#how she thinks she's already dead and doesn't necessarily know (or wants...? knows she wants...?) to move past that

[c-sand]

hI! How you doin? Been thinking about show jonsa lately and they really fucked up Jon's character. According to show canon, it's implied that Jon bent the knee to Dany for love and means he gave away the North which he's the King of but its not technically his by birthright. It really makes him a lying asshole to Sansa. Pol!Jon makes Jon a lying asshole to Dany. Pol!Jon is really important because it's conditional on what kind of man we expect Jon to be post resurrection. Requited jonerys is dependent on a dumb Jon when it comes to Dany while unrequited is that he got smarter after his stabbing.

Hiii! I've been okay. Nothing extraordinary, nothing terrible lolol

I know a lot of people do think it, but I honestly don't think Pol!Jon makes Jon a lying asshole to D. Jon will lie if it will ultimately achieve the morally just outcome. But, if he doesn't have to lie and can just be straight up, I think he'd prefer to do so. Having to go that route with her is really dependent on how much he can't reason with her. And if she's being completely unreasonable, to the point that people need to lie and play parts to get her to focus on the bigger picture, at a certain point that's a her problem.

(At least show-wise -- I need to reread the books, they're totally gone from my brain). So, Pol!Jon is founded in the idea that he looked at his captor host, looked at his surroundings, looked at her words and her atrocious actions and her pride in committing them -- how she tries to justify all of her mass murder, as something that needed to be done -- and knew she was completely unreasonable and dangerous and couldn't be dealt with rationally. I don't think that makes him an asshole -- I think that's just using his brain, one last time, before they vacuum it from his skull.

He literally couldn't of been honest with her about how he was feeling. She was so dismissive and so focused on her goal of conquest, that he only had so many avenues to take to get her mind on the more important fight. (Or, at least, what should've been the more important fight. Not a single night fight that barely matters 😒) So, he utilized something he knew she (and every single person who worked for her) wanted from him. She was not subtle about what she wanted. Her followers were not subtle about pushing for the union, because it benefits her and only her to have the King abdicate and hand over half the continent without a fight. And then gives her the stamp of approval, to all of Westeros, from an ancient and respected house.

And I think all of that is still in line with Jon's character. He's played roles before, I don't think he's against doing them again. The idea of him actually being in love with her (which he clearly wasn't) is the part that feels out of character and a ruining of him. She's literally a monster and doesn't hide it. We literally watch him being disgusted by the moves she's making the entire time he's held on that island.

I don't necessarily think Jon being willing to be Pol!Jon is conditional on what kind of man Jon is coming back as, because I think this is something he would of been willing to do pre-murder, as well. I do agree that how, though, he does it will be conditional on how he comes back. We've already seen how pre-murder Jon operates in a infiltration, but post-murder Jon could be something else entirely. lmaooooo hopefully, yes, hopefully he is smarter post stabbing.

Requited love is absolutely dependent on Jon being a moron, though. He has to rise from the dead, as a literal brain dead idiot to watch this woman come back from slaughtering an entire army in the span of five minutes and think, "Oh yeah, she's the one for me." Be so for real. This is a dude who's tired of fighting, he's not swooning over someone who breathes murder from the skies.

[autumnoakes]

also i do still love the idea of swapping claire and leon's re2 scenarios but i cannot help but think that the scene with sherry and chief irons would have been a LOTTT worse with leon instead of claire

[sketchtastrophee]

old art again!! this time a rough animation of sawyer and yarnaby 😎 (looks better if u click to view 😭)

im working on a short ppt animation rn. im thinking i should post it to my youtube channel, though im not sure if people here would see it. i think i can link videos on here?? idk

okay I'm gonna talk abt more chapter 4 stuff.. this time about prototype's previous identity.. ch4 spoilers and also a theory below..

hiding the solo yarnaby under here LOL

people theorized 1006 was elliot, which was recently disproven in the chapter 4 tape where poppy refers to elliot as her dad and wishes he were there. in the same tape she addresses prototype as a completely different person. also recall that elliot died in the 90s, meanwhile prototype met theo in 1989. so yeah, they aren't the same person

I've also seen people say rich is prototype, which cannot be true either. in a ch4 tape he speaks to one of the employees under his supervision. the kid mentions his coworkers joking about him going missing. before the bbi, it would not make sense for this to be a common rumor at the company, which means this tape had to happen after harley was hired in 1990; at a time when the company would have a reason to silence people

prototype existed in 1989 at the minimum, but considering he says "it's always been about you and me" to poppy, he's likely the prototype of HER. she's elliots daughter, she died in the 60s, meaning prototype was probably created around that time as well.

this means that rich can't be the prototype because he was human long after prototype was made

if you want my take on who prototype truly is, i'd say his identity doesn't necessarily matter. i don't mean to say his origins aren't important, just that his name and specific role in the past probably doesn't mean anything in the long run. i've never believed he was elliot or rich, and maybe in the future i'll be proven wrong but for now i'll tell you the theory i've had since june of last year

elliot's daughter dies in the 60s. he divorced his wife in 1930, so his daughter is probably in her 30s when she dies. she gets sick or injured, maybe she's actively dying or already dead by the time elliot begins his research. he looks for ways to bring her back, but it doesn't work on the rats (as he mentioned a note in the 2nd chapter)

so what does he do? he tries it on something bigger as he said he would: a human. of course he's not going to try this experimental method on his own daughter, even if she's already dead, so he finds someone else to use it on. we know that elliot wasn't evil or anything, so it's unlikely he killed anybody to use for the experiment. considering the orphanage isn't open yet (it opened in the 70s, not the 60s), prototype probably wasn't an orphan child either. if i run with my simple version of the theory, elliot may have dug up a body in a graveyard and used that. maybe a fresh one, who knows. he tried it, it worked, then he revived his daughter with the same method.

this is likely what harley wanted to know about in the chapter 3 tape (the "i learn something new about you every day" one), and also what prototype is asking harley to figure out in the ch4 tape they're both in. in that case, sawyer never actually figured out how to revive people with the poppy substance. sure, he can transfer people into the toys, but he can't bring anybody back to life

more reason to believe prototype and poppy are of the same "batch" is because it seems they are the only two who don't need food. it's outright stated about him in the ch1 trailer, and insinuated with her saying the "toys will starve otherwise" when she's talking about how nasty them eating humans is. she refers to them, not herself. her and prototype are probably the only 2 who were ever brought back from the dead, which circles back around to his monologue and gives meaning to the "it's always been about you and me, poppy. what we are". when i heard him say that i felt like my theory was lowk confirmed 😭😭

no guarantee this is right, but it's been my guess for a long time

[vaultsixtynine]

deep sigh.

[emil1863]

More for the au!

The basics, Gods, Demigods, Devil Fruits, all exist.

World Gov + Marines try and keep the whole concept of gods and demigods under wraps. Because I'm working with "D's" carry divinity. And having a good chunk of them outright despise the government isn't a great look.

Luffy is a god while Garp and Dragon are demigods. Luffy can shift between physical and 'divine' form whereas demigods don't have that ability.

Luffy is the successor/inheritor of his predecessor's will and own divinity. But not through reincarnation necessarily. One in the same but they are very much so different. His devil fruit and promise to Shanks cemented his place as the successor to the sun and freedom. When gods and demigods start out, there isn't a wholly set future for what will they will have, or the ideals they will embody. Luffy has always had his cloudy/intangible form.

Imagine Garp's surprise when his grandson, who was supposed to join him in the marines, is set to embody freedom and the sun. He was pissed for a solid week about that. Garp also had to deal with questioning where Dragon had even gotten Luffy from, he still doesn't know.

Ace and Sabo were very adamant that Luffy not show off his divine form to everyone, especially if he wanted to become a pirate. He can't be a pirate if the government tracks him down and hides him away at the ripe age of like, 8. Also because having a full god is pretty uncommon, Sabo has heard horror story after horror story of what nobles and those in higher society would do to a god. Sabo is the most vocal about Luffy being careful about that.

Luffy meets Koby, and does an absolutely terrible job at keeping his form hidden. It's harder to control which form he's in when he's excited. Koby was a human with no divinity and big dreams that Luffy adored. So, already excited with a new friend, and the two on their way to Shells town, Luffy sneezed and immediately sold himself out. Koby is a terrible liar and so just elects to never speak on this topic ever. If anyone asks why he has so much knowledge on gods, specifically sun gods, he just doesn't answer. Helmeppo thinks it's funny and immediately pieced together why, because Koby cannot keep anything from him. And Garp has to respect how hard that kid is trying to not completely sell out his grandson, even if the brat kind of deserves it for being a pirate.

Luffy is going to be the Pirate King, divine or not. His crew quickly find out about his side quirk/form in varying ways. Zoro woke up one day with a cloudy demon from hell cutting off his airways. Nami was trying to explain clouds to Luffy and that 'no, they cannot just spawn on your person, that's stupid,' and so Luffy shows her that he is in fact, correct.

Usopp got jumpscared early in the morning, before the sun had risen, when Luffy just appeared behind him and asked if he wanted to watch the sunrise. Sanji was cooking dinner and Luffy got so excited he phased out of his physical body.

Chopper found out while asking Luffy if he had any medical conditions he should know about, he thought it was kinda cool that Luffy can change forms. And is only a little jealous that Luffy has a fully human form. Luffy always makes sure to tell Chopper he's exactly who he needs to be.

Robin found out after talking about 'Nika,' who is thought to be long dead, but is not. And is the captain of the crew she is now apart of. Luffy knows the name is important and it has a certain weight when it's said. He physically feels when someone says his name around him. Robin thinks this is very fascinating. (Also can add some context into poneglyphs, that there is a lot to it, even if Robin doesn't yet know and Luffy wasn't alive/doesn't have that knowledge)

Franky was showing off cool shit he could do with his robotic body, and Luffy was like 'me too!!!'

Brook found out when Luffy fell asleep listening to him play a song, and Luffy slipped back into his resting form of cloudiness.

While both forms have their uses and limitations, Luffy is most comfortable in his intangible form, even if his physical one is the default. He cannot access his divine form after a certain point of exhaustion hits.

Im going to end that there before I have an entire novel in this. But that's the general thought throw up I'm smacking down right now.

Sorry if this is incoherent and not easy to understand lol. I will flesh it out more later and when I have actually thought more about it. Might change things later too. Then I'll probably make a good post about it with actual wellish made context and lore.

[deeplyshalllow]

Do the gale force soldiers witness Fiyero’s transformation? Or do they leave him tied up and come back for Torture part 2: For Bad in the morning/after a coffee break then panic because

a. someone’s obviously used the clothes of their mostly dead ex-captain to make a creepy scarecrow decoy, suggesting the real Fiyero has miraculously escaped in his underwear,

b. they believe they’ve forgotten where they put him, because there are so many other scarecrows (a frankly ridiculous amount!) already in that cornfield, Fiyero’s body blends right in and it takes all day to check them all and come up unnervingly empty. (Oops! All scarecrows!) Prompting the soldiers to check them all again and again “How could you forget?” “Why did you have to tie a sack over his very recognisable face?” “You told me to?!” “Stop gaslighting me!” Etc

c. free space

d. they did see the transformation and it terrified them so much they scarpered to the nearest pub and drank to forget

a.a. they assume Elphaba has taken their dead guy, wholesale, “What do you even do with a dead prince?” “Bury him I guess,” “Use his bones for evil spells,” “I would put the dead prince in an ornately crafted glass coffin in the woods, so that the Winkies and woodland Animals can pay their respects and gaze upon his beautiful face.” … “Except we beat his face up.” “Yeah we beat his face up.”

I’m suffering the thought equivalent of zoomies I’m so so sorry

Loolll Firstly I got a good chuckle out of Torture part 2: For Bad, so thank you for that!

Honestly I've always thought option D - that they did see his transformation for several reasons:

They're supposed to torture Fiyero "until he tells us where the witch went" and (despite the fact that they do know where Elphaba is by March of the Witch Hunters - I think she's beyond being subtle at that point, and she does have good defences) I just can't believe Fiyero would ever tell them, he'd die first. So I do not think they are done with the torturing when he's transformed.

You have to remember that these are Fiyero's men. Guards who have worked under Fiyero, probably considered him a friend, and all along he has been betraying them and working for the Witch. They are probably not the most pleasant people in the first place and they are angry. I don't think any of them are giving up for a coffee break until he's done what they want and is dead

I actually think she casts the spell pretty fast? Like wishing for his flesh not to be torn and to not be feeling pain when he's beaten, is going to be pretty redundant more than 10 minutes after Fiyero has been captured (like it's obviously long enough for there to be some possibility for him to be "already dead or bleeding" but there's also a chance of his survival)? I imagine she got to the nearest safe place and cast. And Elphaba doesn't even cast the spell for that long before giving up and falling into despair so yeah, I imagine the men see it

They would want the body. There's a lot of power displaying tortured Fiyero to Oz whether it be "look what the Witch did to our beloved Prince" or "look what happens to traitors" it sends a message to the Ozians. I can't imagine them going without it if they can help it (and the fact they do come back empty handed and presumably lie about what happened to Morrible, can't have impressed her much)

Why doesn't the scarecrow get caught later then? I imagine the guards still don't necessarily know he's turned into a scarecrow - I imagine they ran away the moment the freaky magic started happening (and again, lied about the success of their murder when questioned by their superiors). There's also a non zero chance that, when they were taking a stiff drink after it all, Elphaba all "no good deed will i do again" returned to the field, found no Fiyero and the guards drinking (she presumes in celebration) and just burnt them all to death.

Thanks for the question! It was fun to specuate!

[lenalenouilleisblogging]

2024 feminist movie retrospective ~ day 4

The word "animale" can be read as a female variant of animal (which doesn't exist in the french dictionary, the word animal is always male) or as the female variant of the adjective, synonymous to bestial.

A bit of a shorter one today ! I wrote the Furiosa review in one sitting yesterday and by the end my head was fucking throbbing 😵‍💫 don't focus on a screen for that long kids. Today, like on day 2, we're gonna talk about a smaller scale project i think radblr should know about. Spoilers will be in red. Dark content ahead.

(note : the movie is not exactly subtle during the first act so I don't believe the spoilers are too bad. I'm not gonna describe the ending or anything. You can read the spoiler sections and still appreciate the film)

Watched : December 10th at my city's independent theater. The showing was almost empty.

This is the first female directed movie in this retrospective, it was also written, produced and edited by women! It's a fantasy feminist story with a western aesthetic.

Set in the Camargue region in the south of France, the film tells the story of Nejma, a young woman who dreams of becoming a professional bullfighter. One night, drunk after a competition she gets hurt. And in the following days starts noticing disturbing changes to her body. Meanwhile, young men from her community start turning up dead. Alone at night, they've been mauled to death by a bull.

If you are in any way aware of the grim reality women face, and I assume you are, a few things are going to worry you immediately at the beginning of the story. Nejma lives in a small insular community, very culturally attached to bullfighting. Apart from her mother whom she's not close to, she is surrounded exclusively by men. Her (gay) best friend and his father, as well as a few future bullfighters that she works with everyday. She is constantly with them. In the arena, in the changing room, outside.

The way men around her (with the exception of the best friend and the dad) act with her set off alarms in my head pretty much immediately as I was watching. They clearly find her entertaining enough to let her stick around, but they don't respect her. They don't take her professional dreams seriously no matter how hard she works, and don't see her as an equal. Showing the casual sexism in everyday men is something the film does well. They're never rude or mean to her, it goes deeper than that.

When Nejma gets drunk after a competition, trying to keep up with the lads drinking, she sneaks off with them to the bull enclosure. It's a game for drunk friends, daring someone to go alone in it, with only the light of the moon to see. Nejma wants to be brave, but is so drunk she ends up blacking out in the pasture. When she wakes up the next day, groggy, confused, uncomfortable and with a fresh wound on her arm ; the guys welcome her as usual, and don't act any different.

As the movie progresses, things become weird. Nejma can't sleep. She's plagued by nightmares of that night, in which she sees three bulls menacingly approaching her. Her friends start going missing and she wakes up in the morning covered in dirt and blood. Her body changes in abnormal ways, and she can't manage to do her job correctly anymore. She feels a strange kinship towards the animals. It's all a long build-up to the final reveal, Nejma was raped that night in the field. She has become a "were-bull", transforming every night to go pursue, terrorize and kill her abusers.

I don't know if the movie lacks subtlety or if I'm just too black-pilled, but the "reveal" wasn't really one for me, and I assume it would be the same for a lot of you. That being said, maybe the film isn't actually trying to be a mystery! Maybe the final revelation is meant for the character and not necessarily the audience, who's supposed to have figured that out already. Honestly it's unclear to me. So yeah, I'm marking the plot as spoilers but I don't think knowing these things in advance will ruin your enjoyment.

The movie makes a lot of parallels between the way society treats non-human animals and the way it treats women. There's an incredible scene where a group of men are all holding a young, struggling bull to the ground to brand it. Nejma watches from the side and suddenly sees herself lying where the bull is, desperately struggling, held down by all those men. The image is shocking, striking, the scene is so intense and powerful. That dream is actually what makes Nejma remember her traumatic memories.

The fantasy elements are visually subtle but they work extremely well. The movie doesn't have a huge budget but it does the absolute best with what it has. The were-bull transformations are mostly offscreen but what we get to see is so stylistic and frankly looks amazing. The effects work great and fit perfectly in the overall slow and somber tone of the film.

The other technical elements work great as well. The original soundtrack is fantastic and I've been replaying it regularly. The movie has an amazing sense of style and tone and you can tell the team loves the region they shot in, everything is beautifully shot, the cinematography makes those landscapes shine. The acting is great all around, Oulaya Amamra as Nejma is simply perfect and as a survivor I was really touched by some scenes. Her performance really sells this story. The rest of the cast is made out of locals who are not professional actors, which is understandable. They shot in actual bullfighting arenas, they needed people who knew what they were doing to minimise danger during production. Interestingly, as the director explained in an interview, one of the hurdles they faced during the casting process was that most locals hated that the project involved a female bullfighter. Sad, but on theme.

While this isn't a "horror" film by any stretch, it's still a dark narrative, with body-horror/fantasy elements. It's all wrapped up in this very french but also very western inspired aesthetic, and honestly it's not something I ever knew I needed. But I really did.

The movie is apparently getting foreign releases which is great! I don't know if it'll get a physical release here but I really hope so. So far the only copy I found was a pirated version on a russian forum. I hope it gets a wider release and some English subtitles so y'all can watch it :3

Also the men on the russian forum were really disappointed in the film, they said it was a boring misandrist french movie. HUGE green flag lol

Final rating : GOODFORHER/10

This film gets the official Léna seal of approval! Watch it if you can! Here's a link to the trailer.

[raayllum]

How do you think Arc 3 Rayla will learn her lesson in sacrifice?

That's a good question! I have more speculative thoughts on arc 3 here and here which isn't Super relevant but help highlight a specific thing, which is: the trio all make the Wrong Choices in 7x09, and they can't make those choices again in arc 3's finale (s10).

Like, arc 1 ended with Rayla being willing to sacrifice herself, and being subsequently saved by Callum. Arc 2 ended with Rayla being willing to sacrifice Callum, with it being avoided because of the archdragons. In some ways, all the trio are making the Arc 1 Viren choices in S7, and that can't be where their story ends.

I actually wrote a bigger meta post-S6 about where I thought Rayllum's arcs may go, and overestimated by cramming more into S7 than they reasonably had time for. However, I stand by like, 90% of that meta specifically:

So long as she’s Rayla — brave, selfless, loving — he can be Callum, and so long as he’s Callum — resourceful, persistent, loving — she can be Rayla. Not a dark mage forcing her to be an assassin, but two people who bring out the best in one another. And in doing so, in choosing to save rather than sacrifice each other, they get to likewise save, love, and preserve themselves.

So Callum throwing away being 'Callum' in 7x09, First, and Rayla following suit with him (as she always does) by doing the same is like, spectacularly on brand.

The other parts of the meta I think have a good shot moving forward is Callum having an arc of prioritizing love > mystery/knowledge (again, more on the meta) and Rayla finally, finitely, choosing love over duty.

She tends to go back and forth on it, and it's not as simple as "in order to be a protector she cannot be an assassin" (circa 3x09) but there is a Reason that Rayla has to literally abandon being an assassin™ in order to bring Zym home in arc 1.

When Runaan is brought back in S6/S7, we get a good look at how Rayla still views being an assassin:

I know I've talked about this before in a past meta but forget where, but a core part of being an assassin is dehumanizing others (your target, or targets by proxy) as well as yourself. You, like your targets, are not a person; you are a weapon, a tool, and you are "already dead". Your wants, needs, life, family, etc. doesn't matter. This is pushed even further by the three times we see Rayla take up the assassin mantle explicitly across the series:

In 3x09, wherein she is put into a situation where she cannot kill Viren without literally also killing herself, and is saved/spared only because of Callum.

In 4x05, wherein she abandons the drake vs 2x07 "This is where I'm meant to be," showing that she's continuing to siphon off Core pieces of herself ("Rayla's brave, she saves people [...] That's what makes her a hero. That's what makes her Rayla").

In 7x09, where she's prepared to murder Callum ("I almost risked losing the best thing I ever had" / "My heart for Xadia"), condemning herself to a life without her partner (which neither sets of her parents nor herself were willing to enforce for Lain/Tiadrin or Runaan/Ethari, as she fights to keep them together throughout all of arc 2). This, as Ezran states, would've meant "sacrificing everything we are"; if she'd killed Callum, she would've killed herself (symbolically), too, and she was willing to do it.

Moreover, sacrificing your loved ones is seen as a Big Bad Viren thing to do ("We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love" / everything with Lissa, and later Soren; even Runaan with Rayla in 1x03). This is further entangled by, to Rayla, a person just IS a dark mage, but being an assassin is a Separate Job that isn't who they are. And this isn't necessarily truly challenged until AFTER she's picking up her assassin father's bow (the Symbolism) and Runaan has realized maybe he was always wrong, each time, to ben an assassin, because each time he thought the violence was Necessary (Harrow, Callum), he was ultimately wrong (Harrow was a good man who wanted to change; the Archdragons could defeat Aaravos with others' help).

This is especially important because for Runaan, there is no separation of "Runaan as himself" and "Runaan the assassin (his job)". They're the same thing to him, I think, because he's operating under different cognitive dissonances / ways of thinking than his daughter.

And I knew she was right: I had become a monster. / I'm a monster!

So like, being an assassin — doing assassin-y things; dehumanizing yourself and others — is Bad. Every time, it's bad for Rayla from a physical or emotional standpoint, it's bad for her relationships, it's bad from a narrative perspective, etc etc. When Terry says in 7x02, "There's another way with less darkness and sacrifice," he isn't just talking (narratively) about dark magic.

Sacrifice is the cornerstone of being an an assassin and of Rayla's character arc, and always has been, being both a good thing, and a bad thing.

Rayla can be so selfless that it rounds back into being selfish because she doesn't consider how her actions or her going missing/dying will affect the people around her, and in arc 2, she makes a lot of progress, mostly in S4 and S5. The former lets her learn about the importance of coming back and second chances; and season 5 is about accepting grace, making good on those second chances, and learning how to ask for help. But S6 and S7 make it plain that her issues have not entirely resolved.

In S5-S6, she routinely puts her family on the back-burner, even if it's a burden and causes her immense anguish ("It hurts me to know they're trapped like this. It's agonizing"). In S7, she's willing to push, but because she conceptualizes it for being for Runaan and Ethari's benefit(s), not her own, and instead intends to leave without even reuniting with her second dad.

Hurting Callum is the last thing she wanted (5x04) but she was still willing to do it (s4) and even go so far as killing him (7x09), because her wants and needs and family members don't fundamentally matter when the fate of the world (or even someone she feels bound/obligated to help) is seemingly at stake. And, finally, S7 goes after this by attacking the sacrificial pillar of Rayla's identity has been scaffolded upon: Runaan.

Runaan goes I was wrong. He is also fundamentally changed by returning to Katolis and seeing the eyes of the person he hurt through his actions. He acknowledges that his precision violence, his quest for murder, wasn't necessary.

That he sacrificed his family, and he will not do so again (vs Rayla's assessment of "I can't help you yet [...] I think this is what you would want me to do" in 5x01, of course). Because Runaan has changed, and is not who he once was / does not have the same priorities he once did.

This, more than anything, is Rayla's way in, but as stated, it only happens at the end of S7, not Before.

After S6 aired, I remember still leaning towards Rayla being unwilling to kill him in S7 (as this was a kids' show, and they're not going to kill their central protagonist, particularly with Callum's importance as a mage) but being unsure of how they were going to get her there in just 9 episodes. After all, she was still wiling to sacrifice her parents time and time again (5x01, 5x04, 6x01, 6x05) and it didn't sit quite right with me that she'd Suddenly do a 180 when it was her boyfriend, alternatively, on the line. The fact that Callum, who has routinely encouraged Rayla to not make sacrifices, was also the one encouraging her to make this one, made it doubly complicated; of course she was going to waver, as she's always borrowed from Callum's (and others') viewpoint for her own:

VILLADS: Look at yourself, Rayla. Who are you? What do you stand for? Once you know that, you'll end up where you were always meant to be. (2x06)

RAYLA: I've been thinking about something someone once told me. About how when one person hurts another, and that person hurts them back, it becomes a cycle that never ends. CALLUM: Who told you that? RAYLA: You did. [...] Protecting that dragon doesn't just feel like the thing to do; it feels like the right thing for me to do. It's where I'm meant to be. (2x07)

DARK!CALLUM: Even if that means giving up your sense of right and wrong. (7x06)

RAYLA: An assassin doesn't decide right or wrong. Only life and death. (1x02)

Like, they can't have Rayla try to be an Assassin again after 7x09. That plot arc has been carried through. Therefore, the only one left is the Alternative: not an assassin, but a Hero™ who saves people, especially the people she loves.

Therefore, main reason to leave Callum open to possession as of the end of S7 (as similar drama could've been achieved or staged without him beginning the corruption spell) is for Rayla to un-make her 7x09 choice. She'll fight for him, and save him. She'll chase what she wants, for herself.

I have a few ideas of what could get her to that turning point, i.e.

7 years of a happy relationship with Callum and having a real support system (her family, her village, Callum + Ez, Soren, etc) and she finally feels like she doesn't have anything to atone for

Her and Runaan talking about his past choices and how/why he was wrong, and doesn't want Rayla to make the same mistakes

Rayla realizing/seeing that Callum Will Not sacrifice her, even for the greater good, and while she may be immensely angry/upset at first, she realizes that he was right and she'll do the same/whatever it takes to bring him back from the possession (theory on this that's been going for 3 long ass years + its 5 year old big sister)

Like, 7x09 ended with the heroes trying to kill Aaravos and trap him with dark magic. Both those options are now, seemingly, out of the question, or either imprisoning him with primal/deep magic (which would be very Iffy story wise) or changing his mind is like... some of our only paths through, and that applies to Rayla.

Aaravos wants the Cosmic Council to suffer forever, but Rayla asks how much suffering is enough to pay for the mistakes we've made? In 2x08, she cited that Callum's dark magic coma (the harm/toll it took on him) was him paying the price (cue him trying to trap Aaravos in a Literal Coin even if that means paying with his life). She quickly unlearns that (2x09) and is learning to stand by it (7x09) but still hasn't brought it to fruition; I look forward to seeing her do so.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

The lack of talk about Baji and the Akashi is one of the things that saddens me the most

(headcanons incoming since canon didn't give us much either)

Sanzu is as Baji's childhood friend as Mikey was. Their paths started to split following Sanzu's scars but it's hard to imagine Baji who's number 1 personality trait is caring for his friends to have left him behind like that. It's a result of several factors, mostly Mikey. Both Sanzu - Haruchiyo - and him are followers, as god knows they spent their childhood running after Mikey; but the whole broken-concorde-incident already impacted their relationship and themselves a lot, the shame and guilt stemming from it led to Mikey drifting away. Baji follows, Sanzu tries too. Mikey found new friends, started a gang. Haruchiyo never wished to be in any gang and Mikey seems happy with his new friends. Baji is young and confused and ashamed and doesn't know what to do and picking a family awfully feels like abandoning the other. Haruchiyo had always been that gentle and soft-spoken kid (not that it doesn't mean he couldn't be rowdy at times)

But Sanzu is the last one to become some sort of strangers, despite the fact they spent all of their childhood sleeping over to the Sano household, and playing, and going to school together. And his scars were a point of no return and a breaking point, and Baji doesn't quite handle the memory of that day, but Senju and Takeomi deserted his life before Sanzu erased his presence by a lot from it. And Sanzu eventually joins Toman and despite the fact they don't interact as much as when they were kids - Baji is too focused on the founders and then the mess that Shinichiro's death made - well, he gets to see him anyway. Even though it's usually from afar

(Also y'all can take away from my cold, cold dead hands the idea that one of the factor on why Baji so fervently went and didn't want to leave Kazutora alone is because the situation reminded him of Sanzu's situation. He was there for the scars as he was there for Shinichiro's death but he was slightly older, and he probably felt guilt both for not stopping Mikey scarring Sanzu but also for letting their relationship with Sanzu die. He didn't want that to happen again)

But Senju was also his childhood friend. The boys would've rather not play with her - I know how that goes - but she was still there, still constantly around and chasing after them, wanting to join. Emma didn't play with them as much and yet Baji remained close to her (that's bordering fanon since we have very few canon elements about Baji and Emma but I don't think anyone would deny it). Not Senju tho. She somewhen disappeared after Sanzu's scars and that was it. He remembers her being so shaken that day but so was he. so was he.

Did he die with his latest memory of her being 7?

Senju probably cut herself off for a bit after feeling so guilty for that day and not being able to face anyone - much less those three, much less when she's persuaded that they all changed because of her and that day. Colder, more violent, still not wanting her to tag along and her not wanting too either as days went on

She still holds them dear in her heart, until her last breath. Baji got new friends during those years, beside Takemichi(in the like. 2 days before her death) Senju had gotten none. Senju is driven by that day, Baji would do his best to forget about it (Senju simply cannot, Baji got the 'chance' to have other matters to distract him.)

It's even harder to talk about Takeomi. But since the Akashi and the Sano are distorted mirrors of each other, let's go with that hypothetical outlook. And. well Baji is one of the people in the world knowing the 'if it's raining, that means Take-nii's near!' rule, one of the people in the world to which that false logic died with time because no, when it rains Takeomi isn't necessarily around - not anymore. And idk, for some reasons it's easy to imagine Baji being a kid Takeomi actually gets along with (for once, sigh). He doesn't have to raise him and he's not a pain as Manjiro can be. He teaches Baji shogi and despairs when Baji's strategy is 'let's do how I feel like for that next move, forever'. The older boys spend most of the time together while the younger are playing together a bit farther away. His interactions with Takeomi were more limited than with any other of this group in his childhood, but he was still a constancy. A face, a presence. A known one. Poof, vanished one day like that(a combination of several things on Takeomi's end). Takeomi drove his bike with Baji sat behind him for fuck's sake (which both means Baji asked and Takeomi accepted); we've got one interaction between those two and that one interaction isn't meaningless.

Baji being as close to the Akashi as he is to the Sano is important to me. It's important because he's the vertical line of symmetry between the two families. to me. The middle point. The thing that they not only have in common but that is actually the exact same instead of a copy. He's an unit they share. They cannot both have one each and they both love him

In additional relationships than the one they have with the Sano, all three Akashi have very few. There's Benkei & Wakasa (which half count from Takeomi's perspective since he thinks they'd choose Shinichiro over him and are here for him + he doesn't interact much with them (or anyone) during his debt years), and then Sanzu has Mucho (and the moment he's against Mikey it's *ciao*) but beside that...

[wingedshadowfan]

people: it didn't matter that sevika was sitting in cassandra's seat because "it wasn't caitlyn's to give" (the seats are not inherited) and because caitlyn didn't want to be a councilor anyway so she wouldn't care

you guys are missing the point!!

we don't actually know if the seats are typically inherited or not

maddie told caitlyn she can reestablish the council, and at the end the council was actually reestablished (and while i personally don't believe maddie that caitlyn could've done that by herself, or at least not if she chose to follow the usual procedure, despite her powerful family name and the fact that at one point all councilors except shoola were dead or gone) w/ powerful people whose families seemingly hadn't held a seat before - but that's not necessarily evidence for councilor seats not being inherited, as it didn't seem like it was the standard that all of a sudden there were no councilors anymore and their families were busy grieving them. perhaps it was completely intentional that reestablishing the council involved putting new faces in it (esp if the old councilors/their families had been in power for a long time - and they likely had been ever since ambessa sieged piltover).

when salo tells her she's not authorized to be at their meeting and caitlyn tells him she's "a decorated officer, leader of house kiramman" that definitely means she doesn't have a seat on the council automatically after her mother's death, but it doesn't mean she couldn't have gotten it, had she wanted it - or had the remaining council members held a vote about it. this is what i mean when i say i don't think the seats are typically inherited - i think the council has to vote for each new member (except when fully reestablishing it from 0 members) but we've seen how easily those votes can be manipulated with mel adding jayce as an 8th councilor and them kicking heimerdinger out with some political play. what i mean to say is, even if the seats aren't inherited, i believe they'd probably function that way regardless because every council member would try to keep a seat in their lineage, especially if they're from a known powerful family like caitlyn is. this is why caitlyn has leverage despite not being a councilor, and why it's so shocking when jayce becomes one and heimerdinger gets kicked out. seats are rather understood to belong to a house and "promised" than inherited.

even if you don't believe me (bcuz this is something we can only guess about and my word's as good as anyone else's), we can all agree caitlyn's opinion matters - especially after she lead the piltovians into war and helped councilor and mage mel medarda defeat the enemy in the face of her mother and noxian general warmonger ambessa medarda, and basically save humanity. the "decorated officer, leader of house kiramman" was already influential enough to receive virtually unanimous support to become commander in martial law and now she's somewhat of a war hero. so even if she isn't a councilor, and seats can't be inherited, sevika taking specifically her late mother's seat, after almost killing caitlyn and vi on multiple occasions, isn't something that could've happened so easily, had caitlyn not wished it to. regardless of who we think reestablished the council (although i think it makes the most sense that it was mel, shoola and caitlyn), even if caitlyn didn't "give" the seat to sevika, she very much allowed her to sit there and gave her her blessing.

caitlyn didn't want to be a councilor anyway so it doesn't matter to her who got her mother's seat

yes, caitlyn never wanted to be a councilor but she's still her deceased mother's daughter and the leader of the house that kept that seat - if it was up to her (which i'm sure it had to have been, at least to an extent), she wouldn't have allowed just anyone to become councilor, let alone sit in her mother's very seat. she would've definitely cared who carries this specific piece of her mother's legacy. and if she thought sevika was unfit for it or that it would taint her mother's memory, she wouldn't have allowed it to happen. and i have a post explaining why i think the undercity representative had to be sevika and caitlyn knew that. with jinx gone and ekko having his commune to take care of, sevika isn't just the only choice, she's the one who worked to unite the entire undercity after vander and silco failed, who lead her people into battle. caitlyn saw this.

and of course, caitlyn's last words to vi in the show are definitely consistent with this as they point to the idea that caitlyn hasn't just left things the way they are after the council got reestablished - sevika is still a minority vote and the other councilors didn't exactly seem happy to see a zaunite there, so the fight is only just beginning. this is evidence to believe that caitlyn is actively using her resources and privilege (with vi's help) to aid in rebuilding, reforming and healing the two cities and their relationship - and in doing so, dedicating herself to atoning for her mistakes.

[anotherhomelanderblog]

I hope I'm not boring you with questions😅

I feel like if the Homelander girl has a big and friendly family, John will definitely want to meet them. After all it is her family and she by definition raised such an adorable daughter. I mean she chose him, she's definitely been instilled with a taste for men😁It's probably going to be very touching if he's welcomed as family. They'll feed him, ask him about everything, in short, all eyes on him. But a grandmother who will complain about how poorly fed and no self-pitying he is, will hit his ego. He's always awesome! I think he's gonna have an emotion like jealousy. I mean, he's never had any of that. But at the same time some joy. Although if they ask him about his childhood, it could get tense. Everyone "knows" about his childhood.

And what if they try to feed him? Try this one, the family recipe(Homelander grabs this at the speed of light), this one, and this one and this one. He probably has a bad relationship with food and sleep.....

What about his relatives, his fans who want to take selfies with him? And the nieces and nephews who demand attention from him? Isn't he gonna run away from that? 😅 Or just glassy-eyed. This is what his childhood must have been like! Loved and cared for!

Hi again! You're not, don't worry. I'm still pretty new around here and really bad at just jumping in and interacting with people. You'll either get too much from me or not enough. 😂 So please don't feel bad for sending asks.

This is an x Reader idea I like a lot. Homelander really wants a family, but he's never been taught how to love in a healthy way. He would be jealous and possessive! But, at the same time, he knows how to put on a show. He's an excellent actor, and I think he'd want to impress Reader's parents (if they're, like in this instance, a nice family that she gets along with).

It would be a bit of a surreal scenario for everyone, since he's obviously this famous celebrity. Her parents will already know who he is and think things about him that Reader knows aren't actually true. I think beforehand she'd have to ask them not to mention his parents or upbringing at all. They don't touch on the specifics of who his fake parents are in the show, but I get the impression they're meant to be dead, so asking her parents not to bring them up wouldn't necessarily be that suspicious!

If they were accidentally brought up - say, maybe Reader's mother remarks, "Your parents must be so proud of you." - I could see a moment of awkward silence happening before he plasters on a fake smile and thanks her. I think it would genuinely touch him, even if it's a bittersweet sentiment. Reader's mother doesn't know the half of it... 😅

But anyway, they are totally adopting him as their son now.

The first time they meet, I think it would make more sense if he just met her parents. After all, he's not an ordinary boyfriend. Meeting her extended family (maybe at a BBQ or something) would probably be more of a challenge. I can imagine him finding it grating because here are all these people who've known her longer than him, who she has in jokes with, making him feel like the outsider among people yet again. And at first they are gonna view him as a bit of a spectacle. He is the most powerful and famous American out there. He'd need some help breaking the ice. It's not like he's had many real relationships with people, certainly not ordinary people. He's prepped for impressing audiences and Vought donors, all interactions with fans being pretty shallow and (probably) quite brief. How does he actually talk in any depth, at length, to people he can't get away from? I feel like Reader would need to stick quite close to him throughout the day, almost as moral support and to keep a check on his mood. I do like your idea of it all getting to him though, because he's always dreamt about this perfect little apple pie life. He'd be so emotionally drained by the time they left. Would require snuggles.

I also really like your idea about the family just wanting to feed him. 😂 I agree he's probably got a bad relationship with food and sleep. We don't really know how the science behind him affects his bodily needs for either, but we know he does eat and sleep - and that he has nightmares. There's that Reddit Q&A they had for Homelander to help promote S4 where he says something about not being a foodie and viewing it more as fuel, which makes sense to me. I doubt there is much he could eat that would actually affect him. He doesn't get the joy of food apart from milk. Maybe these meals could be different; the association would be positive, for once.

Actually, I think that's one of the trillion reasons @hom3landr's Bakerverse series is so good. Sweet treats specifically for him! Made with love! It's too cute. 🥰

Thanks again for the ask!

[vroomvroomwee]

Hello! Do you have any more thoughts on the fact that nobody went looking for Alastor after the finale?

I feel like part of Al would be glad nobody saw him like that, and that he already has 0 expectations of the hotel so he's not surprised he was left alone. On the other hand, the man loves attention and is probably a little miffed

We know Al loves attention from the overlord meeting, but I wonder how much of that is "I like being in the spotlight" and how much of it is "please notice I was missing"

Hi! First off, sorry for answering this so late! The points you listed are exactly why I think Alastor would be slightly offended that everyone forgot about him in the finale. Because from his perspective, the constant bickering and insults (particularly with Vaggie) go both ways. So they're pretty much on even footing. And the deal he made with Charlie was more of a transaction. He does something for her and she does something for him in return. Simple. Fair. They're all adults and understand how it goes so in his mind he isn't exactly praying on them or harming them (yet).

But, what makes everything worse is the fact that Alastor doesn't even want to be at that hotel. And here he is risking his existence to protect it and protect people who don't mean anything to him. And now, to top that off with the fact that he's been helping them repeatedly AND he hasn't outwardly antagonised or conned or tricked them yet, he would probably interpret their neglect as a personal offense. Especially, since they gave Pentious and Dazzle a memorial/pictures/statues. While, for Alastor they did nothing even though they knew he was either dead or heavily injured.

Their opinions don't necessarily mean anything to Alastor, but it's their lack of gratitude that I think would cement his disloyalty to them. He thrives on being useful, he likes feeling like the strongest and most powerful in the room, he loves attention, he revels in being NEEDED. And since he's continuously "given" favours, services, and his time to them, the lack of acknowledgement or consideration for that would not just peeve him, but anger him too. To give and give and give only to receive nothing in the end. It's the injustice that he would absorb as a personal attack.

And there's also the aspect that Alastor is miserable there. He's unhappy with his task and he needs someone to blame. So, naturally his resent would be targeted towards the people he's supposed to "help", people who constantly take him for granted. And since he thinks he can do no wrong, then it must be their fault. Instead of reaching out, letting himself be vulnerable, or allowing a sliver of honesty to slip through that he needs help and this isn't what he wants, he instead tries to absolve himself of the responsibility because blaming them would be so much easier. (Now add onto this all the previous points and that would inevitably lead to Alastor becoming a more antagonistic figure in the future)

[panicloser]

Yellowjackets theory sort of more like an observation adding to an existing theory

Okay so I'm incredibly fixated on yellowjackets at the moment, i haven't had an idea of what to post and have just been basking in the fandom

But I had an idea that links to the idea that Melissa is going to betray Shauna.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean that Melissa's feelings for Shauna are disingenuous, they probably are genuine to some extent since she was willing to risk her life for a kiss but that doesn’t mean we can’t have her do a little backstabbing, I mean this show is iconic for the character’s complicated feelings in relationships. There's a few reasons that I think whether premeditated or not she is gonna betray Shauna. The one most interesting to me is with Shauna & Adams affair in season 1

A relationship that mirrors this one: Shauna seeking this person as a way to feel like she has power over someone or something where in her life she currently feels powerless. The target is obediently giving her exactly what she wants and allowing themself to be strung along by Shauna, making it seem and feel like she's in power. However, they are learning a lot about Shauna but Shauna doesn't know much about them in return. With Adam this results in a perceived betrayal.

When Shauna confronts him, she is of course extremely upset as you would but not only that she's also having a full on trauma response judging by the flashbacks to the wilderness, the reverting back to her teen self and ofc the stab. Now you could argue that she's having this response simply because she feels threatened or hurt and its causing those instincts and coping mechanisms she developed in the wilderness to kick in, definitely. However in her dialogue there's a very specific focus on the betrayal side of it, how she regrets opening up and getting close to this person as shes having flashbacks to the wilderness, how she feels stupid for letting her guard down which you would especially feel if you'd been through this before.

Plus later when she shows Tai & Nat his dead body in between being pretty apathetic she suddenly gets very emotional again when specifically thinking and talking about it, when saying she trusted/thought he loved her and he was going to hurt her/lying to her, despite the fact that she already knows he wasnt the blackmailer at this point. You could say shes lying but we’ve been shown many times that Shauna is a terrible liar. This could point to the fact that she's actually remembering a different time this happened instead. And everything she's saying sounds really personal and could all be things that maybe Melissa did to her.

She's having a personal resonse to the betrayal, at that point in the story there wasn't a relationship in the wilderness she had that mirrored what she had with Adam. Now this season we’re seeing her in an awfully similar situationship

Also this is especially relevant to Shauna this season since she is currently the most closed off she's ever been in the teen timeline so being betrayed would currently trigger her even worse than normal. And something vulnerable about herself has already been revealed to Melissa: the way she’s still holding onto her baby, in general Melissa seems to know a lot about Shauna already and shes getting closer to her. In both Shauna gets to feel a sense of freedom and she gets to feel safe and happy with another person for a bit in a way she hasn't in a while. Both relationships also carry a theme of being able to show the bad parts of themselves/parts of themselves they want to hide around each other, Shauna & Adam were having an affair & doing a lot of reckless activities acting like teens again and Shauna and Melissa are being malicious & trying to get a guy killed...obviously the stuff she was doing with Adam was more mild but you get my point right? Shauna gets to feel in power and free, with Adam it gets pulled out from under her causing a violent emotional reaction from her since she was finally able to trust someone again, it makes sense if they mirrored the same thing happening with Melissa

I'm just noticing the similarities between these two relationships for Shauna. The adult timeline's goal is to show how the events of the past affect them now so it’s a good way for them to subtly hint at future events in the teen timeline and if Melissa does betray Shauna it would then give more context to Shauna's reaction in the scene with Adam.

Now some extra spitballing here: if this does happen and sticking with the idea that Melissa does die in the wilderness cuz thats what i hope, this could result in Shauna reacting the same way she did to Adam and stabbing her, which would be ironic cuz Melissa gave her a sheath for her knife. This could possibly kick off the hunting and cannibalism again, that would be a great way to start it up again. Shauna once again eating someone she was a bit fruity for, that would link to her and Jackie’s relationship. If Melissa did survive, Shauna stabbing Adam could be her doing something she’d wished she’d done last time. Although its unlikely, if Melissa betrays Shauna I highly doubt she would live through it. Looking forward to it :)

Alright, that's my two cents, I've officially contributed to the fandom. I don't make theories very often so im quite inexperienced, you can go ahead and call me out if you think I'm wrong or I missed something or if i interpreted everything completely wrong, let me know :D

[yourfriendlyfanperson]

A Chemical Reaction Called Love

Chapter 3: A Boring Life

~Pairing: Steve Harrington x F!reader

~Summary: Being the daughter of Hawkins Middle School Science teacher, Scott Clarke, has its perks. Constantly having to explain things to 'King' Steve Harrington wasn't necessarily one of them but it was something you had gotten used to. He might not be the brightest guy but at least he tried, and you appreciated that. You had big plans for the future, but they might be forced to change thanks to a phone call...

~Warnings: Sensitive topics might be brought up so reader discretion is advised.

~Word Count: 3.4k

~Authors Note: Hey everyone! Here's chapter three! Thanks so much for the love on the previous chapters! I'm still getting used to how posting fanfics on tumblr works so I appreciate all the likes and reposts! If you'd like to be tagged in the next chapter let me know! Once again you can find me on Ao3 as Lilpipsqueak and W-tpadd as friendlyfanperson!

Does anyone know how I can make the previous chapter numbers appear and be linked to this? I've been trying to figure it out lol

~Narrator's POV~

Y/n walks inside the middle school going to her dad's room, the place is very quiet, which is the opposite of what the school is usually like, there is a very uncomfortable atmosphere around but it's to be expected, after all, one of the students was announced dead, it's not something that ever happens or people think will happen.

"Hi dad," She says standing at the door.

"Hey honey, thanks for coming to help the kids by talking about losing someone," He tells her walking out of the room.

"No worries, how are the boys doing?" She asks him, walking next to him.

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen them today, they must be having a rough time though, I can't even imagine"

Y/n doesn't even want to imagine how they must be feeling, they're only twelve years old and have already lost their best friend to some terrible accident, no kid should go through what they're going through, but the circumstances can't be changed, unfortunately, and all they can do is be there for the boys so things are easier for them, comfort them in any way possible, and make sure that Will's memory lives on.

"Attention students, there will be an assembly to honour Will Byers in the gymnasium now. Do not go to fourth period"

The principal announced from the speakers, when it all goes quiet again they can hear voices coming from somewhere near and just as they turn to the right they see the three boys with a girl standing in the corridors.

"Boys?" Scott says as they turn to look at him.

"Hey," Lucas says, trying not to seem suspicious.

"The assembly is about to start" Y/n adds.

"We know," Mike tells her, "We're just, you know"

"Upset," Lucas explains with a smile before looking down sad.

"Yeah, yeah, definitely upset" Dustin repeats.

"We need some alone time," Mike says.

"To cry" Dustin adds.

Y/n looks at them confused, noticing they are acting stranger than usual.

"Yeah, listen, I get it, I do" Mr Clarke begins telling them, "I know how hard this is, but let's just be there for Will, huh? And then" he gets his keys out from his pocket and tosses them to Mike, "The Heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day, what do you say?" he asks them.

The boys look at him with a smile nodding, happy with the idea.

"I haven't seen you around here before, is she new? What's your name?" Y/n asks the blonde girl standing next to Mike.

"Elev-" The girl begins to say before she's interrupted by Mike, Lucas and Dustin.

"Eleanor, she's my-"

"Cousin!"

"Second cousin"

"She's here for Will's funeral" Mike adds.

Y/n stands there trying to figure out whether the three boys expected her to really believe the obvious lie they just told her, and by the look of it they were sure she was going to believe it.

"Ah, well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Eleanor, I wish you were here under better circumstances," Her dad tells the girl.

"Thank you" She softly says.

"Uh, where are you from exactly?" Y/n asks her.

The eyes of the three boys widen as they turn to look at Elenor who shakes her head.

"Bad place-"

"Sweden!" Dustin shouts. "I have a lot of Swedish family" Mike adds. "She hates it there" Dustin mentions. "Cold" Lucas says. "Subzero"

Everything feels very awkward after that, Y/n and Scott look at each other, confusion visible on their face, but they decide to just move past the conversation.

"Shall we?" Her dad says looking at the kids.

"Yep," Lucas says as they all walk towards the sports hall.

Dustin opens the door to the room interrupting the principal and drawing everyone's attention to the five of them.

"Great" Y/n mumbles.

Dustin turns around trying to leave but is pushed back inside by Lucas.

Lucas, Mike, Dustin and Eleanor take a seat on the benches while Y/n and Scott sit on the chairs behind the principal.

"We have Y/n Clarke from Hawkins High to talk to you guys a bit about how it feels to lose someone, Y/n," The principal says turning to look back at her.

She stands up taking a deep breath, public speaking it's not fun, especially having to talk to a bunch of clearly bored and annoying pre-teenagers. Y/n smiles at the principal walking next to him and moving to look at the kids, most of them looked like they couldn't wait for this to be over, some were mildly interested or at least respected the situation, a very small group was actually upset, and then in the crowd, she saw two boys laughing, she noticed that Mike and Lucas saw them too, and man does she hate bullies.

"Can you two at the back be quiet?" She shouts glaring at the two boys, they look back at her embarrassed and annoyed but stop talking, "Thank you"

Now I could share with you the sad story that Y/n is telling the kids, but in reality, the anecdote isn't actually that sad, she doesn't even remember her mother at all, she died when Y/n was only two-years-old in a car accident, but stretching the truth for the kids to stop being little assholes wouldn't hurt at the end of the day. So she put on her best sad face and took ten minutes of the kid's day to share the story.

"So let's keep Will's memory alive, and show some respect," She says finishing her speech. The bell goes off and the kids start leaving the room, Y/n walks over to her dad, "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm okay honey" In comparison to her Scott obviously remembers her mother a lot, and he gets very sentimental whenever someone talks about her, it's a sensitive topic.

"Do you want me to go talk to the kids?" She asks him.

"No don't worry, I'll talk to them you should go back to class," He tells her with a smile, she smiles back at him and waves goodbye as she walks out of the gym.

Y/n walks back to the High School and gets on with her usual day. Nothing interesting really happens after, she just attends her lessons, has lunch with Robin, and then meets once again with her dad so they can go home. Her life really is pretty boring when she thinks about it, always the same cycle over and over, it would be nice to do something new for a change.

~~~~~~~~

The next day school was cancelled since it was Will's funeral.

Y/n woke up at 8:00 am to get ready, the funeral was scheduled to start at 11:00 am and would probably last about two hours, after that most people would attend the wake which would last about an hour or so, which meant Y/n would have enough time to go back home, get changed and then walk to her shift which starts at three thirty.

She changed into the outfit she had planned for the funeral, lucky for her she already had black clothes which meant she didn't need to buy new ones for this day, it wouldn't have been fun to buy clothes for a funeral.

All she could think about while getting ready was the fact she was attending Will's funeral, it really was happening, he was actually dead, it wasn't just a bad nightmare she had anymore, it was a reality. No one ever wants to attend the funeral of someone younger than them, they're supposed to live longer than you after all, so when that doesn't happen it's just so  heartbreaking.

"Are you ready to go honey?" Scott asks her as he knocks on her door.

"Yeah, let's go," she says walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.

The drive to the funeral was completely quiet, neither Y/n nor her dad had the strength or energy to try and initiate a conversation, there wasn't much to talk about anyway, so really it was for the best.

When they arrived he parked his car at the car park next to the church, they both got out and walked towards Joyce and Jonathan who were standing in front of the soon-to-be grave. Y/n went up to Jonathan and gave him a big hug, she hadn't seen him since Will went missing, and she wanted to ask him how he was feeling but she guessed that was the last thing he needed to be asked today, so instead she just gave him a soft smile as she moved away from the hug and turned to look at Joyce.

She doesn't say anything, she looks so confused to be there like it isn't right.

Y/n wanted to say so much to Joyce, she wanted to tell her how sorry she was for what had happened, how she couldn't believe it was Will out of all the people it could've been, how he was such a fantastic kid he didn't deserve this, but she couldn't tell her that, not at this time anyway, "We'll be here if you need anything" was all she said, with a soft smile.

She turns to look at the kids, she expected them to be already crying their eyes out or something along those lines, but instead, they seemed normal, they didn't look upset or sad, and they didn't even look like they were hiding their feelings, which Y/n would've definitely found weird if it wasn't for the fact that the moment she saw the boys she just wanted to breakdown into tears and hug them.

"How are you guys doing?" She asked them walking over to the boys.

"We're okay," Dustin tells her looking over at Lucas and Mike.

"You guys know it's okay to cry, right?" She tells them.

"Yeah, we know," Dustin says looking at Lucas and Mike, the three of them nodding.

"Good, I'm here if you need to talk" She adds and they smile at her.

More and more people start arriving, but instead of people talking more everything goes completely quiet, and eventually, the funeral begins.

All Y/n is able to do is look down during the entire speech, she barely has the strength to look at Will's casket, it's so small, and caskets shouldn't be that small. In the end, everyone throws some flowers inside the hole before they close it.

Everyone then heads to the wake, there are tables and food organised in the place, and most people are talking, probably about something not even remotely related to Will, Lonnie is speaking to Mr and Mrs Wheeler, meanwhile, Joyce is sitting by herself, on the other side of the room Y/n and Scott are getting some food from the lunch table, when Mike, Lucas and Dustin walk up to them.

"Mr Clarke," Mike says, Scott and Y/n turn around to look at the boys.

"Oh, hey there, how are you boys holding up?" He asks them.

"We're...in...mourning" Lucas answers.

"Man, these aren't real Nilla Wafers" Dustin mumbles, Mike and Lucas turn to look at him as if he just said something irrelevant, which he did but kids usually do that.

"We were wondering if you had time to talk?" "We have some questions" "A lot of questions," Mike and Lucas say.

"What do you want to know?"

Mr Clarke, Y/n and the three boys take a seat on one of the tables and begin to ask the questions, they ask about alternate dimensions but not an alternate dimension where Will's death never happened but more about an evil alternate dimension, like the Vale of Shadows, and then they ask how one would travel there, theoretically of course. Scott explains things to the boys in the simplest way possible which is by comparing things to a flea and an acrobat, explaining how there are places an acrobat, which in this case is them, can only explore so much, meanwhile, a flea will be able to reach places they can't. The boys ask if there's a way the acrobat could reach the upside down, and he explains that it only would be possible by creating an insane amount of energy one bigger than humans can currently make which could open up a gate to reach the upside down.

"Science is neat, but not very forgiving" Scott adds as he finishes explaining things to the boys.

"You guys always have the weirdest questions you know," Y/n says chuckling as she looks at the three boys, she had this feeling that they were hiding something, that there was something going on with them, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

"We're just... very curious," Dustin tells her looking at the other two who nod at this comment.

"Well make sure that curiosity doesn't kill you," She says with a smile standing up, "I should probably start saying goodbye to everyone dad, I need to leave soon so I can get ready for work"

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you home?" He asks her.

"It's okay, I know you want to stay here longer talking with the boys and everyone else, and I have my skates anyway so it won't take me long to get home" She explains to him.

He sighs smiling at her knowing that he does, in fact, want to stay longer and that either way he won't be able to change her mind, "Be careful" he says.

"I will, love you dad, bye kids, you can call me at home if you need anything okay?"

"Okay"

~~~~~~~

After working for five hours Y/n was finally able to say goodbye to her last customer, she turned on the radio and listened to 'Old Time Rock & Roll' while she cleaned the cafe, dancing along to the song and singing the lyrics as she organised everything and made sure it was nice and clean. When she finally finished she turned off the light and walked out of the cafe closing it and locking it, she put on her skates and started skating over to her house.

She was glad she didn't take today off work because it actually helped her get her mind off everything that had happened lately, the cafe has always been a comfort place of hers so it made her feel better.

Normally she didn't mind going home after work alone, Hawkins had always been a very safe place, and she always carried some bleach in a bottle in her bag just in case, but after Barb's disappearance, the thought of walking alone at night was not so fun. So she decided to skate as fast as she could so she could get home soon, unfortunately, Y/n had her sleeves rolled up and forgot the fact it was a cold night in November and the ground would be frozen, so when she tripped on an uneven step she didn't just stop herself like she usually did but instead fell forwards on the rocky ground scraping her arms.

"Fuck" she says pushing herself up and carefully standing again, she looks down at her arms to see that they're bleeding, great, "Why is blood so dramatic?" she asks herself rolling her sleeves down, not even trying to stop the blood knowing it will be a waste of time anyway.

She continues skating to her home, and slowly this feeling that she's being followed starts growing in her stomach, she turns around to look behind her but sees nothing, she shakes her head, telling herself that she's tired and anxious so it's just her mind making her paranoid, she continues skating but the feeling doesn't go, if anything it just gets worst, she keeps looking around hoping it will make her feel better but instead she sees a weird shadow inside the woods, a tall, dark figure with a strange head; she picks up her pace trying to go as fast as she can while being careful so that she won't fall again, she looks back at the woods to see the figure closer than it was before, she doesn't care if she falls again she starts skating as fast as she possibly can, her eyes not moving away from the tall shadow that was getting closer, scared that she might end up like Barbara, missing and possibly dead.

Meanwhile, Steve Harrington was driving his car down the road she was about to walk across, he had just dropped Tommy and Carol at their house after going to check on Nancy, and it hadn't gone well, he saw her with Jonathan and was convinced that she was cheating on him with Jonathan.

Y/n was freaking out so much she didn't realise when the car stopped right in front of her until she is stopped by the car crashing against the side door, she looks inside the car to see none other than Steve he looks at her confused noticing she had in fact just hit her head against his car, he rolled down his window as she looks back seeing the tall, shadow creature leaving the woods and making its way towards her.

"Hey Einstein, are you okay?" Steve asks checking on her.

Y/n doesn't even take a second to think, her survival instincts and panic took over her brain, and all she does is open the passenger's door getting inside the car.

"Go!" she shouts at him, his eyebrows knit together as he looks at her puzzled.

"What?"

"Steve just go! Go! Go!" she shouts at him.

Steve lets go of the brake pedal and push's down at the accelerator as he turns to the left and drives away as fast as possible, Y/n turns back as she watches the dark creature fade away into the dark disappearing from her view. Neither of them says anything during the drive, Y/n didn't even know where Steve was taking her until he parks in front of a house.

"What the hell just happened?" he asks turning to look at her confused and worried.

"Someone or something was following me, I was trying to get away from it and then I bumped into you and I didn't know what else to do, I got scared I was going to end up going missing or kidnapped or something like that, I'm sorry I didn't mean to get into your car like that" she explains apologising once she takes in the incredibly bizarre situation.

"It's okay, I mean we wouldn't want you to go missing" she nods at him, "Is your arm okay?" he asks, looking down at her arm worried, Y/n turns to look at him confused.

"What?"

"Your jacket has blood around your arm" he points out.

"Oh, it's nothing I just scraped my arms when I fell," she tells him rolling her sleeves up.

"That doesn't look like nothing" he adds.

"It's fine I'll just disinfect it when I get home"

"You could just disinfect it here, we have saline solution," he says turning off the car and looking at her.

"Won't your parents mind?" she asks him, not wanting to bother anyone.

"They're probably already asleep, they won't even notice I just got home, we can quickly disinfect your arms and then I can drive you home" he suggests to her.

"Oh no it's okay I don't want to keep you up for longer"

"It's fine really, I was probably going to stay awake for a while anyway," he says smiling at her as he opens the door and gets out of the car, walking towards the passenger's door.

"Thanks," Y/n says getting out of the car and closing the door, "Who knows what would've happened if I hadn't bumped into you"

"Well, I do owe you big time, this is one of the thirty I guess" he chuckles locking his car and walking to the front door.

"You still got a long way to go," she smiles at him.

"Yeah well let's hope the next one is me passing my chemistry test without your help," he tells her with a smile opening the door.

Y/n laughs at him as she walks inside, "Then you've got a lot of studying to do"

Thank you for reading! Any likes and reblogs are very appreciated!

[blowflyfag]

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT/FEDERATION MAGAZINE: OCTOBER 1996

MOMMY? Is the Mystery of Mankind Beginning to Unravel?

A Special Report By the Informer

IS GOLDUST MANKIND’S MOMMY?

You read that right! I’m on the verge of breaking the hottest scoop of the century… I think!!! Even though my reputation may be on the line, this is just to JUICY to pass up!!!

OK, are you ready? My eyes and ears have told me, the Informer, that not only is Mankind living in the basement of Goldust’s Hollywood estate, BUT the “bizarre one” actually has the “dementated soul” under his complete control! How you asked? Perhaps by having him convinced that he is… his long lost… MOMMY!!! NORMAN BATES, MOE OVER!!! This situation makes the relationship between you and your deceased mother look like Mrs. Cleaver and the Beav!!!

I must say that at first I, the Informer, didn’t even believe it myself. Goldust and Mankind? RuPaul and Hannibal Lector? COME ON!!! Can you imagine the conversation over a cup of expresso?

“Mankind, what do you think  of my new wig?”

“Oh, I think it’s lovely. But, it would look even better… WITH THE HAIR PULLED OUT OF IT!!!”

Talk about an odd couple? They would make Feliz and Oscar look like the Olsen twins!!! But wait, let’s not be so hasty with our judgments. Let’s stop and ask ourselves this question: Beneath it all… are they “really” that different? Is it possible that there might be more similarities than they would want us to believe? Let’s look a bit more closely, shall we?

First and foremost, it is a fact that Goldust and Mankind are loners. They have no friends… nor do they want any. As a matter of fact, much of their companionship actually takes place “inside” the ring, rather than “outside”. True, Holdust does have Marlena, but first of all she is of the opposite sex… we think. And second, their relationship is of a business nature, not personal…. We think. Mankind, on the other claw, is definitely friendless. That is unless you consider George, his rat who by the way I’ve heard died recently. However, just because he’s dead doesn't necessarily mean that he’s not still Mankind’s best friend, by any stretch of the imagination! Now the psyches of Goldust and Mankind are comparable in various ways. Both are masters of the mind game… in their own “special” way, of course. Where Goldust likes to frolic within the psychologically bizarre realm of sexuality, Mankind takes a more strait-jacketed approach. He likes to come off as being just plain nuts. Both live in fantasy worlds–Goldust in the lights, camera and action of La-La Land… Mankind in his safe haven known as the boiler room. They both offer very unique and mysterious backgrounds. The truth is–we know very little about either individual, largely due to the fact that neither has told us anything! What “really” makes Goldust tick? Did something happen in his childhood that sent him to super-bizarredom? Does he have any legitimate acting experience? If not, how the heck did he get himself on the red carpet area on Oscar night? And Mankind? Now here’s a jigsaw puzzle that lacks a straight border. The music, the claw, the mask, the cellar, the… MOMMY?

MOMMY… here’s where the mystery begins. If you don’t already know by now, Goldust and Mankind wrestled as a tag team at some house shows back in the late summer, early fall. The Bizarre and the Demented. OK, nothing wrong with that. Sometimes wrestlers do team up even though they may have nothing in common. Case in point–the opponents of this troubled team were none other than the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels and everybody’s favorite dead man, the Undertaker. Now here’s the wacky part–weeks prior to the match, Goldust and Mankind were cutting a couple of interviews talking about the upcoming matches. Keep in mind these interviews only ran in the markets where the matches were taking place. In other words… only a few people saw them. Anyway, through the entire cuts, Mankind was referring to Goldust as… MOMMY. You got that? MOMMY! But wait, it gets even sicker! The three of us–me and my own two eyes–witnessed Mankind actually BURYING HIS HEAD IN GOLDUST’s BOSOM in search of some peace, love, and understanding!!!

Now you tell me, kitty-cats, what the H-E… double toothpicks is going on here?!!! Has Goldust outpsyched the psycho into believing that he’s his… MOMMY?! OR is this just another chapter in their well-scripted psychology handbook? What do you think? Do you think I know? WELL, I MIGHT!!!

The following day after this goose-bumping incident, my top informer informed me, the Informer, that SON has moved into MOTHER’S mansion!!! That’s right! They share the same CELLAR!!! Now this shocking detail has in no way, shape or form been confirmed yet. HOWEVER, I was told just last night by the GREAT (his opinion, not the Informer’s) VIC VENOM, the next month… in this very magazine,,, he plans on bringing you inside the mansion of Goldust in his exclusive “Lifestyles of the Rich and Filthy Rich”! So now the question is will Venom be the reporter he says he is and take us in the cellar of the Goldust estate so that we can find out the truth for ourselves? OR will snake breath slither out of the entire situation by keeping the basement door LOCKED?!

Tune in next month!!! Until next time…this has been the Informer.

THIS JUST IN!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!! AS OF PRESS TIME, I HAVE JUST LEARNED THAT GOLDUST MAY HAVE COME CLEAN WITH MANKIND! A SOURCE INFORMED ME, THE INFORMER, THAT GOLDUST MAY HAVE RECENTLY EXPLAINED TO MANKIND THAT HE INDEED IS NOT HIS MOMMY, BUT… SABLE IS!!! 

THIS STORY JUST GETS WEIRDER BY THE MINUTE!!!

STAY TUNED!!!

[zbengui]

I've grown to love Singed as a character after watching act 2, which I should've seen coming considering my proclivity for mad scientist archetypes. He stood out to me in the first season too but there wasn't quite enough for me to sink my teeth into back then, so I'm glad they've decided to reveal more details regarding his lore now even if it still remains rather vague. That's actually one of the aspects that I like about him, it's fascinating how much he influences the overall plot even though his character receives almost no focus. He is constantly instigating chaos and causing so much tragedy for the main characters, and yet he is never confronted. I was actually just thinking about how it's a little funny that Jayce is getting blamed for what happened to Vander, even though Singed was the one who injected him with that serum. He brought Vander back to life and offered Jinx and Vi the chance to rebuild their family, only to immediately and brutally take it away.

That's kind of his entire thing. He brings the dead back to life against their will and they come out of it deeply and irreversibly changed (Vander, Jinx, possibly Viktor...?). He keeps his subjects breathing even if being alive is nothing but torture for them (Rio), not necessarily out of sadistic pleasure but in service to his ultimate ambition. For progress, evolution. It is then revealed that the motive behind all of his horrendous experiments is to bring his daughter back to life. It's all because of love, as he admits. I don't know a whole lot about the lore behind this, but I have to wonder how Orianna herself feels about this. Is she in pain, just like her father's other subjects? Is she grateful or resentful for what he is doing to her? Did she have any say in this?

One thing I like about his scientific methods is that he is willing to put his own body on the line and experiment on himself, like when he pumped his blood into WarWick. It definitely goes to show how... passionate he is. I also appreciate that he doesn't let any specimens go to waste. He even preserved the decapitated head of that guy he tested Shimmer on back in S1:

I'm sure most people would agree that Singed has a very impactful screen presence. Almost every single line he says is relevant for the overarching themes of the story. It feels like he's always dominating the scene, even when he was being held prisoner because he knew that his captors would immensely benefit from having him on their side and that Ambessa, the opportunist that she is, was going to ask him to join her as an advisor sooner or later. It's horrifying to imagine the biochemical warfare he is going to unleash while working with the Noxian army. He's going to invent new war crimes.

I also wanted to mention how relevant he is for Caitlyn's character arc in this season because most people seem to be overlooking it. I may have my personal gripes with her character progression in act 2, but her interactions with Singed in episode 5 were excellent. Singed isn't just a "crazed Zaunite", he is actually a Piltovan alchemist that is using the people of Zaun as lab rats for the sake of a deceased family member. Caitlyn realises that she will end up like him if she continues walking down the path she is currently on. That realisation, I think, is what informs her decisions later on.

I find his relationship with Viktor very fascinating too but that dynamic deserves an entirely separate post. They are both scientists with similar interests but very different philosophies and work ethics (or lack thereof). As I've briefly mentioned already, I believe Singed is going to bring Viktor back to life, robbing him of his autonomy once again in the process.

That is to say, I'm very invested in this weird old man and I'm excited to dive into his League lore after this season is over and find out what other atrocities he has commited.