#without consequences :3c

[bagelbun333]

Godot is morally grey and that’s okay! | The most human Ace Attorney Deuteragonist

So I had like, several topics in mind relating to Godot that I wanted to ramble about, so I decided to just put them all together in one extremely long post. So, buckle up, it’s gonna be a doozy. :3c

TW and CW: References to murder, suicide, sexism, and mental health issues

Also major spoiler warning for the Phoenix Wright Trilogy, especially aa3!

Godot is a character who gets a lot of backlash for being morally grey, controversial, and for holding a grudge against Phoenix for seemingly “no reason”. He even gets labelled as a “raging misogynist.” I would like to go over in depth of his character and put into perspective just how much goes on in his mind that makes him do the things he does in the story. It may not excuse his actions, but it does help to have a better understanding. He’s one of those characters that if you view from a single-minded perspective, you’re not gonna get the best judgement of his character.

Misguided Hatred on Phoenix + Mental Health Issues

We’ll start off with his backstory. His real name is Diego Armando, a promising young lawyer with a beautiful girlfriend and has a loving (and smug) personality. He was so moved by Mia Fey, with her being so kind, caring and faithful. She wholeheartedly believed in the good of people, especially her clients. Diego loved that about her, and he wanted to make sure that she sees it for herself. He supported her through and through, and he stood by her side when her first trial ended in tragedy.

He eventually got poisoned by Dahlia Hawthorne, putting him into a coma for five years. He reawakens, learns of Mia’s death, and changes his identity to Godot. Ever since then, he builds up a deep loathing towards Phoenix Wright.

His hatred for Phoenix can be compared to Franziska von Karma’s hatred; but unlike her, there is a much more deeper connection between them. This is a deep, messy, traumatic and tragic story that tangled two unfortunate people together. There is a proper reason to be angry at someone here; a reason that isn’t even clear at a glance.

His hatred towards Phoenix stems from the hatred towards himself. This is called displacement; a defense mechanism that involves transferring negative feelings from one thing to another. In this case, Godot projects his self-loathing onto Phoenix to avoid blaming himself. Which obviously isn’t a good thing, or even a healthy thing. It can easily cause problems with relationships. But the important thing to consider is why did he have to cope like that in the first place? Well, because he had no other way. He didn’t just jump to that method immediately, he would’ve gone through other ways first, but those methods didn’t work out for him. It’s a process of trial and error until he had no choice but to use risky tactics. He has nobody to confide in, he nearly died in one of the most brutal ways imaginable, he woke up blind and suffers from chronic pain and depression, he needs to make frequent visits to the hospital, the world has moved on without him, and ultimately his girlfriend was murdered while he was in a coma. Then he finds out that the one person who was by her side seemingly failed to protect her and got to inherit her law office as a result, despite being an “incompetent” rookie.

It’s a lot for one person to take in, and enough to make anyone break down. Imagine how pissed he would be once he found out some amateur took over his girlfriend’s law office (the same guy who let your own murderer run free for eight months, which is the murderer who put you in a coma, preventing you from doing anything about your girlfriend’s demise) and that amateur renamed the law office after himself just after she got murdered. I would also direct my grief and anger towards this bozo too. He gets to have all this glory from doing nothing? I can understand why Godot would want him to have some consequences at the very least.

And this is a law office that Godot never had the pleasure of working in or even seeing for himself. And all of that was just given to Phoenix after only two trials under his belt. Not only did Godot have everything taken away from him; everything that Mia also had was given to someone who (in his perspective) didn’t deserve it. Phoenix is living in Mia’s success over Godot’s monumental loss. Mia basically died for Phoenix’s benefit. Meanwhile Godot lost everything he lived for, and Phoenix unknowingly took that away from him too.

Of course, Phoenix did not have any control over that. However, in Godot’s perspective, it would simply look like Phoenix took Mia’s place without a second thought.

The only things Godot knew about Phoenix was:

- He stood in Mia’s rightful place, having the nerve to take over when she died.

- He helped to conceal Dahlia’s necklace which allowed her to live freely without consequences yet again, resulting in Diego’s attempted murder to be unsolved for eight months.

Godot shows clear signs of the stages of grief, bargaining being a big one. He definitely asked a lot of “what ifs” to himself, like “What if I could’ve saved her?” “What if he saved her?” “What if I didn’t drink that stupid poison?” “Would I have woken up sooner if he didn’t hide the bottle of poison?” Considering he has nobody to confide in, he only has himself to ask these questions to. He only had himself to figure out what he must do next; and because of that he quickly spiralled into a huge depression, and tunnel-visioned onto Phoenix until he believed that he was responsible for Mia’s demise. This is the result of no therapy and no friends or family. Even less than that, he lost his eyesight, hair colour and good health too. His promising life was ripped away from him and some bozo got it all for free! How’s one person supposed to comprehend so much trauma effectively in his position? How was he supposed to think rationally after what he went through?

He had all of these problems suddenly thrown onto him and he had no time to mentally process any of them. Not only did he have to learn to adapt to being blind; living with the fact that he’s never gonna be the same again, and recover from a five year coma with nobody waiting for him — he didn’t even have the time to grieve for Mia.

He went through in his mind that he was responsible for “letting Mia die” before blaming Phoenix as a coping mechanism. At first, he would’ve went through suicidal thoughts because he couldn’t live with the fact that he “let Mia die.” Then in his mind, it clicked for him. The fastest way to atone for “letting Mia die” was to protect her little sister, Maya. If he couldn’t protect Mia, then he should at least protect Maya to make up for it. This became one of the two reasons for him to live. He really didn’t want to feel like a failure to Mia so he became obsessed with needing to protect whoever was important to her. Because that’s what she would want, right? He’s worthy enough for Mia, right? Worthy enough to be forgiven even though he left her to die, right? Godot doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how much she had changed over those five years, and he can only remember her as the little rookie he had so much hope for. For all he knows, Mia could’ve forgotten all about him, and that thought terrified him. But at the same time, he probably thought it was for the best. What he doesn’t know, is that Mia never forgot about him, and she wants him to be saved. And no, that does not mean she wants him to join her in Heaven so soon after waking up. It means she wants him to live the life that she doesn’t have anymore. If he knew this, he would do it for her.

His other reason for living was Phoenix. He needed to see the one person who Mia had taught, and test if he was truly capable and worthy of taking her place. He had to see for himself just what kind of person Phoenix was. After all, this is the guy who supposedly took everything away from him; does he really deserve it? He also really needed an emotional punching bag to avoid hurting himself, and Phoenix was, unfortunately, the perfect candidate. He’s a lawyer, he “failed” to protect Mia, he was “dumb” enough to be manipulated by Dahlia. It’ll be just like hating himself except he’s directing it to somebody else. It’s the only way he can process his anger and grief. This is what displacement is.

Speaking of displacement, it isn’t an excuseable behaviour by any means, but it does put into perspective on how he keeps his emotions together. Despite placing the blame and hatred onto Phoenix, he’s really comparing himself to Phoenix. But what he doesn’t realise is that Mia’s death is neither his or Phoenix’s fault. He’s so stuck on the fact that Mia’s death could’ve been prevented that he became blind to the real facts of the matter. The stage of bargaining really does have a strong chokehold on him.

Godot latched onto that belief so tightly that he ended up believing his own lie. Thus, he gaslit himself into believing Phoenix was actually responsible for Mia’s death, which in turn led to his seething anger and hatred towards Phoenix. Godot was terrified of being the one responsible for letting Mia die, so he had no choice but to believe in his own lie. If Phoenix can’t be blamed, then Godot is the only other one responsible; in his perspective anyway.

A neat little symbolism that I’ve noticed for Godot is the whole “hiding behind a mask” aspect. He’s a man of mystery, both in origin and appearance. Not only does he have the benefit of hiding behind a mask, but he often speaks in a quiet and calm manner to hide his vulnerability.

Every so often his calm yet cryptic demeanour cracks, and his true vulnerable nature seeps through. We see this for the first time when Mia gets channeled towards the end of 3-2. He instantly recognises her, and he completely freezes and goes silent. After a couple minutes of silence on his end, the judge asks if he’s alright, resulting in Godot snapping back into reality. Then he decides to let Phoenix do the final cross-examination, even though it’s not at all beneficial to his case. The only reason he did that was because Mia was there, and he could never say no to her, especially not when he feels like he’s betrayed her; he feels that he owes her everything, even his own life. She’s essentially his biggest weakness.

Then there’s the moment where he realised that he missed Maya’s name written in blood in 3-5. He realised that, once again, he failed Mia. Therefore he panics. He doesn’t panic when being accused of murder mind you, because he knows he deserves the consequences. But the fact that he panics over Maya being accused really tells me that he puts someone, who he doesn’t actually know that well, above himself. If he can’t save Maya, then he’s worthless. That’s what’s running through his mind at that moment.

He’s been panicking ever since Misty Fey died, even worse when Maya suddenly disappeared. So much more heavy burdens are weighing him down, and he knows that he set something into motion that he can’t undo. Does that sound familiar? That’s because he said that exact same thing to Phoenix. Projection strikes again! This is when his coping mechanism is at its absolute worst, and understandably so. His self-hatred was racing to him like an avalanche, therefore his anger and hatred comes to Phoenix the exact same way. He suddenly brings up Mia’s death for seemingly no reason, but in Godot’s perspective, that old incident has been fresh on his mind the entire time. To him it seemed like everyone moved on too quickly, and it hurt him so much in ways that he can’t even describe. How dare they move on while he’s still suffering?

Godot has been feeling shame ever since he woke up from his coma and found out about Mia’s murder. It wasn’t until he saw Mia’s spirit alongside Phoenix near the end of 3-5 where the shame and hatred disappeared. It was then replaced with regret. He realises that he was wrong and that he did terrible things to Phoenix, and he believes his actions were inexcusable. He feels immense guilt about the way he treated Phoenix, and he thinks he should’ve directed his anger towards himself all along, or as he puts it, the one who he couldn’t truly forgive was himself. He even questions if he really wanted to save Maya at all — he can’t trust his own intentions anymore. This sudden realisation makes him blind to his own good intentions that he was previously dependent on throughout the whole story. He then heaps all of the blame onto himself, (similar to Mia’s behaviour at the end of 3-4) but Phoenix and Maya believe that his good intentions were genuine, and they try to make him realise this, which results in him finally crying for the first time.

This is the moment where he finally releases his true emotions after keeping them bottled up for so long. Tired from keeping his shields up, all he can do is cry. This is the equivalent of Maya releasing Dahlia’s demonic spirit out of her body — his feelings are that intense. The demonic spirit in this case is his “Godot” persona. Diego has finally been saved from the “evil spirit” that has been cursing him this entire time. Remember how exhausted Maya was after channelling Dahlia? Well, imagine how exhausted Diego must be after being “possessed” by Godot the past year. Phoenix and Mia didn’t just exorcise one evil spirit that day, and Mia certainly seems to know this when she told Phoenix that he saved Diego. Maybe Phoenix will realise this later.

Godot wanted to be caught, and he wanted Phoenix to be the one to catch him. He didn’t want neither Phoenix nor Maya to overlook the mistakes he made but rather bring out the truth, no matter how painful it was. He believed that they’re strong enough to handle the truth, which shows that he really does respect them.

He’s not a bad person. He’s morally grey. He’s only human. He’s the most human character there is. Irrational, imperfect, emotional and selfless. He’s not entirely hateful, he’s scared. He’s grieving. He’s not rational, he’s traumatised. He distances himself from others and paints himself in a bad light. He doesn’t take pride in himself, he doesn’t care about what others think of him. He just wants to find reasons to live and be at peace with Mia’s death.

The “Worst” Prosecutor?

A huge misconception about Godot that I’ve come to notice is that he is another prosecutor who cares about maintaining a perfect win record — which is just… blatantly incorrect. Godot did joke about being a “legendary prosecutor who never lost a case” at the beginning, but that’s all it is: a joke. He was mocking the other prosecutors because he is very aware that a lot of them care about that more than anything; he wasn’t boasting about himself at all, just taking a stab at previous prosecutors because he has had enough with that reoccurring issue. He was the one who wanted to break that chain. He has no doubt dealt with these kinds of prosecutors when he was a defence attorney, so why would he want to become the thing that he disapproved of?

Plus Godot has a history of making fun of people, so him mocking other prosecutors for being so pretentious and full of themselves is not hard to believe.

More prosecutors need to take a page out of Godot’s book and learn how to take an L. Godot knows how to accept defeat, and that’s something all good prosecutors should do. Good prosecutors aren’t the ones with perfect win records, it’s actually the ones who fight for the truth and are able to accept the losses if it comes down to that.

The fact that the fandom declares Godot as the worst prosecutor because he never won a case is just so absurd to me, because the second game teaches you that a perfect win record doesn’t mean shit. It’s clear from the outset that Godot doesn’t care about a perfect win record, and would much rather find the truth on top of testing Phoenix’s capabilities. Godot doesn’t even let his own witnesses lie for his benefit, because he only wants to win legitimately. If that’s not a good prosecutor, I don’t know what is. (Also I believe Mia herself said “I don’t plan on winning through paper-thin lies” so there’s another neat parallel between them 🥰)

Godot’s motive for being a prosecutor was so that he could challenge Phoenix in the courtroom, as well as protecting Maya. He didn’t necessarily care about winning, he just wanted to test if Phoenix was truly capable of being Mia’s successor; and he wanted to believe that for himself. Phoenix was the only one who could pass on Mia’s legacy, and he really didn’t want that to go to waste. So who better than himself (the one who taught Mia everything she knew) should test Phoenix’s ability to be Mia’s protégé? Godot was making sure that Mia’s (and his own) teachings didn’t go to waste.

Then there’s still the matter of his hatred towards Phoenix. Despite gaslighting himself into hating him, he still believed in Phoenix deep down. He also wanted to be proven wrong. Proven wrong that Mia’s death was Phoenix’s fault, and to be proven wrong that Phoenix would never be half the lawyer Mia was. He secretly wanted to be saved by Phoenix.

In the end, because of Phoenix’s actions, Godot finally came to terms with himself and accepted that Phoenix wasn’t to blame at all. Godot made Phoenix prove that he is in fact worthy of being Mia’s successor, and he proved that neither one of them should be blamed for Mia’s death. Phoenix saved Godot, and that wouldn’t have happened if Godot didn’t challenge Phoenix so much to begin with. In my opinion, Godot has been Phoenix’s most challenging opponent as a lawyer. He tested his capabilities, his beliefs, his moral compass, everything — because that’s how much Phoenix really meant to him.

So Godot’s “perfect win record”? That never mattered to him ever. All he cared about was Mia’s legacy living on. He never felt damaged because of a trial loss, he felt damaged because he was slowly accepting that Phoenix didn’t fail Mia. He doesn’t care that he never won a single case as a prosecutor, and he shouldn’t be made fun of because of that either. Because perfect win records mean absolutely nothing in general. This perfectionism issue all started because of Manfred von Karma, and it should die with him as well. Let’s not have it rubbing off on the prosecutors who have nothing to do with him.

Godot is the first prosecutor who gives no fucks about winning for the sake of perfection. He genuinely wants to find the truth; he believed in that as a defence attorney and he still believes that as a prosecutor.

Godot is Phoenix’s ultimate parallel. Godot is what Phoenix could have been if he were pushed to the extremes. Whatever Phoenix throws at him, Godot throws it right back. He copies Phoenix’s methods in order to truly test his capabilities as a lawyer. He wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine. He wanted to find out how well Phoenix can actually do when being opposed by himself, so Godot takes on that role. He prosecutes in a manner of a defence attorney, and this happens to be a challenge that Phoenix struggles with the most. Phoenix had prosecutors stumped many times in the past and now he’s finally the one who gets to witness what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that kind of trickery.

It makes sense, given that the person who taught Phoenix to use these kinds of tactics (such as bluffing) was Mia Fey. Of course, Mia learned this from none other than Diego himself. Godot testing Phoenix’s abilities this way makes perfect sense. Then it all comes full circle when Phoenix surpasses Godot’s expectations. The student has surpassed the master.

Godot is the perfect antithesis of Phoenix. They both have the same driving force but with one major difference; one had support while the other had nothing. If they swapped places, they would still fit each other’s roles. If Phoenix didn’t have the support he had, he would end up just like Godot.

Godot insulting and bullying Phoenix is also kind of a parallel to Phoenix’s snarky remarks to the people around him. The difference is that Godot reserves the most bitter snarky remarks towards Phoenix specifically. All of that is tied to his misguided hatred towards him due to Mia’s murder, but the way he insults Phoenix is so similar to how Phoenix insults other people. It’s another example of Godot giving Phoenix a taste of his own medicine.

Misogyny Allegations

Oh boy, here we go.

Godot’s whole purpose of character development is that he’s learning how to properly grieve and accept the loss of his loved one and learning how to move on. He goes through a painful lesson of humility by realising how important Phoenix’s role is and seeing how competent he grew to be. How does him being misogynistic correlate to any of that? It doesn’t. Anything misogynistic interprated from him is by the fault of the writers. You can see that with almost all the characters in this series; they have at least one moment where they say something blatantly sexist. Even characters like Gumshoe, Maya and Mia have had these moments.

Godot doesn’t even have that many moments where he says something sexist, and when he does it always comes off as out of character for him; along with the others. Just because he often talks about being manly, doesn’t mean he’s being sexist. He loves being a man, and he’s comfortable with that identity. That’s how many men feel, especially trans men.

In the anime, where the same story is being told, there were some interesting changes in the writing. All the out-of-pocket sexist writing from the games have been completely removed, further proving my point that the sexism in most characters are not intentional, and it’s the (game’s) writers themselves being misogynistic.

A character can’t be sexist purely because they’ve been written by sexist people. If you think Godot is sexist because of this, then you also have to say that all the other characters are as well, because they are guilty of the exact same thing. You can’t let favouritism pick and choose who you ignore the writing for. There’s evidence of other characters saying even more sexist stuff, but they get a free pass because it’s just them being “out of character.” But when this happens to Godot once or twice, he gets labelled as a “misogynistic asshole” and it’s deemed his only character trait. Why should Godot have to carry all the blame for this? Especially when he’s one of the few dark-skinned, disabled characters in the series? The Ace Attorney fandom is not beating the racism allegations.

Also, do you really think Mia would fall in love with a man like that? Someone who’s only character trait is misogyny? She wouldn’t. The reason she does fall in love with him is because he has many admirable qualities, and he believed in her when she needed support.

Now, there are characters who are actually written to be sexist, like Redd White, Matt Engarde and Dahlia Hawthorne. But guess what? They don’t even get nearly the same amount of backlash for the sexism allegations, even though they are fully intended to be that way.

Redd White attributes women as just accessories to his image (April May) and using them as scapegoats whenever he’s in trouble. He’s also described as a “lady killer.”

Matt Engarde is known as a “player with women.” He only views women as his toys until he gets bored of them and throws them away. One of them, as we know of, commits suicide over this. He also has that fragile “male pride.”

Dahlia Hawthorne attributes femininity as something that's weak and fragile who always needs to be saved, while the “horrible” men around her take the blame for the "pure, innocent” woman. Victimizing herself at its finest.

These are brilliant examples of writing sexism into characters. All three of these examples are characters who are antagonistic, selfish, and deserve no sympathy. Characters can be well-written and sexist if that’s supposed to be the writer’s intent. But with Godot, he’s not written with that intent in mind; anything sexist that comes from him always comes out of left field and feels very out of his character. Lots of other characters in this series have this exact same problem; such as Phoenix, Gumshoe, Mia and Maya and so on. Godot clearly is in the same boat as the other characters I’ve just listed off, but as I’ve mentioned before, he doesn’t get that free pass. The fact that he’s the one dark-skinned character not getting the free pass despite him being in the same boat is very suspicious. It’s as if the dark-skinned characters all must have that sexism trait. Why should that be if you’re not racist, hm?

Just a small footnote: I wanted to include Morgan Fey as one of the sexist characters but thinking about it some more I realise that a lot of it is just an interpretation, not something in canon text. It’s easy to interpret her as sexist due to her being reliant on her old fashioned values and her being suspicious of men entering the village, but that’s not something entirely concrete. It’s still an interesting thing to think about tho!

Going back to the main point, I'd like to add that I think a lot of people refuse to look deeper into Godot’s character and rather simplify him down to the sexist faults; not just because of racism, but fandom bias towards the characters as well.

For example, they’ve known Edgeworth longer and try to excuse his behavior as a fault of Manfred von Karma indirectly teaching him these values. And because of the fandom’s bias towards Edgeworth and against Godot, despite both being flawed characters with trauma written by sexist writers, one gets excused and defended while the other recieves the brunt of the hate for it.

Edgeworth had many moments where he’s sexist, even after his Bratworth phase. Him calling Mia a bimbo is far from the only occurrence of his sexism. He always views women to be inferior to men, especially when it comes to physical strength. It’s especially apparent in the first trilogy, such as him defending Iris’ innocence by claiming she’s too weak to use a sword as a weapon purely because she’s a woman, and him claiming that Valerie Hawthorne turned her back on Terry Fawles because he was a big scary man with a knife — even though she had police training and had a gun on her own person. He even specified that if the criminal was a “quaggy” woman like Mia, Valerie would’ve acted differently.

Here’s screenshots of the second example if you don’t believe me:

Edgeworth is a flawed character and I believe that sexism is intentionally written to be one of his many flaws. I can definitely see that it’s something he learned from Manfred, but that should not excuse his behaviour. You can enjoy a flawed character such as Edgeworth without needing to defend him and his flaws; because when you do that, you’re going to sound like you approve of the horrible things he’s done. Just because he changes overtime should not mean that all the bad things he did in the past should be forgotten about. A big part of his character development should be him getting humbled and taking responsibility for his actions and mistakes, not running away from it and making excuses.

I’ve seen Edgeworth fans defend his sexism by saying things such as “He’s only like that because of von Karma, it’s not his fault!” “He has autism and he is gay, therefore he can do whatever he wants”, “Well that’s Bratworth for ya!”, “He got better!”, “Franziska wouldn’t let him!” (I actually saw all those responses on twitter, big surprise 💀)

First of all, he’s a grown-ass adult, he knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s definitely old enough to be held accountable for his actions. Secondly, being autistic and gay doesn’t give him an excuse to be a shitty person; you can be autistic and gay and still have a horrible attitude like a lot of other people. Thirdly, saying “that’s Bratworth for you!” has major “boys will be boys” vibes when said boy is tormenting women, which is a disgusting thing to say.

And then there’s Franziska. Not gonna sugarcoat it, she’s intentionally written to be sexist too. A well-written sexist but still sexist nonetheless. Out of her own insecurity she lashes out and puffs herself up, trying to one-up people; women included. She seems to be extremely determined to prove herself to be better than the "men of the court.” Though for Franz, it could be that she became sexist towards men because she entered that workforce from the pressure of her father, and needed to keep up her image.

Now that I’m writing this, I’ve realised Franziska is kind of the antithesis of Dahlia, who is another intentionally well-written sexist character. Dahlia wants to appear weak and fragile and innocent. Franz wants to appear capable, confident, and strong; someone who is able to uphold her own image to get out of her brother's shadow. Yet they both act the same when confronted about this fact.

Because at the end of 2-4, Franz runs away wanting revenge on Phoenix and Edgeworth, and she cries at the fact that she isn’t ready to be left behind again. At the end of 3-5, Dahlia is forced away by the power of exorcism, and her last moments of grasping on the physical world was her crying about how she isn't ready to leave, and wanting a forever vendetta against Mia Fey specifically.

They both act aggressively when being confronted and their facade breaks, they just want to appear differently. They both also inflicted a heavy source of trauma onto Maya and Phoenix.

Edgeworth and Franziska are good characters, but they are far from good people. You can enjoy their flaws without resorting to defending them. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy them! But trying to put down Godot for having similar flaws only to uplift the other group of characters is just wrong. Demonizing people who enjoy Godot for his flaws is even worse. Let fans enjoy things ffs— This is why I think a lot of Edgeworth and Franziska fans have huge biases when explaining why they hate Godot so much.

We can appreciate the characters for what they are; like and dislike them for our personal reasons, and it’s best not to engage with people wanting to start arguments. For example, I really don’t like Franz but I can understand her character and see how she must've felt being raised by a severely strict perfectionist. Being held up to so many expectations and standards at such a young age can make you a complicated person, to say the least.

But that’s besides the point. Going back to the biased hatred towards Godot, the fandom tends to ignore how much trust Godot places in women. He trusted Mia, Maya, Misty and Iris — to name a few. This doesn’t mean he sees all women as being sweet and innocent all the time, but he sees women being just as competent as men; whether it’s them being good or evil. With Mia he saw her as a strong, bold and intelligent woman. He believed in her capabilities as a lawyer and as a person. Not once did he think of taking Mia’s place in 3-4 because he had doubts about her, in fact he encouraged her to take the lead the entire time.

With Dahlia he saw her as a threat; he feared her. He wanted to catch her because he knew how dangerous she was. He took her seriously because he knows how competent she was. He almost got killed by her, resulting in his severe trauma later on. And the reason he ended up acting so recklessly in 3-5 was because he knew firsthand how terrifying she is.

And just because he wants to protect Mia and Maya, doesn’t mean he views them as weak things that need to be saved. Adding along to this, if the ghost of someone who tried to kill me was going after somebody else I care about, and I had little time to prepare, yeah, I’d be desperately trying to find all the help I can get too!

He thinks he’s failed Mia before and he’s terrified of failing again. He wants to protect Maya because he knows that’s exactly what Mia would’ve wanted. It doesn't make you weak or fragile to accept help when you need it. The rhetoric that you need to do everything yourself and burden yourself with those responsibilities, all the while dealing with your own trauma and self-inflicted guilt, yeah— no thanks. I'd rather get the help than succumb to my own bad thoughts.

Fandom assuming Godot is sexist for wanting to protect Maya and Mia because of his own motivations is, in of itself, sexist. You see a manly character wanting to protect a woman in need and you immediately think “ew that’s sexist!” Why is that sexist? It’s been canonically stated that he’s been doing this through grief and trauma, but the fandom views it as him being sexist just because he puts on an image of a “manly man.” The fandom accuses him of being sexist but the points they are making to prove their argument are in itself sexist. The fandom is becoming the very thing they swore to destroy.

Manly men can (and should!) be able to accept help too! That’s Godot’s whole arc with Phoenix! He struggled with figuring out who he should be asking for help from. And good lord does he need it. But when he tries to get help, he’s accused of being a misogynist again! He also gets a lot of hate because he didn’t ask for Phoenix’s help from the very beginning. Bro’s been through so much trauma, you can’t expect him to be rational about everything. It’s so frustrating seeing that he just can’t seem to win no matter what he does. It’s all just biased bashing on a character at this point.

This argument is giving people who comments "Men used to go to war" under posts about a man making a smoothie or something because it’s just a smidge of not being the "standard" for masculine men. A manly man wanting to help those who are important to him is not a toxic masculine trait. It’s human compassion. If it’s fine for women to feel that then it should be fine for men too.

Plus, the fandom ignores the blatantly feminine things Godot does too. He’s a true manly man because he can accept both of the masculine and feminine aspects of himself. He flirts with men all the time, he admits when he blushes over receiving compliments, he loves strong and soft women, and he has a lot of silly moments too.

He flirts with Luke Atmey, Ron Delite, Jean Armstrong, and even Phoenix! He says things like “cut it out, you’re making me blush.” He even had a moment where he giggles to himself because Jean Armstrong was flirting with him. He’s able to do a spot-on voice impression of Desiree Delite. He’s brave enough to let himself cry, and he even hurts himself physically to show that he’s hurt emotionally. He does this because he’s so adapted to fooling others with his smile.

You can tell which characters are intentionally written to be sexist just from the way they behave. Antagonists and villains often use sexism to their benefit, using it as a weapon or as a way to protect themselves. They also have a deep-rooted source of where that sexism came from, which continuously grows as they age. Meanwhile characters who don’t have that intention always falls flat and goes absolutely nowhere with it.

I really think what sets apart Edgeworth's sexism from Godot's supposed sexism really comes down to the people they're talking about, and the context behind the scenes. Godot was targeting Franziska's position of power and her immaturity while she was acting all high and mighty; he did this to make her feel intimidated by him which ultimately made her shut up. She doesn’t whip people who are willing to stand up for themselves, and Godot figured that out. Godot’s sexism only came about because he was copying Franziska’s tactics in order to nerf her power. He could tell that she feels stronger when making men feel inferior, so he took a page out of her book and threw it right back at her. He tends to mimic his opponents’ tactics no matter who it is, it just so happens in this instance, his opponent uses sexism as a weapon, and so he reflected it back at her as a result. (Ofc this is still not excuseable on Godot’s part, nor am I defending this, but it’s an instance where his sexism makes sense, without it being one of his character traits. I also find it so interesting that he decided to handle her behaviour this way.)

This can also be attributed to the fact that the writers just felt like writing in a sexist line because that was a product of its time. This is one of the few examples that could be either source, because both sources are spontaneous.

With Edgeworth, he constantly talked down to Mia simply because she’s a woman. Even during her murder case, he spoke ill of her even though they only met once. His source of sexism is woven into his character because he was influenced by a corrupt man. He can’t have both excuses of being taught by a corrupt man and the writers making him out of character, because those are two completely different sources that contradict each other. One source is deep-rooted while the other is spontaneous, it can’t be both at once. Considering Edgeworth’s source of sexism is consistantly tied to his character arc, tells me that he’s intentionally written to be sexist.

And that’s not to say that sexism is Edgeworth’s entire personality. Even the characters that I accused of being sexist also have other character traits besides that, and I explained how they are all well-written. I’m not bashing on their characters simply because of this one flaw. So tell me how I’m being biased due to me being a Godot fan? Godot is the character who gets the most unfair treatment because of this issue when it’s something that’s common with the majority of the cast. It’s the reason why I made this long post so I can identify that this is an extremely ridiculous problem within the fandom, and it really needs to be called out. You’re allowed to like or dislike a character without having to demonize anybody. This one flaw of Godot’s character (that’s not even supposed to be intentional mind you, and can be interpreted in many different ways) is used as an excuse to specifically shit on a morally grey dark-skinned character, in a series full of morally grey characters. There’s plenty of characters in this series that have done much, much worse things than he did, but they don’t get nearly as much hate as he does.

The next point I want to talk about is the petnames Godot uses, particularly the “Kitten” petname. He often used it when referring to Mia, because him and her were dating. It’s not uncommon for couples to use cute petnames when referring to one another.

The argument that the fandom tends to use when hating on Godot/Diego is that he’s supposed to be her coworker and he calls her that term to be condescending towards her, and that it makes Mia uncomfortable. Well let me tell you, this is just objectively untrue. Mia does not feel uncomfortable with Diego’s “Kitten” petname for her. She never told him to stop calling her that; you can literally read her inner monologue, and not once has she ever thought about hating the petname, or ever felt uncomfortable around him. She never even lays a finger on him to tell him off. She certainly did that plenty to Grossberg later, she even steps on Phoenix’s foot to tell him off in the anime, she also thought about strangling Edgeworth too, but she never did so much of a slap to Diego. So clearly, she’s completely fine with him.

So what’s the problem then? Are you that insecure that you can’t handle the idea that Mia has a loving boyfriend? Is it really that upsetting to see a man having Mia Fey to himself? They both consent to the Kitten petname, so where’s the problem?

And the reason we don’t see Mia calling him Kitten in return is because we only see them interact in the courtroom. Mia’s not the type to behave like that in that kind of place, but we’ve definitely seen her to be more flirty outside of a trial. Such as when she seduces Victor Kudo for information, and when she offered Phoenix dinner and drinks to celebrate their victory. This makes it easy for me to believe that Mia flirts with Diego outside of a trial, and most likely uses the “Kitten” petname back at him, especially as she got older.

Also Diego calling people “Kitten” isn’t even sexist. He doesn’t solely call women kittens. He’s given the petname to men as well. Such as Ron. He used the same kitten metaphors for Phoenix, particularly with using claws, and he referred to Furio Tigre as a cat several times. Plus he generally has an animal theme going when thinking of nicknames for people. There’s “wild tiger”, “zebra boy”, “cub”, “filly”, “mare” etc.

Another dumb point I’ve seen is that the fandom thinks Diego was harassing Mia simply because they’re coworkers. You can be coworkers and lovers at the same time. Phoenix and Edgeworth are technically coworkers and they’re constantly shipped together by said fandom. If it’s fine for them then it should be fine for Miego too. Diego isn’t even that much older than her either, by about 4 or 5 years. And no, just because he’s older than her, it does not mean he’s taking advantage of her. They’re both grown-ass adults, and they were both in their twenties when they first met.

You’re allowed to not ship them, but you can’t deny that they’re intentionally written to be lovers. They are canon lovers. More canon than Wrightworth will ever be. Their character arcs revolve around their relationship, and their relationship ties together the main story.

Diego being “intentionally” written as a misogynist goes against his character arc. It goes against the fact that he always saw men and women as equals, and it goes against the fact that he put his faith in many women all the way to the end. The random sexist moments contradicts his character, and there weren’t many moments like that to begin with.

Hey, good job making it to the end! There was a lot to unpack there, especially since this is a debate that I’ve witnessed firsthand for almost 8 years! I wanted to put a lot of time and research into this to make it as informative and unbiased as possible. Clearly Godot is a character that means so much to me, and I absolutely had to go over this huge topic so that newer (and older) fans have a better understanding of this issue.

I hope this was an interesting, and maybe, enjoyable read! I really love making long analysis posts like this, and I definitely got more on the way! It’s fun to engage with the fandom like this. Feel free to share your thoughts as long as you keep it civil! ^-^

Have a great day/night! :3

[jeszrosse]

bro ur wesker fic is so good i wanna eat it aaaa

🥼 “Precautionary Measures”

One-Shot part 2 | Albert Wesker x Reader | AU: Overnight Lock-in | Slow tension to heat

“Security protocols are temporary.”

He says it like a promise. But his eyes say—“I planned this.”

.

.

---

🧬 You stayed late. That was your first mistake.

Lab 3C was always freezing past sundown. The kind of cold that hummed in your molars. You should’ve left two hours ago, but your project data was finally syncing and you knew if you didn’t back it up manually, the system would eat it alive.

Besides… Wesker was still on-site.

You’d seen his shadow move behind the frosted glass of his office when you passed by earlier—tall, controlled, silhouetted in gold and blue light. The late afternoon sun had cast long beams across the corridor, catching the edge of his frame and turning him half-myth, half-monument. He rarely acknowledged you outside of debriefings, but you always felt him before you saw him.

His presence was clinical.

Like a scalpel laid neatly beside an open wound.

You hear the metallic clang of security shutters dropping—one by one.

There’d been a pause.

Not one minute later, the emergency lights flicker red. A low, stuttering whir begins to echo through the hall—the telltale warning of isolation mode—and then, without ceremony, the sirens start. Not loud. Not panicked. Just a shrill, calculated chirp every few seconds. As if the building itself were breathing slower. Sharpening its teeth.

The lab doors hiss shut behind you with a finality that rattles the glass.

LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL – UMBRELLA HIGH SECURITY ZONE. ALL ACCESS RESTRICTED.

You freeze mid-step, breath caught.

The hallway, once humming with fluorescent light and the low murmur of researchers, now pulses crimson. Shadows crawl and multiply in the corners. Every movement looks suspicious under emergency lighting—every silence louder.

You break into motion.

Your shoes tap brisk against the linoleum as you move back toward your desk—heart already thudding against your ribs. Fingers slightly trembling, you swipe your ID badge at the reader.

Nothing.

Red light.

No response.

You swipe again. Harder. Slower. Faster.

Still red.

Still nothing.

“…No, no no—come on—”

Then—

“Having trouble?”

The voice—low and measured—rolls from behind you like the drop in a symphony.

You turn.

Albert Wesker stands in front of the threshold of the lab, arms folded behind his back. Sunglasses on, as always. No lab coat. No clipboard. Just him—dressed in tactical black, gloved hands pristine, boots gleaming beneath the pulsing red lights. He looks like he stepped out of some other world entirely. One with tighter rules. Sharper consequences.

You hesitate.

“…Sir. I—uh, I think the system—there’s a malfunction—”

“There isn’t.”

That makes your heart drop.

“…Sorry?”

He approaches.

“Security initiated a precautionary lockdown. Protocol requires a full overnight reset before clearance is restored.”

“…You mean we’re stuck?**”

He inclines his head.

“Temporarily.”

Silence creeps in, unwelcome and heavy. Somewhere in the ceiling, a vent groans as the ventilation adjusts to lockdown mode. Your pulse pounds in your ears—too fast, too loud for the silence that follows his answer.

Wesker steps further into the room, his boots quiet against the tile but still deliberate—measured. You track his movement out of instinct more than choice, like a rabbit unable to look away from the wolf.

“No staff may enter or exit,” he adds, tone bordering on casual, as if quoting an instruction manual. “Until 0600 hours. All systems are suspended. Communications are disabled.”

You glance toward the terminal again, trying not to show your unease. “Right. Of course. That makes sense.”

He pauses in front of one of the containment consoles. Gloved fingers drift over the edge, not touching, merely hovering—like a man familiar with every inch of this place, yet still amused by its little performances.

Then he looks at you again.

“Your shift ended forty minutes ago.”

Your throat tightens. “I—I was logging the results from the sequence trial. I didn’t know the lockdown was about to—”

“I didn’t ask why you were still here,” he says smoothly, and there’s no sharpness to the words—just a kind of quiet, clinical amusement. The kind that makes you feel like a scalpel laid out on a tray. Examined. Catalogued.

He begins to circle the room slowly, glancing over the scattered reports, the sterile equipment, the monitor still blinking an error code. You fight the urge to follow him with your eyes, to watch him too closely—but it’s impossible not to. There’s a gravity to him. Calculated. Cold.

And then:

“It’s fortunate,” Wesker remarks, “that I remained on the premises. Some staff tend to… panic. During containment scenarios.”

You blink. “Oh. No—I’m not panicking. I just—”

“You’re trembling.”

He says it plainly. A statement. Not an observation, not a judgment. Just a fact, delivered with surgical precision.

You glance down at your hands. Damn it. You hadn’t noticed.

“…It’s just adrenaline,” you mutter.

Wesker steps closer. Not close enough to touch, but enough that you can feel the shape of him—presence, more than proximity. He’s a wall. A locked door. A sealed vault of intent you cannot read.

“I’d advise you to sit down,” he says. “You won’t be leaving for quite some time.”

A faint smile ghosts across his lips—just barely there, just long enough to make you question whether you imagined it.

And then he turns, slowly, walking back toward the central terminal.

Behind you, the lab doors remain sealed. The red emergency light pulses.

Your badge is still useless.

And you are very much alone with him.

---

🧬 The night passes in a blur of static silence.

You pace. He does not.

You check your watch. The hands haven’t moved in minutes. Or maybe you’re imagining that.

The lab feels colder now—just a few degrees, but enough to slip beneath your clothes like a second skin.

You try again to badge out as if you're in denial. No response.

You try your company-issue phone. Dead. No signal. No bars. Just the dull, mocking glow of the Umbrella logo.

Wesker hasn’t moved.

He stands near the server rack, arms folded behind his back, legs squared. Perfectly still. Like he’s waiting for something—watching something—but not you. Never just you.

He might as well be carved from obsidian. A fixture of the room. Part of the design.

You break the silence first. Voice quiet.

“I wasn’t informed of any lockdown drills tonight,” you mutter.

He doesn’t look at you when he answers.

Just that faint hum, low in his chest. Amused.

“Not a drill.”

You frown, trying to keep the edge of nervousness out of your tone.

“So it’s real?”

A beat.

“…Real enough to warrant containment.”

He finally glances your way, just over the rim of his glasses. You catch your breath, unsure why.

“But there’s no incident?” you ask.

He tilts his head—just slightly, the kind of motion that feels reptilian somehow. Studied. Deliberate.

“There is no need for alarm.”

He says it with that steady, quiet finality that makes you feel ridiculous for asking.

You swallow.

“Feels a little excessive,” you offer, with a half-laugh you regret the moment it leaves your mouth.

Wesker’s head turns the rest of the way, attention fixed on you now like a pressure point.

“Excess is subjective,” he replies. “Containment, however… is effective.”

The words hang there.

You don’t speak again.

Not because you agree.

But because something in the way he said it—measured, near indulgent—tells you he’s enjoying this. Not the situation.

Your reaction to it.

A chill settles deep in your spine.

You take a seat, finally. Far corner of the room. As far as the walls will allow.

He watches you only briefly.

And then the silence returns.

Soft. Clinical.

Unbroken.

---

🧬 Hours pass.

The hum of the lights becomes a lullaby for anxiety. A perfect, droning loop.

Your hands are cold. You rub your palms for warmth, pacing in tight loops near your workstation. Not out of restlessness anymore.

Out of survival.

Motion keeps you from spiraling.

From the corner of your eye—you catch him watching.

Not idly. Not incidentally.

Wesker watches like it’s a diagnostic process.

As if your heartbeat is on a screen.

As if he’s logging how many steps you take before you start repeating yourself.

His head tilts a fraction—almost imperceptible.

His arms remain behind his back, posture straight, boots planted with a soldier’s rigidity.

No movement. No flicker.

Like a statue carved from something ancient and intentional.

Like a predator learning your pattern.

You speak before you can stop yourself.

You try not to meet his gaze. Try to pretend it’s nothing.

But the silence stretches and coils, tighter and tighter, until—

“...Do you ever blink?”

A pause.

Then—barely—his lips curl.

“I do many things you don’t notice.”

There’s no need for emphasis. No shift in tone.

Just that sentence. Icy. Controlled. Unsettling in how true it feels.

You feel your throat tighten.

Across the lab, Wesker doesn’t move. Doesn’t look away.

You do.

You turn back to your terminal, pretending you have something to check. Pretending the screen isn’t blank. Pretending you're not being studied like something contained.

And from behind you, the weight of his presence lingers—coiled, steady, waiting.

---

🧬 Around 3:00 AM

You’re exhausted. Strung out. Muscles trembling from tension you hadn’t realized you’d been holding since the doors sealed. His presence has made the air itself feel wired.

Like the oxygen has teeth.

Like the walls are watching with him.

“I’m cold,” you murmur, mostly to yourself.

The words fog a breath into the sterile air.

He doesn’t respond right away. But you hear the soft flex of leather as he moves. He doesn’t respond right away. But there’s a shift—so subtle it’s soundless.

You hear the soft flex of leather, a movement so deliberate it cuts through the quiet like a thread being drawn taut.

click.

The overhead fluorescents dim a fraction.

Then—like dusk slipping in—the corner near your workstation glows softly with ambient light. A warm, amber hue. Not Umbrella standard.

Your eyes adjust slowly, blinking at the unexpected softness.

“…How did you—?”

“I made a few modifications.”

You stare.

“So… you can override lighting, temperature, access—?”

“Correct.”

Your stomach dips.

“And you didn’t use any of that to let us out?”

He regards you evenly. Calm. Not defensive—never defensive.

He could be talking about the weather.

He looks at you.

“I didn’t say I couldn’t. I said we were required to wait.”

Your stomach turns.

“Why wait?”

He steps forward, boots whisper-quiet against tile. He doesn’t rush. He never does.

And somehow, that’s worse

“To... observe.”

You stand up sharply. The chair scrapes.

Your heartbeat stutters in your throat.

“Am I being tested?”

A pause.

“Not officially.”

Your fists clench before you can stop yourself.

“Then what the hell is this, sir?”

He doesn’t flinch at your tone.

If anything, there’s a flicker of interest. Something beneath the surface—sharp and cold and interested.

Then he steps into your space.

Closer than he’s ever been.

Close enough that you can see the faint lines at the corners of his mouth, the hint of something nearly-smiling.

Close enough to catch the pale reflection of yourself in the dark sheen of his lenses.

Close enough that the scent of sterile gloves and something colder—metallic—lingers in the space between you.

“I’ve found,” he says quietly, “that true behavior reveals itself only under pressure. In isolation.”

You inhale sharply. Your breath sounds too loud in your ears.

“You planned this.”

“I enabled it.”

The correction slices cleanly through your accusation.

You shake your head, disbelief warping into something half-wild.

“That’s—psychotic.”

“That’s efficiency.”

He brushes past you then, and you nearly flinch.

But his hand—gloved, precise—ghosts along your wrist as he passes.

A touch so fleeting it barely counts as contact.

But it lingers. Burns.

Like static. Like warning.

“You’ve performed admirably.”

You turn to face him, pulse high in your throat.

“I wasn’t performing—”

“And yet you still impressed.”

The words land somewhere low in your chest, where panic and something colder begin to mix.

Where you start to realize:

You’re not just being observed.

You’re being chosen.

---

🌶️🧬 The air shifts.

You're not sure when the tension stopped being frightening and started feeling... charged. Heavy. Electrical.

Like something waiting to strike.

He stands just in front of you now, a wall of silence and shadow. When he speaks, it’s lower than before—closer.

“You adapt well. Even when discomforted.”

His presence fills the space like gravity—anchoring, absolute.

He's so close now that the sterile scent of leather and ozone wraps around you, tightening with each breath.

“You wanted to see how I’d what—break down? Panic? Run?”

He studies your face, head angled just slightly, as if fine-tuning an analysis only he can see.

“None of those. I wanted to confirm your capacity.”

Your voice softens, barely a whisper.

“…For what?”

A pause.

His gloved hand lifts with surgical precision, fingers brushing the collar of your lab coat—just once.

It’s not a grip. It’s an assessment.

“Obedience.”

Your throat dries.

“Why—why would you want that?”

“Because chaos is inevitable. And I require constants. Assets I can rely on.”

You bristle, jaw clenching.

“I’m not an asset.”

But instead of correcting you—he agrees

“No. You’re not.” Then the curve of his mouth shifts—slow and slight. Not a smile. Something more primal. More interested. “You’re something far more rare.”

He steps forward, the motion quiet but undeniable.

You feel your back nudge the edge of the desk behind you.

Trapped—not by force, but by design.

“Sir, I—this is—”

But his voice dips beside your ear, a phantom breath across your skin.

“You don’t need to speak.”

You freeze. Not out of fear.

But because it’s working.

Because every molecule in the room feels aligned with him.

You gather breath, manage:

“Is this protocol?”

A stillness, brief—and then:

“No.”

He reaches up.

Removes his glasses.

You’ve never seen his eyes before.

They’re golden. Glinting with something not entirely human. Not soft, not kind—but focused.

Hungry. Clinical. Inevitable.

“This is instinct.”

Your heart stutters.

And before your brain can catch up, leather-clad fingers tilt your chin upward.

Deliberate. Gentle. Commanding.

The first kiss doesn’t arrive like a question.

It arrives like a conclusion.

Planned. Earned. Controlled.

Like you’ve crossed an invisible threshold—and he’s marking it with the most human gesture he knows.

You don’t resist.

You don’t want to.

Because part of you has always wondered if Albert Wesker ever blinked.

Ever broke.

Ever burned.

Now you know—

He saves it all for moments like this.

---end of part 2---

(A/N: I give you crumbs… because watching you starve is part of the fun >:3 stay hungry until the next drop. It's gonna be full of 💦😈😩)

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Musings - BDSM: Loumand, Agency & Abuse

IMO the reason people either blame either Armand or Louis for their failmarriage is cuz A) folks don't understand BDSM (esp. the characters themselves); and B) folks assume victim = weak/blameless (esp. the characters themselves), thinking victims have no agency; victim blaming people who do exert agency to protect themselves.

Despite what he told Daniel, Louis IS a victim of abuse. Armand abused his power over Lou by taking advantage of his trust. Loumand's entire relationship after 1949 was based on Armand's Seismic Lie about "Banishment:" WHO saved Lou's life in the Trial. But Louis is NOT a braindead puppet ventriloquized by Armand--obvs, cuz if he was, NEITHER interview would've never happened at all (1973/2022). Louis has a HUGE amount of agency. Armand WANTS Lou to take charge, so he doesn't HAVE to be the leader making all the decisions anymore. But their Dom/Sub dynamic is nowhere near as cut as cut & dry as people love assuming; cuz vampires are mimics. Loumand mimicked/approximated what they thought was a (healthy) BDSM dynamic; the same way Loustat mimicked/approximated what they thought a (heteronormative) traditional nuclear family dynamic was. BOTH of the couples' mistakes/failures were based on the misconceptions these men had about power & control--who should have it and who shouldn't; and what it means to submit to or dominate one's partner--which neither Loustat nor Loumand were in the right mental state to healthily/properly engage in at all.

BDSM, Consent, & Power Dynamics: Agency vs Abuse

3A: "Almost like" hints to us that although Loumand's relationship is SIMILAR to BDSM, it is NOT in fact BDSM; just a bastardization/mimicry/approximation of it; due to the consequences of unprocessed traumas, unhealthy/toxic projections of gender/power norms, under-negotiated kinks, and dubious consent.

3B: The status quo is that Armand is the dom/master/Maitre apex predator, and Louis is the submissive lower one in the vampiric hierarchy, just like Carol Cutshall said. There's an ironclad power imbalance that neither of them can truly escape, let alone change.

3C: Role "play" is, just like in BDSM, only a SCENE--it's staged, theatre, playing pretend, make-believe; temporary, unreal, a POWER FANTASY. The only REAL "switch" is that Louis becomes a Service Dom/Top; but he gains no TRUE power/authority/control over Armand whatsoever. Daniel called it out for what it is really was "Maitre only when it's hot or convenient," but people keep using JA's EW interview as proof that Lou was abusing helpless Armand; taking at face value the Arun/Maitre in 2x4 & "face-down in the coffin" in 2x6; without ever contextualizing how Armand refused to turn Madz in 2x6 and sold out Louis & his daughters to the coven to be killed in 2x7 in a Trial/PLAY where "everything you're about to see is fake," and then lied about it in 2x8 to keep Lou with him; despite how Armand led Lou to suicide & tortured Daniel out of jealousy in 2x5.

Convos about Louis' agency are a slippery slope, cuz some folks argue that Lou had ALL the agency in Loumand's relationship, to the extent that Louis was the abuser & Armand the victim. It totally misses the point of 2x8 revealing that Armand was the only one in control the entire time, and that Lou's agency/awareness/autonomy was complicated at best. Folk hatefully condemn Lou & say he'd be kicked out of any healthy IRL kink community for being a terrible Dom to Armand (x x), but ignore how Armand would ALSO be kicked out of the same kink community for being a terrible Sub to Louis. They BOTH had toxic red flags that they BOTH ignored & paid for.

Armand's problem is that he associates submissiveness with slavery, and TELLS HIMSELF that he has no say ("Why is it, Louis, those with the most power are often the weakest?; I could not prevent it"). Lou's problem is that he's never had real power, but TELLS HIMSELF that he was "good at running things," when all he's ever "run" is away.

Folks hyper-focus on Armand's backstory in 2x4, and completely miss how Loumand's park scene was kink (under-)negotiation; Louis giving Armand the OPTION to CHOSE whether to give up control of the coven to Santiago and control of his sexual dynamic to Louis.

Armand: The center isn't holding. Mutiny brewing. Everyone doing what they want, when they want.... I'm not sure I can keep obedience any longer. Louis: I used to be real good at running things.... Santiago wants to be coven leader.... Let him feel like he's your heir apparent.... And that's when you can decide if you want it back. Or you want something else. Armand: I want you. I want you more than anything in the world. Louis: You sure about that, Arun? Armand: Yes, Maitre.

Anti-Louis viewers get so PISSED about pimp!Louis bossing Armand around, "I'm a little wet; face down in the coffin," without realizing that in a consensual partnership, Doms give commands & WAIT for the Sub to either comply or flat-out refuse--cuz Subs are supposed to have just as much control & say in the dynamic as Doms.

People keep slinging around "Abuse!" accusations without even understanding wtf abuse entails. In kink, assertiveness, dirty talk, and bossiness can be consensual. No, we don't see/hear this negotiation take place on screen, but we DO see that Armand is given all the time in the world to refuse to take his clothes off & get in the coffin; esp. since he's the most powerful vampire in the entire effing COUNTRY of France (the only one with the Time/Fire Gifts), AND he's also in an office surrounded by 14 vamps who hate Lou's guts & told him they want Lou dead. Y'all honestly think that if Armand felt in any type of danger he wouldn'tve been able to let the whole coven descend on Louis right then & there?! 🤨Louis was on Armand's turf, NOT the other way around; and Armand NEVER expresses any indication that he was ever threatened by Louis Domming him. What we DO see is Armand saying No and Louis not being able to do eff all to FORCE him to do anything Armand explicitly says "repulses" him--Lou can't force hm to Turn Madz in the 1940s; Lou can't force him join his sexcapades in the 1970s. While it's definitely indicative of poor communication & under-negotiated kink, this is NOT evidence that Armand's agency's been taken from him and that he fears for his safety & is unable to deny or leave Lou.

When 2 Subs Collide: Under-Negotiated Kink

Mutual consent is key, cuz Loumand's D/S power dynamic was sorely under-negotiated, a shaky AF agreement neither man was truly comfortable with (all the 2 Bottoms/subs memes) ("you asked me to do it / are you asking me, Maitre?"). Cuz they're BOTH naturally Submissive men whose life circumstances have forced them to become Dominant; to the point where it's hard for them to (feel safe/comfortable enough to) let that control go. As a result, they "fumble each other, impotent lovers" in the books, film, AND show. Canonically, Loumand's just way too incompatible to ever work out, cuz they're NOT what the other wants or needs, despite how hard they genuinely tried to fill e/o's hole void or not.

Anne Rice described book!Loumand as masochist submissives:

For book!Loustat, Lou's "passive nature makes him a perfect submissive. He searches for a way to be dominant in his relationship with Lestat." AMC amplified that by adding the racial component of black!Louis chafing under being white!Lestat's control during Jim Crow, after having had so many other white men take advantage of him & abuse their power over him (the Alderman, Tom, cops, etc). Lou is domesticated during his marriage, then as his depression worsens he becomes unhealthily submissive to the point of disassociating. During the Murder Plot, Lou plays up the submissive role to lull Lestat into a false state of security, distracting Les so that Claudia can get the drop on Les. They're BOTH femme fatales; taking power in their submission ("Because what scientist would look for an organ found only in Black men who use their weakness to rise?").

For book!Armand, you can't fully talk about him without also talking about Lestat & Marius; and how they both shaped/affected/worsened his increasingly psycho-sexual codependent tendencies. "Armand especially wants to be dependent on someone else, to be dominated, and he sets out to force other vampires into that role;" constantly using the Mind Gift & Spell Gift to "rape" Lestat into falling for him, both in 1700s Paris and 1900s NOLA. (We'll have to wait & see what AMC does with Lesmand & Marimand in S3, to see how the cycles of abuse actually play out or not).

AMC's highlighted Armand's religious fanaticism & over-dependence on the Great Laws and the structure of coven life that gave him purpose: serving as Coven Master over the Children of Satan ("I serve a God. It is my honor to serve."). Even his role as Master/leader is couched in his need to still submit to a higher cause--I didn't choose the coven life, the coven life chose me! (Literally, cuz the coven kidnapped Armand & forced him to be their leader after brainwashing him for hundreds of years.) So when Lou arrives in Paris, it's Armand's JOB to either force/recruit Lou into the coven, or kill Lou if he refuses to join. But Armand learned long ago how to weaponize his sexuality, back when he was a human kidnapped & sold into sex slavery; so he "barters with desire" by seducing Lou; catching more flies with honey than vinegar; "I will not harm you."

According to AR, the ambiguity of power imbalances "increases the passion of the relationships;" but AMC flips it so that the ambiguity is what destroys passion. Loumand's relationship isn't loveless--they DO obvs hold genuine affection & attraction for e/o. But the Bed Death in 1973 was cuz their relationship is passionless, despite all the kinky toys all over the penthouse's bedroom. Jacob Anderson said Louis needs "friction;" Loustat challenges e/o, the "spark" Les saw, where Lou still had bite to him, not entirely rolling over & doing everything Les wanted; that's boring & downright pathetic to Les (x x x). Loustat's BOTH brats to e/o, not even necessarily in a kink way.

Armand treats Lou like he's fragile, like he needs to be "hyped up, coddled, lied to;" not out of MALICE, but out of the genuine intent to NOT hurt Lou. But he failed to realize that this is NOT actually what Lou wants. Lou eventually grew bored to death with vanilla AF Armand, the flavorless colorless softest beigest pillow who's just WAY too submissive for Lou--who actually needs/wants a Dom (read: Lestat), even saying Armand acts like a eunuch who forgot he has a working penis (implying how much Lou dislikes topping).

Armand's submissiveness is most obvs in his Service Sub ruse/roleplay as Fake Rashid). But the infamous Cuck Chair is another indicator (x x). Infidelity's a huge theme in S1 (Lou's deeply hurt being cucked by Les constantly cheating on him--another under-negotiated kink since they BOTH hated the open relationship; "I don't like sharing"). But in S2, the roles have switched, where instead Armand is the one constantly being cucked by Louis. The way Armand talks about their Paris sexcapades seems like at first Loumand both enjoyed their open relationship in the 1940s; Louis banging the men & Armand killing the men; Lou's exhibitionism & Armand's voyeurism; where Armand enjoyed & consented to being cucked; it's kink Loumand did together.

By 1973, things have obvs drastically changed. Armand accompanies Lou to gay bars where Lou cruises for men, and Lou outright asks Armand "is it OK with you" when Lou picks men to go home with, and Armand gives Lou permission to "go have your fun" alone. Meanwhile, Armand's BIG MAD, at home "picking lint off the sofa," deeply resenting Lou's sexcapades & having to "clean up the mess" when Lou sloppily kills the men on his own, not caring if he gets caught (he's been increasingly suicidal ever since Claudia died). Armand resents Lou's independence, agency, & autonomy, and outright STOPS Lou from leaving him--he stops Lou from killing himself, and then cuts Lestat off from talking to Lou in the 3-way call ARMAND initiated when Lou said NO; meanwhile guilt-tripping Louis by accusing him of feeling like Armand had trapped him in a "prison of empathy." 🤦Triggered after hearing from Lestat when he wasn't ready to face his former abuser yet, and also shaken after seeing Armand torture Daniel & almost kill him, Lou reasserts "dominance" by re-establishing Loumand's deal/agreement--BEGGING Armand not to kill Dan, just like how he BEGGED Les to Turn Claudia.

But it's a facade, the illusion of power. Lou had no REAL power to MAKE either Lestat/Armand do anything; their relationship at rock bottom. All he CAN do is beg & hope they love him enough to say Yes--and Armand already told him NO b4 w/ Madz. And once again, Armand goes behind Louis' back to Turn Daniel once their deal is officially over; not the least bit scared or bothered by Lou's threat to kill him if he harmed Dan--Armand knows Lou can't do eff all to him.

But they've "switched" AGAIN, cuz allegedly Louis "asked" Armand to mind-wipe Lou's memory of San Fran, and no one but Armand can ever corroborate if that's the truth or not. Going by Lou's horrified reaction in 2x6, it's unlikely that Lou would've ever asked Armand to take that from him if he'd been mentally healthy & LUCID enough to properly consent; lobotomies not being something that should seriously be considered 3 days after an effing suicide attempt. This is what the abuse of power means; taking advantage of a bad situation in the short-term and doing more long-term harm than good.

"I Will Not Harm You"

IWTV is all about abuse, "a sexy pilgrimage across space, time and trauma." Armand has CONSTANTLY tried to contrast himself with Lestat, the villain in Louis' story who abused him & his daughter; making himself seem like the better, safer, more loving option. But that requires dulling his own fangs, to not spook Louis away, or trigger Lou so he lashes out/"acts out," offense as defense. Jacob said Lou needed the side of Armand that was "gentle and sweet and seemingly the opposite of any of the relationships that he’s had so far," cuz the alternative behavior was way too close to abusive Lestat. In SanFran & Dubai, Armand's become as seemingly submissive as possible, to not be compared to that p.o.s. Les; the man of BOTH of their dreams/nightmares/delusions (x x).

But AMC!Lou wants to be dominated too--DEEP down, he wants to submit & be vulnerable & open himself to another man he can trust to not harm him. Lou forgave Les for hurting him in Ep5, even when they both knew Les didn't deserve it ("You took him back!"). HARM is different though ("When I return, you need to be gone!").

For AMC!Loumand, Lou'd already established that they were NOT companions (read: vamp married) in Paris when Santiago asked. Wanting to reclaim his agency from his abusive relationship with Lestat, Louis didn't wanna be tied down in another committed relationship, and he told Armand so over & over ("Everyone's asking, 'What's next, what's next?' Not, 'Where were you?' Or, 'Be careful.' I had enough of that back home. I'm out here finding myself."). He esp. didn't wanna be answerable to Coven Master Armand; another powerful & old AF vampire dominating & controlling him in any way. And rather than doing his effing JOB and killing/banishing the rogue vampires who stubbornly refuse to leave his territory, Armand chooses to let Louis gallivant all over Paris, knowing how much it pisses his coven off to allow Louis that much independence; overcompensating by treating Claudia worse than trash.

AMC gives Santiago a MUCH bigger than in the book; the whole question of who exactly is the REAL "Maitre" in Paris wrapped up in Santiago's coup & Loumand's BDSM deal in 2x04. But the anti-Louis side of the fandom still blames Lou for domming Armand, calling him a dirty disgusting pimp taking advantage of Armand trauma-dumping his backstory as a sex slave 300 years ago to diffuse Lou's anger scolding him for abusing & pimping out Claudia as Baby LouLou just to exert & maintain his dominance as Coven Master.

Louis: It's not the art, the apology. Flex your power one night and follow it with grand groveling the next. Vintage Lioncourt. Armand: I don't enjoy using my powers like that, Louis. Louis: Seemed like you did. Armand: That was for coven discipline, for the situation.

Louis had sex with Armand in 2x3 to protect CLAUDIA from the coven he's scared will hurt her. Loumand's relationship was always transactional; also why Lou insisted that they weren't companions.

Louis: I didn't like seeing Claudia made a puppet. Armand: I treated her as a member of my coven. Louis: I don't like you parading her around in that baby doll dress either. And if I may say, it all makes you look weak. Armand: I'm not Lestat, Louis.

Although Santiago & Louis are both called Maitre after 2x4, the only one who actually held REAL power was Armand, which he kept for 77 years, all the way till Daniel exposed him in 2x8. Armand gets frustrated with Lou every time he has to step in and "clean up the mess" (1973); taking charge AGAIN whenever Lou "acts out" (2022); and forgets what they agreed about their "proper roles; we had it figured out, didn't we?" (circa 1947); going behind Lou's back to help plan Lou & Claudeleine's deaths ("They gave me a choice; I chose.").

TL;DR: Accountability

So yes, Louis definitely has more agency than some would assume when labeling him as a victim of abuse. Not all victims are mindless vegetables or punching bags that sit back & just get dishragged, never fighting back or speaking up--let alone never contributing to their own demise. Louis actively participated in Loumand's effed up power dynamic with his own brand of toxicity & pisspoor communication & negotiations.

But let's not pretend that Louis has MORE agency & power than Armand (let alone Lestat). That's when I start looking sideways at people rushing to Armand (& Lestat's) defense, when the convo starts leaning too far into territory that minimizes or outright denies the FACT that Louis' mind & memories were actually tampered with by Armand WITHOUT his consent AT LEAST ONCE, and that Armand actually lied to Louis' face on multiple occasions with seismic consequences that dominoed into everything that happened in San Fran & Dubai, had Armand been honest about "Banishment" & explained the situation when Louis asked him point blank "When did you start lying to me?" Boohoo, mean Louis cussed Armand TF out in SanFran & called him a boring eunuch? Welp, that's what happens when you're not honest about wanting your lover and his kids dead.

[prismaticpichu]

hurt/comfort prompt! younger AGS, the first time one of them is injured badly in the field and they need patching up or taking care of? could be a fun "couple sentences or paragraphs for each of them" type oeompt, but we know we all kinda just want to see Seph coddled a little :3c

Shshshdhyd!!! I LOVE IT!!! ❤️💙💚

~

AGS: First Injuries

The first time Genesis had been injured, he immediately tried to deny it.

The facade wasn't very hard to see through.

Hobbling with every step, his smile crooked and precarious, it didn't take a scientist from Rocket Town to conclude that the tumble he'd taken had indeed broken bone—a fact that Genesis vehemently dismissed upon hearing it, nearly breaking into a pained laughter. He instead claimed that it was merely a sprained ankle, that it was nothing debilitating or all that alarming.

He would heal before they even returned to headquarters.

Chuckle. 

He would walk it off, soldier through the sting.

Chuckle. 

He just needed a few minutes to rest, and he would be fine!

Chuckle!!

Angeal didn't waste any time ushering his friend to the nearest rock, unbuckling his boot, and carefully sliding the muddied attire off his foot to inspect the damage—ignoring his friend's manic giggling, ignoring his insistences and desperate denials. Just a sprain, just a sprain, just a sprain...!

All of which stopped, abruptly, as Genesis saw the angry bruise bloomimg on his skin, bulbous and discolored and vile.

The tears came uninvited.

Fortunately, Angeal never left for a mission without equipping a Cure, but there was little magic that would smooth the auburn's turbulent emotions, his shame. He hated that he was weeping, even ifignrly; he hated that he was so squeamish; he hated that he had to get hurt, on an assignment, when he was supposed to be a...!

His thoughts were brought to a halt, however, as he felt the warm weight of leather fall upon on his shoulder, comforting him. Anchoring him.

Sephiroth.

"...You took that blow for me, my friend."

My hero.

—————————

The first time Angeal had been injured, he immediately tried to mend it himself.

The task proved to be quite challenging.

Crumpled on his knees, clutching his arm, the burly teenager had insisted his friends not to worry—he would heal himself. He would be fine, truly. It was his fault for dodging the Fire too slowly, for reflexively shielding his eyes with his arm, refusing to hold up in sword in defense. He would handle the consequences; he would tend to himself. All he needed was to reach for his—

Empty.

His mana was empty.

Having delegated himself as the team's nurse, Angeal never expected a scenario wherein he was the one in need of healing, and liberally used his spells on his Genesis and Sephiroth as a result. Never did he think to reserve enough to cast Cure on himself, to take care of...

Searing pain blazed through his arm, making him wince, making him wince.

His head swam.

"Sephiroth—get the water pitcher. Make sure its cool."

"Right here; use my cleaning cloth."

"Yes, good idea!"

"Here, catch."

"Got it...!"

His friends didn't even chastise him, didn't rebuke him for not being prepared.

They didn't waste a single second.

They didn't ask questions

They didn't panic.

"It's okay, old friend..."

Genesis.

"We've got you now."

Sephiroth.

"You're going be fine..."

Harmony.

—————————

The first time Sephiroth had been injured, it immediately became apparent that it was far from the first time.

He was completely desensitized.

The sheer fact horrified his older companions, who watched Sephiroth pick himself off the ground—off the reddened dirt—and threw himself back into battle, continuing his assaults on the monster horde as if he couldn't even feel the laceration. 

Drip, drip, drip... 

How was it that the blood was so loud to them, yet so quiet to Sephiroth?

Drip, drip, drip...

The beasts were smited in moments, the fallen pack dissolving into the starry ribbons of the Lifestream. Sephiroth turned around as the last of them faded, one brow raised, wondering why his comrades had stopped fighting halfway through. Why had they been shouting his name, for that matter? Why did they sound so distressed...?

He continued to stare at them, gripped by confusion, sheathing Masmamune with a casual chhhink.

Drip, drip, drip...

Puzzled, he followed their gaze to his side, finding his coat rended. Sticky. Trickles of blood filtered through his glove, dribbling onto the mud.

Drip, drip, drip...

"Nmn. I see."

"You see?!" Genesis gaped, almost paralyzed by the nonchalance. "You're—"

"Bleeding, yes."

"Minerva..." Angeal breathed, finally conjuring up the warm, healing theads of a Curag—

Sephiroth raised his hand to stop him.

"Don't waste your mana."

Blue eyes widened in alarm. "'Waste'?"You're hu—"

"It will heal," Sephiroth shrugged. "Mako will close the wound in time."

"Yeah, but..." Genesis could only blink, an almost desperate edge to his voice. "Doesn't it sting...?"

Another shrug, even slower. Calmer. "Irrelevant."

Drip, drip, drip...

Such a simple response, and yet so significant, so telling. An accidetal catalyst to what would become an hour-long interrogation; a tiny seed that would bloom into concern, protectiveness, alertness. It was the beginning of something darkly beautiful, huddled in their shared tent, Genesis and Angeal both tending to their younger freind's wound. It was the start of picking him up from Hojo's lab after appointments; it was was the start of buying him medicine and making tea when Sephiroth fell ill; it was the start of sleepovers, check-in messages, and sharing an office.

It was the start of trust, loyalty.

It was start of love.

And connection.

And family.

And memories.

And memories.

And memories...

Narrowing his eyes, Sephiroth turned away, leaving the doors of the training room behind.

[thedeafprophet]

im CACKLING

Twitch: "you should stand up to her" Jamie: "literarly how the hell would i do that"

Twitch: "no idea!" Jamie: "right well we should probably stop hanging out in public so she doesnt like,permentantly kill you" Twitch: "oh absolutely not"

disaster over here this is gonna end so badly XD XD thanks for the help twitch

Jamie's self isolating tendancies vs the urge to coninute to be a menace with twitch at parties is the new ongoing event. theyre just gonna ...... slightly stop being at certain social events, theyre busy, yknow how it is. its not stopping hanging out if they're simply not there to begin with right

@theirrepressibleheiress while I can't say how twitch would respond (thats all on @capn-twitchery), I can speak on Jam....

'Confrontation' isn't really how it goes with the princess... the most likely thing is Jamie making a vague reference to the situation the next time their paths cross, and she'd just smile and say something vague in response. The times Jamie stands up to the princess generally end badly, and are usually a case of Jamie's mouth running before their brain catches up.

The fact of the matter is for all their posturing Jamie *is* scared of the princess and what she's capable of (what she's *done*) frankly I could see them recgonize this as her needless jealousy that it is, and try insisting they shouldn't hang out with twitch any more lest this rebounds on them getting hurt. That's horrendously unfair, especially after what twitch has been through

....is funny, cuz this is one situation where Jamie can't try and insist everything is fine without sounding like a complete asshole ajdkfkgly but how on earth are they supposed to come to admit how bad what's happend to them is, hm? Much harder to keep pretending....

[bitchin-witchin]

Had no work scheduled this week and got sick so started an anidala wip 🎉

a/b/o with alpha Padme and omega Anakin <3 nsfw part noted further down in post

padme goes to a planet to participate in idk, diplomacy, going to a planet to help finalize them joining the republic perhaps.

Anakin is NOT supposed to be there he was NOT assigned as personel but he was determined to come to be with Padme and have her back if anything goes wrong ig. So he's in a disguise, but it's supposed to be uber peaceful or whatever so he's not a trooper or anything, he just dressed like. Her assistant (this is an easy excuse for him to get hit on so padme will be jealous don't think about it too hard).

So anyways this other person part of the host's group is being not too obnoxious but very much expressing interest throughout like the whole time they've arrived and been there. And it drives padme crazzzyyy. Eye twitching. Fists clenched. She's trying so hard to stay normal. Which is not easy bc she's close to her rut and she doesn't realize until it's really coming on that this fellows behavior has triggered her rut to come on earlier bc she is just that worked up about it.

So Anakin notices soemthing is up with her but doesn't quite KNOW bc they're all wearing scent blockers until her rut scent starts to overpower the scent blocker and he immediately makes an excuse to whisk her away but this annoying interloper STILL tries to make themselves a part of it like, offers to get someone to take padme to her rooms so anakin can stay and he's like NO. Finally gives this fella a piece of his mind. Leaves with no further discussion bc his mate needs help and that's priority. Both him and Padme hope it doesn't have any consequences jahfnfjd but Padme very much enjoyed seeing Anakin push back and choose her >:3c

NSFW PART. Dual sexed male omegas and female alphas.

So they get to the rooms and Anakin can barely close the door before Padme is pushing him against it and grinding on him from the back. Disrobing them just enough to reach into his... whatever bottoms he's wearing i haven't decided LOL... and touch him while she takes her cock out and touches herself. Can barely hold back from just driving straight into Anakin he doesn't really ever need prep he gets wet for her so easily, she can feel it through his undergarments so she scruffs him, pushes the undergarments aside, pulls his hips down so she can bottom out bc hes too tall in this position otherwise. He slips on the soles of his shoes as his knees get weak and his legs slide out to spread wider. And even with his knees bent and legs spread Padme still has to stand on her tiptoes to nip and suck at his neck. She presses her forehead between Anakin's shoulder blades, huffing in his scent and feeling the vibration of his moans. Force, he's so noisy and she loves it.

Im debating this part but maybe when she's knotted and they're still plastered against the door, annoying guy comes and knocks, ask if everything is okay. And padme is not in her rightest of mind. So she turns them sideways so she can open to door without anakin or their current engagement being visible. She's totally sweaty and looks like she obviously just had sex (is still having it actually) and ofc smells like rut and sex. And she's like, out of breath, "yes everything's fine just not feeling well thanks for checking in bye noww" and before she closes the door she touches Anakin in a way she know will make him moan so annoying guy knows exactly he has no claim bc she's in it RN. Big ole "apologetic" grin on her face. This only works if it's like a normal door and not the sliding automatic space doors tho :( so idk.

Then the next separate part, its either gonna be a 2 chapter or 2 part series, is anakin goes into heat on a mission padme invited herself on even though she really shouldn't be there and they fuck on her ship bc I love the ep in TCW where 3p0 and jar jar find anakins cloak on her ship. He had to leave it there bc it smelled so strongly of heat and sex he couldn't take it back with him 😔 padme said she'd get it laundered but....sometimes she just needs to smell that thing okay. He has other cloaks. Once it dulls she'll take it to get laundered...

[pentacass]

i was just chilling and then RENYA ATTACKED- [ask meme]

🍩 | their favourite snack to eat together

Going by ESO's food list to make my life easier... It'll be the Cyrodilic Pumpkin Fritters and Rimmen Raisin Cookies.

🥂 | what would happen if they got drunk together

Ayrenn would wreak havoc, without a doubt lol. Sielaire, wrapped around her wife's finger, will be abetting the chaos and keeping people off Ayrenn’s back.

🏹 | how they would fight together in a battle

No mystery here - very well. They've fought together long enough to know each other's fighting styles and instincts. Coordinating their movements in battle is second nature to them. That said, Ayrenn is more the one who will forge ahead, acting as spearhead and beacon to her soldiers/allies. Sielaire adapts and covers her weak points, matching Ayrenn's pace and watching her back.

🏆 | their reaction to the other beating them at something

Nonplussed at first (they're both confident, maybe too confident at times), then proud. Then Ayrenn plots to one-up Sie >:3c

🎨 | their favourite activity to do together

Sneaking away and going incognito for a while. I have Ayrenn doing it a lot in fic cos I think she would feel suffocated by the crown sometimes. It’s a precious taste of freedom for her.  Though their getaways spike Sie’s anxiety to 200%, she does enjoy them because it’s closer to what she’d imagined for herself when she’s married. Just a regular life. That doesn’t revolve around a damn throne of all things. How did this happen? How???

🎸 | the song that describes them the best

Best song still remains 'Sweetest Devotion' by Adele.

🚗 | which one drives and which one picks the music

Sie drives, Ayrenn picks the music. She’ll probably put on such a wide range of genres that Sie never gets bored.

🚓 | which one is most likely to get arrested 

Are you kidding?? Definitely Ayrenn lmao. Sie will be in the jail cell right beside her. Mostly because she tries to defend Ayrenn or convince the guards that’s actually, really, totally Queen Ayrenn Arana Aldmeri, Eagle Primarch of the Aldmeri Dominion. You have no right to take her in. Wait. Wait, you can check with the embassy! It's the truth! Why are you taking me too! Meanwhile Ayrenn's cackling her head off in the background.

🏝  | their ideal getaway

A holiday somewhere far, far, faaaaar from Alinor and Grahtwood and wherever Ayrenn's responsibilities are. Preferably somewhere remote, but not so remote and isolated that Ayrenn can't stroll through town and blend in with the local populace without drawing many glances.

🧸 | which one is the little spoon & which is the big spoon

Sie's big, Ayrenn's little. I like to imagine Ayrenn tosses in bed a lot sometimes, so Sie has to hold her down to get some peace.

🧼 | their feelings on showering together

Ayrenn: "ohohoho. fun. >:3" Sielaire: "We're not leaving for another hour, are we." Really though they've done it often enough that it's just another cozy little activity for them. They started doing it so it's convenient to spot and wash off wounds on each other, and later on for casual intimacy, just to feel each other close.

💌 | a love note from one to the other

“Every hour I have spent without you drags by with excruciating clarity. To know that you are within reach, yet kept from my touch by duty, drives me to the point of madness. A queen kept apart from her consort is a tortured being indeed. The only comforts I have are your cats that jump into my lap during meetings, and the knowledge that I will see you again for dinner. Please be there, or I might lose my mind. My heart, however, I know is safe with you.”

“Your meetings must have been utterly dreary today, to have brought out the heartsick poet within you. As amused as I am by the torture you have endured, I will see you again for dinner. I fear the consequences if our queen is lost to madness. Mad or not, I will love you always.”

[maabelasdaruth]

So I keep thinking about how Amelin Lavellan would handle the different way Rook can resolve Veilguard. And of course the redemption ending is her ideal, that's what she wants out of this and when discussing who to recruit with Varric she was fully trying to find someone who is capable of handling betrayal without bitterness. She is also very intentional with her meetings with Rook and getting information on them from Morrigan. She's monitoring their actions in the cross road and their second meeting is in the Lighthouse so she can assess how many regrets have been collected. After you invested ten years of your life into redeeming this man, I refuse to let that go without a fight. So her last words to Rook before the final battle would be.

Amelin Lavellan: If you choose to ignore my work towards redeeming Solas, I understand, but I highly advise you to use the false dagger. If you decide to meet violence with violence, I fear for the fate of the world. Every path has some uncertainty, but I would think carefully before becoming another cog in the cycle of violence. Every path has its consequences, after all.

She's flying up in crow form with Morrigan AS SOON AS she felt the battle change when Elgar'nan died, but unlike Morrigan or the cannon playthroughs she wouldn't just sit there and let Rook beat up her man.

2) Trick Ending, so the way that the new dagger is dropped into the story Deus Ex Machina style is so fucking stupid (a mage handled pure lyrium guys, he's just cool enough to be fine with it) so in my head cannon the trick dagger actually comes from her work. She's had seven years or more of planning for this outcome so she's recruited Dagna and Sandal to make a false dagger together and while it cannot compare to the actual dagger side by side, the time spent crafting it actually feels earned.

If Rook tricks Solas with the fake dagger, she does not intervene until Solas is held up against the fade tear calling out about how he is "a fool", she dives for him in that moment turning from crow into elf as she embraces him, hand going to his face finally after all this time, "my perfect fool" she speaks as they fall through the tear together

It's going to be hell trying to rehabilitate a man who wasn't released by Mythal but she's got nothing but time

3) Violence Ending, here's where it gets Tricky.

She snatches the dagger from the air during the toss right before Rook can drive it in Solas' side which changes the fight dramatically. 3 v 1 is a lot easier than 3 v 2, and she warned Rook in the mid battle scene: Every path has consequences. So she catches the dagger, and being a Rift Mage standing in front of the quickly unfolding fade, pushes Rook and company back into a stasis cage, Rook: "You bitch, you betrayed me!" Amelin: -laughs- "Of course I did! I'm the bitch who fell in love with him. You picked this fight, did you really expect a different outcome?" And then turns to her love, having just betrayed the person that Varric trusted, so many people sent to their deaths for her, so many lives and so much energy wasted trying to save the man she loved only for this foolish Rook to ignore orders and pick a fight

3a) Let's Be Gods (Ploy)

The idea here is getting Solas to confront that he's become everything he once stood against. The scene is giving Mythal going to Elgar'nan to return the sun to the sky. It is Hope tempering Pride. She's enough to make his hesitate as she tells him how they will become the new elders. The next Kings. The next Gods. She is Somniari, one of the few dreamers left. If the beyond and material plan are reunited, she's about to be one of the most powerful mages in existence. She's standing in front of him, at the precipice of everything he wants, he's never been so Prideful. "Please, come back to yourself. Come back to me." She begs. (Ideally, Rook pivots to a redemption ending here but that's unnecessary.) If this doesn't work it's onto plan 3b or 3c, depending.

3b) Let's Be Gods (no actually)

Ghilan'nain became the monster she was all for the love of Andruil. She rose to Godhood because of how chosen she was, the ultimate bootlicker. To love is to be changed and maybe it could all be okay. The veil is about to come down, anyway. She doesn't have to care anymore. The old gods already blighted and trashed the world she spent her life defending. Let the old world die, and her old self with it. What does right and wrong matter in the face of possibility? She's been so obsessed with this world for so long and it would be so much easier to reshape the world if this is successful. She could be by his side, always. She could let him be a monster. She could be the monster with him.

She just needs to get rid of the pawns she's assembled to stop them.

3c) Attaches her own fate to the Veil

She's not an ancient elven God. Doing this is her sacrifice ploy. She doesn't want to be a God. She is willing to let the fade rip through her, to put her life on the line between the world Solas wants to bring back. All to try to bring him back to himself, even though this is him being himself. It's so much angst because he's always chosen the world he wants over a world with her and now she is forcing him to make that choice one final time. It turns his victory to ash. But it does the same for her. If he saves her, she knows her life was more important to him than restoring his world but only under extreme duress. If it doesn't? Well, she let Rook out of his prison the moment she made the choice not to be a God. She cut her hand with the dagger, tossed it aside and distracted Solas.

4) Sacrifice Ending. She judges Rook as incompetent at the base of the blighted beanstalk when they're alive and all their friends dead. Knowing this, she scraps any chance of a redemption ending in this world. (She either got the statue herself or has Cole / Compassion steals it off Rook here) and when it comes time for the sacrifice play, she's not letting Rook take that from her.

[polypomefiore]

I'm sorry the only thing I am physically capable of is thinking about diasomnia all the time every day forever 🙏

Sebek praying and begging his whole childhood that he presents as an omega so (alpha) Malleus can breed him with pups and stuff him with eggs, sobbing nonstop and refusing to leave his room for a week when he presents as an alpha... Malleus finding out about it later and fucking Sebek while calling him his cute little omega <3

Or... Alpha Malleus with two dicks and omegas Silver & Sebek. He can breed both of them and give one egg to each of them 💕 (and to the misfortune of everyone involved, they will fight and argue nonstop during the dual pregnancy over who's egg will hatch first, who's egg will look more like Malleus, who's egg will be stronger, or bigger, or smarter, or... Save them 😔)

Alpha Lilia getting his omega son pregnant... During the early pregnancy, anyone who doesn't know them who finds out will think that Lilia was the omega who got bred by his kind beta Silver 😭 but Silver is so so so happy to have his dad's kid. He'll accidentally call Lilia papa instead of father without realizing it... He refuses to leave his side unless it's to train with Sebek (who continues training with Silver every day until he actually beats Silver and knocks him down...... Sebek is not allowed to spar with him again until the pup is born 😔)

Orrrr or omega Lilia who's heats are so few and far between in his old age, he didn't even think he could get pregnant, and let his kids fuck him indiscriminately to get all their aggressive teenage hormones out. Now somehow he's pregnant and none of them can tell at all who did it 😭

Formal get-togethers with the Draconias and other (mostly fae) royalty around the world... Maleficia whoring her omega grandson out to guarantee an heir... He's put into a heat and muzzled and chained down and crying and soooooooo cute while he's passed between alphas and betas. He's stuffed full of cum and eggs of all different kinds by morning 💕 (think of this especially if it's dehorned Malleus... Magically too weak to fight back, and ordered to grin and bear it through his punishment ❤️)

Silver pregnant with a kid, or impregnating someone else with a kid, either way is going to be hoping the entire time that his child is born looking more like the other parent. Considering how strong papa dawn's genes were in Silver, I think he is inevitably going to add another carbon copy of himself to the family tree 😭 and born with blonde hair too........ He will still love them no matter what they look like ❤️

(Knight of Dawn was impregnated by Leia. This is true and canon. Toboso Yana told me herself)

don’t worry i feel u and ur so valid….i love all the different flavors of these hcs they’re so yummy agh. i feel like a kid in a candy store and i don’t know what to get first. the benefit of being flexible with dynamics (besides epel sorry dude) is i can enjoy all of these <33 and ur right leia did impregnate KOD i was there >:3c

lemon below

my personal fav dia omegaverse dynamic is lilia letting his kids fuck him..thinking there’d be no consequences…ur mind omggg and not knowing who’s it is??? delicious augh. i’ve also been thinking abt lilia knocking up silver too a bit lately…

ALSO bottom malleus. wrapping his tail around his top’s waist to pull them deeper insider him. i think abt that a lot too

[sketchehm]

Okay now is Christmas and my day off, ohh and Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! First I want to say thank you for making this mafia au! You have no ideas when I open up tumblr for a long times and what I see first is your post about this au and I'm reading all of it, it makes my days, you make my life more bright than ever, really thank you so much!! I hope you have a nice day! 🙌

And last is I want to join to rambling about your au too haha, I'm sorry to bother you, but yeah I read all of your lore about this au and get more larger and interesting! What I have in mind is who is the don before dream, well what if it was schlatt? And he was dream dad..? Well dream and sapnap and probably george too(?) Grow up in orphan together and their life is rough and force to join lil mafia group that lead by schlatt, and years life in bad treatment, idk if schlatt know if dream is his son or vice versa, both of them just doesn't care lmao (family issues) and dream shoot him and becomes the new don

Holy fuck you add elrich in this au too thank you so muchh!!! Lmao I love that post about elrich prefer to see dream wear his mask rather than to see dream deprivation face. Please interact more

Okayy so about kidnapping thing, I think dream doesn't care if his mafia group is crushed by team mafia (well maybe expect he still want to take revenge to Q) as long as he has sapnap and george at his side he feels enough, the large problem is how this was heard by outsiders? Namely las nevadas? We know Q want sapnap to join him but he refused, then he heard sapnap join team mafia and Q already predicted it was dream strategy to send sapnap there as a mole, then he heard the big news about dream mafia get a big blow and dream and george goes missing. Q feels happy in his chest because he's thought sapnap chose team mafia and betrayed dream instead, maybe just maybe they still can connect with each other again. Between spanish fellows a few days later Q have a meeting with rich to talk about this and rich feels... Not that amused...

Ahhh yess there's many many many angst here, about sapnap anxiety, dteam separation anxiety, george anxiety, welp dream anxiety too that he feels need to shoulder up all his problems alone, make him sleep deprived that may or may not have consequences in the future, but yeahhh I love your au so much 👉👈

Merry Christmas!!! You're so sweet I will cry 🥺🥺🥺

Sorry it took so long to answer!! I hope you enjoy <3!

SO Dream's previous Don was his father yes! But it was up in the air if I wanted it to be a DreamXD kind of figure but Schlatt fits better I think pfft (so I'm taking that me thinks hehe)

I guess that's how Quackity got in with Dream so quickly, he was already working under the Don before Dream offed him haha

This helps cause it gives more of a solid motivation of why Q will eventually betray Dream, he probably already had a plot to take out Schlatt and takeover before Dream butted in, now his plans were pushed back....but not by much...

Aside from that! I have it in my head that Dream was born and raised in the mafia family which is.....rough! Growing up with people always wanting to one up and take you out, it's a world full of selfishness and backstabbers tbh...not a lot of /real/ trust happening in mafia families! And Dream, well he did want to change that, he thinks Schlatt was shit. It's a miracle he wasn't overthrown earlier, but no one had dared to go against him. Schaltt did NOT like having an heir tbh, it's such a weak point he didn't care for. Dream was too soft in Schlatt's eyes. Not enough brute force coming from Dream, but he could recognize that Dream was still good at running his own division and associates and it pissed him off....Dream was a /threat/ and he did his best (without killing him outright) trying to bring Dream down...(that's not causing ANY sort of mental issues for Dream....nope!) Schlatt wishes Dream wasn't around and vice-versa, only Dream makes that a reality :3c

For George and Sapnap, I think George was def born in a crime family but was sent to Dream's family as a child due to....debts being unpaid....George is there against his will pretty much and has a bit of resentment against Dream cause he's the "heir"....that is until he finds Dream one day thrown out of Schlatt's office with a black eye and cut lip....he has always assumed any injury was due to him being shit at training or whatever. This...changes things drastically. They become closer. (They both never wanted to be born in this life)

And Sapnap! He def was a street kid, but I think BBH found him! And bbh was under Schlatt so eventually Sapnap found his way working in a mafia family. It was...rough...going from no rules and just trying to survive to....a /lot/ of rules and trying to survive....Sapnap def joins before George does and makes friends with Dream! He's the only other kid around! (Sapnap helps Dream figure out how to make it hurt less when you're getting beat....Sapnap had plenty of experiences out in the streets...)

George and Sapnap were also subjected to Schlatt's torment, of course, nothing like Dream though. BUT! I do think at one point Schlatt finds out that George and Sapnap are.../closer/ to Dream. And that will be used a /lot/ against Dream. (This MAY cause over possessiveness of the two, the fear of them somehow being seriously hurt and he has no control....)

FOR THE KIDNAPPING. SO. I did have set in stone Dream is crazy worried about his remaining family cause in my mind, the ones who remained would be the munchymc crew! I had in my head that shortly after the betrayals, he did call for a meeting with his most trusted Capos and was...extremely vulnerable with them. And they reciprocated his feelings. They're close. But George and Sapnap /are/ above them(at least, relationship wise).

There are plans in place in case Dream /died/, George and Sapnap were never supposed to take over as Don in that scenario, he didn't want to wish that dangerous position on them. But I think bbh did agree to take over if anything happened. And while that did stress dream out (bbh was the closest he had to an actual father figure), he couldn't ask for a better person. There's a lot of details in this plan that I do have in mind but I need to flesh out more. HOWEVER. Dream /knows/ that plan didn't really account for Sapnap and George /also/ being gone. So things are....becoming difficult to handle to say the least....while Sapnap and George were not publicly known to be close to Dream, they did handle a lot of affairs than most knew. George was able to take over for most of Sapnap's roles, but it was already a struggle at that point....

So Dream IS worried. But the stress of it is too monumental and he /does/ break as soon as ElRich called for him and requests his assistance. It was his confirmation that Bad is alive and doing things as they had plan. He needs his remaining family safe and by that point, he knows they'll be safe under the Team.

(I have ideas of ElRich interacting with Dream more but thats for another time heh)

NOW. about Q.... Q did keep close ties with bbh actually! (Bbh let the ties remain for Dream, to keep a closer eye on him). So when Q realizes Bbh is ridiculously more busy and is seen in other parts of Dream's territory that he doesn't usually frequent, it makes him suspicious. Q has plenty of connections. I had in my mind the wider crime world doesn't really know Dream (and George) is now gone. Not for a while, at least. Mostly because Team Mafia were not very "loud" with this abduction.

It's Q's poking around and trying to find out that leads to rumors of Dream potentially being dead. And Q finds out it was the Team that made Dream....die? Disappear? Whatever, he's/gone/ now. And he's gleeful. Everyone knows about the trade between those two families. Everyone has seen Sapnap acting jovial with the Team Mafia guys beforehand. He puts two and two together of course! Sapnap must've finally grown a pair and betrayed Dream, thank /god/

Funny(or maybe stupidly) enough, Q thinks he still has a chance with Sapnap! Q does start hanging out where Sapnap was seen frequently with some of the Team members, he never seems to be around anymore. Odd! Oh well! He can always go straight to the source! And starts pulling strings to get in contact with ElRich himself, surely he can buy Sapnap out of whatever contract he's locked in with the Team and bring him back to Las Nevadas! (He doubts Sapnap is very valuable to them now. Sapnap has done his job for them most likely, they probably don't even care for him anymore)

The meeting for that was...not great! Here's ElRich, listening to a guy say one his favorite dogs is /worthless/ and should just be given up to this....this /drug rat/. ElRich is plenty aware of the many times Q's men had tried to scam or underhand his own associates with the latest products on the market. And it's upsetting he can't send Q off with a bullet in his head for not only disrespecting his family member, but also making jabs at their latest two prized victims (though of course Q wouldn't know the extent of care Team Mafia has towards dteam and that's his biggest mistake). Not only that! Q also demanding to take territory that once belonged to Dream, talking as if he already owns it. This guy is absolutely ridiculous

So Q leaves with a big fat "No" for all and any request to see Sapnap and to any other requests he made, along with a few more threats that DO make him nervous...surely that'll be fine.....

(This interaction with Q will not be known to Dteam themselves for awhile, but they do start prodding them about their relationship with Q more. Which opens....a whole can of worms! Mainly it's Sapnap being reminded that he may have acted just like Q and betrayed Dream unintentionally and does not help his guilt whatsoever! He'll be fineeee......)

I think that's it for now! (I hope you had a Merry Christmas!!!)

[whumpsmith]

WIP Folder Ask Game

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then you post a snippet or tell them something about it!

I was tagged by @thewhumpywitch and it seems like fun so without further ado, here's a list of WIPs

Victim's View (Villain's View sequel)

Book 3 (Heroes sequel, notes/outline doc)

Vampire brainrot part 3/? - semi-nsfw (pathetic vampire meow meow's tragic background story / Heroes adjecent)

the cabin (Heroes future arcs brainrot and ship fic)

Bridgerton AU (Heroes sidekick sagas AU)

Fantasy AU (an epic fantasy saga built with crossovers from me and my friends' stories and characters)

Consequences - nsfw! (YMO AU AU, crackship taken seriously)

Polycule Harem College Murder Mystery Sitcom AU - semi-nsfw (bittersweet unhinged gay crossover w/ friends)

Bad End - nsfw! (YMO AU AU where things did not go right :])

note that all my works contain various degrees of whump, please check out the corresponding side-blogs to get an idea of whether any of these might squick you out or contain triggering content. For Villain's View and its YMO AU check out @villainsview or @weeksxvillainsview. For anything Heroes-adjecent check out @heroescore.

Now to tag 9 people... (no pressure + I love you + if it seems out of the blue I kinda maybe just ran out of people to tag and selected some mutuals 👉👈)

@scarletfish8eta @dr-abitat-blog @illustriousshadow @whumperofworlds @sheepthesmallchicken

@tsukareta819 @bilightningwhumper @salomeslashes @echo-goes-aaa

Anyone feel free to send an ask whether you were tagged or not and likewise feel free to participate whether you were tagged or not :3c

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

Number 10 for Marigold :3c <- Guy who totally doesnt know how it ends and def isnt writing anything related to it 2 for Elias becase i always love to hear about the process... and 7!

10: What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?

ohhhhh marigold ;) Their main arc is going to be them slowly coming to shake off the Princess' abuse. That they've lived through so many tragedies, and unfortunatly they must live through another. Finally finding a real bright spot in their life and feeling the warmth it emminates, and the stolen joy they get from it, and realizing their other bright spot is cold and dim in comparision, and that while neither light can sustain them forever, they must make a choice about which light they want to feed, which light they want to die with. When we first meet Marigold they are fully under her thumb, actively enjoying her torturing them without consent. Over time... well. for a long few year they're still unable to find fault in her, but in those last few months, they turn more towards "damning with faint praise". Eventually, they'll leave, but they'll never be fully rid of her influence, and they'll bear the marks of her abuse for the rest of their days, from their tattoos, to the loss of their vision and memories, to the ways they flinch when a voice is raised near them. Marigold's ending is bittersweet.

2: How long was the process before the character reached its final version? (or a version that would be clearly recognizable as the character?)

OH GOSH OKAY UH so Elias started as a vampire character with their partner, @the-insouciant-scientist's mad scientist! that is. about the only resemblance dfjvkdsjbdkvbk they were originally turn of the century edwardians, or just getting into the roaring 20s? we played around with the time period somewhat. this was back in, i believe, 2019, long before i got into TMA and heard how brits Actually pronounce 'Elias'. Elias' whole thing was they were a vampire who had turned recently, but not too recently. like a few months ago, so they're kinda used to it but also still working out a lot of the kinks ;P then i had my accident, and whenever i became a (basically) full-time wheelchair user, so did elias after that, Rye got into TMA and heard The Ad, and we decided to put our funny little victorians in the game!!! this was also whenever i started playing with elias' gender and presentation and made them very femme (as i was figuring out my own stuff) the first year/year and a half Elias was mostly a name and incredibly loose concept, i was just exploring things i thought were fun and cool! it's only within the past two and a half years that i would say elias has become Elias Leroux, chemist, dubious royal, Gonfaloniere, and sweetheart of half the city!!! once i transferred from the reddit side of the fandom to the tumblr side, and got over my anti fears, accepted that i like gothic horror, gothic romance, and gothic tropes, they really kind of bloomed into what they are now!!! my early concepts for them were a lot fluffier and sweeter which... is nice, but not so much my thing all the time, ya know? i wanted elias to go through difficult horrors and make choices from fear and i really wanted to do stuff with blood and giant monsterous bats (especially after heavily playing sskies and seeing the chiropterous hoarder <3) and that's what i've been focusing on mostly!!! a lot of it what honestly kicked off when i went "hey, i wonder what the consequences of this would be" for abandoning light fingers, and also there was a huge turning point for elias becoming their own character whenever i played the Swan Bride ES and they became gonfaloniere, and i got the chance to dive into toxins and- so... about 3 years!! 7: another favorite appearance aspect: okay, i'll finally let myself gush about it a little: ELIAS' WHEELCHAIR!!!!!! it's so fucking prtty if i say so myself!!!! the wood color is gorgeous, the heart back (based on that historical example) is inspired, the way it also kinda looks like a throne? how comfortable elias is in it? the fact that i can have their spokes decorated in flowers of ribbons, or all the scientific add-ons they can have for it? the secret compartments? it's such a fantastic chair, and every day i am so jealous that elias gets to have a HEART SHAPED wheelchair!!!!!!! i love their chair so much!!!!!! and it being a possessive and manipulative gifts from happles where it can easily control their chair? ough j'adore!!! it's a fantastic chair and it makes me so happy to draw and write about :} ask game here

[mezzmerizd]

TANGO RAMBLES BC WHAT ELSE DO I DO ON THIS ACCOUNT??=!!?

let's get right into this. there's TONS of angles to take with the little blue ice-hearted DM Tango guy who's officially been Promoted to Evil Guy Character tm. (Since i'll just be talking about the Character & only the Dungeon Master, I'll simply refer to him as Tango. thumbs up. let's go)

The Dungeon is alive and he's somehow chained to it. Be that some sort of Curse / Contract / Smth of detriment to Tango that would force him into "serving" the Dungeon's needs & care for it (aka if he didn't, it'd have some probably fatal consequences for HIM instead.) - The Dungeon Feasts and it doesn't really care WHO its luring vessel is. Someone will always bow to their selfish desires and fall for the Dungeon's trap. (..could have some fun AU potential of the previous or following Dungeon "Masters" :3c)

The Dungeon is "alive" in a more.. symbiotic relationship way. The Dungeon itself needs souls, needs sacrifices, needs to take life to give new life to its own creatures and Tango's there to provide said life in the form of hermits. The Dungeon needs Tango to provide, and Tango just either likes the shelter it offers in return, or it's just bc yk. Seeing fellow hermits fail and die in ways he had a hand in manipulating is funny haha entertainment. - That to say that the caverns and ruins and especially the living things inside were already there, but Tango built upon and expanded upon the given environment. After all, who would be insane enough to ACTUALLY venture into the deepest depths of Warden infested, broken and dangerous mines unless there was some sort of "reward" to be had? Even if said reward is all just for a scheme of a game around it.

He's literally just an insane little scientist type who found some caverns and a bit of skulk and ITCHED for some drama and death. More of a situation where the Dungeon is literally just the structure, and Tango pulls all the strings behind the scenes. A far more "realistic" and ig, closer to canon look at it all, though I think I prefer the more magical aspects of the Dungeon... Like was he kept down there for MONTHS on end without sunlight because he was so deeply invested? Or were there more magical and more.. forceful powers at play, taking his autonomy out of the equation? Guess it depends how tortured u want that cubito to be

[duchi-nesten]

What’s This! The Consequences of My Actions!

Summary:

It was about damn time Danny did something irreversibly stupid and started dealing with the consequences.

Word Count: 2779 || AO3 Link

[First Part]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH this fic ate my son. Anyway, this is a filler meant to connect Treats and Threats to a longer fic that I’ll hopefully start on soon, because of course this AU is now getting fanfic’ed >:3c

[Shared Cujostody AU Masterpost]

—-

Danny carefully looked out around the corner. The school hallway was as always full of other students making their way to the next period, but he was looking for one person in particular.

Sighing in relief when he confirmed Valerie was nowhere to be seen, he relaxed a bit and started walking towards his locker. Making sure to keep an eye out for her pretty dark curls just in case.

It was honestly a miracle he managed to avoid her for so long. He was sure she would hunt him down like an animal (or more like his ghost half) before the first period even started, but he hadn’t even seen her all day.

Was she even at school? A sudden guilt filled him. What if him knowing she’s the Red Huntress had stressed her out so much she was now laying in bed terrified that he told everyone at school?

Of course he would never. He knew exactly what it’s like to have a secret identity, but she didn’t know that.

(He also tried to ignore how the idea of her not trusting him kinda hurt. He had no right to feel that way, he was literally lying to her every time they spoke lately.)

He was focused on pulling out the right books for his third period when someone approached him from behind and put a hand on his shoulder. Yelping, he immediately spun around to be greeted with a sight of a laughing Tucker.

‘’I hate you.’’ Danny spat annoyed, turning back to his books.

‘’Is he still afraid of Valerie finding him?’’ he heard Sam ask as she approached the two of them.

‘’I’m not afraid.’’ he said at the same time as Tucker confirmed with a ‘’Yep.’’

‘’Honestly Danny, you did this to yourself.’’ Sam continued. He gave up with the books so he could look at her, but the moment he did, he saw a disapproving expression on her face. ‘’How many times did we tell you to be careful? You slipped up so many times already, it was about damn time you did something irreversibly stupid.’’

‘’Might as well fess up everything, you know.’’ Tucker butted in.

‘’What? No.’’ Danny glanced at him in disdain. ‘’Are you kidding? She would kill me.’’

‘’Isn’t she gonna do that the next time she sees you anyway? Either of you?’’

‘’No. I’ll charm my way out of it.’’

Sam made an unimpressed noise, while looking behind his back. ‘’Better start working that charm then, ‘cuz here she comes.’’ she pointed out.

Danny turned around in horror and yep. There she was. She just walked out of Lancer’s class and spotted him. He didn’t manage to even think of disappearing into thin air. Valerie’s eyes widened for a second before turning into an angry glare. She started making her way over to him.

He was in trouble alright.

‘’Good luck man. It was nice knowing you!’’ he heard Tucker say as he and Sam ditched him. Some friends they were.

Well he just had to act casual. Like nothing was wrong! Yeah! That sounded like a great plan!

When she was close enough he gave her an awkward wave. ‘’Uh…Hi Val! What’s up? Did you do that trig homework Lancer assigned us? It was horrible-’’

‘’We need to talk.’’ she interrupted and without stopping started dragging him somewhere by the collar of his shirt.

She didn’t even bother to make sure that no one sees them when she promptly shoved him into the janitor closet and locked the door behind them. The gossip girls were gonna have a field day today.

Thanks to his in-human sight he could clearly see her struggle to find the light switch. He kinda hoped she wouldn’t, just to prolong the inevitable butt kicking he was about to get, but she eventually turned on the weak light bulb hanging over their heads. Now he could see her green gaze peering into his more clearly.

His heart was beating out of his chest for more than one reason.

‘’Did he tell you?!’’ she whispered angrily.

That was not what he expected to hear.

‘’Did who tell me what?’’

‘’Did Phantom tell you?’’ she asked again, slower, more uncertain. She backed away a bit, her back leaning against the closed door. ‘’…Who I am…?’’

Of course she’d blame his alter ego first. He shouldn’t even be surprised at this point, but the question still caught him off guard.

‘’Who you are…? You’re Valerie Gray? We’re friends…? I don’t need a ghost to tell me that.’’ Yes. Play dumb, Fenton. Maybe she’ll buy it. Could he actually gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss his way out of this?

‘’Don’t try to gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss your way out of this, Danny.’’

Damn she knew him well. Kinda embarrassing for her to not have figured out his identity yet.

‘’He didn’t tell me. I…uh… figured it out on my own.’’ he tried again.

‘’How?’’

See, this was also why he wanted to prolong the inevitable. He still needed to come up with a good enough excuse for why he knew her secret identity in the first place. It was originally Sam who made the connection, but he couldn’t tell Valerie that. It was better to not involve Sam and Tucker into this mess he got himself into.

On the other hand putting the blame on his alter ego was also not the way to go. Valerie could barely stand Phantom, not to mention he already had a rain check on the ass kicking from yesterday. One wrong move and she might ignore the truce and blast him. Probably.

Sometimes it felt like the only reason she stopped trying to actively kill him was because of Cujo.

Who was he kidding? That was exactly the reason.

‘’Well?’’

He focused back on her. She didn’t look as angry anymore. Mostly stressed about her secret identity being on the line.

‘’I saw you put the suit on!’’ he blurted out.

That took her by surprise. She paused for a second, eyes wide before clutching his shoulders and shaking him desperately.‘’What?! When? Where?’’

‘’A while back.’’ he turned his gaze to the right. If he had to lie he could at least lie to a broom and not to Valerie’s face. ‘’Uh… It was behind the Nasty Burger…I didn’t mean to! I was just by the dumpsters and you didn’t see me!’’

She loosened her grip on his shoulders, but still kept her arms there. ‘’Why were you even there?’’

‘’...Looking for my dignity which I lost after becoming a tiktoker.’’

She just stared at him and he could feel the sweat rolling down his back. Which by the way was pressed hard against all the shelves with cleaning supplies. If he wasn’t cornered by a stressed out badass girl who could kick his ass at any wrong move, he would’ve complained.

Finally after what felt like hours, she let go of him with a sigh. ‘’Of course you of all people would be recording a tiktok by a dumpster.’’

He could swear her lips twitched into a small smile for just a millisecond.

‘’Yeah… you know me. I do stuff like that all the time!’’ he laughed nervously rubbing the back of his head.

She smiled a bit more at that, but her expression quickly changed back into a worried one as she looked to the side. ‘’You…didn’t tell anyone, right?’’ She turned her gaze back to him.

‘’Of course not, I can only imagine how stressful it is…to have a secret identity.’’ he could absolutely imagine it. Which now made him realize exactly just how stressful this entire situation must be for her.

Hell, if any of his classmates revealed that they knew he’s been Phantom all this time he would probably have a heart attack and die again on the spot.

She nodded her head solemnly. ‘’Yeah…and I’m scared you’ll be in danger now that you know.’’ she said.

Oh great she was worried for him now too.

‘’Val, it’s fine. I can take care of myself.’’ he gently took hold of her hands in hopes of calming her down a bit.

She sent him a doubtful look.

Okay. Rude. He absolutely could take care of himself.

‘’I’m literally the ghost hunters’ son???’’ he defended weakly.

She just shook her head a bit. ‘’With all due respect, Danny. Your parents aren’t very …uh… aware.’’

That was true. He couldn’t really deny it, so he just let her continue instead.

‘’You literally babysit Cujo and let Phantom hang out in your room, which, by the way. What the fuck Danny?’’

He shouldn’t have let her continue.

‘’Well I mean… I wouldn’t call it hanging out uh… I might or might not…sneak some Fenton tech to him. Sometimes.’’ he answered nervously. ‘’I can sneak some for you too if you want!’’

Yeah, try to buy her with guns. Girls love guns.

‘’Why would you do that?” she asked, totally ignoring the last part. “Is he threatening you? I swear if he dares to hurt you I will end his entire existence.’’

That made him feel real safe. ‘’Uh… Don’t you have a truce…or something?’’

‘’Doesn’t mean I trust him. He’s a ghost.’’

‘’So is Cujo.’’

‘’Cujo’s different.’’

‘’Sure.” he stated flatly. It was not the time to have this conversation. “I’m fine though, really. Please don’t worry about me.’’

‘’You’re important to me, I don't want you to get hurt.’’ she said, squeezing his hands softly. Right, they were still holding hands. He blushed looking down at them as she continued talking. ‘’The sole reason I broke up with you was because I wanted to protect you.’’

This made Danny instantly raise his head back up to meet her eyes. ‘’I thought you broke up with me to have more time to hunt ghosts?’’

‘’No! I mean, kinda! I mean- UGH.’’ she sputtered. Pausing for just a second she closed her eyes and took a small breath. ‘’I was very close to giving up ghost hunting for you, but then I realized I’m way too deep in. Someone needs to protect this town and if I don’t do it then who will? I just didn’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.’’

A silence. She sounded so sad saying that.

He knew she considered giving up ghost hunting for him, he heard her say it. But then the thing with her new suit happened and he assumed she just decided kicking his ass was the real priority. Yet it looked like she apparently didn’t want to drag him into a mess he was already a part of anyway.

‘’Val…‘’ he started softly.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ she interrupted, finally letting go of his hands. ‘’It’s just been a lot to deal with and…a lot of hard decisions…I’ve never really talked about it with anyone before.’’

He furrowed his brows. ‘’That must feel pretty lonely?’’

Valerie looked at him sadly.

The guilt that overcame him in that moment was unbearable. This entire situation was his fault. He was too busy being self centered, only ever caring about keeping his secret in tact. Never in his wildest dreams did he even consider how lonely Valerie must have felt all this time.

They weren’t so different after all, both of them wasting their teenage years doing some vigilante bullshit, but he always had Sam and Tucker (and then also Jazz) to support and help him out with ghost hunting. Meanwhile the only people who knew about Valerie were her dad, who disapproved of the entire thing and someone she considered her sworn enemy.

He should’ve come clean the moment she agreed to a truce. Maybe then she’d actually believe he wanted to support her. Instead he ended up weaving this web of lies, so intricate he barely could keep track of it anymore.

Heck, they were having this conversation only because he messed up yesterday. He put so much unneeded stress on her shoulders. This wasn’t fair to her in the slightest.

The only thing he could do now was be there for her as someone she doesn’t entirely hate yet.

‘’Well. Now you have me.’’ he said, forcing a soft smile on his face. ‘’I’ll always be here for you if you want to talk about…this.’’

And meanwhile I’ll just keep lying to you. He thought cringing inwardly.

Unaware of the crisis he was going through in his head, Valerie returned his smile with one of her own.

‘’Maybe it’s a bit egoistic, but…I guess I’m kind of happy someone knows. And of all the people who could’ve found out, I’m happy it’s you.’’ she made a point to look him in the eyes as she added ‘’I trust you. Just please make sure to not get into trouble.’’

He stared at her for a moment.

How could he do this to her? She trusted him! She just said so herself! He felt like the biggest jerk alive (or half-alive).

It’s not like he could just come clean though. Especially not at this moment. Revealing his identity would be an entirely different kind of betrayal. She would be absolutely furious. The kind of furious that even Cujo wouldn’t be able to save him from. That wouldn’t help her.

Sam was right though. He did this to himself. He should’ve listened to his friends from the start and stayed away from her as Phantom. Let her live her own life. Instead it was almost as if he craved any kind of interaction with her, even in the form of being shot.

And then Cujo came around. He somehow managed to make her listen to him as he explained what really happened with the dog. Slowly she started warming up to the puppy and that made Danny believe that maybe she’d warm up to him too, so he started pushing himself into her life more.

For fuck’s sake he got a second phone only to text with her. (She only answered messages involving Cujo and started conversations only when she suspected he did something wrong, but still.)

And okay, he did like annoying her with the family jokes a bit too much, sue him. He loved getting a reaction out of her and she always got so exasperated. (And maybe it was also a self indulgence. Taking care of Cujo has been their little thing. Only for them!)

He did feel a slight guilt when he messed up the first time and Danny Fenton got accidentally roped into ‘’babysitting’’ Cujo, but he ignored it for the most part. She actually bought into that flimsy excuse and he got to relax more when recording his tiktoks, not having to worry about whether Cujo came into view or not.

This though? This made him feel awful. Like he was finally truly breaking her trust. He was an awful person and a coward.

Suddenly his silly little game of house wasn’t so fun anymore.

‘’Trust me you’re the farthest thing from egoistic right now.’’ he said, forcing another pained smile on his face.

She sent him the cutest smile back. ‘’Thanks Danny. You’re really sweet.’’

Fucking hell. If only she knew the truth, she wouldn’t think that.

Before he managed to say anything else (which would probably be a lie anyway) the bell rang.

Valerie looked at the still closed door and moved to open it. ‘’I better get to my next class. Don’t wanna get detention. I’ll see you around?’’

‘’Yeah.’’ he mumbled just loud enough for her to hear before she turned around and left. Leaving the door slightly ajar.

Danny stood there for a second more. Trying to process what exactly just happened. He slid down to a sitting position and hit his head repeatedly against the cleaning supplies shelves.

Later during lunch, he joined his best friends at their usual spot and put his head in his hands on the table.

“Guys I fucked up so bad.”

“I told you so.” Sam answered unimpressed. Tucker just straight up laughed.

Some friends he had.

‘’It’s not funny, Tucker.’’ Danny groaned, raising his head to glare at the other boy.

‘’Yes it is.’’ Tucker answered, wiping away a non-existent tear.

Sam rolled her eyes at the both of them. ‘’The question is; what are you gonna do now?’’

Danny stared at the table in thought. There was only one thing he should do at this point, though it wasn’t going to be easy.

‘’I don’t know how yet…’’ he started looking up to meet his friends’ curious stares. ‘’…I’m gonna tell her the truth.’’

[etherealbiocide]

COMMISSION FOR @sholangagaga! 🩷🧡🍭🍦🌼🎨✨️

Thank you Lonnie for having commissioned me again! :3c this one was super fun to do! (Even though this was one on the 9th January LOL) It is Consequences Elizabeth and Glamstars Baby having a cute interaction, since we're the owners of this AU! :)

This piece features two fullbody characters, one of which has a complicated design, and a simple background. In total it costed £44 :)

Feel free to DM me if you want a commissioned piece, or simply to discuss prices first!

[PLEASE DO NOT REPOST MY ART WITHOUT PERMISSION.] [Reblogs are appreciated!]

[saltycharacters]

You should tell us about Chilli and Giggel :3c

Hell yeah I can! Here are some recent doodles of them as a bonus:

[ID: Two art pages featuring digital/traditonal doodles of two ocs. The first has an oc named Chilli, a skinny, pale teen with long, golden and red braids that end in little skulls, side bangs resembling a skull, and a jacket dress. Train tracks and wheels decorate her outfit, and she's shown to have a prosthetic on her left foot. She's also shown to be able to shed her skin, her face resting behind her like a hoodie as her elongated skull beneath it surveys her surroundings. She's also holding a weapon resembling saw blades on a pole, and has a skull-themed train rushing by her in the background. Her little brother, Giggel, is in the second image- shown to be a short, pale boy with long, brown curly hair, freckles, braces, and bird legs. As a kid he wears a hoodie dress with a lock symbol, the hood resembling a skull when put over his head. There's also a doodle of him in his twenties, where he wears a dress with a skull on it and loses his pigtails, as well as grows facial hair. End ID]

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Chilli and Giggel are two siblings that live on the Skull Train, which just as it sounds, is a train with a skull face. It's perpetually running and consumes precious metals for fuel, can create new tracks on the spot and is probably alive. For Chilli, she can't stray too far for it or she literally dies, at least brain-wise; her body still remains alive at a certain distance from the train, and she can regain her sentience upon returning. She doesn't need to phsyically eat (the train getting fuel is enough), and has impressive regenerative powers that make it very hard for her to die.

As for personality, Chilli is a loud and cocky gal who takes things at face value and never apologizes for anything she does. Her self-confidence is highlighted in how she pretends to know everything and has no qualms in bossing people around.

Giggel is the younger sibling of Chilli and her only companion on the Skull Train. He's eager to please and mimic his sister, often being a partner-in crime to her schemes and idolizing her every descision. They're very close growing up, and are practically inseparable until Giggel turns 14.

After an incident where Chilli falls off the train and gets literally left behind as her body ceases brain function, Giggel finds himself alone with no idea where she went. About half a year passes before he finally decides to leave the train, despite being under the assumption that he's as succeptible to train distance consequences as Chilli was. However, he quickly discovers that he isn't actually tied to the train, and can go as far as he wants without issue. About seven years pass before the siblings meet again, Giggel now being a 21 yr old adult with a bike gang under his belt and a more pessimistic outview on life, and Chilli having lost her face as her deformed skull prevents her from wearing it comfortably. The meeting is less than ideal, as Giggel swapped his niave idolization for resentment, assuming Chilli abandoned him and lied about him being unable to leave the train all those years ago.

Chili's absence, however, is actually due to not being close enough to the train to regain brain function but close enough that her body stayed alive. Giggel kept the train close to where he thought Chilli left him in the hopes she'd someday return, and when he left the train still mantained the same loop as it continued to run. On the tracks where she was comatoased, her head dealt with the occasional trauma of being run over by other trains, and as her skull healed in an elongated shape and her facial skin tore off, she remained unmoving and practically unaging for near a decade. When she finally came to, her new look remained and she began to search for her brother. In the following months, her body ages quickly to catch up and she goes through the arc of growing up and seeing her brother, no longer the little starry-eyed kid that sees no fault in her, have his own life and opinions outside of her boastful guidance. This harsh reality check ends up humbling her, and the siblings reconcile and start building a relationship anew.