#mentions of victor and zero

[jd-loves-fiction]

Hi, is it possible to make a request with Mydei and (fem) Reader, who is from Astral Express, but her fighting style is related to pistols (for example, look at Carlotta's gameplay from Wuthering Wave's). Reader manages to be elegant in battle, which slightly irritates Mydei, so he makes fun of her, but she does not lag behind and responds in kind. Thanks in advance ❤️

🌑ooh Carlotta's fighting style is everything and very kookoo about Mydei PERFECT!! :D (very short :()

Damned outworlders and their machinery. Loud and attention grabbing, forcing Mydei to look away from the opponent in front of him and in your direction just in time to see you gracefully avoid getting your head chopped off before shooting the perpetrator in the face.

Definitely not because he himself cannot help but glance your way be it in battle or out of it. Though the moment he’s caught staring he’s quick to give some lazy excuse about how you’re too showy or something of that kind – says the half naked man.

“53!” Mydei exclaims triumphantly, “How about you?” he shouts just as you swiftly take down another enemy.

“57 and are we really still doing this? You’ll only get your ego bruised when you inevitably lose to me, like I warned you.” You reply smugly, but you can't deny your excitement at the stiff competition – though the words would never leave your lips.

“I wasn't aware you possessed the power of clairvoyance. Though if you do, I suspect it’s a faulty imitation of the real thing – for I will be the obvious victor.” He states proudly, slashing down every enemy that comes too close.

“Don't your shoulders hurt from carrying your huge ego around?”

Mydei’s eyes narrow deviously, turning in your direction with a wide smirk split across his face – nothing good on his mind, to be sure, “They do, now that you mention it. Want to give me a hand?”

His lion’s eyes zero in on you, razor focused, waiting to see your amusing reaction to his usual teasing.

A bullet whizzes just past his ear, grazing his blond locks, following the sound of a gunshot, barrel pointed in his direction, “There's your helping hand.”

Mydei scowls in response, thanking every god he knows that you're alone or else he'd never hear the end of it. Though he's sure Phainon will hear of it soon enough.Damned outworlders and their machinery and their sharp tongues and graceful movements… damn them for sending his heart aflutter so easily.

[xbeezchaos]

Victor and his disability headcanons (but with my disabilities as well)

I love that the people love Viktor even with his disability and even use that as a way to make jokes about him beating people with his cane. As someone who also uses a cane I have gotten the same comments so I will be writing my own headcanons based off that!!

Mentions of: violence, use of ‘weapons’, POTS and Arthritis and chronic pain, swear words, minor slur I CAN RECLAIM

How I think he’d react to these comments from people;

“Why don’t you just use your cane to hit people?”

Honestly. He’d laugh, and likely explain he’d probably get carried away for break it

“What happened to your leg?”

“I got beat up by sewer rats when I was 5.”-Viktor

“Was your leg always like this?/ Were you always sick?”

“No, I just woke up and my leg said ‘I quit’.”

Overall he’d be very sarcastic and unserious about it if he feels the question is stupid or unrelated to the topic. Miscellaneous headcanons next!!

If someone tried to baby him or talk down to him he’d start doing the same to them or push them away (similar to how he slapped Jayce’s hand in S1)

He’s immune to regular pain medication. It has zero impact on him

He constantly has dizzy spells, faints, and even gets sick due to overworking and not eating/drinking enough during the day

Has passed out in the middle of meetings both while talking and sitting. He just goes “I’m about to pass out.” Or “get a nurse” then collapses if he has enough consciousness to do so.

Uses it in arguments; “It’s cause I’m disabled right?” “Sorry I’m such a fucking vegetable.” “He just called me a dirty cripple!!Council! Council members!”

Will take advantage of people offering to run him tasks he doesn’t want to. Does it the most to Jayce. Mel caught on the second time so stopped doing it.

Has made Jayce Carry him many times just so he has an excuse to feel him up

Has hit people with his cane, used the end to put on a persons foot and crush their toes

Has gotten so bored once, he handed Jayce his cane. Hobbled a few feet away from him, got on the floor and put on a performance begging for his cane back (he even pulled out real fake tears) until there’s a crowd judging Jayce and then Jayce will pick him up and run away form said crowd.

Would likely say “I may have a cane but I’ll still fuck your mom.” If someone makes fun of him. He seems like the type to make mom jokes.

Has had more than 30 x ray scans of his body done in the last 5 years

Experiences extreme fatigue and has been carried to bed where he was fed and forced to stay

After season 2, he starts making jokes about “taking his leg brace off” and then goes “oh wait. I forgot. It’s a part of me now. How will I ever scratch that itch?”

Jayce would look at him confused, “but you don’t feel itchiness anymore?”

“Let me plant itchy in peace eye candy.”

Ok so this is all I gawt for neow. Lemme know if yall enjoyed this and want me to write more of Viktor!!!

[workingonasongbird]

Am I really supposed to believe that only 16 of the total 75 victors had died by the time CF rolls around????

16 out of 75 people, most (if not all) with some degree of mental illness, trauma, and unhealthy coping mechanisms with zero access to therapy or any kind of help for it???

16 out of 75 people, when for at least the first decade of the Games they were given medical treatment at the vet, then tossed back home where most of the population are starving??? Not to mention that the districts don't seem to have much medical care available even at the best of times. People get ill. People die. Does being a victor somehow make you immune to that just because the Capitol might want you for their death trap again in 60 years?

"Oh but they stayed alive to protect their families" Snow killed all of Haymitch's family in one hit, do you really think all the victors had families to protect at all? Also, I feel like the idea that a victor wouldn't off themselves because their family depended on their survival just feeds into the idea that suicide is selfish, which is an idea I would like to bury very deep in the dirt.

And before anyone comes at me with the "People would get suspicious if the victors died" or "Snow needs the victors for the Games" no he doesn't. Victors can be, and are, forgotten. They are disposable. It's so easy to make up a plausible explanation for a death, especially when they get older. If Mags was causing so much trouble for Snow why didn't he just kill her? He could have done that, no questions asked.

[ohnoitsz1m]

Sorry this is kind of gonna be all over the place but

A lot of the HL2 (campaign based) mods I've played and finished are inexplicably interested in ghosts or otherwise haunted spaces. Which is interesting for a game like HL2 that really doesn't fuck with that type of thing.

And it's not really a super overt thing, it's usually just an Easter egg but like. The frequency that I see it combined with how similarly it's presented is. Interesting to say the least. Like the most Ghost acknowledgement we get in HL2 is a sound effect that plays by the apartment blocks and I'm inclined to believe it's less of "we are hearing dead children," and more of a "hey, you should be thinking: where are the children?" Because it's a relevant plot point that there are no more children. Not that they were wiped out just that we stopped having them.

Okay with that out of the way. Ghosts in HL mods. Starting with Entropy:Zero. Obviously spoilers ahead for literally every mod I talk about.

So in Entropy:Zero after raiding a rebel camp, you can encounter a radio that, when interacted with, plays the voice of a young girl that prompts you to find her doll. This is something you can do for an achievement in the game.

As an honorable mention- he's not a ghost but the cannibal in the next chapter is presented in a way that very much leads you to believe he is until you actually meet him.

Another honorable mention: whatever the fuck is going on with Wilson.

Okay next isss Entropy Zero Uprising. EZU has two instances of "ghosts" I wanna talk about. Neither of which are actually ghosts but like. Functionally they're ghosts ok. First and most obvious is Victor's wife. She's more of a dream/hallucination but she is very much haunting the narrative, calling out to Victor, and her appearance as a fuzzy, glitchy shadow is a kind of common way these ghosts are presented in HL2 mods.

There's also. The man. Idk how to really explain this one. He's a guy who shows up sometimes in EZU and he doesn't reeeeally do anything it's likely you never noticed him. But he is some Entity and he can kill you. Is he a ghost? Maybe. For the sake of this post yes.

Aaand finally because I'm getting tired but this is not an exhaustive list ok?

Dark Interval has several instances of ghosts and weird haunting type shit. In the apartments there's a guy in the dark who disappears once you look at him, he's presented similarly to Victor's Wife in EZU. I can't remember where exactly but there's a similar effect later in the game. Some shit falls off a shelf out of nowhere when you do a task in the early game. Dark Interval just has weird shit going on in general and I love it for that. ALSO THE PATH TO ELIS????

Okay I'm done goodnight

[jolys-cane]

currently trying to figure out what the Zero in grantaire's "Zero not wishing to go stark naked, clothed himself in vanity" refers to. like who the fuck is Zero

first i scoured gutenberg for Zero like hey maybe victor hugo mentions this guy again . and i got a senator from the bishop chapters going "Down with that great All, which torments me! Hurrah for Zero which leaves me in peace!" so im like ok maybe it's a turn of phrase and Zero means . you know. no one. the absense of people. but if that's the case then what point is Grantaire even making? no one doesn't want to be naked??

the original french says "Zéro, ne voulant pas aller tout nu, s'est vêtu de vanité" which doesn't quite help. im losing my mind over this

[thefloatingwriter]

Hot take :ampert should have been beetees little brother.

I will die on this hill...

With my hcs beetee won the 45th games at 15

(Ik cannonly chaff one these games but shhhh, since tge dawn of day chaff won the 40th games for me)

So in my hc 5 years from the 50th games

So we can do teo toutes with this

Both incasing the Katniss and Prim parrells

So lets say Bee was 15 and Ampert was 12...

Lets say Ampert got reaped for the 45th games

So Beetee being the awsome big brother he is, vollenteers out of impulse

(Hince the katniss and prim parreells)

Beetee wims the games, but by the time of the 50th games, Ampert is 17 and Bee is 20

Ampert gets reaped, showibg tgat even though Bee ddi everything he could to protect his little brother Ampert still got reaped and died.

This would show what could have happened to Prim if THGS countined, it would be bonechilling and absoultly horrifing to think about,

Katniss being unable to save her little sister from the games like Beetee couldbt save Ampert...

Or

Ampert could have been 7 when bee was reaped for the 45th game,

Watch bee go into the arena...

And win

So Bee would most defently strike up a deal with Snow, to keep his little brother out of the games...

But Beetee fricks up and when Ampert is 12 and beetee is 20, during the 50th games Ampert goes in and beetees his death...

Personaly i do perfer the first one bc of the parrells but jst think about how much better it coule have been if SC changed this one detal...

personally, if SC did decide to go this route, i would have preferred the second option. i do understand where you’re coming from with beetee and katniss parallels, but personally those are two characters who shouldn’t be compared. they have zero in common except for having siblings who they would kill for (which is a hc on beetee’s part), winning the hunger games, and being a part of the rebellion. i also think that neither of them actually like each other at all. obviously you don’t have to like someone to be like them, but i really have never seen katniss and beetee as similar.

the thing with ampert though, is that i understand why SC decided to do it. she wanted to show how victor’s children are never protected from the games, especially if the victor in questions fucks up or rebels, like beetee is said to have done in sotr. they mentioned it in passing in the og trilogy, where katniss says that gale suspects that they reap victor’s children on purpose, but it was never shown, not like with the cruelty of older siblings having to volunteer for their younger ones or watch them die or come back with horrific trauma.

the problem i have with it is that it doesn't make sense for it to be beetee’s son. beetee is one of only seven surviving victors. him and enobaria are probably the two we know the least about, but if his family was so important to him, he should have mentioned them in cf or mj. it doesn’t make sense. he could have done a propo about how snow killed his entire family, through either the games or “accidents”. he and johanna could have done one together as two victors who lost their entire families to snow.

beetee’s role in sotr as a mentor to his own son should have been taken by someone else. not anyone we already knew, an original victor who won sometime in the past who shows the cruelty of the games and how no one in panem is safe in a different way than prim being reaped does. i also don’t think the “rebellious activity” that ended with ampert in the arena should be there either. these books are about senseless violence. snow had a reason to reap ampert—to keep beetee in line after he did something rebellious. sotr should have leaned more into that even when you win the games, there is always more for snow to take from you, for no other reason other than being a victor.

sorry this was a lot of ranting lol, i just needed to get all that out.

[plum-pitt]

X-Men Origins Rewrite

Ok I guess this is a follow up to this post i made not too long ago abt rewriting this shit, the brainworms rlly got to me here so you’re getting a follow up sooner than expected lol

Before I actually do any rewriting though I wanted to lay out the big changes I’d be making and why, mainly for myself as a guide and to organize my thoughts both about the original film’s issues and how these changes could potentially solve them, but also to allow anyone else with some ideas for possible changes to add their own thoughts or suggestions by engaging with the post.

As for what kind of final product you could possibly expect these ideas to result in, i haven’t quite decided if I want to just do an in depth outline for the story with my proposed changes or do like a full length fic novelization. It’ll probably depend on how motivated I still feel about the exercise by the time I’m finished and happy with the cleaned up outline, but I digress. Lets just go ahead and get into the changes I want to make:

Proposed Changes:

First off, I’m removing Blob and Gambit from this cut. I like both of the characters and think it’s cool they tried to include them but the cast is crammed enough as it is and those two serve very little narrative purpose that can’t be shifted to others just as easily.

Second, I’m adding Silverfox to Team X and letting that serve as the meeting point for her and Logan, it gives the audience more time to get to know her and come to care for her and Logan’s relationship, while also harkening back to the comics where she was also a part of the weapon x program. Also I know this isn’t a real film but let it be known that if it were i’d actually hire a Native American actress to portray her, i’m still shitty they whitewashed her.

Third, I’m removing the third act “Silverfox wasn’t really dead” twist. I really shouldn’t have to explain why, that shit was dumb and completely unnecessary, not to mention introducing a shit ton of plot holes with that whack ass mutant ability they pull from thin air. In my version she’s human(as far as we know) and when she dies she dies for real, full stop.

Fourth, we are GETTING a biblically accurate Deadpool. They did my bro dirty and I refuse to compromise on this. His role will be larger to compensate for his big ass personality and the fact that i’m affectively letting him take up Gambit’s role from the original in addition to what he already had. Also I just think he bounces off of Logan really well and could serve as a really interesting parallel with having such similar trauma and very different ways of responding to it and seeing the world. Like just imagine D&W if they accidentally traumabonded over their similar origin stories.

Fifth, I’m making Victor our stand in for the films Weapon XI! He doesnt get adamantium or new powers like Wade, only the dehumanizing psychological torture present in the original Weapon X comic. I think it works great for his spiraling arc, gives me a chance to squeeze a faithful weapon X adaptation in here without upending the entire film’s structure, and helps to better position his character on a trajectory towards his more feral appearance in X1 where he doesn’t seem to fully recognize Logan.

Sixth, I’d like to include Dr. Cornelius as the head scientist in Weapon X. My current concept is that he’s in charge of all the unethical mutant capturing and experimenting, working under Stryker’s supervision but still an outsider to the government, being sent in by Stryker’s most significant source of funding for his program in Nathaniel Essex. I know this has zero basis in canon I just think it sounds cool and makes sense for Sinister to have hands in a program aiming to create perfect mutant soldiers, as someone using mutants DNA to create a genetically perfect race of superhumans and become the ultimate life form. (Sinister would not play a large role, more of a looming presence pulling strings and fucking people over)

To get more overarching here, I wanted to hone in on the dynamics and themes present in the original that i thought had the most potential for further development. Victor’s spiral to madness and eventual complete loss of self under Stryker, Logan learning to let go of Victor’s influence and the violence that he let define his life only for both to drag him back after Silverfox’s demise. Really digging into that nature vs nurture shit, and adding more mutant politics (and their accompanying metaphors for the struggles of marginalized people) cuz honestly i feel like it’s absence in the original is very noticeable, and ties in really well with Logan’s arc of self acceptance and learning to see himself as more than the violent nature of his mutation.

Stuff I Still Want Changed:

Ok so here’s where I’m throwing my hat out for suggestions, because there are still a couple minor things present in the movie that i’m just not a fan of or don’t really know what to do with. The difference is, with these I can’t really think of tweaks that could fix/improve them. So if yall have any ideas on what I can do about these, or maybe some completely unrelated changes that you just think could improve the rewrite, please let me know.

One, not really sure what to do with Zero, he’s around for a lot of the movie but didn’t really stand out much to me. I just don’t know a lot about the character or what his deal is in the comics to find something cool to do with him. I’m going back and forth on if his role is ultimately necessary?? Does Stryker really need another henchman? Or should I use the space he occupies to hone in more on Victor and Logan’s rivalry? Idk i’m still on the fence so tell me what yall think.

Two, god I just fucking hate those memory wiping adamantium bullets. It’s such a stupid plot device that makes no sense conceptually and was clearly just thrown in as an afterthought at the last second like the writers forgot they needed to erase his memory by the end. That’s not to mention the fact that the bullets’ function was retconned later in Logan. Genuinely though I cannot find another way to go about fucking up Logan’s head without basically upending the structure of this movie in its entirety so any ideas on how to solve this dilemma are appreciated.

[comicgeekery]

More Like The Three Gay-bles, Right?

The Three Gables

This was a fun reset into the regular Sherlock & Co. adventures. Something low stakes that also gave John space to show that he’s still grieving for Mary. And Sherlock and Mariana had time to hang out, just the two of them! I was hoping for that!

The mystery was interesting, with the questions about what could be hidden in the hospital that someone would spend decades obsessing over obtaining or destroying. (Though I found the solution a little underwhelming. Yeah, the woman covered up a murder, but you don’t need to out her as a cougar!) Thinking about it now, I really wonder why it was so hard for her to get that evidence. Hire some burglers! Give the hospital a big donation with the condition that you get to dig something out of an unused chimney! There were options!

But this adventure was clearly much more about the characters. John is in mourning and Sherlock and Mariana are doing their best to support him through that. It’s sweet.

But it’s also time for me to once again pull out my Johnlock conspiracy board!

Ok, so one thing I didn’t mention about The Sign of Four was the queer clues (qlues) I found there. I wanted to focus on the objective story and give Mary her flowers. But there were some important elements to note!

Sherlock seemed jealous at the idea of John dating someone. Could just be friend-jealousy, but it was there.

“You have a lovely face. Very warm.” Sherlock to Watson in The Sign of Four, part 4

John pointed out (also in SoF, part 4) that Sherlock had done a case with a romantic interest before, Victor Trevor from The Gloria Scott! And Sherlock acknowledged it! As a reminder, Victor Trevor was an old friend of Sherlock’s from school and the only explicitly gay man we’ve had so far. I knew they had a flirty vibe!

So we know that Sherlock & Co. has an explicitly queer version of Sherlock Holmes! That’s fantastic! It still doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll get together with John, but honestly I’ll stay thrilled either way!

Knowing he’s a queer character also made his interaction with the drag queen really interesting. First of all he knew her, but he also seemed comfortable with the drag performance and her club in a way that felt like he’d been there before. Sherlock isn’t just queer, he’s had experience with queer culture. I doubt that gay clubs are his preferred scene, but I love the implication of a journey of self-discovery. Maybe it was something he experienced while in school with Victor.

Now for some bits that are more theory than evidence-based. I suspect that Sherlock has a big crush on John and has for a while. Not a surprise, as John has repeatedly been so kind, supportive, and actively interested in Sherlock’s passion for crime solving. I also think that Sherlock currently has zero intention of pushing for any romantic intimacy. Even aside from the fact that John only expresses interest in women and now has shown heartache from two major straight relationships, I really doubt Sherlock would be willing to take that sort of risk. He’s been deeply lonely for a lot of his life and John’s probably the best friend he’s ever had. Definitely not something worth risking when it’s much more likely John would be really uncomfortable.

(Doesn’t stop Sherlock from making a big effort to make a good impression on Ma Watson though. That was worth a minute of masking.)

Sherlock would certainly be SUPER concerned about any abilities he might have to be romantic anyway. Romance is a minefield for anyone, with all of the careful dancing around each other’s longings and vulnerabilities. Unassisted, Sherlock’s plans for a date would probably be a stressful mess. Maybe he’s even already experienced it.

But there’s also the issue that Sherlock is actively hiding things from John. In The Three Gables, we learn that Sherlock is super secretive about his family. I was relieved honestly, because I had thought that John had lived with Sherlock all this time and never asked about his past. It’s good to know it was just off-mic non-answers.

Obviously Mycroft is going to come up at some point, in some form. I still think he might be high-needs autistic, brilliant at government sorting, but downright unable to socialize or go anywhere besides work, home, and the Diogenes club. Maybe he’ll even be a sister in this version! That could be fun, and it’s not like Mycroft is an especially gendered name. But I’m sure he’s still going to have a significant position in the British government. Not the puppet-master he was in BBC’s Sherlock, but someone with some power and influence. I also still think he might be involved in cleaning up a few legal messes resulting from Sherlock’s cases and John’s obsession with uploading accounts of all the crimes they’ve committed.

We may also meet the extended Holmes family. I’d like that. Ma and Pa Holmes, maybe a Sherrinford (also a sister?). Hell, give Sherlock aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, whatever! Give us all the family and all the Sherlock background!

However, whoever his family is, I’m certain they’re a big deal. I think they’re super rich and paid for Sherlock to go to a bunch of different schools, to play around as a detective, and to have servants/caregivers. And I think Sherlock is very worried about how John would react if he knew, given how often John has expressed disdain for wealthy people. Sherlock doesn’t want to lie to his best friend, but he also can’t tell the truth. So he’s just saying nothing for as long as he can.

(Sherlock was definitely the one to buy or arrange for Tonga getting those football season tickets in the hospital.)

In conclusion: I continue to think that Johnlock is a real possibility on Sherlock & Co. If it’s going to happen it’s clearly going to be a hell of slow burn, but we’ve got some important groundwork now!

[blazinghotfoggynights]

No one knows if Buddie will happen. It may. It may not. I think there is just as good of a chance of Buddie happening as Eddie being written as realizing he deserves good things and that good thing being Ana or Marisol or some other woman and Taylor redeeming herself and becoming Mrs. Buckley. Tim may even write a BuckTommy endgame for all I know, but that doesn't change what the story is so far. (911 does crazy things. Anything is possible.)

What that leads me to is what about Buck and Tommy indicated anything more than a convenient plot device? Buck and Tommy had zero chemistry. ZERO. There was more chemistry with Buck and Ali and that was flatlined. The whole BuckTommy relationship felt forced and created in order to push a bigger storyline. Were we all watching the same show?

Personally, I think there were great subplots that were left unexplored. We could have been given Tommy being confronted about his racism and misogyny, Buck dealing with being with someone like that, Tommy's journey to becoming an openly gay man, Hen and Chimney finally opening up about what Tommy's behavior was like for them and how it feels to now be confronted with one of their tormentors on a frequent basis, etc. (Feel free to take any of those and write fic. Can you tag me if you do? I'd love to read it!)

Every single interaction between Buck and Tommy was cold, dismissive, or about sex. There was nothing deep there. Buck was, once again, trying to force something.

Go back to 7x3. Tommy PUSHES Buck away while watching Eddie. Tommy was spending time with Eddie every spare minute they had. He never once invited Buck to hang out. When Buck visited him at the hangar, Tommy simply checked him out, then was condescending. When Eddie arrived, Tommy's whole demeanor changed. He physically stood up straighter, began smiling, and couldn't wait to get away from Buck.

Tommy going to Buck's loft was not about attraction. He was dealing with realizing he couldn't have Eddie and it wasn't because of Marisol. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Tommy ever mentioning Marisol. He complained that he could never take Buck's place. That was someone congratulating the victor. Did you not hear the tone of Tommy's voice and his phrasing? He was not complimenting Buck at any point. He was annoyed and jealous.

He kissed Buck for something other than attraction. How did the fans who figured it out know? The man had no clue Buck was attracted to him because he was paying Buck dust!

Tommy had the chance to play with a baby bi and he took it. Buck was young, hot, and ready to do anything so Tommy took the offer.

When Buck tried to open up and be vulnerable after Bobby's heart attack, Tommy turned it into sexual innuendo. I don't care how you spin it, that conversation was creepy and not something someone who cares about you would say.

When Buck was at the cemetery, he mentioned his boyfriend wouldn't touch him. Tommy didn't ask for Buck to be healed for Buck's sake. He wanted to be able to sleep with him!

You don't have to be Buddie to have seen that relationship was a mess. Buck dove in head first and was reckless and needy immediately. Tommy was distant and cold. It was all right there in the viewers' faces the whole time. If you saw a deep, committed, loving relationship between Evan Buckley and Thomas Kinard, you were missing the blatant clues.

Tommy was there for fun and knew it would burn out. Buck was the same old Buck, begging for someone to love him and jumping in with his eyes closed. Eddie? Well, we have to wait to see which direction Tim chooses, but the past was really clear about who Tommy wanted to spend his time with initially.

Tim could easily send BuckTommy and Buddie fandom both into meltdowns by putting Eddie and Tommy together. Ijs. Then no one gets what they want. You never know with him.

[usuallythebadguy]

Seeking RP or collaborative fanficing!

Looking for RP partners/new pals, SFW/NSFW/Evolving, Short/Long term, play by post or chat form. These are my favourite worlds and characters to play AS or AGAINST. Of course, I'm open to many other characters also. I have no hard limits, can play dominantly or submissively as any oc and am adaptable to any ideas, concepts or pairings.

I have plenty of plot ideas, but I'm just as excited about catering to yours. Likewise, as much as I love canon pairings, I also love OCs and will happily romance or befriend your characters of any kind.

I love playing morally ambiguous bad guys and crazies but can be a perfect angel when needed. I'm nonbinary and in my thirties. While not necessary, would love to rp with people my age. Like mentioned, sfw and nsfw rps are fine! I have no hard limits, but am respectful of my rp partners! Also, potentially interested in doing fanfics with others, cuz that's cool too. I especially love slow burn long term rp <3

Arcane: Silco, Victor, Sevika, Singed, Vi, Jynx Deathnote: L, Light, Mastuda, Mikami, Mass Effect: Mordin, Jack, Wrex, Jaal Skyrim: Cicero, Derkeethus, Veezara, Lucian, Vicente Dragon Age: Cole, Varric, Sten, Josephine, Merrill Baldur’s Gate: Astarion, Abdirak, Kar'niss, Lae'zel, Karlach, Gale Steven Universe: Jasper Detroit Become Human: Connor, Hank, Inside Job: Rand, Reagan Hannibal TV Series: Will, Hannibal She Ra: Hordak, Entrapta, Scorpia Horizon Zero Dawn: Aloy, Erand, Kotallo, Nil Encanto: Bruno, Camilo Kipo: Jamack, Kipo, Hugo Simpsons: Flanders, Smithers, Bob, Skinner Rick & Morty: Rick, Morty, Jerry, Summer, Beth MLP: Discord, Queen Chrysalis Avatar: Zuco, Lin Beifong, Soka Harry Potter: Snape, Fallout: Cooper Howard, Norm, Lucy, Farcry: Joseph Seed, Supernatural: Castiel, Sam, Dean Snow Piercer: Melanie, Bess The Witcher: Geralt, Yennefer, Jaskier Vikings: Ragnar, Athelstan, Lagertha Stardew: Shane, Linus, Sebastian

[maxwell-grant]

hi! i've just read through a decent amount of ur analysis' and i gotta say 1- ur mind is incredible. the way u break things down and explain it is so interesting to read! and 2- you might've talked about this already somewhere i missed but i would love to know ur thoughts on the exclusion of harvey dent from the penguin? i feel like it was set up pretty well to introduce him? it might've been too much, and like. pulled the focus from oz but i just think that the mentioning of reál's anti-corruption taskforce and dent being a da just could've been so cool. especially considering the way the batman set bruce up to realize he needs to use his influence and power as a member of high society to also make effective change.

Thank you! That's very kind of you.

I don't think Harvey was excluded, I think he was just never really on the table. I don't think there was ever going to be a version of this show that featured Harvey Dent on the cast, even in just a name check, even if WB allowed them to feature him (which I don't think would be allowed, even if The Penguin team asked for it) - yeah, the anti-corruption task force seems tailor-made for him, but that doesn't come up until the last episode after the show worked it's way into Oz being able to step foot into City Hall. The show made clear efforts to distance itself from any major Batman elements that would draw attention away from Penguin and Sofia's stories, hence why all the other comic characters introduced here are total nobodies or minor league nobodies in unrecognizable forms like Magpie or Bloom - Two-Face is as big a Batman villain as it gets outside of the United Underworld, and there's very good reasons why this doesn't and can't namedrop Selina Kyle until the last moment Sofia's on screen.

Even if Harvey is showing up in the next movie, they would have stolen too much thunder from their finale as well as momentum for the next movie if this ended with the big formal announcement that Two-Face Is Coming (and tonight, Harvey Dent fucks men!). Disastrous for Lauren LeFranc's goals with the show (especially given she's not even attached to the next movie), disastrous for Matt Reeves' build-up for his next movie, disastrous for the whole press hype campaign they would want to run off of bringing Two-Face to the movies again following an initial trailer or cast reveal, just not a decision that would benefit anyone other than Two-Face fans combing this hoping for the breadcrumbs of a shout-out.

And to be honest, I'm not really expecting Harvey to show up in the next movie either - now granted, I don't know what to expect with The Batman 2: On Ice anymore. I am almost 100% sure that we're gonna get Robin, especially coming off of Victor in the show, and that's it - if it's gonna have Clayface or Mr.Freeze or Hush or the Court of Owls or whatever, I don't know and I don't even wanna know. But Reeves has made a lot of very concerted and very pointed and extremely necessary efforts to avoid comparisons to the Nolan movies, comparisons that still haunted this movie day one and keep haunting it (or at least they did, I think The Penguin might have actually killed them for now). I don't think he's gonna want at all to be the second guy to use Two-Face in the sequel of his prestigious gritty Batman inaugural offering. Batman Returns comparisons with The Penguin and Catwoman on Christmas? Sure, but nobody's ever seriously or credibly gonna accuse this of ripping off Returns, Batman Returns is an old and weird franchise failure turned cult movie, nobody's gonna think references to it are anything but a cute shout-out. But doing anything at all that invites direct comparisons to the more recent and still very much critically and culturally worshipped The Dark Knight? Unthinkable.

The odds of a Two-Face show? I think they're practically zero given how much similar material The Penguin already covered. The odds of Harvey Dent showing up in one of the spin-offs? Possible. Warner Bros told Reeves they "wanted to lean harder into the marquee characters" and that's part of why The Penguin lived where the other shows died. And if Harvey shows up at all in this world, that's probably his best odds. But to be fair: Batman Villains right now are getting better odds of being in things than any other kind of DC character. Fucking Clayface seems like he's getting a movie now (I'm of mixed thoughts about that, even if I think there are ways this could be really great). Right now, Harvey Dent has better odds of getting a movie or tv show sooner than Wonder Woman or Batgirl, if it's any consolation.

And like I said, he is the biggest Batvillain not in the United Underworld - so on the other hand, he might be too big to be completely sidelined, and it would be weird to set up an emerging anti-corruption task force operating on the political sphere of Gotham City and not at least allude to the guy who tends to be at the origin of that plotline. So, I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see if he gets the call soon.

[reikunrei]

Alright, it's Doctor Who time again! Today we're going to talk about the season 1 finale episodes:

"Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways."

"Bad Wolf" opens with the Doctor, Rose, and Jack Harkness waking up in strange locations with no memory of how they got there. Their amnesia and general confusion is blamed on a "transmat beam," saying it "does your head in" (something something Henry hitting his head in a cave and it giving him some sort of memory issues prior to the events of TFS, something something Victor acting strangely per the in-show newspapers after the Creel murders).

There's other people there, and they learn they've landed themselves on exaggerated versions of reality game shows: the Doctor on Big Brother, Rose on The Weakest Link, and Jack on What Not to Wear.

As the Doctor speaks to one of the other Big Brother contestants, Lynda, he remembers how he got there: They were all on the Tardis, when suddenly a bright light enveloped them, and then he woke up in the Big Brother house (why is it giving Will getting yoinked out of the shed). However, a transmat beam shouldn't have been able to breach the Tardis, and so he deduces that "this isn't just a game" and something else is going on/he was brought there for a reason.

It's all just slightly NINA, isn't it? Trapped in a "game" with actual stakes? Having some mysterious purpose greater than you can imagine? Talking to the "camera"? Anyway.

As Rose plays The Weakest Link, we see two employees who monitor the games talk amongst themselves about how she showed up out of nowhere and "it's like the game's running itself." Both Rose and the Doctor learn that these games are deadly when another player gets voted out of their respective games, but rather than simply exit stage right, they get disintegrated. It's "play or die."

The employees, still confused by the appearance of their new contestants, try to search for answers.

And the Controller is... well...

The resemblance is weird, right? But we'll talk about all her later, lest I spoil everything right off the bat.

The Doctor starts asking more questions, specifically if being in the games is worth it if it means people are going to die in order for someone to win. Lynda explains to him that:

Everyone say thank you @aemiron-main for the tfs screenshots.

For Lynda, she was chosen at random. For the Doctor, however, it's a different story, and it feels mighty suspicious that almost the exact same line used here is used toward Henry in TFS. Further evidence that Henry really was just trapped in a silly, terrible play game.

Rose is starting to become suspicious as well, specifically when one of the other contestants mentions the Bad Wolf Corporation, who's in charge of the games.

The words "Bad Wolf" have followed Rose and the Doctor throughout the entire first season, showing up in various episodes as a warning from other characters, as location names, or even simply as graffiti in the background of shots. They almost always take note of it, but the Doctor continuously brushes it off as a coincidence because it has yet to actually mean anything.

The Doctor, intent on getting out, opts for trying to get himself evicted. He succeeds, but, as the countdown in the disintegration chamber hits zero, nothing happens. He's proven himself correct: someone wants him there, so the game won't kill him.

He manages to break out the other side of the chamber, and is surprised to see it's somewhere he's been before: a space station called Satellite Five.

Satellite Five was introduced in an earlier episode this season, "The Long Game." In that episode, they visit in the year 200,000, smack in the middle of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. However, the Empire doesn't exist as it should, and the Doctor learns that the station, which broadcasts the news, has been deliberately lying to people in order to stunt the progression of the human race for the last near-century.

And I'm not going to get too deep into that episode here, but I'll just say...

It certainly contains some... interesting details. People who are able to "see" everything in existence, false narratives used to hide identities, people "not existing" for various reasons, dead people being puppetted by the chips embedded in their heads... anyway.

The Doctor destroys the people responsible and, supposedly, puts everything back to how it should be for them to begin advancing again. As he's seeing now, that didn't quite go as anticipated.

Lynda says it hasn't been called Satellite Five in a hundred years, and it's now called the Game Station.

This instantly makes me think of Brenner, and specifically something James talks about in his big analysis of TFS. He discusses how characters, like Brenner and especially Patty, attempt being helpful, or do things with the intention of being helpful, only to actually cause harm. Here, the Doctor attempted to set things right, and fully believed he had, but, in reality, he'd plunged the human race into a worse despair than it already was, unintentionally assisting in a greater plan he had no idea was unfolding in the background. Hell, it even makes me think about Henry unknowingly giving in to the Mind Flayer in TFS and in the VR game. Similarly, James also discusses the strange ties between Will and Brenner, and the wild yet not entirely unrealistic possibility that Will became Brenner via time travel in an attempt to "fix" things before they happened, only to become the one perpetuating it.

Meanwhile, the Corp.'s employees are still trying to figure out what's going on, and one of them speaks to the Controller.

I personally would kill to have "they are no one" be a line said to dissuade the MF from immediately going after the folks who go into the UD throughout the series, namely in ST4. Or even in relation to NINA? Staring at the way El was put into that closet by some weird version of One we don't see anywhere else, "outside of the game," and the fact that some rooms in NINA don't line up with the blueprints of the lab.

"They are no one" is a line that, you'll remember, is also said in that earlier episode I mentioned. There, Rose and the Doctor, not natively part of that future society, have no record of their existence when the antagonists try to find out who they are. "They are no one." They don't exist, just as they "don't exist" here in the games. Something something, "One doesn't exist."

The other employee tries to enter Archive Six, where transmat logs are housed, in an attempt to find out how these mystery contestants got on board, but the Controller refuses her access. It's becoming clear that the Controller knows something that we don't.

The Doctor and Jack reconvene, having both gotten out of their respective shows, while the Doctor tries to tap into the station's hardware to find Rose.

"NINA should be a basic memory machine, but the systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just a VHS player. It contains something else."

They track Rose down and rush to save her before she loses The Weakest Link. They burst into the studio and Rose runs to meet them, but gets disintegrated. The commotion gets guards called in, who arrest the Doctor, Jack, and Lynda. But they manage to surprise the guards and break free of their holding cell and gain access to Floor 500, the topmost level of the station where the control room is located.

There, they come face to face with the Controller. The Doctor tries to speak to her, but she can't respond.

That in and of itself sure has a kick to it... can't wait to learn more about NINA and where Henry's currently at. Especially when the station employee tells the Doctor that unauthorized transmats, etc., have been going on for years. She's been trying to do something to help for a long time.

The Doctor continues to try and figure out what's going on, searching through the computers for any type of information, while the gaggle of employees stuck with them in the control room ask if they can be let out rather than be kept as "hostages."

Can't believe they even had the Ray Carroll special in here.

At various points through the episode thus far, we've heard warnings of impending solar flares, which will disrupt transmissions and put things offline for a brief period. This finally occurs, and suddenly the Controller begins asking for the Doctor by name.

She explains that, with everything offline, her "Masters" won't be able to hear her. When the Doctor asks who her Masters are, she says that the name is "forbidden" and they wired her brain to control her thoughts. She managed to get the Doctor onto the station relatively unnoticed because her Masters don't watch the game shows, they only monitor the transmissions, so they wouldn't have noticed him.

Like... "Hiding [...] in the darkness"?

The solar flares dissipate, transmissions come back online, and she's barred again from speaking.

Meanwhile, Jack works out that the disintegration beam actually isn't a disintegrator and is in fact a secondary transmat system, meaning Rose is alive, they just have to find out where. Despite being heard by her Masters, the Controller gives them the coordinates to where Rose was transported. The Controller is then transported away, where she's ultimately killed by her off-screen Masters.

The Doctor tells the others that "Someone's been playing a long game," and whoever it is has been controlling the human race in secret for many generations now (including in that earlier episode). They realize there's a shielding signal at the coordinates the Controller gave them, hiding something, and when they cancel the signal, it reveals a fleet of hundreds of space ships - Dalek space ships (which should be impossible, seeing as they were all allegedly destroyed).

The Daleks address the Doctor, ordering him to not interfere with their stratagem or else they'll "exterminate" Rose. The Doctor's response?

He's having his El moment.

He says that he's going to rescue Rose despite his lack of plans or defenses, because he knows that attitude scares the Daleks.

The second episode, "The Parting of the Ways," opens on the Tardis landing on board the main ship of the fleet, materializing on top of Rose so she's safe inside. They eventually face the Daleks, and the Doctor taunts them as he's kept safe behind their force field, commenting that despite all emotion allegedly being bred out of the Daleks, he's sure that, deep down, they still feel fear when he shows up.

One Dalek, the Emperor, speaks up, informing him that only its ship survived, "falling through time, crippled, but alive." That one ship of Daleks worked in secret, infiltrating Earth and harvesting "dispossessed" humans for their DNA in order to create more Daleks. How very Flesh Flayer and Vecna of them.

The Dalek Emperor claims that it only harvested "one cell in a billion" that was worthy of being nurtured into a fully-fledged Dalek, but the longer they talk, the more it becomes clear that the Daleks have been tainted by the humanity they grew from. When Rose comments that they're "half human," the Emperor and surrounding Daleks protest, calling it "blasphemy" to make such an accusation.

When Vecna (rather, the MF) gets "taken down" from the inside? Having "consumed" those victims who probably "tainted" him with their humanity and their will to live? When they force him to accept he's been bending the truth to get what he wants? What then?

The Doctor & Co. retreat back to Satellite Five while the Daleks begin advancing toward Earth, the Emperor all the while speaking about how they'll "purify" the Earth and make it their "paradise." So anyway, how about I plug James's ST and religion posts again. I'm curious to see how much more we'll get when ST5 comes around, as various leaks have already given us a lot.

The Doctor decides that the best course of action is to retool the satellite station to transmit a Delta Wave, which will fry the brains of any creature in its path (read: the Daleks). However, they're not confident they'll have time to complete it, so Rose tries thinking of ways around it.

Anyway, remember that part I said earlier about James's theory about Will going back in time to try and fix things...

Suddenly, however, the Doctor leaps up, praising Rose's idea, claiming that, if he did go back and cross his own timeline, it would create enough energy to give them the boost they need to make the Delta Wave.

He rushes Rose into the Tardis and tells her to hold something down on the control panel. He exits, but rather than continue working, he remotely sends the Tardis away with Rose inside.

An El line and a Brenner line? Both from within NINA, no less? Sandra Bullock Well dot jpeg

A hologram of the Doctor appears to Rose inside the Tardis, saying it's activated "Emergency Programme One," which is sending Rose back home because the Doctor is in mortal danger, which he doesn't want her caught up in. El moment being locked in that closet and told to stay there where she's safe.

In short, there's no way for him to control which organisms the Delta Wave kills. It would kill everyone in the general vicinity, including himself and Rose and everyone on Earth. The Dalek Emperor mocks the Doctor for making the decision to kill humans and Daleks together.

The Doctor justifies the decision with the fact that, at this point in time, there's human colonies all over the universe, but these Daleks are the only Daleks in existence. Therefore, it's a necessary sacrifice if it means being able to kill all the Daleks once and for all. It's a "better" decision to kill them as humans rather than let them live, wherein they'd be forced to become Daleks. Something something, One killing the lab kids because it was better than living their whole lives trapped there.

The Doctor then asks the Dalek Emperor about the "Bad Wolf" that's been following them through their travels, but the Dalek claims that "They are not part of my design." Mysterious! There's yet another player hiding behind the scenes!

Back in the... past... present? Rose is sitting in a diner with her mom (Jackie) and her sort-of boyfriend (Mickey) telling them about what's going on.

Which just makes me think of the possibility of weird time-related stuff like this happening in ST5. We already see young Henry allegedly turning back time, and there's all the sort of weirdness around NINA possibly affecting the real world and time loops, and TFS Henry talks about how he can "see everything" ... all I'm saying is, it would be fun if there was time overlap like this explicitly in ST.

Here, Rose also has a moment about how upset she is that she can't help the Doctor. That he showed her "a better way of living your life. [...] That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away!" Okay, girlie, give us the core of ST on a silver platter right here.

It's here that, after storming out of the diner, she notices multiple cases of "Bad Wolf" written in graffiti all around her.

There's something in this, too, that makes me think of all the "warnings" we get throughout ST, like in how the MF will just... give up all its plans through Billy for some unknown reason, and having it framed as a way to scare El, when it could very possibly be someone farther on the inside trying to warn her, so she's prepared, without getting caught.

"Bad Wolf" is a link proving that she can get back to him.

Her plan is to break open the control panel on the Tardis to get to its heart. The Tardis, while a machine, is alive and telepathic, so Rose believes she can communicate with it.

Everyone say thank you James for the TFS and ST1 screenshots bc I was complaining about having to go hunting for them.

But really, Rose wishes to make contact with the Tardis in order to get it to do what she wants, and Brenner is trying to contact Dimension X and the UD in order to...? Anyway.

They finally manage to open it, and the panel gets torn away to show bright, golden light. Rose looks into it, and bright particle-like strands flow from the heart of the Tardis into her eyes. Like, no joke, it looks very similar to the glowing UD particles we see in ST4. Having now communicated with it, the Tardis returns to the Doctor.

Meanwhile, back on the Game Station, the Daleks have begun infiltrating the satellite and corner the last passengers on the very bottom level. One of them, who didn't believe the Doctor & Co. when they said Daleks were coming, shouts, "You can't! You don't exist!" as they advance and exterminate all of them. They sure love making existence a fickle thing.

The Doctor has also managed to finish creating his Delta Wave machine. All he has to do is push the lever, but the Dalek Emperor continues mocking him, saying that they (the Daleks) are immortal.

The Doctor struggles for a moment, hands on the lever, but he can't bring himself to push it. He chooses coward "any day."

Having effectively surrendered, the Doctor accepts that he's going to be killed by the Daleks, saying, "Maybe it's time," but then the Tardis appears. The doors burst open, revealing Rose in a halo of gold light, which glows and twists around her.

The Daleks call her the "Abomination" and attempt to kill her, but, with a lift of her hand, she deflects their laser beam. She says that she is the Bad Wolf, and she scatters the words through time as a message to herself. She was the one who did that.

The Doctor pleads with her to stop, warning her that, with the entire time vortex flowing through her head, she's "gonna burn." But she wants to keep the Doctor safe from the "false god" (the Dalek Emperor). The Dalek Emperor cries that it's immortal and can't be hurt, but Rose says:

She's having her TFS Henry moment fr fr.

She disintegrates all of the Daleks with a wave of her hand. "Everything must come to dust." She kills the Dalek Emperor, and the Doctor pleads with her to stop again, to "just let go," but she says, "How can I let go of this?" Another Brenner moment in here? Yeeeesh.

Just as she brought death to the Daleks, she also says she can "bring life." Prior to this, Jack had been collecting recruits to act as a defense against the Daleks with whatever arms they had. As established in previous episodes, the Daleks are more-or-less immune to most weapons, and thus many of these people were killed, including Jack. Rose, with her newfound power, brings him back to life.

The Doctor shouts at her that she "can't control life and death" and she bluntly says, "But I can." She's starting to hurt, though, and says as much. She can see all of time, what is, was, and could be, and the Doctor says that's what he sees all the time, and "doesn't it drive you mad?" She can't let go of this power herself, though, and the Doctor finally completes the circle of romantic and sexual tension between them with a kiss, absorbing the energy of the time vortex from her. Miss thang got unflayed by "her" Doctor.

Eventually, she wakes up on the floor of the Tardis, now closed back up and being manned by the Doctor as they leave the now-destroyed Dalek fleet behind.

Damn, she's even having a Victor moment?? She's got the whole package.

The Doctor tries to play it cool, but he suddenly has a fit of pain, jerking and doubling over as he winces (okay, TFS Henry). Having absorbed the energy of the time vortex, every cell in his body is dying, but the only way to stop it is to use the Time Lords' method of cheating death: regenerating.

You're gonna change, huh? Just like TFS Henry did? Just like Brenner Sr. did? Surely this means nothing when you bring regeneration into it, too.

The episode ends with Christopher Eccleston turning into David Tennant and they lived happily ever after.

I'll never be good at making these things brief. Sorry. Anyway, onto some more commentary.

First, I want to touch on a brief aside I made at the beginning about how the transmat beam is reminiscent of the light that glows in the shed when Will goes missing. Rose, the Doctor, and Jack all get engulfed in a growing white light before all vanishing from the Tardis, which is a very similar sequence of events to Will entering the shed, being engulfed in the growing light of the light bulb, and then vanishing in an instant.

Now, we have yet to actually see what truly happened in the shed that night. We're meant to infer that the Demogorgon did all that, but based on how we see later Demogorgons behave, it doesn't quite make sense. Em has spoken extensively about the oddities of the Demogorgon in ST1, and James has spoken about the potential for Joyce's near-misses with the Demogorgon having been visions.

We've also discussed (though I don't think there's been an official post made about it yet) the possibility of Will getting grabbed by something/someone other than the Demogorgon, and I don't mean Brenner, either. I mean, as in James's Superspy post I linked earlier, someone like one of the Henwards or even El, in some way shape or form, giving Will an out before he gets grabbed by the Demogorgon. Especially when the growing bright light has only ever been associated with El using her powers in extreme situations (ie. in ST2 when closing the gate, and ST4 in NINA).

In DW, the light was a call for help as the Controller grabbed the only people she knew could help fix the situation they were in. And while it ended up putting the Doctor and his companions into a dangerous situation, it was successful. While somewhat backwards, perhaps the light in the shed is something reminiscent of that. Perhaps it was meant to represent someone helping Will, rather than it being part of the attack from the Demogorgon.

While we're on the topic of Will, I also want to further discuss the scene where the Doctor ultimately bows down from triggering the Delta Wave. He can't bring himself to kill people, at least not anymore, and this is a huge step in his character arc this season. For reference, you can check out my previous post about the episode "Dalek" where he explicitly struggles with this.

There's always been a lot of discussion about what Will's actions will be in ST5. Many people believe that he'll have an active hand in killing Vecna (and others) in order to get revenge for what was done to him/how he was mistreated. And while I don't doubt he'll have the urge, I don't think that will be the end-point of his character arc. It's simply not in his nature.

He's been pushed into a corner, much like how the Doctor was pushed into a corner in "Dalek," but as soon as someone intervenes to get him to see reason, he backs down, and he retains that. I believe that we'll see Will get pushed close to the edge, but never take that final step. Or, at the very least, regret it when he does. Much like how the Doctor deems it better to choose the "cowardly" route and save everyone in the vicinity, I believe Will will ultimately come to understand that violence is not the answer, and killing won't actually solve the problem.

Now onto the similarities between Vecna and the Controller.

I already showed how, visually, they're strikingly similar, with Vecna being strung up by vines which are literally plugged into his back, much like how the Controller is strung up on wires plugged into her body. Paired with blue lighting and freaky shadows? And the Controller even having pale white eyes? Surely it's just a coincidence haha :)

However, I also want to talk about something that James has talked about before. In that post, he discusses how Vecna never seems to use his abilities or speak when he's not plugged into the UD vines, the conclusion being that the physical Vecna we see, meaning the one outside of visions/the mindscape, is just a puppet without any actual control. And, as I explained above, the Controller has an extreme lack of control despite her name. She's presented as the one in control, but she's merely a front to hide the actual perpetrator, and she's being forced to act the way she does.

To make it clear, the bare bones of what I'm positing here is: the Controller is to the Daleks what Vecna is to the Mind Flayer.

I also linked this post above, wherein James discusses the potential of some sort of meddling happening from a "spy" of sorts, most likely one of the Henwards, in an attempt to help our protagonists without getting caught by the Shadow or whoever is holding him hostage. This immediately popped into my mind when the Controller found her method of skirting around the Daleks, first by getting the Doctor into the games, since she knew the Daleks didn't watch the games, and then by taking advantage of the solar flares to speak to the Doctor without getting caught.

Though some information is hidden from her, she has more information on the Dalek side than anyone else (ie. the coordinates where Rose was sent), and thus that's insider information that she can share to assist our protagonists (much like Will's "close gate" moment, which he very likely had no way of knowing on his own without someone else giving him the insider information).

In short, she, like Vecna, is presented as the one who's "in control" of everything, but (like Vecna?) she's revealed to be what's essentially a diversion who's been trapped against her will.

I also wanted to touch on a line I screenshotted above, about how the Controller "hasn't been human for years." We've already been presented with the equation Henry=One=Vecna, and even if I don't subscribe to that equation, it's meant to imply that Vecna was human at some point; he wasn't borne purely of the UD like the other creatures.

While many people leap to demonizing Vecna, the Controller reminds us that we're meant to see the tragedy in it. The Controller was hooked up when she was 5, making it the only life she's ever known. If we follow the equation above and Henry really is Vecna, then he was kidnapped when he was 12, imprisoned in a lab for decades, and then launched into a literal hellscape and trapped with no way of escaping. While he was older when all of this began, it's more or less the only life he's ever known.

Like the Controller, he was forced to adapt and change for the situation he was thrust into. And while the employees joke about the Controller no longer being human, she very much was one.

We can even argue that she was still human. Mostly because, yeah, of course she is, but also because of what we see occur with the Daleks. The Dalek Emperor claimed that, though it made these new Daleks from humans, it took one tiny cell from its human victims and cultivated it into pure Dalek. But then, as detailed above, the Doctor understands that they're still tainted by humanity. There's no escaping it, no matter how much you or anyone else tries to change it.

I've spoken in other posts, mainly this one and this one, about the importance of "humanity" in Doctor Who and why I think it's something that carries over heavily into Stranger Things. As such, I won't get into it too much here, but it's just something I want to point out again based on what we see in these two episodes, especially in regard to humanity also being a detriment. For the Daleks, humanity is a stink that makes them despise themselves. Humanity itself is a weapon, just not in the traditional sense. Which, again, I'm confident is going to carry over into the final season of ST in a big way.

Especially in conjunction with Rose's moment of "making a stand" and wanting to make a difference in the world. Living is about kindness, compassion, and helping others rather than just sitting idly by and letting those who are hurting bear the brunt of it on their own.

[littlepeakydevil]

Regarding Embers in the Frost

Right so as I mentioned in my previous post about my old series being reuploaded, I'm going about things a little differently regarding Embers in the Frost.

I'm really not happy with how it's been turning out, so I'm likely going to rewrite the whole thing mostly from scratch. But this may take some time since I need to re-visit my outline and get my thoughts organized on how I want to go about it.

I'm not sure how long this is going to take, since it is a side project and I have other fics that I also want to start working on. So I'm going to leave a little list of some of the primary changes that I'm making under the read more. That way, anyone who was planning to include Lily in their fics can adjust if they would like. (Though I want to reiterate that there's zero obligation to adopt any of the changes I've made to your own fics. You don't even have to change her name if you don't want to.) So you all aren't waiting around for me to get anything out.

Overall Changes:

Lily's full name is Lilia Bolton, but she goes by Lily 99% of the time.

She has an older sister, Jeyne, and a younger brother, Theodan.

Her parents both gave more time and attention to her siblings. Victor adores Jeyne, but he grows to detest Lily because of how openly rebellious she is.

Genevieve struggles to understand Lily, even if she loves her. I'm also changing it to be Lily rather than Teddy who carries more resentment towards her mother for not doing much to stop Victor's abuse. Because Teddy is Genevieve's favorite child.

Jeyne:

Sunny, ditzy front that hides a master manipulator. Very good at pretending to go along with her parents' expectations, only to do whatever she wants when their backs are turned.

Jeyne is already married prior to Lily meeting Tommy. She and Lily didn't get along very well as children because they were so competitive with each other.

She grows to understand Lily better and have better perspective on how their parents treated her after she is married and living away from the rest of the Boltons for a while.

She has two children, a boy and a girl.

I'm changing it from Genevieve to Jeyne who helps Lily get out of marrying Matthos by sneaking a letter to Tommy informing him of the impending wedding. This is a turning point in their relationship and they get along much better afterwards.

This also causes a massive schism between her and Victor. He doesn't disown her like he does Lily, but they're still estranged.

Teddy:

Mama's boy.

Was closer to Jeyne as kids, but he and Lily get closer after Jeyne gets married and moves away.

Still gay. Still a ray of sunshine. Not much has changed except that he doesn't hold as much resentment towards Genevieve as the previous version of him did.

Other than that, the overall story is still the same. I'm debating adding some more angst during the infertility plotline, but the potential outcome of that would be DARK so I'm not sure if I want to go down that road.

I also have other various GOT AU ideas including a highborn Lily x stableboy Tommy one but that's another topic for another day. 🫣

Tagging my GOT crew. But again, please, please don't feel any pressure to adopt any of these changes, loves. I just wanted to make everyone aware of them regarding my own fics.

@call-sign-shark @evita-shelby @justrainandcoffee @cillmequick @peakyswritings

[honey-tongued-devil]

Ur so real for that rant post girl. Too many people are comfortable complaining about (insert niche or underused trope) not being present in free content. The complaint that there is 'too many' afab/women/generally fem leaning readers or whatever in fanfic is honestly so fucking stupid. Fanfiction and fandom spaces in general tend to be predominately populated by those kinds of ppl, then others are shocked when most of the art and writing is centered around those groups of ppl. The thing you mentioned with the ''thIs ChAraCtEr iS oBviOusLy GaY'' crowd that thinks their personal hc is gospel is suuuppperr annoying. Ive seen it with both silco and victor from arcane, if its a femreader or character you ship them with bitches go ballistic over some pixels that according to them are clearly gay or something. Even with characters like astarion who are cannonically attracted to women it happens.

Ppl are even bitter enough to post things like '' *insert character* x fem!reader hc: He leaves you for a man '' then proceed to not male reader stuff themselves but will whine and shit their pants over the lack of male or amab creations. Like the math aint mathing. At the end of the day you dont get to complain about free art and writing not catering to your specific taste, fan works are made by people not content cows. If you want something written, write it ya self.

I’m honestly confused that I haven’t received backlash, but I guess they’ve just chosen to ignore me (especially since even in the comments, people seem to agree with me).

Regarding people pushing headcanons: I swear, my patience is at zero. I was blocked en masse for drawing Astarion with myself because “Astarion is obviously gay.” As if I didn’t pay my €60 for the game and didn’t do the romance route with him—who is canonically bisexual. No character has a declared sexuality, except for a few in BG3, but even then, it’s apparently never enough, and people will still hassle you. This applies to Astarion, Silco, and literally any character.

And, as someone wrote in the comments: “He’s obviously gay because he’s flamboyant is not the hot take you think it is; it’s just a harmful stereotype."

+ I’ll happily repeat what I’ve said in the comments: I’m AFAB, a lesbian, and non-binary. I walk around in heels and a second-hand pink faux-fur coat. I could write a reader that reflects me, but I don’t. I choose to write neutral readers or tackle other issues because I’m the first to think representation matters. I’ve been there, reading things and never finding myself represented. But—and this is a big “but”—I’m a small artist who, unironically, starts creating art non-stop at 9 AM. I’m not paid unless someone decides to support me. Everything I make is for me.

If someone makes a request that inspires me and I have time, I might do it. I draw things and post them. I work for free, which means nobody has the god-given right to harass me.

Want to complain about representation? Take it up with Netflix or another big corporation, not with me—a 24-year-old Italian recent graduate who, instead of minding her own business, spends her time creating free content. Especially because, when I make fanart that focuses solely on the characters I like, nobody cares that I’m a femme in the fandom. But the moment I draw myself with a character, suddenly there are too many women and too much content for them, and I become a problem.

I’m not going to draw things I have zero interest in just because someone else can’t be bothered to make it themselves. Especially when my inbox is full of over 100 requests from people who ask politely and behave respectfully even if I can’t fulfill their requests. The issue here is that someone has convinced you (not you op, I'm happy to yap) it’s your right to be misogynistic and a pain in the ass, and that’s just not the case.

[justiceforfoxface]

I Should’ve Drowned: Finnick Odair x Gender-Neutral Reader

*so: this is very canon-divergent, reader is gender-neutral and mentions having a district partner who I also tried to keep gender-neutral*

possible tw for drowning, if you didn’t read the title

925 words

I know I have no chance in the Quarter Quell. I won my Games purely by chance, by being quiet and hiding until the last cannon went off. In the Quell, I’ve resigned myself to death, especially seeing as I lacked several basic life skills. It takes me several minutes to tie a simple knot, and I can’t even swim.

But my name was pulled from District Nine’s (very small) pool of tributes, and I was taken back to the Capitol.

Now, I’m standing here, as the clock ticks down to zero, surrounded by tributes much stronger and faster and taller than me. I must look like a stick figure to them.

Then, the clock starts, and the Games begin.

My first instinct is to run, because that’s how I survived last time. So I turn and sprint away from the madness at the cornucopia. Everything is water, I notice as I run. One wrong move and I trip, fall, and most likely die. 

Lucky me.

I hear screams, bloodthirsty screams and screams of pain, and then I hear cannons. Two already. Three. Four.

How are these victors dying so fast?

A spark of guilt emerges in me when I remember my district partner, Arley. I just ditched them for my own survival. But while they’re not very fast, they’re pretty big, and strong. They’ll make it at least through the night, and then I’ll try and find them in the morning.

Then, a huge weight comes crashing down on me, and I fall to the ground, face-first. There’s another tribute on top of me, holding a bloodied knife, ready to split my skull in half. I try to wiggle out from under them, but if they caught up to me, they must be pretty fast. No matter what I do, I’m going to be dead in minutes. Might as well take my attacker with me.

So I push myself sideways, and roll into the water, my attacker losing their grip on me and falling in as well. In a matter of seconds, their head rises above the water and they climb out easily.

That was a stupid idea.

I try to stay afloat, but all I’m doing is flapping my arms desperately, and if I were to make it out of the water, I’d just get stabbed. So I stop trying. 

The cold water fills my lungs almost instantly, weighing me down and pulling me further and further into it. I suddenly feel bad for anyone who’s ever drowned, or come close to it, because this is terrifying. 

I have to remind myself that this is what I want. I want to die, and I want to drown. So I close my eyes, and try to slow my breathing, and let the water take me.

…….

Everything’s blurry when I sit up, and the sky is dark and cloudy. It’s nighttime. I should probably go find someplace to hide-

How did I survive?

I drowned. I made sure of that. And here I am, my clothes damp and sticky against my skin, my hair matted to the sides of my face and almost covering my eyes. I sit up, and pain prickles against my back. I was leaning against a tree.

I try to open my mouth, but all that comes out is a coughing fit and some water. I look around, and then I see it. The flickering of a fire coming from not too far away. And not a big fire. More like a fire you’d cook food over. 

I stand up slowly, my legs and arms shaking. On my way over to the fire, I lean against whichever tree is nearest, shifting most of my weight to the side I’m using to lean.

In just under a minute, I reach the fire. 

No one’s there.

The trees rustle, and a young man with tan skin, blonde hair, and emerald-green eyes comes out from between them, holding a dead rat I assume he means to cook.

“You’re awake,” he simply says, and then sits down by the fire and places the rat over it. 

I know who this is. Finnick Odair. Won his Games at fourteen. Did he save me? 

“I should’ve drowned,” I manage to say, still leaning against a tree. 

“Well, you didn’t,” he says, flashing a quick smile at me. “You’re welcome.”

“Why did you save me?” I ask, sinking down to the ground and crossing my legs to sit by the fire. I figure he’s not going to kill me if he saved me from drowning, or, not yet anyways.

“You’ve won the Games,” Finnick says.

“Everyone here has,” I say, still confused. “I’m not any different.”

“You won your Games by being quiet,” he clarifies. “By hiding. And I figure that would make you a useful ally.”

I stare at him. “You want…me…as an ally?”

Finnick Odair, the Finnick Odair, wants me as an ally. The person who got a three at the training center, the person who can’t swim and won their Games by luck, is supposed to be a good ally.

“Yeah,” he says, as if it’s the easiest thing in the world to understand. “Also, I just saved your life, so I think you owe me at least a partnership.”

“Okay,” I say. I’m not going to argue. If I’m allied with Finnick Odair, my chances of survival will shoot up.

He extends his hand. “Partners?”

My hand’s still slightly sticky from almost drowning, but I reach out and shake his hand anyways. “Partners.”

[harufallinwonderland]

My ships cause I feel cute

Moot ships (aka their yumeships and ocs) (if my moots see this and A Yumeship of theirs isn’t on this doesn’t mean I don’t ship it just means I have ALOT of ships to write down)

@/shinysparklesapphires

Baritone (suite Precure) x Sapphire (Barisapph)

(Twst fandorm oc ship) Yuuki x Vivienne (Yune)

——

@/Maou the tree

Lunar vow Theresa (HI3) x Maou (Terimaou)

Thelema x Maou x Songque (both from HI3) (Thelemaouque)

—-

@/Xen-blank

Anon (blush blush) x Xen (Xenon)

Cole (blush blush) x Xen (Xole)

Eli (blush blush) x Xen (Xeli)

Scale (blush blush) x Xen (Xale)

(Oc x canon) Kon (Dc) x Xen (Dc oc) (XenKon)

(Oc x canon) Bruce (Dc) x Victor (DC oc) (BruVic)

—

@/Kamenriderbake

George Karizaki (kamen rider revice) x Brooke (George Brooke)

Kuroto Dan (kamen rider ex-aid) x Hack (Kurohack)

Yanma Gast (Ohsama sentai King-ogher) x Moth (yanmoth)

Fuwa Isamu (kamen rider zero one) x Gullveig (FuwaGuili)

Suga Kenzo (kamen rider gavv) x Bug (Bugzou)

🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜 🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜 🤍💜🤍💜🤍

SPECIAL MENTION

Kiana Kaslana x Raiden Mei (KiaMei)

My favorite ship of all time!

🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜 🤍💜🤍💜🤍💜 🤍💜🤍💜🤍

MXM:

(Also note the ship names may not be the normal ship names if the ships have A more common name please tell and I’ll edit it)

(Also I’m A multishipper so expect A few characters appearing more than 1 time)

(Also All my 10/10 ships have heart emojis next to them and yes 10/10 and otps can be two seperate things don’t question my logic I don’t even know myself)

Lelouch vi Britannia x Suzaku Kurugi (Code geass) (Suzalulu) (used to be my favorite ship of all time) (otp) 💜🤎

Dang heng x Jing Yuan (Honkai star rail) (Jingheng) (otp)

Black star x death the kid (Soul eater) (DeathStar)

Sonic the hedgehog x silver the hedgehog (Sonsilver)

Leona Kingscholar x Idia Shroud (Twst) (Leoida)

Taro Momoi x Sonoi (Avataro Sentai donbrothers) (Mononi) 💙❤️

Gira Husty x Jeramie Brasieri (Ohsama sentai donbrothers) (Giramie)

Takeru Shiba x Genta Umemori (Samurai sentai Shinkenger) (TakeGen)

Kairi Yano x Keiichiro Asaka (Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs KeiSatsu Sentai Patranger) (Kaichiro)

Sento Kiriyu x Banjou Ryuga (kamen rider Build) (BEST MATCH)

Kazuma Kenzaki x Hajime Aikawa (kamen rider blade) (Kazume)

Taiga Hanaya x Hiiro Kagami (Kamen rider ex-aid) (Bravesnipe) (otp)

Henri Wakamiya x Masato Aisaki (Hugtto precure) (Hensato)

Akito Shinonome x Tsukasa Tenma (Project sekai) (Akikasa)

Wise x Lighter (Zenless zone zero) (LightWise)

Wally west x Dick Grayson (dc comics) (Birdflash)

Midori Takamine x Yuzuru Fushimi (Enstars) (YuzuMido) (otp)

Tim Drake x Konner Kent (dc comics) (TimKon)

Bruce Wayne x Clark Kent (dc comics) (Superbat)

Sora x Riku (Kingdom hearts) (Soku)

Kakashi Hatake x Might Guy (Naruto) (Kakagai) (otp)

Touya Kinomoto x Yukito Tsukishiro (Card captor Sakura) (Touyuki) (otp)

Kai x Cole (ninjago) (Lavashipping) (otp)

Nico di angelo x Will solace (percy jackson franchise) (Solangelo)

Ivan x Till (Alien stage) (Ivantill)

Hajime Hinata x Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (Danganronpa 2) (HajiHiko)

Shuichi Saihara x Kaito momota (Danganronpa V3) (Kaiichi)

Mondo Owada x Kiyotake Ishimaru (Danganronpa) (ishiMondo)

Kuzhuchi Souda x Gundam Tanaka (danganronpa 2) (Soudam)

FXF:

Bronya Zaychik x Seele Vollerei (both Seeles as they are just the same person) (Honkai impact 3rd) (BronSeeles) (does this count as poly????? Because the two Seeles ARE the same person) 💙🩶❤️

Durandal/Bianka Ataegina x Rita Rossweisse (Honkai impact 3rd) (DuraRita) (otp) 💛🤍

Shiina x mimi (i wish to love you untill your dying day) (Shimi) (otp)

Mana Aida x Regina (doki doki precure) (MaGina) (otp)

Mana Aida x Rikka Hishikawa (doki doki precure) (Maikka) (otp)

Hibiki Hojo x Kanade Minamino (Suite precure) (HibiKana)

Nagisa Misumi x Honoka Yukishiro (Futari wa Precure) (Nagihono) (otp)🖤🤍

Tsubomi Hanasaki x Itsuki myoudouin (heartcatch precure) (Tsuki)

Mirai Asahina x Liko izayoi (mahou tsukai precure) (MiraiLiko)

Akira kenjou x Yukari Kotozume (Kira kira precure a la mode) (yukaki)

Hikaru Hoshino x Lala Hagoromo (Star twinkle precure) (HikaLala)

Sora Harewataru x Mashiro Nijigaoka (hirogaru sky precure) (SoraShiro) (otp)

Hana Nono x Homare Kagayaki (Hugtto precure) (HanaHoma) (otp)

Hana Natsuki x Sakura Igarashi (Kamen rider Revice) (HanaSaku)

Mari ohara x Dia Kurosawa (love live Sunshine)

Rin Hoshizora x hanayo Koizumi (love live school idol project) (RinPana)

Shizuku Osaka x Kasumi Nakasu (love live Nijasaki) (otp)

Ai Miyashita x Rina tennoji (love live Nijasaki) (AiRina)

Setsuna Yuki x Yu Takasaki (love live Nijasaki) (Setsuyuu)

Sumire Heanna x keke Tang (love live Superstar) (SumiKeke) (otp)

Shiki Wakana x Mei Yoneme (love live superstar) (shikimei)

Ichigo Hoshimiya x Mizuki Kanzaki (Aikatsu) (IchiZuki) (otp)

Ichigo Hoshimiya x Aoi Kiriya (IchiAoi) (Aikatsu)

Yuzu Nikaido x Lily Shirogane (Aikatsu stars) (YuzuLily) (otp)

Minori Hanasato x Haruka Kiratani (Project sekai) (Minoharu) (otp)🤎💙

Airi Momoi x Shizuku Hinomori (project sekai) (ShizuAi) (otp)🩵🩷

Kohane Azusawa x An Shirashi (Project sekai) (Anhane)

Mizuki Akiyama x Ena Shinonome (Project Sekai) (MiziEna) (otp)

Shiho Hinomori x Saki Tenma (project sekai) (ShihoSaki)

Ichika Hoshino x Honami Mochizuki (project sekai) (Ichinami)

Honami Mochizuki x Kanade Yoisaki (project sekai) (HoNade)

The Herta x Ruan Mei (Honkai star rail) (The Ruanta)

Kafka x (hsr) Himeko (honkai star rail) (Kafmeko)

Mizi x Sua (Alien stage) (MiziSua)

Aoi Asahina x Sakura Ogami (danganronpa) (AoiSaku)

Kaede Akamatsu x Maki Harukawa (danganronpa V3) (Kaemaki)

Madoka Kaname x Homura Akemi (Madoka Magica) (MadoHomu) (otp) 🩷🖤

Sayaka Miki x Kyoko Sakura (Madoka Magia) (Sakyo) (otp)

MxF:

Dick Grayson x Koriand’r (DC) (DickKory) (OTP) 💙❤️

Sonic the hedgehog x Amy Rose (Sonic the hedgehog) (SonAmy) (otp)

Amy rose x Metal sonic (sonic the hedgehog) (Metamy) (otp) 🩷💙

Fuwa Isamu x Yua Yaiba (Kamen rider zero one) (Fuyua) (Otp)

Tsukasa Tenma x Nene Kusanagi (Pjsk) (NeneKasa)

Bruce wayne x Selina Kyle (Dc) (Batcat)

Mao Isara x Anzu (enstars) (AnAo)

Tsubasa Inuzuka x Sononi (Avataro Sentai Donbrothers) (Tsunoni) (OTP)🖤🤍

Naruto Uzumaki x Hinata Hyuga (Naruto) (NaruHina)

Percy Jackson x Annabeth Chase (PJO) (Percabeth)

Nia x Jay (Ninjago) (Jaya) (otp)💙💙

Hyuna x Luka (Alien stage) (HyuLuka)

Siegfried Kaslana x Cecilia Schariac (SiegLia) (otp) (my parents) 🩵🤍

Makoto Naegi x Kyoko Kirigiri (Danganronpa) (Naegiri)

Makoto Naegi x Mukuro Ikusaba (Danganronpa) (Neakusaba)

Hinata Hajime x Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa) (Chinata)

Gundam Tanaka x Sonia Nevermind (Danganronpa) (Gunia)

Shuichi Saihara x Kaede Akumatsu (Danganronpa) (Saimatsu) (otp)

Kaito Momota x Maki Harukawa (Danganronpa) (KaiMaki) (otp)

Sakura Kinomoto x Syaoran Li (Cardcaptor Sakura) (SakuSyao) (otp)

Roxas x Xion (Kingdom hearts) (Roxion)

POLY: (I’m not putting all the names)

Go princess poly (Main four cures of Go Princess Precure)

Pirates poly (the GoKaigers from Kaizoku sentai GoKaiger)

ChikaRikaYou (love love sunshine)

“I love you and all you guys” (this is A meme from the game) (Xenoblade chronicles 2) (Rex x Pyra X Nia X Mythra) (otp) 💙❤️🩶💛

=====================================

(List subject to change depending if I get other ships and/or I remember ones I forgot)