#she didn't see him as just a means to an end despite the survivalism i've mentioned

[drewsaturday]

long rambly annie appreciation post

i love my feral gremlin child annie SO much and i think something really fun about her is how she just... has no Need for relationships besides Dog?

she does seem to benefit from hanging out with charlie, and there's some potential there with irene. but she's stuck it out on her own so long she and dog can take care of themselves. she doesn't need to be nice and polite because she doesn't need anything from anyone else and even if she did she'd more realistically use force to get it lol.

and i mean, i can't even blame her because the first humans she came across in a decade shot at her best friend. besides the fact force is a solution she knows works and the fact she's been alone so long she's never HAD to consider any other solution, how can she trust any of the humans she just got thrown into these situations with?

we did see her actually develop a bit as well when she decided to stay with irene's camp, possibly showing a willingness to be open to relationships (or at least her knowing she and dog can't brave this one alone.) she had irene apologize instead of letting dog maul her. but i like that her personality didn't change all that much in the meantime.

i like that she's didn't feel pressured to start playing nice because like, she doesn't owe that to anyone. she has pretty much no reason to act nice and polite... i don't even think she knows HOW to honestly (see: her immediate "oh my god this coffee?? it's DISGUSTING" reaction in episode 1 instead of trying to pretend she's grateful for their attempt to warm her up j;lkLKJ).

and i particularly love how she didn't fall into the pitfalls of like, in stranger things having el see herself in the mirror and go "pretty o:" because... annie has no concept of society anymore. she has vague memories of a mom, she has a small child's understanding of the world she came from, but the only expectations she feels are 1) to survive and 2) to be dog's best friend.

i also loved that despite forgetting so much and adapting so hard, she DID still care that irene didn't find her for 10 years. she did love her dad. and so i have to wonder if that sense of betrayal, the impending doom of knowing someone you love will just die, is another factor in her being so Annie. she said it herself - any time someone had told her she's safe, they've died. people are weak and fragile and they're going to fail her, but she and dog are strong and invincible and that's Safe (i say, hoping dog survived that finale).

why change that now?

#skull island tag #all that to say i think if anything we've seen some development for her accepting that she and dog #can't survive this situation alone and that maybe there's some value in learning more about other people #i mean she keeps saving charlie and mike even tho dog doesn't like em all that much aj;lksdf she knows they're on her side #but that doesn't mean she's suddenly going to be nice and polite about it #she's tried playing nice a bit like admitting she doesn't rly know how friendships work and letting irene live lol #but this is a Lot for a KID who has spent most of her life in her own little world with dog and i don't #think it's fair to expect much else from her #i think honestly if anything it's cool that the show isn't forcing much else on her #OH ALSO ALSO!!! SHE CAN BE SO THOUGHTFUL like she saw everything they put kong through #and still wanted to hand him back the necklace #she didn't see him as just a means to an end despite the survivalism i've mentioned #she knows the necklace is important to him even though she has no idea why #she knows--because of dog--that these creatures can have so much heart #he helped save her and dog and she wanted to return the favor #if she were selfish she never would've stuck around on that beach

[carlyraejepsans]

Yknow, despite how it is impossible by all Ingame options, I wonder how a neutral route with *ONLY* Sans (and Asgore ig) killed would look? Would he count enough as a boss monster (NOT a Boss Monster) to push it from a Queen Toriel ending to an Empress Undyne ending? How would Alphys react (She lost one of her closest friends, but she still has MTT and Undyne around.)? How would Papyrus react (Would he go full angst mode and try close away his heart? Would he become even more of a people pleaser, trying to make sure he doesn't repeat whatever mistake he made with you again? Would he go into denial mode, trying to find Flowey to set things right with him either finding him or not based on what Frisk choses after the FloweyX fight? So many choises), especially with how he seems to Know Something he doesn't let on. I'd imagine that (provided it's a Queen Toriel Ending) Undyne wouldn't be thar affected, sad that Papyrus lost a brother rather than sad that Sans died (she never is close with Sans. She doesn't hate him, but she doesn't know him as more than "Papyrus weird brother" and "My sentry that works the ABSOLUTE bare minimum needed"). I don't think mettaton would appear or be affected, leaving the call pretty limited. So we have Papyrus and Maybe Undyne, with Papyrus probably being... kinda miffed that everything is going along the same, as if Everything hasn't changed. Bonus points if it's Post Dates, leaving a pretty aimless Undyne moving into Sans room, trying to fill a void that she never can. It isn't some threat she can suplex or teach to cook, it's the world being unfair.

(This also would give a pretty Unique Undyne state, being halfway between her "I don't like that you had to kill Asgore, but it's what you had to do" mindset and her more common "You betrayed me in such a soul crushing way it'll affect how I love forever" mindset in most Neutral Endings. I can imagine her actually trying to rationalise it, because the human only killed Asgore (sucks but she Gets It), and... Sans. The easiest enemy, one too weak to make it into the guard, and almost too weak to be a Sentry (Sans would have no reason to reveal Blasters, and his magic would barely scratch the TRUE HERO of the Underground when Karma is factored in. All she would see is surprisingly complex patterns that don't deal even a tenth of her hp). So surely, they had a reason, right? Why else would they do it?)

Forgive any bad writing it's literally 2 AM rn where I am

can't not confess I've thought about it too, but it IS really hard to extend as a concept because there's just... really no way for sans to die outside of the NM run. and I don't mean logistically, i mean character-wise he is so defined by his survival. by his Being There as everything falls apart. the final girl last man standing in the story. so the whole concept immediately falls apart.

undyne wouldn't personally grieve him, seeing as they didn't really know each other, but she WOULD still feel his death on her conscience as she does with every other monster killed in neutral runs. plus, there's her friendship with papyrus to emotionally aggravate things.

papyrus would definitely go into denial. he would be annoyed about him vanishing all of a sudden, then it'd turn to worry, then as his worries become more and more plausible, he'd shut out all rational thought about the subject and pretend everything is alright. i like the idea of him reaching out to flowey, but he'd try to explain his plan while also comtradicting himself all the time in order to never say outloud "sans is dead. we need to fix this"

betrayed undyne... yeah this is where it falls apart again, since you'd have to reason why sans would die (or even instigate a fight at all) in the final corridor during what has so far been a flawless pacifist run.

buuut pushing past the visceral resistance to the concept. i can easily see a scene where the betrayal pushes her to lose it and seek revenge like it does in normal neutral runs, and her looking to papyrus for training help/human destroying plans. and just... meeting a Wall of denial. that would be a harrowing talk. something people don't mention enough is that papyrus sees himself as sans' caretaker as much if not even more than sans does towards him. a world where sans is dead is a world where he failed his brother. it would devastate him. so he clings to anything not to think about it/delude himself. and here comes undyne ready to shatter that fragile hope. it would be a horrible moment between them

but yeah. everything aside, sans would straight up just not die lol.

#answered asks #undertale #sans #papyrus #undyne

[lunarspiral1127]

X-Men 97 episode 6 *SPOILERS*

Shi'ar Empire/Space

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to see them and get an update on Xavier in this episode cause I thought this was gonna be the full Lifedeath conclusion, so more focus on Storm. But, I think it's nice to see how he's doing.

This is the first time we see Deathbird AKA Lilandra's sister in the X-Men animated series, and I like her look.

Gladiator is such a stoic bad@$$. Ngl, after seeing him fight after so long, Superman popped into my head. I think it was the powerset he displayed.

Ronan and the Kree! I wasn't expecting to see them cause we never had the Kree mentioned or shown in the previous show, so this was a nice surprise. Aldo, it's so refreshing to see Ronan the Accuser in his more comic- accurate outfit. Cause, I've only recently seen him and the Kree in their MCU outfits, so seeing the classics was nice.

Noticed Vulcan during the beginning....kinda awkward cause he's Scott's other brother. Dunno if they'll do anything with that, but then again, they didn't do much with Havok in the previous show.

It's good to see Xavier healthy again, but why hasn't he checked up on the X-Men during that year? Why didn't he let them know that he's okay? Is it because of that black hole?

Didn't know Xavier was interested in being Lilandra's....pet....psychics be kinky.

Xavier talking about Magnus....oh god, when he finds out what happened to him....

Man, even in space, mutants can't catch a break! Xavier gonna be emperor along with Lilandra, and these sunsofbeeches hate it cause he's Terran AND a mutant. Like, can the mutants EVER get anything nice?!

Xavier was willing to forgo his memories on Earth and of his friends and family. Just to be with Lilandra....god dammit, this show really is a soap opera.

Xavier educating the Shi'ar council, Deathbird, Gladiator, and even Lilandra on their system and why it's bad was pretty funny. Dude was going back to being a teacher. And, I thought he was succeeding until....

The vision. Now, he knows what happened to Genosha, and he gotta go back. Good, cause they need him more than ever. I just wish it didn't have to break him and Lilandra up. Like, can we have a good relationship that doesn't end in a breakup, death, or have way too much drama, please?!?!

GAMBIT!!! 😭 It still hurts! But, the vision could also be foreshadowing that he'll become Death of the Four Horsemen. And Magneto wasn't there, so does that mean he survived?!

Storm, Forge, and the Adversary

Storm called Forge "my love". She was mad at him earlier, but I guess despite the anger, she loves him too and understood that he tried to help her despite what he did.

The Adversary is spooky. I didn't get how they appeared, but from what the show says, the demon appears to feed on the self-loathing, so they sensed Forge AND Storm and came to them.

Storm's fear of tight spaces comes into play. The Adversary used her fear against her which almost worked. First time Forge was able to banish the demon, despite being poisoned, and the second time, Storm overcame her fears and doubts and got her powers back.

Oh yeah, MISTRESS OF THE ELEMENTS IS BACK!!! 🤩 She even got her iconic black outfit with the tiara! I'll miss her classic white outfit, though. And she got her long hair back! No offense to the mohawk.

Shoutout to @stormandforge for talking about how she got her powers back cause I was so confused and sleep-deprived. What makes the most sense was the machine Forge used worked. It's just that she had some kind of mental/psychological block going on with her powers and had to overcome it to reactivate them. Kinda like how Peter lost his powers in Spider-Man 2. As for how she got her outfit, well, Storm, in the very first episode in the previous show, used her lightning to change outfits. So, I chopped it off to that. Yeah, lightning doesn't work like that, but she looks beautiful! The hair was actually what I was most confused about cause she had a mohawk, and suddenly, her hair got long again? I thought some parts of her head was shaved. So how did her change? Same way as the outfit?

Forge is cured, so fingers crossed these two will be together and not end poorly and messy as it did in the comics. Please, I just need one good relationship in this freaking show that isn't gonna end in tragedy.

And she knows about Genosha. God, I really hope she doesn't get survivors guilt over this. But, we need her and Xavier more than ever with what's to come.

The rest

Y'know, it was one thing for Trask to be involved with the massacre, but Mr. Sinister? I wasn't expecting that. I thought it was the FoH or Apocalypse or maybe Nimrod. Either way, I'm mad now that I know who's responsible cause how dare them kill Gambit, Magneto, Leech and the others, and hurt Nightcrawler and Rogue! I really hope that they find a way to finish him off for good and make it hurt like hell!

NIGHTCRAWLER GOT TO BE PART OF THE INTRO!!! 🤩 Does that mean he's gonna be finally part of the X-Men? Will we ever get him using his swords? Cause they keep teasing that!

I just wish it wasn't at the expense of Magneto and Gambit's intros. Man, I was bracing myself, and they had to do that and the recap! UGH, IT STILL HURTS! 😭

The episodes have really alternated with multiple storylines in this show. The previous one usually focuses on one story at a time.

So, that's pretty much it. Good episode. One more episode left until even more trauma will be inflicted on us cause 8-10 are gonna be a doozy.

#x men 97 #x-men 97 #xmen 97 #episode 6 #episode six #x men 97 spoilers #marvel #charles xavier #lilandra #storm #ororo munroe #forge

[mariasabanahabanabana]

Wait... what?

Pairing: Joel Miller x Tess Servopoulos x Adopted!Daughter!Reader x Ellie Williams.

Summary: Your innocence and naivety almost ended up getting you and Ellie into serious trouble.

A/N: I know I've said it before, but, not all of my fics will follow the chronological order of the story, nor will they be as faithful to their origins, I mean, in certain aspects, but not all of them.

Warnings: Slight mention of topics such as stalking, farting, and kidnapping… (Don't worry, I won't go into them too much).

Spanish version available here

If there was something that kept surprising and at the same time disappointing (in an ironic way) both you and Ellie, it was the fact that despite being at the end of the hell of the world, schools still existed, it was mandatory to attend them, homework was still as or worse complicated and of course, taking classes that probably wouldn't help you at all, well, this would depend on what you would do in the future if there was one, to begin with.

A thought that deep inside Joel, as well as Tess, Tommy, Maria, or Marlene supported, but that none of them dared to admit out loud so as not to discourage you. With the exception of Tommy, who once when you called him for help with your trigonometry homework scoffed at the usefulness of the assignment. "I'll tell you something kiddo, in all this time I've been surviving the damn apocalypse I have never used tangents or anything like that and if I'm honest, I don't know how knowing that could help me defend myself against a clicker, anyway, where were we at?"

Yeah, maybe after that Joel "forbade" you girls from asking his younger brother for help with Homework.

Anyway, today was their first day of classes and both you and Ellie couldn't find yourselves more terrified and at the same time fascinated by the subjects to be studied in the following months.

Luckily for you, your classes were over, and possibly Ellie's too, you didn't have too much homework, and with the minimal homework that came to you or became complicated, you could help each other, although, thinking better of it, you couldn't. Since you and Ellie were not good at the practical part of the science, the best thing to do would be to go to Marlene or Tess.

Bored of waiting alone and standing in the middle of the hallway for Ellie, your friend and non-biology sister, you decided to go out to distract yourself for a while, a situation that would not be a problem given your extreme curiosity, naivety, which sometimes led you to peculiar situations, not to say problematic, just like right now.

When Ellie finally got out of her last class, the first thing she did was to look for you, not finding you in the library or in the cafeteria, she assumed you would be in the garden at the entrance, and so it was. There you were, standing there talking with a couple that clearly was twice your age, something that Ellie found strange at the time since the social circle of both was similar, simply put, and judging by how well she had known you, she knew that you were an orphan of parents and probably of a family as well. For all these reasons Ellie was surprised to see you talking so animatedly with those strangers.

As she got closer, something inside her told her that they were in danger and that they should get away from there and them now.

"Hey (Y/N), 'til I find you, Joel just called me and said not to be late, as we're on patrol today and making dinner." In a subtle and casual manner, she puts her arm around your arm in an attempt to get you to walk.

"What? Again? But we had to cook at this weekend… That old grumpy bastard".

"Yeah well, you know how old man is… we'd better hurry up." As Ellie said this, she could see the way that old couple was staring at you. It was a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

"'Kay…" You turned to your "new friends." "It was nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Weinsptein… I hope you manage to find your puppy…"

Before you could even take the first step, suddenly your hand was grabbed by The Husband, stopping you abruptly. "Don't you girls like us to take you home?

"Oh really? that would be fantastic…" Before you could even respond Ellie interrupted you.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, besides our father is coming for us…"

Confused by your friend's recent attitude and words, you looked at her with a raised eyebrow, since Joel wasn't the kind of person who usually picked you up or dropped you off at school.

"Actually, I think he just got here… but thanks…" Without looking back, Ellie pulled you towards her, causing the old man's grip on your hands to loosen.

Even though you were far away from that couple and probably halfway back home, Ellie never let go of your hand, it was not a grip like the previous one that the man had given you, this was a soft, delicate touch, one that gave you a sense of confidence and security.

"So… How was your first day? Joel asked.

Again, Joel was not the kind of person who used to take too much interest in the lives of others, but as time went by his heart softened and opened up to the two of you.

"Oh it was definitely a day we won't forget" you replied with a smile as you took a bite of your food.

"And that? That bad was it?" Now it was Tess who was interested in the course of the conversation and your day.

"Not at all…or well, not as such since we're almost adopted."

"What." A dismayed Joel and Tees asked in unison, to which Ellie immediately corrected you.

"Actually we're almost kidnapped."

"Oh, okay…and how about the homew…? Wait, how?" For the second time in record time, Joel and Tess's reaction was once again simultaneous, the only difference being that Tess was half a mouthful of meat.

Spanish version available

#TLOU #hbo tlou #ellie williams #ellie williams x reader #Joel Miller #joel miller x child reader #joel miller x daughter reader #joel miller x platonic!reader #the last of us hbo #the last of us incorrect quotes #the last of us fic #tlou series #tess servopoulos #Maria Sabana escribe #Spanish Version #Version en español #Tess Servopoulos x reader #Tess Servopoulos x you #Tess Servopoulos x adopted!children!reader #Tess Servopoulos x adopted!teenager!reader #Tess Servopoulos x Ellie Williams #pedro pascal #Tess Servopoulos x Joel Miller #joel miller x adopted!children!reader #joel miller x adopted!teenager!reader #joel miller x Ellie Williams #joel miller x tess servopoulos #joel miller father figure #Tess Servopoulos mother figure #tommy miller

[raindropren]

!!!!!! Secret Life Episode 9 Spoilers !!!!!!

THIS SEASON IS SO FUCKING GOOD HELL YA

I LOVE THIS

I LOVE SECRET LIFE

IT'S SO GOOD

I'M

SIIJOHFSIHFJSNF

LETS GO, SCAR!! WOO HOO

I GENUINELY LOVE THIS SO MUCH AAA

ALSO WHY IS PEARL SO CRACKED AT THIS GAME!?!?!

So she was i think 3rd in last life, Won in double life, I think 4th or 5th in limited life, and now, 2nd in Secret life!!

What the F u c k

I love it so much

It really helps all my headcanons tbh, it makes me so happy.

Also why does pearl always survive longer then her allies/teammates(Unless they win)

and by always i mean like, 2 times? 2 and a half? if u count tilly maybe? i do... 2.5 :]

I really do wish joel or bdubs won, mostly joel because it would've been so good but I deffo think scar deserved this win.

I think it wouldve been kind of funny if in the 1v1 battle between scar and pearl.. pearl won... and it's just, awkward cause she... didn't want that. at all.

She wanted scar to win after bdubs and joel died, she wanted to sacrifice her life to scar in the end because she wanted her allies to win.

I also think shiny duo is a tragedy in the end. I really hope someone makes a fanfic about them in secret life cause they just, they, they just, <3 <3 <3

I love them alot

I'm making a theory that Gem might, win the next life seires.

Shiny duo winning their second season, please please please /hj /lh

I've already really loved the pearl fanfics from this season cause omg but I just, i just <3 <3 can't wait to see more!! aaa :D

if i get the motivation i fucking will make a fic about gem and pearl coming back into hermitcraft. They have very similar vibes in the life series(they're fucking crazy, don't mess with them, but also you'd rather be on their side then not(I haven't watched gems life series so if i'm wrong on this one, oopsie) cause they are more loyal then most) and I think it'd be fun to see them coming back and talking to eachother about the season ngl.

Murder camel my beloved, shiny duo my beloved

I also think(if I get the motivation) i'd want to make a fic with Pearl and Bdubs, in hermitcraft, afterwards.

ooo so many ideas, so many ideas so little time and motivation.

i wanna know what would happen if pearl accidentally won, despite not wanting too, if she hit scar just alittle to hard and now she was alone, as the sole 2 time winner. I think AU!pearl would have a mental fucking breakdown but i also think it'd be a fun concept aaaa

I want a fic about Pearl just after Bdubs and Joel died, just crying. like tears down her cheeks when she meets back up with scar and aaaa <3

All these would be my au obviously cause i'm way to obsessed with it but my au is set in canon, mostly. or at least alittle, i'm trying LOL

I'm proud of scar :]

like, i'm proud of all the winners but, i really do feel like scar deserved this win

I might watch his pov at some point, i can't wait for people to tear the angst from scars episodes, they already have alittle but with him winning, I can't fucking wait, omg <3

I'm just so excited now

aaaa

i'm nhjgofubkhgfubkjhdfjl eee

I really hope gem and pearl team next season instead of just being temporary allies because they are so fun omg

I really hope there's another season cause god they are so good /nf

I can't get enough of life series pearl in my au

which is why i keep mentioning her, i've basically only watched her pov cause I have a hard time watching others. I wanna watch gem, lizzies(it's ies right? i'm bad with spelling names aa), and now scars. stars above, i love this series

aaaaaaaaaaaaa

secret is probably my new favorite season, idk why, maybe it's because of shiny duo alittle, but y'know :]

There's so much i wish i wanna talk about

like how Pearl said "Always Watching" to BigB

Or just any moment with Pearl and Scott, I miss their last life dynamic alot /pos /notneg

Cleo and Pearls pupper alliance breaking and Pearl saying she really wanted to be allies with Cleo, like I need fics of that so much guys omg (Big MoonRot fan!! ee)

Anytime Gem, Impulse, and Pearl were in a trio together, like omg, It's Soup Group!!! Guys!!! it's them!!! omg!!!!!!!! guys!!

Pearl walking the Warden around like a pro, i love that so much LOL

there's deffo more, but i've typed way to much LOL i just love this so much, it's insane.

#GUYS I'M SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS SERIES #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #secret life #life series #i'm gonna tag everyone i mentioned so yee #not tagging people i only mentioned once hmmm #pearlescentmoon #geminitay #goodtimeswithscar #bdoubleo100 #bdubs #smallishbeans #joel smallishbeans #shiny duo #idk which one is the main tag for them aaa #I mention moonrot btw. i've seen people use that duo name as a shipping thing. i don't ship them!! it's all platonic!! #I type so much omg i'm so sorry

[thelunarfairy]

Olá! Não sei se já viu o novo capítulo! Um usuário no Twitter postou:

https://twitter.com/VibingLemonArt/status/1768463127153164583?t=q_Hv8-AL_mZy95zPpZ3_SA&s=19

Spoilers:

I hope Aidalro knows what they're doing because that would be the best possible ending for the series. The only flaw in this timeline is that Amane isn't the same age as Yashiro.

The manga is about wishes, and it always shows us some very good endings for the series. The fake world of No. 4, Aoi sacrificed in place of Yashiro, and now, the butterfly effect. None of these endings are perfect, but they were better than the literal end of the world (which is what Sakura wants)!

I believe the series' end will be tragic. Simply because the characters aren't content with any of these endings. They're all trying to prevent Yashiro's death, but they're not willing to sacrifice anything for it.

Anyway! This chapter left me with many questions.

Is Tsukasa alive? If Amane became a teacher, Tsukasa was never murdered.

Why is Sousuke Mitsuba alive? Does that mean his death was really connected to the Red House? So, did "No. 3 Mitsuba" never exist?

Didn't Mei have a terminal illness? How is she alive!? How Tsukasa influenced in her death?

How are the Seven Mysteries? Tsuchigomori is still supernatural, and Akane is still a Clock Keeper. But who is the No. 4 and the No. 7 of the mysteries? Sakura? Natsuhiko? Does any of them remember who Hanako was?

I could keep going the whole day!

The big problem is that there will ALWAYS be someone who will sacrifice themselves. You understand?

There is always someone who needs to die for things to work, but no one wants to die, no one wants to lose who they love, and that's where the key is.

Will Amane be able to leave Tsukasa? That's why it all happened.

Will Nene be able to leave Amane?

Will Kou be able to leave Mitsuba?

Even in the perfect world of the PP arc, everyone was alive, but nothing was real, it was as if they were inside The Sims.

Talking and having fun with dolls was not ideal.

Nene would survive if Aoi was sacrificed and Hanako walked away, but it wasn't ideal.

And now, a world without Tsukasa, Aidairo wants to show us another possibility of something that is "not ideal"

As if he wanted to tell us all the time that the possibilities of a good ending without someone sacrificing themselves or something artificial happening are impossible.

"Look at all the possibilities I'm showing you, there's no way they can be happy"

Or, Aidairo will surprise us and show us the best possibility for the ending. But since she's a fan of bittersweet tragedies, I imagine it won't be something catastrophic, but it won't be happy, in the same bittersweet tone as usual.

She is showing us that if Tsukasa doesn't return, many people's lives will "return" or improve.

Mitsuba, Mei alive, Nene popular, hmmmmm interesting?

Could it really be Tsukasa's absence? Or is it a number 1 thing? "a good reality for Nene not to try to change things"

Same logic with the fish who wanted to take her to their world, saying it was a much better place than where she is now.

If Nene accepts this reality, everything will be in order. But we know she won't.

See, how would Tsukasa influence Nene's popularity? How would Tsukasa influence Kou to talk to Mitsuba alive?

It's not just about Tsukasa, it's about the clock keepers.

Despite this, I believe that Mitsuba and Mei's deaths are linked to Tsukasa. I've already mentioned Mitsuba's in other posts, since he had the photo of the red house, but Mei is still a mystery.

About the mysteries, Tsuchigomori is still there, he is a supernatural, why would he be at school for no reason? Hmm…. and the God still exists, but was it necessary to seal him?

hmmmm……..lots of questions

E obrigado por compartilhar o link comigo!!!! 🧡🧡🧡

#toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk #yugi twins #hanakokun #aidairo #hanako kun #tbhk #amane yugi #jshk spoilers #tbhk spoilers #tbhk nene #jshk amane #jshk tsukasa #jshk theories #jshk hanako

[i-trash-about-things]

a.n.: this is a very self indulgent blurb about the local metalhead I've been obsessed with after ending ST. Call me a basic bitch if you want, Eddie's the coolest.

First person perspective; use of Y/N, Henderson!Reader; GN!Reader; Reader and Eddie are childhood friends; Reader is Eddie's age (20); Eddie and Chrissy survived, Vecna didn't (because fuck'im dried grape looking mf); mentions of puking; mentions of violence; fluff; slight angst; English not my first language; first time writing for Eddie, might be OOC.

word count: 4.2k

High School dances and second chances.

Some people say falling in love is hard. Aerosmith even says it's bad on the knees.

I don't know. I mean, if I recall correctly, I've only been in love once before and I never truly thought it was hard.

Maybe it's just because Eddie's easy to love. Despite what literally everyone else says, he's the easiest person to love I ever had the pleasure of meeting.

I mean, c'mon– for this feeling to have lasted all the way from 6th grade to his third senior year of high school, it couldn't have been hard.

And yet...

"It's not worth it, it's all I'm saying!"

"How it wouldn't be worth it? The worst thing that could happen is Jason will try to knock your brains out–"

"And we all know that Jason doesn't stand a chance to your personal bodyguard," I use the can of Pepsi on my hand to gesture at myself. "yours truly."

Dustin nods to my words, eyes wide as he looks between me and a surprisingly awkward Eddie.

"See! It'll be easy! Just- ripping off a bandaid!"

"You two really are siblings, huh?" He grumbles, sending me and Dustin the same done look. Dustin sputters, trying to explain himself, but my lips just curl into a familiar shit-eating grin.

"What can I say? Simplicity runs in the family."

And, to some degree, it does. Or maybe Dustin just spends way too much time with me and it's slowly catching onto my motto: "why overcomplicate things?"

Eddie sighs, glancing over his shoulder to the subject of our conversation. Chrissy Cunningham, cheerleader and queen of Hawkins High. One of the sweetest girls I've ever seen, even as she cried when I held her hair out of her face, the toilet in front of her smelling of stomach acid.

You see, while I've been in love with Eddie for most of my lifetime on this god forsaken world, Eddie has been on the same dilemma. Only this time, it was worse (or better, depending who you ask).

He's been in love with Chrissy, but instead of following my example and being her best friend, he's barely spoken two words to her, especially after the Vecna accident.

I never truly understood how that worked. Maybe it's because his situation is so different, and yet so similar, to mine. How could he love someone without speaking to them? Being their friend? Hell, how could he be even attracted to them? It's mind boggling to me.

But hey, who am I to judge? I'm way too enthralled in the process to make a fair judgement anyway. They'd revoke my law-license.

As my thoughts drifted for a second, my eyes lost in the way his bangs brushed over his eyebrows, he and Dustin keep talking in low voices.

"Dude, even if she doesn't outright laugh at me, she probably doesn't even want to look at me!"

"That's even better! That means she'll won't even remember it if you guys bump into each other again!"

"He has a point." I break out of my silence, not even noticing what I'm doing until I'm setting a cigarette between my lips. "It's literally just a high school dance. Which you ditched, twice, the last two years you didn't graduate."

My smile turns soft at the corners– because this time he did. I'm so damn proud of him.

"Point is: the worst that could happen is she'll softly turn you down. Chrissy is one of the sweetest girls I know, she won't be a bitch about it."

"Language!" Dustin extands a hand out and I grumble as I hand him a dollar. Eddie doesn't even blink at the interaction, already so used to the Henderson siblings he's not even fazed anymore. Instead, he just sighs.

"Yeah, yeah, I know... It's just–" He stuffs his face into his hands, grumbling and huffing like a child.

Cute.

Breathing in the cigarette smoke, I jump from my seat by the bleachers and walk over to Eddie. My hand finds his shoulder, squeezing for half a second, and I can only hope he can feel the warmth and care and love I have for him right now.

"Eddie."

He raises his eyes, beautiful soulful brown eyes that remind me of hot chocolate and fall, and for a long moment we just stare at each other. After that, a soft smile blooms at my lips, and he relants.

"Ugh, fine."

"Atta boy." I pat his back, chuckling as he sends me a look. Dustin let's out a sigh of relief, just happy to have this conversation over with.

It's easier for him, the person he loves loves him back, after all... Even if she's hundreds of miles away.

(I remind myself to recheck if Suzie's plane ticket is confirmed when I get home. Don't want the surprise for his birthday to be cancelled.)

On the first opportunity of getting out of this conversation, Dustin dips, saying he's gonna check out with the guy's and talk later. Soon, it's just me and Eddie by the empty gym, cigarette smoke twirling between us.

"Man..." He chuckles, passing a hand through his beautiful hair. "I can't believe I'm getting nervous about going to prom."

"I just can't believe you're going to prom. Honestly not that impressed you're nervous." And he rolls his eyes dramatically as we take our seats again.

"Oh yes, because you never were nervous before."

"And I never was." I lie through my teeth, a bad habit I've been developing the last few years.

I make a point of not mentioning how I always grow nervous to leave Hawkins to college. How I always get nervous when I come back, thinking this it'll be the time he found someone to replace my spot on his life. I mean, it isn't that hard, right? I'm just his best friend, I'm not that special. There's probably hundreds of people that would make an even better job at it than me.

"Never? In your whole entire life?" His voice both snaps me to reality and sinks me deeper into my self deprecation. I just chuckle, shaking my head with the cigarette on my lips.

"Nope."

"Not even when I almost killed your character last session?"

"Not even then."

"What about in that one presentation in sophomore year? Or when you were applying for that fancy-schamcy university of yours?"

"Nah."

He sputters, shocked. Because yeah, I'm not lying.

Because, even if the character I played all through high school died, even if my presentation sucked, even if I didn't get to the college of my dreams- he would still be my Eddie.

Now? Now I'm not so sure.

We stay silent for a while, at least until the burning of the cigarette reaches the filter and it burns my fingertips. When he breaks the silence, I almost don't notice, too deep in my own head.

"What's up with you today?"

"Hm?"

"See? That! You're so out of it!" He scoots closer to my side, pressing his legs against mine, shoulder against mine, until I can't sense nothing but him.

I wished he would do that more often.

"I'm just tired. Driving for two hours after spending a whole day in a cold ass college classroom ain't that fun, you know?"

"You're not, tho. I know you, dude, maybe more than you know yourself."

A bitter chuckle leaves my lips before I can hold it and Eddie's big, expressive and hypnotic eyes express his confusion way too well.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing, just..." I trail off, not sure what to say. He doesn't give me the time to think.

"What, you're saying I don't know you? After spending a good portion of my life with you? You think I'm that dumb?"

"I never said that, Eddie." I send him a look, one that not even I can explain. It's dark, it's piercing, it's... It's just pitiful. "Stop putting words in my mouth."

"Well it's not like you're giving me much to work with!" He groans, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, tattoos shifting on his skin. I have to stuff my own hands in my pockets to not trace over them with my fingertips. "You've been distant."

"Have I?" I mumble, still not sure what to say so I just fiddle with the broken lid of the old Pepsi can. He takes the it away from my fingers, forcing me to look at him.

"Yes. You have." He spits out, hand on my shoulder, eyes piercing into mine. Maybe if I was stronger I could return the look, but... I'm... "Y/N."

"Yeah?"

"Talk to me. Please."

"Eddie–"

"Please."

I let out a shuddering breath, pressing my face into my hands.

"I don't know... I don't... I can't..."

He pulls me to him, until I'm not beside him but in front of him. I can't hide, not when I feel like my limbs weigh a thousand.

"Then try."

...

Words...

God, why must I have to talk? Why can't I just... Show? Like, having powers like El and being able to just project my feelings for him to see? it would be so much easier. Show something I could never put truly into words.

But haven't I been doing exactly that for the last 9 years of our lives?

I take a deep breath, eyes stinging a little.

"I'm..." My tongue feels like it's made of lead, spit feeling like acid on my lips. And I just groan out the next words. "I feel... Bad."

"...Ok. That's a start." He nods eagerly, squeezing my shoulders in a sort of awkward encouragement. "Bad for what? Did I do something wrong? Is it something from college? Family?"

"No, no- you didn't do anything." Which is only half a lie. I rub a hand down my forehead, hair falling over my eyes as I let out a heavy sigh. "It's just... This prom thing, it... It feels bad."

"Why does it feel bad?" He asks, more directly this time. Soulful brown eyes, confused. I have to turn away from them to not get lost in my train of thought.

"I don't... I'm not sure. Maybe I'm just... Regretful?"

"What? Why would you be regretful?" He keeps pushing, keeps asking, knowing me well enough I'll probably just run into a wall of jumbled up feelings and words if he stops. This guy truly knows me too much. "You had a good time at your prom night, didn't you?"

"I mean... Yeah?" I scratch the back of my head, sighing. Yeah, I did have a good time on my own prom, about three years ago. So why does the thought of him having that same fun makes my chest burn?

...

Oh.

Oh, shit.

It's because he didn't go with me.

Like he could physically see the lightbulb turn on behind my eyes, Eddie lifts an eyebrow.

"So? What's the problem?"

I bite the inside of my cheek, looking desperately for an excuse. I don't want to come out as clingy, much less jealous. I hate hate hate feeling jealous, possessive. I hate it. I don't-

"Y/N?"

"It's just–" He won't let me think of a lie. That little shit. Instead I sigh, passing a hand through my hair and looking away. "I don't know. It feels funny thinking you'll actually go this year."

And I let the half sentence linger in the air, while the last part sits just beneath my tongue: when you didn't go with me when I invited you.

"And that makes you feel... Bad? Why? That... Doesn't make any sense." He frowns, like he senses there's something I'm not telling yet. Damn him.

"Yeah, I know it doesn't." I shrug, bitting my tongue and leaning back against the bleachers seats. My arms are crossed over my chest, ankles crossed as well with my eyes staring up at the ceiling. Closed off. Distant.

If he knew me for any less time, he probably would've backed off, but sadly for me–

Suddenly I feel him leave my side, getting up from his seat, then walking to stand directly in front of me.

"Y/N. C'mon."

My normally nonchalant and relaxed expression feels way too heavy right now, my eyes shifting to look at his beat up boots with mismatched laces.

"I... Just..." I groan, passing a hand through my hair again but tugging on it like I'm trying to get my head in the game. "Promise you won't laugh. Or hate me."

He's way too used to my need for reassurance. Eddie leans down, until he's face to face with me despite the fact I'm still sat. There's that damned smirk on his lips, the one that makes me want to play with his hair and–

"I promise, I won't hate you. I must've told you that, like, a hundred times now."

"...Just... Just making sure." I clear my throat, flushing a little in embarrassment... Before letting out a sigh.

"I'm... I feel bad because... I... I'm not sure how to explain it." I play with my rings, shaking my head like a snow globe, hoping the new perspective will help. "Uhh... Remember when I graduated? 2, 3 years ago?"

"Yeah? What of it?"

"Remember I asked you to go to prom with me?" Surprisingly, his eyes light up a little, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. So soft, so beautiful and so damn easy to fall in love with. Damn him.

"Yeah, I do. You made a whole corny ass prom-posal thing, made me go on a treasure hunt and everything."

"God, don't even talk about it." I flush harder, feeling even more embarrassed. God please just take me out. He frowns at my reaction, crossing his arms.

"What? I thought it was cute."

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so..." A grumble leaves my lips, just wanting to get to the roots of this conversation. Just get it done and over with so I can get back to loving him silently. "Point is, back then, I was actually kinda excited. I knew you didn't graduate that year, but I thought 'hey what's funnier than not passing but going to the party anyways?'. I made all these plans where we would go around playing pranks on people, wanting to make you feel excited for something but..."

I close my hands, breathing slowly.

"You backed out."

There's an unintentional dramatic pause, where I try to get used to this sense of vulnerability. It feels excruciating, like he's picking me apart with those beautiful eyes of his.

"And I understood, because of course I did. It made sense, I guess it would've been too painful. I really didn't, and still don't, hold it against you, I just..."

Looking for any kind of comfort on this awkward and vulnerable situation, I bring my knees against my chest, almost mumbling my next words.

"I just... Kinda wished we could've gone together, I guess."

And another beat of silence.

My skin tingles with the feeling of his presence a feet away from me, the way I can feel his eyes boring into my head as I nuzzle deeper into myself. I kinda feel like an armadillo right now. Or those little insects that turn into balls– what were their names again? Maybe I should make them my next tattoo.

Before I can let myself drift away, I feel him move.

He takes a step forward, crouching to meet my eyes. He looks so... Soft. I mean, he always has a certain tenderness to him, but this is... It makes my heart melt and race at the same time.

God damnit, Eddie.

"You actually wanted to go to prom with me?" He looks so sweet asking that, the vulnerability in his eyes matching mine. I chuckle, his question making me frown in confusion.

"Yes? Duh?? I thought going through all the work of setting up a chessy treasure hunt would be clear enough, dude."

"No, but–" It's his turn to let out a small laugh, eyes boring into mine like it's the first time he's ever seeing me. "I thought I was just... A pity invite. Like you were trying to make me feel better by inviting me instead of going with someone you actually wanted to go and dance and be cheesy with."

The sheer thought makes me pause, the confusion and disbelief he would ever think that making me feel a whole less awkward about my little moment of openness.

I set my knees back down, frowning at nothing in particular before a confused giggle leaves my lips. My eyes finally turn back to his, and it's like a spark of fire flies up in that.

"What??? Dude, no??? I genuinely wanted to go with you! I was looking for matching suits and everything!"

The confession would probably make me blush at some other point, but I just laugh right now– not noticing the way his own eyes widened and cheeks turn warm.

"Plus, who else would I invite?? You were the only person I remotely liked at that point in high school, and not only that you were– you are my best friend! I wouldn't want anyone else!"

WOW OK– Back off a little, Y/N, we're going a bit too much into the too-honest category. Slowly back away into besties again, or else he'll finally catch on the fact you've been in love with him for a good portion of your life. Beep beep beep–

He doesn't give me that chance.

Before I know what's happening, his hand is on mine and he's pulling me off the bleachers and to him– but we fall onto the shiny floor of Hawkins High gym.

He doesn't seem to mind the fact I'm crushing him a little, right now. All I can feel is his face on the crook of my neck, arms around my shoulders with our legs tangled together.

"Jesus– A warning, Eds–"

"I love you."

...

what

My mouth moves before my brain does.

"I love you too."

And for the first time, I'm thankful for that.

Because, after the split second of panic, I let out a melancholic chuckle, nuzzling into his hair.

He loves me, like a best friend does to the other.

Not like I do.

Not like Orpheus loved Eurydice, not like Darcy loved Elizabeth.

Not like I do to him.

And I've made my peace with that, so I just hug him back, feeling my heart break and race at the same time.

"No, Y/N–" He pushes me off of him, just enough so he can look at me. I have to plant my forearms by the side of his head to not fall off. He looks so pretty beneath me like this, hair sprawled around like a halo, cheeks stretched into the smile I fell for. "You don't have any idea how much that meant to me. I'm serious."

"Well, it's the truth." A soft chuckle leaves me, and I shrug. "You're literally the only one I want to go to prom with, why'd you think I ended up going alone?"

"What, you didn't had a backup date?"

"What?? No, I didn't have a "backup date", ew. What I mean is I did have offers, you know? A few people asked me to prom."

"What! You– You never told me that!" He grabs me by the shoulders, and if I wasn't planted so firmly over him, he might have shook me like trying to get me back to my senses. "How could you never tell me that, Henderson! I'm your best friend, God damnit!"

"I didn't think it was that important!"

"How could you think it wasn't?! It's a big damn deal someone tried to take you away from me!"

God damnit Eddie stop saying stuff like that-

"No one could ever take me away from you, you know that."

...Maybe I need to stop saying stuff like that.

"Yeah, but still! Who was it?? Was it someone I know?"

"Does it matter? They already graduated! We probably don't even recognize them anymore!" I can't help but laugh, chuckling as my hair falls around my face like a shaggy curtain. "Plus, it's not like it's gonna make a difference, the guy I actually wanted to go with didn't go with me."

He stops at that, hands weakening their hold on my shoulders. I immediately regret saying that.

"Oh. Right, yeah. I'm..."

"Eddie, hey, it's fine." I immediately jump up to reassure him, shaking my head and sending him a soft smile. "I really don't blame you for not going. Like I said, it must have been a bitch to not pass then have to go to prom. Really, I get it."

"I mean, yeah, but..." He looks away from me, tilting his head to the side. His bangs shift, hiding one of his eyes. "You were so excited. I never thought I would see you happy to go to a dance, much less a school one."

A puff of a laugh leaves my lips. My arms are starting to hurt from holding myself up like this.

"Yeah, it was a surprise to me too. But hey, it's fine, it's in the past. I had my turn at prom, now it's yours! And you're going with Chrissy!"

I mean, he didn't invite her yet, but– C'mon, who could say no to those eyes?

Weirdly, he grimaces at my words, almost flinching at the mention of the cheerleader's name.

"Yeah... Chrissy."

I tilt my head to the side, frowning, probably looking like a confused puppy in his perspective.

"You still nervous about inviting her?"

"No, it's not that."

"Well then, what is?" He glances back to me, before hiding further into his hair. Even with my shoulders straining from effort, I gently raise one of my hands and brush his bangs away from his eyes. His skin feels weirdly warm beneath my fingers. "C'mon, Eds, talk to me."

It's rare seeing him like this and it's eating me up inside. Normally I'm the first person he runs to for help, the first that gets him out of trouble– like when I helped him get Chrissy back to normal and out of Vecna's clutches, or when he had to hide in a boathouse for days when he was accused of assaulting her and breaking both her legs (despite her claims of his innocence.). I refused to leave his side for more than 10 minutes and got fiercely protective when we came back from the Upside down.

Honestly I have no idea how he didn't catch on the fact I'm in love with him in all that time. Steve kept saying I looked like a feral guard dog everytime anyone got remotely close to him.

"I... Just realized something." He mumbles, effectively waking me up from my wondering. Slowly, gently, he pushes me back and sits up. Still not meeting my gaze.

"What is it?" I give him space, despite the fact all I want is to hold him down again and force his eyes to look at mine. I feel like I'm drowning in worry at this point. Damnit, I shouldn't have said anything about prom. Or about Chrissy. Or– I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have ever opened my mouth. I was never good with words.

"I, uh..." He fiddles with his own fingers for a moment, before freezing. Suddenly, a smile opens at his lips–

And he raises his head, eyes finally on mine.

And it takes my breath away.

"I just got an idea."

Oh boy, here we go.

"Nothing good ever came out of those five words before."

"Oh, but that's where your wrong, my dearest angel!" He almost jumps up from the ground, looking absolutely ecstatic. "I just had the best realization of my life! I don't think I've ever had a better idea!"

Without even asking, he pulls me up- with enough force to slam my face into his collarbone.

"Ow–"

"Point is–Sorry– I need to go. Gotta a lot of planning ahead of me!" He practically giggles, pressing a kiss to the crown of my hair and skipping off into the gyms exit.

All I can do is watch him. Watch his messy and unruly hair disappear behind those doors, his smirk and excitement the last thing I see before he finally runs off to do... Something?

I must have stayed there, frozen, for at least half a minute, just staring at the void with our conversation rerolling on my head.

"What the hell just happened?" My voice echoes back to me and the gym suddenly feels a lot bigger.

With a confused but half amused sigh, I grab my bag and empty can of Pepsi off the ground and slowly leave the school.

Well, whatever that was, at least he looks excited. For me that's all that matters.

A soft, but slightly sad, smile crawls up my lips at that thought.

It's funny how many times I say those words to myself. "As long as he's happy." And it's surprising how many times I actually mean it.

A lot of people say one of the worst pains is unrequited love, that one sided pining that can last years and years.

I don't know. I honestly kinda like it.

This feeling.

It's like playing super spy, like I used to play with Dustin and the kids when we were younger. I know a secret no one else does– or at least he doesn't. It's fun. It hurts, sure, but it's fun. It's playful and fun and easy.

Easy like loving him.

And when I say I'm content of just being by his side, even if he doesn't see me the way I see him...

I mean it.

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie stranger things #eddie x reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #stranger things x reader #reader insert #hmmm i feel so damn cringey for posting this tbh but I'm also so proud of it #actually had a lot of fun writing this #like a lot of fun #hope y'all five people still in the stranger things fandom like it #+++ late tag: #HD&SC #trash's writing tag o/

[boku-no-anime-phase]

It takes me a few watch throughs and some time to simmer in order to "get" surreal movies. I've only seen this one once.

That said, here are some of my initial thoughts about The Boy and the Heron. Spoilers below the gif!

Stacking blocks

The moment that's stuck with me the most was when great grand-uncle had gathered all those pure stones and asked Mahito to stack them, and Mahito refuses. Given the opportunity to build a better world, Mahito recognizes himself as unworthy.

In and of itself, that's a pretty significant moment. But then that's immediately followed by the evil parakeet coming in and trying to do it himself, failing immediately, and destroying everything in his frustration.

Which, to me, seems like it's saying that yeah you may not be worthy or feel capable of building a better world, but if you don't take action, someone worse will.

In the end, Mahito rejected the opportunity to be in charge of this constructed world. He let it die. But I don't think he rejected the responsibility to make his world a better place; and he brought a block with him, to remember.

Delivery room

The delivery room scene was one of the most puzzling to me. But the one thing I think I'm picking up (maybe I'm way off base? But I think I'm picking this up?) Is that the delivery room is where Natsuko becomes Mahito's mother. He calls her "mother" there for the first time as she "pushes him out" (of the room, with magic(?)). She doesn't deliver her baby there but she does become a mother. And maybe it's significant that Himi brought him there: a sort of symbolic hand-off.

Noble pelican

Several people have pointed out that Mahito starts the movie with some violent tendencies. Between fighting with his classmates, harming himself, trying to kill the heron etc, even though his face is super stoic I think his trauma comes out that way. When he sees the pelican outside, he takes a shovel with him, apparently to kill it. But it explains to him that it didn't have a choice in what it did, and it had tried everything, and at this point was only trying to survive, not liking what it had to do to stay alive.

Besides being a compelling commentary on living in the modern age (who among us can feel completely morally justified in everything we do to stay alive?), I thought that was such an interesting turning point for Mahito. By the end of the story, he's learned to be gentle. I wonder (I really need to watch it again) if that conversation affected the way he thought about his father (who makes war planes), and the people who bombed the hospital where his mother worked, and the parakeets, and Natsuko: everyone around him just doing whatever they had to to survive, even if they didn't like it, and even if they harmed others despite their best efforts.

Overall

I don't think I really "get" it yet, and I'm not sure when I will, but I feel like one of the themes has got to be, forge ahead even when things aren't perfect. Do your best rather than doing nothing, even if doing your best means risking making a mistake. You don't have to stack the blocks, but you've got to do something, or someone bad will inevitably come along and ruin everything. You may miss the past, but you must forge ahead into the future. You may not always like the situations you find yourself in, but you must make the best choices you can even when none of your options leave you with pure hands.

How do you live? There's only one right way: by doing the best you can.

#the boy and the heron #the boy and the heron spoilers #how do you live #tbath #tbath spoilers #miyazaki #hayao miyazaki

[ultimateinferno]

Small underrated moment from the latest episode: When the Lords of the Wing reiterate: "Yeah we understand what's happening our grandfather invented birds" and Suntar reflexively retorts "My mother invented darkness."

I felt a small satisfaction watching Squak basically go "Shut the fuck up," in response in the most polite and regent way possible and Aabria immediately reveals afterwards how much of a facade Suntar is putting up. She's trying so desperately to be the Machiavellian schemer. Being fully aware of how much of a douchebag Squak is, there's—as I've said—a satisfaction seeing him pointed at more nefarious entities.

Squak is a good example of "Chaotic Neutral" alignment, the most misunderstood one, I think, of the og system (the whole system, really has its faults). He has a complete disregard for morality and others around him. Acts purely on his whims, doing shit for shits and giggles. However, the existence of Chirp as his morality chain, ties him down quite well. While she is often an enabler and can be just as irresponsible as Squak, her moral core is far more strong and she seems to try more desperately to navigate the messy web of politics, personal desire, and "greater good."

I think a specific example is her inability to navigate her relationship with Rue, panicking everytime she has to confront the fact that she hurt Rue in her complacency in Squak's schemes. Cause at the end of the day, she can very easily survive that confrontation. If Squak was the one facing them, he'd shrug it off like a champ. He wouldn't let that phase him, because in reality, the conversation wouldn't be that bad. At worst it could sour their relationship with Rue a little bit, but not prevent reconciliation. Chirp however, seems to deep down care about others, in spite of being a free spirit pretending to be completely self-absorbed. This shows to me that despite being very capable of tanking that reputational damage, she sincerely cares about what Rue thinks beyond political means. I could honestly see her still working against Suntar and Apollo even if she didn't have a family in the mortal plane.

Chirp and Squak (and Emily and Lou as an extension) are both masterminds who are here to have fun, and while they're entertaining using their schemes for purely selfish gain, seeing their political maneuvers for a cause that's larger than themselves is particularly riveting. Although Squak would just as likely be authentically playing for Apollo and Suntar, the fact that he cares so deeply about Chirp means that he can very easily disregard any genuine attempt at the alliance purely for her sake, basically outsourcing his morality to Chirp.

#acofaf #dimension 20 #d20 #a court of fey and flowers #lord squak airavis #lady chirp featherfowl #lords of the wing

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tag @kaylinalexanderbooks!

Wip Questionnaire

Rules: answer as few or as many as you'd like!

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

For Honor's Outcasts, it was the Trench. There was this game I played a lot while waiting for my sister to get out of cheer practice called Seashine, and I guess I just imagined what would happen if people were trapped down there and how they'd survive. That's where Izjik came from. When I decided she needed a friend, that's how I came up with Sepo. (If any of you want to play the Trench simulator, Seashine is free on mobile)

For Mortal God, the first thing I came up with was the villain, Vermir. I needed a villain for an arc in my dnd campaign, and I figured some crazy lich trying to encase her body in steel while experimenting on the local population was threatening enough. Mashal and Astra were created as a way to get my... less than clever party to her hidden layer. I liked them enough that I decided to write a book about their story.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Honor's Outcasts' intro would be War Pigs by Black Sabbath. I think the intro sequence would be a bunch of their battles stitched together chronologically, so you could see everyone's abilities change and grow. Maybe some short sequences from End's siege of the Watchtower mirroring that too.

Mortal God intro would be Night of the Living Ted by Hillbilly Moon Explosion. It's got a country sort of vibe and even though the lyrics don't match at all, I think it fits the chaos of the story.

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Good lord, that's a tough question. I like all my characters. If I had to choose though, I'd pick Izjik for Honor's Outcasts. She was the first one I made, and it's mostly her who drives the story forward. Also, her POV is just really fun to write.

Astra is my favorite from Mortal God, despite all the difficulties I've had with refining her character. She's just a lot of fun, and she's also a sort of plot catalyst like Izjik.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

I mean, any high fantasy books. I think Honor's Outcasts and the Lies of Locke Lamora would share fans because of the pirates and found family vibes, though Locke Lamora is a lot grittier and less magical.

Mortal God would have a place with the steampunk crowd. A lot of people also compare it to Star Trek? I've never seen Star Trek, so I don't know how accurate that is. In my own mind, I compare both series to Mistborn eras 1 and 2, in that they take place on the same planet, but the second series is some time in the future.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

The making of the Honor's Outcasts plot was an absolute roller coaster. Every book I wrote like it was the end of the series, only to go, wait no, this doesn't feel done.

With Mortal God, I had more trouble with the characters. I knew I wanted a romance, but I'd never written one before, so setting up that early chemistry between Astra and Mashal was rough. Also, riding that edge of making Ivander a likable jerk wasn't easy.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Uh, I don't really like to write pets. I always forget about them and my characters move around too much. Case in point, in Honor's Outcasts book 2, Sepo has a horse. When they teleport post haste to Unity, they leave poor Landhorse behind, and we never see her again. (She just ends up with their neighbors, don't worry)

Similarly, Astra has a cat named Mercher's Day. In book 2, she leaves him with her parents so he's not in danger when they travel north. The meta reason for this was because I knew she was going to have to leave her vardo behind at the end of the story and I didn't want to abandon poor Mercher in some icy city.

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

Transportation changes between the series due to the time jump. In Honor's Outcasts, the quartet's main mode of transport is by boat, at least until Twenari learns to teleport people. Even then, she can only do it once per day, and only with a physical piece of the place she intends to go, so they're still walking a lot.

In the time of Mortal God, trains have been invented and are a common mode of transportation for rich city folk like Ivander. Astra prefers her vardo. The DuClaire Extraordinaire is a steam-powered, steel crocodile-legged, self steering vardo wagon covered in bright paint and electric lights. It isn't fast, but it's her home and it can make it over almost any terrain. It's very much based on Baba Yaga's chicken house.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

The Honor's Outcasts series (still gotta come up with a real name for that) is written. I'm working on finding beta readers, saving up money for professional editing, and working up the courage to query.

Two books of Mortal God are written, with plans for a 3rd under way. I need to find readers for the first two and maybe a developmental editor before I finish the series.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

People eat found family up, so hopefully that'll mean they like Honor's Outcasts. There's so much found family in those books. Also, queer characters, no romance, and some spooky eldritch horror.

In Mortal God, I think the slow burn between Astra and Mashal will make the romance subplot people happy. There's also robots and I love robots, as well as some themes of classism and empire.

For both series, I think it's my worldbuilding that really shines. I read a lot of high fantasy with super detailed worlds and magic systems, so it's my hope that my books approach some of that.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

I want to publish both of them. Not really for the money, but I just think it's the best way I can get my stories out there, you know? I long for the day when I'll be able to read fanfic someone wrote of my books.

I'll tag @mk-writes-stuff @somethingclevermahogony @nbwriteschaos @autism-purgatory @cssnder and anyone else who wants in :)

Blanks under the cut

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

#writing #writerscommunity #writblr #my ocs #author #writeblr

[landslided]

sorry same anon again just returning to briefly add that i think season 1 of cobra kai made me so insane and now i'm trapped in this loop because i see that i could be so good like it could be SO good and then i think okay well there's always samtory future cobrakai arc where sam has dropped out of college and worked dead ends jobs for years and has largely pushed her parents away out of self loathing and like tory meanwhile has found like incredible success and similarly in a situation where tory has to help sam but it compels me SO much in how it would be different than daniel and johnny where tory WOULD be SINCERE in trying to make amends etc and sam would be the more instigator/"daniel" role despite occupying the "johnny" position if that makes sense. anyway that is to say i think top two characters who narratively should have sex that aren't daniel and johnny in my opinion. also that the second most INSANE making thing the show has done that was SO good was tory winning because silver paid off the refs INSANE COMPELLING DEFINING moment of all time for samtory season 5 really dropped the ball on the execution of but INSANE set up INSANE choice for their dynamic SO rich. anyway. sorry my only friend i've managed to get into cobra kai is too busy writing deranged piano teacher aus to/with me so i have no outlet for samtory future cobra kai gay sex moment. hey does anyone else think women should be divorced bums in their forties who fuck raw. anyone else. anyo --

(hope it's okay i replied to your anon like this, i wanted to put all your thoughts on the same ask because i know tumblr just hates us and doesn't let us talk the way we want to in asks)

okay wait okay there is SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE just so much and i feel like it's christmas already

first thing first don't ever feel the need to apologize for sending me anons like this quite literally the best thing i've ever received in many years of being on this hellsite i feel a little bit like chewing glass with how excited i am.

i totally get what you mean about season 1 because it truly feels like they trap you inside this complicated story of violence, vengeance and expectations and then they just never truly pick it up again and you are left with the bits and pieces of this show that not only has so much wasted potential but that has now infected you and you get visions like the fucking youtube red premium cursed cassandra of what it could have been if they'd just committed to what they were selling.

but the. yes. yes, we could have future samtory, it's the thing holding our heads above the water because GOD anon, i feel like you've managed to read my unfinished stories and my drafts on here because i wrote at least ten posts about how i think sam has the same journey as johnny (rich kid who ruins herself through self-hatred and repression and just this insatiable need of not being her father, of not being larusso 2.0 even though she is very much daniel to the shape of her smile and the marrow of her bones), sam who runs away, sam who has to do so to try and find herself except she can't because she has gotten absolutely no tools to do so, she's shaped herself into this perfect glass ornament for her father to put on display because she LOVES him and he loves her too but nothing she has is her own and she cannot find a single thing in herself that doesn't feel like a lie or a performance once again.

and tory is not like this. tory is very much whole and unwaveringly herself even when it gets her in trouble. tory doesn't have to answer for any expectations, tory just has to survive and rise to the occasion in a way sam never had to. tory has this weight on her shoulders that she cannot shake off but in many ways, through love mostly, she picked that weight up and placed it there herself even if it wasn't fair and even if she didn't have much choice, but she makes conscious decisions that pretty much always put herself at risk but she does what she feels is right and good for herself and for the people she loves in the moment, meanwhile sam is carrying around this burden that was attached to her back long before she first even opened her eyes.

there is something to say about the tragedy of daniel, absolutetly unable to have friends, unable to form meaningful relationships with people he doesn't have a past with (louie is his cousin, anoush is his employee, johnny, chozen and mike are part of his past) and when he does, it's robby he chooses because he doesn't look for an equal or a friend, he looks for a way to reproduce his relationship with mr miyagi but in the opposite because that's when he felt at his safest, that's his ONLY relationship that has brought him nothing but love and understanding and when you add all that (which, like you, i do. i do see all of the show's forgetful little things as proof of daniel's forced repression after tkk3 i literally wrote a whole section about his loneliness in one of my fics but ANYWAY) when you do add all that and translate it to sam who has no friends. it's not even that she doesn't have girl friends, she doesn't and its crazy and it says SO much about her, but she doesn't have any friends who aren't something else at first. miguel is her ex, so is robby, demetri was her sort of student for a while and then a sort of colleague to which she applies a relationship that is more reminiscent of boss/employee than actual friends and she!!! doesn't!!! have friends!!! they took away aisha but even before that sam had almost purposefully fucked up her relationship with aisha to enter a circle of popular kids who were NOT her friends and were not close to her and did not care about her. sam keeps herself locked away from a lot of her peers and that is so very clearly in my head an imitation of what her father does that it becomes unconsciously her own behavior.

and worse than all that, she's fucked up! like genuinely fucked up! she keeps ruining her relationships and she doesn't know what she wants and she is angry and scared and mean when she wants to be and yet, there is such a true real kindness to her, a goodness that comes from her very core that she cannot keep from affecting all her decisions.

sam would grow up estranged from her family, unable to express these monstrous feelings she's kept locked away for song long and she would find tory again and feel this same pull. this same moment of oh, maybe you do get me, maybe you do understand what and who i am and that is totally unbearable because being known is being in danger and i don't know myself how dare you know me more than i do. and tory would be genuine in wanting to help sam, because tory, a kid who did so much to survive and who has now found success and comfort would want to help someone she feels like she might have impacted in her life, someone who deserves the same chance she got (and maybe it's to alleviate some of her guilt too but it's still true and it's still done with this undercurrent of honesty that taints everything tory touches)

i also totally agree that making silver pay for tory's win was a wonderful plot decision that they totally fucked up later on but just, ugh the exquisite bittersweet victory, the defeat in sam's eyes because the win should have been hers, she's the best and she's played every single card in the game and tory knows this, knows that she's undeserving and she has NEVER been undeserving in her life and yet here she is, silver has made a liar out of her and has changed a fundamental part of who she is forever.

older samtory who are pathetic losers in the matters of love and keep pulling the same old tricks with each other that always ends up on the mat, licking old wounds before pouring salt directly onto them.

truly. truly ship of all time. samtory has the potential of a thousand suns.

(i ALSO am a big sam shaves her head believer god im UGH yes yes yes yes)

im sorry i ended up talking so much, but like you i feel a lot of emotions for these girls.

ALSO!!!!!!!! YOUR FRIEND'S DERANGED PIANO TEACHER AU????? I HAVE READ THIS FIC AT LEAST FIVE TIMES SINCE IT WAS POSTED LAST MONTH AND I EVEN COMMENTED ON IT THAT IT HAD MADE ME CRAZY LIKE GENUINELY BITING AT MY FINGERNAILS UNHINGED!!!!!!!!

if you ever feel comfortable being off anon, hit me up i think im in love with your brain and would love to discuss samtory with you

#*asks #literally god. im gonna think of this the whole weekend. #samtory

[spinnysocks]

i've been sucked into a RDR2 fixation at the same time as my Lion Guard one. naturally, my mind crossed em over and BOOM! i present: The Outlanders in a human au where they're COWBOYS!!! buckle up >:)

also you don't have to know anything about rdr2 for this au! it's based loosely on some of the events and dynamics of the game, but i mostly wanted to develop a cool human au :3

under the cut cuz long post!

setting things up:

jasiri takes the role of dutch essentially. she is the leader of the "gang", as i'm gonna call it! although she was supposed to be head of the Hyena family, she and madoa rejected the town lifestyle and started their own together, the 'cowboy' life i suppose haha. their motto is something like 'Free, but Good'. their original gang (jasiri's clan in canon) has changed a bit over the years as the members slowly joined, and some died - the two of them have looked after wema and tunu together ever since their mother passed away

as the cowboy life appears pretty sketchy to most of the prideland townsfolk, jasiri and madoa started helping people wherever they could, however big or small. they gained the trust of the towns and started to move on to harsher parts, a desert called the Outlands. eventually, their smaller jobs transformed into the much bigger and more impactful goal of trying to help/see the good side of the land's notorious gangs. jasiri realised that's what she wanted overall - to help people, even if they hurt others, and hopefully change their ways. she wanted to help them live "Free but Good". obviously janja's gang was her first target....

janja's had a rough life. his mother and her infamous gang dropped off the face of the earth one day, so he and his friends were raised by mzingo's gang. seeing it as their means to survival, janja led his gang in town raids, stealing whatever they needed, even if it sometimes ended in the gang getting hurt or killing townsfolk. though it took a lotta standoffs between them, jasiri eventually got them to see eye-to-eye. she showed him how she was surviving without the need to kill innocent people, and with time they became the first gang she reformed! janja reminisces a lot about when he led his gang, but he wouldn't change his new life for anything, and he would defend his new gang till the end

mzingo and his gang followed janja's joining. it didn't take them much convincing- despite a few conflicting moral values- as it was a hard time even in the towns and they were pretty much going to starve without jasiri's help. the former Vulture gang members kinda work as spies for jasiri, specialising in being swift and able to spy from high vantage points on horseback. i'd say jasiri and mzingo have a decent friendship and work pretty well together on strategy; mzingo likes being able to put his brain to use and jasiri likes him not using his questionable strategies to kill people lol

the Jackal family were basically forced to absolute poverty. the only thing reirei and goigoi could really do to get enough for all of them was steal for money, food, travel, etc. it was the only way they thought they could survive, believing there was no help for them, and there wasn't for a while. with janja's gang- who somewhat threatened their livelihood- reformed, it was much easier for reirei and her family to take what they wanted from people, but jasiri's offer to her was pretty convincing... so after a few hard and lonely years, reirei accepts jasiri's help. she promises them food, warmth and community- kind of the only thing reirei ever wanted for herself, her husband and her children, and they get to live free too! she's just happy that her husband and children are happy, and that she can be too, even if she can have arguments with the other former gang leaders lol

kiburi's gang..... yeah they were definitely the hardest to convince. jasiri wasn't acquainted with them at all. they'd were a bit newer to the Outlands, coming there after some failed riot kicked them out of their town. but janja, mzingo and reirei knew them well. kiburi was very adamant that he didn't care for jasiri's lifestyle, that it was "too soft" for he and his gang, that they didn't want or need their help and that violence was just "what they did". jasiri had just about accepted defeat. that was until one night kiburi's gang were attacked by strangers who were too much for them, but jasiri's gang swooped in to save them, both from the attack itself and their bad wounds. if it wasn't for them, kiburi's gang would be dead. he doesn't have much of a choice but to sign off his leadership in exchange for the protection of his friends, which he decided inwardly matters more to him than being leader anyway. in joining the gang his personality doesn't change much from the outside, but you spend a little time with him and you realise he's a good guy beneath it all

the same sorta thing went for ushari and the Skinks. ushari grew up in the stuffy towns and he liked it well enough when he was left alone, but he just kept getting disrespected by people. it only took a few months for him to snap, and then it was him who was disrespecting by plotting against the different towns in the lands. his plans were pretty genius, especially with his acquaintances shupavu, njano and their gang called the Skinks, who just so happened to be the best spies in the lands. despite their lack of brawn and being far from well-off, together their plans were dangerous and could cause lots of townsfolk casualties. people also just kept getting tricked and robbed by the skinks. no one wanted anything to do with them, ushari, or anyone associated with them (ahem, kenge and sumu, ahem ahem)

there was a massive, brutal shootout between the Prideland townsfolk and the Outland gangs before they reformed. jasiri tried to stop it and reason with the gangs, but all hell broke loose as everyone started shooting. ushari was shot as jasiri was talking to him. he was genuinely considering being the first to join her side, as she'd shown him genuine kindness like no one else, but it ended in the shootout (you can guess who shot ushari. i am glaring at you bunga). jasiri and her gang tried everything but the wound was untreatable :( the guilt weighs on jasiri's shoulders as well as the skinks. initially they tried saving ushari themselves- finally putting someone else over being in a fight- but were surprised and inwardly thankful that jasiri tried so hard to save him, even if it was futile

after the shootout and ushari's death, shupavu's gang spent a few weeks aimlessly wandering, realising that stealing wasn't so fun or as easy now that ushari was gone. they kinda awkwardly shuffled into jasiri's gang when she next came to see em. they found it really hard to fit in or do 'good'. like most of them, they joined because they kinda had no choice but to. eventually they find their place, especially when kenge and sumu join

only ushari and the skinks knew, but kenge and sumu were at that shootout too. they went because ushari, shupavu and njano told them about it and What Else You Gonna Do In The Wild West lmao. it was pretty tragic when they found out ushari died, they didn't know bc they were caught up in the shootout and weren't really on the main scene until the shooting started. realistically they probably caused the most carnage; kenge is insane and sumu is a sniper. they left once it was all over, expecting to hear from their acquaintances, but shupavu and njano had to break the news to em. they were also completely unaware that the skink gang joined jasiri

almost forgot to talk about their history! sumu doesn't come from the pridelands/outlands, he travelled a long way bc he pretty much worked as a hitman sniper for criminals who wanted townsfolk killed. he wouldn't stay long in each place to avoid getting caught by law, but he stuck around the outlands because ushari was a cool guy he actually made friends with, and kenge too. in kenge's case, he's that guy who could like. crack your skull if he wanted to. he's really antagonistic and has been in loads of bar fights before being run out of towns, but they could never kill him because he's too good of a fighter and too strong. i guess like rasputin without the lust lmfao??

but yes! kenge and sumu were eventually convinced to join the gang when jasiri finally met them, in her eyes she saw another two misunderstood individuals on the wrong path and managed to reach out to them. she probably called them "friends" and that was the first time they'd ever heard any stranger be that kind to them. both of em were definitely the most uncertain and antsy about being in the gang, as they'd lived solitary before, but no one was really going to bother or push them. sumu's the almost-silent one who has cleaned up a mess before you even notice there was one (perks of being a sniper) and kenge's the guy ordering the best drinks for the camp (perks of being a former bar fighter)

speaking of what everyone does in the gang, i will be talking about that in a follow up post 👀 because i didn't realise how long this was!!!

i have loved building this au!! :3 there might be a few tweaks along the way as i try to find a good balance between the outlanders being from a kids show and the brutality of rdr2 lol. i think i'm starting to develop a story i like tho, just going to flesh out important events as i go along :)

#also i listened to shut eye stealing sheep on loop making this #gotta get those cowboy vibes 💪 #the lion guard #tlg #tlg outlanders #tlg au #tlg rdr2 #i love that i can make that a tag now #i've been working on this for WEEKS #sigh of relief and happiness

[vvitchering]

lmao ok last review of the season

That was the most mediocre thing I've ever seen. THAT was their finale?? LAST week's episode felt more like a finale than whatever milk toast this was.

And don't come for me with that "oh Hannah you'd be upset if they actually did something too weh weh" crap. YEAH I PROBABLY WOULD BE. Cause every single episode of this entire season has been one of two models:

Lets do Absolutely Nothing

Lets do The Worst Possible Thing But Make It Stupid, Too

So I guess in the grand scheme of things it's better to have gone the do Absolutely Nothing route for the finale. But also what a disappointing end to the most disappointing and shit season yet.

Aight let's talk specifics.

Why the fuck was that so easy to do. Din didn't even have to be there for any of that. They could have sent him a postcard later on like "ay whats up we retook mandalore" and it would have had the same impact. Nothing anyone did mattered because Axe just ended up dropping an entire ship on top of Gideon, negating any actual struggle.

Oh he broke the darksaber, are we going to explore the ramifications of that? Will this affect Bo-Katan who has done nothing but lust after that stupid sword for two entire seasons? Will we finally get some thought about what leadership means? Absolutely not!!!! It means nothing!! Toss it away and never speak of it again!!!!! SURE OK!!!!! GREAT.

We didn't actually physically see Gideon die and and you know how that goes so maybe he'll be back. Can't say I like that the clones he was making were clones of himself, I still think evil little grogus would have been more disturbing and fun.

oh so Paz dying didn't actually matter either, good to know we did that for shits and giggles Only.

No helmet off scene, either. Bleh. Whatever, I guess.

None of this had any actual teeth. No drama, no emotion, just a bunch of (kinda shitty actually??) CGI explosions and whoop looks like we won yay great

I'm actually very annoyed they they didn't follow up on any of the suspicious shit the armorer has been doing all season. I was SURE she was going to be one of the spies last week's episode referenced. We never did get an explanation about that, did we? lol

Okay let's look at the very limited list of things I actually did like:

Din finally adopts Grogu!!! But nope we're not doing the Mandalorian adoption rites and Din is going to act as unenthusiastic as physically possible about it. Cool cool.

Din Grogu? What. Is that how Mandalorian names work???? You know what would have helped with this? Some actual Mando lore at all at any point in this entire season about Mandalorians. Wow.

This isn't really a list of things I liked huh

sorry lol

Uhhhh IG is back? I think? Maybe? Hard to tell if its actually him or just a reset IG-11 model. So was IG-12 a totally different droid??? (Also if it was literally as easy as stopping by any random bar and finding a head why didn't we do that in the first place. What the fuck.)

uhhhh they have a very tiny little house now? With a froggie pond! That's cute.

Din still refuses to actually call Grogu his child in any capacity, despite just literally adopting him as his own. Din get over your issues, that kid has been yours since the second you made eye contact with him. I wouldn't be as annoyed by this if they'd given me any reason why Din would be so hesitant to call Grogu family.

Everything about this just felt too easy and too neat. It's an entire episode of "blink and you miss it because it took 5 seconds and no work to do" events that have zero emotional payoff because they wasted the entire season on stupid shit that was never followed up on or made any sense.

My only decent takeaway is Din and Grogu both survived, nothing that happened this season apparently matters AT ALL to ANYTHING, so maybe things can get back to normal next season.

I hope we get some kind of official explanation for this at some point. I maintain that something must have happened internally for the writing to suddenly take such a drastic and obvious nosedive. All I can hope is that this was a temporary fluke and I don't have more seasons of this kind of boring nonsensical bullshit to look forward to.

Season overall gets a .5/10. And that's being generous. Disney, you should be ashamed of yourselves. "Best season yet" my entire ass.

I wash my hands of this season.

#the mandalorian #mando s3 #the mandalorian spoilers #mando s 3 spoilers #mando critical

[ciaossu-imagines]

Karneval and Fairy Tails ?!

Of course! This one was tough but fun to work on and I hope you'll like the direction I went with it. My apologies on this taking so long to get to you!

Okay, so the basis for this AU is probably the most tropery and cliched out of all the ones I've done so far but it's really the direction my mind kept going and an idea that I really liked despite those drawbacks.

So, I see this less of a traditional AU and more of a switched between worlds style AU. Kafka was, of course, responsible for the switch, using some magical means to send the characters working for and involved with Circus through the universes. Each character gets sent to their own unique fairy tale, which they must live through, survive, and find a unique 'key' that will allow them to escape that fairy tale world so that they can travel to other fairy tales to find the others, as they all just instinctively know, through that same magic that sent them there, that the only way back to their original world and lives are if all the keys are found.

So, I will admit that initially I had looked up all these different fairy tales and really hunted down the ones that metaphorically and in terms of content I felt really suited each of the characters but, half-way through writing it, I really had felt that it was too easy for each of the characters to get out of them and really, in the end, it was a bit too on the nose for me as a writer. I felt heavy-handed and didn't really feel it was great story-wise and knew that that would also show through to you guys, the readers.

So I took an abrupt twist and turn and looked up what were considered the ten most popular fairy tales, since there are ten characters I'm working with really here and covering. After that, I let the internet's random pickers match the characters for me and that made things just a bit more interesting I hope.

So, we're going to start with Jiki first, who wakes up in this strange new world to what is, yes, an absolutely beautiful fairy. But she becomes much less beautiful when she tells him how she has no choice, she must do this for his own good and then turns him into a frog. That's right, Jiki got himself landed straight into the good old classic tale of The Frog Prince. Though he isn't really all that familiar with the fable himself, he just goes by what the fairy who cursed him told him, which was that he must get a beautiful princess to love him, to take him in and care for him, to let him drink from her cup, eat from her plate, and sleep on her pillow. Now, initially Jiki really does think the fairy is setting him a really impossible task and that he's going to have to risk his life just trying to invade a castle, steal onto tables and beds without being seen, and cheat to get those conditions fulfilled. Once he figures out, though, that as a cursed animal he can communicate with humans and have them understand him, he really does think the whole thing will be so much simpler. He lays on the charm, the good manners, smoozes each princess he can come across but every time he's met with either fright, disgust, fear, or them running away because 'eww, this frog is going to give my delicate little hands all kinds of warts'. By the fifth or sixth princess he's tried the routine on, Jiki is just getting sick of it all so when he meets the next princess, he does try the same routine, at first. But when that princess reacts exactly like the others had, Jiki loses a little bit of his composure. He looks at her and is just like 'holy fuck, you're kind of an idiot, aren't you? I mean, obviously I'm no normal frogs. Look at all these other frogs…any of them speaking to you? No, because frogs can't talk so there's proof towards what I'm telling you, that I'm a cursed person. Also, I'm not asking for your first born child or any shit or even for true love's kiss, just need to drink from your cup, eat from your plate and sleep on your pillow. The fairy didn't even say you had to drink from the cup after me, eat the food on the plate after feeding me, or even sleep beside me on that pillow. Just do those things, get a new cup and plate, change out your pillow, and I'll be out of your hair, you spoiled brat. Also, there's no amphibian that will give you warts, that's an old wives tale and I honestly thought the education system for princesses would be so much better than this, you might wanna fix that when you rule this kingdom.' Thank god for Jiki but this princess was actually a little into degradation so him being a jackass because he is just so fed up with this and wants to get out and back to his normal life really works on her and she does what he asks. And poof, Jiki turns back into a human on her bed, wearing a crown because the frog was always a prince and the second he reaches up and touches that crown, he knows it's his key. He actually says a really nice farewell to the princess before he takes the crown and skeedaddles on down the road, which he just sort of knows with certainty will now take him into the tale one of the others is trapped in.

And it's a good thing he did, because the tale he falls into is Kichi's. She has made zero progress in her tale, though it really wasn't her fault, something she makes clearly known because boy, does it kill her pride that she hasn't been able to find her key, especially when Jiki had found his. But how could she? She was at a disadvantage from the start because, though she knows she could do this alone, nobody seems willing to allow the tale to move forward, they just keep talking about how they need to wait for her 'brother' to get back from playing outdoors and they keep repeating the same day over and over. To say this annoys her greatly is an understatement. Everything about her life there is horrible - her 'parents' seem to hate her and are mean to her, their house is small, cramped and poverty stricken and she just wants to leave this place but cannot seem to manage it. She's honestly a little relieved to see Jiki when he shows up and is declared her brother, just because it means she can finally leave. Not that she'll ever let him know that. The two bicker and argue, but the story finally progresses, with them both being brought into the woods by their 'father', who abandons them in a deep, dark part of it. While searching the forest, the two of them come across a huge house made out of gingerbread, cake and candy. Kichi has, quite honestly, been starving in the house all this time, subsisting only on bread and water once a day because that's all the family could really afford. Needless to say, she doesn't care that it's destruction of someone else's property, that the candy and cake are all stale as fuck, she sneaks some candy off that. When the witch comes out and starts offering to feed them…Kichi and Jiki have both seen enough as Circus members, they know where this is likely heading. They both accept going inside the house but both are on their guard. While the witch had obviously been intending on fattening them both up first, the constant snide little remarks and bickering between Jiki and Kichi drove the poor witch up a wall and yeah, she figured they were healthy enough for her to just cook and eat as was. Once the duo knew that yeah, they were right, obviously this nice old lady had bad intentions, I like to imagine them really kicking her ass and going back to back badasses, just because I love the trope so much, all while still kind of picking at each other, teasing each other. The witch gets pushed into her own oven and Kichi learns that the oven handle is actually her key so that gets taken off the oven pretty quickly, once the two of them figure out how to do so. With Kichi's key found, they leave the now melting house of goodies and know that when they do, they'll find their way into someone else's tale.

We're going to take a short break from where Jiki and Kichi end up to switch to Iva, who finds herself waking up in her story already leading this poor, way too skinny cow down a country road and with the knowledge in her head that to get back home, she needs to find the golden goose. She's walking down the road when this dude just walks right up to her and offers to buy her cow from her. She isn't really all that attached to the cow and would rather have money that will let her find that golden goose, since money seems much more useful than a cow, so while the dude is kind of gross in her opinion, she's more than willing to do business with him. Well, she is until she learns that he's not even offering to give her money for the cow. No, all this cheap-ass dude, who's looking way too closely at her boobs, is offering to give her is a lousy handful of beans, which he tells her are magic beans. Yeah, she's had experience with con-men before and she loses her temper a little bit. To try to stop the beating Iva gives him early and to make her go away because yeah, she was beautiful but lord is this woman scary, this bean salesman has learned, he's begging her to just let him show her and hell, she can keep her cow too, just please stop hitting him and he'll plant the beans for her. Iva relents a little, the man plants the beans, adds some water, and what do you know? Turns out, Iva discovers, that the man was telling the truth because this humungous beanstalk starts growing and doesn't seem to stop growing, as it disappears up past the clouds. She might not like the man, but a fair trade has to be a fair trade, and she does send him off, now bloodied, with her cow in exchange for his beans and the advice to climb the beanstalk to find unimaginable riches. So that's precisely what Iva does. When she finds herself at the top of the beanstalk, she's in the castle of what she soon figures out in a very bad-tempered giant who tells her he can smell her and is going to grind her up and eat her. She really doesn't take too kindly to this but even for her, taking on a giant single-handly isn't going to be great. So she does everything she can to evade him, finding and stealing some of the riches of his castle as she goes along because honestly, it seems fair to her that she should be able to take some of these jewels and gold in exchange for the fact he's trying to kill her, right? She eventually, while evading the giant, comes across the golden goose, which she grabs right away because yes, this is the thing that will take her home right and she needs that because the giant is now right behind her. Except she grabs it and…nothing? Literally nothing happens, she's still stuck in the story. The giant is right there now and to distract him and because Iva's now really angry that she found this goose and it didn't work, she chucks the bird, full force, towards the giant. The bird is so flustered that out pops a golden egg. Iva sees this and dives just as the giant reaches out his great mitt to grab her. She catches the golden egg, just barely, just by the tips of her fingers, and knows that is her key and that all she needs to do is find her way back to the original beanstalk. Filled with new purpose, she uses a knife she found along her journey in stab the giant in the thumb before he can grab her and, still clutching that golden egg and with the other things she'd stolen strapped onto her, the chase is back on as she runs back to the beanstalk and literally tosses herself down it, knowing that when she lands, it will be in someone else's story.

And Iva finds herself so relieved to find that the first person she sees, the first tale she falls into is Tsukumo's tale. Tsukumo is very glad to see Iva, though she doesn't really need the woman's help. She has her tale very well handled, honestly. Tsukumo had found herself being sent from her 'mother's' house, wrapped in a bright red cape and hood, with orders to deliver a basket of wine and cake to her grandmother's house and not to leave the path. Tsukumo wasn't quite sure what was going on, but she has always been good about following orders. So she headed off along the path, where she found herself approached by a talking wolf, who, upon learning of her task, suggested picking a bouquet of flowers to add to the basket of goodies going to her grandmother. While it did seem like a good idea, Tsukumo pointed out that there weren't too many flowers along the path proper, to which the wolf had responded that there were all kinds of beautiful flowers just a bit off the path, just to her right, not even more than three minutes walk. Tsukumo hadn't even hesitated in her answer that, thanks for the suggestion, but she'd been told not to leave the path and she had no plans on breaking those rules and if the wolf would please excuse her, she had to be getting on her way. This was about the time the wolf gave up its pretenses and just attacked her, and it was while Tsukumo was fighting the almost magically strong and vicious wolf that Iva dropped into the fight. To say the wolf was toast goes without saying. The wolf slain, the tale should have been complete but Tsukumo still had no idea what her key could possibly be. Iva had suggested they make a picnic out of the goodies meant for the grandmother and figure it out together, but Tsukumo refuses. The goodies are meant for the grandmother after all, she couldn't take them from her. Instead Tsukumo insists on finishing the journey to the grandmother's house, which turns out to be the right call. Tsukumo knows, upon setting eyes on it, that her key is the grandmother's sleeping bonnet and she makes the elderly lady a trade. Tsukumo and Iva have a lovely meal of wine and cake with the grandmother and then Tsukumo gives the old lady her cape and hood, while she wears the bonnet out the door, knowing that by doing so, her and Iva will leave this woman and this tale forever and will find themselves in someone else's story.

Which is how Iva and Tsukumo join Kichi and Jiki into falling into Tsukitachi's story. What they find though? Honestly, it annoys all of them to varying degrees. See, Tsukitachi fell into the story of Puss in Boots, where he had to take the role of the cat and use all his cunning and wisdom to make his master a grand marquis and get the King's daughter to marry him. Which, honestly, Tsukitachi managed without too much trouble at all. When everyone falls into his story, he's completed it, found his key in the boots, and is just simply having too much fun, since the wedding had turned into a days long party, to want to leave quite yet. He greets everyone so happily (and slightly drunkenly) and lets them know what's going on, encourages them to stay and enjoy themselves a little, why not, he's not quite ready to leave yet…needless to say, Tsukitachi is left with no other choice but to leave his tale and might have been forcibly dragged away so that they can all move forward. He takes it all in good humour though.

Especially since the next tale all of them fall into is Doctor Akari's. Akari had gotten sent into the tale of Sleeping Beauty, where he had learned that he was taking the place of the princess, cursed to prick his finger on a spindle when he turned sixteen and sleep for a hundred years until a kiss awoke him. But, since he got sent back to when the fairy cursed him, he put the extra time to use and while he still ended up pricking his finger, the tale's progression too strong for him to resist, when the others find him sleeping beside this spinning wheel (because everyone else in the tale falls asleep with him so there's no one to carry him to a bed), they find there's a note he pinned to his chest so that no one could miss it. 'Do not kiss me. There is an antidote to this magic in my pocket, inject that into me instead.' And honestly, everyone is getting ready to follow Akari's orders until Tsukitachi stops them. Because like…it's fun to mess with Akari and can you just imagine his face if someone were to kiss him and wake him up instead? Tsukitachi actually becomes somewhat insistent on this because he sees a way to mess with Akari and that is too good to pass up and the others really see it as just easier and quicker to go along with Tsukitachi, as the man takes the antidote from Akari's pocket anyway, so they would have had to get it away from Tsukitachi to give it to Akari. I just find it a funny idea, but they all play rock paper scissors to decide who has to kiss Akari because while the idea amuses Tsukitachi, nobody really wants to kiss the man. Poor Tsukitachi loses anyway, when it got down to just him and Iva (because there was no force in nature that was going to make Iva kiss Akari and she made sure Tsukitachi knew that) and he plants one on Akari, who wakes up. And lord, Akari is pissed because like…he left solid instructions. Do they know how long he had to work to come up with that magic antidote? They wasted so much of his time and efforts and eww, he did not want to be kissed, especially by Tsukitachi. Tsukitachi handing Akari his antidote back and assuring the man that it could probably come in useful elsewhere along this whole journey, as they still had others to rescue, really calmed Akari down. Akari breaks off the spindle, which is his key, and they all progress into the next tale, since honestly, Akari is just so ready for this all to be done and over with and is in a bad temper.

Tsukitachi doesn't seem to be immediately right though. The next tale finds no use for Akari's antidote, but does jolly Akari up somewhat, considering it's Hirato's tale they fall into and boy, is it nice to see Hirato be 'in distress' for once. Though honestly, it turns out Hirato was less in distress than they thought. See, he had fallen into the tale of Rapunzel and found himself locked up in a tower, his hair growing at a super fast rate, with no way to escape that he could immediately see. A witch would visit him once a week and though Hirato had come up with a few escape plans before very long, he kept still in his tower, trying to see if he could garner any information from the witch. The others pop into his tale about the time that Hirato decides that he has learned all he possibly can from the witch and that he would make his escape that day. The others stumble across this tower, see Hirato at the top window and the witch climbing back down his hair to the ground below. Once the witch is truly gone, they all hurry to the tower, yelling at Hirato to get his attention. He pokes his head out the window, sees them and just politely smiles and tells them to give him a second. The next thing they see is Hirato, now with much shorter hair, wrapping this super long braid around a hook by the window. Turns out he had pickpocketed a knife the witch had brought to cut up his weekly food for him before she left and he used the braid he had been sporting to climb down and join the others. He digs a rock out of the surface of the tower with the others help, knowing that the tower itself is his key and he must take a piece of it with him to be able to leave. The group walk into the forest and poof, into the next tale.

Honestly, this tale makes Akari much happier, if only because it's in this one that Akari does find a use for his magical antidote. The tale they come into is Yogi's. Yogi had found himself in the tale of Snow White. While he had been quick to figure out the Huntsmen had been planning on killing him when he was sent to accompany Yogi, on his evil stepmother's order, and had fought and defeated the Huntsmen, Yogi was still completely unsure of how to get out of his tale. His key wasn't anywhere around that he could see and so he stumbled through the woods, trying to figure out what to do next. He came across the seven dwarves cottage and they took him in. Honestly, Yogi was having so much fun with the dwarves, and really began to care about them greatly, that he got kind of distracted in finding his key and getting to the others. Too bad his key was also his undoing. While he knew the apple his evil stepmother, disguised as a passing elderly woman, was his key, the magic on it was too great and he couldn't help himself from biting into it, the curse on the apple causing him to fall into an enchanted sleep. The dwarves grieved him greatly and put him in a glass coffin in the forest, which is where the others all find him. They remove the glass cover and there's some talk of trying kissing again, since that helped the last sleeping person but Akari is having none of that bullshit again and Yogi gets unceremoniously stabbed and injected with Akari's antidote. He awakens to find himself still holding the apple, thank god, as that is his key, and with all his friends around him. He says a tearful goodbye to the kind dwarves, and they all move along to the next tale, all of them feeling good because like…they're almost to the end. They can think, really, of only a couple more people they may have to rescue.

Gareki is having one hell of a time and it's putting it lightly to say he really hates the tale he fell into. He had awoken in his tale to find himself in the process of being cursed by a fairy to assume the form of a monster until he could truly love another and find that love returned to him in kind. Now, problems with that…one, Gareki himself has a really hard time allowing himself to grow attached to other people, it turns out it's not really love if you're simply trying to grow attached to break a curse, and his monstrous form really does tend to send almost everyone running and screaming away from him. He's beginning to think there's no freaking way he's ever going to find a way out of this bogus, stupid tale when the others make their way into his tale. And honestly, things didn't go so well at first because all the others saw, when they stumbled onto this castle, was a monster. It took a little bit for Gareki to really get them to accept, without any doubts, that he was the monster. After that, the curse became a lot easier to break…though still not easy because Gareki? Admit and accept his feelings? Boy oh boy, is that one of the toughest things in the world for him. But it's only through accepting and admitting out loud, even as a whisper, that he truly does love and care about his comrades, and their own assurances that hey, they need Gareki around and he's part of their family (along with a few cracks about how they accept his new form because hey, there's really not much change from his normal face and this monstrous one) and that they care about him for the spell to be broken, though it takes a lot longer than it would if it was anyone else than Gareki cursed. When the curse fades, Gareki realizes that his key is one of the roses in the castle garden and plucking it, all of them make their way into the final tale.

That last tale, of course, being the one Nai got dropped into. Nai found himself dropped into a world where he quickly lost the man who said he was Nai's father, and where his stepmother and stepsisters quickly put him to work. Of course, his tale is Cinderella and we all know how the story goes. Nai really is too nice for his own good though and too blindly following…he really works hard and does what's demanded of him because by doing so, he gets a bed and regular meals and he actually gets really used to his new life, though he cries every day because he terribly misses his friends and life with Circus and wishes to go back to it. But he really doesn't know how to find his way back by himself and he doesn't want to be turned out into the street with no home at all and no food, like he keeps being threatened with. And in his own way, he does grow to care about his newly found stepmother and stepsisters and really wants to make them happy. He seems to think that if he just does everything they ask and does it really well, they'll start being nicer to him so he tries really hard. And when the ball comes around and his stepmother forbids him to go unless all the work is done, knowing that breaking her rules will make his stepmother really mad, he keeps turning down the fairy godmother's offer, and the story just keeps repeating itself every so often, over and over, because, though he doesn't know it, the story can't progress without him saying yes to his own freedom. Which is why it's so lucky that the Circus members drop into his story and find him out running an errand for his stepmother. Flat out, after learning the kind of life he's living and seeing how dirty and run down he is, no one is letting Nai go back to that. And he's perfectly okay with that because all his friends are there now, they can help him get home and protect him. And lo and behold, the fairy finds all of them in their new location, a set of rooms Iva rents for them in this world with all her gold and still makes the same offer to Nai. With encouragement from his friends, and an assurance from the fairy godmother that they can go to the ball with Nai, Nai accepts the fairy's offer and finds his key in the glass shoes he's gifted, along with new fine clothing.

With all the keys finally gathered, the Circus members all return to their world, glad to be back there, intent on studying the magic that caused the switch in worlds and, in a couple cases because let's be honest, a few of these people are very much not opposed to the idea of revenge, very intent on dealing out some much needed punishment to those that put them through that.

#replies #karneval #headcanons #au headcanons #fairy tale au

[firecaptainphoenix]

Shot Down Like Icarus

About: Phoenix struggles through flashbacks when Jay gets hurt during the earthquake. TW: Death mention, Injury, Panic Attack

"I know you're worried, I am too, but Dodger is fine. He's just…in a bad headspace," Phoenix explained as he walked alongside Jay. 

It gone back to just being the two of them, and despite his best intentions to keep things light there was only one thing the topic kept circling back to. She was worried, and he didn't blame her, it felt like everything was falling into place and now Dodger seemed off. He knew it took some adjusting to their new dynamics but overall he really thought they'd been in a good spot. 

"Like you were?" And Phoenix has to try not to flinch, there's no malice or judgment in her tone. She's genuinely trying to wrap her head around what's happened to one of the few parental figures she has left. 

"Kind of…yeah, the best we can do is just reassure him we love him and he's enough for us. You know?" He wraps his arm around her shoulders pulls her close to his side as they walk down the outer end of main street. 

"You know, speaking of reassuring people, do I need to have a talk with your mom?" He asks tone light, if a little teasing. 

"My m-mo-mom?! I don't… I mean I don't have a mom, dad. I have you, I had another dad, and I have Dodger," she stutters out, her face turning a bright shade of pink. 

"I've heard the slip ups Jay, and I'm not mad if that's what you're worried about. We lived with her and her parents for a while, hell you call them Grandpa and Grandma more than you did my own mother," which he was grateful for. Far as he was concerned Jay didn't have grandparents kicking around. 

Jay chewed her lip and scratched idly at the side of her face as she glanced down. "Is it actually ok? I mean…I just she's always been there. I never wanted a mom…she just kind of already is one to me. I don't want to make Dodger feel bad either… cause I thought about asking him too… but I've been worried this is all way too much… that I'm too much and he doesn't want to be my dad either."

Phoenix's heart lurched in his chest, stopping and putting his hands on her shoulder. "Jaybird they both love you almost as much as I do," he said softly, he briefly tapped her chin to get her to look at him, "How bout this, I test the waters. See how they feel about it?" 

Jay seems to consider this, slowly nodding, he sees her mouth open about to speak when the ground rumbles. Her eyes widen, it's been years since either of them have called LA home but the rumble is familiar. She's reaching for Phoenix when rumbles increase and she's stumbling back, hears window shattering and then everything is dark. 

Phoenix coughed pushing himself off the ground with a groan, managing to get to his feet, it took a moment before he felt stable. Glancing up he stared at the rubble pile in front of him, and saw a familiar hand sticking out. 

"Jay!" The scream that rips out of him is raw, feels like he's been shot with how quickly he's scrambling over. He can hear his breathing getting ragged, and feels a cold sinking feeling come over him. "Not again…not again please… God please not again."

He doesn't even realize what he's mumbling as his hands work through the rubble. He's suddenly not in Huntsville, he's back in LA searching for Bradley. He never actually did, he'd been told the news later that night. He'd been meant to lead search and rescue after a particularly bad earthquake, and had been stunned when he saw Bradley working the scene. 

The whole point of Bradley transferring to being a paramedic had been so Jay would always have a parent. That Phoenix would risk himself, it should have been him, it was never meant to be Bradley.

"You know Bradley, he always had to help people. He rushed in there before anyone could stop him. I'm sorry Phoenix." 

He can't lose her too, he can't, he won't survive he thinks frantically. His hands are starting to bleed from the various things he's grabbing without a thought. Can't feel the pain, all he feels is a numbing terror continuing to build. When he sees her face he hears a broken sob slip out, is careful to keep clearing rubble around her chest, and starts checking her over. 

There's blood on her face, a gash on the side of her head that's likely to require stitches he thinks. Leaning forward he has his face close to her mouth, another choke sob slipping out when he feels her breath. It's weak but it's there he thinks as he clears more rubble. The worst of it seems to be the gash on her head, along with a shard of glass in her arm. He's more careful than he thinks he's ever been with her, when he lifts her as gently as he can. 

He's not sure if he's walking or running, a mix of both, and ignores everything else around him. By the time he's at the station he can hear Dahlia barking orders into the walkie as well as getting the emergency vehicles ready. He sees Dodger looking like he'd been about to head out, possibly to search for them. 

He's numb when he sets Jay down on a cot and looks at his fellow Captain, "I… I can't stay… I have to go back out…," the words come out soft. Before he leans over to kiss Jay briefly on the cheek and walk over to talk to Dodger. 

#event: pumpkin festival #post plot drop #death tw #death mention tw #injury tw #panic attack tw #phoenix lore #//jajajajaja i played myself putting ym kids in the pool #//im fine totally fine

[hello-nichya-here]

Been a long time since I sent an ask but I'm hoping for your forgiveness xD

Anyway, I've been in a Stannis staning mood recently and remembered a theory.

Apparently the reason Stan is popular is because he serves as the replacement Ned Stark due to his strict adherence to honor, law and morality. Any thoughts?

I do see similarities but I've always felt them to be different people. They had respect for each other yes, but were never really friends.

Plus their flaws and shortcomings are different. Ned could have prevented the war by not telling Cersei but he was too merciful of a person for that. Stannis greatest mistakes and vile deeds came almost always when he compromised on his code.

I guess what Game of Thrones teaches is that both good and evil deeds, both selfish and selfless actions can have negative consequences. People don't act in isolation, the results always depend on how other people react.

While they both are characters that fully believe that "What's right is right", the are some key differences between them.

The first and most important one can summed up in an exchange that happened between Davos and Stannis:

"What is the life of one bastard boy against an entire kingdom?"

"Everything."

Ned covered up the truth about Jon being Lyanna's son with Rhaegar, spoke out against the plan to kill Daenerys (who was 14 and pregnant at the time), and refused to just let Cersei's children be executed despite knowing that they were bastards born of incest. All of that was because his honor and his idea of what's right says that protecting the weak and innocent is his obligation - especially if said weak and innocent are children.

Stannis meanwhile was fully ready to kill Dany and Viserys as children, nearly burned Edric Storm alive, and will 100% kill any of Cersei's bastards if he ever comes across them. That is because Stannis's morals are all about the good of the real and the rules of society.

This isn't always bad - he is sexist and racist, but won't allow his men to rape women of the free-folk because to become a rapist is to become a dishonarable man, and he won't tolerate that kind of shit.

But it also means that he is fully okay with Melisandre burning people alive because her God told her to and (more importantly) plenty of said people were enemies of his that were breaking the law by supporting other kings. Why would he have a problem with that? What's the difference between burning people in the name of Rhollor and stabbing a bunch of them to death in the name of the Seven/the king? War is war, and sacrifices have to be made.

Ned meanwhile will NOT accept that kind of thing. He has killed people before, and he WAS willing to let Cersei and her children be executed if she didn't run away with - but he still gave her the warning. He gave them a chance to survive. To end this conflict without anyone's death being necessary. Stannis meanwhile fucked off to prepare for war.

Another key difference between them is that Ned is much more forgiving in general, and especially with the people he cares about. He killed the guy who deserted the Night's Watch, but only because he did not believe his story about the White Walkers attacking them - if he had, the guy would have lived and not suffered any punishment. Ned was also not okay with cheating, excessive drinking, or people neglecting their responsibilities - but he was best friends with Robert, the guy who full on said "Hey, be my Hand, so you can do all the work for me while I eat, fuck and drink."

Can anyone even imagine Stannis Baratheon EVER letting someone get away with saying that kind of crap to him? For fuck's sake, Davos is his best friend AND smuggled food to Stannis in a siege in which he nearly died... and Stannis still cut off Davos's fingers as punishment for the crime of being a smuggler.

We also have the fact that, while Ned didn't really understand the Game Of Thrones. Like, at all. He legit thought Cersei wouldn't stab him in the back after he said "I know about the treason, incest, and I'm also gonna accuse you of murder." Stannis never made that kind of mistake. He despises the empty flattery and courtesies their society relies on, yes, but he always makes sure he has some card up his sleeve that allows him to get away with not enganging on that part of the game.

This also connects to another thing: Stannis changed, Ned did not. Ned Stark died because he could not addapt to the place he was at, not even long enough to just get enough time to go back to Winterfell and leave Robert holding his dick. Stannis meanwhile addmited that Davos and Jon Snow were right - just going "Fuck you, I'm the king, bow to me!" was not working, would likely never work, and if he wanted people to support him, he'd need to change tactics and help them with their problems instead of focusing just on his. He went from the king that even rejected, and who despised his subject, to "the king who cared." Quite the drastic change.

Finally, we also have ANOTHER way in which Stannis changed, and that ties into something he does NOT have in common with Ned: the way they handle being the second son.

Stannis went from sleeping with Melisandre just because it was necessary (both in the sense of "the red God wants it" and "It will kill your rival in a second"), to not so subtly bragging about the fact that she is his mistress and that she scares the fuck out of everyone but is his loyal servent.

This "sudden" change happened because, while Stannis never really asked to be king, he was always the unloved child. The one who was too difficult to deal with. The one who just needed to lighten up a little. The one who didn't have Robert and Renly's charisma. The king NOBODY wanted.

And then here comes Melisandre, telling the is the literal chosen one. The most important man in the whole world. The one who will save everyone and be seen as a legend forever and ever. And he buys into that pleasant lie because it validates all the anger, resentment and loneliness he felt all these years, and tells him "It was not your fault, you were right all along. Everyone else was the problem, not you"

Ned meanwhile, despite loving Catelyn and the life they had together, would often get all melancolic over the fact that he was not supposed to be the heir, the ruler of Winterfell. And when Robert comes in offering to give him MORE power, MORE responsibility, MORE of a great status, he fucking hates it. Unlike Stannis, Ned doesn't resent the time he spent in his brother's shadow as the "least important one." He seems to miss it and the safety it brought to him.

Which is why he often refused to play the game, unlike Stannis. Playing is the only way to have even a CHANCE of winning. And when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

#asks #ned stark meta #stannis baratheon meta #ned stark #stannis baratheon