#i mean unless he's killing dictators to take their power

[stealingpotatoes]

Famous last words spoken by dictators:

Et tu Jar-Jar?

jar jar isn't a liberator, he's darth jar jar!! worst dictator of them all

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I don’t understand Zut’s obsession with bloodbending. This technique, as we can see, is used for taking control over other body for the purposes of fighting the enemy, torture, abuse. We see Katara’s horror at having to learn and use it in the Puppetmaster and her disgust of the idea that someone should invade the body and control other being against their will. We see her using it in Southern Raiders and realizing that she went too far from the line she drew for herself – and it works to show her pain there. But to take it and say she should have used it more, for healing and power? I don’t get it.

Their logic is "This looks cool, therefore it is empowering, and she only ever used willingly one time, when Zuko was around, so OBVIOUSLY that means Zuko empowers her."

Nevermind that, like you pointed out, Katara did NOT feel empowered during these moments: on the first one she felt coerced, abused, terrified, and manipulated, and on the second she felt like she had betrayed her core vallues in a moment of blinding rage.

And it's just crazy to me to notice how zutarians are constantly trying to force parallels between Zuko and Katara - yet they are ignoring the one that is right in front of their faces.

Zuko was disfigured by his own father, who justified his abusive behavior as being for his son's own good and "teaching him a lesson. Hama masks her intentions of forcing Katara to learn bloodbending by claiming she just wants to bond with her as her teacher.

On the day of the eclipse, to keep Zuko around until he's able to try and kill him, Ozai manipulates his son by using his love for Ursa against him, offering to tell him what actually happened to her. To force Katara to bloodbend, Hama uses her love for Sokka and Aang against her, controlling them so they'll kill each other unless Katara steps in.

When Zuko has his Agni Kai with Zhao, he almost gives him a scar as well, but decides to spare him at the last moment because, even though he's still in denial about being abused, deep down he already knows he doesn't want to be a monster like Ozai. When Katara uses bloodbending on who she thinks is her mother's killer, then realizes her mistake, she gets quite a brutal awakening that makes her realize she's not simply going after justice or even revenge, but rather allowing herself to fall victim to cycle of violence and abuse like Hama did.

This is a genuine, not at all forced parallel between Zuko and Katara, and that the writers basically handed to the shippers in a neat little bow - and they threw it in the garbage because it did not allow them to glorify violence, romanticize Zuko's past as a villain who was prone to violence, pretend Zuko and Katara only have positive traits in common and could only ever bring out the best in each other, and demonize Aang as this abusive person that wants to control what Katara can or cannot do.

And ironically enough, in doing so, they not only disregard the meaningful theme of an abused child refusing to repeat the same mistakes of their abuser, but they also make excuses for the ONE person in the entire show who was everything they claimed Aang is.

Hama felt entitled to Katara's loyalty, obedience, admiration and respect. She felt she had the right to dictate how Katara should or should not fight, what was or wasn't against her moral code. She was deliberately manipulative to get Katara trust her, then waited until there was no one else around to help her to make her true intentions clear - and then proved she was VERY willing to react with violence if she didn't get what she wanted.

Zutarians go on and on about how their ship is the "feminist, pro-Katara ship" and how Aang is totally abusive, then turn around and glorify the actions of the ONE person in the entire show that fits the definition of "Katara's abuser."

[adhdnojutsu]

Identity wars & the Uchiha

I always wondered why Itachi haters hate him because he committed mass murder, but excuse Sasuke, Obito, and Madara, for doing/attempting the same. I finally managed to put my finger on why exactly this doesn't sit right with me, other than just being plain silly or using trauma or marginalisation as an excuse for just about anything. Look, I'm queer, doesn't mean I get to walk into a roomful of c*s folks and empty my clip.

Itachi weighs human life in absolute numbers. Anti-Itachi, pro-Uchiha fans weigh human life in identities.

To them, each marginalized life is worth a whole busload of non-marginalized lives. They forget that social justice is NOT revenge, ie marginalized people taking the whole cake and leaving the non-marginalized to starve, but to redistribute the cake so NO ONE goes hungry.

To them, anyone in Konoha other than the Uchiha are non-marginalized aka "the oppressor", so their lives carry not even half the weight of an Uchiha's.

Because clearly, when they defend Sasuke's planned mass murder, it's not just "Danzo and the elders", no, these people think "guilt by association" is the new social justice, so everyone "laughing" in Konoha, to use Sasuke's words from his unhinged rant, is guilty and deserving of retaliation, too. There are no "victims" or "innocents" in Konoha unless they have a ping pong bat on their shirts, it seems. Not even babies or elderly. They're all guilty of something only 3 living people are even aware of.

They don't realize they're justifying school shooters. Because yes, the boy was victimized by a handful of bullies and had every right to go after them, but what, pray tell, justifies shooting up the whole school? That's what Sasuke, Obito, and Madara are. Glorified mass shooters. They have righteous beef with an entity or handful of people, and they're happy to take everyone else down with them for sharing the enemy's zip code.

When lumping all Konoha residents/people everywhere in with "the oppressor", these people don't take into account:

-genuine ignorance of the administration's rotten tactics

-if aware, a lack of power to change anything

-repercussions of treason/desertion -rational thought, ie. not criminalizing someone for living in the only place they've ever known

-other forms of marginalisation existing within Konoha, as well as civilians and dissenters -cultural/propaganda impact, ie. drinking the kool

-aid not typically being an act of malice and thus not warranting a death sentence

-limited responsibility for elected leaders: you may not have voted for this leader, or your elected leader may not keep his promises

-various personal and societal struggles not leaving capacity to march for the marginalised; remember Konoha doesn't even pay decorated ninjas enough to have their sick children treated: Mukai Kohinata had to spy for an enemy village to pay his son's hospital bills, and Konoha sent Itachi to kill him for it

-Kage are not democratically elected, making people living under them even LESS responsible for their administration. The Kage administration is a dictatorship, making everyone living under a Kage oppressed and victims. This also adds not-so-voluntary pressure to the "voluntary" decision to serve as a ninja. Imagine saying no to a dictator with a huge standing army of brainwashed child soldiers.

-the public reaction to the genocide. If they hated Itachi that much for it, surely, they could have made good allies to the Uchiha if the latter had EVER bothered to share their concerns rather than simmer in silence!!

All they see is "Uchihas oppressed, so everyone else bad". So they don't mind that Sasuke or Madara or Obito kill a bunch of innocent and marginalized people along with "the oppressor". Collective punishment, guilt by association, all those things I thought we all agreed are ALWAYS bad, are suddenly excusable if committed in the name of justice (revenge) rather than power.

Itachi "looks bad" because he only killed oppressed people, under orders from the oppressor. Itachi haters don't even take into account that he did so in tears and hating his commander and only obeying because of the many INNOCENT lives he thought were at stake - many more than those 60 or so Uchihas. He didn't kill the clan "for the oppressor" (a government), he, from his POV, killed the clan for the people who didn't ask to live under this, or any government - after all, there is no opting out of "enabling injustice through citizenship" no matter where you go, so why fault anyone for existing where they do?

Is all of Konoha really "the oppressor" because of those 4 old people? Where could Konoha residents go in protest where they would not collaborate with some form of oppression, where is that utopia of innocence and justice? Fugaku sure wasn't gonna build it, since he would have to establish a new iron fist rule to keep people in line after *checks notes* kidnapping a leader who only ever showed them a loving face.

"Guilt by association" is not how to advocate for social justice. Not in the Narutoverse, not IRL. You just turn the aggressor-victim dynamic around, not eradicating oppression.

[goferwashere]

wait srry if asks rnt open but im a chismoso so hopefully this is OK to ask ;; is the little character in ur banner and pfp ur sona ? they r so silly looking i love it sm but also why is it chowing down on a hotdog bun filled with butter . DONT ELABORATE IF THERES A PERSONAL BACKGROUND ATTACHED TO IT PLS but i srsly think it's so cutesie and ive been curious abt it 4 a hot min ✝️

SAW THE NOTIFICATION AND I ROSE FROM THE DEAD BUGGY U JUST OPENED THE GATES OF HELL /POS

ALSO ASKS ARE ALWAYS OPEN!! UNLESS THE BUTTON IS GONE FEEL FREE TO SEND ME ASKS ANYTIME I LOVE GETTING THEM :DD

ASHSHSSH THANK YOU !!! Yes this is my sona her name is RB 😋 she has lore and comes from her own world but I use her like a persona :3

Here’s the OG image along with a couple others of her :D

Also her as a character can’t speak so she uses ASL to communicate (hence the banner she’s holding) so I don’t use ASL but I do use a website when I draw her speaking

funny ass gif lawllll (she’s signing ‘I am not a crook’) (yes TV Girl reference) the frame rate is too fast but I can’t fix it now

ALSO ALL OF THIS ART IS OLDER. NOTHING NEW FOR THESE GUYS FOR A WHILE I NEED TO MAKE NEW ART FOR THEM 💔💔

auughhh and her lore if you wanna read below but I understand that OC lore isn’t everyone’s thing

OKAY SO she comes from a universe where her kind are robots made by a company to terraform planets for the ultra wealthy. So if you have the funds you can purchase a whole planet and whole armies of these little bots will shape it however you want.

BUT. While on the assembly line, before even recovering her directive, a portal opens up and throws her into this odd pocket dimension, which is just a half built city floating in a bright void. (Also when I say half finished I mean more like brutalist aesthetic with just concrete and no glass on the windows)

This place (named ‘Gearsky’ by locals because massive floating gears are the only thing that exist here outside of the city itself) is full of people from their own dimensions just trying to get by. She explores, and comes across a little bear being picked on in an alleyway. (The lil green bear [party bear] in the pics above)

She saves him and then it subconsciously becomes her prime directive to help Party Bear get home/care for him. So they set up base in one of the empty apartments and she just sorta takes care of him.

NOW. How do you get home you may be asking? Well it’s easy. You just need to beat someone in a deathmatch.

Enter the only form of entertainment on this island. The man who is the dictator of this place and subsequently the host of this game, aptly named Host, loves running this game. The rules are simple. 3 people enter, and two can leave alive. Only one needs to die, and the other two can get sent home. The only thing is, you have no idea who you’re going up against.

Now, RB, being a bot made to terraform, has some power behind her with her explosive abilities. But Party Bear has no defenses. So RB tries to strike a deal with Host.

She offers to kill both people in the ring with her for multiversal travel.

Host is intrigued by this offer, and accepts. After wiping the floor with her opponents, she’s granted access to all dimensions. She’s obviously excited and goes home to try and let Party Bear go home, but is heartbroken when she discovers that she’s the only one who can travel using the portals.

But this catches the attention of someone else.

Her future boss.

Another robot, by the codename TB-89.

He took note of her deal, and approached her with a job offer.

Man’s long story short she works for him as an assassin!

There’s so much more I wanna say but I know I can’t ramble on forever lol if you read all this then thank you so much for sticking it out 🤭 I hope you enjoyed it I love gushing about my characters

[rarepears]

Forsaken Ninja's Self Saving System.

I will be honest, I almost went feral. The rush of serotonin this just gave me left me lightheaded. Also, I petition for Hatake Sakumo to win OroYuan's hand in marriage. I know SY is canonically oblivious to his orientation but I feel that he shouldn't be /as/ dense. Like, a smidgen quicker at realizing that he likes the guy.

But to counter the fact that he's not in a stallion novel, he's still massively distracted by all his new kids. This sick 20-something, who has likely never interacted for long with babies, now has, like, 20 of them and he's expected to experiment on them.

And on that note, he's desperately trying to figure out a way to rat out Danzo without marking himself for death. Well, more than a Sanin that everyone on the other side would really like to kill off and can be conveniently blamed if OroYuan ends up dead.

If this is during the war, after he's already experimenting, that means Nawaki already died (ps, Oro was his jounin sensei, so extra whump for the Sanins) so Oro was already looking into ways to bring Nawaki back. Maybe he remembers more about Edo Tensei so he can bring Nawaki back sooner so Tsunade comes back. Unless you want OroYuan to decide not to play God. Or make it a System Task since that was one of Oro's life goals, beyond getting his parents back from the Reincarnation cycle.

Maybe he sends a message to Jiraiya telling him to pack up his Ame kids (Konan, Nagato and Yahiko, the OG Akatsuki) and get his ass back to Konoha. Or maybe he tells Kushina that Jiraiya found an Uzumaki and isn't bringing him back to Konoha. That'll fix That problem.

Anyways, for Sakumo. He's pack minded. All those little puppies he can enjoy. OroYuan may have snakes he can summon to babysit, but snakes vs wolves/dogs? (I can't remember which Sakumo had) Scaly vs fluffy? Sakumo is the favorite. Plus, Sakumo's summons are happier puppy sitting than OroYuan's snakes are to watch the hatchlings. Also, I really ship OroSakumo. OroYuan's main hangup in this (beyond having to accept he's at least bi 🙄) is he's a single father of 20. Sakumo thinks this is fine. He's a dying clan anyway, new blood welcomed. (Same for Oro) Anyways, OroYuan is very pretty and tries his best with his new orphanage (that can be the cover story OroYuan is rolling with).

Also, I really want him to set things up to fuck over Danzo and Sarutobi. I know Oro wanted the Hat but OroYuan is like, Dictator with 20 kids and having to do research to help improve Konoha? Hahaha, no. Minato can keep the Hat. In fact, OroYuan is /invested/ in keeping Minato in power. After all, Minato purged (to an extent) Danzo's ROOT program. OroYuan just has to point out a few hidden bases here and there. Plus making sure Minato knows about whatever Danzo's using to keep his agents quiet. I forget if it's the tongue seal at this point. (An argument was made that Oro also had a seal put on him and that was part of why he went crazy, since it wasn't perfect and Oro was already mentally and emotionally unstable after losing his parents as a toddler, his jounin sensei losing trust in his humanity (that no one nurtured), his best friend runs off during the war and vanishes, his genin all die in the war, Tsunade leaving him after he let (couldn't save) her brother die, being overlooked by his sensei for the Hat when he's been the only one of his team who stayed for Jiraiya's student, and the civilians (and some other ninjas) are scared of his looks so he's always isolated) Anyways, his time at Konoha is not fun. But Sakumo takes care of all of his teammates, which is what was used to kick off the 3rd War. So he would be accepting of Oro/OroYuan.

If OroYuan wants to improve everything (if the System let's him) he could do "recon" and find out that there's a captured Uchiha and Konoha should rescue them ASAP. If Obito is in the Mountains Graveyard, I believe that it's close enough to Konoha to make them worried so twice as likely to actually do something. Hopefully, that can derail Tobi. But that's for future OroYuan to worry about.

Right now, Minato and his generation are probably chunin or thereabouts. So OroYuan can't even count on Minato to take over yet. Maybe he can install Sakumo as the Yondaime. After all, he was in the running before Danzo sabotaged him and he killed himself. So OroYuan still ends up as a dictators husband. Just one that is actually like by his people and probably doesn't blow off his work so much.

Shen Yuan quickly learns and masters Kage Bushin No Jutsu - one caretaker for every wailing baby, naturally. Oh and a clone to help him wash all that long silky black hair so that it remains silky.

(No, you don't want to know how much conditioner and shampoo he goes through every month to wash out all that baby drool.)

And well, this is a ninja village who does notice Orochimaru's increase in shampoo and conditioner purchases... and they spy on his baby supply shopping spree.

The ninja-moms quickly rope Orochimaru into their mother association meetings. Some people even come up to Orochimaru, un solicitated, to give him well intended baby care advise.

As Shen Yuan is already extremely overwhelmed about babies... he's very grateful for all this unsolicited advice because he's starting from like. Step -100.

Ninja-babies are HARD to take care of, okay? He has to deal with baby chakra monsters and bloodlines popping out at inopportune times. Especially when one baby start throwing tantrums and sobbing like the world is ending, a chain reaction begins and now Shen Yuan has a whole orchestra of screaming babies to handle.

And with chakra comes a whole new set of autoimmune disorders (related to chakra) that Shen Yuan gets to explore and learn about. First hand. Yippee /s

He's also busy trying to figure out more about Orochimaru's backstory since he didn't read that much of Naruto. And, like, this is the prequel and stuff. So many strange faces and unknown names floating around that he doesn't recognize as being in canon timeline.

Plus all the experiments he's running. He's got a lot of ideas of trying to recreate a lot of modern medicine techniques and technology into this world.

Anyways, this is to say that Shen Yuan is very appreciative of the support he's getting from the village and it shows... so people are now less nervous about going up to the snake sanin. This does wonders for Orochimaru's reputation in the village.

It also uh... starts a Orochimaru fangroup.

Anyways, with 20 kids on his hands and being an introvert surrounded by just too many fucking people day in and day out, Shen Yuan isn't going to be hunting down Jiraiya anytime soon.

Out of sight, out of mind, and Shen Yuan doesn't like perverts around him. Or influencing his kids.

Baby minds are much too malleable and can learn bad habits early on after all.

He doesn't mind Jiraiya's kid hanging around though. Minato makes a great assistant, fetching groceries and putting in orders for more baby supplies.

And then there's the really nice ninja who keeps bringing his large dogs over to cuddle the babies.

For all that Shen Yuan feels overwhelmed, he feels quite supported by the group of people he has around them. They are even helping him with naming the babies!

Oh Shen Yuan...

(Just wait for him to realize that those large dogs are, in fact, wolves. Oh and both Minato and Sukumo have crushes on him. But that's not happening any time soon.)

[More in the #shen yuan transmigrates into orochimaru's body and the naruto universe instead au]

[larathia]

So, working at a library, sometimes you get asked questions about what appear, based on recent purchases, to be media trends.

A patron was noticing the new batch of Cruella movies, and put that with the Maleficent movies, and started asking about villains. And this discussion wound up, as talking with me in person tends to do, covering a lot of ground - starting with “why are these movies what Disney is doing lately” (in my view, it’s because in a lot of their older movies the strongest female character is the villain, so why not give her a story of her own) and finally ending up on ‘what makes a good villain’ and finally ‘what’s your favorite villain’.

I had to really think about that last one, because while I appreciate a good villain I don’t tend to think of them past that point. A good villain makes for a good story, and I tend to remember the stories more than the villain.  But my final answer was:

Vorbis.

Now, if you haven’t read Discworld, and therefore haven’t read Small Gods, I urge you to stop right now and go grab a Discworld book and get started. Yes, the fandom is huge. Yes, we have reading guides with flow charts and the entire fandom worldwide will happily leap at the chance to guide you to THE Discworld book we think you’ll love best, but the blunt truth of the matter is - you can pick up nearly any Discworld book, at any time, and you’ll probably get a very good idea whether you’ll like the series from that even if that particular book isn’t your favoritest one ever. Pratchett has a style that permeates most of his works. It’s kind of impossible to miss.

But let me get back to Vorbis, and Small Gods.

This book is basically Terry Pratchett poking at organized religion. The structure of the main religion under scrutiny would best be considered analogous to medieval catholicism, but - and this is where we start getting Pratchetty - it’s just a structure. What he talks about can be applied to any religion in history that’s had (or currently has) enough power, enough dominance in society, to be a dictating element in policy. Omnia, the kingdom he focuses on, is a theocracy. Any government in the history of the world that has been or is leaning toward theocracy is fair game.

Vorbis is the head of the inquisition. He is the head of that branch of the theocracy that deals with people who don’t properly align, mentally or behaviorally, with the theocracy’s rules. I bet just telling you that gives you this mental picture of Vorbis’ character. Unless you’re familiar with Discworld, you’re almost certainly on the wrong track.

Vorbis is devout. Genuinely devout. Deeply intelligent. Believes with all his heart that he follows the word of his god. Truly does the work he does because he believes it brings glory to his god, and takes nothing for himself - no wealth, no indulgences of any kind. 

And yet, he kills people every day. He arranges for wars to happen. He has heretics tortured, usually to death. I can’t begin to really describe how terrifying Vorbis is when you read about him - I wish I were that good a writer. I’m not. Because the worst thing about Vorbis is something one of the characters points out in the story itself. The worst thing about Vorbis is that he makes other people think the way he does. He twists the world, not deliberately or with intent, but just by thinking the way he does, showing people how he thinks. Even his enemies will start thinking the way he does - and I don’t mean agreeing with him. I mean the way Vorbis thinks human life doesn’t matter, compared to the glory of his god. Vorbis teaches this by his actions, so that other people start also thinking human life doesn’t matter, compared to - whatever ideal they have. He makes people around him, affected by him, forget that ideals mean nothing if no one’s alive to reach for them. He makes people forget that torture is a bad thing, full stop, that human suffering is a bad thing, full stop. And it’s not magic. It’s just...knowing how people work.

I don’t think I’ve ever run across a villain, in any book, that did that - that left kind of societal stain on the world even after they were gone, that felt that real, that ‘no really, watch for people like this in the real world’ human.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Hell yeah friendo wants it so you all shall receive!! Long post ahead!!

SO

What I was thinking about specifically that led to this realisation is thinking about Bonnie, and the fun narrative I've built with Roxy being the one to kill him. But it hit me this morning that it wouldn't work like that.

Because Bonnie isn't dead. Or at least, not by the animatronics' standards.

The human body can survive a lot, but it has it's limitations and weakpoints. When a limb is missing, it cannot be replaced with another. We have prosthetics, yes, but they're bulky, they're inconvenient, and a lot of amputees prefer not to bother unless they need to. Killing a human, requires the heart to stop beating, and the body to be unable to recover enough to keep it beating. Or so is my understanding of these two topics, I've never lost a limb or died so take this with a pinch of salt perhaps.

All of this doesn't apply to an animatronic. What makes them alive, is not their body, and Fazbear Entertainment animatronics don't have the agency to decide what gets replaced and what doesn't anyway. Losing an arm is the same as a minor scratch on a human's arm. Kinda stings, but it can heal, or in their case, get fixed back up again. Any and all damage to them is like this, even if they can feel pain. Nothing like this is permanent for them.

Which leads me to believe that if you removed the battery, the heart, of an animatronic, it would still be considered alive. The battery can be replaced like anything else can. If it's flat, it can be recharged and reinstalled. Just like the damage, just like the rest of their bodies, the battery doesn't matter.

What removing the battery does, in my opinion, is put the animatronic on pause. Nothing functions without power, and they physically cannot be aware of anything, because nothing is functioning. I suppose it's more similar to a coma or unconsciousness if we're going to draw similarities to humans here. The important thing here, is that they're not dead. No animatronic would consider them as such, because they're still there. Non-functioning, appearing dead to any human eyes, but they know they're not. Stick a new battery in, patch up the damages and just like everything else, it's like it never happened.

So what does kill an animatronic? What is the important part of them that dictates whether they're alive or not? Well I dunno what they're specifically called in robotics or what their Fazname in the fnafverse is, but I've always called them personality chips. The things you put into the metal body, with all the programming, all the memories, and all the life is determined by those things. They're the most protected thing in the animatronic's body and the most expensive to replace. If you were to truly kill the animatronic, you would need to remove and destroy them.

This is the only type of permant damage an animatronic can have. A damaged chip that still functions, causes problems that may not be able to be fixed. And since those chips control every part of the body as well, damages to them effects everything.

What this means for Bonnie, to me, in the narrtive I have built, is that he's still considered to be alive. The battery was removed (violently) and he's heavily protected from anyone that could repair him and wake him up again. He has been stopped. He's been put on hold. He has been removed from the equation. That's it.

This logic applies to everyone they may have lost too. Foxy? Paused. Chica's Cupcake? Paused. The Minis that can't be woken up? Paused.

None of them are dead. Not a single one. Their chips are still around, and that means, their life is still intact. They've been put in stasis, but they're still there. They can come back.

Now, you may be wondering, what to do with this. If they can't die with the chips still intact, then how do you give them grief? How do they feel about an animatronic being on pause like this? The answer is simple!

Awful. It's fucking awful.

"But they can come back! It's not permanent!" you say, but that's not the issue now. It's not about where they are, what happened to them or whether they're truly dead or not. The issue now loops back around to them being animatronics.

Animatronics have no agency. They are not valued like a human life would be. Whether they're alive in all but body or not, they are still not human. They only exist, when it suits whoever owns them, and who owns these animatronics? Fazbaddecisions Entertainment.

How they value an animatronic is entirely based an money. That's it. Who they are, what they do and what they become is not their concern. If there's money to be made, money to be saved, or money to be lost, they care about it. Thoughts, feelings, justice, happiness, and most importantly, lives? That's not on their agenda unless they're covering up another dead guy. Fazbear Entertainment holds all the dice. They're the ones that make the call on what happens to an animatronic, day in and day out. And they don't care unless it involves money.

So, what does this mean for the animatronics in stasis? That are still alive but non-functioning? What does it mean for the animatronics still going about their daily duties? The ones that know their friends aren't dead and are still very much alive?

It means uncertainty. It means unreliability. It means unpredictability. It means some animatronics will go into stasis, and come back out within a few months, while others wake up a decade later. It means all the animatronics not in stasis, don't know when or if they will ever see their friends again. It means they don't know if they make enough money to not go into stasis for very long themselves. It means getting a new member of the team and the worst animatronic they really hoped had gone somewhere else was chosen instead of their best friend. It means a new version of their loved one with a new set of chips could show up and they have to smile at a duplicate that has no idea who they're even talking to, whilst wondering why.

This is just what their life is and always will be. The knowledge that they can be swapped out at any time. They can be here this year, go into stasis, and not come back for another five. There's a seething frustration with every animatronic they bring back, or every new animatronic they introduce to the world, when their friends are right there and ready to go. What makes these animatronics better than their loved ones? Why is there a new version of them and not the one they know and miss so much it hurts? No one is going to tell them if the chip got damaged. No one is going to tell them if an accident snuffed their life out in a milisecond. They can ask a member of staff, but every single one of them will have a different answer. So many of them have lied to them, and so many have hurt them without a second thought, that it's just not worth the risk.

And so, they are left to wonder why knowing full well they will never get an answer.

[has-brain-rot]

I FINISHED SEASON 2 OF VOLTRON

OKAY SO SO SO that was a WILD season and the showdown in the last 2 episodes? it was so dramatic and deserved. Really interesting to see the mages(?) get more screentime (though barely) because they are so funky. what are they doing why are they there. but anyways like last time I'lll put the rest below xD

BACK ABOUT THE MAGES. I don't remember their names but the head mage gives off "puppeteering-everything-from-the-background" vibes. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be the real mastermind behind it all. Like if the magic was used to corrupt some minds and help build the empire. Although I don't know what that would do to the world building?

Shiro. WHERE DID SHIRO GO. Like they went HARD on Shiro this season. He's trying his best but life keeps attacking him. The mind battles he has are super cool and WOW this man can fight. but also Shiro do you ever sleep. does he sleep. does he believe in self care. I don't think he's ever heard of sleep before.

Pidge gives off some of the vibes of Haruhi from OHHC. They both have similar genders. Love how she gets time to shine at the tech planet!

Hunk being a master chef is cool, especially considering he's probably never seen any of those ingredients before. Still kinda disappointing that they made 3/4 of his personality food. I also think he'd be good at hugs lol

Keith my man are you okay?? I'm getting vibes of orphan club which like same xD. But also now that Shiro is gone Keith is probably going to have to take over? The red lion has shown to act independently so if Keith takes over the black lion then they could still form voltron? (the black lion has show to not care as mucha bout who's in it, at least compared to the red lion.

ALSO the red lion acting independently feels kind of like a parallel to hyper-vigilance. Keith doesn't feel safe often so his lion is always on guard and ready to protect, unlike a lot of people who generally don't have such a hyperactive "I must protect myself at all costs" mentality. It's the constantly engaged survival instincts you honour

Love how lance is just some guy. I am not invested in him and I feel like he would not be invested in me if we ever met xD. Love how he's just some guy while Shiro has gone through insurmountable psychological and physical trauma. he's just there.

THE MERMAID ADVENTURE WAS SUPER NEAT. LOVE HOW THE QUEEN DIDN'T TURN OUT TO BE BAD (maybe? it felt a little rushed when it got to that point). The suspense of figuring out what was causing the mind control was pretty neat. Also the giant worm beast was living it's life. technically wasn't decimating the mermaid population so.. (joking joking I just really liked its design)

Black lion trust battles are super cool. But I gotta say the black lion has like, reverse trust issues. please just stop trying to pick the genocidal dictator that keeps killing millions of people. please. Though it does make me wonder if part of the reason the black lion accepted Shiro so fast was because Shiro reminded the black lion of the previous paladin? With the arm and vibes and everything?

Coran is growing on me. he's just built like that and honestly good for him. He's like a space dad. Also emo Coran is great, might be a heavy stereotype but you know what we can ignore that and let him own it. Give him back that haircut. Also how he speaks sometimes makes me think that he's not from the same planet Allura is? Like maybe he's from a sister planet of a species that evolved extremely similar but not identical. Because he can't do everything Allura can. UNLESS Allura can do it because she's a princess whichhhh eh. It's cool for her but also tiring to see the whole "royal families are good and deserve their positions because they are inherently more special and valuable" sort of message.

ALLURA. QUEEN. SHE IS FLEXING HER POWER AND I SUPPORT HER ON THAT ENDEAVOUR. She was being mean to Keith but all things considering I can understand her hesitance considering everything. Stills sucks that Keith had to go through her projections. but also DAMN when she blends in to sneak onto the ship I loved seeing her fight. like her fighting style there was literally "what if I just slam everything together". I love that for her

also Keith being only half(?) human is really cool but WOW the team was not very understanding. Just let the guy be. He's trying his best but he also needs time to process and adapt. And I don't think he adapted too well if his first(ish) reaction to being part galra was to throw himself into enemy ships and nearly die AGAIN

red lion going feral is cool. Love how it has a stronger personality compared to the others, but it makes the other lions seem less powerful? not powerful perse but more so they get almost kidnapped a lot more and don't really do anything about it while the red lion will fight for its own freedom.

ANYWHO I should probably go watch the third season because I MUST know where Shiro went. is he okay <- judging by his character he is one of the MOST least okay characters.

[yennasun]

Now for a profiling on our boy, MT. Obligatory trigger warning, gonna make this boy suffer some more lmao.

I ended up changing his character ALOT in this au, as in he's like a whole different person. Remember that these changes are to explain his break in the events of AvM in this au.

MT in this au, personality wise...kinda has no personality, let me explain.

Having never been treated like an actual person, nor rarely allowed outside his creators desktop (save for fights, and his creator sometimes letting him loose after fights while he attends some "business") combined with his training regiment as well as physiological lapses (more on that later) he never really had time to develope a personality.

Going off of what I can, normally he's soft spoken and doesn't speak unless spoken to, and generally keeps his responses short since he didn't learn how to read, write or speak until he was around 14, when he debuted as a professional.

Elaborating on that, his trainer decided MT was promising enough to forge the documentation for him to turn pro underage, since the sanction dictates you must be at least 18, this worked well when paired with his height as he passed off as an adult easily.

He hadn't developed the same cunning, manipulative articulation that would serve him well in the events of AvM. In fact, since he had no experience talking to anyone outside his creator and assistant trainer (who I will be elaborating on in the future) He's very awkward socially and this has led to some avoidable (but sometimes comical) situations. This has also made way for some...unsavory habits, for example, he has a very hard time maintaining eye contact, and gets very paranoid once he feels hostile tension. If someone raised their voice at him, he would usually clench his jaw and brace for an incoming strike (these habits are courtesy of his creator)

This is how he acts normally.

I think now is a good time to elaborate on MTs creator more.

His main method for keeping MT in line is psychological manipulation. By this, I don't mean he didn't use the traditional, normal manipulation tactics (thats also not to say he didn't use those tactics often) he would actually use his creator's powers to fuck with MTs head, sending him into paranoid psychosis which can only be described as hellish and inescapable. His reasoning for introducing this horror on MT is to "strengthen him mentally, so that his body can rely on his mind as much as the other way around." These tactics had unforseen, long term consequences, because these episodes, for as long as they lasted and for as often as it was done to him, could actually induce schizophrenic-like symptoms on individuals.

In this state, anything could set MT off, as in this state he deludes himself into believing everyone is out to kill him. What would be someone trying to calm him down, to him, would look like a hellish nightmare preparing to strike. And we all know destructive power and delusional paranoia never mix well. In this state, however, it can be recognized. Usually one pupil is larger than the other due to it taking in more "light" that otherwise isn't there. His powers also start kicking in, for starters there will be a sudden rise in room temperature, his appearance with his powers vary as well, but I will explain it more punctually if I just go down a list

Level 0- completely docile, just as I explained in the beginning. His skin and eyes are normal and his powers aren't activating

Level 1 - delusions being to surface due to slight activation of his powers (another side effect of his powers is that in order to maintain usage, the user must be in a constant state of fight or flight, thus throwing MT into psychosis) one pupil is bigger than the other, his breathing quickens and his eyes begin darting around for possible escapes.

Level 2 - he begins to show more signs of agitation than fear, going in a defensive posture. Scelara of his eyes will turn red and room temperature will begin to rise noticably. Sudden movements or actions of hostility will send him to level 3 immediately

Level 3 - he gets into fighting positions, the room temperature gets unbearably high and his veins and arteries turn red from the heat, his eyes begin glowing. Prepare for an attack at any moment. can be sedated.

Level 4 - body becomes engulfed in flames, delusions take over almost entirely, powers almost fully active. If you witness him at this stage, he's probably already attacking you, his actions are more erratic and animalistic in nature. however despite all of this, he can still be sedated.

Level 5 - hasn't been seen at this stage until after the event of AvM, his mind is completely in shambles, he most likely isn't even aware of where he is. He just knows he's in a desperate fight for survival. Body becomes engulfed in a massive, destructive vortex of inferno and begins emitting radiation. he can't be saved at this point, as far as he knows, nothing is as it seems. Once it's all over, his skin will be seared and will need medical attention (as much as he'll deny It) and very well could die in this phase.

That'll do it for now, somethings might have hit a little too close to reality but that will be a running theme in this au, still trying to get a few things fleshed out, such as the specifics of MTs powers before diving into some of the other things, there will however, be a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise.

[bprinny]

One or Eight

    "Mother, I would have words with you," Akim said, striding into her private chambers, gladius in hand. "This madness must end". Eve(Vechernyaya) ignored him for a moment, continuing to type away one key at a time on the archeotech device a scavenger team had brought up. The device had no difficulty turning on once Eve(Vechernyaya) had reconnected it to a power supply, though navigating the digital text written in a dead tongue had proven beyond difficult. She had meant to use it to catalogue information, but translating her native language into ancient Korsunite was proving more of a challenge than it was worth. Most of the time she just enjoyed the click-clacking noises the interface provided.

      The sounds of more footsteps shuffling in finally made her glance away from the black and green screen. Alongside her(my) son was her(my) mother, and five legionaries geared for combat. Her(MY) mother was tense and...disappointed? The legionaries were nervous, and their hands rested on the pommels of their gladii uncomfortably. Oh, but her(You don't deserve him) son. He was furious, his teeth gritted.

    "I have heard of what you have done to the Ambeni, and the Xuan-ya, and the Three Forges! They were peaceful people willing to join us! Their lands held little resources, they had no means to defend themselves! What purpose could there be in their slaughter?" he asked, pointing his gladius at her. For a moment, Eve(Vechernyaya) had the urge to lean forward and bite it, to see how sharp it was, to feel it slide between her teeth into her gums. She caught herself, but not before she had opened her mouth. She let it hang open while thinking of a response to his accusations, but realized she couldn't remember ordering the destruction of any of those tribes. She searched her memories of the future to see if any of them became a problem further in her life, but as far she could tell--wait.

      Tribals under those designations theocratically converted by Astartes elements twenty years, standard Korsun, becoming insurrgency elements. Conversion has occurred in the last 37 cycles, regardless of intervention. Best possible outcome is extermination or dissolution.

    Ah, there it was. She couldn't understand half of those words, but she knew the meaning behind them. Those tribes were doomed by fate, and always would be, unless she found a way to guard against "theocratic conversion", whatever that meant.

      It means they heard the Truth of Reality and turned against your false words, xenos witch. Backstabbers they may be, my brothers brought worlds to their knees with nothing but words. Against them, you are nothing but dust on the wind.

.     Eve(Vechernyaya) sneered at the chattering of the alien ghost, his threats empty promises. She had faced his brothers before, even bested them on occasion. Each time she got better at killing the power-armored monsters, each time her losses were less and less. Unfortunately her son thought the sneer was directed at him.

    "This isn't funny! I am tired of having to clean up the messes you make, with your absurd dictates and bloody rampages! No one wants to listen to a woman who hears voices no one else can and who slaughters hundreds of people for reasons she won't say!"

    Eve(My name isVechernyaya) wanted to console Akim, but how could she explain her actions? She had done all this before, seen the ends of the different paths she could take. Eve(MY NAME) was working against the setting sun, the time when the star warriors arrived was drawing near. She had beaten them many times before, yes, but it came down to chance too many times for her comfort(Where is your confidence now? Or do you only reach for it when you want to put me in my place?). No, explanations took too long. All they had to do was follow her directions, do what she said, then everything would be fine.

    A thought slid across her mind. Shouldn't he have bred by now? He must have progeny. Retire him, make one of them the warchief. Didn't you bring him a harem of eight wives? Surely one of them must be fat with young by now. Yes, Akim should have many children by now, he was a virile young man of...how old was he again?(You don't remember how old my son is!?)

      "Akim. My son. Child. How are your...own children? They should be...older, now?" Eve struggled to get the words out. Speaking to others had become more difficult, especially when the thoughts of other ghosts kept crowding in. Akim's gladius wavered for a second, and he looked away.

    "I have not...I have not taken any of those women to be my wives. They are like sisters to me, and besides...my heart belongs to only one woman." He could not bring himself to look her in the eyes when he said this.

    Eve thought of severing his spinal column. Paralyzed, he would be helpless against any female she brought to him, and what limited biomancy she knew would be enough to ensure successful copulation. Almost at once, a headache split across her skull, and her hand drew curled and drew a slashing motion across her throat. Blood welled along the scored flesh.

    You dare turn against my son? My flesh and heart? I will pull you apart from the inside, demon, and leave your flayed soul nailed to walls of my mind. Do not ever raise a hand against him, he is worth more than you ever will be. His heart still beats, beast of iron and spite.

    Dealing with her son could not be done while her own heart railed against her. More and more she was fighting herself over what to do, and more and more those fights were drawing blood. What was happening to her spirit that was causing this disunion?

    Ego collapse imminent due to incomplete synthesis between competing thought forms. Recommend immediate corporeal assimilation of both thesis and antithesis thought forms.

    Eve sat there while her son continued to give an impassioned plea of some sort, evidently taking her silence to mean that she was willing to listen to reason. In truth, she was simply trying to understand what any of those words she had just thought meant.

    It means you're at war with the Neverborn you created, and you are losing, badly. Cast off your crumbling flesh and reach for apotheosis, give us a new existence you pathetic wretch. Ascend! Ascend! Ascend!

    Eve sighed, resigned to another failure of a cycle. She couldn't win this one, not with her own son turning against her. Had this come up before, this stubborn refusal to do what men do best and rut and breed? Yes, because I raised him to be a good, noble man with a kind heart, something a beast like you could never do. You will never reap the harvest of my efforts, because you are too vile and twisted to see the truth before you. Running through memories of previous cycles, she saw this outcome come up more and more, though never as disastrous as this one. Perhaps it was time to abandon this method of binding people to herself, and turn to an alternate method of control. Voices surged up within her, offering contradictory and hostile advice. Blood rituals, tantric sorcery, astral assimilation, macrophagic devas. But none of them could properly salvage the situation she found herself in. Eve knew from a cursory scan that her son had turned himself against her, and had brought others into his fold. She would not win them back. Akim had stopped talking, waiting for a response from her.

    Not taking her eyes off them, Eve drew her shardknife and slit her wrist, before cutting her throat open. Then for good measure, she jammed the knife to the hilt into her armpit. She had survived worse injuries without triggering the device that rested in her ribcage, but she knew from experience that self terminating actions always woke it up. Already she could feel the gears spinning as it started to tear a whole through time to her chronological anchor. Akim and her mother were shouting at her, grabbing her hands, trying to staunch the flow, but it didn't matter now. They weren't her mother and son anymore, in a few moments they wouldn't even exist, as this dead cycle was cast aside from the stream of time. A few seconds more, and then--

    The chair, the desk, the people that had been hers, the room they had been in, all faded away with a bang only she could hear, replaced with a room she had not been in for many years, and at the same time was so intimately familiar she could never forget it. Sitting across from her was a woman, barely older than a child, clutching a newborn tightly, staring at her with fright. Her emaciated, malnourished form elicited pity and scorn from her in equal measure. Had she really been so frail?

    I can't believe this pathetic bitch is what killed me. I rather would have died in the Great Crusade if I knew this was to be my fate.

    It's not your flesh, it's mine, and you'll do well to remember that, beast. I'm about to be in control again, and I'll make sure you stay slumbering for much longer this time.

    Symptoms of vitamin and carbohydrate deficiency. Recommend extreme dietary adjustment.

    Just kill the child, you don't need him. We'll give you all the strength you need, just listen to us. We're all you need...

      Standing up and walking over to her past self, Eve placed a hand over her breast as the engine that had replaced her heart burrowed its way out through her flesh and nestled into her palm. Gripping the woman's mouth so she couldn't close it, Eve forced the engine into her mouth and--

    Vechernyaya woke up, blood dribbling down her chin. A smoldering skeleton was in front of her, the bones quickly turning to ash. As consciousness returned, information began flooding into her mind, visions of the past, memories of the future. The stars had put their finger into her, and poured divine knowledge into the hole they had left. She knew a star warrior was about to come here, to kill them, just as she knew she would kill him before he had a chance to land a single blow. She knew about the machinations of the tribal hag of the Zemlyauk, and how she needed to die before the month was out. She knew she needed to unify her people before 30 seasons had passed, as the brothers of the star warrior would come, and with them a seer of unimaginable power who would hunt her down. She knew this was because of the machine that had replaced her heart, sustaining her life for reasons she had not yet discovered. And she knew that if she did not act properly, her son, Akim, would turn against her. Vecher saw how she had failed him, how she had tried too hard to control him. She couldn't let it happen again, the thought of him being angry at her hurt too much.

    The Dream Eater tilted her head down and gave Akim a small kiss on the forehead. An unexplainable urge rose up in her, to bite down on his soft skull, but it was quickly squashed by the roaring of numerous voices. Instead, Vechernyaya(Eve) nuzzled him with her nose.

      "If one mate is all you want you my son, then so be it. I shall be happy with whoever you choose." Vechernyaya(Eve) poked him softly in the stomach. "But you better give me lots of grandchildren."

[bonnie-bug]

When we think about dictators do we also think about the dictatorship of our capitalist bosses? Unless we're born into wealth we must drudge by in a system hostile to our survival where 2/3 of the country love paycheck to paycheck. Maybe people are more okay with giving up some "freedoms" in exchange for healthcare, increased life expectancy, and a roof over their head. Do we have a choice beyond Democrat or Republicans? Was Trump not like a dictator in many ways? Also aggressive anticommunism means that promising countries like Nicaragua with famously anti dictatorial revolutionary leaders were killed by the CIA. Communism has never been tried on a global scale like capitalism - being marginalized, attacked, and at war are often what lead to cults of personality and dictators taking over

okay listen. I never said capitalism was good. just that in history every communist society has ended up a dictatorship. EVERY single one. and I’m not talking about “promising countries” like nicaragua (and yes I know the cia has done fucked up stuff I’m not condoning that) I’m talking about russia. china. germany. surely the fact that they all were or are dictatorships BEFORE war says something about communism in practice

also we do have a choice between republican or democrat it’s called a third party candidate but the way the american government is set up means u never have a hope of a third party candidate getting elected. this doesnt mean we’re in a dictatorship

also also. trump was not a dictator. he was not LIKE a dictator. he wanted to be one, but did not have ultimate power in the government, and the fact he was successfully voted out is proof of that

communism works on paper. communism memes and “our x now” jokes are funny, but actual communism has hurt and destroyed countless lives. worldwide communism is not the answer

also lmao coward come off anon if u believe this so strongly

[autisticandroids]

Oh patron saint of mpreg, tell us, what is the absolute gold standard canon divergent mpreg scenario with Cas and Dean?

so for me the gold standard is for cas to get pregnant due to some kind of magical or metaphysical situation that dean at least does not perceive as sex. bonus points is cas is hesitant about it but refuses to explain why (because he doesn't know how dean will deal with the concept of himself being able to potentially get cas pregnant), so dean is like "we're doing it anyway" and then they do it and then cas doesn't tell anyone that he is pregnant until circumstances force the information out of him. and then dean has to deal with the fact that 1) cas can get pregnant, 2) cas is pregnant, 3) it's his, and he does so pretty poorly.

the rest is under a cut because this post is over 2.5k words long.

my favorite times for this to happen are at the end of season nine, just before dean dies and gets demonized in do you believe in miracles, and at the start of season twelve, just before sam and dean go to jail, because the pining in both those scenarios is delicious but it is so much more powerful if cas is also pregnant, and never even told dean. double points if the truth somehow comes out while they're separated so when dean comes back it's like. yeah cas is pregnant. it's yours. welcome home dean now you have to coddle cas' emotions because he thought he would have to raise your baby alone.

the season twelve scenario is particularly delicious because 1) we can have lucifer slut shaming cas in front of crowley in rock never dies, so crowley knows before dean, and 2) much more importantly, mary is there, and i am obsessed with like. okay. several things.

- the idea of mary getting all baby fever because she misses her boys and this is like. a baby she can take care of because she never got to take care of sam

- the idea of dean working through some of his parentification trauma by coparenting a child with the parent whose place he felt he had to take

- the idea of mary coming in and projecting her insane 1980s gender roles all over cas, suddenly treating him like a woman, stripping him of agency, etc. and like. dean would also do this even though he's not from the eighties, but mary would do it double strength, and they would reinforce each other, it would be a nightmare

- also mary trying to relate to cas on the Travails Of Motherhood etc. and cas being like ?????????? like i cannot stress enough that the weird gender roles she projects onto cas are also standards that she held herself to back when she was a Wife And Mother. while cas is like mary i am not a human woman and also i don't see what "having to look pretty for my man when i'm all baby bloaty" has to do with anything. that's not something i feel like i have to do

oh and 3) could you imagine lily sunder has some regrets if cas was pregnant? unfathomable episode. like ishim and mirabel's reaction but ALSO lily's. and it would fix the number one issue i have with lily sunder, which is that the resolution of the moral dilemma is "well AKSHUALLY the kid was human and not a nephilim so killing it was bad" rather than "it was bad to kill lily's baby, full stop." like ishim's cover up and using the machinery of power to manipulate the truth is very compelling, but the fact that it results in the moral essentially being "it would have been okay if the kid had been a nephilim" suuuuuucks.

basically, there's a reason i have two entire mpreg aus set in season twelve.

and then the delicious part in the season nine version is like. one, dean is away for much longer and he could be anywhere. also he's a demon and he's cheating on cas with crowley. and then even when cas gets him back he's still cursed with the mark, so we can get all weepy over that. you know. i'm the one who's going to have to watch you murder the world and i'm eight months pregnant. etc etc.

but the other thing that's juicy about this version is that cas is still semi-involved with the other angels at this point, like he's roadtripping around with hannah and they're trying to get heaven under control, so carrying a nephil is going to really affect those relationships. so he's going to be probably disliked by the other angels, and there are MANY opportunities for slut-shaming, but at the same time, the other "outcast" type angels might respect him for violating heaven's dictates.

and then of course there's his grace vampirism victorian wasting disease. in canon he's perfectly happy to let himself die, but if he were having dean's baby he would absolutely not do that, that's dean's baby he's endangering there. so of course there's the terrible guilt of having to kill other angels so he can live, plus potentially preparing to die shortly after childbirth so he doesn't have to keep killing. delicious.

and on top of all this cas can get slutshamed by metatron in, depending on when exactly he gets knocked up, meta fiction, stairway to heaven, and do you believe in miracles. plus stairway to heaven would be insane like all the angels would know that cas is pregnant. they would see it in his grace. like cas' angel army would just. know that he was pregnant with a nephil, and have to accept that because he's their leader. in love with humanity indeed.

i'm trying to think of other good times for this drama with cas getting secretly pregnant through a nonsexual interaction to take place. it would be great in season six. like: he's doing a blasphemy with his body but at the same time he's this big important rebel leader so they can't say shit about him, and also he's pregnant while fighting these big important battles (fun and sexy), AND this is like, hot on the heels of the realization that something about his feelings for dean is untoward, expands beyond the bounds of ordinary friendship and camaraderie. like he realizes that, and maybe even that he has sexual feelings for dean, and then he gets immediately knocked up. stunning.

it would ALSO be extremely fun for it to be some kind of... i don't know, magical longer gestation times, whatever, but for cas to have gotten pregnant sometime in s5 and only realized during the Year Of Lisa. LOVE to watch a man rake leaves while both metaphorically carrying the taint of taboo sexual feelings for him and literally carrying his child.

but the thing about season six is, first of all, cas isn't really... envisioning a future with dean. not the way he does in the later seasons. like does he fantasize about a future with dean? yes. like. he really did watch that motherfucker rake leaves. but it's only fantasy. he expected to never speak to dean again after swan song until dean prayed to him in the third man. he's obsessed with dean, but it's distant. remote.

like, we talk about cas babytrapping dean in the later seasons with jack, and he absolutely does, and he would do it even more if dean got him literally pregnant, but that babytrap is about... how do i put this. it's about winning dean's affection. late seasons cas knows that he's going to die by dean's side. the difference that babytrapping dean makes is that maybe it will get dean to be nice to him in the mean time, instead of discarding him like so much toilet paper.

but season six cas doesn't think of it like that. if he were gonna babytrap dean, it would be in the more traditional sense of forcing dean to stay with him in order to raise their child together. and he would never do that. he wants dean to have a happy future, which in his mind does not include him. like, compare here "he's retired and he's to stay that way" in the man who would be king, where cas assumes that dean is happy without him and expects him to live out his days peacefully without ever seeing him again, to "i'm the one who's going to have to watch you murder the world" in the prisoner, where cas assumes that he will be by dean's side for centuries.

but anyway, the other, much more important problem with season six is that cas has a war to fight. like, in the later seasons, cas really has nothing. even when he's on tenuous good terms with the angels, he doesn't really have a home with them. the winchesters are his family, and he'd give up anything for them. he has nothing in his life. he's at rock bottom, and this becomes truer the further along you go. late seasons cas has nothing he would prioritize over serving the winchesters, and he would be happy dropping anything he was involved in to have and raise dean's baby. parenting would give him a purpose that he no longer has, because everything else has been stripped from him.

but in season six cas has a life outside of them. like yes, he has a war to fight, but he also has a place in heaven, with the other angels. he belongs somewhere, he has solid connections to the outside world. even if he didn't have a war to fight, i don't know how excited he would be to have and raise a baby (even dean's baby) because he simply has other things he could be doing. he's involved in the world beyond the winchesters.

like, the reason cas wants to be a parent is that he is totally alone and totally purposeless. having a child gives him both a reason for being and someone who will always love him and who he can care for. if he doesn't have that hole in his life he might not be so eager to fill it with a baby.

for all these reasons, this plotline really doesn't work in season six, because you simply cannot justify cas not getting an abortion, unless you do something nasty like make angel abortion impossible, which i don't love.

you COULD somehow put the impregnation just at the end of season six, maybe just before the man who would be king, such that cas doesn't realize he's pregnant until he's already godstiel. you guys are unfortunately very aware of how obsessed i am with pregnant godstiel.

actually, @jeanne-de-valois has a concept of like. a single, madness fueled midnight hookup immediately pre-tmwwbk (or maybe even during, but prior to the superman mistake), where cas is simultaneously so stressed from being stretched so thin from the war and the lying and the shady dealings, and so high on being The Big Man In Heaven, that he's bold and out of his mind enough to actually come onto dean, like he just appears one night in dean's bedroom and is like, fuck me, and dean is like 👁👄👁 okay. so they have one single adrenaline and madness fueled hookup, and then everything immediately goes to shit.

and i think that's a great place for cas to get pregnant, and then he doesn't realize until he's become god, or maybe he does and he's just like "i'll deal with it later," either way godstiel is like oh? i carry dean's heir inside me? i will have dean's baby. i will have dean's baby it is my right and also my boon to him and also a symbol of my great and magnanimous love for humanity. and also maybe i will put giant paintings of myself pregnant with his child up in churches. what about that. which would be fun. don't know when he would give birth though. actually it would be insane if he gave birth as emmanuel and was just like. raising dean's nephil when dean found him again. nuts. but it just doesn't really have the same flavor as late seasons mpreg. doesn't compel me nearly as much. like the symbolism of godstiel being pregnant with dean's child is fun and sexy but them actually raising the kid afterwards doesn't compel me nearly as much, so it's better to leave literal mpreg to the later seasons and let godstiel mpreg reside in symbolism and fantasy.

or maybe the fetus gets stolen by the leviathans when cas walks into the lake and dean has to battle his leviathanated nephil daughter as the main villain of s7. like she's dick roman's secret weapon. i think that would be fun, actually. kind of an emma situation but drawn out over the whole season. and he thinks cas is dead for most of it so she's all he's got left of cas and a mess cas left for him to clean up. big sexy.

and as a bonus, i will also tell you the best time, imo, for dean to get pregnant: near the end of season eight. possibly a single, tragic farewell fuck in sacrifice when cas is planning to lock himself away in heaven and they're never gonna see each other again. and this impregnates dean with cas' nephil.

but then cas is human. and he can't do anything about it. like generally if they managed to get dean pregnant somehow, cas would immediately talk him into an abortion (which wouldn't be too hard; dean's natural white midwestern man who doesn't vote aversion to abortion would be at war with the horror of being pregnant, and the horror would win), or might not even inform dean that he's pregnant, and just quietly end the pregnancy without dean's knowledge, because cas would never put dean through that. but if cas is human, he can't do that. and furthermore, that nephil is the last evidence of his angelic nature that persists. it's the last of what he used to be, the last of his grace. and there's something absolutely delectable about that.

then of course dean would have to leave the bunker if he was pregnant with a nephil, because angels would be after him, and he wouldn't want to lead them to gadreel, so i am imagining dean discovering that he's pregnant and then showing up in a panic at the gas n sip like "actually cas i'm also out of the bunker will you go on the run with me?" and then they go on the run and have to live in motels again and cas gets to live with take care of dean who is pregnant with his child which is essentially his dream, and he doesn't have to feel guilty because he's no longer capable of giving dean an abortion so he doesn't feel obligated to get him to have one. ideally cas gets re-angeled just in time to give dean an angelic c-section. or maybe they rely on a normal human c-section in a hospital and cas stays human and they are two humans raising their nephil, which is also fun to me.

[stardustprompts]

the poppy war - r.f kuang   sentence starters change tenses/pronouns as needed !!  some lines have been edited for clarity / length / ease of roleplaying tw :   drugs , death , murder , nsfw , prostitution mention , language

‘take off your clothes.’

‘why would anyone drug themselves before a test?’

‘you’re about to be a very lucky girl, sweet.’

‘wow that’s great. really great. Terrific.’

‘your folks are assholes.’

‘well fuck the heavenly order of things.’

‘don’t you have actual responsibilities?’

‘I don’t want to get on _____ ‘s bad side.’

‘you would make a terrible prostitute. no charm.’

‘what is so wrong with getting married?’

‘do you want to die?’

‘everything is spilling out of my head as quickly as I put it in.’

‘please do not commit spousal homicide.’

‘give me a way out of this shithole.’

‘hello, I’m praying.’

‘I seduced him with my nubile young body. you caught me.’

‘you can’t scare me into a confession, because I’m telling the truth.’

‘and that means you’re shit at your job.’

‘if you cross them—- if they even think you’ve looked at them funny—- they can and will hurt you.’

‘it’s easy to lose a language when you never speak it.’

‘you’re offending them with your very presence.’

‘they’ll make you an outsider, because you’re not like them.’

‘no matter what they say, you deserve to be here.’

‘I’ll kill you. I will fucking kill you.’

‘I went out in the sun once. you should try it sometime.’

‘oh, you’re the one ____ hates.’

‘you’d be a prick too if your family was both rich and attractive.’

‘honestly? I think he just comes in here to get high.’

‘I think you’re flattering yourself.’

‘unless you’ve got a weapon, don’t aim for the face. the neck’s a better target.’

‘we aren’t here to be sophisticated. we’re here to fuck people up.’

‘this is the only kick you’ll ever need, really. a kick to bring down the most powerful warriors.’

‘power dictates acceptability.’

‘he hasn’t done anything to earn my respect. all he’s done is act high and mighty.’

‘you’re nothing. you shouldn’t even be here.’

‘consider me bullied and intimidated, just let me sleep.’

‘he’s playing with her. he’ll end it soon.’

‘they’re good at fighting, but not much else.’

‘spend a lot of time looking at ____’s eyes do you?’

‘a betrayal of that sort would not have been out of character.’

‘come on, you belong here too.’

‘they’re not going to get rid of me like this. not this easily.’

‘I’m calm! I’m extremely calm!’

‘you’d rather kill your own people than let the opponent’s army walk away?’

‘you don’t let an enemy walk away if they’ll certainly be a threat to you later.’

‘he can’t stop raving about you.’

‘oh, don’t pretend to be bashful. you love it.’

‘you’re a walking disaster.’

‘anyone this obstinate deserves some attention, if only to make sure you don’t become a walking hazard to everyone around you.’

‘I heard he got drunk on rice wine last week and pissed into ____’s window. he sounds awesome.’

‘it’s me, your favorite person in the whole wide world.’

‘I do not have a problem. you are making up this problem for reasons unbeknownst to me.’

‘you’re killing the mood.’

‘they were weak as shit. scrawnier than you, even.’

‘you’re a real asshole. you know that right?’

‘your state of mind is just as important as the state of your body.’

‘sometimes you must loose the string to let the arrow fly.’

‘because I want to break his stupid face.’

‘he’s the most dangerous when he’s desperate.’

‘from this point on you’re just going to be a danger to yourself and everyone around you.’

‘you’re too reckless. you hold grudges, you cultivate your rage and let it explode, and you’re careless about what you’re taught.’

‘I knew I was the only one that could help him.’

‘they honed his rage like a weapon, instead of teaching him to control it.’

‘one urinating statue for my easily entertained friend.’

‘I don’t believe in gods. but I believe in power.’

‘one might say you’ve been obsessed with ____.’

‘don’t look to your left. pretend you’re taking to me.’ / ‘I am talking to you.’

‘we’re studying very weird things.’

‘I don’t actually know what I’m getting into.’

‘here is what happened: you called a god, and the god answered.’

‘you know that if you don’t get answers now, the hunger will consume you and your mind will crack.’

‘you’ve glimpsed the other side and you can’t rest until you fill in the blanks.’

‘supernatural is a word for anything that doesn’t fit your present understanding of the world.’

‘I’m supposed to take it as true that you’re a god?’

‘I’m not a god. I am a mortal who has woken up, and there is power in awareness.’

‘are we getting high? oh, wow. we’re getting high.’

‘ah. the law. so inconvenient. so irrelevant.’

‘we are not madmen. but how can we convince anyone of this, when the rest of the world believes it so?’

‘the price of power is pain.’

‘I understand the truth of things. I know what it means to exist.’

‘prey do not question the motives of the predator. the dead do not question the living. mortals do not challenge the gods.’

‘I killed for you. I would have done anything for you.’

‘I have seen the end of things. the shape of the world has changed.’

‘war doesn’t determine who’s right. war determines who remains.’

‘it’s alright. I know what you are.’

‘I thought I was the only one left.’

‘we have developed the power to rewrite the fabric of this world. if we don’t use it, then what’s the point?’

‘I don’t mess with that shit. it screws you up.’

‘I understand the appeal, I really do, but I like having my mind to myself.’

‘he’s a charmer. like a new puppy. you think he’s adorable until he pisses on the furniture.’

‘there’s no routine. no discipline. nothing you’re used to. am I right?’

‘so you’re the last of your kind. that’s sad.’

‘If you hold the fate of the country in your hands, if you have accepted your obligation to your people, then your life ceases to be your own.’

‘____ feared, and so he held you back.’

‘great danger is always associated with great power. the difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk.’

‘don’t ever let go on that anger. rage gives you power. caution does not.’

‘don’t give in... you’ve been so brave... but it takes more bravery to resist the power.’

‘the nature of this god is to destroy. the nature of this god is to be greedy, to never be satisfied with what he has consumed.’

‘so. screaming at rocks. is that, like, normal behavior here?’

‘fix this. prove your worth. do your fucking job or get out.’

‘I saved your life. doesn’t that make us at least a little square?!’

‘I was scared of you. and I lashed out.’

‘I thought I was better than you, and I’m not. I’m sorry.’

‘when I killed it, it felt like murder.’

‘look, I’m happy to discuss this, really, but I’m currently leaking life out three different wounds and I think I may pass out. would you give me a moment?’

‘well maybe ____ should get his head out of his ass.’

‘ ____ is more fragile than you think.’

‘look, asshole, I don’t need you to tell me what to do.’

‘they say he can read the future. shatter minds.’

‘you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. I am not your friend.’

‘he’s not human. he—- I don’t know what he is.’

‘but ___ was never allowed to be human.’

‘do you trust me?’ / ‘no. but that’s irrelevant.’

‘you don’t know what true suffering is.’

‘I have seen more than my fair share of suffering.’

‘that boy is beyond redemption. that boy is broken like the rest.’

‘I don’t want to be saved! I want power!’

‘that power will destroy everything you’ve ever loved. you will defeat your enemy, and the victory will turn to ashes in your mouth.’

‘we’ve missed something. something’s been laid out for us, but we can’t see it.’

‘fretting won’t make the dead come back to life.’

‘there was nothing human in those eyes.’

‘It was a nightmare, and I couldn’t wake up.’

‘I don’t need your pity. I need you to kill them for me.’

‘whatever it takes. swear it on your life. swear it for me.’

‘I won’t judge him. I don’t dare, because I don’t have the right. and neither do you.’

‘you asked me why I wouldn’t stop him. now you understand. you can’t stop an avenger. you can’t reason with a madman.’

‘I am afraid of what he might do in his quest for vengeance. and I am afraid that he is right.’

‘I am about to do something terrible. and you will have a choice.’

‘they give nothing to the universe, and the universe owes them nothing in return.’

‘you cannot survive my death.’

‘you’re trying to deceive me. you don’t get to deceive me.’

‘this is not the way. this path leads only to darkness.’

‘when are you going to stop being such a damn coward? what are you running from?’

‘you will turn the world to ash, and only demons will live in the rubble.’

‘you dress up your crusade with moral arguments, when in truth you would let millions die if it means you get your so-called justice.’

‘you have not cared about anything for a very long time. you are broken.’

‘I am terrified. but only because I’m starting to remember who I once was. don’t go down that path.’

‘your country is ash. you can’t bring it back with blood.’

‘I’m so sorry. I tried to warn you.’

‘you know the worst part? we’re so close to home.’

‘did you miss me? did you miss this?’

‘I just gave him some of his favorite medicine.’

‘resistance here means suffering. there is no escape. no future.’

‘you have nothing to fight for anymore’

‘what are you defending? you owe ____ nothing.’

‘we were disposable. we were tools. tell me that doesn’t make you furious.’

‘I am sick with fury.’

‘I will die on my feet. I will not die a coward. and neither will you.’

‘we could stay here. we could stay here forever. we wouldn’t have to go back.’

‘you’ll have to live with the consequences. but you’re brave ... you’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.’

‘I have lost everything I care about. I don’t want peace, I want revenge.’

‘I don’t need to sleep. I need to feel nothing.’

‘do you want forgiveness? I can’t give you that.’

‘we avenged him. he’s gone, but avenged.’

‘you have to believe that it was necessary. that it stopped something worse. and even if it wasn’t, it’s the lie we’ll tell ourselves, starting today and every day afterward.’

‘aren’t you supposed to be a seer? do you ever see anything useful?’

‘we have an enemy whom we love.’

‘I’m going to find and kill everyone responsible. you cannot stop me.’

‘oh I’m not going to stop you.’

[smells-like-mettaton]

Tali’s Alphys-Centric Fic Rec List

I’ve been meaning to make this for a while!! All fics are oneshots unless marked as a series or with a chapter count.  Thanks to everyone who recced several of these to me on my 12am begging-for-alphys-fics post dfdksdl. These aren’t in any particular order. The “notes” section is my commentary about each fic. No fics are based on full AUs (ex. underswap, horrortale, etc). The only endgame Alphys ship included is Alphyne, though most of the fics listed are gen. Hope you can find something you enjoy here!

Extra Credit by FriedCatfish

Rating: G // Word count: 1,206 Summary: Undyne loses track of time watching anime. Set before the events of the game. Notes: Cute Alphyne oneshot! Short and sweet, very nice characterization

world comes pouring through by feralpheonix

Rating: G // Word count: 1,655 Summary: Alphys reunites with some old friends on the way home from taking care of business. Notes: 2nd person Alphys pov but it surprisingly works? A small moment with Alphys, Bratty, and Catty, which I literally NEVER see content for so it was really refreshing!! Takes place at/near the end of the pacifist route.

white lies to the dead by MiniNephthys

Rating: T // Word Count: 580 Summary: Alphys walks through Waterfall, talking to someone who's not there. Notes: Queen Alphys ending; Alphys “talks” to Undyne after she’s been killed. Hits me right in all the emotions ;;

Found Soul by LibraLibrary

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,331 Summary: Self-worth is a slippery, fleeting little devil, and the bastard flower that killed you isn't helping. Takes place during the final fight of the True Pacifist run, following Alphys from one purgatory to the next. Notes: Very angsty, definitely make sure you’re ready to handle Alphys’s suicidal thoughts, but a very good read! I love seeing the Lost Soul battle from her POV.

And I Feel Fine by Masu_Trout

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,685 Summary: The fallen human is human is fast approaching The Core, and Mettaton is ready to finally take the stage. Now, if only Alphys would stop worrying so much. Notes: Alphys & Mettaton friendship in the no mercy route, but manages to be surprisingly not depressing. Mettaton POV but definitely still deserves to be here. This fic does a great job of characterizing them both and it’s always great to see Alphys working in her element.

Experimentation by pickledragon

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,531 Summary: Alphys is, above all, a scientist. She may watch anime with religious fervor and make horrible Undernet shitposts in her free time, but she is good at her job. She knows what they say about her, behind her back. But when she stands there, time open before her, she resolves to collect data. Each experiment, intentional or not, brings new opportunities to change certain variables and observe others. Alphys is a scientist, after all. Notes: THIS FIC. it’s technically part of a series but it stands on its own (it’s the only one i’ve read by this author). EXCELLENT alphys characterization and writing style. Some Sans & Alphys friendship too which is always stellar. If you didn’t gather from the summary, it’s an alphys starts to remember resets fic.

Memory by Ash_yeet

Rating: T // Word Count: 19,962 // Chapters: 5/20 Summary: It's been two years since monsterkind have joined the humans on the surface, and Alphys is happier than she's ever been. But things can't stay great forever. She starts having nightmares, lapses in memory, flashbacks to things that have never happened. She hopes it will pass... sans is doing his best to adjust to life. When Alphys reaches out to him about her nightmares, he doesn't expect much. He quickly changes his tune. Someone is trying to come back. And they aren't what they used to be.sans and Alphys are trying to move on. But there's one thing they forgot: No matter how hard you try, you can't run from your past. Notes: I’ve only read chapter one so far, but it’s been really good! Looks like it’s going to involve Gaster in some way. Says it’s on short hiatus but was updated in April so doesn’t look abandoned.

Hot and Cold Blooded (Alphyne series) by perniciousLizard

Rating: varies by fic, usually G but a few T and one E // Word count: 36,516 // Works: 18/18 Summary: This series is a place to put all my Alphys/Undyne stories that aren't part of another series. Notes: this series has something for everyone; you can pick and choose which works to read. Most are feel-good fluff and humor, some hurt/comfort too. Some connect to the author’s Sansby series (which i also can’t recommend enough)

When Life Hands You Enantiomers by Kaesa

Rating: T // Word Count: 2,739 Summary: Alphys has a half-finished tile maze puzzle, reams of useless data, and a bunch of piranhas that can't tell the difference between lemon and orange scent. Sans has donuts. Notes: ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITES. Fun puns, science, alphys & sans friendship, piranhas, the opportunity to actually understand organic chemistry references,, it’s so good and fun

Friendshipping by AyuOhseki

Rating: G // Word Count: 4,564 Summary: Sans finds Alphys's secret Sans/Grillby RPF. This won't get weird or awkward or anything, we're sure. Notes: Hilarious Alphys narration, great characterization, it’s just so silly and warms my heart. I love terrible fanfic writer Alphys

social links by simplycarryon

Rating: G // Word Count: 2,525 Summary: Friendship's pretty neat, or so your video games and anime dictate. But you are not an anime protagonist, and you're not sure you know what friendship is any more. Notes: more solid sans & alphys friendship :D

See You Another Time by decamarks

Rating: T // Word Count: 18,500 // Chapters: 1/14 Summary: “Have you ever thought of a world where everything is exactly the same... Except you don’t exist? Everything functions perfectly without you.” Alphys spent a lot of time thinking about what it’d be like to start over. It wasn’t fair for someone like her to escape consequences. She knew that, yet the thought never left her mind—the thought that maybe, just maybe, she could get another chance; that she could abandon her life, her failures—everything—and start anew. But that would never happen. Sometimes, Alphys wondered. Would the world be better off without her? When unexplainable anomalies appear and begin to warp the world around her, Alphys discovers something she was never meant to know: the identity of the former Royal Scientist, and how he met his demise. Doctor W.D. Gaster vanished without a trace; he was erased from reality after an experiment ended in disgrace. Forgotten by the world, shattered across time and space—it’s like he never existed in the first place.And Alphys can’t imagine a better fate. Notes: This is a monster of a first chapter but definitely worth the read!! So much good stuff happening already. I’m a total wuss but I still love the cosmic/existential horror bits going on so far. Great Sans & alphys friendship and Undyne & alphys friendship so far.  All the amalgamates also feel incredibly well written. Can’t wait to see more of this one

(And here are a few of my own Alphys-centric fics as well)

Seventh Time’s the Charm by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,519 // Chapters: 1/7 Summary: Six bad "dates" Alphys has been on, plus one that is actually pretty good. Notes: Alphys is my favorite and I love giving her a bad time. First chapter is a “date” she has with Sans. Next chapter which I have in progress is going to be Papyrus. (Alphyne is still endgame of course.) Set mostly before the events tof the game. Get ready for lots of second-hand embarrassment sdlfkjds

Support Character by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,814 Summary: If Sans is determined to fight the human, Alphys is going to make sure he's prepared. Notes: Sans & Alphys no mercy route friendship, based on the headcanon that Alphys was the one to give Sans the powers/magic he uses to fight the human.

it's your best life (if it's the life that you're living right now) by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 4,046 Summary: Through messages saved to Sans's phone, Queen Alphys gets a glimpse at lives that might have been.  With so many possibilities... how did this timeline go so wrong? Notes: Sans & Alphys friendship, Queen Alphys ending, mostly angst/hurt/comfort. I’m really proud of this one and it uses my main headcanon for how Sans knows about resets.

The Trans-Underground Alphys-Carrying, Match-Making Road Trip by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 5,713 Summary: From her secret security camera, Alphys gets too invested in Sans's relationship with the voice behind the door.  This wouldn't be a problem if Mettaton didn't decide to take her ship into his own hands. Trying to catch up with a battery-powered robot is hard work, but telling the truth is even harder. Notes: This is a really silly fic with some hurt/comfort sprinkled in. Has some Soriel and Papyton in the background. Has some Alphys & Papyrus friendship as well which is always underrated in my opinion.

[rhaenyras]

EXTENDED LIST OF THINGS THAT ARE WRONG WITH CHAPTER 139

ymir the founder fritz, aka the most powerful and compelling plot device that isayama could have ever employed in order to explain the origin of the titans, the inherent slavery of the eldian people, and also everything else wrong in the world, was emptied of all value and purpose when she was revealed to have loved her abuser and oppressor. her life-long struggle to break free from the slave mentality that was pounded into her since childhood turned out to be... totally hollow. the woman's real purpose was to keep loving the man who cut off her tongue, raped her as a child and eventually had her cannibalized by their daughters when she failed to survive a murder attempt on his person. which makes for a very pinpoint parallel with eren, tbh, but he gets a whole paragraph all to himself later. amor vincit omnia should not become a convenient fix-it trope so that stuff can magically make sense in less than 50 pages. not to mention that this makeshift “solution” doesn't account for countless plot holes, that would only make sense if ymir was an abuse survivor looking to get her agency back. and even if i was keen on excusing the sloppy writing, i still wouldn't let the whole romanticisation of rape and trauma thing slide so easily. by giving a young victim like ymir fritz romantic feelings and a blind devotion towards her rapist, isayama is basically conveying a very pitiful and toxic message, one he refuses to even dignify with a realistic explanation for the thousands of readers who couldn't make a sense of it. the way this twisted version of love seems to be universally accepted by all the characters in the last chapter, as they just shrug it off like some sort of inevitable superior force that works in mysterious ways, made me wanna gouge my eyes out and never read another word again

mikasa's arc. mikasa had the potential to be the only character in the entire manga to come out on top when all was said and done. she had openly opposed eren's idea of a genocide. she had left the scarf behind when he voiced his hatred for her. she seemed ready enough to sever the proverbial umbilical cord and move on, live a life with pride, knowing how she could have outgrown her silly, dependent, obsessive old self. she might have started out as a yandere caricature, a passive and annoying side-effect to having eren as the main character, but she could have done so much better later on. she, too, just like ymir fritz, might have broken free, if only isayama liked liberated and strong women. she had the range. she had the potential, the backstory, everything. given the chance, she could have redeemed herself. but did isayama care? nope. he just threw her to the sickos in the fandom and said “here's your little psycho doll. do what you will with her. also, she's the key to understanding the superior force that works in mysterious ways aka love aka all the nonsense i'm actually too lazy to commit to”. and so, mikasa is as inconsequential in the ending as she ever was as eren's ever-present bodyguard, if not more, because now she's even refusing to look ahead and fight. two things that she at least tried to do every so often back when eren was alive. not only she surrendered to her own mental illness, but she even saw it turned into a pretty fantasy that the readers can idealise (again, romanticisation of all the wrong things) and that she'll never be able to escape so long as she lives. what's worse, she doesn't even want to, because in this manga we love downgrading and being stuck in the past, as the worst possible versions of ourselves.

historia's pregnancy. it shouldn't even have happened in the first place, unless it was dictated by historia's explicit desire to have a child precisely when she asked for one and by that one unnamed farmer guy and nobody else. whether that was the case or not remains, to this day, still shrouded in mystery because, again, isayama didn't think of coming clean about any aspect of historia's sudden decision. the notion that she might have been raped or submitted to something she really didn't want simply for the drama of it leads to some pretty terrifying implications. i have already explained countless times how it didn't even make sense for eren to be so adamant about rejecting the 50 year plan on account of not wanting historia to be breeded like cattle, titanised, and eventually devoured by her children, if he was just... gonna let her have her way, she only had to ask him nicely. why ever would historia need eren's permission to have a child? what was she even trying to tell him in chapter 130? why did eren tell her something as pivotal as the genocide plan if the friendship between them wasn't any different from any other in the 104th? why would eren take the risk to meet her in secret and suggest that they do something as radical as fighting the mp's or running away, if all she had to do was just... ask that he let her get pregnant? i suppose that was just a bait for a very specific side of the fandom, at this point, as the extent of the entire cryptic conversation from ch. 130 was never covered, and we were probably just supposed to forget about it. I can only forgive isayama for basically baiting me into shipping erehisu because he still gave historia a decent wrap-up in the ending, she looked in control and happy enough with her new life, which is something i warmly wished for her. she seems to be in a better spot than most of her former comrades, and virtually, she is the true inheritor of eren's original (and later disowned) ideology, as she is the one who will lead eldia into the future as a free nation, whatever that may mean for them now that titan powers are no longer a thing. I'm very proud of her and generally i am happy with how things played out for her and yeah, thinking back on it with a colder mind... i wouldn't have wanted it any other way, ships be damned

wHY WAS LEVI IN A WHEELCHAIR????? like..... scars aside, he was up and about in one panel, and in the next he was disabled... that was just... idk?? weird but i suppose isayama went overboard to provide us with some residual dramatic value here

the genocide being just a red herring. APPARENTLY eren never believed that the genocide was a solid way to achieve freedom. his true intention was to antagonize himself so that his friends would be hailed as heroes, but like... why... he didn't even achieve the complete annihilation of conflict in the world by doing so? his friends might be heroes now, but they're going to spend the rest of their lives fighting for their very lives. if anything, eren sparked new conflicts and made the new order so much worse for the eldians, as they have no choice but to keep fighting, except with the same weapons as anybody else now. he basically doomed his people to a bleak future of war and possibly extinction. he killed 80% of the entire world to cause nothing but a disappointing regretful outcome, and in the end he even disowned everything he ever believed in. in comparison, zeke's euthanasia plan was some genius level shit that would have achieved the same result as eren, except with not nearly as much bloodshed.

the parasite. again, great idea, poor execution. what on earth happened to it? it was the Scientific Shit that made titans happen one moment, and then gone in the next, wrestled to death by a buff war criminal with ptsd... my disappointment is over the roof

eren himself. like, as a whole. oh, what's not to regret about the 180 eren did in the finale? witnessing a mc forsaking every relevant trait that's ever made him who he is, is simply painful on the eyes. isayama basically went and said “remember eren yaeger aka the suicidal blockhead who would sacrifice everything in order to achieve freedom? yes? well forget about him, you've got aaron yogurt now.” …... who even is this man? when he broke down and cried in front of armin, whining like a baby that he wanted mikasa to never move on from him, i legit got second-hand embarassment. I felt actual shame for the way isayama handled his characterisation. like... he is a mass murderer, ok... how can he just... kneel down and cry about his step-sister whom he never did anything to date anyway like it's nothing??? armin is right to be pissed at him but he's pissed for the wrong reasons, sadly. I don't even want to tackle the topic of eren murdering his own mother, as he basically confessed to going through life on autopilot because the founding titan just erased all his feelings, gave him superior knowledge of all things and compelled him to go with the flow of things, aka the exact opposite of what he's been preaching ever since day 1. W HAT on earth man. like i said in point #1, eren's crush on mikasa is actually very frightening too, and it leads us back to that one dark force that overpowered even ymir fritz. eren is in love with a girl who's obsessed, in denial and damaged. and what's worse, mikasa reciprocates his feelings, even though eren always overlooked her or manipulated her. ymir fritz kept misunderstanding all those red flags from the king as love, probably. this is really not a story of breaking the cursed cycle, because it seems to me that everyone has returned full circle in the end.

CONCLUSION: nothing isayama or anyone might have said in interviews or elsewhere could have prepared me for this raging shitfest. the entirety of that last chapter was farfetched to say the least, everything looked half-hearted and rushed, clumsily glued together because the real isayama died and somebody else had to ghostwrite the ending for him. I am sorry if i do sound a bit disillusioned about the whole thing and can't bring myself to be outraged either, but i've been way too invested into this manga for nearly a decade, and now it all blew up in my face, so i guess i no longer give it the power to upset me lol

[skellebonez]

You like soulmate aus? 44 with a soulmate au where there are countdown timers for important events and if you concentrate you can see the lifespan of your romantic and platonic soulmates except immortals. MK realizes he can see Red Son's life countdown and he only has 1 year left

ANON I WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS WAS THE SADDEST PROMPT I HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN AND I HAD TO TAKE IT OUT OF THE WAIT LIST TO FILL IT ASAP. Just. Damn. You came for my heart and crushed it. @kitkat1003 you helped make this sadder so I wanna make sure you see this.

WARNING: I mean, look at the prompt. It's gonna be a depressing read regardless. Read the tags for a major spoiler if you want to know about the end in advance.

The Lunar New Year special is mentioned in passing but NO SPOILERS.

Why are you still awake?

MK never made it a point to concentrate and look at his soulmate timers unless he really felt he had to, tempting as it may have been. Especially not their life countdown timers. The colors one saw differed from from viewer to viewer, some people even saw only one color in varying shades, and no one knew why the colors were chosen the way they were for each individual. But to MK the timers were a whole swath of colors.

It was easy with Mei, her platonic bond with his allowing him to see the bright green (green for all platonic bonds, not just Mei) countdowns to major events (some bad but usually good, like a major race being announced or taking part in a game tournament spontaneously). The familial blue bond he had with Pigsy and Tang went much the same, as well as Sandy's own platonic bond. He didn't learn that immortal beings had their own color, brilliant gold tinted in whatever the proper bond was until he met Sun Wukong, his gold-green timer slowly changing into a gold-blue bond of family found.

It wasn't until Red Son that MK realized his romantic bonds were a brilliant red (which, in retrospect, could have been seen as funny), shining brilliant and bright and almost blinding him when he caught sight of him properly from far above him (and it nearly made him fall before Wukong forced him to, the traitor). He'd mistaken it for some kind of antagonistic bond before he learned that that was also a type of platonic soulmate. So that was something he shoved deep deep deeeeeep down inside to think about later, especially since a lot of people now a days rarely went after their first romantic soulmate and instead waited for a platonic to change in time.

He never told anyone.

It also wasn't until he tested concentrating on timers with Wukong, for fun and out of sheer curiosity if he really was super immortal, that he realized that immortal's life countdown timer just looked like a mass of rapidly changing numbers screaming in confusion and he decided to never do that again.

Until... the Lunar New Year celebration.

He was curious, scared, and Red Son was there and he let his curiosity get the better of him. He wanted to see if Red was still immortal and if his timer did the same thing.

361 days, 17 hours, 8 minutes, and 42 seconds.

That couldn't have been right.

He tried again.

361 days, 17 hours, 7 minutes, and 30 seconds.

And again.

361 days, 16 hours, 56 minutes, and 45 seconds.

And one last time, after everything was over.

361 days, 12 hours, 1 minute, 29 seconds.

Red Son... had less than a year left to live. Red Son, The Boy Sage Prince, the one who almost defeated Sun Wukong on his journey and eternal thorn in his side... was going to die.

MK hadn't ever really imagined that he could die. He had believed that Red Son was immortal, and maybe he still was. There were ways to kill immortals who weren't all powerful Monkey Kings. But he'd always imagined that, maybe, eventually, they could possibly at least work things out and get to know each other eventually after what happened with WBS.

Now he was plagued with the thought 'what if I'm the one who kills him' and he couldn't handle that so he made up his mind then and there and before Red Son could leave he grabbed him by his jacket collar in front of everyone and changed that thought to 'fuck it' and kissed him and pulled away and looked DBK in the eye and announced "I've known Red is my romantic soulmate since day 1 and I am not wasting anymore time with stupid feuds".

Apparently that was just enough to startle the other man into not attacking and to send Sun Wukong into a frenzy of cackling "I KNEW IT"s.

Red Son turned as red as his jacket on his cheeks and just looked at MK in awe. They had-

361 days, 10 hours, 2 minutes, 16 seconds.

Red hadn't left his parents, not immediately, but the sudden relationship that have been revealed between the successor to the Monkey King and the son of the Demon Bull King had forced everything to a standstill. DBK wanted revenge, PIF wanted her husband to be happy, Sun Wukong wanted to be retired, and all three of them were too stubborn to not insist the two men court each other anyway because tradition dictated that when a romantic soulmate pair revealed their bond no one could force them apart.

352 days, 14 hours, 34 minutes, 18 seconds.

MK felt back constantly checking Red Son's timer, but he didn't want to waste a single second. They had less than a year. He'd seen just how smart and resourceful and, as much as he didn't want to admit it at first, protective and caring for the people he had grown close to he was.

By the end of the month they had moved into Red Son's apartment (he had an apartment?).

322 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds.

MK learned that Red Son was a fantastic chef, on par with Pigsy even. His food was spicy but over time he learned that MK would suffer through food that was hurting him just to try his food and make it less so. Just for him.

315 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes, 34 seconds.

They kissed for the second time well after they had moved in together. Despite rushing into this they had both been too nervous and flustered to do more than hold hands and sleep side by side in different blankets.

They started sharing a blanket by month 2.

292 days, 8 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds.

DBK was still pissed at Wukong. No one thought his grudge would ever fully disappear. But he and PIF had stopped attacking. For now. For their son. The best thing they had ever done for him was let him be with his soulmate without fighting.

MK never felt more guilty than when he realized he was never going to tell them. He tried once, after they moved in. After he had truly fallen in love with Red Son. He'd cried too hard to get the words out and PIF had looked torn between telling him to leave and comforting him before she put a shockingly gentle hand on his shoulder.

He could never tell them.

267 days, 18 hours, 59 minutes, 2 seconds.

Red got along amazingly well with Mei and Sandy. The three of them together were a mechanical nightmare for anyone on their bad side and the most amazing team for anyone they made anything for. Red was also the new favorite among Sandy's cats. No one was surprised.

He and Red ended up adopting a little one eyed kitten they found outside Pigsy's Noodles. They named her Bao-Bao. They loved her.

245 days, 7 hours, 29 minutes, 34 seconds.

Naturally nothing was going to be calm for the Monkie Kid. Eventually demons far and wide came to attack either him or the city. The only difference was that, now, he had Red Son by his side.

Every time Red took a hit MK felt no fear. He knew that would not be the hit that killed his soulmate. His soulmate had-

208 days, 19 hours, 78 minutes, 21 seconds.

Red and Tang were fast friends. Red and Mei and Sandy were faster. It had taken longer for Pigsy but he came around fast enough.

Sun Wukong, though. Even after 5 months he was still slightly tense and terse and short with Red. But he had been coming around, slowly. Just like with everyone else, Wukong was hard pressed to open up to anyone who wasn't MK.

They visited Flower Fruit Mountain from time to time, and it was one day when Red had wandered off to enjoy the scenery at MK and Wukong had heard the pained screech of a small monkey in the distance.

When they saw Red calming the little one down, tending to it's wound as best he could, MK saw Wukong properly smile at him for the first time. Soon they had-

157 days, 22 hours, 28 minutes, 59 seconds.

There were still fights. DBK and Sun Wukong didn't get along. But things were better.

There were family game nights. Red and Pigsy and Wukong cooked together. Bao-Bao had grown into a beautiful Tortoise Shell cat (with tortitude included). Everyone promised to try to get along and things were going well. Red Son and MK were truly in love, it seemed. At least MK was. He was certain Red was as well.

That's why MK asked him to marry him that night.

Red said yes.

140 days, 19 hours, 34 minutes, 34 seconds.

Was 7 months too fast? Yes. Did MK care? No. Did anyone object?

Only the demons that showed up to fight. They were taken care of quickly. DBK was not entirely happy about how fast things were but for his only son it seemed he would not allow anything to ruin the day.

He'd changed over the 7 months. Not entirely, not enough for MK to completely forgive him for everything since he had awoken. But seeing him punch a demon into the stratosphere for Red Son was a pretty good marker of how much he was trying.

6 days, 37 hours, 8 minutes, 12 seconds.

Everything was amazing for those few months together. They fought demons. They kissed. They spent time with their family. No longer two families but one family.

Then Macaque came back.

MK had thought he was gone for good, he had been so quiet. But apparently he was planning something the whole time.

Something to kill an immortal.

That was when MK learned he was immortal. And wasn't that ironic?

Macaque had meant to stab him. MK didn't move in time.

Red Son jumped in front of him and there was red.

Macaque wasn't seen again after what MK did to him.

They bandaged the small wound in Red Son's shoulder. They would find a way to fix this. They had to. MK knew what would kill Red Son now, it wasn't that he wasn't immortal it was whatever poison had been meant for him. He knew people had beaten death clocks before.

He had to try.

5 days, 12 hours, 29 minutes, 56 seconds.

5 days, 12 hours, 29 minutes, 55 seconds.

5 days, 12 hours,. 29 minutes, 54 seconds.

That was what MK saw when Red Son coughed up blood for the first time.

4 days, 1 hour, 12 minutes, 13 seconds.

Sun Wukong found out where Macaque had gotten the poison.

There was no cure.

Red coughed more red and MK screamed at the Monkey King to look again. Do something. Anything. Anything...

They didn't see him or DBK for over 2 days.

1 day, 17 hours, 34 minutes, 14 seconds.

1 day, 17 hours, 34 minutes, 13 seconds.

MK watched the countdown timer tick down.

"Why are you still awake?" Red Son had asked him as he held his head in his lap.

"I don't want to miss any more seconds with you," MK answered softly.

"Am I going to... die?" Red Son asked softly.

"Not if Monkey King does what I know he can do," MK answered again. "I know he'll be back soon. I know it. I-"

"MK! MK I'M BACK!" Sun Wukong yelled through the apartment, bursting into their room looking disheveled and like he hadn't stopped moving since he left. But smiling. DBK looked much the same as he came through the door behind him.

"I think we found something!"

1 day, 17 hours, 32 minutes, 2 seconds.

MK prayed that Sun Wukong was right. He was Sun Wukong. He had to be.

1 day, 17 hours, 32 minutes... 3 seconds.