#jes replies

[another-lost-mc]

Hi! Do you think you could do what would lead to a pact with Barbatos? Like, the events leading up to it and what caused it to be made?

This has been sitting in my ask box for a while because honestly, I'm a bit torn between what I think is more likely to happen, and what my undying love for Barbatos wants to see happen.

Due to potential story spoilers for S4, I'm putting my thoughts (and a bonus drabble) under a cut.

As of S4, he's starting to recognize his affections for MC are a bit more complex than just regarding them as the human exchange student, someone else he's obligated to be polite to and take care of because Diavolo expects it of him

He's a real slow burn in a story full of very impulsive and needy demons (and angels, and other humans, and maybe a reaper now, too) but I actually love this about him

I honestly don't think MC would ask Barbatos for a pact, nor do I think he would offer one even if they were in some sort of romantic relationship - if this does come to pass, I am really curious because I think it would require exceptional circumstances

He's the Demon Lord's butler, after all - Diavolo is his priority, and I can't see that changing; forging a new pact has the potential to make him vulnerable, or exploitable, and I don't know if he would accept that sort of risk right now

Lowkey though, I like that MC's pacts (so far) are with the demon brothers - I think it makes their relationships more special for it

That being said, I don't think Barbatos would turn MC away if they asked him for help - assuming it's something he can do that doesn't impact his ability to serve Diavolo, and it doesn't put Diavolo or the Devildom in harm's way

Solomon is a bit of a shady wild card, and the fact that he has a pact with Barbatos where MC may not ever have one - well, I think that makes an interesting dynamic too

Don't get me wrong though - I'm a romantic at heart, and there's something about Barbatos agreeing to a pact with MC as a demonstration of his trust and feelings for them that makes me a little weak

Here's a little drabble about it. 💚

BARBATOS x gn!Reader 0.4k Words | SFW | Fluff, Sleeping Together, soft!Barbatos, Slightly Suggestive

Barbatos is a light sleeper.

He's grown used to getting up in the middle of the night if his Young Master needed him, and he would wake early to make sure the castle staff were each assigned their daily tasks. He personally prepared the morning’s meal and tea, ensuring Diavolo had his breakfast tray and daily paper ready the moment he woke up.

Now, Barbatos sleeps lightly for another reason.

You’re turned away from him, one of your shoulders bare where your night shirt has slipped out of place. When you bury deeper into the sheets, the fabric slips even more, and he can see the edge of his pact mark against your skin.

You’re sleeping so peacefully and he knows he shouldn’t disturb you, but he accepts whatever consequences may come later when he brushes over the mark with his finger. Once he touches you, it's difficult to resist the urge to explore more of your warm skin, to examine the evidence of his claim etched into your flesh.

He slides your night shirt out of the way so he can trace the mark with his tongue. He presses his lips to the mark, pulling your skin between his teeth gently before laving over the indents left behind. The indents of his teeth that litter your skin will fade soon enough, but he sighs with satisfaction anyway - his pact mark will remain until the end of your days together.

He can feel you stirring against him, and he has the decency to pretend to look ashamed that he's been caught. He pulls back slightly and meets your sleepy, curious look when look at him over your shoulder. Sleep fades from your gaze when your eyes shine bright, the corners of your lips lifting into a sweet, dreamy smile.

He wonders what you see that makes your breath hitch slightly, that makes your beautiful eyes shimmer with warmth. You've managed to see past all the masks he wears, the walls he builds to keep pesky emotions at bay. You've claimed his heart for your own, and he gave into the inevitable; he surrendered it willingly at your feet, a prize for the victor, your spoils of war.

He smothers the fleeting twinge of disappointment when you roll over and face him properly, nuzzling against his bare chest and throwing an arm over his waist. He curls his fingers over your shoulder - palm over his mark protectively - and keeps you close, basking in your warmth until his other master needs him.

[jeschalynn]

Hi!

I just wanted to tell you that your avatar is really cute. Have a nice day!

Aww, thank you so much! It was something I commissioned from @/sempaksiete and they even drew a little bonus as an early birthday gift. <3

[cy-lindric]

Salut ! Je viens de voir ton post au cloître du Puy-en-Velay et ça me rend tout fuzzy de voir que ma ville d'origine est arrivée sur Tumblr akdkakdk

Tu as aimé les fêtes du Roi de l'oiseau ? Tu as bien aimé la ville overall?

C'était vraiment top, la ville est magnifique et la fête était super. On a pas pu voir beaucoup de spectacles mais rien qu'avec les camps de reconstitution, les animations de rue, le marché et les bals on s'est régalées. Mon seul regret c'est qu'on soit arrivées le mercredi et parties le dimanche matin ; l'année prochaine, on skippera le mercredi pour pouvoir rester voir le grand défilé dimanche. (et on s'y prendra un peu à l'avance pour avoir des tickets pour la finale de tir à l'arc, haha)

Sinon bravo pour ta ville, très joli centre et une cathédrale qui rentre direct dans le top 5 j'ai pas peur de le dire

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Ièm jsut a little kitty, I domèt know how 2 spell.....

[harrietvane]

Hello,

I’ve just finished “Blue at the Mizzen” and I was wondering what your opinion is on the unfinished book is….

Have you read it? Would you recommend reading it or not?

I am so sad to be at the end of the books but ending on Jack so happy and relieved might be the best place to stop?

Would really value your opinion as I know you know the books well.

Warmly,

Rosanna

Ooh this is a tough one - because my own approach (thus far) is not one I’d necessarily recommend? The thing is: I have not read it.

However! Complicated reasons for that. One is a personal weirdness of mine where I am oddly resistant to watching or reading the ‘final’ instalment of a thing. I have noticed myself doing this a lot: I’ll just leave the very last episode unwatched, the last book in a long running serialised saga unread. This is not a recommended practice, it’s what I’d call ‘a super dumb thing to do’, and I’d categorise that as a symptom (of what? Who knows! I’m an undiagnosed delight). Is it because if they fumble the last instalment it leaves a bad taste for the whole series? Maybe. Is it because if there’s still one left, then there’s still Something Out There and the experience of discovering new writing isn’t over yet? Could be! Anyway, it’s a silly thing to do and I don’t recommend it as an approach to media. Go forth and read!

Having said that, I do have an aversion, generally, to publishing bits and pieces of an author’s notes as though it were finished work. I think it feels like being asked to have the mindset where a creative endeavour is ‘content’ to consume, rather than a constructed, deliberate work - “it’s their words and you want more words! So here’s more!”. O’Brian seems, from the work, and from interviews, to be a bit of an exacting, deliberate sort of creator - taking 3 chapters of some unedited typescript and adding some handwritten elements that didn’t even get to editing stage feels uhhhhh vaguely intrusive? Ahhhh why am I like this, that’s not even a reasoned response, and should not be taken as direction lol. I should back away slowly from this sort of parasocial contortion!

Like, I’m all for publishing someone’s essays, collected letters, all kinds of ephemera - that’s it’s own thing. But taking something which is a specifically a work In Progress, and publishing it as though it were a presentable book (a voyage of Jack Aubrey), didn’t really appeal to me. Which is contradictory of me as I do enjoy artists proofs, sketchbooks, and unfinished paintings! I contain multitudes.

At the end of the day it felt a bit like the publisher going “I’m going to tell you a new Aubreyad story, but we don’t know if O’Brian was going to tell it in this way, really, and also I’m going to stop partway through” which I didn’t fancy experiencing. So, at this point I tend to finish up at 20 and go back to 1. Never say never though - maybe the various editor’s notes, forewords, and afterwords would help me enjoy it as a fragment, rather than a presented work. It’s at least 3 chapters of (more or less) O’Brian prose, which is better prose than one often finds.

Please don’t let me stop you for any reason. Read on! If you go ahead and read it, post your thoughts?

[randomnameless]

Now maybe I’m not one to talk since I did write a college paper on video game characters, but that essay feels so… empty? It reminds me of someone in another fandom who diagnosed a character they didn’t like with hisitrionic personality disorder.

(For the record, my paper was about character design and use of contrasting colour. Mario & Luigi we’re big ones, as was Dante & Vergil, and Superman’s brighter colour-scheme compared to Batman’s more muted one, but I also made use of the Christmas Cavs archetype)

Ooh, your paper sounds interesting, I never really thought about the contrast in colours, but now that you mentioned it, there are reasons why characters have a certain palet in a media and why, idk, "red" doesn't universaly means "enemy unit" but in some media is the color of the hero!

Back to the Supreme Essay...

Well, it's an essay about a game where the devs forgot to hire a continuity guy, and the commonly accepted reason as for why Thales didn't nuke Supreme Leader, Rhea and all of the Nabateans during the Gronder mock battle is because the Agarthans are crap cartoon vilains.

Discussing this game seriously will obviously lead to emptiness, or 60k words of projection but that's basically a fanfic at this point lol.

A redshit post or a redshit essay is still a redshit form of wank, and sometimes you just see behind the tiny veil of "I'm just a normal fan who loves this game/thing so much" that the 10k words using "big" words 75% of the readers don't understand like "feudalism" (special mention to an admirer who felt like they had to tell me, under a shitpost, that feudalism was BaD. Hope you're doing okay !) or "caste system" are just a pretense to give some sort of aura of authority to that fan.

"XYZ wrote 10k words about that topic, that means they thought a lot about it and if they managed to develop their argument that well, I don't need to read it to know they have a point."

"ABC wrote an essay about why PZM is true? Well, it's an essay, it's a serious work, so they must be right!"

I am not saying this is why the person who wrote the Supreme essay did it or anything of the sort - however, after seeing certain patters in this fandom from people who pretend to be BNF and spending a certain time on redshit, I can draw some conclusions.

Nonsensical and shiposting redshits are the most welcoming ones where you're just here to have a quick fun and maybe laugh at a meme or two.

iamverysmart and the other redshits were people take themselves very seriously and exchange in 10k words essay form are a pain to navigate, and from what I could see, the atmosphere there is either toxic, or subdued because you have BNF and their doxa (and armies of downvoters I guess?) and you can't really argue against the flow.

Now, I'm not saying you can't write 10k words essays, for fandom!, about characters, hell I made this blog to rant and nerd about my favorite characters nearly 10 years ago, and sometimes the ranting goes a bit overboard!

But Redshit isn't the place to exchange in 10k words essay form and writing in an essay form doesn't make the thesis supported or the argument or the fan who wrote it themselves "better" than the one who is receiving it/disagrees with it.

I mean, in 5 words or in 15k words, a headcanon is a headcanon lol

But in an era of discourse - especially since redshit encourages and welcomes those kinds of interactions with the karma counter - empty essays are sadly not that uncommon.

[selkiefinalist]

nateej group therapy!! —jes

this was for a prompt from @patrichornkissed so i am honor-bound to fulfill it (and with a joyful heart) but am planning to attempt my first ‘5 times’ fic because i can’t land on just one scenario. i’ve posted this snippet before and haven’t worked on it since, really:

“So…” Nate does his best to look up through his eyelashes. “You come here often?”

“Shut the fuck up.” EJ stirs the powdered creamer into his coffee with more force than is probably necessary. “It’s your fault we’re here.”

Their counselor makes them all mingle at the end of each session. Today, Ken seems hell-bent on inviting anyone who will make eye contact to the cafe down the street, and Nate is hell-bent on avoiding that invite. Ken’s sweet and what happened to his cat was tragic, for sure, but Nate just can’t.

“It’s not my fault. Your BFF is the one making us come here —“

“Because you can’t get over your BFF’s trade -“ EJ’s stabbing the cup with the stir stick. Nate’s not the one with issues, here.

“Shhh.” He puts a hand on EJ’s elbow. “Daisy,” he hisses, when EJ tries to throw his hand off.

“Fuckin’ Daisy,” EJ mutters. “She’s so nosy.” But he sighs and lets Nate keep his hand where it is. “Sorry,” he says, finally. “Do you want to get out of here?”

“I didn’t want to be here at all.” Nate takes EJ’s coffee and throws it in the garbage. “Let’s fucking go.”

“That was my coffee,” EJ grumbles, but he steers Nate out of the community room where their therapy group meets, down the dingy hallway, and out onto the rain-wet street. “Beer?”

“You’re buying,” Nate says. EJ fakes an elbow to Nate’s gut, and Nate gasps and buckles over.

EJ always picks the same place. He says ‘beer,’ but what he means is ‘upscale martini lounge,’ which suits Nate fine but is a pretty jarring contrast from the worn vinyl tiles and general hopeless air of their therapy room.

[biceratops7]

Hi! Regarding the Aziraphale playlist, has anyone commented on "you are all I long for all I worship and adore" from Fly Me To The Moon yet? Because maybe I'm reading too much into one line, but it sounds an awful lot to me like Aziraphale saying he'd Fall to be able to keep loving Crowley. I mean, worship is already one hell (one heaven?) of a statement coming from an angel, but add in the all and he's saying his love for Crowley is more important than his love for - and duty to - God and Heaven, and considering what happens to angels who turn their backs on that duty...

Like, I've only really seen people talking about I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Je Ne Regrette Rien and Feelings and this has been driving me insane. Also Angel Eyes (cause we talk a lot about Aziraphale loving Crowley's eyes, but ANGEL eyes when they're literally what mark him as Fallen is one step further. plus, "one look and you're hypnotised" I feel kinda implies that Crowley wasn't the only one who already started falling in love in the garden) and Feeling Good (saw that used in tv once before to overlay the moment when the main romance finally was able to start fresh after defeating outside forces keeping them apart and am now going insane wondering whether it's being interpreted the same way here).

Long ask (sorry! didn't mean to ramble!), all I was really getting at was I'd love to see some appreciation for the less commented-upon songs of the playlist (and I was wondering whether you maybe knew of any such posts ❤)!

I like your mojo anon! Considering Crowley tried to literally whisk Aziraphale off to outer space last season so they can be together, and now Aziraphale’s metaphorically asking to be flown to the moon as a means to say “I love you”? Fucking delicious.

But honestly, and this might disappoint you, but the song that personally is haunting and delighting me the most really is “Je ne Regrette Rien”. I know it’s cliche, but it really is the sweetest and most fitting summary to Aziraphale fully coming into his own. What makes him almost a tragic character is that he has a life he loves and a person to share it with, but the joy of this is soured by the anxiety he constantly feels from whatever horrors he perceives just over the horizon.

So the idea of him fully accepting that any consequence that comes from loving someone he’s “not supposed to” isn’t worth forfeiting a life with that person is so fucking perfect. In this context he’s confidently declaring that come what may, he does not regret being true to himself, that he forgives himself completely for choosing joy. And that is probably my greatest hope for this season.

[ethereal-rpg]

coucou ❤️ je serais potentiellement intéressée a m'inscrire sur un forum, juste parce que j'ai envie d'écrire tout plein pour compenser la rédaction académique 🥰

vos recommendations pour un forum cozy, sans pression, avec du monde chill ? ça peut être city ou fantastique, dark ou léger, tant qu'on peut y trouver sa place sans trop de peine ou d'angoisse 🥰❤️ merci d'avance !!

[nedermemes]

zijn er volgers die ook naar de demo in Amsterdam in steun voor Palestina gaan morgen/zondag 15 oktober?

ik wil gaan maar geen van m'n vrienden kunnen helaas en ik durf niet alleen 😬

[another-lost-mc]

Also that image of Karusu is so 😍😋

OMG I just thought that since he's a demon how did he get controll of the phones, if he works with he company, if he was manifested, the company made him, or if Diavolo sent orders to make him keep an eye on us 👀

AHHHHH YOUR IDEAS IS SO INTERESTING

omg I'm dying over here. The Karasu Fan Club is in my ask box and I am here for it. 🖤

Here's some random info about Karasu and his background (the OG game/timeline version):

He's a crow demon that works for the Three Legged Crow Conglomerate.

He designed and maintains the KARASU AI bot program. When he found out the higher-ups wanted to name it after him, he thought it was a joke at first.

He's a bit of a workaholic and an introvert. He doesn't have many friends and he doesn't have much relationship experience. He's also demisexual.

He has a protective streak for those he does care about.

He can manipulate the shape/strength of his wing feathers to use them as weapons.

Nightbringer!Karasu has a similar backstory/personality, but his interactions with MC/the other characters are a bit different:

He doesn't trust Solomon, and he's worried about MC (who he believes is a demon) being forced to live with him in Cocytus Hall.

Karasu's technological skills and authority basically means he can interfere with their relationship as he sees fit, while he lies to himself that his interest is purely for MC's protection. 👀

[nosensedit]

⊹ ִ࣪ এ credits on twitter ִ࣪ ⌁ like or reblog if you save! ♡ ¸. • *

[fingertipsmp3]

Divinity can be found in the handwritten letter

[hard--headed--woman]

uh i reply to all your messages once i am done with that italian project. non pensate che non mi piaccia parlare con tutti voi!

[sparky-is-spiders]

Omg I have this whole thing about Elias and weed in somewhere else.

In the versions where he gets his body back he does have a relationship with weed.

Ill talk b another universe A version bc Universe B has less versions with Martin or Elias there.

One version has them in an apartment Martin owns. Elias uses the balcony to study braile at night. He gets really close to a neighbor right above them who smoked weed on his balcony at night. They get really close and eventually the guy starts jumping onto the balcony Elias is on to smoke weed with him.

Elias is terrified that this guy eill Just be another Allan and is just waiting for Elias to "do something stupid" so he can shit talk him. But it never goes down that route. The guy is really nice and Elias eventually starts to open up to him. And soon they get into a relationship. Jon is really bummed out when he finds out Elias is dating this guy, but he never says anything.

Another version has Elias in a house his aunt owns and lets Martin and Jon stay there with him. Elias finds a box of his father's stuff and finds some of his pipes! Elias knows these pipes arent *his* father's but this world's Elias' father's. Elias gets his hand on weed bc weed is legal in this au and Elias has a really weird power trip smoking weed out his dad's pipe.

I like the idea of Jon quietly pining for og!Elias (even while potentially still in a relationship with Martin). Also imagine living in your alternate universe self’s family’s house and finding your alternate universe self’s fathers stuff. That’s the kinda shit that’d give you shrimp emotions.

Maybe he and Jon could smoke together on a quiet day in. God knows Jon could probably afford to unwind, and he might be curious enough to try (assuming he didn’t smoke while in uni).

And maybe in that 2nd universe they could kiss while they were both high, and Jon could feel guilty afterwards (but not enough not to do it again)

[randomnameless]

3H est un otome game ???? Alors là c'est la meilleure

La classe des Lions de Saphir c'est un peu ça lol

Plus sérieusement, avec l'introduction de l'avatar qui est censé représenter le jouer et la mise en avant des relations parasociales ("coucou moi c'est Linfan et je suis votre fils/fille!" osef) on a de plus en plus d'éléments qui poussent les jeux FE vers le fameux "dating sim", l'avatar va se marier avec qui? Le type ténébreux et mystérieux, le mec toujours optimiste, l'archétype de la princesse de glace qui ne se dégèle qu'aux cotés de son love interest, la tsundere, la hikikomori...

Bref, les personnages sont presque tous réduits à être de potentiels love interest et donc à entrer dans une case pour "plaire" au joueur...

Malgré tout, on ne va pas se mentir, FE n'est pas pensé/réalisé pour être un jeu qui vise un public féminin - si on peut tout autant faire son choix entre "waifus" et "husbandos", la cinématique d'introduction de Camilla est bien là pour rappeler que même si on joue Corrine, le public majoritairement visé reste... le public masculin qui est capable de jeter de l'argent non virtuel pour acheter des unités Gullveig sur FE Heroes.

"Oui mais random, les jeux peuvent aussi viser le public féminin qui trouve les femmes attrayantes!"

Certes, mais il ne faut pas se voiler la face - c'est quelle version de Billy que Dedel dessine dans le jeu?

Si certains (ou certaines?) on pu voir de l'inclusivité dans ce jeu, ben tant mieux pour eux, mais on ne m'enlèvera pas l'idée que les relations F/F dans ce jeu (et dans Nopes!) c'est juste pour titiller la nouille de joueur - surtout quand on les compare aux nombreuses (mais sous-entendues comme dans le reste de la franchise!) relations M/M.

Monica qui compte le nombre de fois où Dedel sourit ou parle ou mentionne le nom de Barney/Hubert/le chat gris du monastère c'est... absolument pas du même niveau que Rodrigue qui jure à Lambert de s'occuper de son fils et qui ne jure que par Lambert même des années après sa mort (et ce alors que Nopes nous révèle que Matthias aussi était censé faire partie de la bande, mais qui c'est qui nous parle sans arrêt de Lambert, Rodrigue ou Matthias? Est-ce qu'ils étaient juste "potes"?), ou Dimitri et Felix/Dedue...

Il y a Doro, qui a plus d'affinité avec certains personnages féminins, mais d'un point de vue "Doyliste" comme on dit, qui est le personnage féminin qui est attiré par les autres femmes? Bernie, Leonie ou Doro ?

Qui peut se marier avec Billie, Mercedes ou Annette?

J'entends que Billy ne peut pas non plus se marier avec Dimitri et Claude, donc niveau inclusivité M/M on est pas là non plus, mais justement.

FE Fodlan, pour la représentativité sur le volet "dating sim" est au ras des pâquerettes, en faisant du cru, l'avatar Billie aime les pastèques (sauf Dedel!) parce que Cuboon l'a bien dit en expliquant que deux femmes en maillot de bain c'est un "milk truck" - Billy lui finit avec des tokens pour faire progressiste mais rien de bien méchant qui permet de mettre en avant une relation M/M entre l'avatar du joueur et un personnage - Alois et Gilbert sont tellement ignorés par la fanbase et les devs qu'ils ont été retirés de Nopes, Yuri a vu le jour avec un DLC et Jeritza... n'est jouable que dans une route de FE16.

En gros, un jeu où les personnages féminins attirés par les femmes ont toutes de grosses poitrines, ça me fait d'avantage penser au mindset "milk truck" de Cuboon (avec les sous-entendus dégeulasses qui vont avec!) qu'à un effort d'IS de faire de l'inclusivité.

FE a toujours traité les relations homoerotiques avec assez de classe chez les hommes, alors voir la façon dont les couples entre femmes sont explorés... parfois ça passe (même si ça souffre toujours de la comparaison avec leur "alter ego" entre hommes!) et parfois, ça finit en alts de FEH où deux femmes sont "attirées" l'unes par l'autre par une sorte de magnétisme mammaire qui les forcent à presser leurs seins l'une contre l'autre.

Loin d'être un otome game, FE16 pour moi se rapproche d'un dating sim à destination d'un public spécifique, qui n'est absolument pas le public des otome games.

Heureusement que ça reste tout de même un jeu FE donc malgré tout appréciable, mais quand on se rend compte que le choix entre Fleur Vermeille et Neiges Argentées se résume à "et tu veux finir avec quelle waifu? Rhea - que tu dois avoir harcelé pour faire un soutien A pour obtenir toutes les réponses et sa conclusions pendant le début du jeu - ou Dedel?" je pense que je ne fais pas partie du public visé par FE16.

Et ça reste quand même une bonne chose que FE Fodlan ait réussi à toucher plus de joueurs que ceux qui étaient visés par les développeurs de Fodlan - si tout le monde a pu en tirer quelque chose de positif ou au moins passer un bon moment c'est tant mieux, même si je pense qu'il ne faut pas prêter trop d'intentions aux développeurs qui ont toujours eu l'arrière-pensée de faire une carte "Dedel en nuisette".

C'est un peu comme un anniversaire, tu prépares un gâteau pour l'enfant qui fête son anniversaire parce que c'est son préféré, mais ses copains le mangent aussi et le trouvent super bon : tant mieux pour tout le monde non?

Mais il ne faut tout de même pas oublier que le gâteau, au début, n'avait pas été fait pour leur faire plaisir à eux.