#interesting family tree

[slimeflowersandsunshine]

So I did art- is it nightmare fuel?

-tallulah

[brother-emperors]

it's Valentinian III :)

[valeriianz]

I've had this Dreaming The Proposal AU sitting in my drafts for a while. Then @voukkake comes out with this art and I figured it was time to brush off the dust and share what I'd written lol. This is seriously all I'm going to write so if anyone is interested I'm begging you to pick this up. I'm dying to read Dream awkwardly interacting with Hob's family (also @valiantstarlights suggestion that Betty White is Destiny?? ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT). Anyway...

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Dream is about to be deported because his visa application has been denied. He is in the middle of a meeting with his lawyers when Hob, his secretary, pops in the room to inform Dream of a very important phone call and Dream comes up with the insane plan to marry Hob to keep his immigration status.

He gestures for Hob to come over and Hob, clueless, wanders into the room and stands next to Dream, who takes him by the arm and tugs him just a little bit further to stand awkwardly close.

Dream announces their engagement and Hob stands there, shell shocked and feels his mouth moving against his will. That yeah, they are getting married. They are in love, sure. It isn’t until they leave the office, following Dream back to his, that Hob’s brain seems to come back online.

“What just happened in there?”

Dream grouses, head down, already back to his work as if nothing happened. Like he didn’t just use Hob as a pawn in his scheme to get around his denied visa application.

“They were going to make Morningstar editor-in-chief.” Is all Dream says, disdain dripping from every word. He still hasn’t looked up.

Hob stands there, still as a statue. His head is swimming with words, with emotions. Anger, disbelief, betrayal… and a small tiny flicker of undeniable interest that he hastily stomps out.

He manages to put the pieces together rather quickly though, while Dream continues sifting through paperwork.

“This is illegal,” Hob manages to croak out, brows furrowing. 

“Oh, please. The government looks for terrorists, not book publishers.” Dream’s head is still down in his paperwork.

Hob blinks, taking a step up to Dream’s desk. “I'm not marrying you.”

“Sure you are.” Dream sets aside a stack of papers and finally gives Hob his attention. “Because if you don't, your dreams of ‘touching millions of lives with the written word’ are dead.” 

Hob’s jaw drops. That was a line, corny as it was, that he’d used in the panel interview for this job. Three years ago.

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

“Were you not in that room? I could get fined, I’ll go to jail over this. If you want me on this deal, you will promote me to editor.”

Without even glancing up from his phone, Dream scoffs.

“Absolutely not.”

“Well then I guess you’re screwed. Buh-bye.” Hob turns with a flourish and has to bite back a grin at how Dream splutters behind him and grabs him by the arm.

“Fine– fine! Editor.” His face seems to go through the five stages of grief. He drops his hold on Hob.

“And You’ll publish my manuscript.” Hob throws in. In for a penny.

Dream’s brows narrow and he shakes as if he’s physically controlling the urge to stamp his foot.

“Sure. I’ll publish your hack manuscript.”

“Good.” Hob slips his hands in his pants pockets, staring at Dream, deciding on one last nail in the coffin.

“Now do it properly.”

Dream cocks an eyebrow. “Do what properly?”

“Propose. Like you mean it.”

Dream’s entire body seizes up, but he manages not to let it show, distracting himself by slipping his phone in the pocket of his expensive slacks and clasping his hands in front of him.

“Will you marry me?”

“No.” Hob, the arrogant bastard, is visibly biting back a smirk. “Say it like you mean it.”

Dream takes a long, steadying breath through his nose.

“Hob Gadling. Will you–”

“And get on your knees.”

Dream absolutely refuses to decipher the thrill that shoots through his body at Hob’s command. Instead he keeps his mask of irritation and indifference on as he scans the crowd around them. They are still outside the courthouse, and the concrete sidewalk is going to potentially tear Dream’s Hugo Boss black wool pants.

So he carefully lowers himself, scowling as the smirk on Hob’s face only widens as Dream slowly settles onto the ground.

Once he’s as comfortable as Dream’s going to get, he clears his throat.

“Hob Gadling,” he glares at his subordinate from under his lashes. “Will you fucking marry me?”

Hob curls his lips in mock consideration, looking up past Dream’s head. He rocks back on his heels and nods with a forlorn sigh.

“Okay.” He still hasn’t met Dream’s gaze. “Could've done without the sarcasm but it will do. See you at the airport tomorrow.” 

And turns and walks away, leaving Dream to fend for himself on the ground.

[bumblingbabooshka]

B'Elanna, Neelix, Tuvok and Chakotay needed to star in an episode where they just talked about their different beliefs and approaches to spirituality/religion. Paired off and all together. I need to gain more insight. I need characterization and I need it to be messy.

[exocynraku]

So tempted to make a warrior cats rewrite Im So tempted

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

What do you think about Jeyne Arryn's heir? Do you think choosing Joffery Arryn was a mistake, or it's better than Arnold anyway? And If Jeyne was Aemma's niece, why Jeyne didn't choose Rhaenyra, or her children, or her dead brothers as Arryn's heir?

Jeyne chose Joffrey, a cousin who was loyal to her, and who (unlike Arnold) never tried to contest her rule (twice!) just because she was a "soft" woman. I think that's a pretty good choice when you're looking for leadership of all the Vale and its lords and ladies, men and women.

And of course Jeyne, while loyal to Rhaenyra, prioritized an Arryn-named family member, born and raised in the Vale, her Knight of the Bloody Gate and thus experienced with the Vale and Eyrie's people, politics, and defenses, over a distant Targaryen cousin who never set foot in the Vale with no feelings for the Arryns beyond a quarter of Rhaenyra's sigil. Would you ever expect any less from any other ruler?

Also, Rhaenyra's dead brothers? The ones who died 30 years before Jeyne did? Who died when Jeyne was under 10 years old and "ruling" under a regent? Rhaenyra's dead brothers who would have been heir to the Iron Throne if they had lived for more than a few days (which they didn't)? The brothers who were dead? What? *confused-obama.gif*

No, seriously, I am incredibly confused by your understanding of the timeline here. By the time Jeyne died from the Winter Fever in 134 AC, the only descendant of Aemma Arryn known to be alive was Aegon III Targaryen. Who was, you know, the king of Westeros. How was Jeyne supposed to name any of Aemma's other descendants as her heir in her will, reconstruct Rhaenyra* and Baelon** and unnamed** and Joffrey** from their ashes? Pull Jacaerys** and Lucerys*** and Viserys**** out of their watery graves? Seriously, what?

*Rhaenyra was, y'know, the queen, and before that heir to the throne, she wasn't going to be the Arryn heir. **Heir to the throne before he died, so not going to be the Arryn heir. ***Heir to Driftmark before he died, so not going to be the Arryn heir. ****Not actually dead! Even though everyone thought he was when Jeyne was writing her will. But if he hadn't been, he would have been heir to the throne, so still not going to be the Arryn heir.

[vic-does-battlecats]

Happy aro visibility day to Hollyleaf (she is clueless)

[eli-am-confused]

Young Eddie catching a young Howard reading a romance book.

Part 1/3

This had to come out in tree parts because Tumblr said I drew too much. (Could I have stopped here? I mean yeah. But I didn’t write all those words in my notes planning out this comic for nothing)

As always, the words are after the cut.

Picture one

Howard: Oh Collin. You’re so dreamy <3

Picture two

Eddie: Hey Howie! Dinner’s ready! We’ve been callin’ ya for like an hour!

Picture three

. . .

Picture four

Eddie: Whatcha readin?

Howard: NOTHING!!!

[lueddegen-art]

Thinking about the travels Albedo and Rhinedottir went on together fascinates me in so many ways, the worms truly be braining.

(also I desperately need to practice drawing environments, so I did a very rough study of one of the domain backgrounds in the game and adapted it slightly, I don’t remember which one it was though)

(time spent drawing: about an hour)

[femmikoto]

i see so many contradictory takes on mikotos childhood so out of sheer curiosity im running a poll

[kirisclangen]

Larchpaw

She/her, 8 moons, cis molly

[compacflt]

If you want, and only if you want to, could you explain about making Logistics a big part of Ice's career path? Not only did fit so well with your Ice's characterization, it was just so neat I've made it my HC for Ice's career path.

yes!

I got REALLy deep into the defense policy weeds in this post so I’m putting a cut to save people’s dashboards

1. when i was rewriting chapters 8 &9 last winter i did literally the bare minimum of research about the current set of high-level officers. the commander of the pacific fleet at the time had previously been the director of pacific fleet logistics ordnance & supply. So that was easy to yoink. a proven chain of succession.

2. but also: it fit ice’s (or his alter ego admiral Kazansky’s) neat, orderly, effective, collected, strategic characterization. And as professional tactics go, there would be no better promotion for a high-level officer looking to take over the fleet than DFLOS. understand the fleet by the numbers, you comprehensively understand the fleet.

3. In terms of secret-keeping logistics, ice is supposed to be kind of the best. like, because of his logistical thinking, he & maverick get away with it. Or that’s how I would’ve written it if I were a little smarter. Obviously in practice a bunch of people find out so it’s not great. but the navy AS A WHOLE doesn’t find out.

4. The field of military logistics is rigorously bureaucratic, boring, soulsucking, selfdefeating, notoriously corrupt, and yet entirely necessary for the military to succeed at any level (in the very first draft of WWGATTAI i included a famous US marine corps maxim that most people have heard at some point: “amateurs talk tactics. professionals talk logistics.” but that was literally the only good thing about the original chapter 6 which got entirely rewritten a month after i published it). So logistics as a field of specialization fit in perfectly with my secondary character thesis that rising through the boring bureaucratic ranks of the Navy sucked all the humanity & will to live out of ice one day at a time.

a couple related interesting things that I’ve never talked about on this blog & might never get the chance to again:

a) ice canonically joins the navy as a fighter pilot & ends his career as a glorified bureaucrat. that sucks. obviously the struggle to rise in the ranks is a notoriously cutthroat, political, sleazy business (you do not get to the top of the United States Navy by being nice to people), but i would also not be the first person to say that—for exemplary officers—leadership is an EXPECTATION that can counterbalance someone’s natural drive to excel, if that makes sense. You get promoted because you’re good at something (flying), but you get promoted away from the thing you were good at. There is an extent to which you have to fight for a promotion—but there is also an extent to which commanders above you pick you for the job, suck you up along the pipeline. Loss of agency—a major major component of joining the military—does still apply to upper-level officers.

B) to that end, i am reminded of one quote from Todd Schmidt’s 2023 book “Silent Coup of the Guardians: US Military Elite Influence on National Security.” This is an Army training & doctrine commander speaking: “the military has a lot of two- and three-star senior leaders that were confident, charismatic commanders at the O-6 level. But that’s the end of the story. One in fifty, maybe one in a hundred, truly have what it takes to operate successfully at the strategic level and make a real difference for their service. The problem is that they all tend to think that, since they have stars on their shoulders, they’re the one.” —I’ve been writing ice as “The Chosen One,” the officer unicorn, for two reasons: one, it provides him cover for his illegal relationship (and also asks an interesting chicken-egg question: does he get away with his rlnship because he’s so good, or is he so good JUST to get away with his relationship?); and two, he’s “the chosen one” in canon, i.e. he already has four stars in canon: canonically he is not a mediocre officer. But most officers (cough cough maverick) are not cut out for high-level leadership.

C.) in Thomas E. Ricks’ book “The Generals,” Ricks argues that (at least in the Army) mediocrity in the general/flag officer ranks is unfortunately by design. In WWII, if you were a mediocre officer, you got relieved! You got fired! It’s part of why we won: merciless culling of the general officer ranks! But between WWII and Korea, officer relief began to be associated with shame & wasted resources. Mediocre officers got promoted anyways. The military elite pipeline sucks mediocrity up the chain of command. Ricks blames this issue for (at least the Army’s) shit leadership in every post-WWII war, including but most especially Iraq and Afghanistan. There’s no penalty for mediocrity. That in turn reflects on military strategy (mediocre strategists at the helm) & the outcome of every military foray (mediocre outcomes).

D) additionally. There’s a whole neverending debate in the field of civil-military relations (an extremely interesting field of study btw) about the corporatization of the military—lots of high-level talk over the years of “running the military like a business.” If you get kinda into defense policy like me (am i still antimilitary? Idk! but i CAN easily tell you i am against the navy’s littoral combat ship program! It sucks!) then you will know that the navy is struggling right now on a lot of different fronts (procurement [shipbuilding esp. is a disaster—ford-class carriers are under budget though 👍🏽], recruitment, theatre prioritization, general preparedness, readiness against major adversaries [China in particular]). Simply, the navy is pretty mediocre at the minute. I talk a big game about ice being COMPACFLT & SECNAV, but if those are true, & if he “exists” in our current timeline, or even canon timeline (COMPACFLT in 2020), then he’s complicit in a lot of why the navy is sucking ass right now. He didn’t do his job very well. LOL. So, because I love (especially my version of) ice too much to see his legacy suffer, I am stating for the record that my timeline is a different timeline where ice saves the navy from itself and fixes all its issues & solves all its problems & makes it the pride of the armed forces & the tip of the spear of American defense :) because I said so

E.) unrelated but important. It sounds obvious but it must be said. Ice dies on the job in TGM canon. To the extent that in earlier drafts of the script, not-his-sister-Sarah even points out to maverick that ice is still active duty, in the same breath as she tells him ice is sick again. (A wise move to remove that line.) ice does not resign his commission. Ice does not retire to spend time with his family at the end of his life. Ice dies as commander of the pacific fleet. He dies on the job; he dies FOR the job, bureaucratic as it is. If you were wondering why I wrote ice so dormantly suicidal, it’s because canon (i argue) has made it clear that—since the second ice signed up to be a fighter pilot during the Cold War to the second he died active duty—ice has ALWAYS been ready and willing to die for his honorable Navy career.

[primeministerofantarctica]

do you think kazuki and rei ever told miri they used to be hitmen or is she just going to have a VERY interesting family research project

[sunmoontruth-stiles]

I need a completely rewritten teen wolf series with Derek Hale as the main character. I think it would heal me.

[dementedspeedster]

The Thawne family really has such continual issues with love (romantic and familial)/that when it comes to love they continually face issues. It's almost like they're cursed in some way .

A lack of familial love is an issue seen with three Thawnes: Malcom (Cobalt Blue), Eobard (Professor Zoom), and Thad (Inertia). All three of them felt unloved and unappreciated by their own family. And these are three Thawnes of three completely different eras. (Malcolm - 20th/21st Century, Eobard - 25th Century, Thad - 30th/31st Century).

Familial relationships and familial love in the Thawne family also tends to be complicated when you look at Meloni and her relationship with her father, President Thaddeus Thawne. There's clearly a controlling aspect to President Thawne's relationship with his daughter, but it also seems like he does love his daughter.

Also Meloni's relationship with her son, Bart, is also complicated. There's not a lack of love between them as a mother and son, but at the same time the two barely know each other/their complicated situation doesn't exactly allow for them to really have an opportunity to develop their relationship with one another.

Eobard's relationship with his family is bad (he's viewed as a disappointment). He also makes it so his brother Robern never existed.

Romantic relationships/Romantic love for Thawnes don't end up well either considering how Meloni's husband ends up killed. And that in part is due to the fact she fell in love with and Allen.

It might have been a first love/first relationship for Bart, but Carol ending up having to stay in the future after Bart fully realizes his feelings for her is another example of romantic relationship/romantic love not working out for a Thawne.

The same version of Eobard also falls in love, but continual even as he rewrites his life and the life of the women he falls in love with (She starts out with a fiance, Eobard then makes it so her fiance has disappeared, she still doesn't want him, he makes it so she never dated him, she still doesn't want him, he makes it so she has never dated in her entire lief to the point it's like she's cursed (that's the actual word used there), and she still has no interest in him), and he ends rewriting his life to the point he narrates that he has never been in love.

Also to a lesser degree Thad ends up abandoning his first girlfriend and first relationship ever, so chalk up another one to love being complicated for the Thawnes.

There are just so many instances of love not working out for Thawnes. Romantic love and familial love is so complicated and messy for them.

[righteousenjoymentofthunder]

procrastinating studying by reading fanfic... and reading the third chapter and being absolutely SLAPPED in the face with mischaracterisation. and then im like: this concept had SO MUCH potential? *goes to write the fic im thinking of*