#will be posting those drafts soon

[max-nico]

Tails is very special. He's been aware of this fact his entire life. Whether being special is a good thing is up in the air, as that answer completely depends on what time of his life you're looking at.

He was special when he was just barely two, when he still had his birth parents, but that's not to say he remembers much about them. He was special when he was four, because the village decided the anomaly he was born with was a curse, and not a blessing. Tails is special even now, when he is six, for a very different reason.

Well, not for a completely different reason. He still has that same anomaly curse gift that he had before. The village still believes him to be an unwanted child, and surely his biological parents, wherever they are, still love him the same as they did when he was two.

But there are whole new reasons for Tails to be special now.

For one, Tails was gifted an entirely new name. His name used to be Miles, but no one has called him that in years. He was also given new titles of little buddy, pal, kiddo, and his favorite, little brother. Yes, being a little brother is quite special, especially because he is the little brother of Sonic the hedgehog. This is a perfect Segway to the last reason he is special.

He is special because Sonic, his older brother, hates handshakes. He also hates slowing down, and hugs, and mint, and rain, and snow, and lots of other things that Tails is doing his due diligence to keep track of.

But there are lots of days where Sonic gives Tails a hug without him asking, and sometimes when there's lots of rain Sonic pitches the tent under a tree or in a cave, and he lets Tails play in it. There are even days where Tails is just too tired to keep up and Sonic slows down, letting him take a nap.

Now this may not mean much by itself, and at first Tails thought he was doing a bad thing by telling Sonic he's tired, but recently he's started to get it. He's started to understand.

Before, Tails would feel guilty when Sonic would stop to play in the snow with him. He would always be cold and shivery, it always made Tails feel horrible that he dragged his older brother outside with him. That changed at some point, he's pretty sure it was recently, but he's not actually that sure. Now he only feels warm and giddy inside, like he's going to throw up, but in a good way.

Tails has realized that he may be special because of his anomaly, or his name, or his brain, or his title, or even his parents, but there is a much more important reason why he's special. A reason that makes him feel that weird happy-nauseous emotion.

Tails has realized that he is special, because he is special to Sonic. He doesn't think there's any better reason to be special, either. Tails thinks that if he does nothing else in his life than be important to Sonic, then he has done what he was meant for.

Don't tell Sonic he said that though. The hedgehog will noogie him again, like he always does when Tails gets sentimental.

Wrote this in the bathroom at 1:30am, inspiration struck for some reason

I was kinda going for a long-winded ramble without my run-on sentences being too annoying. Did I capture that well ? I hope so 🙏🏾

Will post this when I wake up tomorrow, good night everyone (barely proof read as usual)

Come hop into my askbox if you want. I'm a Tails-centric blog if you are an enjoyer of him

[brother-emperors]

so it’s. it’s like. man this is so hard without my laptop.

alright so Crassus is a weird guy, existentially. There’s a tendency to speculate, assign, and insert him into whatever places are conspiratorial and shadowy because he fits into those narrative places with ease. My personal favorite (aside from all of it) is the idea that he may have pulled strings wrt to Sulla and Caesar’s conflict to help get Caesar out of it.

The Defeat of Rome: Crassus, Carrhae and the Invasion of the East, Gareth C. Sampson

In the universe that exists in my head, he definitely had a hand in it, but he didn’t really intend for Caesar to figure out he played a part in it, but Caesar’s good at puzzles, and noticing someone goes both ways. Binding someone to yourself goes both ways.

Crassus: The First Tycoon, Peter Stothard

This scene takes place sometime relatively soon after Sulla’s death. Crassus has complicated feelings about it, Caesar less so. Veni, vidi, vici, baby!

Here’s a bonus thing that I keep thinking about with them.

The Roman Revolution, Ronald Syme

like, utang na loob. and it is DEEP between them.

[briefle]

inspired by this art by the incredible @fudgecake-charlie

JUST CLEO – The lieutenant is tapping her pen on the black notebook in front of her on the table.

REACTION SPEED – She is not in her usual spot, waiting for you near the exit of the Whirling… keeping one eye on the stairs to the upper floor and one out on the street.

PERCEPTION [Medium: Success] – Today what she’s watching out for is not in the parking lot, rather it’s another pair of cops, sitting at a much too central table right in front of the entrance.

[badolmen]

Not to be extreme but dear God hold onto hope.

Things will be better one day. People will sing and dance in colorful clothes under dazzling lights again. A parent will rock their child to sleep on a quiet night again. A grandparent will teach their grandchild to cook a family recipe again. People will laugh and cry and love and grieve in the most mundane of ways once more. This will happen no matter what you believe, but hoping and believing in such things will ease your heart and kindle your resolve to see it within your lifetime. Have hope, and you will give life to the world you hope to see.

[castlebyersafterdark]

Hello loves!! ❤️ Here's hoping I return alive come Monday because I am being dragggggged off to go camping this weekend. Hopefully I survive the onslaught of bugs and wilderness and don't drown in the lake 😔 Anyway - I hope something positive or exciting happens because as we've all noticed by now, wild things happen in this fandom whenever I step away and go off grid for a bit 😘😘😘

[jichanxo]

made a tierlist of my kuwagami fics for funsies (+ notes for a few) ↓

(everything listed in the same tier are equals, so the order they're listed in has no meaning)

[todayisafridaynight]

mwah an shit

[plusultraetc]

if I can find a way to squeeze 'Aizawa and Vlad King semi antagonistic work friends' into a fic I will

[snake-berry]

Tommen Baratheon

done with cersei's babies! love this lil guy.

canonically he is described with long hair but uh. could not make that look right so i took tommen to the salon and got him a fresh trim oops my bad

[evantualmao]

wip also tails gets trolled screenshots redrawn as graham

[thickenmyblood]

hi maca. i was wondering if laurent and his friends are meant to seem a little hypocritical or if i’m misreading them? through damen’s pov we see him tackling various issues he’s been bigoted or ignorant about, and i got a sense that these were all topics he and laurent/laurent’s friends really disagreed on. but it doesn’t seem like laurent et al.’s philosophies match up with their actions? like damen’s issues around sexism and gender—laurent et al. also don’t seem to have any female friends, at least none that have been seen or mentioned as important. or mental health—damen had a lot of misconceptions that hurt laurent, but now laurent’s willing to put his friend in a treatment center against his will, really violating his bodily autonomy. or classism—laurent and ancel have experienced poverty, but now choose to surround themselves with wealthy people. they don’t really seem to have any middle class friends or anyone in their former positions. by contrast, laurent most recently brought maxime into their circle, an ultrarich person with an equestrian club/villa/etc. so overall i’m wondering if i’m being too harsh on them, or if laurent and his friends are more egalitarian in thought than in deed? even if they think or speak differently than damen, it doesn’t seem like they act much different

hello! this is a very interesting question. it has taken me a long, long time to reply but at last! here we are. my answer will be divided into three different sections.

1. gender

I agree that it comes across as hypocritical that Laurent is always quick to point out Damen's toxic views on masculinity and femininity when he himself doesn't have any female friends (at least not on page). you can 100% interpret this as hypocrisy because the text supports your analysis perfectly. this Laurent, as neo has already pointed out, has a lot of toxic traits that might be an echo of his own abuser's actions. I liked the fact that in canon the regent hated women, so I really wanted to keep that. I'm not saying hiuh Laurent hates women. on the contrary, I PERSONALLY think that because he grew up isolated and under his uncle's influence, he might not be the best when it comes to socializing/maintaining interpersonal relationships with women.

I also think there's a really interesting discussion to be had about how (in this case) men that are part of the LGBTQ group can sometimes think they are liberal and progressive simply bc they belong to said group. sadly, this exceeds the limits of the story, but it's still interesting to think about.

lastly, to be completely honest, the only reason why ancel is not shown with female friends is that I did not want to keep writing original characters. ancel feeling lonely and left behind was a huge plot point in his arch to become Damen's friend and so I benefited greatly from keeping things like that. as for aimeric, he has no friends other than ancel and Laurent because he is meant to be read as a deeply unlikeable and misunderstood character. once again, characterization limits the story quite a bit.

2. mental health and body autonomy

this is such a great point that you and other people have made both here and on AO3. I agree: Laurent playing Aimeric so that he gets committed is a violation on aimeric's rights and trust and overall dignity.

a. why then will this not be addressed?

because this is damen's pov. yes, he has grown a lot, his journey with mental health education has been long and hard and has had many rewards. BUT I do not think he is at a point in which he is THAT aware or educated on issues like this. when writing and editing this i did not feel it would be organic to have Damen contradict Laurent on this. however, other characters have pointed out that they do not agree with Laurent's views/intervention (ancel and jord -> remember Laurent and damen's conversation at the park).

I understand that a lot of people are very upset with how hiuh does not address some issues, and I want to take this opportunity to reply to those loud and valid complaints. a story cannot deal with everything. it can't solve everything. it can't address every problematic issue that arises within the narrative. why? because if it did, I believe it would read a lot like preaching. when you write something, you have a main plot (sometimes main plots that connect) and subplots. Aimeric is a side character and his story is quite literally a tiny brick in the wall that is hiuh. taking an interest in a subplot is great, but expecting the subplot to be too relevant is (TO ME) a bit of a reach.

b. does Laurent know this is wrong? why is he approaching this issue this way?

i believe there is a part of Laurent that knows this is the wrong approach, which is why he seeks to talk it out with Damen and does not simply act on his own/in secret. in some ways, damen's simplicity has acted as a good moral compass to him before.

Laurent's past institutionalization has been mentioned a couple of times, and I thought perhaps that would be clue enough to unlock that part of his reasoning. evidently, the feedback I've received from multiple people has made me realize I have an important task to complete as I'm editing the final chapters, which is to make this facet of Laurent more evident and on page. hopefully, when the story is over you will come to understand (KEY POINT: NOT APPROVE OF) his reasoning.

c. is Laurent lying when he tells Damen he didn't provoke Aimeric into using the knife on himself?

as usual, I'm not the reading police. I don't, generally speaking, care about how you read this as long as it's not... you know, in bad faith or purposefully poking around for weak spots (see: disingenuous reading). PERSONALLY, I wrote this fic with the intention of Laurent NOT being the reason Aimeric gets committed. Aimeric gets committed time and time again bc he is in desperate need of mental health aid. NOT bc of Laurent's interventions.

now, if you wish to read the scene where Laurent tells Damen that he didn't actually get to provoke Aimeric with some trauma baits (see: aimeric's brother) then it's not like I can stop you. if you feel like the text supports that analysis... be my guest.

3. economic class

I have spoken at length about this before in other asks but there is no reason why you or anyone reading this should know of my previous replies.

economic class is not well written in hiuh. this fic is not meant to be read in any way, shape or form as a study on class, classism, what my personal take on rich people is, etc. to answer your question, yes, ancel and Laurent have both experienced poverty, but they've done so in very different situations. ancel was born into poverty and struggled through it until well into his young adult years when he met berenger. on the other hand, Laurent was rich as a kid up until the moment he decided to go against his uncle and take him to court in a legal battle that lasted (roughly) around a year. this experience obviously changed and shaped Laurent as a person and it is a huge source of tension between him and Damen, but the story is told through damen's pov. Damen has NEVER experienced poverty, economic struggle, need, hunger, desperation... this story is not about this particular issue. I cannot make it about this or else there would be no story bc i believe people that have damen's kind of money would never, EVER, behave the way Damen behaves in this.

there is one character that is """"supposed"""" to represent a more middle class background: jord. HOWEVER, as I've said, this fic does NOT go into an analysis of class. it was not my goal as I wrote it nor is it now as I edit it.

to this day, hiuh is my longest and most intentionally layered work. it has gaps and holes and places where it falls short, as does every story. as does canon. if hiuh were, let's say, original fiction, then I am sure most of these issues would be the main point of many, many fanfics on AO3. fans wanting something different and better and edgier and softer and sadder is why I'm here in the first place. I wanted canon to be different, so I wrote fics. people want my fic to be different in some ways, but that's where fiction reaches a dead end. I cannot offer you, reading this and fuming over XYZ, any solution but to write another (better) version of this story.

what this doesn't mean: STOP COMMENTING YOUR OPINIONS!!! STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS!!!

what this does mean: a lot of criticism is valid, I am giving an explanation of my motives/limitations/creative choices. I am not "defending" myself bc for the most part I do not feel attacked.

final thoughts

i loved this question because as I read it and thought of an answer I could tell where you were coming from and that your wish to know more/understand the characters better was not malicious. yes, they are all hypocrites in some ways and you are very, very right to read the story that way. I am sorry that I sort of hijacked your ask as a way to reply to a lot of other people's comments and asks, but I am afraid that if I do not post this now as one single unified message that I will never have the chance to say this again.

thank you for your time and your careful (and critical!) reading of my story.

[thenamesblurrito]

i have way too many drafts it's making me uncomfortable so be prepared for uhhhhhhhhhh more reblogs than usual for me

[pigeonsareevil]

This might just be my two special interest bleeding into each other and blending together buuut... There are so many Vandermatthews coded mcr songs

Like, so many its unreal

Especially the first two albums, as far as im aware, the stories are kind of connected and the first album is about two lovers who are also criminals and then one of them dies in a gunfight and the other makes a deal with the devil to kill and bring him 1000 souls of evil men to bring his dead lover back, only realising way too late that the devil tricked him and he is the last evil man and then he kills himself knowing he will never see his lover again.

Thats just, hmmm... I guess its just me being delusional and absolutely insane about these two pieces of media but i can see it

[icewindandboringhorror]

a boye whom'st loves to attack paper balls

[sanchoyo]

I’ve always been interested in things like choose your own adventure stories or when community polls choose what happens in a story. Tbh I would love to write one (I know there’s a way to do this on ao3, the choose your own adventure part not the poll one as far as I’m aware) it’s just a matter of 1. Making time to do it 2. Deciding what story/fandom to write it for 🤨

[nraqi]

exforce ramble

exforce fic draft where another human of the mbop finds skippy and becomes (temporary) captain of the flying dutchman and then!!! perhaps one or two books later (i’ve really forgotten when humanity starts seriously “fighting” w the rotten kitties, i need to do a re-skim) a maxholx!bishop is either taken prisoner by the merry band of pirates OR willingly gets rid of his implants (sci-fi magic i’ll make it up later) and joins the crew to help ^_^

personallyy i want to go with the originally imprisoned, and then he slowly warms up to the crew and the crew starts warming up to him. i don’t know i can’t think of many logical arguments why a maxholx would willingly jump on ship w a bunch of filthy monkeys without that classic y/n excuse of “they’re just different and special 😌” So. my google docs and i shall see !! i just think it’d be cute to look deeper into parallel (right word/phrase ?) cat / maxholx habits,,, i wonder if they purr,,,