#which is so weird to say bc she died the way she wishes she did for javi all those years ago but i still didnt. feel it.

[agirlinthegalaxy]

Okay, but one of the things that annoyed me about s2 of Locke & Key was that Jackie’s death seemed entirely bc of Tyler’s short-sightedness. The other thing that annoyed me was how the show treated Eden, which I am remarkably less forgiving towards. (Look, the entire show kinda has the Lockes as dumbasses, but there isn’t an in-universe excuse for the second one.) So alternate suggestion:

When Kinsey and Scot use the Head Key on Eden, we see that she’s still in there. Eden, our Eden, the human Eden, the Eden who had enough of a heart of gold to risk her life to help the people she bullied who in turn magically controlled and manipulated her body, she’s still there. The darkness and the mannequins are slowly overrunning her head, but it’s still Eden’s head.

So consider instead if Kinsey and Scot escape and tell the others about their realization. The Savinis and the others are like :/ well that tracks but Scot asks how they’re going to save her and the others are kind of just like 😬😬 Eden? Eden who is like a total raging bitch that one? Jackie, as Eden’s best friend, insists that they have to do something and they’re still kinda like ehhh but Kinsey finally speaks up. This is our fault. Eden wouldn’t have been involved at all if it wasn’t for us, we have to help her.

And so the thing is that there isn’t. really a way to save someone from demonic possession. Erin points out don’t you think we’d have done that if there was a way? Maybe something about a journal from Ellie or one of the Keepers of the Keys researching ways, a note about how they wish they could have saved Lucas. And so they realize that they have to create a way now.

Blah blah, Dodge creates the Demon Key and Tyler realizes that he can create a key and they trap Eden at some point. (Look this isn’t a full season rewrite, I’m not doing all that rn.) But anyways, Tyler, with Erin dead trying to reach Lucas and Jackie confused and worried about Eden with the loss of her memories, creates the Alpha Key. 

Meanwhile, Jackie confronts Kinsey and Bode and demands to know what the hell is going on and they restore her memories and she catches up to speed and has the realization that her best friend is a demon and possessed Eden is spitting all these things at her about how you didn’t even notice, too wrapped up in your new magical life and boyfriend and friends and so much for being best friends, right Jackie? just full on demonic tormenting with Eden’s body and voice.

Tyler comes back and reveals that he has the key, but they’re worried about using it on Eden bc what if it goes wrong? And they’re arguing over it while Eden laughs at them and then Dodge attacks and everyone is scrambling and Jackie goes missing in the midst of it all and then it’s over and Tyler is yelling for her, fear and panic in his voice, when she reappears, quiet and solemn. Tyler desperately hugs her and she just leans against him and says softly Eden was one of my first friends y’know. One of my only friends and she tearfully laughs and Tyler is starting to get worried and Jackie just looks up at him and her expression goes vaguely demonic for a second and he tries to draw back in horror at what happened but she grabs his arms and demands use the key on me. If it works, then we can save Eden. If it doesn’t... I don’t want to end up like her, Tyler.

And without really any other options bc Eden is significantly farther along the corruption process that they really can’t say what Eden would want, Jackie is here and okay for at least a minute and like the show, they think it works and they celebrate and even demon Eden is quiet for a minute before the tears start and Jackie dies in Tyler’s arms and in between Tyler’s breakdown about her, Eden, the real Eden, comes through for half a second to call out for her, breaking down in tears before the demon regains control.

And maybe they still can’t save Eden, but at the very least, they can take the literal demonic parasite off of her soul before she dies and she also doesn’t fucking die by getting thrown down a well!!!

[snekdood]

me and my boyfriend were having a conversation earlier about how creepy my dad is and how he 1 used to spy on my mom w binoculars in his car across the street after their divorce (she got a restraining order luckily) but also 2 i remember him threatening to kill my mom and her current husband and i said something about how "i used to be scared i'd see him outside of my window watching me, even though he would probably just go after my mom i was worried he might try to kidnap me-"

and then it all clicked for me. the reason zero is the way he is is bc of my dad. the reason my comic is the way it is is bc of my fucking dad!

[brackenfur]

i really do wish that like. ok when i think about brambleclaw and ashfur, in firestars quest they seem like good friends and get along well, and then we all know what happens in the book series(s) beyond that, but i really would want to give their dynamic more like. impact, and i’ve talked abt it here and there before, but:

i imagine that when bramblepaw first became an apprentice, ashpaw really liked him and treated him like a younger brother, almost. he saw how bramblepaw was kinda shy and he took him under his wing - he would teach him how to leap after leaves, he’d taught him crouches, talk to him about training, that sort of thing. and bramblepaw really looked up to ashpaw bc most of the clan treats him and tawnypaw rly differently, except for ashpaw and fernpaw and a few others. but bramblepaw rly likes that he has a close friend in the clan

and then brindleface is killed. and bramblepaw sees how sad fernpaw and ashpaw are at her vigil, so he comes up to say how sorry he is - he just lost his older brother, swiftpaw, too. and if ashpaw needed to talk, he’d always be there - but when ashpaw looks up at him, he looks….angry. he doesn’t say anything, so bramblepaw leaves because he thinks ashpaw is grieving and needs space, but form then on out, ashpaw won’t even speak to him. and after tawnypaw leaves to shadowclan, bramblepaw feels more alone than ever - he has other friends, but ashpaw was his first real friend, and now ashpaw wont even look at him. and bramblepaw tells firestar about it, saying that maybe it’s because he’s grieving for brindleface, but……..deep down bramblepaw knows why ashpaw is angry at him, he just doesn’t want it to be true.

and after tigerstar is killed, bramblepaw doesn’t really know how to feel since he hates his father, but to see him die like that…….. but he sees the weird, almost smug way ashpaw keeps looking at him and he almost wants to ask him why, what his problem even is, but he thinks about brindleface and decides he doesn’t want to know the answer.

and then after the battle with bloodclan when they kill bone together , he thinks maybe it’ll change - maybe ashpaw will like him again - but outside of some curt words and greetings, they aren’t friends anymore. bramblepaw wants to respect his decision, even if it hurts really bad that he lost his first friend bc of something tigerstar did, but he just wants to focus on becoming a warrior now.

and for a year that’s what he does - sometimes a cat like sorreltail or thornclaw will be like “hey, didn’t you guys used to be friends?” to which brambleclaw doesn’t know what to say - but he’s determined to prove ashfur and everyone else wrong.

and then he meets hawkfrost and starts training in the dark forest and for the first time in years, ashfur really starts to pay attention again. because he stopped trusting brambleclaw after brindleface died - ashfur knows that’s cruel, to blame him for something tigerstar did, but his heart can’t take anymore betrayals and deaths, and he sees it as a measure to protect himself and thunderclan - but when he sees hawkfrost he thinks, oh, i was right. and not only was i right - but squirrelflight is becoming closer to brambleclaw and she doesn’t even know about my mother, how she died. how brambleclaws father killed her to feed to a pack of dogs.

so he starts talking to squirrelflight and hanging out with her, and they get close, but when she goes back to hanging out with brambleclaw, he can’t cope. brambleclaws father took away ashfurs mother, everyone in thunderclan adores brambleclaw again, AND he was made deputy, AND squirrelflight thinks ashfur is this overbearing creep and he’s like, oh hell no.

and THAT to me feels more interesting than in canon but!!!!!!! that’s just me

[tycarstairs]

ready to fight for my life for ty blackthorn when twp is released because the way people are already infantilizing and patronizing him bc he’s autistic is so….

no one asked for this but i’ve seen a lot of people have weird takes on his autism so as an autistic woman i need to clear some things up ok 😭 so buckle up, this is gonna be a long one (seriously, it’s long)

the main arguments i’ve seen are: (i’m paraphrasing here btw)

“ty didn’t cry when livvy died but he did cry when kit said he wished he’d never known him so it’s clear that he does love kit.”

and

“ty clearly loves kit because he cried when they argued and it’s hard for autistic people to cry.”

and

“ty gets on my nerves because he didn’t react at all when kit told him he loved him”

like. i do get what you’re saying (with the first one. not the second one, that’s a stereotype, and also not the third one bc that’s just weird), because it does show that ty cares but like. obviously? all his actions before that showed that he cared too.

saying “he cried when him and kit fought but not when livvy died” just comes off as acting like he’s more upset about kit leaving and insulting him than he is about kit dying and that just rubs me the wrong way.

i know this is not common knowledge but autistic people often have delayed processing, especially when we’re grieving because it can be so overstimulating and even when we do grieve, it’s not gonna look the same as when an allistic person grieves.

so, delayed processing:

delayed processing in autism is where you are recording/aknowledge events as they happen, however that information is stored elsewhere in the brain and isn't taken in.

once the brain is ready or has capacity the information is suddenly taken in. this could be hours, weeks, days or even months later.

an example (from justkeepstimming_ on instagram):

An autistic person whose mother died at quite a young age. At the time, when his father was grieving, it did not appear the autistic son was upset.

However, one year after his mother's death, he suddenly processed that she was gone (permanently) and only then started the grieving process.

that example is pretty much exactly what happened with ty in qoaad.

partly, ty didn’t cry when livvy died because he didn’t accept that she was dead. he was so sure that he was gonna bring her back and for a long time, he probably didn’t even consider the fact that he might fail.

after livvy dies, kit says this:

“Everyone had been terrified. Ty would fall apart, they’d thought. Kit remembered Julian standing over Ty as he slept, one hand stroking his brother’s hair, and he’d been praying—Kit didn’t even know Shadowhunters prayed, but Julian definitely had been. Ty would crumble in a world without his sister, they’d all thought; he’d fall away to ashes just like Livvy’s body.”

if ty were allistic, he probably would have reacted like this immediately. and he does react like this eventually when his brain fully processes that the ritual didn’t work, that livvy is actually not coming back:

“Livvy!” Ty didn’t scream the word so much as it was ripped from him; he curled up, hugging himself, as if desperate to keep his body from shattering apart.”

this is when ty actually processes that his sister is gone. so saying, “ty didn’t cry when his sister died but he cried when him and kit fought” as if it’s some really romantic thing that he was sadder about kit leaving than livvy dying (which is not true) is just iffy because it’s such a stereotype and a misconception that autistic people don’t seem to care at all when people die, and way too many people from this fandom are feeding into that so much.

and ty does show is grieving throughout qoaad but because it’s not in the allistic way, a lot of readers don’t recognize it.

(i was actually so positively surprised to see that cassandra clare, an allistic woman, wrote the grieving process for an autistic character—and everything else about being autistic tbh—so well but it gives me so much hope for twp)

for example, autistic people (this is obviously not all autistic people as all autistic people are different but i'm just listing the signs i've seen in ty in qoaad) when they're grieving might show their grief gradually in more subtle ways by hurting themselves, emotionally or physically, which ty does do:

"The only person he was unkind to, Kit thought, was himself."

and we also see in gotsm that ty is continuously punishing himself because he is still grieving. livvy is simultaneously there and dead, and ty has to live with both the grief of her death and the guilt of her being stuck as a ghost.

there's also the fact that kit observes that ty starts keeping secrets and doing things alone, which is also common when trying to process emotions that haven’t fully caught up yet:

“In the past days, though, since Julian and Emma had woken up, Ty had been harder to find. If he was working on something, he hadn’t included Kit in it—a thought that hurt with surprising intensity.”

like. ty is pulling away because he is trying to process everything that’s happening. him excluding kit is very likely a symptom of some kind of delayed grief because it’s very unlike him to exclude kit from anything, as we can see when he says multiple times outright that he doesn’t want to do things without kit.

just because it’s more subtle than breaking down into tears doesn’t mean that he doesn’t feel it at all. it’s more likely that he simply feels too much and is shutting down because of it.

and of course his grief is gonna be subtle when he hasn’t even accepted and processed the fact that she’s dead yet.

and yes, he cried when kit told him he wished he’d never met him but that is so different because there was no room for denial. kit told him that word for word, the processing wasn’t delayed this time because there wasn’t really that much to process.

ty truly believed right away that his only friend wished he had never known him, and when livvy died he didn’t accept that she was dead. those things are different and pitting them against each other is weird.

so, onto the second argument/misconception i’ve seen that:

“ty clearly loves kit because he cried when they argued and it’s hard for autistic people to cry.”

this is a misconception stemming from the stereotype that autistic people are emotionless. yes, some autistic people might have a harder time crying because of shutdowns etc. but generalizing it to it’s hard for autistic people to cry is just wrong, especially because this has never been implied about ty in the text.

in fact, it’s the opposite:

“Ty heard everything twice as loud and fast as everyone else. The headphones and the music, Kit sensed, were a buffer: They deadened not just other noises, but also feelings that would otherwise be too intense. They protected him from hurt.

He couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to live so intensely, to feel things so much, to have the world sway into and out of too-bright colors and too-bright noises. When every sound and feeling was jacked up to eleven, it only made sense to calm yourself by concentrating all your energy on something small that you could master—a mass of pipe cleaners to unravel, the pebbled surface of a glass between your fingers.”

so implying that it’s harder for ty to either cry or feel sad is just wrong. kit notes that “every sound and feeling was jacked up to eleven”, and this includes ty’s grief. him not crying when livvy died has nothing to do with how much he may or may not be feeling and everything to do with how delayed his processing was.

and the third complaint of ty is frustrating because he didn’t react when kit told him he loved him.

first of all, i don’t know if it’s my autistic ass not understanding allistic people but is it not normal to be in shock when someone tells you they love you in the middle of a necromancy ritual???

and second of all, this scene from city of heavenly fire where julian says “i know it’s hard to understand, ty, but we love you” like it’s supposed to explain their actions and ty reacts like this:

Ty looked at him blankly. He knew what “I love you” meant, and he knew it was good, but he didn’t understand why it was an explanation for anything.”

ty looking at kit blankly in surprise in qoaad is not him “not reacting”, it’s him trying to process 1) what that has to do with anything and 2) why that would be an explanation or an argument as to why ty should stop the ritual.

(it is probably also partly because ty thought kit had feelings for livvy at this point but that’s just speculation so i won’t get into it now)

to kit, this was probably his way of saying that because he loves him, ty can stop the ritual and kit will help him with the aftermath.

to ty, kit’s confession made no sense in that moment because why would kit loving him mean that he should stop the ritual? and this was most likely also the moment when his grief was really starting to kick in, so that just adds to it.

yeah idk if anyone made it to the end but as you can tell, i have a lot to say and i’m tired of people romanticizing ty’s grief.

[kingsandbastardz]

I've reached episode 38 of MLC.

Cheng Yi's acting in the dungeon was impressive and the sequence it took for Li Lianhua to rescue Di Feisheng was super satisfying. So many micro expressions and subtle hints of his growing worry while he kept a rapid patter up to get information! While being starved/ denied water! LLH is great at multitasking!

Honestly, it was this episode that finally made me decide to watch the other dramas under this tragedy king's filmography. If I can battle my second-hand embarrassment to watch Ryan Cheng act out the role of a husky for longer than 5 seconds, surely I can watch Cheng Yi spit blood and die in misery 10x in a row.

Anyway thoughts:

While I enjoyed what I watched, instead of all this taking place in the palace, I wish the entirety was a rescue arc for DFS with the queen bug ending up in Shan Gudao's hands through other means, or uncontested and in his lair. Or maybe Jiao Liqiao had it all along! If only so we get more of the trio learning about each other and group stuff going on. They're the best when all 3 are together so DFS spending half the series away kinda puts a damper on that. And the emperor's arc seemed like a cop out. I'm aware of the ending before I even started watching so imo if they wanted a tragic ending, they absolutely could have nailed that home in several other ways. The tendon healing feels rushed bc they had less time to work with.

Fang Duobing what the hell kind of name for newly invented martial arts is that? You live and breathe heroic jianghu stories and you decide to go with a DFS style "sword", I mean, Mr Worrier's Swordplay? He do be worrying, though, so he's at least upfront about it.

If DFS and LLH ever decide to bump uglies, they would totally get distracted halfway through and go off to solve a mystery or something, wouldn't they? 💀 like DFS just randomly looks at the wall and being like ???? Why is it suddenly a different material and pattern? I need to see why it's so ugly. Also the fact that it's DFS doing this and not LLH. Xiao Shunyao says his intelligence is highly specialized to martial arts - but the guy is a natural investigator. He's just very tactile about it and prone to ripping things out of the wall or ground while checking it out. His instincts are spot on, though

I like how confused DFS was when LLH was like, "Come on JL totally told you the thing." DFS's expression screamed, "Why would I know? Did you not notice I've been doing my best to ignore her??"

I would have liked to see Wuyan deliver the salt to LLH just to see what else he does or doesn't tell him - I would also like to know when he received instructions to deliver the salt to LLH. Was it before or after DFS got paraded around and locked in the master bedroom?

DFS using grey wall or grey rock tactics to deal with JL. Ppl forced to live with narcissists/abusers do this. His version is more like what prisoners do when they have to face torture but that usually is refusal to speak. What he's doing is not just silence, but also refusing to look at her and trying to minimize any reaction to her play, which is an attempt to deny her anything she can feed on. I'm guessing he's had to do this growing up too.

Speaking of that - what exactly was Di Fortress doing with their method of training kids into killers? I somehow missed or forgot that part and can't tell if they ever addressed that. Did they rent them out as assassins? Is it a weird death cult that worships battle and uses that energy as human sacrifice to their war god? OHOHOH you know what they could have done instead of the Enperor arc? If they'd freed up the episodes and put the Nanyin bugs into a Di Fortress arc instead. Since they were already using some sort of bug mind control technique anyway.

Fang Duobing, what do you mean you always knew DFS was on your side? All you do is yell at him for being a villian! 😂 also what's with everyone just accepting that DFS was going to stand there and join them without even a bit of protest or trying to arrest him or anything?

It's interesting, the parallels between LLH and DFS's situation. They're both regular dudes trapped under some mythic narrative where everyone thinks they're these story archetypes. But they're not, they're just two martial arts nerds trying to live their life (one to do good, one trying to survive) . They both had someone they trusted not only betray them- but demand they get on their knees and become publically subservient to them. DFS's situation would have evoked sympathy by itself but LLH probably felt extra understanding about how he must feel. Especially bc he knows what his own reaction would have been in the past to that kind of humiliation. Like, aside from JL's implied intention of sex slavery, how is SGD's plan for LLH any different than what JL did to DFS when she dragged him back home?

[keylozmi]

yellowjackets team (alive by season 2) rating and ranking

1. Misty - 9.5/10

i said she was annoying but like i get her now. in both the crash and adult timeline, she has the best story and characterization. maybe because her actresses are so great, but definitely her whole arc is unrivaled.

2. Nat - 9/10

her storylines in both arcs are extremely good. definitely the most important yellowjackets member along with misty, i love their little tandem. i just don't like her purple era but she did find a daughter there!

3. Shauna - 9/10

make up your fucking mind girl! one minute she's against lottie's weird cult shit, the next second she's chasing natalie so she can kill her for food and say the wilderness chose! however her craziness post-birth must be a sort of post natal psychosis. adult shauna makes up like 7 points of the 8.5, she's the better shauna for me because she's a straight up loser with an equally loser husband.

4. Coach Scott - 8/10

high ranking out of pure pity like i am so worried for this man. i hope he's still alive and he's experiencing time-traveling hallucinations or whatever, since time traveling is a pretty big theory. i wish he does survive and all the paul scenes are his present scenes but he's gone off the rocks and thinks he's still in the wilderness. this dude is the only one not extremely or supernatully fucked up bc he didn't participate in the cult thing hopefully. BURN THEM CABINS DOWN BAYBEEE

5. Lottie - 7.5/10

when your schizophrenic dreams are misinterpreted by the rest of the group and you're forced to be the face of cannibalism 😂😂🤣🤣. robbed shauna of her cannibal crown. was just being un-medicated then the rest of the team decided to honor her like a god. there were times were she was annoying but you realize she quite literally has done nothing but every single sidekick of hers decides to speak for her and it just goes wrong every single time.

6. Taissa - 7/10

tie. extremely curious about the bad tai and the man with no eyes, which serves as the only "supernatural" event in the series shown that is not in the wilderness or post-wilderness. it would be fucking crazy if tai was the one who bought "It" in the wilderness instead of it like actually already being there, like maybe that was their home? with all the cult symbols or whatever. sometimes i do just find her boring im sorry, she's just like shauna she's extremely indecisive and it's pissing me off! only 7 bc FREE SIMONE ❤️ joking

8. Travis - 7/10

i pity this man so much but sometimes he's boring and his season 1 arc had me skipping scenes. but his brother went missing, "died", came back, then actually died and then no one said "sorry we had to give up your brother to the wilderness, it was either nat or him and the wilderness chose him! we honestly could've atleast tried in helping him get out of the ice cold water but we were hungy". like can we please give this man a break? i wouldn't be surprised if him and natalie refused to hunt for them, if they're all just going to pick cards and eat each other, why hunt for deer, right?

9. Van - 5/10

i feel like one of the only people with a dislike for van's character like. lottie dickrider, i get you "owe" the wilderness for letting you live like you're obviously the favorite but the way she treats the other yellowjackets pisses me off, especially when she straight up said to travis she wasn't ashamed for sacrificing javi? why is she a stronger indoctrinated christian than lottie? i wish they reveal more about her because to be honest her character's a bit of a blank slate, it would be amazing if they start showing a more deeper relationship between her and whatever's in the wilderness. i feel like, in both the show and the fandom, van doesn't have much to her character without tai. her only storyline without tai is with her mother, which we were shown barely 30 seconds of.

10. Mari - 3/10

i just need her gone

11. girl with the shoulder length hair aka pit girl contender number 56 - 2/10

i remember one line of hers and she was rude to shauna and i just didn't like it

12. lesbian w the cap - 2/10

rude to shauna! dye your hair black and i'll give you a bigger role as possible pit girl number 57

[fishfingersalad]

big post of all my random rvb au ideas and some hcs, decided this was more reasonable than making like 20 different posts.

Hc the freelancers who die are like submarines that go missing, officially still out on patrol. Florida is the only freelancer that is officially gone from the program. A rumor starts that the freelancers suits are in some way connected to the us states so people think that when florida (state) blew up, so did Agent Florida's armour killing him in the process

 (I'm an ace Tucker believer) Y'know how Tucker gets charged child support for a bunch of kids post chorus? I don't think he has any kids outside of Junior. I think a bunch of people who got pregnant post temple of procreation were like shit idk the kids other parent. Uhhhh. Let's just say it was the rich famous planetary hero guy who claims to have slept with everyone. He probably doesn't even remember the people he's slept with. And then Tucker, asexual who has had sex one (1) time and realised he didnt like it very much, is stuck between revealing to the whole goddamn planet that he doesnt actually fuck, and paying a billion dollars of child support.

In an everyone lives no one dies type au I think Donut gets Maine, Locus, South, and Wash to come to his wine and cheese hour and he does their makeup and their nails.

Au where Sigma is just so fucking invested in getting Maine and Wash to date that he doesnt do anything evil. "Agent Maine, I think you will find this course I have signed you up for quite informative" Sigma this is a couples wine and pottery class "Oh look, is that Agent Washington over there? you should go say hi."

Au where Wash and Epsilon bond. It still fucks Wash up and shit, cause yknow. Epsilon issues. But Wash goes like "I am going to fucking kill the director he fucked you ai over so much" And Epsilon is so taken aback bc of Alphas view of Wash from an outside, heavily filtered perspective made him seem happy go lucky, innocent, and a bit naive.

Au where the freelancers find out that the director is Linas dad and behind her back they're all like "hey is she okay? why does he talk to her like that?" but then whenever she's around they just accuse her of nepotism. Gamma and Sigma team up to hack the leaderboard and change her name to nepotism baby.

I love South. I wish she existed more. I wish her and North and Theta could have gotten along. I wish Theta could suit jump like Omega and Alpha. I wish Theta could spend time with South. Like yeah South wouldn't like having to share an ai with her brother but like. He's their littlest brother.

Junior and Theta could autism bond. I think they'd both like comics. Also Junior teaches Theta basketball and Theta teaches Junior to skate. Skateboard kid plus scooter kid. I think Palomo would like to skateboard too. Wash and Palomo both helped teach Theta to skateboard. Wash bc he's friends w North, Palomo bc he's at the skatepark frequently. Jensen roller skates, she's... okay at it. not good. but okay. She broke her tailbone trying to impress Palomo. Andersmith would work at a youth center that the teens hang out at. Matthews works at a movie theatre, Bitters watches a movie there every week, maybe just to see Matthews.

Sarge werebear. Simmons vampire. Grif faun. Donut Light Elemental. Lopez is a ghost that got stuck in a shitty robot Sarge built. Church and the ai are ghosts, Tex is a vampire, Caboose is a werewolf (big doggy :3). Siren Tucker. Deep sea mermaid Junior (glowing octopus type stuff). Faun Kai (same as Grif). Carolina’s a Phoenix. Wash some kind of big cat thing. Florida Shapeshifter (he prefers being reptiles). The twins are demons. 479er is a harpy. York poltergeist (throws stuff at people). Wyoming's some kind of “answer my riddles three” type of imp. Ct is also a shapeshifter. Maine’s just a regular guy with a lot of weird friends. Felix and Locus are a fire elemental and a dryad respectively. Siris is a water elemental. In my au Donut’s a light elemental which makes it so fucking funny if Church pops up and says "boo" Donut just fucking decks him. and through Church being a ghost (a form of light) and Donut being a light elemental, Donut’s fist connects. South is the demon people are more likely to fear, but North is the one you really need to look out for. When South loses her temper people get frightened, when North loses his temper people die. If there's like. a group of kids exploring or something North’ll hold South back from doing anything more than scaring them. If there's a priest attempting an exorcism or someone with a cross threatening South, their organs will be found separately from their bodies. 

It's kinda funny when people make Church and Lina siblings and then Tex is just some random girl that Church likes. Like I fully understand why and the only other alternative i can think of is like. Church is the director's younger brother who was raised alongside his daughter after their parents died. and Tex is Allison's younger sister. Only way I could put together Church kinda being the director and Tex kinda being Allison but also Church and Lina being siblings without there being any relation between Tex and Church.

Florida and Ct have a coworker friends relationship i think. When they first met I think Florida said something vague and threatening to her so she pulled a knife on him. They've been sort of friends ever since.

[chososhoeso2]

One piece theory + spoilers:

Okay so I saw this TikTok earlier. Shout out to @jinbejay for making this:

Whether the op meant it as a joke or a genuine theory, it really got me thinking. This theory doesn't sound too bad, so I wanted to research it a bit. Now I did type up a whole long thing with a lot of little bits of research I did.. and then I found a CBR article that basically said all the same things. If you'd rather just read the article, here's the link: https://www.cbr.com/one-piece-who-is-dragons-father-theory/

-----------------------------------------

Everything below this point is stuff that I found on my own before I came across the article:

So there are three possible ways I think this theory could go:

There are a few things that we know with certainty:

1. Garp fucking loves taking in strays

2. The identity of Luffy's mom (*cough* Crocodile *cough*) hasn't been revealed yet

3. Garp and Rocks fought each other in the God Valley incident

4. Garp has good relationships with criminals (i.e., Dadan, Roger)

Right now, Dragon is 55 years old. The God Valley incident happened 38 years ago. So at the time of the incident, Dragon would have been 17. Rocks supposedly died during that incident which, supposing Rocks is Dragon's father, could have left Dragon as an orphan. Now 17 isn't young in the one piece world, by any means. Both Ace and Luffy set out to become pirates at the age of 17 and Luffy was only 17 when the strawhats took down Enies Lobby and two Warlords (plus impel down and marineford), so 17 really is not all that young here. We also don't know if Dragon was even at God Valley, but let's say he was (it's a theory and what's a theory without some good speculation). My main three possible routes for this theory are:

1. Garp took in Dragon at God Valley after Rocks was defeated. Dragon meets Garp's daughter and they get busy (and potentially married)

2. Garp arrested Dragon at God Valley. While imprisoned, Dragon met Garp's daughter and maybe she helped him escape? Or maybe since he wasn't a revolutionary yet, he wasn't imprisoned for long, but he still got to know Garp's daughter during that time.

3. Dragon escaped - or was never actually at - God Valley and just somehow managed to meet Garp's daughter someday.

There could obviously be other things like maybe Garp's daughter was also a criminal and her and Dragon were imprisoned together. Idk. But here's some support for option 1:

I want to note that Dadan is also 55 years old, like Dragon. Which is weird to me, bc I expected her to be closer in age to Garp. But Garp trusted her with his grandkids and blackmailed her into compliance. She was a wanted criminal, a mountain bandit. You know who else would be wanted? The son of the most notorious pirate of the age. Garp has had multiple different relationships with various different criminals, including Dadan and Roger. So it wouldn't be totally wild for him to have another criminal relation.

We know that Shanks was found as a baby by Roger and Rayleigh at God Valley, so why couldn't another random kid end up getting adopted during that incident? Also, we have seen on a couple occasions where kids are taken in by the marines. Namely Corazon and X Drake. Granted those two worked in pirate crews as undercover Marines, but still. Let's say that that was going to happen with Dragon, as well. Garp decided to take him under his wing with the grand hopes that he would become a military genius - like his wishes for Ace and Luffy. And maybe, regardless of his daughter, he even had Dragon's last name changed from Rocks to Monkey, so that he wouldn't suffer from government or pirate persecution - like how Ace ended up with the last name of Portgas instead of Gol.

However, just like with Luffy and Ace, Dragon didn't want to become a Marine. He already knew about what the government was really like. We know that Rocks was very much so against the government - whether for strictly selfish reasons (ya know, wanting to rule the world) or for the purpose of freedom, I can't say for sure. Even the main purpose for the God Valley incident was to mess up some celestial dragons and nobles. He also was interested in finding out the government's secrets. Here are some excerpts from the wiki:

Now, if Rocks were to have a 17 year old son at that time, I'm sure he would have taught the son all about the truths of the world/world government that he had been uncovering. All of that knowledge could easily lead someone to want to become a revolutionary. I mean the world government and the celestial dragons and the slavery and the hush hush of it all... It's real fucked up. However, you could probably learn even more about it if you were to get taken in by a military hero. After all, the best weapon is knowledge.

Now, there are 16 years between the God Valley incident and the Buster Call on Ohara. That's a long time where we don't know what Dragon was up to. We know that at least a few years before he met up with Vegapunk on Ohara, he was working with the freedom fighters - of which Dragon had invited Vegapunk to join but was rejected due to lack of funding. The only other thing we know for sure from that time is that Dragon saw the execution of Roger just 2 years before the buster call (at age 31 btw). That's a decent amount of missing time.

As for options 2 and 3, we don't really have information for or against either of them. That I can think of, at least.

---------------------------------------------------

Also, if you don't see how Dragon and Rocks could be related, they just look so much alike. Luffy definitely looks like Garp but Dragon doesn't, which would support the Dragon marrying Garp's daughter theory. You can't tell me that Dragon and Rocks don't look similar. They have similar long black hair, the same exact hairline, similar forehead lines, and a strong nose.

----------------------------------------------

If you've already heard of this theory, then that's pretty cool. I only just found out about it but I'm all in. I'm curious if anybody agrees or disagrees with the 3 potential routes that I mentioned. Also I apologize if there are a lot of typos or if things seem jumbled or out of place, I'm really tired and wanted to post this before I fell asleep lol

[volfoss]

Actually sorry I need to bitch and moan about this. I've been reading the san.dman (do not ever do this to yourself it's a hell unimaginable by anyone) and like... I really think it's interesting how much ga/iman is praised as super progressive on Tumblr for THIS specifically when it has so so much bad in it. About 10 issues in I started a game with how many women were in the issue who survived/were raped/nearly raped and it was insane how little women did not fit into these categories. One black woman lived and the rest were all burned alive. And he then later gave an excuse that it was bc of how Dream imprisoned Nada (16 year old African queen who fell in love with him. Its a very big mess and really sucks) in Hell so of course it influenced the entire world and so every black woman but ONE (who was introduced in the second to last issue) died and died violently. Not even to get into how it plays into the really violent misogyny that he had during the short story he wrote around the end of San.dman (when he was in his mid 30s) that was literally just one graphic rape scene to a minor after another (his snow white retelling is pretty infamous bc of how bad it is just by the summary but let me tell you that it is FAR worse to read). Like there's so so much that I think people do not discuss with his writing and it honestly just is very baffling that people hype him up given well. Everything that happens in San.dman. like the endless alone has a lot of... Well let's say interesting issues. Every single woman dream comes across wants to fuck him (to the point that at his funeral, it's 90% the women he was with/wanted to be with him and then a little from his siblings????), despairs entire character is literally just that she's depressed and coincidentally the most prominent fat character (and also naked all the time. Which they did seem to fix in the show but it's baffling how it's like her, one serial killer who nearly raped a woman before dream stops him, a guy that dies and I guess Abel if you squint for the fat rep) and then desire oh my god. I wish desire was written well instead of here's our nonbinary/gender fluid/genderless rep (cool in theory!!!) and then the fact that it (in the original series, she uses he she and it pronouns) raped a woman is dropped on your head and he is not at all regretful about it and ends up like.. taunting the victims granddaughter??? And delirium my god if there was ever a representation for born sexy yesterday and also being weird as fuck about mental illness it would be her. She's barely clothed most of the time, referred to as very very young most of the time and her mental illness (vague) is just kind of used as a joke a lot of the time? Like it's a funny joke that she doesn't remember stuff or that she's overstimulated or that she's using the wrong words or talking like a child. It's really weird because all of these characters have potential but they aren't really ever treated that way. Me when I get him for every single woman treated horribly!!!!!

[justallihere]

Alli this chapter was such a nice surprise !!

Violet is a sarcastic queen "we can hold hands" she says to Liam as if the only person she wants to hold hands with is not her husband. Liam and Violet are very special to me and the way you write them is very unique. He's so protective of her but she's also very strict on her boundaries in the friendship which I love for her.

Oh so the panflet did make its rounds in this fic. Devera u sneaky bitch I know what u are (a traitor). This is a perfect opportunity to reveal some truths but because our Violet is indeed the queen of a whole ass country I doubt she's gonna do that, there's just too much at stake, but I do wish she had done something in canon. I wonder if she's gonna talk to Devera here? If she even suspects it was her?

“Be logical, riders,” Markham said as he collected the last of the leaflets. “When has Navarre ever sent a riot of only Blue dragons? I expect better from you all. More critical thinking. It will be imperative once you’re out of Basgiath and on the battlefield.” oh this is pure gold the way propaganda is discussed here is just so good. i love these conflicts.

Jack is back ?? creating chaos for sure. maybe trying to murder violet? omg imagine violet being able to see that he's a venin way earlier bc she's sees the sage way too often in her dreams and when she sees jack she goes "umm that's weird, that's suspicious" Also I've always thought Baide was sus for keeping it hidden i hope the damn dragon dies. maybe tairn can actually kill a dragon this time.

Oh Xaden is just so miserable my poor baby "I know you're awake" ohhhh u wanna talk to her so bad. Violet acknowledging they have a routine is very special to me and an improvement. As much as it hurt me them sleeping in separate beds it's very much needed bc they need to TALK I'm just waiting for the chapter in which they will fight so bad they both break and then they'll make up.

their conversations in the dark !! they need each other so badly, the weight of ruling is heavy and while xaden may try to play it off he doesn't handle it well either.

“Yes and no. Eventually you get used to it. You stop feeling the weight. You do the best you can with what you have, and you make so many horrible choices that it’s all you know, and you have to make yourself stop second-guessing. It’ll drive you mad if you don’t.” Sir what u need is therapy.

Violet talking about her dying before seeing her future and Xaden saying she'll live and then Violet calling him a liar … THATS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT !! and followed by her calling Aretia home and Xaden having a mini breakdown over it ? oh he's very screwed indeed but she isn't much better. i wonder when will she realize its him that's home and not Aretia the place.

also xaden suffering the consequences (violet putting herself in danger for the good of Tyrrendor) of his own actions?? we love to see it but also omg the angst !! he's just like "pls sit down don't do anything dangerous"

"We’re married. We’re supposed to be a team." she knew she had him with that, the only thing he wants more than for her to live its for them to be a team. the cant live without u line is very on brand for violet denial sorrengail to misinterpret love that !!

love the bodhi and violet crumbs !! they're family they need to interact more i also think they'd be a formidable pair against xaden just to annoy him lmao. but for now bodhi will rat her out to xaden !! he's part of the "violet and xaden should talk like rational adults" club. also they're so married bickering so so married they're disgusting actually. (him not missing the opportunity to call her beautiful, sir you are not that sneaky i see u)

xaden agreeing to go with violet on her suicide mission is very supportive partner coded gottalove that !! cant wait to see him go ballistic when shes tortured.

once again you've delivered such a good chapter thank u so much <3

My favorite thing about Violet is that she’s kind of a bitch because so am I and we deserve that representation. She loves Liam so very much but my girl likes her space

Violet and Devera talk soon-ish. I love Devera so much, I need more of her

Xaden and Violet are in their married couple era for SURE, there’s more communication from them in the coming chapters and it’s gonna hurt and it’s gonna be so good I can’t wait

“what u need is therapy” that’s what Garrick and Bodhi are for 😭😭

Listen like it’s so important to me that they follow through on the things they agreed to. They talked and they decided no more secrets and they would do everything together from now on and they took that shit SERIOUSLY!! It’s part of their married dynamic, I love them

Thank you so much for reading 🩷🩷🩷

[wetcatspellcaster]

You mentioned in an ask that Rose would have likely spent the rest of her natural life looking for a way to cure Astarion. I was wondering if there's a point where Ascendant Astarion ever gives up trying to get Rose back? Or turns to a weird alternative (I know hemlock mentioned he was kinda into the idea of the simulacrum for a while)? Like Rose was eventually gonna die, whether by natural causes or one of her adventures going awry. What if she had died before he could lure/strong arm her into coming back?

oh boy, anon, we're delving into the darkest timelines with these questions, huh??? i genuinely hadn't considered some of these before so had to think about it.

there's a few lines to unpick here.

is there a point where Astarion ever gives up? if Rosalie had not reacted to the first murder rampage, he would've done another, bigger murder rampage. if she did not react to that one, he'd do another one, etc, until he's actually doing the whole 'take over the world' thing. basically he'd stack up a body count until she was provoked, which is why this hadn't really occurred to me as a timeline, bc I think there would always reach a point where she's like "fuck he's super evil now, gotta go put him in the ground". in that timeline, she doesn't bother with Wish, it's just a fight to the death.

weird alternative? probably, but not for me as I'm not a Dead Dove writer. Some parts of Pieces are curbed by what genre it's in. I have avoided a lot of the worst implications of plot points i've introduced bc I'm not interested in writing them, not out of moral judgement (in fact, I enjoy dead dove content, I just don't have fun writing it). in my tamer timeline, he probably just starts dating a string of tieflings in full mid-life crisis mode lmfao.

what if Rosalie had died before ever seeing Astarion again? If none of Pieces ever happened? Guess what, it happens in an entirely different, dark-timeline form. This is one of the reasons Astarion would want a Wish spell in his arsenal lmfao. We'd be doing a Pieces from his perspective where he's the hero bringing his lost love back to life.

if she'd died of old age? I mean, probably a little bit of the above, some kind of Wish spell to reset the timeline. Or he does exactly as he says he would do in Chapter 12, and goes full nuclear option Ascendency - with his one chain to morality gone, he just goes full evil.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

hello Blair 👋 I saw you mentioned Alanza and I’m showing up bc despite jc completely fumbling her, I still like her

I think the two biggest issues is when she’s introduced and that the game does not know what to do with her. She should have been introduced before Rowan’s death. That way we get to know her as her own character instead of “Rowan’s replacement.”

Since she’d be the new student for the year, I’m pretty sure people would still suspect her of being the mole. My guess is that jc dropped her because so many people seem to dislike her. There’s a whole can of worms on how hphm handles its numerous characters. I will have to save that for another day.

Alanza was set to be an interesting character and I do wish we had learned more about her days at Castelobruxo. I’m ignoring my own numerous headcanons to flesh her out. Main things that stick out to me is her time surviving in the rainforest as a first year. She has this very cheerful demeanor but surely that must have had an impact on her eleven year old self. Then she’s supposed to be from a prominent Brazilian wizarding family. What are they like? How do people treat her as a member of an at least somewhat famous family? She seems to enjoy adventuring so of all the characters to join the vault hunt, she should’ve been included. Then the wiki says she was part of a band back at Castelobruxo (it also says she can play nine instruments which I do not remember.) What if we saw her bonding with the Weird Sisters over music?

Jumping into headcanon territory: I’ve headcanoned that Alanza’s upbeat demeanor contrasts with her parents’ more serious selves. When her grandmother was alive, she was able to mediate between Alanza and her parents. However after she died, things became more tense at home. It also didn’t help that their fame meant Alanza was constantly being compared to her family. She decided to become an exchange student partly to get a fresh start where people will judge her as her own person and also bc like I mentioned earlier, she likes an adventure.

to be nice to hphm, Alanza’s design is my favorite from this game. I don’t have some deep analysis on it; I just think she’s cute. Plus I like the mole she has.

Oh, I like her too. She just...feels like a one-off, like a character introduced in a TLSQ who then slides into the background.

Instead, like you talked about, the story drops everything to introduce her - right after Rowan dies and The Circle is formed, no less - and not long before The Mole is first mentioned. They had to know, right? The writers had to realize the circumstances surrounding Alanza were suspicious, so I think she was a deliberate red herring. Especially giving her a loose connection to Rakepick. But she's a red herring who never gets herring'd, because the characters never outright suspect her.

I didn't even realize she was widely disliked, is that true? Because I liked her just fine. I was suspicious of her past and her motives, and it wasn't lost on me how the story tried to insert her into a "Rowan" like role (which it later did more directly with Corey) but hey, that wasn't exactly her fault, and assuming she was totally genuine in her nature, then she was a good person, right?

The Rain Forest Incident is so telling. I've always had the headcanon that Rakepick rescued her from that bit of trouble. Because despite what Alanza says, despite what the writers might want us to believe, there is no way she could have known Rakepick smelled like cinnamon without having gotten close to her. MC didn't even know that.

As far as her time in Castelobruxo, I'm getting...Weasley twin vibes. Popular with the students, nightmare for the staff. If she comes from a prominent family, that's already easy mode for popularity like it was for Draco. Not to mention she's in a band and is apparently multi-faceted? Nah, this girl had friends. But then again, none of them write to her when she moves out to the U.K, so maybe it was all just surface level? Sad to say...

Oh man. What you're describing is...so familiar. It reminds me a lot of Tulip and her situation with her own family, right down to having grandparents who mediate. The idea that Alanza joined the exchange program to get away from - at least part of - her family is devastating, but it makes sense. She chose to remain at Hogwarts for another year, and neglected to mention why. But she would have been 17 by that point, so, it would be her choice, right?

The Casteobruxo robes look superb, they really do. They're one of the few costumes that genuinely look like something people in this world would wear, because yes I'm still hung up on how none of them wear robes in the movies. As far as her face goes, she is adorable, that's for sure!

[meili-sheep]

oughh what if Diluc's mom is apart of the hexinzirkel(I am not spelling it ever again)

I know this is the if Diluc's mom was there they would have such a good relationship so think abt this as an au of sorts

SOME SPOILERS BEWARE!!

Oh god!!! And Remember the letters found in the Diluc skin event???? Of Alice asking in them that bc he takes good care of Klee that he wont mind that he is regarded as her own???

No im not saying Alice is his mom BUT WHAT IT SAYING IS!!! Diluc's mom (Calling her Umbra so i wont have to type it all out) is never mentioned even ONCE

And the lore vid of the hexinzirkel has like, a teacup and teapot that has the exact same design as the one in Dawn Winery!!!

And how does Alice KNOW HIM FROM A YOUNG AGE??? Bc she's never mentioned in Diluc's lines and that the letter implies she met him when he was young!!!

And ohhh god Diluc and Klee have interacted b4 and he takes good care of her... and he has a mischevious devious and trouble maker streak imagine if Klee got the idea of fish blasting from Kaeya recounting childhood stories of he and Diluc's shenanigans as bedtime stories for Klee...

Sure Klee calls him a weird grownup, but she sounds genuinely curious why Diluc is 'weird' compared to the other adults in Klee's life like the knights of Favonious who are supposed to be formal bc theyre well, also in charge of diplomacy

In Klee's eyes, Diluc is a weird grownup because his behavior is so so contradicting compared to everyone else. Kids are very perceptive afterall, so Klee could notice that Diluc is mischevious and a troublemaker behind the scenes but his face shows no sign that he is

Ouhh got off track but anyways--

Imagining Diluc calling Alice 'Aunt' but she butts in and tells him to call her 'Mom'

Maybe Umbra did something or got too absorbed in her circle of expertise with the Irminsul and thats why Diluc never mentions her

Also the delusion seems less of a fatui or abyss thing to me... instead more of an heirloom.

Like!! Why was Crepus looking like he was planning to give it to Diluc?? ON HIS EIGHTEENTH BDAY???

And it doesnt work like other delusions!!! The other delusions have an ELEMENT but this one has BLACK FLAMES AND CHAINS AND MAGIC CIRCLES

anyways thank u for coming to another one of...

-Leyline! Anon's Insane ramblings are back babey!!!!

So I am 100% on board with Diluc's mother being Hexinzirkel. Like there is a video. This one. Where they not only point out how the teapot is in the dawn winery, but the pattern on the teapot is not only on the dawn winery carpet but on Diluc's jacket.

Then there is the Diluc's star broach in the manga, which matches the Hexinzirkel star.

Especially considering the star and the teapot were things in the center frame.

So we are past the realm of coincidence in my book, even before Alice watches Diluc for a while and takes him in when Crepus dies. It would sort of raise the question of why she might not be more involved in his life if she's a sister of Diluc's mom. But I feel that could easily be explained by well safety reasons. You don't want to draw too much attention to it. Specially if she really wanted to settle down and live a normal life. Alice is just honoring her wishes.

This also makes me wonder if there is something biological in visions. Like Diluc being a possible Hexinzirkel child and probably got his vision around Klee's age. Do you see the line I'm making here? My theory is that there is a certain about of harmony you do have to have with elemental energy to get a vision and maybe having a powerful witch as a mother helped that?

As for the delusion, Diluc's delusion has always been different. So I got two ideas (Outside of Crepus getting it from the fatui in some way)

One. Diluc's mom stole it from the fatui, learning about their delusion research. Maybe figuring it would be best to delay their plans a little bit. So the Delusion is an early stage, one that His mom was playing around with, trying to figure out or "fix."

Two. Diluc's mom made it. And it's not a true delusion. At least not a Fatui one. This would sort of explain why Dottore, who should have known about delusions didn't recognize it at one of there's. And Crepus couldn't use it because well he simply couldn't handle the elemental energy in it. But Diluc could which is why it never backfired. And that works with your heirloom idea.

The only hiccup with that idea is the webcomic. But I don't recall if they were saying where that piece of the journal came from or who it was from that told them Crepus had the delusion.

And well, now It's sort of got me wanting to write more Alice and Diluc or Diluc and his mom, to be honest

[rayshippouuchiha]

Okay so, feel free to not answer this one, it's,, kinda heavy, i think? and a bit long. also, sorry about just dropping this here, it's just been weighting on me for at least a couple of years?

So, i'm 21, and like, a big lurker in fandom spaces, and with the ships I ship I sometimes see the "these kind of ships are only okay if you're a csa survivor" stuff, which,, bullshit, but always makes me go "is that,, me? does what happened to me count?" and like, i'm aware that just needing to ask that probably means the answer to that is yes, but I've always shied from thinking about myself that way? The term survivor feels heavy, i guess, like it needs to cross a threshold before the thing counts? Which, logically I know is not how that works, but still

It was just like, this one time I was staying at my great aunt's with my parents for like the 1000th time, I loved going over there, she and her husband had dogs and we'd have breakfast together and hang out doing stuff in the garden. But then this one time when I was like,, 13?? I was pretending to be asleep to read fanfic under the covers after bedtime (I was sleeping in a pullout couch in the living room) and my aunt's husband,, kinda groped me? I don't think he realized I was awake, but I froze and just did my best to pull away quietly and then he stopped and left, and I just,, never mentioned it to anyone in my family because I didn't want anyone to fight?? I've been very nervous about raised voices since I was little

After the fact we just left and anytime my parents mentioned visiting I'd try my best to get out of it, by coming up with like reports or homework I had to do over the weekend, and if I couldn't get out of going I'd just stay put in the room I usually slept in or go out with my parents just to have minimum contact with my uncle, which meant like, hugging him hello and goodbye when we got there and when we left, and sometimes accompanying him to gather wood for the fireplace

Anyways, for unrelated motives my parents and I moved to another entire continent right after I turned 16, and then a while later he got sick and died, and hearing everyone lamenting his death and saying that he was such a good man stung like a bitch, even though I*know* i specifically didn't mention it to anyone in my family to avoid any tension. Sometimes I wish I did say something? But like, we moved away *and* he's dead and nobody's even mentioned him in a long time so I don't really see the point? It's a weird thing, and I don't want my parents to ask why I didn't say anything earlier bc they'd get sad, i think

I do have a couple of people to talk to. My friends have gotten really angry on my behalf a few times now, and I love them. Still, it's a weird thing where I don't really want to think about it but also I know it's a thing that really affected me? Still, the term 'csa survivor' feels like it should go for,, heavier things, worse things

Sorry again for just,, dropping this here, just.. talking about it helps a bit, i think?

Oh darling this is a heavy one indeed.

Look, I'm going to be real with you.

What you feel about this uncle is valid. It doesn't matter that it was only once, it doesn't matter that it was "just a grope", it doesn't matter that it didn't progress, it doesn't matter that you were able to avoid him afterward.

He assaulted you. Point blank. He was an adult family member you should have been able to trust and he touched you in a way he should have never even thought to touch you.

I am so grateful that it never progressed, that you were able to stay away from him as much as possible and that he never touched you like that again but the fact remains that you should have never had to deal with that. The burden, the fear, of that kind of thing should have never been placed on you. He broke a trust with you and in you that could never be replaced and that is and will always be on him.

The title of survivor does feel heavy and I can understand why you wouldn't feel comfortable carrying it. In the end that's your choice and your choice is and should always be what matters most.

I also understand being reluctant to tell your parents, especially since he's dead now. I do have to ask if there were any other children or teenagers he might have also attempted to prey on besides you?

Either way I'm glad you have a support system, I'm glad you have friends you can talk to about it.

[aerithisms]

i think maybe i need to replay rebirth some time to look at this diplomatically because aerith is My Favourite and i might be biased but i think my biggest story critique of rebirth is that i wish they'd done a little more with her. given that this is the game she dies in i found it strange that they didn't push her into the foreground a little more since this is their last real chance to do that with her as a living member of the party (i'm sure she'll show up in some limited capacity in part 3 but dead lifestream!aerith is pretty different to alive!aerith i think).

i know that sounds like a weird thing to say when you consider stuff like them giving her the game's theme song to sing during loveless and the fact that the last chapter is basically The Aerith Movie but there is a strange lack of focus on her in moments where it feels like we should get more from her throughout the narrative. this game pushes tifa and cloud's relationship more in the mandatory story segments, and i LOVED what they did with that relationship in this game, but it felt odd that the same focus was not given to cloud's relationship with aerith throughout the story given that the ending hinges on him being so devastated by her death that he enters a delusional state of grief. and this isn't even a shipping thing bc as far as shipping goes i'm an aerti truther and i feel pretty equally neutral about both cloti and clerith as romances (if anything i prefer cloti!). it's about giving proper narrative buildup to the relationship that the game's tragic ending hinges on - a lot of aerith's most interesting scenes with cloud in the bulk of the game are optional, which i think is a weird thing to do given what the game is building to.

i also wish they did more with her being a cetra! again, the last couple chapters put focus on this but prior to that aerith is weirdly quiet about it. particularly in cosmo canyon, while we do get the lovely bonfire scene, aerith otherwise has a weird lack of dialogue when it comes to the lore dump scenes with the gi and bugenhagen. i expected her to feel some type of way about these revelations but any indication of that is at best subtext and she doesn't really say a lot about it. and for all that they emphasise aerith and nanaki's connection early on as beings closer to the planet, once you get to cosmo canyon there's a weird lack of payoff for it. same with tifa's dunk in the lifestream - i kinda thought aerith might have something to say about it as a cetra, and in fairness i think it's possible she did and the game is withholding some of aerith and tifa's offscreen interactions for part 3 (i swear this isn't even just an aerti cope lol i think the fact that they deliberately show them talking without us getting to hear it might be something they come back to), but i also wish we got to connect with this part of aerith's character more NOW, while she's still here, so it can inform our understanding of her choices and feelings at the end. i just find it kind of a bummer because aerith's complicated relationship to her heritage is a fascinating aspect of her character and her tragedy that i think goes a little untapped in this game, which means it's likely to go untapped in the story as a whole since she's. you know. dead.

[legendarceus]

volo is cynthia / cyllene is cyrus au: family trees

and also me talking about them :)

put below keep reading bc its gonna be a lot lmfao

cynthia (volo) family tree

cynthia is cogita's grandkid! her parents weren't present so cogita raised her until, of course, she got disowned for the whole trying to destroy the world thing. cogita sadly passed away before they could truly reconcile.

while there is no canon ancestor to iris, i think its fun to say that cynthia met iris' ancestor and they had kids and 200 years or something later, iris exists and cynthia gets to meet her great great great great grandchild or something. we'll come back to iris in a minute :)

i also think that lusamine also decended from cynthia, which means gladion and lillie also are related to cynthia! not that its important but you know. giant family.

i do ship cynthia and diantha. i think diantha is one of the few who know that cynthia is immortal but was most definitely the most recent to find out. iris is not aware of this. but these three are found family anyway <3

speaking of found family, prof. carolina and cynthia's younger sister are purely adoptive of sorts. but they're still found family. love them. wow cynthia 2 found families thats crazy.

cyrus (cyllene) family tree

yes this looks odd without context but we do have context so it doesnt matter. cyllene x laventon is canon and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. too bad cyllene got widowed and then found out they were immortal AND trans after laventon died.

anyway, cy and lav were married and akari + rei were their adoptive kids. ingo was akari and rei's adoptive uncle too but that isnt relavent to the family tree. also laventon is a distant relative to leon and hop :) maybe he had siblings or cousins who are great (x?) grandparents to them. who knows.

anyway damn cyrus why do you got 2 found families. but yeah team galactic is naturally cyrus' found family of course. he is his commanders exhausted adoptive father since all of their families suck lmao

mars family tree

i think mars and cynthia have the biggest family trees. anyway mars' was the first one that i did incase that wasn't obvious lmfao, but anyway, lets get into it!!!

arezu is ariana's great (x?) grandmother. ariana had a spouse that she had mars (maria at the time) with, but then she left them once she was like 'oh shoot im having silver!!!', so mars is vaguely aware that silver exists somewhere out there but she has no clue who he is otherwise. and then ariana and giovanni are married and had silver, who has no idea who mars is (he'd probably go through a crisis if he looked at sinnoh news, so lets keep it that way). silv and mars have a 9 year age gap btw just throwing that out there

silver found a new dad (lance) and some really weird teenagers about his age who he got stuck with. he's dating one of them. you have to guess. (i already know which one but im leaving it up to the mind bc silver isnt the focus in this au so imagine whatever you want).

mars and her silly little astronaut friends are her found family! i think arezu would flip her shit if she found out her great (x?) granddaughter was adoptive siblings with that one criminal lady (coin). but hey its fine!!! mars has her weird spaceman father and her weird astronaut siblings and life is good (mostly)

arezu deadass just has a bunch of decendants who commit various crimes

saturn / jupiter family tree

i grouped these two together since they've got the smallest family trees.

saturn is (obviously) a decendant of coin, but he has no contact with his family and hasn't spoken to them in years by the time pokemon platinum takes place.

jupiter and fantina are siblings (fantina is older by a few solid years) but they really don't like eachother. they have little contact with eachother and dont exactly speak often. but they do wish eachother happy birthday sometimes so thats a plusside i guess.

and of course saturn and jupiter both have found family with team galactic. awww how sweet :)