#so no she does not consider herself a member of the Horde really

[ooc-miqojak]

Year 6: The Burning of Quel'thalas

The Second War was well under way, and reports had begun to pour in from scouts in the south - the Horde had allied with the Amani, and the bloodlust of the Orcs and the Amani combined had over-run the borders of Quel'thalas. Civilians were advised to retreat to the city proper, to seek refuge before the brutish onslaught of enemies both old and new, as they defiled the sacred forests of the High Elves.

The Elves had sent aid to Lordaeron - the Orcs were never supposed to have come this far north. It was unfathomable, at first.

But it was never enough for the Horde - never enough blood, never enough terror; the Amani kept coming now, further emboldened by Orcs wielding necromancy, and orcs on dragon-back. She hadn't known, then, what a 'Death Knight' was - no one had, but Gul'dan - and even then, the twisted creations weren't what they would one day become; and yet, they were no less dangerous to the people of Quel'thalas than the monsters that would follow in similar footsteps years down the line, to further defile her home.

The young noblewoman had been forced to flee, alongside everyone else - forced to seek shelter within the magical barrier protecting Silvermoon, and put her faith in the Farstriders, the Magi of Dalaran, and the brave soldiers of the Alliance that faced down the bloodthirsty berserkers who had routed around from the west, putting pressure on the last Alliance outpost left standing.

Her aunt had warned her away from the walls of the city, but the plumes of smoke from the forest beyond weren't something that Lilliana could just ignore. She'd grown up chasing the gentle, whispering winds of Quel'thalas - she'd sat among the rustle of gilded leaves, doodled the Springpaws from afar, watched the Dragonhawks swoop and dive and perform intricate mating dances every spring.

And the Horde was burning it all.

The forests of her people.

The animals, and the people therein.

They'd enslaved the most noble of races to commit an atrocity that the young woman couldn't - no, wouldn't - look away from now, no matter how it ached to watch the flames encroach, or smell the smoke on every breeze; she would commit the desolation of her people and her home to memory now, and forever.

She would never forgive the Orcs - nor their barbaric Horde - for what they'd done, if she survived this siege.

[n7punk]

"Superzero" Fic Notes

Superzero, my secret superhero AU, is finally done! As usual, it went way longer than predicted, but I had a lot of fun with it so thanks for being along for the ride. The fic notes are… long.

Epilogue Life:

Scorpia takes longer learning her powers than is “typical” as a result of the crack in the garnet, but it does slowly heal over in her care. Her powers are also just a particularly dangerous set, but she learns to aim them at the technology and weapons of those coming at her rather than the heart. It takes a bit of training, but eventually she joins them in the field. The entire Alliance considers her the most likely to compromise them, but she’s one of the fold, so they take her in.

Catra continues to train alongside her and eventually the papers pick up on a secret member of the Alliance between some odd occurences and the name Ghost being thrown around. It’s still just speculation that’s never confirmed, but Catra is a part of the plan.

With the Horde dissolved, they do still see the odd supervillain or group attempting to rise up in their place (the Crimson Waste, for once) so they still have superheroing to do, not to mention natural disasters to help out in, but they aren’t as busy as they were before. They have more time for each other. And also studying. Catra of course finishes law school and passes the bar, eventually becoming a lawyer. Adora is stupidly proud of her. She works in a clinic for a while before becoming a full vet herself, but she gets there too and they do end up with that bayview apartment she wants eventually.

Chapter 1: Chance Encounter

⦁ Adora was Going Through It™️ when she fought Shadow Weaver, as the breakup was still fresh and she needed an outlet, which ended up being Shadow Weaver’s face. The Alliance had been fighting her for years, and she was personally responsible for the incident that caused Adora to miss their date, so the next time Adora fought her, she was pretty much screwed. Years of terrorizing the Fright Zone and one interrupted date gave She-ra all the motivation she needed to take her down.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Melog’s capture was originally the button on this chapter, but I didn’t want them to be captured for that long so I decided to imply the library attack’s purpose earlier

Chapter 3: Overworked

⦁ “Catra can’t tell she’s looking at her cleavage” Well she couldn’t until Adora’s eyes snapped to meet her and then she felt the change. She didn’t know where she was looking but like, come on. She’s so lucky Catra was so tired.

Chapter 4: Movie Night/Return

⦁ The mentions of the kitchen light are a reference. Even if you have good taste you probably won’t draw the connection though lmao.

⦁ Originally, Adora was always supposed to use the window. In fact, in the first draft of chapter one (which ended up almost entirely rewritten), Catra’s backpack got left at the library so Adora had to bring her in through the window and that’s what established the pattern, but then I tried to write that and realized how logistically dumb that was. I still intended for her to switch to using the window pretty quickly, but I was basically just waiting for a good time for them to have the talk about her neighbors possibly seeing and by then I realized that my early idea for roof meetups just made more sense.

Chapter 5: Rooftop

⦁ Initially the fic was supposed to start here. I really wanted to write this fic for The Scene™️ (more on that later) so it kind of made sense to start the fic with Catra already friends with She-ra and then I’d get a chapter or two of these secret meetings and flirting, and then I would get into the kiss. When I went to write the fic, though, I decided I should show the initial rescue in a prologue kind of thing and then do some skipping forward through their friendship. I started writing chapter 2 though and it just kept continuing “in real time” and I absolutely couldn’t skip that angst because it was fun, so I ended up just writing the whole thing and having chapter 5 be more like what I thought 1 & 2 would be initially.

⦁ Catra assumed She-ra was stopping by when she had Alliance business in the area, and that is partially true, but Adora was also swinging by when she could disappear for a few hours without her roommate noticing/questioning it, which was easier said than done.

⦁ There was a line all the way back in chapter one that I cut for being awkwardly phrased, not realizing it was the establishing line for the fact that She-ra has been missing for a few hundred years. It was only when it came up again in chapter five that I noticed, and by then I had already posted almost everything leading up to it and there wasn’t anywhere to put it back in early. This is one of those things were, if this was a book, I would fix that on the second draft but you don’t really get a chance for that with fanfic. I had already posted chapter three by the time I realized so the earliest I could have added it was chapter four, and by then I decided to just wait until chapter five, since the part where that would actually become relevant wouldn’t be for a few chapters anyway, it just should have been set up sooner.

⦁ Adora immediately assumed Catra was talking about her when she mentioned a breakup, but she was also kind of worried she wasn’t and there had been another relationship in the interim that she didn’t know about. The whole conversation was rough for her. She was trying to comfort Catra while subtly encouraging her to think more about what could have actually happened, and she completely meant it when she said Catra deserved better (…than she had treated her).

⦁ While “breakup haircut” isn’t a phrase I’ve heard exactly, the concept of cutting all your hair off when you go through a big change — often a breakup — is definitely one I’ve seen around a lot. There’s entire songs about coming back into an ex’s life as a blonde. I mean, how many of us shaved our heads during the pandemic. Of course there was the added factor of not being able to get a haircut, but trauma haircuts — or hair dyes — are a definite thing.

Chapter 6: Mistake

⦁ As implied in the fic, the spell-storm was a side effect of Shadow Weaver trying to drain Melog’s magic. She couldn’t control it and it manifested physically in the environment.

⦁ Writing this fic was a really interesting challenge because of the unusual dynamic between Catra and She-ra. It was so weird to write Catra falling for someone who wasn’t Adora, but also was; not to mention She-ra backing off at weird times because she thought she might out herself to Catra, etc. Catra was wary of She-ra and she would have been way more so if she wasn’t a) a literal superhero and be) reminded her of Adora. The whole dynamic was really complicated, but it’s part of what made me want to write this in the first place, so even if it was really hard and I had to rewrite a lot, it was a good challenge

⦁ … That was part of what made me want to write this fic. The rest of was The Scene™️, which was the kiss and fall out in chapter 6. Pretty quickly Catra finding Melog and then the smug introduction with the Alliance became the “secondary” Ccenes that I also pushed towards when the rewrites were getting to me.

⦁ I had so many different ideas for how the reveal conversation could go I couldn’t possibly hope to fit them all into one and not have it be like twenty minutes of extended arguing, so after trying a couple variants, I settled on the lines that worked the best.

Chapter 7: Hindsight

⦁ This fic is interesting because, while I never really mention it or make it too explicit, it is partially nonlinear. The scenes with Melog, especially, were never intended to be signposted as taking place right where the other scenes were in the story. Another example is the kiss scene partially playing out twice from each perspective, and the start of chapter 6. Catra’s spiraling lasts well into the night whereas Adora’s following scene with Glimmer takes place earlier, right after Chapter 6 cut off.

⦁ Initially there was supposed to be an extended beat in this chapter where Adora thought she was being quietly kicked out of the Alliance (not completely, but that they were going to stop trusting her with anything other than punching). It didn’t end up fitting with the timeline, so it got dropped to like one line of speculation on her part in the Netossa scene, but the idea was going to be that the team gets called to another emergency like four days later and they don’t invite Adora. Now, that was actually because she was just recovering from being sick and walking around like a zombie, but she thought it was proof they were done with her and thus she went down to the Alliance sanctum to punch it out. A relic of this plan that I ended up keeping is when Adora says “I don’t care. I’m not doing this,” in the scene with Glimmer. The second half of the plot beat was, at the same time as Adora thought she was kicked out, the Alliance thought she might be quitting. They were giving her space both to recover and calm down, but with how badly she broke then, it seemed like she might have decided that she wanted to be done with the thing that had totally ruined her life. No one thought she would actually stay away, but they were giving her room to cool off.

⦁ Speaking of the punch-out scene, that was initially written all the way back in chapter 2. Basically I wrote the very beginning (Netossa tells her to talk and offering her the easy way, ending with the “drop the goddess act” part) with the idea being Adora was angsting over Catra, but pretty quickly I was looking at the set up and going oh this would be so much better later when she’s really angsting so I cut it out from there, tossed it in my Scrivener doc, and then reused the structure of it for this scene.

⦁ April 26th is the day season 2 of SPOP dropped. November 13th is when the show premiered. The other dates are made up bullshit.

Chapter 8: I Like the Idea of You

⦁ Which name Catra is using for Adora (Adora vs. She-ra) is  important in this scene. She is considering how she knew them as separate entities and using each name depending on that at first, and then she’s trying to just sink into the She-ra fantasy, and then she starts losing herself. She uses She-ra when Adora is especially confident, flexes her strength/powers, or Catra can’t see her face to contradict it — basically whenever Adora plays into her initial She-ra fantasies — and she uses Adora when she is being soft/gentle/meek, when Catra has an emotional connection to what’s happening, or sometimes just because she’s seeing her face and that’s Adora’s face, not the mask she pictured for She-ra. A weird example of this is the, uh, you know, spit string moment, where Catra is actually having an internal reaction to seeing Adora debauched/debauching her like she used to fantasize about. She’s also looking at Adora’s face again for the first time after looking away. I know there’s a lot of name-changing in this scene, but it all has a purpose, and part of my editing was making sure the right ones were being used for each moment. By the time Catra was really getting into it, though, the scene/Catra were getting away from me and taking control, and thus using Adora for every name, and I had to fix that in a few small places.

⦁ At this point I’m writing things in smut just based off the if I haven’t done it before. I’ve always written a range of stuff , but when writing this I found myself just doing things because they were new without much other reason as long as it still served the purpose I wanted for the scene.

Chapter 9: Ripples

⦁ The glamor is actually lowkey a reference to an earlier version of the fic idea where the Alliance just straight up didn’t wear masks and it was a Superman situation. The idea  was there would be a glamor (similar to the Mist in the Percy Jackson series) that would make it really hard to recognize someone for who they are, but could still be fought through. It was  one of the contender ideas but I quickly settled on just having them wear masks. The way the glamor actually works in-universe is that it makes it hard to notice similarities. So before meeting She-ra, Catra straight up couldn’t notice “hey, the Alliance is led by a trio that matches the description of Adora and her friends,” but once she saw She-ra’s face she had enough to be like “that’s Adora.” Conversely, if She-ra had been someone she didn’t actually know well like just one of her classmates she didn’t actually talk to, she still might not have been able to recognize her without the mask on. The glamor is not inherent to the runestones, but is a manifestation of their power that has come over the last four hundred years of the princesses living in secret. If a princess chose to be open with her identity, the glamor would ease as the runestone learned it didn’t have to help her hide. Basically, it’s a learned behavior of the runestones, not innate.

⦁ Usually in canon fics I have Adora tend to refer to She-ra as if she’s a third person (because Adora has a lot of issues feeling like she’s not living up to what She-ra should be, or putting She-ra and her duties above herself) and Catra  reacts like she finds that weird. The truth is Catra partially does, but she’s also training Adora to recognize she is She-ra, she doesn’t have to do anything more to be worthy of being herself, and she is the only one who gets to decide what She-ra’s duties are. This only really comes up in post-canon fics, where they both have had some Realizations™️. In this fic, Catra starts off trying to distance She-ra from Adora, so she reacts completely opposite to how she usually does and refers to She-ra as a third separate person for herself. Adora does this too, just like she always does. Catra only starts coming around slowly and changes her mind later.

⦁ Micah had his suspicions and he probably would have come even if he had known just because he would have been worried and felt like he could handle himself. The other princesses trying to comfort Angella with that at the time is part of why Angella turned to Castaspella. She also felt like she deserved to know the truth about how her brother died, even though that context really had nothing to do with it. At the end of the day, Micah made the decision.

⦁ When the comms are turned on, they’re constantly broadcasting to each other, but the microphones are set to be partially muted so they (hopefully) mainly just pick up the person who is wearing them talking. When the button is pressed, it turns up sensitivity and also bumps the broadcaster’s volume up so their orders can come through clearly. Catra could just barely be heard over the comms, but of course Adora caught something, and then she saw Entrapta when Bow fired his arrow, who she recognized in conjunction with Catra’s voice (her hair is kind of distinctive). She asked Bow “What’s going on? Is Catra here?” and that’s when he said not now. After the robots were dispatched, she immediately landed beside him and gave him her Firm Commander look and he explained the brief interaction. Once the scene was completely cleared and they had teleported back to the  sanctum, Adora agonized over Catra before ultimately deciding to text her. If Catra hadn’t responded, she would have had Glimmer bring her over to her apartment (which Glimmer would have done with minimal complaint, because there was a real chance Catra had gotten injured trying to leave the scene) but Catra texted back fairly quickly. She didn’t respond to Adora’s second message, which she would have liked just to know what was really going on, but she took what she could get.

⦁ Guesses for who Melog actually was were really interesting. I thought that either people were going to be onto me immediately due to the pronouns or be completely unsure due to assuming I was using they/them pronouns to obfuscate it. I saw a mix, though I don’t think anyone really guessed Melog by name in the first chapter. For the first couple chapters, guesses seemed evenly split between Melog and being unsure. Other guesses were DT, Shadow Weaver/shadow spies, Micah, and the First Ones worm (or maybe elemental?) from Glimmer’s coronation trial. Sorry to everyone’s Melog comments I ignored, but I wanted to maintain the mystery.

⦁ On a similar note of future guesses, no one commented a correct guess on Catra finding out the exact way that she did. There were some interesting theories that I enjoyed, and a few more along the lines of how she would potentially join the Alliance that were exciting to see so early on.

⦁ Catra started to say “Good boy” and then realized that was wrong for several reasons and probably demeaning, so she just pivoted.

⦁ Catra finding Melog under the dumpster was the second Scene™️ for this fic. It was one of the first things I outlined for it. Actually it might have been the first because I never wrote out an outline for the kiss scene, I just pictured it in my head a dozen times starting back when I was still writing AMLAIT. The Melog scene was, in the very initial idea, taking place after a chance attack Catra happened to get caught up in, but as soon as I started writing the fic and used that plot device in the opening I didn’t want to use it again, so the Entrapta thing formed because I already had the technopath subplot set up for later. Very little changed about the scene except how Catra got there and a little dialog tweaking, but originally Catra was supposed to hide Melog in a backpack she was carrying. I didn’t want to write one into the brief “chase scene”, so I gave her a gay flannel instead and had her wrap up them in that.

Chapter 10: Cause and Effect

⦁ Normally I uppercase krytian, but for this fic it was a species name like “human” so I (un)capitalized it as such.

⦁ Melog doesn’t know a lot about krytians due to a mix of their age when they were orphaned and the language gap. Melog’s parent never said to them “We are krytians, we were victims of a genocide by a human religious sect” they said “We are us, but others are dangerous. They hunted us, and now we must live in secret.” Krytians think of themselves as we and everyone else as them. They don’t have pronouns because they are I, you, or us. It’s combination of their culture and their communication method that makes it that way. Melog had no idea what the world would know them as until Catra told them. Shadow Weaver called them it a few times, but again, Melog didn’t know what that meant. It wasn’t until Catra found them and helped with their memories that they understood their jailer was named Shadow Weaver.

⦁ Okay this is something I had to cut from Chapter 10 because the whole thing it was included in dragged on, but I’m really SAD I had to cut it because it is, well, sad, so here it is, to hurt you with for posterity:               “Krytians forms are so reliant on magic, they don’t even leave bodies behind when they die. They dissipate back into the area when they die. When Melog lost their parent, their tombstone was a slowly fading well of power. Melog was the only one to ever know that they lived or died.”

⦁ For this fic, I considered having Shadow Weaver just be a supervillain and Catradora grew up in some Anonymously Rough group home together to set up the right experience for their current insecurities and mental issues — I even went back and forth on some edits early on to leave more possibilities open — but once I had the whole Melog plot getting Catra into the Alliance, it only made sense for her to have someone to fight with them, and setting up Shadow Weaver as a ghost from their past worked perfectly for that. Plus, I couldn’t resist the “I was raised by a supervillain” line.

⦁ A big part of Catra’s struggle with Adora in this fic, after she finds out the truth about what happened, is neglect. She knows that Adora didn’t drop her and she had reason to be busy, but it was still a pretty shitty way to treat someone even before you get to the ‘lying about it’ part. Catra (as she later demonstrates) is capable of understanding and even sharing Adora’s commitment, but it wouldn’t be fair for Adora to continue to put absolutely everything first aside from Catra, and the fear that she would do that again was a big thing keeping Catra away. Adora loves her and she makes that rather clear, assuaging one of Catra’s fears, but loving someone and actually treating them well — especially the way they consider treating them well — are two different things. I brush up on this a lot in my Catradora fics (BFM comes to mind) but I feel like it’s especially important for this one.

Chapter 11: Peace Talks

⦁ The Swift Wind thing came from a comment exchange on Chapter 4 where I said that I wasn’t planning on it, but the way I would work Swift Wind in would be for Adora to “deputize” a police horse in battle and for him to then work on freeing all the animals used by the police. It would kind of be a random thing to include in the fic, but I really liked the idea, so it was kind of in the back of my mind and I formed the idea of it being a story the Alliance tells rather than a scene on its own. I was really happy to be able to work it in. I think sometimes I go “that’s a distraction/irrelevant to the fic” but like… it’s fic. “Regular” media can have one off jokes and this is fic where I can do whatever I want so communist horse it is.

⦁ As is… just expected at this point for my fics, half of the contents of chapter 11 were supposed to also be covered in chapter 10, but that thing hit 8k before they even explained anything, so it had to be broken up.

⦁ Chapter 11 is basically the end of my main planning for the fic. After that point, it was all new stuff I came up with to serve the ending of the story that had been written so far. My big outline point for everything after chapter eleven was basically just “take down the horde. Be superheroes. Kiss & make up.”

Chapter 12: Movie Night?

⦁ Given that I just said 11 was the end of my planning, it feels weird to say “12 wasn’t supposed to exist,” but it really wasn’t. My planning by then was for the story to shift into Catra and Adora cautiously taking up texting while she set Entrapta on the Horde’s scent — basically, Chapter 13. The first scene of Chapter 12 started as an ending button scene for Chapter 11, but then I got the idea for the movie night (which actually originated back in Chapter 10, where the initial draft of the chapter included them explicitly planning the horse movie thing) and — more temptingly — the secret kisses during it, so then I had to write it. The scene with Glimmer was also unplanned (when I first tried to write it, the idea was that Catra actually stayed the night because it was “too late” to go all the way back home, but then the gap between the movie and the morning was too big for conversations to not have taken place), but showing Catra open up a little to more members of the Alliance was important for when she joined them later, so I wrote it.

⦁ Catra says the new place “wouldn’t work with Melog” for two reasons: 1) it was another studio, and she needed more options for privacy, especially with Adora around, and 2) it didn’t allow pets. Now, she had no intention of paying the pet fee or ever revealing Melog’s existence, but if a neighbor was to hear Melog meowing or pawing at the door, they would just assume Catra had a cat and had paid for it, instead of possibly snitching about her sneaking one in.

⦁ “Princess isn’t a thing for her” *proceeds to immediately outline why it’s a thing for her when Catra says that*

⦁ Obviously Catra was worried about She-ra finding out Entrapta was a technopath before because her entire apartment looks suspicious as hell, but knowing it’s Adora, she knows she’ll listen to her if she says Entrapta isn’t with the Horde. Otherwise, there’s a very real chance of somebody thinking she’s the one building their bots.

⦁ If you’re capable of not crying during the train scene in Spirit then you’re heartless.

Chapter 13:

⦁ The line “[Trust] can be lost in [a year], too” is in reference to Catra and Adora, not the Alliance.

Chapter 14:

⦁ Glimmer stalled telling her mom because she wanted school to be busy so Angella couldn’t say or do much because it would distract me from finals, mom.

⦁ Shadow Weaver ran the home for every reason Catra listed and more. Maintaining a secret identity (as long as absences didn’t become conspicuous) helped her fly under the radar. It also made her not entirely reliant on the Horde (she didn’t trust Hordak, though if anything he shouldn’t have trusted her). When the kids hit their late teen years and were about to age out into the world, she knew exactly who, when, and where to target them (as Shadow Weaver, or via proxy with another member of the Horde) for a recruitment pitch. She was especially looking for magic children who might have a future in the Horde — or who might be capable of becoming princesses and inheriting/fixing her runestone, or using another one if they ever managed to track down She-ra and Spirit Ember (both runestones clearly lost, but Shadow Weaver didn’t know if that was permanent or a situation like how she acquired the Black Garnet and thus she hoped to find more). She saw that opportunity in Adora, which is a reason why she targeted her and Catra in particular. Finally, Catra is kind of right that she did it for her own “enjoyment”, but it was in a very different way — at least to her. Shadow Weaver legitimately saw herself as helping the kids who crossed her doorstep and thought the world needed her and people like her to prepare these poor, unloved, unruly children for the future. She thought she was a hero and any sliver of remorse she had for the Horde’s more extreme actions she could dismiss with “well look what good I’m doing with this home, it balances out.”

⦁ “It’s a nice dream” Yeah Horde Prime’s line like that still fucks me up and I had to slip it in.

⦁ There’s a dampening spell centered on the door so other people in the archive don’t hear it opening and closing (all the secret tomfoolery would be pretty ruined if people heard a bookshelf being dragged around in the next room all the time) but it also lets me surprise Catra, which is a rare opportunity.

⦁ The alarm at the computer goes off at the same time as a mid-level priority message to all their phones so someone will check the news/hub to see if it’s something they need to deal with, but since they were in the room with the alarm, no one heard/cared about their phones buzzing.

⦁ Melog’s ability to warp the world around them as they travel the paths is inspired by Little Nightmares 2 and that’s all I’ll say on that because it’s not a game that should be spoiled. I thought it fit well with their illusion magic, though. I think the official power is called something like object distance manipulation but relativity manipulation sounded like a better fit to me.

⦁ I was kinda surprised people asked about Netossa and Spinnerella’s codenames (which is a fair question) but no one asked for Bow since they’re all in the same spot as not having a runestone in canon. For Bow, I came up with the Cupid thing Catra mentions early on in the fic as a joke, and while I do think it’s a plausible thing for Bow to consider given his very “I love love” attitude, I don’t think he would actually pick it and it  felt a little diminutive. Apollo was a late contender thank to the historical connection with his dads and his association with archery, but I thought about other bow/arrow symbolism and remembered one of the Zodiac had a bow and arrow and thus went with Sagittarius once I realized it was Glimmer’s zodiac. This meant I had to spell Sagittarius. So I fucked up there. For Spinnerella, I never ended up saying it in the fic so I kind of got away lucky, but her runestone is an amethyst. I had been calling her just “Cyclone” in my head, which of course didn’t match with a runestone so I had to add some kind of gem/mineral thing in there, but  there’s a big range from the simple “Moonstone” to the slightly more descriptive “Sea Pearl” to “Fractal Flake” which is… nothing. I tried for a while to make some kind of alliteration with “Cyclone,” but there aren’t a lot of gems that fit that, so in the end I went with just Amethyst despite being a little unimaginative because I couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t cumbersome to shout in battle. I really tried to work some kind of “Air Amethyst” type alliteration in there but it just didn’t happen. For Netossa, I thought about making her sapphire early on because blue, but that’s a Steven Universe character so I wanted to either find something else or add a modifier onto it. Coming up with modifiers related to nets is… hard. Star Sapphire and Cerulean Sapphire (bit of an oxymoron, but it felt like it fit with the naming conventions lol) were in contention. It was just hard to relate anything to nets of all things so I followed the simple route a la Moonstone and just went with Star Sapphire (the star pattern of which could represent the intersections of the ropes in her nets? Maybe? Listen that’s the best I’ve got). For Catra things were… more complex. Catra very well could have picked anything she wanted, similar to Bow, which made it a lot harder. I considered Wildcat immediately (especially with Scorpia suggesting it later and then Catra ends up stuck with it after the others pick up on it) but I didn’t want a name that reveals she’s a magicat, so I tested out a lot of things until I just settled on Ghost for the invisibility. Tiger’s Eye was my other immediate instinct for the runestone theme, because, well, obviously, but while that felt exactly like what SPOP would call the magicat runestone, I wasn’t naming “Catra’s runestone,” I was coming up with a superhero name for Catra while runestones also exist. Her name only had to match as much as she wanted it too, and it didn’t feel like she would want that. As soon as I decided on Ghost I looked up to see if there were any “Ghost something” crystals, which is when I found Phantom quartz and added it into the conversation. When I was looking at gems/minerals/elements for inspo, I saw Mercury and I thought that fit really well with Melog’s shifting powers, and as something related both to geology (okay, listen, it’s an element and that’s close enough) and astrology. Other contenders were things like Silver, Bismuth, and a red theme for/with Catra (I literally looked up a list of red shade names. Naming things is hard). Then I had to come up with joke names that were still something the character might come up with (for themselves and others), so I just made things worse for myself. I got to acknowledge that initial Tiger’s Eye instinct though, so that was good to fit in.

Chapter 15:

⦁ Sideloading an app is basically downloading it on your phone without using the system’s app store.

⦁ After Perfuma suggested Phantom, I thought “you know what, that sounds cool” so I went back and forth on using that instead, but there’s no way Catra would pick it knowing the context, so I played with it a bit more in the scene where they decide her official codename — as well as giving her perspective on that bit, and introducing the beginning of Netossa kind of being Catra’s superhero mentor, which is a relationship that develops after the fic ends — but ultimately let Catra decide. It also let me introduce how the system was coded around their aliases, keeping Entrapta from instantly realizing their identities when she hacked them, though it’s obvious once you start sifting through the general channel and see them talking.

⦁ Bow lives with his dads still since they’re close enough to campus for it and that way he doesn’t really need a job on top of school and (secret) heroing. That means he spends a lot of time in Glimmer’s dorm, though, because it’s the only private place he has to go on campus. He can go to George’s office, too, but students come and go from that so it’s not really any better than a student lounge.

⦁ Adora’s voice is strained after saying she loves Catra because she’s convincing herself that Catra just isn’t ready to say it back yet. She’s in total denial that hearing it is important to her.

⦁ Kadroh is, of course, Wrong Hordak, and the guy who runs the front counter.

⦁ Entrapta was basically shouting for the entire conversation with Scorpia, but since Scorpia also tends to talk loudly, she didn’t really notice it.

⦁ The scene with Scorpia is actually the first I conceived for the fic from a different perspective, which would eventually influence my decision to switch perspective around however I saw fit.

Chapter 16:

⦁ Adora mentions her academics a lot in this fic because I was playing with the idea of her dropping out and just becoming a vet tech to reduce her stress and wanted to leave that option open, but she was so close it didn’t end up feeling right, especially after the Horde became less of a threat with their scrambling following the arrest.

⦁ Someone on crew (pretty sure it was ND) joked that Catra’s “real name” was Elizabeth, so I pulled that as the bullshit name Scorpia said. I went back and forth on her actually saying Catra’s name in hopes of being able to tell if the Horde recognized it (and thus had at least seen her) but that would have been a whole thing to Shadow Weaver as soon as she heard it and there was too much going on in the scene already to throw that in. Plus, it risked endangering Catra’s secret identity even more than Scorpia’s mere presence already did.

⦁ Okay, so obviously my instinct when giving Scorpia an alias was to use… her fucking alias, lmao, but Linda is her mom and D’Ream is her last name already, so Lynda wasn’t going to work. Lynda D’Ream was originally a reference to Scorpia’s voice actress in the 80s (Linda Gary), so I used her SPOP voice actress’s name, Lauren Ash, and threw a fucking y in there because that’s how they did it lmao

⦁ Every runestone calls out a little differently to its holder (in the circumstance where it’s not immediately passed to them). Adora saw lights in the edge of her vision, just ephemeral enough to now be there, that led her towards the stone and then it pulled her in with a mental call. Scorpia couldn’t feel the mental call with the stone cracked, but it sparked to beckon her.

⦁ Scorpia’s mask looking kind of like Shadow Weaver’s was temporary. I don’t know if I ever squeezed the joke in because I’ve been writing this fic for like two months and have forgotten, but the first time Adora transformed, it was into her season one outfit. Both she and the runestone kind of freaked out and it was only on subsequent transformations, when she knew what was happening and could exercise some control over it, that the season five/current She-ra costume appeared. Scorpia is in a similar situation where her mask will eventually take a vaguely scorpion-like theme, with the hooks down her cheeks mimicking stingers and similar ones hooking up her forehead and back over her ears.

⦁ Scorpia didn’t notice any of Catra’s attempts to touch her. Catra kept them light because she was worried about startling Scorpia and giving away their best shot at getting out of this, but that just made them easier for Scorpia to miss them.

⦁ Melog was reliving some trauma and hiding out under the table made them feel better, so when Catra was okay they were busy taking care of themselves by hiding to recuperate.

Chapter 17:

⦁ Shadow Weaver genuinely isn’t entirely certain what happened that day. She remembers Lauryn showing up, but details are fuzzy. When Black Garnet debuts, she remembers that Lauryn was the new Black Garnet since it was Kind Of A Big Deal to her, but she doesn’t remember many details about what she looks like that aren’t already public, and she doesn’t remember her transforming because it all happened so fast and then she was electrocuted and unconscious. That electrocution caused her some issues beyond her memories of that day, and between that and having no magic herself, she isn’t much of a threat when it comes to breaking out of jail or something. With the overwhelming evidence of her involvement in the Horde and no evidence she was blackmailed as she claimed, she goes away for a long time. Everybody arrested turns on Hordak trying to get a plea deal, and between the testimony and physical evidence he was the only one who could have built the robots, he gets convicted of a lot of things, especially as an accessory because that’s easier to prove.

⦁ The rooftop scene was actually initially planned to go earlier in the fic, before the big confrontation, but even though I had been planting the seeds for it, I wanted a bit more hinting and I felt like Catra running off on her own would make Adora worry even more about it, so I pushed it back.

⦁ I ended up using gender neutral pronouns for Horde members a couple times because they often wear helmets or masks that make it hard, but sometimes I chose to use gendered pronouns because I tend to default to they-them pronouns and a nebulous appearance for rando NPCs and I didn’t want it to seem like I was doing that rather than it being a part of the plot that they were disguised and ambiguous. And of course physical appearance isn’t always and indicator of pronouns etc (it certainly isn’t for me lol) but it is usually the assumed default without indicators otherwise. Also sometimes it was just easier to have a random NPC gendered, which is why I had rando Horde members be male a couple times because it just made it easier to distinguish who was who during the fight scenes LOL.

⦁ The “I’ll stroke your ego if it shuts you up” “Wow that didn’t take much convincing” exchange was in my notes before I even started writing the fic. I didn’t have a place for it planned and it only ended up coming up here at the end, but I’m glad I got to use it finally.

Misc Fic Thoughts:

⦁ I’d written a little here and there, but I really got my fanfiction start (both reading and writing) in the comics fandom. I never had a superhero AU “planned” but it always felt like an inevitable thing I would do one day when an idea occurred to me. Superheros befriending(/rescuing/romancing) people they know in their real lives but who don’t know about their secret identity is something I’m a SUCKER for, so when that idea occurred to me in early March it was like of course. I absolutely have to do this right away. I had another thing I was excited for but this jumped the line as soon as AMLAIT was done. I was actually writing this simultaneously with editing that ending.

⦁ I’ve referenced the playlist a couple times and it’s linked below, but I wanna actually talk about it for a second. If you weren’t around for it, 8tracks was a website that was basically the Tumblr version of spotify playlists. It wasn’t affiliated with Tumblr or anything, there were just a lot of Tumblr people populating it and it had a tagging system, so you could hunt down all the playlists associated with your fandom. There were some licensing/copyright issues, and they had a profitability problem anyway, I think, so after a few years it closed down and no website has ever been able to capture the kind of playlists 8tracks hosted and the quality there. With it gone, I can’t go back and find the playlist that this AU is named after. However, it was a Young Avengers playlist (it was called something like “superzeroes — a young avengers fanmix”) that I still vividly remember the cover art for. I believe it was around 11 songs long (a pretty normal length for an 8tracks playlist), and the only two songs I’m pretty sure were on it were Superlove by Charlie XCX and Kick Ass by Mika. I think there might have been a song by FUN on the playlist too? But that — like both of the other songs, really — could have come from one of my other comics-related playlists too. I did my DAMNEDEST to find a tumblr post linking to this playlist again (and in doing so, dug up some nostalgia holy shit) but in the end turned up nothing. Shockingly for how long I’ve gone on about it, I wasn’t particularly attached to this playlist. I mean, I listened to it, but it just came up as a memory when I first got the idea to do a superhero AU, so when I created a file for it I named it “Superzero AU” just intending for it to be a play on superhero, and then that Became the AU’s name in my head and I couldn’t change it after this. I need to stop doing that to myself. The name does, however, have meaning, which is kind of two-fold. First, superzero is an insult aimed at Adora. I considered having Catra say it to her face when they were fighting, showing that she can try to be a superhero to everyone else but she is still a failure, because she failed Catra (they didn’t end up fighting a lot so that didn’t make it into the fic, but the idea of superzero being a term Catra snidely thinks about Adora when they were fighting is still there). Second, Catra is the superzero, specifically a superhero with zero powers. She’s using Melog’s, yes, but she has none of her own and yet she eventually joins the Alliance in throwing herself into danger.

⦁ POV for this fic is interesting because when I was originally coming up with the concept, most of the scenes where from Catra’s perspective, but I knew I wanted the kiss scene specifically to be from Adora’s perspective. I also knew, by the time I started writing it in earnest, that this was going to a long fic so sticking to one POV was going to be impractical. I then thought about switching POV by chapter and just having the Catra chapters be longer, but there were too many scenes I wanted both their takes on. I then considered something weird which was alternating Catra POV chapters with my usual back-and-forth POV chapters, but by then I knew I wanted a scene from Melog’s perspective and maybe even one from Scorpia’s, so I decided f**k it, free POV whenever and wherever I want. This is the first time I’ve really used a POV like this in a long fic, though I did it here and there in one-shots like the soulmarks AU and ‘dawn after the long dark’ in OotW.

⦁ I had fun with this fic, but it was also Struggle Bus to write (for various reasons, from plot-related, to meta, to my own indecision, to life). All my fics (at least long ones, and it can still happen in one-shots) include rewrites somewhere, but I feel like it’s something invisible to both readers and other writers. You only see the final result, not the six tries + editing it took to get there, but this one took a lot of rewriting. I think the final result is fun though so I’m really happy with it.

Original Outline:

The original idea for this fic was very brief. She-ra would have already saved Catra in the past and they were in the weird friendship phase, there was some will-they-won’t-they and attempted friendship tension, then the kiss and the reveal, then the booty call which would start turning Catra around and they would repair their relationship from there.

Then I thought “hey this is a magical realism au, I could have Melog in here” and immediately had the idea for the scene where Catra found Melog. Everything spiraled from there. Below is the entire outline for the fic by the time I finished drafting the first chapter (during which I had ideas about Shadow Weaver’s place in this AU and such).

- meet - friendship (adora learns theres a chance of rebuilding next semester)               - return (health insurance, kiss it better)               - “just checking in again” (law student)               - rooftop - kiss/fall out - booty call - in limbo, find melog - bring melog to BMU - priorities conversation - some fight with the horde, taking down shadow weaver

In the end, the fic followed the outline, though not always the way I thought, mostly at the end where it was more ambiguous. I don't have much to say about it (beyond what I said in earlier notes) since it mostly turned out how I planned, but I thought sharing what one of my overarching outlines looks like might be fun.

Meta:

Superzero playlist

Upcoming:

Okay so I have like, four fics I’m weighing at the moment and I’m not sure with one is going to win, so it’s hard to say which will be upcoming. If I had to guess, though? City of Angels.

[plot-prominent-horde-squad-au]

Lonnie: Arc, Personality, Role, and Other Changes (Pt. 1)

Part 2

So, if you haven’t seen the context for this AU, just look at the pinned post on my blog (which will have a link to another post which will have the better description)

This post is going to go over almost everything you’ll need to know about Lonnie in this AU, from the role she has in the story, the changes in her character, her arc, and other things about her. I won’t go over her full timeline in this post or all the events of this AU that she’ll be involved in, but I shall summarize some important general events.

Intro

In this AU, like in the the show, Lonnie is a member of Adora’s squad, but unlike in the show, she plays a special role in said squad (as I went over in another post). She is the squad’s cavalryman, mechanic, and navigator, and kind of the only one to know how to drive a truck, skiff, boat, etc (this is why Catra and Adora will be really bad at flying a skiff in the first episode).

She is also Adora’s (second) best friend, or at least a pretty close friend. Lonnie and Catra are more rivals than anything else (Lonnie doesn’t bully her in this AU), but their relationship changes after Adora leaves and Catra gets a promotion. Due to a need for familiarity and a secret sense of trust (though Catra won’t quite admit this), Catra decides to essentially make Lonnie what is kinda her Right Hand Man (though Scorpia becomes her second in command. The two roles can co-exist).

Lonnie also gets a promotion later, by the second season, and becomes a Major (a few ranks below Force Captain. Basically a normal Captain in the context of the Horde). Because of this, she is often tasked with helping execute many of Catra’s plans. But she also does have a mini-arc centered around becoming a leader and what that means.

She ends up being a minor antagonist in some of the earlier seasons, with a subtle character arc evolving overtime, and Season 4 fully kicks off her arc, before she eventually begins to dismantle the Horde from the inside, and finally leaves by the end of the season.

She then becomes a supporting character in Season 5.

Personality

As much as I love both Lonnie and She-ra, they really messed up when portraying her personality. Though she was shown to have some complexity, half the time it felt like she was just the “Angry Black Woman.” You can disagree with me on that one, but that’s what it felt like sometimes. Of course, sometimes a Black female character who is frequently angry can work, but that’s only if it’s because they have something to be reasonably angry about.

So I decided to take a few of Lonnie’s pre-existing traits, change a few others, and add some new things to fit the type of story I’m trying to tell in order to make a more fleshed out character who doesn’t fit into so many negative tropes/stereotypes.

This Lonnie will sometimes be angry about stuff, but the causes of her anger are quite understandable and not just a personality trait. If they seem “out of nowhere,” it’s because her anger is caused by an underlying problem that she refuses to address because weakness in the Horde is punished.

One major cause of anger for her is the secret sadness she feels over Adora having left her and everyone else, and because Horde soldiers like herself are taught to turn sadness into anger, she expresses those feelings of hurt and betrayal through anger and rage. These shall both be major parts of her arc as  a character.

Another that gradually builds up over the course of the series is her frustration with Catra, especially after the portal incident. Lonnie has to watch as someone she once considered a friend slowly becomes an abusive boss, and it’s frustrating to deal with both a boss like that and that unexpected and conflicted feeling of betrayal over a friend treating you like that.

One final point about Lonnie’s anger is that she often expresses it in the form of quiet, cold, stony anger, which she prefers to release in private. Sometimes she will get a bit snippy with people, or will express it to those she trusts, or will use it for strategic purposes. But other than that, she feels uncomfortable expressing her anger in a fiery way because it makes her feel like she’s letting her emotions take control of her or that she can’t control herself. So she mainly just keeps these things to herself.

I will give Lonnie plenty of vulnerable moments, as something focused on that will be relevant to the story of the AU is how Adora leaving affected some of the squad in different ways and how Catra’s spiral in Season 4 was hurting those closest to her. It can also help show some of the different types of abuse the Horde kids went through.

She is not a completely strong person, she is a person who pretends to be strong 24/7 when she is really just a traumatized, betrayed, emotionally abused college-aged kid who just wants to be needed. This is an important aspect to her and I want to make that known.

An important character trait of Lonnie’s is her ambition and leadership skills. In the show, she was shown to be probably one of the most competent, mentally stable people in the Horde, and was an amazing leader, despite some of her flaws. I’m keeping that, while adding on the trait of ambition and a need for power.

While she learns how to be a responsible leader and starts to legitimately care about her workers, she starts out a bit more focused on herself and the idea of rising in the ranks.  This is due to trauma, which I will elaborate on in another post.

However, her ambition isn’t a completely bad thing, and she doesn’t lose it as she grows, it just changes a bit with her. Her determination is what will cause her to save the day multiple times, overcome harsh challenges, and execute a complex plan in a game of politics and lowkey sabatage.

She is one of the smartest people on the team in terms of common sense. Adora is smart in some areas (maybe), Catra is strategically smart, Kyle is spacially and mathmatically smart, and Rogelio is emotionally smart, but most of them (expect Rogelio maybe) are not particularly common sense smart. This is how the team will get out of multiple tough situations.

One thing that I just semi-randomly decided to add to her as a small character trait: because the Horde is all about being tough and masculine and all that jazz, Lonnie has never gotten the chance to explore her feminine side. So I decided that, while she is a tough girlboss, when she goes to Princess Prom, she discovers that she actually kinda loves the glitter and dresses and stuff. She deserves it. For fun.

All other traits I forgot to mention in this section will be covered in other sections or will shine through in her actions throughout the AU, because I tried to make her very multilayered and human, and I couldn’t fit everything in.

Hopefully you’re interesting in this AU, and I hope to finish the other parts of this post soon! (I’m also doing Kyle and Rogelio at some point, then some other stuff for this, so stay tuned!)

[generallypo]

[   Constellation ’Director of the False Last Act’ is looking at you.   ]

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dark academia!hsy, yeeee! the white coat is fantastic, but unlike kdj and yjh, she doesn’t really switch up the color scheme. no, her bum-aesthetic purple hoodie does not count. i think she’s super hot. i yell about how much i love her under the cut.

------

yo han sooyoung is actually amazing, incredible, powerful, witty, drop-dead sexy... what makes her so irresistible? let me explain

1) yeah, kdj takes the kdj company to end of the scenarios, but please. how many times does he have to kill himself to get there? not to mention his intentional (and unintentional) kill count? 

sure, he does the job, but damn is he kind of inefficient about it. say what you like about hsy’s methods or personality, but the 1863rd round far surpasses the 1864th in terms of the lives preserved while still managing to take the team to the end.

without the benefit of cheat-like knowledge, skills, and resurrections, hsy almost single-handedly orchestrates the events of the 1863rd round to a satisfying finale. kmw, problematic as he is, survives and becomes an admittedly better person, yjh finds a timeline where he can rest in peace, and the rest of the cast have their eyes set on the hopeful end of all scenarios. all this, while only being HALF of a person (hsy originally split off into two after misusing her avatar ability). do her actions lead to the happiest ending? no. but it’s the one that sacrifices the least and saves the most. for the greater good, in other words. 

hsy may be an intrinsically selfish person, but unlike kdj, she has the ability to grasp the entire picture and avoid tunnel-visioning into a crappier, more convoluted and self-sacrificial solution. ironically, it ends up saving more lives. perks of being a talented writer, i guess. 

and the 1864th hsy emerges as a leader in her own right as well. the epilogue arc shows her assuming roughly the same role as her 1863rd self in kdj’s absence: yjh breaks off from the main group (AND BECOMES A TERRORIST AKFDJDSLKSL HAHAHA) to assume a similarly antagonistic role to the remaining members of kdj company. as a result, she’s the most powerful lawful incarnation remaining, and once more the incarnations circle around her for direction.

2) independent, confident, competent (hot and kinda shameless about it). this woman has the most delightfully unrepentant attitude towards life -- how to defeat the man with the strongest defensive ability without dealing a single blow? summon a horde of your naked dancing clones to terrify his innocent sensibilities, and then cackle at his helplessness. the fact that her sponsor is literally the chuuni-est cringefest in the entire galaxy and she gives no fucks about him is just additional comedic gold. her undisguised disgust for what should otherwise be a highly respected/feared entity is a clear indicator of her supremely dominant position over everyone else, and i admire her consistent irreverence of everyone and everything.

hsy is the only character who can consistently bully kdj, brush off his deflections, and bully him again. 1863rd round hsy gives kdj about 50 migraines in the span of 5 minutes of conversation before confirming her superior wit. jhw comes close, but unfortunately, she actually respects the rat bastard. i wish i could mention yjh, but let’s be real: he -- and just about every existing version of him -- has been whipped for the guy for at least 250+ chapters now. 

hsy, on the other hand, has no regard for anything except herself... man, i respect that so much. what a queen. 

and i won’t lie! i didn’t like her in the first fifty or so chapters. plagiarism? homicide? kind-of-in-general-just-being-an-obstacle-to-kdj’s-plans? yeah, i almost fell into the trap of disliking her purely because she didn’t cave immediately in the grand scheme of kdj’s plotting -- thereby denying me the power rush that came with seeing kdj bulldoze his way through the puny attempts of small fry characters. she’s neither a friend nor a despicable foe, but rather someone who acts independently and in her own self-interest, WITH the ability to thwart major players if need be. aka, the one who frustrated kdj’s plans -- and me -- the most. 

going by my previous isekai/power-fantasy trope experience, i figured she’d get pegged into the sexy-but-sassy harem candidate, or get killed off if that didn’t work out. in hindsight, i’m just pretty fucking dumb, but honestly, i can accept that with gratitude -- 

-- because in fact. the whole ‘she-gets-in-my-way-so-she-either-goes-into-the-harem-or-dies’ trope in light novels/webnovels and the like, is, frankly, misogynistic and boring as hell. i had some admittedly low expectations for ORV, which consequently blasted my ass to the moon and left me there sobbing for 42 years as i mourned my stupidity and paid my respects to its incredible ending and character development. hsy is a particular delight, especially in her meta awareness of these tropes -- blatantly stating she isn’t obligated to kdj for saving her life and declaring the damsel-in-distress cliche as ridiculous, for example. 

and it really is, because suspension bridge effect aside, you’re not gonna want to bang a total shady stranger in the middle of the apocalypse. it’s the little statements of self-awareness, self-worth, and frankness that build up hsy’s charm. as ORV progresses, these little windows of her personality bloom as her presence takes stage center -- and then BAM! you really get to know how strong she is, how hugely capable of love she is, how subtly but wonderfully she expresses it, how she leads and protects those close to her, and how damn good she is at it. hsy is amazing. we stan an iconic queen -- no, black flameS EMPRESS. *kneeling*.

3) writes an entire EPIC, just to keep one lonely, broken fifteen-year-old alive. like. at that point in ORV, i knew. i knew. hsy is the fucking GOAT. seeing her spend the rest of her life on WOS, making sure it reaches completion because it’s the only thing that will sustain kdj until the advent of the scenarios... that hits too hard. inadvertently, it also damns the rest of the world to the terror and tragedy that the star stream brings.. but that’s the call she makes in order to save kdj’s life. 

obviously, there’s no precise beginning to the timelines -- ORV is so neatly crafted in its cycle of writer, protagonist, and reader -- but i’d have to argue that hsy holds the greatest power in the trinity. creating the existence known as ‘yoo joonghyuk’ and granting life-changing hope to an otherwise forgotten boy.. is pretty powerful. yjh, for the most part, is a slave to the scenarios (until he breaks free in the 1863rd and 1864th rounds, in particular), while kdj (unwittingly) admits it himself: he’s truly the most powerless god in existence. i forget exactly where he mentions it, but it’s in response to lgy’s reverent commentary that, with all his knowledge and presumed confidence, kdj seems like the protagonist of story or a god to him. kdj’s inner monologue, of course, is appropriately self-deprecating and scarily accurate.

in a lot of ways, WOS -- and ORV itself, really -- is a love letter to readers. it’s a two-way connection, writer and reader, between someone who creates with all their passions and someone who consumes and responds with equally sincere feelings. Ways Of Survival -- the story of a man who defied death and grief and great powers far beyond his being -- is a fictional guide to surviving in a ruined world. but to a battered, bullied, and ostracized boy, it’s not just escapism, or wish fulfilment anymore. WOS is the map to navigating the hell of his reality. there’s a certain power in the right words being spoken -- or in this case, written -- at the right time, even if it’s only for the temporary burst of endorphins upon reading an especially delightful chapter. even if it’s forgotten the next day, you’ve managed to connect. you’ve touched another person’s heart. you made them think about questions they’ve never considered before; maybe, you made them smile. 

what can i say but the honest truth? ORV, without a shadow of doubt, has most certainly reached me. i’m a goner for this story and its excellent characters -- long, long gone. something has changed, something that wasn’t there the previous day. 

the mark has been made on the reader -- small as it is, it’s irrevocable. behold, in all of its little magnificence: the power of a writer, and their story.

[bloodraven55]

Dude I just saw the stupidest take of my life, someone waa like ' if you can forgive catra then you should be able to forgive shadow weaver because they are basically the same and catra never really apologized for anything and shadow weaver was also abused' It's like adam apologists all over again shitting on ilia even though she actually had remorse for her actions and tried to make good choices i am a f salt mine today literally fuming :(

Yeah that's some bullshit. See, here's the thing. It's fine if personally you weren't invested in Catra and her story, or if you never cared about her and Adora's relationship. We all have personal preferences and some stuff just won't be to your taste! But you can acknowledge that something is good without liking it yourself, and without trying to twist the facts to prove that your opinion is correct.

So for interest's sake let's break this down point by point.

“[Catra and Shadow Weaver] are basically the same.”

Catra is a highly traumatised teenager who was raised without a single positive role model or example of healthy behaviour, while being put through constant verbal and physical abuse from her guardian/parental figure which made her feel completely worthless and inferior to everyone, and as a result developed self-destructive tendencies and damaging defence mechanisms which caused her to lash out at people to avoid being hurt again.

Shadow Weaver is a fully grown adult who knowingly and insidiously abused and manipulated both Catra and Adora throughout their entire lives up until they were approaching adulthood and previously risked the life of a literal child performing a dangerous spell because of her desire for power clouding her reason. She was never shown to grow up in a horrifically negative environment and the trauma she suffered during the Spell of Obtainment was primarily her own doing.

There's a parallel to Catra in that Shadow Weaver also felt neglected and taken for granted by her mentor figures, but they are not remotely the same.

“Catra never really apologised for anything.”

During Season 5 Catra apologises on no less than three separate occasions (to Adora in S5E3, to Entrapta in S5E6, and again to Adora in S5E8) and she also tries to apologise to Scorpia on two separate occasions but can't because the first time Scorpia is brainwashed and the second time Scorpia hugs her before she can finish. And not a single one of those times does she attempt to justify anything she did, or attempt to put any of the responsibility on other people.

Catra has repeatedly acknowledged her mistakes and sincerely expressed regret for them without any blame shifting or dismissing the pain she caused, and to say otherwise is flat out not true.

“Shadow Weaver was also abused.”

I sort of already covered this, but yeah, this point also doesn't hold up at all. We're shown that Shadow Weaver felt ignored and sidelined by the other sorcerors, but never that she was deliberately stripped of her self esteem and repeatedly mistreated to the point of torture.

Comparing Shadow Weaver's frustration at her colleague's unwillingness to take extreme risks which could have equally severe consequences to Catra being constantly treated like literal garbage and ““punished”” with magic from when she was still just a child is ridiculous.

“Catra's toxicity towards Scorpia was the same as Shadow Weaver's abuse of Adora and Catra.”

They're the same in that neither situation was remotely okay. But again, equating a traumatised victim of child abuse projecting that cycle of abuse onto someone else to the perpetrator of said child abuse who began that cycle in the first place is, uh... Not a Good Take.

This isn't to excuse anything about the way Catra treated Scorpia or anyone else she hurt—those actions were entirely her own and she had to take responsibility for them and face the consequences—but to say those two examples are identical is wrong.

“Shadow Weaver deserved a redemption arc.”

No, she didn't. Because as you say, she never took any of the necessary steps to redeem herself.

Noelle has said that Shadow Weaver's death wasn't a redemption, and I also remember her saying that as far as Shadow Weaver was concerned, once she was working with the Rebellion she considered herself redeemed and one of the good guys. Which is exactly why Shadow Weaver never deserved redemption, because she didn't even understand that she needed to redeem herself.

Shadow Weaver never once hesitated over her decisions or showed any remorse for what she did to Catra and Adora. She never apologised to anyone, and the only truly good thing she ever did was to die so that her victims would be free of her forever. But even then, her “you're welcome” to Catra shows that she still wasn't being truly selfless and felt like she was obligated to some measure of forgiveness for doing the absolute bare minimum.

On the other hand, let's look at some of the main things Catra does in Season 5 as part of her redemption arc.

She saves Glimmer, risking her life and allowing herself to be tortured similarly to how Shadow Weaver used to ““punish”” her with her magic, I might add and brainwashed in an attempt to keep Adora safe.

She chooses to try and discover Horde Prime's plans by looking into his mind using her chip, even though it means reliving a hugely traumatic experience, in an attempt to help Adora and the Rebellion against Horde Prime.

She literally throws herself headfirst into fire with zero hesitation to try and rescue Adora.

She stays behind to fight what is essentially a giant potentially deadly monster alone, once again to protect Adora and hopefully allow her to save Etheria.

She lets herself be physically attacked by members of the Rebellion on multiple occasions without fighting back or holding onto any bitterness over it because she knows it's warranted.

She offers or at least tries to offer genuine apologies to the people she hurt the most (Adora, Entrapta, and Scorpia) without attempting to excuse any of her wrongdoing and without any expectation of forgiveness.

Catra achieves zero personal gain through any of these actions. They are wholly selfless acts, and that's how she proves that she's actually changing for the better. Not with one single instance of doing a decent thing which comes with a “you're welcome” as a final guilt trip, but with repeated good choices which she makes without demanding any sort of reward for them.

To give more examples:

In Episode 3, Catra starts to learn how to apologise for the things she did and express the regret she feels over her actions.

In Episode 6, Catra starts to learn how to let herself be vulnerable, and how to openly and honestly ask for the things she wants instead of assuming other people already know and then lashing out when they don't understand. She also lets Adora set clear boundaries without reacting badly, and manages to share her feelings knowing that Adora might choose to reject her or walk away.

In Episode 8, Catra starts to learn that feeling exposed and embarrassed isn't always a bad thing, and that when the rest of the group tease her it's a sign of them beginning to accept her rather than them mocking her— that they're laughing with her, rather than at her. She also shows that she's making progress towards working through her issues by finding ways to manage her anger rather than lashing out.

In Episode 9, Catra tries to reassure Netossa that Spinnerella will be okay, demonstrating that she's starting to learn how to empathise with other people more and express sympathy for their struggles.

In Episode 10, Catra is willing to go back to the Fright Zone with Adora and the others, a.k.a. return to the place which is the source of most of her trauma, because she knows it's what has to be done.

In Episode 11, Catra decides to go to Mystacor with Adora and the others even though it's Shadow Weaver's idea, a.k.a. follow a plan thought up by the woman who's the source of most of her trauma, because she knows it's what has to be done. She also willingly lets Adora go to the Heart and potentially sacrifice herself which has literally been Catra's greatest fear throughout this entire season, because she accepts that it's Adora's choice to make and finally understands that Adora's priority will always be the greater good and she can't and shouldn't change that.

In Episode 13, Catra chooses to stay by Adora's side no matter what, regardless of whether Adora feels the same way about her, because she's reached a place where she's able to accept that her feelings might not be reciprocated and she still wants to be there for Adora in any way necessary even so— even if it means watching the love of her life die in front of her.

Catra spends the entire season going through the personal growth necessary to become a better person and learn how to have healthy connections with people. She makes the effort to improve time after time and dedicates herself to the ongoing job of breaking her toxic tendencies and making up for everything she did. If you still don't believe that she deserved to find peace and love after all of that then I can't make you, but you can't just ignore everything that happened in the show.

tl;dr - you don't have to like Catra or her arc, but she more than earned her happy ending.

[masterweaverx]

The Dumbest RWBY Oneshot Ever

Weiss Schnee was feeling, all things considered, pretty good.

Sure, she hadn’t slept in something like forty-eight hours. And, alright, the immortal witch-queen of the Grimm had parked a gods-damned WHALE as large as Beacon itself on Atlas. And even after Oscar blew it (and her) up with a magic cane, there was still the voluminous horde of shadow demons it had vomited up roving her home city while innocent citizens cowered in the subway. Not to mention the monster that had broken into her own home and terrorized everyone with its creepy speech before it died, leaving behind the mangled body of some poor silver-eyed faunus and traumatizing Ruby with the gruesome implications.

And then there Ironwood going insane, declaring them all enemies of the state, infecting Penny with a lethal virus, and threatening to blow up Mantle. If her sister was to be believed he’d also killed one council members and been barely prevented from murdering one of his own Ace Ops before they contained him. And, of course, there was the tiny fact that Weiss had herself condemned the city of Atlas to fall as a result of all that...

Realistically, she should have been weighed down with guilt, and exhaustion, and resentment, and probably a lot of other things. But what Weiss felt now was something like... relieved pride. Despite all odds, they’d saved Penny. They’d brought Ironwood to heel. They’d even killed Salem--temporarily, she was coming back, but still an accomplishment. And, as she strode down the golden path from the portal and watched people slowly trickle in from the other bright ovals in this... mysterious void, she knew that the citizens of Mantle and of Atlas would escape the calamity that had been wrought.

“Hope Vacuo has enough space for all these people,” Ruby murmured as she helped Penny along on her new feet.

Yang smirked. "If there’s one thing Vacuo has plenty of, it’s space. I’m more worried about dumping everyone on them without warning.”

“That is a tomorrow problem,” Weiss declared.

“Wow.” Blake gave her a wry grin. “I never thought I’d see the day where you, of all people, would procrastinate.”

Weiss whirled, pointing the staff of creation at Blake’s face. “Where was all this sass back at Beacon?”

“Locked behind the trauma of escaping an abusive relationship,” Blake replied casually.

“...Touché.” Weiss shrugged, stepping onto the main platform and waving at the milling crowd. “Excuse me! Can anybody tell me where the Happy Huntresses are? We need to touch base.”

“They’re over there!” a woman reported, pointing at the largest portal. “They’re helping organize everyone going through--getting families back together and all that.” She shook her head. “This is actually happening...”

Yang put a hand on her shoulder. “Yeah. World’s a crazy place. Just... focus on what you need to do now, okay?”

“Okay.” The woman nodded. “I’m going to... look for my husband.”

With a final pat, Yang broke away and the five teenagers maneuvered through the press of people. It didn’t take them too long to approach the three women near the final road, since the crowd was milling that way anyway, and the tall green-haired woman spotted them first. “Hey May, your interns are here!”

“Thanks Joanna!” The blue-haired woman waved the five of them over with a grin. “There’s the heroes of the hour!”

“Interns?” Yang put a hand on her hip. “Are we getting paid for this?”

“Sorry, no pay till you’re officially hired, but I’ll make sure you get an amazing benefits package.” May Marigold had a smile on her face despite her sardonic tone. “How are you kids feeling?”

“Well, Penny’s still getting used to her new body,” Weiss admitted.

“Toes are weird,” Penny reported in a distant tone.

Ruby wrapped her arm tighter around her shoulders. “That they are, Penny,” she agreed fondly.

“Yang and Blake are still insufferably dense,” Weiss continued.

“Okay, that’s unfair!” Yang insisted. “I know I’m dense, but Blake--”

“Yang, you’re not dense!” Blake protested. “You’re one of the smartest people I know!”

May whistled. “Yeowch, I see what you mean. How about you, princess?”

“Honestly, I’m feeling unusually giddy. Not just for this whole situation, but for me personally.”

“Yeah, that’s what happens when you’re awake for fifty hours straight,” Joanna admitted. “You’re going to zonk out as soon as you hit a bed.”

“I expect as much.”

May shook her head. “Well, you kids have exceeded all expectations,” she assured them with pride.

“Not an uncommon occurrence for us,” Weiss replied.

“Smug little brats. So...” she nodded at the golden rod in her hand. “That it?”

“Indeed it is. The Staff of Creation, in compact form.” Weiss spun the object in her hand. “And it’s surprisingly less heavy this way. Chalk it up to magic, I guess.”

“Right.” May turned to the side. “Hey, Fiona! Got a sec?”

“One moment!” came the reply from a short woman. "You said you can’t find your dad?”

The child in front of her nodded hesitantly. “They tooks him up to Atlas when they was taking people up,” he said.

“Well a lot of those other portals come from Atlas,” the woman replied. “So it’s probably only going to be a few minutes, okay?”

“Okay...”

“My uncle here can look after you until then.”

The child looked up at the old man with badger paws, who gave him a gentle smile. “Okay,” he said, carefully settling himself in front of the man.

Fiona smiled, turning around and joining the rest of the group. “Okay, what’s--Kids!” She skipped over gleefully. “You did it--you have no idea how grateful everyone is!”

“Aha, well, it... it was nothing,” Ruby replied awkwardly. “We just did the best with what we had--”

Joanna clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You had nothing but each other and were up against two whole armies,” she pointed out bluntly. “One had magic and Grimm, the other was Atlas. And you somehow saved everyone. Accept the damn praise already.”

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, gave a look at Penny, and reluctantly let out a small laugh. “I... guess you have a point...”

May cleared her throat. “Anyway. We have an ancient magical artifact that needs to stay out of the wrong hands.” She tilted her head toward the Staff of Creation. “Fiona, if you would?”

“Oh! Right, right.” Fiona accepted the golden rod from Weiss, absorbing it with her semblance.

“Well,” Weiss said. “Glad that’s settled--”

“Whoa.”

Something about the word made the hairs on Weiss’s neck raise.

“What... wow.” Fiona seemed to sway a little, raising her arms. “This is incredible. I have tiny hands.”

“...Fi?” May gave her a concerned look. “You doing okay there?”

Fiona looked down. She raise a leg with an experimental expression, waving it around, before putting it back down. “Huh. I’ve never felt so attached to the ground before...”

“That’s... gravity,” Joanna said blankly. “It’s called gravity.”

“Huh. Really?”

Weiss frowned. “Fiona?” When the woman didn’t respond, she shared an awkward look with May. “Um.”

Blake sighed, kneeling down in front of the short woman. “Fiona, can you focus?”

The woman looked at her strangely. “...who’s Fiona?”

“Oooooooookay yeah, this--this is weird,” May said quickly. “Maybe we shouldn’t have given her the staff--”

“The staff?” Fiona looked up her. “Wait, do you mean my staff?”

“Your... Ambrosus?” Yang stared in utter disbelief. “Is that you?!”

“Well, of course!” Fiona put her hands on her hips. “Who else would I be?”

May looked around at the collection of sighs and groans team RWBY produced. “Okay, somebody want to clue me in to what the hell is going on?”

Weiss sighed. “Ambrosus is the spirit in the staff,” she explained wearily. “So I guess when Fiona used her semblance to absorb the staff, he came along with it and...” She waved a hand at the woman.

“Wait.” Fiona, possibly, held up a hand. “Absorb the staff?”

“Fiona’s semblance lets her store things,” Joanna explained. “We thought she’d keep it safe... we’ve never tried it with anything magical before.”

May took a deep, controlled breath. “Alright. Okay. So... can we fix this? Get Fiona back?”

Blake shrugged as she stood back up. “I think if we get the staff out of her

“Alright. Hey, Fi--Ambrosus.” May crossed her arms. “Can you get out of there?”

“Hmmm.” Ambrosus snapped Fiona’s fingers--or at least tried to. It took three attempts to make a successful snap. “Huh. Okay, there might be a problem, and that problem is I don’t have my powers in this body.”

“You don’t need to create the staff,” Penny pointed out. “You need to remove it from Fiona.”

“You did hear me just say I don’t have my powers, right?”

“Then use Fiona’s semblance.”

“...Doy!” Ambrosus brought Fiona’s hand to her head in a facepalm. “Ow! Huh.” The motion was repeated. “Is this what pain feels like?”

Penny nodded--and then frowned. “Hmm.” She brought her own hand to her head. “Ouch! Oh. Pain does feel different in this body.”

“Maybe we can test that out later in a more controlled environment,” Ruby said quickly, grabbing Penny’s wrist.

“Yeah,” May agreed, frowning as Ambrosus experimentally pinched Fiona’s skin. “Hey!”

“Hmm?”

“Out!”

“Right.” Fiona’s ear’s drooped... and then Ambrosus blinked. “Oh! Motile ears! Fancy!”

Blake sighed as the ears went up and down. “Focus...”

“Right, yes.” Ambrosus held out Fiona’s arms, staring at her hands in concentration. “Semblance. Semblance. Seeeem-blance. Hmmmmnnnnn. Aura, personal manifestation. Semblance. Okay. Any moment now. Definitely going to happen okay I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but nothing’s happening.”

May clutched at her hair. “What kind of ancient spirit are you?!”

“This is new for me too, alright?”

“Maybe you can’t use Fiona’s semblance because you aren’t Fiona,” Joanna suggested.

“That--huh.” Ambrosus nodded. “You know what, that just might be it.”

“Well... switch over and let her have control,” Yang offered. “Like Oz does, you know?”

“Huh. Okay, okay.” Fiona’s eyes shut, and Ambrosus took a deep breath. “Just have to focus inward. Hmmm. No, those seem to be automatic functions... no, that’s... oh, that’s an interesting memory... oh, hmm, closer... Oh!  There she is and--oh.”

“Oh?” May said. “What’s oh?”

“Oh is ‘she’s been cognizant this whole time,” Ambrosus replied awkwardly.

Weiss pinched her brow. “Of course. Just... give her control, already.”

“Right, right, yes. I am so sorry for the trouble, miss, I’ll just--”

One moment Fiona was casually rolling a hand as Ambrosus talked. The next she was stock still, standing in a position far to casual for her suddenly blank expression.

“...Fi?” May lowered her hands. “You, uh--?”

With perhaps a bit too much speed, the staff of creation reformed in Fiona’s hand. She shoved it into May’s grasp, taking a few deep breaths. “Oooookay, that was weird.” Her voice was shaky, but not quite panicking. “Freaky and weird and please never ask me to do anything like that again.”

“I am so sorry,” Ruby said quickly. “I--I swear we didn’t know--”

“I know you didn’t, you’re good kids, I’m just going to... cling to Joanna for a bit.”

May sighed as she watched Fiona wrap her arms around Joanna’s waist. “Yeah, that... yeah,” she said, clearly not able to find the words to express her frustration.

“You said it,” Yang replied.

Blake sighed. “Well... at least that’s one unexpected complication dealt with. I hope nothing worse happens.”

"Citizens of Mantle!

Everyone turned to see Cinder Fall flamboyantly flinging off a black cape into the void.

“Bring me the Winter Maiden,” she demanded. “Or face the infinite depths!”

Weiss groaned. “Of course.” She pulled out Myrtenaster. “Let’s just get this over with...”

[one-boring-person]

I saw requests were open. So I have an angst idea. The boys (tog/sep, up to you) have been seeing fem!reader. They like her, she doesn’t know what they are, but she’s fun, & someone they can be real with, but it’s not far enough to be a “relationship”. Then, they don’t see her for a week or so. They get worried, then she approaches them & says she wants to talk, privately. When alone, she tells them she’s pregnant, she doesn’t know what to do. (Pt.1)

(Sorry, I haven't quite figured out whether or not I can add multiple asks to a post or not yet, so I've just screenshotted them and put them here😅) I hope you enjoy this!❤💛💛

I Should've Known.

The Lost Boys x reader

Warnings: implied sexual themes, one use of bad language, pregnancy

Masterlist.

"Would you stop fidgeting? You're driving me insane!" David snaps at the lanky blonde to his right, sending an icy glare at him as he does so. In response, Paul snaps his teeth and clenches his fists together, trying his hardest not to bounce on the balls of his feet, head cast downwards in a sulking manner.

"I'm sorry, I'm just on edge!" The blonde vampire whines back, pulling a joint from his pocket, followed by his lighter, which he then uses to ignite the tip.

"We all are, but do you see us running mini-marathons on the spot all night?" The platinum blonde leader growls back, tossing the butt of his own cigarette on the floor and crushing it out, adjusting his gloves as he does so, Dwayne and Marko agreeing as they watch the crowd move past.

"Yeah, at this rate I reckon you'd be able to outrun the world's best." Marko remarks, yelping as Paul gives him a clip round the ear.

"She's been gone a week, don't you think I have a reason for being like this?" The vampire complains miserably, taking a drag from the joint in his hand, slowly exhaling the smoke into the air and watching it disperse, lips pulled into a tight line. The others remain quiet, equally as worried and concerned as each other, all four pairs of eyes looking out over the hordes of people, searching for one peron: (Y/n).

They'd met her a few months back, having been enraptured by her good looks and fun personality, instantly making the decision to befriend her, enjoying her company more than they do each other's. She met with them every night, never questioning why they couldn't meet up with her during the day, accepting that they live in a cave, where she started spending a lot of her nights, drinking and partying with them until the sun comes up, her personality only exaggerated by the alcohol in her system. It was during one of these parties that their relationship became slightly more intimate, the drunkenness and buzz from Paul's cannabis having loosened inhibitions, resulting in something that none of them ever thought might occur: a one night stand.

Between all of them.

A month later, and she hasn't shown up to the Boardwalk in a week, having made no contact with them whatsoever, her house appearing empty when they'd gone to visit it, hoping to catch her. Nerves had run rampant when they'd seen this, the four of them quickly becoming stressed and panicked about what might've happened to her, until they realised she probably went to stay with a family member, though it is odd that she didn't say anything to them.

"Hey, that's her over there, isn't it?" Dwayne suddenly speaks up, nodding his head towards the entrance to the Boardwalk, where a familiar figure is pushing through the crowd in their direction.

"It is." David confirms, pushing off his position against the motorcycle to stand upright, hands in his pocket, jaw set as he watches (Y/n) approach them.

Rather than the usual cheery smile and joking greeting, she strides up to them with a tense stance, her lip clamped between her teeth, face slightly paler than normal. As Paul catches sight of her, he rushes forwards, swooping her up into his arms, crushing her tightly against his chest, only to pull away slightly when she only lightly pats him on the back, allowing her to pull away again. Slowly, she turns to look back at them, eyes filled with worry, muscles rigid.

"You alright, (Y/n)? You don't look too well." Dwayne observes, frowning as he looks her over.

"I'm fine. Can I talk to you guys? Somewhere more private?" She responds quietly, looking uneasy as she shifts from foot to foot, doing a very good impression of exactly what Paul was doing a few minutes before.

"Of course." David agrees, brow furrowed slightly as he leads the way onto the beach, walking a little way out where there are no other people, stopping a few metres from the water. Following on, the rest of them form a small circle around (Y/n), anxious to figure out why she's been avoiding them, the four of them watching her carefully.

It takes her a couple of seconds to say anything, but when she does, a ripple of disbelief and shock washes over the boys.

"I don't really know the best way to tell you guys this, and I've been trying to figure that out all week, but I think you should know that I'm pregnant." She rushes the end of the sentence, the others almost not catching it as she hastily looks down again, wringing her hands together.

They remain silent, minds trying to process what they've heard.

"...pardon?" Dwayne finally manages out, dark eyes wide.

"I'm pregnant." (Y/n) repeats, more clearly, concern racing through her as she considers their reactions, lip almost bleeding from how hard she's biting it.

Another round of silence ensues, during which David becomes increasingly more tense, his anger almost radiating off of him in waves, Paul and Marko exchanging glances as they notice, though the two blondes are just as shocked as their counterparts.

"Whose is it, (Y/n)? Who have you been sleeping around with?" The platinum blonde eventually spits out, voice laced with venom and scorn as his blue eyes seem to bore into her, disguising the hurt running rampant in his head; he'd thought they were closer than that. After all, he didn't just sleep with anyone.

"Who have I...? I've not "been sleeping around" with anyone! It's your child! Or one of yours, anyway!" She has the decency to look offended, though the blonde vampire is still not convinced, scoffing disdainfully at her, knowing this to be impossible, a fact she can't know.

"Yeah, sure. Tell the truth, (Y/n). Who was it?" He presses, muscles tightening as if trying to restrain himself, expression turning icy.

"It was one of you!" She exclaims, earnestly, "I've not slept with anyone but you guys in the last year and I reckon I would've shown by now if it was the last guy!"

She sighs to herself before continuing, seemingly gathering her thoughts together, unaware of the confusion and uncertainty brewing in her friends.

"Look, I'm not expecting you all to drop everything and leave your lives behind for this, but I thought you at least deserved to know about it. I'm sorry that it's happened, but it has. I'll see you around."

With that, she walks off, tears streaming down her cheeks, not expecting the hostility she was met with, hands pulling at her sleeves, teeth still digging into her lip. Behind her, the boys remain silent, shock still rendering two of them speechless, the other two swiftly exchanging glowers, dark eyes keeping hard contact with icy ones.

"What the hell was that for?!" Dwayne snaps at David once (Y/n) is completely out of earshot, rounding on his leader with a snarl, eyes flashing dangerously in the darkness.

"You know full well that we can't reproduce, so she's obviously been sleeping around with someone!" David growls back, standing up to the taller vampire authoritatively.

"And how the hell is she supposed to know that? You could be a little less aggressive when talking to her! Why are you getting annoyed anyway? I thought she was only a friend!" Dwayne spits out, referring to their conversation earlier in the month, where they'd all decided not to make a move on her.

"Things change, Dwayne." The leader bites back, hating to admit his newfound weakness: (Y/n), "I'm gonna go talk to Max. He should have some answers."

The three others agree to accompany him, Paul and Marko seemingly still in shock as they trail behind, neither if them saying anything the entire trek to Max's video store, not even sparing Maria a second glance when they traipse into the shop itself. Instantly, Max notices their arrival and scowls at them, going to say his usual line, only to stop when he notices the new attitude of the usually rowdy coven.

"What do you want?" He inquires as they approach him, eyeing them reproachfully.

"A word in private, if you wouldn't mind." Davis does nothing to sugarcoat his voice, the tone still as frosty as before.

Max nods after a minute, leading them to a backroom, where he kicks out the staff lingering there and locks the door behind them, turning to face the boys as he finishes, taking in their appearances with a curious eye.

"What do you need?" He finally asks, waiting for them to respond.

"Is there any chance that we can reproduce?" The platinum blonde puts it bluntly, face completely expressionless as he watches Max for a reaction.

"Reproduce? Why?" The head vampire sounds confused, before realisation sets in, "You think you got someone pregnant."

None of them reply to that, not willing to go into any detail with him, despite coming to him for help, Paul starting to shift on his feet again, having finally recovered enough to do so.

"It's very rare, but there have been cases of vampires getting humans pregnant. In the past, if a woman ever conceived a vampire's child, it was because of some unnatural occurrence, and the child always came out as a hybrid - half vampire, half human. I'm not entirely sure how it happens, but it seems that it's not as unlikely as I originally thought. I guess I should probably have given you guys The Talk." Max jokes towards the end, though he is very much aware of the effect his words have had on the boys, the prospect of having gotten someone pregnant never something that occurred to them at all.

"How...how can you tell?" Dwayne inquires, quietly.

"Tell what? That she's pregnant? Most women usually got the same symptoms as with a regular pregnancy, but with the addition of cravings for raw meat, and pretty violent mood swings. At this time, the woman needs someone to look after her properly and thoroughly."

They don't learn much else from Max, parting ways with him pretty soon after with the simple words "stick around for the child, you'll enjoy it", quickly deciding that (Y/n) had to be told about her new predicament. Finding their motorcycles, they kick them into gear and speed off onto the roads, hoping that she'll be back at her own home, making it easier to find her. The ride there is silent for once, each of them considering the same thing: whether or not to stick around, and what the pros of both options are. With these in mind, they pull up to (Y/n)'s house, noting that the lights are on inside, meaning that it is occupied.

"How are we gonna do this?" Marko speaks up for the first time since (Y/n) found them on the Boardwalk, voice uncertain as he climbs off the motorcycle, thumb between his teeth as soon as he's on solid ground again.

"No clue." David admits aloud, leading the way to the door, where he raps three times, the sound ringing out clearly in the house.

It takes a moment, but soon the wood is pulled back from the frame and a surprised face peers through, eyes red and blotchy, clearly having dried a long while, the sight striking a chord inside all four of them, Paul instantly getting the urge to wrap her in a tight hug. He remains still, choosing not to invade her personal space as they ask to be invited inside, going to the lounge where they can sit on the sofa, facing (Y/n), who takes a seat on an armchair opposite them. Once in place, they explain everything, watching as her face creases in disbelief, then anger, then resignation. As they finish, all she does is roll her eyes, chuckling dryly into her hand as it drags down her face.

"I should've known." Is all she says, cupping her face in her hands.

Confused, the four vampires look at each other, not quite understanding her gist.

"What do you mean?" Paul questions, leg bouncing nervously.

"I mean that I should've known you boys would make some stupid excuse." She snaps, standing and walking to the adjoining kitchen, where she pours herself a glass of water, "I should've seen it coming. But then, I didn't think you'd be so blatantly rude about it, either."

The boys are speechless for the second time that night, trying to figure out what to do as she continues.

"If you didn't want to be around, you should just have said. You didn't have to lie about the whole situation to me."

"We're not making an excuse, everything we've told you is true." David informs her, standing and going over to her, as if approaching a wild animal.

"Sure it is."

With one last sigh, David carefully morphs his face into the terrifying features of his natural state, eyes blazing yellow, fangs pushing out from under his upper lip, brow more defined than before, the appearance giving (Y/n) a chill of unease and fear as she sees it.

"Believe me now?" The platinum blonde inquires, cocking his head to the side.

"Well, shit." Is all she says, eyes wide, muscles rigid as she watches the vampire return to his usual countenance, swallowing nervously.

"I know this is a lot for you to take in, but we thought we'd come here to tell you that, if you want us to, we're more than happy to help out with the child." Dwayne reassures her from the sofa, dark eyes warm and kind as he watches her.

"Please, we'd like to help." David admits, the four of them having made the collective decision on the ride up, especially when they realised that they had hated being apart from her.

"If you can help me understand what the hell is going on, then sure, I'll take any help i can get."

[deathbydarkelves]

I decided to make playlists for Cathala and Tarinne plus explanations for why I chose each song because I entered one of those ADHD fugue states and if I didn't finish this task I would die

Anyway here are the two links (they're youtube playlists because I don't have spotify. I would obviously recommend using an adblocker if you're just gonna watch on youtube) and the explanations for each song are below the cut :) Each playlist is about an hour long.

For Tarinne’s:

1. Foggy Nights: I consider this her theme so putting it first as a sort of intro only makes sense.

2. Here’s a Health to the Company: I think this works as an example of her general disposition. She’s a people person, and always a fan of singing these sorts of songs in taverns, on ships, or what have you. It also kind of feels like a sendoff to soldiers, which I imagine symbolizes her joining the Sentinel Army and quickly thereafter fighting in the Third War.

3. Wartime Prayers: Somewhat self-explanatory, this is symbolizing her seeing war for the first time, but I also included it because the last line transitions SO WELL into the next song.

4. The Hollow: This song is an intro to an album I've never heard so I don't know the context, but I really love it because it sounds like someone praying to their deity and like I mean c'mon. Elune. Tarinne's praying to Elune to guide her through the war. Do I need to elabo-

5. Wave Walker: KILL DEATH MAIM AHAHAHAHA

6. Isil Elun’falo: Just a super rad fan-made night elf song that's basically "wow we sure do love Elune" said in twenty different ways for four and a half minutes. But it ROCKS and I LOVE it.

7. Chewing Cotton Wool: This song is about losing a loved one (I did have to check but yeah that's what it is) and I use it to symbolize Tarinne losing her mom during the war. The last line, which includes the song's title, I especially like. It's referring to how morticians (apparently) put cotton gauze in a corpse's throat and mouth to keep body fluids in and make the face look more natural. So there's a fun fact for you.

8. See U Soon (Song for Dad): Just a short lofi piece to rest a bit, and it was also chosen because the title's in reference to Tarinne growing closer to her dad after losing her mom. She still visits him at his leathers and furs shop in Stormwind fairly often, especially after dangerous adventures. She just wants to make sure he knows she's alright ;-;

9. No Lullaby: Right back into it with a song that I use to represent Tarinne's general feeling of not being able to go home because it's not there anymore. She's felt like this since the end of the Third War, but it's especially strong since the whole Teldrassil thing. But I like the ending, "who said you're on your own," because it contrasts the repeating of "alone" in the rest of the song. And it's kinda like "hey, listen, you're not the only one who feels like she can't go home." I mean that's probably how basically every single night elf feels right now skxnks

10. The Moss: This song juxtaposes classic fairy tales with scientific facts about the world and I love it to BITS. I'm using it here to represent both Tarinne's love for storytelling but also her sort of... part-time historian/archaeologist/conservator career.

11. Rasputin: I just associate this song with her for some reason and this was the best place to put it.

12. Electric Feel: Moving on to focus more on Tarinne's relationship with Cathala now. This is an extremely great and somewhat 😏 song that I also included because the electricity theme is appropriate because Cathala has lightning powers and y'know it's from Tarinne's perspective or whatever.

13. Bedroom Hymns: You know why this is here.

14. Movement: I can't talk about love songs without talking about Hozier, okay. This is just a nice, slower song to relax a bit with.

15. Never Let Me Go: I have an entire goddamn music video in my head with Cathala and Tarinne for this song and it’s very dramatic and emotional and I had to include this song or I’d die. Basically just listen to near the end of this song when she's repeating the title over and over, and imagine the two of them seeing each other at opposite ends of a battlefield after the dust settles and they rush towards each other and fall to their knees holding on as tightly as they can because they got separated early on and each thought the other was dead. Then you'll know how I feel when I listen to this song.

16. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control: First of all I love the title, and second of all there's a big section in the middle (1:49 to 2:47) that I like to interpret as the two of them grappling with the fact that they're not really quite sure who or what they're fighting for anymore. Their people, yeah, but there's so many alliances and semi-permanent enemies and only-on-every-other-thursday-enemies all intertwined and the world is just so very confusing and they're trying to make the best of it. Elf school didn’t include international, interracial politics in its curriculum. It did however include how to properly plant trees, and AP calculus (this is a joke).

17. In Dreams: I like to imagine this song is something the two of them would say to each other, as a way of saying “even when everything we know is gone, even when the world ends, I will still be by your side. And if I’m not, don’t fear, for I will find you.” It makes a nice note to end on :)

For Cathala’s:

1. muse: Just a nice lofi intro to get us into things :) I don't see this song as her theme, like I do with Tarinne and the first song in her playlist, but I like it quite a bit. I don't actually really have a theme for Cathala yet, I'm currently going with a version of Way of the Monk from WoW's OST but I'm still looking for something better.

2. Frogs Singing: I included this because it's about just appreciating nature, which works because night elf and also mindfulness and meditation is a whole thing.

3. Tongues: This is a song about feeling distant from your peers which is like Cathala's whole existence! She's this weird mix of two cultures and ultimately she feels out of place regardless of where she is or who she's with. Also the theme with not understanding what people are saying works because the poor woman had to learn Pandaren from scratch and that shit ain't easy. I think blizz said somewhere probably that Common is just a language that EVERYONE knows inherently because Video Game but that's bullshit in my opinion. I'll allow spells that let you understand foreign languages to an extent (Comprehend Languages from D&D lets you understand the LITERAL meaning only, which I like), but every culture and species in the universe knowing Common is silly if you think about it for more than two seconds.

4. Kung Fu Fighting: I'm legally required to include this song. Also I prefer the Kung Fu Panda version, I'm sorry.

5. Harder Better Faster Stronger: I vicariously experience having a great work ethic through Cathala and that's why this song is here because she has 999 Determination and does Too Many push-ups every day or something idk. I was gonna say "every morning" but I have a headcanon that elves only need to sleep every couple of days (sort of a nod to "elves don't need to sleep at all" from D&D, and to explain why NIGHT elves are active at all hours of the day) so that doesn't work.

6. What's Up Danger: This song is Cathala's whole Vibe. Almost zero threat assessment skills in this woman's brain. If it can be punched, she will punch it.

7. Eye for an Eye: Fairly self-explanatory, it's a song about wanting revenge so... yeah. Checked that box. It was this or The Vengeful One by Disturbed but ultimately The Vengeful One's religious symbolism probably makes it fit better as a Tyrande theme lol ("I'm the hand of god, I'm the dark messiah." Did you mean: the Night Warrior)

8. Survivor: Cathala's survived a lot of shit and this could kinda be her making fun of herself for it because "Gods, man! Don't I deserve a break!"

9. Ashes: Really the reason I include this song is the last chunk (2:42 to the end) because holy shit. Listen, if I was gonna include a song with fire motifs, it was gonna be a somber one like this.

10. Into the West: This can kinda represent Cathala just trying to fucking breathe and recover from Teldrassil. Also works because I dunno it has stuff to do with the elves in LotR, I haven't seen those movies in a while. It sounds nice and is melancholy so I included it.

11. Like Real People Do: Cathala loves Tarinne a lot you guys have I ever menti-

12. Into the Wild: Tarinne changed Cathala's world for the better and she's super fucking grateful she has her by her side. Kinda goes without saying but you know.

13. Chasing the Moon: I have a vague music video in my head for this of them falling in love and it's very cute so there's that. Also it's in this specific spot because hey she may be deeply traumatized but she's still got a fair number of things/people in her life that make her happy so :)

14. Follow My Girl: I've got a theme going in my head that while Tarinne is fairly certain of her place in the world, Cathala is still trying to find hers. She outlived all her connections on Pandaria because Elf Lifespans(tm) and the only members of her family still alive are distant relatives she never knew very well.

15. Wish That You Were Here: This works both to represent Cathala on Pandaria feeling super homesick, and for more recently after Teldrassil. Either way, it's a message to her parents and sister.

16. Mr. Fear: She does her damnedest to hide it but she's absolutely terrified something like Teldrassil's gonna happen again! That fear drives her to do everything in her power to protect who and what she can. As long as they're not Forsaken, cause she's still got her biases, that compassion even extends across faction lines. She never really got the whole Alliance/Horde thing anyway. Innocent people shouldn't have to die, regardless of who or what they are.

17. Ordinary Day: Not to get super out there but I think this song works as symbolizing Cathala really trying to hold on to her faith in Elune, but ultimately feeling pretty abandoned. I mean she can clearly see Elune's influence everywhere. But Elune sure ain't doing Cathala any favors as far as she can tell! It also ends the whole playlist on maybe a bit of an uncertain/open-ended note, because this "losing faith" aspect is a new thing with her and will definitely be something she continues to struggle with for a while. On a related note, I should say Tarinne is still very much devout but she gets what Cathala's feeling and doesn't force anything on her, and vice versa. And Cathala wouldn't become atheist, the night elves aren't monotheistic and she still worships all the other deities, it's just specifically Elune she's a little :/ on.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 2 Review/Rundown

Cr

I feel like this about sums up the general reaction after this week. So let’s dive into how it got out of hand so fast.

We open, a little surprisingly, on a shot we saw at the end of last Volume: Qrow looking at Clover’s bloody badge in his hand. We hear Robyn ranting and raving at someone about how this situation is all their fault, how all she wanted was to bring people together. She’s pacing in her cell, and at first you worry she’s turned on Qrow and hates him for fighting Clover and getting them both arrested, but no. She’s berating Jacques, and thank god someone is. He quotes his daughter in Volume 1 and claims he is a victim, but it was more endearing and memorable coming from the Ice Queen. He continues to assert his innocence, saying Watts used him and his power for diabolical purposes. Sure, he is guilty of many things, but he should not be held responsible for this. And at least his charges don’t include murder. That gets Qrow’s attention, since it was of course a dig at him. That quells Robyn’s fury rather quickly, and she does defend Qrow’s innocence. But she hops right back on the flame train and (while wonderfully insulting his mustache) says she’s not about to agree with the words of an accomplice to Watts’ sins against Mantle. Sure enough, the man of the hour is also in an adjacent cell, and he’s resigned himself to being stuck here like the rest of them. We get a look at where exactly “here” is, a 2 by 2 grid of square cells whose walls are Hard Light Dust shields. It’s a room that’s otherwise rather empty, and the Dust walls seem to be the only source of light. A very makeshift appearance, all things considered, and I worry about Watts being in a cell surrounded by Dust tech he might be able to manipulate. Then again, they took his rings, but he’s got to be pretty resourceful. Meanwhile, Jacques has all the confidence of a spoiled rich brat put behind bars for a misdemeanor. He’s quite sure Whitley will be rushing to get the family’s legal team on the case, and he’ll be out within... well we don’t know exactly how short he thinks his incarceration will last because Robyn gets pissed and punches the wall dividing them. That shuts him up rather well. And really, Jacques-ass? You’re putting your faith in a teenager to help overturn alleged war crimes? What an out of touch prick. 

All four of them are shaken from their particular trains of thought by an alarm buzzing and the door opening. Three guards file in, disengage one of the walls of Watts’ cell, and go inside to smack him with the muzzle of a gun and drag his ass outta there. Jacques cringes at the sight of such sudden violence, and Robyn looks momentarily surprised before seeming to accept this. Guess she didn’t expect Ironwood to be so ruthless so soon. She sits back on her bed, which looks like its just a hard slab, and laments being unable to do anything. But Qrow says there is something they can do: kill the man who put them here. To paraphrase Agent Washington, that has got to be the worst plan ever. Of all time. You’re already in jail on murder charges, and now you want to actually cross the line and kill THE LEADER OF A KINGDOM?!?!?! I realize that Ironwood has gone of the deep end and needs to be stopped, but this is not the way to do it. This will only lead to failure, I’m sure of it.

Meanwhile, we cut down to an Atlas news reporter doing a story in Mantle. He’s doing his thing, talking about the unprecedented Grimm hordes and Ironwood not doing anything about it yet. But just as he’s going on about the dedication of his station, the Atlas Eye, Joanna comes up and swipes his microphone to deliver her own message to the people. She tells it like it is, saying that the Happy Huntresses are here to offer aid when Ironwood will not, and spreading the word for people to gather what supplies they can and head for the crater. We see one of the kids from Jaune’s crosswalk scene, and thank goodness his mom is still alive. Joanna talks about all of Mantle coming together to hold the line against the coming Grimm, otherwise the storm at their gates will sweep in to wipe them all out. Yang’s group get into Pietro’s pharmacy, and open the door to the backroom to discover something that makes them very happy. As we saw from the promo clip several months ago, it’s three hoverbikes which we then see them riding through the streets. Yang’s a natural at it, driving up a ramp to do a cool flip off a wall much to Oscar’s panic and discomfort as some of her hair gets in his mouth. Jaune and Ren are... adequate by comparison. Noticing the purple glow of what I presume is Gravity Dust propelling them and allowing the bikes to hover, I wouldn’t be shocked if Yang gives hers a paintjob to be the new Bumblebee: Now with added shipping material! What’s far less pleasant to notice is the Grimm squatting like a gargoyle on the bridge they drive under. We see this thing on the rooftops in a few more shots and then... whooo boy. But we will get there. For now, the biker gang finds more people to protect and help on the journey through town to the crater. One of the Real Thirsty Moms has armed herself with a snow shovel and isn’t totally sure if the crater will be a safe place, but Yang puts on her bravest face to reassure her... just before the screams of people being chased by Grimm get her attention. It’s only two Sabyrs, and Jaune stops their progress by throwing a Hard Light shield spawning grenade that we can assume was with the stash of new gear earlier. Ren drops down to stab both Grimm to death and kicks the quickly deactivating grenade back to Jaune who uses the Gravity in his shield to draw it to him. Very handy with all the tools, bud. Oscar is worried the Grimm Salem has brought with her have already gotten this far into the city, but Yang rationalizes they’re stragglers from the big attack last night. Cuz yeah, we’re still only 12 hours or so removed from the climactic latter half of Volume 7. She doesn’t wanna take any chances though, and asks Ren if Jaune can amp his Semblance up so he can mask the whole crowd for the trip. Ever the realist, he gives a less than encouraging answer, but Jaune sees how badly these people need some hope and comfort. So he makes it into a reassuring promise that the trip will be totally safe and Grimm free. Good job, man. But in every crowd of people, there’s always... a Karen. In this case it’s a grandma who doesn’t want to go stay in the slums among the “animals”, she wants to go to Atlas dammit. But Yang has been waiting to berate someone after the morally grey argument with Ruby last episode, so she takes full advantage of this. This lady might want to be in Atlas, but it’s become clear that Atlas doesn’t want her or any of the other people in Mantle, whereas the Faunus in the crater are showing more kindness than she deserves and giving her a warm place to stay amid all these Grimm. That shuts her up quick, and her daughter (one of the Real Thirsty Moms!) nervously butts in to say that yeah, they’ll accept the offer and she’ll go get their stuff now. We fade to seeing the greyed out crowd walking down the street with Yang giving frontal support, Ren riding on Jaune’s bike in the midst of the crowd to mask outwards in a radius, and Oscar guarding the rear. Grandma Karen is still whining about having to go to the crater, but her daughter is trying to get her to pipe down.

Oscar laments how hard it’s been to get folks to cooperate, with Ozpin chiming in to say he’s preaching to the choir on this one, and that he’s becoming increasingly concerned about that challenge. Oscar grumbles about the unencouraging internal peanut gallery, and Oz gets right to the point. The teens all have every right to be mad at him for dipping on them in Mistral, none more so than Oscar himself, but that’s not what Oscar’s beef is about. He’s mad that he gave him false hope, that in the time Oz was gone Oscar was able to really start coming into his own as a fighter and a member of the team. But now he’s back and Oscar will go back to just being the vessel for the guy everyone really cares about. Oz acknowledges and validates that, but admits that he was never really gone at all so... the merging is still going. Oscar is gaining deep memories and what magic Oz has left, so it’s closer than ever. Neither of them want this to happen, but what can they do? Further up, Ren’s cloaking flickers for a second and Jaune checks on him. He’ll be fine, he’s just got a lot to focus on. Jaune tries to give him a pep talk, but silence is more needed here and Ren is a little snippy in saying so. Jaune seems pretty bummed that Ren is in such a state, but I can’t really say he’s mad at him. More upset with himself and his leadership. One member of his team left to do something else, and the other is in a mental funk he has no clear idea how to help him out of. That’d bum anyone out. Let’s talk about Ren for a moment, actually. I think part of the reason his semblance is working at less than 100% is the same reason he’s pissy with Jaune. He has too many emotions bottled up and he’s trying to ignore them for the sake of staying neutral and calm to be at his best. But if you force yourself to always be neutral, it becomes that much harder to shift into the zen needed for this power. He needs to let himself have emotional highs and lows so he can transition naturally into the middle ground. In other words, TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, BUDDY!!! It’s also been theorized that his semblance can work for more than just neutrality and he might be projecting his inner turmoil onto the crowd. But that’s yet to be proven. Oz appropriately closes out the scene by saying that they ALL need to figure out a way to work together, but something tells me that’s not coming for another 8 episodes at least.

Changing locales, we see Penny outside of a building with a puffing smokestack on the edge of the city. Turning around, we see where the city of Mantle ends and the slums of the crater begin, and how many people are making there way down from one to the other. But quickly look back, as Blake has just cut off the lock on the chain link gate to the building and May is leading our girl squad inside. That’s right, the one and only May Marigold is coming along on this mission so we get a chance to see her really show her stuff! Nora is grateful for the assist, but May assures her this plan would have definitely gotten Robyn’s backing judging by how much she talked about Amity Tower once she was in the know, so she’s all too happy to help get it up and running. And the Happy Huntresses can afford to be sending her for this, since Fiona has the rest of the team helping her out. The reminder that their partners are off doing a separate mission dampens Blake and Nora’s smiles though... Ruby worries about the safety of going into this place, but once inside Weiss gives the rundown. This is a subsidiary of the Schnee Dust Company that specializes in shipping packages of refined Dust from the mines up to various areas of Atlas through pneumatic tubes. And since it’s a small side business, the worker robots have no direct chain of command to Ironwood, just the Schnees. And Weiss’ grand plan for transportation up to the Atlas military base is something Ruby jokingly suggested back in Volume 2... mailing themselves to their destination. You’re becoming more like that dolt every day... and as a White Rose shipper I love it~ Blake takes this opportunity to rain on Weiss’ confident parade with a dig at the high percentage of buildings in Atlas the Schnee family must own at this rate, and Weiss refuses to comment on how many they actually don’t own. Glad to see Blake being playful like this, shows she’s really comfortable being back with the group again. Everyone spreads out to look for the tube they need, and Penny finds the one for Atlas Academy instead. It reminds her of the confrontations that were had there last Volume, and it clearly still bothers her. Ruby comes over to check on her, and incorrectly assumes Penny’s lamenting about friends fighting is regarding her and Yang. You may be the protagonist, but not everything is about you Ruby. Penny meant Ironwood, Winter, and the Ace Ops, the people Team RWBY had become such fast friends and trusted allies with in Volume 7. The people who are doing and saying such unkind things now, like Ironwood telling her people will die unless she does as she says. Maybe that’s why she’s lingering at this terminal, she’s debating giving herself up to him for the sake of others? 

Ruby is having none of this self blaming talk though, and turns Penny around to look her in the eyes as she assures her that no, that isn’t true at all, Ironwood was just saying it to hurt her and make her feel bad enough to come back. Penny admits that she misses the days when she was just the Protector of Mantle, that she now has so much heavy responsibility and duty thrust upon her as the Winter Maiden and she wishes she did not. She was struggling enough to find an identity as a normal girl, now she has a whole other identity to grapple with, it’s all truly unfortunate and sad. Holding her hands in a very similar way to how she did back when she first found out Penny was an android, Ruby assures her that she is still very much the girl she once was. She protected Mantle by taking the Maiden powers so they wouldn’t be misused to hurt the city. This seems to cheer Penny up a bit, and she thanks Ruby for it. The two have another nice hug, before Nora calls out that she’s found the terminal they need. Blake notes that this is the point of no return, and May asserts her confidence that between Penny’s capabilities with the computers they’ll encounter and her own invisibility Semblance they’ve got this in the bag. Penny doesn’t like being referred to as a secret weapon, or a weapon of any kind, but she says nothing about it. For now, let’s praise May for being sassy and cool and doing a cute little curtsy for style. Nora asks the important question of how the heck they’re gonna use this thing, and Weiss goes into tutorial mode again. Just lie back into the tube and hit the launch button, easy enough. Except she was sitting on the edge of the tube for a visual aid and Nora got bored. So ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM goes Weiss up the tube with a frightened screech. Everyone just watches in slack-jawed shock and confusion, but Nora immediately goes giddy at what has just happened and what will soon happen to the rest of them. I can’t imagine what Ruby and Blake must be thinking, not to mention what’s going through May’s mind with this being her first exposure to Nora being... Nora.

But that’s all we get of them for this episode, so Weiss is Schrodinger’s Heiress for the next week. We go to the crater as Joanna heads into a tent where Fiona is hunched over a map coordinating over comms with someone we’ve yet to meet named Crimson. As she finishes the call and whines over how stressful this all is, Joanna drops a small crystal of fire Dust into a sort of furnace and assures her that she’s doing a great job. Fiona absorbs the map into her hand of infinite holding and says Joanna’s big display on the news makes her more qualified for this job. Joanna laughs that off and says it was necessary to spread the word, which seems to be working judging by how many folks are arriving. The group they’re now noticing come in is the one Yang and her squad have just arrived with from Sector 7. The happy lamb does a happy hoppy dance hearing that they’ve already cleared out that sector, and admits her previous doubts that they could manage this much with only half their team. This hits a sore nerve for both Ren and Yang, and the former stomps off while the latter gives a passive aggressive response. They really need to address this soon or it’s all gonna explode in their faces... Oscar wisely changes the subject to ask how they’re managing to house and provide for all these people, and the two Huntresses give a rundown. They’re doing what they can with houses and shelters, and a lot of people are trying to make old mineshafts into someplace livable, and they’ve been looting SDC refineries for Dust to keep everyone warm. Unlike our own society, no one is getting arrested amidst the end of the world. But they substitute that with the terrifying dread of not knowing when the majority of the Grimm will finally attack, what they’re all waiting for. We and the teens know they’re waiting for Salem’s command, for an opening to cause the most damage. And the longer they wait the more the negative emotions build to draw them in. Clever clever, you old witch you. The ominous mood is interrupted by the badger guy from episode 1 running up to inform Fiona that another fight has broken out among the people. He’s voiced by RT founder Gus Sorola, and apparently he’s Fi’s uncle! She seems bummed about having to go break up another fight, but Joanna’s got this one covered. But problems keep coming, and Crimson reports in that there’s a group of Grimm coming in from the east that he can’t handle while transporting civilians. Yang and co are all to ready go get this off Fiona’s plate for her, and we cut to Yang being pursued by a Teryx. We soon see she’s leading it into an ambush, as Ren and Oscar come riding in at an intersection to toss a grenade baton beneath it which presumably contains air/wind Dust because it gets propelled upwards to crash into a bridge and fall back down stunned. Yang gets out of the way and Jaune charges in for the kill. With that job done, Fiona immediately has a new group for them to clear out on the west side. The kids are getting real tired of this constant rushing around killing Grimm, but its part of the job they made such a fuss about going to do so they gotta do it. Oscar points out what I mentioned before, the negativity from everyone worrying when Salem will strike is luring in the stragglers amongst the Grimm. Speaking of stragglers, three Sabyrs come charging up the street much to Ren’s annoyance. But before they can make contact, something gets their attention and they turn tail to run. This puzzles and concerns the team, since Grimm have never retreated before. Before they can finish asking themselves what the Grimm were running from, they get an answer. A large dog-like Grimm pounces on Oscar and starts mauling him and thrashing his body around. He tries to fight back, kicking at one of its legs, but it is unfazed and keeps hitting him until his aura is gone. We see this thing has no eyes to speak of, but it soon gains apposable hands and hind legs capable of bipedal movement. All the better to carry Oscar away with, and shockingly enough, all the better to hold him in front of it as a human shield when Yang comes charging in to try and save him. She has to swerve and avoid hitting the kid, but gets grabbed by the head and tossed against a wall. Ren is the next to attack, but his bullets do jackshit to its back and his “grapple into the enemy and pull myself at it for a kick” has never worked before and continues to not work now. The Hound, as it is named in the credits and in concept art, stretches out its arm much like the Nuckelavee back in Volume 4 and swats Ren away. Jaune is about to charge in too, but Yang warns him about the Hound’s shield tactic. He’s in disbelief, because they may have seen old Grimm that have gained beastial sentience but never this kind of sapience and creative thinking. Ren grabs his guns but the Hound holds Oscar up again to stop him. Ren, naturally, yells at the Grimm to give their friend back. 

But the Hound just stretches its neck with a few cracking sounds, and says “No”.

This leaves the huntsmen and huntresses in a silent stupor of shock and fear, and I would not blame them. If all of my world’s history has been telling me that the monsters I hunt are mindless beasts of violence and destruction, nothing more, that’s one thing. If I learn they were created by a deity solely for the sake of destroying my civilization and are nothing but his avatars of darkness and wreckage, that’s a big theological pill to swallow but I still know how these things always tend to act. If I am on 6 hours of sleep vs 28 hours of being awake, just had a big personal argument over what our job should be amidst the apocalypse, and now my entire understanding of the monsters I at least thought I knew how to handle is thrown out the window?????? Yeah, I would need a goddamn minute before I could think rationally and quickly again. So you’ll excuse me for giving Yang, Jaune and Ren a pass as they just stand there and watch the Hound grow bat-like wings in a very painful and goopy transformation that gets some goo on Oscar’s unconscious face and then climbs up a building with Oscar in its mouth to fly away. When they do recover their senses they hop on their bikes and chase after the beast at full speed, giving a hasty and vague apology to Fiona for having to go handle this emergency that she wouldn’t believe even if they told her. And that’s it, we have to wait a week or longer to find out if they catch this thing and get Oscar back. Judging from the intro, I’d say they won’t and he will be brought before Salem for torture. Fun!~ This definitely opens the door for brand new possibilities of what Grimm are capable of doing or being, and lots of people are theorizing the Hound is so intelligent because Salem stuck a person in there, possibly someone we thought was dead but perhaps isn’t? Who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.

Sorry it’s so late, but hope this is a good review.

[princessofgayskull]

As a survivor of spiritual abuse, does anyone else feel like religious trauma meme isn't about Horde Prime? The religious allegory is definitely there, but religious trauma is (at least it was for me) very different from the actual doctrine.

In my case, it wasn't the people in the scripture like God or Satan that were the basis for my trauma, but the predatory practices I was both taught and the victim of. It was less about free will and more founded in that I was lied to for my whole life: about my purpose, my role in the world, and my potential. The gaslighting started before I could walk. When it was obvious the intense conditioning wasn't taking hold, I was ostracized and bullied. The older I got, the crueler the people who were supposed to be loving members of my congregation became. I struggled with a massive amount of shame and guilt. I still struggle with this terrible, cancerous shame they created in me for the sole purpose of manipulating me.

Maybe I'm projecting, but I just feel like it would be a lot more interesting if the religious trauma meme was about Adora or Catra instead. In my opinion, they already struggle with Religious Trauma Syndrome. Despite the lack of strict gender roles, hymnals, and homeschooled kids, The Horde was an unnerving parallel for me. Adora got a lot heat for not seeing what was happening in front of her, both in canon and in the fandom, but that moment when she realizes how truly terrible the Horde is and sees for the first time the damage they do and the hurt they cause others, that was really real for me.

Hordak and Shadow Weaver remind me of specific people who made my life hell for years, people who didn't let up even after I left the church and moved to a completely different city.

We've talked a lot about the biblical figures Horde Prime could represent, but if we're talking about trauma I don't really want that part to be focused on the perpetrators, but the victims/survivors. Having the faith you built your whole life on ripped from under you is considered to be just a traumatic as being a practicing member of the religion, and Catra just lost the entire platform she was using to propel herself forward.

I think we should talk about the shame these women are feeling, the guilt at their actions despite trying to overcome some pretty hardcore conditioning, the way they've had to move forward while at the same time reevaluating everything they've ever thought about the world and their place in it. To feel so lost and so broken and unworthy and so angry at yourself because you can't shake what they made you believe about yourself, even though it's not true and never was. To watch everyone get to have faith and feel you're no longer capable of ever having it again. Cause that's the trauma of it all, at least in my opinion.

I never got any closure (and it shows) with the people who used religion as a means to hurt me and I don't know what Noelle means yet, but I hope these girls get closure. And I hope that as we all whisper "what the fuck" under are breath at horde prime's facist regime, we keep in mind the victims of both his regime and the horde rather than just their leaders, because not only did they live it, but are still experiencing the consequences of their abusers' actions.

[the-nado-hunter]

So i just finished watching infinity train book 3, and god damn i’m thinking a lot about all the characters with trauma in animation and whether they get a redemption arch or not.

So when should a character get a redemption arch? When should they not?

I wound up thinking about some of the paralells between simon and catra, both of them have similar bouts grasping for power and control, both of them do some really bad things, and both of them blame someone else for “making” them do bad things.

So what’s the difference? Why did Catra end up redeemed and Simon died in probably one of the most horrific ways I’ve ever seen in modern western animation that’s generally aired with a familly audience in mind (save for maybe the hanging scene in Tarzan)? What’s the difference between the two?

I think for one Catra was actually manipulated, and Simon only thought he was being manipulated. Simon was convinced anything that didn’t align with what he thought had to be a lie. He was abandoned, even if on accident, that’s hard for a kid in a scary place to go through, and he latched on to Grace early on but he retained trust issues after that.

Catra was abused and manipulated by shadow weaver who had pit her against adora since they were children and never ever given the attention and love she needed as a child. She learned that climbing for power in the hoard was the only way to not be hurt. In her mind, everything would be fine if she could gain control.

Simon also felt that control was the best way to cope. Being a part of the Apex as a leader by Grace’s side meant he felt fulfilled and never had to deal with either the consequences of their actions due to the apex members convincing themselves that non-passengers were all liers/manipulaters, so it made it easy to harm and destroy them because they convinced themselves they didn’t need to feel empathy for them because they were “nothing”. Even if people like Lake, Hazel, Tuba, Samantha the Cat, and Atticus have all shown us to this point that they certainly do have feelings and act in self preservation as well as feel loss on a deep level. Its actualy being around and getting to know Hazel due to mistaking her for a passenger that lets Grace begin to see that... but Simon resents Hazel from beginning to end, wheels Tuba and feels no regret for it, even before knowing she wasn’t a passenger he didn’t treat Hazel with any empathy despite Grace begging him to “think of how you felt when you lost your friend when you were her age”, and treated Hazel as a means to an end at best. Because Hazel upset the status quo he felt initially, his control was slipping, he couldn’t tell everything that was going on with Grace all the time, and he reacted violently.

Then in She-Ra... eventually Catra listened, she felt guilt, she was open to being wrong, while she had her moment of anger of being treated unfairly and tried to blame adora for all her problems despite adora offering to help and let Catra come with her numerous times... she realized she needed to change, she realized she needed to work through things, and realized that if she wanted adora to stay in her life, she had to show Adora she cared and stop pushing her and everyone else away out of fear.

Simon on the other hand... never questioned himself. Even when repeatedly hurting and trying to kill someone he supposedly loved. When he hurt Grace he didn’t feel remorse, he felt there was something wrong with her for feeling hurt. When Grace didn’t act or say the things he wanted, he got angry and violent. He invaded her memories and her mind and forced her to relive trauma- giving the excuse that if she hadn’t lied to him, this wouldn’t have happened. This a tactic a lot of abusers use, they blame the victim for making them act that way. Its a way of control by trying to tell the victim “if you do what I say, you won’t get hurt” Sure, when he shoved Grace off the train and thought she had died, maybe somewhere deep down there was a thought of “oh god what have I done” but he still reacted violently. His trauma consumed him, because he didn’t want to change, he was unable to see anything wrong with what he was doing because he was right. I’d theorize that even in that moment where his expression shifted then shifted back, even then he was justifying in his own mind that it was necessary, that Grace made him do that.

The train couldn’t help someone who can’t change. Its tragic, because when we see a character like that on screen and watch him through the lighter moments in the show you... hope that he’ll be redeemed... right? Have a change of heart? But he didn’t. If he had any remorse at all, it was too little too late. That is a real thing that happens, you hope that people will change, get help, turn around and redeem themselves... but sometimes... that doesn’t happen. And it’s not on the people around that person to “fix” them, its not their responsibility to feel guilty for not “doing enough” or “doing the right things” when that person refuses to do anything differently and continues to harm people and act in violence. That’s full on victim blaming, and no one ever deserves that.

Even when Catra is in full villain mode, as Double Trouble pointed out you can tell her heart isn’t in it. What she did to Entrapta in a moment of panic haunted her, loosing Scorpia was a wake up call of how she pushes people away. She came to the conclusion that she wasn’t right, then in the last season she stopped blaming everyone else, she stopped blaming adora, she and adora both stood up to shadow weaver for constantly trying to tear them apart and torturing Catra to try and make Adora do what she wanted.

Catra... broke out of it. When she saw Adora and how angry she was after Catra opened the portal, when Double Trouble gave her a reality check, and I’d argue especially after she was rescued from Horde Prime and Adora, incredibly hurt said “you don’t have to see me anymore” fully realized she has to figure out how to stop pushing others away, because she doesn’t like that she’s hurt her friends, and she accepts responsibility and tries to help. She’s not going to be perfect, we still see that she lashes out and pushes people away here and there even after being saved from horde prime, but the difference is she wants to change, she wants to do good, she not only wants adora in her life, but wants adora to be happy, and it infuriates her when Adora feels like she has to sacrifice herself for everyone else.

Simon didn’t stop when he saw Grace was hurt, crying, scared of him, growing away from him, and instead of feeling sympathy, sitting down and talking to her not going “what’s wrong with you??”. When grace realizes Simon is hurt when in the cabin with Samantha, she immediately goes after him and says “this must be hard for you, i’m sorry I didn’t see it... this is why I’ve been distracted.” But even then, Simon still seems to take Grace’s problem as a threat, something that needs to be fixed so things can go back to “normal” I.E. when he felt in control. Grace herself pointed out he was making everything about him. Because at all points when he sees her upset, he blames her, tells her she’s been brainwashed, that she’s not acting “normal”. He blames her every step of the way then plays victim. By the end he’s become an abuser through and through, the whole time blaming everyone else for his own actions. He invaded Grace’s mind, forced her to relive her most traumatic memories to trap her in her own mind, then tried to kill her right after she saved him.

I think that’s the difference between the two. One wanted to change and recognized their actions hurt people and felt guilt for it... anything Catra did is a byproduct of what the Horde raised her to be, for anyone that was found as a child by the hoard and manipulated and played against Adora by Shadow Weaver. She was trained to be a soldier, and told she would suffer if Adora fell out of the Hoard’s control. When she has her breakdown when she’s supposedly at the top of her game, its because she deep down doesn’t want to do this, she’s climbed her way to the top hoping that she’ll stop feeling and be “happy”, but she’s got to the top, and lost everything that she really cared about, and it gets to her.

The other insisted they were right and if someone was hurt by him they made him do it right up until the end. He became the leader of the Apex, his whole body covered in numbers, more than anyone - but as long as Grace was around to question him, his control wouldn’t be absolute. There’s still a certain amount of doubt to be eliminated.

And that’s why one got a redemption arch and was given the chance to change... and one was completely destroyed by their own actions. Catra (and also Glimmer honestly) shows how you can come out of trauma on the other side and begin to heal while still acknowledging that your trauma doesn’t justify your actions when they hurt people, but you can take steps and accept help that make it so your not having to face it all alone.

Simon is a cautionary tale about how when trauma goes un-dealt with, when don’t want to change, accept help, or even consider any other view point , and don’t take accountability for the damage you inflict on others, it consumes you and inevitably destroys you. And eventually the trauma he inflicted on everyone else came back to bite him.

Last thing I’ll say is fucking good for Grace for telling him to his face she’s not responsible for him and his actions, and no longer taking all the blame he was throwing at her for daring to have empathy, be kind, and want things to be different.

Those are my thoughts at least. I’m so glad these shows are taking a serious hard look at these topics, and now we can say we have shows that cover these topics in an adult way and don’t sugar coat it. Simon is a well written character, because it shows how someone can become abusive and violent resulting from trauma... but unlike a lot of movies about serial killers and whatnot, it doesn’t for a moment try to say he’s justified in anything he does. We feel the very real emotions from Grace coming to terms with changing her own views and also the horror and hard emotions that come from this guy that was her closest friend turning on her and hurting her like this. Those are some really... really complicated emotions to go through in a short animated show, but god damn... they did it

[takerfoxx]

She-Ra Season 5, Episode 5, “Save the Cat,” First Impressions!

“Save the Cat.”

=deep inhale=

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, under normal circumstances I might nitpick this episode to death, point out just how unlikely it would be that the rescue attempt worked so well, that they did that much damage, that they even managed to Shanghai a whole-ass Horde clone, and everyone got away safely (seriously, does Horde Prime not have security cameras? I thought he sees all! Yeah, I know he was tracking their movements, but dafuq were the clones doing, and why are they so easy to hide from?), BUT I DON’T CARE! Because of FEELS!

So. 

Okay. 

Now, I had figured that Horde Prime had done something terrible to Catra. I thought he had tortured her or something like that. What I didn’t anticipate was that he had fucking assimilated her like the Borg! Seriously, that was so very disturbing. Like, Noelle knows full well that she is now cancel-proof, so might as well go all in on the freaky! And hey, can we just praise whoever did the directing on the throne room scene? Now that’s how you do an introduction!

Though seriously, they have been leaning hard into the cultiness of Horde Prime’s world, and Catra was the classic friend/family member that got sucked into that whole world. Her dissonant serenity was chilling, as was the almost sensual manner she draped herself around Horde Prime. And how about that suggestion of using her body for his next vessel? Honestly, for a moment I thought he was currently wearing Hordak, given that weird purification ritual he went through. 

Which brings us to what probably will be the final Adora vs. Catra fight, and oh man, was it hard to watch. Catra is usually so vicious and primal when she fights, but this uncaring, casually dislocating her own bones while smiling the whole time was deeply unsettling. And for once, Adora had to worry less about hurting Catra as she did about Catra hurting herself, as Horde Prime would not hesitate to make Catra kill herself just to twist the knife! In fact, he tried to do just that!

On the sidekicks’ side, man, is Horde Prime really so convinced of his own superiority that he doesn’t have any security measures other than his clones? I guess so. And given how interconnected his systems are, I can buy that smashing the central computer would kick off a chain reaction.

But the good shit was with Entrapta. At first she thought that she had found Hordak, but instead she accidentally disengages a totally different clone, who’s left feeling lost and alone and dependent on his new...friends. Honestly, Not-Hordak was kind of adorable, and I’m glad he seems to be sticking. And considering that the actual Hordak found the LUVD crystal, does that mean Entrapta is building a Hordak Harem? Because I would not be opposed to that!

Back at the bitter exes, as it turns out, if you don’t want your arch-enemy to turn into She-Ra, you don’t threaten her cat. We finally get the full She-Ra transformation, and Adora’s got an upgrade, complete with proper pants (finally)! Also, she’s got elements of Bow, Glimmer, and Entrapta in her outfit, as well as a brand new sword, on that isn’t secretly a First Ones controlling device. Much kicking off ass and saving of bae commence, and the heroes got away, leaving a very pissed off Horde Prime. Haha, fuck you buddy.

And it worked. She managed to free Catra from Horde Prime’s mind control and heal her, and we finally, finally, finally get that big damned hug. You know, I’ve said some things about how I feel about Catradora ending, but fuck it, I’m getting swept up in this. Give us Catradora ending! 

Also Entrapdak. Hell, make it Entrapdakdak. Make that robosexual happy. 

I can’t believe this is only the fifth episode.

[mandareeboo]

Unfinished Work #36 (Untitled)

I am really sad I didn’t end up finishing this one. I like a lot of the actual concept of it still; the Horde is anti-love more or less, Adora and Catra are unlearning years of abuse for being in love, etc etc. But it never had a concrete ending. I considered a joke where Glimmer was like “jfc just get together already” and Catra is like “We are??????”, but it didn’t quite fit either. I still think Netossa and Spinny redo their vows after the war, though.

———————————————————————————————————–

"Anything else?" King Micah asks, after what has turned into a three hour long debate as to whether they should name a giant hole in the ground after Prime or She-Ra. They still hadn't decided.

"Is there anything else to say?" Swift Wind replies, his head resting comfortably on Adora's hair bun. "Stuff has to be picked up, lore has to be written down, busywork busywork."

"Ahem," said Spinnerella, standing up. She takes Netossa by the hand and slowly comes to the front of the table, smiling deviously. "May we, Micah?"

The king bowed and stepped back. "Of course."

Spinnerella smiled, grateful. "Thank you." She turned to the gathering of Princesses. "Everyone. As you all know, things have been hectic recently."

Mermista snorted.

"But Etheria has triumphed over all else. Love has triumphed over all else." The wind Princess kissed the back of Netossa's hand. "Do you care to tell them, darling?"

Netossa flung her free hand up. "We're renewing our vows, suckers!"

"Netossa," Spinnerella chided, giggling. "We're here to invite them, not rub their noses in it."

"Can't it be both?"

Catra, who had been petting Melog the past two and a half of those three hours, finally glanced up. She didn't have much to say about a giant hole. She didn't really care about the name. And Melog was fun to pet- soft and surprisingly warm, especially in their mane area. Catra glanced at Adora, hoping to find answers, only to see the familiar blank look she always had whenever she was confused.

Thank stars for Scorpia, who doesn't have issues about swallowing her pride and asking about things. "Congrats! Uhhhhhh…. what is it we're celebrating, exactly?"

"Love," Netossa said, as if that was an actual explanation. "Spinny and I have been married for over fifteen years now. This is just a good way to remember the best choice I've made in my life."

"Follow-up question," Scorpia says. "What is our uniform? Because I have, like, none of the uniforms. I had this nice dress and I think it got lost in the ocean somewhere?" She gestured to her usual outfit with her claw. "So this is basically it."

"We'll find you something," Spinnerella promises. "This doesn't have to happen overnight. We have forever, now." She kisses Netossa's cheek this time. "Isn't that amazing?"

"Isn't that amazing?" Catra repeats a couple of days later with venom, pulling on her tuxedo jacket. "I know this is happy ever after or whatever, but why does happy ever after have to have so many damn clothes?"

Adora adjusts her tie with a shrug. It's a pale sea-green, and easily the best part of the entire outfit. "I asked Bow about it, and apparently they got married in a ditch right after Micah vanished. I guess they wanted to one-up that."

"Stars, I wish that was me."

"Getting married in a ditch?"

"No, in a ditch. Letting the grass reclaim me." Catra scowled at herself in the mirror. Her hair was beginning to grow out a bit, finally, but it'd be ages yet before it was back to its proper glory. "Any chance we could skip?"

"Only if you're willing to get the shit kicked out of you by Netossa." Adora pulled a small headband out from a random drawer. Crude ladybugs littered the blank plastic. "Here."

She bristled, eyeing it suspiciously. "You know I don't like stuff on my neck."

"It's not for your neck." Adora carefully tucked it behind her ears, letting it slide into place. She decided screw it, she was already here, and pressed their foreheads together. "There. Now your bangs are out of the way. Everyone can see your cute freckles."

"Stars, you're corny." Catra's skin rumbled lightly with the force of her purr, but when they locked eyes again hers wavered. "Do you... think we'll ever be important enough to get away with that stuff?"

Adora blinked at her, a bit taken aback. "You want to kiss me in front of the Princess Alliance?"

"What? Ew. No. Affection is disgusting. I guess I just... want to be important enough to everyone to be so open about it."

"You are," she promised, taking Catra's hands in her own. "You delivered the Failsafe to the Heart of Etheria! And that's just in the name of the rebellion. You climbed so high in the Horde."

Catra made a face. "That's not exactly getting me brownie points here."

"Maybe, but it's still impressive. You're impressive."

"Tell me how you really feel," she teased, but her purring had gotten considerably louder.

Adora intertwined their fingers. "One day, it'll be our turn at the front of the table."

———————————————————————————————————–

The problem was less that they were necessary and more of a tenure thing, Catra reflected some time later. She-Ra was one helluva bargaining chip, and Catra hadn't exactly been a slouch during the war.

That said, they were still two very young members of a rebellion almost as old as the stars, and they were very much replaceable now. Memories of history like Spinnerella and Netossa can hug and kiss and be and it's not an issue. Two morons who used to dare each other to eat entire pounds of ration bars had to be a bit more discrete. So it had been in the Horde, and so it would be here.

Somehow, by some miracle, it was the exact same day Sea Hawk had managed to pull Mermista up on stage for karaoke night.

"I hate this," Mermista groans into the microphone. She glares at the snickering. "I hate all of you too."

"Come on, dearest," Sea Hawk encouraged. It'd become something of a pet name for them, if pet name included Sea Hawk bellowing it during his shanties and Mermista chucking waves at him for doing it, trying- and failing- to hide a smirk. "You sang an epic rock remix in a battle! How is this any different?"

"Uuuuh, the epic rock remix was a battle cry about how I would personally rip some Horde scum apart with my bare hands for destroying my land. This is just a shitty mic. Also you've had too many wine coolers."

"NONSENSE!" Sea Hawk cried. He was holding onto the mic stand for dear life. Somehow, despite being a man who spent a good chunk of time in bars, he'd proven to be quite the lightweight. "It'll be an ADVENTURE!"

"I think we've had enough of that for one lifetime."

"I BELEIVE IN YOU," bellowed Scorpia, who had had none of the alcohol and all of the dopamine.

Catra banged her fists on the table. "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

"Don't be a little shit," Mermista said into the mic, then blanched, "Frosta, never say that word ever."

Frosta was busy sipping at her chocolate milk. She stopped and met her eyes, scowling. "Stop being a coward and sing, coward. Or I'll do it."

"I'll sing you a love ballad," Sea Hawk promised with his patented puppy dog eyes.

"I'll literally do this so you don't," Mermista replied, taking the mic with a small smile. "Fine, whatever."

It's disgusting in how sweet it is. Catra watches the spectacle with some distaste, rolling her eyes when Sea Hawk attempts a dip and Mermista flips it around on him. The pirate doesn't seem to be complaining, if his blush is anything to go by. Scorpia claps along and- is that tears? Yup, those are tears. She's crying.

It's not that Catra is jealous. It's not. (She is, but that's not the point). They're just so... brazen about it. Like this is normal. Like this is okay. Ten years of knowing each other and Shadow Weaver had given them shit for holding hands. Fifteen and having a sleepover and getting horrible punishments. Catra and Adora had to claw and spit just to stay on the same squadron, while these chumps could do whatever.

It made her pause. A little. Could they do that? Catra glanced at Adora out of the corner of her eye. The warrior didn't seem all that surprised, watching with a polite detachment, like this was a book and they'd reached a really boring flashback. The idea of standing up and doing something even slightly like what Sea Hawk and Mermista did was... no. Just no.

But maybe she could do this.

Catra edged over a little and stiffly leaned against her. Adora jumped a little, blinked a little, and wound her arm loosely around Catra's waist, thumb softly rubbing circles in her side.

Alright then.

This is okay.

Catra can do this.

[angstbabyjae]

Why We Believe Catra Will Be Redeemed

For many, the most anticipated storyline in season five is that of Catra’s redemption. While it may be basically confirmed at this point, some people just aren’t so certain. Catra is an extremely complex and often morally gray character whose struggles and motivations seem so real that you can feel her heart through the screen. Not everything she does is black and white and that complexity is part of what makes her so beloved amongst fans. She’s the most human of the cast to many, which is funny considering she isn’t even a human, but some kind of cat girl hybrid. There have been many instances throughout the show that clearly show where her character is headed (though the journey may be unclear) and even the most skeptical of her won’t be able to deny these instances… probably...

1: CATRA’S GUILT

The events of the previous season followed Catra into the next season, haunting her at every turn. Catra never expected things to take such a turn, but she’s too far from the shallow now. This can easily coincide with the next section, but I’m going to make it it’s own thing, even though they overlap. A theme we saw a lot with Catra in season four was “regret”. There’s instances of her looking down at Entrapta’s shackles (4x1), plagued with never ending nightmares about what she had done. It’s obvious to any viewer that Catra deeply regrets what she did to Entrapta and others, but she believes she can never make them right again, so she throws herself fully into her villain persona. We may just see her come to terms with that guilt in the next season.

2: CATRA CARES

It doesn’t take a genius to see that after Adora left, Catra wasn’t very keen on another friendship. Take her and Scorpia for example! After all the times Catra has yelled “We’re not friends!” you’d think Scorpia would give up, but that heart-of-gold scorpion princess was determined to be loyal until the end. That didn’t work out so well, and we all know what happens. We also know that it definitely cracks the “Top 5 Things Catra Will Need To Apologize For” list (hey, I should make that!). Despite all this, Catra still proves time and time again how deeply she really cares for her “not-friends”. She attempts to protect Entrapta from Hordak (2x3) and she lies to protect Scorpia (4x6). Though none of this excuses her behavior by a long shot, it’s worth looking into when thinking about her in a redeemable light.

3: TRUE MOTIVATIONS

“We both know this was never what you really wanted” was a line that stuck out to me during Double Trouble’s vibe check of the century. There has been much evidence to suggest that ruling the world was never Catra’s true desire. All the way back to 1x1, we see Catra over-the-moons happy for Adora’s accomplishment. Her hopes only began to sink when she was told she wouldn’t be coming with. She exclaims “We’re gonna see the world!”, the “and conquer it” being only an afterthought. In 3x5, when the characters are trapped in the alternate reality Catra is not a force captain in this version, but Adora is. The only difference is that they stayed together, which hints that that’s all Catra ever wanted in the first place. When Adora asks if ruling the world is what Catra really wants, she hesitates, asking if that’s what Adora wants too. Maybe world domination wasn’t Catra’s plan after all. Maybe she was just happy to go along for the ride, as long as Adora stayed by her side. After Adora leaves, it makes sense for her to throw herself into this goal, seeing as it’s the only thing she has left to do, to prove herself. Catra achieves this goal of power in season four, but she’s still not happy. Not satisfied. The only part of the plan that allured to her were seeing the world and Adora herself. With those parts gone, all she’s left with is her grim reality. There’s no better time for her to turn herself around than right now!

4: NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP

When we end season four, we are left with an even more emotionally broken Catra than we started with. Each season the fandom asks itself if this really is Catra’s “rock bottom”. If she will finally get her act together and redeem herself. Yet, every season Catra proves that she has a shovel, and she will just keep digging. Now we can say with almost certainty that this is it, and according to hints from the show’s crew members, it’s almost undeniable. This is her last chance. The last season. She’s hit bedrock. It will take a lot for her to climb out of the hole, but we’re sure she can do it. According to AJ Michalka, Catra’s voice actress, three words to describe Catra’s storyline in season five would be “intentional, determined, and forthright”. It sounds like she will finally put in the work she needs to change for the better. Catra provides us with hope in season four’s final moments, when she convinces Horde Prime to spare Glimmer’s life. What were her intentions? We’ll have to wait and see, but something tells me it will lead to what we’ve been waiting for since the second she declined Adora’s offer to join her on the battlefield all that time ago.

[hobbitkiller]

She-Ra, Supergirl, and Tangled: A Tale of Three Female Relationships: Part 1

*Spoiler warning for SPOP, Supergirl, and Tangled:TS*

As of right now, three of my favorite pieces of media are She-Ra and the Princesses of Power on Netflix, Supergirl  on CW, and Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure on wherever you can beg, borrow, or steal it ‘cause Disney Channel is the worst and only the first two seasons are on Disney+. 

All three of these shows are lead by strong, supernaturally/superpowerfully gifted blonde female characters whose destiny is to save the world. They also heavily feature a close friendship between said main character and a female “best friend” (Adora/Catra, Kara/Lena, Rapunzel/Cassandra) that have a lot of shippable chemistry. 

All three of these relationships also become toxic during the run of the show. (Like, try to kill each other/take over the world/mind control the human race level toxic).

So, if you’d like to come along with me, I thought I’d break down the similarities and differences between these relationships and why I find some more compelling than others. This will be a multi-part thing, ‘cause I have a lot to say.

For today’s installment, I’m going to break one of the cardinal rules of literary analysis: assume they’ve read/seen it. So, I’m gonna do a little book-reportesque summarizing, because I don’t know who’s seen all three of these shows.

PART I: BEGINNINGS

Let’s start by looking at where these relationships stand at the beginning of each show.

Adora and Catra

Adora and Catra grew up together as child soldiers for something called “The Horde” (or the “Evil Horde” to the rebellion). Growing up, they were taught that the Horde was a force for good and order and were trained to help take down the Princess Rebellion. Adora and Catra were raised by the Horde’s second in command, Shadow Weaver, who made no secret that Adora was her favorite and that she thought Catra was worthless. One day, Adora, who was recently promoted to Force Captain, commandeers a skiff to help cheer up Catra who was upset that Adora was going out into the field without her.

While out in the “Whispering Woods,” Adora gets knocked off the skiff and has a vision of a sword. Later that night, she asks Catra to cover for her so she can go back to find the sword. She finds the sword as well as two members of the Rebellion, Bow and Glimmer. The rebels capture Adora, but, through spending time with them and seeing the Horde attack a defenseless town, Adora realizes she’s been on the wrong side of the war. 

Also, the sword can turn her into an 8 foot magical princess warrior called “She-Ra.”

During the attack on the town, Adora helps the townspeople only to discover that Catra is part of the attack. Adora asks Catra to come to the Rebellion with her now that she’s realized they’ve been fed lies their whole lives. Catra’s response is basically, “No, duh. Of course they lied. That’s what the Horde does.”

The two go their separate ways, Adora joins the “good guys” in the rebellion and Catra goes back to the Horde where she is given Adora’s promotion.

Kara and Lena

This relationship doesn’t start until the second season. A bomb is planted on a plane/spaceship hybrid thing called the “Venture.” Kara (Supergirl) and Clark (Superman, obvs) go talk to Lena about it because she had conveniently not shown up for the launch. It turns out that the whole explosion was a plot to kill Lena financed by her brother...Lex Luthor.

Lena and Kara immediately have chemistry, and Lena encourages Kara to become a reporter. For the first part of this season, Kara ends up using Lena as a source and for help on both reporter and Supergirl business, and Lena ends up considering Kara her only friend in National City.

The two continue to work together and become closer throughout the show, but Kara holds back from telling Lena her secret identity to the extent that Lena soon becomes the only person in their friend circle who doesn’t know that Kara is Supergirl even though Lena has had many interactions with both.

Rapunzel and Cassandra

Cassandra is an original character made for the Tangled animated series and was not in the Tangled movie. 

After Rapunzel is reunited with her parents at the end of the movie, Cass becomes her Lady in Waiting. (Though the position in the show is more of a hybrid between a historical Lady in Waiting, who was more a member of the court and personal assistant, and a “Handmaiden,” who’s more of a servant that helps with chores/dressing/etc. The two terms are often used interchangeably in the show.) 

Although Cass resented the job, as her life’s ambition was to become Captain of the Royal Guard like her adoptive father, she and Rapunzel become incredibly close as Cass sees her role as servant, friend, advisor, and protector to the princess who had lived in a tower most of her life.

On the day of Rapunzel’s coronation, Rapunzel becomes overwhelmed by her new responsibilities, the thought of being stuck in a castle her whole life, and Eugene (Flynn) proposing at one of the worst possible times. Cass sneaks her out for a night of freedom and shows her some mysterious black rocks that had grown around the site where the magic flower that gave Rapunzel her magic hair used to grow. When Rapunzel touches the rocks, her hair magically returns (but is now indestructible and can no longer heal).

Cassandra, Rapunzel, and Eugene attempt throughout the series to discover the origin of these rocks which are slowly destroying the kingdom and how to stop them.

PART II: WHERE IT WENT WRONG

So, we have three incredibly close female relationships in these shows, but they all go very, very wrong at some point. What happened to these characters?

Adora and Catra

This relationship was antagonistic from the very beginning of the show wherein Adora and Catra were set up as foils. This is interesting in one respect because this is, by far, the longest relationship out of the three, and yet we only get to see flashes of the positive parts of their relationship.

After Adora leaves the Horde, Catra is conflicted, and clearly wants her back for much of Season 1, but the toxicity and darkness of this relationship is written into the DNA of the show and is prominently displayed in the opening credits (at least for 1-4). (For any who don’t know, Catra’s the one that looks like a cat-person)

Catra is clearly placed on the “villains” side from the very beginning. (Though, if you watch enough She-Ra, you realize there’s a whole lot of moral gray-ness, and basically every villain has some sort of redeeming quality. It’s great.)

So, in this show, we come into this relationship basically at its breaking point.

Kara and Lena

The interesting part of this relationship is that there are really three characters involved, Kara, Lena, and Supergirl. Kara and Lena have a much different relationship than do Lena and Supergirl, which is something Kara occasionally forgets when she wonders why Lena isn’t as nice to or supporting of Supergirl as she is Kara.

Supergirl’s and Lena’s relationship started showing cracks fairly early, with Lena frequently accusing Supergirl of treating her like a villain because her last name is Luthor (to be fair, there is a little bit of justification for this). Things become more tense when Lena continues to do things in secret like experiment with a substance called Harun El in order to try to give people super powers or, the biggest point of contention--Lena finds a way to create Kryptonite and does so secretly without informing the government or Supergirl. Kara is understandably upset that her best friend is making a chemical weapon that makes her feel like “nails are running through her veins,” while Lena doesn’t realize that she has basically made a weapon that specifically targets her best friend and best friend’s cousin, and so doesn’t understand the extra layer of hurt Kara is feeling.

Where things fully come off the rails for both Supergirl’s and Kara’s relationships with Lena is the end of Season 4 when Lex Luthor (whom Lena has just shot in cold blood) reveals that Kara is Supergirl and Lena was the only person who didn’t know.

Lena, who has well established trust issues, sees this as a betrayal and begins working in secret on both her project that she believes will save the world (at the cost of everyone’s free will) and on manipulating and undermining Kara. This gets revealed toward the middle of Season 5 when Lena gives up the pretense of still being Kara’s friend.

Rapunzel and Cassandra 

Some of the cracks in this relationship showed up early in the show, particularly in the episode “Challenge of the Brave” when Cass wanted to prove her worth as a warrior in a competition, only to find, to her horror, that Rapunzel wants to join for fun and is very good at it.

Things really escalated, however, in the second season. Cass feels increasingly disrespected and overshadowed by Rapunzel leading to an argument in which Rapunzel essentially pulls rank on Cassandra, reminder her of her station. Cass sings an amazing sad song about “Waiting in the Wings.”

(Shout out to the amazing Eden Espinosa!! Also, the emotion the animators are able to give Cass *chef’s kiss*)

Things only get worse when, at the end of the episode, Rapunzel chooses to ignore Cass, who thinks she can save them from a possessed tree (yes, a possessed tree) without Rapunzel having to use a dangerous incantation called the “decay spell.” Rapunzel instead does the incantation, which she can’t control, and ends up badly hurting Cassandra’s right hand (more on that later). 

This leads to more resentment that Cass tries to bury. Cass also gets more information not revealed until the beginning of the third season, which leads her to steal the Moonstone, AKA the magical object they had been traveling all season to get to with the hopes that Rapunzel could destroy it to stop the black rocks. 

Cass takes the Moonstone for herself and sings another badass song at the beginning of Season 3.

Okay, the summarizing is pretty much over with. The next installment will include actual analysis and not just summary in the following topics:

“Mother Knows Best”

Chosen Ones

“Little Boxes”

Hope, if anyone read this whole thing, that I will see them there! : ) 

[cindyburman]

5. For Starshiv please! I like the way you write

ty!!! also i decided to combine this w another prompt and it spiraled and turned into a three-parter. i’ll post the second and third parts later this week!! you can read the fill here or on ao3.

5. “Why are you helping me?”

As soon as Courtney dares to step slightly further into the room where Brainwave is being held, she hears a voice that's been haunting her dreams (some of them scary, some of them... not so much) and immediately swings her head around to face its owner.

"Courtney?" Cindy is so quiet and hoarse it seems like she's been screaming for hours and, though Courtney can only see part of her face through the small window in the sturdy wooden door separating them, she looks equal parts furious and exhausted.

"How does she know who you are?" Henry asks from behind her, sounding more put upon and jealous than he should be considering that he's still not a full-fledged member of the JSA and only learned that Courtney was Stargirl by reading her thoughts. She figured it out herself, Courtney thinks, unable to keep herself from smiling a little at the surprised but satisfied little "oh" that he lets out before she focuses back on the moment at hand.

"Cindy? Why haven't you given us up to them yet?" Courtney hisses quietly, confused by what seems to be Cindy suddenly switching sides. "And why are you locked up? I thought you were a part of the ISA!"

"Not according to my dad," Cindy responds, casting a baleful glance across the room at the hooded figure who seems to be leading the others. "You need to get me out of here."

"No way," Yolanda says immediately, but Courtney holds her hand up as a silent 'wait.' Yolanda scoffs angrily at that, muttering something that sounds like, "of course you defend her too," and Courtney winces, wondering if she's ever going to stop screwing up and hurting Yolanda but knowing not to write Cindy off so quickly.

"How do we know that you won't just turn against us as soon as we let you out?" Courtney asks her, trying to keep a level head.

"Because I only want to kill my dad," Cindy says matter-of-factly, like she's talking about her favorite ice cream flavor instead of patricide, even as her eyes fill with pure, unbridled rage. "He locked me up in here, gassed me, and won't even let me join the Injustice Society even though I did everything he wanted! He treats me like I'm just another failed experiment instead of his daughter, all because I killed Mom!"

"You killed your mom?" Yolanda repeats in a hushed voice, horrified by Cindy's sudden confession. My sentiment exactly, Courtney thinks as she gapes at her.

"It was an accident!" Cindy snaps, regret clear on her face, and Courtney feels a pang of sympathy as she remembers what her friends had told her about Cindy's sudden change in attitude after her mother's death. "I was only in third grade!"

She turns to Henry, looking desperate. "Here, read my mind! Tell them that I'm not lying!"

"She's telling the truth, she really does just want to kill her dad and not us," Henry admits reluctantly after listening to her thoughts for a few seconds.

"How do we know that they aren't just collaborating as some sort of bigger plot for the ISA?" Yolanda asks suspiciously, and Courtney has to admit that she has a point.

"I mean, maybe, but then why would they have locked Cindy up?" Courtney reasons. "It doesn't seem to serve any purpose unless we let her out, and I don't think they'd want to put that up to chance since none of the others trust her at all."

"Aww, thanks," Cindy grumbles sarcastically, but for once, they ignore her.

"We're already outnumbered here," Courtney points out, looking at Yolanda pleadingly. "I'd rather have her with us than against us in case her father decides to let her out on the condition that she helps him."

"Fine, but I am not turning my back around her." Yolanda gives in after a long, tense moment. "Around either of them." She brushes past Courtney to stand in front of the door. Courtney nods at her gratefully and holds up three fingers, silently counting down. 3... 2... 1.

With that, Yolanda's claws cleave through the lock like butter and she immediately jumps to the side as Cindy slams the door open like it's nothing. All eyes in the room turn to them.

"I told you I'd kill you, Daddy," Cindy hisses, unsheathing her wrist blades, and a chill goes through Courtney at how genuine she sounds. "I meant it."

Cindy's father, however, has no visible reaction other than slowly raising his hand to point at them... which causes more brown-robed goons to come pouring in. Shit.

Sparing the Cosmic Staff one last longing glance, Courtney grabs a spear mounted on one of the pillars and slowly backs further into the chamber along with Yolanda and Henry as they ready themselves for the fight. Cindy seems to have no such qualms about waiting for her opponents to reach her, stalking directly toward her dad and slashing anyone in her way.

The others all jump into action soon after. Courtney shoves a drone back with the body of her spear and slices another across the neck, feeling a sudden rush of concern--is that a real person? Did I just kill someone?--that she's forced to push down as more henchmen approach.

Courtney ventures further into the horde, immediately regretting that decision when her arms are grabbed from behind and she's lifted off of the ground. She struggles futilely against their grip to little effect until all of the sudden her captor's arms go slack and something (or someone) thumps to the ground behind her. Courtney turns around to see Cindy, shivs bloody, breathing heavily and standing over the body of the goon who had been restraining her, and her heart rate spikes for reasons she's not entirely proud of.

"Why are you helping me?" Courtney asks her as she swings her spear in a wide circle around them, buying the two a couple seconds to talk. The way that Cindy had been going--that is, directly to the dragon guy--wasn't anywhere near where Courtney was, so Cindy (the girl who had attempted to kill Courtney twice already) would have had to have taken a detour specifically to help her, even though it was clearly delaying her long-awaited revenge.

"Hell if I know, new girl," Cindy snaps distractedly, seemingly confused by her own actions as well, as she skewers two underlings on her blades simultaneously. "But if you'll excuse me, I have a father to kill." With that, she begins carving a path through the sea of henchmen once more.

Courtney shrugs it off and returns to fighting the cronies, but it's not long before they all seem to disappear and she is faced with none other than their leader.

"No!" On the edge of her peripheral, Courtney can see an anguished-looking Cindy surrounded by a particularly large group of henchmen. "Let me kill him!"

Courtney rolls her eyes even as she shifts nervously from foot to foot, unsure of her own ability to take down Cindy's father. Swallowing down her fear, she puts on a brave face and gets into position.

"Snap... dragon," Courtney guesses with a wince. I know his name has something to do with dragons. Her opponent seems unamused at best and outraged at the misnomer at worst.

"Dragon King," he snarls, drawing his swords and slicing out at her. Courtney parries that strike but is forced backwards by the intensity of his attacks, realizing almost immediately that she's outmatched. Dragon King is far more aggressive than even Cindy had been, and he manages to knock her down and disarm her embarrassingly quickly.

So Courtney lies on the cold stone floor, utterly defenseless as Dragon King's blades bear down on her, and she thinks, This is it. This is the end.