#with a power differential

[pipitwrites]

a sci-fi snippet...

These were the things Sebastian had on file for Ensign Charles Leclerc—at a mere twenty years of age, he was something of a prodigy. Of course, all the children who were recommended to sit for the Academy exams were heralded as hometown heroes, but Leclerc was the real deal as far as Sebastian could tell. Fast-tracked through the Sauber advanced engineering program to an unprecedented appointment on the Scuderia Ferrari, Leclerc had been instrumental in tracking down a bug in a mainframe update that had led to an unexpected downtime last quarter. Sebastian had even given a public commendation in front of the rest of the crew—Leclerc had seemed quiet, almost shy, then.

In the psychological assessment section of Leclerc’s personnel file there was a note about his father’s death and a personal connection to a pilot in the ill-fated Suzuka mission a few years back. Charles has overcome remarkable adversity, the evaluation concluded, and will be an invaluable member of the fleet, a true team player.

Sebastian had always known those psych profiles were bullshit.

“You can’t turn off EN-20, or won’t?” he asked.

Leclerc swallowed roughly, pale except for the blotchy patches of red high on his cheeks. “We made him the way that he is—we cannot just abandon him!”

“He—” Sebastian swore. “EN-20 has gone rogue. If anything this is further proof why it needs to be decommissioned.”

“Only because he doesn’t understand! For years he has protected this ship from threats, it’s been his only duty.”

“So he thinks the Aegis is a threat?”

“Yes,” Leclerc answered without hesitation. “When they are trying to take him offline.”

Sebastian looked back at the navigation screen. The Scuderia Ferrari would be within firing range of the Aegis flagship in a little less than ninety minutes.

“Please, Sebastian,” Leclerc said. The quiet hope on his face made him look young—soft.

“I am your Captain,” Sebastian reminded him.

Leclerc’s mouth twisted, eyes flashing. “Then throw me into the brig.”

Sebastian swore again, even more colorfully this time. Kimi would have been proud. That was the problem with prodigies, the real ones. They always had the ego to go with it, in the end.

“We have an hour to try and fix this,” he told Leclerc.

Leclerc’s shoulders sagged in relief as he slumped back down into his seat. He startled, eyes widening when Sebastian took the workstation next to him. “We?”

Sebastian grinned at Leclerc’s bewildered expression. “You know, I started out on the Engineering track before switching to Command.”

“But that was thirteen years ago,” Leclerc said, frowning. He flushed when he noticed Sebastian’s raised eyebrow.

“I helped design Enzo’s prototype then, but I am guessing you knew that, too,” Sebastian said. Leclerc’s blush deepened.

[playfully-sadistic]

One thing about being a sadistic dom is that you'll never hear me say "Oh, baby, don't cry" to a sub, but you will see me grab myself through my pants and grin at you, if you start crying in front of me.

[worstloki]

there is a difference between being born to a throne, maliciously vying for a throne, stealing a throne, and having a throne thrust upon you when you are already in the midst of an identity crisis. And I fear Loki's place in the line of succession has people unable to differentiate between any of these

[siffrin-gimmick-blog-number-37]

imagine if sif was having a period during the loops and didnt notice until after act 6

daily 16.5: me and my stupid blinding looney tunes gender be like

[svenghouly]

Jod wanted to "save" the planet as equitably as possible with science. Now wants to root out the ancestors of the trillionaires that escaped his clutches 10,000 years ago and destroy them. Already destroyed literally everything in the process.

BOE wants to stop Jod in his tracks from continuing to enact his destructive planet killing agenda, liberate the currently oppressed worlds, seek ancestral revenge by killing him which could possibly destroy the whole universe in the process.

Are they really so dissimilar or am I misinterpreting this.

[duerede]

You can argue that Gale is the kinkiest, or that Astarion is the kinkiest, but in reality Gale is tantra sex kinky and Astarion is BDSM kinky and their tastes in fact overlap nowhere.

[daeneryseastar]

so i don’t understand what is *so* hard to get about the idea that rhaenyra being crowned as queen *peacefully* would’ve at least introduced the baby-step process that women can inherit the iron throne, even if it doesn’t automatically lead to absolute primogeniture and prompt benefits being established for -all- women.

book-wise we have one (ONLY one) inkling of how rhaenyra feels about the succession, and it’s that she doesn’t wish to alienate any more allies than she already had:

show-wise we have a vague and contradictory line of jace and baela’s sons inheriting the iron throne followed by luke and rhaena’s children inheriting the driftwood throne, which just seems like an inconsistency in the writer’s room, but why is that *such* an issue for those that support aegon’s claim to begin with? rhaenyra only has sons (biologically) at this point, so we really don’t know whether or not she would’ve named a daughter as her heir over a son, but this thought process derives from real history. eventually female heirs were allowed in certain circumstances but male children were *always* preferred (until recently). this still doesn’t change what her reign would’ve entailed had there not been war. rhaenyra is allowed to fight for the right her father granted onto her when she was 8 years old, aegon was not entitled to it simply because he was born with a penis and his mother raised him to believe that made him special.

jeyne arryn, one of her staunchest allies, point blank states what will happen to women heirs and ladies in their own right if the greens are allowed to repudiate the succession, because it’s something she -personally- had gone through:

“in this world of men, we women must band together,” the green council states that they cannot rely on the eyrie for support due to is presently being ruled by a WOMAN. they knew what this would mean for women moving forward.

if we were to look into the history of english monarchs the first (official) queen regnant of england was mary i, who ruled for five years, and didn’t make any changes to the rules of succession during her reign (any that involved gender, any battles she faced mostly had to do with religion). she was followed by her sister elizabeth i, who ruled for 45 years, and made no changes to the rules of succession. both of whom ascended as queen because there were no male relatives alive at the time, but each obviously proved that women were just as capable of men ruling, releasing at least some of the stigma surrounding that subject during their time alive. it wasn’t even until recently, during the reign of elizabeth ii (in 2013, specifically), that absolute primogeniture was enacted into law, ending the system of male-preference cognitive primogeniture. mary became queen in october of 1553, so it took 460 years for this change to occur.

rhaenyra is based off empress matilda, daughter of henry i, who would’ve been the first queen regnant of england had she not been challenged and deposed by her cousin, stephen of blois, in a war known as the anarchy; with it ultimately ending when a peace treaty was signed by both stephen and matilda, with her son henry ii named as stephen’s successor upon his death (which happened a year later). this war began in 1135, which was 878 years before the succession was formally changed and 418 years before england would actually see a queen on the throne. this is just to put it into perspective how one queen is not going to immediately enact change for the betterment of all women whilst attempting to rule an age-old abhorrent system, but saying that they had no bearing on succession laws and gender equality moving forward is wild.

not only did rhaenyra only reign for six months, she was in the middle of a civil war that had resulted in the deaths of four of her children (as far as she knew) at that point. among that the treasury had been depleted and sent to green loyalists, so she was taking over a country with virtually no money at hand. her reign was damned from the start, and her near broken mental state led her to make some bad decisions. from the beginning of her heir ship she was looked down upon for being a woman; her stepmother spread vile rumors about her virginity when was in her early teens, her sworn shield groomed and took advantage of her, her siblings were raised to hate her and view her as a threat to THEIR birthright and lives, her father was nigh on useless in protecting her against any of this due to his pacifist and pushover nature. she was usurped because she was a woman, and ultimately killed because she was a woman. denying the tragedy of her life is refusing to understand the deeper components of the story being told.

if women aren’t even able to hold offices of high power how is anything supposed to change for those in even worse circumstances? women didn’t gain semi equal rights by being silent and subservient to the men around them, they gained them by fighting back against the status quo; by marching, lobbying their politicians, lecturing those willing and unwilling to listen to their plight, causing civil disobedience, etc. we shouldn’t condemn those that do not have the will nor the ability to participate in these events, but refusing to understand their opposites and overtly criticizing how imperfect they are or blaming them for their suffering is not the way to go.

once again, rhaenyra is not a feminist, but she should be seen as a proto-feminist figure by us, the audience, for her will to stake her claim as the first woman to sit the iron throne. her usurpation and subsequent murder leads to the death of all dragons, a catastrophic consequence considering her parallels to the amethyst empress and the dire stakes at hand in regard to the second long night.

[quirinah]

they are having an argument over whether P=NP

[olessan]

[the--firevenus]

That one world quest with cassadee where we try to help her realize that her idolization of merlin maybe not for who he is as a person, but rather what merlin represent.. Which is magic itself....

Anyways, take that concept and put it to when young mirael when she was still merlin student. In a sense, her adoration for merlin appear the same to cassadee idolization for merlin, and once merlin had said to young mirael; "are you sure you're adoring me for who I am or are you adoring merlin?" and for the longest time mirael was so sure what she likes about her mentor IS for who that person really is, not the title he carries, not what he represent as a whole. Merlin was mirael dearest and she so sure of that, so sure she looked for her mentor for 20 years...

Then she meet her dearest again, except... He's different. no longer the same person she remembers (and he doesn't remembers her)

So once again came in the question... Is it merlin she adore, or her dearest "mentor"?

[zetsubobu]

So what if I combined two mystery/angsty supernatural shows

So I handed lizzy a death note, let's see what she will do with it!

I honestly don't think she would use it unless it is to protect her loved ones and then after that it's mostly just her paranoid over getting potentially caught. Though I think it would lead to some good scenarios!

[mythalism]

.

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking that this Gojo is just like Sukuna. I truly don't see much of a difference between them beyond the human/curse point of view

[daily-sloop-john-b]

I know we all love to say "fuck mystra" this and/or Gale's Folly (subtitled: How Could You Be Such A Callous Idiot)—but really, Gale and Mystra are primarily REALLY BAD at communicating. The whole issue started when Mystra a) couldn't provide a satisfying answer to Gale's desire for more, b) Gale decided that instead of being vulnerable and working through it, he'd do a Secret Project(TM), c) Gale didn't bother telling Mystra what said project was, and/or she only vaguely warned him off it. And then Gale rolled a nat 1 on his arcana check, and then a second nat 1 for insight b/c the DM was attempting to take mercy on him and was staring at Gale and the book, worrying 4d6 under the table while not breaking eye contact and saying, very slowly, "...are you sure?"

[not-poignant]

Thank you for writing Palmarosa! You write Astarion’s trauma so beautifully and I’m so excited to read more. For you, what is the most fun to write about for Palmarosa?

Hi anon!

I enjoy the interplay between Astarion and Raphael the most, but I have to be careful with it. Too much where Astarion and Raphael are getting along, and the tension fades and Raphael becomes just like... 'cute soft devil man' lol, and too little isn't good either.

But mostly I just enjoy writing them talking or spending time together, whether that's tense or fraught or calm or painful or terrifying or fun. Getting them both in a room together and forcing them to interact makes me happy :D

[statementlou]

i’m sorry to bring this up again, but i wanted to ask how are you making sense of harry having his former girlfriend’s name tattooed on his thigh if you don’t think they were really together? i’m not a larrie and i follow you for your louis content, but i respect your opinions, so i guess i’m coming more from a place of curiosity rather than seeking reassurance. do you not even entertain for one second the idea that you might’ve been wrong about things? that harry was really in a relationship with olivia? that he might actually be attracted to women? that he might’ve been with louis once upon a time but not anymore? have you ever challenged your confirmation bias? again, i’m not trying to attack you, i really just want to understand where you stand. i hope u don’t take this the wrong way.

well first of all you bring up the very good point that there are actually multiple Qs at play and not just one, despite the fandom's (and my) attempts to simplify things. I personally am open to the possibility that Harry and Louis are no longer together- we don't have enough info to say for sure either way about that, and I am constantly recalibrating and considering and I'm going to be totally honest, getting flat out ANNOYED at how often I find myself being like oh damn they ARE still (or again) together ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Because it seems so improbable and illogical! You think I don't KNOW I sound fucking crazy?! Absolutely infuriating, and yet there are just all these little Things all the time. Plus ofc the fact that they both constantly wink wink larrie stuff to the fandom which could just be playing to the crowd... except then they both continually take it that little extra way that makes me go oh but... you really didn't NEED to go THERE that seems VERY pointed?? But also sometimes I go well. Okay, maybe not. Since they both seem super happy at this point, it doesn't stress me out to think they might have split, the way it would if they seemed miserable and were still churning out heartbreak songs, but it's schrodingers relationship and with all the savvy they've acquired around this stuff and all the balls they're keeping in the air wrt to fandom etc that's unlikely to change in favor of us knowing anything for sure for a very long time, if ever. But I do not doubt that they WERE together, it's simply not realistic. The evidence of it is overwhelming and imo undeniable when taken all together. And the thing is that knowing one thing with certainty (that they were together back when), having really looked at the things that happened during that time, does actually have a lot of bearing on the rest of it even if they aren't together anymore. Because knowing that and having seen the way fake relationships to make them seem straight were managed back then means that when I see the EXACT SAME things being done in the current day, like they are working from a fucking blueprint, no, I don't look at that and think it might be real. I know that Louis and Eleanor wasn't real in... whenever they allegedly got together lol, that story still isn't even quite straight, so why would I believe they were together in 2020? And if I know Louis has a tattoo for a fake girlfriend why would it change my mind about a million things I can see with my own eyes if Harry did the same (if indeed he even has who tf knows)? So despite what I said at the beginning, in the end it kind of does just come down to the one question people are always asking, are you a larrie? Because when you've actually been down the rabbit hole of details that ends up with you saying yes to that question, it's like acquiring a rosetta stone that unlocks the ability to read everything else, like putting on xray glasses, and I look at what is so obviously a publicity relationship (holivia) and whether H and L are still together has nothing to do with why I don't think it's real. Like could a celeb relationship be both used in typical ways for publicity and be or become real on some level (looking at you Liam, heyyy), sure, but for this question the fact that I have never seen Harry show the slightest sign of attraction to a woman in his whole life and he so clearly embraces and identifies so strongly with gay male culture in every possible way and never shuts up about how much he loves cock does play into my thinking; I simply do not think he is attracted to women, no, and I have yet to see him do anything that doesn't seem consistent with things a closeted pop star might chose to do. So in conclusion yes I have challenged my bias and decided I'm right lol! But for real- all the time I consider that they perhaps aren't together but that isn't really the point when it comes to believing they are gay.