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darklydeliciousdesires · 1 year

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The Dark Passenger - An EZ Reyes/OC Story.

So besties, I have folded spectacularly and decided to post the first chapter, just to see what the reaction is. Cue me sitting here now chewing my nails to bits as I wait to hear if it’s any good! If you enjoy it, please do let me know, and since I haven’t written a full length story for EZ yet, if you want to be helpful and put the word out to any EZ lovers out there who you think might enjoy it too, please feel free!

Oh, and just to reiterate going on from my announcement post, this fic will centre around dark!EZ. He will be manipulative and toxic. The boy scout has died, but eventually, there will be a redemption arc. Until then, though, don’t expect a smooth ride with him!

Words - 4,459

Warnings - 18+ content throughout, minors DNI!

Tag list - In the comments. Please DM to be added/removed

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Maybe, if Ezekiel Reyes hadn’t been so consumed by an unquenchable thirst for revenge against the Sons of Anarchy, maybe if he hadn’t instigated calling a kill switch vote upon Marcus Alvarez with quite the gusto he had, he perhaps might have left time for El Padrino to warn him of such, before he was ousted from the head of the table.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. At that moment in time, the crown was a weight upon his head unlike anything he’d previously known, but he would not relent. He would not cease, not until the Sons had been pushed down via the clout of the Mayans, made to fall in line, their necks tethered like fierce guard dogs upon heavy chained leashes, each link a Mayan brother yanking back should they stray too far, ever reminded of the power they had over them.

That power? Heroin.

They now moved huge quantities for the Lobos New Generation cartel, their product giving the Mayans the footing they needed to crush all others beneath their weight. The streets were flooded, the prison supply now pushed exclusively by the MC, the once aptly named poison charter now standing tall and strong above all. Santo Padre led.

The poison still swirled, though. For one man, he was only too happy, it would seem, to let it infect his veins. Yet it did not weaken him, or rather, it did no harm to the man he now was.

The old EZ? It had all but killed him. Poisoned to death by power, greed and bloodlust. It was an opinion shared by everyone who had a seat at the table, as five pairs of dark brown eyes flitted between one another, and the large bag upon the table, placed there by their president. El Rey Oscuro, they called him in the safety of the shadows, out of the reach of his ears. The dark king. There was little light left within EZ, and they all knew it, saw it, felt it. Yes, they were back on top, untouchable, but at what cost?

There upon the table sat the price they knew each of them would likely be set to pay for, sooner or later. The top rung of the ladder they stood upon was not without its complications, of which EZ was attempting to iron out.

“I dunno, man,” Angel began, each other man silently thanking him for being the first to speak. “Heroin is one thing, but getting into this shit? Naw, I ain’t seeing the benefit in moving it.”

EZ rolled his tongue around the inside of his mouth, his forearms flexing as he knitted his fingers together before him. “Fentanyl is more powerful than heroin, many, many times over. We aren’t moving it, per se. We’re cutting our product with it.” He paused, lifting his chin a little more, the dim templo light catching the golden tones of his irises, hues the others were surprised did not burn red. It was as if hell itself had begun to swirl within him at times, after all.

The dark king continued. “Since the unfortunateness of the warehouse fire, our first shipment for the LNG destroyed, forcing us to move an inferior quality replacement as you all know, we need to earn points with our supplier, build further trust, show initiative. We might have the heroin trade sewn up, but it’s with garbage. It’s moving, but not as quickly as the LNG would like. This sets us apart and transforms the product to one of superior quality, if we supply it to them in order to do the cutting. It’ll bring in more cash for us, too.”

Everyone remained quiet, the men shifting uneasily in their seats, their leather kuttes feeling heavy upon them, the hard wood of the chairs stifling, binding, reminding them of their place. Everyone else was held down beneath their force, but them? They were beneath the boot and the unshakable will of one man.

It didn’t mean, however, that they would remain unquestioning in their fealty.

“EZ, while I agree we need to show such, we gotta be careful with this shit,” Bishop began, lighting a cigarette. “That stuff is deadly. If it ain’t cut correctly, it’ll set us apart in the fact that there’ll be a trail of dead bodies all leading back to us, thousands upon thousands of croaked junkies. That’s the kind of shit that gets us watched by certain governmental department eyes more so than we already are.”

The words of his VP were, as usual, steeped in fact and good sense. EZ was, if nothing else though, a man who covered all his bases.

“I have a chemist, one who not only is prepared to work exclusively for us in order to synthesise the fentanyl, but once moved across the border, be there to examine the cutting process and make sure it is precise enough to give the product the correct edge, thus eliminating the overdose danger. If it’s voted in, I will take him to meet with Galindo and Soledad personally, since I already broached the latter with this suggestion. She was keen, of course I told her I would need to take it to a vote, so that is exactly what we are assembled here tonight to accomplish.”

He waited expectantly, his eyes scanning the faces of the five men who sat around the table with him. Bishop spoke first.

“No. It’s too much of a risk, especially with the eyes on us since Creep’s arrest. The heroin is moving, and that’s all we have to worry about, EZ. You’re talking about quality of product like it’s our name on the line, like we’ll be affected by it. We won’t. We’re the mules. Let the LNG worry about whether anyone thinks it’s garbage or not. We still get our cut regardless.”

Hank was next to weigh in. “It’s a no from me, too. It’ll bring too much heat. That chemist might know what he’s doing, but can you really vouch for every single person cutting the heroin to get that kind of delicate balance right, thousands of times over? It’s way too much risk.”

“I think it’s a good idea. I vote yes.” Of course, Nestor would. Angel rolled his eyes, muttering something well under his breath. When it came to their president, the newest member of the club was nothing short of sycophantic in his eyes. Some might disagree, and state that his opinion was tainted by the fact that he disliked him, that Nestor was simply playing safe by showing loyalty during his fledgling months as a newly patched brother.

Gilly and Angel’s votes were both against the idea, EZ’s demeanour changing in a nanosecond as he brought the gavel down, defeated, and extremely displeased by such as they all filed out of templo. The men who had voted against him could only hope that he would see the sense in their reasoning eventually, but until then, they knew El Rey Oscuro would be like a bear with a sore head.

Picking up a beer and a bourbon from the bar, Bishop walked over to join Angel on one of the couches, sitting down with a sigh, handing him the beer. “He’s getting worse.”

Angel’s eyes widened, his jaw twitching as he bit down, grinding his teeth slightly. The VP had noticed him partaking of that a lot of late. “You’re right, Bish. I know we all voted for war, but shit, mano. I live in the biggest fucking regret for voting that kill switch in. He ain’t ready to be at the helm.”

“I’m not gonna sit here and pretend like all of his decisions have been bad, I have to give him a little credit,” Bishop began, his thumb picking at a slight flaw in his bourbon glass. “We’re back on top because of him and his choices, but when he brings ideas like fentanyl to the table, I wonder where the fuck his mind is at. He’s reckless, and you’re right. When he behaves like that, he isn’t ready for it. We gotta try and keep a firm pull on his reins. He might be the head, but us, brother, we’re the neck.”

Angel had heard this before. “And the neck turns the head in whichever direction it wants, right?”

“Right.” His eyebrows fluttered, Bishop taking a deep breath before raising his glass to his mouth. “For as long as we possibly can. The weight of the head can always break the neck.”

That statement didn’t fill Angel with much hope, but he had to hold a belief that somehow, his brother would settle more, and the days of him being labelled El Rey Oscuro would become a thing of the past.

While they sat drinking and discussing, the man himself left a half-drunk beer at the bar, the headache he had coming on only exacerbated by having to share space with the men who had voted against him. He was pissed off, and sought a distraction from it, somewhere where he could feel like he was the one in charge, somewhere he could relax, preferably with something pretty to look at.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Yes, he needed a distraction.

The Luna Lounge was a relatively new enterprise within Santo Padre, the owner of such wanting to offer punters a classier feel to the surroundings in which they viewed the scantily clad women twirling around poles along the long, elevated stage that ran along the back of the bar. It didn’t matter how much he dressed it up, it was still a place to drink beer and see tits and ass. Except the beer was mostly imported and the tits and ass were of superior quality to those within the smaller, grimier establishments dotted around the bleak back streets of the border town, so it had that going for it, at least.

EZ took a seat, a guy who looked like he was all but ready to finish his shift greeting him with a tired smile, taking his drink order. Once furnished with a beer, he moved around to the stage side, scanning what was on offer as women of various appearance clocked him, all brandishing the same warm smiles full of sensual allure, those smiles not quite reaching their eyes.

And then he saw her.

She was breathtaking, and he could tell as he sat down before where she slowly shimmied around a pole that she had absolutely no idea how stunning she was, but god, how she worked what she had. She should have been on the front of a magazine cover, not swinging around a pole in platform shoes and underwear much too cheap to be befitting of her beauty. She was, as the other girls were too, a little lacking in lustre behind the eyes, likely wondering how life had led to them strutting around a stage for their cash, ones and fives thrown up, tens and twenties from the more generous clientele.

Camille could feel his eyes on her before she even turned around to view him. Tall, dark, handsome. Not many of his type frequented The Luna Lounge. In fact, she wagered he likely didn’t need to pay girls to take their clothes off and dance for him at all, looking the way he did. A mere click of his fingers would be all it took, she thought to herself, sauntering over before any of the other harpies she shared the stage with clocked him.

“Well,” she began, crouching before him, her full lips curving in a way that made something very pleasant run through him, “aren’t you the most handsome thing to walk in here all night.”

Taking a bill from his pocket, he reached for her thong, tucking it into the elastic. “Hmm.” The noise he made confirmed he agreed with her statement; of course, he did. He’d seen himself in a mirror, he knew what he had.

Camille looked down at her hip, seeing the bill was a twenty, turning back to him with a smile full of promise. “That’s very generous of you, handsome.” Running her perfectly manicured nail slowly down his cheek, she felt a little ripple of excitement when he turned and kissed her fingertip, his dark gold eyes focusing in on her. She liked it when they made her feel special.

“How much time does that buy me with you dancing right there in front of me?”

“Just enough to keep you throwing up those bills if you want more.” With a wink, she slowly rose to standing, her feline glide taking her back to the nearby pole, hoisting herself up and locking her legs around it, leaning back gracefully as she slowly turned, her blonde curls tumbling, the shining blue of her eyes fixed upon his.

He watched her intently, focusing on the way the black lace of her underwear accentuated her body, her breasts obviously not her own, but well done enough that they didn’t look ridiculous. Not like the bad boob job currently grinding into the next pole down with the kind of uncouth gusto that didn’t exist in the blonde who was captivating his attentions with her elegance. She’d accentuated her tanned skin with little sparkles, sweeps of glitter highlighting the curves of her hips, the rise of each breast and the lithe muscles in her long, slender legs.

She was immaculate, even down to her matching mani and pedi, glittery black fingers and toes, the sooty smudge of her smoky eye makeup the same, care and effort put into her appearance. Yes, she was most definitely too good for twirling around a pole for a living, but EZ wasn’t about to tell her that. It was her job to make him feel good, after all.

“So,” he asked after a while, Camille returned to right in front of him. “How much to get you by yourself?”

“A standard lap dance will cost you forty. A full nude version, sixty.”

He licked his top lip, nodding. “I think the extra twenty is worth it.”

She smiled, gracefully getting down from the stage. “Give me a couple of minutes, and I’ll meet you just over there by the blue curtains, Mr President.” She winked, running her hand down his arm, her pulse fluttering. God, the muscles. She loved it when they were gorgeous. And he was the president of an MC, too. A man of power, she noted. She liked that even more; it made her feel special that he’d chosen her.

Returning to the dressing room, she changed into a nude-coloured set of lace undies, a matching dress too, leaving on the peach toned sparkly nipple pasties she wore beneath her bra, fluffing her hair, spritzing on her favourite perfume, adding a few more sparkles before changing her shoes to match. Clear lucite with pale peach ribbons tying each one to her delicate feet and ankles.

Leaving his almost finished draught beer on the side of the stage, EZ was on his way over to the curtained area when he saw the shimmering light of the blonde appear, Camille reaching for his hand with a soft smile that was one hundred percent allure, leading him through the curtains and into the private room. It was decorated all in dark blue, with thousands of twinkling lights strewn across the ceiling, looking like a starry sky, small booths dotted around, four other girls present, all in various stages of undress as they worked their charm for the respective men who had paid for their time.

EZ took a seat in the circular booth, Camille leaning forward, resting her hands on his thighs, her lips tickling the outer edge of his ear. “Get comfortable and enjoy, handsome.” She rose slowly, her body beginning to sway softly to the beat of the music, the song unfamiliar to him, but the tones just as sensual and richly delicious as the blonde who danced before him. Her striptease was natural, unhurried and sensually suggestive, enticing him every step by the way she made a show of something as simple as removing a dress.

He tried to fight against the spell he felt himself falling under, the enchantment of her reveal, wanting to remain in control, the one who had others bend to his will, in order to redress the shifted balance that the lack of success at templo had left him feeling. She was here to soothe the stinging within, but he would remain objective, and her his subject.

Perhaps someone should have explained the finer details of the purpose of a lap dance to him. He was the one paying to relinquish control, and let a beautiful woman distract him with fantasy, if only for a short time. His stance over such was certainly telling over where his mind was on the subject of losing even one ounce of control in any aspect of his life, though.

Camille felt it, too. While she didn’t know his inner thoughts, she knew he sat there tense, fighting against himself somewhat. She leaned into him, her bra clad breasts brushing his chest through the grey, long sleeved t shirt he wore, soft meeting hard, hoping to coax a little of the tension out of him. Once again, her body dipped against his, a soft, sweet moan spilling from her lips, turning on her heel and seating herself in his lap, gently rotating her rounded butt against his crotch.

She timed it, waiting for just long enough for his pulse to escalate, standing again, her hands smoothing over her body as she unhooked her bra, the front fastening then secured by her palms as she turned back to look at him over her shoulder, a smouldering pout accentuating her lips. Turning back to him, she moved in a graceful glide to the last bars of the song, the room quiet only for a few moments before a song he recognised instantly began to play.

Venus in Furs was one of Camille’s favourites to strip to, internally beaming to herself as she moved fluidly, her hands working in tease over her breasts before finally revealing them, the glitter of her pasties catching the dim light, sinking to her knees to crawl toward him, hands grasping his thighs and slowly stroking upwards as she brought her body up between them.

Mounting his lap once more, she locked her eyes onto his, gently gyrating against him a few times before bending back fully, her hips rolling slowly, her hands coming up to pull at each pastie, casting them away before she sat back up again, each blush nipple stiffening a little, trailing her fingers down his cheeks as finally, she saw the corners of his mouth upturn.

“Got him.” she thought, watching his shoulders relax, knowing it was only a matter of time. Bare naked tits usually did the trick, though. Continuing to grind herself against him, she felt his breath hit her neck, knowing she was escalating him, giving him a few more seconds before she stood, moving back to her floorshow dance, leaving him feeling as if someone had yanked at the rope of his resolve... and unravelled it completely.

The way she’d just moved against him had utterly blown his mind, ensnared him further than her enchanting display so far, pulled him away from himself and, what he needed most, made him forget. Here, he didn’t need to be in control. Finally, he got it. But fuck, how he wanted more.

And that was exactly her design.

“This no touching rule is getting more difficult to stick to by the moment,” he blurted, not able to prevent the words from leaving his mouth. Her allure, her scent, her moves, her body. Her. She’d got her hooks into him, and he couldn’t help but let the complimentary statements keep on rolling off his tongue. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

She smiled, smoothing her hands over her breasts, placing a foot up on the back of the booth to the side of his head, her body undulating, EZ inhaling a sharp breath. Oh, the urge to turn his head and skim a lick over her ankle. Camille saw it, too, the state she was working him up into. “I bet it’s the only thing you can think about, isn’t it? Running those big, powerful hands all over me. You have to be good, but me? Mmm, not so much.”

Lowering her leg again, she seated herself in his lap, wiggling against him, her body moving in a serpentine roll, turning her head, her breath fluttering against his cheek as she felt something very big beginning to harden against her butt. A gorgeous, jacked Latino guy with a big dick; he was definitely one hundred percent her taste, but he was work, and she had to remind herself of that.

One more seductive dance before him, this time undoing the ribbon ties of her thong, and she was back astride him, grinding herself into him harder this time, her body pressed tightly against his, EZ physically moving his hands beneath his thighs, the temptation to grasp her almost too much to resist.

“Yeah, do you want me, gorgeous? I can feel that you do. God, it’s so big,” she purred, her hand gently grasping his jaw as she rotated against him, EZ feeling himself spinning. There they were, client and lap dancer, and the heat that escalated between them was very, very real. More potent than either of them could have anticipated. There it was, the first thread of connection linking between them, and it crackled like a live wire.

“You could pull my cock out and get on it right now, and I wouldn’t stop you, and no one would know. You want it, don’t you? Yeah, you wanna fuck me.”

And god, how she did. It was unmistakable, the heat of her want as he watched the fire of it dance in her eyes, a blaze of lust that was unmistakable, that wasn’t an amped up bluff performance for the purposes of allure. However, she was in control, and she remained that way, working him up, and up... and up, until he felt his cock twitching against her, hot and hard, dying for release, tingling violently until... no she wasn't going to make him... fuck. Yes, she was. She’d actually made him cum in his pants, while staring him right in the eye entire time.

God... fucking... damn.

He certainly hadn’t expected that, Camille climbing off him, picking up her underwear and sliding them back on, her dress following. He took her money from his pocket as he stood somewhat uneasily, adjusting his jeans, tucking the bills into the corner of her bra, eyeing her appreciatively. “What time do you finish?”

“1am,” she confirmed, fluffing her hair, resting her hands to her hips.

“Good, I’ll wait,” he spoke, leaning to her ear. “Because the next time you make me blow my load, I want to actually be inside of you.”

She smirked, running her fingernails down his chest, her face nearing his, still teasing him with the allure, the promise of more, until it ground to an abrupt halt. “I’m not that easy, big fella.”

As she sauntered away, for the second time that night, EZ felt frustrated at not being able to attain the goal of having others to bend to his chosen will. While he knew the table vote would remain resolute, the same would not be said for the blonde stripper.

He’d make her comply, because he knew she wanted him just as much as he did her. It was only a matter of wearing her down, but he would. Being on top of everything in his world was the only acceptable place for Ezekiel Reyes, and before the week was out, he very much intended to be on top of her.

Exiting the private room, he walked back to the bar while Camille headed for the dressing room, sitting down in front of a pale beauty, with long black hair and a plentiful collection of tattoos.

“Evening, sexy,” she purred, sinking to her knees and leaning close to him in brazen fashion.

He replicated the lean, looking her up and down. “How’d you like to earn a hundred dollars?”

The corners of her mouth tilted. “You just came out from a private dance, and you want another? Shit, Camille must be slipping.”

“No,” he confirmed. “That girl I came out with, Camille, you say? I wanna know when she’s working this week. You tell me what hours, and the hundred is yours, babe.” To show he wasn’t bluffing, he pulled the bill from his wallet, sliding it across the shiny surface, his finger remaining. Raven looked down at it and back up at him, figuring it to be the easiest hundred she’d make that night.

“Wednesday, seven ‘till two, Friday and Saturday, six ‘till one.”

His finger left the top of the bill, using it to tickle under her chin with a wink. “Thanks, gorgeous.” Armed with the information he needed, he left, all the while planning his return.

Ezekiel Reyes; he was a man who got what he wanted in the end. And damn, he wanted Camille. Meanwhile, the lady herself sat in her chair in front of her makeup mirror, sinking a shot of tequila from the bottle she always had stashed in her bag for emergencies. The owner didn’t allow the girls to drink while they worked, but in this case, she needed a little jolt of strong alcohol.

God, the way he’d looked at her. Sure, she was in the business of having men look at her like that, especially when she was grinding herself into their lap, but there was an intensity to the man with a chest about as wide as the hood of her car, and a cock that felt so big, it likely had its own zip code. The intensity of that stare, though, a stare she knew she’d reciprocated with honest intent, it was burned into her mind. There’d been a connection there, and suddenly, Camille cursed herself for not being quite as easy as he presumed her to be.

Because of her profession, she’d always been a little uptight about the speed with which she had sex with a guy, though. Two hours later, while she was alone in her house watching a pan of pasta bubble, she closed her eyes and saw him there, the dark, sexy man whose name she didn’t even know.

What she did know, though? He’d be back.

#ez reyes #ez reyes fanfiction #ez reyes smut #ez reyes imagine #ez reyes x ofc #ez reyes fanfic #ez reyes fic #ezekiel reyes fanfiction #ezekiel reyes imagine #ezekiel reyes smut #mayans mc #mayans mc fanfiction #mayans mc smut #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc fanfic #mayans mc fic

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limetimo · 2 months

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RAB fics i read (Feb 24)

you do it naturally (move me, baby) by Anonymous James/Reglus/BArty smut (kinky)

At The Library(english version) - (Bartylus Oneshot) ABO by Fanfiqueiro__00 Bartylus ABO smut (sweet)

i must sin by Anonymous james/regulus/barty smut (vampire barty)

Heart of the Lion by PhantomGrimalkin Remus/regulus, plot and smut, trans regulus, v nice

Pavane for a Dead Prince by redsuit Regulus died when he was 9 and then again when he was 18. I'm assuming his debt to Death will be paid when he destroys horcruxes? Bartylus but im suspecting Jegulus endgame (no, i did not look at the tags too closely). we stan Pandora

PS. I Hate You by SnarkyMagpie ♥♥♥ the best friend' brother trope we know and love, beautiful execution

Mortal Once More by SheOfTheBookAndSong regulus takes snape's place in the narrative

So Determined to Drag Him Back by KrisKikstorky part of Regulus/Voldemort ABO series, Regulus isn't in this one chapter but im screaming none the less. smut

Pillow Talk by cywscross soft post-war regulus with owen from fast and furious

The Wolf and the Woodsman by PhantomGrimalkin little red rding hood retelling with Prince!Regulus and werewolf/woodsman remus

Harry Potter and the Year That Should Have Been Normal by 3andaHalfGayWizardsinaTrenchcoat in 1995 harry died by voldemort as per mysterious penpal's instructions and got his godfather back from the veil thank to the mysterious RAB panpal

Stop Worrying And Hold Me Again by adore_via0 soft bartylus sleepover

Best Part of Waking Up by starling011, TemieTem remus/sirius/ragulus smut with plot

The Campaign by Wouldntyouliketoknowweatherboy04 This is super interesting! In bull-headed attempt at proving his parents wrond about him, Sirius is running for the Mayor of London. Regulus somehow ended up disowned and living with his boyfriend James, James' ex gf Lily and their son Harry, Lily's gf Mary, and their friend Remus and Remus' son Teddy. When Sirius gets cornered by the papparazzis in front of the polycule's house it somehow leads to the 7 scroundels moving into Sirius' house for publicity. Will the forced proximity help the brothers recconect? Will Sirius heed Snape's advice and date Remus for clout? really excited for this one

Blue Bird (bluebird) by LoonyHarr1son jegulus with good slytherins, the gryffindors forget about james' b-day

Crazy Ex-Boyfriend by AmethystHeart2421 This was really good! Remus stalks his long-time crush Sirius (and ends up sleeping with the little brother instead)

the golden king by maladaptivewriting needs no itroduction, regulus dies then goes to school with golden trio and then and then and then

Past Zero Hour by anonymsly !!!! ♥♥♥♥♥ !!!!!

all I want by Zazzander Regulus is an alpha with a bg heart and a bigger pack

Twisting Fate by Anonymous time travellig sirius

unremarkable days. by sadgorl sirius si fighting custody battle for regulus and falling apart at the seams

Why You Should Run Away To Brazil (A “Guide?” By James Potter) by Charliemaraudersfan86 james finds out he's bipolar and doesn't handle it really well. but its ok his boyfriends are willing to wait

More than Magic by Hometown_Nerd squib-ified regulus takes custody of harry ect very good very nice

Gods Under Broken Skies by IndigoIrisis regulus dies and goes back in time with no fucks to give

Contractual Courtship by Killaurey I'M HYPED regulus/lily

White lies take all of the color from you by strawberrywinedrunk regulus got preggo, lived, and now his daughter is causing mischief at hogwarts and voldemort is back and oh well. Very good

The ache of knowing everything was gonna change by strawberrywinedrunk carna accidentally time travels to marauders era and accidentally pulls her dad along. oh well they'll just kick voldy's ass sooner

Don't go Icarus, don't forget your father by White_marigold unlce barty explains to harry that he can't be adopted because nobody would give a baby to a transitioning teenage single mother already struggling with one baby

Pegasus and chai by White_marigold james finds out he's a dad... to twins....

If We Have Each Other by aithusarosekiller Regulus has a bad day and a bit of a public meltdown and outs his secret relationship with james to sirius

Thinking Of You by aithusarosekiller remus/regulus, cute

The Ice Feels Colder Without You by FlowerLikeLotus teenage regulus faceplants on ice, gets disowned, moves in with his also disowned brother, dates teh brother's best friend, goes back to ice skating

i love to wake up next to you (i love to hold you close) by CanYouHearMyFear jegulus smut (watersports)

on behalf of the good dark by FiresFromOurHearts the series where draco is reincarnated regulus

Fated to Fall by ouzell soulmates jegulus au

Darker than Black by mariesanasz

Little Stars Server Birthday & Holiday Fics smut on top of smut on top of smut ft black bros incest

so give me all you've got (i can take it) by JohnnysLittleMonster, Sagiko_AKA_RegulusBlackKinnieBITFW james survived voldemort, regulus and pandora took care of teh horcruxes

‘Cause Boy We’re Gold by Disco_serpant fare dating bartylus

Late by cassiopeiablack1994 way too late sirisu and james realise that they're totally in romantic and sexual love with each other, hurting their spouses in the process. future regulily

Creamy Italian by starling011 bartylus smut

Hot for Teacher by starling011, TemieTem regulus has a really bad divorce, moves to wales colose with his brother, and starts falling in love with the local adorable teacher james

Death is an Art - I am an Artist by Narratiuncula regulus dies but death thinks he was cool doing it, and sends him to another universe to be reborn as a child of Hades. Regulus is now a diAngelo, the older brother to Nico and Bianca (PJO)

When the sun sets by northernnovel regulus and james fake date so that james would notice regulus§

I Wish You Would by earthmoonstars musicians au fake dating to real dating regulus

How to live (when you've long been dead) by DisorganizedKitten Danny Fenton crossover (regulus adopts danny)

Seven Months Away by DisorganizedKitten for AnOceanOfQuietThoughts It'd be nice if Regulus could just kill Voldemort and go home to his (doubtiously aquired) children instead of sitting in endless meetings... Barty is here to make sure that Voldemort never stands between a Regulus and a baby.

you flower, you feast. by Salviaqueer T4T regulily smut

Uncharted by bonafake Reg and lily meet on the way to prongsfoot wedding

#regulus black #fic rec

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sandinthepipes · 3 months

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this is the day I'm getting cancelled and this post is getting deleted once I get it out of my system

Please don't trick people into reading your fic. Everything has it's target, don't cater to one that's not yours.

If you mark your fic as completed and the last chapter is "I lost interest in writing this and I'm not gonna continue" your loss of interest is valid, but the fic is not finished. It would be nice if you either wrote it in the tags or the summary.

If your fic is the first of a series, and all your tags and summary revolve around how the main couple is coupling with no further explanation, people are going to assume the fic ends with them together. If they don't and the getting together is going to happen further down in the serie maybe give a heads up.

I've seen people put comments/reviews of the fic in the summary like some sort of movie poster ??¿¿??¿ Are you ok? Do you need a hug??? What is going on????

It's the same with what is happening with tags on Tumblr, people tagging something that isn't related to the post just because they think it'll get more clout. Ao3 and Tumblr don't work like that, stop trying to trick the system.

It bothers me because more and more it feels like genuine enjoyment of something is disregarded by the chase of numbers. I know you enjoy the thing you're creating art for, but when you clout chase it feels like you wouldn't be making that fanwork without the reward of numbers.

Wanting engagement for something you did is ok and valid, but you're going to get it from the people who enjoy that kind of content. Don't bait for something that's not.

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Also don't take this as a critique to more than like the 0,1% of authors, it truly is a once in a while kind of thing, but when it happens it gets me so worked up, because in another context I would love your work, but because you didn't fulfill the warning part I'm now hating you with every fiber of my being.

#I know my autism is showing #Turn the other way if you don't like it because I feel like setting fire to something #Fic #Fanfic #Fanfiction #Fanfictions #Ao3

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noellevanious · 1 year

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more bitching and moaning about twitter below the cut. god help me and my tendencies

see like. twitter and the attitude around it drives me nuts. like when you think about it or when you've been on this site for long enough. you see all the issues people on twitter complain about.

"it's really hard to curate a following on tumblr" no it fucking isn't. you just don't do anything besides post your art with 30 tags once, maybe twice, and hope somebody finds it. because on twitter people will just rt whatever the algorithm gives them. there's no community. if there is a community, it's from friends who already know eachother elsewhere. all the "interactions" i see on twitter are people apologizing cause other people are bitching them out, or friends that have been friends forever talking about stuff.

meanwhile almost everybody i've met i've met that i interact with, i met through tumblr in some way. my friends for the past 5 years since i got out of college? all originally from tumblr. all these people that i interact with? met them here. it's a little community of like-minded people who i cherish and appreciate even if, so far, our interactions are just text and images on a screen.

the entire fun of tumblr is the community aspect. we like promoting eachother. we like interacting with eachother. i've had more fun in the past year or so of being on this site than i've had on basically any forum.

like i follow artists that have dipped their toes back into tumblr after seeing them complain and whine and moan about "ohhh god i gotta go back to tumblr boohooo i have no clout there i get so fewer notes/reboggles/whatever" and. they like. post a single piece of their art a day. and then just. nothing. when the site is literally built around reblogs.

there's no algorithm in the "Good" "pure" way to experience the site. You meet friends with common interests, maybe through tags, maybe you already knew them. maybe you joined tumblr because of them. they reblog certain people. you reblog those posts. It's very natural. You find stuff you like, and people you like, and blogs you enjoy seeing. so you keep going. and that's how you start getting traction. you be genuinely funny or charming or talented.

and trust me. i get it. nobody's terminally online like me. you don't need to tell me that.

nobody else literally spends 90% of their time looking at the dashboard*. so it's just more "normal" people who check their twitter or tiktok or insta or whatever every now and then inbetween their work in their field. so like. this is all just small potatoes to them. they just want another outlet or avenue to share their media. more power to them.

but like. these websites suck shit. and current internet sucks shit. don't get on your high horse about waaaaah waaaah the shitty website that literally any moderately thought-out forum or webzone would put to shame, where the only interaction 90% of the time is trying to climb an imaginary internet ladder and be the Talk of the Town for 15 minutes so you can get a bunch of follows, is slowly crumbling around you, so there goes your small internet niche you carved (when in reality, if it had literally any weight or gravitas whatsoever, people would follow you to whatever outlet you move to).

It's a shitty fucking website. Let it burn. Tiktok is worse, Facebook is worse, Instagram is worse, but at least one shitty, advertiser-focused consumer-hating site is crumbling. That's good.

* (and trust me when i say that if i had my choice, i'd be like. in a full-time job. or my adhd would be solved so i could do creative stuff i wanna do, like make video essays, or write more, or draw more, instead of staring at this website so much)

#inanegargling

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jung-koook · 2 years

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Hey there! I saw your post about the hate you get and although I barely interact with other users I had to say something. You are the least toxic fan I've ever met and not once have you given me any sasaeng vibes whatsoever. You almost always (except for the times you mentioned and apologized yourself for) post stuff that has been sanctioned /publicly released by Bighit and the boys.

Also I don't get what's wrong with reblogging your own posts, this is tumblr and no one gives a shit how many notes you have on your posts anyway. It's not like anyone is actively trying to gain followers or clout here and getting anything out of it. It's tumblr for God's sake! Live and let live, if that person has a problem with it then they just shouldn't follow you.

There are so many harmful fans and there are sasaengs but I've followed you for quite a while now and you are definitely not one of them.

Alright, rage over, I hope you have a lovely day❤️ haters gonna hate and as Jungkook said "SO WHAT?"

Love yourself 💜 xx

I've been seeing some of my mutuals get hate messages for self-rebloging their posts too. if you dont like sr you can just unfollow or if you dont want to unfollow us you can just block the tag. I think every person here who does sr uses some tag indicating that the post is a sr, so you can block so you do't see them on your dash. but it seems that some people take pleasure in simply sending hate to other people. its so pathetic that they dont even have the courage to go off anon. thank you so much for you kind words. yesterday was the day that jeongguk finally posted on instagram and it seems that these people didnt like to see happiness here and thought, well i guess i want to ruin her day :) but I will try to forget these messages, thank you so much. you too ♡ i hope you have a nice day/night! ♡

#reply #anonymous

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myyworldinadaze · 5 months

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12.3.23 - 2:48p: gave up IG just to hop back on tumblr. my life is not too hot at the moment. not the worst but definitely just not the business. mainly dealing with my shortcomings as a parent. my priorities were not in the right place and now my son is acting out pretty bad. I have my household to maintain, new job but still not enough support around me to have freedom to repair the damage done. I used IG as an escape, a major distraction from what was truly important. I wasn't using it properly. IG is not terrible, it's just how you pair it with your life. I'm so internally damaged that I seek attention from family and friends by carefully curating posts to my IG stories for views and conversations. Ignoring my son in the process, brushing him off but using him at the same time for "IG clout". I got triggered pretty bad by something on IG that really made me wild paranoid. I was distraught but by my own doing. It happened while I was at work and I did not like that experience at all. I didn't want to feel that way anymore. I didn't want my sanity being toyed with like that anymore. I had to give it up for the time being. It should not be having me all fucked up in the head. I should not allow something as silly as social media to have such power over my life. I had to let it go. I had to regain some sort of control. I gathered phone numbers I didn't have and got rid of it. I have done it once before and came back after like 3 years. I'm not sure how long I'll be off of it. Indefinitely or temporarily. I'm gauging it based on if I'm able to find a solid balance with my life and then maybe slowly integrating myself back into it. I just don't trust myself because I'm very vulnerable right now. I'm crying everyday. Not all day but literally every single day. It's mentally exhausting. I feel like this isn't another attention-seeking thing for me. I'm not tagging or trying to boost recognition for this space. I just need an outlet. I thought physically journaling would work but writing my thoughts feels different from typing. I like with tumblr that I can find pictures, quotes and music to mix in with my thoughts. I don't want to be found but if anyone happens to resonate, then welcome to my space. I surprisingly did have followers when I had my old tumblr blog and I honestly don't know why or how lol. I think I did tag my posts but mainly for my own archive to find my own stuff easily. My son is napping so I have the time to get in at least one post before he wakes up. I'm working on being more present with him, practicing more patience with him. He has a lot of learning and unlearning to do. He needs me and I need him. Single parenting is no joke. Taking it one day at a time...

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nitpick7 · 3 years

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Ayo anyone wanna see my essay on why removing Anybody Have A Map made the Dear Evan Hansen movie worse? It is slightly long

Disclaimer: I did like the movie (I cried three times), but I think they made some stupid decisions with it.

Dear Evan Hansen movie + musical spoilers under the cut, plus a fair amount of DEH neg/crit

Instead of Anybody Have A Map, they just have Evan's mom say "Hey are you writing those letters to yourself? Also you should ask the kids to sign your cast" before he goes to school and sings Waving Through A Window. They ignore every other part of the song and quickly insert the only thing from the song that's absolutely needed to understand the story so Evan can go be angsty at school. We don't even meet the Murphys until they meet Evan in the principal's office to tell him about Connor.

Disclaimer part 2 electric boogaloo: I complain about Evan a lot here. It's not because I think his experiences aren't valid and it's not because I'm trying to demonize people with mental illnesses or something. I know that his own struggles influenced his bad decisions. That doesn't mean they weren't bad decisions. He still did shitty things and he wasn't justified (listen to Words Fail), but I know it was influenced by his mental health.

On with the complaining!

First of all, the movie opens with Waving Through A Window? It feels like they're putting the most popular song first as a desperate grab for your attention to convince you the movie is good and like... they really didn't need to do that. Waving Through A Window is right after Anybody Have A Map, it's not like anyone's gonna walk out of the theatre after one (really good) song.

Anybody Have A Map establishes a few things: it shows us that both of these families are struggling so that we know immediately that the Murphys' perfect facade is fake, it shows us that Connor was a dick to his family (this is very important), and obviously it tells us why Evan was writing letters to himself. It also introduces us to the two main families at the same time so we know this story isn't just about Evan.

By starting the movie with an Evan solo song instead of the group song, they frame Evan as the one main character, the only person whose perspective we need to understand. But Evan is incredibly flawed, just like everyone else, and by making us think the story is only about him, it immediately makes us (the audience) more inclined to believe that Evan is always in the right and less inclined to consider everyone else's side of the story. Evan is an incredibly unreliable narrator, he's always going to frame his actions as correct, or at least excusable, even when he's actively hurting/lying to other people.

All of the Murphys get introduced through interacting with Evan instead of interacting with each other. This makes it seem like the Murphys only exist for Evan, but the entire point of the climax is that everything doesn't exist just for Evan! Evan is not part of their family, he can't just use everyone around him for his own benefit, and all of the Murphys have lives outside of him. When they're introduced through Evan, they're introduced as existing for Evan. Anybody Have A Map introduces them separately from Evan instead of attached to him.

Without Anybody Have A Map, we never actually see Connor being mean to Zoe, so she just looks like an asshole for not being sad about her dead brother. To make up for it, she's constantly having to tell the audience why she hated him, tripping over herself to talk about all the shitty things he did to her because we don't have Anybody Have A Map to show us their interactions. Zoe ends up complaining about her brother the entire time, so when it gets to Only Us and she says that she doesn't want everything to be about her brother, it seems out of character for her.

And with the removal of Anybody Have A Map, we don't ever see Connor interact with his own family in the movie. Anybody Have A Map is the only time we get to see Connor with his family. It shows us that Connor really was an asshole to his family, it justifies Zoe hating him, and it gives his mom more dimensions by showing her struggling to keep her family together even with everyone fighting against her. Without that, the writers ended up ignoring the most basic piece of writing advice - "show, don't tell" - to fill in the missing information from the song.

In the movie, all we get of Cynthia Murphy is... her being sad about Connor and refusing to admit that he ever did anything wrong. She's just boring and annoying in the movie, but in the musical, we get that bit at the beginning that shows her as an actual person with actual motivations! By cutting Anybody Have A Map, they made her into a more one-dimensional character.

So in a bit of a conclusion: Anybody Have A Map establishes the Murphys as main characters separate from Evan and shows us Connor's relationship with his family instead of telling us about it. It sets the scene for the story before just jumping into "Evan is sad and alone uwu anxious depressed soft boy" and makes everyone a better, more three-dimensional character. Getting rid of it meant that they had to do backflips to justify everyone's decisions during the movie instead of setting everything up at the beginning.

I do think the movie could've benefitted from Disappear but then again, it could've benefitted from the whole "Connor being the visual/vocal representation of Evan's justifications for why keeping up the lie is helping people" thing in general, but they got rid of that so Disappear wouldn't have worked. (I am salty that they got rid of that thing but whatever) The Anonymous Ones worked instead and it was a good song, so sure, why not I guess? /neutral

I could also complain about how they got rid of To Break In A Glove, Disappear, and Good For You, but none of those decisions actually impacted the story too much. To Break In A Glove and Good For You both got replaced with some tell-not-show cutscenes that gave us the same information in a less interesting way (and Larry got less character development without To Break In A Glove), and Disappear got replaced with an Alana song which was honestly pretty good so i'm fine with that one.

Now for some good changes that the movie made!

The Anonymous Ones was a good song, I actually really liked that. I'm disappointed that they got rid of Disappear, but they replaced it with another song that served the same purpose while also giving Alana more screen time and character depth! And it was a genuinely good song, I really enjoyed it and it made me like Alana more!

I really liked the ending of the movie. In the musical, there are literally no negative consequences for Evan, Zoe even forgives him at the end. She fucking forgives him for lying to her entire family about their dead son and and taking advantage of them because it "brought them closer together". And the internet never finds out what he did! He does all this terrible shit, lies to the entire fucking world, and gets away scot-free. And he never learns anything real about Connor. The movie changes all of that.

Connor's song was also a great addition! Every time we saw Connor in the musical, he was either being a dick or he was a fantasy version of himself made by Evan and/or Jared. Seeing that Connor can, in fact, be a nice person, that Cynthia's belief in him wasn't misplaced, was so satisfying. He really was just a meaner version of Evan a troubled kid lashing out at the world in self-defense. He wasn't an entirely bad person.

The Murphys still decide not to tell anyone what he did, but then Evan decides (on his own!) that he needs to own up to what he did. He records a video of himself admitting to what he did, shifts all the blame to himself, and then goes out of his way to fix his mistakes in any way he can. He says that his biggest regret is not getting to know Connor while he had the chance, so he goes online to find anything he can. He reads Connor's favorite books, tries to find anyone who might be able to tell him what Connor was like, and when he receives a video of Connor playing his song in rehab, he takes the time to send the video (through the mail, on a flash drive) to the Murphys, Jared, and Alana.

Evan doesn't contact Zoe at the end, she contacts him instead. She doesn't forgive him, and he doesn't ask for forgiveness. He knows what he did was wrong and he owns up to it and tries to fix it as much as possible, knowing full well that it could ruin his life. He does the right thing for the first time in the entire fucking movie (that's hardly even an exaggeration) and it's such a good ending. It makes more sense and is more satisfying than the musical.

The Dear Evan Hansen movie was not nearly as bad as the reviews say it was. It wasn't as good as the musical, it had its own problems, but it also made some good changes that I think made the story better. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it and most movies aren't perfect anyway. It really could've benefitted from Anybody Have A Map, though.

#the first draft of this took 50 minutes to write and it was on discord #then i spent a solid hour editing it while at work #please appreciate me /hj #pie.txt #dear evan hansen #dear evan hansen movie #dear evan hansen musical #dear evan hansen review #evan hansen #connor murphy #zoe murphy #cynthia murphy #larry mora #alana beck #i tagged a post for once now give me clout #/j /j

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ratbastarddotfuck · 3 years

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Okay this one is not gonna be a popular take on tumblr but.

Identity policing is pointless and dangerous and honestly only really works in online spaces. I say this and you might think "yeah identity policing sucks" but I need you to think a bit deeper.

When you get into a real life queer community (and I DO mean queer specifically, radical inclusionist queers) people don't give a shit. You hear this kind of thing a lot on tumblr but I think it is important to specify, because a lot of more general "lgbt+" groups HAVE been poisoned by the online discourse.

I've been a part of a proper queer community for a couple of years now and here is the thing.

Many more people than you think have a constantly shifting sense of identity, or experience multiple, supposedly conflicting identities at once, and they are allowed to express those identities in a way that makes them comfortable.

My partner is a nonbinary trans woman. They date people of many different genders, and generally consider themself to be bi. But sometimes they refer to themself as a lesbian, because they feel like or want to be a lesbian on that day. They are still dating and love me/their other non-woman partners on these days, it's just an identity they resonate with at that time. This is what I mean when I say constantly shifting identity.

I am a gay, bisexual, asexual, genderfluid nonbinary transmasc. I experience so many different identities at once - my gender and my sexuality are informed by each other constantly. I always feel more masc when I am attracted to a masc person, and I always feel less masc (but rarely more fem) when I am attracted to more fem people. Any time I feel attraction I usually consider it gay attraction, even if I feel attraction to multiple differently gendered people at once - I'm bisexual from a technical standpoint, but I'm almost always just gay (but sometimes I truly am just a raging bisexual). I am genderfluid but I am also always nonbinary. My gender goes between multiple, often unidentifiable nonbinary genders, but rarely if ever a binary one.

When I talk to cis people, or less-radical trans people, I generally just say I'm a bi nonbinary person. Nobody needs to know all of that except the people I want to tell it to. BUT those are all facets of my identity that I do experience and I am allowed to express those. Just the other day I tagged a post about how much I love my partner (wife, I said in that post) with "lesbian" - the reason being they were having a lesbian day and I was very much in love with them and feeling pretty much a "gay almost-woman" myself.

(And this, by the way, is why the word queer is so useful and important and you can pry it from my cold dead hands :)

Another thing to think about is how we treat genderfluid people and their attraction in general. There are often posts with a "mlm/nblm" or "wlw/nblw" tag at the end - do these include genderfluid people? Am I allowed to reblog a mlm post when I'm having a man-adjacent day, even if I don't always feel like a mlm? Am I allowed to reblog a wlw post on a woman-adjacent day? My identity can fluctuate minute to minute, am I going to get a callout post from someone who doesn't understand the intricacies of my identity if I reblog a mlm post and a wlw post in quick succession?

And this is bringing me to the next part of this discussion, and the reason it is important to think about: the culture on tumblr (and, i believe, twitter) of calling people out for having what YOU perceive to be conflicting identities, saying that they're "appropriating x identity" or using it for clout or to escape the repercussions of an offhand comment they made that you didn't like (and I can name at least one popular tumblr user who did and still sometimes does experience targeted callouts and harassment for being a "lesbophobe" because they identify as a lesbian in a way the tumblr culture at large doesn't like, but I digress).

You do not and can not know the intricacies of someone's identity unless they tell you. If you read the earlier parts of this post and agreed or understood that people can have multiple "conflicting" identities, then I do not want to see you sharing callout posts for people who ID in a nonconventional way. You don't know, and overall it really does not fucking matter. The oft-repeated line of "how does it impact you if someone is gay/trans/etc", spoken to homophobes and transphobes frequently, is applicable here: how does it impact you if someone identifies in a supposedly nonconventional or conflicting way? It does not. And in real life queer communities, people do not give a shit, because we have bigger problems to deal with OUTSIDE the community, we don't have time for infighting. We have more in common than we have apart.

#queer #trans #people often like to complain about micro identities but why do you think they exist #its because people get harrassed for using the known labels in a way people dont like #so its easier and safer to use a newer more specific label #christ i feel like im giving a class on being a decent person #the system speaks #🦊🦇

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mittensmorgul · 3 years

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For anyone interested in long-term residence in the supernatural fandom, please have some observations I’ve made over the decade I’ve been here. Take it or leave it as you will, but I’ve found all of this info useful over the years I’ve been here.

I wrote this yesterday, and it achieved its mission of identifying the sort of folks who would react negatively to it (i.e. a lot of block lists have been updated), so now that it’s been edited for content, it’s going under a cut (because that is how we do things on tumblr in general, unless we have a deliberate purpose for annoying readers with excessively long text posts) for the sake of people who actually do care about the fandom and its history. If that’s not you or your reason for being here, then keep on keeping on with your own thing, I guess. For those who are interested, there’s a lot of fandom resources some of us have been building for years that you might enjoy knowing about.

First off, I’ve been informed by a few friends who’ve read through this for coherency’s sake that it sort of reads like a *shakes cane from porch* fandom grandma complaint, but honestly... I earned this rocking chair and goshdangit imma rock now. So apologies for any “back in my day” vibes or faint aroma of tiger balm this post might give off. Then again, it’s loosely based on a similar post from 2012 so like... time is a flat circle anyway I guess.

1. There is no such thing as “tumblr famous,” unless you’re referring to the hilarious and delightful fic of the same name (please go read it, you will cackle). Posting Hot Takes for imaginary Clout™ on this site is kind of pointless in the long run. Sure you can post solely for the sake of stirring shit and getting notes, but the majority of the folks who do aren’t long term residents of the fandom. They’re just tourists moving through our little beach town for spring break. If you’re actually intent on moving to this corner of the fandom for an extended stay, please bother to really feel out the permanent residents and understand the culture and general mood of the neighborhood. It bears no resemblance to whatever’s going on across town where all the bars and beach parities are happening, and those loud, drunken revelers are, again, gonna disappear back to their regular lives or on to the next party eventually. That doesn’t mean the fandom is dying, it’s just evolving.

(funny how I had several comments implying that I’m just trying to keep the fandom from evolving with this post, because I sincerely do want the fandom to continue on for years to come, and that is impossible without evolution. We can evolve without self-immolating, though. mostly i included point 1 for an excuse to push ancient but hilarious fanfic on you.)

2. Once you post something here, it’s been unleashed to the fandom winds. You never know where it will end up, or who will comment on it or add to it. Remember that time Misha tweeted the link to the Epic Cockles Love Story post? No? It was wild. That was 2012. They all know we’re here, and how to find us if they want to. Please don’t take it to their doorsteps.

Obviously if someone is being a dick on your posts, please feel free to block them, but the whole entire point of this site is to engage people with your posts. Being big mad that someone reblogged your post with comments or supporting evidence, or happy headcanons or “HECK THIS IS GREAT BECAUSE (insert personal story about their experience or whatever else made them Feel Things about your post)” is frankly ridiculous. If your goal is to avoid any sort of engagement with your posts, then maybe try instagram instead. From what I understand, there is a SPN fandom presence there, and nobody can tarnish your original posts with unwanted commentary. But the ability to reblog with additional commentary is a FEATURE of tumblr that builds community through conversation. Otherwise we’re all just talking to ourselves in a vacuum, and that’s what actually kills fandoms.

(and for the folks who just want to blog how they want to blog and don’t want people to engage on their posts at all, please feel free to block anyone you want, as well... nobody wants to step on your toes, but most of us also don’t want to walk on eggshells wondering if this post is one of the “do not add comments for any reason” sorts of posts, either. This is a huge fandom and most people can’t even begin to keep track of every creator and their url du jour, and what their personal rules might be regarding interaction with their content. Including a “please don’t add comments” note at the bottom of your posts-- and not in your tags that won’t even show up on reblogs, but in the actual body of the post-- would sincerely help avoid any awkward or unwanted interactions, too. At the end of the day, you are in control of your own fandom experience and the block button exists.

For the record, I block zero fandom blogs (which is why I posted this, I wanted it to reach a wide scope... refer to the opening paragraphs as to why).

3. Since this post was partly inspired by a tag I left on that post going around about how “previous tags” mean fuckall on this site (which you can read here), just a reminder that if you like someone’s tags or feel they add value to the post, part of the Peer Review structure of tumblr encourages you to PASTE THEM INTO A REBLOG. If you do this, then at least credit the person who actually wrote the tags! Don’t just copy someone else’s tags into your tags on your reblog of the post without credit either. They were not YOUR tags. (I have had this happen to tag rambles I wrote and someone else got credited with them on a subsequent reblog and it is FRUSTRATING). Just... don’t even bother to write “previous tags” because WHAT PREVIOUS TAGS?! Nobody is gonna bother to chase back the chain of reblogs trying to find where the mystery tags came from, friendos. That way lies madness.

(for the record, since some folks seemed to focus on this point solely, writing “previous tags” on a post isn’t inherently a BAD thing, but for anyone who actually is here for more than one-off shitposting, then it’s sort of a pointless thing in the long run. This wasn’t intended to suggest people who ARE here for one-off shitposting are bad or “doing it wrong,” but for people who might actually want to preserve that hilarious joke or insightful comment. People delete posts and entire blogs all the time around here. Links break. I get that the upcoming generation just shrugs at that and moves on with their lives, but heck... you don’t have to accept that all entertainment is disposable if you don’t want to. There’s a bizarre sort of nihilism plaguing us all about the impermanence of pretty much everything that feels like something we should be fighting against rather than buying into wholesale, even in our escapist entertainment. I’m just exhausted by the complete loss of joy in community.

*shouts from the peanut gallery* IT AIN’T THAT DEEP, JUST GET SOME FRESH AIR AND LOOK AT A PUPPY OR SOMETHING

Yes... yes it isn’t really that deep, but bigger picture in the state of reality we’re all entirely disillusioned with, are we supposed to just give up on everything, including the things we cling to because they bring us a tiny spark of hope that we’re not all just trapped in this dystopian nightmare and things might actually be worth living for?

*peanut gallery clinging to burnt husks of peanuts in a barren peanut field* but this is how we have chosen to cope

Okay... you do you... I feel bad for you but if that’s the case then this post is NOT FOR YOU. AND THAT’S FINE. I honestly do not care if you don’t care! I mean, I’m sorry anyone has to live in a world that drives them to that mindset, but I understand. This post is for anyone who might look at their lives and their choices and think “no wait, I unironically enjoy this and want more from the experience of that enjoyment than I’m currently feeling.” Everyone else can continue with their lives as usual.)

4. CONTENT THEFT IS NEVER OKAY. PERIOD. Things like “credit to the artist” or tagging gifs or images you found on pinterest as “not mine” isn’t actually credit. If you can’t source an image or gif set, DO NOT POST IT! We don’t REPOST (i.e. save an image and then create a new post with it as if it was our own creation). We REBLOG (click the little square arrows and reblog from the actual creator). That goes for gif sets, fanvids, screencaps, meta, fic... everything.

(hopefully everyone here already understands this one, but I felt compelled to include some “these are stupidly obvious” reminders anyway, since this is ostensibly some sort of advice column. This is the equivalent of the warning label on your toaster reminding you not to use it in the bath. Like... duh...)

5. Close kin of item 4 is SOURCE YOUR SHIT.

(for 100% disclosure purposes, I specifically discussed this one in this specific way because of an influx of anon ask messages I received in the wake of the finale. Literally the inciting incident for creating this entire post was what I can only assume was a joking ask about a comment Misha made at a con years ago. Someone actually bothered to take the time to type out those sentences to me. I have no idea what they were expecting in reply, or what could possibly motivate them to send this comment about something so entirely random from, again, several years ago. Just a joke? No idea, but whatever... it got me thinking that there might actually be people who are new to the fandom who MIGHT actually care about the fandom history, and maybe they just don’t know where to go for that info, or how to even begin searching through 16 years of history for things they might actually find enjoyment in, rather than just hauling random out of context garbage out on main and pointing and laughing about it now. People are actually allowed to care about things. It’s not cringeworthy to actually care about things, and you are not alone in actually caring, and there’s this whole big room over here full of people who are thrilled to share in that with you. This post is intended FOR THOSE PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY, so if that is not you, please just continue walking by.)

Yes, I know lots of y’all are new around here right now, but dredging up stuff from years ago that fandom has completely debunked and presenting it as TRU FAX again is just exhausting. We’re not trying to be party poopers, but seriously, we have seen it all and are mostly done with extinguishing bags of flaming dog poop on our front porches for the umpteenth year in a row. I’ve seen a lot of posts that have the same tone as “I saw Goody Proctor dancing with the devil” or “I heard kylo ren has an eight pack” and just... the information is there for anyone who cares enough to find it.

This goes double for “why is nobody talking about this thing I just discovered while watching the show for the first time?!” And, oh hon, we have talked it all into the ground over the last fifteen years. We’re happy you’re discovering it again, but I promise we talked about it plenty when the episodes originally aired. We have such a rich meta history that lots of us have worked really hard to preserve. I encourage you to seek it out, if nothing else than as historical artifacts. The way we have discussed the show has been a 16-year evolution. People have written literal doctoral dissertations on this show. Your shitposts are fun! We love reliving our own experience through fresh eyes, and seeing your wonder at experiencing it all again for the first time! But y’all didn’t invent this fandom in the last six months, either.

Meta Sources and Minerals provided by our friendly neighborhood fandom archivist, @lets-steal-an-archive

Academic books and articles about SPN

A collection of Meta Essays going back to s1 and organized by topic (all of this has happened before, all of it will happen again)

SPN Heavy Meta Archive (s1-3)

Mel’s Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-12)

Oranges8hands Dreamwidth archive of meta (s1-15, with many similar entries to Mel’s... though ymmv on viewpoint in a lot of these too)

Anyone remember Fandom Wank? Not the concept but the actual LJ... No? Okay have a link to SPN topics that ended up there. Through 2013. We have seen so much... including several fandom containment breaches.

for all your art sourcing needs, please see @theroadsofararchive, the repository for so much fandom art.

need to find a gif of something? canonspngifs is a vast repository of gifsets of the entire series. If the gif you want to use in your post happens to be the first gif in the gifset, in the tumblr gif finder thingy just paste the permalink to that post from canonspngifs (which is easily searchable by episode, character, location, situation, quotes, and sometimes even color and clothing items the actors are wearing... it’s really well organized, especially for tumblr >.>) and the first gif will be automatically linked with credit to the gif creator attached. It makes life easy that way. It’s also convenient when trying to remember something specific but can’t remember what episode it’s from. I’ve used the site to jog my memory before going to the superwiki armed with more specific search results to find episode quotes and references. Or sometimes I just scroll through all the nice gifs for fun, too.

Need a screencap of something and know exactly which episode it’s from? Try Home of the Nutty. You might not find the exact screencap you’re looking for, but they have a complete set of caps of every episode, and it’s an incredibly useful resource for quick reference checks and the like. Just give pages a chance to fully load before clicking on the next one. The site is easily overloaded, but it’s still free to use (and again, with credit... Pretty much every screencap on my entire blog is from HotN unless otherwise credited).

As you can see, this is a fandom built on preserving our history. You absolutely are not required to engage with any of this if that’s not of interest to you, but I can only assume that there are people who would be interested in it if only they knew it existed and how to find it. Well, now they do.

6. A few more notes on tags, and how they work on tumblr. The first 20 tags on your ORIGINAL posts are searchable sitewide, so if you want to be able to find something again, tag that thing first before going on general tag rambles. The only place tags on reblogs are searchable is on your own blog. So you don’t have to put 50 tags trying to get a post seen if it’s a reblog. You’re just spitting into the wind at that point. If you have a filing system for finding things again, then by all means add those tags (again, in the first 20, so they’re searchable), but you don’t need to tag a reblog “destiel” and “deancas” and “dean” and “cas�� and “dean x cas” or whatever. Pick one for your personal blog’s filing system, that’s all you need.

(this was only added because tagging and searching on this site is so very broken... I get that a lot of folks don’t care about ever searching their own blogs again for anything, so this one only really applies if you do often find yourself trying to find old posts. If not, then it’s not really relevant. It took me years to work out a decent tagging system, and at the beginning of my time here I never thought I’d end up camping out here for a decade and falling this deep into the fandom, and I regretted my lack of consistent tags only years later when I realized I actually wanted to be able to go back and find specific old posts again. So... for anyone who wants to err on the side of caution, working out a sensible tagging system really helps if you’re here for the long term. I personally tag content by episode, because some of my other general tags are so large as to be practically useless as a search term. But whatever system you choose to file stuff on your own blog, it really only has to make sense to you. And again, if this is pointless advice for someone who has no intention of settling here for the long term. Please feel free to ignore it. I just wish someone had explained it this way to me ten years ago and saved me the hassle of retroactively tagging something like 30k posts... especially now that using the mass tag replacer is the fastest way to get your entire blog deleted... oops? so yeah, don’t use the mass tag replacer either >.>)

7. Tags on Tumblr DO NOT WORK LIKE TAGS ON TWITTER. If you @ someone in the body of the post, it will show up in their notifications (if they’re the sort of person who even checks their notifications... not all of us do. For the record, I generally don’t...), but putting actor or ship names in the tags on a tumblr post does absolutely nothing. It’s not the same as tagging the actor’s twitter account in a tweet. Nobody’s getting notifications about you tagging a post about Jensen here as “Jensen Ackles.” There is a difference. Please learn it. (and don’t take headcanons and ESPECIALLY RPF or otherwise explicit art or fic from tumblr to twitter and tag the actors in it. That’s just... not okay.)

(I have seen the pearl clutchers getting all in a huff about the mere existence of RPF or even explicit content of fictional characters if it doesn’t meet their purity standards, but tagging those things allows people who don’t want to see it to actively avoid that content here. Nobody has a right to tell people their fictional content shouldn’t exist at all, or that creators of that fictional content somehow deserve harassment or threats for having dared to create such “immoral” content, won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children... and no... you do not do that here. Don’t be the problematic behavior you wish to ban from the world. Learn to use tags to protect yourself from, as i have attempted to emphasize here, fictional content you are personally upset by. That’s a you problem, not a problem for the creators of potentially upsetting content that they tag appropriately for.)

8. General formatting stuff: If you’re writing long text posts, visually break them up so people aren’t faced with one long wall of text. The enter key is your friend. Also, if you put long text posts under a Read More break and send people to your blog to finish reading, please ensure that your blog is actually visually accessible (tiny text, or light grey text on a dark grey background, or a visually busy background might be aesthetically pleasing to you but nobody can actually read it. Loads of folks won’t even try. Which is great if you don’t actually care whether people are able to appreciate your content or not, but something to at least consider if you *do* actively want to encourage engagement with your work. Confirm how your blog looks on both mobile and desktop and make sure it’s actually functional in both, too).

And since I mentioned that most of my experience on fandom tumblr has been in the SPN fandom, here’s a bit of a reminder for folks who are new around here. With the reminder that I have been here more than a decade and still feel like a newbie myself sometimes...

This is an OLD FANDOM. There are many, many people who have been at this longer than some of you have been alive. The average age for creators in this fandom is older than you think (I think of my friends in their 30′s as young’ins okay? okay). With that understood, you are responsible for the content you consume and are exposed to. Curate your experience. Ship and let ship. YKINMKATOK. Don’t deliberately expose yourself to content you find upsetting for whatever reason. Tags and warnings are your friends, not targets for you to attack in some sort of purity war. People will ship things you do not like (or in specific ways you do not like), will say things you do not agree with, and will find their happiness in things you abhor. That is not your concern. Find what you do like, and support and engage with it, and ignore (or block, or unfollow) the rest. Tumblr has a feature that lets you blacklist tags so the content you’re trying to avoid won’t appear on your dash.

Remember the paradox of tolerance.

It is not your job in fandom to police how other people enjoy the fandom. It’s not *my* job to police how *you* enjoy the fandom, UNLESS your enjoyment is in actively harming other real human beings in the fandom. If you don’t like their take on the character or the show or the plotlines or their ships or anything else, you don’t need to engage with their posts at all! The necessary corollary to this is that clarifying misunderstandings or correcting factual misinformation is not “policing.”

(this is where the peanut gallery reminds me it ain’t that deep, and I plead with them to put down the social media and find just one (1) thing to actually believe in in this godforsaken life, find something other than disdain and cynicism and spite to live for. If those things motivate you to find a larger cause for yourself, then great, use them to your advantage, but use them to find something that makes you a better person or brings you a modicum of joy and connection to your fellow human beings despite living in a dystopian hellscape of a world)

I have seen a lot of posts lately that are founded on the sort of authority that comes with “I watched through tumblr for a few months and then watched the last three episodes of the series” and as such are just... missing the larger context of the entire show, and are unfounded entirely in canon. I 100% appreciate the new enthusiasm for the fandom that we’ve been living in here for years, and it’s wonderful to see new people enjoying the thing we love. Your headcanons are valid, you are valid, but recognize that your headcanons aren’t canon. All of us finale denialists have accepted this in some measure, so we feel you. We truly, truly feel you. But regarding actual canon, we have a resource for that: the Superwiki. Learn it, live it, love it, as Metatron would say.

(which you could discover he said in 10.17 Inside Man, thanks to the superwiki! accept no substitutes!)

(and again, there have been people who have been involved in fandom for years who haven’t engaged with canon in years, either! You can play in this universe however you choose, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT CANON AT ALL, WHICH I AM AGAIN POINTEDLY SAYING MIGHT NOT BE YOU, READER, AND I’M NOT SUGGESTING YOU ARE WRONG FOR NOT WANTING TO ACTUALLY ENGAGE WITH CANON, but if you DO want to engage with canon, please have some useful resources. Why do people feel personally attacked by being presented a list of helpful resources? Absolutely baffling.)

(also: words have definitions. “Canon” is a specific thing, meaning in this case “the finished media product that aired on television.” Anything beyond those limits is secondary canon (think: john’s journal, which is not canon but canon adjacent at best...), word of god (i.e stuff said by the writers and showrunners), or headcanon (which includes actor commentary-- they may have helped create the show with their acting choices and whatever, but they are not in control of the story overall). If there’s something you dislike about actual canon, you can reject it and supplement it with your own theories or preferred outcomes-- that’s basically what fanfic is-- but that doesn’t make your theories canon (much to all our dismay, that’s just not how any of this works. This is not to invalidate how anyone engages with the show or the fandom, just trying to clarify what seems to have been a source of unintentional misunderstandings. Your theories do not have to be “canon” to be legitimate interpretations.)

***I am setting this section apart, and did make a separate post of just this following information, because this is where we go from being relatively chill about different parts of fandom choosing to interact in different ways and you do you and blog however you want, to “hey can everybody please understand that the way you are interacting with this specific material might be harmful for specific legal reasons, and stating that you do not care about the consequences of your actions does actively make you the asshole here...” Okay, now that we have that understood:

The spnscripthunt collective has been steadily acquiring new scripts (which are posted in full on the superwiki for everyone to enjoy, for free). The language around how some folks are talking about these scripts is... concerning. For very real legal reasons, actually, and not because we’re feeling precious about the collection and don’t wike it when meanies use them in shitposts.

-First off, these scripts are not “leaks.” They are all verified and legally purchased (or gifted, in some cases, but still acquired entirely above board. we didn’t whack anyone over the head in a back alley for these scripts, or swipe them out of someone’s trailer on set).

(in case anyone was unaware, these scripts are the copywritten protected property of Warner Brothers. So yes, how we use them and share them with the fandom could have legal repercussions. We present them as a collected resource of fandom history which SHOULD fall under Fair Use doctrine, but this is untested legal water. Insinuating that the scripts are somehow not entirely legally obtained, or that posting them for public access involved less than 100% transparent and entirely legal transactions is incredibly concerning.

Once again for the peanut gallery, if you don’t care about any of that and are just having a good time with it, at least be mindful of the work and expense a large group of people have gone through to acquire and present the content you’re all too eager to exploit for cheap thrills. Some of us do actually care and are not exactly comfortable with the fact that others don’t seem to care about burning it all to the ground. We can’t force you to listen or behave as we’d hope you might, but at least be aware of the potential consequences of your actions. All we’re asking is for you to not be the douchebag who sets the whole neighborhood on fire with your illegal fireworks display. Is that too much to ask for? more on that in a second, first... a psa)

-If you see a script for sale and are unsure if it’s legit (or believe it might already be freely available in our collection), please feel free to ask us for advice. Our goal is to make as much of our fandom history available to the entire fandom, and we absolutely do not want anyone shelling out money for stuff you can already find for free.

(seriously, we’ve seen a bunch of resellers cropping up selling printed versions of the scripts we bought and uploaded for everyone to enjoy free of charge, or scripts that are otherwise of dubious origin. We’ve been at this for years now and know what’s actually out there. We don’t want anyone to fall for a scam if we can help it)

-Also, the usual reminder that the scripts we acquire ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE FINAL SHOOTING DRAFTS. In fact, the majority of scripts in our collection are NOT. Changes are made daily to scripts, even during filming. Comparing a Production Draft (white pages, effectively the first “final draft” of what usually becomes a series of drafts before filming wraps) to a much later revision (say... green or goldenrod revisions, several of which we DO have in our collection for comparison) and how those earlier drafts often differ wildly from the aired version versus how similar a much later green draft is to the aired version, for example, can teach you a lot about the television writing process. The link above to the superwiki scripts page has a nice little explainer about how this process works.

Differences between our posted scripts (many of which are white drafts, aka FIRST complete drafts, which will likely go through multiple rounds of revisions before filming even begins) and the aired version of the show are not all “acting choices” or a director or editor just cutting whole scenes on a whim. It’s insulting to everyone involved in production to suggest that’s the case.

(and yeah, fine... whatever, make any sort of posts you like regarding how those changes came about, but at the very least understand that it’s not actually the truth about how any of this works. Don’t care that that’s not the truth and want to make the posts anyway because shitposting is fun and that’s the extent of your sense of humor? FINE! You’re entitled to do that! But at least you DO know the truth now, and hopefully so do the people who engage with your posts. Deliberate ignorance isn’t cute, smooth lions notwithstanding)

There’s probably a whole other post to be made on fandom tagging etiquette, but again I don’t really use the tags enough to know what’s going on with that whole situation. I’ve also probably left a lot of stuff out, so please feel free to add things I’ve overlooked.

Thanks also to @trisscar368 and @thayerkerbasy for help compiling this, too. They were kind enough to escort me through the park to feed these pigeons. Now I need to take them out for ice cream. :’D

So I guess welcome to the neighborhood. Make yourself at home, but like... try not to trash the place while you’re here. Some of us live here by choice, lol.

#this blue hellsite (affectionate)#fandom problems #kinda wish i'd made this post six months ago but here we are i guess lol #long post #now edited for the people who are actually personally invested in the fandom #thanks for participating in this little experiment and I hope this version is actually informative to those who are interested #meaning there's a lot more links to stuff and explainers and whatnot...#and one last reminder that for folks just swinging through for laughs absolutely none of this applies to you #if you are legit interested in fandom history and preservation as we move to the post-canon world then hopefully this is useful to you

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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I just rewatched the scene where wwx murders the supervisory office and lwj and jc walk through and check out the aftermath (ep 20), and i'd forgotten how horrifyingly creative he was when he did that. when jc and lwj examine the bodies and realize every person was killed in a different way? it really takes me back to the idea that he lost something of himself when he was in the burial mounds, something which he did manage to at least partly gain back once he was out of them. because (1/3)

so I know that I’m often tagging posts about Wei Wuxian with some variation of “he deserves the world,” and as a protagonist and hero, he is profoundly inspirational, kind, empathetic, generous, forgiving, self-sacrificing, and righteous, but I feel like we shouldn’t lose the sight of the fact that Wei Wuxian can be fucking terrifying

(for the record, I’m focusing primarily on CQL!Wei Wuxian, since I would argue that his characterizations are different enough across adaptations that they’re fairly distinct)

but like, look at the facts from a perspective that is not one of Wei Wuxian’s loved ones:

he’s an incandescently talented young cultivator from one of the five major cultivation clans (which gives him access to political power, a certain amount of clout, and guaranteed excellent training)

he walks out of a place that no one, no one has ever returned from alive (again -- the Wen Sect sent literal squadrons of cultivators into the Burial Mounds to try and purify them, and none of them returned)

he's picked up demonic cultivation (already yikes, considering the fact that of all the people in the cultivation world, he has the raw, innate talent to be absolutely devastating with this power. Also, guess who else does demonic cultivation? THAT’S RIGHT, WEN RUOHAN, AKA WHO EVERYONE’S FIGHTING RIGHT NOW)

friendly reminder that one of the signature moves of demonic cultivation is weaponizing the bodies of the fallen against their former friends/comrades/family

he single-handedly decimates multiple Wen patrols and outposts

he has an incredibly high charisma modifier (by which I mean, he doesn’t display any personality-level insecurities that could be exploited the way, say, Jiang Cheng can be riled up)

he appears to give zero fucks, regardless of whether you’re a Jin asshole or a literal sect leader

What people see isn’t Wei Wuxian, a lost child, returned against all odds -- what they see is a boy, in possession of an immense power known to corrupt the soul, and no easy way to control him.

Full disclosure: the first time I watched CQL, I skipped the end of episode 19, when Wei Wuxian drives both Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao mad. It was viscerally disturbing and psychologically horrifying to watch (mad props to both actors). And honestly? I think we, as viewers, are supposed to see Wei Wuxian’s revenge as something quite extreme and not exactly condonable. He acts under the auspices of revenge -- against the Wen, violence is seen as justice, measured on the bloody scale of eyes for eyes, teeth for teeth -- but it’s decidedly uncomfortable for us to watch, knowing that this level of torture can only be something that occurs on a coldly premeditated level. This isn’t an act of passion -- Wei Wuxian’s revenge on Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao is an act of cruelty.

Is Wen Chao an asshole, and Wang Lingjiao actively unlikeable? Absolutely. Can we understand why Wei Wuxian would do this? Sure.

Should we absolve him, though, just because we understand his motives? Remember that Wei Wuxian has choice, in this matter -- he could probably trill an atonal shriek on Chenqing and snap their necks quickly, easily (unsatisfying). What horrifies Lan Wangji isn’t the fact that Wei Wuxian sheds blood so carelessly and casually -- what horrifies Lan Wangji is the extent to which his actions seem to glory in the violence and pain they cause.

This whole discussion calls to mind one of Xiao Xingchen’s lines to Xue Yang, nearly twenty episodes later:

Xiao Xingchen: Chang Ci’an, that year, broke one of your fingers -- if you wanted revenge, then cut off one of his fingers, and let that be enough! Or if that’s not enough, cut off two fingers -- ten fingers -- or break his arm! But why would you kill his entire family? Does a single finger of yours require fifty human lives in payment?

Xue Yang’s case is a bit extreme -- fifty lives for a human finger is an equation we can balance ourselves rather easily. But what about Wei Wuxian, in episodes 19/20? Setting aside all the viciously murdered Wen Sect cultivators (that’s a separate conversation about the ethics of warfare, and who can be considered a valid target), how do we balance the scales of Wei Wuxian’s suffering against Wen Chao’s, and Wang Lingjiao’s?

CQL, as a narrative, is heavily preoccupied with questions of revenge, justice, and debt -- how long can one nurse grudges? How deep can your vengeance cut before it’s considered psychopathy? How does one negotiate relationships of debt, and violence, and vengeance? At what point does an execution of justice overreach its moral superiority?

Did Jin Guangyao go too far in murdering his father? Can Xue Yang ever be absolved? Does the entire cultivation world go too far in persecuting the remnants of the Wen Sect? Does Nie Huaisang’s vengeance qualify as justice?

(there’s an incredible sequence in the audiodrama during the second siege of the Burial Mounds, when multiple cultivators shout at Wei Wuxian for various grievances -- their parents’ deaths at Nightless City, a crippled leg -- and Wei Wuxian just looks at them. I’ve already died once, he says. What more do you want from me?

How does one measure, or even begin to repay the ramifications of emotional suffering? Where does justice end, and forgiveness begin?)

CQL pushes Wei Wuxian farther along the morality spectrum towards unambiguously good (which you can read about more in @pumpkinpaix‘s here), but even then, it keeps the scene where Wei Wuxian torments Wang Lingjiao to death (though it’s somehow, uh, less graphic than her original death). Wei Wuxian, the show insists, is not invulnerable to these same questions of vengeance and justice, debt and morality.

#ask and ye shall receive #Wei Wuxian #I know I talk a lot about CQL + themes of narrative / legacy / reputation #equally as important are the themes of vengeance / justice / debt #[pats this show] this bad boy can fit so many ethical dilemmas and deep themes #tw uh war crimes?

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bbygirldahyun · 3 years

Text

with something like this, there never feels like a right time, and i don’t know if i’ll ever feel well and truly prepared to talk about these things, but i’ll give it a shot. here is my experience with reza and the entire situation.

i say none of this with malice, and i would hope nobody else does either. nobody but those who were directly involved can understand, talking about this is hard, but it’s weighing me down not to. so please, don’t send anyone hate or interact with her at all. i just want to express what happened and move on.

i became friends with reza awhile ago, probably over a year ago at least if my memory serves me correctly. unlike many others in this situation, we were very close. we spoke nearly everyday. we have spoken on the phone, she has met my girlfriend over the phone, we shared a lot of personal things. we even talked about meeting in person at one point. so trust me when i say, this has brought me an intense amount of sorrow, loss, and guilt.

i know people throw around words like gaslighting and manipulative a lot, but i truly mean it when i say she manipulated many of us. she made me feel absolutely insane sometimes, like i couldn’t trust my own memories, perspectives, and experiences. what i said i thought happened never mattered. experiences i had with someone were never considered unless they aligned with her predetermined narrative. she would convince me i said or did things i didn’t, or at least didnt remember saying. she told people i was angry at her about something when i had no recollection of it. i’m not an angry person, i couldn’t imagine being truly angry and harsh with her ever.

it seemed every few weeks or months, she picked a new person to dislike and she wanted everyone else to dislike them too. she used to tell me frequently how nobody ever believed her about anything, so at first when she would tell me about not liking someone for some reason i always tried to validate her and believe what she said. i wanted her to know i was a good friend, i wanted to be a good friend. but the more it went on, the more i started to question things. people i didn’t know very well i easily believed what she said, because i’m very trusting. i had no reason not to trust her, really. but then it became people who were my friends that were the targets of her distaste.

if i ever had a small problem with someone, she blew it way out of proportion. of course all friends have issues, everyone has issues. so i would confide in her when other people i was friends with had upset me somehow, and she always responded with incredibly petty insults about the person whether it be their writing, their art, or about them as a person. it was very odd. but i learned very quickly i couldn’t ever defend any of my other friends, because that angered her severely. she has talked poorly about just about every single person on this website in this community, including her own friends. i know sometimes you just need a place to vent, i understand that, i’ve done that myself. but she was often rude, petty, and insulting about these people. it wasn’t just venting, it was true distaste and malice.

if she wasn’t responding with petty insults, she would become very intense about the situation. she would almost always instruct me to not trust that person anymore, or to cut them off, or even sometimes go as far as to “handle” the situation herself. another writer mentioned in their post that they were kicked from a groupchat because of her, and i was in that groupchat, and she did it simply because a joke that was made had upset me slightly. she took things from 0 to 100 in seconds, before i could even protest. sometimes when she did things like that, i felt perhaps that’s what friends did? i didn’t have many friends growing up, so i guess i didn’t really know. but it often felt as if she treated me like someone who couldn’t fight my own battles when really, i’m just not a fighter by choice. i’d rather talk things out, especially with someone who was a friend of mine who i cherish deeply.

i confided in her that i was very trusting and thought everyone had good intentions due to being autistic and taking what people say at face value. i told her that’s how i ended up in my abusive relationship, because i was too trusting. she told me she hated that anyone had done that to me, and then went and did it herself. she took advantage of the fact i can’t tell easily when i’m being manipulated. she attempted to plant seeds of distrust within me towards every single other friend i had, even my girlfriend. i spoke to her once about an issue my girlfriend and i had had a long time ago, and she immediately said in essence she didn’t think my girlfriend was good for me. this was one issue within a nearly 5 year relationship. it felt insanely isolating, to be told at every turn that anyone in my life was bad for me, except for her.

it’s also worthy of pointing that all of these people who she would talk so poorly about to me and to just about anyone who would listen, she is more than willing to turn around and kiss their feet when she lost all her friends. duckie was a particular target of hers in terms of her attempts to get me to cut my friendship off with. some of the things she said to me, i don’t even want to repeat, though of course i have told duckie about it. she has said nasty things about her, about me, about our entire friendship. and yet, the second she didn’t have her friends on here anymore, she was tagging duckie in a praising post, surely in the hopes somebody might take her side i can only assume. that really boiled my blood — all of those nasty words, only to turn around and do that. and duckie isn’t even the only one, she’s just the one i’m closest to who reza did that with.

she has accused so many of us of being clout obsessed or chasing clout. i am no professional, nor can i make claims with 100% certainty, but i would go out on a limb and say i’m fairly positive those accusations are heavy projection. many of her accusations are, to be frank. she has always been seeking “clout”, attention really, ever since the beginning. she used to tell me her biggest dream was to end up on one of those writer reccomendation lists and so it doesn’t surprise me at all that her supposed final straw with lu was being excluded from one, even accidentally. but of course, she’s certainly accused all of us time and time again that we’re obsessed with clout, that we’re all only friends with each other for clout. and it’s sad to me, that that’s how she sees friendship, a means for exchange. but it’s clear that’s how she treats friendships.

she also accused someone of copying art. now whether they did or not, i have absolutely no clue. but when she showed me the supposedly copied art, i told her i wasn’t an artist and i’m also pretty face blind so i wasn’t sure if i was the best judge of whether it was copied or not. she got very angry at me for not believing her, and i tried to reassure her i trusted her perspectives i just couldn’t make the call myself. this became a repetitive situation between us — her making an accusation, me trying to dispute or to even just deflect and move on in conversation, and she’d get mad at me or just straight up stop replying. it was exhausting.

the rumors she has spread about me and others on here are horrible. some of the things she’s said about me have me absolutely floored. there’s things i’d love to address, but i don’t want to throw the person who told me what she said under the bus. but what i will say, is she basically acts as if i’m incompetent without her. i hate to throw around accusing words, but in retrospect many of the things she did and said to me and things she’s said and done since ending our friendship feel incredibly ableist and infantalizing.

now onto what really brought all of this to head. i’m sure all of you have seen the posts referring her calling a trans poc a nazi, but that’s not my story to tell really. my story is what happened after. she dmed me in the midst of that situation to complain to me about the person she accused of being a nazi, and i essentially told her not to bring me in the middle of it. at the time they were both my friends, and i thought she was acting incredibly out of pocket. of course, she grew upset, but insisted she wasn’t trying to bring me into it. i told her i didn’t think her accusation was fair, she told me that this person blocking her was “proof” that they were a nazi supporter, and i basically told her that was quite a leap. we didn’t talk for awhile after that, until she reached out again saying she didn’t want to lose me as a friend and this very long, nice message. i told her i valued her friendship a lot and as her friend, i felt it was my duty to tell her she fucked up and that she should apologized. she admitted to me she knew she was wrong. she admitted it. but she said something like it was too late to do anything about it. one of our last dm exchanges was her saying i was the one person she didn’t want to lose. then she blocked everyone.

so when she tells people i blocked her, or i ended the friendship, or whatever, that’s not true. i didn’t block her until she blocked me. i was never mean to her, not even at the very bitter end. if she thinks i was a bad friend, by all means she can think that, but i tried my best day in and day out to be a good friend. i wanted to make things work so badly, i truly loved reza as a best friend, we had so many good memories together. it broke my heart to watch her behave that way and go on to behave how she’s behaved since. i thought she was better than all of that.

she’s thrown out all sorts of wild accusations towards nearly everyone on here, including claiming we’re all lesbophobic for not supporting her gofundme. this is where her hypocrisy becomes evident. her close friend who has since deactivated had made a post basically claiming that posting “a few words” isnt activism right in the middle of when many of us on here were sharing donation links of black people in need in the aftermath of the chauvin verdict, which reza reblogged. both reza and her friend shared their own gofundmes mere days after that post. i thought that was absolutely despicable. not to mention the amount of times she’s accused lu of being transphobic and a bad ally, or reblogged posts of her cis friend claiming lu is a bad ally, which just isn’t true in the slightest. lu is an upstanding individual, and truly the pinnacle of allyship in my mind. she doesn’t just reblog a post to look good, she’s truly an amazing and supportive friend. couldn’t ask for better than that.

reza is hypocritical in so many other, smaller ways. she attacked someone for simply watching a critical review of attack on titan but continues to stan groups and people who have problematic or questionable pasts or elements to them. of course, media has problematic elements and we can engage with that critically, but the problem is she seems to think only she can do that and other people are free game to jump on and make wild accusations about. she claimed softblocking people was dumb, only to softblock me herself days later. the expectations she places on others she feels no obligation to uphold herself.

she has made attempts to entice new writers into this community by promoting them, praising their work, and claiming they can be the biggest writer etc all the while on her twitter tweeting things to the effect of all the writing on hc tumblr is boring now, or twice fic isn’t as good anymore, dreamcatcher fics are better etc etc. it’s disgusting. she brought innocent people fresh to the community into this nonsense and the second they didn’t validate her entire pov she deleted everything relating to them on her blog, all her promotions, and tweeted she’ll never help a new writer again. it was horrible to watch how many people became involved in this messy web and got hurt because of it.

i want to end all of this by apologizing from the bottom of my heart to anybody who i was swayed into a wrong opinion of by reza, to anyone who i spoke on without realizing i was being clouded by her manipulation, and to all of my friends who she spoke so poorly about. i did everything i thought i could to defend the people i cared about, but as many others can attest to she’s incredibly hard to argue against. it’s painful, and sometimes i hit a point of exhaustion. i am so sorry. i am truly, truly sorry to anyone who has been hurt by this situation, by reza or any of her friends or anybody. it was terrible being stuck in that cycle of awfulness, and i feel so much guilt thinking that i could’ve ever contributed to her poor actions and words about others. i trusted her with so many private things and i regret it more than anything.

that’s the hardest part of this, that i trusted her with so much. i trusted her with many things i would hardly share with anyone else. i told her embarrassing stories, shared much of my traumas to her, told her about my sister and my family and my girlfriend and all of these personal things. she told me so many things in return, but i know who i am. i know i would never share any of those things, none of the embarrassing stuff or the private stuff, nor would i laugh at it even to myself. but i know who she is, and that makes me feel like someone who i can’t trust holds so many things i shared in comfort, a comfort i no longer have. it’s difficult to grapple with.

and reza, if you’re reading this and i’m pretty positive you will be — i hope you find peace within yourself so you don’t have to treat people this way. perhaps i’m too optimistic, too kind and too trusting and too easily tricked, but i would rather be that than live the way you have, paranoid and bitter inside towards everyone. i hope you find a way beyond that, and i mean that genuinely.

#me

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sapphic-lemonair · 3 years

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My Last Post Regarding The Tommy Scandal:

Let me start off by just saying holy hell, what a day.

And second:

Twitter is literally the most disappointing platform I have ever been apart of.

I don’t even know where to begin with how badly Twitter handled the situation with Tommy. I’ll admit, it isn’t the worst they’ve acted before, but damn they really didn’t do their best either. It sucks, cause the situation could have been handled better- and it was at first.

Cis Twitter stans are probably some the most confusing bunch I’ve ever come across. The fact that they pick and choose who can get away with doing controversial things is so annoying, and probably one of the most high and mighty god complexes I’ve ever seen. The fact that they called out and made Tommy trend instead of the actual problem itself was just pathetic in my opinion. KSI has interacted with so many other creators before in the past, a prime example being Quackity, yet no one made a single post in calling them out until now. This fact alone just goes to show that Twitter stans will come out of hibernation when they feel like it.

Twitter had made no type of effort in the past to call out KSI when he first made these transphobic comments before. There were no trending tags or @‘s or “lets educate him 🥰” posts for him because Twitter didn’t bother to care about it until now. The amount of hypocritical energy that was brimming through the platform is astounding.

We’ve gone through months of Twitter stans watching by as KSI interacted with other Minecraft youtubers and not a single one of them complained the entire time until now.

A lot of the adults on that platform did nothing but post passive aggressive comments to back handed advice. Adults, actual adults, were mad that a kid they put on some pedestal made one mistake and continued to state about how “disappointed” they were in him. Let me just remind you that once again, there’s no reason for any of the older fans to talk down to minors like some type of parent. Cause you’re NOT. It was very mature of Tommy to reach out to his own mom and take effort to see how he had hurt his words had affected his fans. It’s so abundantly clear that Tommy would never maliciously hurt his fandom in any way, not to mention that his first instinct would be to immediately apologize to everyone as well.

It was honestly mind boggling to see so many adults debating on whether or not is was morally right to forgive a 16 year old for a mistake he would obviously fix. The amount of people who were making threads stating how “it’s valid if you never want to forgive Tommy” was childish in my opinion. You’re adults.....holding a grudge against an actual child??? Like come on.

Twitter stans did nothing but juggle back and forth with “Tommy needs to address the situation right now!” And “Tommy, you need to take a while and think about what you said 🥰”. Yet when Tommy posted his first apology people were mad that it didn’t live up to their expectations. Were they aware that Tommy, like I said, is a whole child who was under the pressure of posting an apology despite not having time to really grasp what had happened? So many people flamed him because his post “sounded so confused” and “Tommy, honey nobody called you transphobic 😘”.

Except you did.

Of course Tommy is gonna sound confused in his apology. He wakes up and the first thing he’s greeted with are hashtags linking HIS NAME to the the word transphobic/transphobia. Of course that’s gonna be the first thing he apologizes for! Twitter basically made nothing but click bait posts that did nothing to properly explain to Tommy why transphobia was being brought up. And even despite this Tommy STILL apologized even when he didn’t know what he did wrong.

It’s so blatantly obvious Twitter realized that instead of tackling the problem at head, aka calling out KSI for his transphobic behavior, they chose to force and instigate a minor for collaborating and apologize on KSI’s behalf. It’s the most childish thing I’ve seen this year. It’s clear that Twitter stans are just awaiting to jump into next drama and put their two cents in before leaving the moment they realize they can’t get clout off their posts.

It’s frustrating because the amount of users making those posts as well weren’t even trans. The amount of “savior complex” energy cis Twitter stans showed while they spoke up over actual trans people who were genuinely upset was so embarrassing. It’s stupid to see how so many cis users got thousands of likes and retweets on their posts and acting on behalf of the trans community.

I’ll just wrap up by giving a genuine thank you to the trans community on Twitter who had the best interests in the whole Tommy situation. I’m sorry that a lot of you got trampled over by the cis users who basically used your problems as clout chasing tactics. You had every right to be upset and I appreciate that a lot of you took the situation with ease and attempted to quietly solve the problem without a hassle. Once again the cis side of Twitter blew everything out of proportion and attempted to but their two cents into the whole thing despite knowing it was an issue for the trans community to handle.

Dear Cis Twitter users, next time don’t be hypocrites and tell other users that they have no right to speak up about the situation before making your own posts for clout and followers. You look like clowns. I’d like to think that in another situation like those Twitter will act more mature....but I wouldn’t count on it. However a super big thank you to trans tumblr users who treated the entire situation with a mature personality. The mass difference between the two platforms shows me that people here have always had the best interest in actually making a difference.

In conclusion: Twitter is a dumpster fire 😁

#tommyinnit #mcyt #hopefully I won’t have to talk about this again #yesterday was so draining I hate Twitter

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1ddotdhq · 4 years

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🏴‍☠️ Sat 24 Oct ‘20 🐝

Let me tell you a little story:

Once upon a time, Liam popped out to say “argghhh, matey” on Instagram, dressing in full Jack Sparrow get up for his latest Halloween show ad. We’re talking eyeliner, wig, sultry gaze, EVERYTHING. Gotta say that his Movember Mustache fit very well with this costume. Hmmm I might be able to be persuaded to let go of my Harry Potter Halloween dream if he goes as a pirate instead. That would be good, too.

Then, in the far away kingdom of HSHQ, they continue to churn out Golden promo by creating their own sun emoji. Seems like we already HAD one, and it looks almost exactly like the old one, but if you’re looking for differences, it looks more like a daisy or a fried egg. Apparently, the Golden website and the picture that HSHQ posted yesterday were embedded in the source codes of other websites, such as ijustwanttotasteit.com (lmao i still can’t believe that’s not a p*rn site). That’s cool, of course, but we saw everything eventually so I don’t think this was a failed scavenger hunt, just a...handy way of having their websites on hand. Now we know to check the code more regularly! And a fan recounted a story of meeting Harry in Italy in July. She was part of a group of people who had gathered to play a local game, and she managed to speak to him for a second. He understood her Italian fully, and was able to communicate proficiently, before the conversation became too complex. The fan opened up about how his music had helped her through some difficult periods in her life, and he told her to “remember that this world is a beautiful world because of you, not because of me”.

Meanwhile, just in the neighboring Tomlinson fields, Louis celebrated one year of We Made It! Charlie Lightening (the director of the video) reposted a fan’s insta story (user handle @/_twoheartsxlarry_) about the anniversary which talked about how strong Louis was, how he fell and rose “like the sun”. So, uh, do we think Charlie actually read the post or just reposted it because he was tagged?The fans themselves are having a great time (re-)making We Made It jokes about how we all kissed Louis on his doorstep, because clearly, the song is about US! Steve Aoki sauntered back into the story, too, also talking about the fans; “they’re like bees. They like, come together, and make things happen. You know, it’s incredible. They are their own PR, they are their own network, their own social media, their own marketing, they’re like an institution. They’re like a major label that wished they could be that”. Why YES! We CAN do better than many media relations teams, thank you Steve! Steve also talked about his collaboration with Louis for Just Hold On, “Louis, you know, what a humble dude. Like never did he ever talk about his fame, or like the clout that he has”.

Yeah, that time I lived with Louis for years was SUPER SPECIAL to me, too, sunshine, so when you read this, maybe give me a call to tell me where you’re at? Two versions of Louis' selfie from yesterday went around, leading to much discussion of why it downloaded from instagram slightly less cropped than the posted version: fans were quick to say how it showed that the picture could only have been taken on the spot in the app (thus proving Louis was somewhere sunny at the time which would rule out the UK where it was dark, though as proof of him being in LA, which has been overcast for days, the argument is a little murky) but all of the explanations had something in common: they didn't actually prove anything except that it could also have been from his camera roll. So in conclusion, absolutely nothing was proven except that Louis has lovely long hair and a sweet guitar collection.

Niall and Zayn seem to have taken a bit of that pesky sleeping potion that is so common in fairy tales, and will only awake through true love’s kiss. I will not be placing my bet as to who wakes up first! Today is ALSO World Fish Migration Day, which, clearly, is the happy ending this story deserves, and we can all sail off into the sunset, following our compass home with our jewel fish in tow.

#liam payne #harry styles #louis tomlinson #niall #zayn #where do i think Louis is?#i dont know dont ask me i cant handle that kind of PRESSURE #because really he could be anywhere #but im seeing A LOT of different sections of the fandom jump on the hes in LA train with...very little proof i think #so right now ill be sittin waitn wishin you believed in superstitions #i hope you like the fairy tale format i did !#i wanted to try something a bit new to add a level of silliness today #hahaha #also im SO GLAD THIS WEEK IS OVER #you dont understand how terrible its been #and it culminated with the bar i work at shutting down because a cook i work (closely) with has tested positive #for the thing that shall not be named #and so now i am on lockdown #not feeling great and worried to death #but unable to return to work because uh...health concerns take priority? but anyways we all walked out it was v v dramatic #but this was after some other issues at work and im OVER IT #i could turn this into a convo about the shitty way we treat our essential workers again or how they have no respect for us as people #or as workers only as moneymaking tools #ive said what i have to say on that and like the people whos fault it is have dehumanized labor to such an extent that they really #dont give a damn #and was the bar following guidelines? NO OF COURSE NOT! WHY WOULD WE BE DOING THAT??#okay sorry shut up me @ me #anyways!#song of the day!#Perfect Color by SafetySuit

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timeforsnipersopinion · 3 years

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okay so I’m going to post all of my perhaps the stars thoughts in this one post, under the cut, so they won’t clog up the dashboard/tags. And I’ll just keep editing this one post unless my thought is a joke and I want clout for it. Spoilers under the cut obviously

(last updated 29.11.21)

Like so.

Front matter - I love 9A as a narrator already. They have no idea what’s going on. I love the dramatis personae and just the ?? everywhere.

1 - gosh i love 9A so much. you can definitely tell that they and mycroft have very similar backstories and knowledge bases, but the distinction between the characters is so clear. also 🥺🥺🥺 it has to be a short war. 9A writes like they’re on the verge of tears and I want to protect them with my life (Mycroft writes like he’s in the middle of a breakdown and that’s the difference)

in addition, I love that they said that world war 1 ended in 1945 or 1989. It’s interesting to see how history recontextualises our mostly contemporary events.

2 - Carlyle!!!!!!!! Carlyle is safe and wearing a wrap and they are eating chocolate cake I am so glad. Being this far from Dominic can only do them good. I like that they’ve shown more of what the Anonymous actually does. i understand why the anonymous is so respected if part of their work is done 100% live streamed, typos and all. You couldn’t win the beer test harder. I hope the the Anonymous livestream also comes with a chat function where people can make fun of their typos I think that’d be really funny.

I love how much 9A is a part of the Ancelet-Kosala family they are so loved 🥺 Vivien and Bryar both inviting them to stay at their flat I want to see Vivien’s flat and Su-Hyeon giving them their old deputy sensor jacket was so sweet. I love them, I love their friendship. Also I love that 9A can describe affection and caring for people and be normal about it. This narration is so relaxing.

I hope Martin is safe. Also this is the first time in all four books I’ve actually liked Heloise so I’m going to make that a Mycroft problem.

3 - “I have never been in a place before.” boo hoo do you want me to be sorry? I’m in a place right now. I’ve been in a place this whole time. Jokes aside, I assume this chapter was written before the pandemic but it really does give me strong isolation/quarantine energies.

I’m not sure I love the top down narration of here’s what everyone’s doing in all the places, but I assume that comes with the tragedy of not being able to physically watch these conversations because they cars are down.

I’m gonna do it this way for ongoing thoughts. and chapter style as above for when I come home from work and I summarise what I read

MASON being allowed to pass through Levantine lands makes me think of when you’re playing Diplomacy and Turkey allows Russia to pass through Constantinople to the Black Sea, and now I’m wondering if MASON spent those 128 days playing Diplomacy online with the bois like I do

Nurturist to alt-right pipeline confirmed. A set-set is anyone I personally find weird and the more weird I find it the more set-set it is.

As a cousin I just want to put my foot down and say fuck the nurturists

This is unrelated to what I’m currently reading, but a thought I had earlier: we poppin’ the biggest bottles when 9A confirms ockham/leslie/ojiro loving polyamorous trio

A return of Vivien's bad spanish accent. I love every time they mention it

The logistics of religious holidays 🥺 thank you for felix faust for making carlyle look at 48 pictures of things eating bananas, you saved the world

Fuck Brillists are so funny. Once again i love su-hyeons friendship with 9A

4 - "we have four hours to save sydney" aw nah just leave it she'll be right

I forgot to write anything for like three chapters but here's just a list of stuff i remember

I love dominic as the Mitsubishi director actually. I think he's thriving. I expected him to shirk his duties as much as possible but he really is going to bat for his guys

9A putting their tracker on busy to avoid bryar, and then her overriding it was very funny

It sucks that the trackers are down. Imagine how that world would look if you lived it :( poor jedd mason. They can't even reconnect the system landline style because romanova is a modern city and doesn't have wires. That's such good worldbuilding

Oh no! Our masonic oath! It's broken! Also IS XIAOLIU OKAY? IS XIAOLIU OKAY???? MASON THEIR HUSBAND IS ALREADY LOST IN THE WILDERNESS HOW MUCH MORE CAN YOU DO TO THEM?

Did 9A not translate the latin from the first few books? Or did they get Carmen to do those passages as well?

Felix fausts zoom icon my beloved

9A and Su-hyeon talking around the reveal of Huxley/Toshi was so funny I've been thinking about it all day

9A laughing at latitudinarian but not dick hooker. I hate this book. I know that line was just put in there to make fun of me and I resent it

"mars or first contact?" And "wear the vs with me" made me actively emotional i love huxley and 9As friendship

That being said this is so awkward because i feel like I'm loosely hiveguard? Which seems unlike me but maybe i just think assassination is sexy

9- is it upsetting to know that carlyle is so suicidal at this point that they don't care if they live or die? Yes. But also, 'im suicidal so I'm happy to drag myself down with you' is metal as fuck. I hope you die i hope we both die. Also imagine risking world war because you're a horny rapist. Yikes. Anyway jesus christ sniper really wrote their chapter while experiencing THAT level of torture. I want to kill julia so bad she's so evil. But as a side note I was briefly obsessed with a The Adventure Zone fanfic with essentially the same premise if less overtly rapey so I do kind of love this, on like a I love feeling big feelings scale.

I'm kind of miffed that the answer to 'who kidnapped sniper?' was someone we were told explicitly that it wasn't, and not someone else that we could have foreshadowed. Like if they had just said 'it can't be julia because she wouldn't publish something admitting her guilt' that would have been fine, but they also said that the dollmakers were all vouched for. How are we supposed to predict a fifth dollmaker? (Then again the answer to who stabbed mycroft was fucking perry-kraye again, so sometimes that's just how it be) Anyway my favourite fringe theory was that sniper is cato weeksbooths frankensteins monster, and they were taken for related reasons. followed closely by masonic torture.

10 - haha yes let Anonymous say fuck! I checked and this is the first fuck since tltl. I like how 9A is acting like ECP Holmes and MC Moriarty is like, secret code, as though the whole world didn’t read about their Holmes/Moriarty relationship. This wasn’t so much a puzzle as a junior jumble

11 - I love pirate mycroft. Pros of having a cannibal murderer on your ship: willing to eat the dead crewmember instead of rations. Also this is very obviously the plot of The Odyssey.

12 - I though i already had comments on 12 started. I can't believe this is unedited. This is just how mycroft writes. Unbelievable. Also I want to quickly pause and read the Odyssey because I have a copy I just never got around to finishing it, and I would love to, just once, know more about something than Mycroft does. The only thing he referenced I’ve actually read was Candide and I literally forgot all the Manichean stuff in favour of making jokes about syphilis.

Natekari: i refuse to surrender

Ganymede: that's fine maybe we can sort it out tomorrow

Tomorrow: ganymede and natekari come in covered in injuries

Natekari: yeah it's fine i surrender

This is literally the funniest thing I've ever read

Cookie 😠

I can't believe the gender neutral future couldn't figure out a neutral word for parent's sibling in 400 years

Cookie fucking blew herself up?????? What the fuck

Apologies to the poor woman on the bus just like. Trying to get off at her stop while I'm visibly reeling about fucking cookie blowing herself up and turning ganymede into spaghetti. Jesus christ. What the fuck.

Okay whoever tf is doing all this shit and framing utopia u gotta stop fr fr

It's probably merion kraye. I hope it's not sniper

Okay but actually it'd be so funny if, after all this nurturist bullshit, the only person who is actually was set-set sleeper agent was cookie herself. That'd be hilarious

Wait does that mean perry-kraye 2 was a u-beast? Omg

This is actually so sad. Fuck lorelei but :(

Like i said it would make a great horror game/ visual novel tho. like it tricks you into thinking it’s like an rpg and you can pick certain decisions to influence the narrative, but after a while it locks out the third and fourth options entirely no matter how many times you press it. The game always ends with you killing Ganymede.

ET TU PAPA?????????

He's a cop what did i expect

Oh the palpable rage of Reader they're about to go off

Haha let papa say fuck

OH MY GOD THE FAUSTPACT. THE PROJECT.

Okay but papa being so awkward that all gendered historical clothing looks bad on him is so funny. My gender is police commissioner

Idk why the girls are fighting. Utopia and gordian want the same thing they just picked different scifi aesthetics to make their whole personality

MARTIN!!!!!!!!!!

Tully 😠😠😡😡🤬😡🤬😡😠🔪😡🤬

Actually i read the tully reveal the moment before i was supposed to start work, and so i hyperfocused on how much i hate tully so much that i turned around to sympathising more with him than i ever have in the narrative previous. We'll see how this turns out for me

I thought it was croucher yelling about how his name was going to be immortalised alongside achilles' and i was like no you're not. I forget you're in this story every time you're not in it.

Perry-kraye has more justification to think that, but i think in like 200 years when everyone who was alive for the war is dead, perry-kraye will be like, a detective comedy staple. "Somehow the murderer was casimir perry all along?" And he appears with a curly mustache eating a sausage because the sausage is the only thing people remember about him. Also he dresses in 18th century fashion every time

"We should always be able to pass words to friends, it’s the simplest, the most necessary thing." made my cry at work. I wish martin was here i miss him. I want him to be with xiaoliu and his kids

Not mycroft of all people defending tully. I guess if anyone is more responsible for this war than tully, it's perry-kraye

THE WHOLE TIME? THE WHOLE TIME?? HE'S BEEN ODYSSEUS THE WHOLE TIME???

Fuck am i gonna have to pause a read the Odyssey now? I kept joking about it because i wanted to be better than mycroft at something but maybe i really have to

Does this mean carlyle is someone? Thisbe? Or just mycroft? I don't know enough about the iliad to make guesses

okay but if Mycroft is Odysseus then who is Penelope? I assume the Mardis are the suitors and that’s why Bridger came up with the association in the first place. My assumption would be JEDD if JEDD wasn’t literally leading the war to begin with.

XIAOLIU 😄

Damn I can't believe I've been shit talking the Mitsubishi this whole time. They were the only ones who were right. I guess we all have egg on our faces

Also fuckin cornel if you're that dedicated to your empire that you would imprison JEDD in circumstances more torturous than ganymedes, then you shouldn't have made him imperator destinatus in the first place, dickhead

BOO LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO SAY GOODBYE TO MYCROFT I'M CRYING

Okay this is probably the closest jedd ever gets to being affectionate and it's so cute. It's so sweet. mycroft hold My hand.

ET TU XIAOLIU???

The damnatus memoriae existed even in the chronicle we read oh my god. Oh my god. They're going to need a bash loss specialist 😧

This is all extremely heavy and I'm emotional but i can't believe weeksbooth won the race for longest continuous bash. Congratulations ockham 🥳

Martin Semaphoros.... I think it's really sweet that cornel would honour his loyal servants by absorbing them into his own birth bash

God the line about duty overthrowing even the right to struggle against death is so sexy. Oh my god. Oh my god.

"Cato Weeksbooth is no longer human" i mean. We know. Unless he means human in the literal sense. Was his presence in the Ráðsviðr cell foreshadowing? Was cato the frankensteins monster all along?

Also JEDD is definitely penelope but i guess he can have two roles the same way mycroft can be odysseus AND moriarty AND jean valjean

Oh god this is gonna hurt. "I do not know how to call friend one who does this" who is going to betray me now

Dominic when he finds out JEDD slept beside Mycroft but not him

Me: Aww cato gets to do science again :)

Anonymous: stop smiling mycroft this is bad

Me: 😐

ACTUAL MAD SCIENTIST CATO WEEKSBOOTH

HELEN

Oh my god, the man who launched a thousand ships.

Wait. Wait what? I thought it was a metaphor? Hello??

HELLO???

😧😧😧😧😧

i can’t believe i was the idiot who wanted to apollo’s iliad as a side story. you fool. it’s the book

MY OWN HIVE WOULD BETRAY ME LIKE THIS FUCK YOU

I'm so sad

!!!!

MECHA ILIAD. GET IN THE FUCKING ROBOT SHINJI

I literally for a second thought i was getting my bridger piloting achilles like a mecha wish but alas

I wish threatening to breakup with god worked all the time

Bridger 🥺🥺🥺 little alex 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Okay everything's great again. Eureka, cato, kat or robin, we're getting the band back together

But where's thisbe, cowards?

this chapter is actually calling me out personally because the main reason i’m cousin and not utopian is because I think it’s too hard and I want to take the easier path. like on a conscious level I respect gradatim and reaching the stars and doing stuff but for me personally i’m good out here.

Jedd picked the worse option because he loves mycroft and wants him to be happy I can’t do this

but also i still don’t get why the girls are fighting. like i understand it but i don’t Get it. it’s the same shit i’m sorry like i know the utopian thing is harder but it’s the same and you can do both.

eureka my beloved. i have missed her.

“I should have learned the brill system but i was too busy learning everything about philosophy and history and also learning 8 languages” “well you should have tried harder!” for fucks sake hobbes give him a break he’s just a guy

“stretches mandated by whitelaws” fucking dorks oh my god

'mycrofts gone again' how??? You put him in a cage

Whatever i love 9A

God it actually hurts so much more that the guildbreakers were influenced by brillists. Like they tore that family apart.

IS 9A LIKE 19?? ARE THEY A BABY?

I. Yeah, okay. Okay. I guess this is happening. I guess MASON is patroclus.

I am actually so sad for JEDD and the fact he let mycroft go? oh my god. he must be in so much pain right now he loves his dads so much that he’d let mycroft go and risk his life to save Cornel

i hate it but kosala does have girlboss energy for killing MASON. i wish she hadn’t done it but it did fuck severely

i feel like this series is going to end with everyone on a 7/10 list dead. oh god that includes vivien.

oh god what if it includes 9A?????

"asshole and a half" i fucking love you 9A

Also, goddamn, anonymous and acting emperor is pretty damn good for a servicer.

9MASON

Oh the prep notes for the chapter. i love this. I love 9A

Vivien is safe!!!!!!

i think it’s so funny that 9A is Masonic Emperor despite being so deep into the line of succession they didn’t even know they were in the line of succession. like, you’re the most qualified person who is not literally MIA rn so congratulations Caesar?

The autocaps thing is so funny actually. I hope 9A is okay in hospital ☹️ yes 9A it’s very funny to write Cornel mason why do you think i do it all the time?

VIVIEN IS A GOOD DIPLOMAT I LOVE HIM 🥺🥺🥺 once again i return to my roots as a vivien ancelet stan. I wonder if his spanish has gotten better

They started talking about audiobooks and i had a brief flash of horror that they were about to advertise audible to me. What a world we have found ourselves in.

I feel sad about the gorgon stuff but it's really interesting seeing the symptoms played out from someone directly

"the absolute surrender of earth" yeah okay

EEYYY ROCKHAMPTON. also i assume emerald city is a fantasy thing but also there is a city called emerald about a 3hr drive from rockhampton so maybe? We just wouldn't call it emerald city

IS SALADIN CANNER REAL? IS HE NOT REAL? WHO IS TO SAY REALLY

ET TU SU HYEON??????

I'm gonna start sobbing at work i stg

Four months they were trapped like that for four months jesus christ

Su hyeon 🤝 julia, being super vile and evil and i hate them

Su hyeon hurts the most but I'm fuckin taking notes down I'll tell you what. I love a tragedy, i love a betrayal where you know they betrayed you but no one else does and you can't do anything about it

God I've been teary this whole time. Once again carlyle saves the world 🥺 but trust someone experienced with manipulating to figure out how to get around manipulators. God she's so sexy and powerful

THE PREFECT IMMEDIATELY STEPPING DOWN OH MY GOD. ANGEL. I LOVE YOU. I think Masons are weird but they are extremely sexy

The part where they just keep repeating how they want huxley was so sweet but also bro you blew my cover. They're so cute. Friendship ended with su hyeon now huxley is my new best friend

WAIT. 10A???

Is she, you know... An essayist

I actually love carlyle as an essayist

Wait no! Fuck! They're setting up 10A to gently prepare us for 9A dying and let me tell you i won't hear a fucking bit of it. I swear to god ada palmer if you kill of 9A you WILL catch these hands

Oh god I'm crying again. "You saved the world by being kind and paying attention to someone in a sickbed when nobody else did...the world needs a cousinly voice who's used to talking about miracles" I'm literally so emotional i love this so much

YES. THE SHARKS WITH BANANAS ARE BACK. THEY’RE BACK!!

I doubt jedd had a tantrumy toddler phase but i can only imagine that chagatai is prepared for this because baby jedd did do the 'holding my breath until i get what i want' thing, and he ended up passing out and nearly dying because he Meant It

'i want my ibasho' 🥺🥺🥺

Danaë 😮 i totally forgot about her lmao

BABY

Tryna figure out when in the timeline leslie got pregente though

Also oof finding out you're gregnant right at the beginning of global conflict is just. The timing couldn't be worse

Wait also that's the baby that should have become a set set. Guess it's too late now. Also Olympian is so cute. Next gen OS right here

9A is starting to doubt utopia baby i am right there with you

I think since I wrote that note and came back I don’t think I’m doubting utopia anymore? but I think it’s easier for someone from the 21st to justify death than for someone from the 24th

i know JEDD doesn’t need to wake up but i think it is bullying to make him discuss his world conquest plans when he just woke up

also JEDD giving the same consideration to remembering if he ate breakfast that he would to the continuation of the human race is very funny

oh god, you asked him a trolley problem. oh man, we’re going to be here all day

oh, another gender speech huh? I think it is interesting the number of afab people that mycroft gendered male. it really does read as misogyny 2

i don’t know if this really solves the problem of masculinity being default tho. like it’s great that the world was ostensibly saved by “women”, but that doesn’t change the fact like, femininity is relegated to cousins and nowhere else

unless madame is full of shit, and there’s femininity everywhere, but it didn’t fit her vibe so she ignored it

regardless i think there still needs to be some work to solve sexism so that we can have gender again because, like, people like gender sometimes. it shouldn’t be this easy to reinvent misogyny

Actually saladin 9A isn't allowed to die because i, like raging achilles, will go to the ends of the earth to destroy you

I don't think this is mycroft. I think this is saladin

Okay they referred to 'my prison visit' so it's possibly mycroft, but it just doesn't sound like him? It's like tonally different, like someone who knows mycroft well is trying to mimic his writing style. Either that or its mycroft and mycroft is saladin and has been the whole time

Okay yeah thisbe is terrible. I know that. But do i also love her? Yeah

Haha yess the fact that chagatai is modo mundo came back that's so good what great foreshadowing

OMG. THE RESURRECTION

Yeah see this is mycroft canner! It's him!

Oh my god. I wanted sniper and 9A to meet so bad. This is exactly what i wanted "humanists keep trying to elect us both" I'M CRYING

"hey i just lead a war against you, the handcuffs are very my fault" SNIPER I LOVE YOU

"achilles didn't come back from the dead did they? Jedd mason was enough, twice would be ridiculous" this is just my sniper stan corner

This is my new sniper's chapter. My friend made fun of me recently for waking up full of strength and reading sniper's chapter every morning, but I'm just gonna get worse

the reason sniper doesn’t like the utopian oath is 100% just dickhead older ba’sib energy. sniper made fun of the utopia oath because cato likes it and they used it to make fun of cato. it’s the same reason i hate league of legends

i love the pronoun clarification. finally a real reader insert.

SNIPER DESERVES TO BE ON THE ODYSSEY OLYMPIC COMMITTEE I DON’T CARE WHICH BRILLIST OR UTOPIAN NEEDS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

“so one side says go to space, and the other says let’s stay here because it’s easy? screw them, let’s go to space” literally thank you. space is cool as fuck.

HEY WHAT THE FUCK

DON’T DO THIS TO ME

HOW?????

OH MY GOD

nevermind this isn’t my new sniper’s chapter i literally can’t handle this. i will never read this chapter again

just kidding this is sexy as fuck but also I want to die.

I can’t think of any other way the story could have gone. like who else could be tasked with finishing Mycroft’s narrative?

like it was so obvious in hindsight they were both greek servicers, followers of JEDD, familiaris, Anonymous, philosophers. mycroft’s got 17 lifetimes of work to do oh my god. oh my god.

I now realise that chapter 26 is, in fact, that chapter, like objectively.

Okay i forgot to update for ages bc pan finished pts before me so i yelled at them instead but

HELLO????? WAS I RIGHT??? WAS I RIGHT ABOUT THE POLYAMOROUS SNIPER-SANEER TRIO???? DID I ACTUALLY PREDICT SOMETHING IN THIS FUCKING BOOK? 🍾🥂

#all danas go to heaven #perhaps the stars

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wylanvnneck · 3 years

Text

This 2 part fic was written for the Secret Snusband Gift Giveaway hosted by @jurdannet and @jurdannetrevels for my lovely Knife Wife @lilacs-with-lavender.

Rating: T for Tyrannosaurus

Summary: Inspired by an episode of my favourite Cop TV show, ‘Castle’, in which a bet takes place with pretty high stakes, although the plotline has been tweaked to fit this fandom. My Knife Wife said she loved the Enemies to Lovers trope so that’s what I’ve (tried to) write here and I hope you enjoy the story of Homicide Detectives Jude Duarte and Cardan Greenbriar and their mutual enmity.

Warnings: Not so graphic descriptions of murder and mention of drugs. (Really not sure what I need to tag, so please let me know if I’ve missed something.)

Posted as a Gift on AO3 | Part 2 | Masterlist

Part 1

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“Victim’s name is Taryn Santorini, a metal sculptor by trade, she was found by her doorman fifteen minutes before we traced the address in Chloe’s hand back to her.”

Detective Jude Duarte looks down at the motionless face of a scared looking brunette, a crimson splatter painting the tiled floor around her lifeless body. The room around her is a mess, clothes scattered everywhere, bed ruffled and unmade and metal figurines placed haphazardly throughout the little apartment.

“Lil, talk to me, what are we looking at?”

Before the white-blonde haired medical examiner crouched on the floor by the body can answer, a smooth dark voice that Jude so detests cuts through the air behind her.

“Why, Duarte, I’d say that the fact that Tara What’s-her-name was shot and killed is rather obvious.” The despicable excuse of a detective steps forward, a smug grin pasted to his face. Cardan Greenbriar, entitled little rich boy, over-confident bastard and sadly, her partner.

Patience, Jude reminds herself, patience was a virtue.

“I meant, as I’m sure Lil knows, with what model was she killed and when?”

Liliver shoots her an amused sympathetic look before turning her gaze back to the victim.

“Looks to be a gun with a 45 caliber, same as the one used to kill Chloe Tatterfell. I’d say Taryn here has been dead for about 12 hours so pretty close to Chloe’s time of death, maybe just a half hour or so afterwards.”

“So chances are it’s the same killer.” Cardan interjects, the smug smile a little less vibrant now.

“Yep. I’ll have to get her back to the morgue so I can do a full inspection, see if I can find anything helpful.”

Jude steps back from the crime scene to give her some space, almost bumping in to the officer taking pictures of the area for later use.

“Thanks, Lil.”

“Just doing my job, sweetie.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Jude clips a glossy picture of their latest victim onto the precinct’s murder board. “Garrett and Van questioned practically all known associates of both Chloe and Taryn and none of them could recognise the other victim. There’s no obvious connection between the two and yet, for some reason they were both killed on the same day, by the same person.”

“And with the same gun.” Cardan is leaning back in his chair, his posture insouciant and his curly black hair falling lazily over his forehead. Surely that was a violation of precinct dress codes? Not that he’d care either way, rule breaker that he was. God knew it was only because of his daddy’s clout that he’d even graduated from the academy in the first place, whilst people like Jude had to work hard and save every penny and fight to get anywhere in the field of Law Enforcement.

“Ok, I’m going to head to the morgue whilst Van and Gare check through the victim’s phones and financials, see if Lil has anything for us.”

“I suppose, being the dutiful partner that I am, I should come with you?” Cardan’s drawl is as irritating as usual and Jude can hardly wait to get out of the proximity of his stupid raven locks and smoldering eyes.

“Please, you’d be doing us both a favour if you didn’t.”

“Aw, come now Jude you know you’d miss me.” He lets out a dramatic sigh as he half heartedly stands from his chair to join her as she speeds by towards the exit and she just barely resists the urge to throttle him.

Lil bustles around her examining room as she adjusts the fluorescent lamps shining down on both the victim’s bodies’.

“So, apart from the type of bullets that killed them, the only similarity that I could find between the two victims is the fact that they both have tattoos.”

Jude raises a brow. “Everyone has tattoos.”

From across the autopsy table Cardan’s eyes gleam as he smirks.

“Oh really? You got some ink on you, Duarte?”

His tone is disbelieving and Jude can’t resist messing with him a little.

She pastes an obviously fake flirtatious smile on her face and drawls in a sugar sweet voice, “Guess you’d have to find that out on your own, Greenbriar.”

She bites at her lip for good measure and thinks once more of how bad she would be at flirting in earnest. Lil certainly couldn’t keep the laughter out of her gray eyes. Cardan, however, has a strange look on his face, one that Jude can’t quite decipher, but she’s pretty sure she’s just one-upped him and she can’t deny the slight sense of triumph that the thought gives her.

She turns her attention back to the victims. “You were saying, Lil?”

“I’m saying that these tattoos seem to have been done by the same artist. Look,” she pulls back the white cloth covering the body of Chloe Tatterfell, gently pushing a strand of brown hair off of her shoulder to reveal the cartoonish character of a rose, inked in with dark black ink.

She then turns to Taryn’s body to reveal a similarly styled tattoo of a mermaid on her wrist. Just as she’s pulling back the cover Jude’s back pocket vibrates and the sound of her plain ringtone travels through the air. Quickly she swipes upwards to answer the call and it’s Garrett.

“Yo, so we looked through the victims’ phone records and found a connection. Both Chloe and Taryn made a phone call on the day that they were killed to the same number, belonging to a Locke McCutchins, he’s got priors including robberies and domestic assault.”

By the time he’s finished speaking she’s already waved a quick goodbye to Lil and turned to walk out the door, not bothering to check if her partner was behind her.

“Alright, text me his address, let’s go pick him up.”

“Locke McCutchins, open up, it’s the NYPD!” Garrett bangs on the door and the force is so strong that the wood vibrates as Jude clutches her pistol in her hand, body flat against the wall of Locke’s apartment with Cardan right beside her.

There’s no answer and the door is broken down as she, Cardan, Garrett and Van file into the room in a practiced motion that’s as familiar to her as breathing.

Right in front of them, sprawled across his couch, lies the dead body of Locke McCutchin, his tawny eyes still open and gazing unseeingly up at his ceiling, a dried red patch visible on his shirt.

Garret drops to the floor beside the couch, his sandy hair falling over his face as he leans over to check Locke’s pulse whilst the rest of them look on after having taken note that the apartment was clear.

“Body’s cold, he’s been dead for hours, entry wound looks to be about the same size as the other victims.”

Jude scrunches her eyebrows as she stands in front of the murderboard for the second time that day.

“So, Chloe Tatterfell, Taryn Santorini and Locke McCuchins were all killed within the span of 24 hours, all with the same gun, presumably by the same killer and yet so far the only connections we’ve found are Taryn’s address that was found written on Chloe’s hand, the phone call from both women to Locke and the similar tattoos on both Chloe and Taryn, but not on Locke.”

“Hmm.” Cardan seems to materialise out of nowhere, carrying a paper cup of what smells like freshly brewed coffee. Jude was convinced that he took his coffee with added alcohol but she had yet to prove it.

“What’s with the glare?” he asks.

“It automatically deploys itself when you're around.”

He scoffs. Twirls his coffee around. Takes a long, slurping sip.

“Hey, Duarte? Don’t get me wrong, I mean, the feeling is mutual, but what exactly is it that makes you despise me so much? I’d like to know so I can make sure to keep doing it.”

Jude barely deliberates over her answer before she responds.

“Being an overly cocky, obnoxious jerk who has only managed to get this far thanks to his Daddy’s fat purse will definitely be the best way to make me hate you, trust me.”

He grins but there’s no humour in the curve of his sensual lips, his eyes are cold metal.

“You think that the only reason I’m a detective is because of my father?”

“Yup.” She makes sure to add plenty of emphasis to that one word.

Cardan opens his mouth as if to speak, stops, presses his lips together so hard that they turn pale before the colour returns to them when a slow smile spreads across his face, this time full of humour, but the decidedly darker kind.

“Let’s make a bet. If you can figure out what the connection between our three victims is before I do, I’ll go right up to Captain Madoc myself and request a change of partners so you can be rid of my ‘overly cocky, obnoxious’ self. Deal?”

He was extending a challenge and Jude was never one to back down from those. Besides, the chance to be rid of him with no cost to herself or her reputation was too good to pass up on. Still, there had to be a catch, with Cardan, there was always a catch.

“And on the complete off-chance that you figure it out first? What happens then?”

“If I figure it out first...you have to come with me as my date to this party that my dad’s having in a couple days.”

Those last few words come out in a rush and Jude has to take a moment to decipher their meaning. Followed by another moment to wonder if she’d somehow completely misunderstood what he’d said.

“You want me to what?”

“Be my date to a party. Honestly Duarte, do you have any idea how many women would jump at this opportunity?” His tone is disgustingly nonchalant.

“I-” she struggles to find the words. “Take one of them then! Don’t you have a girlfriend, Nicasia or something like that? Blue hair and eyes? High pitched voice? Talks a lot about how much she gets seasick?”

“You know, for someone who’s only met Nicasia once you do remember quite a bit about her.” His steady gaze on her is intense.

For some incorrigible reason Jude has to resist the urge to flush.

“I’m a detective. It’s my job to study people.”

“Right. Sadly, Nicasia and I are no longer together, if we ever were. I got bored. Hence, why I need a date.”

“I’m sure you could just take one of your scores of female admirers, you don’t need me.”

“Is that jealousy that I detect in your voice?”

“Cardan.”

“Look, the point is, I can’t be bothered having to deal with yet another simpering female who thinks that one night on my arm means a promise to a life-long relationship complete with marriage, a fancy mansion and exactly 2.5 kids. All I want is a companion for one night so I don’t get hounded by my mother for not having a girlfriend by which she can procure some grandchildren.”

“Oh so now you want me to be your fake girlfriend?”

He rolls his eyes up at the ceiling and she fights the urge to slap him.

“It’s just for one night! Besides, I thought me winning was barely even a possibility to you.”

She makes a noise at the back of her throat. “It is.”

“Then I don’t see what the problem is. Do we have a deal, or not?” He holds out his hand, sculpted eyebrows raised in confrontation.

She doesn’t really think he has much of a chance of figuring it out before her, but he had admittedly also proven adept at figuring certain things out in previous cases so there was definitely no certainty that he wouldn’t win, for all her bravado. Yet, her competitive nature couldn’t bear the thought of surrendering, so she pushes her unease aside and grips his hand in a firm shake.

“Deal.”

There’s an awkward moment when he takes a little too long to release her hand from his grip. Once he finally does, the rather pointy tips of his ears reddening, they both turn back to the murder board and the view of their murder time line and crime scene pictures, furiously trying to connect the dots in their heads.

A random thought intrudes in her brain.

"Wait, what if Garrett and Van figure it out before we do?”

As one, she and Cardan both turn towards the opposite side of the office where the two officers in question sat in front of their computers.

Van was typing in data on his computer, eyes glazing over and the tuft of black hair atop his head trembling whilst Garrett, or, The Ghost - as he was sometimes called thanks to his tendency to take months before answering non-work related messages - stood eating glazed donuts with one hand and speaking to someone on the phone held in the other. Jude loved the both of them but she had to admit that they didn’t exactly paint the most inspiring picture.

Once again she and Cardan are in sync when they promptly turn back towards the murderboard and proclaim, “Nah.”

Van’s excitement is clearly written on his face when he walks straight up to Jude’s desk the moment she arrives at the precinct the next morning, slamming down a manila folder with the NYPD crest printed on it onto her neatly arranged table top.

Immediately she reaches out to open it, desperate for a break in the case that would not only put a three time killer behind bars but also ensure that she herelf wouldn’t commit murder if she lost the bet and had to pretend to be Cardan’s girlfriend for a night. The thought makes her want to shudder.

“So, I was looking into all of our victim’s financials and I noticed an anomaly. Two weeks ago on the 7th they each deposited 95 hundred dollars into their savings accounts, but we’ve got no way of tracing the money back because the amount is under the IRS’s investigative limit” Van takes a quick pause before continuing, “but that’s not all, both Taryn and Chloe have credit card charges for small amounts at a tattoo place called Fair Folk Inks down in Queens.”

“Great, that’d be the place where they both got tattoos, I’ll go down there and ask the owner a couple questions, thanks Van.” She puts the sheaf of financial accounts back into the folder and takes a quick swig of her usual morning coffee, black, no sugar before preparing to head out once more.

“Going somewhere, partner?”

She’d bumped straight into Cardan when stepping into the elevator and she lets out a small groan of frustration as she steps back from his sturdy form. He looks annoyingly chipper, usual cocky smile in place and laughter in his tone as he looks down at her slightly shorter self. His cologne is strong and emanates the scent of the woods and sunlight in the small elevator. The woods and sunlight? Clearly foregoing the rest of her morning coffee hadn’t been a good idea.

She’d thought she could make it out of the building before he finally arrived, necessitating in having to take him along as well, but clearly fate had other ideas.

“Tattoo parlour. Queens,” she grits out.

“Let’s go then,” his tone is sickly sweet.

“Hi there, you guys lookin’ to get inked?” asks the pink haired girl behind the counter in fishnet tights and a tank top, looking up from where she is perched on a stool behind the counter when she hears them enter.

The parlour itself is shiny and white, the smooth metal counter and two spaced out black leather tattoo chairs complete with wheeled stools are the only pieces of furniture in the small space. Mounted on the walls are designs, each of them evoking a sense of fantasy. A pixie there, a selkie here, an ornate dragon, all staring right back at Jude as she takes in their surroundings. She takes note of the fact that the pictures staring back at her were very reminiscent of Chloe and Taryn’s tattoos, solidifying her suspicion that this was where they had got them done.

Before she has time to explain the reason for their visit, Cardan pipes up.

“You know, I’ve been thinking of getting one of a slithering snake, maybe across my back? I believe it would add to my already abundant sex appea-”

“Actually,” Jude cuts him off with her most scathing glare, to which he irritatingly responds with a grin. “We’re here on official business, NYPD, we need to speak with the owner of this establishment.” She holds up the badge that she’s just extracted from her plain black wallet as she speaks.

“That would be Vivi, hang tight a sec I’ll go get her.” With a sway of her hips Heather trounces off behind a curtained section at the back of the parlour.

Unable to stand still for even a few moments, her partner has already wandered over to the corner of the room, pointing at a pinned up design, ““That goblin over there reminds me of Van.”

She ignores him.

“Oh come on Duarte, you have to admit, there’s a definite resemblance.”

She spares the quickest of glances at the design and it’s true, there’s a striking similarity, but she isn’t about to give him the satisfaction of agreeing so she simply makes a non-committal grunt of recognition.

“Tell me, are you always this tightly wound or is it just for the majority of your day?”

“Excuse me?” Her eyebrows have inadvertently traveled upwards on her face and she can’t believe he has the audacity to say what he just did, although really, she shouldn’t be so surprised.

“Come on Duarte, we’ve been partners for quite a while now and I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you laugh.” He’s standing a few feet away from her, his expression serious, not backing down.

“It’s called being professional.” She can feel the muscles working in her face as she hisses out the words through gritted teeth, blood pounding furiously.

“Ahem.” She whirls around to find a tall bronze haired woman with striking cat-like eyes that were currently meeting her gaze wearing a lazy look of amusement.

“Heather said there were some policemen who wanted to ask me some questions?”

Jude cannot believe that she had just gotten so sidetracked by her insolent partner that she’d forgotten why she was currently standing in the middle of a Tattoo parlour in Queens, clutching a set of regular sized close ups of three now dead people. She tamps down the irritation at her own actions as she thrusts out the photos in front of the woman facing her, Vivi, the pink haired girl had said.

“Yes, ma’am, do you recognize these people?”

She watches intently as Vivi carefully peruses the pictures before answering, “I know the two girls, Taryn and Chloe, we’re friends, I’ve even tattooed the both of them. I’m not really sure who he is.”

“Are you sure you don’t know him? Look carefully.” Cardan is all business now, stepping up to Vivi.

“I’m sure.” Vivi’s tone is almost defiant, daring him to question her again.

“You said that you were friends with the girls, how close were you?”

“They came into the tattoo parlour at the same time about a month ago and we started up a conversation, we exchanged numbers and would meet up for a drink from time to time.”

“Did they ever meet up with just each other?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Can you think of any reason as to why they’d both be killed by the same person?”

“They’re...they’re dead?”

Jude had intentionally asked the question in a way that would require a reaction and she wasn’t sure that she was entirely convinced by the shocked undertone of Vivi’s voice.

“I’m afraid so, ma’am.”

“She’s hiding something.” Once again Jude is back in front of the murderboard, furiously capping and uncapping a whiteboard marker as her mind whirls. She’s full of nervous energy, on the brink of a precipice and she wants nothing more than to be able to push herself off of it.

“Agreed.” Cardan is pacing the floor between her and the murder board and his posture indicates that he’s just as worked up as she is.

“But what I can’t understand is why she would kill two of her acquaintances plus a random vending machine operator, I mean, there’s no clear motive.” She’s barely conscious of the slight pain that tingles as she worries at her bottom lip.

Cardan halts in front of the board, takes a hard look at the scrawled timeline on it before once more resuming his brisk walk.

“And what the hell is the connection between these three victims? They lived in opposite neighbourhoods, worked in completely different areas and fields, never seemed to have been in the same place at the same time and yet somehow they were killed by the same hand. Also, where did all that money come from?”

His phone chooses precisely that moment to start ringing and the sound of ‘Horns’ by Bryce Fox cuts through the tension.

“It’s Liliver,” he mouths as he swipes upwards to answer and puts the medical examiner on speaker phone.

“You got something for us Lil?’

“You bet I do. I had scraps from the victims’ clothings tested to try and find a common link. What I found were traces of bleach, acetone, sodium chloride and ammonia.”

“Drugs. They were making drugs. That would explain all the money.” Jude is burning and luminescent with victory, until Lili’s next words cut her down.

“It’s not drugs.”

“How can you tell?”

“Because of what isn’t there. If your vics were making drugs, there’d need to be a couple more ingredients. That being said, they were definitely up to something.”

She lets out a sigh of defeat. “Thanks, Lil.”

Cardan hangs up before bringing his fingers up to his temples, massaging the sides of his head as he burns a hole into the board in front of him.

Jude bites back a scream. “This is like the start of a bad joke, a teacher, a sculptor and a vending machine operator walk into a tattoo parlour…”

He scoffs, “Yeah, except we don’t really have a punchline.”

“Other than ‘they made a bunch of money and got themselves killed.’”

There’s a lull in the air and the frustration is palpable. There was so much more than just their bet at stake here, there was the need for justice for these three victims, who regardless of their crimes likely didn’t deserve what had befallen them. Besides, there was no way that they could let a ruthless killer roam the streets freely.

Suddenly, Cardan whirls around to face her, once again bringing his pacing to an abrupt stop, with a speed to rival that of the animal that was his tattoo inspiration.

“Made a bunch of money,” he repeats.

He sounds like he’s just jumped off of the precipice. She, on the other hand, remained firmly mounted to the ground.

“What?”

“A sculptor who works with metal, a chemist and a vending machine operator...I know what they were up to.”

Slowly, the light starts to dawn on her and her pulse speeds up. Yes, she thinks.

“Think about it, when counterfeiting money, what’s the biggest problem you face? Finding the paper,” he continues.

“And a vending machine operator would have an endless supply of one dollar billls!”

“Exactly, then the chemist would come in, using the chemicals that were found on the vic’s bodies to white wash those bills.”

“And then the sculptor would be able to fashion a set of metal plates with which to type in fake serial numbers’ so they can get larger denominations of money…”

“Right! So, plates, paper, there’s just one missing ingredient.”

Beaming smiles break out on both their faces when, in unison they reach the same conclusion.

The 12th Precinct’s interrogation room had contained many suspects from the time it was built. Some were innocent and some were guilty, but there was no doubt in both Jude and Cardan’s minds that the feline woman currently seated across from them with her legs up on the table was one hundred percent guilty.

“So you think you’ve figured it all out, huh?” Vivi’s drawl is deceptively flippant.

“I think so.” Jude answers calmly. “For instance, we’ve figured out that you were involved in and likely the mastermind behind a counterfeiting operation that raked in a substantial amount of money. You provided the last ingredient needed, the ink from your tattoo parlour stocks that was used to print on the bills.”

Cardan leans forward. “We’ve also surmised that you killed your partners in said operation; Taryn Santorini and Chloe Tatterfell, both of whom you met through your tattoo parlour, just like you said.”

“And our third victim, Locke McCutchins? Yeah, we know he was your cousin, once removed on your mother’s side wasn’t it? A distant enough relationship for you to not be flagged when checking his family, but close enough for you to enlist him in your scheme so you had access to vending machine bills.” Jude continues, she and Cardan having perfected the art of interrogating together ages ago, their tactics working smoothly together alongside each other.

Vivienne sneers. “So what? You have no proof.”

“On the contrary, ma’am, we do. You neglected to hide the metal plates that you got Taryn to make for you in a place that wasn’t under a loose floorboard of your room, easily found with the aid of a search warrant.” Cardan smiles.

“You also tripped up when you stored your used gun with matching ballistics to the weapon that killed our victims in the same place as the plates.” Cardan’s smile is copied on Jude’s face.

Vivi’s skin pales and her cat’s eyes narrow into slits as she bangs the table, hard, before slouching back in the metal chair, the fight leaving her.

“Well, I suppose the jig is up, as they say,” she drawls.

Satisfied, Jude stands up and gathers the notepad and pen that she’d left on the desk and then bends over the interrogation table to meet Vivi’s gaze.

“What I can’t understand, though, is why? Why would you kill them if you’d already paid them?”

The Accused smirks. “It was all that idiot Lockes’s fault. He’d gotten himself into debt with some mob shark and needed more dough to bail his sorry self out. I wasn’t about to give it, he had his cut and that was all. But then, he threatened to go to the cops and tell them about what we did. Couldn’t let that happen, so I figured I’d kill ‘em all of. Just to be safe.”

The casual way in which she speaks of her deeds chills Jude to the bone. Wordlessly, she turns her back on yet another cold hearted murderer and exits the room with Cardan right behind her.

They come to a stop in front of the now empty murderboard, its surface shiny and white, devoid of words, but not for long. There was always a murder happening somewhere or the other, Jude had been a detective long enough to know that.

“So, now that Vivienne Insmire, tattoo artist, mastermind and ink supplier of counterfeiting operations and killer of ‘friends’ and distant male cousins is safely behind bars, I think you and I have a certain matter to settle, Duarte.”

She’d been trying hard to avoid this moment all day, pushing back thoughts of her close defeat and what its consequences would be. It seemed like now, she'd run out of time. She gulps.

“I suppose-” she almost can’t bring herself to say the words, “I suppose you won our bet, then.”

“Yup.” He’s not even trying to hide his gloating, “and you know what that means.”

The noise she emits is one that is resigned. She knows what’s coming.

“I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow.”

“Or I could just take a ca-”

“Don’t be late, Duarte,” he calls over his shoulder as he leisurely strolls towards the precinct exit, slinging his leather jacket over his shoulder.

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

If you’ve made it all the way down here, congrats! Here’s a link for part 2.

Tagging the lovely people on my short but treasured TFOTA taglist; @cupcakesandkittens (who helped immensely during the writing of this fic and who suggested adding in the interrogation scene❤) and my very own talented Secret Snusband, @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln

Please let me know if you’d like to be added to or taken off of my taglist💕

#anyways Liles I hope you enjoyed!#dd writes #secretsnusband #tfota fanfic #the folk of the air fanfiction #the folk of the air #jude duarte #cardan greenbriar #castle #cop au #enemies to lovers #i would also like to say #that i absolutely love vivienne duarte #but she was also badass enough to make a murderer #and i couldn't resist #hopefully this first part was intriguing #and the second part is cheesy in all the right ways #jurdannet #jurdannet revels

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