#this is an incredibly facetious post

[emma-dennehy-presents]

The whiners' opinions are in. Magic the Gathering is dead, again (for like the 20th time in the 20+ years I've been playing). WotC is Satan and no other game company cares about their bottom line over player experience, just WotC. Bloomburrow killed everything and all the formats are trash now.

[isan0rt]

This post makes me want to tear my fucking hair out every time I see it. I feel like an old fogey but are you fucking kidding me?? THIS is WHY the reading comprehension on this site is piss poor. TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND people apparently relate to "I don't look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary the first time I encounter them, I just guess at what they mean, and then continue just guessing at what it means and if it makes sense going forward'? Without having any sense that that's...a problem?? That that's not actually comprehension of the sentence?? I read books constantly as a kid (many of them old-timey!) and yet have literally never had the problem described in the op because I owned a goddamn dictionary and I looked unfamiliar words up in it.

Like, I understand this is not the fault of The Kids and the schools have been teaching kids to """"""read""""" (read: guess what the sentence means with no real comprehension) like Predictive AI for decades now but like. I'm just floored reading the notes in here that "haha yeah I just know it makes sense I don't know what it means" is an acceptable state of affairs for people who consider themselves well read. If you don't know what it means you're not actually understanding the sentence!! You are acting as a human chatGPT.

You understand why that's bad, right?? You understand why this causes fights on this site and the wider internet, why people attack you because they didn't comprehend a post you made?? When people are just guessing at reading and at what words mean?? Words mean things!! You can't guess the meaning of unfamiliar words and expect to understand the meaning of a complex work!! You don't need to be able to drop the dictionary definition by memory but you need to be able to at least paraphrase or rephrase what the word means.

Dictionary.com is free. You have access to the internet if you're on Tumblr. I still look up unfamiliar words now the first time I encounter them, every time, on the spot, with my magic internet device grafted to my hand at all times. If someone tells me I'm misusing a word I also look it up, on the spot, and correct myself going forward if I'm actually wrong about the meaning.

I'm not also misinterpreting the meaning of the post here, or at least the way it's being taken, because I went through the tags and it's full of people saying specifically that they don't know what a variety of common words actually mean and have never been inclined to actually find out and they think this is a relatable joke instead of a catastrophic failure of our education system.

Anyway if this is you it's not your fault but please bookmark dictionary.com and also take a listen to the podcast Sold a Story to find out how you have been completely fucked by Marie Clay and by Big Reading Recovery.

[selfcontainedunivcrse]

mulling over my little guys n like. talking at length abt bpd makes me nervous in some way like it would make people uncomfortable which is why i need to be more annoying abt Guys I Have Written To Have BPD Intentionally

[baddingtonbitch]

so like... i know that tumblr is famously the home of piss on the poor reading comprehension and that there will always be people who use their inability/refusal to read tone as license to act however they want online but it's still a little incredible to me that people saw THIS post of mine and took it as not only a serious statement of fact, but a malicious attempt to misinform the public and an open invitation for earnest discourse, hostility, mockery, accusation, and condescension.

(note the muted notifications lol)

like....i would have thought that my use of the term "spoon brain" would be enough for most people to understand that this is me playfully dunking on the people around me and myself in a facetious aside about my jaded REACTION to a sensational piece of (now debunked yet widely reported and still unretracted) mainstream news about human brains...but apparently not! i posted this off the cuff in two seconds, without tags, for the maximum intended audience of my mutuals and followers who were online at the time, and all of them easily understood my tone and intent and gave the handful of notes i expected. about a week later a bunch of tonedeaf strangers found it, took it literally, and blew it up into tens of thousands of notes of bad faith discourse and acted in ways i'm still cringing about, but that really has nothing to do with me. the absurdity of this reaction is clear to anyone who knows me, has followed me for more than two seconds, or has even a passing familiarity with the concept of sarcasm, so there's nothing really here for me to defend or apologise for. i'm mainly writing this for anyone who comes to my blog because the contrived discourse has them feeling feisty. before you act up in the notes or send me another snide or combative anon please let me remind you that i am a human being with feelings and there is only so much second hand embarrassment i can take lmfao

[batsplat]

about 2007 motegi, i’ve really thought a lot… when valentino congratulated casey on his title, he specifically mentioned his championship t-shirt. from my observation there wasn’t anything particularly special about it, it might just be valentino’s joke

but casey really cared about valentino’s actions… he not only wanted valentino’s verbal congratulations but also asked just like why didn’t you come shake my hand!!! i should get the same treatment as nicky!!!😠

(vaguely following on from this and this post) oh I remember the shirt, it's actually one of my favourite bits of niche valentino/casey lore!! valentino isn't JUST being a facetious dickhead here, his name is literally on casey's 2007 championship shirt as one of casey's heroes:

isn't this crazy?? I've never been able to find a great source for the actual list of names, so god knows how exclusive this club was... apparently casey also had the names of his ducati crew on there, which is a nice touch tbh. but he had valentino's name on that shirt!! given how by this point he was already mad at valentino for switching up towards him, it's such a funny choice to make. literally nobody would have questioned his exclusion! you're competing against the guy! idk, I love it when casey does something just a little unexpected like that, really makes you want to poke at the guy to figure out what his deal is. and pleasingly, we do also have an actual clip of valentino commenting on the shirt:

Yes, like I say before, it's a great pleasure that one of my fans wins the world championship - so I think half is also mine!

look at his smirk. insufferable. just a fantastic dynamic they've got going on, isn't it

but I did NOT know about casey complaining about not getting a cooldown lap handshake. and. lol?? casey?? come on. some dignity, please. I can't believe they actually got valentino to respond to that. reminds me of a similar-ish 'controversy' from 2010 about how jorge was accused of deliberately ignoring future teammate ben spies coming to congratulate him on the cooldown lap, as like... a form of sophisticated mind games ig. at least there it wasn't actually spies complaining. you can tell that even casey upon reflection probably decided this wasn't a legitimate grievance by how he's not brought it up again since... valentino did have a pretty nightmarish motegi race for annoying tyre-related reasons, so was understandably not in a great mood, and he was not in fact the defending champion... so like. I checked the footage and reckon valentino probably could have worked a little harder to get over to casey, but also this is obviously an extremely petty thing to complain about

and while we're talking petty, the ghostwriter of casey's autobiography thinks that casey was also pissed at valentino at the next race in phillip island for *checks notes* having a special helmet design at casey's home race? incredible scenes

literally started off the infamous phillip island streak with a spite win. your regular reminder that casey says in his autobiography that he doesn't use his rivals to motivate himself

estoril, the race before motegi, was also the race where they had their little table football date [ed.: originally thought it was at motegi itself rip. nope, table football was at the first matchpoint race]

so late 2007 is when casey really starts going in on how valentino had cooled off towards him AND talking about not liking valentino's tone in the press, that valentino wasn't as complimentary of him as he'd been at the start of the season... which might be true, but casey wasn't exactly a shrinking violet either when answering questions about valentino. as an example, this is how he's talking about valentino in july of 2007:

"This rule is not good and we need more tyres," Rossi said earlier in the week, "The problem is for the show because, at the end, it is the tyre that decides the race." "At the beginning of the season, Valentino and the others were all for the new tyre rules," Stoner points out, "but, as soon as they don't win, the rule is crap. I've had my bad races this year, especially in Germany, and I'm not complaining about the tyre rule. "They can moan and whinge about it as much as they want, but it shows that [Michelin] has had such an advantage in the past. This season, they cannot bring a tyre in just for the race [and] it's a matter of relying on the company that supports you to do a good job."

"moan and whinge" steady on casey

valentino over the years has talked about this rivalry far less than casey has... which includes not being all that interested in diagnosing when things soured interpersonally between the two of them - beyond saying a couple times in 2010-12 during the pettiest phase of the feud that casey hadn't gotten over laguna. mostly this isn't that big a problem because valentino's side of the rivalry is so much more straightforward, but it's still obviously not ideal. it's that relative scarcity which makes the following interview answer from 2009 one of my other favourite tidbits:

"He bases his sentences on the results. Even at the beginning of 2007 he was giving me a lot of compliments, then, after winning the World Championship, he started with heavy criticism."

isn't it lovely that casey thinks valentino switched up his tone towards him because casey started winning, and valentino thinks casey switched up his tone towards valentino because casey started winning... just nicely mirror each other, don't they. such good foils

so taking all these pieces of evidence together... you get a really nice sense of how casey by end of 2007 was all over the place wrt valentino. he misses valentino being as friendly to him as in years past!! he liked valentino congratulating him by rubbing his head in qatar 2007 :) enough to mention that parc fermé interaction THREE TIMES in his autobiography!! doesn't appreciate not getting his hand held after sealing the title :( is increasingly surly that whole year about how nobody is giving him enough credit for his successes :/ is building on a reputation already established in 2006 for being rather an outspoken character when it comes to complaining about everyone in complaining range... but also has an issue with valentino being rude about him in the press :| but still puts valentino on his championship shirt on his list of heroes <3 like... buddy. what is going on here

part of what's going on ofc is that casey takes offence incredibly easily and valentino can be a pretty offensive character. now, again, I really don't think valentino was doing that much in 2007, but obviously my standard for 'valentino being reasonably respectful to rivals' is probably rather different to 2007!casey's standards. it's the malice casey reads into valentino's actions that I reckon is mostly misplaced... like yeah sure valentino distances himself from championship rivals, but. y'know. that's pretty normal behaviour. the fun thing about 2007 is that knowing valentino's entire feud history, you're sort of primed to read it as valentino being the aggressor... but if anything, casey is generally openly ruder towards valentino than vice versa. now obviously, valentino at this stage is a lot better at the subtler, under the radar nastiness that must be infuriating to be subjected to... but y'know, at the end of the day valentino still isn't openly attacking casey. and when discussing this rivalry, it's crucial to acknowledge what an extremely prickly character casey is - that's what makes it so enjoyable!! even better, he's an extremely prickly character who is very ready to make enemies but is ALSO kind of weird about valentino rossi specifically

and yes, having a valentino rossi complex is basically part of the job description if you're a motogp rider of a certain age. still, always important to acknowledge that all of valentino's feuds with younger riders involved guys who were already A Bit Weird about valentino going into the rivalry, which inevitably affected how those respective rivalries ended up laying out. what's so fun about it is that all three of them express it in completely different ways - from jorge's somewhat deranged level of dedication to analysing valentino's every breath, to marc's overenthusiastic commitment towards imitating valentino and beating him and also throwing himself at him at every opportunity, to casey's rather more repressed approach where he's simultaneously extremely sensitive to any possible offence on valentino's part while also kind of wishing they could be friends...? or something? I don't even know what casey's after! doesn't help that he's subsequently retconned this period where he like... kinda looked up to valentino, sure, and respected him and all that - but certainly no mention of putting valentino on championship celebration shirts. so we still have quite a limited amount of evidence at our disposal, but I would gently suggest that casey's cool, composed 'didn't even care who I was beating' rhetoric doesn't quite match up to reality. and casey thinks that valentino got more critical of casey because he was losing and valentino thinks casey got more critical of valentino because he was winning... and the thing is, they're both going to be somewhat right!! attacking rivals from a position of strength is actually kinda part of both of their preferred MO's - it's a similarity between them that plays into how casey at times gets to play the valentino role in this rivalry. so yeah, casey will have almost certainly gotten even mouthier once he could get away with it. but equally, even though valentino wasn't escalating hostilities by his standards, even just his natural process of distancing himself a little from his direct title rivals and getting a tad snarky about them in the press wasn't exactly being well received by casey. and thus they can both say with some justification that the other rider was a lot friendlier towards them at start of the year, and both will have reacted to this in a way that helped further gradually ramp up the level of hostility. lovely stuff

still, you do have to come back to how imbalanced this rivalry was wrt how emotionally invested the pair of them were. having a firm grasp of their dynamic in 2007 is key to understanding how the whole thing subsequently played out, in part casey was less guarded and just a little more likely to let a few things slip... valentino wants to beat this challenging new rival, but I reckon he's mostly being sincere in that his main frustration in 2007 is feeling like he's not even able to fight casey at all for bike/tyre reasons. it's a rivalry he generally enjoyed when they were actually going at it! a comfort zone rivalry that really isn't all that emotionally messy from his side. even if he'll maybe still imply casey's compliments of him were never sincere, seeing how they dried up over the course of 2007... or perhaps joke about casey putting his name on his championship winning shirt, how at least he's losing to a fan... something fun about how valentino is always aware of that idolisation dynamic and is capable of playing with it, just a little. even with casey

whereas for casey, this isn't a game. casey really enjoyed valentino being nice to him and is ever so sensitive towards valentino pulling back. casey thinks valentino isn't giving him the credit he is owed and escalates his rhetoric in response. casey puts valentino's name on his championship winning shirt and then complains valentino didn't hold his hand. poor casey... it'd all be easier if he just didn't care, but that's the one thing he could never quite manage

[saintjasper]

the fact that i know he’s seeing my posts because he’s vagued in response to most of them, changed his pinned, and switched from acting superior to whining and crying playing the victim is wild. so like, are you going to admit you were in the wrong and apologize? are you going to shut up about it? enough with the excuses, it doesn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to see that the person you were poking and prodding at was in the midst of some kind of episode. i say this as someone who hadn’t been online for more than a few minutes a day and hadn’t seen most of her posts due to fucking homelessness. i had about just as much context as you did, so you’re either genuinely fucking stupid, or again, being facetious. like dude i know admitting you were wrong is hard, take it from someone with massive ego disorder, but this is one of those situations where you can’t save your ass from looking horrible because you should’ve bit your fucking tongue sooner, so you really should just admit you were wrong at this point for the sake of your image that you seem to care about so much. multiple people have tried to check you on your bullshit on multiple occasions, and if you had just listened then to them trying to address this exact issue you have (harping on people/situations until you make everything catastrophically worse) maybe you wouldn’t be a part of a possible suicide here. also, maybe don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. i’m sure you think it was justified when you went on and on about people, well i think it’s justified to go on and on about you now. because here’s the thing, i don’t want my friend to come back to see that you’re still going on about her, i don’t want her to feel worse, i don’t want her to potentially end up pushed to her limit again, i don’t want her to kill herself, that’s if she didn’t already. aside from that, you are not just hurting her, if she’s dead then you’re not hurting her at all, but you are hurting multiple people who are not her when you harp on about someone who we are all incredibly fucking worried about and who we are grieving. why is that so hard to fucking understand? and regardless of whether or not it turns out she’s still alive, that doesn’t magically absolve you of your actions when everyone has every reason to believe she’s dead, and you chose to antagonize someone who was very fucking clearly very fucking unstable. just fucking admit you were wrong and stop talking about it, then we can all fucking stop talking about you.

[otherworldseekers]

Waiting for Your Return

A little bit of Severia x Nero writing that occurs during 6.55 setting up things for Dawntrail.

I wrote it for the prompt "return" sent to me by @gatheredfates for a single word fic drive, but decided to make a separate post for it as it got away from me a bit and then I decided to add a few screenshots.

Severia lay on her back on her bed in the Balsesion Annex and made herself comfortable. Beside her next to the pillow was her Cockwork Novus D*. A familiar voice came from inside it. 

“Hullo, darling. Miss me?”

“Of course I miss you, silly boy.” Never mind that they had seen each other just that morning before she had teleported to Sharlayan to meet with Krile. “Did you get much work done without me there to distract you?”

“At the risk of being premature-”

“You? Never.”

Nero laughed. “You tease. Are you sure you can’t come back for the night?”

“Well, of course I could, but we’re headed out at first light for the Isle of Hamm and you know teleporting that kind of distance too often wears me out.”*

“I can think of a few ways to-”

“I want to avoid that!” she protested with a smile. “Anyway, tell me your news.”

“I think I’ve made a breakthrough,” Nero said, smugness oozing from his voice. 

“So that puts you ahead of Cid?”

“I’m fairly certain this puts me months ahead of him in research,” Nero bragged. “He’s still struggling to work out the formula for-”

Severia interrupted before he got technical. It was far too late in the day for that. “Have you decided what you’re going to make him do when you win?”

Nero grinned to himself. Her complete faith in him was always a balm to his competitive spirit. “That is the hardest part of this contest.* I need an idea that is suitably embarrassing while also not technically harmful. But I’m sure it will come to me. Now. Your news.”

And so Severia told him all about meeting Wuk Lamat and what the enthusiastic Hrothgar had come to Sharlayan for. “I’d never considered going to the New World before. I haven’t exactly said I would go yet, but I can’t deny I’m tempted.”

“Indeed. From what I’ve read the continent of Tural is quite vast and diverse. There was some talk at one point among the Legati about what kind of resources would be necessary to mount an invasion.”

“Seriously? Garlemald wanted to invade Tural?”

“The Emperor wanted the whole world under him thumb. Of course that included Tural. It was on the roadmap for the future, but it didn’t get any farther than that before you Eorzean savages started giving us too much trouble.”

Nero’s tone was facetious and Severia knew when he spoke that way his tongue was firmly in his cheek so she took no offense. Their former positions on opposite sides of a war was something they often teased each other about. “Yes, how dare they. If only they’d rolled over and taken it you might have ended up lost in the jungles of Tural one day getting hacked to pieces by Mamool Ja.”

Nero scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. It would largely have been an aerial assault. I certainly wouldn’t have been trudging along in the dirt.”

“No, I imagine you would have been mowing down the natives in the Ultima Weapon or such like.”

“Possibly, possibly,” Nero conceded. “So what’s this excursion to the Isle about?”

“We’re all going on a hunt.”

“Again, we?”

“Er, me, Wuk Lamat, Erenville, G’raha and Krile. Wuk Lamat wants to see if I live up to Erenville’s stories.”

“She doubts you?”

“I don’t exactly cut the most imposing figure, you must admit.”

“I must admit nothing. You’re all the more intimidating for your adorable size.”

“Well, you have the benefit of having watched me fight a Primal the very first time you saw me. Also you’re biased.”

“I am only biased in how much your incredible talents made me love you.”

Severia closed her eyes and pulled her blanket up to her chin, smiling in contentment. “I love you too.”

“So when will you return?”

“Tomorrow.” It had been some time since they had been apart from each other for more than a day and she had gotten used to the luxury of it. With a pang she considered how long they might be separated if she went to Tural. The sense of loss that rose up inside her nearly took her breath away. “I’ll be home as soon as I can get away.”

“I look forward to it, with all my heart. Goodnight, darling.”

“Goodnight, Nero.”

The following evening Severia walked through the front door of the cottage she shared with Nero in a thoughtful mood. She had all but made up her mind to go to Tural. The prospect filled her with both elation and a dread that she could not reconcile. She wanted to go. She wanted to see new lands, meet new peoples, learn new histories and make new discoveries. But she didn’t want to leave home. Home. A word that had once held no appeal to her had lately become so precious. 

Her ruminations were interrupted when Nero came tumbling down the stairs holding a large duffle bag in each hand. 

“Oh, welcome home, darling.” Without putting down either bag, he gave her a quick kiss and then went to the kitchen and started searching through drawers and cabinets. Every so often he found an item he wanted and carefully tucked it away in one of the duffle bags, which was now bulging with odd corners and bumps. 

Severia watched at a loss. “What are you doing?”

“Hmmmm? Packing.”

“How did you know?”

“How did I know that you were going to come home and tell me you’ve decided to go? Because I know you, love. It’s far too good an opportunity of doing all the things you like most to miss.”

“All right, fair. But you don’t have to pack for me.” Was he that eager to see her go? Was he looking forward to time uninterrupted for his work?

“I’m not,” said Nero, as he weighed two identical spatulas in his hands before picking one and packing it away. “This is all for me.”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“Where are you going?”

Nero gave her the strained look he had when she was being a little slow. “To Tural.”

Severia sucked in a breath of surprise. “You mean…”

“I’m coming with you,” Nero said as if it were painfully obvious. He pointed at her with the rejected spatula. “You don’t honestly expect me to sit around at home once again twiddling my thumbs and waiting for your return while you’re out there having the adventure of a lifetime?”

“I didn’t… I just… I mean, that’s how-”

“That’s how it’s always been,” Nero finished for her and his brow furrowed in irritation for a moment before he released a sigh and relaxed it once more. He set the spatula back down on the counter and went to her, taking her hands in his. “But it doesn’t have to continue that way. Severia, I want to be at your side, you know that.”

“But your work… This contest with Cid…”

“Do you really think those things matter more to me?” He tipped her chin up so he could look in her eyes. Tears were gathering there. He hadn’t meant to make her cry. “Besides, the audacity of you going off on your own to explore an entire continent that may indeed be rife with monumental discoveries none but I are qualified to obtain! No true man of science could allow that.”

Severia laughed and flung her arms around his waist. “I’m so glad. Oh Nero, I wanted to go so much but I didn’t want to be away from you. You’ll really come with me?”

“Naturally. I look forward to sitting on the sidelines sipping refreshing tropical drinks while you slay all the beasties.”

“Absolutely not. You’d better pack your hammer because I won’t save you when you inevitably do something reckless and unleash some kind of great evil on the land. I’ll save everyone else, but not you.”

Nero gave her his best sad puppy dog look. “You don’t mean that.”

“No, I don’t mean it. But adventuring isn't all fun and games, you know. You are going to pull your weight.”

“Whatever you say, my love. Now, when do we leave?” 

“Oh, not for weeks.”

“Hmmm. I’d better unpack the cast iron pans.” He released her and began rummaging again through the duffel bag. 

Severia watched in astonishment as he pulled out an absurd number of cooking implements. “You’re bringing cast iron pans? Are you insane?”

“What? They’re excellent for cooking over an open fire.”

“This is too much stuff, Nero. I prefer to travel light.”

“Can’t you just put it all in your pocket dimension?”*

“Do you think I’m some kind of beast of burden?”

“Don’t be foolish. You know perfectly well anything that goes into that bag of yours is no burden at all.”

“Ugh. Fine! You win. As usual.”

Nero grinned and, still on his knees, pulled her into him for a kiss. “You love me.”

Severia sighed in surrender. “I adore you.”

Notes:

Nero turned the Clockwork Novus D into a long range communication device for he and Severia to use that is more secure and reliable than a linkpearl.

Teleporting large distances too often causes fatigue. A headcanon of mine developed for the sake of narrative pacing.

Nero and Cid have regular contests to see who can solve a specific problem first or make the better device fitted to a client's need. At this point they are tied for victories 11 to 11.

Severia's travel gear includes a pack with a relatively stable pocket dimension inside. A headcanon of mine to account for inventory space and a reference to this post.

[jasonscaramel]

i guess only the stars would know the truth - chapter one - jason todd x reader

series summary: there's something going on in gotham. you transfer into gotham university's journalism program. simultaneously, people are going missing in gotham at record rates. it's only a matter of time before your curiosity gets the best of you.

words: 1.8k

cross-posted on ao3 | series masterlist

Gotham is a welcome change in scenery from your small town in the south.

Sure, it rains nearly every day, and there’s the fact that there are supervillains that terrorize the city like clockwork. But having never lived in a big city before, it has a certain charm you don’t see yourself getting over any time soon. Everything is open late, the streets never seem to quiet down… it’s been eye-opening, to say the least.

You moved here more for the convenience, so it’s only a plus that you enjoy city life too. Gotham University is home to one of the best journalism professors—and in turn, programs—in the country. With affordable tuition, and the cost of living in Gotham being nearly pennies on the dollar, it was a no-brainer to transfer here.

So here you are. Making your way through the winding, labyrinthian halls, you wonder if you’re ever going to get used to how large this place is compared to your old… everything. A small community college on the outskirts of an even smaller town has nothing on the pure expansiveness of Gotham University, and in turn, Gotham City.

The first class to start off the semester is Marketing. You have a hard time putting together how it’ll help you in journalism, but maybe it will be more helpful than you think. By the time you arrive, the class is already sparsely populated, so you find a spot with the most amount of empty chairs and begin to unpack your things.

As you’re logging into your computer, a bag slams on the table beside you, making you jump.

“Sorry! I forgot how heavy those books are.” You look up to see a man, probably about your age, smiling down at you in an apology. “I’m Tim. Mind if I sit here?”

You shake your head with a smile, “Of course not. It’s about time to make friends.” You give him your name as he sits down, and he gives you a smile of his own.

“Oh, are you new here?”

“Yeah, I just transferred. The journalism program is incredible.”

Tim smiles in agreement, but it seems a bit facetious. “Sorry, it’s just—I’m not used to people moving to Gotham. You are… aware of everything, right?”

You snort. “The pros outweighed the cons. Can’t exactly do much journalism work when all there is to report on is cattle.” You flash him a smile that he returns easily.

“You know, that would make sense—”

Tim was cut off by the professor beginning his lecture. The first day is always a bunch of syllabus talk, so you only half pay attention while looking through the Gotham Gazette website. You bookmark a couple of the articles you find, especially the ones that say MISSING PERSONS. Why is there so many?

The professor is kind enough to release the class 15 minutes early. It feels like the universe blessing you because you have no idea where to go for your next class, and you’re sure with the small amount of time in between the classes, you’d get lost and be late. Your old college was barely half the size of this place—you wonder if you’ll ever be confident in navigating it.

“You have any other classes after this?” Tim asks as you both pack up your belongings, and you nod. “I don’t, so if you need help navigating…?”

“Oh, Tim, you’re my hero. Thank you.” You throw your bag over your shoulder and follow him out of the classroom, having to walk a bit quicker to keep up with his strides. “I was honestly worried even with the extra time that I’d be late.”

He gives you that same kind, tired smile. “Don’t worry about it. Where are we headed?”

After you tell him the room number, Tim leads you up a few flights of stairs before leading you to a classroom door. You go to thank him, but you’re cut off by someone yelling his name. It’s a man, Tim’s age, running up to him and encircling him in a hug.

“Hi, babe. New friend?” You smile back at the man, finding it adorable how Tim’s hands immediately cover the other man’s. Tim introduces you and tells you that this is his boyfriend, Bernard.

“It’s their first day, they transferred here.”

“Oh, that’s awesome! We’re happy to have you.” Bernard finally unwraps himself from around Tim to stand at his full height. “If you ever need anything, just let us know.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. See you Wednesday, Tim!”

“See you then!”

Your next class was more of the same, though you could already tell you wouldn’t have the same ease of social interaction here. Everyone seems to already know everyone else, groups of women in twos and threes with the occasional bro sprinkled in here and there. It’s a surprisingly small class, and thankfully your lack of bravery is also met with no one sitting beside you, so you don’t have to try and make conversation.

It doesn’t help that you can tell that you’re a few years older than everyone else in this classroom. Normally, it doesn’t bother you, but you’re not so sure this group will be as easy to crack as Tim was.

By the time both of your classes are over, you’re exhausted. It’s only 6 p.m., but with the constant rain and gloomy skies, combined with the hours of lecture you just sat through, you could probably go to bed and sleep through the night.

Before sleep, though, you need food. And instead of trekking through the pouring rain, you opt for the dining hall. You’re not expecting anything gourmet, but you do have some free dining dollars to spend, so it all evens out. As you make your way to the dining hall you keep your eyes out for Tim and Bernard, but you don’t see them anywhere. Just another endless sea of faces you don’t recognize.

It’s fine, really. You’ve got headphones and YouTube, so you’ll just have to be an iPad kid for today. Totally fine, and really not anything you aren’t used to. You set up shop in the corner, nibbling on an over-priced, over-greased piece of pizza you had to wait nearly thirty minutes on while you watch another reaction to another Cut video.

The walk home to your apartment isn’t the romanticized walk through the city that you’re used to seeing in the movies. It’s wet, despite the umbrella and the waterproof boots, and it’s really dark for the time of day. Regardless, it gives you time to think. First about taking the subway next time, and then about Tim and Bernard. You wonder if they were just being nice, pitying the new kid on their first day—or if you could actually be their friend. You hope for the latter. Making friends had never been an easy feat for you, and while you didn’t know much about either of them, you had a good feeling.

Which was immediately eclipsed by a very, very bad feeling as you watched a shadowed figure run across the rooftops of the buildings next to you.

Sure, you were fully aware that the shadowed figure you see is probably running toward the danger instead of going to cause it, but the threat of danger at all gives you pause. You knew what you were getting into coming here. The Joker, TwoFace… Gotham is nothing like where you’re from, and despite knowing that, it doesn’t make the reality any easier to digest.

Especially when you see what you’re pretty sure is Batman and Robin following not too far behind the first shadowed figure. Headed in the direction of your apartment.

Cool. Well, you had to have your vigilante v-card punched at some point, right? Might as well be your first night here.

You pick up your pace a bit since your building is within sight. It sure doesn’t sound like the fight is anywhere near your apartment, so you feel a bit safer as you scan your key and enter the building. The hallways are more reminiscent of a doctor’s office than an apartment building—sterile in places that should be homey, clinical in only a way someone so detached from living this way could create. You wonder if it's Bruce Wayne’s fault or Lex Luthor’s.

It’s not like your actual apartment is much better. There are the beginnings of a warm, inviting space here, but without the proper time and funds, it’s more sparse than anything else. The living room consists of a TV on an old side table and a couch sitting across from it, but you’re more than happy to plop onto the lumpy thing and click on the TV.

The gorgeous news anchor speaks, her voice melodic despite the situation at hand. “This is the fourth disappearance in Gotham in the past two weeks.” You sit up straighter at that, turning the volume up a few notches. The screen changes from the news anchor’s face to a graphic of the four missing people.

MISSING:

CRYSTAL JORDAN - 25

JAMES HEATH - 64

HOPE LEIGH - 32

HARLAN MAXTON - 43

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT GCPD.

Huh. Four people have gone missing, and they don’t seem to have anything in common. You skim each missing poster: grad student, grandfather, stay-at-home mom, businessman. You’re no criminal justice major, but that’s not typical… is it? It’s not like that many people went missing back home, but you’re sure this is odd.

“We have been told to urge the public to be cautious. Each of the missing persons was taken from a different area of Gotham, so there isn’t one place to look out for. If you see anything suspicious—”

You turn off the TV, but your mind just won’t follow suit. Four people in two weeks. That must be high, even for Gotham’s standards. You pull your laptop from your bag, determined to find more information. Google doesn’t give you much other than the locations these people were taken from, and statements from their families, but you save them into a folder on your desktop regardless.

You keep scrolling, desperate to find something. A way to keep yourself safe, or a way to dig deeper into this, you weren’t sure. You land on a photo of Crystal, gazing perfectly into the lens of the camera—only a little older than you, wearing a Gotham University hoodie. You can’t help but see yourself in her; you can’t help but see everyone you saw today in her.

As you slam your laptop closed, you pray to whatever god is out there that those four people come home safe. That it’s some stupid Joker stunt to catch Batman’s attention, and they’ll be returned to their families.

Deep down, though, as you settle into your bed, nesting into your covers, you feel a sickening feeling in your bones that only feels like dread.

[soath]

Your new money analogy falls apart when that privilege is not wanting to be murdered.

oh, sometimes getting vagueblogged at brings the strangers into your inbox. i’ll assume this isn’t actually the complainer-direct, as i do have a lot of respect for them. now, as for my facetious metaphor—

i’m incredibly sympathetic to the gods not wanting to die! no one wants to die! existential threats, and extending that, existential threats to your siblings? that’s basically the most sympathetic there is. i would also probably kill for my little sister even if she was terrible; that’s the awful truth of family.

but the matron of ravens is intentionally removed from this motif very early on. she separates herself from the “family drama” and her calculus is very different than the rest of the gods. it’s not just about survival for her, it’s about securing what she’s worked for. laura bailey doesn’t waste lines and when the raven queen describes wanting to experience “the infinite” i think you’re meant to go Hey Wait. she’s ambitious! this isn’t just about existing for her, it’s about a power she has fucking put in the effort to obtain.

i was being silly when i used new money because I’m silly about everything—as a rule my posts are mostly for the laff— but joking analogies of that vein did not start or end with me. aabria iyengar speaking ex-cathedra as ms. coramar-seelie described the matron as a “class traitor”. what does it mean to have been a person and then throw in with the gods?

i do think there is much more than pure ambition to the matron’s actions—her status as a goddess of fate, someone who sees the strings tying it all together is clearly very important in any analysis of her—but the ambition is there. laura bailey made the executive choice to highlight her condescension, her need to continue to experience not just life but godhood rather than focusing on pure self-preservation. it doesn’t make her unsympathetic, in fact it’s one of the more fascinating things about her. but it does open her up for some jokes! i’m sorry they’ve caused such controversy. please enjoy this image of the raven queen dressed up like the monopoly man.

[burnforyou]

Stay with me for a sec: Charismatic smug frat pres Luigi sees the girl from one of his classes at his frats party and hits on her nonstop all night. (Like an academic rivals situation where’s she’s really uptight). She thinks he’s being a facetious asshole (and is secretly enjoying it) but he’s being 100% fr. She realizes it and they go to his room and he fucks alllll the rigidness out of her and gets her to go cock dumb from that PhD

So much love to your fics, you’arey an incredible writer 💓

i posted!

im sorry its not entirely what you asked, but it didn't feel right for this fic to be smutty bc she was so much drunker than he was. hope you enjoy anyways!

[slutforpringles]

https://www.tumblr.com/slutforpringles/769706861824032768/hehe

Pretty sure the team would’ve preferred bonuses instead of tequila

Unless those bottles of tequila came with a hidden cheque equivalent to their bonus payments.... (obvs being facetious here!!)

But yes I'm sure every single Red Bull team member that's worked tirelessly this year through some tricky and tough times looked at their bottle of tequila and thought GREAT this will really help me pay my mortgage, buy my kids christmas presents, cover my bills etc...

(Also I'm not in any way making fun of this situation for RBR employees. I think it's an incredibly unfair situation that they have been put in. I'm just enjoying the Perez pay driver slander after everything that happened post-Spa!!)

[rollercoasterwords]

hi! thank you for the kind words, i'm happy you're enjoying the fic. but i also want to use this message as an opportunity to talk about something/set a boundary that i haven't really known how to discuss, and i've blocked out your name because even though i'm not angry or upset with you, i want to make sure i'm not sending any hate back your way. 

i know that this message is well-intentioned, and i know you likely think it's nothing but a compliment to ask me to write more--after all, you're only asking me to write more because you enjoy the story so much! shouldn't that be a nice thing for me to hear? 

and like. i think that's why this is difficult for me to talk about. i don't want to come across as ungrateful or overly sensitive or like i don't appreciate the compliments, because i do. but at the same time, hearing someone say, "please write more of this fic for me, i love your writing so much!" is still hearing someone say "please write more of this fic for me!" like. 300,000 words is incredibly long. most novels are between 70k-100k words. a 300k word book usually takes years to write--years, and hundreds of hours of labor. maybe you chose that number randomly, or you're exaggerating for emphasis; but no matter how nicely you're phrasing it or how facetious you're being, ultimately this sort of message still puts pressure on me to produce a massive amount of writing in a short period of time. and even if you meant it as a compliment, it doesn't feel nice to me. being pressured to churn out hundreds of thousands of words makes me feel as though i'm being seen as a content-creation machine for the entertainment of others, and i don't like that. writing is a labor of love for me, but it is still labor--hours of time and effort that i'm putting into these works which i share for free, with no expectations of anything in return except maybe a few kind words from those who feel like reaching out. when i get messages or comments like this pushing me to write more, to write faster, it makes me feel as though my time and labor are not respected at all; as if there's absolutely no consideration for the amount of effort it takes to write the stories. which, again, makes me feel like i'm being viewed as some sort of fic-writing machine that can just pump out hundreds of thousands of words on demand for others' entertainment.

and none of this is helped by the tongue-in-cheek comment about how you're "suffering" waiting for updates. again, i understand that this was well-intended and maybe even a playful exaggeration that's supposed to be complimentary. but there are ways to tell me you enjoy my writing and eagerly wait for updates without telling me how much you dislike waiting between chapters. posting once a week is already a difficult schedule for me to maintain, and it's entirely possible that i'll need to take another break in the future or skip a week or something. i've been very clear about the fact that my update schedule is subject to change since i started writing the fic; that's just part of reading a wip. but when i get messages or comments like these with people telling me how they don't like waiting for updates, or comments directly asking me to post more than once a week, or--back when i did take a break--comments begging me not to take a break, it all adds together and builds up and creates this pressure to write more, write faster, post the new ch now now now. if you were the only person making this type of comment, it probably wouldn't bother me and i'd just respond and go "thanks lol" and move on. but the problem is that you aren't the only one--since more people have started reading the fic, i've consistently been getting comments like these, where the backhanded pressure to write more or write faster is couched in compliments. it's just so hard to wait for updates because i love your writing so much! i just want you to write more and post now and write faster because i love your writing so much! i know it's all well-intended, but none of it makes me feel good. it just makes me feel a mounting pressure to produce produce produce.

i feel like there are so many conversations happening in this fandom about how we need to treat writers better, where people go "the fandom is so shitty" and everyone goes "yeah!" but no one ever thinks they're part of the problem. and i think it's because everyone thinks the problem is like...really blatantly rude and entitled messages. and like, i get those too--people telling me they don't like a certain characterization and asking me to rewrite the fic; people repeatedly demanding that i write a certain fic for them; people just outright shitting on things i've written because they don't like it and for some reason think i want to know that. but none of that is super common. what is super common is the steady stream of comments and messages like this one, where they are so well-intended and don't see anything wrong with what they're saying because they think they're giving me a compliment. but all these "compliments" build up and create this pressure that hangs over my head to be constantly producing and writing, which is ultimately what leads to burnout and also makes me feel like i'm not being seen as a person so much as a machine. 

so like. idk. i'm not gonna try to speak for every writer in the fandom; maybe there are people out there who do appreciate this kind of message, who feel like it motivates them to write. but for me, i want to make it clear: i really don't appreciate being asked to write more or write faster or to write a certain trope/ship/etc; i am not a waiter taking your order at a restaurant. writing fic is not a service i'm providing for you that you pay me for in comments or kudos or messages or any sort of attention, because i am not writing for that attention in the first place. so when it comes to interacting with me, i'd ask that you reevaluate the way you give compliments and think about what sort of pressure you're putting on me, regardless of how well-intentioned your message is. again, no hard feelings towards you--like i said, this message probably wouldn't even register as pressuring to me if not for the fact that i get so many little comments like it, all from equally well-intentioned people who think they're just giving a compliment, all of which builds up together. 

anyway. all that being said. to answer your question: the fic will likely be four parts, not three as i originally intended. it will probably end up somewhere between 100-200k words based on the fact that we're already at 80k and i've only just started part iii, but i am not going to put pressure on myself to write a certain amount of words or hit a certain length. i'm just going to write what i want to write when i want to write, and share it as i want to share it. i'm happy to have you along if you want to be here, but if the cliffhangers or waiting for updates becomes too unenjoyable for you then there's no pressure for you to stay, yknow? no hard feelings on my end either way :•)

[adarkrainbow]

The Tale of Tale movie analysis (1)

It has been a long time since I did a fairytale movie analysis, and for this month I want to take a look at a movie that has been asked of me before, a long time ago: "Tale of Tales".

For those of you who do not know about this movie, "Tale of Tales" is a 2015 movie, a "European production" (it is an Italian movie, but it received help and collaboration from France and England, hence the "European" etiquette) that is to this day (and to my knowledge) the only movie that adapts Basile's Pentamerone, the titular "Tale of Tales".

The Pentamerone being one of the two foundational works when it comes to literary fairytales, and one of the two great books of classical Italian literary fairytales alongside Straparole's Facetious Nights. Basile's book is very famous for containing some of the earlier literary records of fairytale types such as Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, The Girl Without Hands, and more.

The book contains a total of fifty stories, and of course the movie couldn't adapt them all, so it was decided to only adapt three in total. The three chosen are usually considered emblematic stories of the Pentamerone - but they were also selected because they do not echo the more well known Grimm stories. The three selected were, The Flea, The Enchanted Doe, and The Flayed Old Lady - all taken from the first part of the book.

Note that this movie was greatly acclaimed for its extensive use of practical special effects - and there is one thing you cannot deny this movie, it looks absolutely incredible. There is a great effort on the visuals ranging from selected architecture and landscape to careful costume crafting and delightful monsters on screen.

Before going into the analysis of each of the fairytales of the movie, I wanted to point out a few things covering the entirety of the movie. Three details to be exact.

Matteo Garrone, when doing this movie, didn't just randomly selected three stories that were to his fancy. He chose three specific stories that he then tied together with cohesive themes and motifs. The first of which, the most prominent, being "obsession". Each segment is about presenting the obsessions of specific characters, and the bad outcomes of it.

The other shared motif between the three fairytales is "the ages of a woman". Despite the movie having as much male as female characters, Garrone explained very clearly that this movie was about the women, not the men, and that each fairytale represented one of the traditional three "ages of woman". "The Flea" becomes the Maiden story, focusing on the young princess ; "The Enchanted Doe" becomes the Mother story, with an exploration of the character of the queen, while "The Flayed Old Lady" is of course the Crone tale.

But much more importantly for us to understand this movie: Matteo Garrone did one very heavy and important change compared to the original material. The tone. The tone is radically different. Basile's original book, just like Straparole's fairytales, worked by the specific nature of these Italian literary fairytales of the time: they were grotesque farces, and vulgar jokes. In my last post about the Pentamerone I compared these stories to a Brandon Rogers video, because Basile's stories, despite being the ancestors of the Grimm or Perrault fairytales, are nothing like the modern fairytales we are today. They are sex stories filled with caricatures, they are gruesome, gory stories filled with morally-gray characters, they are one huge dark joke filled with poop and farts and vulgar allusions. They are much closer to medieval tales and to the tone of a Reynard the Fox story or some Rabelais books than any other fairytales we know today. But Garrone decided to apply a principle that you can see explored in series such as "Horace and Pete" or "Kevin can fuck himself". Take a sitcom, remove the laugh-track, you have a tragedy. Garrone's movie is still as grotesque as the original stories - but now the jokes are put aside, the most vulgar parts removed, the sex and the gore examined for what it is under a realistic eye. This "realistic", and "non-comical" treatment of the stories make this world of grotesque caricatures and senseless violence and depraved debauchery one not of marvels and fairies, but one of tragedies, of abuse, of horror. But, tragedies with magic, abuse with beauty, horror with happy and hopeful endings - because they stay fairytales after all, no matter how dark they are. Mean, cruel, sad fairytales, but fairytales nonetheless.

[Trivia: The fact that Basile's work was a very rude, crude and vulgar piece of sex-and-violence that can only be compared to Rabelais meeting Punch & Judy, is something many people in the English-speaking world completely missed because the first real popular and widespread translations of the text in English, in the... I think it was the 19th century or maybe a bit earlier ; but these versions were heavily censored. Trying to make the story more like a Perrault or d'Aulnoy tale, they removed many sex references, remove all the poop jokes, and even cut off some stories deemed too vulgar ot gruesome, so that for a very long time people thought they were supposed to be... regular fairytales. This is especially relevant with "Thalia, the Sun and the Moon", Basile's "Sleeping Beauty" variant. Many people point out that the girl in this story gets raped by the prince and that this shows how the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty was built on a glorification of rape, because it is treated as ormal or as some romance. But... no. This rape is treated as a rape and the prince is very clearly a lustful asshole who is taking advantage of the girl - because it is a dark sex-tale. Princes in the Pentamerone are almost all lustful rapists, violent murderers or complete helpless idiots, because the Pentamerone does not work on a "prince charming" logic. Take "The Golden Root" - the handsome, kind, gentle, good prince that seems to fit the bill of the Prince Charming... is part of a family of ogres, and ends up murdering in rage his intended fiancée just to be married to the heroine of the tale. And that's something that many people missed for a very long time - the prince charming archetype is from the French tales of the 17th and 18th century, not before.]

[thebroccolination]

Hello.

I'm the Anon that asked you the question about kudos/comments on fics. Thank you for the detailed explanation. It gave me a lot to think about and some things I never considered like the fic engagement dropping for everyone across all fandoms as time passes. I wasn't aware that fandom these days is very much consume and move on once the show is over which I think is a little sad. I'm not really neck deep in any fandom at all now because they are so toxic compared to what they used to be 15 years ago and now I just like to do my own thing.

I liked your high school analogy because it does feel that way now in fandom spaces and I thought it was just me imagining the whole thing for a while.

I remember the terms flames because I started writing on fanfic.net around 2009 and got so much hate with every fic I wrote because it wasn't canon but it never stopped me until the hate got too much and I deleted everything from that site and stopped writing. You did well to avoid all the mess because no one deserves any hate over a fanfic.

I moved to AO3 in 2015 which was a more pleasant experience and people were more engaging and nicer but eventually I burned out and took a break for 5 years before getting back into it in a different fandom. The lack of engagement was something I wasn't expecting and it doesn't help that I'm insecure about my writing and have a bad habit of comparing myself to other writers.

I'm glad you understand where I'm coming from because some interaction would be nice rather than feeling like I'm writing into the void wondering if anyone even read it. It would be nice to know what people think but at the same I don't want to force anyone to leave a comment. I think I've forgotten the reason I started writing in the place which was that I wanted to read the stories I wanted to read and no one was writing them so I wrote them for myself.

Thank you for answering my question and putting things in perspective for me. It helped a lot so I will just focus on the people who like what I write even if I do miss the communal part of it.

Ah, I’m glad you wrote back! I really shortchanged you with my sleepy reply yesterday, so I apologize. I reread what I wrote this morning and realized I forgot a huge chunk of what I intended to say. I just finished work, and I was going to make another post now, so your timing couldn’t be more perfect!

The reason I brought up the high school comparison is because I suspect a ton of people involved in fandom recently don’t know decades-old fandom etiquette. I used the term “Normies” slightly facetiously, but that’s what comes into my head when I see people saying things like, “It’s so cringe of me to leave comments on old fics!!!” Talk like that smacks of people wincing about leaving likes on a crush’s old Instagram photos in case they realize you’re going through their gallery, y’know? People deep in the fandom trenches usually understand how much fic writers love and cherish comments—especially on the older fics.

So I think that’s why fandom took a sharp turn into consumerist tendencies and a steep difference between hits/kudos, let alone hits/comments. A lot of newer people just don’t know this is a community first, and fic writers are feral beasts who feast on positive affirmation. Tell me you like the adjective I picked! Tell me which line made you smile? Feed me. If you leave a nice comment on a fic older than 2020, I will build you a house.

ALSO! @missionlameturtle left a great reblog mentioning fanwork events, and that’s actually what I wanted to bring up, too.

Even if it’s just with your friends, events are an incredible way to get feedback. Fic exchanges have been the best in my experience because you’re writing something tailor-made to someone’s direct requests, and a good mod (even if that’s you) will guarantee that everyone gets at least a comment from their recipient.

I started WinTeam Week in May 2020 on the heels of Studio Wabi Sabi announcing “Between Us.” I’d been writing WinTeam fic since February, and I was having a great time with it, but I knew fandom was going to wind down a lot with the lack of “Until We Meet Again” to hype people up. More importantly, I had no idea how long we’d have to wait for “Between Us,” so I was worried we’d lose all the enthusiastic fandom momentum we’d been building up together.

What better way to keep it alive than a fanwork event?

I’d never organized one before, only participated in things like holiday exchanges. I knew an exchange would be a little too intense, but a simple fanwork week would be easy to set up. Pick some prompts, come up with a hashtag, write out the rules, make some graphics, throw it all across Twitter, and—most importantly—write a fic for every day of the event to advertise the whole thing. That first WinTeam Week I ran, I posted a fic to AO3 every day and included a note at the bottom about WinTeam Week going on with a link to the Twitter.

So it may just be you need to be the organizer of your fandom. Build it, and they may flock. It takes work and consistency, but I believe in you. <3

If nothing else, just know that you’re not alone, that this is a community, and a lot of us are still trying to keep it warm and inclusive.

[sonofthedunes]

angsty luke/andrie headcanons part 2 under the cut. as before these are all very depressing, and deal with some heavy subjects (tw for pregnancy loss and death)

because andrie’s force skills have been suppressed for so long, they are incredibly weak-and because they are so weak, she cannot feel luke (or really anyone else) if they aren’t on the same planet. during the events of empire when she is separated from her friends post-hoth, andrie has no idea where they are or if they’re alive for weeks. it is only upon her return to the rebel fleet that she reunites with leia and learns of han’s capture and luke’s maiming.

approximately a month after their wedding, and before they set off to investigate reports of jedi artifacts, andrie makes a request of luke which stuns him-she wants to go back to tatooine and see her family again. they’ve discussed returning before (outside of rescuing han), but it’s always facetious: luke has no ties there anymore, and andrie has quite firmly pushed hers away. after all she’s experienced, though, she feels the need to reconnect, to apologize…perhaps to explain. as she left the farm without a word, so she arrives without one, and asks luke to wait on their ship while she goes ahead. her uncles are astonished and thrilled to see her: after finding her gone four years ago they’d feared the worst, and seeing her face on imperial wanted posters did little to mitigate it. now she’s come back to them, a grown woman and a freedom fighter. they couldn’t be happier. unfortunately, there’s not much else to be happy about. andrie’s great-grandmother died not long after the battle of yavin, the farm is struggling-and zaria launches into a rage as soon as she sees her, branding her ungrateful and unfeeling. she reacts with anger to andrie informing them that she is training to become a jedi…and becomes absolutely apoplectic when andrie reveals that luke skywalker, the descendant of slaves who had so insulted the family, is both her teacher and her husband. though she brings luke into the house so that he might help her clarify, the resulting argument ends in zaria spitting at andrie’s feet and disowning her last living grandchild. and in that moment, andrie finally and forever lets go of her past. she bids her uncles farewell, pays her respects at the graves of her family, and she and luke leave tatooine for good. (as it turns out, luke wasn’t idle while he initially waited: he collected a piece of japor wood which he later used to carve a snippet for andrie, just as anakin did for padmé. she wears it for the rest of her life.)

the initial months after the defeat of the empire are happy ones: luke and andrie finally marry (as detailed in the fluffy headcanons post), celebrate the marriage of han and leia a few days later (luke officiates, andrie is leia’s bridesmaid)…and in about two months’ time leia and andrie both learn that they are pregnant. the new republic is just beginning to emerge. the future seems limitless. but just as leia starts showing, andrie wakes up one morning cramping horrifically, with her side of the bed drenched in blood. there is nothing that can be done-she loses the fetus. of course she’d known it may be possible she’d inherited her mother’s fertility struggles, but to actually experience it firsthand…luke soothes her as best he can, reassuring her that it isn’t her fault and they’ll try again when they feel ready. so the next year andrie conceives…and once more she miscarries. she begins to wonder if, perhaps, it simply isn’t the will of the force for her and luke to have children. and when she loses a third pregnancy in 7 ABY-this time the hemorrhaging so severe that it nearly kills her-her husband readily agrees that this will be the last; he will not keep forcing her to endure this cycle the way her father did to her mother. andrie undergoes an operation soon after. they know this was the right decision, but part of them always thinks wistfully of the family they never have.

we know the next part of the story: luke and andrie establish their jedi temple, take on a group of students (including ben solo), teach them together as andrie ascends to knight and then master. though they can’t have children, they come to regard their padawans as family. the balance between teachers and spouses proves difficult to maintain, but they’d known it would be and work hard at it. they are perfectly content together-and ignorant of the gathering darkness within their nephew. after the temple is destroyed and their students massacred, luke makes the decision to go into exile…alone. from the start he has no intention of taking andrie with him. she begs, pleads on her knees, to not be left alone in the face of what’s coming, but he tells her he knows she can do this. he needs her to protect leia because he can’t anymore. she is the last jedi-he can no longer claim that title, and he is wholly undeserving of her. and as he turns his back to leave, for one awful moment andrie’s anguish and terror consume her, and she draws her saber on the man she loves. of course he easily blocks the swing-he’s luke skywalker, he’s the most powerful jedi who has ever lived, and she didn’t intend to kill or even injure him-but in the glow of their blades they gaze on the other like a stranger. and that is the last time they see each other for six years.

in the ensuing span andrie is, as far as the galaxy at large knows, the only remaining jedi. just as she did during the battle of yavin so many years before, she attaches herself to leia because she has nowhere else to go; though she will occasionally fight directly with the first order, her main priority is keeping her sister-in-law safe. the two women become even closer, a decades-long friendship strengthened in the grief of losing their husbands-although andrie angrily rebuffs the suggestion that she could divorce luke in abstentia for abandonment. their vows were sworn in the living force, and words spoken that way cannot be undone. for as much as she resents him for the fate he’s shoved onto her, for as many mornings as she wakes wanting to die, she still loves him…and that love is what moves her to accompany rey to ahch-to, to at least seek his help in rey’s training and the ongoing war.

the reunion isn’t precisely a joyous one. he’s angry that his exile was disturbed at all, let alone by them; she is confounded by his refusal to train the girl and still deeply hurt by the way they parted. at long last they have it out, spilling their pain and their fear on the green slopes of temple island over the course of several days. it’s raw, it’s bitter, but it must be done. for at last luke is persuaded to aid the resistance in their darkest hour, his force projection lending them valuable time to flee crait. though he is greatly weakened by the effort, he does not die-his wife and sister add their own power to his, and a small team is ready to transport luke off the island to receive the care he needs.

even after the end of the war, and the slow arduous work of rebuilding the jedi order with their new apprentice rey, it takes luke and andrie a great deal of time to rebuild their trust and heal the anger that drove almost impassable rifts into their marriage. at times it seems impossible, but they hold to the little motto they created in the early heady days of their relationship: “you and me, down the line.” and as they teach a new generation together, slowly allow each other back into their hearts and living space, their connection is arguably the strongest it’s ever been.

and now we rip the band-aid off: andrie outlives luke, and leia, and han, and nearly every other human she fought in the rebellion with. when her husband’s death comes at 78 (his body unable to cope any longer with his chronic injuries, his mind fully at peace with joining the force) she is with him, reassuring him of her devotion until his last breath. she’d known his passing would be painful…but she hadn’t prepared herself for the magnitude of that pain. for some time afterward andrie withdraws from leadership of the jedi order, leaving it in rey’s capable hands, spending her time in deep meditation and annotating the sacred texts for future masters, occasionally visited by the ghosts of the Jedi who proceeded her (including luke after a few years)-and consumed by mourning for the man she loved for 60 years. she sinks into so deep a depression that luke himself must plead for her to let him go, to spend the time left to her shaping the minds of the padawans and providing counsel to rey. to live for him, not slowly die for him. and until her own death at 94, despite the lingering weight of his absence, that is exactly what andrie does. the girl born largely unwanted and unloved on a tatooine moisture farm dies a venerated jedi master in the temple she helped to rebuild: a beloved friend, an honored hero, a surrogate mother, and a cherished wife.

and there we have it. as always, questions and comments in my ask box are welcome!

[heartbeatbookclub]

One of my oldest drafts on my main has a (pre-ddlc+, funny enough) concept related to an aware, but docile ("non-evil", as I rather facetiously described it back then) Monika in a universe with the other girls, haunted by a separate instance of Monika latent in the code, working actively to corrupt the other girls while they both attempt to resist her influence and the "good" Monika tries to find wherever she's stored, to, well, delete her, I guess.

There were multiple issues with the concept as I laid it out initially--in the first place, my understanding of Monika's character was...lackluster, to put it bluntly. Probably the biggest issue I have with the idea on its surface is finding necessary motivation for any alternate form of Monika to...well, do this? I'm not entirely sure what I was imagining back then, as I have no written motivation for her.

The point of the concept was, as I described it, similarly facetious, namely in that it was meant to create a good Monika separate from an evil Monika, which I suppose isn't the worst way of doing it, but it still relies on a fundamental misunderstanding of Monika's character (and the moral reality of the situation) to split things down into this rough and unhelpful dichotomy of good and evil. It's a pretty lame way of trying to reconcile Monika's fundamentally nefarious side with her clear humanity.

That being said, I think the idea I had on its face (that is, an alternate Monika aware Monika haunting a universe where she should not be present, forcing the girls who are now actively aware of a corrupting influence to try and resist and cope with the absolute mindfuck) is pretty interesting, and seems like something that would be fun to toy around with. But I think probably a much more interesting way of playing it would be using the Side Stories universe as a playground.

I think I could potentially see a motivation for an alternate Monika (which I'll likely elaborate on at some point), but I think the biggest fundamental difference here which would make it incredibly fascinating is that Monika does still have her "elevated permissions" within the Side Stories, she's just unaware of them (This is explained in one of the emails.) So in the first place, to get to any serious direction prior to anything serious, Side Stories Monika would need to discover that, and likely the nature of her own reality as well.

And likely at the end of that path, she'd be confronted with the reality that the fundamental force she is battling against is herself. I think it'd be fun.

This is more of a thinking out loud post, in all likelihood I won't do anything with this concept for a while, but I'd been thinking about older stuff I'd worked on, and thought it'd be nice to share