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happyhauntt · 3 months

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a writer & his muse — sirius black

writing masterlist | askbox

─── summary: renowned mystery writer sirius black has a new muse, and it just so happens to be the homicide detective who hates him. (castle!au)

─── pairing: mystery writer!sirius black x detective!reader.

─── warnings: fluffy banter, mild threats of violence, sirius is a little bastard and knows it, honestly just a fun time. muggle au.

─── word count: 1k.

You're not entirely sure what you did to deserve this sort of punishment.

The station is pretty quiet when you arrive, as it usually is this early in the morning. A sigh of relief escapes you as you arrive at your desk, dropping your bag at the foot of your chair, and you realise that aforementioned punishment — the newest irritation in your life — has yet to arrive.

You’d really love to know what you did to deserve this. Whether you accidentally pissed off some ancient deity, or cut in line at the supermarket so your cosmic karma is unbalanced, or perhaps your boss just really hates you, even though he invited you to his birthday barbecue a few months ago and had called you, endearingly, the 'best detective he'd ever trained.'

You hadn't thought he could be harbouring a secret grudge against you, but really, what other reason could there be for this kind of punishment?

And it is a punishment. Of that, you have no doubt. It is a tooth-grinding, migraine-inducing kind of punishment, and if you weren't acutely aware of the consequences, you might have tried to murder him by now.

Him being, of course, the world-famous mystery writer, Sirius Black.

What a smarmy, egotistical little bastard.

From the very moment he sauntered into the station, wearing a beat-up leather jacket and a devil-may-care smirk, you'd known your life was about to get complicated. Or, well, more complicated.

Your job is difficult enough, chasing down criminals and solving murders all day, without having a nosy moron breathing down your neck, spouting crackpot conspiracy theories when the evidence is much more straightforward.

You hear his footsteps on the linoleum before he strolls around the corner, clutching a cup of takeout coffee in each hand. He sets one of them on the desk in front of you, brandishing a crooked grin like a weapon.

"How is my lovely muse this morning?" He winks at you as he slumps into a nearby chair, pulled close to the corner of your desk for research purposes. You wonder if he's ever heard the phrase 'personal space'.

Your lip curls. A slew of paperwork has been spread across your desk for an hour, all related to the case you solved earlier in the week, where Black had been, surprisingly, somewhat helpful. Your boss had been liberal with his praise, and Black's ego had puffed up to an insufferable degree.

Unfortunately, you're now reaping the consequences.

"Considering if I can kill you and make it look like an accident," you reply, your voice flat. You sniff the coffee before taking a sip. Annoyance punches through you when you realise he has your coffee order memorised. You want to bury him in a shallow grave.

Black leans back in his chair, a wide grin sweeping over his face. "If anyone could, it would be you."

"Does any part of this shadowing gig involve helping me with the, frankly ridiculous, amount of paperwork you generate?"

He purses his lips in thought for a moment before shaking his head. Strands of shaggy black hair fall around his face. "Never really written the paperwork into my books. A bit boring, you know. Nothing the readers want to bother with."

You roll your eyes. "And yet, Mr Black, you insist on bothering me."

"Sirius, please." He chuckles at you. How were you unlucky enough to catch his attention? How insane is he, wanting to follow a homicide detective around for research on his new book? "Mr Black is my father, and a large part of the reason I write mysteries, not horror." He feigns a shudder.

"Mr Black," you say, fixing him with an unamused glare. "When, exactly, do you think you'll be finished with your book?"

"Detective, you wound me!" He splays his hand over his chest, just above his heart. You try not to stare at the tattoos flexing across his knuckles, or the way his shirt goes tight across his chest. "Here I was, thinking you enjoyed our time together."

"Like a hole in the head," you mutter.

There's a teasing twinkle in his eyes. He takes a long sip of his own coffee while you return your attention to the paperwork, scribbling your signature in the appropriate places.

Every once in a while, you can feel him watching you. Eyes like swirls of cigarette smoke, analysing your every move. There’s an odd little tick he has, his fingers tapping an unfamiliar rhythm against his leg. Whether the sound is soothing or frustrating, you can’t quite decide.

The shrill ringing of your desk phone startles you both. He’s trying not to laugh, you can tell, as your hand darts out to answer it.

I wonder if this is how zoo animals feel, you think to yourself as you listen to the officer on the other end of the line. You scratch the information out onto a post-it note, an address and a few other key details, before hanging up.

He’s a bundle of energy beside you. His knee bounces, and there’s a gleam in his eyes that is beyond inappropriate, considering the circumstances of your job and his so-called research.

It’s like being stalked by a golden retriever, except you’re certain you would prefer the dog over Sirius Black’s presence.

“Grab your coat, Mr Black. We’ve got a body.” You push yourself away from your desk, filing the paperwork away in the drawer for later.

He bounces to his feet with a level of enthusiasm that should, frankly, be illegal.

“Try to be a little less excited,” you say in a chiding, exhausted voice as you lead him out of the station. “Someone is dead.”

“I’ll try to be as macabre as possible, detective,” he assures you. He climbs into the passenger seat of your car, drumming his fingers against his leg in that bizarre non-rhythm again. “I’ll channel my mother. You know, I based one of my characters on her…”

Tuning him out is easier said than done, but you do your best. The book must be nearly finished. How much more research can he possibly do?

You just have to grit your teeth and bear his presence for a few more weeks. You just have to make sure you don’t kill him for a few more weeks. He’ll surely get bored of you and find a new muse at some point, right?

#sirius black x reader #sirius black fanfic #sirius black fanfiction #marauders era fanfiction #sirius black imagine #marauders era imagine #* chapter update.

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1indigoisles · 5 months

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Can we just step back and take a moment to appreciate the fact that we now have the smallest, tiniest, most insignificant inkling of an idea as to what might happen in TWP?

And that after New Year we will have more small, tiny, insignificant inklings as to what we might get to see?

CC has us all in web woven by her novel universe. I love her.

But gratitude and all aside, it's TWP CrAckPOt ThEorY TImE (by yours truly)!!

I have some pretty random theories and headcanons that I will be randomly spouting around now and for the next couple of days.

Theory #1: Kit gets gold wings.

Hear me out, why not? He's not just any old part faerie, he's the descendant of the First Heir! Also, Clary had a dream in CoLS of two people standing together beside a lake, one with white hair and black wings and the other with gold hair and gold wings. At the time, it was assumed that those two people were Sebastian and Jace, but the pieces are falling together! ASH HAS WHITE HAIR AND BLACK WINGS, can you not tell how excited I am?

Theory #2: The disappearance that Kit and Ty have to investigate is Livvy's.

I mean, does anyone reading this post have other ideas? It would make sense, since Dru would be sucked into Faerie danger, and even if she wasn't, she couldn't really help Ty because she can't even see Livvy. And if we assume that Dru is in Faerie, Kit is literally the only one Ty could go to, since nobody else knows (except for Magnus and Ragnor, who I think would either be too busy or simply refuse to help, thinking that if Livvy had finally truly died, then it would be lucky that the world got off without having to pay for it). Ty would, obviously, try to find Livvy on his own, but the thought that only Kit could help him would be nagging at him the entire time. So either he finally plucks up the courage to ask Kit, or they just bump into each other on their own. Either way, they team up together, very begrudgingly on Kit's part, because he'll be all ice and "I hate you" on Ty. Then, Kit's faerie magic spurts out again in a moment of danger, or in a fight scene where they're outnumbered, and Ty, aside being amazed, interrogates Kit heavily, and when Kit is finally worn off, he tells Ty angrily about his heritage and how if Faerie knew of it, the entire lands would be after him. And even though the thought gives me immense pain, I think that eventually, it's how Jessa dies, and Kit blames himself for it, and added to how he has to take care of Mina and live for her, he absolutely refuses to help Ty any longer. But then, when danger strikes again, his faerie magic comes out in full, Kit gets himself severely injured. And THIS happens:

"Well, it's a bit ironic, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"All that effort to convince you I wasn't in love with you, and here I am, dying in your arms."

[Teaser #6] Link below.

I just realised I gave an entire rant about it, I'll stop now.

Theory #3: What can transpire between Dru, Jaime and Ash.

And I don't mean this just romantically. Dru getting involved in Faerie finally connects the dots, since Ash literally lives there, and Jaime disappeared there. Their storylines probably merge somewhere around TLKoF and they have their own adventures. Also, headcanon; you know how in TDA, Jaime was all distant when he found out that Dru was 13 and not 16, like he'd thought? And how he literally left, like, the next day? So, what I'm thinking is that he was already beginning to crush on Dru, and he was disappointed, not because she hid her age, but because they wouldn't be possible. Okay, okay, I know Jaime said that Dru was like his sister, but that if you go to that scene, you'll find he's speaking after a moment of being silent, perhaps drinking in the situation. I think he says that because he's trying to convince himself that whatever he likes about Dru is just friendly, and nothing more. Now, I know that people don't have the kindest opinions about DruxJaime, because Dru was just a child when they met, but if you really think about it, 13's really not that young, and Dru was really mature for her age. And this 3-year gap is nothing compared to what Lucie and Jesse had going on. Girl meets a 17-year-old-looking boy when she was 6 years old. Can you believe the age gap that I'm too lazy to calculate? So yes, DruxJaime is plausible, it can and will happen, although Dru will obviously end up with Ash. And if CC pulls an open end to Jaime's character like she did to Matthew, I will literally cry. I really dislike open ends, because it fills me with so many questions! I hate not knowing what happens next! I really want Jaime to either end up with Anush or go poly with Thais, which I know is just wishful thinking at this point. Any character will do, CC! Please and thank you!

Okay, I just read this entire thing over, and my self-critic says; this is not a post, this is me ranting. My writing is literally all over the place. I feel like I wrote too much. But I think I got it all out for now. This was fun.

#Honestly this has turned into a Shadowhunters rant.#I tend to dive deep into a topic #I'm sorry #the wicked powers #twp #kit herondale #ty blackthorn #dru blackthorn #ash morgenstern #jaime rosales #anush joshi #thais pedroso #cassandra clare #shadowhunters #theory

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nathanielzalexandria · 11 months

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You know what?

A big FUCK YOU to all those people who said My Hero Academia/ Boku no Hero Academia was straight and the canon ships will be straight and "of course Izuku and Uraraka are the end game ship and that we should get our "gay fanfic agenda" out of their hero show. (Sorry to the izuocha ship but they aren't ending the journey with cannon status)

The moment I found out that Magne and Tiger was trans i knew there would be gay romance. If the mangaka is okay with outright stating that Tiger is trans in his character description why in the fuck would he not be okay with putting his mc in a homosexual relationship.

And honestly, if Katsuki was a female he would have just been called a tsundere and all those "this is a bad pairing" peeps would mostly ship it. But that's neither here nor there because we aren't talking about the obvious main character ship. (You can hate it but don't pretend this is a crackpot ship fanfiction peeps/girls and gays pulled out of thir arse.

Secondly, Uraraka. While she may have started off "wanting" Izuku but after she meets Toga she starts to question his feelings for him. And nearly every conversation they have is about love and what it means to them. The pasta has been put to boil for so long, why is everyone surprised its bubbling? That the pasta is ready?

Okay, let's say you missed out on the subtext leading up to this story arc. On the official artwork that has them together. It happens but if you are following the manga from chapter 388 the cover has them interlocked with each other and close enough to kiss. The fucking tag is "THE CONCLUSION TO THEIR TALK ON LOVE...". And from around the end of 390 (and before but especially at this point), every chapter is about them, and Toga feeling alone and isolated and Ochaco trying to reach out and talk about love. And even if you did not catch that, this recent chapter has a reporter saying "A girl and her feelings can change the world" blatantly hinting at this outcome.

I'm just saying, that if by "You've got such a lovely smile!" You did not see what was coming there is no helping you. Your bias blinded you because there was nothing to be so shocked about. You should not have been so utterly blindsided by "I want to talk about romance, Himiko-chan!"

And if your argument is, "What about Izuku?" The boy has rejected one and is oblivious to the other. Also, this chapter has Ochaco talking about Toga's smile. Yeah, she calls it lovely but you know what else it's called, genuine and she tells Toga she should never hide her feelings while showing a flashback of Izuku smiling. You know, the guy who bottles up his feelings and pain until it hurts him a la the Vigilante arc? The line is clearly comparing Toga to Izuku and asking her not to be like him.

So take the fucking win Togarakas/togachacos your ship has been validated. It has been canonized for those with willing eyes to see. And if you honestly believe that Izuku and Ochaco are actually getting together in the end, and that "...then I'll give you my blood for the rest of my life!" Isn't akin to, "I love you. Most Ardently.", "I like you... very much. Just as you are." , "In another life, I would have really liked... Just doing laundry... and taxes with you.,", "I came here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible" and that these words were about Izuku and friendship then this is the biggest cope I've ever seen. You are being obtuse

#mha spoilers #bnha spoilers #i saw one text post and got heated sorry #ochako uraraka #himiko toga #togachako #togaraka #togachaco

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inkblackorchid · 11 months

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What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 1)

*deep breath* Hiiiiiiii.

After sitting on this for ages, I finally decided to make the Crow post. And because this ended up getting stupidly long, I decided to turn this into part one of two, maybe three, we'll see (which I honestly should have done with the Aki posts too, but oh well). So let me quickly make it clear what I'm about here: This analysis is not meant to convince people who hate Crow to change their mind. It is also not meant to dissuade people who love Crow from doing so. Instead, I wanna look at how Crow was handled during the show (up until the end of the DS arc for now, I'll dive into the rest later) and give my own take on why he developed the way he did and turned into such a polarising character. Also, disclaimer, despite the fact that I'll be making an effort to analyse things objectively, I am a mere human and obviously not the one and only expert on all things 5Ds. My only claim to knowledge here is that I've watched 5Ds several times now, love the show and its characters deeply, and like to think I have a decent amount of media literacy. Also, I take no responsibility for the length of this post. Despite me splitting things up, it's stupidly, exhaustingly long. Like, very, very long. So. Let's hop to it, shall we?

Before I get into the meat of things, there's one more thing I would like to get out of the way: I know plenty of people, even now, so long after the show ended, would answer the question of "what happened with Crow, anyway" with something along the lines of "well Blackwings got so popular" or "well Aki's VA got pregnant so Crow stole her spotlight" and I need to burst some people's bubbles here because no. Neither of these things are true. Nor is the infamous "well Crow was meant to be the main villain", actually! And I could go into all of that here, but that would be a whole post of its own for each topic, and luckily, someone else has already done all of that work. I direct you to two posts over on Reddit from @mbg159, who did an absurd amount of digging to comprehensively disprove two of the 5Ds fandom's favourite scapegoat theories:

No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, and most certainly not the boss of the dark signers.

No, Aki being sidelined and suddenly having less presence in the narrative than him was not because her VA got pregnant.

I really don't want this to come off as an "assigned reading"-thing, but it is so, so important to keep these things in mind when looking at Crow, and honestly? I'm just tired of these rumours at this point. It's been 12 years since the show ended, we don't need to keep believing this nonsense. And the posts linked above aren't crackpot theories or anything of the sort—they provide sources all over and all of the links still work. If you still can't be bothered to read them (they are long, yes), then at least take away this tl;dr: Crow allegedly having been planned as a villain doesn't work because there is no evidence that supports it, and both his spike in screentime being caused by the Blackwings' popularity and him "taking Aki's spot" because her VA got pregnant make zero sense because they simply don't match up with the production timeline of the show. It is literally impossible for either of these things to be true. (And believe me, I am as mad as anyone that Aki got shafted, maybe even madder than the average fan, but if it doesn't add up, it simply doesn't add up and there were no regrettable outside influences, someone just actively made shitty writing decisions and that's that.) So please. It has been 12 years. Forget this stuff. Ditch it. Let it die. Because I'm not here to spin conspiracy theories, I'm here to analyse the writing of the show as best I'm able. Okay? Okay.

Now, for the good part. Shall we start with some facts? Let's start with some facts.

Crow is introduced to the audience in episode 30, shortly after the dark signers arc kicks off. And considering that he later ends up as one of the main characters, arguably even the third most important character in the show after Yusei and Jack, this immediately stands out. For reference, the rest of the signer group is introduced within the first 14 episodes of the show. Even Aki, who is the last signer to be introduced, takes less than half the number of episodes Crow does to finally make her debut. And I don't think you could blame anyone for finding this weird. 30 episodes, even in a show with a relatively short episode length like 5Ds, is an absurd amount of time for a protagonist to get introduced. As for how he's introduced to us...

We get the gist of his character pretty quickly. He's a daredevil, he's used to flipping sector security the bird (pun not intended), he's got a soft spot for kids, and he knows Yusei well—well enough for the two of them to tag-duel some security officers almost immediately after not seeing each other for an undefined amount of time, which, if you know anything about yugioh, says it all.

(Pictured: two lads getting up to Shenanigans.)

There is history there. These two know each other's decks. They know how each the other plays. They can work together immediately and seamlessly. This is a big deal. Aaaaannd... It immediately begs some questions: If this guy knows Yusei so well, and they are really close friends, why the hell is he only showing up now? Why wasn't he helping Yusei put together his duel runner? Why didn't he help him stick it to sector security at the start? Why weren't they in contact?

The thing is, the show never really answers any of that. At least not properly. We can only read between the lines as to why Crow wasn't with Yusei from the start. (At least in-universe. Irl, it's easy enough to guess that Crow was not there at the start of the show because the writers at first didn't think they'd be putting this side character Takahashi originally came up with into the show.) Which brings me to the Enforcers. (Side note: As a sub watcher, I know the Japanese name is Team Satisfaction and I know Kiryu's catchphrase works a million times better with that name, but "Team Satisfaction" will always sound like a boyband name to me and I like to mix and match the sub and dub names based on what I like better on an individual basis anyway, please bear with me.) And before I properly open that can of worms, I feel the need to point something out: After Crow made his debut in episode 30 and got the opportunity to show off his duelling a bit during episodes 30-31, we are immediately introduced to Kiryu/Kalin at the end of episode 32. What this means for Crow is that he has zero backstory at this point and his character had zero time to settle. His only tie to the main story, as far as the audience is concerned, is that he's Yusei's friend from however long ago, and aside from that, he's only got two other things going to endear him to viewers: 1. he stands up to sector security (whom the first season did a pretty good job of establishing as pigs) and 2. he cares for abandoned children. He gets a "Save the Cat" moment and a tie to the main character, and that's it. Just to put that into perspective, we know the most important points of all the other signers' backstories by that point. Jack and Yusei's deal is made obvious to us within the first five episodes; the twins, though the narrative largely only spares them breadcrumbs, anyway, at least have that bit about Ruka/Luna having been in a coma at one point and having a connection to the spirit world shown during episodes 18-19; and though it once again takes Aki the longest to reveal what she's all about, we at least have a good idea of why she is the way she is by episode 24, and we get the icing on the cake of her traumatic past during the narratively excellent duel in episodes 40-41 (no, I will never shut up about how much I love this duel). Plus, she arguably has the most complicated backstory, so it's no surprise that it takes longer to reveal. But here's where the Enforcers come in again.

(And here we see the arguably most deranged rat bastard of a man (affectionate) in the entire show. But hey, at least he has an exquisite sense for dramatics.)

As far as backstory for Crow is concerned, the Enforcers drama initially revealed during episodes 33-35 is as much as we get for him after his introduction. His later duel with dark signer!Bommer/Greiger during episodes 51-53 offers a bit more, but more on that later. First, I want to preface this by saying that I don't think it was a coincidence that Crow and Kiryu/Kalin were introduced so shortly after one another. Because at this point in the story, I think Crow's main role is to add a counterweight to Kiryu/Kalin. To Crow, whatever happened with the Enforcers was evidently not enough to break the friendship between him and Yusei—they're still close and get along well. And then we have Kiryu/Kalin—for him, whatever happened with the Enforcers was a big deal and he's more than a little resentful about it, to the point of wanting to murder Yusei in revenge. (It is also noteworthy that this is the first thing that ever calls Yusei's character into question, because here is a guy who evidently knew him well once and absolutely loathes him, and it's clearly not because of his Satellite upbringing, his marker, or any of the stuff the other antagonists up until this point hated him for. Yusei fucked something up here. Big time. But let's not get sidetracked.) So, what does the Enforcer drama tell us about Crow, anyway? Frankly, not much. We learn two things: One, same as Yusei and Jack, Crow was all for the "liberating Satellite"-thing at first. Two (and this one's way spicier), unlike Yusei, he had the guts to ditch Kiryu/Kalin when it became clear he was willing to go too far. He was even the first to do it. (And I'd argue that if Crow hadn't walked away, Jack wouldn't have, either, but the relationship between these two is a whole other funky can of worms.)

(I love how Yusei grabs him like a naughty cat every time Crow gets worked up.)

The thing is, I wish I could say this tells us something integral to Crow's character, but looking at the rest of the show... it kind of doesn't. Implicitly, it shows us that he draws the line somewhere, and where people he loves doing absolutely insane things is concerned, he does it sooner than Yusei. It's just that this is never brought up again. And as far as his introduction is concerned, this, the first dark signer!Kiryu/Kalin duel, and him rushing to get Yusei to Martha's on his runner is the last we see of Crow for a while.

(For the love of all that's good and holy, why on earth did he deposit Yusei on his runner like that, shrapnel-stab-wound-side down?? Did he pull out the biggest piece of shrapnel before doing this? How did Yusei's legs not drag on the asphalt? Why did nobody think to tie something around his stomach to slow down the bleeding? Ok I need to calm down I'm overthinking this)

After this bit, the signers are pulled centre stage for a while—which was to be expected, for one, and also seems like the right call, writing-wise. After all, they're the ones the audience expects to save the day. As far as viewers are concerned at this point, Crow is just Some Dude who happens to be good friends with Yusei. We've had characters like this before. Hell, the opening episode of 5Ds introduced us to a whole four of them, and for all we know, Crow could have a first been intended to be precisely that, just another Satellite side character, who just so happens to have ties to the Enforcers-debacle that the others don't.

However. Where the writing for Crow as a character, especially considering where he ends up later, is concerned, this looks like less of a smart move. Because the "set-up" (if you can even call it that) to make Crow a protagonist later is... shaky, to say the least. And I'll be frank with you, I'm pretty sure this is because Crow was intended to be neither a dark signer nor a signer (which the Reddit post about him I linked above also proposes). In other words, it was never meant to be set-up in the first place. Considering how the show developed and turned him into a protagonist later, though, I can't help but wonder how Crow could have been written differently to make him actually slot in well with the rest of the signers without stepping on many people's toes. But before we dive into hypotheticals, let's continue looking at what they did with him first.

We see him between episodes 30 and 35, and then he briefly poofs out of existence until episodes 43-44 where he... mistakes Yaeger/Lazar for a dark signer and has a duel with no outcome against him, which only barely serves to keep him relevant.

(The face of a dark mastermind, servant of an ancient, immeasurable evil. Truly.)

Though him outmanoeuvring the vice director despite all the data he has on him shows him to be a cunning duellist, it feels a bit like a throwaway episode, like the show saying "oh yeah wait don't forget that this guy's also there". Crow exists in the narrative—and gets to duel, which sets him apart from Yusei's other Satellite friends—but he does nothing to advance the plot, despite getting whole episode segments dedicated solely to what he's currently getting up to. He's just kind of there, and it doesn't help to set up any of what comes later, except the idea that he can and will fight a dark signer if he finds one, maybe. But the thing is, Crow vanishes after this duel. Literally.

(Run, bird boy, run! Or, uh... drive?)

And look. The way this moment looks? With the black fog literally catching back up to Crow on-screen? And with what he says, swearing that he won't die here, which is strikingly similar to how the other dark signers refused to die, swearing themselves to revenge instead? I get why people thought this would be the moment Crow died and turned into a dark signer himself. But the thing is, even without all the hints pointing to Goodwin instead of him from the start (Goodwin speaks about being willing to sacrifice Satellite within the first ten episodes, the condor is literally on his shirt, ffs, and the corresponding geoglyph is shown in the background when he talks about the Nazca Lines, I am not making this up), Crow becoming a dark signer makes zero sense because it doesn't fit his character. He has no motivation to become a dark signer, because the dark signers ultimately aim to destroy Satellite. And even with what little the audience knows about Crow at this point, it is crystal clear that Crow would never destroy Satellite, not to speak of sacrificing the children he cares for to summon an Earthbound Immortal. It simply doesn't work, because his character doesn't work like that. Crow is deeply protective of Satellite—as his devotion to making it better during the Enforcer days shows—and he is even more fiercely protective of the kids he takes care of. Destroying either or both to turn the world into a literal hellscape instead goes against everything we've seen him say and do up until this point.

However, this is where we have to address the refrigerator in the room.

(Ah yes. The fridge for Crow. The fridge for Crow that was there from the start. The fridge that Crow totally had the time to curl up and hide inside of. The fridge specifically for Crow. Crow's fridge.)

Every time I watch this moment, I don't know whether to laugh like a maniac or heave the biggest sigh of my life. Even when you're being extremely generous with the show and its writing, there is no getting around the fact that this is as though someone wrote DEUS EX MACHINA all across the screen in bold, red letters. And again, I get why people thought this was the moment where the writers decided to do a 180 and turn Crow into a good guy instead of a dark signer due to the popularity of his cards or whatever. The production timeline still doesn't add up, but I get it. And cards or no cards, you can tell that someone made an out-of-left-field decision in Crow's writing for this moment to exist, because the way things were going for him before, purely based on visual evidence, it looked more like he was going to be another victim of the ominous black fog here, for someone (presumably Yusei) to have an angsty moment about later. (Or, hell, perhaps somewhere around this point, they decided that the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin would be a 3v1 turbo duel, which Aki, despite being a kickass duellist, categorically couldn't participate in because she doesn't have a license at this point! It could have been as simple as that.) To contextualise this, between Crow vanishing and him reappearing here, 7 whole episodes pass. He vanishes in episode 44 and reappears in episode 51. His saving grace is that all the duels in between canonically take place within the same night, which is why it's technically not unrealistic for him to be stuck in a fridge for a few hours. Technically. Ok, but what does he reappear for? Well, to have his very own dark signer duel, of course.

(Not pictured: Bommer's hilariously large runner.)

This is the first time we get to see Crow actively contributing to the larger plot, and in light of where he ends up later, I think this duel does a world of good for him. Firstly, it offers us more backstory (though still less than for the other signers), establishing why Crow's so attached to his orphans, why he's so close to Yusei, and throwing in tidbits like how he learned to read from duel monsters cards. It's "Save the Cat" moments all over, and it also does two other things well: For one, this is the only dark signer duel we get where both parties technically have the exact same goal—revenge. Bommer wants to avenge his hometown, Crow his kids. This duel, more than anything else, shows us that Crow could have become a dark signer—in a world where doing so didn't also mean destroying Satellite and killing his kids. Plus, it's the only duel against a dark signer we get that is fought and won by someone who, at this point, is not a signer. And this is especially important to me because it supports themes the show already began establishing with Rudger/Roman Goodwin and continues much later with Team Ragnarok and the likes: Fate is bullshit, the future is not set in stone, it is determined by what we do here and now and we have to fight to make it better. Therefore, contrary to what "fate" would dictate, Bommer/Greiger is not beaten by a signer. He's beaten by Crow. This is an extremely solid bit of writing that 100% supports the show's themes. (Arguably, this duel might have been even more solid if Crow hadn't actually turned into a signer, because him as a non-signer who stayed a non-signer would have been an even bigger "fuck you" to fate than him becoming the replacement fifth signer later.)

And, well, we know where Crow ends up after that. Seeing as he's been freed from fridge-prison and seeing as Aki doesn't have a runner yet, but the final boss duel is set up as a turbo duel, he joins the fray next to Yusei and Jack to fight Rex Goodwin. And the only thing this duel does for Crow character-wise is bring the whole Daedalus Bridge story full circle.

Which. Let me swing back to that for a second and put on my extra big nerd glasses because wouldn't you know it, I'm a greek mythology nerd and when I hear the name "Daedalus", I perk up like a dog that just spotted a piece of ham.

(Pictured: The least OSHA compliant bridge in the world, probably.)

So. As not to derail this with greek mythology, the short version of the Daedalus myth, as far as it's relevant here, for people who don't know it: Daedalus was a famed architect of Crete, who (among other things) built the labyrinth that kept the Minotaur imprisoned. What he also built was a pair of functional, sort-of mechanical wings held together by wax (because he needed to make a quick getaway at some point, but let's not go there). And he had a son: Icarus. Who famously donned the wings his father built and flew too close to the sun, which made the wax holding the wings together melt, causing him to fall into the sea and die, leaving his father to grieve.

I don't think it's hard to see how the Daedalus-Icarus story connects to the bridge. The Daedalus bridge is named after the genius inventor, reaches into the sky towards the sun, and our mechanical wings in this case are the wings attached first to Rex Goodwin's duel runner and then, you guessed it, the Blackbird. This would lead us to liken Rex Goodwin, of all people, to Icarus, then. And I'd argue the comparison works, too. See, the reason for which Goodwin actually built the bridge at first is left completely up in the air. We know that Crow believes a version wherein the "legendary duellist" wanted to build that bridge to reunite Satellite and the city—and the thing is, for all we know, that might be true. Goodwin never contradicts it, he only claims he was doing it to "oppose destiny" (read: follow Rudger/Roman's plan to take his brother's mark, assemble the signers and fight and win against the dark signers instead of having someone bear both a dark signer and a signer mark on themselves).

(Since when does becoming a dark signer make people swole, anyway? Where was that beef when Kiryu became a dark signer?)

Perhaps along the way, he thought he might as well reunite Satellite with the city, since things were already going to hell there. (Before he became director, which I find very interesting. Did the city decide immediately after the explosion that Satellite was contaminated and needed to be isolated or some such? Were efforts made to reunite city people with their relatives who might now have been stranded in Satellite? Did MIDS, hoping to cover up their mistake, lobby for cutting the Satellite off from the city? Was corruption involved? So many questions...) Or perhaps he simply built the bridge for himself, to get back to civilisation in order to follow his brother's plan and everyone else just interpreted it differently. It matters little—the only thing that matters is how Crow sees it. To him, building the bridge was obviously an attempt to reach the city, despite how hopeless things in Satellite seemed, and Goodwin's final ditch effort to jump off the bridge and "fly" on his duel runner was an act of defiance that turned him into a legend. Most importantly, both these things connect to freedom for Crow. Freedom from the misery in Satellite, freedom from sector security, and arguably, freedom from destiny. But then Goodwin tells him that all building the Daedalus Bridge and jumping off it did for him was teach him that destiny is inevitable. And Crow calls bullshit, because of course he does.

And I'd argue this is even more of a reason why Goodwin works as Icarus: He jumped off the bridge (flew too close to the sun), fell and lost his arm (the wax melted and he crashed into the sea), and ultimately, that fall completely changed his outlook on life and turned him from a (possible) hero into a villain (he "died", metaphorically speaking). This led to him now confronting every hopeful, younger person with the outlook that fate cannot be altered unless you're willing to sacrifice your very humanity itself. And there's Crow, a non-signer partaking in a "destined battle" only signers are supposed to be part of, calling bullshit on all of that merely by breathing.

(Bird boy is angry, watch out)

This moment could have been exemplary to emphasising the show's later themes (and I think to those who love Crow, it is), yet, at the same time, I understand why some people think the writers fumbled the ball with his introduction and role in the plot and cast of characters too much for it to hit as well as it could have. There is also the argument to be considered that the whole Daedalus Bridge-thing, though it might thematically fit Satellite, feels like it could have been written in solely to prop up Crow's character and give him something to clash with Goodwin about. Which, you know. I can't refute that, really. It might have been. And the timeline on Goodwin's shenanigans as the legendary duellist is a bit wonky, too, unfortunately—after all, we know only that the Zero Reverse happened 17 years before the show's start, when Yusei is only a year old. Crow's story would then lead us to believe that Goodwin, after somehow surviving that explosion, stayed in Satellite long enough to see it start turning into a floating heap of junk. (Which means this either happened very quickly or it took him a good few years to start building the bridge; both options have some logisitical issues.) Then he builds the bridge, gets cornered by security, jumps off, and... Then what? He looses his arm (but somehow manages to hold onto his brother's??), somehow makes it over to the city anyway (wow, he must be a great swimmer), then... manages to get hired by the public maintenance bureau somehow, only to climb the ranks at record speed and become director within only a few years? (Or did he meet Iliaster first and they somehow helped him climb to the city's political top?) It's all rather nebulous, and does suggest that Goodwin was not originally written with this bit as part of his backstory in mind. But can I prove that? Nope. Might also just be another instance of the writers fumbling the ball, despite having a solid story outline.

At the end of the day, Crow closes out the dark signers arc by establishing himself as a part of our team of heroes—which is, of course, strongly emphasised by him receiving the dragon's tail mark, while the dragon's head switches over to Yusei.

(The Crimson Dragon, probably: Oh, sod it. Fine, the other guy went batshit and you actually helped. Here's your mark. I'll get you a dragon later or whatever.)

Now, I know this in and of itself was already a polarising moment for people—and the funny thing is, I know that even some people who like Crow hated this moment. And I can see why. Crow's whole thing during the latter half of the DS arc up until here was that he was the only one taking part in the destined battle who was decidedly not destined to be a part of it. He was repeatedly spitting in fate's face, and as I mentioned, this could have been brilliant to throw some weight behind themes the show later brings up again. So in terms of character writing, this moment might have undermined Crow's character, rather than supported it, because it feels like less of a reward and more of a "gotcha": If you're extra uncharitable, Crow suddenly isn't the guy who defied fate and fought for the future (does that ring a bell?) anyway, he's the guy who was supposed to become a chosen one anyway and, like Yusei during the start of the Fortune Cup, simply didn't have a visible mark yet. However. There is also the bigger picture to consider. Character writing aside, Rudger/Roman Goodwin dying would have had a rather sizeable impact on the story, had nobody else become a signer in his stead—because there are supposed to be five signers and Rudger/Roman dying would have seen the group short one chosen one (and short one dragon, but we'll get to THAT can of worms in part two). So, to add my two cents for a minute, I don't think adding a new signer was a bad idea, per se. The execution of this move, however...

And I can hear you yelling. "Rua/Leo should have become a signer instead". And yes. I get that, too. And yes, I know Life Stream Dragon was teased before Black-Winged Dragon was ever conceived of, probably. So yes, Rua/Leo should have become a signer earlier. The question is just where. Because the way this final boss duel is set up, nobody could become an additional signer before this point, it would have turned Rex Goodwin's whole shindig on its head. (Even though the duel against Dimak/Devack could have been a good opportunity to reward Rua with a signer mark early.) Arguably, making Rua a signer instead but letting Crow join the main cast anyway could have made for a stronger showing overall. It would have made the twins harder to sideline the way they were later. And it would have kept Crow's "piss on fate"-theme.

But. This is what we got. Crow got a fast-paced introduction, was quickly made as likeable as possible, had an unfortunate stretch of episodes where he vanished very suspiciously (what I wouldn't give to know what decisions were made among the writers in that period), came back to make a very strong showing against Bommer/Greiger and then participate in the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin, where he got to shove his fate-nonsense back in his face, too. A smooth character arc? Hardly. And with everything laid out like this, I get why he rubbed some people the wrong way. Similarly, I get why he's some people's absolute favourite, though. Both sides have a basis in canon. (But please, let's not justify either with decade-old production conspiracy theories, okay?)

To close this out, allow me to do my thing for a moment and imagine a 5Ds canon where Crow was handled in a way that allowed his character to shine more, and maybe not piss as many people off.

Imagine a Crow who was there with Yusei from the start, alongside Nerve, Blitz, Taka, and Rally. A Crow who was, maybe, angrier at Jack for leaving and stealing Stardust than Yusei was, and who was determined to help his friend get his dragon back. A Crow who still had his kids to look after, and who introduced us to the Daedalus Bridge legend way earlier, to establish it as an organic part of Satellite culture, and who maybe drops hints about the Enforcers earlier, too. And we switch back to him every once in a while as the Fortune Cup is going on. Maybe he's the only one who's slippery enough to outrun Yaeger/Lazar's people when they come to capture Yusei's friends in order to use them as blackmail against him. And he starts looking for them, and runs into Saiga/Blister, and learns what's going on over in the city. Maybe he tries to follow Yusei because all of it rings alarm bells for him, maybe he doesn't because he figures security will be too tight now that Yusei has escaped. Instead of them stumbling out of a container to find TV conveniently playing the Fortune Cup Finale, Yusei's friends are found by Crow, who gets them back to the hideout, where they all catch the finale with Saiga/Blister. (Optional: If we want him to stay a signer, maybe he gets a weird feeling while watching the finale.) Then Yusei's suddenly back and Kiryu/Kalin's introduction proceeds as we know it. Yusei's injured, but Crow sticks around for a little longer, leaving only once he knows Yusei's gonna be fine. Then he decides that he needs to take up arms against the dark signers, too, because like hell is he gonna let anyone destroy Satellite and sacrifice his kids. He can still duel Yeager/Lazar while Aki and Yusei are duking it out in the hospital and the signers learn what the hell being a signer means, it matters little. Maybe this time, he outruns the black fog—barely—and there's no fridge. And he realises that stuff makes people vanish. While the signers start their big battle, he races back to check on the kids and finds the same disaster we already know, and everything else from there on out proceeds as previously. (Except that maybe, the first time Crow sees Jack again, he has some choice words for him for legging it to the city and stealing from Yusei.) Whether he turns into a signer at the end or not is up to preference, I think.

Nobody has to be on board with this version, but this is probably how I would have adjusted it to make things less jarring.

For now, see you in part two.

#yugioh 5ds #crow hogan #ygo 5ds #5ds #rex goodwin #character analysis #yugioh meta #orchid rambles #oh sweet baby jesus this took SO LONG #AND NOW I NEED A PART TWO #BECAUSE I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS #god damn #it's very late at night here but I just Had To Get This Done #anyway take it #here it is #I'll try my best to work on part two quickly but I have no idea when I'm gonna get done with that

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foundtherightwords · 1 month

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The Hollow Heart - Chapter 2

Pairing: Hellcheer, Gothic AU

Summary: To escape her mother's control and the stifling society of Gilded Age New York, heiress Christabel Cunningham impulsively marries Henry Creel, a charming and seductive stranger, and accompanies him to his remote mansion on the West Coast. There, as Henry grows cold and cruel, Christabel must uncover her husband's sinister secret before it's too late. But can she trust Kas, her husband's enigmatic assistant, who seems to be her only ally in this strange place, or is Kas's loyalty to his master stronger than his attraction to Christabel?

Chapter warnings: animal death

Chapter word count: 4.9k

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 - Her Own Betrothed Knight

Christabel did have to endure a lecture about the danger of wandering off on her own, but thankfully, Mrs. Cunningham was so upset by Christabel's injury that the lecture didn't last very long. Never mind that the ankle wasn't badly sprained. It wasn't even swollen. Her mother still insisted that she stayed off it until the All Hallows' Eve ball. Christabel suspected that her mother did it not out of concern for her wellbeing, but because it made Jason more attentive toward her than ever—he even intended to cancel the picnic the next day because Christabel would not be able to join them. Christabel, already uncomfortable with him after her rejection, did not relish the idea of being stuck at the house with Jason hovering over her and being chaperoned by her mother. So she convinced him to continue with his party, while she curled up on a window seat with a book.

"Don't fret, darling," Mrs. Cunningham said, coming behind Christabel with one hand on her shoulder and the other smoothing her hair back, though she knew Christabel hated being stood over like that. "Trampling through the woods in the sun and the wind would only dry out your skin and your hair and get you nowhere at all. Better save yourself for the ball. I just had your costume taken in a little, you're going to look lovely in it—"

Christabel didn't reply. She wondered how her mother would've reacted if Christabel told her that all her scheming was for naught, that Jason had already proposed and been rejected. She wouldn't want to go to the picnic anyway—except it would be a chance for her to slip into the woods, in the hope of running into a certain someone again...

At that moment, as though summoned by her thought, there was a faint ring of the bell at the front door. She heard the soft voice of a maid answering it, and another, deeper, male's voice. Her heart started beating faster. She recognized that voice.

A maid came into the room presently. "There's a gentleman here to see you, miss," she said, bobbing a quick curtsey.

"What gentleman?" Mrs. Cunningham's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"He said his name is Henry Creel, ma'am."

"He is the one that brought me home yesterday, Mother," Christabel reminded her. She hadn't told her mother much about Mr. Creel, only saying that he was a guest from a neighboring cottage, but her mother, with her usual penchant for gossip, had discovered his identity anyway.

"Ah yes, a guest of that crackpot Brenner, is he? Some upstart from out West, Mrs. Carver told me. Have a care, Christabel. Now that he's found a way in, he's going to hang on to you like a dog to a bone until—"

"Yes, Mother, I shall bear that in mind," Christabel cut her off before she said something even more vulgar in front of the maid. For someone so concerned with decorum, Mrs. Cunningham could be shockingly nonchalant when it came to talking in front of the servants. It was as though she didn't consider them human beings with their own thoughts and feelings. Christabel nodded to the maid. "Please show him into the morning room, Mary. Thank you."

Creel was standing by the fireplace, one hand resting on the mantelpiece, looking down at the hearthrug, lost in thoughts. When Christabel came in, he lifted his eyes but didn't move from his position right away, and she was struck by a sense of déjà-vu. She had seen that pose somewhere—a painting, or a sculpture, with a person's face half-hidden by his arm, showing only his eyes. Was it a portrait of Lord Byron? No. But it was something romantic like that. Never mind. It would come to her eventually.

The sense of déjà-vu vanished as soon as Creel moved toward her with his arms outstretched. "Miss Cunningham," he said, clasping her hand in both of his. "I've come to inquire after you. How is your ankle?"

"Thank you, it's improved a great deal. But really, you needn't have bothered—"

He leaned toward her, smiling conspiratorially. "I did say you can count on seeing me again, didn't I?"

Christabel blushed. She seemed to be doing so a lot around Creel. "Yes, but I didn't expect it would be so soon." A discreet cough behind her reminded her of her mother's presence, and she reluctantly made the introduction. As Creel bowed over Mrs. Cunningham's hand, Christabel could see that her mother was not impervious to his physical charms, for all her attempts to remain aloof. Mrs. Cunningham was briefly interested to learn that Creel's family came from the nearby village of Ringwood, but when he said it was over two hundred years ago and that his father made his fortune out West, her interest quickly waned and her manners turned frosty. Her mother had always been a snob about family name and lineage, and Christabel doubted she would ever approve of Creel, not even if his forefathers had been on the Mayflower.

"And have you made any further discovery about your family's history?" Christabel asked, to fill in the awkward silence.

"Not yet, but Dr. Brenner have told me about the ruins of a settlement not far from Tuxedo Lake," Creel said. "If this nice weather continues, I intend to investigate it more closely. Perhaps you would care to join—"

Mrs. Cunningham made a disapproving noise in her throat, and Christabel gave Creel an apologetic look. He did not seem to notice anything amiss. He gently led Christabel to a chair by the window, keeping up a stream of easy chatter with both her and her mother, talking about San Francisco, about New York and how he wished he could visit it more often—polite, impersonal talk that meant nothing at all, but from the way those blue eyes fixed on her, she could tell there were things he'd like to say to her but was prevented by her mother's presence.

After fifteen minutes, the minimum amount one could entertain a guest without appearing rude, Mrs. Cunningham stood up, signifying the visit was over, and claiming Christabel needed her rest. Creel stood up as well, with regret plainly written over his handsome face. He thanked them for a lovely chat, wished Christabel a speedy recovery, and moved toward the front door.

"I hope we'll have the pleasure of seeing you again, Mr. Creel," Mrs. Cunningham said, in a voice that meant quite the opposite.

"Thank you, ma'am, so do I," he said.

"Will we, though?" Christabel asked, lowering her voice so her mother wouldn't hear.

"You can count upon it," he whispered, extending a hand to her.

They shook hands. The book Christabel had been reading, which she forgot she was still holding, slipped out of her hand and clattered to the ground. Before she could reach for it, Creel had bent down, picked it up, and pressed it into her hand. When she frowned at the feel of the book in her hand, he gave her a discreet wink, bowed to her mother, who was still hovering behind, then turned and left.

Only when she was back in the privacy of her room that Christabel felt safe enough to look at what she was holding—not one, but two books. Creel had slipped her another while picking up her first one. It was Tales, by Edgar Allan Poe. Christabel felt a surge of excitement mixed with gratitude for Creel's discretion and consideration. Her mother would never approve of such morbid reading material.

There was a name written on the flyleaf—"M. Brenner". Christabel grinned to herself. Creel must have scoured his host's bookshelf for this one. As she turned the pages, a note fluttered out. With quickening pulse, she picked it up. In a slanting, elegant hand, it said, "I believe a lady named after a Coleridge heroine would appreciate the romantic and macabre genius of Mr. Poe." And, a little lower, "If you wish to escape the castle, I shall be waiting. Same time, same place tomorrow. H."

***

The difficult part had been to convince her mother that her ankle would improve with some light exercise. When her mother suggested she took a turn around the Carvers' garden, Christabel had exploded—the reaction may have been exaggerated to frighten her mother, who hated public displays of emotions of any kind, but the frustration was very real. "Am I a dog, to be held on a leash?" she'd said. "Why don't I start wearing a veil in public too, while you're at it?"

It had worked. Her mother had agreed to let her take a walk around the lake but insisted that she took one of the Carvers' maids with her. After that, it had been the simple matter of bribing the girl with a few coins so she could slip away undetected.

As she walked, Christabel wondered what had prompted her to have a clandestine rendezvous with a man she'd met only the day before. He was attractive, to be sure, and very kind and gentlemanly, in a quiet, mild-mannered way that felt more natural and genuine than the excessive gallantry of her other suitors. But it was more than that. He came from another world. She knew little of the West, but a place where men could make their fortunes and become respectable regardless of their origins was bound to be different from the rigid, suffocating world she was living in. When he scooped her up into his arms, his movement so decisive and casual, she'd imagined she had been touched by that other world, and she longed to feel that touch again.

Creel was sitting under the oak when she arrived, cutting a dashing figure with his bare head and his body in recline. Again, Christabel felt that sense of déjà-vu. She must remember which painting it was that reminded her of him.

He looked up from the notebook in which he was writing or sketching and smiled at her. A flock of butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

"I was getting quite impatient," he said.

"I had to distract my mother."

"I didn't get you into trouble, did I?" Creel peered at her with concern. "I would've come to the house, but I have a feeling that she won't appreciate my visit."

Christabel sighed. "My apologies, Mr. Creel. My mother can be—"

He made a dismissive gesture with his pencil. "Never mind that. I'm glad you came."

She sat down on a clump of grass opposite him. The sunlight scattered through the leaves, throwing speckles of gold over his face, so one of his eyes shone while the other remained in shadow. The gleam in that eye threw the butterflies in her stomach into a frenzy, and she had to look down to hide her fluster.

"How did you know I wished to escape?" she asked, fingering a fold in her dress.

He smiled, as though it was the most obvious answer in the world. "How could you not?" he said. "Five minutes with that crowd and I would have run for the hills."

"Is the San Francisco society not like that?"

"I daresay it is, but I don't know for certain. I don't spend much time in society, to be honest. I'm too busy with my studies."

So perhaps it was not his world that was different, it was Creel himself. "What do you study?" Christabel asked.

"A little bit of everything. History. Science. Literature. Speaking of which, how do you like Mr. Poe?"

"Very much. I finished the book in one sitting." She neglected to say that she'd had to read it under the covers, for fear of being found out by her mother. She didn't want Creel to think she was still a schoolgirl. "Did Dr. Brenner mind losing it?"

An enigmatic smile appeared on Creel's lips. "What Brenner doesn't know can't hurt him."

"Of course, he's rather obsessed with death, isn't he? Mr. Poe I mean, not Dr. Brenner."

"Aren't we all?"

"Not just death in general either, but premature death and false death, specifically," Christabel said. The fates of Madeline Usher and Fortunato were still haunting her.

"Because those are the most horrible." Mr. Creel's eyes turned dark. "When you die before your time, or when others think you're dead and you're powerless to tell them. Can you imagine?"

Perhaps this was not the most romantic subject of conversation, but nobody had spoken to her with so much openness and honesty. Usually, when she tried to discuss books and music with another man, she could only nod and go along with whatever opinion he had, or she would be labeled a bluestocking and a bore and catch the eyes of no other man. At least that was what her mother had told her.

"Have you investigated the ruins that Dr. Brenner told you about?" she said after a moment, for Creel's eyes were still dark, and she wished to dispel that look.

"I have, but they're not the right one. Far too recent."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Creel turned his eyes upon her, the one eye that shone in the sun now sparkled with quite a different light. "In fact, I hope my search takes a long time."

"Why?"

"So I can keep seeing you."

Christabel turned crimson. Later, as they said goodbye, she didn't ask if she would see him again. She knew that she would.

***

They did see each other again, almost every day after that. They talked a great deal, or rather, Creel talked and Christabel listened. He told her about his house overlooking the San Francisco Bay and about his travels—he had traveled widely; it seemed there were few places left in America that he hadn't set foot on, and in Europe as well. "My dream, though, is to travel to the Far East," he said. "Japan and China. Especially China. There's a lot of Chinese people in San Francisco, you know, and their culture fascinates me. It's one of the oldest civilizations in the world. I think it would be something to see it with my own eyes."

"I always wish I could travel," Christabel replied, wishing she could say something more interesting or share some travel anecdotes of her own. Her stories of Newport and the Catskills must sound awfully provincial to him.

He also told her about his studies—his current interest was medicine from plants and animals. All the while, Christabel could only listen in fascination and admiration, wondering how he managed to do so much and learn so much and go to so many places at such a young age. And her yearning for that world he'd opened to her, a world of newness, excitement, and sophistication, grew and grew, only she no longer wished to be simply touched by that world. Now she wished to be a part of it, with him.

Then something happened that derailed their time together.

It was three days before the ball. There was no entertainment planned for that day, and Mrs. Carver wanted everybody out of the house so they could start decorating and preparing for the ball. Jason and the others were talking about going down to the lake for some boating and fishing, when Mr. Carver received a telephone call in his study. The Carvers had just had their telephone installed, and its shrill, unaccustomed ringing echoed in the hall ominously. A moment later, Mr. Carver emerged, looking strangely pale and shaken. Mrs. Carver fluttered into the study with a frightened look. The guests mingling outside heard some murmurings, and then Mrs. Carver's voice raised in irritation, saying, "Nonsense! It has nothing to do with us. Besides, we have been preparing for days." She came out of the study, looking quite put out, and could be heard muttering under her breath, "The old crackpot! Even in death he was a nuisance!" as she fluttered to the back to go through the menu with the French chef once more.

Finally, Jason managed to learn the truth from his father—Dr. Brenner had been found dead in his house the previous night.

He had been found in his library by his servant, with an unmarked bottle next to him. There was to be an inquest, though in all likelihood, it would be a formality only—the body showed every symptom of poison, the library was locked from the inside, and everyone knew Brenner's penchant for the occult. No doubt it was the result of some foolish experiment. Mr. Carver had considered canceling the ball out of respect, but fortunately, Mrs. Carver had convinced—or perhaps bullied—him to carry on as planned.

This didn't stop the guests from feeling excited about the prospect of a murderer in their midst and exchanging theories on how Brenner had really died.

"What about that mysterious guest of his, the one who brought you back that day, Christabel?" one of the girls said. "Might he have something to do with this?"

"I don't know," replied Christabel, though she was worrying about the same thing. She couldn't believe Creel had anything to do with Dr. Brenner's death, but she was worried that this death and the inquest may keep him from seeing her. And with her mother getting into one of her fits and forbidding Christabel from even setting foot outdoors—as though a murderer was lying in wait and ready to pounce on her—she didn't know if she could go to the woods again. She hadn't realized how much she had been looking forward to their daily meeting until it stopped.

That evening, she was wandering around the garden, feeling listless and despondent, when she heard a whisper nearby, "Miss Cunningham?"

Christabel bit back a startled cry. A shadow detached itself from the privet hedge and came to stand in front of her. It was a young man, as dark as Creel was fair. His skin was pale, and his eyes and hair appeared black in the moonlight. "Sorry, miss," he said. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Mr. Creel's servant."

He was holding himself awkwardly, as though trying to make himself smaller, less noticeable. Somehow, this awkwardness made Christabel's initial fear vanish. "Is Mr. Creel all right?" she asked.

"Yes. He couldn't come himself because he's being questioned by the police." The young man pulled a note from his pocket and handed it to her. "He asked me to bring you a message."

Christabel went over to a gas lamp and opened the note. Her eyes fell on Creel's familiar slanting hand: "Meet me by the oak tomorrow, 10 AM. H." Emotions flooded her heart, mostly joy and relief.

She looked up to see the young man still standing there, as if waiting for something. "Thank you," she said. "Please tell him I'll be there."

He nodded but made no move to leave. Christabel remembered and searched her pockets for a coin for his tip, but came up empty. "I'm sorry, I don't have any money on me—"

"I don't want your money!" For a moment, his diffidence was gone, replaced by a brief look of rage. That, too, disappeared in a flash, though the man's hands remained balled into fists. "Begging your pardon, miss," he said, controlling his voice with difficulty. "But... if I were you, I wouldn't go."

With those enigmatic words, he vanished into the dark, leaving Christabel alone with the note.

***

The next morning, she managed to escape her mother and slip away. She went to the old oak tree and let out a sigh of relief when she saw Creel's familiar figure leaning against it. He still smiled at her, though his eyes were grim, and when she offered him her hand in greeting, he took it in a tight grip.

"What's happened?" she asked. "Is there going to be an inquest for Dr. Brenner's death? Will you have to make a statement?"

He shook his head. "The police seemed pretty confident that the poison was self-administered. They are going to rule it a suicide, or perhaps an accident." Christabel breathed more easily, but Creel's eyes remained dark. "I blame myself," he muttered.

"Surely you have nothing to do with it? You said so yourself, he took the poison of his own volition."

"I knew that Brenner was interested in alchemy and the elixir of life and things like that," Creel said. "But I didn't realize he would be so foolish as to attempt to brew one himself and drink it without testing it first. I should have warned him."

"No." Christabel laid a hand on his arm. "It was not your fault. You couldn't possibly know that."

He looked down at her hand, then up at her face, and something in his eyes set her pulse pounding.

"I'm returning to San Francisco soon," he said.

Her heart went cold. "Because of Dr. Brenner's death?"

"No. Because I've found what I was looking for."

"Your village?"

"Better. The remains of my family's cottage. Would you like to see?"

She nodded, and, still holding her hand, he led her through the trees, to the north end of the lake. Christabel followed him, trying to feel happy for him, but she couldn't stop the disappointment from rising within her, disappointment at the thought that he would go away, back to that free and easy world, while she would be stuck here, perhaps for the rest of her life.

They stopped at a clearing surrounded by elms and oaks, all glorious in their autumnal coats. There was something like a boulder or a cairn in the middle of the clearing, covered so completely with ivy that Christabel almost missed it. Creel knelt to spread the ivy apart, and Christabel saw that it was actually the remains of a stone fireplace.

"Look," he pointed to a smooth, flat stone at the back, where a large "C" had been carved.

"C for Creel?" Christabel asked, astonished.

"Yes."

"How long ago did your ancestors live here?"

"About two hundred years."

The thought of all that history now gone and buried in the ground under her feet made Christabel forget her heartache for a moment. "And did they move away, or—"

"No." Creel's face was somber. "The mother and the daughter died in mysterious circumstances, and the father was accused of killing them by witchcraft. He was hanged. Only the son survived."

Christabel's body grew cold with horror. Sometimes, caught in all the comfort and ease of modern life, she forgot how violent the history of their country was. She couldn't think of anything to say other than "Oh." Just then, the morning sun shone into the clearing, and her eyes caught something sparkling amongst the stones. "What's that?"

Creel dug into the daub, which had all but crumbled to dust, and pulled out something not bigger than the palm of her hand, covered in dirt. Red glints showed through here and there in the sunlight.

"My word!" he exclaimed. "I can't believe it!"

Pulling out his handkerchief, he wiped the dirt off of his discovery. It was a piece of stained glass, in the shape of a rose. "Do you know what you've found?" he said, awe in his voice. "It's our family crest. My ancestors brought it over from England and put it on the cottage's front door. I have something similar at my house in San Francisco. It's extraordinary that it was still here and intact after all this time." He beamed up at her. "I knew you would be valuable to me in some ways. I knew it the first moment I saw you."

The look in his eyes sent her heart into a somersault. Somehow she managed to open her mouth, and was about to say something back, something silly and girlish and inadequate, when she was interrupted by a scream that rent the air.

For a heart-stopping moment, she thought it was a woman or a child in distress, but when the scream continued, it became clear that it was an animal. Creel slipped the bit of stained glass into his pocket, jumped to his feet, and ran toward the elms. They soon discovered the source of the scream—a hare, caught in a steel trap. Blood pooled around the places where the cruel sharp teeth cut into its hind leg, but it was still alive, its eyes fixed on them with an imploring, almost human look.

"Oh please, please help him!" cried Christabel.

Creel stood looking down at the hare. "There's no helping it," he said. "But I can put it out of its misery."

"No!"

"Its leg is broken, Miss Cunningham." His voice was harsh. "Even if I free it, it would be lame and soon fall prey to a fox or an eagle. This is kinder." He took off his gloves. "Look away."

Christabel told herself she should just leave, she who always took care to never be present at the kill on a hunt, but some terrible force had gotten a hold of her, rooting her to the spot, making it impossible for her to tear her eyes away from the hare, from its chest still moving rapidly, from the twitching whiskers and the pink ears with red veins that stood out against the sunlight. Only when Creel snarled, "Look away, Miss Cunningham!" that she remembered herself and raised a trembling hand to cover her eyes.

There was a squeak, then silence. She lowered her hand. Creel was covering up the little body with dry leaves. "This trap was no doubt set by a poacher," he said, pulling his gloves on. "We should let someone know."

Somehow, the casual way with which he pulled on his gloves horrified her more than anything else. It finally shocked her out of her daze, and she turned and ran out of the clearing, chest heaving with sobs.

She didn't realize Creel had chased after her until she felt his strong grip on her shoulders, turning her around, and she found herself in his arms, hot tears staining his waistcoat, while he said, "Stop it, Miss Cunningham. I can't stand tears. If you don't stop crying, I'm going to have to do something quite drastic to stop you." Then his embrace turned into a caress, as his hands ran from her shoulders to her waist, and he pulled her to him and clasped his mouth to hers.

She was rooted to the spot again, not by some unknown force this time, but by the power of his arms and his body and most of all his mouth, a force that robbed her of her breath and her thoughts and her senses, leaving her with no choice but to submit to it.

A moment later, or a lifetime later, she felt the pressure of his mouth lift, but his arms remained around her. "I can't imagine leaving this place without you," he whispered in her ear. "Will you come with me, Christabel?" His kiss had left her so breathless that she couldn't answer right away. "Say yes," he said, a note of urgency in his voice. "Say yes now, or—"

"Yes," she said weakly, almost before she could think. It was as though he had put the word in her mouth and it had come out by itself, with no control from her. She opened her eyes and saw that the sun had gone behind the clouds, leaving the clearing gray and dreary. She couldn't help remembering, too, that they were standing on the ruins of a family home destroyed by tragedy, and that an animal lay dead at their feet. It was certainly not her ideal place for a proposal. But she didn't care. All she cared was that she was going to be free.

***

They agreed that Christabel would inform Mrs. Cunningham of their engagement the next morning, and if her mother approved, Christabel would send Henry a message and they would ask for her blessing together, after the ball. And if she didn't... well, they would deal with that together as well.

As she went to bed that night, Christabel wondered if she'd been too hasty. But, she reasoned with herself, others had gotten married after just one encounter, one look across a ballroom. And when she thought about how Henry made her feel—she thought of him as "Henry" now, with a certain relish—and the promise of freedom he brought, all her doubts were silenced.

There was one thing she couldn't get out of her head, though—it was the image of Henry standing over the hare, calmly putting his gloves back on. It disturbed her, though she did not know why. He'd been right, of course. It had been an act of mercy. Yet he had stood over that poor suffering hare not like an angel of mercy, but more like an avenging angel.

And with the thought of angels, it came to her in a flash, what she had been trying to remember since his first visit to the Carver mansion—what Henry's pose by the fireplace had reminded her of. It was The Fallen Angel, the painting by Alexandre Cabanel, whose reproduction she had seen in a book. Yes, he had looked exactly like it, with his tousled hair and that strange, intense look in his eyes, half of pain, half of rage. Exactly like Lucifer, after his fall from Heaven.

Chapter 3

A/N: Originally, Eddie/Kas wasn't supposed to show up until Chapter 3, but I got impatient so I had to give him an early appearance here :))

This is "The Fallen Angel" by Alexandre Cabanel, in case you're wondering.

#hellcheer #hellcheer fic #hellcheer au #eddissy #eddie x chrissy #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #henry creel #joseph quinn #joseph quinn fic #kas!eddie #vampire!eddie munson

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kandisheek · 3 months

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FIC REC WEEK 12 – OTHER MARVEL SHIPS

CLINT/BUCKY

I Hate Running by copperbadge

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: T Words: 916 Tags: Running, Flirting, Murder Strut

Summary: Clint and Bucky go running. This was a potential mistake.

Reasons why I love it: This fic is so goddamn funny, it cracks me up every single time. Poor Bucky and his moonshine crackpot serum, he never stood a chance. There are so many fantastic lines in this that I can't possibly quote them all, so I hope you go and check this one out, because it's amazing!

Trainwreck Through A Rear Window by flawedamythyst

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: T Words: 9,840 Tags: No Powers, PTSD, Deaf Clint

Summary: Through Clint's big main window, you could see straight across the street and into the apartment opposite, where a man was standing, staring at Clint as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. When he caught Clint's eye, he just shook his head slowly. -- The guy in the apartment opposite spends way too much time watching Clint make a fool of himself, which wouldn't matter as much if he weren't also smoking hot.

Reasons why I love it: They're so fucking cute, ugh, I can't. Clint The Trainwreck Barton is just the best, I laughed my ass off multiple times. And everyone rooting for him and Bucky from the sidelines is just adorable. The way they finally meet is perfect too. This fic is amazing, and I hope you give it a shot, if you haven't already!

crack the whip, shape-shift and trick by shatteredhourglass

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: T Words: 2,347 Tags: Trans Clint, Protective Bucky, Chest Binding

Summary: “Remember when Tony sat you and Steve and Thor down and started that god-awful PowerPoint Presentation about queer people?” Bucky snorts. “Did he think that they just fuckin’ appeared out of nowhere after the war? Honestly. I nearly shot his computer. Steve liked it.” -- A request from Tumblr for some trans Clint

Reasons why I love it: I would pay good money to see that presentation Tony whipped up. I love Bucky's reaction to Clint's gender identity, and the fluff that follows is pure gold. This fic is lovely, and I hope you give it a shot for yourself!

Maybe If You're Good by circ_bamboo

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: E Words: 3,984 Tags: PWP, Wall Sex, Banter

Summary: "So, we share an ex." Bucky seriously thought about grabbing one of the knives on the counter and stabbing Clint for trying to talk to him before coffee, but he'd promised Steve he wouldn't do that and promised Tony that he wouldn't get any more blood on surfaces that didn't clean easily. (And then there is snark and wallsex.)

Reasons why I love it: Honestly, when Clint flexes, I dare anyone to keep their concentration. This fic is so much fun – Clint and Bucky sassing each other and Bucky teasing the fuck out of Clint is great. And on top of that, the smut is hot as hell. I love this fic to bits, and I bet you will too!

Got Me Lyin' (for your love) by Kangofu_CB

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: T Words: 4,266 Tags: Meet-Cute, Veteran Bucky, Deaf Clint

Summary: Clint advertises himself as a ‘semi-acceptable to totally inappropriate boyfriend for all your family holiday, family dinner, corporate Christmas party, and other fake-dating needs’. It's surprisingly lucrative, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and he is always very clear with his ‘dates’ exactly what he is and isn't willing to do, and anything physical beyond some hand-holding or maybe a light peck on the mouth is completely off the table. So when Natasha asks him for a favor - to help out one of her friends with his own special brand of help, Clint readily agrees. But James 'Bucky' Barnes is nothing like Clint's other clients.

Reasons why I love it: Clint falling head over heels for Bucky's murder strut, we love to see it. I can totally see Clint offering services like this, and I love that bit with Todd in the beginning there. This fic is super funny and sweet, so I hope you check it out for yourself!

Synchronicity by AvaKelly

Pairing: Bucky/Clint Rating: M Words: 7,346 Tags: Avengers Tower, Bed Sharing, Clint Needs a Hug

Summary: James ends up berating himself internally while the meals get ready. He can't stomach any food right now, so he leans onto the counter with his coffee while everyone else eats. That's when Clint stumbles in, eyes half closed and hair in disarray. He's wearing one of James' hoodies, the one Tony's given him as a joke, that says Cyborg on the front and Murderous Kitten on the back, but is surprisingly soft. OR: the one where Clint falls asleep everywhere and James takes it upon himself to carry him to bed.

Reasons why I love it: This one is just beautiful. Bucky slipping so effortlessly into his role as the one who takes care of Clint, giving him everything he needs – I could read that all day. The story beats that touch on their trauma are heart-breaking, but it just makes the fluff that follows all the sweeter. I love this fic, and I highly recommend that you check it out for yourself!

#winterhawk #clintbucky #marvel #fanfic #fic rec #ficrec #fanfic rec #a year in fanfic recs

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welcometogrouchland · 1 year

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not only is darimila HYSTERICALLY funny as a crackship i think camila deserves a nice peacock of a boyfriend. i want her to show a photo of him at work and his coworkers are too busy wondering if this guy is an actor or a model or what to wonder about the ears or the goo hair. can you imagine darius helping the nocedas with groceries high heels and green eyeliner and god knows what else. MAN.

Firstly I love that this ask implies that Darius puts 0 effort into concealing his identity as a witch when he's in the human realm. This man is fully willing to expose magic and the demon realm in the town famous for producing a crackpot genocidal witch hunter everyone hates IF. and only if he can look fabulous doing it

I'm also on team Camila Deserves Nice Things anon, though I do differ on the details slightly, mainly because I'm sooooo enchanted by the Darius and Camila fake dating scenario I've cooked up in my brain. It both appeases the part of me that adheres to canon characterization of Camila as a woman who still, years later, has boxes of Manny's stuff lying around the house, yet to be put away, bc realistically she did not get proper space to mourn him when he died and she is not ready to move on...AND the part of me that, like you, wants Camilla's coworkers to see a picture of Darius and LOSE THEIR MINDS. HELLO??? THIS IS THE BAD BITCH SHE PULLED BY BEING AUTISTIC??? FR???????

And then I'm unsure whether or not I prefer Darius with romantic feelings for Camila? On the one hand I think, in the beautiful timeline where I actually wrote this, I'd prefer to have it come down on the side of "Darius and Camila are Good Friends who bond over how terrifying being a new(ly), single parent is"

and Hunter has to grapple with the fact that no, his family is not and never will be "normal" according to societies standards, and he cannot parent trap his parents into loving each other, but that doesn't make his family structure any worse off than something closer to a nuclear family.

Also I'd squeeze some juicy character exploration out of Luz bc she is SO not over her dad's death. She tries to downplay it and act like she is but she is not and it's very very clear in TTT. But she also wants her mom to be happy more than anything. And she loves love! And it'd make hunter happy! So she's just. Sitting there with gritted teeth trying not to get upset at the idea of Darius and her mom actually getting together and being happy.

But, tragically, I can't guarantee I'll ever fully write this out (though I fully encourage ppl to run with the idea if they like it. Please run with it I can't be the only one who's thought of this before) so I give myself a little more room to be silly and I say that. Darius is a person with a lot of walls up who likes pretending to be cool as a method of distancing himself from ppl, and I'd love to watch those walls get eroded by the overly sincere and silly sci-fi nerds that are his son-figure and his crush, who are also mother and son. Also I love the idea of Darius being a man in his forties with a crush. Yes!! Get more pathetic!!! Raeda is cowering rn!!!!!

IN CONCLUSION: I love you anon, I should really make SOMETHING based on the Darius Camila fake dating scenario, but if I don't, let this rambling serve as a testament to the GRIP it has on my brain

#ramblings of a lunatic #the owl house #toh #darimila #camila noceda #darius deamonne #the more i joke abt this ship the less ironic it becomes and I'm scared. don't do this to me #it's fine they can polycule it up with raine and eda /j #throw alador and perry in there too. watch everyone on the hexsquad slowly become related to each other. except willow. rip #ALSO i didn't proofread this bc it's very late </3 wish me luck that this is still comprehensible by morning

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greenchrysanthemum20 · 3 months

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Permanent Changes to Brain Chemistry (Or, This isn't the Genre you Think it is)

Hmmm, been thinking about Coffee Theory lately, and also the new wave of Aziraphale had a plan and was trying to communicate in Secret Code to Crowley but Crowley didn't get the part where it was in fact a code..... I have to wonder as someone who has been around the fandom block once or twice, I think both of these theories come from the same place: The Sherlock Hiatus. Yes, folks, we are in the new rendition of The Hiatus™. It feels weird to call it that, as Good Omens is not a show that regularly airs but that fact that we will be in a drought of Canon from August 2023 to 2026 at probably the soonest means that we are in fact in A Hiatus Season. Well, what the fuck does Sherlock have to do with Good Omens ??

I'm glad you asked! My New Thought of the week is that the Sherlock Hiatus permanently changed the brain chemistry on this website, or at least of fans of a certain stripe. Sherlock was a show that I obsessed over (rather late to the game, in 2017), and so did many others. With the cliffhanger of Sherlock's jump at the end of season 2, there was nothing for fans to do but theorize and theorize and theorize.

Sherlock was also a show that actively hated its queer legacy, and by extension, its fandom (looking at you, Steven Moffat). This is getting long so my point is, I think the off-beat super complex theories about GO and the final fifteen come from a place of being actively cat-fished by Sherlock, years ago. I mean, Sherlock S3E1 basically took all of fans' theories, tore them to shreds, spit on them, lit them on fire, and then presented it's own, Even More Crackpot theory as to how Sherlock survived??? The whiplash, maaaan.

So fans, having gone through All Of That, with Sherlock, have now come to almost expect mysteries in fannish shows to be overly complicated. And just, that isn't how Good Omens works?? Like, Neil and the rest of the cast and crew Do Love the fandom, and want to tell a story that is Doing Right by the fans. (Dottie and Sadie in Neil's asks are hard not to swing as the products of a good natured uncle winking and thumbing his nose at you). And second, I think these elaborate theories mistake the final fifteen as being part of a mystery show when in reality the final fifteen are part of a tragedy. Aziraphale is Hamlet. He is a tragic hero. We are to root for him, despite his flaws, or even because of them. It is because of Aziraphale's altruism that he makes the choices that he does. Altruism is Aziraphale's Hamartia, his tragic flaw.

He may be being played by Metatron, but because of who he is as a character, as a guardian and protector, Aziraphale cannot walk away from the chance to protect the earth and make things better in heaven without sacrificing a large part of his values and Who He Is. Metatron knows that Aziraphale is altruistic, as a constant, but that that altruism can be twisted and led astray.

In a tragedy, there is a point called Peripeteia, which means the point in which the tragic hero's flaw condemns them to a certain course of action. This is what we see Aziraphale go through in the final fifteen.

He is offered a choice, and he makes a choice, and in the end, it isn't a choice. Looking at GO through the lens of a tragedy, all of those statement can coexist, and they each have equal weight.

Crowley, on the other hand, is Orpheus. Don't look back. You are leaving, you are on your way out the door, you can sense her presence behind you. Don't look back. The cavern grows darker, the threat looms larger, you talk into the echoes, and every time you hear her reply, you cannot tell how far away she is from you. Don't look back.

You look back. You kiss him, furiously, in a bookshop. You have looked. She is taken from you. Crowley knew that that kiss was never going to have worked. But he needed to kiss Aziraphale anyway. He never could have told Aziraphale before the Metatron showed up that he loved him. (Can one blame Orpheus, for being a plaything to the muses?) (Can one escape a Hell that doesn't send Strongly Worded letters?)

You have to look. You have to love her. You have to let her know you love her, even as you cannot have her.

Obviously, Good Omens as a whole isn't a tragedy, but the final fifteen of Season 2 are one, and I think we have a lot to learn from treating them as such.

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fiftysevenacademics · 6 months

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Television producer Norman Lear died today, which prompted me to put into words something I've had rattling around in my head for a long time now. I grew up in a very Republican family in the 70s-- communism = bad, welfare = bad, everyone but white people = lazy, hippies = bad, non-European immigrants = bad, you don't deserve anything if you can't work for it, etc. etc. I've often wondered how my sister and I turned far away from those views and became the bleeding heart liberals we are (and brought our mother along with us, thankfully). In an extended family that moved into crackpot conspiracy theory Reaganism (later, Trumpism) and/or morally bankrupt "libertarianism," we are the only ones who have moved farther to the left as they've moved farther right.

Speaking for myself (can't speak for my sis!), I can think of quite a few experiences I've had combined with a natural curiosity and sense of fairness but I've always felt like Norman Lear shows played some important, invisible part in this process.

My family watched All In The Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, the Jeffersons, and One Day At a Time religiously. Surrounded by conservative white people in the small, rural logging towns we lived in and in my own family, these shows were the main exposure I had to people who lived very different lives than my own: urban, multigenerational households, single women and single mothers, people of different races, different social classes, and so on. Just seeing someone live in an apartment in a city felt almost like seeing aliens on another planet!

On these shows I saw the kinds of people who were routinely referred to as "problems" or mentioned disparagingly in my little world, portrayed as interesting, full people with feelings and problems that from my sheltered perspective seemed strange and exotic but also, very human. They were cranky or funny or goofy or sassy, but all the characters on these shows were fun to watch and their struggles placed me in the midst of a world I knew reflected how people elsewhere must live. It allowed me to imagine myself as a person living in a world filled with racial, class, gender, and political diversity that was very different from how such a world was portrayed in my Cold War Era conservative family.

How would I live in that kind of world? What kind of person would, or should, I be? Definitely not one like Archie Bunker.

All In The Family probably had the most influence. My grandfather adored Archie Bunker because, as the family joke went, they were basically the same person. By allowing me to see our family patriarch in this awful character who cannot accept how the world is changing, it gave me the critical distance to see myself as part of that changing world. I definitely know that this show also gave me my first inkling of what patriarchy was, though it would be a long time before I knew that word.

I was embarrassed to watch Sanford and Son with my grandpa because he watched it like he probably watched old timey minstrel shows back in the day: Sanford was an object of ridicule, entertaining because my grandpa could scorn him. Though it was obvious to everyone in my family but him, Sanford and Archie were similar characters and it was clear he loved the white one and looked down on the Black one solely because of their race. I remember him also refusing to even watch The Jeffersons, as if the existence of a Black man wealthier than him (he was a plumber) was a sheer impossibility. It's kind of funny how much he hated George Jefferson.

Then there was Maude and One Day At A Time. In my world, where women were primarily housewives, married mothers, still living a 1950s version of femininity, these shows were truly formative for me. I've always held, and still hold, Maude as a kind of role model for an older woman (even though she couldn't have been nearly as old as she seemed to me at the time). She was the only feminst I "knew!" She made feminism look so cool and I knew I was a feminist. Divorce was still kind of exotic and scary back then-- I didn't know anyone in a divorced family and certainly knew no single mothers. One Day At A Time normalized the single mom family just at a time when women were becoming more independent, and I thought about the show often, many years later, when I got divorced and became a single mom myself.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Norman Lear's shows made me turn out as I am. But they did offer a liberal interpretation of the changing world I was living in, and gave me the space to imagine possibilities, relationships, and ways of being in the world that were simply not present or actively despised in my everyday surroundings.

Maybe these TV shows created a little empathetic space that grew as I continued to engage with new people, places, and ideas throughout adolescence until there was no room left for the stinginess, bigotry, cruelty, and paranoia of Republicans.

#stuff you probably don't want to know but I'm telling you anyway #my stuff

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flameofthescorpion · 11 months

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BLACKWHITE REALITY CRACKPOT DESIGN BOIS

okay so most info stands in his ref but heres some other stuff not mentioned: -He knows Dean(Vendevice/Blackwhite Deimos) personally, having been his doctor before Deans brother died from his condition and Dean joined the Vendevice

-Crackpot often makes stops in both california and nevada to stock up on materials

-he absolutely HATES taking his mask off, he hates how he scares people with his actual face

-he has a cult following of Mutants he saved who are all stationed at the border of Nevada and Arizona, they are REALLY happy when he comes back to nevada to check up on them and how they are doing

-he used to be in love with Percy (Blackwhite Phobos) but obviously that got crushed once he died, hes not bitter anymore but he doesnt let anyone near him romantically wise, not that many try

-despite his very sneaky and snakish outwardly persona, he really only wants the best for mutants, now normal people, thats another story

Yeah i ended up settling with the Turkey Vulture. Thanks to everyone who suggested a bird to me for me to choose!

#madness combat #madcom #madness combat crackpot #crackpot #dr crackpot #madcom crackpot #madness combat au #madcom au #au #alternative universe #madness combat fanart #madcom fanart #fanart #madness project nexus

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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The Ancient Magus' Bride S2 Episode 9: Conscience Does Make Coward Of Us All I.

This episode frustrated me so much, because I was just completely ignoring any set up and foreshadowing from the earlier episodes this season. It snuck up on me, and I hate how much sense it makes when you can put it all together. Of course, that frustration means it's a good episode, if that wasn't clear. Alongside the story though, it's probably one of the prettiest ones to date, so certainly a lot to talk about!

What a massive blunder on my part. Elias wants to cure Chise of her curse/ailments, that was well established. I just didn't connect the dots with him going to the college and reading that book at the start of the season. Nor did I connect the fact that it was a book that appeared before Lucy while on the camping trip in the prior episode. Never did I think they would be one in the same, and I feel like I failed. I looked right past all the obvious information just to have it sprung on me in this episode when Elias reveals what's in the book.

It's so plain to see. Elias was looking through that book to search for a cure for Chise, but he didn't find what he was looking for. Even without the information of the book, it should have been easy to put two and two together from Lucy's interaction with it but I looked right past it. Similarly, the book also speaks to Elias' desire to rid Chise of Joseph, which I thought was interesting.

Anyways, humor me on presenting a certain theory. We know Philomela and the Sargent family is up to no good, and that Philomela has been tailing someone. I won't go as far as saying Lucy since we have no way to confirm, but I also know it's not Chise because she's the only one that can "find" Philomela. Anyways, Philomela has been tailing someone, and her ability to hide her presence is awfully convenient. A spider's thread was found in the box containing the codex. Now, it could have been part of the codex, or it could have been involved in the theft of it. If it's the latter, it means the people that killed the Webster family and stole their spiders are the same people after that codex. If there's spider's being used, taking the only (real) member of the Webster family out of the equation makes the most sense so that they can't interfere in any way.

So, we arrive at the notion that Philomela and the Sargent family are who murdered the Webster family and stole their spiders, and that Philomela (or perhaps Lizbeth) is in possession of the codex, which they used to sap Lucy of her magic so that she would not pose a risk when stealing the codex. What follows though, is why they went as far as using the codex on Simeon, and why Seth is being hunted. The former, it's possible that it's because they didn't want Elias anywhere near the situation due to his power, but the latter is a bit more odd. We know Seth can't really control magic well, so you'd think he's not a real part of the equation, but the setup with making it seem like those Lycanthropes are paying Seth back for his previous job has me second guessing his significance.

Alright! Crackpot theorycrafting over, here's some cool and fun shots from the episode to break up the monotony. I'll explain the direction and what piques my interest later on.

Okay, onto actual episode stuff now. We'll start with Chise. I really like how we're beginning to address the Dragon's curse and Joseph swirling around inside her. It's very nice to see it treated as a threat that has integrated with Chise, rather than a beast that exists within her. Because of that, the fear and issues surrounding it feel far more reasonable. Also, because of that outburst in the prior episode, she went to visit Joseph, and I really like seeing how she continues to mirror him more and more, whether in jest or in actuality.

Similarly, I really love the use of first person perspective in this cut, alongside the dialogue. We're using Chise's eye that resides in Joseph to look at Chise. Sort of a "in the mirror" moment as we're looking at Chise through her own eye, which adds a certain value to Joseph's words. He doesn't say "something within you", but just "within you", explicitly stating that the piece of him and the curse of the Dragon are Chise. That her fears and aggression and aversion are all one homogenous aspect of herself that she can't simply isolate because she doesn't like it.

Alongside Chise though there's Elias, who I really enjoyed once more this episode. I quite love how well his struggle with grasping emotions is depicted. He doesn't get them at the drop of a hat, but neither is he completely clueless forever. He's shown to have the very basics down, and can apply that to the more complex feelings, but is unable to really take that next step forward just yet. And I think that's really well shown through his questioning of what 'worrying' is. He correctly gets the piece about being scared, but is unsure/incorrect in how to apply it.

Also, with this first image I really like the head tilt. It addresses the innocence with how Elias approaches and questions emotions while also showing his understanding of how expressions shape said emotions. So it effectively doubles down as him expressing his curiosity as well.

And now, just doubling back to Chise one last time. I really liked this piece in how she's effectively absorbed some of the ability of the dragons. She's able to enter Lucy's inner world through contact with her dragon hand, which I thought was very interesting.

With that, the story of the episode is about finished. It's a very methodic and slow pace, as is usual for MahoYome, and I do quite enjoy it.

But I'm not done yet! There's still the direction to talk about, but I can make it quick.

Terasawa's penchant for overhead, long, and skewed layouts stays strong through the episode and remains enjoyable. It feels more constrained now that we're back indoors, and I feel like because of that they do a better job overall with delivering on it.

There's a lot more I'd love to share, but I think the point is made. The storyboarding and execution on space in this episode is far better than the prior thanks to its constraints.

Though I'd absolutely say the highlight of the episode is how they play with that evening sun as lighting. You can see it in that last image of Simeon there, but it's just so beautiful throughout that latter half of the episode with how detailed the light shafts are, and how they exist in a 3-dimensional space. It's really impressive, you get the feel of depth throughout the episode in general, but the lighting just adds a whole different degree to it.

So, there you have it. Bringing the episode back towards a confined space has brought out the best in the production, and they've woven together a violent mystery from pieces they've been casually dropping throughout the season. I'm very excited to see what we get shown next episode, seeing as there's so many questions and potential roads for the story to take.

#ancient magus' bride #ancient magus bride #mahoyome #mahou tsukai no yome #mahoutsukai no yome #magus bride #魔法使いの嫁 #chise hatori #elias ainsworth #studio kafka #wit studio #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #anime

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poryphoria · 9 months

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i know everyone likes to think of the science team as friends (or at the very least, as christoff and hofnarr as friends) but i also, personally, get a much more fascinated kick out of imagining how fucking painfully dysfunctional they are as a dynamic of four (or five, if you count gonne, though shes extremely self-isolated in my mind and not usually present with the others as a consequence)

i dont know. like. crackpot & christoff constantly at eachothers throats in email chains and in-person. christoff seeing hofnarr as a tool and little else to get where he needs to be, hofnarr going fucking nuts in isolation and losing his handle on reality- in my mind pretty much everyone (barring crackpot) thought phobos was a fucking joke in their own ways. hofnarr was willing to stand as an equal to him and talk to him like a much more casual acquaintance, and he had to put up with it because hofnarr was a valuable asset- likewise with gonne, and god we all know how christoff feels about him.

i dunno. no kinship to be found there. no respect for eachother. i feel like they all tolerated eachother because they had to, but it's like grouping solitary animals in cages together, like ball pythons or bearded dragons- they only huddle under the same heatlamp and "cuddle" together because theyre competing for warmth, and its only a matter of time before one snaps on the other. mmmmm

it was a bad place to work in, i think. just an awful fucking environment of faux kindness and corporate pleasantries and none of them really actually knew eachother, and none of them actually had anyone to fall back and rely on when they were all split apart, ending out in isolation. it's horrific to me. delightfully tragic. i love it and i hate it

#pory turgles #madcom #madness combat

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askmadcomcrew · 9 months

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Dear Nevadeans! I wanted to ask you about your relationship with your families if you have one. Thank you in advance

Hank: Don't have one.

Sanford: Well of course I love my mother, and unfortunately I can't really remember my dad too well. I don't think he was around that much anyway, so it was really just me and Ma most of the time. She passed some years ago, but our relationship was always a positive one.

Deimos: My folks were...Alright. It's not that they was mean or somethin' they just...Didn't really care. Hell, I'd be gone for days and ask 'em if they knew where I was, and they'd just say they assumed I was at school or was in my room. Eventually one day I just took off and never came back.

Doc: My parents were nice enough people. My father was a hard man, and he pushed me just as hard, and sometimes I hated him for it. Now though, I see he was right about some things, wrong about others. They've both long since passed away now, but most of my memories with them are positive ones.

Tricky: MOM AND DAD WERE ALWAYS PUSHING POOR LITTLE HOFNARR AROUND!!! HE WASN'T EVEN SAD TO LEARN WHEN HIS DAD HAD DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT, I'M PRETTY SURE HE DIDN'T EVEN FEEL ANYTHING AT ALL!!! HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

Jeb: My father was an abusive mess of a man, one of which I held little respect for. My mother died when I was young, so I never got the chance to know her. I left as soon as I had turned the correct age and began taking school more seriously, eventually earning my PhD and a job at the Nexus Core.

Crackpot: Oh, I've all but forgotten them! The simple answer is I didn't need them anymore, after I had gotten into the Core I got everything I wanted. I had no problem leaving those fools in the dust, they would have only slowed me down.

Sheriff: Well, y'see, I ran away from home when I was real little. Pa was a real sunnova bitch, n' Ma didn't care enough t' stand up to 'im. So I left, got caught up with...The wrong kinda people. Eventually I made sumthin' of myself, wasn't glamorous but it kept food in my gut. 'N well...Now I'm here.

Auditor: I suppose my fellow employers are the closest thing I have to a family, other than the Machine itself. I only desire to show them how capable we truly are, how desperate Nevada is for true Gods to lead it in the right direction. They do not take me seriously, but I will prove them wrong. It is the Machine's will.

Phobos: Being a Generation 1 Nevadean, I do not have any immediate family, which only makes sense. Only a divine, all knowing creator could have spawned a perfect creation such as me. However, they left this world to die long ago, and so it is up to me to take up the mantle in their place and be the superior deity that they never could be.

#everyone answers #questions #family

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monkey-network · 3 months

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Every Tyler the Creator Album Ranked

And then, out of the bleu, I listened to every album from the predictably unpredictable Tyler, the Creator. Frankly, I only knew him best from Loiter Squad and The Jellies with the occasional cameo via Regular Show and Axe Cop. It was last Fall where I started listening to music more, eventually going Tyler's full discography. Here we are now, recognizing his game, getting surprised in more ways than one, and going through his albums from good to peak. Don't take this as a "worst to best" ranking, I will confidently say he has no bad records. But, gotta discuss one thing though before we get to the list and that is...

0. The Grinch Album

Back in 2018, Tyler was commissioned to make a couple songs for Illumination's Grinch movie. They were okay even though they wasted his version of "You're a Mean One" on the opening minutes instead of the part that matter. It was in the same year that he made an EP with songs inspired by the movie that weren't used in said movie, just something Tyler was into doing. It's only six songs, ten minutes and change, but it's breezy while not being annoying about the Holidays. I'd overall say, since it came beforehand, the EP's great in getting a feel of IGOR's instrumentals but with a more upbeat tone. You can really tell Pharrell Williams was a big influence to Tyler here, coincidentally since Pharrell made songs for Illumination and a couple of these Grinch songs resemble his works in a way. If I were to rank it, it'd be number 6. Way too short to fairly ranked among the others but admittedly memorable compared to the bottom 2. With that said, NOW let's do this...

7. Cherry Bomb

Again none of these are bad albums, and I say this was a very important one for Tyler's career. Cherry Bomb is to Tyler what Vaudeville Villain was for MF DOOM. After the Wolf Trilogy, this was him popping off one more time like the old days before coming to terms with where he wanted to go next, you notice with how things mellow out halfway in. You get how his direction in music shifted while not feeling ashamed of what used to be his initial style; Flower Boy wouldn't have worked without this and I can see why it's Tyler's personal favorite. With that said, most the tracks aren't as memorable as the later albums on this list. 'Deathcamp' is a fierce bop opener, I love 'Find Your Wings', 'Okaga, CA' and '2Seater', but man it can be a tonal mess that doesn't reach the same highs. Plus it's the one where I can say the mixing is weird; like some vocals feel muffled and the production sounds unintentionally worse than Goblin. The titular 6th song I just hate, personally the all time worst song he's ever made and it's not close. Not as great an album as I'd hoped, but to dismiss this album would feel wrong as it exists no differently to Tyler's growth as a artist. Change ain't easy, y'know.

6. Goblin

Yeah, even I can't deny this is the weakest of the Wolf trilogy. It's better than Cherry Bomb in that it has a... more consistent flow, but that leads into my biggest problem. Goblin feels too same-y and just a messier expansion to Bastard. 'Yonkers' I'm amazed got the praise it did when I could tell Tyler made it as a joke; emblematic of his career I guess. Still, when it hits it hits, we got 'She', 'Tron Cat', "Nightmare', 'Windows', and you get into it better than Cherry Bomb. Now I'm one of those crackpots that thinks of this, where if you ever get into Tyler's music, I recommend Goblin after Wolf where you'll understand the latter more but listening to Goblin then Wolf as naturally ordered will play out like an edited timeline story if listened to all at once. Goblin overall feels like that middle child where it fits the time it was released but hasn't aged as well as its siblings.

5. Scum Fuck Flower Boy

This is probably blaspheme but it is one of those cases where this is great but the next few albums are just better to me by comparison. I can appreciate this album more after listening to Cherry Bomb; the neo soul heavily leaning from CB's latter half songs. The vibes are more chill but retains those underlying somber feelings like previous albums. This felt like he refined his style; Tyler got to loosen up lyrically & it's all a mood. At the same time, I didn't grow up with this album while I wish I did. It just doesn't resonate with me as much while I do grasp how the Creator was feeling when he made this. Best way to describe is that I could see the characters that exist in the albums; I can see Wolf Haley, Baudelaire, IGOR, etc. It's hard seeing Flower Boy himself because he feels that overshadowed between his works of the past and future. Again not like I didn't understand, just that it wasn't as impactful as I'd hoped. Don't take this as a negative, because this is just how strong Tyler's music can be for me.

4. Bastard

I genuinely tend to switch between Bastard and Wolf as to which is number 3. For Wolf, it's with the storytelling and the composition that's done better. For Bastard, it's the energy and unfiltered fun with it being Tyler's first mixtape. I was taken aback initially on the contents of this like I will not call it "horrorcore" but it's like JESUS christ; can't even tell you what's on this for the fear of getting flagged. However, I say Tyler's music gets better with re-listens. Bastard feels like the title lives up to the name; Ace and Odd Future making bangers together, flippin' birds to the sky, and the titular track laying out that it isn't just shock value for the sake of it. This feels like the album Tyler would always want to make starting out, with that no fucks given confidence being the foundation of him exploring his troubles with love and developing a career. Basically, the "Fatherless Behavior album" as my friend pointed out that blessfully hasn't aged like milk given the man's future livelihood. I enjoy Bastard for its garage appeal and this being where Tyler got to start out before 'Yonkers' pushed him to stardom.

3. Wolf

This to me has the best storytelling in Tyler's discography. I like that it kinda tricks you in terms of what the perspective is for the album's concept. You could say this is about Wolf Haley himself finding some peace after Goblin and getting in the love triangle with Samuel and Salem. You could say this was more Samuel's album while Wolf is mostly out the picture hanging with Salem. Either way works with Tyler's growth considering this is far less shocking than Goblin and Bastard combined. You can tell while Samuel exists as the remaining edginess of Tyler's past, he's cooled down with the graphical lyrics for a different approach to his music; 'Answer' and 'PartyIsntOver' shows his softer tune that fits the album's camp aesthetic. Again, this and Bastard I will flip ranks on certain days, but I can see why it's the fan favorite among the initial three.

2. Call Me If You Get Lost

From what I've seen before listening, I figured that this would be a flex album and Tyler did not disappoint. Tyler Baudelaire felt like a real persona, I'd say the evolution of Wolf Haley with DJ Drama being the cherry on top. I think this wouldn't have worked as well without the hypeman, not only for being a great jab at DJ Khalid after the one sided beef back in 2018 but an enjoyable narrator that I couldn't imagine any other for the spot. Call Me is just the epitome of swagger, the time where Tyler can finally gun out with his rap skills while it's not full on chest beating. Like his previous albums, it explores his love life and how he works out his feelings when things don't go right. Felt like Tyler at his most vulnerable, especially with 'Wilshire' that's the longest song if you don't count the notable conjoined tracks like 'Sugar/I Thought You Wanted to Dance'. When you recognize growth, this album was it. Incorporating his previous albums into this, utilizing his ability to make banger after banger. That's if you don't count The Estate Sale, basically a victory lap upon the existing victory lap that was the base album. When I say 'Sorry, Not Sorry' was the pinnacle of Tyler's whole career I mean it. Call Me If You Get Lost felt like a celebration, where you're with Tyler in how much he's living life. This seriously would've been number 1 with or without Estate Sale, if not for...

1. IGOR

Might as well say it now: it's his magnum opus. I've brought up a couple times now that Tyler's music can be messy and that can apply here, more on a emotional level than technical. Here though, that's what makes it perfect. This album is about the love you had being pulled and eventually crushed, and it's not around to sugarcoat. What helps it stick out is knowing IGOR exists as his own being, not just a persona of Tyler. He embodies how we all can feel when it comes to heartbreak and how ugly the emotions can actually be. This wouldn't have worked without 'New Magic Wand', without 'What's Good' or 'I Don't Love You Anymore'. Tyler's music, from what I've recognize, has always been taking ugly with the beauty you can find and this is that note perfected. Being the shortest album of the collection, this album's ergonomic where I can hardly listen to one song on its own and was the record I've listened to the most because it got better every time. This isn't even accounting for 'Are We Still Friends', which I've considered the all-time greatest closer I've ever listened to. It brings me to actual tears every time and it's like everything clicked. This felt like more than just Tyler proving himself as the Creator, but him respecting the oldheads of music with this neo-soul masterpiece.

Conclusion

Tyler's music is the first instance I truly grasped what he meant by each album pinpointing the certain periods of his life. Listening to his works in order, you understand his growth as an musician without it ever feeling out of nowhere. What I love most is that you can tell he constantly had fun producing; the confidence he always has even at his worst can't be understated. It feels like Tyler got to grow up on his own terms, never taking his success for granted and becoming the most prolific artist I've known next to Kendrick and Dre. Having caught up, I'm genuinely interested in his next direction because hell, what else is there to say?

He's the Best

#tyler the creator #Tyler Okonma #odd future #music #hip hop #rap #neo soul #albums ranked #list #reviews #long post #Good Stuff

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bard-llama · 1 year

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WiP Wednesday: The Seduction of the Innocent

Okay, firstly, this entire idea is really the brainchild of myself and steveelotaku and we’ve had fun coming up with stuff for it. The title is his suggestion - based on that crackpot book written about Batman and Robin being gay and corrupting the youth of America. It’s PERFECT for a fic that is all about Zuko writing a comic strip to help support his thesis as he goes to Ba Sing Se University lol

Premise: Zuko needs a hobby to keep himself occupied during the idle times of teaserving/vigilantism - and ends up writing. His new BFF Jin also suggests that he apply for Ba Sing Se University when his history of researching the Avatar and their cultures comes out. So Zuko ends up writing a thesis that studying ancient/declining cultures (Air Nomads and the Water Tribes) is worthwhile in the world today (bc the Water Tribes still exist and there’s 1 living Air Nomad). To help make his point/spread knowledge about the different cultures, he and Jin end up creating a comic series about The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar (and co). Through the hijinks of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar traveling around the world (remember, there’s no war in Ba Sing Se), they fight crime and evildoers and teach each other about their cultures.

So, right now I’m thinking this is actually 2 fics: a prequel and a sequel. The prequel will be all about establishing Zuko going to Uni and creating the comic and some of its effects (it’s REALLY popular with kids!). The sequel is when the Gaang (Zuko coined the name) finds out about the comics and read them - and then Aang, who KNOWS who the Blue Spirit is, goes looking for the author to confront them. He suspects it’s Zuko, but he doesn’t actually BELIEVE that it’s really Zuko. After all, how could ZUKO get into Ba Sing Se and why would he write comics explaining how the Air Nomads believed in peace?

(For those that dislike shipping in atla, the sequel will have some Zuko/Aang, but probably T-rated teens dating. Not wholly sure yet, but I think the whole series will be T)

So far, I have a few random scenes written, so I’ll share some snippets here, but also, I HAVE to tell you about what steveelotaku came up with for the comic!!!

The Comics

So like I said, the premise of the comics is: the adventures the Gaang + the Blue Spirit get up to, while fighting off their standard array of villains. (Credit for these goes to steveelotaku, who is incredible and came up with GREAT villains!)

The Big Bad: Fire Lord Ozai

But, I hear you say, there’s no war in Ba Sing Se! So how-? Well, the answer is - Zuko REALLY wanted to draw his dad receiving a pie to the face (look, he’s upset about the whole traitor thing and he needs an outlet) from Aang, so he invented a silly Silver Age Comics campy reason for why the Fire Lord hates the Avatar: the Avatar blew storm clouds over his parade and RUINED his hair! (Ozai hates getting wet 😂)

Other Recurring Villains:

Sparkler, the Princess of Pyromania: Fire-themed villain with a mysterious connection to the Blue Spirit and a grudge against them

The Koan: Basically Buddhist Riddler. "What is the sound of one hand picking your pocket?" "If a building blows up, and no one is around to see it, did I commit a crime?"

The Cabbage Merchant of Death: Literally just the cabbage merchant, but breeding his cabbages to attack humanity as vengeance for overturning his cart. (The Cabbage Merchant actually loves the comics and his portrayal. Someone recognized his plight! So he taped one of the panels to his cart.)

The Tapestry: Literally a guy dressed in a tapestry who makes horrible weaving jokes and uses sharp threads. "Knit one, purl-oin two gold bars!"

The Ember Island Jester: The only actor to be fired from the Ember Island Players, because his jokes were terrible. His crimes are all theater-themed and he wears a comedy mask. "Four nations, all alike in dignity, all ripe for the plundering!" "It's curtains for you, Blue Spirit! -drops a heavy curtain on him-"

The Nightingale: Basically the Penguin, but with an army of robot nightingales, like in the old Chinese fable about the Emperor who forgot how a nightingale had brought him joy when a mechanical one is given to him, only for it to save him later. Only this time, the Nightingale is some minor noble who got fired and now keeps pestering Ozai with his robot nightingales and Ozai has to call for the Blue Spirit, much to his frustration. "The Nightingale sings the song of your doom!" Aang: "How does that go?" "Uh...doom! DOOM DOOM DOOM! DOOM doom DOOOOOM!"

Okay, so those are our Villains. Now what about our heroes? Remember, the Gaang is being written by Zuko - who may do lots and lots of research and maybe has stalked them on occasion, but still doesn’t really KNOW them.

The Blue Spirit - Zuko goes in hard on the tropes, so the Blue Spirit is totally the broody badboy. He has a secret identity that no one knows. Also, he tells tea jokes and makes tea puns. Iroh is very proud.

Aang, The Avatar - Aang is the epitome of “peace, love, and happiness make the world go round” (real Aang finds this hilarious) but he’s also an incurable prankster

Toph, The Avatar’s Earthbending Teacher - Toph is the buffest, littlest character there is and it is unclear whether she beats villains with her bending or her fists or if the two are one and the same.

Katara, The Avatar’s Waterbending Teacher - Katara is the scariest motherfucker on the team and Zuko stands by that. She has some of the corny “hope” lines, complementing Aang, but mostly, it’s her determination that makes her scary. When she decides something, it happens. (Zuko might be projecting a bit, but he’s not wrong.)

Sokka, The Avatar’s Jester/Strategist - Sokka is the straight forward comic relief and is a walking joke, but he does tend to suggest the plans that work... they’re just very, very ridiculous, in line with Silver Age comics ridiculousness.

And some choice lines by steveelotaku:

"Holy cumulus, Blue Spirit! The Fire Nation's set fire to the tea tree grove!" "The fiends! It's not enough for them to boil it too long--now they're roasting it to ashes!" "Halt, Blue Spirit! Your pathetic crusade of justice stops here!" "It's that suspicious sous-chef of sabotage, Serial Griller! Fire Lord Ozai's right hand cook!" "That's right, Blue Blunder! And today's special is deep fried masked man with a side of Avatar fries!"

"Blue Spirit! Help!" "By the subtle tang of oolong tea! Avatar, you're turning into a were-bison!" Not a trick! Not an imaginary story! The Avatar's best friend might just be his doom! Can Aang and the Blue Spirit survive...THE NIGHT OF THE APPA-LLING WERE-BISON?!

AND NOW, THE SECRET ORIGIN OF THE BLUE SPIRIT: A nameless warrior stands on the battlefield in the pouring rain. Another village massacred, the survivors left for dead. He alone had dared to speak against this heinous crime, and for that he was cast out from the only family he had. Hiding within a teahouse, he took with him the one souvenir of that battle he dared to claim--the mask of the Blue Spirit, a warrior who had fought for justice against his cruel oppressors. Now, the warrior takes the mantle for himself--to find redemption, or die trying!

Snippets:

The Beginning

Zuko needed a hobby, was the thing. He was really, really busy in Ba Sing Se, between being a tea server and being the Blue Spirit. But there was a lot of idle time in both roles and Zuko just needed something to keep him occupied. It wasn’t supposed to turn into a big thing.

Only one day, Jin had caught him writing at the teashop and demanded to read it and… look. It was just a lark. It was just a funny little idea that he was toying with. It didn’t mean anything.

It was in the afternoon lull and Uncle was, fortunately, in the backroom, doing tea things. Meanwhile, Zuko’s only other customer was an old accountant who was always buried in their books and never registered anything going on around them. They liked Pao’s strongest tea.

This meant that there was no one else around to see the look on Jin’s face when she read through his scrawled handwriting – he was much better at writing with a calligraphy brush, but these days, charcoal was as good as it got – depicting a silly dialogue exchange between the Blue Spirt and the Avatar. It was just one of the questions he’d always wanted to ask the Avatar, one that wasn’t really important, but that had bothered him until he’d researched it anyway.

“Li,” she said slowly.

Zuko gulped. “Yeah?”

“This… this is good,” she said with a tone of wonder. “Seriously, I really like this!”

“You… do?” Zuko blinked, not sure what to do with that. “But it’s – it’s–”

“Funny? Enjoyable? Cute?”

“Dumb.”

“Bullshit,” Jin said bluntly. “You’re allowed to enjoy dumb things, Li. As long as it’s fun, what else matters?”

Zuko frowned. That was not a philosophy about life that he was familiar with.

“Do you think the Avatar really throws pies in people’s faces?” Jin asked with a laugh.

“Oh, that bit I can confirm,” Zuko flashed a brief grin. “I found a letter from the King of Omashu to the Southern Air Temple that very specifically said Aang and his friends had pie’d the King’s Guard.”

Jin blinked. “What do you mean, you found a letter?”

“Oh,” Zuko bit his lip, realizing he really shouldn’t have said that. “I, um. I… studied the Avatar. For a long time. And the Air Nomads and the Water Tribes, a little bit.”

“Really?” Jin looked excited, of all things. “That’s so cool! So you were a mini scholar before tragedy struck, huh? Are you gonna try to apply for Ba Sing Se University? You should!”

“I… what?”

“It’s not often someone from the Lower Ring gets accepted,” Jin said, “but it does happen! And I know you’d study really hard and there are scholarships and things to help pay for it. You should try!”

“I’ll… think about it?” Zuko said, taken entirely off guard.

“You should write more, too,” Jin encouraged. “Honestly, it’s a really fun scene. I kinda wanna draw it.”

Jin’s family ran what was probably one of the best places in town to get writing and illustration done on a budget. This meant that Jin spent a lot of time drawing what she called ‘very boring adverts’. He wouldn’t think his scene was that interesting either, but Jin’s face was genuine and she smiled at him.

“Really?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Jin grinned, “just the visual of the Fire Lord getting a pie in the face–” she broke down laughing.

Zuko flushed. It was possible he was a bit upset with his father for marking him as a traitor and sending his sister to bring him home in chains. And it wasn’t like a little pie had ever hurt anyone…

During Zuko’s Tour of Ba Sing Se University (from the POV of the admissions tour guide)

“As part of your curriculum. You don’t study other cultures, like the Water Tribes and the Air Nomads?”

There was a loud scoff from behind Min and she turned to see Professor Lang sneering down his nose at the kid.

“Of course not,” he said. “What use is there in studying ancient civilizations?”

The kid looked confused for a brief moment… and then he got mad, and wow, he was actually kind of scary underneath that scruffy unkemptness.

“The Water Tribes aren’t dead! And even if the Air Nomads are, there’s still reason to learn about them!”

“And what, pray tell, would that be?”

The kid had a pretty impressive snarl. “The Earth Kingdom has trade contracts relating to the Water Tribes, who are still alive. And there’s one living Air Nomad now, too!”

Min blinked. What did that mean?

“Pah,” Professor Lang spat. “The Avatar is not part of any culture.”

The what?

“The Avatar isn’t told until they turn sixteen. Until that age, Avatar Aang was and still is an Air Nomad.”

What!?

“The… Avatar?” Min said vaguely. How had she not heard about this? “The Avatar is back? And they’re an Air Nomad!?”

The kid looked scared for a moment. Perhaps he could sense how closely they danced to the dangerous territory of current events.

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “We, um. We heard before coming to Ba Sing Se that the Avatar is back. And – and he’s an Air Nomad. So there’s relevance in understanding the Air Nomad culture! Because, like…” he visibly flailed for an example that would be acceptable, “like family!” He held up his finger triumphantly. “Culture affects what words mean. In the Earth Kingdom, family is defined as your clan, tied to you through blood, marriage, or contract. In the Water Tribes, the whole tribe is family and everything is done in service to that family. But to the Air Nomads? They defined family as people chosen based on who you wanted in your life. They did not recognize blood ties.”

Min and Professor Lang both stared at the kid.

“How – how do you know that?” Professor Lang asked eventually.

The kid froze. “I, um. I did a lot of research on – on the Avatar and, and their cultures. I’m not making it up! One of their core tenets was that the blood of the covenant was thicker than water of the womb, meaning those who share their vows are more kin than those who share their blood. They were more concerned with spirituality and behavior.” The kid sighed heavily. “I wish my old library hadn’t burned. I had some amazing finds.”

Min’s eyebrow arched. That almost made it sound like, despite the current state of things, this kid had some noble background. Well, well. That changed things.

She clapped her hands together. “This sounds like an excellent topic for a thesis, don’t you agree, Professor Lang?”

“A – what?”

“A thesis, of course. You have an argument to make – that ancient/declining cultures still have a role in our society. Through your course of study here at Ba Sing Se, you will learn how to draft an effective argument, backed by primary sources.”

“I had primary sources!” the kid said, sounding strangely offended.

“Of course,” Min allowed.

“You want this disrespectful brat to write a thesis on such an absurd topic!?” Professor Lang burst out.

“He argued his point well, did he not?” Min shrugged, smiling pleasantly.

“I have another one,” the kid – Li, according to her file – said. “The Air Nomads were pacifists. They didn’t believe in consuming the flesh of any creature, because in their view, violence was abhorrent in any form. So think about it… the – the Avatar’s job is to bring peace and balance to the world, right?”

Min took a sharp breath. That was coming a little too close to–

“Well, Air Nomads were very devoted to peace. They have eighty-seven words for peace, all of which mean different things. Some of which, if applied to the nations by the Avatar, would face significant dissent. So in dealing with the Avatar, it’s important to know that you need to clarify the meaning of things being discussed.”

“And you expect to be ‘dealing with the Avatar’, do you?” Professor Lang sneered.

Li opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Of course not,” he said, “but that’s precisely why the study of these cultures is so significant! Because if it’s not widespread knowledge, then we’re all at a disadvantage.”

Min clapped, “well said. What is knowledge but a tool for the betterment of ourselves?”

“...right,” Li nodded hesitantly.

(For those curious, Professor Lang knows about Aang because the Gaang and Joo Dee went by the university when they first came to Ba Sing Se - but the visit was kept moderately hush hush, because talking about the Avatar can mean talking about the war. This changes when the comic takes off.)

From the next scene

Jin was pacing in Pao’s Teashop as they all waited excitedly to hear the results of Li’s visit to the university. Mushi was channeling his anxiety into making lots of tea, so Jin was spending far more than she should on new pots, but at least sipping tea gave her something to do.

Finally, Li opened the door – and jerked back as everyone in the teashop – four of the afternoon regulars and Jin, plus one couple that had no idea what was going on – rounded on him.

“Well? How did it go?”

“Uh.” Li scratched his head. “I think I’m a student now?”

Jin blinked. “I thought you were just going to apply?”

“So did I,” Li shrugged. “And then I got into an argument with a professor during the tour–”

Everyone groaned collectively.

“Oh, Nephew,” Mushi sighed, coming out from behind the counter and ushering Li into the room.

“Of course you did,” Jin laughed.

“But it was fine,” Li huffed. “In fact, I think it actually helped me? I guess I’m writing a thesis on the Avatar and also why studying other cultures matters?”

“You’re… what?” Mushi said blankly.

Li shrugged helplessly. “It just kinda happened.”

Now we skip waaaaaaay ahead to the sequel, to when the Gaang (well, Aang specifically) finds out about The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar

It started with an innocently overheard conversation at a bakery near their Upper Ring house while waiting for the new pies to cool.

“Did you read it?” one girl hissed to another. “Did you see!?”

“Yes!” the second girl sounded so excited that it was hard to control her volume. “I told you! It’s real! Spiritar is canon!”

“I just can’t believe it,” the only boy amongst the group murmured. “I didn’t see it coming at all.”

“That’s because you never listen to us,” the first girl sniffed. “I called the Blue Spirit x Avatar Aang coming from miles away.”

The… what?

Aang blinked, turning to stare at them. “I’m sorry, did you say Avatar?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, who’s asking – oh sweet spirits, it’s the Avatar!” the boy looked like he was about to hyperventilate.

“Um. Hi,” Aang waved awkwardly.

The two girls squeaked and flushed red. “Hi,” they managed, one more easily than the other.

“Did you say something about – about the Blue Spirit and the Avatar?”

“Oh spirits,” the second girl whispered under her breath. “Oma and Shu, why would you do this to us?”

“Um?”

“Okay, so,” the first girl cleared her throat. “Um, let’s start at the beginning. Are you familiar with The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar?”

“The… huh?” Aang’s mouth twisted in confusion. Who was the Blue Spirit and what did they have to do with him?

There was a cleared throat from next to them and another woman in the bakery stood behind them. “Hi, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear and – I have a binder just for this purpose.” She pulled out a thick binder full of papers and thudded it down on the table. Then she opened it to a page that had two figures cut out from an inked illustration. One was obviously Aang, though his arrows weren’t quite that big – but the other… the other was–

“The Blue Spirit, you called them?” Aang asked, staring at the mask that he remembered with stark distinction. If the stranger in the mask hadn’t saved him…

But then, of course, the stranger turned out to not be so strange after all. Aang could still feel the rough bark under his fingers as he played with it, waiting for Zuko to wake up.

If we knew each other then, do you think we could’ve been friends? he’d asked, and Zuko hadn’t actually answered, but the blast of fire spoke many words.

“You don’t know them?” the girls all looked up at him with a broken sort of hope.

“I – I do,” Aang answered hesitantly. “But I never got their name.”

“Yes!” two of them high fived and Aang just stared at them. “Uh, sorry.”

“Anyway,” the girl with the binder said, “The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, originally simply titled the Blue Spirit, is a serial comic created by Li and Jin. They’re two artists in the Lower Ring, if you can believe that. But Li attends Ba Sing Se University!”

“Uh. Okay?”

She cleared her throat, flushing. “Um, at any rate, the comics are aimed at children and Li has been recorded as saying that he wanted to explain cultural differences through a fun story. And they deliver! The characters are great, the dialogue is snappy, the illustration is beautiful, and the plots are silly but fun.”

“Nothing will ever top the Fire Lord getting pie’d in the face, though,” the first girl said nostalgically.

“What?” Aang asked.

“Oh, I have that in my binder!” The girl flipped through several pages and landed on a comic panel pasted onto the paper. It depicted – exactly what they said. Fire Lord Ozai – who Aang had never actually seen in person, but he had seen a few paintings and it looked pretty accurate – receiving a cream pie to the face. Actually, the pie was drawn pretty well, too – it even had the lemon curd filling that Aang and Master Gyatso used to add for extra gooeyness.

That was surely just a coincidence, though. Right? It wasn’t like the Blue Spirit could really be–

“It’s a really famous picture now,” the girl with the binder whispered to Aang. “It’s the only thing like it that hasn’t been censored by the Dai Li. See, in The Adventures of the Blue Spirit and the Avatar, the Fire Lord has a legitimate reason to hate the Avatar.”

…was stopping him from destroying the world not legitimate?

“Oh?”

“Oh, I love this one. Show him the comic strip!”

“Here it is!”

Aang looked down to see a single panel of Fire Lord Ozai, this time wailing, “my hair!”

“Uh…”

“The Avatar was flying a kite,” one girl explained, “and he was messing with the wind currents – but it made storm clouds fall on the Fire Lord’s parade and ruined his hair!” They all chortled. “Literally you rained on his parade!”

Aang… did not know how to react to that.

“So anyway, the Avatar and his friends join the Blue Spirit and fight crime and evildoers!”

“Yeah, the Blue Spirit is a vigilante, you know that, of course,” one girl said and actually, Aang had not known that. “So they team up with the Avatar and with the whole Gaang–”

“Pardon?”

“Oh yeah, isn’t it great? It’s ‘gang’ but with 2 ‘a’s, like your name! To encompass all of you together!”

Aang hummed. He did like it, actually. Sokka would be upset that he hadn’t come up with it.

Especially if the person who did come up with it was really–

But surely it couldn’t be. How would Zuko have even gotten into Ba Sing Se?

From the confrontation between Aang and Zuko after Aang tracks down the creators of the comics (with some shippiness)

“Soooo,” Jin drawled, sprawling in a booth in the otherwise empty teashop, “guess what happened today?”

Zuko, busy wiping down a table, didn’t answer.

“C’mon, guess! It’ll interest you, I promise.”

“I dunno. You… had an idea for a comic?”

“That happens every day, Li,” she said flatly.

Zuko sighed. “Just tell me.”

“Fine, fine,” Jin paused, making him wait, and then she burst out, “the Avatar came by the shop!”

Zuko froze, blood draining from his face. The Avatar. The Avatar was here. The Avatar was here and knew about the comics, elsewise why would he have gone to Jin’s family’s shop?

Oh, this couldn’t be good.

“Li? You okay?”

Before Zuko could answer – negatively – the door to the teashop opened and the Avatar walked inside.

Zuko wanted to die. This was it. This was the end of him. This was when his cover would get blown and everyone would know and hate him and–

“Hi,” Aang greeted them pleasantly. “I’m looking for Li.”

Zuko just about swallowed his tongue. There was no way that Aang had failed to recognize him. The change in hairstyle did not make up for the huge disfiguring scar.

Raising a shaking hand, Zuko managed a strangled, “I’m Li.”

The Avatar smiled. What even–?

“I thought it might be you,” Aang said. “But I also kind of thought I was probably wrong.”

Not having any idea what to say, all Zuko could do was swallow drily.

“Huh,” Jin said, “you really have met the Avatar.”

Zuko flushed. “I told you!”

“You say lots of things, though,” Jin contested. Usually, Zuko was grateful that she let his slip ups go so easily, but right now, he was just annoyed.

“I don’t lie,” he frowned. That was a rule for him. His whole identity may be a lie, but at least he would do his best to live honorably.

Aang coughed and Zuko flushed brighter, jerking his attention back to the man who, technically, was still his enemy.

“Sorry,” Jin laughed, holding out her hand, “hi, I’m Jin. I hear you went by my family’s shop earlier looking for us?”

“You’re the illustrator?” Aang asked.

“Yep, that’s me!” Jin beamed, showing off her chipped teeth.

“Wow. You do a really good job of showing different places,” Aang complimented and Zuko stared. What was even happening?

“Oh, that’s all thanks to Li,” Jin demurred. “Sometimes I dunno whether his descriptions are accurate or not, but he believes in them so much that it just seems right to go with it.”

Zuko groaned, slapping a hand to his face. “Jin…”

Aang smiled wider and it made Zuko’s heart pound, cheeks turning pinker. “Well, you both create very good comics,” Aang said casually, as though Zuko wasn’t close to expiring on the spot.

“You – you read them?” Zuko croaked.

“Of course,” Aang said. “We had to see what was being written about us!”

Oh. Great. So all of Aang’s friends had read them. Fuck.

Oh Agni, did that include the most recent issue? Maybe he was lucky for once in his life and it didn’t–

Aang pulled out a comic and the cover was quite familiar. Jin had drawn the Blue Spirit in the middle in a ridiculous pose that really emphasized his butt – even moreso than the original draft, because Jin was an asshole and made the change after he complained. Behind the Blue Spirit were various headshots of the Gaang – Zuko came up with the name and he was rather proud of it – with little hearts all around them.

The cover proclaimed, ONE OF THESE PEOPLE IS THE BLUE SPIRIT'S SOULMATE – BUT WHO!? and the story was all about one of the regular villains, Sparkler – who totally wasn’t Azula – trying to find the Blue Spirit’s lover to blackmail him. After she was defeated, the true lover was revealed… with a kiss, because of course it was.

Zuko felt like he might cry at the absurdity of this being how his life falls apart (again).

“Sooooo, um…” Aang started and Zuko could not look at him.

“In my defense,” Zuko started, his mouth absolutely disconnecting from his brain, “it was a reader request.”

Aang tilted his head. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, you don’t read the letters at the end of the issue?” Jin asked, “you really should, they’re quite fun. We answer questions and requests from readers – mostly kids, but sometimes their parents, too.”

“And a kid… asked about–?”

Zuko just nodded mutely, but Jin – the traitor! – explained, “they asked about who the Blue Spirit’s soulmate would be. And obviously – ow!” Zuko elbowed her hard in the side, but it was too late. Aang’s eyebrows were high.

“‘Obviously’?”

“I mean, have you read the flirting?” Jin asked. “Li writes fantastic banter, doesn’t he?”

“Fucking hell, Jin, shut up!” Zuko hissed, and he was sure that his face was hot enough to be steaming. Hopefully Jin wouldn’t question it.

“Oh, all right, all right, I’ll let you two talk alone. But don’t forget the afternoon rush will be soon!”

So saying, Jin sidled out the door, headed back to work. The Avatar opened his mouth as soon as she was gone and Zuko quite abruptly wanted her back. He scrambled around for a change of topic and grasped the teapot next to him.

“Tea! Would – would you like some tea? We have–”

“I liked the tea jokes in the comics,” Aang said calmly. How was he calm when Zuko was about to shake out of his skin?

The pottery clattered slightly from his trembling hands, but he served Aang a cup of jasmine tea. “Those mostly came from Uncle,” he murmured.

“Well, they were fun,” Aang said, taking the cup and immediately sipping it as though it hadn’t been poured by his enemy. Then he smiled. “Jasmine. I like jasmine. It was my mentor’s favorite.”

“I know,” Zuko said without thinking.

“You… know?” Aang blinked. “How?”

“Uh.” Oh Agni, how was he supposed to explain this. “One of the Elders at your temple kept a journal. It survived.”

Aang stared. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Zuko nodded. “Monk Tashi. He complained about how often you got into trouble and how Monk Gyatso only encouraged it.”

Aang inhaled sharply, breath hitching at Gyatso’s name. Zuko could only imagine how much the loss hurt him. If Zuko ever lost Uncle…

Okay, that’s all I got, but I’m very excited for this series, so I hope you enjoy!

#atla #zuko x aang #zuko & jin are BFFs #wip wednesday #fic planning #seduction of the innocent

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