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butterflydm · 1 year

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attempting to adjust min’s plotline to remove character arc contradictions

spoilers through Knife of Dreams

This is basically just me poking at one of the things in the second half of the series that bugs me and trying to figure out how to improve it.

Before I head into the Sanderson books, I was thinking again how utterly bizarre Rand and Min’s relationship is in context of all of the storylines that Jordan set up for Rand, because she manages to undermine so many of them:

Somehow, despite Rand firmly believing that being connected to him is a danger to everyone else that he cares about, it’s okay for everyone in Cairhien to know that Min is in his bed and we never really see him worry about things like her being called ~Lady Ta’veren~ by the Cairhienin nobles. Instead, there’s more focus on Min as a desirable object of lust and jealousy rather than any kind of implied danger she might be in from her position as his known lover.

Rand is supposed to be in a downward spiral about isolating himself away from his loved ones... except, of course, that Min is there 24/7 at this point and they are constantly having sex. I mean, I kinda agree that having Min there is basically like not having anyone there at all because of how she enables his paranoia, but the book series tries to balance the tightrope of Min clearly being useless at giving Rand emotional support but also telling us that, actually, she’s super-supportive and Best Girl (TM).

Rand struggles with the Seanchan and is out fighting against them, while Min withholds vital information about their forces (the sul’dam secret, which she learned in Falme along with Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne).

Rand struggles with the fear of Aes Sedai trying to control him, while Min hands his secrets over to one of the most controlling/bullying Aes Sedai that we’ve ever met (Cadsuane).

Just... this relationship makes NO narrative sense as written. And Rand’s story would have so much more punch in the later books if Min wasn’t there. Like, even if the main change were that he’d reconnected with Min in LoC and then freaked out about the Asha’man attack in TPoD and left her in Caemlyn along with Elayne and Aviendha after the bonding, his storyline would make so much more sense.

It is BIZARRE that his reactions with Min are somehow the exact opposite to his reactions when literally anyone else he cares about is in danger. And I’m not even talking about his other love interests alone here -- he also avoids spending time with the Two Rivers people who came along with Perrin in LoC for this reason.

And it is WILD how many times Min is directly in danger due to being around Rand and yet he DOESN’T send her away like we know he’s done in order to protect everyone else that he cares about - there’s the kidnapping in LoC; the Asha’man attack in TPoD; he directly brings her into incredibly dangerous situations TWICE in WH (traitor hunt & cleansing); he brings her into another dangerous situation in KoD -- was he TRYING to get her killed, lol? (this is another place where Min ends up feeling like a ‘desirable object’ rather than a character)

Just... Rand’s story with Min really makes zero sense in context with all of the rest of his storyline. What a weird, weird choice all this was on Jordan’s part.

And that’s not even getting into how lopsided the whole ‘fated three beautiful women romance’ thing ends up being, because I do think that’s more about how Jordan straight-up lost control of his narrative after TFoH and things just started sprawling wildly. If his pace had kept up, then it would have been a lot less uneven.

So, to expand on this idea to see how it would work, storywise:

“Like, even if the main change were that he’d reconnected with Min in LoC and then freaked out about the Asha’man attack in TPoD and left her in Caemlyn along with Elayne and Aviendha after the bonding“

This would have:

evened out the treatment of Rand’s relationships

meant that he actually WAS isolated during his self-isolation arc

given Min a chance to bond with co-girlfriends Elayne and (especially) Aviendha

meant that Min didn’t tell him about the Seanchan sul’dam secret because she literally never got the chance/had time after the Seanchan showed up again, instead of not telling him Because No One Tells Rand Anything

meant that instead of Min eagerly being Rand’s mood ring for Cadsuane and betraying his secrets to her, it could be non-lover Alanna instead who was sucking up to Cadsuane 24/7, which would make a lot more sense, because they’re both Aes Sedai and the power structure of the White Tower means that Alanna is supposed to submit to the much more powerful Cadsuane

So, how would that work, only changing that one main element.

LoC: Min arrives. Elayne & Aviendha go to Ebou Dar with Mat.

ACoS: Min and Rand sleep together for the first time, and then he basically runs away to conquer Illian (have him do this instead of moping in his quarters).

TPoD: Rand self-isolates during the assault against the Seanchan, fails against them. Returns to seek out Min for comfort and then, boom, there’s the Asha’man attack. This attack makes Rand react the usual way he reacts when people he cares about are in danger because they’re too close to him, and he wants Min to go somewhere safe, instead of the out-of-character “let’s keep throwing my girlfriend into danger because I’m “too weak” to protect her by sending her away” reaction he actually has in the books only with Min and with no one else that he cares about. (and I mean, I don’t even like Rand’s self-isolation protocol; I feel like it’s very unhealthy, but I would like the narrative to be consistent here in order for me to actually take Rand’s downward spiral seriously)

WH: Triple-bonding, but Rand leaves Min behind in Caemlyn. This means that Rand actually has a valid reason not to know that Elayne is pregnant (among other things), because Min stayed back in Caemlyn.

CoT/KoD: for the love of all that is holy, make this a single book. Anyway, Min-Elayne-Aviendha bond (emotionally) while Rand ACTUALLY self-isolates and gets hurt because of his self-isolation during the “Tuon” meeting (instead of getting hurt because of Min using sex to manipulate him into taking her to the meeting)

Much more balanced and it makes more narrative sense with Rand’s storyline. Min would get page-time with Rand much more equal with the other two women this way -- instead of playacting as Rand’s jealous wife, she would be spending time with Elayne & Aviendha for most of WH/CoT/KoD.

(side note: I was skimming through my reread for other reasons and found pretty much the exact moment when I stopped liking Min in my reread - chapter one of The Fires of Heaven is when she begins to be insufferable for me to read about, it looks like, when she’s whining about her fate even as she wants to race forward to complete it, which was also one of the things that annoys me about Mat in the Mat-Tuon relationship. If your fate makes you so miserable at least TRY to fight it. Don’t whine about its inevitability even while you are working your hardest to force it to happen; that just makes you annoying. I’m guessing this is bullshit “yes heterosexual marriage makes everyone miserable and constantly complain about their spouses But You Must Do It Anyway To Exist In Society” unhealthy marriage culture - being miserable is NOT a requirement in marriage and if your relationship makes you miserable that’s probably a sign it’s not a good relationship! But, yeah, it looks like my relationship with Min is all downhill from that point in the story)

#rand and min (not a ship tag)#jordan critical #wot #wheel of time #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #knife of dreams #wot reread #looking foward to prime hopefully making me like her character and her relationship with Rand!#fingers crossed!#i already feel like they've improved her #so hopefully that will continue #this relationship is just one of the elements of the books that makes less sense the more i think about it #Min does one (1) useful thing in the entire book series: free Siuan & Leane from the White Tower #her viewings end up being either entirely useless or actually harmful (in terms of making Rand more paranoid)#(which I would be fine with if the narrative seemed to REALIZE this?)#(but instead she is uncritically praised even while doing nothing useful)

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lenievi · 11 months

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I’m rereading my thoughts as I wrote them when I was watching SNW when it aired and this part at the beginning is so important and I sometimes I still need the reminder lol

I consider SNW to not be related to TOS. It’s based on it, but clearly the story will go different directions, therefore there’s no reason to try and make a sense of it (but I also like to reinterpret some stuff for my own enjoyment and fics - but it has no place in discussing TOS like TOS should not really be considered too much when discussing SNW - I still think there should be some things that shouldn’t be broken, but… I think it’s too late for that, so I’ll just have to accept it as “it’s happening. fine” - at least that’s my stance on it.

#reading my thoughts is interesting.#somewhere during the year - i think because of some people but also my 'i'm slowly becoming less and less interested in spock' mindset #i convinced myself that i did not like spock/chapel but all of my reactions are VERY positive and i enjoyed every little bit between them #so hopefully that will continue #since my emotional connection to spock is even lesser than it was last year #my reaction to the finale is still such a terrible overreaction LMAO #but some points are valid and i wonder when i rewatch the episode if i will once again feel a bit meh about kirk despite being very !!! kirk #atm :D #can't believe i'm still so emotionally invested in kirk #i hope s2 will treat una better though #the problem though is that if i start rewatching snw now i will probably never write anything for sp0nes day....#fyi having low emotional connection is actually a better thing - for me - because it allows me to enjoy the show without wanting certain #things to happen.#my goal was to distance myself from tos before s1 - or rather spock - and for some reason i just got into kirk................#and then the finale caught me off guard lol

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pinkiemme · 6 months

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Spent all day reading this fic and it has consumed me, so I needed to do something to let my feeling out

#I want to color them #and finish them #but soon it will be 1 am and if I start I won’t go to sleep until I finish #so maybe hopefully I will continue these tomorrow #who knows #but #damn #what a journey reading that fic was #a masterpiece #emmeart #Gale #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #tara the tressym #Gale and Tara

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steddiehyperfixation · 6 months

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don't you forget about me (steddie fic)

saw this post and was inspired to write something angsty <3

The first thing Eddie is aware of when he wakes up, before he even opens his eyes, is the dull, aching pain throbbing through pretty much his entire body. The second thing he’s aware of is that someone is holding his hand.

“Eddie?” The hand in his tightens its grip as Eddie begins to stir; the voice it presumably belongs to sounds immeasurably relieved, yet only vaguely familiar.

Eddie groans. His eyelids flutter, blinking awake, and he groggily rolls his head to the side to get a look at whoever had spoken.

The voice sighs again, “Oh thank god-”

“Harrington?” Eddie’s eyes fly open wide now as they land on the mystery man sitting beside him on the edge of the bed - a man he most definitely is not close enough with to be holding his hand, and a bed that is most definitely not his own. He snatches his hand away. “What the hell are you doing? Where am I?”

“Ed-” Another man’s voice, this one just as relieved and infinitely more familiar. It fills Eddie with relief too as he looks to his other side to find his uncle Wayne rising from a nearby chair to come up next to him.

“Wayne, what-?” His surroundings are becoming more clear. “What happened? Why am I in a hospital? And why the fuck is King Steve at my bedside?” Eddie tries to sit up only to gasp and wince in pain as the dull ache in his sides sharpens to near agony at the movement.

“Take it easy, son.” Wayne’s hand lands on his shoulder, gently but firmly pushing him back down onto the pillows. “You were hurt real bad.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Eddie grumbles out. He sucks in a deep, intentional breath and exhales slowly, the pain beginning to dull again now that he’s settled. His questions are still largely unanswered, though. Blank mind reaching desperately for any logical piece to this bizarre puzzle, he turns an accusing glare to Harrington. “Did you land me in here? Is that why you’re here, some sort of weird guilt thing?”

Harrington’s looking at him like a kicked puppy. “What? No, I-” he falters, takes a shaky breath and swallows painfully like he’s trying not to cry. “You don’t remember?”

“I don’t remember what? Will someone just tell me what happened?” Eddie’s confusion is rising more and more into agitation with every second he remains without an explanation.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Harrington asks quietly.

“I was driving home from school, just found out I wasn’t gonna graduate again.” Eddie frowns as he thinks back, still trying to put pieces together. “Did I crash my car? Is that it? I was emotional and not paying attention and got into an accident?”

Yet again, he receives no answers.

“Eddie, what month is it?” Wayne asks instead, his tone dangerously measured and serious. “What year?”

“May…” Eddie says warily, “1985.”

His words hold a weight he doesn’t understand, landing heavy on the others in the room and thickening the air. It sends a chill of dread down his spine, the way his answer etches concern deep into the lines of Wayne’s face, the way Steve Harrington seems to take it like a blow to the chest.

Harrington exhales sharply as if he’s been punched, standing abruptly and taking a few stumbling steps back. Wayne says, “It’s April of ‘86, Ed.”

Eddie’s blood runs cold. “No. No, it can’t be.”

“I’m gonna go tell the nurse you’re awake,” Harrington mumbles, his voice strained and his eyes glassy with barely held-back tears.

“I’ll go,” Wayne offers, pushing himself away from Eddie’s bed. He gives Harrington a meaningful look, though what that meaning is, Eddie can’t decipher.

Harrington turns his devastated gaze to the older man. “But, Wayne, he doesn’t-”

“I know, kid.” Wayne gives a sad smile and places a sympathetic hand on Harrington’s shoulder as he passes by. “Just talk to him.”

Eddie is thrown off by this familiarity between them. Since when were those two close? He feels like he’s entered some sort of parallel universe where everything is just ever so slightly wrong. It leaves an itch beneath his skin, uncomfortable and out of place, like he no longer quite fits in his own body, in his own life. He’s lost 11 months, apparently, and this world is no longer his; he doesn’t know where he fits into it anymore.

Wayne leaves the room, and Eddie wants to protest: Don’t leave me here with this guy I don’t know in this time I don’t know, please, you’re the only thing that feels safe and familiar! Anxiety is crawling through him like a thousand tiny bugs in his veins. He wants to scream, he wants to cry, he wants to run. Anything to shake this feeling loose. But he’s confined to this bed, trapped both by his pain and by all these machines he’s hooked up to, and he sure as shit isn’t going to have a breakdown in front of Steve goddamn Harrington.

Instead, Eddie resigns himself to this situation and casts a sideways glance at Harrington who very much looks like he’s also trying not to have a breakdown. “I’m freaking out, man,” Eddie says finally, hating how shaky and pathetic his voice sounds. “I swear to god, Harrington, if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on…”

Harrington worries his lip between his teeth as he hesitates. “It’s a lot to explain.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Eddie scoffs out a humorless laugh. “I’m missing nearly an entire year, of course it’s a lot to fill in. Unless I’ve been here this whole time?”

“No.” Harrington shakes his head. “No, you’ve only been here about a week. I- I don’t know why you’re missing so much time, the whole Vecna thing only started like a week before that-”

“Vecna?” Eddie interrupts to question. “What does any of this have to do with the D&D campaign I was planning? And, also, how the fuck do you know about that?”

Harrington closes his eyes for a second and takes a breath, like having this conversation is the most painful thing he’s ever had to do. “I’m not talking about D&D, Ed. Vecna was a real-life monster from a real-life alternate dimension we called the Upside-Down. The kids only called him Vecna because we didn’t know who he was at the time and he, like, cursed people before he killed them, but he was actually Henry Creel, which is a whole other fucked up story.”

“Okay…” Eddie doesn’t know who ‘the kids’ are and he’s skeptical of the way Harrington talks so factually about monsters and dimensions and curses existing in the real world, but he does remember his uncle telling him stories about the demonic tragedy of the Creel family, which is the only thing that makes any of this even halfway believable. It still doesn’t explain how Eddie wound up in the hospital with his entire body feeling like it’d been run through a blender, though, or why the former king of Hawkin’s High was hovering over his sickbed. He gestures for Harrington to continue.

“I never wanted you to get involved in all this Upside-Down shit,” Harrington’s voice breaks. He steps closer to Eddie’s bed again, and he looks so so sad as he stares down at him that it makes Eddie’s own heart ache, just a little bit. Harrington’s hand twitches at his side as if he means to reach out for Eddie but then thinks better of it, running the hand through his hair instead as he continues, “I tried to keep you from it for so long, I really did, but then Vecna killed Chrissy in your trailer and the whole town blamed you and you were just a part of things then, there was no getting around it. You helped us fight him - Vecna. You kept his army of bats off our ass while we weakened his body and El weakened his mind. If it weren’t for you we never would’ve defeated him and we certainly wouldn’t have all made it out alive.” Harrington’s gaze softens, as does his voice, his next words almost a whisper, “You were a hero, Eddie.”

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Eddie says, like that’s the least plausible part of Harrington’s story. And, really, it is. He can wrap his mind around a lot of things: a murder in his trailer - sure, Forest Hills always was a shady place; the whole town accusing him of being a killer - yeah, of course, that tracks; even an evil wizard from another dimension with an army of bats - fine, okay, why the hell not. But Eddie Munson is no hero, and he’s definitely not any sort of fighter either.

“No, you never did think so, did you?” Harrington mutters with a sad sort of fondness and the barest trace of a wistful smile. “But it’s true. Dustin was in danger and you didn’t even think twice. You ran right into the fray without a second thought, sacrificed yourself so that the rest of us might survive. Those bats nearly killed you, b-” he breaks, choking on whatever word he was going to say. His eyes swim with yet more unshed tears. “I almost thought they had killed you, you know. I thought you were dead when I carried you out of the Upside-Down,” he admits shakily, choked up and barely managed, “and even when I brought you here and you were stable, I was still so scared you wouldn’t wake up…”

Eddie doesn’t know how to react to any of that information or to such a display of emotion. His own hands twitch now with the urge to reach out and comfort him, but he too denies that instinct. He tries for humor instead, something lighter, cracking a grin and teasing, “Aw, Stevie, I didn’t know you cared.”

Harrington makes a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh. “Oh, Ed, you have no idea.”

“We were friends then, weren’t we?” Eddie guesses now, carefully. It’s rapidly becoming the only possible explanation for the guy’s behavior around him. “Before all the Vecna stuff?”

“Yeah,” Harrington manages, forcing a small, sad smile as his eyes finally overflow and streak his cheeks with tears. “Yeah, we were good friends.”

Wayne reenters the room then with a nurse in tow, and Steve quickly turns away and rubs his hands over his face. He needs to pull himself together; he can’t break down right now, not yet, not here.

He listens, distantly, as the nurse asks Eddie a bunch of questions and then tells the rest of them that she needs to take him in for some tests to determine the cause and prognosis of Eddie’s amnesia. He watches, numbly, as she wheels Eddie’s entire bed out of the room.

Steve can barely hear, barely see, his emotion clouding his eyes and roaring in his ears. He stares blankly through the open doorway and struggles to swallow down the ever-rising lump in his throat.

Wayne’s voice rumbles from somewhere beside him, but he can’t quite make out the words. “What?”

“I’ll take that as a no, then,” Wayne says, the sound reaching Steve’s ears a little clearer now. “I asked if you were alright.”

Steve shakes his head. His voice comes out coarse and raw, “‘Course I’m not alright.”

“Right, ‘course you’re not,” Wayne echoes. He follows Steve’s mournful gaze to the door Eddie had disappeared through. “What did you tell him?”

“Told him he was a hero,” Steve croaks, “...and that we were good friends.”

“Ah…” Steve’s vision is so blurred behind a thick layer of tears he can’t see the sympathetic frown on the old man’s face, but he knows it’s there. “At least he’s alive, kid,” Wayne tries to be comforting. “You can always start over.”

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t- I don’t want to start over, I just want-” Steve chokes back a sob. He just wants Eddie.

It’s a horrible thought, but Steve almost thinks that this just might be worse than if Eddie really had died… Because how is Steve supposed to handle the fact that his boyfriend of 9 months no longer knows him? How is he supposed to cope now that the love of his life looks right at him and no longer sees him?

He closes his eyes, presses the heels of his palms into his eyelids, inhaling a shaky breath and exhaling an even shakier sigh. Steve whispers, “It feels like I’m losing him all over again.”

(part two is here!)

#i have plans to fix it don't worry. eventually. maybe #i'm really really bad at writing longer multi-part fics but i've got a lot of ideas spinning around my head for this one so #hopefully i will continue it if any of y'all are interested in more of this #steddie #steddie angst #steddie fic #steddie ficlet #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #ficlet #fanfic #mine #1k #dyfamsteddiefic #<- tag to follow for this story

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busymagpie · 22 days

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✨️Varda✨️

#silmarillion #varda #valar #your guys' comments are so sweet 💕#finally managed to finish something after all those months #hopefully I'll continue this trend :)

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lionbearfox · 20 days

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the silly.... shes everything to me

#nahida #genshin impact #my art #new top contender for favorite nahida ive ever drawn #i missed drawing sillyhida.... shes just a goofy lil guy #gonna print this one out at put it at my desk in the lab office #i continue to be normal about nahida (<- bold faced lie)#anyways. for those of u interested in commissions i am working on figuring it out #and hopefully price sheet will be up sometime this week :) so keep an eye out!#id in alt

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theminecraftbee · 7 months

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gentle reminder for the fandom, since i've been noticing it in comments of decked out videos: backseat gaming typically isn't appreciated. telling the hermit to go to compass school is kind of annoying and not particularly constructive. telling the hermits to go check the underwater chest or the spider's den or whatever is spoilers, tango has directly asked you not to, you wouldn't want to make tango sad, would you? being like "lol how do you not know that yet" is rude, because the hermits aren't actually supposed to have watched any of the decked out development we have, and almost certainly haven't watched all the other hermits playing like we have.

even offering what you feel like is useful advice is normally going to be repetitive and unwanted instead of useful. yes, even if you've figured out a game meta the hermits don't seem to realize. yes, even if they're doing something really wrong or have the really wrong idea for how the game works. yes i KNOW the urge to explain the mechanic they're misunderstanding is strong. 99% of the time you should not do it.

if the hermit asks a question directly go ahead and answer the question! but if you weren't asked, don't say anything. don't be a backseat gamer.

#hermitcraft #decked out 2 #just. a trend i'm noticing #remember guys. it is obnoxious to get ten million unwanted advices and criticisms #if you can't figure out how to comment WITHOUT commenting the unwanted advices and criticisms (AND I GET IT I CAN BE BAD ABOUT THIS TOO)#just go ahead and refrain for the time being #most hermits have figured out if they're streaming runs they should be in emote-only by now so hopefully that continues

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whosoldherout · 3 months

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911 HIATUS REWATCH 6x18 - PAY IT FORWARD

#911edit #911hiatus2023 #911 abc #911 fox #evan buckley #hen wilson #618 #myedit #i love them and we got so much of them in s6 #hopefully s7 continues that

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blueskingdom · 2 months

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the way lando’s demeanor changed as soon as oscar came into the interview is just stunning

like he went from lando “media-trained answers” norris to lando “soft, inner-personality” norris

#the soft personality (reserved only for one oscar piastri might i add)#it wasn’t subtle #the change i mean #like i feel like you could 100 percent sense the change even if you don’t know him #their friendship has changed so much and hopefully it continues in the positive direction #f1 #formula 1 #lando norris #oscar piastri #landoscar #mclaren #bahrain gp 2024 #during the f1tv interview btw not the sky sports one!

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marimeigh · 2 months

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was for ShuAke Week of 2023 <3

#shuake #shuakeweek2023 #my art #digital art #fancomic #there's kind of a time skip between each page bc i drew this with the different prompts in mind but they're still interconnected #hopefully it's coherent #shuake week 2023 was like a year ago and i dont think ill be able to continue this maybe so ill post the ones ive done in a compilation her #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #akechi goro #amamiya ren #akira kurusu

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starwarjotta · 7 months

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Day 6 - resolve the resolve to protect those you care about even against impossible odds

#codywan #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #star wars #starwarstober23 #I guess Ventress' hand and lightsaber are in this as well #tw: blood #tw: injury #they'd do almost anything to protect each other #they know their duties #but there isn't much cody wouldn't do for obi-wan and vice versa #the situation seems dire I know #but they'll get out of it and obi-wan will be fine #cody fighting with obi-wan's lightsaber is one of my favorite things #and i'll continue drawing him with either obi-wan's lightsaber or his own #idiots in love #THEM #I'll be busy for the weekend so I don't think I'll have time to draw any fills but hopefully more next week

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little-pondhead · 9 months

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[inspired roughly by this post. My brain snails started going nuts so I thought it'd be easier to post this separately :)]

…

It was a lovely day in Gotham. Well, as lovely as it could be. The sun was up, peeking through the overhead cloud cover and making the buildings gleam in the rare sunlight. The air was fresher than usual, and faucets ran clear of strange and unusual toxins.

Somewhere in the Upper East Side, in a little neighborhood tucked away from the rest of the city, marched around the new boss of the area. She was a young girl, just barely in high school. But despite it being the middle of a work day, she wandered around her chosen streets, content to do whatever she wanted. Above her, a pair of siblings watched on and discussed the unique situation.

"So let me get this straight: that fourteen-year-old goth girl is a crime boss?"

Mia smiled at Leon, her older brother, and his dumbfounded expression as they rested on her balcony. "She's fifteen, actually. Her birthday just passed. We all got together and threw a block party for her!"

"You know how insane that sounds, right?" Leon turned to her, a bit miffed that she dared to say those words to his face. "She's a kid. Why do you all listen to her?"

Mia shrugged and sipped her beer. "She does good work. Holds her own pretty well, and the kid has connections. Good ones, too. That can be the difference between life and death in Gotham."

Leon rubbed his forehead in frustration. "I just don't get it. How did she end up in this line of work? Do child labor laws even apply here?? Why aren't the Bats doing anything?"

"Don't think about it too much, dipshit." Mia crushed her now-empty beer can in her hand and tucked it into a paper garbage bag hanging off of a hook on the balcony rail. A familiar set of green arrows was printed on the side.

"And now you're recycling?!" Leon realized. "When did you start doing that, Mia??"

The woman shrugged and got up, stretching. "Probably around the time Brambles absolutely reamed out Mrs. Zalinski for littering at the park."

"Wait, who's Brambles?" Leon scrambled upright and followed his sister inside.

Mia laughed. "Brambles is our fifteen-year-old crime boss!"

...

"I can't believe you got a cool name right off the bat," Danny grumbled, flopping onto Sam's bed face-first. Sam smirked and shoved him off with her foot. Danny just squawked and let himself ragdoll to the ground.

"It's your fault for not having a better gimmick." She said to his prone body. "Besides, it could've been worse."

"I think Inviso-Bill is the worst possible nickname for anyone." Danny groaned. "But you got something cool immediately. Who even thought up 'Brambles'? That's such a unique name!"

"Well the kids call you Grim; that's pretty cool."

Danny flopped over, twisting himself much farther than any human was supposed to just so he could glare at her face. "They only call me that cause one of the is obsessed with Harry Potter." He grumbled, pouting.

Sam just rolled her eyes and went back to sorting through piles of papers scattered all across her duvet. Since moving to Gotham several months ago, Sam had taken it upon herself to turn the experience into something useful rather than just moping all the time, as she originally wanted to. That 'something useful' had landed her as the newest crime boss in Gotham, with about a third of the Upper East Side as her current territory.

So many problems had popped up in the last year, and the group had decided that taking it on alone would never work. The GIW had been trying to close Amity's borders, Danny's parents had a scientific breakthrough, tensions in the Realms were high, etc. There was a lot on their plate! Sam's solution was to create a foothold in Gotham City. She would lay the foundations for Jazz to work in Arkham and forge a safer environment for the residents of Amity Park to sneak off to if the GIW went too far. She was essentially weaving a cushion for everyone to fall back on.

Danny, using the power of duplication, was splitting his focus between foiling his parent's plans and resolving issues with his rouges to create a united front. He was the main distraction, and Sam's own heavy hitter when she needed help establishing dominance.

Tucker planned to gather intel with the help of Technus and Jazz. They were trying to gather as much evidence as possible so they'd be in the clear when the whistle blew. The GIW would crash and burn, legally speaking. They were the bugs of the operation, spreading themselves thin and hoarding information like it was candy.

Dani was their wild card, their jester. She was keeping the JLD's attention focused solely on her and all the supernatural hijinks she was stirring up. When the time was right, she'd point them in the direction needed and let them loose. After winding them up so much, the hope was that the Justice League Dark would descend upon the GIW like hellfire.

But those were their future plans. Right now, Sam was in possession of specific files from Arkham Asylum and the GCPD. She was looking for anything to give her an edge in the upcoming meeting with a few other crime bosses. Some annual thing they host to renew Goonion contracts, see who's still alive, and examine how much the territory lines have changed. Stuff like that. Red Hood was supposed to be there, and she knew she needed an ironclad defense against him and his nosy colony of Bats.

Danny untwisted himself all of a sudden, making a weird face. "Sorry, got to go." He apologized. "Vlad just showed up to my house."

Sam waved him off. "Go, I'll be fine for today. Just be on time for the meeting on Friday. And I want you, not a double."

"You got it!" Danny did finger guns at her and promptly melted into a pile of green goo. Right on her bedroom floor!

Sam sighed and got up to throw a towel over the puddle. The ectoplasm would evaporate eventually, returning to the original Danny little by little. But for now, this would keep anyone from asking about it until it was all gone.

Sometimes she really hated living in student dorms. People always felt the need to burst into her room for no reason.

Who even made dorm rooms for high schoolers in the first place??

...

Jason couldn't help but stare at the new recruit.

Well, 'new recruit' wasn't exactly accurate. 'Potential to be the most headache-inducing supervillain' was more like it. Standing at a solid 5'10" with platform boots, Brambles, the newest crime lord who had taken over half of the Upper East Side in under four months, was almost tall enough to look him in the eye straight on. Which she tried to do anyways, tilting her chin up oh-so-slightly (in that stupid way aristocrats do when they want to look down at you) and glaring at him with open hostility.

Brambles was young, way too young to be in this line of business. At the start of the annual underground crime meeting (yes, they couldn't come up with a better name), she had announced that she was fifteen, went by she/her, and would snap the dick off of anyone who looked at her funny. Most everyone laughed at her, thinking it was an empty threat. Brambles proved it wasn't by sucker-punching a younger lieutenant who tried to get handsy with her five minutes into the meeting.

When the lieutenant's boss protested and threatened a gang war, Brambles had snapped her fingers and summoned what could only be a fucking pit demon from the depths of hell to threaten the man back. The creature looked like a teenager, just like Brambles, at first. But it was...off. The longer you looked, the worse it got.

It wore a draping black cloak that covered most of its body, with the ends turning to mist when it reached the floor. It had a pale, young face and white hair. Its eyes glowed just like Brambles', except they were a toxic green that made Jason's heart skip a beat in fear. The creature was snarling, with a fucking muzzle on it to keep its sharp teeth away from wandering fingers.

With a nod from Brambles, the creature bounded forward and knocked the guy to the floor, its arm elbow-deep into the guy's chest. The dude looked terrified, and a little sick "Would you rather lose a lieutenant or your life?" She had snarled, sounding almost a bit demonic herself. The other boss had backed down without another word, writing off his subordinate as dead and gone.

Instead of killing the guy, however, Brambles simply banished her little guard dog to a corner of the warehouse to play with its new toy in peace.

"Is she allowed to do that?" Someone whispered.

"They weren't unionized, so the Goonion won't say anything." Another answered.

It was the most awkward meeting in the history of the criminal underworld. No one even died since they were all focused on the newcomer.

Jason could feel a headache forming as the meeting came to an end. Brambles was still sitting in her chair. The creature had grown bored of its toy and was leaning against her, sprawled out lazily and barely flicking an ear at the onlookers in acknowledgment. A few people were idling around her, mostly women, trying to talk some big game and get on the kid's good side. Brambles was humoring them, taking tight control of the conversation when they got too prying.

Jason sighed. He knew he'd have to go over and have a talk with the kid, even if it was just for Bruce's files. He hauled himself upwards and stalked over. "Pardon me, ladies and gents, but I'm going to borrow the kiddo here for a moment."

The creature hissed at him, tensed at his approach. Brambles kept a tight grip on the back of its muzzle, keeping it grounded. The other criminals scattered like flies. They were the only two (three?) left in the warehouse within minutes.

Bramble rose to glare at him. "What." She spat. "If you're here to convince me not to get involved with anything, I will set Grim on your ass after lighting it on fire."

The creature, Grim, growled in agreement. The sound echoed strangely like he was hearing it from underwater.

"Relax, I'm not here to do any of that." Jason raised his hands in surrender, immediately abandoning that possible line of thought. "I'm just here to talk business. You're young, and while you don't want to admit it, inexperienced."

"Stop the fancy words, Red Hood." Brambles' eyes glowed again, and she released her hold on Grim's muzzle. "If you want to make a deal, say it to my face. If you're here to dig for information, either ask me or hit the road. I prefer honesty over flower talk, so tell me what you want before I take over your area, too."

Jason bristled. His vision was tinted green as he snapped, "What the fuck is your problem, kid?! I just wanted to make sure you were safe and not being forced to do this. I was even going to offer my support and protection if it was too much! I know you aren't going to stop, but that doesn't mean I want a kid to die just because they got into something they shouldn't and they think their fancy guard dog will always be there to protect them!"

Brambles' eyes stopped glowing, and her stare softened a bit. Grim went deadly still, just floating there, staring at Jason. His heart beat like crazy in his chest. What was he saying? It was all true, but he could've been nicer about it. Dick would've found a way to be nicer.

-krrrk- "Ibis, reporting in. I think you can trust him, guys. Even if he's a Bat, his connections and experience would be useful in our plans. Ibis out." -krrrk-

Jason flinched from the sudden noise, looking around to find the source. It sounded like it had come from everywhere, even inside his own helmet. Brambles immediately switched out her hostile look for an annoyed one, tapping an earpiece he hadn't noticed before.

"Ibis, you really have to stop opening up our comm lines to the public." She snapped, but there was no real heat to it. "And I thought I told you to stop eavesdropping!"

-krrrk- "Sorry, can't help it. I'm everywhere now! You shouldn't have given me this power." -krrrk-

Grim hissed.

-krrrk- "Don't hiss at me, young man! You were the one who suggested this!" -krrrk-

"I'm sorry, time out!" Jason made a T with his hands. The green from his vision had completely disappeared now. "What the FUCK is going on now?"

Brambles sighed, rubbing her temples. "You know what? Fine. We'll trust you. My name is Sam. Nice to meet you, Jason Todd."

Jason stepped back, immediately reaching for his gun. Grim darted forward and promptly flew through him, stealing all his weapons in one go. "I'm Danny!" Grim-Danny?-chirped in a human voice, giving him a shit-eating smile. "Sorry for the act, Mr. Hood. And sorry about the name drop, I'm the one that told them."

-krrrk- "I'm Tucker! There are more of us, but they're busy. I have literally so many questions for you, Mr. Hood." -krrrk-

"Now that introductions are over-Danny don't eat his smoke bombs, you're not gonna look like Dorathea-we'd like your help."

Jason squinted at them. "You understand this is all suspicious as fuck, right? And how did a pit demon find out who I am?"

-krrrk- "Yeah, we know. But lives are on the line here, and I think you'd really be a help!" -krrrk-

Brambles-Sam-sighed and pulled out a flash drive. "I was going to use this as leverage, but I guess it'll have to be useful in other ways." She tossed it to Jason, who numbly caught it. "Look over it if you want. If you don't, then just burn it. Do not try to plug it into the Batcomputer. Don't try to send it to the Batcomputer, either. A virus will target that specific IP address as soon as it makes contact. Any other computer is fine."

"Look it over, and we can go from there," Danny added, spinning in midair while chomping on one of Jason's knives. (His good one, too!) "And I'm not a pit demon, but I am dead. That's how I knew about you. Whatever brought you back to life gave the Realms a real headache for a while. It wasn't hard to look you up in the records."

"This is so much information. Lives are on the line? And two, three kids are dealing with it? By becoming crime bosses?"

-krrrk- "Technically, Sam's the only crime boss here. And that was kind of an accident. She was supposed to create a safe foothold in Gotham in case we needed to evacuate our town. But we all got cool nicknames out of it! And you're the only adult we've told this stuff to!" -krrrk-

"I'm what?"

"The only adult." Sam's unwavering gaze seemed to pierce his soul. "There are quite literally no other adults that can help, Red Hood. None that we trust, not really. Any adult intervention needs to be planned carefully so it doesn't backfire on us. We're trusting you here, Jason. Not only are you like us, which technically puts you in danger too, but you have power and connections to support a whole town of people the government wants to eradicate."

Jason looked at the little green flash drive in his hand. He didn't want to ask. "And this...?"

"A fruit basket," Sam said simply. "Originally, it was supposed to be blackmail. But instead, this is a present to show our goodwill and faith. To show you our skills. That drive contains information on other gangs, upcoming rogue attacks, chemical breakdowns of Joker Venom and Fear Gas, unfinished antidote formulas, etc. Tucker and his team scoured the underbelly of Gotham and gathered dirt on every single prominent figurehead. Including Bruce Wayne, should you choose to use it."

"I would never-"

"But you've thought about it." Danny cut in and scratched his neck. Jason's hands shook. "It's not a bad thing. It's just the nature of the dead. Wanting to right the wrongs left over from their time with the living. Even if you walk and breathe now, that doesn't mean desire disappears."

"The point is, we need help. Even if I'm loathe to admit it." Sam rolled her eyes, and suddenly, Jason didn't see a potential supervillain in the making. He saw a teenager trying her best, shouldering the responsibility of hundreds of people, both in Gotham and her hometown. Danny looked the same, no matter how other-worldly he was. What battles were they facing? Why weren't there any adults to turn to? What kind of lives were they leading if they immediately trusted a known crime lord with their lives upon the first meeting?

"I'll think about it." Jason finally said. Danny trilled in excitement, and some tension bled out of Sam's shoulders. "If the situation is bad enough, however, I'm calling in someone else for help."

Danny shrugged. "As long as it ain't Batman! I don't think he'll appreciate us smuggling a town of liminals into his city."

Sam poked Danny's shoulder, prompting him to look at her. "Let's go, before you break his brain with more info-dumping. Bye Red Hood!"

"Uh, yeah. Goodbye!" Jason stuttered. He watched the two kids walk towards the exit door, before shimmering out of sight before they even touched the handle.

What the fuck.

#danny phantom #dpxdc #kinda strayed away from the prompt #and that's why its a separate post not a reblog #long post #not beta read #no beta we die like danny #pondhead writes #this leans into more of a ‘Sam did it on purpose but said it was an accident’#Tucker read the vibes from all the way in Amity and the other two just roll with it #Tucker: we can trust him #Sam: here’s our entire life story then #Danny: I hope you don’t mind us info-dumping :)#Danny will eat anything #he’s a growing boy! (hopefully)#he wanted to look like Dorathea when she’s a dragon #I cannot stress enough I don’t know shit about dc #so if someone is already in charge of the upper east side #then shut up Sam is their boss now #not continuing please don’t ask I will cry #someone else is free to take over from here #it’s literally just brain vomit to get myself going

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sunderwight · 4 months

Text

Thinking about a situation where SQQ gets a look at Luo Binghe's package (post-Abyss but pre-Maigu Ridge, or in an AU where Maigu Ridge doesn't happen) through like, the outline of his pants or whatever (maybe Binghe took a wardrobe tip from Jareth of Labyrinth), and then got to thinking about how huge Luo Binghe's meat is, like in an actually non-sexual way this time just his brain gets onto a tangent about a bunch of scenes from PIDW where the descriptions varied wildly, and then he starts wondering about exactly what size it is, because to go by the novel's descriptions it's either bigger than average but not insane or there's another arm stuffed into that codpiece somehow. Surely it's closer to the former than the latter? SQQ doesn't have any other evidence that physical limitations in this world are that different from his own world, but then again, would it come up in any of his conversations if women in this world have sufficiently cavernous vaginas for damn near every virgin Bingge met to accommodate a dick that big? Does it at least make childbirth easier? He hasn't exactly polled anyone on it, so it could be the case. But what about the back door, so to speak? There were a few sex scenes that went in that direction, forbidden tunnel of love type stuff and it was all incredibly bad and cheesy, but of course, SQQ actually has a "back door" too and surely he would notice if it was possible to stick his own arm up it. Although it's also not as if he's tried, and as a peak lord with a fantasy metabolism he doesn't actually have to take a shit either, his body processes everything extremely efficiently and it's been years since... well anyway it's not like he's had occasion to investigate it much, now that he's thinking about it. Maybe he can? Not that this is relevant information to anything though and given the inconsistencies the probable limitations of the numerous people PIDW Binghe had sex with, his package, though prodigious, is probably not actually that big of a weapon. How could he even comfortably keep it contained otherwise...? Etc etc etc.

Meanwhile the entire time he's having this internal spiel, he's just... staring. At Luo Binghe's dick. Really blatantly. It doesn't even occur to him that he's doing something incriminating about his interests or possible attraction precisely because he's not, for once, getting flustered about it (much) but is in fact genuinely vexed by the mystery. This is not so much a case of imagining Luo Binghe's dick as wondering about fantasy physiology. So he's lost track of where his gaze has wandered.

The longer it goes on for though the more flustered Luo Binghe gets though. Like, should he say something? Is this a prelude to Shizun making a move? Is there... something wrong with it? Why is he staring so intently? Is Shizun aware that he has just been looking straight at Luo Binghe's dick for almost ten minutes now...? He should definitely say something, right? Maybe this is his chance! Or maybe he should wait and see what Shizun does next? Should he try a line? Something suave? Ask if he wants to see it! Shizun can absolutely see Binghe's dick if he wants to! No wait, but what if Shizun is planning on making a move and he ruins it by being impatient? He should wait and see where this is going.

...How long is it going to take, though...?

Luo Binghe's brain frazzles between trying to decide if he should make a move or prepare to be receptive towards one, or maybe check and make sure his dick hasn't turned into tentacle or something without him noticing, while Shen Qingqiu slooowly (very slowly) begins to realize that yes, he has been staring at Luo Binghe's dick while lost in thought for such a long time that now it's weird. It's definitely weird. He should look away now, at once, except now if he stops staring at Binghe's dick it's going to end whatever stalemate this is and he's probably going to have to explain why he was ogling it in the first place, and he definitely cannot explain anything, so he just keeps staring while furiously trying to think of a non-gay explanation for why he's now glaring intensely at Luo Binghe's crotch.

...He can't think of anything. Oh god. This is a disaster. Luo Binghe is going to kill him for being a perve!

(Good luck, Binghe.)

#svsss #bingqiu #scum villain's self saving system #long post #I imagine this goes on for so long that they actually get interrupted before either one of them breaks the tension #sqq: oh thank god hopefully binghe will just forget about this whole thing haha it never happened it definitely never happened #lbh: is definitely not going to forget about this #is in fact going to fixate on it forever now thanks #is already trying to figure out how to ask what sqq thinks of his dick #is going to keep wearing the david bowie pants until it happens again for sure #sqq being conscious of what happened is now NOT looking in that direction at all ever again nope #the farce continues

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