#this might not be all of them but they're the ones I remember

[alucardens]

Yeah though seriously- you might not ship Buck and Tommy and that's okay- everyone is entitled to their opinion as long as it doesn't harm anyone- what makes it not okay is when you say things like you're being queerbaited- in a show that *literally* has a canon lesbian couple (where one half of the couple is a main character) SINCE the first episode of the show, that, 1) consistently, as a couple, have storylines that get resolved in a way that shows the writers aren't brushing the characters away, and arcs that show character growth.

2) NONE. NONE. Of the canonically queer characters have been harmed in a way that resulted in permanent death. And when they do get in harms way (which is inevitable- this is the nature of the show), it's done in a thoughtful way- their actions and risk of death/ injury WOULD add something to the plot/ storyline. Their loss would have an impact on us as the viewer. They would not be meaningless deaths. And aside from death, even queer characters who 'exit the main storyline of the show' but are otherwise alive, are still done with thought and care. I mean, (and spoilers for the first few seasons of the show,) Michael's storyline lasted (iirc) about 3-5? seasons. (We are not talking about meta events such as why they removed the actor from the show). He and his (named AND on-screen) husband, David, move to help people. His husband is literally a neurosurgeon. There was literally an episode revolving around Michael's proposal to David. Even after they've moved away, they're STILL referenced and talked about. They're not pushed away or ignored like the way some shows treat characters who aren't there anymore.

Josh (my bby fr), who's also been canonically gay since his first appearance, also has a arc that's real and very very relatable to most of us. The show takes it fucking seriously as well. And Josh is GOOD. Even as a side character, he's not reduced to the 'gay best friend'. As I said, he has his own storyline and arc, he has his own opinions, he's good at his job.

Aside from the main characters, imo, 911 also does a damn good job of showing that queer people exist. You might not like it because 'oh they're showing queer people who are in danger/ not happy/ dying.' To which I'd respond by saying that you're watching a show about paramedics. As much as we like to say this is the gay firefighter show (accurate lmao), we need to remember that there's going to be dark themes in this show.

I don't remember every call they've come across that involved queer people, but we for sure remember the 'we ever only wanted to go together' scene, with the elderly husbands. Yes it involves death. That's why we're seeing this scene in the first place- the engine wouldn't have to respond to a call if there wasn't a call in the first place. But it also fucking shows queer people growing old together and making a life for themselves. The opening scene is literally a montage of the husbands' relationship over the years. I don't know how many mainstream shows put that much fucking care in queer characters.

And then there's also the wlw couple in that car accident thing- not as significant as the husbands but like, that's the point, is it not? Not all their calls are significant- we don't even see all of them. The point is that they just show queer people existing as a general thing. It's not strange that the two women who were in the same car in a crash are both gay. There's no weird over-sexualised kiss. There's no show or mention or even hint of homophobia or confusion by the firefighters. It's fucking normal. So yeah. Do I ship endgame Tevan? Not at this moment. Do I like them together as a couple right now? Fucking yes. My personal opinion is that I like Buck and Eddie together more (at least for now), but why would I not ship Tommy and Buck right now? It makes no fucking sense not to. Buck is in a happy (queer) relationship, he's still figuring himself out as a bi man in his 30s, he's dating a masc man, who's past is messy and has since grown (oh look at that, another character arc revolving around a queer person), and they're clearly fucking happy together.

Anyway. I have a lot of feelings about this lmao. You want proper bi representation? Bro. I don't know what to tell you but you're looking at it.

#buddie #911 abc #911 spoilers #911 season 7 #tevan #evan buckley #eddie diaz #tommy kinard #911 discourse

[prismatoxic]

By his own admission, Chillchuck hasn't seen his kid in several years, is that not what a deadbeat is? He also admitted to being a Nad husband.

oh boy i finally get to explain this! also did you stop after volume 7 or something? you wouldn't send an ask like this without knowing all the canon info, right? chilchuck has three kids, not one. he only says it's one at the end of volume 7, which sounds like the conversation you're referencing.

anyway--chilchuck's daughters are all adults by half-foot standards. they do not rely on him for finances or care. based on the way he tells the story about his wife leaving, this may have been the case even before they were fully grown, but he doesn't specify. either way not being immediately in their lives is not neglecting them, and "deadbeat dad" specifically refers to not providing financial aid to estranged offspring who need it.

(chapter 56)

but let's also explore the way the fandom tends to assume he no longer cares about them or has any contact with them, shall we?

he is still in contact with them. they write him letters and one of them sent along the neckwarmer he wears (i feel like it was flertom, but i might be remembering fanon). there are also two canon instances of him being back in their lives after the end of the story (including bringing them to met his friends)

(chapter 56 again)

(ryoko kui illustration celebrating the finale of the manga)

and finally, this man talks about his kids very fondly even during canon. he is still invested in them and knows them as people, even though they're adults.

(one of chilchuck's 2 bonus comics in the adventurer's guide; the second instance of him being present in their lives post-canon is from the complete edition but i don't have it on hand)

so no, he's not a deadbeat. and based on the way you phrased your ask...

edit: BAD? DID YOU MEAN BAD HUSBAND?

THE THING HE WAS LYING ABOUT?

#tox answers #chilchuck tims #yeah this one goes in the main tag i feel very strongly about this #dunmeshi spoilers #i will admit i have no fucking idea what nad means #EDIT: I FIGURED IT OUT

[the-brash-spud]

Marvel's looks

So you know how it is at least an older canon established that Billy as Marvel looks like his dad or at least what he remembers his dad to look like? I personally lean into a second option of how he remembers his dad because it makes it more interesting plus it helps with the whole awkwardness of him looking like a semi-random or completely random (depends what canon you're going for) dead dude.

So here's the differences I see Billy as Captain having compared to his dad or things that come from his dad's little quirks!

Height: Billy remembers his dad as being massive because he himself was a tiny baby boy. So yeah. Marvel isn't a walking 6'4" feet tall dude because that's his "peak" or whatever but that's how tall comparatively Billy's dad looked like to him at when he was like 4 vs 8 years old.

Build: CC was the strongest man Billy has ever known. He could lift all of them: his mom, his sister and him; proudly proclaiming he is holding his entire universe in his arms. So naturally he was super strong which called for super muscles! So that's why Marvel is build like a tank while CC most likely had a healthy amount muscles from excavating and such but nowhere as much as Marvel and unlike Marvel would've also had a solid amount of extra squish too (we stand dad bods, lmao).

Cleanliness: You know how a decent amount of people have Marvel have a neat self-cleaning option that just comes with the magic form? I personally like the perpetually perfect hairstyle from one of the fanfics I read that joked about it. Even if this might not be something I'll always use to it's maximum extend. Either way. I like to think that the cleanliness of Captain Marvel comes from the fact that CC liked to be overall clean and put together when seeing people or generally outside around the public and generally portray himself as professional: as in wearing full business in casual business because he likes the feeling wearing a suit gives him (Yeah, I see CC to be a weirdo actually enjoying suits and his wife finds it to be an extremely adorable quirk she loves because they both get to be the dressed to the nines couple!)

Face: OK so this one is going to have a bit of sub bits here because I gave CC glasses. I know when he is shown he usually doesn't have them but I have a reason for it and I'll get to it:

4.1. Nose: The shape is different from CC's simply because glasses hide a decent portion of the nose bridge depending on what sort of glasses you get. But generally the bridge would be a bit larger for Marvel.

4.2. Eyes: So you know how in older depictions of Marvel he always squints? You know when people also squint? When they're trying to see better! So yeah for me Marvel has a perpetual squint because he doesn't wear glasses unlike his dad. Who, whenever he took them off, also squinted to see (sometimes exaggerating it to make his kids laugh). So Marvel's form subconsciously squints since there's no glasses on his nose. lol.

4.3. Also eyes: Additionally since CC wears glasses and squints when he takes them off, his vision has to be decently bad. You know what happens when you wear strong glasses? They warp your face. So additionally Marvel has smaller eyes then CC would've had. :P

So yeah that's all I have for now but might edit it if I ever come up with more things like that. If you like the concept feel free to either use it or add to it. This is all a complete fanon. It's for complete funnsies. But I would still like to hear what you think about it!

#dc #dc comics #billy batson #shazam #dc captain marvel #fanon #concept #character concept #cc batson

[onesidedradiostatic]

so I thought of something so stupid. you’ve seen fanon interpretations of how vox might sleep in standby mode, charging, like 🧍‍♂️? I remembered an earlier alastor fanon/non-canon joke said in an old stream that alastor sleeps standing up in a corner with his eyes wide open. and i was hit with the thought: there could be a one in a billion situation where alastor is on one side of a dark room and vox on the other, red glow blue glow, just standing there like

🧍‍♂️____________________🧍‍♂️

this is the closest they’d ever get to “sleeping together” and neither is even in the true state of “sleep” because that would leave them open to an attack so they’d be standing there. pretending to sleep. surveilling the other. knowing the other is also pretending to sleep but they’re too proud to call a bluff and the next morning when they get back to their collab work they’re like “wow I am so rested, wouldn’t it be stupid if I was too paranoid to sleep and just pretended to all night, not getting any rest? couldn’t be me. you look like shit by the way”

okay this is funny but imagine this but like pre-falling out. they have to share a room for whatever reason, maybe they're working together for something and vox purposely books a room for this specific situation to make a move on alastor and it's seeming like the only one bed trope and vox is like "oh no what could we POSSIBLY do hahahahhaa looks like we have to SHARE" and then alastor is like "oh don't worry dear that's not a problem" and he just goes to the corner and gets himself comfortable while vox stares at him unmoving for 5 whole minutes before submitting that his 5000th plan to make a move on alastor failed

#ask #osrs.txt #radiostatic #staticradio #onewaybroadcast #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor #oh my god I finally got the energy to properly answer an ask I'm so back

[izzasecretredacted]

Homework for Those Who Have No Context for Drake's Public Execution

I've been an off and on fan of rap for a while, based on whether or not my hyperfixations takes me there. With the absolute blindsiding of the Kendrick/Drake beef breaking tumblr, I figured I go back and find some stuff I remembered hearing about in the past. I'll put them here as a brief history lesson, in case you want to know just what Kendrick is talking about and why everyone is rejoicing in the downfall of some popstar that you maybe heard at the supermarket or something...

btw, I'm not posting these in chronological order, but the order of how relevant I think they are and the order I think they're best absorbed.

This is an essay from about 2 years ago, and is the most indepth source that I'll post here. It talks a lot about Drake's place in Hip-Hop, and also goes into the idea of Drake as a culture-vulture.

This is a 3yo article that has a lot of "Fresh Hot Drama" vibes to it (might be a misread on my part tbf), but is a great secondary source of things that made people question whether Drake was a predator. None of it is completely definitive, but at least a handful of what's presented is very Yikes.

This is a very brief video that's a whopping 7 years old, but really only stopped being relevant this month (with the exception of a period in time about 2 years after this which will be clear later). It explains Drake's reputation as being untouchable whenever he finds himself in a rap beef, even when very real violence is involved. It also has some foreshadowing to present day. 4:06 in particular is really interesting in hindsight.

Lastly is the only diss track before now that really put a mark on Drake's reputation, even if it was a small one in the strictly long term. I'm posting a lyric video because the cover to the single is an old picture of Drake in the most blatant blackface imaginable (no, really, blackface is super fucked up in all forms, but this is ssuuuppppeeerrr fucked up) and I didn't want to lock this behind a content warning. The song mentions some of Drake's family (such as his parents, Sandi and Dennis), as well an extremely wild allegation that I guarantee you could not make up. You'll know what it is when it comes up in the song, it's why the song is called "The Story Of Adidon". Its also important to note that Drake admitted that that allegation is true... after a year.

I'm open to anyone else commenting on what I might've missed, but hopefully this should be enough that you can go through was is now an EP's worth of diss tracks from Kendrick and get a more full sense of what's happening around them.

#kendrick lamar #aubrey graham #meet the grahams #not like us #Youtube

[dunmeshistash]

I have like sorta of a headcannon of how much hair each race can grow like I remember there's a tibit about how other races can grow hair, it's just normal to shave/wax (I could be misremembering) sorry if none of my words make sense I'm having a migraine

From least likely/hardest to grow body/facial hair to easiest to grow body/facial hair

1. Elves

(from what I remember we literally see no elf possesses body/facial hair minus Senshi in elf form, and if we compared his dwarf and elf form, for elves, Senshi in his elf form has like a lot of facial hair if his I'm pretty very long beard is barely a mustache, implying even growing a visible mustache is hard for elves)

2. Half-foots

(once again using Senshi as an example, when we see Senshi as a half-foot, his beard while still there, is still shorter? At least I think it's shorter in my opinion compared to dwarf Senshi, also We see Chilchuck with a noticeable peach fuzz/scruffy beard? Idk what's it called again when he's a tallmen or dwarf while it's not there when he's a half-foot)

3. Gnome

(oof this was a hard one, since I'm pretty sure tallmen can also share this spot, main reason why I'm putting gnome as number 3 and not tallmen is because for some reason, Chilchuck does not have his scruffy beard when hes a gnome, idk how long Senshi's beard is in his gnome form compared to his dwarf appearance)

4. Tallmen

(yup, uhhh reasoning ; Chilchuck has his noticeable peach fuzz/scruffy beard when he's a tallman, Senshi still his gracious long beard but noticeably shorter in tallman form, gnomes and tallmen have such a close tie with this, i seriously can't decide)

5. Dwarfs

(Reasoning : Senshi, I'm pretty sure this beard is the longest is this form, and with Izutsumi, whenever she is any other form her neck is slick and has no indication of fur poking out, but in dwarf form, she has a little fur poking out of neck, idk if what i said made sense for ituzumi but this is the best way i can put it)

I'm not gonna do other races, because from what I remember and can find, there's no official art of them as orges/orcs/kobolds

-🐰anon, sorry for the long rant

That sounds about right! Although I'm not sure how accurate the changelings are, senshi is the only half-foot/elf with facial hair we see, and while chilchuck gets a 5 O'clock shadow as a dwarf Laios doesn't, so maybe changeling magic is a little more subjective? Or maybe chilchuck just doesnt shave

On the race portraits the examples we have of facial hair for tallman arent very full tho, even for the half-dwarf (might be based on styling rather than growth tho)

For the half-foot even the oldest looking one doesn't have even a hint of a beard

Gnome beards do look a little fuller than the examples we have for tallman ones

They even have some with fuzz, which I might be reading too much into it but maybe it means their facial hair grows back faster? Or maybe just that they're less worried about appearances I'd say Onis are about the same? Or maybe a little more cause they seem to be harier in the face in general? Or maybe its like tallman and they have a bigger variation on facial hair between regions.

Kobolds and Orcs might not count since they're hairy all over but I think these are cute

My rating would be Elf > Half foot > Tallman/Gnome/Oni > Dwarf > Orc/Kobold

#dungeon meshi #daydream hour #dunmeshi thoughts #ask #facial hair #longpost #long post

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for not helping my brother unlearn some hate?

I (16F) and my brother (9M, let's call him K) are both from a third world country with some less-than-friendly general views, most of which my parents agree with. I couldn't care less if my mom is vividly disgusted at Chinese/Korean products/music or if she wholeheartedly believes that having crushes on your female friends is "normal" and "not homosexuality", because she's a really kind and sweet person and I just love her, you know? She never voices these thoughts around people who are that way and even has Chinese friends herself, but once I ask her "what do you think your friends would feel if they knew you said things like that sometimes?" to which her response was basically "it's not like I'll ever say it to their face, that's rude, and I don't think they're any less humans than us, their country taking over the industrial world and music is just disgusting". Or she immediately demands the channel be changed if the tv is showing an LGBT couple (this is illegal in our country, we connect to foreign satellites which don't censor this).

Anyway. Sorry for the ramble. This leads me to two problems:

My brother is kinda short and skinny due to genetics. And when I say "kinda", I mean like, he's really, really small and tiny for his age and often gets mistaken for a preschooler or first grader. My mother worries over the fact that the boys at his school (since we're all being raised in the same toxic society, huzzah) bully him for being smaller than them. And K has a tendency to easily cry at insults, furthering this issue. I've talked to him several times on how he'll get a growth spurt and it's fine, but my mom's talks mainly consist of how he's a grown boy now and it's not nice for boys his age to cry in public like that. She also doesn't really like me getting "involved" in K's bullying issues. Please, PLEASE don't send any hate to my mom, okay guys? She's one of the best people I know.

The other issue here is that K technically IS growing up, but he's also learning some of the really uncomfortable aspects of this society by repeating things like "the referee for this soccer game probably let the other team win because he's Chinese" (to which I had to correct him and say the referee was actually Filipino, but never mind) or asking me with GENUINE curiosity if I, as a girl, play soccer at my school (he loves soccer so so much, I try to encourage this love for him).

I correct him on this stuff as much as I can, but honestly... sometimes I just don't. Sure, I think it's bad and all, but I (probably, I don't remember much) grew up being the same way considering the way our society is. And if I turned out nice enough, I'm sure he just needs to be the right age for some more technical guidance and all I can do here is randomly tell him he's wrong when he says this stuff. My mom just... she thinks it's a huge stretch to "call everything racism nowadays", which I think REALLY depends on the context! My brother says this stuff very, very rarely, but I don't think he really... gets /why/ it's bad, you know? Again, I'm mostly planning on giving him advice on occasion and letting him figure it out by himself, but I don't want him saying racist/antisemitic/sexist jokes by accident in public, less so because it might humiliate the family and more so because it might actually upset someone.

Again, WIBTA? Don't call my mom the asshole here, please. She's super extremely polite to everyone, calls for action against our dictatorship of a government, and gives medical care to her less financially stable patients for free (she's a doctor). She just has some little views here and there that are the result of her upbringing, same as ours are the result of what we experienced. I can wholeheartedly forgive her for that.

#aita #am i the asshole

[redxx95]

Tachibana & Kurosawa parallels that are making me go insane

Hey guys so I had some Thoughts that are not letting me go so I did some digging and now I'm gonna present yall with my findings. They are horrible. (Spoilers for volume 14)

So how this all started is me wondering if Kurosawa ever feels a little guilty about entering a relationship with Adachi, since things could've been a lot easier for him if he'd simply gone out with a woman (to him it would've been Fujisaki) instead. He often mentions Adachi could've been happy without him, after all.

Then I remembered this bit from the end of volume 14 about how Adachi doesn't know how to deal with advances because Kurosawa was always intercepting them for him and decided to properly translate all of it.

"Adachi felt guilty, but him not understanding the tactics of love or how to evade invitations is my fault. I don't want anyone to take him away, but I also don't want him to ever learn any of this. Of course I can't tell him that though."

Tactics of love, huh. You mean like...

Giving little compliments... (The phrasing here is almost the same in japanese except Tachibana is using polite speech)

Offering favors...

Invading personal space...

Going "hey you like this thing, why don't we do this thing together?" ...

Helping out when they're weak and vulnerable...

You mean tactics like that? Man it sure is convenient that Adachi remains blissfully unaware of any of this huh. Okay So. Before you raise your pitchforks at me, yes there's obviously some nuance in all of this. Kurosawa is doing all of this to befriend Adachi, first and foremost. He wants to be closer to him because he loves him. Tachibana (as far as I can tell) just wants to get in his pants lmao Also Adachi's a Grown Ass Man and can definitely make his own decisions, and it's not like he got really manipulated either, since he could read Kurosawa's thoughts and intentions the whole time. I could still see Kurosawa having some self-doubts about their relationship though, if he ever realizes that he might have "manipulated" Adachi into a relationship that is objectively worse for him, considering the alternative of being with a woman and completely evading all the problems they've had with homophobia. Not to mention that Adachi is clearly good with kids and might want some of his own, which is something he can't have with Kurosawa, since adoption requires couples to be married in Japan and gay marriage is illegal, as we know. What if Kurosawa ruined Adachi's chances to lead a happy life, for his own selfish reasons?

...

Now, here come my truly insane speculations about vol 15 and how this could tie in with drama around Matsuura :)

So on that last page she's clearly approaching Tachibana, who, as we can read pages before, wants to get black-out drunk to forget all his romantic woes. Which means he will be very talkative to a nosy Matsuura. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll reveal literally everything to her, how he wanted to go for this cute, inexperienced coworker named Adachi and how he got told to back off by his big scary boyfriend named Kurosawa. "Oh yea they work together at Toyokawa. I even told him it's really risky to date coworkers, can you believe it?!" Matsuura just goes "Oh that is Interesting."

She might even try to get under Kurosawa's skin by drawing parallels to his harassment in vol 1 and him pursuing Adachi, since Kurosawa has a higher position in their company and earns more, and Adachi being inexperienced. One could easily construe this as a power imbalance between them. Throw into the mix the issue of being "forced into a relationship that's looked down upon by society" and the looming threat of their relationship being revealed to their workplace and Kurosawa might truly spiral, maybe even breaking up with Adachi, just to fulfill yet another parallel to Tachibana.

Man would that be fucked up or what haha

#cherry magic #spoilers for japanese volumes #the deranged ramblings of someone with too much cm brainrot

[x-liv25-jamieswife]

Grayson enemies to lovers hc?

grayson enemies to lover head canons

sure! i don't think this will be very long bc i don't really have any ideas and i'm not good with oc's/reader hcs. you also didn't specify if you want the other character to be a man or woman so i'll just refer to the character as 'them'. this is really bad and cliche. im sorry T-T.

i just know he'd be like cardan in the cruel prince (if you know what that is) when he kept writing jude's name on this piece of paper (basically, he'd hate them but wouldn't be able to stop thinking about them).

he'd do the biggest background check on them. he'd hire 10 private investigators to make sure they're not going to kill his family.

he'd call them something like sweetheart (or anything else) in a condescending way if you get what i mean

the other character would call him smth like 'love' to annoy him or smth meaner like 'asshole'

the other character would outsmart him all of the time, but grayson would be too prideful to admit it so he'd just ignore them or stare at them weirdly.

i imagine the love interest being quite funny and being the type of person to crack jokes. they make grayson smile but he always hides it. he never admits to it when someone brings it up.

they would be the only person capable of getting a rise out of grayson. he never swears unless they provoke him.

i don't think grayson is the type of person to not apologize when he does smth wrong. although he hates them, if he says/does smth really shitty and uncalled for, he would apologize

i can see the 'who did this to you' trope happening, but grayson is the one to get hurt (somehow got in a fight or was ambushed by some people who wanted to kill him), not the other character

grayson would consider himself in debt after the other character helped him with his wound. he'd end up doing some digging and finding out that the other character wishes to travel to europe cause they never got the chance to. he'd buy them a plane ticket and book them a room at a super expensive hotel to some place.

nothing extravagant ends up happening before they confess that they love each other. it's more of a slow build up. they'll be sitting next to each other at night (why, its up to you to imagine that), and one character (im thinking the love interest is saying this, but it could also the grayson) will go 'i think i might be falling in love with you' really quietly.

the other person ends up ignoring them for days bc they love the other person too but they're scared of what might happen if they give in. eventually, though, they talk it out and get together.

even when they become lovers, they still call each other sweetheart and asshole sometimes bc it reminds them of how petty they used to be when they were younger.

late at night, one day, they'll be lying in bed and they'll start talking about what made them fall in love with the other person (a lot of tears were shed).

the love interest would constantly tease grayson about how petty, prideful, and untrustworthy he was. they'll be at an event talking to strangers when the love interest goes 'you remember when you hired 10 private investigator to do a background check on me?' and the people they're talking to just stare in shock and are slightly frightened.

this is probably the shittiest thing i've ever written but oh well T-T. i didn't want to not do it so here we are. im posting an averyjameson hcs post soon to make up for this shit.

#the inheritance games #jameson hawthorne #grayson hawthorne #avery grambs

[genderqueerpond]

You know, I think Clara knew about Amy.

Not at first, of course, but Clara grew up with her --- that is, grew up reading Amelia Williams books. And they were precious to her, books she's read many times over the course of her childhood -- how else does she know exactly which chapter holds what in the book she gave Artie? Perhaps she has always felt connected to her, this moderately obscure children's fantasy author, following in the footsteps of E Nesbit; this contemporary (and sometime friend (oh yes!) ) of Edward Eager's; although not nearly as widely known as either of these. Perhaps because of her choice to publish openly under a "woman's name", thus, in the time in which she lived, relegating her books to the inferior realm of "girls' books", despite the more than equal balance of male viewpoint characters.

But Amelia Williams is different from these authors too -- often fantasy, but sometimes more like early science fiction, a barely- recognized pioneer in both genres. Her views were feminist and daring. In so many ways she was ahead of her time, and the innovations she imagined! almost as if she knew what the future would hold.

And if Clara knows and loves her books so well, she can hardly fail to recognize the most frequently repeated character archetype in them. especially after she rereads a few on a subconscious hunch, during that summer after the Maitlands found a permanent nanny and she insisted that before anything else, she go off and fulfill her original travel plans from 101 Places To See. (The Doctor purported to leave her alone to forge her own way with this, but was in actuality very bad at that, and kept popping up nearly every place she went.) She's Clara, she's clever, how can she fail to look up from her book and notice that the person who's just appeared out of nowhere to stand in front of her with a plate of jammie dodgers and a goofy smile has stepped directly out of the pages?

And then of course, there are the dedications. Sure, there's normal stuff like "to my daughter", "to my loving and patient husband", and "to my parents, who are children now" which is rather weird and whimsical, but fits in with the fantasy author's signature style of dream-like imagination.

But the majority of Amelia Williams' dedication pages say things like "to You", "to My Doctor", "to My Raggedy Doctor" "to my raggedy man" (weird but clearly connected to the other variants), and, cryptically, over and over again: "to you", "to you", "to you", "to you (wherever in time and space you are)".

There's "to my imaginary friend" and "to my imaginary friend, and to all children who have an imaginary friend" and "to my imaginary friend, and every child in the universe who's ever met him, or ever will". Nerds and English teachers have occasionally debated what, if anything, she meant by all this, and now Clara thinks she knows, but she can never say....

And then there are the nights that the Doctor wakes up crying out for "Amy!" and then refuses to talk about it when Clara asks, refuses to acknowledge ever even knowing an Amy, "well everyone shouts random things when they're asleep, it doesn't mean anything" and "I don't remember." if pressed for details about his dreaming. And later he might go off somewhere and cry quietly, reading a book he never lets Clara see.

And then he regenerates, and calls out for "Amelia!", "the first face this face saw."

There's newborn twelve, with his Scottish accent, letting her name slip. It's the first - and only - time he's spoken of her while awake and not actively dying. And Clara is too busy with the immediate threat to their lives to think about it in the moment, but at this point she at the very least has a hunch about the connection between him and the Scottish-American author with the rather opaque background --- that as far as anyone can trace it (although to be fair, no one really cares enough to try very hard) she and her husband just kind of appeared out of nowhere in pre-WWII New York. It seems kind of obvious, now, that the doctor would have had a hand in that.

And now with all the books everywhere, the library gradually migrating into the console room, what else is obvious is that he owns every single one of her books. multiple copies, first editions, last editions, signed copies, mass paperbacks, everything. There's a TARDIS key hidden in a well-worn, well-loved, tear streaked copy of The Cuckoo And The Doll's House, which Clara finds when she's cataloging all the locations of TARDIS keys, just in case she should ever need that information one day.

This all is enough for Clara to know. There doesn't really need to be any more proof, but there is. What totally and fully clinches it are the pictures. Tucked in the pages of another tearstained book (The Beast Below this time), are photographs of Amelia, looking just as she does in her black and white author photos, but younger, and in 21st century clothes. Elsewhere, later, she finds photo booth polaroids of a still younger Amelia, goofing off and smiling. Some of them feature another young man Clara doesn't recognize, and some of them feature the Doctor. He's wearing a tweed jacket instead of his purple wool, and no vest, but otherwise he is exactly the same as the Doctor she first met. The three of them hang off each other like old friends, like family.

idk how to end this.

#clara oswald #amy pond #augh i just! so many feelings about post-TATM writer Amelia #she made the doctor up and then she grew up to Make Him Up professionally #she created him she created him she created him #lavender thoughts #dw #ndw #doctor who #meta #ANOTHER dw ficlet/meta in one day i am on a roll #like six half finished ones in my drafts too btw

[luimagines]

Hear me out...

Reader who knows about the "someone will die" from the Sheikah Slate.

Reader who ran the numbers, and realized Legend and Warriors were the only ones who had nothing left to guarantee, or even hint that they survived, unlike Time, who has to have Twilight, Wild who has TotK, Sky and Wind who both have to found Hyrule.

Reader who also knows about the grey area, the ones that should survive this journey, but only based on flimsy evidence or who will meet a terrible fate soon enough. Hyrule, and only his game guide stating he is destined to become a great king, Four and the Palace of the Four Sword.

Whether they know this through playing the games, reading the comic and being isekaied, or having some sort of gift of prophecy, they know about this.

And they're determined not to let it happen.

If the heroes die, game over. Reader isn't the protagonist. They're a sidekick with all the death flags raised.

A Reader who is determined to take the place of whoever will die on this journey, because they can't let it be any of the boys. The world is better off if it's them, and not the boys, right?

And if they were isekaied as a human, a Chain of Links blaming themselves. For not seeing the courage hidden in a human. For not having the wisdom to see beyond the surface. For not having the power to stop this. For allowing their prejudices to get in the way of seeing the signs.

And on top of that, a Reader who plays into the prejudices. Who acts like a "big, scary, greedy, traitorous human", because maybe they can soften the blow of grief if they make themselves somebody nobody would grieve over. Reader whose words will conflict with their actions, saying "I don't like kids", then raging at a monster for going near one. Maybe Reader wasn't even ready to die. They're still scared to the end, but so determined. They still have family back home, they still had plans for the future. But, they're probably assumed dead anyway. What does changing a false into a truth even do? They notice these thoughts, and go through sleepiness nights so their brain won't even have the energy to think them...

Anyway, remember to get 8 hours of sleep and drink some water as well, dehydration is bad for you.

I've actually thought of that idea before of a character with the "nothing to lose if I die" attitude because if the the Hero dies, it's game over.

However, I think that Link (any of them would do) would be able to see through their act because they're perceptive power combined would be too high for Reader to hide all their intentions and lies.

And I had to say one thing, I think Reader would still pay attention with Time as well. Because it's heavily implied that he died young and we know that he died with regrets. The fact that Twilight exists isn't necessarily enough to stop that. In fact, it might be the very thing that could cause it.

Meaning, Reader has to do double the effort to not only keep the Old Man alive, but to also focus on any of the other boy's blind spots as well.

#pinky replies #human! reader

[anonymooose]

==== Spoilers for Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi! ====

Ok, so, I randomly saw a post by @corvidonia about Falin!Hypnos.

So, I thought to myself, y'know I just started watching too and this seems like a fun mini-project so I started it. Then I subsequently got way too into it and accidently made a whole rendered scene and au concept... welp! It's here now!

For this little crossover Au whatever you wanna call it I did this main drawing but also came up with a bit of background stuff.

In this Meg would be a tall-man paladin in a sort of Chilchuck situation where she's mostly here because it's her job (and bonus, Dusa's here) and she'd be a paladin. Paladin might be an odd choice (?) but I felt it made sense due to her dedication and none of the other martial classes really stuck out to me like paladin.

Zagreus would be the party's Laios of sorts and a fighter tall-man, I imagine that the reason why they went through all the trouble for Hypnos is 50% Zagreus being friends with him and 49% Than not wanting his brother dead and 1% pity. I don't know if there would still be the culinary focus in this Au, probably not, so maybe instead it'd be more about just general monster knowledge. Like Zag and the gang filling out the codex?

Dusa would be a Half-foot, probably the farthest from their Dungeon Meshi inspo character, Senshi, only really sharing the fact that they came into the party late. I imagine that she's kind of in an "I'm the only monster around that has any sentience or emotion??" type situation though I don't really have a worked out reason why. She's also friends with Meg prior to joining and comes because of her.

I translated Thanatos and Hypnos' godhood into having a particular magical ability as elves, so they're elf twins. Than being a sorcerer rouge mostly for the vibes but also because sorcerer powers are innate to their being. Instead of a wand/staff I think he'd just use his scythe as a casting focus. I figure he'd be sort of like a mix of Chilchuck and Marcille, not bound to the party by a job but still kind of obligated to help Hypnos since they're family and all. I don't think he'd be thrilled about having to risk his life to save Hypnos from another screw up though, but he would and I do think he'd be relieved to have him back after the ordeal. (does Falin ever actually 100% come back? I've only watched the anime so idk actually, I like to think Hypnos would here though because I like my happy endings)

Hypnos is obviously the sort of Falin stand-in, but in a very different way I think. I do think he'd be a sort of magic prodigy like Falin but in more of an intuitive way compared to Than/Marcille's book smarts. I definitely think that the connection to the strange would remain but instead of ghosts it'd be personified dreams in the form of something like the Oneiroi. In this Au the starting incident with the monster would be the same but it'd probably be some sort of big bird/sheep to explain the bird/sheep design I went with for the Chimera design and it'd be Than in place of Laios. I also think that he'd be a cleric type situation like Falin sort of is, I like to think he'd excel at healing magic. I do kind of like the idea of Hypnos not being really encouraged to partake in adventuring due to his lack of physical ability but he'd go against that to spend time with Than and try to look out for him. As for Chimeros (As I've been calling it) I think it'd be accompanied by fog from Lethe rather than the harpies in the original and it'd have a similarly blank personality like Faligon (which'd be especially off-putting from him). Added angst potential, I figure his powerset would be very different from Faligon's and revolve around putting everyone to sleep (go figure) and memory erasure, so maybe the main party wouldn't even remember their first encounter with them?

I do actually have ideas for the remaining party, I'll keep it to one bullet though. I think Achille's would be a paladin/fighter or something like that and would be similar to Namari as a weapons expert, probably leaving for a different reason though maybe to join Pat's party? I don't have a particular idea for Shuro's stand-in, maybe switch the Shuro Falin romance thing to Charon Hypnos brotherhood thing and it could work? Idk though.

I did also make a full design for Hypnos as an elf/not Chimeros and here that is. The staff is inspired by actual myth where Hypnos sometimes has a wand dipped in Lethe to induce sleep.

Ramble over!! Congrats if you were able to push through my incessant yapping to actually get here. First Tumblr post btw, who would've thunk it'd be for this. If anyone is interested in using these designs or ideas for art/writing feel free, I'm probably not going to do anything else with this idea but if you want to I'd be very interested in seeing/hearing it! Also, really sorry if this isn't properly spoilered?? I'm not exactly sure what the proper spoiler etiquette is so I tried.

#hades game #hades #hypnos hades #I'm only tagging Hypnos because I'd feel bad tagging any of the others when they're just text snippets and the tops of their heads #I'm crazy #Why did I do this #Finals are coming up and THIS is how I spend my time #Y'know what though? No regrets

[shiny-jr]

Hi Shiny! I’m not new to your blog but I have been reading up on the works I’ve missed since I haven’t been the most active on tumblr for like, a solid year, (possibly more?) and I forgot just how amazing your writing is; you are definitely one of my favorite writers, and I greatly enjoy every one of your works.

That’s why- as a reader who really wants to get into writing- I would love to hear what stands to be your biggest inspirations, and especially what media (whether it books, songs, films, etc.) has influenced your writing. I’ve been looking to develop my writing style by taking in the works of others, so any recommendations are appreciated!

Welcome back, anon! Let me see what I can think of off the top of my head.

As I sit here, the first thing I thought of is vocabulary. I think having a good VOCABULARY is key to making a good story, especially when it comes to the flow. I grew up reading a lot, and recently, I began reading more again just books and articles. Through that process, it's easy to learn words, see a new one, and look it up. You might remember said words and use them later.

I've actually been told that I speak kinda eloquently at certain times, like in a professional-business like way, which I totally don't mean to. But yeah, I digress, vocabulary is very important. I'll give you an example.

I started writing this chapter for a new series, and it was late at night, and my heart wasn't really in it. When I reviewed it, I immediately hated it. Why? Because of the vocabulary. It was all simple words, repetitive, and without any variety. I'm not saying your vocabulary has to be great or anything, but when I write, I always have a site called wordhippo open. Just for when I can't remember a specific word or I'm looking for a synonym to change things up and prevent that annoying repetitiveness.

CHARACTERIZATION is also a huge deal. Writing for characters that are not yours is not easy. It's difficult. One thing I do is if I'm not sure about a character's decisions, actions, dialogue, is I look for reference points from what they're from. Voicelines, art, anything helps. If its lacking, I try to think of another character they're similar to and ask myself what would this other character do? Would it be the same as the first character? That usually helps.

Of course, this includes character development and conflicts and relationships and such. I think some of the best characters I've ever seen in media, are from the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender. That series has such solid personalities, variety within the cast, good interesting conflicts, and one of the best character development arcs in modern day animated media.

As for songs, I usually just listen to instrumental songs when writing. I found that lyrics tended to distract me, which is why I try to avoid it when writing. No series or novels come to mind immediately, although I do write personal reviews for those I read. Most of which is either praise or criticizing (mostly criticizing) the writing style of the author, the characters, or the plot. I'm glad to share some of those, but I've written a good number of them and they're lengthy, just me yapping.

Anyways, that's a lot. I'm not sure if I answered your question as you wanted? I hope I did. Let me know if there's anything else.

#shiny speaks

[not-a-space-alien]

K&J x MMSS 4: Valen & Jim Part 5B

Part 5 of the "B side" universe for AU4. You can check chapter 4B for clarification on what this means if you're lost, lol.

K&J masterlist

MMSS masterlist

K&J x MMSS crossover masterlist

To be added to the taglist, contact @whumpsday

Warnings: Blood, aftermath of torture, suicide attempt

***

Jim comes down the next day with a light knock on the wall. "Valen? How're you doing?" He hopes Valen's healed some. That maybe the blood that's made him such a desirable victim finally did some good. "You sleep well?"

Valen pokes his head out from under the blanket sleepily.  He is starting to look a bit better.  He nods fuzzily, not coming out from his nest.

"Good, good. I'm real glad. Lookin' better, too. You'll be all better in no time. So, my sister and her friend are both coming over today to give you some more blood, do you remember them? From when you dropped me off?" Jim's hoping the fact that Valen knows they're hunters won't scare him, but he's met them before and they didn't hurt him, so hopefully it'll be okay.

Valen perks up.  More blood?  Truthfully, no, he doesn't remember them, but he's so excited about getting more blood.  He nods, eyes shining.  Yes, more blood, please.

"Great! How about in the meantime, you can grab a bath, and I'll bandage up whatever's still not feeling great. Liz is also gonna take all the silver shit and the outside lock off the door, so you won't have to worry about that while you're staying here. You wanna grab your other clothes and come upstairs? I already closed all the blinds and curtains last night." Jim informs him.

Valen is feeling so much more hopeful than last night.  He's rested, and fed--even if he probably shouldn't have done that part, and he has clothes, and oh, he gets to take a bath.  He still can't move very fast, but he excitedly gets up to follow Jim upstairs.

Jim makes sure to grab the writing things before leading Valen up to the bathroom. "Alright, here we are. I'm leaving your writing stuff right out here so you can grab it on your way out. Come out to the living room whenever you're done." He's so glad Valen seems to be in better spirits today.

Valen has a real bath, his first in years.  Not a freezing cold spraydown with a hose.  It's wonderful and warm, and he gets himself clean.  He's starting to let himself believe that maybe good things can happen to him again.  He washes his raw face and bloody, skinned wrists gently.

When he's done, he steps out of the tub and pats himself dry with the towel provided, then dresses himself.  They're his clothes.  It's grounding and humanizing in a way he hadn't thought of.  They're his clothes, from the before times, being given back to him, to pull him back up to earth.  These are Valen's clothes, and he's wearing them, so he must be Valen.

Valen combs his wet hair with his fingers, looking at himself in the mirror, and goes out into the living room.

"Looking awesome, bud. C'mon and let's get you wrapped up." Jim pats the couch, gauze already in hand. "Just your face and your wrists, or anything else too?"

Valen pats himself down, but they'd been leaving him fresh for his new warden, so his wrists and face are pretty much the only things that need to be wrapped up.  The only other thing that hurts currently is his stomach, still far too hungry to be comfortable, but even that's lessening.

Valen sits down on the couch, touching his face, his wrists, and then giving a thumbs up.  He wants to smile, but with the state of his face, that would probably just look worse, if anything.

"Gotcha." Jim gently bandages both, making sure to leave an opening for Valen's mouth so he can eat later. When was the last time Valen was touched gently? He knows how it feels to ache for the kind touch of another person. "Do you think you could handle a hug?" he asks when he's done, knowing it might be pushing it in his starved state.

Valen's watery eyes light up.  A hug, a hug, yes, yes, yes.  He wants one so bad.  He can't bite if he wants the muzzle to stay off, he has to not bite.  He vibrates on the couch, extending his arms feebly.  Yes, yes, please, hug, hug.

Jim is scared. Valen may mean well, but he's also a vampire, and being bitten on the wrist was bad enough. But he needs to give his guy a hug so bad. He reminds himself he can always push Valen away if he needs to, like he did yesterday. This isn't Kane. He's had 10 years to get over it, he should be better by now.

He enters Valen's arms, wrapping his own around his thin frame in a warm embrace. "I've got you. Everything's gonna be okay. Promise."

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  He leans into the hug, vibrating, excited.  Jim is so warm, and so welcoming, and so soft, and so vulnerable, and so, so, so delicious-smelling-

Before he even realizes what he's doing, he's bitten down in the crook of Jim's neck.  As soon as his mouth floods with the taste of blood once again, he remembers he has to not bite and pulls away, falling off the couch and to the floor, whining.

Jim freezes up and goes quiet again. It's on the wrong side, because he would never let anyone's face get close to his scar, and the fabric of his turtleneck wets with blood. He trembles and cries, sitting there on the couch completely tense, letting out soft sobs.

Valen sobs too.  I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  He'd even fed already, yesterday, and he still hadn't been able to resist biting.  He's ruined it, and maybe he'll be punished, but even worse, he probably won't be hugged again.  He half-stumbles, half-crawls over to where the writing materials are and quickly scribbles out I'm sorry, and holds it up to Jim.  He stays on his knees, holding it in front of his face with trembling hands.

Jim takes a good minute to get to a state where he can respond. It helps that he was expecting this might be a possibility, it's not out of the blue like the first one. He took a risk and it failed.

He reminds himself he's okay. He's not very hurt. He's not food, Valen stopped, he's not being taken back. It was just a bite. He used to do this every day and it was worse, then.

He takes a deep breath and looks over to Valen, crying holding up a sign reading I'm sorry with shaking hands.

"It's- it's not your fault." Jim says quietly. "B-bad call. On me. I'm just gonna change shirts and take a breather real quick, okay?" He grabs the medical supplies he'd just used on Valen and scurries away to his bedroom.

Valen watches him go with despair.  Everything had been going so well.  Jim said it's not his fault, but his sister is coming over, and maybe she and her friend won't be so nonchalant.  And he wouldn't get any more hugs, now.

Still crying, he pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and pulls it over himself, curling up in a ball and hiding himself under a nearby chair.

Jim dresses the wound, changes his shirt, and tries his best to calm down. He returns downstairs about 10 minutes later, much more calm. He got bit and everything's still okay.

It's apparent that Valen has not spent their time apart calming down. Jim sits back on the couch. "Hey, you're okay, Valen. Everything's still okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. You can stay there if it makes you feel safer, but nothing bad's gonna happen if you come out. We're all good. More than good."

Valen peeks out from the blanket.  Jim looks okay.  He crawls over to the coffee table, taking his pencil in an unsteady hand and writing Thank you for the hug I hope we can hug again sometime when it's safe and then sliding it over to Jim.  He then crawls back under the chair, not panicking or trembling, but still feeling more secure balled up and tucked away

"Yeah. Yeah, man, just, I'm gonna need a little. You know what, though? Laken loves hugs. Maybe you can ask them for one after you feed from them." Jim suggests. "Sorry for freaking out. I've just got baggage about bites."

He smiles a little, remembering something. "You know, when you picked me up that day, I thought for a minute you were gonna make me your bloodbag. Y'know, before that was cleared up. And you know what I thought about it? Honest to god? 'Oh, this won't be so bad.' You were so nice that was what I thought about potentially being kidnapped a second time."

Valen lowers the blanket from his head, eyebrows raised.  Really?  Maybe Valen really had used to be a really nice person, one who could hug people without biting.  He mourns the loss, averting his eyes, keeping them on Jim's feet.

Valen hears them approaching before Jim does, two humans. There's a knock.

"That's gotta be them." Jim says as he gets up to answer the door. He makes sure the sun won't shine near Valen before opening it all the way.

After they all exchange greetings, Liz asks, "Where is he?"

"Hiding under the chair. He's real easily spooked. Be gentle with him." Jim says. "C'mon in. Valen, you wanna come out? Liz and Laken are gonna give you some blood."

Valen crawls out tentatively.  There being multiple humans in the room is scary, and he barely remembers these new ones.  He'd been scared of Jim before, but now that he's more scared of the newcomers, Jim feels very safe.  Valen kneels behind Jim's calves, poking his head out from behind the human to look at Liz and Laken.  But not making eye contact.  No, never eye contact.

"Hi, Valen." Liz says softly, heartbroken by the sight before her. Hunters did this. To Valen, of all vampires. The one who gave her her brother back. She speaks as if Valen will break if she talks too loudly. "I'm Liz, if you remember. It's nice to see you again. I wish it were under better circumstances. How are you feeling?"

"Sup." Laken adds with a friendly wave. "I'm Laken, Liz's hunting partner. You ready to get your blood on?"

Valen looks at Liz's hands, which is as close as he dares get to the face, and nods when she asks him how he's feeling.

You ready to get your blood on?  Why can't these humans just talk normally, so he doesn't have to anxiously second-guess what they mean?  Laken means they're going to feed him, right?  That's right, they'd said they were going to give him more blood, right?

He moves himself up into a crouching position, daring to look a little excited.

Wait, back up.  His sluggish brain hadn’t processed what they were saying.

A haze falls over Valen's brain as he looks at Laken again, processing what they’re saying.  Hunting partner, they'd said hunting partner, right?  Are...Are Liz and Laken vampire hunters?

Then he does remember that, fuzzily, that when he'd come to hand Jim off, Liz and Laken and two other vampire hunters had been there.  Hunters, hunters, hunters, that's right, they're hunters.

He drops back down onto all fours, cowering behind Jim and whining in fear.  Jim will protect him, right?  Jim said he wouldn't hurt him.

"Oh, hey, Valen, you're okay. You already knew that, you said you remembered them?" Jim says, confused.

Liz goes to step forward, but Laken grabs her hand and shakes their head. "Space."

Liz nods, staying where she is as she speaks to Valen. "We're not going to hurt you. You- I owe you everything, Valen. You gave me my family back. Plus, what those sorry excuses for hunters did would be fucked up either way. You're safe here."

"It's all good, man. You seemed pretty excited about blood, right? I'll go first." Laken offers, crouching and holding their arm out to Valen. "Don't even worry about it."

Is Laken telling him to bite them?  That can't be right.  They're hunters.  Hunters, hunters, hunters.  He tries to listen to what Liz is kindly saying about owing him, but it feels like he's scrambling to try and climb a slippery staircase to fight upstream and internalize what she's saying.  His eyes dilate with fear as Laken holds their arm out to him, and he shuffles backwards a little bit.

He gropes at the table for his notepad and pen, and he quickly scribbles out Biting is bad I won't bite again I'm sorry I won't bite again Im sorry I know better, underlining and circling words and phrases seemingly randomly to emphasize.

"No, Valen, it's okay. You've got permission this time, it's fine." Jim assures.

Liz puts 2 and 2 together from the this time, her eyebrows raising. "He bit you?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. He's trying his best." Jim smiles down at Valen. "No one's mad at you."

"Yeah, c'mon. I wouldn't pull the rug out from under you like that. You can go ahead." Laken encourages.

"It's allowed." Jim adds.

Valen presses himself into the wall away from Laken, shaking with terror, still looking at Liz, that surprised He bit you? still hanging threateningly in the air in his mind.

"Why don't you guys give us a minute? Maybe you can go work on the door?" Jim suggests.

"Alright." Liz agrees, looking at Valen sadly. "Whenever you're ready. None of us are gonna hurt you."

The two of them head to the basement to start removing all the silver from the door.

Jim crouches by Valen. "What do you want, bud? You're not a prisoner anymore, it's up to you now. How can we help?"

He fumbles with the pen, picks it back up, and writes.  Liz is angry at me for biting you?

"No, she's not angry. She was just surprised. She knows you didn't mean to. Do you want me to check?" Jim asks. He'd been lying about it being not a big deal, but he's sure Liz got the message: act like it's not a big deal. It was an accident, after all.

Valen shakes in a heap on the ground.  No way, there's no way a hunter would see what Valen did to Jim, biting him so severely he almost fainted, and think it wasn't a big deal.  Why wouldn't Liz be angry?  She must be angry.  He's going to be punished, he always is.  He's going to fuck up badly enough to be sent back to that hell eventually, he knows he will, no, he already did, he's just waiting for them to realize, realize he deserves pain and pain and pain, never ending ever ever.

He grasps the notepad firmly and writes Please kill me, fat tears rolling down his cheeks and wetting the bandages.

Jim reads the note and gives a heavy exhale, sitting next to Valen so he's against the wall, too. "No, man. I'm not gonna kill you. You wanna die 'cause you're scared? Is that it?"

He whimpers and writes:  I can't take any more pain.

"No more pain. How about that? It's over. It's really, really over, I promise. I'm not gonna hurt you, Liz and Laken aren't either. All we wanna do is see you safe and healthy. No pain." Jim says.

Maybe Valen will believe this eventually, if Jim just repeats it enough, but he can't right now.  He just can't.  His imagination races.  He can picture so, so many ways this could go wrong.  He can't do this anymore.  He can't keep worrying and trying to figure out how to handle things, how to help himself.  Jim and Liz and Laken are telling him they're trying to help him, but all he can feel is the dread of being the center of attention of a group of humans, of hunters.  What hope does he have?

Jim's not going to kill him.  He has to do it himself.  He drags himself over to the chair he'd been hiding under before, wrapping his weak hands around the leg to try and snap it off to fashion a wooden stake, still weeping.

"Hey, fuck, nonono don't." Jim removes Valen's hands from the chair, holding them gently in his own. "How about this. Give it one month." By that time, Valen will have been back home in vampire territory for weeks. He'll probably feel a lot safer, and Jim won't be able to stop him anyway. "Can you do that, you think? Give life as a free man a shot for one month?"

Valen keeps his eyes on the wooden chair.  How does Jim expect him to believe he's a free man?  How does Jim expect him to believe he'll be able to last an entire month without pain, without messing up, without biting, without getting trapped back somewhere where he won't get this opportunity again?  He tries to go for the chair again, more feebly this time, knowing he can't really fight Jim off.  Why hadn't he just waited until later when he was alone and could get away with it?

"Valen, please." Jim doesn't let go of Valen's hands. "Just, just give it a shot. Please? I promise nothing bad's gonna happen. I won't let anyone hurt you, swear on my life. I know you've been through hell, but it's really, really over, I promise. I can't- you know I can't watch you every second, so just, please. It'll be okay, I'll make sure."

Valen shakes in Jim's hands, hanging his head and letting his hair fall in his face.

"I bet you'll feel a lot better with some food in you. It's not gonna fix everything, but everyone feels better after eating. Nothing bad happened to you when you bit me, right? And this is with permission. Or if you want, maybe they can get the blood in a cup or bowl or something for you? What sounds good?" Jim asks, releasing Valen's hands so he can write.

Valen wipes his eye, trying to make his swimming brain comprehend what Jim is saying.  A cup, a cup is good, yes.  This way he doesn't bite.  He writes down, Biting is bad.  A cup sounds good.

"Cup it is, then. You're gonna be just fine." Jim doesn't want to leave Valen alone after his very recent suicide attempt, so instead of going to get Liz and Laken, he calls out. "Hey guys! Valen's ready to eat!"

Laken appears out of the hall. "Alright! Order up."

"Can you try and get it in a cup for him? He's nervous about biting." Jim says.

"Sure thing." Laken gives Valen a thumbs-up.

Valen is starting to come down from the despair a little.  He's getting a thumbs-up.  That's good.  He gives a little whine and lowers himself down, his head on Jim's leg.

Jim cards a hand through Valen's hair while Laken goes to the kitchen. "You're okay. Everything's gonna be fine."

After about a minute, the smell of blood emanates from the kitchen.

Valen perks up at the smell, shaking like an excited dog.  He crawls forward, wringing his hands and leaning towards the kitchen door expectantly.

Jim follows behind him a bit nervously, but looks away from where Laken is draining blood into a mug.

Laken smiles. "Just got started getting this for you. If you changed your mind and wanna nibble, that's cool too." they say, letting their blood trickle into the mug.

Valen stays kneeling on the floor, clearly trying to wrangle the excitement off his face, trying not to hope, but he's aimlessly flapping his hands with excitement, trying to stay still, trying to stay on the floor and wait for Laken to bring it over, trying to control himself.

Laken keeps going until the cup's got a good amount in it, then slaps a large band-aid they had ready over their arm and brings the mug over. "Cuppa Laken, hope you enjoy." they say with a grin.

Valen stands and holds his hands out eagerly to take the cup from Laken as soon as it's within grabbing range, whining as he downs the cup.  He keeps it over his mouth as the remnants dribble down, then he eagerly lowers it down and swipes his finger on the inside of the cup to lick off the remaining blood.  He holds the cup when he's done, not daring to look at Laken, just looking down into the cup.

"Yay, I'm delicious." Laken says with a lighthearted laugh.

Jim rubs Valen's back. He's glad Valen is finally feeding, and that he doesn't have to be the one to provide it. Hopefully he'll be well again soon. "You feel a little better now? Still got a refill waiting, too."

Valen's gaze snaps back up, excitement returning, vibrating.  A refill, he gets a refill?

He looks to Laken, then to Jim, and accidentally makes eye contact, then whines and lowers his eyes back down to Jim's feet.

"I'll go get Liz." Laken says, patting Valen on the shoulder and heading off.

"You're doing great. See, this isn't so bad, right? Everything's okay now." Jim knows full well that everything doesn't just become okay after you escape. But it definitely gets a hell of a lot better.

Liz joins them. "Door's about halfway done. Stuff's easier to take off than to put on. Sorry if we scared you earlier, Valen."

Valen nods, eyes wide.  She's apologizing to him.  That seems wrong.  He should always be apologizing to everyone else ever, for existing.

Liz takes the mug, drains blood into it in a similar fashion, and hands it back. Jim is tenser this time. This entire feeding endeavor is a little much for him, but he doesn't want to leave Valen alone, since Valen seems comforted by his presence.

"Here you go. Hope this is enough." Liz says, pressing the mug back into his hands.

Valen squirms excitedly while Liz prepares the blood for him.  He downs the second mug the same way as the first, licking the inside clean.  He retrieves his writing utensils and writes Thank you, showing it to Liz and Laken.

"You're welcome." Liz says with a smile, while Laken gives a "No problem."

"You still want a hug?" Jim asks quietly. "I'm still uh, taking a break from 'em, but Liz and Laken would probably both be down."

Just as Valen had started to calm down again, his interest is once again piqued, giving an excited little jump, starting forward towards them then stepping back, rocking from foot to foot, nodding vigorously.

"Aw, c'mere!" Laken wraps their arms around him in a warm embrace. Liz laughs and joins in, giving him a group hug. Jim declines to join in, but he does ruffle Valen's hair.Valen starts crying again, and for the first time in forever, they're happy tears.  He holds the hug for an absurdly long time.  It's okay, he's okay, there are people who care about him and want him to feel okay and will hug him.  It's almost inconceivable.

***

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#whump #K+J #angst #whumpblr #hurt/comfort

[zukosdualdao]

Thoughts on what the Gaang would call Iroh post canon? Toph obviously would stick with Gramps, but I'm not sure about the others. I feel like just calling him Iroh might be too informal, but I don't know that any of them would feel close enough to call him Uncle for a good while yet. (Other than Zuko, of course.) There's always General Iroh, but I think that's a title he'd like to put behind him. I cannot remember for the life of me how any of them address him the few times they're all together.

ooh so what i remember of the instance in canon of the gaang referring to him:

sokka calls him iroh when detailing the plan to rescue katara and zuko and try to take down the dai li in tcod, and katara calls him general iroh in sozin’s comet. there might be some other instances (i feel like i remember at least one instance of aang referring to him by name but i could be wrong), but mostly i remember them calling him “your uncle” whenever zuko brought him up in the latter half of book three.

with that in mind:

sokka still definitely calls him iroh. onlookers might indeed find this too casual, but neither of them care, lmao. though he would do just do this anyway, part of it is because of iroh's history, and while i think sokka does trust by the end of canon and especially post-canon that he is a changed man, his pragmatism insists on that distance a little bit. but i also think they come to quite like, understand, and respect each, though sokka still just calls him iroh because he would prefer to just refer to people by their names in general. this works out for iroh, who would much rather people call him by his name or an affectionate moniker than any sort of official title these days.

i think katara might still refer to him as general iroh directly proceeding post-canon (she means, as i believe she did in sozin's comment, it as a reference of respect to iroh's actions trying to make up for his past wrongs, a la leading the battle to take back ba sing se with the white lotus.) he eventually tells her that she doesn't have to, though. it's a gradual switch, as she still catches herself doing it a lot, and though she wouldn't be the first one in the gaang to do so, she'd probably occasionally call him uncle iroh as they come to know each other, but mostly calls him iroh.

does toph call him gramps in canon? i don't remember, but if so, ADORABLE, and regardless, i can totally see it. he does not mind this at all, he gets that it's an Affectionate Nickname. if they're in a more formal setting that calls for something (like a summit or something) she might call him iroh, but really, it's mostly gramps.

i think aang might call him general or even prince iroh - mostly because it stood out to me that he called hakoda 'chief hakoda' when meeting him - but the second iroh says he doesn't have to, it's all uncle iroh all the time! (he is the first, outside of zuko, to call him that.)

i think suki would probably stick to iroh for a long time, mostly because she didn't know him very well in canon, but once she and iroh do grow to know each other well enough, she might use uncle iroh occasionally.

i have to include my buddy zuko, even though we know he mostly calls iroh 'uncle'. he does sometimes still call him uncle iroh, which we see a couple of times (esp in book one i think) in the show, but that's mostly just in casual settings. one notable thing is that NO ONE is allowed to call iroh just Uncle like zuko does. that's his uncle, excuse. (no one ask me or zuko to explain why it's different when they call him uncle iroh. it just is.) though this is entirely unspoken. aang tries this once and receives a glare from zuko so strong that he refers to him only as "zuko's uncle iroh" for a month straight, including to iroh's face. lmao.

#asks #questioningdragons #ty for the ask friend! #<3 #atla #the gaang #iroh #sokka #katara #toph #aang #zuko

[arliedraws]

I find it many things weird in Harry Potter, in general the plot holes are everywhere and things when you think about them just don't make much sense, even in storytelling perspective, and consistency.

One thing that I find appalling is how Sirius didn't notice the scarring on Harry's hand, from Umbridges lines. It's established canonically they're lasting scars. Sirius already had to watch from the literal shadows how Harry was enrolled in that tournament, already fearing for his godsons life bc he suspected Voldemort was involved. How couldn't any responsible guardian, not notice Harry was physically abused, again, under Dumbledores nose, but away from Sirius direct influence to be able to do anything. Then on top of that, Snape is gonna to do the occlumensy lessons, and while Sirius knew that was necessary, I mean, he was outraged when he heared Snape stopped it, but ok, he let it all slide? If I were Sirius I would have pulled Harry out myself for that year, enough is enough. If Dumbledores presence didn't prevent Harry's suffering, in fact his choices add to Harry's real physical abuse (Dursleys, certain teachers). Sirius could educate Harry theoretical until Umbridge was gone. Harrry was save enough in Grimmauld during christmas and the summer so why not.

Its like those I mustn't tell lies scars only are there when needed and then forgotten during times of the plot supporting characters might have reacted to them, like Sirius or whomever. Sirius is a genius wizard but can't turn into an unassuming anonymous figure to go outside, like Hermione did to Ron's features with just her wand and spells in b7, negating need for polyjuice, it's his dog form or permanent housearrest (which leads to disintegration of his mind /character and then he dies)

At some point I'm really suspect this is character driven anymore and just JKs incompetence to consistently implement Sirius's character. Like you already said somewhere here, he is a miracle character. Too clever, too bright, too loyal to continue in the story JK wanted to tell like you said somewhere before. I have a feeling JK didn't know what to do with Sirius, denigrated him and his character and then killed him off. His best role at the end to fulfill is to reinforce Harry's suffering and loneliness it seems, while Sirius actually was the main hope of Harry in the heart of the series. So meaningless!

While I love character metas, I think JK is a meanspirited woman, I always had that notion bc she reacted in some ways, even before the whole modern eh, shenanigans. And that meanness, pettiness and inconclusive attitude reflect in hps worldbuilding.

I agree with several points here!

If Sirius had been in a better mental space, I agree that he would have noticed the scars from the blood quill. However, we could also interpret this as Sirius being exceptionally depressed. Now, I’m not defending JKR here, but one thing we do have to remember is that Sirius was a convicted murderer and Harry’s legal guardians were the Dursleys. Sirius literally has no say in what Harry does. Sirius is not a person with rights—in the eyes of the law, he is due to have his soul sucked out. Anytime Sirius makes a decision on Harry’s behalf, it’s a courtesy thing, not a legal guardian thing. Unfortunately. It’s gross to say, but legally, Molly has the same rights as Sirius to tell Harry what to do—which is, gross.

Also, sure, Sirius could go out of number 12 in disguise but he’s in hiding because he knows he can’t risk his own safety for Harry’s sake. Dumbledore has made it very clear that Sirius is not to leave, and frankly, by the way Harry believed he had to rescue Sirius, this was actually probably the right call. Sirius is the most important person to Harry (and likewise), and if Sirius were taken captive by either the Ministry or Voldemort, Harry would done something unwise (which…he did). I’m not arguing that this is how it should have gone down, but theoretically (if you ignore the importance of mental health and stability lol), this should have been the right call.

But the point is, Voldemort’s ability to manipulate people and destroy friendships is what killed Sirius. Voldemort manipulated Dumbledore who thought he was smarter than Voldemort; Dumbledore prioritized keeping Harry alive but sacrificed Sirius in the end. I do think JKR punishes Sirius for being smart and attractive (lol), calling him rash when he’s really…not, but I think it’s important to recognize that even the smartest, most caring people can make mistakes and overlook the pain of the people they love most.

I think Sirius is partially in denial about some of Harry’s struggles. As a man of action, Sirius’s inclination is to fix things, and when he cannot fix in the way he believes is necessary, he shuts down. He comes alive at the end of OotP when he is able to help in the way he wants—and then JKR kills him for it lol.

Anyway, just some thoughts. I don’t actually think Sirius was behaving out-of-character, but I think JKR was unmerciful in putting this fictional character into situations that brought out the worst in him because it served the plot. Just my two cents though!

#sirius black #asks #hp meta