#it doesn't seem fair to me that a person who doesn't study gets to have a higher grade than me just because they cheated on the exam

[misc-obeyme]

nightbringer lesson 41

Welp. That sure was a lesson. As always, my unfiltered thoughts and spoilers are below the cut. There will be screenshots, you have been warned.

Everybody still doesn't know we were gone. The only one who is aware of the fact that MC was in a different timeline is Solomon, as far as we know. It's possible that someone is hiding their knowledge, but I see no evidence of that currently.

HOWEVER. All the bros are SUPER clingy. Lucifer is constantly getting on their case about the fact that they can't leave MC alone. And at one point, he says he's feeling inexplicably giddy and he thinks that's what his brothers are feeling, too. So there is something that's changed and they can all kinda feel it... but nobody knows what it is and they all kinda just brush it off.

There's a lot of "huh we just saw each other but for some reason..." kinda stuff.

When Luke first sees us, that poor boy just bursts into tears. Simeon wants to pet our head, but we can also choose to hug him.

I have been known to have this affect on children, but still.

Overall, the brothers are being very much themselves. Beel is eating things and relating everything to food, Belphie is sleepy, Asmo loves pretty things, etc etc.

See what I mean? We did have some excellent one liners like this and I'll get to more of those lol.

My point is, nobody is acting off except for the thing where they all react a little weirdly to MC.

For a good chunk of the lesson, I was like... and where the HELL is Solomon after all this, huh?? But I'll get to him, too.

Because guess what? Diavolo has had another great idea and this time it's... the RAD Science Fair!!!

...

WHAT.

This feels very much like the usual thing they do where MC always has to have some kinda goal that requires them to spend time with each brother individually. I'm still not entirely sure how that's gonna shake out with this, though.

There are seven categories or "fields of study" as they're called. They all start with Devildom, so it's like Devildom math, Devildom geography, etc etc.

Diavolo tells them that the student council members are required to enter.

So they spend some time thinking about what category they want to go for.

There's this part where they're all heading home from RAD and MC starts to leave with Simeon and Luke. They tell you that not long ago, Simeon and Luke tried to go "home" to the HoL. Weird. All very weird. They all decide to go to a cafe instead.

They're talking about which category they're going to choose and then... Thirteen shows up!

Thirteen is so excited to see MC she has to give them a hug! Huh. How weird. (It's not weird, my love, you can throw your arms around me anytime.)

ANYWAY, they have a whole discussion and I loved how involved she was. Though we never have enough Thirteen content. And of course, she's still not dateable...

Then we find out that Lucifer has just chosen his brothers' categories for them anyway. MC gets to choose who they want to pair with. I chose Mammon, but I don't know if this actually matters or not. Usually I go back and try different options, but I decided to leave this one for now to see if it seems like it's going to make a difference in upcoming lessons. I'll report back if it seems to change anything later.

At this time, you also find out that Diavolo has decided to enter all seven categories, too. Barbatos is also entering, but only three categories. I almost lost my shit at this part but at least Barb gets to do only three. Diavolo is a crazy man who enjoys doing this sorta stuff, but Barb needs to take it easy he already works to much!

And that's basically it! There's this one cute part where you're finally at the HoL where you can choose to hang out with a set of brothers. No matter who you choose, it's a cute little scene and it always ends saying you had a lovely time together~ (Personally I thought the one with Asmo, Belphie, and Lucifer was the most entertaining lol.)

You talk to Solomon on the phone at some point too and he tells you...

Yeah. I was like ARE YOU KIDDING ME. GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW I NEED YOU.

And then he hits us with this:

And I was like, fine I forgive you.

BUT THEN. Spoilers here for the locked lesson (41-A, not the hard mode):

The locked lesson is of your very first night back. You're in your room at the HoL with Solomon. He tells you he's going to stay the night because the fact that the two of you suddenly appeared in this timeline might make things unstable. And if you're together, it'll be easier to tell if something's going wrong. Sounds like a feeble excuse to me, old man. I know what you really want.

But he also says this:

OH. Here I am like, it's a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand? NOPE. SEVERAL MILLENNIA.

But then the brothers burst in and they're like we are not going to let you stay here alone with MC! So they have a gaming tournament in the common room.

Then when it's really time to go to bed, Lucifer stops you and Solomon before you get back to your room. He straight up kisses you on the forehead and says sweet dreams with a stupid smug grin before leaving and Solomon is like huh. That just happened.

YEAH WELL.

Solomon is back on his, you'll never be mine bullshit. (I'm not blaming him, it's not his fault, but it bothers me how often this narrative comes up because we never get the choice to resolve it. By telling him how much we love him.)

Of course if you tell him to cheer up, though...

Yeah, right after this we got a fade to black because you know he might've been talking about something innocent, like a kiss. But if I'm left to fill in the blank myself... well, let's just say I'm still in my smut mode.

Spoilers for the hard lesson now:

It's silly times with the Little Ds! I'm just glad we got more Dia and Barb content, to be real with you. They're pretty cute with the Little Ds.

Right after Barb says this, looking super aggrieved about it, Diavolo just laughs happily. Classic.

Extra stuff:

After the second story node, you get to see a chat between Raphael and Simeon. Raphael tells Simeon that Michael has summoned him, so he needs to go back to the CR for a few days. Simeon says okay and hopes that everything's all right. Then he tells Raphael to tell Diavolo. Raphael is like why? And Simeon says you're an exchange student from the CR, you have to get his permission to leave. And Raph is basically like okay, fiiiiiine lol.

Also, there is a very brief moment at the end of the last story node where we see Simeon acting odd. He's not really doing anything, he's just sorta grunting... like grh and frowning. If you ask him if he's okay, he says he's fine, he must not have gotten enough sleep. You get a chat between Luke and Simeon where Luke also asks him if he's okay and Simeon gives him the same excuse.

Sooooo what does any of this mean? I have no idea. Is it possible that the hard mode focusing on the Little Ds means there may be more to the Little Ds coming up? Is Simeon acting weird somehow related to Michael wanting to see Raphael? Does any of this Science Fair stuff mean anything or is it just another tactic to have MC spend time with their bro of choice? When is Solomon coming back? Why doesn't he have to enter the Science Fair? Simeon said that Diavolo wanted him and Luke to participate, so what about Solomon? Is he really out there gathering herbs? That feels like a weird thing to be doing at this particular moment.

And perhaps the most telling of all, what it does mean that this version of our characters remember things from the timeline we just left as if it only just happened to them?

All through the last two seasons, I have been trying to figure out why the characters from the past seemingly had memories of a future they haven't experienced yet. And now it's happening again. You could say they remember those past events, but they don't really seem to, do they? And even so, we now have confirmation that it would have been MILLENNIA ago for them. So this feels less like them remembering something that happened and more like they're just getting feelings that are related to the things that MC just experienced in the "past."

Ugh, okay, if I keep going I'm gonna make myself crazy. As always, we have not enough info and more questions than what we started with.

Onto my fave one liners:

Mammon's response to this is "Yikes!" And like... yeah, but damn Lucifer that's one hell of a threat lol.

Barbatos! Don't lump me in with them! :(

That was me in high school.

This part was just cute and wholesome in my opinion. This is the found family content that keeps me coming back to this game.

Anyway, after everything, I still just wanna know...

... where the FUCK is Nightbringer?

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[thebaronsilver]

First of the bat, let me say this as a disclaimer. I love the og Percy Jackson series. Secondly, my fav character is Nico and then the Percy from the og series.

Do you know why I make this distinction? Because, Heroes of Olympus ruined Percy's basic characteristics.

Just think, this is the percy who was bullied in almost every school he attended (except, maybe, Goode). Even, camp half blood,till he came back from the first quest. This is the guy with so strong a sense of loyalty that he was willing to get into trouble with the teachers for Grover when they studied together, was willingly an outcast because he would rather be friends with the one guy everyone picked on and thus be bullied himself. He was pretty excited to have a brother once he got over the whole Cyclops thing, too. This is the same guy who spent all his free time looking for a runaway kid who said he hated him. Maybe it was out of misplaced guilt. Maybe it was due to the fact this guy big brothered everyone he could get away with. (Atleast, I felt like that.)

While we're on that issue. Was Nico right to blame Percy for Bianca's death? Absolutely, not. But he was also a grieving ten year old who just lost his only family (even though she had, in a way, already left him behind. But that's an entirely different rant on the Hunters as an institutions. Bianca was also a child, remember.). And considering that Nico changed his tune once he found the truth out and even helped Percy and the camp willingly afterwards, I like to think he more than made up for that mistake.

There's even a part where Percy refuses to burden Nico with the prophesy and claims it for himself. Considering that till then he was trying not to even think about it, I believe we can easily claim that Nico was in some ways important to Percy. Maybe not in the same way his Mom, Annabeth Or Grover was to him, but still an important person.

Then we have in the last Olympian, Percy using Nico as an example why Children of Hades shouldn't be treated as Pariahs. Because if not for him and the reinforcements his powers brought (not even counting the three whole deities he brought along) the casualties would have been higher. (It was Hades who locked Percy up. He even confirms that Nico hadn't had a clue. Nico in turn broke him out and got himself in trouble. Then in a turn of events, Percy starts to blame Nico for something that wasn't in his control. A reversal of roles so to speak. I had thought that it had been momentary anger on Percy's part, but apparently considering all the references to how Nico betrayed him in the HoO, it wasn't. He'd pushed it aside momentarily, it seems.)

Percy was not to blame for what happened to Nico in the original series. Life isn't fair and it just happened to be extra unfair to Nico. Even then Percy went out of his way to look after the kid, to make sure he had a safe space.

This is the Percy who I liked. The Son of Neptune only emphasised this. Even without his memories, he took Hazel and to a lesser extent Frank under his wings. He actually recognised Nico in a vague way. Not just Annabeth (which is something else I have beef with. What about his mother? Why didn't he remember Sally till a lot later and even then he didn't let her know he was safe till a lot later?)

Then comes the Mark of Athena. He apparently told so many horror stories to the 7 that there was a debate on whether or not they should save a 13 year old demigod, the brother to one of them, from a preventable death. This wasn't like the Titan war were demigods could be the enemy. Then why was there even a debate? It's like all that loyalty disappeared. This is the guy that was once bullied at every school he's attended. Doesn't he know the impact of telling tales when people aren't there to defend themselves? To tell the whole story? Then House of Hades. Every single person in that ship thought that Nico was spooky, creepy whatever and all that poor kid was doing was exist. He made himself scarce, barely spoke unless necessary and even then they were like ew, creepy. It's like Percy's personal loyalty became loyalty to just Annabeth. Fuck whatever happens to anyone else. It upsets me.

The later books ruined Percy as a character. And I will stand by this.

[carlyraejepsans]

I’m wording this ask so terribly sorry.

So you know sans like the back of your hand and can pinpoint inaccurate portrayals of him but is it like that for the other members of the main cast too? Are there any characters you don’t really get in that way?

the funny thing is, as much as people think of me as a sans understander, the other members of the cast being more self-contained and confined to the narrative makes them a lot easier to puzzle out and put into context. undyne, alphys, asgore, toriel and flowey specifically. their roles are so crucial and defined by undertale's story that they almost work like the gears of a well oiled machine. not only are they characters in and of themselves, but with their backgrounds being available to the player and not left to speculation, every aspect of their personality become integral to What Happens In The Story as well.

when you take sans, on the other hand, his character is still so shrouded in lore and mystery that i do NOT doubt i'm also getting a fair bit of him wrong. he's an unknowable motherfucker. i can study his voice, what we know of him, and draw patterns in his behavior all i want, but at the end of the day there's still a good chunk of context to his character that is necessarily left to speculation. of course, we do have a LOT of lore for his character, and what that lore says seems... pretty direct, at least in terms of character goals and personality (he lost some people/somewhere important to him, he tried so hard to go home, he failed. he knows about the anomaly and it basically caused an existential crisis, however his first instinct was still to empathize with it. he takes everything life throws at him in stride because he doesn't believe in a happy ending anymore. he'll hold onto anything that proves him wrong)

you know who doesn't give you anything at all though?

FUCKING. PAPYRUS.

i do NOT get that guy. honest to god. sure, i can analyze his voice all the same, his personality and actions within the story, but papyrus is just as much of a lore mystery as his brother. with papyrus though? we get NOTHING. nada! he has the most lines out of any character and they tell you nothing about him. worse than that, what little info we get about sans' life "before" has almost no repercussions on papyrus whatsoever. homesickness who? scientific background who? knowledge of the anomaly who? sure, he's surprisingly strong and really passionate about puzzle construction. you can read into those aspects, but it's not anything that ties into any of sans' deal. which makes no sense because they're brothers, they got here together! why isn't sans' obvious baggage over his past something that connects them? at this point the only thing that makes sense to me is him being an amnesiac. which ig could tie into the whole "don't forget" motif. idfk man.

but like. that being said i can still more or less track the way he behaves around the other characters, the way he relates to them, his conflicts within undertale's main story etc. that's normal story analysis and pattern recognition. he's just... a bit trickier to puzzle out than the rest of the cast. goddamn him.

[mindblownie2]

I think there's definitely something to Dankovsky not being entirely what you'd expect from a character like him, or not what he maybe would like to appear as - that is, him not really being that cold, calculating, purely "logic"-driven archetype at all; that he is actually so emotional and impulsive. I think it's also interesting how he can actually believe in the supernatural - there's the dialogue option in marble nest letting you say you believe in God, but especially in classic I think that's canonical, he talks about the soul, invokes concepts like providence or fate in ways that don't seem entirely just as figure of speech, he can very quickly turn on a dime and believe in Clara's healing powers or Artemy's traditional medicine or the Polyhedron's magical properties once he sees what he deems sufficient evidence, and he also has that line about "knowing there are things beyond our mundane perception". and you know what, I don't even think that's so contradictory. first of all, there are nowadays and there especially have been in the past, with less secular societies, plenty of scientists who also held some kind of religious beliefs. I think it's to a certain degree reconcilable when it's applied to different spheres of life - some things are relegated to spirituality, but where there are cold hard facts, you follow these; it doesn't inherently make you a hypocrite. also in the game, the thing he takes most umbrage with is not spirituality, but superstition - the kind of unreasonable and dogmatically held beliefs that lead people to, oh I dunno, say, burning innocent women for witchcraft instead of listening to experts? which you know I think is kinda fair actually? like I keep harping on about that but fellas I'd be mad too. anyway my point is, depicting him as a reddit atheist is in my opinion definitely a mischaracterisation.

however I was actually gonna talk about the whole "defeating death" thing because it's so interesting to me, people often point out how fantastical, almost mystical it sounds, and he sometimes strikes that tone - "could death be only a whim of the will that has shaped this world" is a fascinating line to me because it essentially implies that the way to attain immortality is to tell god to fuck off, but then at the same time. he is initially skeptical about Simon's immortality, though interested in the claims of his longevity and extraordinary immunity to disease; he says he wants to study tissue samples from Simon's body, which seems to me like looking for a material, physiological mechanism that could be potentially found in or applied to other people (and eventually, out of desperation or fascination or both, he can get into the Kains' whole soul transference/preservation thing, but it doesn't strike me as what he was really looking for before the game. as my friend always says, if immortality of the soul was all he wanted, he'd become a priest instead of a medical researcher). he says in haruspex route that his lab works on medicine against aging; he also notes iirc that death will never not be a thing completely because people will still be killing each other. there is that thing with the reanimated lady, which always struck me as a little off in some ways, but mainly - at the start of the game, he hasn't succeeded in his goal yet, so whatever happened there, he either was unable to reproduce it, or it wasn't what he was looking for either - I mean, the fact that you can resuscitate a person under certain conditions is a great achievement, but doesn't remove the fact that people die, same as, as he says, "doctors defeat death on singular occasions" - you can manage to rescue a person from injury or disease, but it's only postponing the inevitable, so what if it wasn't inevitable anymore? the goal, I think, is so that people don't just die of old age. and the thing about that is - is that really so irrational? I mean especially if you think about the setting, if you think about the incredible, sheer rapid change of the time period from the industrial revolution to mid-20th century, that pathologic sits somewhere in the middle of, is that not something that would appear to people as both fantastical but also within grasp, as taking the witnessed progress to its furthest conclusion? same as people imagined - and correctly so - that the next step from inventing the airplane was inventing a flying machine that will go to the moon, would they not also imagine, seeing the progresses of medicine and the extending average lifespan, that we will exponentially live longer and longer? like we know it's not that simple, and Daniil's goal is meant to be unrealistic, but I don't think it's "unscientific" in the sense that it's based on magical thinking. people don't really shoot for immortality anymore but longevity research is very much a thing and I think that's just essentially what he was doing.

on the other hand, it's funny to me to imagine that him sometimes framing his work in those less-than scientific terms might've been partly what made him unpopular; I think there's more to it, especially regarding his conflict with the authorities I think it's more about him representing "revolutionary" ideals, but with his peers? even what Isidor mentions in his letter, that Daniil's detractors claimed his theories were not scientifically viable - the accusation not being that he's a heretic or a necromancer or playing god, but that he's being unreasonable; and well, if the "groundbreaking theory of human mortality" that he claims to have formulated is in fact "people die because they just let it happen, don't let god or laws of nature dictate what happens to you", well. I can see that.

[cinnamonest]

Head empty no thoughts just daydreaming about incel scara with groupmate/project member!reader

Imagine them sitting together in a library. They need to be close to share one screen and go over everything while one or the other does some explaining. And scara is just DISGUSTED by her very clearly, very obviously whorish behavior aka her casually jutting her chest, pouting/biting her lips, getting close to him when she needs to lean, when she bends over away from or next to him, he can see her cleavage if he tries hard enough, or see her skirt ride or her lower back getting exposed and if he moves juuuuust a bit closer he can touch her boobs-

Just outright disgraceful and shameless behavior typical of the female 😤 and no, that's not his boner wdym. And reader is just earnestly trying to understand what he's trying to say because he seems so indifferent and almost looks as if dislikes her.

Ahhh it must be because he's annoyed, this isn't her subject after all. In which case, ALTERNATIVELY- consider CS major scara with darling in some non-STEM field passively calling her dumb and insulting her intelligence whenever they come to "study" because: what? She doesn't know how to install Windows? Ha

Only reason she has a decent gpa is because you don't actually need brains or talent for those art "subjects" and they are more suited to females anyway because it's not like they contribute much to society or are very intelligent, unlike him-

I remember my university had these little rooms in their library that were basically tiny study rooms with a couch and chairs, but like no windows, and were advertised as two-way soundproof to help you study and let me tell you. Y’all. People had sex in those. A lot. It happened a lot.

But the thing is they had no tables with desk-type chairs, only like coffee tables and lounge chairs, so if you wanted to work with someone else on something you kinda had to use the sofa which could be very awkward. Anyway

Oh he's absolutely a STEM snob that looks down on humanities majors. They’re for people with no real skills, who lack the ability to do more important stuff… or God forbid, you're a fine arts major of some kind. Very typical girl stuff, they waste money on useless degrees because they insist on having equally useless jobs. You’re probably going to be a future HR person, getting random guys fired for harmless comments and such.

So he always talks to you in such a condescending way, as if the things he’s explaining are so very obvious or simple that it’s a chore to explain it to you. You need to be aware of how intellectually inferior you are.

Also he’s one of those boys for whom “disgusted” is really just turned on, he lacks the ability to distinguish it — like it’s arousing, but it’s irritating that it’s arousing because he can’t do anything about it, so he identifies that feeling as disgust when it’s really just unbearable levels of sexual frustration compounded with bitterness. Ugh.

And as for you, it has to be intentional. You know what you're doing. It's on purpose. You just think it's funny or amusing to torment someone who can't do anything about it. In a fair world, you'd pay for your actions somehow.

And maybe you're even getting good grades in exchange for "favors." That makes sense, it's the only way that explains how you remain enrolled really. Maybe you'll eventually do the same for him, try to get him to do work for you in exchange for something. Not that that would work, he would never ever enable you like that, and definitely has the self-control necessary to reject you.

There’s something so wrong with how things are, that this situation can even arise, that you’re allowed to waste so much money and time on your dumb degree when you have better uses. He’ll probably go home and make some long vent post to some niche corner of the internet about the woes of having to tolerate this situation. Tragic.

[raina-at]

Pride

Omg, you guys, it's the last one! Where did the month go!

A huge, huge thank you to @calaisreno for keeping is going the entire month, and a huge thank you to all of you for reading and writing and gushing and commenting and crying and making this more fun than it had any right to be. I'll miss this!

I did a Pride ficlet last year as a bonus ficlet because I missed two days. I had a lot of ideas for this year's, and maybe I'll post some of them as bonus ficlets through June, but for now, I say goodbye to May with John and Rosie.

--------

"Dad."

"Hmm?"

"Dad!"

John puts down the newspaper. Apparently this is a serious discussion. "Yes, love?"

Rosie throws herself into Sherlock's chair and contorts herself into a pretzel-like shape that can't be comfortable. "I'm...um..." It's apparent she doesn't quite know how to phrase her issue, because she's unnaturally hesitant. Sherlock's influence has made her shockingly blunt, while John's influence has made her shockingly foul-mouthed. Arguing with her is a joy. But now, very untypically, she looks confused and a bit lost.

"Ro, whatever it is, you can tell me," John says, leaning forward, a bit worried now.

"It's..." She sighs, looks down at her hands. "It's a bit personal?"

"Oh my god you're pregnant!" John blurts out, his momentary fear overriding his usually good brain-mouth-filter.

"Dad, what the actual fuck! I'm not fucking pregnant!" Rosie rolls her eyes so hard John wonders if she sprained something. "You know I'm on birth control. You went with me to get my first prescription, for fuck's sake."

"Accidents happen, my dear," John says, gesturing at his lovely daughter, who, light of his life, and joy of his world as she may be, was also very much an unplanned pregnancy.

"Fair enough," Rosie admits, deflating a bit. "Still."

"It wasn't a completely unreasonable assumption. You have a boyfriend, you're twenty, I'm assuming you're having sex."

"Please, dad!" Rosie exclaims, the tips of her ears turning red. "I really don't want to talk about my sex life."

"You think I do?"

Rosie makes a very Sherlock-like  'never mind all that nonsense now' gesture. "Anyway," she says, giving John a glare that tells him to shut up until she's finished. "It's actually kind of about Mark."

John nods, to let her know he's listening, but carefully and deliberately keeps his mouth shut, even as he's thinking, If he hurt you, I'll kill him so fucking dead so quickly he'll never know what hit him.

"It's... you know... he's... well, he's a boy," Rosie finally gets out.

John blinks a few times. Waits a bit. When it's clear Rosie won't be any more forthcoming about the issue, he dares to ask, "And?"

She looks down at her hands, studying them with unwarranted fascination. "I'm..." She sighs. "When did you know you were bisexual?"

John exhales audibly. Now he knows what this is about. In a family of mostly queer people, Rosie seems to have assumed she'd be some kind of queer as well. And if anyone knows how complicated identity can be, especially if it's weighed down by expectation, it's John. "Um. Quite honestly, I'm not sure I am."

Rosie looks up, surprised. "I mean. Mum. And Paps. Um. You know..." she makes a 'please fill in the gaps yourself' gesture.

"Look," John says, leaning forward and taking his daughter's hands. "I personally think labels are vastly overrated. If a word, or a label, or a phrase, helps you to better understand yourself, that's great. Use that label as long as it serves you, and if it doesn't anymore, use another one. As for me, I was raised in an environment where being different was bad. What kind of different you were exactly was completely beside the point. And I saw first-hand how the world treated your aunt, so I thought, best not think about it. I wasn't that attracted to men, it wasn't difficult to ignore. Until I met Paps, and you know how difficult he is to ignore."

Rosie grins. "Oh, yeah. So Paps made you bi?"

"No, you know it doesn't work like that. He made me... " John answers, smiling fondly at the memory. "Well, quite simply, he made me fall in love. He was—still is, of course—the most intriguing, gorgeous, infuriating, exasperating, fascinating person I've ever met, and I fell in love with him so hard, and so fast. But I wasn't ready, and he wasn't ready, and it took us years to get our acts together. And part of that was that we both couldn't accept a fundamental truth: The heart wants what the heart wants. Fighting against it only brings misery and destruction." He squeezes Rosie's hands. "So. Do you love Mark?"

She nods, her eyes shining with the truth of it.

"Is he good to you? Good for you?"

She nods again.

"Then who the fuck cares about anything else?"

Rosie's silent for a bit, apparently mulling over his words, still holding on to his hands. "So," she finally says, looking up from her joint hands with a smile. "You'll love me even if I'm straight?"

"Well, love, I suppose I can overlook this glaring character flaw. Also, you might meet a stunning lesbian when you're forty and she'll rock your entire world and turn everything you thought you knew about yourself upside down. And I want you to remember," he says, leaning in a bit more, looking deeply into her eyes, "I'm fine with everything, as long as you give me some grandkids first."

Rosie laughs and pushes him away. "Fuck off."

John gets up and makes his way to the kitchen. "So, sexual identity crisis over? You want to have some tea now?"

"Of course I want tea. But what you're saying, if I understand you correctly, is not to assume I'm straight just because I fell in love with a man?"

"I'm saying," John says, flicking the kettle on, "is that it doesn't matter, love. Gay, straight, pan, bi, ace, all these labels are useful if they help you understand yourself. But if you feel boxed in by a label, don't use it. Use another one. Use none at all. Let nothing ever keep you from knowing and understanding your own heart. That's the only thing that matters. I might be bi, who knows. The important thing is that I love Sherlock with all my heart, and that I made a commitment to him. Everything else is just noise."

Rosie is quiet for a bit, looking thoughtfully at the fire crackling cherrily in the hearth of 221B. "You're getting soft in your old age, Dad," she finally says, with a grateful smile.

John hands her a mug, drops a kiss on her head. "Love you too, dear," he says, smiling into her hair.

----

Don't forget that I'm collecting these ficlets here on AO3, and don't forget to check out the wonderful collection of May prompt ficlets as well. I know I'm already looking forward to reading all of them again.

Tags under the cut as usual.

@calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @jrow @peanitbear @jolieblack @meetinginsamarra @helloliriels @keirgreeneyes @lisbeth-kk @friday411 @givemesherbet-blog-blog @weeesi @thalialunacy @thegildedbee @dapetty @salmonsown

[burr-ell]

I'll preface this by saying that I don't by any means begrudge anyone their own personal headcanons or interpretations, but I kinda have to get it off my chest that I'm personally not very comfortable with significant deviations from canon character design on CR, and I really tend to side-eye people who have declared their fanart to be "better".

And sure, some of that is because i'm a cranky old bastard. But some of that is that I also have an animation degree and have studied character design. Creators generally give artists a fair amount of input as to how they want their designs to connote the characters' personalities—not just in terms of clothing or hairstyle, but in the overall shape of the silhouettes and body structures. And in the case of CR in particular, that's coming from a place of much closer familiarity with the characters because the creator is actually going to be embodying them for a fairly long period of time, so when the fan response is heavy deviation from that, I think it can feed into some unhealthy fanon perceptions and projections.

Like, for example, it's not so much that I think fanartists are "disrespecting the creators" or whatever when they keep giving Imogen a sweet little round face and big hips/breasts and cute circular glasses, but I've also studied shape language in art. You're communicating something when you design her this way; if a character's silhouette has a lot of circles, visually that connotes being friendly, sweet, and cute. The person who first suggested drawing her with glasses explicitly said they thought it would look cute—and no shade to them! They can like whatever they want!

But canonically, Imogen is a woman in her 20s who's been dealing with unanswered questions, abandonment, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion from trying to hold back and control powers that she never asked for—and who simultaneously uses those powers even when it isn't necessary if she thinks it'll help her achieve a goal or prove a point. She isn't unfriendly, and she wants to do the right thing, but she's also someone who's consciously chosen to keep to herself for most of her life, and yet simultaneously she's quite adept at persuading and deceiving people. I think we're meant to pick up that sense of world-weariness and cynicism from her angular facial features and thin frame. That's...kind of just how character design works.

I think the trend of disregarding the official art and giving her softer features has had an impact on the perception of Imogen as a character. I see a lot of views of her that really remove a lot of her agency, treating her like she's only ever been a victim of circumstance who's never put a foot wrong. Some fans got pushback for pointing out that it really wasn't cool for Imogen to openly contemplate whether or not the Ruby Vanguard might be right in front of three people who were killed by Otohan, insisting that imogen was just dealing with a lot right then. And yes, she was, but that doesn't mean that the way she was dealing with it doesn't say something about her as a character. I don't know if I'd call it coddling, necessarily (even though perhaps there are some very coddling takes I just haven't seen), but there seems to be some resistance, in some circles, to the idea that Imogen isn't a put-upon martyr. And in those same circles, round friendly-looking glasses-wearing Imogen abounds, to the point of editing the official art itself to "fix it".

Truth be told I'd be willing to bet that the rounder cuter Imogen actually came about because of the initial impression of her, given how much fanon at the start of c3 revolved around poor baby Imogen with her scary nightmares needing the wiser, worldlier Laudna to comfort her and kiss it better, but those visuals also proliferated rather quickly and well beyond past the point where that fanon was feasible anymore, and I think both aspects of that fanon ended up informing each other. It's not lost on me that the rounder and cuter-looking Imogen performs the literal function of sanding down her harder edges.

And like I said, I'm not here to be needlessly negative toward what other people want to do. If you want to draw the characters differently to their official art, I don't think either the cast or the artist are especially offended by it. But I personally dislike it, in part because I think some of these trends are a way for fans to claim a certain amount of ownership over the characters, whether they intend it or not. And the ultimate outcome of that is that when creators inevitably assert their ownership over a deeply personal story in a way that fans don't like, the backlash is much stronger than it reasonably should be, which is something I think the CR fandom has seen often enough not to continue doing as often as it does.

[vitanithepure]

Can we talk about Gale again? And Mystra, one last time? Or at least let me vent? I know it seems like I can't shut up about it, but deal with me this one last time?

It's a long one, an fervent one, and possibly the last one on their relationship because there isn't much to tell for me after this. I just want to lay it to rest on my part, it's too emotionally draining, but I wanted to do this.

Spoilers for them ahead.

It was some time ago I did the talk with Mystra and Gale as an origin character and I needed some time to process this and gather my thoughts. Because I was left reeling with how personal it felt for me and I hated seeing that to bo honest, even though I think whoever did write this scene did it... very well. I feel a lot of thought went into it, so even though it does touch a delicate subject it does it as tastefully as possible.

Okay, let's begin with a real banger.

Why? This will forever read as "I gave you a solution, explain yourself why you didn't die when I asked you to." for me. What kind of messed up question is that to ask someone?

But can I say how there is absolutely no wrong anwser to that asinine question? You can roleplay however you wish, but none of them are bad anwsers. Some of them are more heartbreaking then the others, but none are in any way making excuses. There is nothing to excuse and I'm glad whoever wrote this dialogue recognized this.

I chose the "I have someone else to live for" one here, because I felt that Gale, at this point, really found that special someone, be it a friend or lover, to live for. It's gut-wrenching that he needed someone to keep him alive in the first place, but this is what having an abusive ex does to you.

But the other choices here? All of them fair. She absolutely had no right to ask that of him, no matter the crime, that's just a fucked up thing to expect.

Being afraid to die? Valid, this shouldn't be put up to question.

Two last ones? Pure gold. I treat the fourth one as a direct jab at her own teachings, on how all magic needs to be preserved and studied? It's like him saying "Hey, I did what you expected and now your mad?".

The very last one is poetic justice. "I owe you nothing." and if that were me this would be the absolute end of this discussion. Mic drop, I'm out of here.

And okay, I did take he self-pity route with "I let you down." here becuase this is what I believe is closest to how "canon" Gale feels about this. That's the most heartbreaking thing about it, that he believes he was not worth enough before and is even less now and doesn't deserve love, of any kind.

What are the other options? Well, all in character and each seems like a valid way for Gale to feel. But me, the player, who is fortunate to know some meta knowledge? Oh boy.

"I was a danger to you." No you weren't. She is the goddess of magic, one of the most powerful out here. She is magic. All you could do is make her day worse.

"I disobeyed you." Yeah, you did. And she sentenced you to a slow death for it.

"You were threatened." Eh, not really. But what comes after that statement? "You realised you couldn't control me."? Yes, that is the only thing she felt threatened about - loosing control.

"Our relationship bored you. The orb was just an excuse to end it." I mean... maybe? Not enough is known about it but seeing how all reincarnations of Mystra are fickle lovers at best I would say it's a possibility. Even if it is just his ego speaking here - damn, what a way to end a relationship.

She has the audacity to tell him "he only thought of himself". Pot calling the kettle much?

Oooh, but I love what we can say here. The amout of vicious call outs here is superb.

We get to call out how much of a control freak she is. Then we can say how out of place was her punishment. Because I feel like it was a fucking equivalent of throwing a child into a dark cellar for breaking your favorite cup, while all they wanted to do was wash it for you. That is how imbalanced this whole thing is and I'm not taking criticism on that.

We also get to straight up ask what was the lesson if she never let him know what he really did and left him without means to make things right?

Then my favorite. Straight up ask her how many lives was she willing to sacrifice to get rid of the problem?

And last but not least - call her out on her lies. That's what she did. Why? I don't know. Was she afraid? Possibly, because the Karsite Weave + Crown of Karsus combo could potentially threaten her. Potentially, because as we saw in one of the Gale endings, she has no problem with just getting rid of a newly ascended god wielding them. That leads me to believe she is not afraid of loosing power as much as just being rivaled with. The indignity she has to suffer, truly.

Hit a nail on the head here. Who cares about mortals, if they live or die and in how many droves? Competition comes knocking, so all gloves are off. And that is what I believe to be the crux of the matter. Mystra wants to remove the Absolute (because that's the new upstart god breaking the status quo), the orb containing he rival Weave, the Crown which threatens her rule over magic all in one swoop. Oh, and that one guy who tries too hard and refuses to die. No biggie. Who cares, she has a line of followers who would replace her Chosen at any given time.

I'm a salty bitch over the fact we can't keep the Crown of Karsus, but instead of using it - just hide it away again. Stablize Gale's Karsite Weave and keep that thing around, hidden away. Let her sweat over the idea someone else might find it one day and rival her rule.

I know I'm way too emotional about it, but like I said, it's very personal - I been there, done that, and never recovered in full after it. I'll die defending anyone and any pixels who are struggling with their self-worth and trying to get over an emotionally abusive relationships.

"Be the better person, die saving the world and I'll 'forgive' you." Fuck. You.

And a bonus, for those of you who stuck around till the end, because I was totally naming the screens and yelling at my monitor while doing this.

[the-ace-with-spades]

An AU where Jake didn't go to USNA but got a scholarship for football at the same uni Bradley got a scholarship for baseball.

They're both part of NROTC but Bradley is a second-year midshipman and he's one of the very few midshipmen who are not mentoring anyone in the program dunno how nrotc works I'm guessing similar to our military youth programs, bear with me

He's instantly intrigued — Bradley seems to be the most unavailable person in the whole program, never really engaging for after-training outings or parties, never making small talk and never trying to even make connections that would help with networking once they were commissioned.

So Jake kind of observes from afar for the first few months and he realizes Bradley is exactly the same outside of NROTC too.

Despite the lack of engagement, every single instructor and coordinator from the program seems to know him. More so, most of them don't even comment on his lack of extracurricular engagement or mentorship, but even send him off for extra trainings that are typically only awarded for being exceptional.

They live in the same student building but on different floors. Bradley is an RA for his floor and the female-only floor above, something Jake only discovers when his own RA is kicked out and his heating problem is delegated to Bradley.

Bradley is also a TA (which is very unusual for a sophomore) for one of the physics professors — Jake is studying mechanical engineering and Bradley is doing aerospace engineering and he sometimes sees Bradley assisting, even if it's mostly for different majors.

Jake's fascination grows even more because he doesn't get it — Bradley is unavailable to anyone but he's also so nice. Most of the students in the dorm he's coordinating like him, which is not really something that happens with RAs, he's respected both by the midshipmen and their instructors and seniors, many of which keep on friendly jabs with him or extend invitations to outings despite Bradley's repeated refusals. He is incredibly nice to the actual few students who come for help from him as a TA, from what Jake heard, and he's got a good few girls crushing on him, some of which are pretty popular in the uni circles.

Despite that, he doesn't seem to have any friends. Jake doesn't see him at parties, or going outs, or study groups, or even of some midshipmen-organized extra trainings. It's like he's keeping everyone at arm's length.

Finally, he has an occasion to start something with Bradley when he goes downstairs to the mail room. Technically sorting the mail and putting it in the right boxes outside of the mail room is the porter's room but the porter seems to be there maybe four hours a week so usually they just break into the room and look for their own shit in the mess.

He goes downstairs and Bradley is sitting on the floor with a list of the students in the building and a stamp with red RETURN TO SENDER, sorting through piles and piles of mail.

"I didn't think it was part of your job."

"It's not," Bradley answers. "Someone has to do it, might as well be me. Seresin, right?"

Jake doesn't squeal but oh god, Bradley knows his name. "Yeah."

"Your parcel is in the ready pile," he says, pointing his thumb parcels near the door.

"You want some help?"

"You've got nothing better to do on a Friday night?"

He could've asked the same question. "I have three assignments I need to procrastinate on."

Bradley gives him a long look but finally says, "Fair enough."

They stay in silence and Jake doesn't know how to start a conversation. Bradley seems focused and aloof and just, once again, so unavailable.

The opportunity arises when he is going over the stack of parcels in the corner of the mail room.

"Your name is Bradshaw, right?"

"Yeah."

"Those are for you."

"They're not."

"I mean, there's no room number but it does say Bradley Bradshaw."

Bradley is quiet for a minute but gets up from where he's been sitting on the floor and slowly walks to stand next to where the boxes are stacked on itself.

Without hesitation, he stamps both of them with RETURN TO SENDER.

"You aren't even going to check what's inside?"

He gets quiet again, looking at the stamp on top of the parcel far longer than needed, before he says, "I don't have any family left, whoever sent it isn't anyone I'd like to get anything from."

Jake bites down apologies — Bradley doesn't seem to be the type to need pity.

"It can't be returned to the post," Jake points out. "No return address."

Bradley sighs and takes out a pen from his pocket, leaning over the boxes.

He doesn't mean to snoop but he catches Bradley writing P.Mitchell & T.Kazansky in the addressee line and San Diego a couple lines lower. So obviously Bradley knew who it was from.

Some things change after that evening — Bradley answers his hi when they see each other at training or waves back when Jake sees him in the lecture hall or brings his mail straight to Jake's room and chats with him for a few minutes at his door.

But most things don't change — he still refuses to join any going outs, even if it's Jake asking him, still doesn't talk much to anyone, still refuses simple invitations to grab lunch together in the cafeteria or go to a movie later that week. Still seems to be using a Don't have time or If you don't need me, I'm going as frequent excuses. Still seems to be entirely unavailable to anyone who wants to catch him outside of his strictly obligatory settings.

He's talking about this with his mom, using the phone booth outside of their dorms, because he's never had trouble making friends with anyone (even if he admits he could make more than friends, with Bradley, eventually, maybe, wishful thinking aside) and his mom tells him, "He sounds really busy, baby, he probably doesn't have time for friends."

"How can you have no time for friends? It's college."

"Jakey, he isn't like you, he doesn't have any support from his family, he's probably struggling to stay afloat with the scholarships requirements and the college job and studying and military training on top of it."

"So what? There's no way to—be friends with him?"

"I think you'll have to fit into the free time in his schedule, baby. because that's the only kind he has."

It takes some time but he does realize that Bradley's time is truly limited. His days are packed tight, on top of what Jake already knew — the TA job, the RA job, the baseball scholarship and the NROTC training — he also works in the local garage one day a week. He literally has a few hours he can actually spend with someone during the day and Jake slowly tries to use them up.

Brings him coffee for the early morning walk-in tutoring he hosts at college, eats lunch with him when they have a training break, even as Bradley does his assigned reading and only half-pays attention to him, comes downstairs to the mail room every evening Bradley sorts through it, brings him cupcakes from the cafeteria on the lunch break between lectures, even though Bradley spends it alone in the professor's office, making lesson plans or marking papers. Visits him in the garage he works at and keeps on constant chatter as Bradley gets covered in black oil and stinks like fuel.

Slowly, he can see Bradley smiling when he sees Jake. Can see Bradley sharing his homemade divine lasagna and chicken soup made from scratch with Jake. Can see Bradley joining him in the gym, not just staying on the outside of the group. Can see Bradley chatting back as he continues to do what he's doing, no longer just letting Jake run his mouth.

There's a bit of a hiccup when Jake offers Bradley to join him on Christmas break in Texas — tells him they can drive if Bradley doesn't want to pay for plane tickets they can make a road trip of the thing and all. Only another call to his mom makes him aware that Bradley probably can't afford either and, as his mom doesn't hold back and points out Bradley won't react well if he offers to pay for it.

So instead, Jake stays for most of the Christmas break in the halls. Apparently, Bradley is organizing a small Chrismas dinner for anyone from the halls who is staying over (a total of seven people), so things get a bit busy — the spare time Bradley has is, well, spare. When he finally has the time, he is working in the garage or finishing his assignments — Jake sometimes forgets, with all the things Bradley does to stay afloat, that he's actually still a student — so he mostly trails behind him and chatters when he thinks it won't annoy Bradley too much.

Bradley offers to drive him to the airport. It's the first time he's offered to take a good chunk of his time and make it free by rescheduling things, just for Jake.

He even parks at the airport and walks him all the way to the security check line, not just leaves Jake in the drop-and-go area.

Jake gives him a small Christmas gift — a key chain with A4 Skyhawk he bought when he visited the aviation museum in Horsham with some of the other midshipmen. They both want to go into the aviation pipeline once graduated so it seems like something Bradley could like, even if it's a bit silly.

He wasn't sure, if Bradley would actually take it — he's been reluctant to take many things, every single lunch or coffee Jake got him had to be either repaid or covered by Bradley the next day.

But Bradley hugs him. Puts the key chain on his car keys ring.

When Jake comes back, he's expecting progress because, you know, Bradley's been warming up to him. Instead, Bradley seems to be dead on his feet, getting annoyed quicker than usually, going as far as telling Jake to 'keep quiet for a goddamn minute'. It all kind of becomes clear when he is car pooling with the guys for the NORTC training and sees Bradley, honest to god jogging the three miles from the halls to the training site, military backpack with his uniform and gear towering over his shoulder — it's five in the morning.

"You doing a new training regime or something? Running everywhere instead of driving like a normal human being?"

He doesn't look at Jake as he says, "The Bronco broke down."

"I mean, that car is older than you," Jake points out, trying to tiptoe around the issue and get Bradley to admit what the exact problem is — he never does, if you ask directly, Jake knows by now. It's like asking for help isn't in his nature.

"It's not safe to drive," he explains. "I can't brake in time anymore, the brakes are about to give out completely."

"Can't you fix it?"

"I need a new drum brake master cylinder," he says. When Jake stares at him, he adds, "It's gonna cost around two hundred bucks, which I don't have."

"I could lend you the money," he offers.

"I don't want your money," Bradley says, just like he thought he'd — taking any offered help from anyone isn't in his nature either.

So Jake tries to work around it — asks his dad and his uncles if there's anyone they know who could maybe give him the right master cylinder for free or at a very discounted price. When they finally find a guy who has a collection of spare parts for the early Broncos but no Broncos anymore and is willing to send the cylinder as long as someone pays for the postage, he writes down his number and promises his friend Bradley is going to call soon about that.

And thank the fucking god, Bradley accepts this kind of backhanded help.

Bradley fixes the Bronco on the hall's parking lot. He jogs from the garage with a borrowed jack lift strapped to his back, pops the car on it and the other one he already has in the trunk so the wheels are up, pops the tires off and pops the front mask up and gets his white tank and plaid shirt covered in grime. It's already dark by the time he takes the jacks away and sits behind the wheel.

Jake's spent the whole time uselessly chattering to him as he always does — he has absolutely no idea about cars — but he lets himself be waved into the passenger seat.

Bradley drives out of the parking lot, down the empty road to the campus and brakes so hard Jake has to hold himself up against the dashboard.

"Better than new," Bradley says and Jake's never seen him grinding as widely and as honestly as he is now.

He is sweaty and covered in oil and stinking a bit, but his curls are flopping on his forehead and the ratty mustache he's been growing lately is out of order and he's looking at Jake with those big brown cow eyes — he just can't not kiss him.

So he leans over the console and kisses the smile on his face.

The leap of faith pays of because Bradley keeps on kissing him — he pulls the hand brake on and lets both his hands settle on Jake's waist and things continue until Jake is being guided onto the backseat over the console and being kisses again and again, and Bradley's hands go lower and lower.

They get each other off and then go back to the halls. They don't talk about it but now any time they're alone — in the lecture hall, in the mail room, in Jake's or Bradley's room — he can just lean in and kiss him as much as he wants to and still get the brightest of smiles as a reward.

They're back in the mail room and maybe Jake's just spent twenty minutes trying to crawl up Bradley's lap (to no avail) when he notices — Bradley got another package, this time PLEASE AT LEAST LOOK THROUGH THE THINGS BEFORE SENDING IT BACK written in bold marker on top.

Bradley curtly tells him to just stamp it with RETURN TO SENDER. But he can't help himself — he gets his keys out and cuts through the tape on top, opening the giant box.

"Jake—"

He takes out the first thing that's on top of the pile inside — a stuffed goose the size of over half of Jake's torso. It's a bit grayed up and smells like dust but it's also so cute.

"That yours?"

Bradley gets up from where he's sitting so quick — a second and he's next to Jake, taking the plushie out of his hands. "Ducky—"

"Ducky? That's a goose, isn't it?"

Bradley is honest to god red in the face but doesn't let go of the goose, bringing it closer to his chest and it's freaking adorable. "I was two, I couldn't tell the difference."

"So," Jake says, feeling like he's defusing a bomb. "You still wanna send it back?"

"I—I don't know."

"Maybe—Maybe I could help with that," he offers. "If I know the details, or at least some of them."

It takes him a minute but when Bradley finally starts talking, everything just spills out of him. He tells Jake about his dad, and about his mom, and then about his other dad and pops. He doesn't get too into details but they come around back to his last year in high school and how his dad pilled his papers and they haven't talked since Bradley found out and left the house with a bag and his car and nothing else.

Jake says, "That's just stupid."

The second it leaves his mouth, he knows he's said the wrong thing even if it was honest — he can see in real-time as Bradley rolls back into himself, closing off in less than a minute and suddenly there's so much distance between them.

He angrily writes down the same P.Mitchell & T.Kazansky and San Diego address on top and chucks the goose plushie back inside.

"I guess I'm stupid then," he says quietly and a blink and he's out of the mail room. He's not answering when Jake knocks on his room door.

Jake doesn't have the heart to actually let that package go back to P.Mitchell & T.Kazansky, or Bradley's dad and pops. So he brings it into his room upstairs.

He doesn't mean to go over the things inside, not too much, but he thought he could at least grab the goose — Ducky — and give it a wash. When he reaches inside, there's a goddamn plushie of a Spitfire in there, its tag saying RAF Museum, London, and Jake can't help looking for more.

There are photos and polaroids, three people commonly on all of them with a baby Bradley. Old Hawaiian shirts, a leather jacket, knots of seashell jewelry, a few rolled-up posters, a whole notebook with handwritten recipes, birthday cards.

He doesn't look any further but instead takes the return address from the box and writes up a postcard to P.Mitchell & T. Kazansky saying he'll force Bradley to keep it all.

Problem is, Bradley isn't talking to him, no matter how hard he tries. He thought he'd be like that for a few weeks at the most and then forget but he's worse than he was before he and Jake met in the mail room for the first time — doesn't even say a word to him when Jake tries to start a conversation, he's gone so far as to change his complicated schedule completely so Jake can't see him outside of NROTC and his TA role.

He calls his mom again.

"Jakey, honey," his mom says, with a tone that suggests he's an idiot. "That boy bared his soul to you and you said his feelings were stupid."

[cinnamontoastcrunch-15]

Today's @wolfstarmicrofic prompt is bleed, and it's part 2 of the microfic I wrote yesterday!

Part 1 here

I also have a slight issue, which is that this part is 1,291 words. It definitely isn't a microfic anymore, so no need for a reblog :)

Remus is finding it much harder to be around Sirius.

It's awful of him, and he knows that. None of this is Sirius' fault. In fact, he doesn't even know what has happened, which is another thing Remus is minorly regretting. Sam hasn't come back to the hospital wing, which is confusing the hell out of Sirius.

Still, in a few days, he's free, and he can go find Sam himself. Remus sees him do so.

They're all sitting on the field, Remus trying his best to study while Peter manages to beat Sirius and James in chess at the same bloody time. Sirius, surprisingly unbothered by the loss, glances up from the board. His smile dies immediately, and Remus frowns, confused.

"Two seconds, guys," Sirius says, pushing himself up off the grass and walking away.

Remus turns, wordlessly following Sirius' path-

Straight over to Sam.

Shit, this is going to be a trainwreck, and it's all Remus' fucking fault. That little acknowledgement means Remus can't take his eyes off the scene, and he can see Peter turn his own attention to it. None of them can hear the altercation, but Sam's friends look like they're chiming in at times, until Sam turns around and they all lapse into silence. He turns back to Sirius, and it's clear as fucking day that Sam's temper is rising.

Eventually, he throws a gesture towards Remus as he speaks, and Remus catches Sirius' hand tighten around his wand.

Yeah, he can't let that happen.

Without giving it a second thought, he heads over to the two of them. The moment he gets close enough, he grabs Sirius' arm, keeping him from lifting his wand.

"Oh, right on bloody cue," Sam huffs, frustrated. "I'm surprised he didn't trip over his own fucking feet to tell you what happened-"

"Don't fucking talk about him like that!" Sirius says, and Remus is really working to keep him from doing something he'll regret. Remus honestly couldn't care less about what Sam thinks of him.

"Sirius, don't worry about him. It's fine," He says carefully and, thankfully, Sirius seems inclined to listen. As he turns to walk away with Remus, Sam decides it's a smart idea to speak up again.

"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend, you clingy little twat."

"Okay, no, it's not fine," He says decisively, turning and swinging his fist before he has a chance to think about it.

As it turns out, punching someone hurts.

His fist collides with Sam's face before anyone has a chance to register what's happening. Pain shoots through his hand, but not as much as is clearly hitting Sam, who staggers backward, hand flying to his cheek. To be fair, Remus could have hit him in the eye or even the nose, and he didn't. If anything, he's been nice.

Sam clearly doesn't think that.

"You're fine. It's not like it's going to bleed or anything," Remus says plainly, before Sirius has grabbed his hand and is practically dragging him away.

They get into the castle, and Sirius immediately pulls a tapestry back, taking the two of them into one of the many, many secret passageways they hide in during pranks. The curtain falls, and Sirius launches into a tangent immediately.

"Remus John Lupin, you are the most confusing person on the face of the fucking earth!" He exclaims, really throwing Remus.

"Uh... sorry?"

"I know things have been weird, and I know I've had a big, big fucking part in that. I've been trying to move on, with Sam and all that. Then I say your bloody name, and you go out of your way to avoid me! That all makes some kind of sense, I get that. Still think you should have told me yourself if it made you that uncomfortable, but whatever. Now you're punching people because they insult me?! What the ever loving fuck is going on with you? I want the truth, Remus."

The moment everything is laid out in front of him, he realises just how it looks. Christ, he's really cocked everything up, hasn't he? Still, Sirius is looking at him in that way of his that Remus just can't say no to. It's the look that makes him fall into Sirius' eyes and want to tell him everything.

Yeah, there's no getting out of this, is there? Sirius can read him like a fucking book, he can't exactly lie his way out of it.

"Okay, er... I- I wasn't uncomfortable about the whole... saying my name thing. I'm just..." Merlin, this is difficult. He shuts his eyes and forces himself to take a breath. He can do this. Their friendship has survived worse. "I'm still in love with you." The moment the words are out, everything seems to get a little easier to say. He glances down at his hands, fidgeting with his fingers as he weighs his next words carefully. "I don't think I ever stopped. It's what made fifth year so difficult, really. That I just- I think it's impossible to fall out of love with you. I just don't want to rock the boat, or anything. Not when we've just become friends again. So I've just been trying to deal with it on my own. This just made it a little more difficult to hide. Then Sam got all pissy, and I just- Christ, Sirius, he turned on you so fucking quickly, I just couldn't- I couldn't handle it."

When he finally risks glancing up, Sirius is staring at him, shock clearly overwhelming him. He seems lost for words, and Remus has no clue if that's a good or a bag sign. His eyes dart across Remus' face, searching and, after an agonising few seconds, Sirius reaches out and pulls Remus into a hug. It's so sudden, so startling, that it knocks all of the air out of him.

Sirius isn't done, though.

He pulls away, both of his hands make their way to cradle Remus' face, and then they're kissing. Remus really isn't sure if he's the one who leaned in or if it was Sirius, but he's not fucking complaining. As it turns out, you can really miss somebody's lips. Kissing Sirius again reminds him of every time he has attempted to map out the complete and utter perfection that is Sirius Black's mouth. He, almost involuntarily, wraps an arm around Sirius' waist, his other hand sliding into Sirius' hair. It's like his heart is careening towards Sirius, seeking out Sirius' own, all while beating an endless pattern of Oh, my love, there you are, here you are, why have you been gone for so long?

Unfortunately, breathing exists, and the two of them have to pull away to keep from suffocating. Honestly, though, that would be a heavenly way to die. To replace the kiss that is still lingering on his lips, Remus opts for pressing their foreheads together.

"I love you. So fucking much," Sirius breathes. A smile is already making it onto Remus' face, as he reaches down and grabs one of Sirius' hands, squeezing it gently.

"Oh." It's the only thing that his brain can functionally come out with right now, but it draws a chuckle from Sirius.

"We're idiots, Moony." It's Remus' turn to laugh at that, seeking out Sirius' lips briefly, capturing them in a short, soft kiss.

"Yeah, we really are," he agrees, lifting a hand to cup Sirius' cheek, brushing his thumb across the warmth of the other boy's blush.

"Ah, well. We got there in the end, didn't we?"

They did. They actually bloody did it. They found each other again.

For the first time in a year, Remus feels as though there's a weight off his shoulders.

[ooffmlsorry]

Law's Petname

A/N: Idk what this is...it's like half essay half story??? Once again bear with me lol

It took me forever to come up with a petname for Law whenever I write him. I think he'd be fine with babe and hon, maybe sweetheart, but the idea that his s/o wouldn't have a silly petname for him that's a little embarrassing doesn't seem right to me.

Because let's be honest as serious as Law is, I can't imagine he isn't (probably unconsciously) attracted to people that are goofy and silly. I mean, look at his crew and his friendship with Luffy (despite how he protests), and it probably goes back to Cora. A really goofy person who really, really cared about him and loved him. And even more so it could go back to his family. I may not be caught up on One Piece, but he sister was the one trying to drag him to a fair(? Parade?) to have some fun when he was trying to study.

His s/o trying to get him to have fun and tease him a little is basically a form of saying "I love you" to him. Whether they succeed or not in getting him to take chill pill and laugh doesn't matter, but I think the effort means a lot.

All this is to say as much as he would probably pretend to hate having a ridiculous mushy petname, he'd probably love it. So of course he would have one and then it came to me.

Buttercup

Mostly because of his hair. This feels cringe, but cringe is dead (mostly) and I'm trying to make a point.

LOOK AT HIS HAIR AND THEN LOOK AT HERS

Am I crazy? Looks a little like Buttercup. Hence the nickname.

I just imagine Law, not wearing his hat, half awake shuffling into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. His eyes are barely open he's so sleepy because he was up all night. He doesn't even realize you're there into you say

Buttercup Because his hair reminds you of a cartoon you used to watch as a child.

And he kind of hums gruffly not even processing what you said, just that his beloved spoke. And then it kind of...sticks. It's the first petname outside of babe that feels right when you say it.

The first time he registers that you've called him Buttercup, he blushes so hard. Out of the kindness of your heart respect for him you don't try it out until the two of you are alone. "Having a sleepover" as you call it, but you just sleep in Law's bed most nights these days so it's not really worth calling "a sleepover" if it's the norm. Resting your head on Law's chest and lazily tracing his tattoos you say, "you're so cozy, Buttercup." When you feel him tense you look up at him and his face is so red. He ducks his head in an attempt to hide his face, but there's no use.

So you say it again. "Like your new name? You're my Buttercup."

It takes him a moment to compose himself and ask where you got that from and explain that his hair reminds you of character named Buttercup from a show you watched when you were little.

And of course he's gonna act like he hates it when people are around, but he never once tells you to stop.

[olderthannetfic]

I do think the disclaimers from authors about NOT ENDORSING!!!! certain behaviors in fics is pretty funny, but I’ll admit I do it too. Oddly I only put warnings for abuse of the self, not the abuse of others. I write a fair bit of fic that “romanticizes” (or seems like it does) suicide/self harm/eating disorders to the point where it can almost be a tutorial of how to do it if I’m graphic enough. So in those I normally just add dead dove tags and put a disclaimer about how the trigger warning is no joke and you shouldn’t do the things that the characters do in the fic. It’s not like a Lifetime Movie end credits where the authors note is filled with hotlines and stuff, just a quick little note that, hey, yeah, if you’re considering this, don’t do it.

Oddly, I don’t think that behavior comes from fandom itself but rather from a completely different corner of the internet — when I struggled with the same stuff that I write about, it was pretty common for everyone’s bio to say that they “don’t promote” or they’re “not pro” and I guess old habits die hard. (Whether or not certain types of depression/SH/ana blogs etc really DONT promote or those words are just a please-don’t-ban-me card is a completely different discussion.)

It’s pretty ironic actually because when I’m on the other side of things (as the reader), reading about it is really cathartic in fic, but triggering (not in a fun way) in “real” books. Like there’s several books I had to DNF or shelf because it got to be too much, but oddly enough fic actually helps me a lot.

WOW that was all way heavier than I intended to get when I first started typing this ask! But yeah, that’s my own personal relationship to “I do not endorse” and I didn’t realize how odd it actually is until I started reading some of these other asks! I don’t think any type of “this is bad, actually” authors note is ever necessary honestly, but I also don’t think they’re that big of a deal — if a note from the writer about how they’re ~totally against the “bad” thing they’re writing about~ really takes you out of the fic that much, I don’t understand that either…it’d be one thing if they rambled on and on but even then I don’t think it’s that big of a deal 🤣 Annoying maybe but no one is required to read the AN.

My general threshold is “would a movie/podcast/real™️ book have a similar Viewer Discretion Adviced notice? If so, your A/N is likely fine and not virtual signal-ly or OTT at all.”

--

Heh. I think you're assuming a very different type of PSA from what other people are.

From what I've read, self-harm, suicide, and disordered eating are some of the topics that are a bit Monkey See, Monkey Do. Even support group discussions may increase the desire to cut, for example. It's still not 1:1, and we should be able to make art about serious topics, but a PSA doesn't feel totally absurd here. There are plenty of scientific studies showing measurable increases in people hurting themselves IRL after consuming certain material. Even if you did include a hotline, most people's objection is like "That number isn't valid for where I live", not "No one should ever do this".

I think if you polled people, you'd find that many of the PSA-haters are actually totally fine with "Hey, this fic contains serious depictions of mental illness. Make sure you're up for that today." and similar warnings.

But what people are actually talking about in 99% of "PSAs suck" discussions is rape fantasies.

Some clown writes a fic that is blatant fap material for people who like bodice ripper ravishment, and then they plaster it with "Rape Fantasies Bad" commentary that shows that they're judging themselves and their readers in a puritanical way that's a mega-buzzkill, completely out of keeping with the tone of the fic, and completely out of keeping with the actual scientific evidence.

Rape fantasies are commonplace and not a big deal, and to the extent that any depictions are demonstrably harmful, it's things like mainstream Hollywood movies reinforcing very standard cultural narratives, not somebody's sex pollen fic that's probably full of "It's so wrong, so why is it so hot???" anyway.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Bleden Mark from the video game Tyranny

the basic concept of the setting is "after the evil overlord has already won" and there are a lot of themes about power and perception. (and legal loopholes.)

the evil overlord is Kyros and Bleden Mark is one of her Archons, specifically the Archon of Shadow. each archon has their own portfolio of unique and extremely powerful magic. everyone else can only do magic by studying archons and using sigils to call on their power.

an archon's power is based on two parts. first of all, you have to be born with some kind of potential. no one knows how it works, but some people can become archons and most people just can't. but it's also based on other people's belief in them.

the more powerful an archon becomes, the more people know about them and have thoughts about them and what they can do, which reflects back on the archon and changes their powers. then people see and hear about those powers, and that reinforces their belief. the more powerful an archon becomes, the more vulnerable they become to belief, and it changes not only their powers but their personalities, their appearances, it molds them into becoming whatever idol that people make of them.

that's how things actually work, but it's not common knowledge. instead, the story is that Kyros (who is really just a particularly powerful archon who got in the business of making everyone believe she's all-powerful and thus is pretty close) is simply a living god, and the archons have their power because Kyros made them archons. this works because she quickly recruits every archon that pops up. or, she has Bleden Mark assassinate them.

Bleden Mark is one of the oldest Archons still around (so centuries old, they can live indefinitely it seems like). he was a soldier who tried to assassinate Kyros, failed, and then began working for her as assassin and executioner.

he's never presented this way in the game, but you are told that for a long time even all of the other archons saw him as a bloodthirsty mad dog who had to be held tightly in check by Tunon, the Archon of Justice, who Kyros placed in charge of him. he was thought of like he barely had a mind and didn't care about anything but the chance to kill as many people as he could, for whatever reasons were available.

in the "present time" of the game, Bleden Mark is still officially part of Tunon's Court and works under him, but is largely independent. he and Tunon seem to have a lot of respect for each other. Tunon (despite his compromised moral position as part of an evil overlord's empire) genuinely cares about law and justice, and he ended up being fair to Bleden Mark (against what I think were Kyros' wishes), saw that he was a person and treated him that way.

the player is also a member of Tunon's court. Bleden Mark taught you a survival course as part of your training, and has a mentor sort of relationship with you.

Because Of Plot, he unfortunately ends up trying to kill you in the majority of cases. but he gives you friendly warnings, doesn't seem particularly sadistic or bloodthirsty about it. he has a sense of humor, approves when you call him an old man, and is one of the more human and normal seeming of the archons. he's much more personable than Tunon (the other archon who has been around a long time, in comparison to the other archons you meet).

And it is so interesting to me that that is true, considering A, how much belief shapes archons (as shown dramatically with other characters in the game), and B, how extreme people's fear of and beliefs about Bleden Mark is / have been in the past.

You get a different view as a member of the Court, but to most people he's just death in the shadows for anyone with disloyalty to Kyros. there's so much fear of him. and it really seems like Kyros deliberately set up this narrative, made even the other archons believe it at first, in order to shape him into a weapon that she could just point at people, by using belief to turn him into a mindless killer.

But it didn't work.

the only path where you don't have to fight Bleden Mark, is the one where you burn your bridges with both of the factions under Kyros that you're supposed to choose between. then Bleden Mark (who Because Of Plot and reading between the lines, i'm pretty sure has orders at this point that you're not supposed to survive) shows up and goes hey, kid. that was wildly unpolitical of you. anyway let's kill everybody else and rebel against Kyros.

Hot Chocolate: I personally have never heard of this game, and I feel ashamed in saying that, because I'm the videogame boy 😅. That being said, your description and detail of the events in the game made me super interested in this game! I've consumed a few stories where God-like beings and their relationship with regular people are symbiotic- My favorites being: Noragami and You Give Me Heart episode of 'Kizazi Moto'. So this sounds right up my alley, so to find out this game Tyranny is an RPG?? I might just have to try it out. Thank you for the recommendation/submission 💪🏾

[revvethasmythh]

Looks like Sam/FCG is getting on peoples nerves (fandom wise) the last few episodes. Saw someone say that FCG was hypocritical, and putting others in danger, relying on the changebringer too much. Someone was also annoyed with the FCG’s insistence on going to Imogen’s hometown when she clearly didn’t want to. It seems like I only see criticism and hatred to FCG and not to Imogen or Laudna or any other character when their being annoying or assholes.

You know, anon, fantastic timing on sending this because I've been debating whether I wanted to write something about this exact topic for a little over a week. Because, at least imo, I agree that I've seen quite a bit of...disgruntlement? anger? mean-spiritedness? over FCG's more (intentionally! it's part of the bit! and, like, his character development!) annoying traits, most recently his turn to blind faith with the Changebringer coin, but it's certainly something I've seen pop up other times in general. And I think it's interesting that FCG seems to exists within the confines of a sort of....conditional tolerance by a lot of people? And that condition seems be to whether he's supporting their favorite character (or, god forbid I talk about this, favorite ships) in a way that they like to see. It's like, as along as he's supporting who the viewers want him to be supporting in a way they see fit, he's fine. Hell, you even get the "fcg/sam riegel supremacy" comments sometimes if they do something the viewer particularly approves of. But the second FCG deviates from that and does something solely to further their own story, or even just, well, doesn't cast guidance on Imogen, it's like we're backtracking to this really strong point of negativity regarding them that really just seems to culminate in the idea that their behavior is plain on old annoying and could they stop, please?

It's an interesting dichotomy. And, like, this isn't really about whether people actually like or dislike FCG as a character (a person's opinions about him as a character is actually not the point here!), it's the fluctuation of the opinion that stands out to me. The loud approval if he does something the audience deems as "good" and the loud dismissal if he does something the audience deems as "bad" or "annoying." Hence "conditional tolerance" is sort of the phrase I've landed on to describe the phenomena. This is something I think has shown up in shades with other Sam Riegel PCs as well, though to be fair I wasn't active in the fandom pre-90s in the M9 campaign. But I feel like something similar did happen with Veth in parts of the M9, as memory serves. I feel like it has to have something to do with people's inability to look past the "bit" and see the deeper character work that seeded into those bits. If the audience member is assessing the character's actions as nothing more than a silly bit that's getting in the way, perhaps they become quite aggravated by it? (Also, I'm not going to get into the specifics of how people's christian-centric view of religion is absolutely affecting the way they're responding to the "blind faith" thing, but. You know). Like, there is something to be said here about people not wanting to actually delve deeply into the character work happening in Sam's PCs, I'm sure. It's a...unique way of engaging with his characters that is simultaneously so annoying to me as fan of Sam's PCs and also, like, weirdly fascinating as someone who did reception studies in grad school? Like, it is genuinely a unique, if irritating, aspect of the fandom discourse.

[dootznbootz]

Aspec Penelope and Odysseus mean a lot to me and I want to ramble about it as it makes me really happy 🥺

If you don't like, don't read! Someone being aspec or sex-repulsed or sex-neutral is not insulting allos or people who are sexually active!!! And even then, some aspecs ARE sexually active just like these two end up being! This is all headcanon and any aphobes will be yeeted into the wine-dark sea. (semi-inspired by epic the musical but also...not.)

Aspec Odypen!

Both are aspec, demisexual specifically and are just like that. While they ARE Athena's pets, she didn't "make them ace". (It may have influenced why she's fascinated by them alongside their cleverness)

Both have situations that make it somewhat different in how they experience it though. I'll have what they both experience first. (Kind of just explaining what it feels like being aspec in a way, except they're shittier about it) Then Penelope as her's needs less explanation. For once in my life, Penelope isn't the one with the most stuff on her 😭

"Oh that person's very strong! Impressive! Oh, wait, is this supposed to be sexual? ...hm...Alright, I guess."

"Alright, I posed this way and looked at them like this and they seemed more open to this idea. Taking note for manipulation..."

"Goddamnit, I don't want you, I want all that silver 😩"

*sees what takes place during certain events (Symposium-esque event)* "...Yeah, I'm not doing that."

Both are pretty in their own way and use that to their advantage to get the things they want. Both get almost weirdly offended when outwardly flirted with and/or propositioned. Kind of sex repulsed (that changes when with each other but before they never really even think about it as..."What is everyone talking about? What do you mean "needs"?")

Friends? Absolutely!!! Not knowing someone but getting to know them eventually? Yeah! But the idea of only wanting to date or have sex because of appearances genuinely perplexes them both. Also, they weirdly test people and are just straight up weird and picky.

"How stupid and naive can you be to wish to court someone you know so little about? A stranger? I look pretty only to get what I want and that's not you... Yeah, we definitely won't work out. I'm going to rob you to teach you a lesson in how looks can be deceiving. I'm pretty but I'm also shitty."

"...You want to do what?! ...uh, okay... You know, what? >:) I know a place. Yeah, us naiads use it. Yep, just around here. Yes! The water is perfectly safe! Don't worry about the leeches! They're harmless! Completely normal leeches" *Steals their clothes and jewelry and leaves them to the very not-normal leeches.* What? It's not like they died!!! They shouldn't have been so stupid to trust me knowing nothing about me!"

Both also have hubris as their flaw so they also have a very shitty superiority complex about this. Fellow aspecs, don't do this!!! It's not nice!!! These two are both mean and nice and this is one of the ways they're mean. Very "While you were out doing whatever, I studied the blade" bullshit. Also, a "Me being unaffected by beauty makes me better at manipulating. Look at how stupid they get when I look all pretty, Athena. I absolutely made them believe that that was a fair deal!!!" Athena kind of encourages this behavior

Meeting each other is a very humbling experience for them both. They both actually learn that there's nothing wrong with being vulnerable with people, just because THEY'RE likely to mess with you doesn't mean EVERYONE is.

Onto Penelope Specifics

For one thing, Penelope is used to people immediately going nuts over Helen and she doesn't mind having less of the attention. As mentioned before, doesn't happen often but when people wish to possibly date, she tests, then sees "okay, I don't see this happening. I'm going to fuck with you now". She'll also just start doing weird shit in a "you think you can handle me?" way.

Thankfully, Icarius and Periboea are chill AND somewhat overprotective so the footrace usually goes in her favor of "I do not like them." Until Odysseus but you know. She just sees she won't click with most people.

Icarius and Periboea have a pretty happy marriage and she thinks that's sweet. One of her siblings doesn't have a happy marriage sadly and that's a big thing later on but she sees Helen and Menelaus with their childhood sweetheart thing going on and the other nymphs and thinks "Guess that won't be happening for me...I can be a fun river auntie." As she's kind of planning to be dedicated to the rivers fully if she can.

She also was there when Helen got kidnapped by Theseus :'D That does affect her.

Her actually testing him the same way he does when they first meet is part of the reason he falls for her so hard. "You do the same shit I do. Not only that but you were actually able to trick me! Wait, that broach, are you also one of Athena's pets?! And now we're scuttling about the castle basically entirely intuned to exactly what we're gonna do?! Oh, gods, that was so fun! Ugh, be my WIFE! 🥴 Wait, no! Sorry I scared/lied/overwhelmed you! Please give me a chance"

Her not getting a lot of genuine romantic attention has influenced her a little bit though.

She's genuinely pretty but it's in an unconventional way (sharp teeth, weird eyes, "Born in a Creek", etc.) So while at first on Ithaca, she was considered very strange, as naiad ties get better with her influence and people get more used to her, it's a "Oh, shit, she IS pretty." Also, she aged like wine. Why the suitors wanted her (also yeah, "I want to be king") and why she just didn't want them. Ofc, she wants Odysseus but she's also just someone who is usually unimpressed. (as Odysseus is as well.)

Odysseus Specifics

Very much a hopeful romantic. His mom and dad have a very loving marriage, (I want to write a thing on their love story), and knowing how his dad never took a concubine (It literally says he doesn't in the Odyssey). He wants what they have.

"Being with someone who you can be your complete self with, show all the good and the bad to and still loving each other despite it all. That's love."

As someone who is a person of many twists and turns, he desperately wants to find someone to show ALL his sides to.

So first up we have the fact that he blames the fact that he's never felt sexual attraction on the boar scar injury. (Boar Scar Idea Stuff Here) It's easier that way as he doesn't necessarily want to think about himself as being different. It makes people "pity" him in the sense of "Oh, you poor thing, you're so beautiful but that boar ripped you apart so horridly. Taking away your ability to feel such things and leaving a disgusting scar."

It's very frustrating for him because he IS very beautiful and so people are attracted to him often. He wants to be left alone. He knows what he wants. Fuck off.

Ancient Greece was fine with Nudity but he, being quite ripped up and "not all there" by the boar, isn't really comfortable with it. People often stare and him, being hotheaded, he's like "What are you looking at? I'll kick your ass!". It's kind of a convenience though because it also makes people leave him alone.

He's had "one relationship" but it was basically just a kiss. He had a one-month romance with someone that ended badly.

Then OdyPen meets each other. >:D

Clarifying this as I know I talk about it a lot with how "Odysseus was in love at first sight" and... YEAH. but also not. It's more of a "This is the fucking best and I KNOW that we'd be incredible together." He chills out a bit as he got that ADHD (they both do) and was all up in his emotions. Other folks with ADHD know when you get too excited and just...become a LOT. It was that. He calmed down a bit and realized he WAS overwhelming her, STILL wants to marry her but isn't in love yet as they JUST MET. And they finally get to know each other more and then he actually falls in love.

Penelope was always somewhat intrigued by him but it was only when he chilled out a bit and let her lay the ground rules of them getting to know each other. And she was in deep denial, then she was hit by a truck when she couldn't deny it any longer.

During the War

He doesn't have any listed concubines (Hecuba was an old woman in her 60s-70s...Be reasonable.) and even in the Iliad, he thinks of Penelope often. And when offered, he threatens or just is passive-aggressive, and eventually people understand that "I wouldn't do that if I were you. He'll probably stab you."

With the fact that in the funeral games, he is mostly invested in getting the shiny and fancy ITEMS instead of winning for the pretty slaves. That also gives me big "I don't fucking care about that, WHERE'S THE MONEY?!"

With how Nauplius (Palamedes' father), tried to get Penelope to believe that "oh your Odysseus plans to replace you." and how she was like "pfft, fuck that. That's a load of shit. My Odysseus would never. Get outta my palace." that yeah, Penelope knows how he rolls.

With he's quite uncomfortable with Nausicca's crush on him despite her being young and beautiful.

Even in the beginning, the fact that he saw Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, and was still like "eh...Ooooh, who's that woman over there that's causing chaos?". He's unaffected by beauty.

He leaves his tent alone in Book 10 of the Iliad. Like, I cannot stress enough how aspec Odysseus feels to me lol

Odypen already give Aspec vibes in the Odyssey but hearing "Man of the House" with Epic and that "She's who I saved my virginity for" was like an "YES! ASPEC!" and yeh :D He wasn't technically "saving it for her", he just never wanted it til Penelope.

Alongside "Done For" a lil bit!

"...I'm not sure I follow... What do you mean by lust? Penelope's not here...oh no..."

Idk makes me happy to write them aspec! 🥺

[hyenahunt]

Obbligato: The Devotion to Tatsumi Kazehaya - 13

Writer: Akira

Season: Spring, three years ago

Characters: Kaname, Tatsumi, Jun

Proofreading: Remi + 310mc (JP) & honeyspades (ENG)

Translation: Peace & hyenahunt

Tatsumi: The root of all misfortune lies in inequality and injustice. They are the root of all unhappiness. That is why they must be corrected.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Kaname: ... I feel the same as Sazanami. If the fame and shine doesn't belong to my own name, then there's no point to it.

But... Still, it seems as if "Tatsumi Kazehaya" is doing well for itself.

Maybe I should learn from it. Throw away this pride of mine and ensure success through that.

All so I can become the sparkling idol I've always dreamed of being.

Tatsumi: Haha. If you so wish, then we are able to help you in a number of ways. We offer idol practices, studies, and can even help you find work — all free of charge.

In fact, I pay everyone who comes to one of my gatherings an equal part of my own wages.

Kaname: What do you mean...?

Tatsumi: You see, I have no interest in money. All of the money that "Tatsumi Kazehaya" accumulates is thus given out in equal shares to those gathered here.

No matter how much you've done, or what you've helped with, you're given the same amount of pay as the person next to you.

Hence, I've asked them to help me with the work I've received as much as possible.

Kaname: Are you for real? You're the one paying them?

It isn't the other way around? They're only managing to catch rays of the limelight because of you, aren't they? And yet... you're paying them?

Tatsumi: That's right. I likened it to a company, didn't I? Anyone who becomes a part of "Tatsumi Kazehaya" is offered the same regular pay as everyone else within it.

It's only natural to reward those who work a reasonable sum, isn't it? I would never ask someone to do my work for free.

Such a thing would be against our doctrine— nay, against human decency itself.

Jun: Ohhh, I get it now... I see just why these guys don't care for working on their own and are perfectly content just being "Tatsumi Kazehaya's assistants.”

They can just kick back and let their earnings pour in that way. Why wouldn't they? The cash they earn through this kinda fixed income is definitely gonna be way more than whatever an idol with no accomplishments could get through independent work.

And on top of that, Kazehaya-senpai's so brilliant at what he does that his work's a huge success every single time. Thanks to that, these guys get the chance to shine while avoiding any risk of failure or injury, or of being thought of as useless.

Sure is a dream job — one fit for morons.

Kaname: And on top of that, if I'm understanding correctly, you pay those a fair wage even if they haven't worked at all?

Tatsumi: I do. We don't discriminate here, you see. All are equal.

Jun: Mmm, well, I’m not that educated so I might be wrong, but this whole arrangement'spretty much that thing, isn't it? Starts with a c and ends with ism....

Our country's a capitalist nation, so y'know, the opposite of that —

Tatsumi: There's truly no need to go that far. I only wish to treat everyone as equally and fairly as possible.

Such a world would be ideal, wouldn't you agree? I want to make it a reality.

Tatsumi: Everyone is treated equally, given the same opportunities, and is paid fairly for their work. That way, everyone is able to live a happy, fulfilling life.

The root of all misfortune lies in inequality and injustice. They are the root of all unhappiness.

That is why they must be corrected.

There is a distinct disparity between the Special and Non-Special Students here at Reimei Academy. I'm doing what I can to close it.

It doesn't matter who you are, what you are, or even where you came from: you will be treated equally. Everyone will carry the same weight, walk the same amount of steps, and reach the same destination.

Everyone finishes at the same time. Everyone will be granted the same first place result, fairly and ideally.

And that is how we'll stop needless fighting over who's won and lost, we'll cease begrudging others for what they have, and we'll share the same happiness with one another.

That is the ideal world I dream of.

To bring it even slightly closer to reality, I'm doing what I can— though at the moment, this small sphere is all I'm able to influence in such a way.

Tatsumi: One day, I will take all those who inhabit Reimei Academy, the teachers and Special Students alike, as well as those in the idol industry, in this country, in this world...

And change their ways so we may live in such an Eden.

No, it's more than that. That is my mission in life as the Voice of God, as someone born within a family who teaches His words.

I truly believe that, and so I will live by that faith.

Tatsumi: May all of God's creations be blessed. Amen.

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