#they're still part of the story (the catalyst of it really) and part of the characters themselves so

[outmakingmoonshine]

The Bear & Roman Mythology

After seeing this post by @thoughtfulchaos773 awhile ago I started looking into the myth of Venus and Mars and I'm now in a never ending rabbit hole of mythological conections in The Bear. If you haven't read the post above already I highly recommend checking it out before continuing with this. There are so many things that line up with characters and storylines in the show, even beyond the myth of V+M but it all still centers around the story of SydCarmy.

Thank you to @thoughtfulchaos773 for helping me structure and edit this post.

Disclaimer: There are many versions of mythological characters, sort of like different universes in Marvel & DC where the same characters appear in different stories, with different relationships and dynamics. Sometimes 2 characters are the same person but "split" into different aspects of broad concepts like love, war etc. There are also multiple different interpretations of those stories, relationships and dynamics by different philosophers, writers, artists etc. and of course this post is mixed with my own interpretation of the symbolism and priciples of the characters. Myths are heavily based on symbology and Roman myths are heavily based on the symbology of western astrology (or vice versa) so I'm mainly looking at the mythological and astrological symbols they're replicating in The Bear. This could be possible spoilers for the end of the show. Gifs that aren't credited are mine.

The table scene depicted Syd &Carmy as Venus & Mars but I think that was just the reveal of the mythological connections to their stories and they’ve been subtly showing us these (and other) mythological connections to multiple characters all along.

I debated putting this into parts but I think it needs to be understood all together so there is a lot of information and it's really long so it's under the cut.

Mars is the God of war and the spirit of battle who was immediately in awe of Venus's beauty, is attracted to her natural sexuality (not promiscuity) that matches his own and he quickly falls in love with her. (In astrology Mars also rules passion and lust.)

Carmy was practically in awe of Sydney’s beauty from the beginning

He openly sexually desires her from early on, his eyes basically magnetize to her lips whenever she's near and he can't help but flirt with her

He has fallen (or is falling) deeply in love with her

The overall tone of their myth together is Venus helps Mars find peace and balances out his war-like-nature so it doesn't consume him. He becomes a more evolved version of Mars from their relationship together. He's still the God of War but now with the wisdom of "being one" with love and peace. He can wage war in a noble and just way instead of like a savage because the true motive and purpose of war is to find peace.

Who is Carmy's motive/motivation for everything he's been doing?

Gifs by heardchef & thoughtfulchaos773 .

Who is a significant part of Carmy's purpose/dream?

Gifs by swannsways

And who does he desperately want to find a connection with? Syd, the source of his peace.

"Syd and Carmy do things for one another. She is a source of peace and focus for him and, at times, he can be a source of inspiration and dependability. Sometimes he can’t." - Jeremy Allen White

The overall tone of the show and Carmy's story so far is that he desperately needs to heal and find peace and Sydney is the one who brings that to him. Also Venus (Syd) is the only person in the entire Roman mythology (the show) that can get through to Mars (Carmy) and calm his anger and spirit of battle.

The actors and writers keep referring to Carmy as "like a baby" in interviews and we're watching him go through an evolution or "metamorphosis" on the show from being "like a baby" in dealing with his family situation, socialization, relationships, love etc, to being a man. Sydney was the catalyst for that change in Carmy like Venus was the catalyst for change in Mars.

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Venus was in a loveless marriage with the "God of the forge" aka the God of fire, Vulcan, and through her relationship with Mars finally gets to experience being with with someone who she truly loves and who loves her, someone who can match her nature with fiery passion.

The way I interpret the way the show plays with the symbology of Venus being "in a loveless marriage to the God of fire" is Sydney is the God of Fire (she's the one who represents fire in the show) but she has trouble believing in her own fire/passion and expressing it. Sydney loves cooking and she's excellent at it but she can't connect with her passion and make what she envisions. Sydney doesn't know how to express her loving nature either and that also keeps her from connecting with the fire inside her. Passion for something, creativity, cooking, love etc are all associated with fire. So Sydney is in a "loveless" marriage with her own fire. (Marriage is symbolic of being one with something/someone.)

Sydney also represents Ceres Goddess of agriculture, growth and motherly relationships. (I read a meta about this while ago but I can't find it now, if you know who wrote it please link it so I can add it here.) Syd is the reason for any growth of the restaurant and nearly everyone in it. She planted seeds of confidence, inspiration and motivation in so many of them and has nurtured their growth through the process. Carmy stopped letting her nurture the seeds she planted in him in 2x03.

Also Minerva (Goddess of Wisdom). The wisest people know they don't know everything so they spend a lot of time seeking more and more inspiration/knowledge/wisdom, symbolically they're all the same thing. Syd came to the restaurant to seek inspiration/wisdom in the culinary world from Carmy, he didn't deliver so turned to Coack K's book. Syd's always looking for ways to better her skills and knowledge even though she's already very skilled and knowledgable. Syd is usually the voice of reason for Carmy when he listens. She was a voice of reason for Richie in 1x07, although a very harsh one. Also in one version of myth Mars was in love with Minerva but she was annoyed by him and rejected his amourous advances and based on Syd's reaction to this amourous look from Carmy in 2x09

I think we might see Syd not being as open to these looks from him in S3.

I think Carmy also represents Neptune/Poseidon (God of the Sea). Blue, water, emotions, feelings etc all relate to water and to Carmy. Neptune had 2 main siblings, one was the God of the Heavens (Mikey), one was the God of the Earth (Nat, the Earth is symbolic of fertility) and Neptune (Carmy) was God of Freshwater and The Sea.

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Claire = Anna Perenna

Anna Perenna is the Goddess of Time and The Changing Of Years.

Time:

I still think the clocks in scenes with Claire relate to season 2's theme of time, “every second counts” and the fact Carmy was wasting time doing unproductive things with her instead of actually helping to build the restaurant. But I think another layer of meaning could be symbolism that she represents the Roman Goddess of time.

The changing of years - Anna Perenna is where the term "per annum" comes from, Anna symbolizes bringing in the new year but “the changing of years” can also be interpreted as metaphorically trying to "change" your past years, to make up for them, relive them or to right wrongs from them etc. That’s basically what Carmy was trying to do with Claire in S2, relive/"change" the negative effects of his past years. Carmy was trying to bring in a "new year" and new beginning but not with Claire, he wanted to start something new with Sydney.

The myth is Mars was in love with Minerva (Syd) and he went to Anna for advice but Anna wanted him for herself so she tricked/forced him into marrying her. Some versions don't mention a marriage between them and just say Anna disguised herself as Minerva to access Mars's bedchamber, either way their myth together revolves around her disguising herself as Minerva to force him into a relationship with her.

Carmy was imo very clearly attracted to Syd by 2x02. He ran into Claire and turned her down giving her a fake number but she wanted him anyway so she tracked him down and forced him to communicate with her which ultimately forced him into a relationship with her, even though that part wasn't really Claire's fault. I think Carmy gave in to Claire chasing him, one because he felt trapped and two, so he could learn through hanging out with Claire how to hang out with the woman he actually wants; Sydney. So he basically gave in to Claire to get a form of advice.

I'm not going to say much about the show's take on "disguising" Claire as Sydney, here are some posts that explain it very well. Carmy projecting his idea of Sydney onto Claire also plays into the concept of Anna being "disguised" as Minerva.

Anna and Mars do stay married (bc there's no divorce) in one version of myth but tricking Mars into marriage is basically all there is to the "love" part of their story which isn't really a love story because Mars was never in love with her and never chose to be with her. 

I think almost everyone in The Bear cast and the writers have said they want Carmy to end up happy, even Molly Gordon said it in a recent interview. Mars was not happy with Anna Perenna, he was trapped with her. Carmy isn't happy with Claire, he was basically cornered and trapped into that relationship. If Carmy is going to end up truly "happy", I don't see how that can be with Claire. They've done a lot of work with the script, the lighting, the directing, the music etc to show Carm is his happiest with Syd. It's ingrained so deeply in the narrative of the show now and they use Claire to contrast and highlight that fact. 

The show is about family, found family, love and connection with others. To be blunt, Carmy has shown zero signs he wants to genuinely connect with Claire on that level and every sign he wants to connect with Syd. He basicaly indirectly asked Syd to be his family multiple times. We haven't heard or seen that sentiment once with Claire. Everything the actors and writers have said on what the show is about and what they want for Carmy in the end isn't conducive to him ending up with Claire imo.

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Claire = Psyche

Psyche is a mortal who later becomes the Roman and Greek Goddess of the soul. She's a beautiful woman depicted as a pixie.

She’s portrayed as the “perfect-girl”, very beautiful...and that's about it for her personality traits. (Although later Psyche becomes a Goddess in her own right, the myths mostly present her as the male fantasy of the "ideal" beautiful woman with no distinct personality traits so men can project whatever idea they want on to her, much like how Claire is written.) She's a mortal who gains the attention of the Gods for her "otherworldly" beauty rivaling that of Aphrodite (the Greek version of the Roman, Venus). Considering most stories made today are retellings and twists of ancient epic tales, mythology, literature etc. I would bet the “manic pixie dream girl” trope is strongly influenced by Psyche.

One of the most well known novels including Psyche is “Metamorphoses”, alo known as “The Golden Ass” by Lucius Apuleius. It has 11 books but only 3 of them (books 4-6) are about Psyche and her love story with Cupid. 

**This might seem a bit confusing but it’s an important distinction to understand; Cupid is Venus & Mars’s “son” but not necessarily literally, everything in myth is symbolic. Figuratively V&M’s love “gave birth” or “created a new concept” that didn’t exist before, which is love and war combined as one. Cupid delivers love with a weapon so he’s the symbolic representation of V&M’s energies combined as one. Cupid is also known as Eros (God of erotic love) and Eros is the lust and passion aspect of Mars. Mars is not Eros/Cupid but Eros/Cupid is a singular aspect of Mars. In the show Carmy is not actually Cupid but Cupid is a version or aspect of who Carmy is. Similarly Psyche is a version or aspect of who Venus is so Claire is a version or aspect of Sydney. Psyche & Cupid are basically another rendition of Venus & Mars. Venus (the heart) becomes one with Mars (the ego/mind). Cupid (the heart) becomes one with Psyche (the mind). They're the same concepts just told from different perspectives for different cultures. 

The rest of the books in Metamorphoses are about the main character Lucius who is obsessed with “magic” and it follows his struggles, adventures and misfortunes on his personal journey of metamorphosis. Psyche & Cupid’s story shows up right in the middle of that as a kind of interruption to Lucius’s journey.

Here's Wikipedia's breakdown of the novel: 

Let's look at these story beats and see what’s recognizable in Carmy’s story in S2. But first:

Birds are symbols of freedom, hope, spirit, transition, new beginnings, strength, love, and joy. 

Donkey's are symbols of service, suffering, being servile, a beast of burden, a workhorse, being stubborn, stupid or just an “ass.”

“Lucius, dabbling in magic, attempts to turn into a bird”

I think "Magic" is symbolic of love here but to look a it from another angle, Carmy acted like he was put under a spell as soon as he met Claire in that freezer aisle. His focus has never been that great but it's like we entered into a different reality with Carmy's character in that scene and for most of S2. The same fiery man who doesn't mind being sassy, giving people attitude, who has no problem bossing anyone around, becomes a withdrawn shell of himself around Claire. Almost like he was a one-dimesional/singular aspect of himself with her. The whole airy fairy, fake deep, “stoner bro” way they were talking in that scene was also weird and unnatural imo, almost like they were portraying him as “under a spell” or “not fully himself” without bringing actual magic into the show. Tbf Carmy also seems like he's under a spell when he stares at Sydney so I think overall magic = love in this context. *Psyche & Cupid are still a love story and Carmy didn't know yet that he wasn't in love with Claire.

Through his relationship with Claire, Carmy was trying to be a bird; looking for freedom from his past, pain & trauma, hope, a new beginning, love & joy but he isn't looking for that with Claire, he’s looking for it with Sydney. He wants to transition into something new with Syd and was figuring out through Claire if/how he could do that. Claire was the cold prep.

Another layer of symbolism could be he was trying to be a bird by trying to be like Mikey (and Richie), be a “normal” guy, have a girlfriend, go to parties, be the “cool” guy etc. Trying to be what other people think freedom is because he has no idea how to make sense of it on his own.

“But after the spell goes wrong, turns himself into a donkey”

After “the spell” aka his relationship with Claire goes wrong, Carmy's been transforming into a "donkey" for most of S2.. His transition was complete in 2x10 in the walk-in when he stupidly and stubbornly came to the conclusion he can't be in a relationship and decided that reverting back to the mindset he was in at his worst in NY is the right thing to do. And judging by the trailers we're about to see him lean into being a “donkey” in S3. 

He's going to become a beast of burden, a workhorse, not just a burden for himself but for everyone else. Service is the nature of his job and he's going to work himself and everyone at The Bear to the bone. I think we all agree Carmy was stupid and “just an ass” regarding Syd in S2 and he's probably going to be an even bigger ass to her (unintentionally) in S3.

“And goes on a long journey where he is restored to human form by the Goddess Isis”

Isis is primarily known as the female matriarch in Egyptian mythology and is the basis of most, if not all, of the major female Gods created after her. Venus is the Roman version of Isis so Isis, Venus, Aphrodite etc are all different versions of the same concepts and principles just remixed and made more relatable for different cultures and time periods.

“Along the way, he hears many stories, including tales about Socrates and the endeavors of a group of bandits.”

I don't really know anything about the tales of Socrates but a quick Google gave me this:

I'm more interested in the unhighlighted part. It sounds like wisdom Carmy needs to think about and make useful if he's ever going to stop self-sabotaging and find peace. He needs to admit his ignorance and start listening to people instead of making up his own mind about what he thinks they mean, especially in regards to Syd. We're watching Carmy go through this continual questioning, his monologue scenes are one representation of that.

“The biggest, most notable story Lucius hears on his journey is about Psyche and Cupid's love story, spanning books 4-6.”

Psyche and Cupid's love story for the middle few books of the novel and Claire came into the show in the middle of the story. The story of C&P is a "side-story" and all Claire kept taking carmy on "side-missions" throughout their relationship.

The love story between Psyche and Cupid is long so I won't go into too much detail here but some brief relevant notes from it are; Venus was jealous of Psyche so she sent her “son”, Cupid (who’s really an aspect of Mars/Carmy) to make Psyche fall in love with a monster but Cupid accidentally hit himself with his own arrow and fell in love with her instead. I think Carmy “accidentally” falling into a relationship with Claire when he clearly didn’t see her as his girlfriend, represents that. When Psyche realizes she’s in love with a monster she runs away. Claire doesn’t really know who Carmy is and in 2x10 that “monster” side of him was revealed to her and she ran away.

I might make another post on Cupid & Psyche after I've seen S3 but here’s an interesting little preface of the story of Cupid & Psyche within Metamorphosis on Wikipedia:

“Lucius [...] finally regains human form by eating roses sacred to Isis.”  The end of the story is basically Lucius/Carmy stops being an ass and regains human form by eating roses sacred to Isis/Venus/Sydney.

I think Carmy is going to be “restored to human form”/ by Sydney at when he finally eats something she made, eats not tastes. Carmy will find love and peace, something he craves in another person, Syd is the only person he's shown he wants that with.

“As a structural mirror of the overarching plot, the tale is an example of mise en abyme. It occurs within a complex narrative frame, with Lucius recounting the tale as it in turn was told by an old woman”

Cupid and Psyche's story is a structural mirror of the overarching plot of The Golden Ass/Metamorphoses novel. Carmy, The Golden Ass, is going through a metamorphosis, the overarching plot of The Bear is about his journey. His story with Claire has been a mirror of his relationship with Sydney.

“Mise en abyme” is “the technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. In film theory and literary theory, it refers to the story within a story technique.” (Credit wikipedia)

Carmy & Claire are a smaller story within the overarching story of Carmy eventually finding love and peace with Sydney, that Carmy (Lucius) experiences on his journey of metamorphosis. Claire/Carmy is a copy of SydCarmy within the overall story.

Anyone who’s written a meta in this fandom knows how this show and sydcarmy “occurs with a complex narrative frame”. All the info in this post alone is barely scratching the surface of the mythological symbolism they’re using, let alone all the other works they’re using symbols and influences from.

“Although the tale resists explication as a strict allegory of a particular Platonic argument,”

Which basically means:

The story of The Golden Ass aka Carmy in The Bear, isn't easily explained as a clear example of a specific idea from Platonic (Plato's) philosophy. 

The use of the term “Platonic argument” here is very interesting imo, I know it has its own context here but what the showrunners and actors keep giving the audience is the “platonic argument”. Why do they keep repeating that word even after S2 when sydcarmy is clearly not just “platonic”?? These are cryptic clues imo, they want us to know what the show and story is about but they don’t want to tell us and ruin it. 

You can tell from all the different mythological connections to one character alone that this story doesn't come from a clear example of a specific idea, it's a hodgepodge of multiple stories and ideas but I think Apuleius’s “Metamorphoses aka The Golden Ass” may be the overall story the show is retelling. The Golden Ass is Carmy, (he’s the “star chef”, stars are gold. He never got any stars but he retained three of them, he’s like a “golden child/prodigy” in the culinary world.) The show in general is following his journey of metamorphoses. Venus & Mars are Psyche & Cupid, that’s why they keep parallelling carmy/claire with sydcarmy, blurring the lines between Syd & Claire and who Carmy’s thinking or talking about, flashing images of Syd in claire/carmy scenes etc.

Venus and Mars were only ever a secret love affair btw. They never got married or were officially together, the story of their romance is really based on speculation and interpretation. That’s basically how the show has deliberately portrayed sydcarmy as they continue to give their story so many romantic elements but still gaslight the audience so it stays a "secret love affair”.

I think The Bear is a modern retelling of the story of Venus & Mars and Cupid & Psyche via the story in Metamorphosis where V&M, one of the greatest love stories of all time, actually end up together in the end. Carmy experiences a love story with Psyche on his journey but the story ends with him being saved by Isis/Venus.

If you got this far, thank you for reading! I need to write another part about Richie (and possibly Nat if I find enough connections) but I want to wait until I’ve seen S3 first. Briefly, I think Richie might be Apollo who is Perceus in Greek mythology and the rival/brother of Ares/Mars. Apollo is the one who tells V&M’s husband about her affair with Mars and helps Vulcan catch and expose them. I also think Richie sees himself as Mars in a way, the leader of the army so to speak. Other than the mention earlier, I think Nat could represent another one of Neptune’s siblings too, Juno the Goddess of marriage.

[ginaluvr]

rating the changes between tmr book and movie

anyone who read the books first knows that the movie trilogy ended up telling a completely different story. i've been a big fan of the books forever so i thought i'd rate the significant changes made in the first one since it's generally the same plot. scale is 0-5 with 5 being good change.

the gladers initially not remembering their names: 3/5. maybe it was done to raise the stakes and make it more disorienting.

there are no real buildings in the glade: 1/5. this implies they had to start completely from scratch when they first arrived, which makes the maze seem like a test of survival rather than willpower and psychology.

leading on from that... the maze is actually outdoors: 0/5. you're telling me they had rain and lots of greenery in an outdoor structure in a desert climate? and the gladers had no real shelter provided? it also makes the test of their determination less powerful, because in the books, the maze was an indoor structure. the fact that they could technically climb the walls and see the outside world in the movies removes some of hopelessness and frustration for me.

ben is a runner: 4/5. makes sense! especially since we never learned how he got stung as a builder in the books.

the gladers are allowed to have a bit of fun: 5/5. i love the bonfire scene. i think it's a realistic change that a bunch of teenage boys would want to let loose every now and then.

they were there 3 years instead of 2: 4/5. i mean, sure.

no one has ever seen a griever before and survived: 0/5. makes no sense at all because the gladers are aware of the changing as a process! if no one has ever survived encountering a griever, where did they get this precedent from? how did they recognise that ben was stung? perhaps this info was just newt being dramatic since it comes from his dialogue.

they don't have grief serum until teresa arrives: 1/5. again, doesn't make sense. the changing being a process they're familiar with which brings back memories after they get the serum is entirely destroyed in the movie. this is the catalyst for a lot of the events in the book and it loses all its function.

several of the characters are different in personality: varies. thomas is more typically 'cool' in the movie and less curious and, to put it bluntly, less annoying. i don't like this change much, his constant curiosity and eagerness to learn and discover was a huge part of who he was in the books (if you know mbti, all i have to say is he was an INTP in the books and an ISTP in the movies). then we have minho, who was way less brash, hot headed, and reckless in the movies (he was also made into an ISTP while he was an ESTP in the books). i think alby is a bit different. i like both portrayals of alby, but i think he seemed nicer and more chill in the movie, probably just because the actor was very charismatic. this works because he can easily be charismatic as a leader. but him also being a stressed out kid with too much responsibility in the books, leading to him lashing out more and being less calm and collected, makes sense! gally is a bit nicer, actually rational at times, in the movie. he's also not, like, pathetic and embarrassingly petty. these are all traits in the book which emphasise the fact that he's a scared kid, so this also isn't my favorite change ever.

thomas gets memories back in his dreams: 1/5. unnecessary and completely removes the high stakes of him having no recollection of his involvement with WICKED.

minho doesn't find a dead griever: 3/5. at least they still accounted for why alby had to go into the maze. i still wish they did it.

alby was alone in the glade for a whole month: 1/5. it is not logical that someone would be able to run a whole farm and build shelter all alone at 15 years old without any help. it also doesn't make sense that he wouldn't have gotten killed in the maze on accident.

teresa doesn't come up one day after thomas: 2/5. i guess it doesn't really matter, but this is just one element of the timeline being quite different that wasn't necessary to change.

minho helps thomas save alby in the maze: 0/5. this is thomas's first big act of heroism and the thing that makes minho respect him. they should've kept thomas doing it alone.

the grievers are completely different: 2/5. i understand that this is probably a design issue for the movie, but the book concept of the grievers is better.

the maze is completely different: 1/5. i don't like the movie maze... why is it a circle. the idea of the 8 square sections that are repeating and consistent makes the maze so much more frustrating and bewildering! also that part in the movie where the walls start to fall and the floors come up... why. there's also no code hidden in the walls, which was a very cool element.

no cliff/griever hole: 2/5. not terrible because this would be hard to show on screen. but the fact that instead, in the movie, there is just a visible section that the runners never found before is a bit unrealistic.

gally never went through the changing: 0/5. gally's hatred for thomas in the movie is baseless, while in the book it's clearly about suspicion and fear. he's an understandable antagonist in the book.

thomas and teresa don't have telepathy: 3/5. would've been hard to portray on screen. takes away from the depth of their connection, however.

the gladers give up too easily: 0/5. this one bothers me! when all the other runners in the movie randomly quit their jobs. the whole point in the books is that they'd never do that.

thomas is looked to as a leader: 0/5. when he starts giving orders in the movie and leads the charge into the maze.... ughhh. again i think they tried to make him a more cool and admirable protagonist, but i think a big part of the books is that thomas never saw himself as particularly special, or a leader. he couldn't have done anything he did without minho's, newt's, alby's, teresa's etc skill, authority, support. they were a team and a family. instead, in the movie, they start to follow him without question when he was barely there five days.

the grievers don't only kill 1 glader per night: 2/5. adds tension but also takes away from the fact that the maze again wasn't a test of survival.

alby's and chuck's deaths were essentially swapped: 0/5. i really dislike this change. they took away the fact that alby's fear changed him, and that his last act was both selfless and scared. in the movie he just died on accident. then i think chuck actually chose to sacrifice himself in the movie, when in the books he was forced to as a variable by WICKED. this absolutely takes away from the utter pointlessness of chuck's death, and it's also ooc for a scared 12 year old to choose to die when he so badly wanted to escape.

thomas had no real reason to sting himself: 0/5. he already had memories coming back in dreams and they already believed they had found an escape in the maze. he literally had no reason to go through the changing in the movie and it's a bit overdramatic for no reason.

people take gally seriously as a leader: 2/5. this only happened because alby got killed off early in the movie.

this is one of my least favorite changes so i saved it for last. nalby erasure: 0/5. the movies definitely take away that alby was newt's best friend and the person he cared for and protected most. likewise, in the books, thomas's favorite and most prioritised glader (along with teresa) was actually always minho. although thominho wasn't erased as much in the movies, the fact that those two pairings were the strongest bonds we ever got between the boys in the books isn't really there in the movies. i think the movies allowed people to forget that newt being canonly gay actually means alby is his most likely love interest!

[webanglikethat]

Decades have passed and yet the Percy Jackson fandom still struggles to accept one single uncomfortable truth: Luke Castellan's actions, though destructive, were the catalyst for change that Olympus desperately needed.

was Luke's method ideal? not really. it’s like setting fire to a house to force a renovation. but in a world where immortals hold all the cards, sometimes extreme measures are the only way to force their hand!!

-> the olympians are not gods, they're basically glorified bullies with lightning bolts and tridents and Luke understood this. he knew that asking nicely wasn't going to cut it. the gods only pay attention when they're hurting. so guess what? he made them hurt. and the hurt and anger they felt doesn’t come even close to the trauma and hurt their children felt thanks to their neglect. the gods' discomfort was a mere shadow compared to the lifelong scars they etched into their children's souls.

-> and you know what? the Gods deserved every bit of it. think about it. these so-called "divine parents" abandon their kids, leave them to fend for themselves against monsters, and then have the audacity to demand loyalty. the trauma inflicted on demigods is immeasurable - unclaimed, unloved, and treated like disposable pawns in the gods' petty games. you’re not you, you’re not yourself, you’re just a role in their game. you think you know who you are, but do you really? you don't know your mother's true name. you don't know your father's true name. they don’t even know your name. and one day, you won't even know your own name.

you're just a loose thread, easily discarded. your name? It's written in sand, waiting for the tide of divine indifference to wash it away. you are born into a legacy you can't escape, a story written long before you took your first breath. your so-called divine parent? they are just a blank space on your birth certificate, a question mark that haunts your every step. and then you walk the halls of Camp Half-Blood, surrounded by faces that mirror your own confusion, your own loss. you are all wearing the same mask, playing parts in a cosmic play you never auditioned for. these strangers with familiar eyes might be your siblings, but you'll never know for sure. you are all one big, confused “family”, bound by shared abandonment and the faint hope of recognition. you are all adrift in the same turbulent waters, clinging to each other in a desperate attempt to stay afloat. each of you is a drop, indistinguishable from the next. your individuality dissolves in this ocean of uncertainty. you might share the same divine blood, but that connection is as tenuous as foam on the waves. the gods, in their lofty perches on Olympus, see you as nothing more than a ripple on the surface of their eternal existence. remember the first time you held a weapon? that wasn't your choice. it was your inheritance, your burden, your curse. you didn't ask for this life, but here you are, another nameless soldier in an endless war. maybe, just maybe, if you bleed enough, if you win enough battles, you'll be claimed. but don't hold your breath. the gods are fickle. most likely, you'll remain unclaimed, another face in the overcrowded Hermes cabin, waiting for a sign that may never come. your achievements? they are not yours. they belong to your godly parent, another trophy on their dusty shelf. your failures? oh, those are all yours to bear. you are not a person. you are a prophecy waiting to happen, a quest waiting to be assigned. you are a pawn in a game so old, even the gods have forgotten why they're playing. and then there's Luke. Luke, who dared to rip up the script. Luke, who looked at this joke of a life and said, "no more." remember this: even a single drop can cause ripples. and when enough drops come together, they can form a wave powerful enough to shake the very foundations of Olympus. THAT is what Luke understood. he saw that together, these forgotten drops could become a tsunami of change.

so you think the gods would have suddenly grown a conscience if Luke hadn't shaken things up? dream on. it took a full-blown war, the near-destruction of Olympus, and countless demigod deaths for them to even consider treating them like more than disposable heroes. it wasn't a gentle awakening, sure. it was a rude, brutal shock to their system. but after millennia of slumber, sometimes you need a lightning bolt to the ass to wake up.

so, again, -> Luke spoke their language. he made them bleed, made them fear, made them realize that their actions have consequences. it is not pretty, but it was necessary.

Luke was the earthquake that shook their ivory towers, the tidal wave that threatened to drown their golden thrones. Luke made the immortals taste mortality, forced them to swallow the bitter pill of their own failings. Luke's actions were the violent birth pangs of a new era. he made the gods bleed ichor and sweat fear. for the first time in eons, Olympus trembled, and in that trembling, they finally, FINALLY, realized their actions had consequences.

it was raw, it was brutal, but by the gods, it was necessary.

[erithdrafts]

(Spoilers ig? Wriothesley)

Just finished playing Wriothesley's Story Quest and boi do I have a lot of thoughts about him. In my opinion, Hoyoverse has succeeded in showing us who Wriothesley is, even all the way back when we first met him in the archon quest. Actually, they succeed a lot in telling the stories of their Fontaine characters in general.

It's just that his SQ, it really wrapped his character as a whole. He's witty, observant, and calculative. But the star of his SQ is that he knows how to people, you get me? It's almost scary how much grasp he has on human psychology, people in general and knows when to use that advantage when needed. He understands how complex an individual is and from time to time, he explains to us why some people act the way they are.

And we are proven again that despite these convicted are "sinners", he's willing to put in the effort and protect those who wanted "redemption" meanwhile he doesn't hesitate to put down his foot with those who are arrogant. He cares, only for those who deserve his compassion.

"No matter what it is, it will no longer be able to hurt you. I swear this on my name and honour as Duke"

"Those who use fear to lead others astray must pay for that crime"

"Just as people are free to give in to the darkness within their heart, they're also free to seek redemption and a new beginning."

"Wriothesley spends much time with each member, comforting them and extending his personal apologies" I cried at this line, he's so genuinely kind..

He went through a lot as a child, he even told us his past on the surface level as if it's just a fact in his life. Because it is just a fact, it's just a part of him. He kept improving himself, "redeeming" himself. Literally, he is not letting the past define him. It's just a catalyst to shape into who we have met right now.

He even confided that he still has a hard time trusting people and sometimes wishes to have a happier childhood.. For him to admit that vulnerability, shows he's such a strong person to come into terms with his past even if it still hurts him sometimes. He embraced his imperfections.

Wriothesley is not a Saint trying to fix everyone. He's just Humane, doing in his power to support who needs it.

P.S imo!! genuinely Wriothesley is one of the characters that has the most depth among the cast in genshin.

[crime-soncloud]

Alright so Canto 3... Where do I begin (spoilers obvs)

Alright firstly, RIP Effie and Saude, I genuinely was kinda heartbroken over them both. Effies fate was grisly and really helped the themes and backstory of this canto (that's gonna be touched on more at the end). Meanwhile Saude was such a tragic and very noble death, one that neatly parallelled Sinclair. Wasn't at all expecting them to die, I fully thought they would be some light hearted rivals, but NOPE they're not returning.

In terms of the gameplay... Yall I wasn't even prepared, I ate shit on a lot of these encounters, the dungeon was a disaster at points, the first time I've lost an encounter so far, and I had to Grind. Ended up actually improving a decent bit, and finally started blocking and evading. As I said before, Kromer was a struggle, I lost like 5 times because of when she staggered you using the nails and did a bajillion damage.

In terms of the outer layer of the story, without the big moments, I liked how Don quixote consistently fucks up the plans and causes big fights. Also loved Siegfried coming in, wrecking the teams shit, don quixote fangirling, and then leaving. Honestly I would probably be don quixote, I would suck as a team member. Understand why Vergillus was such a dick, still feel really bad for Don, girlie felt broken by that. Really curious what happened before with them. Rewatching it really makes me want to hug Don, Vergillus is abelist for this (/j /silly). Also Don quixote beating up Sinclair after he goes too far was surprising but interesting as hell. Probably important to backstory

Gregor constantly acting and creating stories in these situations is amazing, and Mersault being previously employed by N corp is interesting 👀 there's something that's gonna be unpacked.

Alright then... Time to go through the main arc, that of Sinclair, and the themes. Firstly, while I am an atheist, I have had a fair amount of dealings with religion and religious people (mostly alright apart from a few). However I think the theme of religious extremism, religious hypocrisy, and guilt/responsibility are extremely well done. As I said, Saude in this canto neatly contrasts Sinclair, as while Sinclair betrayed his family out of hatred/distaste of the mechanical parts (another really nuanced and interesting theme with a lot of depth), and never came clean, leading to him feeling deep guilt over his actions, Saude betrayed the team to try to save herself and Effie, and ultimately was able to redeem herself when she found out Effie died, by holding off N corp. Speaking of Effie, to me the fact he was essentially made into a "heretic" by N corp, to me indicates the idea that they are hypocritical, calling others heretics for trying to improve their lives using the enhancements (there's also an argument for the church's persecution of queer people here, but that might not be intentional, just an interesting thought), but forcing them onto people breaking in so they have an excuse to punish and torture them inhumanely because "they're not human" (can you see the queer subtext I'm seeing?). Finally Dante is amazing this canto, in how they also grow, and manages to support Sinclair, and starts to wonder who are they? What did they do? Are they a good person? And this becomes a catalyst for them to be better, more responsible, and to support Sinclair, the things that Dante says in the final part of the story is genuinely amazing

And as for the backstory... I want to hug Sinclair. His dislike of his family for what they did, feeling as though they are colder, due to their prosthetics. And then Kromer and Demian are interesting, Kromer appearing kind and caring but having a clear air of malice, hatred, and cruelty. The way she acts is chilling, and that cg of her standing over Sinclair is Evil.

Meanwhile I have no fucking clue about Demian, he seems kinda cool but has something going on under the surface, we'll probably have to fight him eventually. Extremely curious, his wisdom, sign (that is what we collect in the dungeon), saving of Sinclair, speeches, and the fact that he is the only character so far that isn't a fixer but hears Dante?? Like okay he is important AF. Definitely very interesting.

I was told by @zebrashork that it had to take a break at points in this canto, and it was fucked up a bit, and BOY is it! I'm probably missing a few things though. Also @flextapeyeehaw sorry for tagging you here, but I wanted to say that you didn't say anything about Kromer, when it came to hateable characters, but FUCK KROMER!

Will be tackling the 3.5 chapter/canto, I expect it to be light-hearted. Probably will just rb this with my thoughts on it

[chaoslinych]

I think it's time to talk about my ss/fl sona, yippee

this post wouldn't be the way it is if I didn't accidentally think of two eldritch beings, one of which seems to be at the edge of becoming a "sleeping" judgement, two creatures deriving from them and a whole fucking island (1.5 i think), and all of this started to combine into a whole construction where everything depends on everything (fl did something to me and i didn't even notice it)

like i've said, this has suddenly became a very complex situation, that's why i don't know what can i tell just about Kys while also not mentioning, therefore not telling about any of those four who affect the stuff that's happening, and if i mention one of them, then i need to talk about everyone else

situation is a situation, and under the cut there will be A LOT OF LETTERS ABOUT THEM, originally it was supposed to be in the middle of the post, but it's really huge, and also i really like these two sketches so

what is also a good thing to note is, that Kys is literally me but in the Neath, I'm also literally a sequencer irl, but Kys is definitely not, and probably can't even become one, at least because of the differently working yearning, burning

but because of some interesting circumstances, now he's always in some kind of contact with the sequencers

because the second thing that affects his life besides the further described group of beings, is his friendship with my friend's sona

curiously enough, the idea of making them friends just because of our own friendship has escalated into the fact that they both affect the major points of their lives, which includes helping each other, and some very interesting "story events"

and as i've once said before, for better or worse, friendship with a sequencer has CONSEQUENCES

but i don't regret anything, they're very good little things, and at least once become a catalyst of a very scary idea that changes a bit of the ending of the Icarian Cup, and that I absolutely love

he will definitely survive

and here's the shortest description of those idiots that i could make

literally the shortest

so there we are

the Polairis, the Polaris or the (Polar) Star - a very fucking powerful thing that could even be a judgement if it wanted to, but prefers to sleep, basically, observing the Neath, but not changing anything in the sequence of things, which also includes the sleep itself too

you can guess from its name that it looks like a polar star, and even lives on the Island of Ursa Minor, but if you see its light, then it sees you too, and if you look at it for too long, it can now see the world through your eyes (and you won't remember this)

the Moondial, the Moon or even Moondeal (this just sounds silly)- a zee-beast that no one remembers, not as powerful as the Star, and is made out of flesh, but just like the Star is interested in the Neath, but its ways include kidnapping interesting people underwater and making a copy of their memories, knowledge and emotions, in the form of a pearl, while also leaving a mark on those people, this way it can watch over your mind no matter how far away are you from the Moon, and now you dream even more of your memories (and your pupil is dark blue)

crimes: in general is chaotic neutral and does many things, but at least once has stolen a dreadnought from the sequencers, some crystals from the Geode and found a way to bite off a part of the Dawn Machine. it doesn't have anything against the New Sequence, it did this just because it can and the Machine doesn't affect it, because it literally doesn't have eyes (and yet I still don't know what else to add to its collection)

and if the creatures of the zee have their own rules, it decides to just tell those rules to fuck off

the Leader of Creation, the Leader - was made out of literally the eye of the Star, is also less powerful, but still has powers, and its main thing is the undying desire to create things, any kinds of things, in any possible way, and very often it's very progressive in those, but still goes more for the Star's preferences, and doesn't give those things to anyone besides its local circle, doing everything on pure enthusiasm

crimes: accidentally burned Kys' retina, because he looked at welding (and an UV lamp, somehow made by Leader) without any eye protection, but it literally replaced his eyes and now they glow, but at least those can see better (at least as much as possible, Kys now has astigmatism, that's canon)

Zodiak - literally a smaller copy of its body, being Kys' main officer, is less powerful but still has its (Leader's) mind, Leader is powerful enough to control 10 palms individually, so why not

The Pearl's Reader, the Reader - the newest out of all of them, at least in terms of creation, and as you can guess by the Leader's situation, is related to the Moon, and is the only one who can read those pearls, usually getting information from them for the leader and for its own art ideas, which it does as a hobby

just like the Moon, has a huge amount of knowledge, but is also mute, unlike Moon who literally talks with you using your own mind (don't talk to Moon please), the Reader can't do that, the only one who understands it and can convert this into human words is Leader

I can also add that the Moon has a deal with Kys, it watches over him to make sure he's alive, and if he dies it can take him back to the island, and he helps it kidnap people

while this deal is very unusual, the Moon still watches over his survival, because of the Star, and still kidnaps people that are interesting to it, but it and Kys knows that if he doesn't help, he will feel guilty about it and the fact that something might go wrong

and pretty much ALL of its deals go like that

don't speak with the Moon

and also, the Leader and Kys have a debt, because Kys is the main reason as to why it exists as an individual, and because of that the Leader is acting better to Kys than to other people

the deals with it are also not the best thing to do, but at least the price is material, you don't pay with your own mind

aaand I want to express my deep gratitude to @rinja-espurr for helping me with the translation!!!! again

really, I even don’t know what I would do with such a volume of text with my knowledge of English, and this won’t be the first time

not at all

[bigskydreaming]

Oh, for anyone interested....just started watching a new Netflix show called Supacell, on the second episode (of five) and I'm really enjoying it. Its basically Heroes, except set in London and all the main characters are black. Like, one of the main characters Michael is pretty much Hiro in terms of powers and how the plot positions him, but it doesn't really come across as derivative because the overall story is very much doing its own thing - its ultimately just 'ordinary people discover they have superpowers and must come together to defeat a threat' with Michael serving as a plot catalyst in a similar way to how Hiro was utilized in Heroes.

Anyway, the first episode is a pretty slow burn, most of the time is spent introducing the characters and showing their normal routines pre-powers and how they each interact with their own supporting characters and storylines....the powers and action-heavy plot stuff only starts in the last third or so, but the characters are really engaging IMO and the pacing works the way its meant to rather than feeling like its just dragging on. Like it very much plays into a whole "calm before the storm/the last normal day of their lives" kind of vibe, with a pretty effective tone of suspense.

Tbh, as of right now, the action heavy elements, ie the supposed threat that's going to bring them all together and the superhero-esque elements - those are IMO the weaker parts of the show though we'll see if that changes, its still very early after all. Just saying the character work and their personal goals/issues/storylines are the things I'm more interested in right now, although each character's reaction to their superpower manifestation, exploration of it (and the way the show really leans into the "no, actually superpowers can be scary as fuck if they pop out of nowhere" angle) are done really well and have me engaged too, its more the superhero team-up to defeat the enemy vibe that comes across as lukewarm so far. But most of them haven't even met yet, so again, I'm expecting that to change things there.

My favorite characters thus far are definitely Sabrina, Michael and Rodney, though Dionne and Sabrina's sister (didn't catch her name yet) are easily my favorite side characters. I don't love what they're setting up with Dionne's character, plot wise, but hoping they take it in a different direction than how it appears to be leading.

Trigger warning for the first couple minutes in specific - there are moments of violence throughout the show since it is action/sci-fi, but the first scene in particular shows a black woman being chased by armed soldiers, trying to escape from a place clearly implied to be experimenting on her due to her powers, and she is shot and killed. That's the only scene like that in the show thus far, and it is depicted as heavy, impactful and with a gravitas that doesn't attempt to cheapen the moment - beyond that, I don't feel its my place to weigh in on whether that moment was necessary or gratuitous, as its a show largely about black characters, by black creators.

I just mention it in case anyone interested in checking out the show wouldn't want to be caught offguard by that, and to express that despite it being the first scene, it doesn't appear to be meant as a typical/usual scene for the show. More something that was led with intentionally, to set a certain tone but not to set it up as "this is the kind of scene you should expect to see regularly throughout the show" kind of thing, if that makes sense.

Anyway, for anyone who liked Heroes or wanted to like Heroes but was put off by or soured on it by that show's problems with representation and antiblackness in particular, both onscreen and behind the camera, I would definitely give this a try. I'm really engaged by it and intrigued as to where its going and what its setting up, so....just a heads up if it wasn't on your radar but sounds like something you might like!

[naisilla]

The Emperor's New Muse Part .5

Odyssey Kayn x Reader

content: coming up with a 'how to save the universe' plan, some "bonding" time with the members, and finally a more definite backstory to our character.

A/N: Apologies for the delayed post this should've come out earlier but I've been struggling with a bit of writer's block because I am making this whole story up as I go gliding by the seat of my ass or however that saying goes. Anyway, I hope it's worth the wait! Knowing that at least a few of you are invested really helped me keep going so thank you all!!

And that's how you came to become the newest recruit member of the Morningstar, and also how you found out about the universe's impending doom.

You gave Sona a judgemental side eye, like... really? You plan on saving the universe with these people!? The Templar, however, ignored your stare and continued to look out the window with her back turned to you. Looking as mysterious as ever.

Currently, the Morningstar was blindly traveling through deep space. Destination: unknown, as long as it was as far away from Kayn and his locus armada. So far there was no sign of them on your tail, you could relax for now.

"So what's the plan? on saving the universe?" you ask looking towards the front of the ship where Jinx was goofing off in the pilot's seat doing anything but actually steering the ship, Yasuo was close by at the control center holo screen.

"We're currently in the drafting stage of our master universe-saving plan" Jinx says while tinkering away at something you assumed was highly hazardous.

"Seriously? you guys don't have a plan yet? What have you been doing this whole time?" It was hard to believe that no progress had been made within the last three months. Aka the time Kayn got his hands on Rhaast, the universe's greatest threat without fully understanding it.

"It's been hard to think straight, that insane ordinal is constantly chasing us down. Every planet we stop at to stock on supplies or rest from travel is crawling with the empire's military and Kayn is never far behind." Yasuo says with a frown on his face.

It was true, you had just witnessed just how quickly the Demaxian Empire was at tracking down wanted criminals. Only, the morning star crew weren't nearly as high priority as they were targeted to be. They were just a bunch of rag-tag space pirates.

It was clear that Kayn was obsessed with getting Sona back for his personal gains. Once fiercely loyal to his emperor Kayn has become obsessed with his personal hunt, he will not hesitate to kill any who cross his path. The ordinal was slowly corrupting into something dark and consuming.

That scythe was the catalyst for all of this. According to Sona, no one knew what Rhaast truly was, but it was undeniable that he or it wasn't the "sentience of ora".

Rhaast clearly wanted to open the ora gates, but for what purpose? Immediately you figured opening the ora gate was the last thing the universe wanted. Sona confirmed from her upbringing within the templar order she had heard of a time long ago when an ancient civilization, extinct for eons, once opened an ora gate. "Annnnd they're all dead now, so it must've gone well for them."

Sona doesn't know what's actually behind the gates but she has seen visions. Visions of which none of the Morningstar or you were aware of. She saw silence. She saw the vast well of time. She saw a moment stretched into an eternity. She saw lingering stillness and glacial quiet. She saw dark stars and black suns frozen in a void of endless shadow. She saw monstrous, silent deities lurking in a corrupted cosmos.

Yet she never spoke of them, Sona was a quiet and mysterious templar after all. The only reason you believed in this religious fanatic was because you could see it in her eyes, the horror. Behind a calm and neutral expression was a gaze that carried worry and fear. Whenever you would steal a glance with the templar it was like looking into a void, one that stared back into your deepest reaches. Sona knew many things, and yet she remained quiet about them, almost as if she was uncertain about whether or not she wanted to save the universe.

You had decided for yourself that you would take charge of planning the next course of action, borrowing a tablet from Yasuo you had snuck off by yourself to figure out what exactly one was supposed to do next.

Sitting down in the saloon of the ship, you began to develop a plan. From what you now know Kayn had to be stopped, the ordinal is so obsessed with his quest for power that he's becoming unstable.

He was being puppeted by that alien scythe whose intentions were far more dire than Kayn could realize. Rhaast wanted the ora gates to be open and it was clear that whatever lay beyond that gate was something never meant to be unlocked.

You needed to stop Kayn from opening the gate, the only reason he hasn't just gone straight to the gate immediately is because he needed Sona to unlock it. Only Sona knew how to do this which means she was a highly valuable asset, good thing she was on your side for now.

Was it possible to destroy the ora gate? If you could manage that then there would be no threat of anyone opening it ever. But it was unclear as to how these ora gates worked, no one truly understood them at all that the risk of something just as disastrous happening. How would one even go about destroying something so incomprehensible?

Ok so destroying the ora gate isn't a likely option, you delete that plan from the tablet.

Looking for the whereabouts of the ora gate would be a start, that way you'd know where to go and where Kayn would be headed at some point.

According to Yasuo, Sona had told him that there were in fact, multiple ora gates in the universe. All are located throughout the furthest reaches of the universe, far beyond the darkest corners. Knowing which one Kayn would go to would be impossible to predict.

Rubbing your temples, you grunt and delete that plan route.

Let's take a step back from the end game. The ordinal Kayn, instead of trying to intercept him at the gates or destroying one perhaps we needed to go straight to the source of the problem.

It wouldn't be hard to find Kayn. He would always come to you. If you had learned anything, it was that this insane and obsessed man was smart, and calculating and when you had something he wanted, it wouldn't be long before he pounced.

You type down "KAYN" in capitols. He was now the focus of your plan. There were a few options of how you could go about this. You could be a mediator and persuade Kayn to give up his pursuit for power, Or perhaps separate him from that damn scythe. Destroying Rhaast was also a good idea, oh wait an even better idea! We kill Kayn!

Just as you were typing out that last thought you feel the weight of someone leaning onto your shoulders, their shadow looming over your head as they nondiscreetly look at your plans.

"Whatcha doing?" Jinx asks with her eyes glued to your plan's title. She snatches your tablet from your hands and brings it close to her face as she intensely stares at it.

Sighing you grab the tablet back trying to focus on forming more ideas- "He's so cool~". You snap your head, pull a face, and look at Jinx as if she lost her min- yeh she probably has already.

"Jinx, please. Anyone but him. Kayn is evil and you're...chaotic neutral." You groan realizing there's no point in reasoning with the loose cannon.

With pacifist, petty, and genocide plans crafted, you went to showcase each of them to the Morningstar crew.

Sona true to her character wanted to take the peaceful route, but even she knew negotiating with such a cruel and ruthless person held little chance in successfully de-escalating the Ordinal.

Yasuo liked the idea of taking Rhaast from Kayn, the thought of taking away his power source was enticing to the captain of the crew. Although you weren't sure if you could trust Yasuo with the sentient scythe. Not that you were assuming the captain was immoral or corrupt but, nobody should've ever come into contact with whatever Rhaast is.

Jinx and Malphite unsurprisingly wanted to go the chaos route, already suggesting which weapons would best tear down the Locus Armada and the Fractal Sheer.

"I carry enough weapons to seize a medium battle fortress!" Jinx proudly exclaims standing before you. You simply nod and half smile "uhuh that's great jinx" your voice passive agressively giving off an annoyed tone.

She grins and dumps her current arsenal onto your lap, you jump in your seat. Did she seriously just throw live weapons at you?! "These are my best friends!" She says picking up the rocket launcher from your lap. "This is fishbones! I modeled him after Sharkpedos, He's always worried about me." You blink stunned.....he?

As she's showing him off she uses one hand to move the jaw of the rocket launcher up and down like a puppet. "I'm worried Jinx maybe we should try a less dangerous option, I like (Y/N)'s other plan to take the scythe instead." Jinx rolls her eyes at the rocket launcher she's ventriloquizing before throwing him to the side, followed by the sound of it crashing onto the ground.

"Yeh he can be a bit of a buzzkill, anyways this is Pow-pow!" Jinx says now picking up the mini-gun making your lap feel a ton lighter. She spins it around and you duck as the barrel comes towards you before shooting a desperate look to the others- oh, Sona and Malphite are gone and Yasuo is reading some book clearly unbothered. Great you're stuck with Jinx then.

"I love your plan to destroy the locus armada! let's shoot them up and watch their bodies fall together!" Jinx says playing on a raspier and higher-pitched voice for the minigun. Jinx then pulls out a lightning projector "This is Zappy she's my stun gun, she's more unstable than I am! Watch this!" Jinx then suddenly tosses the gun onto an empty couch like how one would casually throw their phone on a bed, only, when the gun softly bounces onto the lounge chair it explodes. And Jinx had thrown that on your lap just earlier...

Yasuo gives Jinx a glare flicking his eyes up from the novel he was currently reading, his nose still buried between the pages.

Not giving a single shit about Yasuo Jinx continues to introduce you to her "friends" such as the Flame Chompers, which are curiously sculpted in the likeness of Malphite's head; and the Super Mega Death Comet, an interstellar portal lifted from one of Jinx's old mining jobs.

"You should see the ship! I heavily modified the Morningstar with so many offensive weapons!" Jinx says happily grabbing you by the arm and dragging you on yet another tour of the Morningstar. And after an hour of being overstimulated with interacting with Jinx..... you were still unsure as to what half of Jinx's modifications do.

Finally, Jinx had gone off to wherever leaving you to mentally recover by yourself. So far regarding your "Plan" no one could agree on which one to go with, personally, you were leaning to the separate Kayn from Rhaast. You could kill Kayn if it comes to it. But between the two it was Rhaast that was the true danger.

That would not be an easy feat, Kayn alone was an intelligent and strong fighter. His eyepatch and left arm are clearly ora augmentations making him a superhuman. He now wields a sentient alien scythe and he has a whole personal army at his disposal.

There was no way the five of you could possibly win against him in a fight, it would take some grand scheme to outsmart the Ordinal and gain the upper hand.

Something crawls along your shoulder, and immediately your mind races to some giant ugly alien spider, you see how messy the interior of this ship is, clearly no one is cleaning the ship so of course it would be crawling with pests. You go back and forth on whether to scream for help or smack the bugger into smoosh.

To your relief, a familiar face peeps up at you. Warm round eyes that contrasted with its cool blue and green complexion and a goofy wide smile beamed up at you. "Hey little guy" you coo at the lizard. "How did you get here?"

The lizard chirps and clicks seemingly happy as you scratch its head like how one would pet a cat. "Let's return you to Yauso"

After walking through the layout of the ship you finally found Yasuo, sitting by a large window on a red carpet with incense and candles laid around him, his nose buried in a novel.

His eyes flick up from his book to look at you. "Ah I see Space Lizard has found you".

"Space Lizard? don't tell me that's what you actually call them."

Yasuo shrugs his shoulders. "We really couldn't decide a name for it, we'll probably never will. We plan to sell it for a profit"

"You're selling them!?"

Yasuo shrugs again. "That is why we stole it from a maximum-security nature reserve." Your jaw drops.

"You actually managed to pull that off?" Yasuo nods with a smug smirk on his lips. It was impressive but a part of you just felt for the innocent animal, he seemed happy and healthy here it felt wrong to give him away for money. Your thoughts get interrupted by bubbles floating towards your face and popping upon contact with your nose.

Surprised you turn your gaze and see that Space Lizard is blowing bubbles. You're unsure as to whether to be amazed or grossed out but by Yasuo's smile, you can tell that at least he secretly likes it.

"So you guys are really space pirates huh?" you ask as Space Lizard climbs down your arm and onto your outstretched hand.

Yasuo nods with a proud smile. "Yep, real space pirates". He turns a page in his novel. "It's a lot different from my old life, I would've still been living a life of luxury if it weren't for the framing of my brother's death."

Right, you remember Yasuo briefly mentioning that earlier. "I'm sorry for your loss" Yasuo merely shakes his head dismissively. Lowering his book.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get justice for my brother" he said quietly, his gaze turning downward. You couldn't help but feel drawn to his pain and frustration. Despite the cocky and careless personality he usually exhibits, he was clearly hurting.

Yasuo pauses and shifts in his seat "I should've been there, if I would've been there then-"

You nod your head not letting him finish but acknowledging the obvious truth, he'd been beating himself up for this incident for a long time, and from the way he spoke you could tell it was a huge weight on his shoulders.

"The empire screwed me over, they blamed me for something I didn't do. My brother had grown distant with me in recent years, He was off being a hero while I was spending my nights in a drunken daze, aimlessly wandering between high-end nightclubs. To him I was a disgrace, someone to be ashamed of, I wish I could prove him wrong. But now I'll never get the chance."

Space Lizzard had jumped down from your cradling hand and moved over to where Yasuo was sitting to perch himself on his shoulder, nuzzling its head against Yasuo's face as if to comfort him. A small smile returns to Yasuo's face.

"I know I'm not the only one who's on the run from the empire, You mentioned how you managed to escape punishment for sabotaging a locus armada ship back. But that's all we know about you, what made you turn against the empire?"

A sour snort escapes you, a bitter taste returning to your mouth. "I've hated the empire since the beginning" Yasuo looks at you confused.

"Why is that? What happened?"

You swallow down the rising pressure as the memories of your past rush back. "I used to live on one of the few planets that weren't claimed by the Demaxian empire. Of course that wouldn't last long. They always have to keep expanding, taking planet systems by force."

You recall your old home planet "My homeland was beautiful, it was bountiful with nature and wildlife and we lived in harmony with the land, we were a lot more primitive with technology. We didn't have much need for it. I was just a little girl when they arrived...."

"The Demaxian Empire was brutal, they came in guns blazing, declaring our planet and its land as their own. They had no regard for the lives and cultures they were erasing. Our planet was the gateway to the Outer Rim, a new frontier that the Empire craved. To them, our way of life was primitive and unacceptable.

I still remember them bringing their warships into my planet's orbit, demanding we bend the knee to them. When we refused. They bombed our planet, destroying much of our infrastructure and reducing our population to just a fraction of the original number.”

The look in your eyes was one of a faraway expression, there was a slight tremble in your hands and your whole complexion had paled.

"When the smoke cleared there was nothing left. The land was leveled out, the villages were torn to the ground and all of the plant life, and the animals were gone. They came in and wiped out our entire people in the name of expansion and development. But left after draining everything of Ora. Apparently our planet wasn't good enough to colonize. All that slaughter and ruination for nothing!" you say clenching your teeth. 

"The nightmare didn't end there however. With our home now uninhabitable we had to leave, some submitted themselves to the empire and lived lives of servitude and slavery. Others like myself fled to distant planets like Piltron and Zaun. Desperate to find stability in living." By now you had seated yourself next to Yasuo who surprisingly was listening to your rambling, his novel was closed and by his side, and Space Lizard while perched on his shoulders looked at you intentively.

"I had nothing to my name, no ID, no money, no family. I was used to living off the grid with no influence by technology and government systems. Without any ID it was an unimaginable pain in the ass to intergrade into society. No vital records office could obtain any identity due to my home planet never being a part of the Demaxian system. I couldn't get a stable job or any proper schooling, I was left to figure shit on my own because Demaxia doesn't have time for my kind.

I had to struggle with low-end jobs that paid under the table, there was no dignity in my line of work not when the turnover rate of a nuclear powerplant worker was so high, and more people were dying of negligence faster than new hires were acquired. I was fortunate, if you could call it that to be a mere janitor in Zaun's power plant system. But that didn't come without prejudice from the locals.

I didn't understand why, I still don't, we were all in the same boat and yet I was treated differently. Over time I learnt the ways of the streets and how to survive them. I kept my head down, I minded my own business. Despite being surrounded by thugs and gangs I managed to stay out of it by blending in. Of course, there were a few times I messed up" You say, pulling up your shirt, showing a couple of scars along your torso. Scar tissue in round formations pulled taught towards the center, the classic sign of a healed bullet wound. There were others too, a couple of singular lines dragging across your torso also, the result of getting shivved.

"I was never going to escape the pits of the lower class, no matter how many hours I worked, how many side jobs I had, despite living as frugally as one could survive on. I could never escape being a blue-collar in the slums. The empire's system is so rigged that if you want to live comfortably you have to be born into it. It's so unfair! So many people suffer in poverty and filth because the stupid king is more focused on colonizing more and more planets with stupid rich assholes who don't even spare a thought for the people who keep their obnoxiously pampered lifestyle afloat!!!" Yasuo jumps back a little at your heated outburst towards the end, his usual calm and suave demeanor now tense with a startled wide eyed stare.

It was clear he felt awkward about being called out for his old lifestyle. You sigh and shake your head.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to take it all out on you specifically, I've never really talked about any of this and I suppose all those years were bottled up for too long." Yasuo's gaze softens, his hand goes towards his belt and he passes you a flask, you raise a brow questioningly but take his offering and take a swig instantly feeling the distilled alcohol kick you in the throat with a powerful punch. You cough and sputter looking at him shocked.

"What the hell is this?"

"Pure distilled Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany Vodka"

"...." You stare at Yasuo silently before dowing another swig, then another. Letting out a gasp and wiping your lips with the back of your hand as the satisfying burn of the alcohol soaked itself into your system.

"Better?"

"Better."

You noticed the velocity of the ship shifting and turning into the landing procedures, curiously you looked to Yasuo.

"Whats happening?"

Yasuo shrugs "Looks like Jinx is taking us to a pit stop."

Part six: Here

A/N: So I've had this idea as headcannon for ages but never had the chance to implement it into the story so free lore content below!:

Piltron and Zaun is a rather unique planet in my Odyssey story. Piltron similar to its Runeterra counterpart (Piltover) is the higher class planet to Zaun. Piltron is a hollow planet that exists as an outer shell that hovers around its inner planet Zaun. To access Zaun you need to travel between the tectonic plates of Piltron via colossal industrial elevators. Piltover isn't a perfect shell that entirely encases the inner planet Zaun but is cracked into multiple districts that are tethered to its center Zaun via cybernetic tendrils to avoid floating out of Zaun's atmosphere. If you've seen Transformers: The Last Knight you'll know that I've taken inspiration from the scene of Cybertron being spacebridged into Earth's orbit (see image below).

Zaun Center, like the earth's core, is made of a uranium deposit that is harvested through fission (nuclear power plants) that power both Zaun and Piltron through the cybernetic tendrils that also hold the two planets together. Zaun is made up of the working class while Piltron homes the more upperclass citizens. Piltron and Zaun are allied with the Demaxian Empire and stand as the main manufacturing planet of the weapons and technology of the empire.

Despite being a part of Demaxia, Piltron, and Zaun have the least amount of empire enforcers due to the trust between them and the core worlds. Plus because of the unstable levels of radioactive activity in Zaun, most enforcers don't hover around for long. Sure in this age we have radioactive protection suits but Zaun is seen as dirty to rich snobs.

[cheswirls]

sa fic rec list [ENG] pt 3

preface: i have a public collection on ao3 of my favorite sa fics on there but not all of them are listed on the front-end so these are some unlisted ones, some i love that can't be added to collections, and one special fic on ffn for fun :)

past non-english language rec lists here and here. ao3 collection here.

-

1) Prince Sabo by drowningrat

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43683183 complete - T rating - 3k - au

this one is rly cute domestic fluff modern au goodness. will never get enough of it, rat's prose and dialogue are too good. ace finds out from a former uni classmate of sabo's how many people sabo's dated before him and gets unreasonably jealous and drunkenly confronts sabo about it at home much to sabo's chagrin. it's really. it's adorable. nothing i say will ever come close to how giddy reading the fic makes me feel. their dynamic is TOO cute they are tooth-rotting with how sweet they are. if you want a quick read pls give this one a chance

2) Song Of Genesis by Echaryn

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8544379/chapters/19587928 complete - E rating - 45k - au

this one is my most favorite saboace fic of all time. i cannot recommend it highly enough, it's that fantastic. this is coming from someone who doesn't read nsfw anymore and hasn't for years now – song of genesis literally is and will always be number one in my heart. if you also don't care abt explicit content, i can assure you it's entirely skip-able in this fic w/o losing any enjoyment or context.

SoG is a 'getting back together' type fic that stabs your heart at every angle and at every opportunity during the beginning. echaryn is a fantastic writer and handles the contents of the story so so so well. the break-up is ace's fault but he doesn't know why / the break-up is sabo's decision but he regrets it at every turn. they're still so deeply in love with each other and one turn of events late one evening is the catalyst to bring them back together.

there are horror elements in this in the background that are done spectacularly well. the tags on the fic itself pretty much cover the extent of it but i do wanna throw by two cents in that i don't think anything about it is particularly graphic. if horror isn't your thing this is toned down enough that you should be fine to skim thru or skip parts if necessary. it's good for a horror enthusiast but it's not over the top for those who could care less.

if you read anything from this list pls read che's #1 saboace fic rec of all time pls and ty

3) Red Moon by emygrl99 and leafyxthiefy

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703183/chapters/15330946 complete - T rating - 123k - au

red moon is still, six years after first reading it, the most interesting and well-crafted premise for a soulmate au i've ever heard of in my life. if you're familiar with a majority of soulmate bond types and know this particular one then you'll probably pick it up before the reveal, but if not ooooooooooo you're in for a treat. i won't mention it here to save the suspense.

i've never read another soulmate fic as good as this one, and the soulmate aspect isn't necessarily even the best part?? the atmosphere of the fic comes from character relationships and interactions. ace and sabo start out on the wrong foot and it takes time for them to change their opinions about each other, but as you can see by the length, the journey is done with patience and well worth the effort spent :)

as someone indifferent to a lot of the minor characters in this fic, i actually enjoyed them and their various roles a lot??? i guess the takeaway is that you should look at the character list and take it in stride (and the minor relationship that is tagged is v minor like if it's not your cup of tea pls still give the fic a chance). everyone is a joy to read and experience things through. also the world-building is so well done. i have not been into vampire content for many years now but i can say with full confidence that this one still slaps.

also as someone who enjoys like... not necessarily "slow burn" but like a natural progression of a relationship from people who just met into something romantic – this fic hits all those points for me surprisingly well??? my only complaint is that as long as it is sabo and ace barely admit their feelings for each other by the end. i live and breathe to see romantic relationships in fic and red moon is primarily build-up. the two have to be friends first, which takes time and is good! not knocking the fic for that. jus throwing it out there that it's one of the they-hold-hands-by-the-end shoujo-type stories.

maybe before this gets too long i should uh. TALK abt what the fic entails. it's a fantasy-esque story where sabo, a vampire hunter, is captured and taken prisoner by a vampire coven living in the mountains. while he's being held captive, he discovers luffy, the little brother he'd thought was dead for years, is living among the vampires and is the same age at which he supposedly died. this triggers some mixed emotions in sabo about the coven and its members, but most importantly gives him incentive to act iffy in regards to luffy's "father", ace, who is not intent on being at all friendly with sabo either.

4) Epiphany by Scarletsorceress

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30518460 complete - T rating - 5.5k - canon(divergent)

everything scarlet writes for acesabo is done immaculately. if you read this fic and like it, please do yourself a favor and read all of her other fics as well. there are some real gems she has in her collection, but this one has a special place in my heart considering i really don't read sa fics sets in canonverse all that much.

also because it paints a side of the one piece world that i like seeing a lot in fan content – specifically how gruesome it is and the dire straits average everyday citizens go to to survive above the waves. not even to have a peaceful or even "good" life, but just to life long enough in good health to make it count. one piece follows the strawhats as focus characters, which is why i've never been concerned about reading fic starring them. reading about non-titular characters that dont' get as many updates, or that oda teases the lives of without going into depth, has always been more interesting.

and to go with that, the revolutionary army has by far always been the most interesting group of people in the op-verse for me. any fic that focuses on them and paints a picture of their struggle is worth a read. the fact that this is saboace is great, and i love it, but it's also a bonus to a great fic concept in general, which is:

what happens to RA members when a mission goes south and people are killed as a result of their actions?

i don't think the RA gets enough credit for how well they individually hold themselves together. it's fine to portray a kind of "escapism" and have them be happy because they deserve to be happy, but fics like this where it dives into how much their actions (and failures) affect them are always, to me, taking the RA and stripping them of their masks.

also ace is really, really loving and caring and kind and supportive in this fic, which i love seeing. sabo is a miserable wet rag after a mission gone wrong and ace is there to pick up the pieces. bonus points to the dynamic of ace and koala i love them sm in this????? so so so much.

5) In the Morning with a Cup of Warm Tea by sleepymery

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17241962 complete - T rating - 2k - au

this is another from the back-end of the ao3 collection – jus a short and sweet modern au full of domestic fluff!!! that is my bread and butter especially for fics from fandoms where canonverse is so tumultuous and full of strife. which op definitely is!!!! also its not like ace and sabo's canon relationship is happy anyway /shot

this one is happy and cute. a typical morning w sabo and ace on an anniversary of sorts :) all of maery's sa fics are adorable. i used to come back to this one all the time several years ago.

6) How We're Made by paox

https://fanfiction.net/s/12624109/1/How-We-re-Made complete - T rating - 177k - au

i love this one with all my heart and soul. i was actually in the middle of re-reading it a couple years back when it got deleted from ao3 which is :( but it's still up on ffn so!!! ffn it is hehe.

paox at one point was definitely my favorite saboace fic writer and might still be. her prose and writing style in general is so phenomenal in my eyes. the way she writes asl individually and as a dynamic trio (and their various duos as well) really left a mark on me when i first got into one piece. she truly does understand their characters perfectly, and even in a dystopian au such as this, they stay true-to-form throughout.

side note, the majority of this fic focuses on asl and sabo and ace's relationship doesn't change until near the end. it's probably a minor spoilers to say it does but this is a sa rec list so. anyway i threw this up here bc i love paox's writing and this one is complete and more than a drabble. the way she paints sabo's character as a person broken down by an oppressive system, who rises to light the fire of revolution and never stops seeing the good in humanity, it's just perfect to me. this is the man oda brought back from the dead to play a crucial role in the second half of one piece. paox gets it. sabo is so well-written and so true-to-form that any other attempt at his character by anyone else is almost laughable in comparison. this is THE sabo fic of the list.

i have another paox fic (two i think!!) in the front-end list of the ao3 collection so definitely give those reads as well :) one is incomplete but will break your heart nonetheless, the other i think is a longer drabble that has my heart by the throat. i think all the ones still on ao3 are compiled under their old ffn account as well, so navigating to them this the HWM fic link might be a better choice. if you can read on ffn lmaoooo adblockers are your friends.

[mixelation]

In your last ask about Tori being reborn into Naruto, one of the tags mentions the akatsuki being reborn? Do you mind going into that? As in the akatsuki being reborn into different villages after they die?

no, the premise is more like a time travel fic where the time travelers end up in their younger bodies. so the akatsuki are still themselves but now they have.... Future Knowledge(tm). i've been going back and forth a lot on how this would change their decision making processes because obviously some of them could have huge effects on the canon plot. kakuzu, for example, is old enough he could probably prevent any ninja village from being founded in he played his cards right.

some ideas:

i am intrigued by the idea of kakuzu killing hashirama and preventing konoha from ever happening, but also this isn't the story to explore that. instead he decides to fuck off and be a missing-nin earlier, because he doesn't want to fuck with his village any more than he has to

hidan makes zero changes to his life. good job, hidan

sasori still makes himself a puppet, but maybe does it when he's older? like i feel like when i was 16 i was like "yeah, being a teenager forever is a good idea" but as an adult i'm like "but sasori would be so hot if he actually looked 35?" also he might get taller. so i think with the wisdom of age he might wait a bit. i also feel like he might have the motivation/ability to interfere in how the war that killed his parents went (i think it was the second one?) but that's another moving piece i'm still rotating

i haven't decided how this is going to play out in plasticity, but for this AU let's say konan and pein understand zetsu/obito's roles in ruining the world. they preemptively murder obito, oops. depending on how they do this (and how aware minato is of how obito died), it means ame's relationship with konoha could look REAL different. also not 100% sure what i want to do with yahiko/ame in general. still rotating this part

konan and pein's intervention does mean minato & kushina are still alive and kicking. itachi is confused but he's going with this. danzo's still a slimeball but the massacre isn't really on the table anymore. i'm also leaning towards a scenario where itachi is really, really bad at pretending to be A Normal Child and ends up in ANBU even earlier and is confused about why he's unhappy with this

without obito around to brainwash the mizukage, kiri is more stable and kisame is just chugging along there (although he's firmer about turning down some missions--- and good enough no one can really argue with him)

Deidara's origin story in Plasticity is that his family is just some farmers with proto-mouth hands and Iwa is paying them to churn out a bunch of children to see if they can make a new bloodline limit. Some of the gamete donors are likely ninja, but Deidara was born on a farm and not slorped up into the Iwa system never to see his family again until he was Academy age. Post time travel, Deidara remembers family never paid much attention to him, and he has no reason to want to go back to Iwa, so he just runs away at like age 5

The crux of all this is that none of them actually knows the entire akatsuki has time traveled. Like Nagato and Konan obviously know the other one time traveled and everyone is aware this timeline is Different, but it hasn't occurred to anyone to seek out other members and they don't bump into each other organically because they're all in very different parts of the world. Since she's the main character, obviously Tori gets to the catalyst for people running into each and pointing like the spiderman meme

Since Tori doesn't HAVE a family in Ninjaland to be reborn into, she's brought up as an orphan in a ninja clan that unaffiliated with any village. I just like the idea that there's still some of these kicking around. Since she's not a real part of the family, she gets treated like shit and doesn't really get formal ninja training. B U T the family heads are entering Cahoots with Orochimaru and he's like: what's this? Spare orphans???

Orochimaru obviously eventually completely fucks over the family (maybe they have some interesting kekkai genkai/jutsu he just runs off with while their home burns), but Tori knows exactly what to say and how to act to get into his good graces. But ALSO she's acutely aware she's playing a very dangerous game and abandons ship a few years later, preferably in a very dramatic way where she screws over Orochimaru as much as she can.

(Revenge? She's not worried about that. This is only endearing herself to him.)

I'm going back and forth on what her ~abilities~ are, but I want to keep that she has no elemental affinity. I also can't see her as someone whose gut reaction to a situation would be "I can fight my way out of this" even if she's technically been trained to be competent at it. What she DOES have is a new and creative ways to push the field of fuinjutsu forward. Also toyed around with the idea of misappropriating medical jutsu to fuck shit up? she is not a taijutsu specialist but you should not fight her hand-to-hand, oops

(also, yes, she can throw knives now)

Tori is right between Deidara and Itachi in age so I was thinking while she's wandering around as a 12 year old feral ninja or whatever she is, she somehow runs into Deidara? And then something goes EXTREMELY WEIRD and they both end up in Konoha. This Deidara is technically affiliated with Iwa, but he was never one of them and he's obviously a genius, so I think most of Konha leadership would be like :EYES EMOJI: at him? Tori was affiliated with Konoha's scariest missing-nin, so.... that's suspicious, but also something something she's deidara one friend and that kid needs someone else's braincell.

so, my EXTREMELY convoluted and cracktastic take was then: Minato needs to do something super sneaky at a Chunin Exam for some reason. He wants to send in a fake genin team as entrants, but he'd prefer to use younger shinobi so there's less suspicion. Kushina has been bugging him for a genin team for years. He gives her the extra super special DISASTER team of Itachi, Deidara and Tori*

*tbh i don't super like kushina but i like the idea of her as tori's mentor. their personalities are VERY different but i think kushina would ave a lot of sympathy for a young girl trying to settle into a foreign village, oh and also do you want to do something wild with yogurt

[echo-echo31]

5 Times Gray Nearly Kissed Cooper and 1 Time Jay Witnessed It Finally Happen | Chains Series Spin-Off

SERIES MASTERPOST | RIBBONS SPIN-OFF

A/N: This is for my wonderful, amazing friend on their birthday! In case you don't know, these characters are part of my Chains Series as well as being my friend's special blorbos <3

Warnings: trauma, PTSD, reference to torture.

1. The first time Gray nearly kisses Cooper, he doesn't know who they are.

It's in the moments of being rebooted. After the trauma of waking up to find his entire life stolen, corrupted, replaced. Reality rushes back so fast he feels like he's dying again. He didn't expect to wake up; he thought the last thing he'd ever see was Ada's face as the truth rushed into it like her human blood.

"...you're okay. It's gonna be okay,"

That voice.

It's the hand of wakefulness tugging him out of his own nightmares. The one thing that kept him tethered to reality when he was in stasis. He rushes towards it like a drowning man, and then his optic programmes kick-in and he's so relieved, hit so hard with the force of simply being alive that it seems natural to reach up and make their lips meet.

That's when he finds that his other programmes haven't loaded yet. He's paralysed, looking up at the panels of a rotting wooden ceiling. He can't speak, but he thinks his eyes convey emotions he could never put into words when he finally sees the face of the mechanic smiling down at him.

2. It happens again the first time he sees snow.

After being guided outside and recounting the stories Ada used to tell him, both he and Cooper had stayed there for an unknown amount of time…staring.

It was so quiet. And not the bad kind. Not the kind that crept in and infested like the endless, isolating days he'd spent in stasis. It was peace, it was beautiful.

The sudden noise beside him is the first time he's been reminded he's not alone out here for a while, and he turns his head to see Cooper shiver,hands rubbing the raised hair on their arm. Sometimes - in the adrenaline rush of their lives on the run - Gray can forget that they're human. Whenever he's reminded, there's some kind of emotion that gets stuck in his throat that he has to force back down.

He should encourage them back inside. Avoid hypothermia. And yet there's a few more seconds when he's just looking at them. Their prosthetic arm holds onto their body and he's once again mermerised how intricate and well-designed it is. They look off into the distance with those brown eyes so deep he could get lost in them.

And for a moment he thinks about walking over, holding their face in his hands and kissing them.

"We should get you inside, Coop,"

3. Trauma seems to be a good catalyst for these things to happen.

All Gray can hear is the siren continuing to echo through the corridors of the Alliance base. His optic programme is working, and yet he can't seem to actually comprehend anything that's happening around him.

His mind is full of that thing. The thing that has his head. The thing that almost killed him before it was called away to become the subject of someone else's nightmares.

Even when Jay found him, he couldn't tell the fellow android what had happened. It was as if he was back in stasis mode, only all of his sensory programmes were still working fine. He felt trapped, traumatised, alone.

There's a pressure on his shoulder and suddenly he's knocked out of the paralysis. He flinches, systems blaring some warning message as he interprets it as a threat until he really looks, and sees Cooper leaning their head on his shoulder.

There's tear stains on their cheeks and their eyes have a glassed over, far-reaching expression. Immediately, his body relaxes and his mind becomes fixated on making sure they're okay, rather than dealing with whatever damage that psychopath had done to it.

Seeing them like this, he wants to comfort them in any way he can. They hold each other - for minutes or hours he has no idea. Eventually, they sniffle and he kisses the top of their head. He wants to do more; he wants to press his lips to theirs in an attempt to take away…to swallow all the pain.

It's not the moment. So instead he holds them close enough to convince them both that nothing else can touch them.

4. Jay daring him is just a occupational hazard at this point.

It happens at least a few times today. They'll be traversing the abandoned landscape of a small town, or crossing a river or getting supplies from an ex-military base and Jay will come up to him with some ridiculous idea.

It's oddly comforting in some ways; a nice reminder that He didn't erase all of Jay's original personality programming. An act of rebellion.

So, he's never surprised when he comes at him with that dorky grin and an idea to jump off a bridge or steal a 7 foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.

And yet.

"I dare you to kiss Coop,"

Gray knows it's literally impossible for him to choke, but right now it sounds like it with the noise he makes when Jay whispers into his ear.

They're about four steps behind Cooper, on an abandoned railroad track in the middle of nowhere. As per usual, the mechanic is leading the way, following signals they've got on one of their ingenious inventions that tracks SOS programmes from androids who've defected from the House.

"What? Shut the hell up, man!" Gray hisses aggressively back, eyes trained on their human's backpack in terror of them accidentally hearing their discussion.

"Come on, tough guy. I see how you look at them," Jay teases, an arm slung around Gray's shoulder as the Google Android refuses to meet his gaze.

"I don't…I don't know what you're on about, Jay. And anyway, you two are a thing, aren't you?" He tries not to let the hope he feels bleed into his tone of voice as he asks the question.

Jay laughs, and Gray starts to feel annoyed, like he's being made fun of. Jay leans in closer and this time his voice is more serious, more sincere.

"You really think that heart isn't big enough for the both of us?"

Gray is left standing still as Jay walks ahead of him, joining Cooper

"Hurry up, slow coach!" Jay shouts back, and Gray curses him under his breath.

5. Around the campfire, he really thinks he's going to do it.

They've made it to some make-shift camp set up by a handful of androids; some defectors, others who ran away from abusive owners well before the Blue Screen Event.

The last few days had been…nice. Really nice. In fact, the Alliance and rebellion and Alpha and everything else had slipped from his mind a few times whilst they'd been here, and that was a miracle in itself. It was almost like a taste of what could be; a possible future free from threat and fear.

It's in this warming glow that Gray finds himself trying to pluck up the courage to kiss them. He's been casually staring for at least the last ten minutes, the flames of the fire honeying their brown eyes in the darkness. He fidgets with his hands and occasionally sees a knowing smirk from Jay in the corner of his eye that he chooses to ignore.

He wants to do it. He needs to do it. And yet plucking up the courage to do so seems to be harder than when he had to resist the ongoing mental torture of having the world's most dangerous android in his head.

"Hey! We should go see if Hunter is alright," Cooper suggests, and it takes a while for Gray to process what they've actually said.

"Oh…yeah sure," He answers, watching as the mechanic is already standing up and catching Jay facepalm.

+1. It's been months since they left Markus' Alliance base.

Months since they set off, travelling North, following the tracks left behind from the House moving base after the incident of one of their Beta's being corrupted.

They're still unsure as to what exactly happened, but it was enough to force Alpha to move. And that meant it was serious. Very serious.

Something had happened between then. Something that meant Cooper no longer wanted to be involved with Markus - their brother - and that also meant they were back to the three of them travelling alone. Which to be honest, didn't bother Gray. In fact, he rather preferred it this way. Cooper's brother always gave a vibe that made him uncomfortable. Sometimes he thought he was more similar to Alpha than he knew…but that's not something he'd ever admit out loud.

Nevertheless, it was back to Cooper leading the way through what had slowly become denser, darker forest with more treacherous paths to traverse. They had become more reckless recently, as if they were trying to reach something more important than their own safety. Therehad been a few close calls when Gray or Jay had to bandage them up, and yet whenever they tried to hint that something was wrong, they were met with unconvincing reassurances that everything was fine.

That's how it happens.

One minute Gray is following behind them, the next he's running to the spot they once wereafter he sees them slip and fall, disappearing behind the ledge they were approaching.

Every possible worst-case scenario goes through his head; his systems are screaming at him as if he's the one who's in danger.

"COOPER!" He shouts, hearing the same name echoed from behind him by Jay.

Once he gets there though, relief floods through him like a drug as he finds them merely a few feet below, having fallen onto a shallow riverbank.

They're in a heap and dirty, but already brushing it off and clearly not hurt above a few scratches and bruises. Without thinking, Gray is jumping down after them, his superior strength and resilience making the leap a lot easier and more graceful for him.

"Hey, you okay?" He says, arms already reaching out to hold them.

"Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Just a stupid mistake," They say, sounding angry with themselves.

"It's not stupid," He replies, brushing some dirt off their shoulders and they do the same to their clothes. There's a streak of mud across their cheek and he goes to clean it off, accidentally smudging it further across their skin. It's a few seconds before he realises he's essentially stroking their face. And that they're staring at him.

It's here, with the water rushing past and his mechanic covered in mud and a cacophony of different lifetime's words between them that he finally, finally, leans in to press his lips to theirs.

They taste like pine needles and firewood and home. It's like the inevitable, as if there's been an invisible string pulling them closer and closer and finally they've become tied.

It's everything he needs.

That is, until they break apart with the sound of a someone nearby clearing their throat.

Gray turns his head to see Jay looking at them, arms holding each other and Cooper's skin flushed.

"Well…I'm glad we're all still alive. And kissing. Fucking finally. So…can we maybe keep going because my optics are telling me that it's almost twilight and however much you two want to stick your tongues in each other's mouths, I'd like that to happen somewhere away from the creatures of the forest please."

[chromatic-lamina]

true history: true mystery, chapter 1085 spoilers

OH MY GAWD,

What a chapter. And cos he's my boy, told you we didn't have to worry too much about one

Trafalgar

D.

Water Law!

I'm so excited (I feel like I should go out and order the whole set of steak knives).

Anyhoo! I remember when I enjoyed reading the scans on my Friday, and they now come out very early my Thursday morning (like, super early. It's just shy of 3am). BUT this was a treat. And the reason I mostly read them is to prevent being spoiled, but also because they include really interesting translator's notes, etc. such as the ones below about Imu:

Which is difficult to see, but basically it says that Imu refers to themself as Mu and then says that Mu can refer to the void century but also to dreams. Super interesting. And so, Lili was not, unfortunately Imu (but that's okay, cos' I love this story line too), BUT she was a...

D!!!

As shown above, where King Cobra realises...

...that he won't survive his encounter with Imu (who was apparently one of the original 20), and Cobra reveals that Lili was Queen Nefertari D. Lili. GOOD STUFF. Sabo overhears. Imu has some problems with this, because, as stated by Cora

and reiterated by (without knowledge to the best of our understanding) Imu

the "D" is the moniker of the Celestials ancient enemy.

And, although sketchy, look at the perspective from that panel above! Imu is miles above them all. Another aside, while looking up Cora and Doflamingo stuff, there's also the 'heavenly' perspective on this frame with Cora and Law, but I also know Oda is fond of this type of editing/story telling:

Back to 1085: Cobra's recollection that Imu was the name of one of the original 20 does tie into the probable theory that Imu had the eternal youth operation centuries prior.

Anyhoo, this is well out of order (my posting of frames) as always! Sorry. It's not only the D's that Imu and their clan need to be scared of, but also

the scholars. Be still my LawBin shipping (platonic or romantic) heart! But, I digress. So Lili is the one responsible for the preservation and also dispersal of

the poneglyphs. Whole page there. So much information! Cobra has not revealed that Lili was a "D" at this point, or that he himself is, so he was playing with fire coming in to see the Elders, but I guess the whole lineage had known about that for a long time then (that they had the initial for some reason) and had survived. It also seems that maybe King Cobra did know more about the poneglyph in Alabasta than previously assumed. Perhaps?

Anyway, Imu above says that Lili's dispersal of the poneglyphs around the world was perhaps a deliberate action (apparently it had been passed off as a mistake, a blunder) as part of a larger plan. And with the reveal of her being a possessor of the Will of D. it seems it probably was, even if she was a catalyst, as so many D's seem to be, without having full awareness or knowledge of what ultimate role they're playing.

Full page again, cos it's so good. So Imu questions Cobra as to why they never divulged Lili's full name, only referring to her by her royal title, which is actually pretty standard practice. BUT, Imu obviously has very strong convictions that Lili is one of those rabble rousers who get this his entity-self really hot under the collar too!

And the Gorosei basically saying: You can't expose that we're some kind of oligarchy/dictatorship/absolute malignant monarchy when it's supposed to be some kind form of supposed League of Nations acting for all countries and supposed world peace. Interesting mix of Imperialism and colonialism these guys have going on. Anyway! The revery is still going on, and is now absolutely proven to be a farce:

Although King Neptune, and who's the other dude? Can't remember. Not Dalton, is it? (please let me know) King Riku Doldo are looking very skeptical at the Uncle Sam dude. (Thank you @robinchan-hananomi !)

Walpol becomes relevant in a way that it seems that Caribou will be too, and Vivi has been kidnapped by the CIA CP0 (or are they CP9)?

Walpol overhears and sees not only Imu's decimation of Cobra with figures that look a lot like Kanjurou's Kazenbo flame spirit from Wano (did the Gorosei shape-shift too, or was it all Imu sending out some kind of malevolent spirit?), but I think he also overhears Cobra's revelation to Sabo that has a nice SFX bubble over it to just tease we readers enough with hints of information about how the Poneglyphs must be protected, and will seemingly will help usher in the dawn! Ooh, so excited.

BTW. What or who is the figure behind Cobra in the bottom right panel? Sabo?

Walpol outs himself as having seen everything, so shocking is it to him:

and so the spectres are on his tail (and I think it's quite funny that first Imu doesn't know or sense Sabo, and other defenses are breached by Walpol, of all people!). SO, he's one of my least favourite villains, along with Caribou and Spandam, but I'm guessing there's something with their devil fruits that make them crucial to the plot, as well as being kind of incidental characters witnessing key points of One Piece lore.

I doubt he has any great love for Vivi, but he also probably knows where his best chance for survival lies, so, it seems he's been creeping around the castle and I'm going to align CPO with Get Smart now, cos they've got that kinda vibe. Not goofy enough to be Scooby Doo (although Jabra does a good job), but still funny and sexy enough to be the characters of Get Smart who weren't Max. (look it up if you don't know).

Anyhoo! Vivi got kidnapped, and I'm guessing it was at the urging of the gorosei who did it at the urging of Imu, or maybe if Cobra didn't spill the beans, they would've used her as a bargaining chip. Anyway, Kalifa here:

stating that Vivi will end up being a pet (?!?). Did Charloss want her? And I'm wondering if Jabra's wording is a mistranslation, although maybe not. As far as I'm aware, the expression is "play your cards closer to your chest", but maybe it's changed over time. Or there's a pun I'm not getting.

Vivi's reaction in the following frame is awesome (gonna put the whole page in again, cos it's got so much info):

First, awesome that Shirahoshi got away, and we saw that way back when with Garp accompanying the family back to Fishmen Island. Cool info dump from Jabra above. (Very chatty secret agents. Maybe that's why they don't get to wear masks). But I especially like Vivi's incredulity at Kalifa's comment, and her commitment to doing something about it. She's got a devil fruit, doesn't she? Yes! BUT

Trashing young prince to the rescue! (okay, he's a king, once disposed, newly reinstated somewhere) (but he is young. This guy's in his 20s, I think). Vivi hitches a ride with the dumpster on wheels. And from there, Big News Morgans picks them up! (not yet witnessed). Here from chapter 1074:

She's really gone up in my estimation. I never noticed how much she speaks her mind and sticks up for others before (I'm slow, don't worry). And it's not just cos she's a D. Haha. That's not an automatic "like" card, but I might be a little predisposed.

Speaking of which, this part with the ASL brothers was hilarious:

"Do want a "D" in your name, Sabo?"

"You can be Sad. Bo!"

"Why'd you put it there!?!"

Ah, lol, bless.

Also, Imu has the same kind of imperiousness as Doflamingo. Doflamingo's rougher in speech, and I'm guessing with the "thou" and so on shown in the scanlation on the first page that Imu is formal, but as entitled and condescending as fuck, just like our pink feathered friend.

One thing (or many) so interesting about Doffy, though, is:

from chapter 727, is that he's a man very sore about losing his Celestial dragon status, who wants to destroy them and the world government, and who is not afraid of the CD's. Also, it seems that he's well aware of Imu (Mary Geoise's greatest treasure?). I wonder how he was going to challenge Imu if Law had granted him eternal life. If that was his aim. So, a digression, but I think our pink bird will again be relevant soon! Fingers crossed, and I really don't want them to redeem him. Please.

Lastly, the cover was very cute:

Franky directing newly hatched turtles to the ocean, and it's true, so many head in the wrong direction, and such a small proportion actually survive, so he's a hero. Is he sitting on a turtle-hatchling eating crab?

Dunno if any of this was coherent, and I'm sure I missed a bunch, but over and out for now (ah, back to bed!).

[k8lynjoy]

I know the Live Action Little Mermaid came out forever ago, but I wasn't blogging then, so I have to discuss my grievances with it now. I want to start off by saying that I think the live action was good, this is in no way intended to slander the movie because as far as live actions go, this one is one of the good ones (Halle Bailey, I love you, marry me). That being said, I have got to talk about how much I hate the lyric changes made to "Poor Unfortunate Souls".

I understand why they decided to change the lyrics in "Kiss the Girl" to remove the lines of kissing people without their consent, but the lyric changes in "Poor Unfortunate Souls" irk me to no end because they completely miss the point of the original song. Are the lyrics incredibly misogynistic and rooted in outdated stereotypes surrounding women? Yes. Is that the whole point? YES! Ursula is MANIPULATING Ariel. She wants her to believe that giving up her voice is in her best interest. Of course she's going to be spouting bs about how "it's she who holds her tongue that gets a man", she's the VILLAIN. We are not meant to be taking any of what Ursula says seriously. Changing the lyrics to "remove the sexism" misses the intention of the original song. It's SUPPOSED to be sexist, not because it's sexism for the sake of sexism, but because it serves a narrative purpose within the story.

I also want to add that URSULA IS PROVEN WRONG! I know The Little Mermaid gets a lot of flak for having the FMC give up her voice "for a man" (I use quotes bc Ariel had an interest in the human world BEFORE Eric, but I also understand that he was the main catalyst for Ursula being able to manipulate her into giving up her voice and becoming human), but I don't think enough people- or anyone really- ever talks about the fact that Ariel NEEDS her voice in order to be with Eric. Now obviously I know that Eric was falling for Ariel even before she got her voice back, but her not having her voice was the main source of "conflict" for their relationship. This was once again, intentional on Ursula's part. She knows how powerful Ariel's voice is, which is why she takes it in the first place, she knows that without her voice, Ariel is going to have a very hard time winning Eric. What Ursula doesn't count on is Ariel having a personality that still manages to win Eric over. I also feel compelled to add that Eric spending the movie wishing that Ariel could speak to him also disproves the points Ursula made because "on land it's much preferred/for ladies not to say a word" becomes null and void when Eric actively wants Ariel to speak, but she can't. I digress.

Regardless of Ariel being able to sway Eric with her personality, they do not end up together until AFTER she has gotten her voice back. Ariel did not need to lose her voice to gain a man, she needed to WIN IT BACK. Ariel's voice holds a lot of weight in the movie- being the thing that drew Eric to her and what Ursula now covets in order to keep Ariel from succeeding to get Eric to kiss her- so her taking it back from Ursula is very important within the context of the story. And it is only after she has gotten it back that her and Eric end up together, fully cementing the point that Ursula WAS WRONG. Ariel NEEDED her voice, its important and holds its own kind of power. We were never supposed to believe what Ursula was saying, and even if some of us did get manipulated right along with Ariel, by the end of the movie, we see that what Ursula was saying wasn't true.

Now this isn't me trying to spin some revisionist, feminist take on The Little Mermaid, where I'm lamenting on how beautifully feminist the original message of the movie is, because that is most definitely NOT what I'm saying. What I am saying is that there is an ever-growing lack of media literacy and nuance when it comes to the things we read/watch and changing the lyrics to "Poor Unfortunate Souls" because they're sexist, just proves that A.) some people lack the ability to understand context and nuance and B.) that Hollywood doesn't trust people to have the brain capacity to understand complexities within plot and character.

It's just a shame to see because one thing that remakes keep doing is removing a lot of the things they deem "problematic" in order to make it more palatable, but- in reality- the only thing they are doing is reducing the complexity of the narrative because they can't trust audiences to work things out for themselves.

[midnight-in-town]

Hi! I really enjoy reading your Kuroshitsuji theories. ♥️ Question: Why do you think Yana created a whole new character (Layla/Al) to be Vega instead of bringing back an old character? It makes sense in the story why Layla/Al is Vega if she's Baron Heithfield's daughter and he's a supporting the BD & blood collection, but I don't understand how confronting Layla/Al is supposed to be satisfying for readers. I LOVE her character design, but unlike Doll whose death O!Ciel feels guilty over, she has no connection (that we know of) to him. And we know next to nothing about her, and it seems odd to be developing a new character when there's so many loose ends to tie up and other characters we haven't seen in forever.

Also, do you still think Polaris is Joker? If the children at the orphanage are supposed to resemble their star counterparts (like how Mabel is acrobatic like Doll and how their outfits are similar to the stars'), Artie doesn't seem all that similar personality-wise to Joker. Unless Joker is extremely different as a BD. And he dresses so properly as a butler and does so many different butler like tasks... Even if Joker was Kelvin's "butler", the activities Artie does don't seem very Joker-esque. Unless I'm missing something?

Thanks!

Hey Anon, thank you for the kind words and sorry for the delay ! :))

So about Layla/Al, like you said, I believe Layla/Al is Lord Vega and could be Baron Heathfield’s undead child [x][x]. And while I initially found it strange to have Layla as a Star Lord for reasons similar to yours, I've now come to the enjoy the idea that it simply gives more of a wide range to UT's BD project.

In other words, it's not that Layla/Al is important as a character to the our!Ciel vs real!Ciel conflict (unlike Doll and maybe Joker, or even Ann if she was brought back), but rather it shows just how deep this project runs and that 1) UT may not be the only deserter shinigami working on it and 2) that they're in crucial need of sponsors to keep it going. For example, if Layla is Heathfield's child, then making Layla a star lord is making extra sure Heathfield will hold a blood collect in his basement without fail.

Also friendly reminder that, while UT seems mostly interested by salvaging the Phantomhive family (his words, not what's really happening), other deserters might be working on it because it threatens the world order that the shinigamis' higher ups oversee :

In other words, the bigger the BD project becomes, the bigger chances UT has to bring back perfect undead members of the Phantomhive family (like real!Ciel and maybe Claudia) and the bigger chances other shinigamis have to see "the world the higher ups oversee crumbling" because, to quote Queen Victoria...

So, I doubt Layla's narrative value is confrontation : it's more a proof that the project is getting bigger and bigger. In fact, during Finny and Snake's investigation, it was implied that F.O.L orphanage was a test run to turn the BD project into a profitable business [part 1] [part 2].

This brings me to your second question, yes I still believe Polaris is Joker. However, while I agree Artie doesn't seem to have much in common with Joker, I'd say Artie's group still represented a "butler" servant category and, even if Polaris is not real!Ciel's butler, he still defined himself as a butler in ch169 (Kelvin's butler maybe, indeed ?), so overall it fits.

Additionally, the way I see it, Polaris is to real!Ciel...

what Artie is to Theo...

that is to say a catalyst to get things done. Without Polaris, real!Ciel wouldn't have succeeded to attack Soma and Agni vs without Artie, Theo and the others wouldn't have found the strength to keep going.

Also Artie probably managed to kill a few adults in cold blood because he lived through a load of shit his whole life and he wanted to save his fellow kids, just like Joker could abduct children and lead them to their death, because he hardcore believed this would help his many siblings at the orphanage.

Lastly, like I explained before, in my opinion, the "four categories" of children at the orphanage being groomed to resemble the star lords are not just because of the blood types, but also because maybe UT and co thought they could create resembling episodes of quality to use for the star lords. At the end of the day though, nobody can force you to be what you are not, to quote our!Ciel...

...so maybe the whole point of Theo, Artie, Mabel and Oliver being different from real!Ciel (Theo seems kinder), Joker, Doll and Layla/AL (Oliver is definitely shier) is a hint that the BD project is supposed to fail because cheating death isn't an answer at all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I could be wrong though, about Joker and the purpose of F.O.L orphanage, so don't read too much into my answer. :)) Nevertheless, I hope it helps !

Thank you again for the kind words, I wish you a nice day !

[faithandfairies]

I just watched Bridgerton season 3 and it was so good! Delicious! Delectable! Shonda Rhimes is an excellent writer. But I already knew that.

I have so many good things to say about the show. Kate and Anthony are still my favorite couple. I love how and how much they love each other and I'm so glad they remain an important part of the show.

I loved Francesca and John's relationship. It really does give the impression of a relationship between autistic individuals and I love to see it. I have ADHD and I recognized so much of myself in them and their interactions.

But also Michaela Stirling? Michaela? When I first saw her as in before she introduced herself, my initial thought was, oh, they're going to make Eloise queer, as she reads to me. And this gorgeous lady will be her love interest after her childhood crush got married. And then I saw how Francesca looked at her, followed by the stuttering as well as forgetting her own name she did which was foreshadowed by her mother or at least is supposed to give the impression that Francesca takes after her mother in that regard when she's in love and I realized I think they intend to tell the story similarly to how I've read somewhere it goes in the books. Which I think is absolutely wonderful. I'm looking forward to it. With how Francesca's story spans the books I'm sure Ms. Rhimes will be able to do it justice.

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how seamlessly Ms. Rhimes manages to write a story. For a woman who pretty much writes about women whose main pastime we're to believe is needlework she never does leave any loose ends. And when she ties them up she does it so so well.

I absolutely loved how she handled Pen and Colin's story as well. You can really tell that she loves the characters. She treats them with so much love and respect in a way that I've never seen TV writers do. And she uses her platform as a catalyst for positive change both in the respectful, loving way she handled both Pen and Benedict's stories this season. Giving minorities a genuine voice.

I adore how she had Pen come into her own and stand up for herself. I love how Lady Featherington found in Pen the support she

Never gave Pen for most of her life

Never got from Pen's father or anyone else really for that matter.

She has been extremely toxic for her girls, but I also love that last season Ms. Rhimes made a point of letting us know that she loves her girls, she was just at all times genuinely worried for their futures and perpetually stressed about how she would ensure they had a good one all on her own and therefore forever taking it out on them. Not justified but at least understandable.

The sex scenes and nudity were also done so tastefully in a way that spotlighted a plus size woman as beautiful and desirable.

I also love that to me coming out was genuinely an underlying theme of the season. And I love that Violet and Agatha's friendship is stronger than ever and can just as easily be read as a love story. Just as Eloise and Pen's can be read as such. With Benedict and Francesca being the icing on the cake or maybe I should say taking the cake.

This woman is breaking barriers and redefining mainstream and I hope she continues to do so with the same level of love and respect.

[melverie]

Yeah about the lucifer part it kinda of weird not saying i want mc to be solution of everything but still,but I saw someone I don't remember where saying that maybe , the fact the is always the reason will feed his ego(mc telling him during asmo and mamon that he was the solution or something)and will be the reason why he's sin will overtake him,but we'll have to wait and see if this pattern will continue also the lack of romance is making the story feel like mc is just a spectator rather than a character like twisted wonderland mc also who is [redacted] ? Ps sorry for the bad English.

Don't worry about your English, I understood you just fine!^^

Actually, I do want MC to be the solution to everything. This is a dating sim, let the main characters be significant to the love interests >:((

Okay, no but in all seriousness. I get that they're all connected to Lucifer in some way--5 of them literally followed him to war while Satan was literally born out of his wrath. So I get that Lucifer would somehow have to be connected to whatever it is they're going through. I just feel it's especially frustrating this time around, because every single time Satan had some sort of conflict in the og game, it was Lucifer that either resolved it completely, or he was the first step to resolving it. MC literally did not even have to be there and things would have turned out the same

And while I was partially joking about wanting MC be the solution to every single problem these boys have, I do think that having MC be the one resolving the current conflicts would serve the narrative OF THIS DATING SIM better since it would allow us to better connect with the characters. Plus imo it would have more weight if MC's the one helping all of them since they already know the people they'll become and what kind of change they are capable of. ++ I already talked about this once, but Satan and MC are tied together by the circumstances of their existences which would technically allow for an even deeper connection between the two, and it would have been nice to see that come into play somehow..

Ooh, I haven't thought about that! Lucifer usually manages to be in control of things most of the time, including his pride seemingly, at least, but that might just be the catalyst for it all. Though to be fair I don't think the writers will end up giving him an actual reason for his sin taking over either..

And it really does! I'm not saying we need romance 24/7, and I get that with season 1 they might have wanted to go slow with it, since in a way we basically just met the cast (though it's still a little frustrating), but hardly any romance even in season 2? Let alone in the events?? Come on..

Speaking of romance though--THE PHONE CALLS!!! The one thing they got so incredibly right. I'm guessing most people aren't there yet, but the pattern seems to be that around halfway through they become more romantic, and they pulled it off so well (at least for the ones I've already read). I was literally giggling like a little kid experiencing their first crush while reading some of these and one made me cry

Also, [redacted] is the brother that's supposedly going to be next. I didn't write his name because I didn't want people to get spoiled by simply reading my tags