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rainwindandstars · 3 years

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Queer Book Recommendations part 2!

Here’s the promised second part of my book recommendations! This time we have mostly fantasy books! I’ve included a short summary for each book, along with what I liked most and who I think would enjoy a book the most, and of course which kind of representation there is, though I’ve probably forgotten some. And this time there are even covers, because they are gorgeous :) The books are in no particular order. Some of the authors have tumblrs, I’ve added those I know of as well in case you want to follow them. That said, have fun reading!

(Link to part 1)

Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault (Fantasy)

This is a cute fantasy heist/detective book about a thief, Claire, (who is also the baker Claude by day) and a detective, Adèle having to work together to find and save the city’s magical people who are used as a power source by a scrupulous company. Friendship and found family are important themes in this book, and it has a French-inspired setting which I found refreshing! Read this if you like baking puns and want to read a queerplatonic spin on the enemies-to-lovers trope!

Rep: Claire is allo aro and genderfluid, Adèle biromantic demisexual. Claire is also fat, and it’s treated respectfully and positively. Other rep includes non-English neopronouns, disabled characters and a queerplatonic relationship!

Not Your Sidekick (Sidekick Squad) by C.B. Lee ( @authorcblee) (YA fantasy)

This is the first book in a YA series about a group of teens living in a (somewhat dystopian) town where superheroes are a part of daily life. This one is mainly about Jess, the daughter of two superheroes, who accidentally starts an internship at her parents’ nemesis company- though she also gets to work with her crush, Abby, there. And she soon discovers that there is more to the superhero and supervillain system than she thought. The following books are also really good! Read this if you like teenage superheros having adventures!

Rep: Jess is bi, Vietnamese and Chinese, and her friends include a Black trans boy and a latina a-spec girl. They are the main characters of the following books.

Chameleon Moon by RoAnna Sylver ( @thesylverlining) (Fantasy)

This book takes place in the city of Parole, whose inhabitants have a wide variety of superpowers. It is cut off from the outside world, burning and falling apart, and also under constant surveillance. I don’t usually like books with dystopian/grim settings, so I put off reading this for a long time, even though I heard a lot of praise for it. But despite the setting it’s actually really hopeful and uplifting. The plot centers around how the characters are resisting, not giving up and most importantly sticking together. They are all super interesting, diverse and often very relatable. Read this if you want to read a really well written, character focused book!

There’s a second book set around a group of characters outside Parole (but with connections to the characters in book one) where we learn more about what’s going on in the rest of the world. There’s also a bunch of short stories!

Also: All books by RoAnna Sylver are currently (June 2021) free on their itch.io!

Rep: Lots! Polyamory and QPRs, ace, aro, sapphic, gay, bi, transfem, transmasc and nonbinary characters, and also several disabled characters. Notably, one of the MCs has anxiety and panic attacks and it’s incredibly realistically written.

Stake Sauce Arc 1: The Secret Ingredient Is Love. No, Really by RoAnna Sylver (Urban fantasy)

This is a paranormal fantasy- we follow a group of former firefighters who try to live their life five years after a traumatic work accident killed one of their friends/one character’s fiancé and nearly killed and left one of them, Jude, disabled. But Jude is convinced that it wasn’t just an unlucky accident, he knows he saw a vampire attack and kill their friend. And he is determined to never let anything like that happen again, and tries to be a vampire hunter. Tries, because he still hasn’t found any vampires. But things get complicated when he meets Pixie- a young, cute vampire who doesn’t want to bite anyone and is nothing like the monsters Jude is hunting. I love this book, and the second one a lot! The way the characters deal with grief and trauma, how they can strain relationships even with people who are very close is written very sensitive and realistic while still being optimistically written. Read this if you want friendship and found family as major themes!

There’s also a second book and a short story collection which is usually patreon-exclusive but is currently free on itch.io!

Rep: Jude is an autistic, grey aroace trans man, has PTSD and is an amputee. various flavours of queer (nonbinary, wlw, mlm, some polyamory, a-spec) and neurodivergent.

The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate) by J.Y. Yang (Fantasy)

This is a Asian-inspired Fantasy revolving around Akeha and Mokoya, the twin children of the Protector, the ruler of their country and their struggle to find and keep their agency while their mother wants to use them in her political schemes- especially Mokoya, who has prophetic powers. The worldbuilding here is fantastic, though most things are only hinted at and not described extensively (it’s a fairly short book). Gender identity is one important topic- children in this world don’t have a gender assigned at birth but get to choose their gender when they grow up, something Akeha struggles with a lot. Other important themes are familial relationships, especially between siblings and different ways of rebellion against an absolutist ruler. Read this if you like magical siblings!

Book one of the Tensorate series follows mostly Akeha, while book two follows Mokoya. Books three and four follow other characters and have an unusual writing style, being written as a journal and an extended monologue respectively.

Rep: All children are presumed nonbinary, and choosing a gender that doesn’t fit your birth sex and transitioning are treated as completely normal, so while there are characters that would be trans in our world, it’s qiite different in this world. There are all kinds of queer relationships, including some polyamory!

The Queen of Cups by Ren Basel ( @renniequeer) (Fantasy)

This is a short fantasy novellette about Theo, a young captain who goes to the mysterious Oracle, an ageless woman living on the beach, to have their fortune told and to get a blessing for their ship before their first voyage and the adventure of this first voyage. The story is short enough that writing more about the plot would spoil too much, so I’ll leave it at that. Even though it’s really short, this story has interesting worldbuilding and is beautifully written. Read this if you want a heartwarming and exciting little story!

Rep: Theo is nonbinary and autistic (with synesthesia!) and is in a QPR with a trans woman. There are lots of queer minor characters.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie ( @annleckie) (Fantasy)

This book follows two storylines- the first one is about a troubled kingdom whose patron god is weakening as the throne has been taken by an usurper. Eolo, a young trans man is trying to help the true ruler reclaim his kingdom and discovers an important secret. This storyline has lots of political intrigue, drama and suspense. The second storyline begins in the far past, and recounts the life of an ancient rock deity who is also the narrator. This storyline deals more with concepts, like religion and mythology, language and imagination, with some very interesting ideas. I liked how the gods aren’t just superpowered humans, but powerful, truly inhuman beings (there’s a god who is a swarm of mosquitos!). Read this if you like nonhuman narrators and lots of flashbacks!

Rep: Eolo is a trans man, and I think most characters are POC.

The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg (Fantasy)

This fantasy novella is set in the Birdverse and centers around two trans elders- Uiziya, a trans woman who transitioned years ago and has always been accepted by her people, and a nameless trans man who only transitioned very recently and struggles a lot with the rigid gender roles of his people. Together they go on a journey to seek out Uiziya’s aunt, so she can teach Uiziya how to weave from death, something Uiziya has waited for for decades. The language here is very lyrical and evocative, and the story is mystical and deep. And while it is quite dark at times, overall it’s still a hopeful book. The desert setting is also really cool! I especially loved the perspective of the nameless man, who could finally transition and now struggles both with the people who still see him as a woman, and the people who accept him but expect him to now fit in with the other men- which he doesn’t. I think this perspective is something that’s sorely lacking in most other books with trans narratives. Read this if you want interesting magic with older trans people!

There are also a bunch of short stories in the Birdverse, so check them out if you want to read something shorter by the same author!

Rep: Uiziya is also fat and dark skinned, there’s also some polyamory, sapphic characters and a nonbinary autistic child.

Lifelode by Jo Walton (Fantasy)

Lifelode is a pastoral fantasy, set in a small village where polyamory is the norm (families are usually two women and two men and all their children). The central story is mostly about the daily life of one family, while the larger plot is only in the background. This book also has really interesting worldbuilding- time passes differently in different places, and one character can see people’s past and future. The beginning of the book can be a bit difficult to understand because of this but it’s really worth it to stick with it! Read this if you like cottage core and polyamory!

Rep: Polyamory, and one minor f/f relationship.

The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács (Fantasy/Sci-Fi)

This is a short story collection, and the title accurately shows how weird and queer these stories are. They have widely varying topics, both fantasy and science fiction- sentient octopuses, resistance against alien invasion, a failing memory archive… Frequent themes are nonsexual kink, Jewish faith, community, disability and, well, all forms of queerness. Read this if you want unconventional queer short stories!

If you enjoy weird queer poetry, Bogi has also published a collection of eir poems, called Algorithmic Shapshifting

Rep: too much to list, but nonbinary and Jewish people the most.

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soranis-sunshadow · 4 years

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Entrapta deserved better

My posts are usually either detailed analysis or memes and shitposts.

I’ve re-watched the show and this will be an angry rant…

With every viewing of the show, Entrapta’s arc makes me progressively angrier because I empathize with her so much.

She is introduced to the show as being a reclusive scientist, known throughout the Maker’s guild for her genius. Even her staff is weary of her. She spends all her time alone with her robot friends in her lab within her isolated castle.

The alliance interacts with her with the explicit purpose of recruiting her into their war effort. They want her for her ability to build weapons for them. That’s as deep as the relationship goes this far.

Entrapta has no stakes in the war, the Horde hadn’t attacked Dryl. She joins them because she wants to be their friend; she wants to help them in the only way she knows how, using her technological prowess to their benefit. Due to her isolation (and her being autistic), Entratpa struggles to understand interpersonal dynamics. Human interaction is a skill she has had little practical experience with. She understands the concepts, the rules of the game, so to speak, but she has seen it in play only as a third party rarely ever practicing it herself.

She’s invited to the Princess prom due to her princes status but she’s an outsider there too. No “friendly” princess seeks her out to hang out with her as a friend would. The only person who does so is Catra, and she does it for her own reasons…

With Glimmer abducted, the alliance mounts a half-baked rescue operation. Everything Entrapta did in this episode had a purpose, it looked like she kept getting distracted when in actuality, she was studying horde tech, rescuing Seahawk and furthering their mission and she had no time to explain herself (it also occurs to me that Entrapta might not explain herself because no one asked and no one ever understands her reasoning anyway) The princesses try to control her because she’s being “difficult”. They don’t care why she’s being difficult, they want her to conform.

Once they rescued Glimmer, they don’t even come back to check if Entrapta’s actually dead, or to get her remains and put them to rest respectfully. They allready have the princess they came for.

Entrapta is all alone with her new robot friend Emily in the Frightzone vents, expecting that she’d get rescued because “no princess left behind” but rescue never actually comes.

Catra uses this new abandonment to convince her to switch sides. Entrapta didn’t jump ship because of her tech hyperfixation, she switched sides because Catra used her skill at pinpointing someone’s weak-spot and poking at it.

Catra may not have been Shadow Weaver’s favorite ward (she was her scapegoat and punching bag, the poor girl) but she did learn from her and repeatedly put those skills to “good” use.

Once they find out she’s alive, the alliance wants to rescue her but she’s made new friends in the Horde and she think that they understand her fascination with science, friends that actually interact with her directly. She actually feels included here and as such, she’s not eager to return to the alliance’s side.

Entrapta befriends Catra and Scorpia but even in this trio, she is the third wheel. Catra is focused on herself, her ascension in The Horde and on her missing Adora. Scorpia is focused on Catra and on pinning for her.

Once Entrapta and Hordak start growing closer together, Catra stops talking to her. Perhaps she was hurt because Entrapta “broke her promise” to not go in Hordak’s sanctum, perhaps she was envious of her closeness to the Horde leader, or perhaps both, either way, the friendship is broken from Catra’s side. Entrapta still sees her as a friend and fights Hordak over the decision to send her to Beast Island. Despite his grouchiness, he considers her request and grants it.

As recompense for saving her life, Catra backstabs Entrapta when she tried to stop Catra from triggering a potentially world ending event and then sends her to the fate Entrapta saved her from: exile on Beast Island.

When faced with the choice between Catra and Entrapta, Scorpia choses Catra. Hordak is lied to so he doesn’t know to look for her, he believed she used him and is heartbroken about it.

You can actually pinpoint the moment his little heart breaks in this scene:

Even so, he spends most of season 4 wanting to face her; he’d rather see her as an enemy than not see her at all.

After Catra proves herself a bad friend, (after months) Scorpia finally decides to rescue Entrapta and goes looking for help, deserting to the alliance. She has this little realization:

Adora is the only person that actually wants to go right away and rescue her. Bow wants to rescue her because they need her tech savvy and Glimmer says that they can rescue her after the war or something… (the Island she’s on is a death trap, she might not live that long for all they know)

she said this

then this

She knows that this is a time sensitive issue but she wants to put it off despite the urgency, if that doesn’t sound like friendship to you, then what does? *sarcasm intensifies*

Contrast this with how the villain of the show reacted to the news of her being sent to Beast Island:

On Beast Island Bow gives her a longwinded speech about how she’s supposed to work harder at friendship. I know he’s projecting his own issues here but it still makes me so damn angry. Entrapta’s trying; she’s trying so hard, no one ever tries back! No one makes the effort to understand her (except that one clone but we’re not talking about him), she has to conform to their expectations, the reverse is never applicable.

Anyway, stuff happens and Glimmer is abducted again, by Horde Prime this time.

Then that whole “Lauch” episode happened. Entrapta is distrusted by the alliance more than Scorpia is. She is seen and cold and interested only in tech, she has to explain and redeem herself in their eyes after they treat her like rubbish. They don’t connect the fact that helping them with tech is how she shows her friendship.

It’s the only thing she thinks she’s worth to them. She wants to be accepted by them so badly.

Entrapta gets emotional over rescuing Glimmer!

The person who when faced with the same prospect, said she’d do it later…

Even Catra’s apology to Entrapta for trying to kill her is a blank “I’m sorry”. Pls say what exactly you are sorry for Catra. Entrapta deserves that much. Bow received a better apology for far less of an offense.

All she ever does in the show is work towards furthering someone else’s goals, her own are always a second thought. As @cruelfeline pointed out, even a small scene with her discussing what happened with Hordak, her reaction to it and the gang focusing on Entrapta’s troubles for ONCE , even if it’s just offering her emotional support, would have meant so much.

Why is the show trying to tell me that Entrapta should work on being a better friend?

That's a terrible message!

She doesn't need to work harder on her friends, she NEEDS BETTER FRIENDS.

So many of us ND people end up being third wheels at best and we blame that on ourselves, we internalize the reasoning that our friendship fail because we’re weird and we’re not doing it right. That we’re the ones that have to try harder to be understood and that our concerns should come second. That is a terrible thing to internalize, we are blaming ourselves constantly because we try to understand others and they never try to understand us back.

With age, I’ve grown out of trying and being different so that other people would like me. They’d end up liking the mask I project, not me anyway. I’ve found people that understand me and that like me for who I am, but only after I’ve stopped trying to be “better” for others to accept me. With being honestly “weird” with those around me, I’ve been accepted far more than for trying to fit in. And I’ve realized that people that shun my otherness are not worth the effort to try and befriend in the first pace .

That is what young autistics need to hear, not “git gud” at friendship. You are not wrong, you are not defective or broken, you are you and you’re beautiful just the way you are. If other people don’t see that, then the failing is theirs. Don’t change, just look for people that see you.

#Entrapta #SPOP discourse #rant on how society expects autistics to conform to normality

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fishmongeringstudies · 3 years

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scene three: every road not taken takes itself, eventually, to the bar at the end of the lane

one: losing the rings. one was a gift from a friend and another was an old convenience store gimmick but the third was my grandmother's engagement ring. 'you're going to lose that ring', said my mom, stuffing alcohol wipes into a ziploc bag two weeks before my flight. 'i won't,' i replied. less than a month into the semester, it was gone.

two: leaving my vans at home. they're extra cool too, from the van gogh collection that dropped in the fall of 2019. i ran to the sneaker store after class the day they came out, my backpack tearing at my shoulders and my hands hot with excitement and even then there were only three sizes left in the style that i wanted (sad, sad self-portrait of a man with holes for eyes), none of them mine. they're way too big for me. they're awful for walking long distances. they're my favorite.

three: filling out my dorm preference form at four o'clock in the morning. i made a less-than sign with the dots, thinking it looked funny and that i might as well fuck around and find out since none of these names meant anything to me. it was true that none of those names meant anything to me but they really should've. i really should've been more of a student by then, one semester into the year, one semester away from the rest of the world.

four: not paying enough attention to the snow. it was gone by the time i looked up from the anxious fuck of my temporary, half-baked life, melted into the ground like blood seeping into the wet earth. in the second week of the semester i remember laughing while talking to a friend from washington over the phone. 'yeah i don't have any friends but at least this campus is fucking beautiful,' i said, kicking up a flurry of white with the toe of my boot. even then, i wasn't really looking.

five: taking a month to finish inception by christopher nolan. when i finally got around to those last fifteen minutes, netflix had taken it down. bye, saito, wherever the fuck you are.

six: kissing the wrong person. then kissing another person, thinking a plus and a minus would cancel each other out, and realizing i'd kissed two wrong persons. two mistakes. two bodies outlined in white chalk on the tarmac that hadn't done a thing for me, even when they were breathing.

seven: telling someone i'd invite them to my dog shower when i adopted a dog in the future and realizing, several weeks later, that i hated them.

eight: not telling him all my poems were about him before he stopped being the you i used to talk about sometimes, delirious with soft monarch daydreams, lying sleepless in bed with my fingers on the keyboard and my heart on a stake. hey, you. all those poems are yours. come get them, i don't want them anymore.

nine: not asking for help.

ten: not asking for more kindness.

eleven: believing in the fundamentally good nature of human beings so much that when you stepped all over my face it only occurred to me to cover my eyes with my hands and get up when the old wounds had healed and scars had formed in their place. this is a different you. this is at least five different you's, carrying six different versions of sin. no one's perfect. but only some of us are bastards.

eleven: i spend the afternoon scrolling through chatlogs with friends from home and working on the puzzles i once promised i'd finish with her. we don't talk anymore, but she was there when i dug the hole in the dirt and planted the idea, so in a way some part of her will always be here. you don't have to tell me i'm being dramatic. but everyone i've met in america has been twice as dramatic as me. they're all in love with the idea of promises, rich with textual detail and lacking in faith. they either want too much or too little so it's never enough, whatever you've laid out on the kitchen table, whatever you've scrounged together from the two suitcases you brought to this country. sure, there's amazon, but jeff bezos is going to die one day by the hands of someone sadder and angrier than me, and besides, there's something about objects that follow you across three planes and two oceans, and don't go missing.

twelve: i miss the idea of hope. not hope itself, which i still have plenty of. but the idea of something so lovely it has to bring out the best in everyone, of hands held around an indigo fire, of solace.

one: someone told me that in the first few weeks of the fall semester people would sit around on the grass with their food and talk, and because it was only the beginning of their long and virtuous college lives they hadn't formed those hard metallic cliques and groups that reflect light in a sharp hyperbolic arc yet, and you could sit down with any of them and be welcomed into the group with the kind of warmth usually reserved for a favorite niece or a long lost friend. i'm imagining the scene as i type this love letter to yesterday, the sun setting behind a girl's head as she laughs at a stranger's joke which wasn't all that funny, we're just nice to each other when we're afraid; each circle a loose connection of bodies, each shape liable to a moment's change. at first there's only polite conversation, what spaceships you've been building, what monsters you want to take on when you're thirty-five, but eventually the scaffolding falls away to reveal the genuine thing underneath, and then numbers are exchanged, words scrawled on whiteboards, plans made. these images haunt me. visions of a lawn full of possibility, faces which haven't yet closed themselves to the idea of the new and the bizarre. i try to paint myself into the picture, beside the guy with the green hair and the my chemical romance shirt and the person who's talking in a loud voice about metaphysics, but it never works. already, the sun has slipped beneath the trees and the conversation has faded to a blur. it's too late for another round of authenticity. everyone is going home.

0: it's not loneliness unless you actively choose to reject yourself. after all, you are company too. you are all that has endured through the years, in spite of the regret clawing at your ankles and the girls laughing at you in the trees. when the world eats itself for a couple of dollars and all the birds lie down in a heap at your feet, you have to stop and think to yourself: maybe this is enough.

0: one day it will be. one day i will be everything i told you i'd become, and you will stand on top of the hill they built this school on, your eyes glued to the ceiling of the sky, and when i crest that writhing blue mass of hope you will whisper, like someone who's been touched by an angel:

you're fucking beautiful.

05.23.2021

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00gangfriend00 · 3 years

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I was tagged by @jade-marie and @bourbon-ontherocks to list my top 10 books fics I read in 2020.

and lemme tell you..

i’ve been WAITIN’ for this one!!

This IS a bit tricky because I spent most of 2020 just lurking on AO3, no acccount, no commenting, no kudos. so there are just so so so many fics that I remember pieces of, and have little headcanons that LIVE with me but I have no idea who the author is or what the fic is called.

so.. that being said, the top 10 is ever changing and could never be fully complete. I just love every author and every fic, you are all so wildly talented.

❤ a song inside the halls of the dark - ms_scarlet (@mego42 )

This fic has everything!! a sexy ex-lover rival gang leader, relaxed rio, angry rio, angsty kitchen sex rio. LOFT rio. AND it’s my favourite post-S2 reckoning of all time. There are moments in this fic that I just want to SPAM the gg writing room with. like scrap ur plans. DO. THIS. Overall, this is such a creative and well-written series. The characterization is superb, the smut has.... so many feelings, and the angst is AMAZING. There are a couple chapters (I wont give spoilers) that involves Beth in a hotel in Canada that I legit could not stop reading. it’s just all... so damn GOOD. favourite line: You thought I could be something, right? Well, this is that something. The bitch you trained bit back.

❤ we’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks - BourbonOnTheRocks (@bourbon-ontherocks)

Whew! this fic has EVERYTHING. safe house brio. KARMA. brio ignoring each other. snippy, cranky brio. baking shows. mick overhearing loud shower sex. zero communication. brio getting high and giggling! all the feelings. I looooove this fic. like I LOVE it. it's so creative and it feels so real!! I can play it like a movie in my head. There is so much fun smutty build up, so much tension, anxiety and a very, very, good Thaw Of Feelings which is my fav. I will forever have a soft spot for safe house fics, but this one hilariously twists the trope by doubling down on their idiot stubbornness. genius. favourite line: He's using her and she's using him. Maybe it's the only thing they're truly equal at.

❤ my girl - elizabethmarks (not on tumblr?)

This fic has everything!!!!!!! (but TW that everything is not for everyone, as the plot primarily revoles around a rape scene.) This fic sets up some of the most soft, emotional, protective brio moments. I also adore how this author handles the delicate subject matter. I work from time to time as a crisis advcate for women and ...... this fic is so accurate and well written. All the emotions beth feels, the way rio reacts to her. everything. I have read this SO many times. It also inludes a Mick POV that will TUG at your HEART. favourite line: *When on route to Rio’s loft* Rio nods, with that gentle look he has. "Alright, mama. Let's get you home." There's a beat, they both catch it, but neither of them make the correction.

❤ working on things - odenkirk (not on tumblr?)

THIS fic, now this fic has everything!!!!!!!!! masturbation! sexting! weed-smokin horny rio! DEAN?!??! in a way that didnt repulse me???? SEX. kinda threesome??? a heck of a lot of things that I didnt think id be into but then read it and was like HUH, guess i AM. and last but not least, deliciously perfect characterization. This is a fic I ask you to take a risk on. It will pay off. Its fun and oooh soooooooo sexy. Yes, dean goes to pound town too, but I promise- odenkirk makes it WORK. Blush meter: off the charts. I had to put my phone down and reckon with Jesus. favourite line: Rio: Don't get precious, sweetheart. It's you cuz it's you. AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

❤ miles before you sleep - FakePlastikTrees (@nakedmonkey)

THIS AUTHOR has EVERYTHING! FakePlastikTrees is one of those authors where... I read one fic - then buckled my seatbelt and clicked on her account so I could systematically read through every. single. fic. They are often short scenes that feel so true. Her Rio characterization makes me green with (benevolent) envy. and her smut?? oof. top notch. This fic in particular lives in my heart because it really truly feels like a missing GG scene between Beth and our favourite tattooed babysitter. The atmosphere is tangible and the author slows time down for these two, it stretches out like you are smokin in the suburbs with them. I love a MickFic and this one is top tier.

favourite line: “Oh come on. He’s a little unhinged.” “Takes one to know one.”

❤ people can be so cold - s_t_c_s (@sothischickshe)

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh this fic has EVERYTHING. scrabble competitiveness! annie speaking truths! christmas beth! christmas rio?!?! delicious bickering! CABIN isolation! gift giving perfection! I could go on and on and on. This fic just pulls you straight in. stcs crafts the timeline so effortlessly, and weaves it with so many endearing and authentic feeling details (beth has her own ‘guys’ now, and we know this bc she gives them sweets and food. OF COURSE) The longing between her and rio is so RICH. if you want your heart to swell a million sizes - this is the fic for you. favourite line: They hadn’t – been intimate yet, back when she got him arrested, or the first few times he’d shoved a gun in her face. And the sexual part had been all done and dusted prior to their, god, kidnapping and shooting fiasco. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t present throughout – a hovering spectre, forming a treacherous spine through all their endeavours.

❤ listening through the air shaft - ms_scarlet (@mego42)

now this fic. actually for real, has everything. because its every POV you never knew you NEEDED. and mego42 absolutely nails each and every one. especially Dean. Its a complicated look into his blubbering sexist mind, and misguided fixations that is really well-written. The way in which brio has their own arc throughout the chapters, but told through the eyes of those around them - is amazing. this fic just makes you love every character even MORE. favourite line: well.. annie, mick and ruby have a group chat and thats all you need to know. anytime that comes up = favourite line.

❤ instigator - nomind (@inyoursheets)

be still my bisexual heart. this fic has everyONE! Yes, this fic dissolves into perfect threesome smut BUT before you get there, you get this awesome set up of a dangerous-feeling connection between Rhea and Beth. They are honest, open and fully acknowledging the fuckedupness of their desire. For how small a part Rhea has in the show - this author NAILS her voice, it’s uncanny. Both of them talking about rio? sign me up. Rio coming home to it? sign me UP. favourite line: “Jesus,” she hears behind her. “What am I looking at right now?” Rhea smiles down on her, ignoring him, running her fingers through Beth’s hair.

** shout out to another be-still-my-bi-heart fic : @sothischickshe’s “its a dirty, dirty, game”

❤ do not pass go - linzackles @mrslackles

this. fic. has. every. thing. I am currently putting every single important thing in my life on hold to PLOUGH through this series. like full speed ahead. UGH. marcus!!! beth and rio at an event! a fancy one! big bad business dudes! betrayal! beth making bad choices! rio unable to fully communicate the weight of his desire for her! angst! just excellent, excellent, excellent plots. i like everything!!!!! favourite line: truly impossible. they are all art. but this one made me cackle. Shrugging, she responds. In the bathroom, eating nuts.Annie’s reply comes through instantly. Rio’s???????

❤ meet me under the mistletoe - sdktrs12 (@sdktrs12)

this fic.... has.... everything. I want to include this not only because I loooOoOOOved it, but also because this author just has a talent for creating holiday themed brio fics that are not in the slightest cheesy, or forced. which is... hard! to! do! I read her halloween series while in quarantine, and it became apart of my little daily routine. each fic containing at least one moment that made me go AHHH these two!!!!! so in short - thanks for infusing all my holidays with stellar brio. then christmas comes around and she nails it again! beth and rio begrudgingly working late? YES. they migh each have a date but they dont DARE talk abut their jealously? YES. Bourbon as a third character? haha YES! Beth looking smokin hot? YES. favourite line: “Is that your move? Meet me under the mistletoe?” “Oh baby, you know my moves.”

and PHEW. there ya go!

Thank you amazing fanfic authors for making my year 10000000% better.

I TAG @whiskeyjack @purplemagic @sdktrs12 @joeyjoeylee @ama-ssiempre @roxy206

#favfics #nbc goodgirls #good girls fic #good girls fandom #top10fics

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gffa · 4 years

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The Rise of Skywalker | The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson I LOVED THIS A LOT. THIS IS WHY TROS WORKED FOR ME, BECAUSE REY WASN’T FINISHED LOOKING INTO HERSELF YET. The novelization tying the scene on the second Death Star to the cave in Ahch-To is perfect because that’s exactly what it was--the Force providing her another chance to face the things she fears. That she’s literally facing herself again, just like Luke did on Dagobah, that it’s not about the external influence of this looming figure over them, but about their reactions and feelings to that looming external influence. And it’s why Rey’s fear of being a Palpatine, that she feels something of it long before she explicitly knows it, that she fears something within herself is exactly it. The narrative isn’t saying that Rey has an inherent dark side because she’s a Palpatine, it’s saying that Rey herself fears she has an inherent dark side because she’s a Palpatine. This is Rey’s issue to overcome, the one that she baked into herself, not one that was born into her. That’s why Luke and Leia both tell her not to be afraid of herself, why they say that some things are more powerful than blood, why the ending is all about Rey finally being able to internally choose the light and the Jedi, to reject what Palpatine could have meant to her. Not just the lure of those things, but that this is something REY HERSELF struggled with. Wanting to belong, wanting to know her own origins, wanting the light, but fearing her own pull to the dark side. Dark Rey hissing Leia’s words back at her, “Don’t be afraid of who you are.” isn’t the Force trying to say that these words can apply to being the dark, but they’re about Rey being in a place steeped in the dark and having to face her own fears about what those lines mean. That this is a purposeful retread of those other scenes--the one on Ahch-To, but also the one on Dagobah, the ones on Ilum with the prequel Jedi, etc.--because Rey hadn’t made peace with herself yet. She hadn’t faced her fears, acknowledged them, and moved beyond them yet. She is the one who fears herself (and that’s why Dark Rey using the saber design she had been thinking of is such an excellent way to further hammer this home that this isn’t some outer force pulling at Rey, but the Force going, Look at what’s inside you. Face it. Confront it. Overcome it. Let it go.) Even before Rey sees the dark reflection of herself, she’s afraid of this place and what it might show her. That the teasing promise of insight that Ahch-To gave her, only to leave her not having gained anything--that’s not the Force, that’s Rey herself, still struggling with all of this. “She was about to be defeated by her own self, her deepest fear made flesh.” YES EXACTLY. Rey’s arc in this movie is about her genuine fear of being lured over to the dark side, that something in her feels that pull. We see it when she’s so angry that Kylo Ren is going to take away Chewie from her on Pasaana, is going to take H E R friend away from her, that she taps into a rage and fear that brings out the dark side ability of Force lightning, it rips across the sky and nearly kills someone she cares about. She panics on Pasaana and doesn’t think to use the Force to get them out of the black sand they’re sinking into because her thoughts are so scrambled. She’s having visions of herself on a Sith throne, she’s tempted by the dark to just make things easier, to find a way to accomplish the things she wants (to help people, to find her place, to fight back against evil, it’s so hard to connect to the Force when her thoughts are so scrambled, if she just gave in, it’d be easier). Rey’s lure to the dark side is genuine, her fears are genuine, she had to struggle to overcome them, and part of that was because she couldn’t bear to do much more than glance at her own internal darkness (the darkness that literally everyone in the galaxy has, that the Jedi have been training for generations to acknowledge within themselves and move beyond, as George Lucas explains that’s exactly how the Force is supposed to work) and Dark Rey is literally her fears made manifest because Rey still isn’t dealing with it and she needs to, she needs to let it go, because that’s How The Force Works. If you’re not in mastery of yourself, you’re going to have trouble connecting to things and trouble standing strong when you need to. Rey’s fear of being a Palpatine isn’t about how that’s what makes her struggle, it’s not something in her blood. It’s something in her own mind, because she herself made it a fear and now has to confront that about herself. It’s why, as clumsy as the ending was, her choosing to accept Luke and Leia offering her the Skywalker name and legacy, isn’t about blood, but about what each person chooses to do and what path they choose to walk. Rey rejecting the name Palpatine means she has finally worked through how it doesn’t define her, her fears have been faced and confronted, that she finally understands she gets to choose who she wants to be.

#rey #meta #novels #tros novelization #long post

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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Further reactions to "The book of lost tales":

I appreciate that Idril canonically wears armor and does swordfighting.

I feel like I can actually imagine adult!Idril much better now like in armor and with open hair, distraught but ready to fight while babby Earendil does not yet realize the danger...

My first thought is that Earendil was probably cute in that baby chainmail. My second thought is OUCH, Idril and Tuor always made sure their growing baby had fitting chainmail cause they felt the apocalypse might get them at any moment. Imagine that, imagine them having the baby armor fitted every year or so :(

Its fun how much of the basic structure already exists but most of what you'd consider the main characters doesn't exist or is scattered across various minor roles The only Prince anywhere in sight is Turgon - Except for Team Doriath, theyre all accounted for. I suppose Maeglin is kinda there in name only with vaguely the same role & motivation, but looks personality and background all did a 180 since. Luthien is still pretty much "princesd classic" at this point, not quite the fearless go-getter from the final version - markedly this version tells Beren that she doesnt want to wander in the wilderness with him whereas the final one says she doesnt care and its Beren still wants to get the shiny so as not to ask this of her and also for his honor.

I mean in the finished version Id consider the 3rd and 4th gen royals to be the main characters (well, alobgside Team Doriath and the varioud human heroes) and theyre hardly here. Imagine the silm with no Finrod!

Feanor had no affiliation with the royal family whatsoever, and is also generally less super. He's just the guy who won the jewelsmithing competition, not the inventor of the whole discipline. Still seems to have been envisionad as a respected member of the community who gets called to the palace for crisis meetings and is listened to when he stsrts giving speeches. From the first he already has the backstory of going off the deep end (or at least growing disillusioned with Valinor) after a family member is killed by Melkor and theyre still the first to die, but its just some other rando unrelated to the royals

The situation regarding the humans is different - instead of Melkor leaking their existence, its Manwe who explains that the other continents were supposed to be for them eventually. So Feanor goes off on a tirade about weak puny mortals comes off as a more of a jerk unlike in the final version where Melkor barely knew about the humans and described them to the Noldor as a threat. On the other hand in this one, also very much unlike in the finished product, Melkor dupes even Manwe into being unfair to the elves as a whole. In this the final version is a definite improvement, both Feanor and the Valar come off as a lot more sympathetic and though still deceived he's partially right in some things at least, so you have more of a genuine tragedy rather than a simple feud

There is something to the idea of Commoner!Feanor tho. I guess some of this survived in his nomadic explorer lifestyle and how both his wife and mother (who arent mentioned here) eventually were the ones to get that background of being not especially pretty ladies who are not from the nobility but got renown, respect and acclaim for their unique talent and contribution to society, with each having invented things and Nerdanel also being renowed for her wisdom. Hes sort of an odysseus-like Figure in that sense. I suppose later developements necesitated that Maedhros & co. have an army not just a band of thieves, which means they needed to be nobles/lords. That said this being a society where artisans are very respected and half the lords have scholarly/artistic pursuits going, the gap was probably not as big to begin with as it might have been in say, medieval England. Esoecially since Nerdanel's father had been given special honor by one of the local deities and that the social order might have been a very recent thing in Miriel's time. One might speculate that the first generation of Lords started out as warriors during the great journey, or perhaps just Finwe's friend group.

Also found that bit intetesting where the Valar have to deal with the remaining political tensions and effects of Melkor's lies on the remaining population in Valinor... - i guess with the change of framing device it was less likely for news of something like this to reach Beleriand. That, or the existence of Finarfin and his repentance made this go smoother this over in later cannon

Turgon's go-down-with-the-ship moment reaaly got to me. Im half tempted to write a fic where his wife, siblings and dad glomp him on arrival in Mandos. I dont care that none of them exists yet in this continuity i want Turgon to get hugs

I love all the additional Detail that got compressed out in the shift from fairytale-ish to pseudohistoric style especially all the various Valinor magic insofofar as it is compatible with the final version - particularly love the idea of the connection between the lamps and the trees that is now integrated into my headcanon forever

Its actually explained what the doors of night are

If I had not already read unfinished tales or volumes X to XII where this is also apparent, this is where I would say: Ah so the Valar were supposed to be flawed characters. Manwe has an actual arc; by the time he sends Gandalf he finally "got" it. I think in the published silm the little arcs of Ulmo and Manwe are mostly just lost in compression/ less apparent when only some of the relevant scenes got in but not all

It occurred to me way too late that the "BG" chars are the most consistent because theyre at the start and most stories are written from beginning to end. Finwe doesnt get a dedicated paragraph of explicit description until HoME X but my takeaway was that he's described pretty much like I always imagined him anyways/ same vibe I always got from him... charismatic, thoughtful, enthusiastic, sanguine temperament, brave in a pinch but at times lets his judgement be clouded by personal sentiment (though that last bit is more apparent/salient as a character flaw once he became the father of a certain Problem Child) ...i guess this would be a result of jrrt having had a consistent idea of him in his head for a long time.

This means Finwe's still alive at the time of the exodus which is just fun to see/interesting to know... Interestingly he sort of gets what later would be Finarfin's part of ineffectually telling everxone to please chill and think it over first while Feanor simply shouts louder (which is consistent with his actions before the sword incident in later canon where he initially spoke out against the suspiciozs regarding the Valar) - but its not exactly the same, he's more active than Finarfin later in that when "chillax" availed nothing he said that then at least they should talk with the other Kings and Manwe to leave with their blessing and get help leaving (This seems like it would have been the clusterfuck preventing million dollar suggestion in the universe where Feanor is related to him and values him) but when even that falls on death ears he decides that he "would not be parted from his people" and went to run the preparations. I find it interesting that the motivation is sentiment/attachment (even phrased as "he would not be parted from [his people]" same words/ expression as is later used for the formenos situation), not explicitly obligation as it later is for Fingolfin (who had promised to follow Feanor and didnt want to leave his subjects at the mercy of Feanor's recklessness )

Speaking of problem children. It seems the sons of Feanor were the Kaworu Nagisa of the Silmarillion in that originally all they do is show up at some point and kill Dior as an episodic villain-of-the-week. And then, it seems their role got bigger in each continuity/rewrite... probably has something to do with the Silmarils ending up in the title later making it in the sense their story that ends and begins with them. They have zero characterization beyond "fierce and wild" at this point, though in what teetsy bits there is we already have the idea that Maedhros is the leader and Curufin is the smart one/shemer/sweet-talker, though not the bit where Maedhros (or Maglor, or anyone really) is "the nice one". Which I guess explains why "Maglor" sounds like such a stereotypical villain name.

"The Ruin of Doriath" was purportedly the patchworkiest bit of the finished product, but I never noticed and it actually left quite an impression of me upon first reading, the visual of Melian sitting there with Thingol's corpse in her arms contemplating everything thinking back to how they met... she had the knowledge to warn him not to doom himself but couldnt get him to understand it because he doesnt see the world as she does.... After reading this though I wish there was a 'dynamic' rendition that combined all the best bits like, youd have to adapt it to the later canon's rendition of the dwarves, have Nargothrond exist etc. But i mean that just makes Finrod another dead/doomed relative of Thingol's whom bling cannot truly replace, like Luthien and Turin. In the Silmarillion you could easily read it as just an "honoured guest treatment" but here and in unfinished tales I get the impression that Thingol actually did see Turin as a son.

Already you see the idea of trying to make the stories all interconnected but there is less than there will be (the human heroes aren't related yet and there is basically no Nargothrond, which is later a common thread for many of the stories - a prototype shows up in the 'Tale of Turambar' tho complete with half baked prototypes of Orodreth and Finduillas

O boi im not even through yet

#silmarillion #the book of lost tales #history of middle earth #baby reads HoMe

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animebw · 4 years

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Binge-Watching: Charlotte, Episodes 10-13

In which we finally reach Charlotte’s infamous ending, and I have... many thoughts.

Split Time Paradox

Well, I asked for it, and by golly, I got it. Charlotte’s final stretch is every bit the unhinged descent into ludicrousness I was promised. Episode by episode, it ramps up the stakes and piles on yet more complications and plot swerves that quickly spiral out of control. We learn about how Yu’s brother Shunsuke has been Steins;Gate-ing himself across multiple timelines trying to save his family over and over again, as well as a clarification on how Yu’s power-stealing abilities work. Then we save Ayumi at the end of the very same episode, and the entire subplot is wrapped up and shelved for good. You’d think the story would build off their reforged connection from there, but instead it twists in a completely different direction and focuses on Shunsuke’s escalating war with anti-mutant terrorists that’s barely even been hinted at before. We’re also told the exact nature of how these superpowers show up in the first place; basically, it’s dust from a passing comet named Charlotte (roll credits!) that brushes by the Earth every 75 years or so and awakens a new crop of half-baked X-men. Then there’s a rescue mission that goes south and Yu loses the ability to time travel just as soon as he got it, distancing the ongoing story even further from the events leading up to it. And then, instead of building to a confrontation with the terrorist bad guys we’ve just been introduced to, Charlotte switches tracks again and saddles Yu with one last god-tier mission: travel the world and suck up everyone’s superpowers so everyone can go back to normal. And the final episode proceeds to show him doing just that, blasting through a whole cours’ worth of content in the process and repeating episode 7′s concept of watching Yu slowly spiral into supervillainy until his connection with the people he cares about brings him back from the edge.

Wow.

Yeah, there’s no getting around it; Charlotte’s ending is kind of a gigantic mess. Individually any one of these ideas would be more than enough to fill out a satisfying second half, even just the six episodes following Yu’s grief spiral and recovery. But all together, barely given more than an episode each to breathe? Not even Jun Maeda’s good enough to keep hold of those reins. Honestly, though, the problem isn’t really that the plot becomes incomprehensible; wild as its trajectory becomes, there’s always just enough explanation to make sense of what’s happening and why. The problem is that with so much Shit(tm) to do and so little time to do it in, it doesn’t have time to explore the ramifications of all these crazy events. It just barrels relentlessly ahead and leaves you spinning in the dust with more and more unexplained questions.

For example, how is Yu’s Looting power so omnipotent when it’s been established that all powers in this world come with some drawback? Even Shunsuke’s time-leap abilities come with the caveat that he lost some of his sight every time he used it until he went blind and could no longer use it again. I guess you could argue that taking on so many powers at once would be mentally destructive, as shown in episode 13, but that’s not an issue built into the power itself like all the others have been, that’s just an unavoidable consequence of using that power. We also never learn what Iwasawa 2.0′s deal was, so I guess we’re just supposed to assume that she was a time traveler just like Shunsuke because of how she talks about her blindness. But it’s weird we don’t really get any confirmation on that, so for all I know she could just be a weirdo who conveniently drops into Yu’s lap at the perfect time for his character arc with no explanation. Also, what happened to the terrorists? They’re not gonna just go away if superpowers themselves vanish, lots of them will probably still harbor xenophobic sentiment toward former mutants. I suppose you could infer that maybe Yu was also making sure to wipe them out during his quest, but that’s only ever implied.

And speaking of his quest, isn’t it kinda shitty that he’s stealing powers without even explaining himself or asking first? Yeah, it’s part of his supervillain relapse and he’s never exactly been the best at respecting boundaries (also, I’m with Yu here, The One-Eyed Grim Reaper is such a chuuni-ass nickname it hurts), but couldn’t he at least, like, heal the rest of the injured people waiting outside the clinic for that one girl with healing powers? And what’s gonna happen to that girl when her powers no longer work and she suddenly can’t heal her clients like she used to, with no knowledge of how or why? That’s a potentially dangerous situation for her, but the show doesn’t even bother acknowledging it. In fact, we don’t get to see any of how the world changes in reaction to Yu’s rampage. We get plenty of TV exposition along the way, so we know the world knows about his existence, but how would nations react to the knowledge that superpowers were real? Or just ordinary people? How would the path of destruction he wreaks affect daily life and international relationships? It seems like he smashes through a lot of important politicians and military units along the way, you’d figure that would have some impact. I’m not saying Charlotte had to turn into a geopolitical thriller, but there should have been at least some indication of what consequences these actions would have.

When Will You Learn

And that’s the real heart of the issue there. By giving itself so little space to pull off so much, Charlotte loses sight of the consequences that drive good drama. There’s no time to really let things settle, so there’s no time to deal with the fallout of the plot’s manic surge forward, and there’s no time to deal with its effects on the characters. Yu saving Ayumi should be a huge deal for both of them, considering how central their relationship was to the show’s emotional core. But instead, it’s the last moment either of them really spend thinking about the subject, and Ayumi might as well have never died for how much it changes their relationship. Meanwhile, it feels like there should be more tension between Yu and Shunsuke; for their own good or not, there should be tension in reconciling as a family after he literally erased their memories. But Ayumi accepts it right away (which they even make a joke about) and I guess he’s just part of the family now. There’s also an interesting thread raised about Yu’s discomfort with Shunsuke keeping him in his facility “for his own safety,” which feels like it might be leading to an ironic parallel between Shunsuke and the evil researchers he’s fighting, but that doesn’t end up going anywhere either. Honestly, the best part of Shunsuke’s addition to the story is his absolutely amazing bromance with Pooh: ”We may have met in the future, but we’re strangers right now!” Seriously, the revelation that Shunsuke was the one who gave him that nickname and suggested he hide his face behind bangs made for such a great bond between them. There, at least, the consequences are respected, as Pooh’s death triggers a crisis of faith in Shunsuke, leaving Yu to man up and pick up the slack of moving forward. But can’t make a sturdy house from one solid log amid a field of splintered timber.

So here’s the million dollar question: if Charlotte’s ending is objectively a mess and has a million things that either don’t make sense or aren’t satisfyingly addressed... why do I still like it?

Through the Stomach

Because when all is said and done, with all these problems understood and dealt with, I did not come out of this show unsatisfied. For all the mistakes the ending makes, I did not feel like it betrayed my love for this show. And I think that comes down to one simple fact: despite everything it gets wrong, this ending gets the most important thing right. I can handle a lot of absurdity in the shows I watch, a lot of contrivance and coincidence and things that aren’t as good as they could be, but the one thing you absolutely have to nail is the emotional core that earned my investment in the first place. And in Charlotte’s case, despite all its missteps, this ending does justice to Yu’s character arc. When he started this show, he was a walking bundle of insecurities who took the people around him for granted. Then, tragedy forced him to realize the value of the life he was living, and he resolved not to shrink away from it again. Now, having gone through those flames and been given a second chance to make things right, he’s resolved not just to value his life and the people in it, but to help his friends and family do the same.

And can I just say, it’s kind of genius how food becomes the unifying motif that represents that represents these bonds. There are few better ways to show your love for someone than expressing it through food, and Charlotte’s been seeding that theme all the way back when Ayumi was making omelets with that overly sweet pizza sauce. Over the course of his hospital recovery, Yu reconnects with all his friends by letting them enthusiastically hand-feed him the dishes that symbolize their connection to each other. Ayumi’s pizza sauce omelet. The beef-tongue curry Takajo always got for Yu. The cream stew that Yusa made for Yu when he was stuck in a depressive spiral. Sharing food is the way these characters express how much they care for each other, and what Yu realizes at last is that the secret ingredient was never the pizza sauce: it was love. It’s that love that Yu’s finally able to accept from them as happily as the tasty morsels they shove down his gullet. And just as they’ve all given him the courage to accept that love, he pays the favor back by encouraging Yusa and Misa to find closure with her parents, once again, by eating the food that symbolizes their connection. Just as they’ve helped him, he’s finally grown enough to help them in return. And this time, he’s never gonna let those feelings go.

Hearts on our Sleeves

Which brings us, at last, to the girl who’s always been at the apex of this wild and whirling arc. And Jesus fucking Christ, as if I couldn’t love Tomori enough already, she has one of the single best responses to a confession of love I’ve ever seen: “Huh?! What is that, romance?” Folks, I absolutely lost my shit. Leave it to this incredible girl to be such a pillar of self-assured sardonic sincerity that not even being confessed to could shake her composure. Because that’s always been the magic of her relationship with Yu; no matter what paths they go down, they’re always just so comfortable with each other. Whether they’re bickering or sharing a heart-to-heart, butting heads or holding hands, being together is the easiest thing in the world for them. Even when Yu travels back in time and erases a good chunk of the bonding moments they’ve shared, she’s perceptive enough to understand where he’s coming from right away and comfortable enough to still value his companionship. And in a world of anime heroines too often relegated to playing the blushing recluse, Tomori’s the rare gem who has absolutely no shame about sharing her life with the guy who likes her. She’s the one pulling him along, she’s the one enthusiastically sharing her interests, she’s the one showing up unannounced in his room chomping Pocky like it’s the most natural thing in the world. She embraces his love with the same casual, self-assured confidence she embraces her entire life with, and I cannot begin to describe what a breath of fresh air this was for me. Not even Angel Beats or Clannad, despite being far better shows than Charlotte overall, really managed to capture that.

And it’s this relationship, above all else, that saves Charlotte’s ending from being a complete disaster. No matter how hectic the whirlwinds get, those helpful English flashcards she writes for Yu’s international travels keep both him and the story from spinning out of control. No matter how lost in the weeds things become, that whole amazing conversation following Yu’s confession and the adorable pinky promise that closes it out is a ray of light piercing through the clouds and reminding us why we’re here in the first place. And just as that promise eventually guides Yu back home, battered and bruised and amnesiac but still holding onto those bonds even after all this time, that promise brings Charlotte home, battered and bruised and more than a little confused, but shining no less brightly for the tangled thicket it stumbled through to get here. I guess sometimes, art really does imitate life after all.

Odds and Ends

-”Come find me when I’m blind?” “Sure.” I repeat: these two are great.

-”I’ll always love you.” Aww, that’s sweet. Still kind of a dick move.

-”So I’m disguised as a teacher!” sdkjfhdskfjhs

-”Hey, this girl is cute too!” SHE LOOKS SO OFFENDED HOLY SHIT

-This whole hilariously botched school infiltration is peak Angel Beats. Our only flaw is that we’re idiots, indeed.

-Eeey, it’s the old dude! Glad he’s still doing alright in this timeline.

-”That’s the first time I’ve seen someone lose everything in the first hand.” When suddenly, Kaiji Ultimate Survivor.

-Okay, but that’s easily some of the best Engrish I’ve heard from anime.

-”I’m gonna have dentures at this age?” Bad. Ass.

-”So unbecoming...” I mean, you could’ve not in the first place, show.

-”I’m sorry, I was rushing things too much.” Shunsuke talking to Yu, or Jun Maeda talking to the audience? You decide!

-alright Misa I appreciate your theatrics but maaaaybe don’t risk revealing yourself on national television okay

-GOD DAMMIT MISA THAT LETTER’S GONNA MAKE ME CRY HERE

-”If you move, you fire.” Okay, Yu trying to be intimidating while shuffling through translation cards is great.

And that’s the end of Charlotte. Good lord, what a show this has been. Expect my series reflection later today, as well as what show will take its place!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #charlotte #charlotte anime

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uozlulu · 4 years

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@sestet asked to see the mall earthquake scenes I scrapped from the first draft of that TodoBaku soulmate AU fic. So I’m going to post them under the cut with additional commentary for context.

Please keep in mind everything below the cut comes from a first draft so it’s sloppy and rough because I don’t go back and rewrite/tweak/edit until after the whole first draft is done.

BnHA/MHA manga spoilers may apply

In context, this fic is a 110,000+ fic that starts when the soulmate connection manifests and so far extends well into third year (and will probably finish a while after graduation).

The soulmate connection is an ability to sense your soulmate’s emotional state at all times. If your emotions are identical then the soulbond, called the resonance, will vibrate and increase your ability to use your quirk. In romantic situations there’s a hum more than a vibration, which does not increase your quirk.

These scenes take place in third year. At this point in the story, Todoroki’s been rebelling by wearing a ring for a long while, Bakugou and Todoroki have been dating for a few months or so. Bakugou’s mentor right now is Miruko and Todoroki’s mentor right now is Gang Orca. Todoroki also spent some time in second year having Present Mic as a mentor during some Council shenanigans. Bakugou, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu are the Big Three. Midoriya ran off to deal with AFO and dropped out of high school on his eighteenth birthday. Todoroki told Endeavor his plans to be an underground hero in a dramatic hospital room confrontation, and Bakugou’s been on a trajectory to mature in such a way by the end of the fic he’s not as King Explosion Murder as he was as a first year. That way all three of them have the dream they started out with on day one changed by the end of the fic. Best Jeanist also turned into a nomu at one point and was declared dead later. Bakugou, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu have been helping keep an eye on Eri, who wasn’t really prepared for Midoriya to just disappear, but has been coping with it since. Also, Natsuo is with the League of Villains after Dabi kidnapped him to save him from Council shenanigans the previous fall or so. Dabi died almost a year ago. The Todoroki siblings know Dabi was Touya. Not sure how much of that will be relevant to these sections but I figured they were some high points that might get referenced briefly or eluded to.

This first version of the mall earthquake scenario is set just before Christmas in the story and about two months after Bakugou and Todoroki had their quirks swapped for about a week. Bakugou’s POV will begin (though I’m probably going to keep this bottle rocket Bakugou section for the final draft in some form) and the POV will change every time you see a ~

===

Midterms ended and third years gained more privileges. They would be pro heroes in only a few months and needed the freedom to go to interviews and find housing. Their first licensing exam opportunity was in January, but the selection process started in lieu of licensing. Some people who proved themselves in the field but had an off day might work in offices until they passed the next available exam. Other agencies would not guarantee a position if a candidate did not receive their lisence accordingly.

This Sunday it was Bakugou’s turn to watch Eri after lunch. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki were out and Miriio was too busy studying for exams to come this week, but promised to visit more often after exams.

Eri rushed up to Bakugou and took his hand gently. “Can we make bottle rockets? Please?”

Bakugou blinked and then grinned. “Yeah.”

Eri already had all the materials. She even decorated the popsicle stick stabilizers with glue and glitter. “I watched a show on TV about it,” she said, “and I want to figure out how to do it.” She pointed to lines on the bottles. “I measured water and marked them for the vinegar. We need to make packets of baking soda.”

They took the equipment to the Home Ec room. Eri carefully measured out baking soda into paper towels and Bakugou helped her tie them at the ends. They attached the sticks to each bottle with more glue. Each rocket represented a different ratio of baking soda and vinegar. Each bottle also marked different amounts of vinegar.

Kirishima paused at the door. “Hey guys. That looks interesting.”

Eri explained the plan to Kirishima and soon all of them headed out to an empty part of campus with the rockets.

“You get to pour the vinegar but I’m doing the baking soda,” Bakugou said. He was not going to be responsible for Eri taking a bottle to the face or any other preventable mishap.

“But –” Eri stared up at him e a long moment. Neither of them looked away. Bakugou’s face remained firm. “Okay,” she agreed.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do it?” Kirishima asked Bakugou.

“You just want to be the one to launch it.”

“So do you.” Kirishima snorted.

Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Alright. One bottle at a time.”

Eri put a funnel into the first bottle and carefully poured vinegar until it reached the line. She handed it to Bakugou along with the corresponding baking soda packet.

Bakugou stepped away, placed the packet inside and set the bottle down. He headed back over to Eri and Kirishima just in time for the vinegar to soak through the paper towel enough to create the reaction and send the rocket popping up into the air.

Eri wrote the results in her notebook and soon they prepped the second rocket. It shot up higher and then arced before zooming off haphazardly to the side.

Eri finished pouring vinegar into the third bottle and sealed the vinegar jug.

“What do you think will happen this time?” Kirishima asked.

“I think this one will go even higher,” Eri said. She smiled and handed the bottle to Bakugou. She turned to Kirishima for the last baking soda packet and then stared up at him.

Bakugou followed her gaze. Kirishima froze in place. His eyes scanned the horizon.

“Earthquake,” Kirishima said. He knelt on the ground. “Get down!”

Bakugou did so and Eri mirrored their positions. Her gaze shifted in the direction Kirishima stared. Soon Bakugou heard the rumbling growing steadily louder. The ground seemed to roll underneath them as it vibrated. Fire erupted as a gasline bursta few blocks away. The ground kept moving. Kirishima moved so his body protected Bakugou and Eri’s heads from debris. It lasted seconds but it felt much longer. The quake began to ebb the sound traveled into the distance. Sirens rang throughout the city.

Kirishima stood up and helped Eri to her feet. Bakugou stood up and brushed the dirt from his hands.

“Let’s pick our shit up and get it inside. We’re going to find Yagi.” Bakugou grabbed the unused bottle. When teachers and students were expected to assist local heroes, Yagi always took care of Eri.

Eri nodded. She picked up one of the straw bottles. Kirishima got the other. Bakugou grabbed the vinegar jug. Bakugou’s phone buzzed.

Yagi: I am at the teachers’ office. You can leave Eri with me. I’m sure Nezu will ask you to assist soon.

Both Bakugou and Kirishima’s phones buzzed simultaneously.

Nezu: Hello, students. Due to the powerful quake in our area, we have permission to assist locally if you have your license. If your mentor requests your assistance elsewhere, you have permission to assist them. Those without licenses, await teacher instruction. To those off campus, be alert and aware. Be safe! Plus Utra!

After dropping Eri off with Yagi, Bakugou and Kirishima raced to the dorms to suit up. Some of their schoolmates were already heading to the school gates. Bakugou forewent his gauntlets since major explosions could be more detrimental than helpful in this situation. He hit the gates at the same time as Kirishima, Jirou, Uraraka, and Shouji. All of them moved as a unit into the city.

~

It was Todoroki’s first time in a mall that had nothing to do with work. There was so much to take in, so many things to look at. There was anything any type of quirk might need here and even things unrelated to quirks like books, music, and other forms of media.

Yaoyorozu adjusted the strap of her purse. “Sorry about asking you out here, but our time at the thrift shop was kind of fun and I didn’t want to invite someone who might accidentally invite Kyouka. I know Christmas is more than a month away but you never know when they might need our help again.”

Todoroki nodded. “I need to think about Christmas too.” As far as he knew, none of his family observed Christmas. Everything he knew about it he learned from pop culture and his classmates. Everyone who dated someone always made a point to get their partner something nice. When Yaoyorozu mentioned getting something for Jirou, it did not take long for Todoroki to want to get something for Bakugou too.

Yaoyorozu looked at him with a smile and said, “I guess we just dive in and see what happens.” She bounced excitedly on her heels. “Let’s go.”

They tried music, but Jirou had such a broad taste and so much music neither of them could be sure what she did and did not own. They tried books, but they did not seem the right fit and Todoroki found his mind wandering. Quirk themed gifts seemed too personal. There were a lot of stores that seemed too cheap. After a while they bought crepes and settled down on a bench in the middle of the mall. Todoroki nibbled at the strawberry filling. He did not really focus on anyone or anything, but sometimes his eyes swept the crowd or checked the exits.

“Earthquake!” someone shouted from far away in the mall. “I can smell it!”

Before Todoroki could fully consider how someone could smell an earthquake, it began to jostle the mall. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu got under the bench. Displays toppled. Glass shattered. The lights flickered. The ground kept shaking along with their bones. It seemed to last forever and then it moved on and away from the mall.

Yaoyorozu rolled out from under the bench. “Excuse me,” she said and then ate what was left of her crepe still in her hands in three large bites.

Todoroki’s ate what was left of his crepe and put its wrapper in his pocket. His eyes scanned the immediate area. One of the shops emergency gates fell during the quake. Everyone he could see appeared dazed but uninjured. He looked at Yaoyorozu.

They headed towards the sound of the glass. Their phones buzzed but they could answer later. Shards of glass began appearing on the floor, crunching under their boots. Three of the safety panels used to keep people falling from the floor above dislodged in the quake, the glass bursting across the concourse for meters. Todoroki sent out an emergency code like he might if he was working for his internship.

“Please remain where you are,” someone said over the intercom. “Heroes will be with you shortly.”

“We should move them before the aftershock, shouldn’t we?” Yaoyorozu asked quietly.

“Is that safe?” Todoroki looked at her.

Yaoyorozu’s eyebrows drew together. “Is it safer to let them go through the aftershock in glass fragments?”

Todoroki was not sure. He scanned the area. They were the only people able to help. “I can see if a store will let us transfer them inside.”

“I’ll make a stretcher,” Yaoyorozu removed her coat and tied it around her waist. She pulled her shirt up so it exposed her mid-drift. “It might take a bit. I’m going to make it folded and then unfold it.”

“That’s fine.” What were their other options? Todoroki sent out an emergency code as he would if it was during internship hours.

A nearby clothing store willingly started moving racks so they would have room to put the injured. Yaoyorozu’s stretcher helped speed up the process. Those that got caught in the glass tried to take shelter in kiosks and under benches. Winter clothing helped prevent many injuries but there were some with multiple fragments embedded in their skin. There was no ideal way to move anyone without causing pain. Todoroki carried those less injured and helped those that could walk. Yaoyorozu used the stretcher to transport the worst injuries. They brought the last of the injured to the store just in time for the first aftershock.

The mall shook even more than it did the first time. People cried out in pain. More glass fell in other parts of the mall. There was nothing they could do until the shaking subsided.

~

It was dark. The moon set not long ago. The aftershocks at first grew more intense before gradually diminishing. Now they were barely noticeable. Bakugou stared at another him, just as tall, wearing the same exact clothes. He was several evacuations into the earthquakes now. They were finding people who did not make it out of buildings in time more than survivors. He almost could not process this.

“Camie.”

“Bingo!” Camie held up a finger. Her pro-hero costume was not much different than her high school hero costume except she no longer wore the hat. “We have a problem nearby, and I heard you shouting, so I told my boss I could bring one explodey boi to help us.” She looked at Shouji, Jirou, Tokoyami, and Kirishima. “Actually all of you can come too.” Her gaze returned to Shouji, “If that’s up top with you, Sensei.”

“I’m also a student,” Shouji said. “We can assist anyone who needs help, so it’s okay anyway.”

Almost everyone who worked for the same agency as Camie had quirks that lent well to infiltration and not so well to search, rescue, and recovery. Hero and civilian disaster crews continued to work together. The aftershocks grew weaker. The body count began to rise. Bakugou and Kirishima helped move debris as they helped search for those still alive. A family huddled together did not move and no longer breathed. Under them was another family barely alive.

Kirishima’s jaw remained firm. His eyes reflected the streetlights coming on as the sun set. Bakugou looked away and kept working. Uraraka vomited nearby and offered a quiet, “Sorry,” before turning to lifting debris with her quirk. Shouji and Jirou worked together, Jirou listening intently so they could track sounds of potential survivors and target their efforts accordingly. Camie worked wherever she could lend a hand. The night grew colder. They kept working.

Bakugou stepped away from the wreckage. His breath condensed in the air. Something waved in his immediate vision.

“Noms?” Camie asked, twirling a protein bar in her fingers.

Bakugou grabbed the protein bar. It was the only savory and palatable flavor the brand made. “Yeah.”

Camie opened a matcha flavored protein bar for herself. She slowly shifted her weight from one leg to the other, resting as best she could. Flurries settled onto her hair. She let her breath cloud in the air on purpose.

Bakugou ate slowly. He let his chin hide from the wind in the collar of his coat.

“I want to work together again,” Camie said, “as a team.”

“Infiltration isn’t my thing,” Bakugou said.

“I know, but I’m a subcontractor. I work with everybody.” She put her trash in her pouch.

Bakugou’s phone buzzed.

Nezu: Hello students! Curfew is still in effect. Remember to communicate and bring proof if you are late. Plus Ultra!

Bakugou looked at the time on his phone. He frowned. He still had the energy to keep going, to keep helping. Four more months and no one would be able to stop him.

~

The mall remained standing. There were bigger problems and needs across the city. A vacuum hero appeared to help with the glass. Paramedics were slow to arrive. With each larger quake, more glass fell. Everyone took to the stores for shelter. Even then there were still injuries. The food court caught fire three times. Eventually the aftershocks were almost unnoticeable. The glass was gone and everyone could go home. Stores began cleaning up their messes. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu offered to help rearrange the clothing store and clean up the blood, but the manager and employees had it under control.

When Todoroki and Yaoyorozu exited the mall, their phones buzzed with Nezu’s curfew reminder. Snow flurries spit out of the sky at random. Todoroki let his fire quirk circulate to keep his left side from becoming too cold. They passed by people rebuilding tracks, working to fill sinkholes, and pulling survivors and corpses from buildings. There were still so many things to do, so many ways to help. Todoroki looked at his phone. He had several messages directed at the agency in general for help from various points throughout the city. His news alerts were filled with shots of the damage and everyone helping the major sites.

“I’m glad we were there to help,” Yaoyorozu said, looking at her own phone. “I know there were bigger crises but how many other smaller ones got ignored or put off accidentally?” She lowered her voice so only Todoroki could hear even though they were alone on the street, “How many villains get created that way?”

Todoroki put his hands in his pocket. “Now you sound like Midoriya.”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I know I shouldn’t.” Yaoyorozu sighed.

“Why shouldn’t we?” Todoroki looked up at the sky as flurries turned into a thin snow shower. “Shouldn’t our job also be villain prevention?”

Yaoyorozu did not answer immediately. “I’m not sure if I’d go so far as to work with them.” She looked over at Todoroki. “What about…?” she paused mid-sentence. “No. I probably shouldn’t ask.”

“I don’t know yet. I’ve got other things to handle first.” Although if Midoriya or Natsuo appeared and needed his help, it would not be a hard choice to help them.

Iida, Tokoyami, Ashido, and Asui joined them as they neared UA. Todoroki offered Asui his left arm. She sleepily croaked and latched onto the warmth. By the time they hit the gates, there was a steady stream of students from multiple years and various disciplines.

Todoroki barely had his dorm slippers on when a flash of red zoomed towards them. Eri hugged Yaoyorozu tight. Yaoyorozu hugged her back just as tight. “I’m home,” Yaoyorozu said.

“Welcome home,” Eri returned. She let go of Yaoyorozu and looked at the other students. “Not everyone came back.”

“They’re coming,” Asui said. She rested her hand on Eri’s head. “I’ll clean up and we can wait for the others together.”

Eri nodded. She retreated deeper into the room where Yagi stood next to one of the tables. It looked like they were playing cards.

Todoroki took to the stairs with the others. He glanced back over his shoulder at Eri and Yagi. Eri watched the doorway, her cards in a fan. Todoroki turned his attention forwards. He knew everyone was capable of doing the job, surviving, and returning. He had not questioned it once. He felt Eri’s worry at the back of his brain. He tried to ignore it.

~

The ground opened up and swallowed them whole. Uraraka slapped Bakugou and Jirou hard in the arms, causing them to float. Shouji spread his wings. Uraraka clamped her hands over her mouth. They all took to the air and watched a sinkhole open up along the road leading to UA. Sirens echoed throughout the city. The sky was completely dark. From this height, they could see stragglers returning to campus and crews working various sites. Buildings around the sinkhole cracked and distorted. None of them had lights on inside, but that might just indicate a power outage more than vacancy.

“I sent security a message,” Shouji said. “They know what happened.”

“I’ve activated an emergency code,” Jirou said.

Bakugou and Uraraka landed on the north side and Shouji and Jirou landed on the south side of the sink hole.

Uraraka fell to her knees and vomited along the side of the road. Bakugou’s eyes swept the houses again. There were no lights or signs of movement at the windows. She cleaned out her mouth with some water and then walked over to him.

“I bet we wait at least half an hour,” Uraraka said.

“Probably.” Bakugou let off a series of sparks.

Snow continued to fall at a steady light pace.

“Reminds me of summer training,” Uraraka said.

Bakugou’s gaze shifted to her. Her eyebrows drew together and she stared at one of the dark houses nearby. “Where were you?”

“The east side,” Uraraka said. She almost bristled at the memory. She took a deep breath and shook her head to clear it. “I’d like to think it doesn’t go on here.”

“It’s why they’re one of the top ten safest places in Japan. Probably true for all of them.” Bakugou shook the snow from his hair.

“Disgusting.”

“Yeah.”

Uraraka opened her mouth and then closed it. “Someone’s coming.”

Bakugou followed her gaze. Sure enough a group of construction heroes were heading their way, hopping from roof to roof as they traveled. Once they arrived and took over the scene, the students continued to UA.

When they arrived at the dorm almost everyone was in the common room. Bakugou had only seconds to react before Eri hugged him tight. He frowned and put a hand on her head. Eri slowly let him go.

“Welcome home. We were worried,” she said.

Were they? Bakugou glanced past her at the other students. They were busy making a hotpot for all to share. His gaze returned to Eri. She greeted everyone and then went back to helping make the hotpot. Bakugou’s teeth grit together. Midoriya just had to take off months ago. Bakugou didn’t want to think about it right now. He headed upstairs to clean up and make sure the hotpot was not turning into a disaster.

===

So, I scrapped the above version because I realized it would work better after New Years. Wasn’t completely sure where to use it so I chose Valentines Day to shake things up since it’ll be the third Valentines Day in the fic.

Again, this is third year. Bakugou’s the first POV.

===

Rain fell against the overhang splashing down to the concrete below. A sea of umbrellas entered and exited the mall. Bakugou watched his breath rise into the air as Todoroki scanned the posters. They should have looked at what movies were in theaters before leaving UA.

“What about this one?” Bakugou gestured to a poster with three adventurers running away from a propeller plane wheeling towards them engulfed in flames.

“Isn’t it supposed to be a romantic movie?” Todoroki asked.

“Probably.” Bakugou scanned the posters. Valentines Day was on a Sunday this year. Todoroki suggested catching a movie after they finished lunch.

“What about this one?” Todoroki asked. The poster had several couples on it with a slime monster rising up in the background in an ominous heart shape.

For a brief moment Bakugou felt the burning suffocation of slime invading his airways. He swallowed and scanned the posters again. “What if we hit up the arcade?”

The arcade had many different types of games and gaming modes. Several people already crowded into the room, gathering around the games as they played by themselves and with friends. As Bakugou and Todoroki walked up, a group of students vacated one of the dance games.

“I’m going to kick your ass,” Bakugou said.

“We’ll see,” Todoroki said.

The game was both simple and hard. Each time they stepped on the board, it lit up with multi colored footprints and sparkles. The split screen directed them how to step, allowing for as much freedom of movement and flair as two people on the platform could allow. The song was fast and the beat easily hit each step. When the game finished, Bakugou put his arms up in the air, ready to claim victory.

It was a tie. The same score. The same “Excellent!

Fuck that.

“Again!” he said at the same time Todoroki said, “Again,” in a firm but quieter tone.

They tied again. Bakugou won. Todoroki won. More ties. Were they about to sink all of their tokens into this stupid game? Definitely. The resonance vibrated. The dance beat pounded. The game flashed and glowed. People gathered around to film their dance off. Bakugou ignored them. He was going to win unquestionably.

Suddenly his feet slipped out from under him, throwing him towards Todoroki, knocking them to the platform. The ground continued to shake, growing and growing, rattling bone, teeth, and flesh. Bakugou rolled so he could protect Todoroki’s head with his body. He found his jacket nearby and put it over them. The ground kept shaking. Glass shattering echoed from the concourse. Children cried nearby. Games toppled. The power flickered and went out. Slowly the room stopped shaking, the building stopped singing. Everything was still. Everything was dark.

Bakugou let go of Todoroki and sat up, making sure to angle his jacket so any debris slid off. One by one cellphones illuminated. There was a chime not from the speakers but maybe some kind of projection quirk.

“Please remain where you are. Help is on its way. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Are you okay?” Todoroki asked.

“Yeah.” Bakugou barely registered his phone buzzing multiple times in his pocket.

The generator kicked in and the power returned. Bakugou and Todoroki got to their feet and immediately headed towards the overturned games that pinned people to the ground. Bakugou wiped his face and then wiped his hands on his clothes.

“I’m Shouto, this is Ground Zero,” Todoroki said.

“We’re going to move these things, so some of you have to move,” Bakugou added. “Now.”

Customers that could move cleared sections of the floor. Bakugou and Todoroki lifted fallen games off people and placed them where they would not fall on top of anyone else. Bakugou went to check how the rest of the arcade faired while Todoroki did what basic first aid he could to help the injured.

“Get down Ground Zero!” someone shouted.

Bakugou knelt just in time for the aftershock to begin. He grit his teeth and then consciously relaxed his jaw when the vibration grew too great. The power flickered but remained on this time. The games remained against the wall this time. When the quake subsided, Bakugou continued his assessment.

~

The aftershocks kept coming. The power went off and came back on repeatedly. The customers resituated themselves into safer positions. The voice kept reminding everyone to stay where they were, promised help would be on its way. So far there was still only Todoroki and Bakugou in the arcade. Once he treated everyone injured, Todoroki reported the situation to Gang Orca’s agency.

Todoroki: At the central mall arcade, second floor. Injuries and damage. No sign of other heroes nearby.

Todoroki enabled a paramedic alert. The agency responded with automated messages confirming it received both messages and would handle them accordingly. If the mall was this damaged, other buildings would be too. Who knew who might respond. All the hero agencies would need to coordinate and handle whatever was in front of them.

“Can we go?” someone asked.

There was a chime and the voice repeated the stay where you are message.

“No,” Todoroki said.

“Thanks Captain Obvious.”

“You’re welcome.” Todoroki headed towards the front of the arcade.

Bakugou met him within sight of the main entrance. “The professional heroes already here are assessing the situation,” he said. “They’re going to start evacuation.”

Todoroki gazed out at the rest of the mall. Glass particles spread everywhere, many panels from balconies on other floors coming lose and smashing in the quakes. Some lights were also gone and several displays were in disarray. Yaoyorozu and Jirou stood at the mouth of one of the shops on the third floor making a similar assessment.

Jirou looked at him and then gave one thumbs up and one thumbs sideways. Todoroki returned it. Their situations were probably similar with some injured but nobody so serious it was life and death.

There were enough rescue and recovery heroes to go through the floors and assess the situation. Medical emergencies left first, uninjured left second, and the injured and their companions left last. Some were taken to the hospital and others were patched up and advised to see their doctors if their injuries worsened. Each aftershock was weaker than the last and the gaps between aftershocks grew longer. That did not mean their work was over.

By the time Todoroki and Bakugou left the mall, it was dark. Sirens echoed through the city. Various helicopters and flying quirks flew through the air with purpose.

#adventures in fic writing #sestet #i don't know what to tag this

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justkimberley · 4 years

Text

HSMTMTS Thoughts Episode 7

Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6

This one is also kinda long (~2200 words)

Nini and Ricky doing a fantastic job harmonizing in Start of Something New

the dance routine around them is absolutely crazy and all over the place

So it seems that Seb is just their resident piano player (side note, who ended up getting Kelsey??)

Big Red with the flashlight trying so hard to keep it on the disco ball

EJ interrupting because of the bell. Does anyone really love Thanksgiving that much??

Also I always forget that American Thanksgiving is like a month later than Canadian Thanksgiving and I was hella confused for a second.

Ricky is so surprised that Nini is complimenting him

Ashlyn as Robotics Team captain! (side note Big Red gives her an impressed look after he overhears that she’s the captain)

Also: debate team, baking club, high priestess of the Renaissance Faire

We love a multifaceted lady

Miss Jenn/Mr. Mazzarra trying to have a ‘my horse is bigger than your horse’ banter except neither of them have the horses they claim to have

“With whoever could possibly love you,” lol ok Miss Jenn went for the head

“Late night party” - party starts at 8 that’s adorable

“Small group or…” “PARTY AT ASHLYN’S HOUSE!”

It’s really interesting learning about Nini’s Lola (? I think that’s how it’s spelled, which is what I believe Filipino people call their grandmother’s), and her story

I’m just really proud of Ricky’s Dad. Like he was in such a bad place 2-3 episodes ago and now he’s taking care of himself and Ricky (even if it isn’t a grandiose Thanksgiving) he’s trying and I think he’s doing great

“We roll hard” I just really love this line

“I suppose if you’re lonely, you could always just… randomly text my drama teacher,” “Too soon… RIck,” “... yeah okay”

That was pretty funny. Also, it seems like Ricky’s okay with his dad dating?

Ricky’s mom waiting for him to call

I don’t know how I feel about this to be honest. I feel like maybe she should have tried to call him first and then if he didn’t answer or want to talk to her, that she should wait for him to make the next move then.

EJ’s truth arc is very funny to me

Big Red and Ashlyn

“I promise not to steal your phone if you promise not to throw a basketball at my face,” “No, the only thing I’d ever throw at your face is a brighter spotlight cause, I like the way you sing

Oof they’re so cute, we love little crushes

Also this might be an unpopular opinion but y’all need to calm down about the whole ‘Ashlyn and Big Red are GAY and they only THINK theyy like each other’ thing. #1 It was never confirmed for them to be gay. #2 You can still have wlw and mlm head-cannons for them! Bi, Pan, and other multiple gender attraction oriented people exist, even if you forget about us sometimes.

They are a cute little pairing of people who are always looking out and taking care of other people. It’s okay for them to do things for themselves.

Ricky debating calling his mom, it took a lot of courage and then Todd picks up.

Hangs up immediately, it almost looked like he was going to have a panic attack. That would be so hard, such an extreme shift

I guess the reason he was more okay with his Dad dating was that his Dad was open and honest with him about it. Calling your Mom only to find out that she has a boyfriend that a. She never told you about b. He knows about you and c. is trusted enough to be left alone with her phone while she showers? Is a lot, and probably means that she started dating him before the split was official.

Ricky going to call Nini and then deciding against it. Why doesn’t he feel like he can talk to Big Red about this kind of stuff? Why does he always go to Nini first?

Gina shows up, those are good looking cupcakes

She made him a hat!

She looks so hesitant before she gives it to him!

Gina’s like ‘look dude, I know something’s wrong, spill the beans’

Ignore it and push through - I understand where she’s coming from but you really shouldn’t ignore your problems, it usually just makes them worse

“Do what makes you happy,” “... Give me that hat,”

Adorable, also do what makes you happy is good advice so we’re a little all over the map here

“That’s too big,” “I’ll grow into it,” (adorable)

Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzarra’s whole interaction is hilarious.

Don’t burn down my shop! - holy shit, foreshadowing buddies

Ashlyn is so cute! She’s so happy when people compliment her

“I highly recommend not telling someone you love them for the first time on instagram” - yup! That’s what I said in the first one of these I did.

Carlos - “The party may begin!” - I totally thought he said “The party made me gay,” the first time I watched it so uhh yeah

Big Red is lactose intolerant

Carlos’ board game is amazing

“High School Musical the Choosical,” - fantastic name

Everyone is so accepting

Ashlyn and Big Red choosing to be on the same team

“South Side Knights -” “It’s the West High Nights,” “the West High Knights”

Ej is like a compulsive truther now. And it’s kind of hilarious

His face when he says “She laughed!” is hilarious and kind of adorable

“I gotta go join the party, and admit some terrible things, you ladies, catch up!” - I wish we got to see what he was admitting to, I find this whole thing quite funny

I’m glad that Emily and Nini got some reconciliation, I know Nini felt guilty even though it wasn’t her fault

That is not a good cockney accent

Why did Ricky enter alone when him and Gina walked together?

And he left her to open the door on her own with all those cupcakes?

“Buddies,” “We,”

Ricky and Gina both laughing about YouTube, cuties

Look, feelings are feelings and you can’t help what you feel, but pushing someone away and insisting to remain only friends means that you shouldn’t be upset when he makes a new friend

Mr. Mazzara and Miss Jenn

The plug socket is in the frame, more foreshadowing

“He won’t.. Not… fall” this show loves it’s double negatives huh? I don’t not love you, he won’t not fall etc.

“Ok but the center of gravity is off,” YES to different kinds of intelligence being helpful in fields other than the main one people associate them with

Carlos thinking people are going to keep judging him and the theater people being as accepting as possible

EJ is a gleek

What I’ve Been Looking For to the rhythm of Get Your Head in the Game is hard! (Catch me on the piano later trying to figure it out lol)

It just turns into a terrible rap

EJ - “That was terrible,” Seb - “I’m so happy”

EJ vs. Ricky - “without laughing… or killing each other,”

This is a good parallel to the basketball scene, once again they get kind of aggressive, but this time they also joke around and no one gets hurt

Also I would love to see them become friends, I mean they both need to grow a little before that happens, but I have hopes

They missed the ‘neeee howww’ part of it, I really wanted to hear them do the high voices

EJ’s little “mehh” that sounds like a duck kills me everytime

Gina and Nini awkwarddd

“I do have high hopes for a junior year at East High” oof babey :(

“It must be nice sometimes though, right?” - nini does not understand

This actually gives us an insight as to why they don’t understand each other. Nini would love nothing more than to start a new life with no drama and Gina would love nothing more than to have a life that lasts longer than a couple months before being restarted.

Gina/Nini apology very exciting, hopefully they can actually become friends

“It’s all good,” from Nini seemed disingenuous, I don’t know if it’s because of the Wonderstudy thing or the Ricky thing.

The sleepover thing I was so worried that it would be a mean spirited thing but I’m so glad it wasn’t

Nini sits on Ricky’s lap when she goes back to the game room and I don’t know if it’s intentional or not but it’s kind of like she’s trying to lay her claim back on Ricky.

Gina looks so happy when a. Carlos calls her in and b. the happy dance about the sleepover! (why’d they have to ruin the happiness??)

Mr. Mazarra returning the favour

“It’s beautiful,” “Math often is,” dudde I feel you I fucking love math

“I cannot stress to you enough how uncomfortable that would make me feel,”

“You know what we should do?” “Break off eye contact sometime soon?”

I’m dying

“It’s about a robot!” this is… pretty adorable. She just wants to make a genuine connection with him

Also are they going to do a romance route with these two? Because I can see them setting it up but also imagine if they just become like… best friends? I feel like they’d be unstoppable.

Musical Choosical Handbook of Rulesicals

“I thought you had never actually played this with people-” “Honey not today of all days,”

Carlos and Seb are the only couple with no bad drama and I’m living for it (please let them just stay happy)

Oops! I knew that jersey question… also it’s definitely the answer Big Red would now because he’s only watched the movie with no words (at his allergists office)

“And do people usually talk like that?” “No they do not.” - gold

EJ the compulsive cheater and also compulsive truther makes a comeback (I seriously find this so funny I don’t know why)

“I love to pop and lock and jam and break,” oh GIna

She’s so happy about winning

Not realistic, you know that the second she called her mom at least someone would be like “pass the weed,” (you know because friends are awesome and also terrible)

“Can you take me off speaker”

Some people are like ‘oh no is she in trouble?’

I kind of hate that it looks like Nini looks sort of happy about Gina’s mom asking her to take her off speaker - I really don’t want Nini to turn into a catty person.

Ricky is concerned

Why did her mom tell her this right now? She should have waited until the next morning, like that wouldn’t have hurt anyone and it would have let them form stronger bonds. And Gina would have had her first sleepover and also they might form strong enough bonds to try and stay in contact with her

Ricky is worried for her, he’s like, ‘You made me feel better, so I’ll go make you feel better’

Nini’s looking upset that Ricky’s being emotionally aware for once? Like dude, he’s grown up a lot since BEFORE summer break? That’s like six months ago I think at this point?

Ricky just wants to help Gina feel better because she made him feel better

She doesn’t understand that they can stay friends even if she leaves and I just :(

“Please don’t do that” he’s so overwhelmed

“My mom moved out two weeks ago and she’s already got a new boyfriend, sound familiar?” Oooh low blow Ricky bud.

“Really don’t need advice from a .. buddy right now,”

Ok but then who does Ricky want advice from? I’m so confused. This boy needs to get a better support system and learn how to use it. Romantic relationships should not be your only outlet for your problems.

Red and Ashlyn

“I hope Gina’s gonna be okay,” - Big Red is so sweet!

They’re so cute

“Hey Big Red? Don’t forget your dip,” - oh she was so going to ask him out and then lost the nerve

Write something for yourself.

It’s a hard thing to do, dude. It’s also hard to let yourself feel so vulnerable, even if it’s only you that’s going to hear it

Gina packing, I feel so sad for her, she’s finally made some good friends and now she has to leave again. She kept the badge! :(

EJ losing followers and being cancelled, at least we know why now

It seems like a lot of EJ’s self worth comes from how others think of him. So losing followers is probably a pretty big hit. I wonder if he’ll keep going with his whole truth thing when it has these consequences or if he’ll just go back to what he was doing before. I hope that he has a positive arc but, will it go downhill from here? I hope not.

Ricky about to apologise to Nini (why did he erase it, he probably should have sent that) - side note: their conversation before was them asking each other if they were going to the party

It’s interesting that Nini had pictures of EJ and Ricky up still

Gina’s crying face is making me cry

“Hey mom, it’s me, I miss you so much,” tears

Nini hanging up pictures of her grandma and the musical. She’s really trying to move forward from boys huh?

Is nini going to apply to the theater school??

Electrical fire???????? WHy??

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts spoilers #episode 7 #kimberleysthoughts #mypost #kimberleyreacts #feel free to come yell into the void with me about this show #the void is always open #(the void is the name of my askbox lol)

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starberry-cupcake · 4 years

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The following post contains a critical opinion on what we’ve seen so far of the HDM series adaptation, take it with a grain of salt or avoid if not interested.

Ok, I went to sleep, woke up, had breakfast, baked bread and I’m still pissed, so I’m gonna say something, even though I still don’t have all the season’s facts.

I’m worried about the focus and intent of Thorne’s script.

I understand and can accept changes, it’s an adaptation after all, things have to be modified. I can live with that. And I understand that we, as a fandom (it feels strange calling it fandom when it’s a book I’ve grown up with even before I knew what fandom was), are very excited to get the content we didn’t get because of what happened with the movie.

So, people are happy about Will being mentioned and John Parry being disclosed, even if it doesn’t work with the narrative of the first arc. People see Will and get happy and I get it, he’s my favorite character.

But this, his early inclusion, and other changes in focus we’re seeing with the adults and the mentions of things we didn’t know in the books because Lyra didn’t know them in the books, is taking away from Lyra’s perspective. We are getting to see, know and understand more than Lyra does, like an adult having all the facts that a child can’t know, instead of following Lyra’s perspective for the majority of the story and being beside her.

It’s like the show has the tone of a condescending adult narrator instead of the companion narrator who wants us to feel empathy towards Lyra.

Which I’m worried about, because of the reasons I can imagine for that to be.

I'm worried that Lyra’s perspective being diminished might be a result of two optics: first, making Will a bigger protagonist and putting him in an equal footing in narrative importance; and second, making the show more “adult-friendly”.

I’m concerned that this stance is trying to dilute the fact that the protagonist of this book saga, taking into consideration all of its parts (which the series is doing so far), is a 12/13 year old girl.

Which is what I also was when I read these books. A 13 year old girl.

The adults are there in the books and they have their own parts to play, but the perspective of the story in book one, the main focus we follow, is Lyra’s. It’s her world, her Oxford, her adventure and her coming of age what we see, and the other elements are around her. Not because she’s a part of a universe-changing prophecy, but because she is our protagonist. Pullman has some incredibly amazing female protagonists in his repetoir and Lyra is the most loved of all.

Will is important, he’s crucial, and his perspective will be a second focus to follow later on, something which has made people see him as a second protagonist or lead male character most often than not. Like I said, he’s my favorite, so I understand the love. I was a 13 year old girl reading these books, but I identified with Will more than with any other character I had encountered in literature up to that age.

But Lyra is still the thread tying these books together. The books we have so far have her in common, or people who will be connected to her in the future and play a part on her journey. In the grand scheme of things, the biggest part of this book series is carried out by a girl.

And I fear that the focus on Lyra being diminished (aside from the fact of giving Thorne the chance to edit Pullman and showcase his own pen) might be mostly focused on trying to make this show less of a series focused on a 12/13 year old girl, because they deem it not interesting, engaging and powerful enough for BBC/HBO.

That’s my fear.

I know that most people are so far thrilled with the adaptation, and I understand. This is my favorite book series of all time. Every time I get the unescapable question of “what is your favorite book?” I still, 17 years later and having gone through a literature-focused university path, refer to this series. So I know that this show happening, with this cast, and showing the promise of further seasons with stuff we have never seen yet adapted on screen, is exciting and something to rejoice, especially with this stellar cast, which has some members who’ve been fans of these books for as long as I’ve been.

But I also feel that I need to express my distrust in the optics, having seeing this underestimating of stories with kid protagonists and female protagonists undermined under the idea that they can’t bring in audiences worth the producer’s time (another incredibly great book series with protagonists of the same age as Will and Lyra, Chaos Walking, is getting adapted with actors twice their age, for example).

I didn’t wanna say much before the season’s over, and I feel differently for different changes so far, but this is what outirght worries me and I hope I’m proven wrong in the coming weeks.

I love Dafne’s protrayal, and I like that the show is willing to go deeper than the movie did with the themes, but I can’t help but question the decisions behind the optics.

#luly rambles #unpopular opinion time #I didn't want to share this but it's stronger than me at this point #his dark materials #hdm bbc #long post #me: i'm not gonna rant yet #also me: rants #this is reminding me of when I heard of what the us had done to ccs

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bugaboosandbees · 5 years

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Rally to the Queen

Okay. I know that I shouldn’t be starting anything else new, and I definitely won’t start actually writing this until I finish with my Reine Ruse AU, but I ended up getting so attached to my Bee!Kagami design (and so salty about Onichan!Kagami) that I ended up with a whole slew of headcanons about a post-Riposte Bee!Kagami Kagaminette AU.

I call it Rally to the Queen.

Here’s what goes down.

This takes place immediately after Riposte.

Marinette still feels really bad about judging the point wrong. She talks to Adrien to ask how Kagami is doing. He says that he thinks that she’s okay now, but Kagami was totally exhibiting some behaviors that he recognized as the son of a largely absent parent with absurd standards. He doesn’t have the time he’d like to have to check in on Kagami, so he also tells Marinette that it sounded like Kagami was under a lot of pressure at home and was afraid of her mother judging her for losing the fight.

Marinette, of course, feels terrible and her patented Dupain-Cheng-family we-must-adopt-everyone genes kick in, so she decides to track down Kagami’s home address to apologize formally and to make sure that Kagami’s mom knows what really went down.

When she gets there, she’s flustered and awkward as usual but good-hearted and although Kagami’s mom initially is not thrilled about the weird intrusion, she doesn’t hate Marinette.

Since she’s there, she and Kagami end up chatting either that day or some other time. Marinette mentions that she’s looking forward to trying out for the fencing team again the following year to learn aside Adrien and Kagami.

Kagami realizes that she took the only spot on the team. She’s not the sort to feel bad about this and wouldn’t normally, but Marinette was being so kind and she’d actually tried to stand up to her mother for her, so she offers to give her fencing lessons. (Maybe she covers it up as extra practice for her as she’s not really much of a touchy-feely person.)

Anyway, Marinette starts going to Kagami’s house once a week for fencing practice. She always brings fresh baked goods. I don’t think Kagami has many friends, especially with how intense we’ve seen her family to be and being so new to Paris, so she might not really know how to deal with Marinette’s brand of friendship at first.

They become really good friends. I actually think they really would if they spent any sort of time together in canon without misunderstandings and Adrien and sometimes somewhat suspect writing in the way. They are both determined, powerful young women with hearts of steel and an unstoppable drive towards something that they’re very passionate about. They’re both straightforward and value honesty and dislike liars. They would be an UNSTOPPABLE team.

I don’t think Sapotis happens in this AU. There’s no salt against Alya here, but I think it would be reasonable for Marinette avoid giving a miraculous to her best friend no matter how much she’d like to share being superheroes with her. This is because Alya is shown in season one especially to be very adamant about revealing Ladybug’s identity. This was even the main goal of her akumatized form, Lady Wifi. Marinette loves Alya deeply, but I think that there would be reasonable doubt there about whether or not Alya would be able to keep her own secret or if she would use her position as a sometimes-superhero to discover more about Ladybug. We’ve seen in canon that Marinette obviously hates lying to her best friend, so I think it’s reasonable to think that she wouldn’t manufacture a situation where she had to do so even more.

Also, even though Anasai technically took place before Queen’s Battle, just go with me here and assume it didn’t and that Style Queen was the first akuma that Ladybug needed help with. We know that she picked the Bee miraculous in Style Queen and, as Marinette is good friends with Kagami already in this AU, she definitely sees how much this miraculous would play to her friend’s strengths. They also fence together all the time, so Marinette knows how Kagami fights and wouldn’t have to learn a new teammate’s style in the middle of an already complicated fight. Since Kagami isn’t Alya, she wouldn’t already be at the Effiel tower and wouldn’t be turned to glitter by Style Queen, so Marinette would be able to safely get the Bee miraculous to her.

Ladybug and Mitsubachi are a deadly combination. Style Queen never stood a chance. Everything goes pretty smoothly and Ladybug is able to get the Bee miraculous back from Kagami without incident. (That being said, Marinette is a flustered bi mess and totally fumbled once or twice in the fight because damn, Kagami makes a deadly and attractive superhero.)

And because I’m a sucker for redeeming Chloe I am physically incapable of leaving her out of this AU. Oops, lol. Without Queen Bee, the Queen’s Battle arc would definitely have some pretty substantial changes. Chloe’s mom would still be being pretty awful and Chloe wouldn’t have gotten her hands on the Bee miraculous. She’d still have to be upset enough to get akumatized over her mom (so Gabe wouldn’t give up being Hawkmoth (also, he’d have only just learned that the Guardian was in Paris so that might be another incentive)) but she wouldn’t become Queen Wasp because she was never Queen Bee in the first place.

Instead, she becomes a different sort of version of @imthepunchlord ‘s Princess Amour akumanette concept. She just really wants to be loved. Maybe instead of having a Chat Noir “knight” as the akumanette had, some ladybug merch of her’s would hold the akuma and turn into a version of Ladybug that would help and protect and validate Chloe as her knight. After LB beats this akuma, she has an honest talk with Chloe that night because she could see that Chloe was really struggling and, despite their very checkered past couldn’t help but wanting to help.

Ladybug gives Chloe some advice and Chloe does her level best to live up to it in her day to day life. It’s a long hard road and it doesn’t come easily, but every once in awhile Ladybug will drop by and knowing that her heroine is proud of her gives Chloe the push she needs to change for the better.

I should also mention that I’m switching the places of the fox and peacock miraculouses in this AU. If we’re still working with the headcanon that Mr. and Mrs. Agreste used the miraculouses that Gabe has, it makes sense that they’d have the butterfly because everything we’ve been lead to believe indicates that it was a good fit for Mrs. Agreste. That being said, what we know of the Peacock makes no effing sense for Gabe. He’s creative, crafty, and not above playing dirty. That man is a fox through and through, you can’t change my mind. Therefore, Fu has the peacock and the fox is the damaged miraculous sitting in the Agreste safe.

This is relevant, I promise.

So, Ladybug and Chat Noir have worked with Mitsubachi quite a few times. She fits pretty effortlessly into the team dynamic but is definitely with Ladybug in taking the job super seriously and not always being down with Chat’s attitude.

Kagami and Marinette are still hanging out. Kagami is falling for Marinette and Marinette is falling for Kagami, but Marinette had confided in Kagami earlier about her crush on Adrien, so Kagami thinks that Mari is still in love with Adrien and Marinette doesn’t think Kagami would be interested in her, so there’s an awful lot of mutual pining going on.

Hawkmoth is escalating and Fu approves of Kagami after testing her himself, so she gets the Bee miraculous on a permanent basis.

With the extra help, it’s a while before Ladybug’s lucky charm calls for another hero, but, when it does, she needs the peacock. Maybe she was going for Alya with this one, but, being the Ladyblogger, Alya has already gotten herself into the conflict and trapped by the akuma. As she’s looking around, Ladybug spots (lol, get it?) Chloe trying to get Sabrina and some other people to safety, consequently getting trapped or something. She goes to save Chloe, and when Chloe thanks her, she starts to wonder. Chloe has taken a good, hard look at herself and really improved in the past few months. She’s not perfect yet, but no one is. And, you know what? Getting the Ladybug miraculous went a long way towards making her a better Marinette. Mind made up, she offers the Peacock to Chloe and a new hero appears. (I’m thinking of naming Chloe’s peacock form Tirisi or Vindex -- Greek or Latin for (roughly) defender/protector/champion. See my rant on why the peacock miraculous’ powers make sense for my reasoning.)

Chloe gives the miraculous back when Ladybug asks and keeps working to improve herself so that her heroine might someday trust her again. (She loved being able to have the power and agency to connect with and help others -- she really loved feeling strong enough to save others and is starting to feel more confident that she can save herself.) She doesn’t spill her identity and becomes a reliable second-string hero when Ladybug’s lucky charm demands her presence.

Eventually turtle!Sabrina will also come into this AU because she really, really deserves her own character development. (And @mystery-vixen ‘ s design and art and @pyrepyro ‘s art for Turtle!Sabrina is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.) Maybe it’s some sort of Anasasi situation where Chloe’s in trouble and Sabrina is doing her level best to rescue her as a civilian, idk. (For turtle!Sabrina I was thinking Bouclier or Jadeite, unless you guys have ideas?)

Anyway, eventually, everyone has their miraculouses permanently. (This probably happens after Gabe and Natalie break out the fox.) Endgame is Kagaminette and Chlobrina, two sets of deadly wlw protecting Paris along with the bi disaster Chat Noir who is 100% willing to THROW THE FUCK DOWN with anyone who doesn’t respect the ladies of the superhero team. Chat Noir totally gets along with the whole squad, by the way. Between the four of them, the ladies are great friends and life coaches to our cat boi and help him work through what unhealthy attitudes he has in a respectful and caring way. They adopt him and are always hugging Chat or even just lightly resting a hand on his shoulder since they discovered he was touch-starved. (Especially Ladybug and Tirisi. All four would cut a bitch for that boy, but they’re the most touchy-feely.)

(Eventually snake!Luka joins the squad and he and Chat Noir get together and it’s just a giant group of badass queer superheroes kicking ass and protecting Paris.)

They eventually beat Hawkmoth and Adrien and Luka become the next Guardians (They’d do a great job, fight me). Marinette and Kagami are too busy for that anyway. They got married and Marinette started the world’s most successful fashion line while Kagami set some sort of ridiculous record for the number of gold medals a single person can win in fencing. Chloe and Sabrina get married and (because of Chloe) end up adopting a ridiculous amount of kids that they care for and love unconditionally.

Happily Ever After and The End. :)

Thanks for listening to my rant!

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marsbaumer · 5 years

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hello !! the name is cal, pronouns they/them, and i’m in the est timezone. i’m so very excited to bring my kiddo mars to the deja brew !! listed below is going to be some information on the little mess. at the very bottom i’ve listed some possible connections as well that i think would be neat to explore. if you would like to plot feel free to like this and i’ll come to your ims or let me know if you’d prefer to plot over discord. i am very excited and look forward to writing with you all uwu

basics

name: mars baumer job: baker at deja brew & podcast host age: twenty-three gender: nonbinary pronouns: she/they sexuality: bisexual / biromantic birthday: april 2nd zodiac: aries personality type: the entertainer | esfp pinterest board: click here

regular order

large black coffee with a shot of caramel & whipped cream on top

aesthetics

listening to conspiracy podcasts in a deadbeat car in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night

the wafting smell of freshly made blueberry muffins and pockets of sunshine that warm your skin

skinned knees covered by alien themed band-aids

theme song: boy bye by brockhampton

ring in their ears like a bark always feel left in the dark trauma the price for the patience character shift like an arc move like my shit stay in park don't feel the love or respect grip like a hand on my neck this is the year, place your bets (boy, bye)

positive & negative

brash ( adj ) : self-assertive in a rude, noisy, or overbearing way.

sagacious ( adj ) : having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment; shrewd.

planetary commentary: updates every thursday @ 3:33am

planetary commentary is a podcast that focuses on all sorts of topics though they primarily tend to center around conspiracy theories, murder mysteries, missing people cases, space, lgbtqa+ subjects, and the occasional book or movie reviews. it could be seen as a bit of a messy podcast, however, it has gained quite the following over the year and a half its been available. ( first premiered may 1st, 2017 )

the chronicles of unknowing: updates every sunday @ 3:33am

a sci-fi, fantasy podcast centered around a boy as he journeys through a strange and mysterious land. he could not recall his name nor how he ended up in such an empty place. he simply woke up one day in a empty house where faceless photos presented themselves on dusty walls. how will he deal with the loneliness this empty town envokes and how will he choose to proceed when there is no clear direction? join the nameless boy as he logs his journey via tape recorder. ( first premiered october 1st, 2019 )

then

mars was born to their mother in the early hours of april second after tiring hours of labour. her mother, anastasia baumer, was over the moon to have her child in her arms after nine long months. it was a lonely celebration, though. no one was there to congratulate her or see her beautiful baby. no, instead, she welcomed mars into the world with just herself as family.

being a working single mother was tough, the money that anastasia’s parents had left her helped in mars’ younger years before they were old enough to go into daycare. things were bound to get more difficult as life went on as the finances were harder to keep up with, especially rent which only increased over the years. still, the child and mother duo were happy and lived life to its fullest. sure, mars couldn’t join any extracurricular sports, but they enjoyed writing and helping their mother with cooking/baking.

of course, life just couldn’t sort itself out for them. no matter how much anastasia gave, the world only took and took and took. it only made sense for the world’s greed to fall on mars as well. on their twelfth birthday, their mother made a choice to go out in the rain to pick up their birthday cake. she never made it home. mars waited up all night until the police came knocking to deliver the news.

( death tw ) a hit and run. she was left to die in the rain alone. that was probably the worst part. the fact that life couldn’t be gentle with her even til the end. mars wanted the hard truth. what was their mother’s last moments like? who left her to die? why would they do such a thing? there were so many questions they had and the police, with much hesitance, answered to the best of their abilities. their mother’s best friend met them at the station. she attempted to stay strong, however even in her righteous anger, tears swept her cheeks. it was a long month that followed.

left alone, mars was placed in foster care. the system was incredibly difficult to move through. they ended up being incredibly difficult to handle between poorly adjusting in school and slipping out of the houses. it took two years of swapping between three foster homes before they found the knox household. the knox’s consisted of cillian and avery knox as well as their son isak. it was a somewhat strange ensemble that mars joined. isak was cillian’s son from a previous marriage before he’d met avery and fell harder than ever before. it was...cute. they gave them space and isak was different from the other kids they ended up staying with previously. for starters, he was only a year younger than them. he complimented their vibe the first time they met and then asked what they thought about aliens. needless to say, their introduction into the knox’s dynamic and to each of them personally was a welcomed change.

fourteen years old, mars finally found a place they could settle down in and mourn their mother while attempting to settle. it was nice, living with avery- living with another person of colour, who encouraged their desire to explore different styles and, later on, pronouns when they started to question their gender. the support of cillian and isak as well encourage their unique interests and desire to learn about their self. the family helped them in ways they could never pay back.

( cancer tw, death tw ) life never failed to come back to ruin them. they had at least six years of blissful peace before isak began to get sick. it was a terrible time and took a while to catch on to. yet, the diagnosis wasn’t promising. cancer never was. isak held out a while against the leukemia that made him sick. almost a year, in fact, before he ended up passing. the devastation they felt was an echo of the past as they lost their best friend and brother.

now

two years later found mars living outside the knox household and in a two bedroom apartment with someone they found on craig’s list or something. they liked to introduce them and tell tales about how they ended up rooming together, even going as far as claiming they found them on the side of the road.

mars has been working at the deja brew for about two years now. after dropping out of school for when isak was sick, they decided not to return. their fathers were disgruntled, but allowed it. after all, they were there on scholarship anyways. they had expected them to return, however, mars has yet to show any interest in continuing their program.

mars can come across as a very detached individual, however, they are in actuality very passionate. get them speaking about something they have an interest in and they seem to do a complete 180 in personality as they talk.

they enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, whether it be baking or cooking. occasionally, they’ll have their co-workers and some customers try one of their end products to get a gauge on how it turned out. unfortunately, they’re not always good. most of the time they’re stomach-able, though, so that’s good.

they just began a new podcast titled the chronicles of unknowing. they haven’t told anyone, but the main character is based off of their brother. they wanted to remember him and transform their grief into something that could possible help others but also potentially allow for isak to still touch peoples lives.

they publish the podcasts under the pseudonym mercury as they believe it takes the whole act of them creating away from their self and focuses things on the actual content they put out.

#hqbrew:intro #| gonna message folks back now !!#| also please ignore any grammar or spelling errors in here aaaaa

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darkredehmption · 5 years

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Not What We Seem

@DamagedBrother and @OfFeatherNFang

Mal:

Caldwell was like any other city as I wasted the day away. Resting for a few hours in the morning, rolling around on a bed that probably needed a fresh set of sheets, I took the afternoon to recharge, finding a clear rooftop and sprawling out to bake. It’d been a while since I’d just lounged in the sun, so maybe I should be thinking of this as some sort of vacation, rather than an obligation to my mahmen.

As day turned to twilight, then to evening, I wandered the city streets, killing time for once instead of monsters. Cafe’s were open, and I had a coffee, something sweet, and then went ‘fuck it’, and ordered some frappa-whappa-whatever, which would’ve been sweet enough to give me diabetes if that was possible for an angel slash vampire. And it was all courtesy of Bert Aframian, the credit card serving as money I’d never touched, and never would.

With every hour that passed I grew more impatient for my audience with the King, my footsteps taking me further from the polite cafes and diners to the gritty alleys and side streets, the pulsing nightclubs with their barely restrained bouncers all too eager to break something. Or someone.

Lines stretched around the corner for several, and I stopped shy of entering one that looked borderline promising: The Iron Mask. It took a minute for my mental voice to be heard over the pounding music that pushed out the doorway, but when it was it reminded me that showing up to an audience with the King of vampires, reeking of sweat, sex and alcohol, was probably a bad idea. No doubt classed somewhere in the zone of ‘disrespectful AF’. I could even feel my mahmen’s frown from here.

Grumbling about propriety, I stalked on, stuffing my hands in my coat pocket and holding out for a better distraction. Ironically, it only took another three blocks for it to appear.

As I rounded a corner into yet another run down, lamp shattered street, the wind pushed into me, and with it the foulest scent I’d encountered for years; not counting the wendigo snack bar I’d had to burn down after killing the thing. Something like rotting meat and baby powder wafted toward me on the breeze, and as my gag reflex got a work out, my eyes zeroed in on the culprit. He was on the corner, leaning against a graffiti laden brick wall. His face was lit by the phone he held, and his hair looked faded, like a blonde with a bad dye job that was finally washing out.

Every story my mahmen had ever told me, about rancid demons of ichor that hunted vampires coalesced, and the vision before me was… anticlimactic. This thing was what had hunted my mother’s kind for centuries? This… thing… with its pale hair and eyes and lazy gait, no doubt peddling drugs to humans… was the threat I hadn’t been allowed to face?

I scoffed, shaking my head in disbelief. The noise caught his attention, the phone forgotten as he looked up. I wasn’t sure if he could scent me or not - was that something a Lesser could do? - but I saw the flare of recognition in his eyes as easily as he saw it in mine. Well, give or take a little of my breeding…

The phone was forgotten as he reached into his coat, the piece he pulled out a sleek, dark nin mil. I didn’t think, didn’t hesitate, dropping into a roll as my heart rate kicked into high gear. The first shot went over my head, a thunderclap in the street as I came up and launched myself skyward. The second shot hit the pavement, the third grazed my boot. And then I was invisible as I summoned my wings and threw them wide, using the launch and my feathers to close the twenty meter distance between us in two seconds.

His wild, sweeping arc of the gun as he tried to spot me again was for nothing as I crashed out of the sky to land on him, resuming a visible state as I batted the gun aside and bared my fangs in a snarl, black wings spread wide over him. He stared up, agape, whatever fury he’d been ready to unleash forgotten at the sight of me.

“Get a good look?” I spat, drawing a blade from my boot and bringing it up, then down, right for the heart.

He twisted at the last second, my blade glancing off the bone in his arm, his shoulder, as he tried to reach for the gun. Black blood spurted, and I ducked another shot, my ear ringing as I grabbed the wrist holding the gun and twisted with everything I had. He screamed as the bones shattered, the hand connected to his body only by flesh as it hung at a gut churning angle.

Slamming a palm to his throat, I cut off the scream with a squeeze as I pulled back the blade and drove down again. This time I found the mark.

I wasn’t expecting the light show. Mahmen certainly never warned me about ‘that’. The burst seemed to fry my retinas as I reeled back, the body now just a scorch mark as I tried to blink away the blaze.

“What… the fuck…” I muttered, rubbing at one eye with the hand that didn’t clutch the blade, ready for whatever came next.

Which, as it turned out, was not another Lesser. My phone pinged, an alarm to remind me my meeting was five minutes away. Cursing, I looked around. I’d planned to be there already, to linger outside in the cool air and only enter at the sound of that alarm, but now here I was, in some dead street at the edge of a city and reeking of the black blood that spattered my leather jacket sleeve.

Fucking hell.

Wings still out, I leapt up into the air, landing on a nearby roof that clearly had only seen pigeon activity for a long time. Shucking off the coat, I set it and the single blade I’d bothered to bring against the edge, then looked down at myself. There was nothing else to be done, time not on my side now as I launched into the air, winging myself across town to the Audience House.

Making the door with a minute to spare, I sheathed my wings and raked a hand through my windswept hair, taking a deep breath and wincing at the lingering stench of sweet, rotting meat.

“Fuck it,” I muttered, stepping into the receiving room and offering courteous smile to the male behind the desk, who seemed relieved to see me. He waved me forward, and only then did I notice the huge, hulking male at the next doorway. The one between me and the King.

I was grateful for my years of training, because it was the only thing that kept my face impassive as I stared up into golden yellow eyes, a lip twisted by a scar that stretched right up to his forehead. The scar didn’t bother me though; it was the set of those shoulders, the look on his face that told me one wrong move, and he’d gladly break my neck to protect whoever was behind that door.

Dude was definitely committed to this King.

Stepping forward, I bowed as mahmen had shown me, then stood and extended my arms. The male grunted as he stepped forward, a shiver rolling down my spine as he stood behind me. A spark leapt between us, and I couldn’t help but gasp at the shock, shooting him a sharp glance like it was his fault. Then he was patting me down, thorough with hands that had no doubt killed a thousand Lessers just like the one I’d dealt with on the street. When he was done, his hand closed around my shoulder, all but shoving me through the door, into a room with… King Fucking Kong, apparently.

The male was huge. With a capital H-oly Fuck. Seated on a throne, and with two additional warriors in the room, he still dwarfed them not just with his size, but his presence. He commanded attention, and as the black wraparounds looked in my direction he took a deep breath and leant forward.

“Speak your name.”

The two males at his back stiffened at the sight of me. One had eyes like diamonds, and a tattoo that curled around one eye as he narrowed them at me. The other had hair of impossible colors, a glorious mane that look touchable. My fingers even twitched. But they still paled to the male in the throne.

Before I answered I bowed low, as was proper for a nobody civilian.

“I am Malys, son of the Chosen Elieanora,” I said evenly, rising from the bow. “And I have come to seek a pardon from your majesty for her fleeing the Sanctuary a hundred years past.”

Zsadist:

[Tonight I was on King duty. Instead of heading out into the field, I found myself playing bodyguard to Wrath. Which wasn’t as thrilling as going out and killing lessers, but it was still an important job. We must serve and protect not only the race but our King as well. Guarding Wrath with me was Vishous and my twin. While Cop, Rhage, and Tohr were out in the field. I was hoping that tonight would go smoothly and there wouldn’t be any problems on our hands. It was always nerve wracking having Wrath out though. He was not only the King of our race, but a brother, and a lot of people wanted him dead.

Cracking my neck as I try to remember how many meetings we had tonight. We should be wrapping it up soon. I could feel daylight growing near and we would need to get Wrath home. Digging into my pocket to grab my phone. I glanced at the time written across the screen before I check to see if I had any messages. Without Vishous’s knowledge I gave the shifter my actual number. Then again, maybe V already knew that. Snorting at the thought then pushes the device back into my pocket. He hadn’t texted me so I assumed that we were still on for training later in the week. You could do it Z, just had one more to get through and then you could be at home with a book.

My ears prick as I hear a muffled conversation at the end of the hall. Straightening up as I watch a male turn the corner and head down the hallway towards me. Tilting my head as I take in the site of him. Interesting. I’ve never seen this male around before. Not that I really knew all vampires in this area, but there was something about him that screamed he was not from here. An outsider. What business did he have with the King?

I let out a low grunt as the stranger bows to me then holds out his arms so I could pat him down. Moving to his backside, I blink as I feel some sort of jolt. Was this some kind of power he had? Was he trying to pull a fast one on me? On the King? Biting back a growl as my hands move roughly over the male. Not caring as I grabbed and pushed my hands all over his body in search for weapons. I didn’t trust him one bit. I practically shove him into the room and get a hint of a scent that clouds my senses. Baby powder. The enemy.

My golden eyes go wide as I watch him stumble forward towards the King. Who the fuck did I just let enter this room? Fuck. Quickly I move in and stand close to the male. Vishous eyes me as he tries to read what’s doing. I see his eyes narrow, his nostrils flaring slightly as he picks up what I discovered. We keep it cool though. Listening to what this fucker had to say but also being ready at a moment’s notice if we had to strike. Slowly I bring my hand to my chest. Keeping it close in case I had to pull a dagger on this fucker. I would not let my King get hurt. Not on my watch. Nope.

I watched as he bowed again, a more pronounced one then the bow I received moments before. When he rises the King orders him to speak. My brows draw in as he speaks the name of a Chosen. A chosen I’ve never heard before. Phury blinks then shifts in his spot. He was the primale after all so all matters involving chosen he dealt with. Well it was a good thing he was present then. She was not just any chosen, but one who left. It made me wonder if Tohr knew about her. Maybe it was a chosen he came across with Darius. Though it sounded like she fled and went into hiding without a trace. I was intrigued by what the mystery man had to say, but still kept my guard up. The stench of the enemy still all around me. As my eyes roamed his body I noticed that he looked a little disheveled. Similar to what I looked like after fighting. The only problem was which side was he fighting on? And even if he was taking down a lesser who the fuck was he to do so?]

Mal:

The King grunted his acknowledgment of my words. I was beginning to suspect that standing on ceremony was not what happened with this guy. He had all the pomp and pageantry of a steel blade, and twice as sharp.

At my back I could feel the tension of the golden eyed warrior, and it took every lick of self control I had, and every lesson my mahmen had ever taught me about manners or propriety, to not turn around and eyeball him like I was ready to throw down right here, right now.

Cause I was. And I would. If it wasn’t for the woman who raised me needing this boon.

“So your mother was a Chosen that fled the sanctuary,” the King intoned, leaning back in that massive chair and tilting his head toward the male with the luscious locks, like he wanted him paying attention. “Why did she leave?”

Clearing my throat, I took a second to check my tone. It was, after all, a reasonable question, even if /I/ didn’t want anyone questioning her.

“Pardon me, my Lord, but it would be rude of me to attempt an explanation of my mother’s motivations at the time, not being her, or sharing that… experience. From what she has deigned to tell her son, it was to do with the desire for freedom and not wanting to… perform.”

Y’know… as in… be the Ehros she’d been trained to be. Sweet fuck please don’t make me say it out loud. Damn it, I could feel the faintest trace of a blush on my cheeks, but c’mon, who wouldn’t get embarrassed talking about whether or not their mother wanted to be a professional sex doll. Motherfuckers…

Instead of letting them get a word in, I continued, hoping the damn blush faded faster than the stupid Lesser stench I kept catching a whiff of.

“I understand that under your reign, things have changed, both for your civilian people, and for the Chosen. It is my hope that, with that in mind, my mother would be free to return to her people without facing persecution.”

Wrath inhaled again, and I had to wonder if he was catching all that stinking baby powder smell. I hid a wince, waiting for the shoe to drop.

“You got balls kid, I’ll give you that,” he said finally. “What if I wasn’t as benevolent as they say, hmm? What if I demanded retribution from your mahmen and her location? What then?”

“Then you have her son as a prisoner to serve whatever sentence you deem necessary,” I say coolly, eyes narrowing, “and I will have to suffice, for I will not ever reveal my mahmen’s location. I’d rather die.”

Every word rang with truth even as I stared him down - for all the good that probably did. They had to call him ‘Blind King’ for a reason. Not to worry though, cause the three other males around us were all kinds of ‘watch your fuckin’ mouth kid’ after I spoke.

“Phury,” Wrath said finally. “What do you want to do about this?”

Zsadist:

[This kid has way too much sass talking to the King like that. Who the fuck does he think he is? He came here on behalf of his mother, a chosen, to pardon her from fleeing. Now I know shit has changed and the King will most likely have no problem with this, but he still should have some respect. And then on top of it he’s gonna come in here reeking like lessers? Nope.

My attention is drawn to my twin when Wrath calls him out. Ah yes, the primale. What would he think of all this? He had to be curious about this Chosen. And I’m sure the other chosens would be excited to meet another, have another sister. I watched as Phury shifts beside the King. He eyes the stranger up before speaking.

“I don’t wish for any punishment to be brought to your Mother. I understand her reasons for fleeing.” He scrubbed a hand through his long locks of hair. “Things are different now and I have a sanctuary of my own for the chosens.” He gave a small private smile as he thought of them all. “If she would like to return, I would be happy to bring her in and introduce her to the others. I know they would be just thrilled to meet another sister.”

What he said was true. Phury cared deeply about the chosens. It’s funny cause when we first learned that he was going to be the primale we were unsure of what that would entail. But he found love, with Cormia. And I was glad that my brother was finally happy. Now only if he could stop trying to introduce me to different chosens every time I fed. Like I would do the same and get mated or some shit. Yeah right.

I snort at the thought then turned my attention to the stinky fucker in the room. I knew Wrath wasn’t dumb. He could smell what we smelled and probably even more so with his heightened senses. Even though I was on guard and ready to strike at a moment’s notice I kept my cool. Wrath might not want to make a scene in the audience house but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t elsewhere. My hand stayed close to my blade regardless. Just cause we didn’t want bloodshed didn’t mean this fucker doesn’t. Chosen mother or not, I’ve learned in my lifetime that you could trust no one. Anyone could turn on you or have other motives.]

Mal:

While the King looked like he could make a meal out of me and still use my rib as a toothpick, the male with the rainbow hair adjusted his stance and looked me over. He still looked like he wanted to put something sharp somewhere I wouldn’t like it, but when he spoke of the Chosen, of my mother having the freedom to return and see them, there was no malice, no aggression. His compassion and care for them was plain in the look on his face, the tone of his voice.

Relief ran through me as I thought of my mahmen, of being able to tell her she could come back to this past she’d fled so long ago.

Aware of each male in the room /wanting/ a reason to hurt me, I very slowly bowed my head, then lowered myself into a bow, my knee on the floor. I couldn’t speak the Old Language - I didn’t know a word of it - but I tried to make sure the sincerity of my gratitude rang through as I spoke.

“My Lords, your kindness knows no bounds.” Okay, it probably knew plenty of bounds, but go with me on this. “I am incredibly grateful for the mercy and compassion you’ve shown my mother. I apologize if I, at any stage, seemed ungrateful. My concern was only for the woman who raised me alone in the human world, and that she might find some solace in returning to the people she knew and loved.”

Lifting my head but not rising from my crouched bow, I looked first at the Primale, and then to the King.

“I thank you for taking the time to see me. For gracing me with an audience.”

And yeah. I guess I meant it. There was truth in everything I said. But now I was done. I could go home, go back to the hunt, and forget about Caldwell unless it housed a poltergeist.

Rising to stand - again, so much more slowly to avoid getting shivved - I made to turn on the spot when the King’s voice rang out.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been doing tonight, son.” My eyes flicked to those black wraparounds, then to the male’s either side of him. Otherwise, I didn’t move. “If you’re not from here, what have you been doing in town?” the Blind King continued softly.

Swallowing, I kept my voice even. My heart rate barely twitched. I’d faced down the worst kinds of monsters, seen horrors I wouldn’t wish on my enemies as nightmares; I could face this King… and his warriors. After all, I’d faced the Lessers they’d spent centuries fighting, and I’d barely broken a sweat to do it.

“I’m sure the activities of a wayward civilian would be of no interest to his Majesty,” I begin, tone courteous. “You honor me just in the asking. If it please the King to know, I have stayed in a simple motel, partaken of the city and its cafe’s, and walked through the Nightclub district.”

Wrath took a deep breath again, then gave a slow, cool smile.

“Well… I hope you enjoyed your stay in the city then. Be sure to pass on my blessings to your mahmen, when you get home.”

That was it? I blinked then bowed my head again.

“Of course, m’Lord. You’ve been most gracious.”

Zsadist:

[Narrowing my golden eyes as I hear the male give some kind of excuse. So that’s how it was going to be huh? I listened to the King as he dismissed him. Wrath didn’t want to cause problems in here, but that didn’t mean he was off the hook. Not by a long shot. He was withholding information from the King. Chosen mother or not that was something you didn’t do. My eyes flicker to the stranger who reeked of the enemy, I hold back a growl as I stare him down. Watching as he exited the room. Quickly I draw my attention to my brothers]

What do you want to do my Lord? [Vishous finally let out a growl as Phury just looked like he was deep in thought. My twin was probably wondering who this mysterious chosen was. I have to admit that I was curious as well. Wrath chuckled and shook his head slowly. A vicious smirk formed on his face before he spoke.

“Get him. Bring him back to the mansion, but keep him in the tunnels. Put him in one of the PT suites and have someone guard it until I can deal with him.” Nodding before I turn to head out. Pausing in my tracks as I hear Wrath again. “And Z..?” Turning to look back]

My Lord? [His jaw clenches. “Knock him out if you have to but don’t kill him. Not until I get to the bottom of this.” Vishous chimes in. “Contact Butch and have him bring the SUV when you get him.” Nodding at my brother before I exit the room. I take a deep inhale, smelling the trail the stranger left. My fangs elongate and I quickly move through the building. Once outside I take another whiff before bolting off in run.]

#SLS

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3wisellamas · 5 years

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Because there still aren't enough Deltarune theories: Fun Facts About Cards

So, I was thinking a lot about @pirenja's older post on Jevil and Seam as The Fool and The Magician, the first (or first and last, depending on who you ask) cards of the Tarot major arcana and which usually map to the Jokers in a standard playing card deck.

There's also the MINOR arcana, though -- the plain numbers and suits that make up the rest of a Tarot deck, and look a LOT like a typical 52-card deck. I knew about those, but didn't know those, so I got curious and spent a couple days looking into it, just for funsies.

So, uh...holy shit. The card-based Darkners aren't just playing cards, they're TAROT cards. The characters we know fit almost ridiculously well to their cards, and there were a couple parallels I found particularly interesting. Allow me to infodump, and add in a few extra fun little things that also came up in some card research, and which might have some...interesting implications on the rest of Deltarune. A lot of this is gonna come from Wikipedia, as well as this site.

Just a heads-up, this post is gonna include a lot of theories (some of which may or may not be pure crack) and will be LONG, and much of it will look like this:

...But in a fun way, I promise. ~^

First, let's go over some REALLY brief info about some of the cards we've seen so far in Deltarune. The ties between these guys and Tarot are pretty damn obvious, especially when you look at the four suits:

Diamonds: In Tarot, their equivalent is Pentacles or Coins. These are associated with wealth, business, and physical possessions.

Sounds a lot like the Rudinns and the King of Diamonds, right? I mean, they're so obsessed with their treasure that they sold their beds to have more of it!

Hearts: The Tarot equivalent is the Cups. Associated with emotions and bettering oneself.

Hathys are pretty big on emotion -- they're the ones you keep flirting with in encounters, after all, and the proceeds for Hathy's bake sale go towards their health.

Clubs: The Tarot equivalent is the Wands. This one I had to work a bit to figure out, but it seems to be more associated with social things, passion, and desire/drive.

Clover is definitely a social one, seeing as how they're throwing their birthday party in the castle when you arrive. And they're also VERY passionate about three specific topics, which actually plays into pacifying them!

Spades: Now for some fun. In Tarot, these are Swords, and are most associated with...take a wild guess. Ambition, power, violence, and the military.

Yep. Shall we look a bit closer at the actual cards in the Spades suit, then?

First off, the King of Spades/Swords. The card is LITERALLY called The Warlord, and is associated with force and discipline, ruthlessness, intelligence, and sometimes coldness and abuse in a negative reading. Pretty damn accurate to the King, I gotta say. Not a lot of room for interpretation here.

The other Spade we know of, though? A...little less clear-cut, but still works. Lancer is the Jack of Spades, meaning his Tarot equivalent is the Page/Knave of Swords -- same card, just an older name -- which is indeed all about youth and energy, as well as learning and observing, and keeping cool in danger. However, the card is also called The Spy, and also has a meaning of concealing oneself and keeping secrets.

Hm. Some of that really sounds like Lancer, some...doesn't? Perhaps our boy has an arc and some more character development ahead of him. Or...I'll get back to this. Because there is some interesting theory fuel here once I bring in another point.

Now, for a Spade we DON'T know yet, but that we know very well is coming: The Queen. The Queen of Swords is associated with intelligence, strategy, independence, and...repressed sadness and divorce? Hm.

HM. If the King of Spades is meant to be a Dark World mirror of Asgore, could the Queen end up being a dark mirror of Toriel, out in self-exile? Time will tell. And when we do finally meet the Queen in future chapters, she will very likely be one hell of a big deal, if the Tarot theme holds, so keep the card description in mind for that!

But, we can't stop at the Queen; we're missing a big, major detail. In Tarot decks, and in fact in historical playing card decks in general, there are FOUR face cards of each suit, not just the three we see in a typical deck. At the top are the King and Queen, obviously. At the bottom is the Page or the Knave, as I said up there the equivalent of the modern Jack. And the last one, between the Page and the Queen? The Knight.

No, really. The Knight is a CARD. But, I'm gonna go further than that: We already know someone, specifically a card person, in the Dark World who fits the description of the Knight of Swords/Spades, quite well in fact:

Associated with major, drastic changes -- pretty appropriate for the person who's been jailing kings and opening up dark fountains, huh?

Impulsive, and constantly takes actions without much planning beforehand.

Fanatical and single-minded, obsessively loyal to one thing and one thing only at a time.

Confident, to the point of arrogance. Basically, obsessed with themselves.

Articulate, good with words, and a sweet-talker, able to get what they want through speech and charm alone. Ironically, not often associated with direct action, and can mean cowardice.

Also, a bald-faced liar -- their whole thing is trickery and deceit. They also keep a LOT of secrets, like the Page.

Worth noting, the Knight often replaces the Queen entirely in older decks, and is considered the card right under the King of Spades, as his main servant or advisor.

Notably, according to that Tarot site up there, they are heavily associated with major career changes and promotions.

You figured it out yet?

Oh yeah. Worm knight.

Let's go through some points with both Rouxls Kaard and that card description in mind, if you don't believe me.

Uh, hello? Confident, impulsive, acts without thinking, fanatical, self-centered? The card description may as well be the guy's Wikia bio.

Articulate...well, he tries. Can't fault him for that. (yes you can)

Honestly, aside from that "God. Damn it." moment, can you give me one instance in which his manner of speaking WASN'T overly flowery and fancy, to the point of ridiculousness? That's, like, his most defining trait.

He's a coward, never actually facing you himself until you reach the castle, and instead preferring to vandalize puzzle solutions and throw minions at you.

He seriously butters you up during the entire second shop conversation, and in fact almost constantly from the moment K.Round is defeated for the final time -- he says he's always on the winning side, which at the time is you, and does his best to claim he never truly opposed you at all, that everything was a test, he just wants to help you, etc. The guy even tries to BRIBE you at the very end if you went pacifist, offering Susie a plate of worms for letting him lie about his involvement in your adventure, to boost his own ego.

Did I forget to mention he's pretty much got a lot of the Rudinns and Clover (and a lot of fandom it seems) charmed with his looks and manner of speaking, and wrapped around his finger as well? Because that.

Throughout the game, Rouxls really is nothing more than a big talker and a big liar. Most obviously, the first time you talk to him in his shop he says quite a bit, but does a COMPLETE 180 on ALL OF IT after he's defeated for the final time, suddenly going from praising the King to hating his guts and claiming to be undermining him, from mocking the Fun/$!? Squad to praising them and offering assistance, and from complaining about Lancer to admitting he cares about the kid quite a bit.

Also, consider: His "ultimate puzzle", which he suspiciously refused to show us...

Even if it's not explicitly pointed out as such, Rouxls is King Spade's second in command, the guy serving directly under him in the castle in the absence of the Queen (or any other castle staff besides the guards, for that matter). In very old decks before the Queen was a thing, Knights are in between the Page/Jack and the King and are considered the King's advisor/right hand guy.

Knights also have a lot of very close connections to Pages, both in card games as well as history. A page is literally a knight's very young (age 7-14) apprentice and servant, and stick close to them and learn from them -- similar to Rouxls' lesser dad/son relationship with Lancer! (Also, a thought: medieval knights would often carry lances, supplied by said page!)

During battle, the King calls the Knight "My Knight". This might confirm that the Knight is indeed a member of his own court, the Knight of Spades, and not of another suit. However, from the tone and some of the other things he says throughout the battle, it’s clear that King Spade actually owes allegiance to the Knight, rather than the other way around. Possibly even some fondness for him, from that particular tone. And...I'm not gonna beat around the bush on this. King Spade is totally Rouxls' sugar daddy. The King just up and fires everyone in his castle, and gives this random unqualified prettyboy the next-highest position after himself out of absolutely nowhere? Yeah. No. Even incompetent kings don't just do that. There's something really weird going on there, something about their relationship that screams there’s some shady business going on behind the scenes. Though, potentially, one could also flip the script, seeing the new job as repayment for putting King Spade in power...

One final point, getting a bit away from the card again. In the game, The Knight is supposed to have a close connection with the Dark Fountains, able to “pull them from the Earth” and manipulate their power to bring darkness or whatever, right? When using the Card Castle fountain to go home, Kris and Susie teleport in a massive column of white light, that looks like this:

(Sorry, screenshotting that particular moment is tough...)

Look a little familiar?

Yep, I'm gonna go there. The same goddamn teleport animation. Nowhere else in the game is that particular animation used, even when it kinda should -- for instance, Jevil’s scythes also teleport in vertical columns of light, but those look entirely different!

There's some other things about Rouxls that actually make me super suspicious of the guy, but one that does so even more now, that I really should bring up if I'm claiming him to be The Knight: Remember that last battle against K.Round? When Rouxls brings out his "Control Crowne"? That lets him control anything “disc-shaped”, and (if we take Ralsei's word for it) looks incredibly painful?

...What the actual living FUCK??! Seriously, is no one else IMMENSELY ALARMED by the fact that not only is this crown a thing that exists, but for some goddamn reason it just happens to be in the puzzle guy's possession??

I'm bringing that point up for a pretty big reason, though: Another name for the Diamonds/Pentacles suit is DISKS. If Rouxls wasn't just bluffing (like he does on everything else, admittedly), there's a good chance he might be able to use that crown on Diamond cards as well.

And Rouxls DEFINITELY has a lot of interesting connections to Diamonds himself, beyond that. Rudinns generally seem to be pretty enamored with the guy, and the whole suit is all about money and even represent the Merchant, or if you will, the shopkeeper class. (And if you ask him why he’s selling things to you, he will admit he's raising money, for...some reason.) In a four-color deck, Diamonds are usually represented by the color blue instead of red. Also, Diamonds/Pentacles represent the Earth element, which is where one would find worms and insects. So, he may very well have a close connection to Diamonds, as well as being the Knight of Spades...

I'll get back to that one as well, though, because there's another point I wanna bring into this whole card mess that might complicate things. Because while researching, I found a very, very interesting little bit of trivia about the Joker card...

Second half of this post and a LOT more fun cracktheories under the cut. Yep, you heard me, I'm still only halfway done here!

So. The Jokers, Fool and Magician, former members of the card court, before...something went wrong. You know how Jevil (and presumably Seam, as his only equal) can apparently do anything? Well, while researching Tarot, I also randomly looked into the Jokers and their functions in a couple of other card games, the biggest being Spades, because why not.

In Spades, the Joker card can attach itself to any non-Spade card in the deck to make it count as the equivalent Spade, though still inferior to the real Spade card. In other words, Jokers can turn other cards into Spades.

No, I'm serious. Look for yourself.

This idea I’m mostly just having some fun with here, but if this little bit of trivia happens to come into play in the next few Deltarune chapters, it might have some SERIOUS implications on what we know about the Spades court. In particular, it means we might not be able to take...really, any of the Spades characters we meet at face value (pun not intended, but appropriate).

But you know what? I think we should take a closer look at the Spades we already know, and see if that might already be the case.

The King fits his card description very well, and we actually see the other three kings locked up in a cage, so none of them could have been converted into the King of Spades. So, we can pretty much confirm he's who we think.

But, then there's Lancer. So far, he's the only Jack we've seen -- I know the card characters were originally based on a set of playing card designs by @kanotynes, and that the Jacks in that deck included not only Lancer but also the various minor enemies we see: Rudinn, Hathy, and Clover. But, in the game, those three don't seem to have any royal ties at all, definitely not as princes! So, I think we can confirm that they're not actually the Jacks of other suits in Deltarune.

So, I'm gonna go back to my first Tarot loose end -- the Page of Spades/Swords, Lancer. Remember how I pointed out some pieces of the card's description didn't fully match the kid? The secrets, the concealing of one's true nature?

What if Lancer's not the Jack of Spades at all, but rather another Jack that was converted into a Spade by one of the Jokers for whatever reason? Let's take a quick look at the other Pages, and see if one fits Lancer a bit more, shall we?

The Page of Hearts/Cups: A "sweet-natured child", immature, creative, naive, a bad childhood, and self-centeredness. Not a bad fit for Lancer, gotta admit!

The Page of Diamonds/Pentacles: Planning for and seizing future success and opportunities, loyalty, sometimes associated with fruit trees and harvests (”Delicious little apple” / "Sweet little peach"?), and most importantly, a student, constantly learning just like the Page of Swords. Also not a bad fit, though maybe a little less than the Page of Cups.

Now for the really fun one. The Page of Clubs/Wands: Inspiration, optimism, also creativity and making plans, rushing into things without thinking (appropriate for the Knight's charge...), "a bit of a cheeky charmer or lovable rogue", impatience, laziness, and a big emphasis on "losing yourself". Also, did I mention that Wands represent the fire element?

So, really all three other Pages have elements that fit this kid in different ways, but some of the things about that Page of Clubs are...striking, to say the least. This possibility might be worth keeping in mind when chapter 2 ever gets released!

Now, then, there's also another Spade we know, even if unconfirmed, with no known equivalents in other suits to rule out. Could Rouxls also have been another suit, and got converted into the Knight of Spades?

Remember all those weird connections to the Diamonds suit I pointed out? Well, let's talk about the Knight of Diamonds -- A Red Knight, if you will!

"A young man who is dark of complexion and features." This is an actual quote from Wikipedia.

Defensive -- focus on protecting home and family.

Hard worker, determined, stubborn, finishing what you start.

All about questioning one's work or home life, or where they stand on an issue.

An animal lover.

The "wish card", about making your wishes and dreams come true, via perseverance and ambition.

Also, a negative interpretation is a loser or laziness, expecting results but not putting in the effort.

Not a PERFECT fit, but still an interesting comparison, no? Especially those things about fulfilling your wish, but failing by not putting in the effort required, kinda like how Rouxls is quite proud of becoming the high-ranking and privileged "Duke of Puzzles", but doesn’t actually put together anything other than simple block-pushing puzzles. Another thought that comes up: The control crown(e). If Rouxls was originally a high-ranking Diamond/Disk suit, that fucking thing suddenly makes WAY more sense. (Also, it would make all the Blue Diamond comparisons really funny in hindsight. Just saying.)

Yeah, I know, claiming that Rouxls is the Knight is a big enough deal, and this extra cracktheory about him being a Knight who switched suits is one even I'm admitting it’s crazy, and over-analyzing is just what I do. Who knows if all or any of this will still be plausible by chapter 2. However, worth noting: If Rouxls was originally another suit, and got converted into the "Lesser” Knight of Spades/Swords by one of the Jokers, then there is very likely ANOTHER Knight of Spades/Swords out there, a much more powerful one. Hm...

...Naaaah. Too obvious. And on the same note, if my cracktheory about Lancer being the “lesser” Jack of Spades up there ends up actually being somewhat accurate, then there's also an original one out there somewhere...

...Maybe? If you look at that description up there again, it actually seems to fit Ralsei even better than it fits Lancer -- the things about concealing one's true nature, keeping secrets, intelligence, and analysis suddenly become quite fitting. And didn't Ralsei's original concept art include a reversed spade instead of a heart on the front of his robe?

So, if these are the case, what card is Susie? I'm...admittedly not sure. ^^; I bet someone else can find a card that fits her though, so I'll leave that one open.

Okay, okay, I'm done with the wild theories now. Lastly, I just wanna mention a couple of other interesting, weird card things I found out while researching. Won't go as in-depth with these, but including them because why not:

A lot of people have been theorizing about the idea of Darkners bleeding like humans, and unlike monsters. What if I told you that "bleeding" is an actual card term? When you bleed your cards, you're accidentally exposing your hand to other players out of turn.

Remember when Rouxls called the party "mine amigose"? Kind of an odd line, especially coming from him, but it was actually another card game reference! Also from Spades is the term "Three amigos": A nickname for the Ace, Queen, and King of Spades. Interestingly, the Ace of Swords is all about cutting through lies and exposing the truth. (Maybe that could be a card for Susie in future chapters?)

Hell, there’s just a LOT of card references thrown all over the place. A cute one is when Jevil says “piip piip” during his fight -- like the dots on dice, the individual symbols on number cards are called pips.

Want another fun Tarot card meaning? Take a good look at the Nine of Swords. It's generally considered the worst card you could get, even in a mostly positive reading -- It's literally called The Nightmare, and represents fear, stress, being overwhelmed, grief, doubts, cruelty, etc. Basically, if it's bad, it's in this card, up to and including a complete breakdown. Now, recall another line that seems totally benign at first, courtesy of Jevil: "From now, a nightmare will awaken in your hearts. In the shadow of the Knight's hand..." If I were y'all, I'd make damn sure to WATCH THIS CARD.

Also, "The Knight's hand"...of cards, perhaps? :P Okay, bad joke.

There's sometimes three Jokers in a deck -- a white one in addition to black and red. Just sayin'. Might wanna also keep your eyes open for a third Joker in chapter 2, maybe chilling out with the Queen wherever she is?

#deltarune #delta rune #undertale #spoilers #I guess?#emtheories

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