene if he know she's being pushed into it ❤️

Joan Rivers the Cartoon is also yet another early 2000s reference.

"That's not my husband," said Fiona, in an unparalleled act of intuition

"Well folks, it looks like we're up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick." I LOVE idioms translated to new circumstances kjhgkjhg

Mongo the Giant Gingerbread wanting the big Farbucks cup. He's so cute!!

Shout-out Shrek 2 for some of the best jukebox musical integration since Ella Enchanted (which, apparently only predates this movie by like two weeks hahaha)

Also shout-out Mongo for literally laying down life and limb for the cause:

Harold redeeming himself from trying to trick his daughter into marriage by taking a magical bullet for her

Also if the magic reflects back on Fairy Godmother to burst her into bubbles, why does it also work on Harold to turn him into a frog? Riddle me that magical logic

"I just wish I could be the man you deserve." "You're more that man today than you ever were. Warts and all." Bold of Lillian to be cool with being married to a frog

"I want what any princess wants. To live happily ever after with the Ogre I married." I once again do not understand why Fiona HAS to be an Ogre to be with Shrek, given that is not what her heritage is, and the being an Ogre was a spell just like this one, but if she wants to choose Ogre life, good for her!

Awwww Donkey is so happy to be a dad to these weird little children:

[chainsawcorazon]

AND ON THE JAY NAKAMURA AND JONJAY HATE....

when you take into consideration the fact that gamorra, a political narrative that’s borrowed from ANOTHER set of books that only recently merged into the dc universe, it’s like... what did you expect jay nakamura’s story to be about? sure, FINE, you don’t wanna see a story about superman saving a boat full of refugees, and maybe you just don’t care for this twink in a green mask that is clearly recruiting jon for some shady shit. and that’s fine! you can hate jay for being a pink-haired twink with shady underpinnings. totes fine. i still think hal’s a green fascist even after seventy years of character development, BUT THAT’S OK. we each have our no-no’s.

but then i see ppl talk about jon as if he’d an uwu bby boy who was so unjustly seduced by some pink-haired asian twink, and i think.... please tell me more.

pls tell me how the most powerful heir on the planet, the son of superman the god himself, was so uwu bby boy seduced, hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok, and flat out DECEIVED by some broke asian twink refugee with a podcast. actually, don’t. i’ve read enough twitter threads, reddit forums, and random commentary on youtube. i may be a fool for doing so, but i live for the drama, so i will read some more laterz.

like fine if u think jon did indeed get played, but i have to ask.... and what about it? even IF jon got played in the end, no one’s holding a gun to his head telling him NOT to fuck that damn gamorran. he’s fully consenting to smashing that twink, and by all the kissies, im thinking they are both very much enjoying their mutual shenanigans.

.... so why don’t folks like jon with jay? like really. be forreal.

and while reading LOSH, i finally got it! i thought about how, narratively, it makes PERFECT SENSE why jon and lor zod get married in the future, ESPECIALLY if the earth does get destroyed. if the earth is gone, then so are all of jon’s roots and ties to his human side. it would really only make sense for him to marry a zod, give half his dna to zod’s scientists, let them slap it together with lor zod’s, and thus produce children that could continue to help repopulate new krypton. plus, we know jonno’s stronker than his pops! a zod plus an el with those pesky human genes that makes him stronger? i know in my heart dru zod himself drafted the marriage proposal and took it to clark while he was just tryna have dinner with his wife and son. unfortunately, bc of this decision, mon el now exists. le sigh.

AND IT’S DURING THIS SHIT ASS LOSH RUN THAT I REALIZED... well of course jon/lor zod makes sense in the narrative. jon’s a plot device. he’s the most powerful fucker in the world, arguably. not yet fully realized, hella pretty, falls in love easily. it makes perfect sense that he’d give into an el/zod union if would make peace. and really, nobody really cares about bendis’ LOSH implications, bc it is such a stanky run, but it’s there. and apparently it’s ok bc it makes sense, bc hey, the zods are SUPPOSED to be evil, so why WOULND’T they try to rope jon into marrying their son so that they can be the universe’s power couple? it’s par the course for the zod famileh.

so why does it make people sooooooooo uncomfortable that jon is dating, in the current timeline, someone who is arguably just as politically inclined? what is it about some asian twink with a podcast that THREATENS fandumb’s delicate sensibilities, and i realized..... it’s cuz he’s literally not lois.

snake eating it’s own tail, jay is not lois!!!

by FUNCTION, he is lois, and is arguably, jon’s central and most important love interest. but jay is NOT lois. he is not even lois adjacent. he is a revolutionary. he’s a refugee. he’s asian. he has pink hair, and apparently that makes him effeminate. he sometimes dresses up like a ninja, but it’s the pink mop that makes him look like a girl lmao.

and, oh yeah. the haterz in-universe think he’s a terrorist. lex framed him as one. in-universe reddit and 4chan DEFINITELY thinks he’s a terrorist.  batman thinks he might be one too. his friends, aerie and wink, certainly were at one point.

so what happens when the son of superman the god, someone who’s supposed to do better and BE better even when the options are all garbage, starts dating a guy who is being touted a terrorist by a billionaire, a foreign government, AND people on reddit?

well, that’s just too woke now, innit? this is woke. this is what happens when kids learn CRT. they end up falling in love with terrorists. superman can’t love a terrorist!! siegel and shuster rolling in their graves.

except anyone Who Can Read and DID read KNOWS that, that’s not true, and the fact that lex, bendix, and the people in-universe FRAME the revolutionaries as terrorists is literally a meditation on how OUR world frames the question of the revolution, youth-led revolts, and anything not being shielded with rose-tinted glasses. it’s literally a common theme in fiction these days. it’s a common theme in LIFE.

and it’s FASCINATING to see how a thematic element in a comic book that’s geared towards 12-22 yr olds garnered such OUTRAGE, when that thematic element is played on like every other tv show and i think.... oh people are CRAZY crazy now. and not just crazy, they hate being uncomfortable, and dont like that jonno’s not in a traditionally white hetero romance that’s solely dressed in black in white in terms of morality and politics, like lois and clark are. and no, im not referring to the new anime where lois is racebent, this is not a factor in this convo. historically, and up until recently, the question of lois and clark has been and still is a deeply americentric approach at truth and justice, aka the american way. lois is the star reporter, the uncoverer of truths and part of the reason why justice gets served, but she does it the AMERICAN way, the way white people always have and always will find palatable. and that’s fine! these comics have a history. they have a pedigree, and ppl love them for a reason.

but jay doesn’t fit into that mold. he’s not even pretty to look at, in terms of conventional handsomeness, and that seems to be by design!

cuz it’s not just jay being brain smart that makes folks uncomfortable, but that he holds a Frame of Reference that even jon doesn’t really understand. his mom might be a military brat and his dad a refugee’s who’s DEEPLY assimilated into the land he was able to find refuge in, but jay is decidedly NOT assimilating. lord knows how many cops, armymen, and green lanterns we got running around, but jay’s not a lantern, and he’s certainly not US military. he’s the son of an ousted politician from an asian nation most ppl dont really care about. he’s got pedigree that’s decidedly NOT americentric. he’s NOT invested in truth and justice done the american way. he literally does everything unamerican, including seducing superman’s son, to make ends meet and make his revolution happen, and man oh man, that shit makes the intellectually conservative fandumb so damn UNCOMFORTABLE!!! his broke ass was able to bamboozle jon kent AND dick grayson! he went to take down a dictator the rest of the world saw as a hero! and superman joined him! and dick grayson funded the campaign!

superman fell in love with a terrorist. that’s what pisses people off 😂😂😂

[gunsatthaphan]

Hi I don't have any friends that watch only friends so here I am screaming in your ask box about it

1. God something about First as Sand has me in a chokehold idk if it's the way he's styled in the show but I am NOT OKAY he's tooo damn fine

2. FirstKhao's chemistry is insane. It's at the point where I feel it kinda overtakes the whole ray is in love with mew storyline because the way ray looks at sand overshadows the way ray looks at mew? And it's probably just because khao has more chemistry with first than he does with book

3. People are probably gonna scream at me for this but I am NOT feeling topmew? They're so boring. And the thing is that I love forcebook and I think top and mew's characters are actually quite interesting. Unfortunately forcebooks acting just aren't good enough to bring out their characters. First, khaotung, neo and mark's acting has overshadowed their acting at this point. Forcebook has good chemistry off screen I just don't know why it doesn't translate on screen

4. We're finally going to get an insight on the whole topsand drama and I cannot wait. I did not expect to find out at ep 4 and since it's so quick I don't think it's anything to do with ray? Because sand still has his boundaries with ray so the whole "it's clear you just can't take care of what's yours" is leaning very closely to the theory that top slept with sand's ex and that prior to that top and sand were probably friends

5. I'm looking forward to seeing nick and sand scenes so much

Sorry for the thought dump, I hope I am making sense as English is not my main language and thank you for the only friends gifs I love them

hi there nonny!!!

my inbox exists for screaming so go ahead lmao.

Sand is doing things to me for sure like we still don't know much about him but just one look at Ray and you can tell he's already far gone djkghd truly no one is immune to First's doe eyes djhfd I'm a weak bitch for him 😩 can't wait for some of his secrets to come out 👀 .

The RayMew storyline is weak so far but I think it's more because they haven't given it a lot of screentime lol like we've seen a few jealous looks from Ray towards Top etc. but there has not been a single interaction between him and Mew that would make me think he's in love with him lmao. However after this week's episode I'm thinking they're telling this story in the past. I was surprised that this has been a non-issue in the present as Ray doesn't seem to have any trouble going all in with Sand but I think that might be why. It looks like it all peaked 2 years ago when the kiss happened etc. but we'll see about that next week I guess. But also regardless the FK chemistry I mean what can I say. my kings are slaying. I have no further comment. they have me screeching and kicking my feet 24/7 as it is but it's all peaking on Saturdays lmao. they're insane. literally nickboston who lmao. they can have all the steamy scenes they want but they will not be able to surpass the FK magic for me lol. no one does it like them. .

I feel the same about TopMew. I don't find them boring per se but compared the other 2 they lack something and it's not sex lol. I like Mew but I feel like his character is a bit inconclusive. It seems to me that he doesn't know what he wants. And it's strange to me how people worship him just because he refuses to sleep with Top lmao. that doesn't give a character a striking personality. I agree that ForceBook's acting is not as strong as the others' but so far it's not bothering me. It's noticeable but it's not the issue with their story imo. idk I just need to know about Mew's past with Ray and Top's past with Sand so I can sleep at night djhgd .

I'm very sure the top sleeping with sand's ex theory is correct like it has to be that. right??? I don't see any other possibility unless it's something boring like some business fraud or sth lmao. I don't think it has anything to do with Ray either. He might get involved once Sand finds out about his crush on Mew and maybe if the cheating theory is correct then it might have happened at the same time as the MewRay situation but I don't think he's connected to Sand's issue with Top. I just.... need to know asap lmao. .

I believe in SandNick roomies supremacy 🕯️🙏🏻🙏🏻🕯️ I really hope we get to see them live together, Sand seems so excited 🥺 And Nick is still a standalone character so it would be nice to see him with some friends around that aren't Boston's lol. thank you for liking my gifs!! 💜 can't wait for next week lol. have a nice day anon!! 💜

xxx

[purecommemasolitude]

finished the play script! some changes + some accompanying thoughts

steve straight-up doesn't exist in this version and it did take me until after the court scene to realize. sorry king

sandy does though! she appears onstage after pony gets jumped and in an added scene of tulsa while pony & johnny are off. not much is added to her character in terms of facts other than she's got a real rough home life, but the way her relationship with soda's written is sweet. they do make one notable difference about her though, specifically:

sandy doesn't get pregnant or cheat in this version?? rather, she can't take her home life anymore, and goes to florida because of that. she shoots down darry's offer to stay with the curtises because she "can't stay here" and then soda's offer of marriage for the same reason + because they're both sixteen

two-bit and dally are older than darry, but it only comes up in the character description and not the play text

a lot of ponyboy's internal narration is converted into dialogue and sometimes it is. very strange. ponyboy's a quiet kid who keeps a lot of his thoughts to himself and now here he is blathering mean thoughts about darry all over the place that people are not doing nearly enough to counteract ‼

speaking of which ponyboy seems a lot less understanding of darry's plight in this verison. he only has one line saying darry's life is rough and several others dismissing darry's troubles

(also soda has to explain to pony who paul holden is and why he matters, which i assume is for the audience's benefit, but still contributes to darry and pony's relationship being much more distant here)

bob & randy are now also the socs who jump pony at the beginning, which makes sense

rather than go to buck's, dally just happens to be in the area and see the murder -- which makes sense to streamline the story and avoid unnecessary transitions, but does make his relationship with the other two less strong

as previously mentioned there's a scene about the tulsa gang while pony & johnny are gone, which is the scene where sandy tells soda about how she's leaving.

two-bit and pony have their exchange about how darry's stricter than his parents were and then they cut it off literally right before two-bit says darry would be a soc without the gang which is upsetting to Me as a darry enjoyer

it starts with ponyboy calling mr syme which is a fine lead-in i guess but i vastly prefer the bookend line and the reveal that ponyboy's been writing the whole thing at the end

pony & johnny do nothing about their hair in this version which makes sense because that's a difficult transition onstage but does make their plan way worse lmao

the tone of ponyboy's post-sickness plight is wayy different. it's a lot less catatonic state and a lot more easy breezy i'll have to get a job as soon as i graduate so why not just drop out now elemayo

darry knows about sandy's letter and ponyboy doesn't which kind of. counteracts the whole point about how both of them have been overlooking him (ponyboy knows she's gone to florida but thinks they're writing back and forth and darry shows him the unopened letter)

and also there's not nearly as climactic of a fight that causes soda's breakdown. they don't even try to get him involved in the argument

honestly the whole vibe between the brothers rings weird in several places to me. save me the musical. the musical save me

the end shift post-soda breakdown is not even about the brothers but about ponyboy deciding to commit to writing his composition (and school, as is implied) and it's very tied up in a pretty, resolved bow, which feels weird also

other than these (and a few other minor things) the script sticks really closely to the novel, including ripping most of the dialogue word-for-word, so unlike something more textually transformative like the musical it's a lot harder to highlight good stuff because most of the good stuff is because of se hinton and not the playwright 😭but it was genuinely a fun read other than weird pony choices and the strange curtis vibe and i'd go watch a production for sure

link below for those interested!

[jaskierx]

little pre-warning for suicide (i'm fine though!!)

sorry if this isn't articulated very well but like. i got into ofmd only last october when season 2 was airing and i still remember it's bc i got a clip on tiktok of the "is that blackbeard?" "no, i'm blackbeard" scene which is SUCH a good fucking hook btw. and before watching it i kind of actually hated it LOL like people do with anything that's popular and Everywhere it just oversaturates sometimes. and it made me feel kind of silly to go back on my own opinion but i didn't even really dwell on that bc me getting into it also happened to coincide with a failed suicide attempt (that kind of funnily also included a gun that misfired like in-show lol). and like i was pretty understandably all over the place, but generally still in the "i want to live" moment that happens right after you nearly properly die. and the thing about suicide recovery is that you don't actually want to recover. so it was a really up and down left and right kind of situation and you're left feeling kind of like a puppet with no strings that's also been thrown into the ocean or something.

but then i liked this show that was funny and silly and i also got to see trans and gay people existing happily and normally which isn't necessarily NEW but it did feel really cool and unique to be able to go Oh and this is the moment where they would usually leave it to subtext and then they actually KISS and it's like woahhhh. i didn't know they could do that... and then as i was still processing what was happening with my own life and like mortality i got to see this character go through the exact same thing and come out on the other side of it ENTIRELY by himself and experience love and self determination and actualisation and i'm not saying it made me want to do it myself but it did feel like a really personal thing for me (hence anon also lol).

and for the few weeks it was coming out i got to sit there and think about how he was doing and it gave me another reason to not do something again. like i am so definitely not the only one who can say "this show saved my life" but honestly it literally did. like there's that thing when you're suicidal where the things that you're sticking around for are the only things you've got so they're as important as anything even if it's like... going to a concert the following week or something. or getting a burger. and i really honestly stuck around just to love this show and my cat.

it's been a few months now ofc and it still sucks and i'm not better or anything but being able to indulge in something fun for fun's sake is the biggest source of joy in my life and tbh it's not gonna go away just because there's going to be no season 3. when i'm feeling too much of particularly anything i have a handy little balm which i know everyone feels but still. a little gifset of ed always makes me feel better if i'm freaking out so it's cool i don't care if it's a bit lame. i'm a bit sad for season 3 and everyone being sad is also making me sadder but i still have a lot of love left so ah. it'll be fine :)

if anything i hope this inspires people to have a little boom in the numbers re: content now that we know there'll be no canon to possibly diverge from and we can make up our OWN season 3 ‼️ which will be fun :)

hi anon sorry i didn't reply to this yesterday i wanted to sit and think about what to say

and then i didn't really come up with anything lmao other than you're right and i love you and i love this show and it's so incredibly important to me and so groundbreaking in so many ways and has made me feel seen in a way that no other piece of media ever has. the queer rep is groundbreaking. the portrayal of ed's suicidality moved me beyond words. there are dozens of other people sharing stories about how ofmd helped them to come out or meet their partner or start transitioning or quit something that was making them unhappy. i watched s2 at a time while i was really struggling with post-covid symptoms. i've met so many incredible people through this fandom. i think about the show dozens of times a day. the show brought me so much joy and they can't take that away

they can't ever take away how special it was and how much it's changed people's lives

i'm very excited to see what the amazing fic writers in this fandom are going to give us in place of s3. i just wish we could've had the rest of the story david wanted to tell

[delopsia]

Void seriously may be the best fic I’ve read in idk how long and I just wanted to give it some love since I saw you were bummed about it’s performance. I’ve re read it more than I like to admit tbh I love the concept so much!

This actually made me tear up a little bit, lmao. I'm so happy that you've enjoyed it 🥺💐I had a lot of fun sitting down and detailing their backstories and setting up where it could all go. There are so many pages of notes and details on how Rhett and Bob met, how they found the Reader and a whole action sequence that took place directly after Void ended, but I don't have the heart to write it. I'll give you the summary of it all💕

The events of the AU were kicked off in 2016, seven years before Void. A hole had appeared above the ocean, and the Navy was investigating what happened when someone was sent through it because cameras failed the moment they got close to it. Phoenix and Bob were the names pulled to fly the mission and were only told they would be flying through a black hole that was created by highly specialized projectors.

Instead of coming out the other side, the two were swallowed up by the hole, and for four years, nobody knew what happened to them. The Navy crafted a vague story about them going missing, gave them a funeral, and eventually, they were legally dead. Bob and Phoenix only felt like they were in the hole for a few minutes, but during that time, chunks of the "ore" that powers the hole flew by and struck them, Bob in the head and Phoenix in the chest. And though Phoenix was able to fly directly after emerging from the hole, the ore clogged an artery in her heart, and she suffered a heart attack after they landed.

They never told her family about how she turned up four years later; she was buried in an unmarked grave, and any witnesses were legally silenced. But Bob was still alive; the ore was trapped and manifesting in his head, tormenting him with violent visions, but he was as alive as ever.

What do you do when the media finds out a pilot appears from nowhere four years after going missing? You accuse him of deserting the Navy and fabricate elaborate evidence to sentence him to five years in prison for it. Because prosecuting an innocent man is easier than admitting you lied.

The thing about Bob is that he's crafty. He knew he was fucked, so he vanished from his apartment shortly before the trial, headed in the direction of his family, and then veered north, up into Montana and Wyoming. Places disconnected from technology, small towns without internet and cell reception. He found himself a small job as a ranch hand, and for a while, he was fine.

Until the visions started leading him places to an old mine, where a chunk of gold had been hidden by a miner who had long passed. They told him of the investigation that was catching his scent, helped him to know when to skip town, and what clues were setting him off.

And then it took him to the hole. Bobby didn't know it when he stepped in, but the hole took him to the exact universe that the Reader existed in. Nobody knew him here. There was nobody to hunt him because Robert Floyd quite literally did not exist. The laws were so loose here that faking an identity was easy, he sold the gold, got an apartment with the money, and took up shop working in the tech industry. Not his ideal job, but it worked.

At the same time, Rhett and Perry got into a fight in the pit bar parking lot after Rhett had suggested moving on from Rebecca. They thought Perry had killed him. And Royal, fearing the loss of both sons, took Rhett's body out to the hole in the west pasture. Rhett woke at some point in time, begging, pleading for his father to quit dragging him to the hole, but it was of no use. Because if he got away, there was no chance in hell he would ever trust Royal again, and he would surely tell the police of what Perry did.

So Royal pushed him in.

The hole spits him out on an unfamiliar sidewalk, and in his bedroom, Bob is struck with a violent vision that leads him right to that old cowboy, and he takes him in. Rhett's beat to hell, his fists are bloody, and when he recalls what happened, his hands turn pitch black.

Royal is the son of Chronus, born with the ability to create and manipulate the ore used for time travel, and Rhett inherited that ability. It simply didn't activate until he entered the hole.

Just weeks later, the Reader goes on a cabin trip with some old friends they haven't spoken to in years. They were meant to rent a different cabin, but between work and the stresses of life, the Reader forgot and unknowingly pissed off several members of the group. Those friends thought it would be funny to get back at the Reader by locking them out in the blizzard, but it was miscommunicated about who let them in, and by the time they realized the Reader was still outside, they were gone.

One friend called the police, but by morning, nobody would say who had gone missing. If they pretended not to know the person who had vanished, then maybe they could escape the legal repercussions of their actions. And those small-town police truly weren't cut out for such an investigation. They got away with it.

The Reader had wandered off into the cold, searching for help, and during their frostbitten haze, they didn't notice the hole until they fell in.

Just like with Rhett, Bobby had a vision that led them right to where the Reader had been left, on the concrete. They only meant to warm the Reader up and take them to the police, but their story was similar to Rhett's; they didn't want to recount the story anymore than they had to.

But the thing about trauma is that it bonds people. These three didn't drift apart; they stuck to one another like glue. With discovering Rhett's new powers and gradually opening up to one another, it shouldn't have been a surprise that things got warmer in that one-bedroom apartment. Shy cuddles became hesitant kisses, and kisses morphed into whispered I-love-you's.

Until the Reader was recognized in public by one of the people who locked them out, and suddenly, they were being accused of intentionally going missing and wasting police efforts.

What do you do when the law is after you? You run.

They went to Rhett's timeline, hid in small towns, stole from other timelines, and sold those things until they could afford a house in the mountains in an unnamed country. Far away from society, where nobody could find them. The house lit up with security systems, cameras, and motion detectors, fearing the day someone caught their scent once more.

But that wasn't enough. Because the Reader was angry with the people who couldn't seem to get enough of tormenting them, Rhett couldn't get over how his family protected Perry, and Bob had finally learned that Phoenix never even received a proper burial.

They crafted together evidence and anonymously sent it to Sherrif Joy's front door, damning Perry as Rhett's killer. He got sentenced. Rhett made a joke of showing up in his cell to frighten him. Forever angry about the life he lost.

They time-traveled to copy the security footage of the Reader being locked out, and they went to find and copy the documents that detailed what had been done to Bob and Phoenix.

This is where Void took place. Bob had intentionally timed their appearance to coincide with the time his old Navy friends were in the building. His every intent had been to get them on his side. But Maverick was on the side that viewed Bob as guilty, and there was no getting through.

Royal appeared because he had finally figured out that Rhett inherited his ability. He searched every timeline for him, and had every intention of hauling him back home to free Perry from his prison.

The ore in Bob's head acts like a sort of trip wire. It reacts when there is a change or a threat. So when Royal stepped into the timeline, a vision triggered. But Royal could have never expected that Rhett's ability was stronger, wilder. It manifests around his body and allows him to turn into the ore; he can move as an intelligent mist and reform at will. Where Royal can only access the hole from certain points, Rhett can open it as he pleases.

They escaped, but it left Royal in contact with Maverick and Bob's old friends. They had something in common, and an alliance of sorts was formed. Seeking justice, as they called it.

Bob, Rhett, and Reader gathered in a city and watched as a video was placed on every screen. Full of detailed documents and truths that they hoped would set the story straight. They weren't criminals. They were people who had been hurt time and time again. They were only villains because others had forced them into that corner.

It could have been perfect.

Even though it would have painted them as monsters to the people hunting them, it could have given them a chance at a normal life together of settling down and growing old. They had never done anything wrong.

But it didn't.

Those painful truths were bared to the world, and in return, they were painted to be villains who were trying to start an uprising based on falsities. They had some support, sure, but they were labeled as the enemy. Marked as wanted, dead or alive, like this was the Wild West, and they were the bank robbers.

So they ran.

They move from place to place, timelines and worlds, but Royal continues to find them. They change identities and appearances, but they never split up. Are chased through cities, Rhett opens portals as quickly as he can, carries them through hell and back. He draws more ore from Bob's head to stop the visions and fights to keep the Reader from fading back into their timeline.

It's hell, but they're together, and that's all that matters.

The ending of Void was meant to split into two. One hurts more than the other, but they're both happyish endings. Both started when Rhett found the ability to travel into his past self. The person Reading got to choose which they experienced, depending on how they wanted the story to go.

The "good" ending involved Rhett going against Bob's wishes to step into the past. He told the Reader and Bobby of what happened to them. Their persecution, what chasing vengeance and exposing the truth will do to them. In this ending, the evidence is never mailed to Sherrif Joy; Perry gets away with attempted murder, and none of them will ever see a sense of justice.

They will live their lives happily ever after, but they will never be able to forgive the people who hurt them and have to live with that knowledge forever. Sometimes people can hurt you so bad that it ruins your life, and you won't be able to do a damn thing about it. They'll never see their families again.

They make the decision to move far into the future if only to be sure that nobody will ever find them. Where their families have long since passed, and they bring flowers from the garden to their graves. It's not perfect; they hurt every day, but they have each other, and that makes them happy.

The story ends with them much older. Bobby has begun to lose a little bit of his memory, and Rhett's a misty presence more often than not, but they're together. Settled on a bench, gazing off into the sunset. There is a void left in their hearts, but at least it did not overcome them.

TW for multiple major character deaths and gun violence:

The "bitter-sweet" ending involved Rhett choosing not to travel into his past self because Bob feared what kind of time conundrum that would cause. They were fine. Until Bob's eyes turned black in the middle of the kitchen, struck with a vision. But before it could take hold, a gunshot had rung out. And he just

dropped.

Royal had shot him. Point blank in the head. And he had every intent to kill again if that meant hauling Rhett back to face the law. He didn't get one word out before Rhett just...lost it.

Rage does something to people that turns them into monsters. And for that moment, Rhett was the monster. He lost control over the ability inside of him, and though Royal kept firing that gun, he didn't feel it. Rhett didn't just rip Royal apart. He ripped a hole in every timeline. Until the anger subsided, he realized Bobby's body was lost to the hole, and not only was the Reader fading out of existence, but he was bleeding out.

The Reader slipped out of existence before he took his last breath. They slowly emerged to the timeline they belonged to, and though their body is taken to court and tried for whatever charges the court could boil up, their soul isn't quite...there. They wander the Earth detached from their own being, grieving in a ghostly sort of manner, and at some point, they come to rest at Phoenix's grave.

They've only seen her in pictures, but they know it's her ghost who appears and holds out a hand. They take it, and the world fades to white.

It's in the afterlife that they hear the sound of their name being called. They don't get the slow turn, the chance to recognize the two faces looking back at them; they're already being swept off of their feet. In a big hug with their two boyfriends. Soulmates, the two lovingly refer to themselves as. Together at last; dead and alive all at the same time.

This story ends with them smiling; forever young, looking down into a courtroom from the clouds. Though they never lived to see justice served, Rhett's rage had merged the three timelines into one, and through the chaos of it all, the secrets of the Abbotts, the hole, and the Navy were revealed.

Perry escaped prison, sure, but he lived a life in social exile, for everyone knew what he had done. Royal found himself in federal prison. Nat, Reader, and Bob's families finally got to know what happened to their babies. The people who locked the Reader in the cold were prosecuted. The Navy was forced to answer for what they had done.

Finally, the record had been set straight.

They cry. They laugh. They fall into each other in a big hug. And it leaves off with the three chasing each other, racing to be the first to get one of Nat's freshly baked cookies. The void consumed them, sure, it took everything from them, but in the end, it made them whole again. They'll spend the rest of forever together.

I truly don't know how the story got so fleshed out, lmao. One moment I'm trying to weave three tragedies together, and the next, I've got the most elaborate, beautifully painful story I've ever written. Void didn't get to become the series I hoped it would be, but hey, at least I get to share what it could have been lmao.

...that last part wasn't meant to be a joke, but now that I'm re-reading it, it is too perfect to delete 💃