#or shade. who he had zero involvement with but still claims is his character

[sonknuxadow]

just learned that ken penders doesnt claim ownership of fiona despite helping with her redesign and reintroduction because he doesnt want to claim ownership of a character he didnt make... isnt this the same guy that says shade the echidna is his character when he didnt create her and sega owns her

#and also claims ownership of the green scourge design when he didnt make that. #he made anti sonic. who would later turn green and become scourge after he left. #yet he still claims ownership of and tries to make money off of the green design specifically... #from what i understand the fiona thing is a similar situation as scourge and other penders characters #like the original base character fiona was based on was a robot who was based on fiona but they introduce the real fiona later #so the robot fiona and the real fiona are kind of separate characters #and he wont claim ownership of her but still claims ownership of like. robo robotnik whos just eggman but blue #and scourge who was originally just sonic but an asshole with a leather jacket #or shade. who he had zero involvement with but still claims is his character #im not saying he SHOULD claim ownership of fiona im just saying its kinda weird that he doesnt #knowing his history with other characters

[pettyprocrastination]

You don’t have to show this but do you think Omera would have gotten more love if she was white? I don’t ship it but her introduction was badass. I’m surprised that Din gets shipped with white bread so much. One he didn’t even speak to. The amount of fics for that compared to him and Omera is insane. I’m hoping they give him a Latina or black women love interest just to see people’s head explode.

I have ZERO issue with posting this publicly cause i wanna say: yes. 

I apologize this isn't very well written and very scattered about but here are my thoughts. 

PLEASE know I'm not trying to shame any specific writers or readers, I'm just sharing my opinions about the topic. 

(in this I'm also gonna be bringing up Ellaria sand because this isn't something only seen with Din, its seen with just about all his characters)

I think it comes to three things that are very prominent in the pedro fandom specifically: white readers not enjoying content written by/presenting woc because they feel like it doesn't directly project themselves, having an odd animosity/jealousy towards romantic leads of pedro characters and flat-out throwing away the actual characterization of his characters just to thirst for him. 

Now I will say we do have to acknowledge that I know people don't enjoy that he’s shipped with cobb vanth, because they only had a day of interaction but that’s also a mlm ship in the starwars universe so some people would like to see the representation where they can so lets keep that in mind. 

But at the same time I kind of see the mentality of “oh, its not for me? nvm” from fans when the possible romantic character is a person of color because they cant directly relate/project onto them. Which you see a lot with poc writers who make fics that have readers/oc’s that are specifically described as not being white and getting little to no notes. while others making fics that are so specifically for white people with descriptors as such but not acknowledging it when people say “hey you cant really preach inclusivity when this is very clearly written by white women for white women” which you see in moodboards, face claims, and descriptors such as “you blushed bright red” “your pale skin” “your blonde locks” . 

another BIG thing that has a part is this weird ass, juvenile wattpad-esque animosity female fans often have towards female characters who have the possibility of being a romantic lead for characters pedro plays. I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but so many fans do have this weird, almost jealous mentality to female characters who are romantic leads/have romantic tension with his character.

Like we see other female leads in the Mandalorian get lots more love than Omera, because they are mostly depicted as having a platonic relationship with Din. For exmaple, Fennec, cara, and peli, I've seen much more content for them than omera because its almost never in a romantic sense. 

Hell, before gina carano’s shit went public people were always posting about thirsting for cara dune+ how she and din were best buds and loved the relationship between them. 

And lets be real, the amount of fanfiction that the reader is essentially peli (a starky mechanic who befriends mando and becomes a kind figure to the child, who almost always becomes a live-in mechanic on the razor crest) is astronomical. You could literally switch the perspective and slap peli in and it’d make more sense but nobody wants to do that because they want to be with din, not imagine him with another female character cause they get weirdly threatened. 

(no shade to people who write that fanfiction im just SAYING)

Its not just mando either, it happens with a lot of his characters who have distinct relationships already, especially with Oberyn Martell and his lover Ellaria.  He says multiple times she is the love of his live, mother of three (i think) of his children and always accompanies him on his travels, when asked if he gets tired of her during their journeys he says “never. We share too much.”

a good majority of oberyn fanfiction either doesn't involve her at all, or writes her off as a bitch to pose animosity between her and the victim-reader or simply write her off as “she and oberyn don't love each other anymore wah-wah” even though she’s is quite literally his soulmate. 

He’s also often written to become suddenly monogamous upon meeting the reader, which just seems out of character given he is an openly polyamorous, bisexual man that talks about the joys of living life and loving freely quite often. 

Even with Marcus Moreno, when the trailer came out for We Can Be Heroes, I would see people make posts about how they hope he’s a widower instead of a married man cause they want him single.

Now I know a lot of this fandom is straight women so I don't expect them to suddenly enjoy wlw-reader relationships or polyships (even tho they do but only when its two dudes and one girl who is usually the reader but that’s a different issue) It comes down to the simple issues of throwing away the basis of the character just to thirst for pedro. (for oberyn at least)

I know some blogs on here that have gotten anons explaining the reason they dislike Ellaria that are the exact same traits Oberyn has: arrogance, sexual confidence ect. Its hot when he has it but if a female (often of color) has it, shes a bitch for some reason. 

Not even gonna get into Dave York, who was a moderately enjoyable character in the film but his character in fanfiction a good 80% of the time is “i like to cheat on my bitch of a wife with you” so lets leave it at that. 

Now. let me say there aint no shame in writing smut. I do it. I read it. And i enjoy it! But at somepoint you look at it and go “this isn’t even the character anymore” and find it a bit tiring. As well as the lack of attention writers of color get in the fandom where the main muse literally a latino man but whatever. 

This was a very long winded way of saying yes anon, I do think omera wouldve gotten more attention if she was white. But even then people still wouldn’t like her because she would pose a threat to their reader-insets. what are you gonna do I guess lmao

#ask #asks #anyways this was very long and #not well worded im sorry. but thats my opinion on these things #kind of want to post this in the tags for oberyn and din #but i dont want that drama #just my opinion as a black bisexual in this hellfandom #anyways i also do work by the mentality of 'if you dont like it just block the tag' #but somebody asked for my opinions so i gave it #no shade to anybody who writes like this you live your life baby

[wispforever]

if youre still doing the character thing, how about spirit or marie?

I sure am. How about Spirit And Marie? Both wonderful characters. I’ll do Marie first, then Spirit. Thanks for the excuse to infodump, really. You people are too kind.

Marie Mjolnir

My first impression of Marie was the same impression I get of most female characters in anime. It’s either “why do their clothes have to look like that” or “oh god here comes the obligatory sexist heteronormative romance”. For Marie, it was more of the second. They mention in the same episode she’s introduced that Stein is her “first love”, which told me that if she had a large place in the plot, her assigned male counterpart around which to orbit would be him. Though I’ve never read the Soul Eater manga, I believe they do end up getting together there (I could be wrong). Whatever the case, I was relieved that Marie’s and Stein’s relationship (though heavily implied to be romantic, at least on Marie’s side) was left open to interpretation in the anime. I’m just very sick of cool badass female characters like Marie being reduced to the man they pine after. So, I guess my first impression of Marie and my impression of her now are largely the same. While I appreciate the moments we get to see her strengths and ability to operate on her own, I do think that her character really suffers because of the whole sexist “oh gosh all I want is to find a husband and retire” “oh my I have to take care of Stein” like okay, I had enough at the cat girl smothering Soul with her humungo-tits. I had enough at sexualizing underage girls and women in general. I had enough at making sexual harassment a punchline. That being said, when we push all of the shitty writing to the side, I admire Marie for her strength and how she interacts with the children, Crona in particular. Which leads me to my favorite moment(s).

The relationship Crona and Marie have interests me the most, since I’m really drawn to the parallels between Marie and Medusa. As parental figures (and as characters), they’re about as different as you can get. As Crona’s mother, Medusa is obviously abusive. Along with being negligent, she abuses Crona mentally, emotionally, and physically. In general, Medusa is a person who doesn’t appear to value interpersonal relationships, putting it nicely. She instead is more focused on her own interests, often to the detriment of those around her. Crona is Medusa’s only immediate family (besides Arachne who she is estranged from), and so they suffer the most from her refusal to show even a shred of human decency or warmth. They suffer especially because they are her child, meaning they’re stuck with her essentially, and repetivie abuse between family members like a mother and child often becomes complex because of the necessity of having a parental figure in your life to support you as you grow up. Medusa teaches Crona that their boundaries don’t matter and that they are only good as long as they are useful and do as they’re told. This is what makes Marie’s influence on Crona so cool to watch. Marie is caring by nature, loving and nurturing by nature. Her very wavelegnth is healing. She is kind and does what’s right reflexively. Marie is the exact embodiment of what Crona always needed but what, even upon being rescued by the academy, still felt so foreign to them: unconditional love. Crona struggles to understand why the other kids helped them, why Maka felt the inclination to stop their battle and save Crona instead by trying to understand them, why the kids are still so kind to them even after everything. They do not understand that love is not a bargaining chip. It isn’t leverage in an argument. It’s not a tool for emotional manipulation. Love is caring for the people close to you, just because. Love for the sake of love. The other kids and teachers at the academy are the ones who are able to pull Crona out of all Medusa’s lies, and Marie is a Huge part of that. Even though I have greivances with this being the largest part of her character and what that implies for female characters in general, it doesn’t stop being so beautiful to me that she could help Crona heal in this way. Marie = best mom for the win

Most of the story ideas I have for Marie involve her relationship with Crona or Stein. Say, this covers my unpopular opinion too. I don’t like Stein and Marie as a couple, but I really enjoy writing them as friends, because even though I don’t really jive with them being together romantically, I think their dynamic is an interesting one to explore because they Are so different.

Getting into that a little bit more, I’d like to start by saying I don’t care if other people like Stein and Marie being a couple. That’s great doods, keep doing you. The fanart’s adorable, the meta’s fantastic. Whoever you are, SteinMarie shippers, ffs keep kicking ASS. This is just my preference and opinion. Zero shade in this house. That said, because of my frustrations about Marie’s character I discussed in the first paragraph, I don’t like the idea of her and Stein being together romantically. It’s really a classic sexist trope: the troubled man and his sweet nurse. I’m also just fed up in general with the hetero-nonsense, so there. However, they are both wonderful characters that I enjoy very much seperately. Also, I think it’s worth mentioning that I’ve only seen the anime, so I can’t speak for the manga as far as their relationship or Marie’s character in general.

Oh shit I accidentally already talked about this one lmao [see the second paragraph]

One headcanon I like to think about when I’m writing Marie is that she likes women (in addition to men or not) and she struggles with comphet. Just something interesting I like to think about. It’s really fun for me to take characters who have been written as pining or had 10 million failed relationships and be like “say what if they can’t find a husband cuz really what they really need is a wife”. I’ll talk about that more with Spirit inevitably.

Spirit Albarn

My first impression of Spirit, obviously him being a cheater, really came with a lot of distaste. I come from a family that was torn apart by infidelity, among other things, so it really rubs me the wrong way. However, his saving grace for me was that he genuinely loves his daughter. It appears that, whether it’s played for laughs or not, he just can’t find fulfillment in his romantic relationships. The reason is left up to the veiwers. Spirit, ultimately, is not just a shitty person, which is how most cheaters are protrayed in media. “Well, they cheated because they don’t care if they hurt people”, “they cheated because they are shit and that’s it”. That’s a fine explanation if you plan to do nothing with whatever character you’re describing, but Spirit is relatively recurring and is shown to be neither mean-spirited or emotionally unintelligent. It bothers me that his cheating and routine sexist behaviour isn’t taken seriously enough to be a subject that Soul Eater tackles and deals with. But that’s fine. I’ll just do it myself. At any rate, I still feel that same way about Spirit’s character, but I find it intriguing that he seems to genuinely want to become a better father and is actually a pretty good dad when it comes to his interactions with Maka. If Soul Eater had been brave enough to develop him more, maybe delve into the reasoning behind his impulsive romantic affairs, I think Spirit as a character could have been done more justice. It seems to me that he could be suffering from some of that wonderful compulsory heterosexuality that I mentioned before, then becoming confused when the woman he claims to love leaves him feeling empty. Rattling my gay little cage

When I think of my favorite moments with Spirit, I think of his moments with Maka, but I’m gonna hold off on that until I get to favorite relationship(s). In reference to what I talked about in the first paragraph, one moment I find really interesting when I’m thinking about my interpretation of Spirit’s character is the scene where he and Maka are on the roof talking. Maka asks Spirit why he cheated on her mother if he did, in fact, love her. He doesn’t appear to know the answer, and he doesn’t really understand how to effectively communicate that, though he was shitty husband, what he really wants now is to try and be a better dad. We hear his inner monologue, and he says something like “I love you [Maka] and your mama. That’s the truth. That’s the truth. That’s the truth.” Every time he says “its the truth” it sounds more like he’s forcing it. This is actually something that is SO strange to me. Even if I didn’t project a queer narrative on to the characters I love, I would look at this and be like “huh that is a Weird thing to say in that specific way”. Why does he say it like that? Why does he have to say it more than once? He’s only talking to HIMSELF. It isn’t like he’s trying to convince Maka. Why does he have to convince himself?? Could it possibly be because he’s reached a conclusion about his romantic/sexual orientation that he’s been trying to swallow his Entire Life??? makes ya wonder, doesn’t it, queers?

Just like I said when I talked about Stein, most of the stories I have in mind with Spirit center around that sweet gayness. But also, I like to think of ways Spirit could come to terms with his sexuality, how it might have affected him when he was young, his relationship with all these women, with his wife. I love to think about him being a dad at 18 and trying his best, but how much responsibility that must have been. Lots of great ideas when it comes to Spirit.

Um? unpopular opinion would be all the standard like I said with Stein lmao. “Oh no!” scream the heteros, “that they/them on tumblr is making Soul Eater queer we canst not allow that in our church!!!111!” But besides that, maybe even the fact that I think he’s redeemable?? Idk most everyone I’ve met thinks Spirit is funny at least and just calls him a dumbass and a slut (affectionate). Doesn’t mean anybody thinks cheating on your wife 56 times is okay so. I like this fandom, it’s chill here. My favorite is when I see my art tagged like “aw the stupid man and his crazy bf” like YOU ARE RIGHT

My favorite relationship when it comes to Spirit (besides Stein cuz if I start talking about them again I’ll never finish this ask) is the one he has with Maka. If you can call it a relationship lol. I guess I just find Spirit’s approach to Maka as a parent really refreshing. Not that the parents in other shows don’t love their kids or whatever, it’s just that the loving parent always seems to be paired with some other trope that makes their character hard to approach. especially in anime. Like the perfect mother who dies in the first episode, and we spend the rest of the show mourning her. Or the father whose love is somehow everlasting even though he’s never home. It’s really the fact that Spirit is even THERE that I love. He knows what Maka is up to. He talks about her. He’s invested in her life, and he loves her. All he wants is to spend time with her, and though he’s sad when she turns him down, he doesn’t push her. god dammit I just like a dad who actually loves his kids without all the usual strings attached like. oh my kids are a huge pain in my ass, but I love them in spite of it. oh i’m a man so can’t relate to my children in a meaningful way but i try. Get the fuck outta here with that shit. I want all the dads to get so happy when their daughters wanna hang with them that they throw up like Spirit. Give me the guy who loves his daughter so naturally, whose daughter is such a huge part of his life, that it doesn’t even occur to him stop trying even if she literally wants to murder him. That’s Spirit. jfc

To end with a cute little headcanon, I really love to think that when Spirit gets older and starts losing the color in his hair, instead of getting white or grey, his hair turns a pale pink color cuz he’s such an aggressive redhead. Wouldn’t that just be adorable? late 30′s, early 40′s, Spirit starts getting little pink streaks in his hair and then bam. Little pink old man Spirit XD

There ya have it. Thanks for the ask, and feel free to send more.

#Soul Eater #Ask #Ask game #anon #Marie Mjolnir #Spirit Albarn #this is wisp

[invisibleinorange]

Bridgerton’s Adrift

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Bridgerton Rating: T Warnings: Presumed Character Death Relationships: Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington,  Eloise Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington(besties),  Bridgerton Family Dynamics Characters: Colin Bridgerton,  Penelope Featherington, Eloise Bridgerton, Anthony Featherington,  Benedict Bridgerton, Violet Bridgerton, Portia Featherington Additional Tags:  Bridgerton, Polin Summary:  Unexpected bad news arrives for the Bridgerton Family (and friends) regarding Colin's travels. This will be a series that is set after "The Duke and I" or season one of the show. It is a companion piece to "Goodbyes". (#I’mHereToKillYouAllWithFeels)

The weather was abysmal.  It hadn’t stopped raining in days and if Penelope Featherington were perfectly honestly, it mimicked how she had felt.

While the clothing certainly didn’t fit any better, she was at least appreciative of the fact the ghastly shades of orange and yellow had been replaced with black.  Black was the only appropriate shade for mourning.

Society believed she was in mourning of her father.  A part of her had been a little sad over his death but it was nothing she felt to comparison to her mourning for Colin Bridgerton who was probably half way to Greece by now.

No one could know how she felt though.

Penelope was so tired of keeping secrets, especially keeping them from her dearest friends. It was much easier to let Eloise continue to believe that her mood was because of father instead of Colin. She’d have sooner told her that she’d been Miss Whistledown all along and that definitely wasn’t about to happen.

Her home was much quieter these days.   Her mother was distracted with figuring out who was going to inherit them and trying to assure that Prudence, Phillipa and even Felicity would be okay regardless of how things panned out. She wasn’t a concern.  Her mother had all but accepted the fact she’d never be marriage material.

She had been distracting herself with a book, seated in a window bay.  Watching the coming and goings from the Bridgerton home was just as much a past time though. Most of the time, she could distinguish the people who came and went but there were times when she couldn’t.

A carriage that she didn’t recognize certainly peaked her attention.

“Mother?” she said with a start. She didn’t often bother her with such inquiries but if there was anyone who would know what was happening it would be Portia Featherington.

The older red head paused in fretting over her other two girls long enough to give Penelope the time of day.

“What now?” she asked, sounding a bit like might be put out by having to even acknowledge Penelope’s existence.

“I was just wondering if you knew who was visiting the Bridgerton’s. I’ve never seen this carriage before.”

In an instant, Portia was practically pushing her out of the way, moving the window tapestries to get a better look.  Clearly she didn’t know of anyone that was expected but the face twisted with what could only be described as morbid curiosity told her that whatever was happening was somehow out of the norm.

Penelope watched as several men approached the door before being allowed in by the staff.  She had seen them somewhere but she couldn’t quite place it.

“That uniform is naval but the men with them are Bow Street Runners,” she explained to the girl.  “Someone must be in trouble.”

Penelope knew enough to know that if the Bow Street Runners were involved it likely wasn’t good for the Bridgerton’s at all.  She knew that Anthony and Benedict had been known to have their fun but she couldn’t see them being in significant trouble.

The naval aspect had her jump up from her perch in an instant though.

She came very close to uttering the one name that she could scarcely bring herself to say for weeks without breaking into tears.

Colin.  This was about Colin and she just knew it.

“I just remembered that I promised Eloise that I would help her with a difficult stitch,” she murmured knowing it was a terrible excuse to leave.  She didn’t wait around to fight her mother over it either though. In fact, she didn’t even stick around to hear the protests.

--

When she arrived across the way, she was told that it wasn’t a good time.  There was absolutely no chance that she wasn’t going to be there. There was zero chance of her not finding out what was happening right now.

Despite the protests, she pushed her way inviting herself into the music room where she knew everyone would be.  She was clearly a woman on a mission, her red curls looking like little flames against the dark black of her dress.

She stopped dead in her tracks at the scene before her though.  The men that she’d seen here standing by awkwardly and Anthony had his arms wrapped around his mother who was inconsolable.  She’d always known Violet Bridgerton, as someone who had it together.

Whatever strength she’d been holding on to seemed to disappear, her legs practically turned to jelly in the doorway.  She felt like she might faint and she very well might have had it not been for a silent and somber Benedict who silently moved toward her, took her arm and guided her to where Eloise was sitting, looking like a ghost.

So many of the children were not there but every Bridgerton who was looked so unlike themselves.  She felt like she was trespassing on a very private family moment and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to walk away. Instead she reached for her best friend’s hand and squeezed it just as Eloise had been her rock time and time again.  She could not fall to pieces without information.

“There was an accident,” Eloise finally explained in a hushed tone.

Penelope felt that if it were possible her flesh would have turned green to reflect the absolute nausea that filled her. She was going to ill.

She didn’t even have to be told because she knew and whatever thoughts she had in her head about a lonely spinster life seemed cemented in that instant.  Even when she told herself Colin would never love her, she’d still held on to childish gleam of hope.

She couldn’t bring herself to ask if he was alive.

If he had been, Violet Bridgerton would have already been half way to wherever her child was though and she knew that.

“I’m so … sorry,” she told ineloquently, knowing that her place here was to comfort the people who Colin had loved, who shared his blood. Even as she was utterly destroyed, this couldn’t be about her.  Her corset suddenly felt like it was suffocating her.   She couldn’t breathe much less be useful.

Clearly her struggle was clear because her fiercely strong friend who rarely cried seemed to dissolve into a puddle of ears on her shoulder and it was all she could do to hold her and let go herself.

--

At some point between putting Colin’s letter in his pocket, Anthony had forgotten about it. He hadn’t put much thought into it.  As soon as he’d managed to calm his mother and sisters enough to that they could sleep it flooded back to his mind and he found himself, his coats until he found it.

He had been meant to give this to Eloise to deliver to Penelope Featherington weeks ago and he’d completely failed at that.   Now they were some of the last words his brother ever wrote before leaving them.

While they could not report having found his body, they’d all but made it clear that Colin would never return to them.   Anthony had been forced to keep a stiff chin, to keep the household together but blamed himself for this.

He’d been so difficult on his younger brother about Marina Thompson.  If he’d just let Colin do what he felt was honorable and right, he would be off enjoying life as a newlywed instead of at the bottom of the sea. He blamed himself for this.

A stiff drink would hardly sate the guilt.  

He stared at the familiar cursive of his brother’s handwriting and the unbroken seal as he drank.  Drinking himself into oblivion had never felt like a better option.  He should have never been left to lead this family. They’d all have been better off if their father hadn’t died.

“Can’t sleep?” he heard Benedict ask as he joined him, pouring another glass. Apparently there were two Bridgerton men who fully intended to drink away their grief.

“How can I?  - This will kill Daphne. You saw how horrid mother took the news.  Daphne will murder us if we don’t inform her but Simon might murder us if we do in her condition. – And when I think about how unfair this is. Colin was the best of all of us.”

It was true.  Colin had seemed to have inherited so many of the best traits that their family had to often. He had been young, passionate and if he’d been the eldest he wouldn’t have shrugged off his responsibility to the family.  As much as their mother protested and claimed he’d be the death of her, Anthony often was pretty sure that Colin was actually the favorite.

Benedict raised his glass to that.

“We will survive this,” Benedict added.  “We’ve survived loss before.”

Anthony wasn’t so sure though and he was increasingly sure that he ought to chuck this letter into the fire.  It being read wouldn’t do anyone any good.  Not Eloise. Certainly not Penelope Featherington.

Benedict seemed to have taken notice of the letter then.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“The reason Colin will haunt me for the rest of my days,” he said with a sigh, hand moving to rub at his temples. He hadn’t drank enough to bring on a headache in the morning but he already sensed it coming on.

Benedict didn’t ask for permission to take it but he did pick it up, looking it over with curiosity.

“Penelope?!” he found himself asking, a bit of astonishment in his voice as he broke the seal, dark eyes moving over the writing, figuring if Colin really was gone, he wouldn’t mind the invasion of privacy.

Anthony couldn’t move quick enough to stop him and despite himself, he found himself standing, gazing over his brother’s shoulder to read the words that were written on the page.

“Bloody Hell,” escaped his mouth.

Clearly Benedict didn’t disagree with the sentiment.

#⚜ writings — polin #colin bridgerton #penelope featherington #bridgerton

[itsclydebitches]

Welcome back, everyone! 

We’re now on Chapter Eight and once again the story is told from Velvet’s perspective. So our starting question is: why is she getting the most attention so far? If memory serves, the PoV order has been Coco, Velvet, Sun, Fox, Yatsu, Velvet, Scarlet, Velvet again — meaning that in a text balancing eight main characters, so far four of them have received a single chapter, two (Sage and Neptune) zero chapters, and one three chapters. That seems rather imbalanced. I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense if we factor in RWBY viewers’ familiarity with Velvet, but I’d wager we’ve gotten far more screen time with Sun overall. My only point being, why Velvet? It’s not that you can’t make her a focal point of the narrative, I just haven’t seen anything to explain that choice in the first 100+ pages. Her perspective hasn’t brought anything unique to the story, something we couldn’t have gotten from the seven other characters involved in these events… but here we are, back with Velvet for the next six pages.

Yeah, this chapter is short. Silver lining?

We learn that Team NOVA is on their second mission — why bother showing us the first when they’re an entirely new, volatile team, right? That would be silly! — escorting a technician “through the Grimm-infested mountains just outside of Oscuro Combat School.” So Shade students regularly conduct real huntsmen work but throw a fit over having to spar with one another? Interesting. See, if I were a civilian who got even a glimpse of what goes on inside these schools, I would not trust these kids with my life. 

Lo and behold, things go horribly! We learn right off the bat that “The technician had been knocked unconscious in a skirmish with a band of Dromedons.” For those of you with an iffy memory like mine, these are the camel-like creatures that spit acid and… that’s about all we know about them. That’s really all we need for this scene though because this grimm nailed the tech in his leg, a wound which now requires “serious medical attention.” Great. Gus Caspian, who I learn is a younger friend from the previous novel, is trying to treat the wound as best he can, clearly a little freaked out about being here, “but apparently Oscuro teachers didn’t coddle students any more than Theodore did.”

Do you expect them to? Despite Atlas being the only one who combines their academies with their military, we can’t pretend like these schools aren’t teaching teenagers to wield deadly weapons and kill things with them. There’s no institution on Earth (or Remnant) that should “coddle” those looking to take on that responsibility. I mean yeah, we had moments where Ozpin encouraged them to be kids, like after the food fight and during the dance, but he still took a hard stance whenever there was an actual lesson in the works: “No. You will be falling.” Based on the age of the students, the academies are akin to colleges. In real world college if you don’t do your work or don’t pay attention in class, well… nothing that bad happens. This is by no means a call to not do you work, merely an acknowledgement from a formerly grade obsessed student that individual test scores really don’t have the impact on your life that it feels like they will at the time. Trust me on this. So yeah, some leeway is great in the real world… but when the students are fighting monsters and defending others from death? Then the schools should absolutely discourage any slacker-esque attitude. The concept of any institution “coddling” huntsmen is horrifying. 

Note though that the chapter starts after all the action has taken place. We skip the rest of reinitiation. We skip NOVA’s first mission. We skip the attack that landed Velvet in this predicament. It’s not automatically a bad technique provided you’re skipping over boring parts to get to the interesting bits… but this isn’t interesting. We learn almost nothing new from this scene: Velvet misses her old team, her new teammates don’t believe in her, Nebula is mean. Those are the emotional beats here — things we’ve known for at least three chapters now. The only thing that’s introduced is the advertisement on Gus’ scroll, which could have been been added to any other scene.

Let’s revise a bit: 

We get to see the battle against the Dromedons wherein Velvet uses her camera, revealing her weapon to Team NOVA and earning more of their respect. Information about Gus’ improvement is shown through his combat abilities as he’s unexpectedly chucked into this battle (perhaps with him using his semblance to further his growth there too). While taking a hit he loses his scroll, slightly damaging it. In the aftermath Velvet retrieves it for him and finds this ad displayed, growing curious. Over the course of Gus’ explanations the rest of Team NOVA is clued into Velvet’s worry and suspicion. What’s wrong? It’s just an ad. But you’re clearly hiding something… Now, does she tell her new team about the Crown, or keep it silent and risk the tenuous trust they’ve just created?

Why is Myers skipping over all the action and potential growth?

Instead we get the boring stuff. Velvet admires Gus’ uniform because of how it’s built for the heat and recalls that “Coco had been messing around with new outfit designs for Team CFVY.” I swear though, 95% of my enjoyment with this novel comes from the throwaway details. I would actually like seeing how Coco combines her personal love of fashion with the necessity of designing combat gear appropriate for the environment. Maybe they frame it as merely a hobby outside of their huntsmen work, giving them an excuse to keep helping their former teammates. That could be cool! 

Though of course, this is the series where Cinder, Neo, Hazel, and Emerald all walk into the ice Kingdom with skin bared, so...

(You all are going to freeze to death, have fun.) 

“Velvet’s ears swiveled around, listening for danger.” That’s anything detail I like. At the very least Before the Dawn remembers that Velvet is a faunus and frequently incorporates that into her character. She’s on the lookout because other than Gus tending the unconscious technician, she’s alone “on the sidelines.” It’s framed simultaneously as the group rejecting her and as an unavoidable necessity: “it wasn’t like she didn’t have an important task of her own [repairing the relay], one that none of her teammates had the expertise to perform.”

Wait. Why does Velvet have this expertise?

The justification is that she’s “handy with electronics” and “Anesidora was incredibly complicated, and she’d designed it herself,” but that’s like saying “I built a computer so I’ll come fix your refrigerator. That’s easier.” I don’t know, maybe someone with the ability to build a computer from the ground up could figure out a refrigerator on the fly, but they feel like different skill-sets to me. All electronics are not built the same and claiming that because you understand one you automatically understand all others — even supposedly simpler pieces of tech — seems a little suspect. If that were the case, we’d have no need for experts who fix your phone, your television, your toaster, and your watch. Surely if you understand one you understand the others, right? It’s the same assumption here: If Velvet can understand building a hard light weapon, then she must understand relay communications too!

…right.

She even goes so far as to say that they “probably should have left the technician at Oscuro—she could have done this on her own” yet just a few minutes later it’s, “Velvet double-checked everything. She didn’t know what was wrong. She glanced back at the technician, Gus still at his side. The guy was out cold. He’d taken a pretty hard knock to the head. Well, she had tried.” So she’s confident enough to think that the technician is unnecessary one moment and then looking to him for help the next? Which of course isn’t followed by any sort of revelation. Velvet doesn’t acknowledge that her knowledge isn’t as specialized as she had assumed it was, or that huntsmen rely on non-combat experts for other things. She just shrugs and…

…kicks it.

Yeah. Velvet’s skill amounts to kicking the box until it works. Which, of course, it does. 

I can’t with this novel.

More seriously though, that’s terrible characterization. Not only does it undermine Velvet’s actual skill to reduce it to being “handy with electronics” — isn’t every huntsmen “handy with electronics” then, considering they all build their gun/energy/dust weaponry in school? — but it adds another layer of supposed uselessness to the adult professionals around her. Theodore doesn’t teach them anything because, as their headmaster, he’s removed from everyday interactions. Rumpole can’t be trusted now and every lesson she tries to impart is rejected. The unnamed technician who is referred to only by his professional title is deemed unnecessary, knocked out, and then indeed proves useless when Velvet magically does his job for him. So why are any of them in school? Why aren’t they just running the world with their superior knowledge and skill-sets? Every time the RWBY franchise puts its characters in a position where they might actually learn something through failure, it pulls back at the last second. ‘Never mind, they actually knew this all along!’ Or, ‘Never mind, the things they’ve been taught are stupid, so best to forget them!’ I struggle to understand what kind of story I’m reading — or watching — when the characters are already framed as perfect. Or rather, flaws absolutely exist (as these recaps attest), but the story pretends they’re not there. 

I hesitate to use the term “Mary Sue” here due to its origins and history. Meaning, the Mary Sue was conceived of as a parody, a deliberate exaggeration to comment on the types of characters written in the Star Trek fandom. Then people began using “Mary Sue” as a catch-all term for any female character that people deemed too talented (regardless of how talented their male counterparts might be), we started acknowledging the sexist undertones of that, then started reclaiming the term as something to celebrate and embrace… but we haven’t quite gotten there yet. “Mary Sue” is still a pretty loaded name to force on a character and it carries a lot of implications that I absolutely do not want to attach to Velvet. Yet it’s also the closest term I know to describe the act of an author giving a character what feels like a badly justified skillset. Such as “handy with technology” actually meaning “can fix anything powered by electricity or Dust as the plot needs.” 

Velvet is the action movie hacker going, “I’m in” is what I’m getting at. It’s not a compliment lol.

During all this grimm watching and relay fixing, Gus wants to know why they don’t just high-tail it out of there. Especially since the person they brought to do a specific job can no longer do that job. Mission’s a bust. Velvet gives what sounds like a decent explanation: “Retreating from Grimm isn’t an option when you’re fighting this close to a settlement. If we leave without destroying them, the Grimm will just look for another target.” AKA the settlement itself. 

Thing is, by this logic any grimm that are currently close enough to attack them are already close enough to the settlement to latch onto those people as the next target. They’d pick up on the civilians whether Velvet’s group was there to kill them or not. The group is there though, so they feel responsible, but why not just head to the settlement anyway? If the grimm follow you, fine. You can still fight them AND you now get the additional benefit of any other huntsmen/students who might be there. If they don’t follow you, great. If they were close enough to the settlement all along… again, this was always going to happen. 

Which, to be clear, isn’t the worst stance to take. I understand them wanting to avoid any potential risk by leaving/leading the grimm towards anyone else. I only want to point out the additional stupidity of fighting them when you’ve already got an unconscious civilian in your care, a barely trained student, and the whole reason you came out here might now be for naught. Yeah, Velvet gets the relay working with her magic kick and yeah, the rest of the team handles the grimm just fine, but none of them are able to see into the future and know that both these events will occur. Gus’ ‘Why are we staying here? It’s dangerous and pointless’ question has merit.

But of course, no one in RWBY would ever consider retreat. It’s a very iffy characteristic at this point. 

We learn — or at least I learn now — that Gus’ semblance is the ability to enhance others’ emotions, so basically the opposite of Ren’s. That would indeed be incredibly handy provided he has good control over it. We get another reference to Yatsuhashi’s “meditation exercises” that helped Gus’ grandfather in the last novel. Velvet theorizes that his improved memory has more to do with Yatsuhashi’s semblance than any generic meditation: “No one knew for sure what Yatsuhashi had done with his Semblance when he’d tried to heal Edward’s mind … even Yatsuhashi wasn’t sure. His ability was to erase memories, but it was possible that there was more to Yatsu’s Semblance than that.” Um… subtle yikes? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad things have turned out well for the guy, but if I were the grandfather—or a family member of his—I wouldn’t really want a student messing around with my mind when he “wasn’t sure” what he was doing. Especially when the base skill is to erase memories, not recover or strengthen them. Honestly, I love taking a good look at fantasy series because half the time you realize how horrifying things actually are, once you strip away the common place aspects of these skills. An equivalent third year college student is running around experimenting with peoples’ memories to see if he can achieve something other than erasing them. Great!

The good thing is that Yatsuhashi is just as suspicious of this power as I am. Velvet things that he “hated messing with people’s minds.” Understandable, bud. I’d hate the ability too.

While they’ve got this time alone, Gus mentions that he had planned to contact Velvet soon anyway. Two of his classmates have gone missing and though his school has told Shade about it—there’s at least some of that additional info that Rumpole mentioned—he wanted to let her know too because remember, no one in this franchise trusts the professionals to fix problems. It’s a mindset I’d better understand if the professionals were actually inept. Or the protagonists weren’t training to be those professionals. It’s still exceedingly weird to me that there’s so little respect and trust for huntsmen while they desperately try to become huntsmen…

Something something broken systems, but RWBY isn’t interested in exploring that. 

So yeah, Gus ropes Velvet in with the hope that she can help. He says that they were last seen attending a new club called Mirage that hosts one-on-one fights for a championship title. So… it’s not really a club, right? Sure, sure, we’ve all seen Fight Club, but generally that’s used to describe dancing, not fighting. It’s a rather misleading term for what they were actually looking for. No one else finds this odd though. Nor that the information was sent out to select, powerful individuals. Nothing shady about this, folks! Velvet obviously recognizes all these details—a club, powerful semblances, a crown in the advertisement—and asks Gus to pass it along to her.

Our plot forwarded ever so slightly, their conversation ends as Arslan calls Velvet on the now fixed connection. One of the first thing she says is that Octavia used the other students as bait for the grimm.

At least Velvet shares my reaction: “What?!”

Octavia then takes an already bad situation and makes it that much worse. Listening in, she defiantly says, “That’s right. And it worked. It’s called strategy.” She confirms that the students are “mostly” okay and taunts Velvet about inviting them to her “Baby Brigade and you can all cry about it!” I hope I don’t need to take up precious document space by explaining how awful this is. Overlooking the fact that these would-be huntsmen are willing to put their younger peers’ lives in danger like that—and then mock them for needing mental health resources after the fact—why is Octavia the one pulling the murderous Mean Girl act? Yeah, she was an asshole during reinitiation, but wasn’t the whole point of that to demonstrate that she and Velvet got a little closer? Even if she won’t admit it? She saved Velvet from flying down that hole, but now she risks the lives of students at least three years her junior? If anyone should be this violent and antagonistic towards Velvet, it’s Nebula. The most she’s done for Velvet is offer a hand up, otherwise we just watched her express glee in getting to fight her and mock her for not abandoning Beacon… the same sort of behavior we’re seeing from Octavia now. Does Myers think that these two characters are interchangeable? That he can just pick one willy-nilly per chapter and let her play at being Velvet’s Mean Girl?

As a lovely anon reminded me recently, these are also the girls that were created and backed by fans. If I had put money and creative energy into these OCs, I’d be pretty frustrated with how the RT team has been treating them.

Arslan at least is complimentary towards Velvet for fixing the relay—“Truly, great work today”— and Velvet herself is appropriately shocked at Octavia’s behavior. That’s more emotional consistency than I’ve come to expect of this book, so I’ll take whatever little bits I can get.

Arslan signs off with plans to meet back up soon and Velvet thinks about how “everyone was safe after the mission, which was no small thing.” I’d agree… except for Velvet’s early thoughts about how easy this mission supposedly was and Octavia’s decision to put her teammates in danger. It sounds like if anything did go sideways, it’s in part because you chose to enter this overconfidently and then actively made it more dangerous.

Finally, the chapter ends with Velvet believing that she might be able to make her new team work with time. Our final line, in its own paragraph is: “If they had time.”

Am I the only one who finds this weird? The line reads like an omniscient bit of foreboding. Velvet thinks about how she just needs time and we, the reader, hear that this won’t be possible. Except this chapter is told from Velvet’s perspective. So why does she think they might not have time? Because of the Crown? I assume there will be an attack towards the end of the novel—can’t have a RWBY story without the final, epic battle—but right now Velvet has no reason to believe that an attack is imminent, or that the teams will change back, or anything else that would interfere with her hopes of strengthening this relationship… so why the rather confident sounding pessimism? I don’t know. I don’t pretend to know anymore lol.

At least this chapter was short? As said, silver linings. We’re still treading water though: Velvet’s bond with her new team seems to have regressed after two missions, rather than improved, and Gus didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know, just further confirmed it. I assume that next chapter Velvet and the others will visit Mirage. Let’s hope something actually happens then. 

See you! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #mymetas #Before the Dawn #BTD Recaps

[theholycovenantrpg]

CONGRATULATIONS, CLAUDIA! YOU’VE BEEN ACCEPTED FOR THE ROLE OF GABRIEL.

Admin Rosey: Wow - this was a terribly difficult decision to make. All the applications for Gabriel were so beautiful. But Claudia, have you no mercy? Gabriel has always held a rather special place within my heart simply because he is so unique unto himself, even among the entire legion of angels. You said it so aptly, but so cruelly: take an angel, give him everything but leave one thing missing. It’s a rather wicked script that one has to follow, isn’t it? But there is something terribly delicious about how this application doesn’t hold back on reading him right to his bones. You saw him for what he was: hunger, hunger, hunger. And you let us know that as well. The details, the small -isms that you gave him granted him such life that I couldn’t say no. Please create and send in your account, review the information on our CHECKLIST, and follow everyone on the FOLLOW LIST. Welcome to the Holy Land!

Alias

claudia

Age

24

Personal Pronouns

she / her

Activity Level

i work full-time but i’m always checking the dash or else staying up to date with plotting in the dms in between replies. and of course weekends are my most active times.

Timezone

gmt+10

Triggers

REMOVED

How did you find the group?  

following a bunch of the wonderful people who were involved in its creation

Current/Past RP Accounts

here

here

IN CHARACTER

Character

gabriel

What drew you to this character?

so gabriel was not the first character that sparked my interest and the aesthete in me is very much compelled to justify in metaphor (you know, the whole “there’s this japanese phrase i like: koi no yokan. not love at first sight but second sight. the feeling that when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. maybe not right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.”). the truth is, i came into thc very much wanting to play a sexy morally ambiguous antagonist and agent of chaos that could wreak havoc and plot death and destruction. admittedly, i had only skimmed gabriel’s bio when it was released.

there’s an ancient roman crying out for blood in the colosseum in everyone that will always be drawn to the dark and the delicious possibility of amorality, because good and evil lies on a spectrum and exploring the shades of grey in between is so much more interesting than delving into a character who positions themselves so firmly at either end and says no, this is me, this is what i am and my conviction will not waver. or, to quote another beloved symbol, idol, champion of the people, that believed so fervently in a cause that the martyrdom nearly killed him, “when the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — “no, you move.””

it is hard to write good. it is hard to take a character that is so infinitely good and compassionate, someone who is motivated by these enormous, intangible concepts like love and justice and peace, and capture them in words.

how do you explain why gabriel loves humans? how do you explain how he still loves them, fights for them, protects them, when everything his brothers and sisters did to him was because the humans dared to love him back? it’d be like asking the question of god himself — why? you claimed to love humans above all and yet you gave the strength, grace and majesty of immortality and wisdom to the angels. they were your firstborn, and humans were the spoiled youngest child. the unruly, overindulged creatures that got away with everything, that sinned and yet were still worthy of salvation.

for most people, gabriel is the first angel they ever learn about. gabriel coming to nazareth, gabriel saying be not afraid as he explains how a human woman will be the genesis of the son of god. he is the first. and understanding why gabriel loves humans, as god did, perhaps even more, comes back to the beginning, too.

gabriel was created the incarnation of hunger. and i am literally obsessed with the concept of ‘hunger’ in it all its forms, literary, cinematically, poetically. it’s fascinating because it’s not a concept that belongs to either good or evil, it’s simply a force, a manifestation of pure instinct. but we so often associate it with evil, and even in the bible, too much hunger is condemned. you could argue that the seven deadly sins are simply just an extrapolation of hunger in its myriad guises. the idea that you could be made perfect — as all angels are — and yet be left with this gaping chasm inside you, this endless hunger, a hunger that demands to be fed and nurtured, sated with divine higher purpose, is like, my literary achilles’ heel. why does gabriel love humans? how could he not? he was made in their image, and they in his.

What future plots do you have in mind for the character?

THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE HOLY LAND.

that thing i said about wanting to play a sexy character? well gabriel being the sun and the third arm of the governing body that rules over the holy land is extremely sexy. it’s a shame he doesn’t much care for it. oh, he likes the concept of being a key guardian of freedom and peace across the new world but power holds no sway over him. and ironically that’s what makes him so inherently powerful. gabriel was the natural choice for the sun — beloved by humans, martyred for his love and sacrifices for them — he’d already burned for so long, so quietly, in service of bringing justice to the world. but gabriel has never needed a title to serve. he was born a messenger, a soldier, he has never needed a crown.

and despite what they say, heavy is the head, it is a crown perfectly made for him. the sun — illuminating and all-consuming, the source of all life and light in the world — is all-seeing. all-powerful. gabriel learned at god’s side what it means to rule. and a messenger is not so different from a prophet, from an orator. when he speaks, the world listens.

gabriel is well aware that michael sees the tridium power as child’s play, and their brotherhood as a means to influence the tridium, and thus the entirety of the holy land. power feeds and power corrupts and the lack of it will drive people like his brothers to insatiable madness. gabriel used to play peacemaker amongst his brothers, always defending the mortals or softening the aftermath of their fathers’ worst outbursts. now, as the sun, he stands above them. it is not a position he ever campaigned for but he’d won it all the same by democracy. the angel of the people, the sun of the holy land. he’s never pressed his influence over his brothers, always careful to tread the line of how his title benefits them and advances caelum’s purposes — celestial beings have always done things in three, after all. do i want to see him flex that power and unleash the full weight of his influence and majesty and just go absolutely supernova ham? of course. but it will take more that some sibling bickering and infighting to spark that wildfire. i don’t know yet what that spark would be, whether it’s demons meddling in tridium business or some political shift in the paradigm, but gabriel is not someone you want to cross.

do not mistake his kindness for weakness. the sun gives life as easily as it can set it ablaze.

LOYALTY WILL BE THE LAST BASTION TO CRUMBLE.

now this is entirely dependent on the dynamic of the three, in particular whoever is elected as the stars, but i see the tridium as a wildcard amidst all the vacillating allegiances and power plays of the holy land.

gabriel believes in the true purpose of the tridium, he believes each faction is entitled to equal authority over protecting the peace and future of the holy land. a true system of checks and balances, a democracy that amplifies the voices of the weak and powerless and upholds the cause of the vulnerable and the oppressed. whether that’s in the political interests of azazel and the future stars remains to be seen.

from the very beginning, gabriel would have been vitally curious about azazel. his former sister, a fallen angel. it is not his place to forgive, but he forgives nonetheless, as god would have. if he was not a thing made of hunger, the way she was a thing made of desire, maybe he would have fallen, too. he, more than anyone, had the right to fall. but he didn’t, and she did, and she’s done quite well for herself in the millennia since. finding herself a new throne, new family, even a new brother to dote upon her. in spite of his instincts and the holiness that riots in his veins against the thought of colluding with demons, even under the new testament, he understands. he doesn’t blame her. so, i will leave this entirely tbd for plotting but i could see either a strange, inexplicable friendship between them or a playful, vicious dynamic with an underlying current of empathy.

in many ways the moon and the stars will be the closest people gabriel has to true equals. he is no longer purely archangel, he is other. he must represent the interests of all of the holy land. trusting them would be folly, but unlike the ages of old, the name of the game is no longer a zero-sum winner takes all scenario. if the peace fails, the world will crumble into bedlam. is it a doomed act, attempting to balance the three factions upon the scales of peace? perhaps. perhaps they are playing a losing game, betting against the house, delaying the inevitable. it would be one thing to manipulate the balance of power between them, feeding the poison of their faction into their governance. it would be another if any one of their factions actually won.

why did they call themselves the sun, the moon, the stars? because they are figureheads, above all. symbols of caelum, infernum, the holy land. their factions all believe them to be puppets, leverage for their own political hunger and thirst for power. they are not blind. if either of their sides emerges from an inevitable all out war situation, what will happen to them? crownless, purposeless, no kingdom left to rule. certainly not a kingdom that will be theirs.

azazel wants to be worshipped. gabriel wants to burn until righteousness has scoured all evil from the holy land. the stars will inevitably be someone equally chaotic. they’re all that stands between the holy land and desolation. it’s like the perfect office workplace drama set-up. i would like to see it.

HUNGER IS THE MOST HUMAN THING OF ALL

throughout time, gabriel has had his favourites. he’s his father’s son, after all. zacharias, mary, noah. if these were the ages of old, he might have counted revna among those ranks. if gabriel were not an immortal angel, this would be called having a friend. but because gabriel is who he is, he considers them more like wards. like he’s taken it upon himself to be their self-appointed guardian angel.

it’s lonely being an instrument of god, and now the sun of the holy land, like what do you imagine he does after a long day of work? relax? of course not. so having a friend is nice. and having someone he can talk to, free of all the baggage and weight of being who they are, is like a glimpse of the peace he hasn’t known since before he had wings.

with revna, as with every mortal he had ever taken under his golden wings, he swallows any thought of just how mortal they are. how short-lived. in a blink, she will die. in another, her name will be forgotten, nothing more than a memory imprinted in a lonely angel’s mind. he tries not to think too much about mortality, or the whims and follies of mortals, the lengths they will go to in the name of survival that he has never dreamed. their freedom is predicated on living long enough to taste it. is it such a crime to want to live? for all their limitless powers and immortality, no angel and demon will ever know what that feels like — the sheer, visceral incandescence of burning so fleeting but so brilliant that to die is nothing. to live is the ultimate choice.

also… their powers are literally antithetical to each other. revna creates reality for all the senses, and gabriel deadens them. hello, let’s talk about that!

i’ll keep this brief or else i’ll spend days spiralling into interesting tangents and possibilities but other than the archangels and select few higher-ranking angels are aware of his powers. they think he doesn’t have any. to reveal this aspect of himself, a bearing of something like his true self or maybe even a soul, would be very spicy. in case anyone needs a reminder that all angels are terrifying and just because gabriel is pretty and warm like the sun, you shouldn’t believe he is anything less than terror carved into the sublime.

SO THIS IS HOW LIBERTY DIES. WITH THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE.

this is the darkest timeline plot where i throw a dice just to see where it lands. i don’t see gabriel deviating too much from his course, because he is the tree (planted by the river, if you remember the earlier quote), and he will destroy himself before he has to bend or break beneath the whims of external chaos.

of course, it’s fun to the think about the hypotheticals so i’m going to do that. if the tridium falls, where does that leave gabriel? and to whom will his allegiances lie? if michael or raphael are the cause, would he stand beside caelum all the same? gabriel loves humans because he wants to; he loves his siblings because they are his blood and bone. rip to the angels but you and the mortals are not the same.

he’s also seen how the holiness of the angels have been twisted and warped over time, through countless wars and inimitable suffering, yes. but they’ve changed nonetheless. some amongst them are closer to their fallen brethren than anyone would ever dare to admit but gabriel sees all. he was the angel they left to rot in the farthest corners of heaven, he was the one whose wings were torn, not by enemies of heaven but by his own brothers. and he did not fall. so either gabriel is made of stronger stuff than all the angels or he is the dumbest of them all. it’s very likely both. his faith in the existence of the angels is resolute, unwavering after all this time. his righteousness has burned for a thousand years and it will burn a thousand more until the sun swallows everything and all things cease to exist. if he has to turn against brother and sister, as they did with him, and unquestioningly at that, then he will.

he has sworn to smite any creature that will strike down an innocent before him, and whether angel or demon, it’s a quest that he will pursue to its ruinous end.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character?

yes, preferably by going supernova in a blaze of gory and carnage.

IN DEPTH

Driving Character Motivation

it all comes back to hunger, baby. let’s do this as a thought exercise. imagine god in his build-a-bear workshop for angels creating gabriel like he’s pandora’s box:

take an angel, give him everything but leave one thing missing.

don’t tell him what it is.

teach him the hole inside him is called hunger and that hunger is love, hunger is sacrifice, hunger is knowing that the kingdom of heaven is empty and god is not enough.

take an angel, give him hunger, and then wonder why he becomes more human than human.

gabriel is driven by the insatiable wanting in him to do good. i will note that it is, in a fact, a want and not a need because this in itself is the thing that distinguishes him from his brothers. in a way, falling in love with humanity was an act of free will, and thus an act of defiance. god wanted him to protect his children, yes, but he had never intended for him to enjoy it. he had never foreseen that gabriel, filled with compassion and thirst for justice, would come to empathise with the humans. he never could have imagined that creating an angel out of pure hunger could make him more akin to human than divine. and that was god’s mistake. it’s the mistake of anyone that looks at him and sees weakness — why would a creature so powerful deign to care for humanity? why should he care if they live or die, or wage war or hurt each other? — they imagine that his relentless pursuit of a better world is because he was made for it. no, gabriel chose this world. he chose to strike down god and tear his throne down with his teeth. he chose remake the world better, brighter, braver.

and as god will tell you, beware any that dare stand in his way.

Character Traits

INCANDESCENT — there isn’t really a word that captures gabriel’s essence other than in terms of sunlight and burning. being near him is like turning skywards and feeling of the sun on your face. he is radiant, and charismatic and magnetic, and it ignites a sort of hunger in you to be close to him, to listen to him speak, to tell him everything about you and answer any question he asks, if only to be in his presence for a little longer. to be under the shade of his attention is like being pinpointed at the center of the universe. it’s gratifying, and incredibly intoxicating, being given the sole focus of one of the most powerful beings in the holy land. for a moment, you are the one, and everything else falls away into shadow. but of course, reality snaps back and everything and everyone is simply whirling around in orbit of gabriel, the sun.

COMPASSIONATE — before he was the sun, he was the archangel of the people, the guardian of humans and the champion of god’s most beloved children. out of all the angels, gabriel was the one who took pains to mean it when he said be not afraid. he wore their skin and learned to smile like humans — with the eyes, not just with the mouth — because it would comfort them instead of scare them. as a former messenger, gabriel’s also an excellent listener. he gives excellent advice, too, being naturally sympathetic to the plights and suffering of anyone he meets. he hates injustice and wrongdoing and if it’s in his power, he’ll do anything to help you rectify your circumstances. he’s a very giving person, and despite his various duties and responsibilities, he’s willing to go to the ends of the earth for someone if he believes it’s a cause worth serving.

SELF-RIGHTEOUS — the other side of the embodiment righteousness coin. because when you have a creature as all-powerful and driven as gabriel is, his morality is absolute. there is no room for grey or doubt in the eyes of the self-proclaimed moral compass of the holy land. good and evil lie on a spectrum but gabriel will play the trinity himself if that’s what it takes: judge, jury and executioner.

GRACIOUS. UNYIELDING. SPITEFUL.

In-Character Para Sample

Heaven is cold, if you could believe it. There are places in the kingdom of God where the sun holds no dominion. No, everything here is ruled by and under Him. His omniscience and omnipotence is all. His kingdom is coldest where light shies from the darkness, held at bay by the divine liminality of here and nothingness. You cannot define a space that is simply nothing, simply an absence. An abyss would be too poetic a word for it, this black hole spinning ad infinitum into the dark, soaking up every molecule of anything that could be constituted as being. It is a nothingness. It is a forever of nothingness.  

This is where they keep their prisoners.

If you imagine God to be cruel, consider for a moment what he does to his own children.

It could be a month, it could be a millennia, that has passed since they cast him into the shadows of Heaven and left him here. Not to rot, or decay, but to exist; the cruellest punishment of all. Suspended in a vacuum of seeing, feeling, hearing, touching, tasting, a mockery of his own abilities. In the realms of hell, they might call this purgatory. The architects of Heaven would never deign to give a place like this a name.

Gabriel counts seconds and minutes here and there to pass time. A mindless, thoughtless exercise that intrudes upon the endless, desolate stretch of infinity. It keeps him from thinking about his wings and how he might never fly again.

There is no air here to fly, to surge up and taste wind between his feathers. He’s thankful for it — perhaps the only godforsaken grace he’s been granted, a pitiful stroke of thoughtless mercy — if only because it means he cannot attempt it. He thinks if he were to try, wings screaming for clemency, searing fire along his back and down his chest, and fall, that would be the last of him. And if there is nothing left of Gabriel, what would that make him? A creature of divine agony and writhing torment. A monster better suited to hell. If he could claw his way out of the unseeable and untouchable bars of this prison, perhaps he would see that Lucifer had been right.

God was weak. He deserved to be struck down. He deserved to have everything taken from him, as he had taken everything from them.

In the embrace of the void, Gabriel oscillates through every emotion at his disposal. Humanity taught him a great deal about feeling. How hatred and loathing simmered like poison in the blood; how the blaze of fury clawing up your throat could incinerate reason and logic; how love was a form of magic, a trace of stolen divinity pressed between the lips of mortals, enveloped in bodies and hands and kisses. Gabriel did not understand love the way humans did. His love was a consuming thing, a devotion like worship. Like self-immolation. He loved God because that was what he was made for. He loved his brothers because he fought and bled for them, because they were carved from the same grace and streak of lightning crackling through the heavens.

He did not know if he loved God the way humans loved him. They had never seen him, never felt his magnanimous smile or the great vastness of his presence, and yet they believed. They believed so fully, so viscerally, they would die for him anyway. They lived their tiny, fleeting lives grasping for the sky, dreaming and hoping of one day seeing him.

Gabriel saw God all the time, but his love was a necessity to him like existence. It was not a choice.

Did that make it lesser? Was it less true because humans chose and he did not?

Sometimes, he sits here, floating in the forgotten recesses of Heaven’s prison, and wonders if maybe God had truly made a mistake. Why give the angels everything, but free will? Why give the humans nothing and only free will? It was inexplicable, the ultimate riddle wrapped in an enigma, obscured by God’s will and word, that the angels had been asking since Adam and Eve and the garden.

In the time he floats, wavering between ire and despondence, rage and bitterness, he thinks he finds the answer. — The reason why God loved humans above all. The reason why he’d chosen them, blessed them, forgiven them.

Humanity was given the choice. And they had chosen God, in spite of everything.

If he had granted the angels the same freedom, would they have chosen Him?

Extras

PINTEREST.

#accepted #accepted: gabriel

[mayareth]

One last time

This is my very first angst fic! It’s a very long one (maybe too long?) and it’s certainly full of grammar mistakes, sorry for that! Tell me if you spot some. I hope this will please you! This fic is inspired by a prompt @spades-and-hearts posted on Discord some times ago.

Characters involved: MC, Lancelot, Jonah.

Type: Angst.

Warnings: Important characters death, suicide, murder.

Words count: 4798

Note: Switching POV between Lancelot and Alice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I never wanted to become so close to her. But that happened. She got too deep into my heart and I gave in to temptation. As I looked at her, sleeping peacefully in my bed, right next to me, I can't help but think that's not right. I can't and I will never make her happy. I’m the Beautiful Beast, after all, that’s what people say, no? Well, they’re right. My so-called heart of stone stir but it seems I have no choice. I kissed her one last time, the only woman I’ve ever loved, knowing that I will always remember that precious night she spent in my arms and that was all I needed.

I gently covered her eyes with my hand, softly whispering in her ear.

”I would give you all the joy I’ve ever had to make you happy and I will be hoping for your happiness forevermore, from this world. I’m sorry, darling, but this is for your own good.”

A halo enveloped her as my eyes turned crimson.

”Let’s all memory of Lancelot Kingsley vanish from Alice’s mind. Memories, be gone.”

I added one last part to ensure her happiness

”Find love and joy in the arms of a man who will truly love you and take good care of you. May you find this special someone very soon.”

As I removed my hand from her face, I felt a single tear rolling down my right cheek. I quickly wiped it with my sleeve and got ready for the ultimate reunion with the high-ranked members of the Red Army. Now, I have to focus on the clash with the Black Army.

At the end of the meeting, I had asked Jonah, my most loyal man, who became really close to our unexpected guest during the last month, to take care of Alice for me. I called her by her name one time in my life, I would never do this again. It would give her way too much importance.

”But King Lancelot! That would mean I can't take part in the battle! As your right-hand man, it’s my duty to fight at your side!”

The Queen pouted but I knew he was secretly happy to have been given this task. I knew she would be in good hands. No one in this army was more delicate than Jonah.

****

Jonah was chosen to accompany me to the Garden. I had a strange feeling since this morning, waking up in a room that wasn't mine with a fuzzy mind. Certainly the thought of leaving this world I had learned to appreciate. As I rode with Jonah, my arms firmly put around his waist, I wasn't so sure I wanted to go back to London, to my comfortable but boring life. I remember our time together, cooking for the army, helping me to chose how to get dressed, sometimes even doing shopping together in the streets of the Central Quarter. I could enjoy his sweet perfume before the air becomes filled with the scent of roses.

”Wow, that's really beautiful!”

The sunset was tainting the manicured garden in shades of red and orange. It was like it was on fire. Red and white roses gave added a romantic touch to the atmosphere. As Jonah invited me to sit beside him, what I reluctantly do, not wanted to damage this beautiful place, I looked at the sky. I will soon be home again. But is that still what I consider to be my home?

”Seems we have some time to kill”

The soft voice of the porcelain featured man brought me back to reality.

”I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Cradle. The Red Headquarters are going to look empty without you. Who will cook with me for King Lancelot when you’ll be gone?”

King Lancelot? I only met him in the hallways I think. And did Jonah say he was going to be lonely without me?

”I don't care about King Lancelot, we weren't very close anyway. What I really liked was to be with you, Jonah. Not only cooking, but I will also remember every little moment we’ve spent together, talking, dancing and everything else.”

My sweet talking had made the Queen’s cheek turning bright red.

”Will you accept a last present from me?”

A present? How could I say no to this? I smiled brightly at him.

”Of course I will!”

I was surprised to see him standing up and walking toward the flower bed, only to come back with a single white rose. It felt like I already experienced something like this but I didn't give it a second thought. Jonah’s gracious fingers put one of my hair locks behind my ear as well as the rose.

”You look perfect. I’m going to miss taking care of your hair. No, not only that, I’m simply going to miss you.”

It wasn't like him to be so honest about his feelings. I felt my cheeks burning as I put my hand over his.

”I’m going to miss you too, Jonah.”

He looked deeply at me.

”Do you know the meaning of the white rose in flower language?”

I think I’ve read something about it in a novel. A promised wedding? Maybe it’s not the same here.

”You’re the only one for me”

What? I froze at the serious tone Jonah choose to adopt.

”That’s... That’s what it means?”

”Yes. I’m sorry to tell you that only now, knowing it would only make your way back more difficult but I had to say it. You made my days brighter than they have ever been. I love you.”

I felt my face getting wet with tears. How? How is that possible? I’m living in a fairy tale. I am a cursed princess, no doubt about it.

”I... I...”

”I’m sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you with my stupid feelings, just forget what I said”

Jonah looked sad, hurt.

”Look at me, Jonah. Can’t you see? I love you too!”

A bright smile illuminated his slightly red face. How could I hadn't noticed how I felt about him sooner?

”Really? Can I kiss you goodbye so?”

I cupped his cheeks.

”You can kiss me but not as a goodbye. More as the beginning of something new. I’m staying. I will fight by your side, no matter what, we will never be separated again.”

In an instant, his soft lips were on mine, giving me the lightest kiss I could ever receive. When we parted, I immediately wanted more and it was a shared feeling as he claimed my lips again, his tongue soon demanding entrance. We stayed in each other arms, sitting on the freshly cut grass for what seemed to last for an eternity. When the full moon rose in the dark sky, Jonah asked me one last time if I was sure to stay in Cradle.

”It’s going to be dangerous you know. War is never a beautiful thing to see. You might be hurt or even die.”

I stopped him, raising a hand to grip his.

”I know nothing is going to happen to me as long as I am by your side. I want to help you. I will be with Kyle at the infirmary so I can stay safe at the headquarters. Feeling better now?”

We shared one last kiss before heading to the Central Quarter to begin the fight. I turn my back to my past only to begin something new here. I don't care what horrors I will have to face as long as I can see the Queen of my Heart every day when I wake up for the rest of my life.

****

I would never have imagined they would get so close. I was surprised when I saw them arrived together on the battlefield but even more when I spotted them kissing during the party held to celebrate peace and the victory of the combined forces from the Black and the Red sides.

”I would never have guessed these two would end up together.”

Sirius patted me on the shoulder.

”Me neither”

I sighed. I thought I had lost my heart years ago. Now that I could feel it bleeding in my chest, I knew I was wrong.

”Are you alright Lance? You look like you're about to cry”

The Queen of Spades gave me a concerned look. Me, the emotionless King of Hearts, was I really looking so pained publicly?

”Don’t worry Sirius, I’m just a bit tired. Those war days have been exhausting.”

My old friend gazed at me as if he could read my mind as well as my broken heart.

”There is something else, I know you better than you think Lance.”

A sad smile appeared on my face. Even after all those years, he was still able to read me like an open book.

”It’s Alice. She has changed. She is more emotional and had nearly eaten nothing tonight. That's not like her, something must be wrong but I don't know what.”

”Stop worrying, Lance. Jealousy never brings objective thoughts. As I remember how you were in high school, you must have rejected her saying that you weren't good enough for her, am I right? You can only blame yourself now. You wanted her to be happy, right? Now, look at her. She shines more than the moon itself. I still don't like the Cling of Hearts but I really think he has the power to make her life beautiful. Stop being so sad now.”

As I gazed to the clear starry sky, I murmured to myself.

”If only... Unfortunately, I think that's far more complicated than just a little crush.”

***

The war hasn't lasted long. Red and Black, thanks to Zero, who had been reporting to the ”enemy” about the Magic Tower and how he thought the mysterious institution was behind the moves of the Red Army. The two parts came to an agreement after the King of Hearts explained how the leader of the Magic Tower, Amon, was manipulating him to gain control of all of Cradle. Soon enough, the joined forces defeated the institution and were now working on building a peaceful world after 500 years of conflict. As for me, I was feeling rather sick those days, maybe due to all the pressure I’ve been under through the last two months. I was now officially the girlfriend of the Queen of Hearts and was treated as such. As soon as I needed something, a soldier was here for me. I learned that a lot of men from the Red Army belonged to a group called ”The Heart Defenders” that was admiring Jonah. My boyfriend seems to be the only person in those headquarters to be oblivious to these soldiers though...

Everything was fine until one morning, I woke up with a stomach unable to digest the yet light supper I had the previous evening.

”That’s enough darling, you barely eat and now you can't even assimilate the nutrients you need. You have to see a doctor today.”

Jonah was scolding me but I could tell he was more worried than angry.

”You speak like Kyle when he is not drunk...”

I was sure it wasn't anything serious, I’ve just been stressed lately, telling me I would feel better next week. If only I had known...

”Alice, what are the symptoms you’ve been experiencing lately?”

Kyle's face was more serious than I’ve never seen as he was examining me.

”Well, I’ve lost my appetite, I feel rather tired and I’ve been subjected to morning sickness those last days. There is nothing to worry about, I regularly feel like this after getting through hard times.”

The usually calm doctor’s face turned pale.

”One... One last question, miss. What about your periods?”

My periods... Let's see.

”Now that you mention it, I think I skipped this month. That happens sometimes but that's pretty rare.”

That's when it hit me.

”Wait, Kyle, are you telling me... I might be...”

When the red-haired man nodded, I suddenly felt the world crumbling under my feet. I had to sit on a chair to avoid fainting in the middle of the infirmary.

Expectant. I was going to be a mother.

”You’re about two months pregnant Alice. Congratulations. Should I tell the father to come here or would you rather telling him the news by yourself later?”

I could clearly see that Kyle was as shocked as I was. I was totally lost. I’ve been with Jonah for about two months so it's technically possible for him to be the father but that was so quick! Besides, I haven't shared the bed of any other man since I arrived in Cradle. How am I going to tell him? We are not even married and I know traditions are really important in the Clemence family. I was still lost in my thoughts when the door cracked open, revealing a pair of worried golden eyes.

Kyle and I turned looked at each other, then at Jonah.

”Well... I believe congratulations are in order.”

The doctor spoke first, awkwardly scratching the back of his head before gazing through the window and eventually leaving the room. I couldn’t meet my lover’s gaze, feeling guilty although a baby needs two people to be created. I hadn't realized I was crying until I felt the delicate hand of the Queen of Hearts on my cheek.

”Don’t cry, darling, that's not the best moment but it's still a wonderful new! And this baby, the fruit of our love, will be born into a peaceful world. So please, don't look so sorry. I’ll be here to cheer you up, reminding you that the future Lady Clemence always has to keep her head up because she is perfect.”

I rose my head to have a proper look at his face and saw all the emotion his eyes were holding. A moment later, his lips were on mine, giving me the sweetest kiss in the world so that I knew we were going to make it through this and that nothing would be able to stop the Clemence family. Our little bubble.

***

I shouldn't be THAT startled to hear cries of pain. Nine months have passed and Alice’s baby decided to discover our cruel world today, on a bright day of September. I tried to stay focused on my paperwork but it didn't matter how hard I tried, it was impossible. I finally gave up to check on my nervous right-hand man.

”Do you think she will be alright my King? I know I shouldn't bother you with my worries but...”

I put a hand in the air to stop him.

”Calm down, Jonah. Alice is with Kyle and some of the best midwives in Cradle. Everything will be fine.”

I tried to reassure him but I wasn't that confident either. My head was full of that ”What if...?” questions and the heat of the end of summer was making the air unbearable. I began to pace the hall, waiting for some news as Jonah was getting closer and closer to fainting at every scream of his wife. Edgar and Zero came to check regularly but they didn't seem to be as edgy as their two superiors. Why am I feeling like this? She is not mine anymore. Why am I that concern with that baby's well-being or even with his mother's health? We barely see each other at meetings or around the table. Suddenly, the screaming stopped, replaced by the sounds of a crying baby. Jonah got up at the right moment when a midwife opened the door.

”It’s a healthy baby boy! Congratulations!”

Jonah was on the verge of tears as he turned to me before entering the infirmary.

”Do you want to see him, my King? As the godfather of this child, you might even want to hold him.”

Godfather? I don't know how I was feeling about this title. A mix of pride and jealousy maybe? I followed the Queen of Hearts to discover an exhausted but shining young woman. As I approached the bed to have a proper look at the newborn Clemence, it hit me. Something is wrong. I might be mistaken but that's not Jonah’s baby...

***

”Leander, come back here!”

My five years old little boy looked at me mischief reflecting in his blue eyes as he continued to run.

”Mama, I don't want to eat millefeuille! Papa really has weird tastes, sweets from Uncle Edgar are better than... Hey!”

A tall man grabbed him by the wrist, pulling the little boy in his strong arms.

”Found you! You should listen to your mother and behave correctly on your father’s birthday.”

Leander pouted a little before bursting out laughing when the man as blond as the child started to tickle him.

”Promise to be kind or I won’t stop!”

”I promise, Godfather, I promise, please stop now haha!”

I smiled as I watched the two of them being so close. Since Leander’s birth, Lancelot was spending a lot of time with his godson, even allowing him to come playing in his office.

”Now go, and don't forget the present we made together for your father!”

The King finally put the child on the floor again, messing Leander’s blond hair and winking at him before walking away.

”Wait, we have to give him together! Papa will be very happy if we do, Godfather!”

But Lancelot was already too far and didn't hear the little boy.

”Come with me, Leander. You can give your present to your father tonight with your godfather if you want but he seems to be busy right now.”

My son turned to me, his icy blue gaze full of sadness, making me want to hug him tightly.

”Mama, I want to give Papa his birthday cake with his afternoon tea so it has to be now!”

Before I had realized what was happening, Leander’s eyes turned crimson and he disappeared. Wait. Hold on for a fucking minute. How in the world can he do something like this??? I hurried to Lancelot’s office, the place I was sure to find answers. I had seen this gaze somewhere before. But when? That's when I entered the room and saw my son sitting on the King’s lap that it came back straight into my mind.

”You remember, do you?”

Lancelot asked me, reading my thoughts.

I felt the world spinning as all my memories were coming back. My life here was based on lies. I had to sit down before fainting. The tall man asked his godson to leave, promising to give Jonah his birthday cake with him. As soon as the door was closed, I spoke, at the verge of tears.

”Why? Why did you do something like this Lance?”

”Isn’t it obvious? I did it for you. I wanted you to be happy with a better man than me. I wasn't expecting you to fall for my right-hand man but I accepted it, as painful as it was for me. As it is still now. I would only have hurt you.”

”Hurt me?! What am I now Lancelot? You haven't only LIED to me, but to everyone! Why do you always have to fight alone?!”

My tone was full of rage. I loved him. I trusted him. But he spoiled everything. I adored my husband but now, I had to deal with my past and some old feelings. I clenched my hands into fists as I listened to what he had to say.

”I wasn't planning on you getting pregnant, Alice, that's true. But now, look, you are married and have a family! That's enough to make me satisfied.”

The rain started to fall outside, the droplets hitting on the windows, covering the sounds from the exterior.

”How can you say things like that? I love you, I would have married you, you have a son that doesn't even know you're his father but is conscious that he is closer to you than to Jonah. Why do you always have to make things more complicated than life is already?”

Through my wet eyes, I hadn't noticed he had gotten closer to me. I was still sobbing when he ran his thumb across my cheek, wiping away my tears.

”I hate you and I love you in the meantime but I didn't notice those feelings before because of the spell you cast on me. How can you be so cruel?”

His hand grabbed my chin, forcing me to peer through his eyes, reflecting all the suffering he had bear during those last five years, even more.

”I’m so sorry...”

I didn't let him finish. I kissed him, knowing that we will both regret this afterwards. I wanted to feel all of him, to make up for the lost time. To forget everything for an instant. He kissed me back, telling me he had the same wish. I knew I was acting like a fool, without thinking and that I would regret it. But I wanted to bring back some memories.

”I’m sorry our son has inherited my magical abilities. It will only bring him problems.”

I shook my head, my forehead still against his.

”Not when he has a father as strong as you, Lance. He took a lot more from you than his powers you know.”

The King smiled, a grin holding a hint of sadness somehow.

”And for Jonah? How is he going to react if he learns Leander is not his son?”

That's when a broken sound reasoned in the office.

***

”Enough now! I’ve heard enough! When were you planning on telling me?!”

The high voice of the Queen of Hearts was crackling under a mix of anger and sadness, the broken teacup he was holding laying at his feet.

”Jonah, that's not how it is! I’ve just remembered now, I swear! Please calm down.”

Alice's face was twisted in fear and in panic while it took me all I got to remain calm.

”Jonah, listen carefully please, all of this wasn't planned and Alice...”

”STOP!!! I was trusting you, both of you! My life was yours... How? How could you do this to me ON MY BIRTHDAY?!”

The golden eyes of my subordinate burned with rage, the tears that filled them not enough to extinguish the fire in them.

”When I saw Leander pouting, telling me that you two were preparing a surprise for me without him, I would never have thought it was, in reality, a true betrayal. I... I...”

Suddenly, he pulled out his sword and I immediately did the same.

”Jonah, don't do something you would regret.”

”I already regret to be born. My whole life was dedicated to serving the very same people who were going to harm me in the worst way possible in the end.”

A certain madness in the two ambers that were gazing at me made me freeze. I felt chills running down my spine.

”King Lancelot, for whom I could have given my life, my heart and my soul, I challenge you to a duel.”

”And I accept”

I responded, without moving my sword away nor tearing my eyes apart from his. The tension in the air was thick. A single spark and everything would explode.

”Stop it, both of you, please!”

Alice pleading voice made my opponent and myself focused our gaze on the only woman in the room. Guilt was written all over her face. Shock and anxiety too. I wanted to hug her so badly, telling her everything would be alright. But I couldn't do that nor lie to her again.

”Don’t you dare to come between us now! You’re responsible for this. Can't you see how you broke my heart? Just look at this teacup, it's all the same! You’re my wife, I thought you were my soulmate. You promised to love me and to stay true to me when we married, remember? Now what? Stay away from this, you’ve caused enough damages.”

She was so pale I thought she might collapse here and now. Alice was trembling, her legs barely keeping her up.

”This is a fight between two men, Alice. Jonah is right, don't intervene. This will soon be settled. Shall we begin?”

As soon as I finished to speak, Jonah’s dagger was at my throat. I quickly whirled and used magic to pushed him back. His head slammed against my desk badly, creating a deep cut in his forehead. That didn't stop him. Jonah ran straight into me, nearly stabbing me in the right arm.

”You had everything! Everything! A kingdom, people here to serve you, loving parents and friends. You’ve never had to go through harassment to protect a little brother that doesn't even bother to talk to you now! No! It wasn't enough, you had to take my wife too!”

I’ve never seen him in such a poor state. He was like a madman, swinging his blade without any logic in the air. It was like he was possessed by a demon, not the kind of Edgar, more likely Amon. My foot slipped on the tea Jonah had spilt a few minutes before and in an instant, I was lying on the floor. The surprise effect took me longer than it should to get up. It was too late.

”I’m sorry my King, but I must do this.”

Jonah’s sword was aimed right at my throat and in a movement, I understood it was over.

”NOOO!!!”

Alice leapt between Jonah and me right when the Queen of Hearts was about to cut me. Instead of my blood, her own crimson liquid was now staining my clothes.

”Alice!!!”

She was laying on the floor, unconscious, bathing in her own blood, a deep cut in her throat providing all the red substance that was staining her clothes. Furious, I jumped at Jonah’s throat, my hands firmly pressed at each side of his delicate neck. The more he struggled, the more I added pressure. I totally lost control of myself as I was yelling at him, my voice similar to the cry of a wounded animal.

”You killed her! You murderer! You possessed doll! It was your wife and the love of my life! If you had followed my orders and let her go to her own world five years ago, everything would still be fine! Why were you always so proud and stubborn and selfish and...”

I stopped right away, noticing he didn't move anymore.

”Jonah? Jonah, answer to me! Jonah!!!”

Tears started to run down my cheeks as my hands were trembling. I let go of the now dead body that was I was responsible for. I slowly got up, then, I sat at my desk, writing everything that happened and asking Sirius and Luka to take care of Leander. Finally, I opened a compartment and pulled out the letter I wrote when I discovered Alice’s child was also mine. It was addressed to Leander, explaining everything to him. When I heard voices and footsteps getting close to the door, I glanced one last time at two of the people I loved the most lying on the crimson floor, whispering to me:

”You’re the Beautiful Beast, everything you touch end like this, ruined and dead. You don't deserve to live anymore unless you want to see all the people you love in such a pitiful state.”

Someone knocked at the door and I recognized Edgar and Zero’s voices. That's it, this is the end.

”I’m sorry Leander, Sirius, everyone. Please forgive me.”

I positioned my hands on both sides of my head while my eyes turned crimson one last time. I focused to concentrate enough magic to do my duty and all went white.

One last time, I felt sorry. One last time I suffered. One last time, I killed a man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not really confident about this but it was good to practice my English in long writing. I’ll try to write angst again soon and to test my skills at NSFW too! Apparently, I’m posting this in the middle of the Angst Revolution but that's a coincidence xD

Tagging @saphyhowl @pianoperson @xathia-89 @lovingikesen @muggzc @lovingsiriusoswald @jonahswife @toloveawarlord @plumpblueberry @kiarigirl @alloveroliver-ash @theundyingskeleton @spades-and-hearts @hejer-maomao

#I wanted to kill them all because one dead body is not enough #still don't find this emotional enough #go learn more vocabulary #I procrastinated two months on this xgcdgbjvc #what am I doing with my life #hope it pleases you though #ikerev #jonah clemence #lancelot kingsley #alice #first time writing angst #angst #my writing

[webcricket]

Remember Rio; or, What is Love

Characters: CastielXReader ft. Dean Winchester

Word Count: 1984

Summary: Castiel has some hesitations early on in your relationship. Thankfully Dean is there to kick him in the ass. One confused celestial, non-explicit talk about sex, cowboys, and kisses.

Dean hoists a dry-rot ridden wooden box to waist-level and hurls it unceremoniously at the floor. The container collapses in on itself upon impact, contents skittering amok in a cloudburst of dust.

Several of the larger knickknacks cease their tumble at Castiel’s feet. He doesn’t bother to look down, too absorbed in inner turmoil of thought to pay any heed to them or Dean’s growing frustration.

The hunter isn’t annoyed about the frantic search through someone else’s collection of crap, it’s in the job description. What he is annoyed about is the angel’s brooding. And Cas happens to still be standing in the exact same spot he dallied in the last time Dean turned around from his present task of tossing a storage shelf in this dimly lit basement in search of some a cursed trinket Sam said they absolutely positively needed to destroy to save the world. Dean has as yet unspoken reservations about the merit’s of his brother’s claim and the moping celestial both. He picks up a delicate vase next – an intricate pattern of pink flowers and thin bright green vines laces the rim – and intentionally drops it arching a speculative brow when the angel doesn’t so much as flinch at the tinkle of shattering porcelain.

Boiling impatience pries apart the bite of the hunter’s tongue. “What the hell, man?” he grumbles. “Are you planning to just stand there all night or are you gonna help me find this damn totem?”

Cas blinks, blues resolving into focus on his friend. “Sorry, I was thinking about the other night.” The other night in question being the night of your third official date with the angel and the very same night you jumped his celestially articulated bones only to have him proceed to politely excuse himself mid-makeout session just when things got heated enough to warrant the peeling off of clothing, leaving you winded, wanton, and clutching his trench coat.

“Come on, you’ve been thinking for three days about something that requires zero thought and all the action.” Dean quells a reflexive roll of his greens, stepping over the glittering shards to clasp him roughly by the shoulder. “What are you so worried about anyway? You’ve done the deed before. With that reaper-” Dean scratches at his chin. “Amy, no-”

The angel respires a beleaguered sigh as Dean runs through a list of potential names. Cas has been trying to winnow down the reasons why he fled for days. It’s not because he’s a fully-functional powered-up angel of the Lord again and all the supposed sexlessness that formality entails. He’s equipped to satisfy a partner in every way a human can, and divinely more. He’s definitely physically attracted to you, so his vessel becoming aroused isn’t a barrier. He wants to please you any way he can, and he understands it’s clear you want to take the relationship to the next step in pursuit of that pleasure. No matter how much he thinks about it, he can’t quite pinpoint the source of his hesitation.

“April!” Dean hits on the correct name with an enthusiastic note.

Cas glares – April not being an entirely pleasant memory considering she killed him.

“What?” Dean shrugs, expression wholly unapologetic in amusement. “For Chuck’s sake, what’s there to think about? It’s not a freaking apocalypse. No one’s life is in danger. It’s just sex.”

“It’s different.” Cas’ jaw tenses around the words. “With April, it was just sex. With Y/N, it’s … different.” He repeats himself for lack of a better descriptor.

“Different how?” Dean squints, closely examining the angel’s stymied expression. He interprets therein the folds of his brow a light bulb revelation. “Well smack my ass and call me Sally, you’re in love!” Dean exclaims, overly triumphant in the revelation.

Cas’ gaze startles wide, creating a mountain-like crag of creases across the ridge of his forehead, then narrows precipitously into the softer ill-defined flatland of genuine bewilderment. The part about loving you is the least confusing aspect of the statement and he accepts it without qualm – with a passive wave of relief even in response to the exact sort of different he could not explain a mere moment before – the reason for the rest of the hands-on proposition to slap Dean’s derrière whilst referring to him as Sally is beyond angelic comprehension. “Why would I-”

“Shut up.” Dean interjects, holding up a quieting finger, halting the inevitable query of why Dean would require Cas to do any of the aforementioned buttock spanking and name-calling and whether this is the appropriate time or place for such an activity.

You choose that instant to mosey on into the dank cellar scene. Cas and Dean bickering like an old married couple about what you assume to be utter nonsense is nothing new; you’d be worried if they weren’t verbally sparring, static silence on either of their parts rarely bodes well. “Whatcha guys talkin’ ‘bout?” you ask with vague disinterest, surveying the mess for any sign of the totem.

Cas casts Dean a swimmingly deep blue puppy-eyed plea to say nothing.

Dean ignores the appeal. The hunter’s eyes twinkle more than they have right to in the poorly illumined basement; a confident smirk creeps across his face. Bulky biceps tighten the fabric of his grey Henley shirt as he crosses his arms in preparation for the unsolicited relational pot stirring in which he is about to partake. “Sex,” he states, louder than necessary; the sharpness of the single syllable slices the humidly heavy atmosphere; the thick foundation of the walls absorbs any attempted reverberation.

“Nothing,” Cas’ simultaneous utterance muddles Dean’s answer; the decibel of his voice sinks to an Earth-quaking grumble. Blues taking on a chagrinned shade, he shoots his friend a betrayed glower.

Re-crossing his limbs, Dean scowls in recrimination. “Really? You were feeling different about it minute ago. And now … nothing?”

Your mouth gapes into the shape of an unspoken oh. This, this could explain why Cas bolted the other night and hasn’t been able to look you in the eyes since let alone stay in the same room alone with you for more than an awkward minute. You always had your suspicions about their so-called profound bond and standing on the outside looking in it appears you’ve interrupted the discussion of a secretive tryst half of the liaison isn’t ready to openly chat about. “Maybe I should leave you two alone then,” you mutter, failing to disguise the disillusionment lowering your tone.

“You should really stay for this, sweetheart,” Dean reassures, reaching out to catch you by the wrist before you can turn to leave. “It involves you.”

You glance from his gleaming greens to his clutching fingers to Cas’ averted blues and back. You snort a light laugh, one imbed with false lightness of spirit in affront to the crush of disappointment you feel, and swat Dean’s gentle grip loose. You pursue the path of lashing out in lieu of letting either of them see your pain. “Look Dean-o, I don’t care what you think I said when we split that bottle of tequila last summer in Rio and passed out drunk on the balcony, I’m not interested in a cowboy themed threesome with you, or anyone else for that matter.” You direct the last bit at the angel who seems set on stolidly avoiding the interaction in favor of staring at the dusty-beamed ceiling.

Dean’s mouth mutely opens and closes in a vain attempt to formulate a rebuff; his cheeks warm to a freckled tint of pink. He doesn’t remember sharing that particular frolic of a fantasy with you, but also acknowledges with a bob of his head and a swallowed hmm that it sounds like something he could’ve admitted to in uninhibited drunken fervor. Because his best coping skill for embarrassment involves embracing the injurious fact with bombastic confidence, he accepts your personally revealing slight in Dean-branded stride. “First off little lady, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. And secondly,” he begins to recall several small snippets of detail, “it wasn’t tequila, it was RumChata.”

Your eyebrows lift. “That’s your take away from that night?”

“Yes. That, and your apparent fetish for ass-less chaps.”

It’s your fault for daring him to remember to stage his self-defense. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Happy to oblige.” Dean takes a swaggering stride backward and bows. “I’ll leave you two to talk.” His pointed glare toward Cas effectively wields the departing verb as a strong suggestion and prompts you to recall the angel of your affection has been standing there wordlessly observing the entire exchange.

Conversationally contagious blush accosting your cheeks now, you cede to a compulsion to fill the weighty silence between you and the seraph with a throaty hum that never quite evolves into intelligible speech.

“I’m sorry.” Cas speaks first.

You peer up from studying your shoes, shod toes poking the sole of the foot opposite, to take in his fondly tempered features. The intensity of tenderness conveyed in his steady regard somersaults your stomach and frees a flock of butterflies whose fluttering wings unfold inside out to caress your skin with a pleasant shiver; these three days past you missed this sensation only he causes and which you hope never to grow accustomed to.

Given he failed to comprehend the bulk of the interaction he just witnessed, he steps nearer and clarifies for both your sakes the part for which he is apologetic. “Sorry about leaving so suddenly the other night when there was, uh, an expectation of” –his hands seek refuge in his pockets “-um, intimacy.”

“Oh, Cas” –you dive into the hooks of his arms, wrapping the rigid pillar of his vessel in a hug while keeping a carefully calculated platonic distance of a little over an inch between the press of your bodies “-there’s no expectation. No pressure. I just thought, I mean, you seemed into it so I-”

Fingers circling your shoulders, he dips you backward in order to meet your gaze as he speaks, “I was – am – ‘into it,’ as you say. I’ve thought of little else since that night except for how I might explain my retreat and earn your forgiveness.”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” You assuage his worry, assuming the explanation is forthcoming.

Broad palms smoothing to your spine, he pulls your pliant body close to banish the cushion of non-romantic space you created solely for his benefit and for which he determines there is no obvious benefit. Kissing first the top of your head, he perches his chin upon your lovingly consecrated crown. Exhaling a heated breath into your scalp, his lips move against the silken locks of your hair. “Dean, in his way, helped me understand a feeling I’ve struggled to identify. When it peaked that night – overwhelming, exhilarating, the height of a foreign precipice I could equate only with a sense of uncontrollable falling – I feared the unknown dangers it posed to you.”

“To us,” you correct. “We’re either together in this, or we’re-”

“Us,” he firmly agrees before you can finish; the hint of a smile touches his stoic pout.

Wriggling in his delightfully confining grasp, you wind your arms around his neck; anchoring your wandering fingers into the chestnut curls overlying his nape, you guide his forehead down to rest against yours. You know the feeling well to which he alluded; the terror, too, of a new love.

“Love,” he echoes the sentiment coloring your mind. “Yes, love.”

You shudder in surprise against the perceived incursion upon your thoughts and scold him with a mock-scowl.

Again seeking absolution, he teases you with the feathery brush of a kiss upon the side of your mouth; gratitude wells in his angelic heart when you give chase to his lips in order to seal and solidify your devotion despite his missteps; missteps of which he is certain there will be many yet to come.

Castiel tag list:  (Closed, if you’d like to be removed please let me know!)    @jeepangel  @sammiesamness  @willowing-love  @roxy-davenport  @blueicevalkyrie   @im-the-nerdiest-of-them-a11  @thesugargalaxy    @bluetina-blog  @dont-trust-humanity  @afanofmanystuffs  @honeybeetrash  @bucky-thorin-winchester  @superwholockz   @tistai  @wordstothewisereaders  @gill-ons  @mrswhozeewhatsis  @marisayouass  @stone-met   @castiel-savvy18  @samualmortgrim  @trexrambling  @magnificent-mantle  @kdfrqqg  @xdifsx  @moon-and-stars-cas  @mandilion76  @rockfairy  @peaceloveancolor  @unicorntrooper  @anisolatedship  @itsilvermorny  @aditimukul  @kudosia  @goofynerd-67babylove  @uninspirationalsonglyrics  @gray-avidan  @mishascupcake   @mishapanicmeow   @praisecastielamen  @roseyhxnt  @jessikared97  @let-the-imaginationflow  @warriorqueen1991   @sebastianstanslefteyebrow   @hisnameisboobear  @kristendanwayne  @fuschiarulerinthebluebox  @coolpencilpie  @jenabean75  @luciathewinchestergirl  @morganas-pendragons  @heyitscam99  @fangirl-and-stuff  @selahbela  @realgreglestrade  @splendidcas  @pointlesscasey  @i-larb-spooderman  @thewhiterabbit42  @thelostverse  @castieliswatchingoverme  @beccollie18  @dragonett8  @dixie-chick  @jtownraindancer   @carowinsthings  @passionghost  @sherlockedtash88  @futureparent  @gabbie7-11  @myfandomlife-blog  @dreamerkim  @shamelesslydean  @earthtokace  @neaeri  @justanormalangel  @lone-loba  @supernaturalymarvel  @lilrubixx  @wings-and-halo  @thehoneybeecastielfollows  @musiclovinchic93  @81mysteriouslyme  @the-bottom-of-the-abyss  @jaylarkson @pixiedusts  @spookysculderfiles  @laqueus-ludovicus  @missjenniferb @lexininja  @jessiekay2010   @skrratata  @rhiannonj79  @calicat79

#castiel x reader #castiel x you #castiel imagine #spn x reader #castiel fluff #castielxreader #castielxyou #cas x reader #cas x you #reader x castiel #you x castiel #cricket writes cas

[magioftheseas]

What should you keep in mind when writing servant?

This question is tough!!! Although on principle, I would say that you should keep the same things in mind that you do with Komaeda with like…a few obvious changes accounted for.

But that does not mean predatory gay is acceptable now. In fact let’s just agree to pretend that isn’t even a thing because it’s not like it needs to be a thing, right?

So, Servant is actually really interesting in that his mindset is healthier than Komaeda’s, but his psychological state is obviously…not great. But it’s hard to say if Servant really reacts all that worse than Komaeda does in the killing game, but that’s…beside the point, I guess.

It’s important to keep in mind the change of mindset, is what I should focus on. After all, Komaeda is driven by a very societally-informed elitism, however Servant operates on a more meta-based logic.

He recognizes, more or less, that the world he’s living in operates similarly to an underdog story. Thus, his new duty is figure out how to use that awareness in order to create the perfect happy ending because he just wasn’t satisfied by Junko’s death. So onto making things bigger and better! That kind of thing!

Now, this is related specifically to his mindset in DRAE where Komaru is involved. But it’s still something to keep in mind because it’s what motivates him to do the things he does and to act the way he acts.

Because, with how he’s treating this like a fictional underdog story, he shows zero concern for Komaru as a person with limits and just the unrealism of expecting so much from a normal girl who just wants to go home when there’s no home to go back to. Komaeda definitely had shades of this in sdr2, but Servant takes it next level because he’s completely lacking in what humanity and consideration Komaeda had. That said, I wouldn’t say this makes him a sociopath even if it may seem that way.

After all, it’s not like he’s shown any understanding nor kindness when in sdr2, Hinata had been friendly towards him in the beginning and then tried to understand him later in spite of the sting of betrayal. If Servant has never known that, then I would say it’s more that there’s been zero opportunity to show a more sentimental side to his character rather than just denouncing any potential of it. He did have his mutually beneficial partnership with Monaka in which despite Monaka disappointing him, he still went out of his way to save her life. Even if he claims it’s for a utilitarian purpose, there’s nothing suggesting there wasn’t any ounce of sentiment or compassion involved in him helping her.

After all, Servant was moved enough by Komaru’s assertions of friendship with both Touko and Syo that he was happy to just leave them be. I also think that’s something to be kept in mind.

Other than all that, hmm…

Compared to Komaeda, I see Servant as even more erratic and distant, but he retains Komaeda’s clumsiness when it comes to personal attachments. He’s definitely someone who I think is a bit more casual with others, which is part of why he’s so much colder even if he doesn’t bite as much. He’s just very blunt to the point of trauma.

He’s also a lot more stoic, showing a far less variety of emotions than Komaeda does. I think that adds to the eeriness of him.

But despite that, I do see him as harboring soft spots for the WoH. He does go along with their whims in a way that’s at least a little enthusiastic. So I guess Servant really is fond of them? Either way, it’s something I do think should be acknowledged, especially since the kids (save for Nagisa lol) are receptive towards him in a way that they aren’t with adults. In fact, he’s not even viewed as an adult, thus not even a threat to their paradise. It’s pretty significant, I think, that Jataro includes him in his murals and that Kotoko isn’t the slightest bit threatened by him and is very much at ease around him despite her trauma.

So while Servant is still dangerous, he’s clearly ranked very low on the danger scale compared to the WoH, and, most likely, compared to the remnants. He’s very much the bottom of the despair food chain, I think, and that kind of affects how he should be handled in which he’s definitely a character to be wary of…but he’s definitely not the one you’d worry too much, comparatively speaking.

I should add that Servant is only really wearing the leash in the first place and getting called Servant because that was the WoH’s idea and that Komaeda presumably isn’t like this normally but…

If I suggested that you follow through canon on that note, I’d be a huge hypocrite. Lol.

When it comes to more sexual stuff, that’s trickier…

Because like, it’s not like people read porn for good character writing…

But if you are trying to be more serious, then I think you should be careful with making Servant more sexual. I definitely do see him as pretty forward, yes, but that’s with people that he’s already very comfortable with and has been intimate with before.

It’s honestly a pretty thin line to walk when you conflate mental/psychological hangups with eroticism, and considering the darker setting and if there’s sexual trauma involved, you seriously run the risk of fetishizing said trauma if you aren’t careful. That’s something you really should be wary of.

Again, that’s if you’re aiming for something more serious that isn’t just…pwp, haha. But, like, I’m not sure why you’d ask for character writing advice if all you’re writing is porn, but, I guess it doesn’t hurt to be more careful either way.

Still, I would suggest not writing something that suggests that “kinky behavior” is the result of sexual/emotional trauma and can like, disappear once “worked through” or whatever. Fifty Shades does that. You probably shouldn’t do things that Fifty Shades does.

That’s…just not how things typically work out, if you can believe it.

Side-note: I’m not very familiar with BDSM.

#Also important to keep in mind is Servant's love for beautiful people and disdain for ugly people #Just because that's really fucking funny #Magi answers #anonymous #magi ponders fic ideas #Magi headcanon #I guess? #servant (drae) #nagito komaeda #Again: feel free to inquire about specifics #I'm not sure if I covered everything necessary #But I tried

[ejm513]

THE BIRTH OF A VILLAIN- A LOOK AT ERNESTO DE LA CRUZ

Hello my lovelies!! As you all know I’m slowly working on a fan fiction about Coco going to the Land of the Dead instead of Miguel-and of cores Ernesto has to be involved. However there is one issue I’m having-his characterization. You see not only can I not stand Ernesto, but I find it very hard to not focus on the fact that he is a murder and plagiarizer and just portray him as that-a cartoony bad guy. That’s not fair to Ernesto-because even though I despise what he did he is still a fantastic villain. A vital reason why I think this is because Ernesto has more layers than an ogre. It’s important to understand what made him this way-especially someone like me who is trying to write a story with well rounded, three dimensional characters.

So this is not only an experiment for me to gain a better understanding Ernesto, and a way to start a discussion about what may have caused Ernesto to do what he did.  So please don’t be afraid to comment your ideas and opinions-I’m quiet curious!

Let’s start shall we!

Nothing is known about Ernesto and Hector’s early days, besides that they had been like brothers for a long time. The fandom has many theories floating around-the most popular being that they were both in an orphanage together. This make sense considering the time period and what was going on in Mexico at the time-the revolution. I’m going to be upfront with you all-while I am a history minor (formally a major) my main focus was modern European history-specifically German and Russian history-and American. So needless to say I know VERY little about Mexican history beyond the barest of bones that I learned in Spanish class years ago, but I’m trying to learn. So in order to not make myself look like a fool and intentionally spread wrong facts I’m not going to go into great detail about the Mexican Revolution at least until I know a lot more and feel comfortable with the material. What I do know from research and studying history in general is that revolutions tend to be quiet brutal and violent, so it would make sense that something happened to their parents that resulted in the two boys ending up in an orphanage.

They probably became really close during their time at the orphanage. They bonded not only over their loss and lack of a family, but their love of music. They both can sing-though admittedly Ernesto is the better of the two (no shade to Hector he has a lovely voice but it’s true) and fill their time practicing and singing to the other kids. Then someone-maybe a local musician or whoever-comes and teaches some guitar. That’s another way they bonded-but just as Ernesto was the stronger singer Hector was the better guitar player. Through all of this they became such close friends-like brothers even. They became the family they so lacked.

It’s because of this that Ernesto becomes possessive of Hector. I don’t think he does intentionally-at least at first. He just knows it really upsets him when Hector is playing or hanging out with other kids. He’ll try to inject himself into whatever Hector is doing to make himself important and remind Hector who is his real best friend is. It’s kind’ of like what I did when my brother was born-I was five when my brother was born and since I’m 22 going on 23 in about three months I was told this story. Apparently I would always come into my parents room and tell my mom to check on the baby. This was apparently my way of keeping my place in the family or something like that.  I obviously grew out of that-the problem with Ernesto is that he did not.

As they get older Ernesto will not only interject himself when Hector is with another group of people but he’ll also put his arm around Hector’s shoulder. No thinks anything of it-especially Hector who let’s admit it is a little naïve. Hector unintentionally  begins to pull away from his other friends and spends most of his time with Ernesto practicing and dreaming of sharing their music to the world.

Then Hector gets a little *cough cough* completely massive *cough cough* crush on Imelda and Ernesto finds this very amusing and decides to have some fun at his friends expense. He allows her into his little circle as a joke, but despite Imelda constantly claiming she finds Hector annoying they became friends. Not a real problem though. Then when Hector is about fifteen almost sixteen he encourages him to admit his feelings to Imelda-again this is all a big joke to him because he doesn’t think someone like Imelda would even considering feeling the same way about Hector.

Well… boy was he wrong!! Not only does Imelda return his feelings but they get married!!

That is what Ernesto considers to be step one in Hector’s plan to ruin everything. Not only does he have to share Hector now, but he is no longer his only family. No matter though Imelda can be worked around and Ernesto can handle Imelda… or at least he thinks he can. At first it seems like having to share Hector wont be a massive problem. He’s able to get Hector to go on a short tour (AND by short I mean as many months as he can squeeze out of this) and Imelda is fine with it-if only because it will give a needed boost to their income.  

(Side note I know I already put a head cannon on how Hector reacted to finding out Imelda is pregnant and while I still enjoy that another, much more developed idea formed and I like this better-will write the detailed version later)

But three and half months later Hector gets a telegram saying that Imelda is very sick and needs to come home as soon as possible. So of cores Hector rushes home, leaving Ernesto to follow behind a day or two later. When Ernesto comes home a few days later he doesn’t know what to expect- something must have been very wrong for someone to have taken the time to figure out where they were and to send Hector a telegram. What he didn’t expect was for them to be all smiles and practically glowing with happiness-especially Imelda.

What he didn’t expect was to find out that Imelda wasn’t sick-she’s pregnant.

Step two in Hector’s plan to ruin everything-now Ernesto really won’t be Hector’s family or the most important person in his life. He can handle Imelda but a baby-there’s no way of getting around that. The only thing in this situation that gives Ernesto any sort of hope is that the baby could be a boy-and if you ask Ernesto the baby will absolutely be a boy. Both Ernesto and Hector could teach the boy how to play the guitar and sing-and in his twisted mind if they teach the boy to love music, it’ll make it easier to drag Hector away for tours. And eventually the kid could join the act as well-disregarding the fact that the likely hood of Imelda going along with this is zero to none.

But then… oh but then… the baby ends up being a girl.

A girl.

Step three in Hector’s plan to ruin everything.

That my friends is when everything changes. Ernesto does understand that a baby changes EVERYTHING, but he doesn’t also understand the love a parent has for a child-especially for a girl because let’s face it Ernesto is a very typical man of his time who would want and prefer sons over daughters. He can’t understand how Hector would rather spends his home nights cuddling with a living blob (because babies are a very blob like when they’re first born) instead of playing in various bars and cantinas with him. Ernesto can’t understand why Hector would rather learn to how to braid hair than improving his guitar skills. He can’t understand why Hector would want to be so involved in his child’s life-let alone a daughter’s life! As far as Ernesto is concerned that is Imelda’s job-especially since Coco is a girl.

I think it’s when Coco is born and he sees how much Hector loves her that Ernesto snaps and begins to think of doing some pretty awful things. He doesn’t act on them right away, but he does by the poison (presumably arsenic) and keeps it, waiting to decide when and what he’s doing to do with it.

The scary thing about Ernesto is I don’t think killing Hector was a plan. I think he wanted to keep  Hector  in order to not only have his brother and companion but keep their fame going once it truly started. Oh I think his initial plan could have been to make sure Hector had nothing to keep him tied to Santa Cecilia or make him go home… if you know what I mean.

Considering the fact he almost tried to kill Miquel-a twelve year old TWICE-to keep his reputation clean and not lose his fame-which his is second motivation for doing what he did, I would not put it past Ernesto to kill Imelda or Coco to have complete control over Hector and continue their path to fame.

Next to being the most important person in Hector’s life the obsessive desire for fame and glory is what drove Ernesto.

Ernesto wanted money, he wanted popularity and he wanted the world to love him. This probably steams from the fact he didn’t have any of that growing up. He was an orphan so he had no money and no one to truly love him (except for Hector). Considering how charming he his Ernesto was probably popular among the other children and just as he fed off of Hector’s friendship he fed off that popularity and wanted more and more. Both boys love music, but Ernesto’s motivation for touring and singing were vastly different from Hector’s. It’s pretty well established cannon that Hector wanted to make music and Ernesto wanted to be popular.

In the movie Hector claims that Ernesto was not talented at writing music. This is reinforced by how Ernesto claimed he couldn’t go on with the tour without Hector’s music. So no I don’t think Ernesto wanted to kill Hector at first because simply put he needed him-both as a friend and as a musician. At this point he went from being a genuine friend to using and trying to control Hector-with his so called “insurance policy” ready if the time ever came.

So now we get to the big question-why did Ernesto kill Hector and not go through with what I think was his first plan?

I think it was a sprue of the moment decision. As far as Ernesto was concerned Hector had chosen Imelda and Coco over him-which once again he still can’t understand why. He was not only losing control over Hector but he was losing his ticket to fame. I think at that moment, when Hector was about to walk out of that door, he decided to change his plan.

Instead of taking away Hector’s reasons to stay at home-he’ll just keep Hector from going home at all.

#coco #coco spoilers #pixar coco #Ernesto de la Cruz #Hector Rivera #imelda rivera #exploring motivation #what makes a villain

[ghostmartyr]

(SPOILERS for Justice League)

The nice thing about most of my problems with this movie is that I can still point back at Batman v Superman and blame it, because without the dangled plot threads of that, at least one awkward as hell scene wouldn’t have happened.

The other nice thing is that I just love Justice League to death, so regardless of quality I spent a good portion of the movie bouncing up and down.

Which led to me nearly accidentally choking, but not the point.

Less nice things include Bruce being an asshole for no other reason than that the script wanted to pretend it was giving Wonder Woman some kind of arc.

(It wasn’t, she was fine, how dare you bring shades of my ship into that mess, and now I get to whine about Fate Zero, too.)

Okay, so.

Brief background.

The only reason I ever ended up here, or in fandom at all, is thanks to fervently shipping Batman and Wonder Woman from the Justice League cartoon. I was in love with the show, and them, and there was Starcrossed, and I wanted fic. I’ve kept my moniker from that fandom experience in use for thirteen years.

That means I get twitchier than usual about how certain interactions are handled, and I kind of spent the entire scene Bruce was berating Diana wishing that Superman wasn’t dead just so no one would dream up that this was a thing that needed to happen.

I’m glad it was universally agreed that everyone would cover for Diana if she went with murdering him, but... writers, please. I want so badly to love your work, and you spend a lot of this movie not sucking at it, so why must you do these things.

Pure surface cringe, there’s enough shippy gaze that the framing utilizes that Bruce bringing up Steve at all just makes me want to hold my head in my hands and die, because as bad as talking about dead ex-boyfriends to get a rise out of your teammate is, it is a million times worse if you have to wonder if part of the reason the boyfriend is worth mentioning is that you want to draw attention to the romantic links of certain characters.

I don’t know if that’s something that would bother someone if they weren’t hyperly aware of anything that could possibly be taken in a shippy manner, but hi, me, so it was bothersome.

Less subjectively, Steve’s impact on Diana’s life is used to make a really stupid point about how Diana’s conducted herself.

The entire movie, Batman’s been awkwardly trying to make his dream team work.

Meanwhile, Diana has a natural chemistry that, as we see, makes the entire team totally chill with her murdering Batman. It isn’t forced, it’s just Diana being better with them, and performing admirably in every task she takes up.

Blindsiding all of that clear proficiency with the accusation that she’s been limiting herself because of dead boyfriend angst is. Well, it violates its own canon, for starters.

Diana comes into contact with all of the mess of the last movie because of things that happened in her personal life, but she rejoins the fight because there’s a fight to be had, and she can help. That is what she does.

Yeah, Bruce is being a complete asshole on purpose about all of it, but the problem with stories like this is that when people start throwing that kind of incendiary language, the implication is that it’s a hard truth that manners have been holding back.

Later the movie tries to do something a little more real with that base, letting Steve behave more as a representative than the actual issue, but.

Okay, let’s talk Fate Zero. I’m up too late to draw good lines explaining things, so let’s just get to an example I can summarize.

In Fate Zero, there is an episode where the three servants who claim the title king discuss what it means to be a king. They each have different views. Saber, whose perspective the series as a whole argues is no less worthy, is the one who gets a call-out speech about how her beliefs are childish, and not something a true king should believe in.

She is denied the last word on it.

Fate Zero ends with Saber feeling as if she’s failed her people because of everything she tried to be for them. The knight that exacerbates this feeling disagrees, echoing a lot of what the story shows, but she doesn’t get to hear that.

The viewpoint that is given the spotlight, even though showing disagrees with the telling, is the one that puts hers in a broken light.

That’s what Bruce baiting Diana feels like. It’s a lot of words that get more credit than they deserve, because the script doesn’t allow Diana to come back with her say from a point of strength.

Like I said, later they try to do something interesting with it. The idea that Diana fears the burden of leadership after watching so many die could have some real depth, especially because she is such a natural leader. The pain that your own calling brings you is what makes tragedies.

But it’s introduced with a heavily vitriolic tone halfway through the movie, and the Diana before that exchange would have made the same decisions that the Diana afterwards does. She has her hesitance about all of this, but she is willing, and she is engaged. Pretending like she isn’t for the sake of having a fake deep conversation about her conduct is patronizing.

And back on petty, I liked Bruce and Diana’s dynamic without all this stupidity.

I don’t need my least favorite (least favorite is actually all things involving Sakura, but never mind that for the moment) part of Fate Zero anywhere outside of Fate Zero.

I also did not need it in Fate Zero.

To be perfectly honest, a lot of the handling of Wonder Woman in this movie is... less than ideal. She does some amazing things, her smile might actually beam sunshine, and she’s wonderful, but certain choices for her are not, including some camera angles and outfits.

I’m guessing the rest of the internet will cover that.

Uh... yeah, I still don’t like this Superman.

I also get the vibe that they’ve left some of the cast severely underpowered to lift him up.

He can fly. You don’t need to do that.

(I’m just gonna leave this link here....)

Barry is wonderful, Barry and Bruce together are wonderful, Barry and Victor going grave robbing manages to be sweet, Victor and Diana are great, Aquaman’s a bit of a douche but he gets the best music cue in the whole movie so who cares, Batman keeps getting guns for some reason but he isn’t murdering humans...

Some of the shot composition is really weird. Poses that work in comic books don’t always... yeah. Also DC’s in love with slowmo and I am tired of it, and I don’t think my eyes could follow most of the action sequences that didn’t use it.

On the whole, this movie made me happy in a lot of ways. I really love Justice League. More of it is going to make me happy. The script was also willing to have some fun with things, and there were moments that were simply delightful.

It was way better than I feared.

Still not as good as this cast is capable of (well. Supes, I’m willing to let my faith in everyone else stand in for you), and I don’t like looking around for things to bash my head in with in a movie theater, so for the love of all things good try harder, but I feel like this verse is getting closer to the things that make the world and characters appealing.

I also feel my eyes shutting without my permission, so my contemplation of clicking ‘Post’ feels way riskier than usual, but oh well, this isn’t a real review, it’s babble because I GOT TO SEE JUSTICE LEAGUE MY LIFE IS AUTOMATICALLY MORE COMPLETE.

Yeah I’m going to bed.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #Justice League #spoilers #dying by way of choking on starburst minis is not how I wanna go #so the night had that bullet dodged