#trust me there's nothing particularly important about you either

[pochipop]

＃LOVE AND DEEPSPACE !! ♡ — HOW I CRAVE YOU IN THE MORNIN' (RAFAYEL X READER).

#. synopsis! — rafayel doesn't really like mornings, but heaven knows he likes you .

#. characters! — rafayel.

#. warnings! — none .

#. word count! — 1.3k .

#. alt accounts! — @ddollipop (nsfw) @hhoneypop (moodboards) .

#. others! — navigation & masterlist .

Rafayel has never been a morning person. He likes to watch the occasional sunrise if he wakes naturally to catch it, but heaven knows he’s loath to pull himself out of bed before he feels good and ready. You, on the other hand, don’t tend to have the luxury of sleeping in until whenever you please. The life of a Deepspace Hunter often requires early starts, and now that you’ve woven your life so tightly between the threads of Rafayel’s, he’s seldom excluded from the harsh ring of your alarm coercing you out of bed, out of your dreams of sweet nothings, and into the real world (which is often much less pretty.)

You don’t even have to open your eyes to know that Rafayel is already pouting at the mere thought of your departure, and your suspicions are confirmed when he snakes his arms around your waist, groaning.

“Baby,” he mutters, “don’t go, the bed gets so cold when you leave.”

You sigh.

“Have to,” you murmur, still half asleep. “Work.”

“Call in sick.”

“I’m not sick,” you answer, a smile tugging at the corners of your lips. “You know my work is important for more reasons than one, Rafayel.”

“I do know,” he sighs, though it’s clear he’s less than happy about agreeing.

In fairness, you’re not particularly happy about this either. You love your job, worked hard to get it and climb the ranks within it, but man, sometimes you wish it were possible to pay the bills with currency earned cuddling in bed with the man nuzzling into your neck like a kitten. 

“Then don’t ask me to call in sick,” you laugh, turning your head to press a soft kiss to his warm temple.

He groans again, though you know he appreciates the affection.

Gently and with great reluctance, you pull yourself from Rafayel’s embrace, though you can’t help but take a moment to marvel at the way early morning rays of light filter through the curtains, playing on his delicate features. His eyes like marbled sunsets lazily find their way to you, still heavy with sleep, peering up at you in a mixture of love and discontent.

“You’re a menace to my sleeping schedule,” he grumbles playfully.

“Consider it payback for all the nights you’ve kept me up too late,” you answer jokingly, shrugging your shoulders.

“I’ll have you know, keeping you up at night is a vital part of our relationship,” he pouts, but there’s an unmistakable glint of mischeviousness in his tired gaze.

You giggle, knowing he’s joking (at least in part.)

“I’ll make it up to you,” you move closer, cupping his cheeks in your hands and leaning down to peck his lips. “Promise.”

“You better,” he mutters.

“Don’t I always?” You inquire, fingers feathering through his soft hair.

“Yeah,” he acknowledges in a semi-rare moment of complete sincerity from the man who often goes through the world half-wittingly. “You do.”

You smile, soft and warm, leaning in for another lingering kiss, savoring the warmth and familiarity of Rafayel’s touch. His arms reach up, wrapping around your waist, pulling you closer, as if he’s hesitant to let go.

“Be safe, okay?” He says.

“Always,” you nod.

Before, you might have mistaken his concern for a lack of trust in your abilities, but you’re well past the point of pointless misunderstandings. Rafayel may be an artist, and he might spin his words like golden threads from time to time, making you read between the lines, but your sincerest assessment of the moment tells you he’s said exactly what he means. He wants you to be safe, wants you to come home in one piece, and you let him steal another quick kiss before standing upright.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” you add, hoping it might soften the blow of your departure.

His playful pout returns.

“You seem to doubt the depth of my ability to lament over your absence,” he states.

“I don’t doubt it at all, but I’d rather you find more enjoyable ways to spend your day,” you laugh.

He sighs dramatically.

“Bring back something interesting from your adventure,” he suggests, a teasing smile pulling at his lips. “Maybe something I can crush up, turn into paint.”

“Need I remind you what happened the last time you used an oddly sourced item for pigment?” You ask incredilously.

Rafayel rolls his eyes.

“Need I remind you that that’s precisely how we met?” He counters.

“Still,” you sigh, “I’d much prefer you not be endangered by your paint. Stick with oils and acrylics for a while. For my peace of mind.”

“Is that concern I detect from you, my little hunter?” Rafayel grins.

“Of course it is,” you reply honestly. “You might be pretentious and obnoxious, but I love you. I’d never want you in harm’s way.”

His teasing smirk softens to a genuine smile at your sincerity, and he stands, taking a moment to stretch before reaching out to caress the curve of your jaw with the top of his index finger.

“Obnoxious and pretentious, huh?” He chuckles lightly. “Thank you for the glowing evaluation of my character, darling. But, because I do happen to love you as well, I’ll let that little dig slide, —and I’ll do my very best to stick to safe and traditional mediums, at least for the time being, just for you.”

You can’t help but smile at Rafayel’s good-natured reply. His gentle touch lingers on your jaw, and you lean into it, relishing in the softness of his affection.

“Very much so appreciated,” you answer amusedly. “I’ll consider it a personal victory if we can avoid any and all paint-related Wanderer incidents for the forseeable future.”

Rafayel gives a curt nod.

“A noble goal, my dearest hunter,” he says. “Now go forth and fell any pesky Wanderers intent on disturbing the peace of our humble city of high-class electronic developments, bringing back tales of wonder and triumph.”

Heaven knows he has to be the most dramatic man you’ve ever met, but you couldn’t imagine him being any other way.

You play along and give him a mock salute.

“Yes sir, at once.”

Rafayel stifles a laugh, clearly pleased by your participation in his theatrics. He thinks for a moment that this life he lives with you is nothing short of fantastical, —the kind of comfort he only dreamed of just years ago, and now here you are before him, like some kind of angel he’s terrified he might wake up to find was a figment of his deepest desires all along. But his worries are quenched by the way your lips slot so perfectly against his own as he leans in, kissing you sweetly.

“May the cosmic forces be ever in your favor, my love. Return not only with tales of triumph, but also interstellar souvenirs for my viewing pleasure and artistic inspirations if you happen to stumble across any. Preferably ones that will not curse our modest seaside home.”

You laugh, and it makes his heart stutter.

“I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for cosmic trinkets,” you assure.

You’re thrumming by the time Rafayel pulls you in again, pressing you closer to his chest. There’s nothing he has to say to fill the silence, and you let your eyes close for a moment, awash in the silent exchange of understanding so deep it could rival the cosmos. Beyond all the playful banter and the theatrical mannerisms, there’s love here, and that’s really all you could ask for. Worries about your safety, concern over Rafayel’s tendency to attract bad omens, —they dissipate in the face of this connection that buzzes like a live wire.

As you finally pull away, you meet his gaze and find nothing but softness there, replacing all the prior amusement and tiredness from before.

“Return safely, my angel. Our oceanside abode awaits your triumphant arrival,” he takes your hand, brushing his lips over your knuckles. “And so do I.”

#love and deepspace #love and deep space #love and deepspace x reader #love and deep space x reader #rafayel x reader #rafayel #rafayel love and deepspace #rafayel love and deepspace x reader #rafayel love and deep space x reader #love and deepspace rafayel #love and deep space rafayel #love and deep space rafayel x reader #love and deepspace rafayel x reader

[hazbinfallinginaspiral]

Obvious (Vox x Assistant!Reader)

Summary- You’re Vox’s new assistant. He’s just had a big fight with Valentino. He comes and vents to you about it, and ends up crying. You comfort him and he appreciates it, then notices all the small things you do for him. Things he’d previously overlooked, things so small but thoughtful, things Val would never do for him. Then it hit him- he loved you.

-being new wasn’t particularly hard, so long as you kept your head down -you did your work efficiently and properly, never late, not a detail out of place. You never complained either. You were quiet and mostly kept to yourself, which helped you blend into the rest of the faceless and mundane workers at Voxtek. -Your coworkers hardly knew you existed, but Vox? -He was aware of you alright. You were his best assistant, the only one he trusted to not fuck up on his important projects. The one he could trust to keep their mouth shut. -You were thoughtful and observant, something even he struggled to be sometimes. -so, when you noticed his sour mood and the exhaustion emanating off him in waves this morning, you brought him his favorite coffee and snacks. You were discreet, carefully organizing his files and reports so they were tidier and easier to manage. You cancelled, pushed back, or sent in representatives for meetings that would stress him out. -He didn’t notice. He was overworking himself today, pushing himself to his limit for the company. -You knew this and used it to your advantage, helping him more than usual, knowing he wouldn’t notice or say anything. There was nothing you could do to stop his bad habits so you did your best to support him and help, taking some of the weight off his shoulders. -What you hadn’t expected was for the wild card to show up -Valentino was in one of his moods and word got to Vox before you could send someone else in to deal with it. -You knew it wouldn’t end well, but you couldn’t do much. You were an average sinner demon and they were Overlords. So, you waited, preparing Vox’s office so everything was as perfect as possible when he got back. -His fight with Val was explosive, per usual. Vox ended up giving in first today, teleporting away to the comfort of his office. He was too fucking tired for this shit. -What he didn’t know was that you would be there. It was a sort of pleasant surprise. You’d always been a good assistant and listener. -So, he flopped dramatically and started venting about his shitty week. You plugged in his charging cables while he talked, which took him off guard for a moment. -he was in the middle of talking about what had happened with Val, static stinging his eyes. He cried a little. -you were quiet and gentle, offering soft words of support. -as you comforted him, Vox couldn’t help but remember how you’d plugged him in to charge. It was strange to him. “Why’d you do that?” He’d asked, confused. “Because you were tired. You needed it,” you’d respond simply, as if it were natural. It wasn’t. Not in Hell, at least. -that was the moment when it all began to click everything you’d done for him, all things Val would never do for him. -what he was missing -it felt so obvious now, “Oh,” he said softly, realization dawning on him. “I love you.”

Bonus! (Cleaned up version)

As the newest addition to Voxtek's workforce, blending in was second nature to me. I kept my head down, diligently completing my tasks with precision and efficiency. My quiet demeanor allowed me to fade into the background, becoming just another face among the sea of employees.

But while my coworkers remained oblivious to my existence, Vox was acutely aware of my presence. He relied on me, trusted me in ways he never did with anyone else. I was his right-hand assistant, the one he turned to when he needed something done right.

And on that fateful day, as Vox returned to his office drained and disheartened from yet another confrontation with Valentino, I was there waiting for him. I had anticipated his needs, preparing his workspace to perfection in anticipation of his return.

As he collapsed into his chair with a defeated sigh, I moved quietly to his side, plugging in his charging cables without a word. Vox's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected gesture, but he said nothing, too exhausted to question it.

He began to vent about his tumultuous encounter with Valentino, his voice filled with frustration and fatigue. I listened attentively, offering words of comfort and understanding as he poured out his heart. And then, in a moment of vulnerability, tears welled up in his eyes, streaming down his face unchecked.

Without hesitation, I reached out to him, offering a gentle touch of reassurance. Vox leaned into my touch, his sobs subsiding as I comforted him with quiet words of solace.

As I sat beside him, offering my support, Vox's mind began to clear, his thoughts drifting to the small yet significant acts of kindness I had shown him. The coffee and snacks I had brought him that morning, the meticulous organization of his files, the cancelation of stressful meetings—each gesture a testament to my attentiveness, care and- oh.

And then it hit him like a bolt of lightning—what he had been missing all along. It was the realization that amidst the chaos of his life, I had been there, quietly supporting him without asking for anything in return.

With a sudden clarity, Vox uttered the words that had been lingering on the tip of his tongue, the truth he had only just come to understand. "I love you," he said, his voice soft yet resolute.

#hazbin hotel fanfiction #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin vox #vox #ao3 writer #my writing #writing #vox x reader #x reader #vox fanfiction

[cethlyarlo]

Shin's Belt

I really rather like that the symbol on Shin's belt is that of the alchemical symbol for chaos. Let me tell you why:

Chaos represents the concept of everything doing everything all at once; existing together, in tangent, or not at all. It represents all paths and what lies beyond what was made to believe is set in stone. The definition of chaos is not particularly the opposite of order in this circumstance, but it can be used that way.

More clearly, chaos provides an opening for new beginnings; to disrupt what is stagnant or what doesn't feel right to present alternative pathways. Chaos is needed to undo pressures, expectations, norms, etc. so that an individual can learn to be themselves; to grow and change as needed.

It's very much not the evil or negative symbol pop culture and Hollywood would have you believe. I've even seen it used to refer to Satanists, which is very much not true. Dark practitioners can and do use this symbol, but this symbol does not represent them. They don't own it nor can they control it/assume authority over it. It's not exclusive to one group either: anyone can utilize it however they see fit and like with most things, that could go in any direction. We will be focusing on the balance between the negative and positive aspects of chaos here in this write up.

That being said, on to why this symbol is important for Shin's character arc:

Firstly, Shin is devout and loyal to Baylan; her Master and depending on how you look at it, potential father figure. He's everything she's ever known and his own views, teachings, and opinions have been pressed on her since she was young. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, seeing as that's usually how parenting/teaching goes, but it isn't allowing her to see beyond that. The box is small and she finds herself unable to think outside of it due to her loyalty to him.

When Baylan begins to refuse to tell her crucial details about his plans and goals, she begins to question him and her idea of him. This is the beginning of chaos' disruption over her life and as the show progresses, this disruption continues to grow. It's a butterfly effect, if you will; the seeds of disarray have been planted and they have the potential to grow into something exponential.

She comes into contact with Sabine Wren, who has lived a very different form of life compared to her own and I believe the simple interactions between them helps to spur the questions she suddenly has about her life in general. There are things and people that can and do live outside of the box in her mind and while she's probably aware of this, she hadn't truly understood what that meant until this point. With her master's increased elusiveness and the lack of answers, plus the eye-opening revelations that witnessing bits and pieces of Sabine and Ahsoka's relationship (I.e Seatos), the seeds of distrust and further questions begin to take root and sprout. Her mind is opening to other things; the walls of the box are beginning to crumble.

By the time they're on Peridea, Baylan's motives are entirely unclear and somewhat unpredictable to her. She's confused by him and what he wants. Chaos is taking greater hold of her now; her life is changing so quickly and in directions she can't forsee like the arrows of the symbol that gesture to all directions simultaneously. The seeds begin to uncontrollably grow into trees regardless of her attempts to reconnect with him.

Then he abandons her.

Without a word on where he went, Shin's found herself alone. The walls of her box have been destroyed, the wound made worse by Ahsoka's offer to help. Chaos has upended her normalcy, her comforts, her mental and emotional stabilizers, her trust, her view of self; her life. What began as seeds have rapidly grown into a sprawling forest and now she has to deal with the wreckage.

The change is for good though. With Sabine and Ahsoka stranded with her, she has the opportunity to step into her own person. She now has the opportunity to find herself; to make her own decisions, to spend some time with other people like her. She has the ability to learn and grow free of her box and the restrictions that had been pressed on her since joining Baylan, however long ago that happened to be.

Shin gets to be her own person now, and she can do whatever she wants with that :)

Edit: I realized I forgot to mention the little dots within the wheel!

Symmetrical to the Norse story of Hati and Skoll [who were sons of Fenrir (and Fenrir is the son of trickster God Loki and Jötunn giantess Angrboða)], the wheel of chaos on Shin's belt sports two little dots which I believe represent the sun and moon [and thus the wolves that chase them; Skoll (the one who mocks) and Hati (the one who hates) respectively]. As it goes, the celestial bodies rise in the East (right quadrant on the belt) and set in the West (left quadrant on the belt). The little dots are doing just that. The dot on right I believe represents the moon, or Shin, and that the dot on the left represents Baylan. The moon is rising and the sun is setting, showing that Baylan's time in her life is ending and her own time is just beginning.

Either way, it's a very hopeful symbol in my opinion :)

#shin hati #ahsoka #sabine wren #star wars #ahsoka series #baylan skoll #meta #headcanon? #i wanted to share this because I'm thinking of getting the symbol on her belt tattooed on my wrist #i just wanted to share my thoughts on it #i hope you like it #wolfwren #sabine x shin #shin x sabine #art #shinbine #costume details #costume design #star wars thoughts #hidden meanings #subtle designs #check this shit out

[acourtofthought]

"Elain would make a terrible High Lady"

"I've seen Rhysand do such ... horrible things, seen him play the dark prince over and over."

"I am here to help you fight against Hybern." "Bullshit," Cassian muttered.

"You'd be all too happy for war, considering how well you made out in the last one." "No one says war can't be lucrative," Helion countered.

I waited for it - for the blow that would surely doom us. We were thieves who had deceived him, we had come to his house in peace and stolen from him, had ripped into their minds to ensure our success.

One moment, Azriel was seated. The next, he'd blasted through Eris's shield with a flare of blue light and tackled him backward, wood shattering beneath them. / "Call of your overgrown bat," Beron ordered Rhys. Rhys was enjoying it, bargainw ith Eris or no - could have ended it seconds ago.

"You're a coward," I breathed to the High Lord of Autumn. Beron just said, "The same could be claimed of you." My stomach churned. "I don't need to explain myself to you." "No, but perhaps to that girl's family - but they're dead, too, aren't they? Butchered and burned to death in their own beds.

There was still much work to be done, trust to build.

The High Lords quarreled the most about the possibility of a new wall. And with every word of it, just as Helion said, that temporary allegiance frayed and snapped.

"We need the humans in other territories to trust us, if we can ever hope to achieve lasting peace." "Then perhaps Jurian and Vassa should deal with them."

"The Illyrians are pieces of shit," he said too quietly. I opened my mouth and shut it. / "They're hypocrites." "And what would you have me do, then? Disband the largest army in Prythian?" Azriel didn't answer.

"Your mate should have known better than to kick a downed male." "I can't say I'm particularly sorry that he did." "You will need Tamlin as an ally before the dust has settled. Tread carefully." I didn't want to think about it, consider it, today. Any day. "My business with him is done." "Yours might be, but Rhys's isn't. And you'd do well to remind your mate of that fact."

And though he roams these lands, he does not see or care for the neglect he passes, the lawlessness, the vulnerability.

I find the "Elain would make a terrible High Lady" arguments odd. The above is just a small list of what the leadership in Prythian looks like and the actions of those that report directly to a High Lord (who should be able to expect certain behaviors from his inner circle in important meetings or in regards to an entire group of their people). I'm not even trying to suggest that anyone is a bad High Lord, clearly Rhys and his ICs actions are meant to read as amusing and entertaining or warranted. And I think in certain situations there's only choosing between the lesser of two evils.

But it's evident that no one is perfect, that even the current High Lords are capable of mistakes and drama. And with so many strong personalities currently in charge, there is space for someone who approaches things in a different manner.

She had come alive here, and her joy was infectious. There wasn’t a servant or gardener who didn’t smile at her, and even the brusque head cook found excuses to bring her plates of cookies and tarts at various points in the day.

She had looked at that cottage with hope. I had looked at it with nothing but hatred. And I knew which one of us had been stronger.

She was generous, loving, and kind.

Elain had taken charge of planning

Elain, to my surprise, had a horse, a satchel of food, and supplies ready when I hurried down the stairs.

She put a hand on Nesta's knee. "Feyre gave and gave - for years. Let us now help her. Help ... others."

A lady - that's what Elain would become. What she was risking for this. (Lady?!? As in High Lady?! Possible foreshadowing???)

"I'll do it," Elain said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. She didn't wait for either of us before she strode out, graceful as a doe.

My sister Elain can convince anyone to do anything with a few smiles.

Elain sat a little higher as she said to Cassian, "And as for Feyre's hunting during those years, it was not Nesta's neglect alone that is to blame. We were scared, and had received no training, and everything had been taken, and we failed her. Both of us."

Nesta went on, utterly unimpressed by any of us, "I assume you'll want to stay the night." I said, "If it's not too much trouble, then yes. We'll leave after breakfast tomorrow." Nesta didn't smile, but Elain beamed.

But Elain's cry - a warning. A warning to - . To my right, now exposed, Tamlin ran for me. To grab me at last.

Then Elain said quietly, "We could move them to Graysen's estate." "His father has high walls - made of thick stone. With space for plenty of people and supplies." "There are escape tunnels," Elain whispered. "Perhaps it is better than nothing." A glance between the Illyrians. "We can set up a guard - " Cassian began. "No," Elain interrupted, her voice louder than I'd heard it in months. "They...Graysen and his father..." Cassian's jaw tightened. "Then we cloak -" "They have hounds. Bred and trained to hunt you. Detect you." / Elain considered. "I can speak to him." "No," I said - at the same moment Nesta did. But Elain cut us of. "If - if you, and they" - a glance at Rhys, my friends - "come with me, your Fae scents might distract the dogs." "Glamour me," Elain said - to Rhys. "Make me look human. Just long enough to convince him to open his gates to those seeking sanctuary. Perhaps even let you set those wards around the estate." "This could end very badly, Elain." "It's already ended badly. Now it's just a matter of deciding how we meet the consequences." "Wisely said," Mor offered, smiling softly at Elain.

Then she was gone - shoulders a little squarer.

Elain offered a half smile. "I suppose that war makes wanting things like that unimportant."

Elain stepped out of a shadow behind him, and rammed Truth-Teller to the hilt through the back of the king's neck as she snarled in his ear, "Don't you touch my sister."

Elain swept in, apron gone and hair re-braided. "Please don't wait on my account," she said, taking the seat at the head of the table.

"It's their tradition though," Elain countered, her face still flushed with the cold. "One that they fought and died to protect in the war. Perhaps that's the better way to think of it, rather than feeling guilty. To remember that this day means something to them. All of them, regardless of who has more, who has less, and in celebrating the traditions, even through the presents, we honor those who fought for it's very existence, for the peace this city now has." For a moment I just stared at my sister, the wisdom she'd spoken. Not a whisper of those oracular abilities. Just clear eyes and an open expression.

"I asked Nuala to do it in that order," Elain said as the others gathered round. "Because you're the foundation, the one who lifts us. You always have been.

Elain, mourn as she might for the life she would have had with Graysen, had found a place, a role here. Tending to the gardens of Feyre's veritable palace on the river, helping other residents of Velaris restore their own destroyed gardens.

She had purpose, and joy, and friends. But those things had always come easily to her sister. Had always made Elain special.

When Rhys spoke like that, it was more of a command than a question. Elain waved a hand in dismissal.

"Using me."

"Elain showed some teeth."

"Don't forget that gardening often results in something pretty, but it involves getting one's hands dirty along the way".

And he knew the cruelty of the Hewn City troubled her. But she hadn't hesitated to come. When Feyre had offered to let her remain home, Elain had squared her shoulders and declared that she was part of this court - and would do whatever was needed.

Nesta was wrong, Cassian realized, to think Elain as loyal and loving as a dog. Elain saw every single thing Nesta had done, and understood why.

Let's recap. Elain owns up to her mistakes, gives credit where credit is due, is wise, observant, easily makes friends, can convince anyone to do anything with a few smiles, is willing to help out a people she only just became one of (and grew up fearing), brave when the situation calls for it, takes charge and pushes back on topics she thinks are important and is now offering herself up to dangerous situations. I also think it's important to note her diplomatic nature. Whereas Feyre and Nesta spent their childhood at one another's throats and hating their father, Elain managed a decent relationship to all three. No, she's not in a place to rule an entire court all on her own but neither was Feyre, that's why she had a partner by her side to help her learn (as Elain would too, these are romance books after all).

Prythian doesn't need another ruler who is willing to burn relationships in order to achieve a specific end result. No shade to Rhys, he's extremely self sacrificing and someone needs to fill the role that he does.

But we don't need another Rhys and Feyre, another Beron, another Tamlin, or even Tarquin (who while being a good male, doesn't really seem to go out of his way to interact with other courts). It needs a set of rulers who are better at negotiating peace between not only the courts but the human lands and those on the continent.

We know Lucien is set up to be a High Lord at some point (though something would need to happen to Helion for him to begin ruling in Day) and Elain is his mate. We know Tamlin is not currently any sort of leader to Spring so that means there could be a vacancy there. I doubt SJM told us that Elain's scent was a "promise of Spring" and that "the Spring Court had been made for someone like Elain" for absolutely no reason.

Of the possible future pairings, who would make more sense ruling the Fae in either Spring or Day?

Vassa and Lucien? Vassa who is a human Queen and has shown absolutely no interest in the needs of the fae after the war?

Az and Gwyn? Neither Gwyn or Az have been given hints that they'd be leaders of a court nor do they currently have anything to do with Day Court or Spring. Yes, Gwyn has Spring heritage through her grandmother but she doesn't have a connection to the political system there, nor does Az. Not like Lucien.

I think there is a huge amount of evidence showing why Elain would make an excellent leader and that's not even accounting for the fact that mates are equals. Even if in some weird twist she and Lucien don't end up together, it doesn't change that fact.

Mates are reflections of one another.

Rhys was the most powerful High Lord in Prythian's history, Feyre became his High Lady with the power of all 7 High Lords, both having a darkness to them.

Cassian is one of the strongest Illyrian's and the general of the Illyrians. Nesta had the power of death and is set to be the general of the Valkyries.

Lucien is a High Lords heir, showing the markers of such (knocking Cassian from his rage with a single word) AND has strong fire powers through his mothers line. Through Lucien we learned that High Lords are a different breed and through the Suriel we learned that they are not merely powerful, they are Power.

Elain as his mate would need to be a match to Lucien's power and even if she were not a High Lady chosen by the magic, there is little chance Lucien would not make her his High Lady as Rhys made Feyre his, meaning she would be a ruler by his side.

Diminishing all that we know of Elain and what we know of mates, claiming she'd be a horrible ruler though SJM mated her to a future High Lord, it's fandom pettiness born of hatred for her character.

#elucien #elain archeron #pro elucien #lucien vanserra #pro lucien vanserra #pro elain archeron #high lady elain

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

km really do have incredible chemistry. It’s noticeable even just within the 2 minutes JK dropped into JM’s watching live, or through the comments and their reactions. their gimbap making lives are so comfortable and funny. ppl use bickering as an example of chemistry a lot which personally i don’t really see, but when km bicker it somehow feels intimate. there’s an undercurrent of trust and understanding to all their interactions and don’t even get me STARTED on the tones of voice…sorry this just went full delulu haha so I will say all this could be true without them being a couple, but needless to say I expect their travel show will be a really sweet and comforting watch! So I’m really looking forward to it cus I need some of that. you are right that most of the interactions we saw from them recently were indirect, so it makes sense there’s a sense of excitement and anticipation to see them together and totally at ease. from what we’ve seen they appeared to be filming a lot themselves with supplementary camera work, so I’m really curious what the vibe & premise will be.

Oh, I'm really curious about the format as well. It will probably be mostly vlogging style, with hand held cameras used by KM and probably some other establishing shots, full and wide framing if they had other people filming them. But given the BH/Hybe style, I expect an editing mess made by a team that barely knows the basics. It's not something they excel at. Even Jungkook does a better job, although he's not into it anymore.

Jungkook's camping vlog is most likely the way the travel show will look like as a finished product.

As to their chemistry, bickering and all that, I always got the sense that we are seeing the surface of a dynamic full of inside jokes and an established and well rounded relationship in which we only get some glimpses of. They come across as people who know each other extremely well, what clicks, what doesn't and all this to be but a really small part of their lives because they don't show us more.

I've seen other people saying they either don't expect "jikook moments" or they warned other fans to lower their expectations. It's this mantra that gets spread each time there's something to be released, particularly Memories. I found that nonsensical because it's not like it comes across as KM doing "something" that constitutes a moment and then they don't do it on other occassions. They behave the same with each other in every instance that I have seen. There is no switch that changes behavior. Everything can be called a "moment". It's not fiction, in which the story leads to an important, defining scene.

Take ITS 1 for example. The mosquito incident is considerent a moment, right? It shows up on twitter from time to time, gets discussed and so on. Do other KM interactions not count as "moments"? Are they boring? Is there no "action"? I enjoy them being drunk out of their mind, but also talking about nothing important while they go to eat. They could be the most boring guys on that travel show and I would still be excited and I would enjoy it. It could be a repeat of Jungkook telling Jimin a story in detail about sand fleas and I would be entertained for the simple reason that I like to watch them be with each other.

#m thoughts #jikook #jikook travel show

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Suzi Q

This article is incomplete; you help by expanding it

All she's literally ever done is have a few cute exchanges with Joseph and be a sweetheart in the short time we get to see her following her minor introduction, clearly cementing some sort of playful attraction between the two and without fail she's consistently bombarded with extreme mischaracterization to make her seem vapid and cruel (and occasionally homophobic but like in a Completely Oblivious Dumb Blonde way), that she's nothing more than a gold digger who wanted to marry rich, that Joseph only married her because "he lost his actual soulmate and had to settle for her", and that it was HER fault that Joseph cheated on her decades into their marriage. Frankly, everyone who makes jokes at Suzi Q's expense regarding the cheating scandal aren't as funny as they think they are!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Literally all she’s ever done is be adorable and marry the hero and people either dismiss her completely or demonize her. She’s often ignored or made to play wing woman for the hero/sidekick ship OR she’s a horrible gold digger who only wants the hero for his money and/or she was only ever just a consolation prize for him when he couldn’t be with his sidekick. She also gets blamed for her husband having an affair. People like to say that she wasn’t good enough for him and could never replace his sidekick and that clearly he never REALLY loved her and it’s her fault for never measuring up. Her husband’s infidelity aside, she stayed married to that man for at least 60 years and canonically says she always believes in him and trusts him to save the day and yet people wanna say she doesn’t care about him. Or call her stupid for never imagining that her husband would cheat on her. The victim blaming gets really gross. 

Gwen

She stands in the way of Merthur, by far the most popular ship in the fandom. I haven’t seen it as much in recent years, but back in the days of fanfiction.net she got slut shamed so badly for having been romantically interested in three of the male characters over the course of the show, which is just... normal straight woman behavior, meanwhile Merlin crushed on pretty much every woman who even looked at him in the early seasons of the show and got no hate for that whatsoever. I barely even read Merthur fics (not because it’s m/m, just because certain aspects of their relationship don’t appeal to me) but the “Gwen is a slut” attitude was so pervasive across the fandom, even fics that weren’t explicitly anti-Gwen would “jokingly” call her a slut. I even saw a few fics demonizing her for having an affair with Lancelot despite the fact that SHE WAS ENCHANTED when that happened, and surprise surprise, Lancelot (who was also under the influence of magic) got none of that hate, and neither did Arthur, who got enchanted to fall in love with multiple women over the course of the show.

Canonically Arthur Pendragon's love interest and an important and interesting character in the show who's completely shoved aside and ignored in favour of the medieval bbc yaoi ship. At best they put her and Morgana in Lesbian Timeout (ie make them get together and then reduce them to wingwomen at best because god forbid we focus on the medieval bbc yuri). Justice for Gwen right now!

She is prince Arthur's love interest (eventually wife). Arthur is MADLY in love with her. He tells his tyrannical father he would give up his crown to be with her (she's a servant in the series). He forgives her cheating on him with Lancelot (!), which in the show is caused by an evil enchantment, but the characters never find out about it. He chooses her time and time again. His love for Gwen is literally never put into question. Many fans insist to this day that there was no chemistry between Gwen and Arthur compared to Arthur and Merlin. Arthur isn’t even particularly nice to Merlin most of the time! The funny thing is that Merlin himself ships these two so hard and does everything he can to help them get together!! Gwen & Arthur are adorable and too many fans were drunk on the yaoi fumes to see it. ARTHUR WAS A SIMP FOR GWEN.

#round 3 #poll #suzi q #jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba #battle tendency #bbc gwen #gwen merlin #bbc merlin

[masezace]

little off topic for my blog, but i started watching a new show since a friend mentioned it was good and i'd heard positive things about it, so i just wanted to talk about it a little bit (probably never again after this since this isn't a fandom blog, but it's the only one i have rn so idc it's going here)

the show is Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, and just going on looks alone, despite my love for dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise i never would have considered it. it appears to be very much for kids, and as i'm in my late twenties now i'm not particularly interested in especially kiddy media. however a friend my age enjoyed it and mentioned it has a canon lgbtq+ couple in it among the main characters, so of course i just had to watch it. i had already been hearing that despite its initial appearance and premise, it was surprisingly good for a kids' show, so i had already been curious, but i was even more keen after knowing there were queer characters, and not even the adults, the kids themselves (in a kid's show?!! what a time to be alive), so i finally sat down and watched it.

[spoiler warning, both minor and major, for the rest of this post btw, so continue reading at your own risk if you haven't seen it yet/are still watching]

the show overall

okay so firstly, i am coming at all of this from the perspective of a writer, so my observations are from a technical standpoint more so than just as a fan of the show. and honestly, it really is a well-written show as a whole. is it geared towards kids? definitely. there are plenty of jokes/gags in it that just don't appeal to me as an adult, but beyond that, there was plenty to appreciate as an adult.

the writing is actually phenomenal? there were several points in the series where i just sat back and mulled over the way a scene went, what the thought process behind writing it was like, how well it was executed, and how important it was to the characters and overall plot.

the suspense is spot on, nothing gets dragged out too long, and i will admit there have been a few scenes throughout that actually got me; i jumped! it's actually scarier than i expected a kid show to be, but i'm so glad they went where they did because it really elevated the experience.

the pacing overall is very good, adequately engaging for kids' short attention spans (and us adhd adults 🥲) but not too short either to a point where things felt abrupt or unfinished. plot arcs are well developed and tied up nicely. also, as a bit of a dinosaur nerd, the array of dinosaurs in the show is super broad and satisfying! very fun stuff.

character element

imo the real gem of this show is the character development. honestly it's just *chefs kiss*

the characters grow and change so much and so realistically over the course of the show, it's honestly so much better and more satisfying than the character growth in most adult fiction/media recently.

the growth in ben (who btw was def my favorite character by the end of s1) and kenji in particular were my favorites and, in my personal opinion, the most interesting. the way ben started out anxious, cowardly, and rule abiding to a fault, then grew into a brave, confident, adventurous little pyromaniac gremlin, then had that stint later in the series where he regressed a bit-questioning himself-until eventually ultimately striking a great balance and really coming into himself was just... peak character writing.

kenji started out overconfident, lazy, and overly concerned with money/status. but that arrogant overconfidence and laziness slowly turned into responsibility, and a desire to protect his found family, and the realization that it's the people in your life that really matter most.

honestly what i mentioned only scratches the surface in terms of those two characters, there's certainly more that can be said about them (as well as all the others) but i'm not really in the mood for a deep dive character analysis atm. just trust me tho when i say these characters are so well done and each one of them have arcs that are super satisfying to watch play out.

queer representation

and as for the queer couple? yasmina and sammy are PERFECT. it was so beautiful watching their relationship grow from one-sided to mutual friendship, to loyal devotion, then to love. they were set up incredibly well and incredibly naturally. i have like, no complaints when it comes to them. i don't even know if there's anything i can say that would add to things, they were just a really awesome couple to watch become canon, they're the beautiful and painfully needed representation we all beg for in tv and movies.

shipping, chemistry, and intent

but oh goodness... probably my only real complaint about the entire show would be how benji (ben x kenji) and kenji x brooklyn (kenlyn? brookji? idk and idrc) were handled. because for all that this show did SO much beautifully right, they really screwed the pooch here, sadly.

i'm gonna start by saying that the writing in this show, as with most, is deliberate. what i mean by this is that despite having no clue who it would be because my friend thankfully did not even spoil me as far as the genders of the queer couple, i clocked yas and sammy as the would-be queer couple as early as season one (actually it was between them and benji, but more on that later). i could already see the chemistry, because it was deliberately written in.

shipping is subjective. anyone can ship any character, and in most cases it's pretty easy to see how there could be (romantic) chemistry between fan pairings based on their personalities, their arcs, etc. and that's okay! ships don't even have to have any canon support to be valid, because shipping is for the fandom, and it's for fun (i have a few rarepairs and crack ships across different media that i just love).

but onscreen/written romantic chemistry is a lot less subjective (to clarify, it is subjective whether or not the chemistry is good, but it's not subjective about whether or not it exists). there are literally scenes written with the sole purpose of building the romantic tension and/or chemistry between planned couples (some of which even have absolutely zero plot relevance, which usually is not advised tbh, and most of which are the cliches/tropes you see in literally any romance ever written, some are just disguised a little better than others. but make no mistake, it's all the same set of cliches. there is nothing new under the sun), as well as intentional, key moments within scenes that have other purposes. they are essential to establish romantic pairings.

and typically, the foundations for these couples are laid VERY early on. always within the first or second season (well, at least they are when the writer actually knows what they're doing and has at least a rough plan/outline for the entire series & characters. this is usually a large part of what separates the good chemistry from the poor chemistry. an author who knows who the couples are going to be and has a plan from the beginning to build them up is going to be more successful in creating a believable relationship with good chemistry. one who does not plan, or makes last minute plans will almost certainly fail, and the couple is just going to suck). when the set of characters you're working with are going to stay the same for most or all of the story, you start immediately.

i don't mean to toot my own horn, because i think it's because i'm a writer so i just pick up on narrative patterns very easily, and pretty much always clock the planned couples within the first few episodes of any series, and by the end i am right like 9 times out of 10.

that being said, do you know whose deliberately written chemistry i also clocked in jwcc? ben and kenji's.

kenji and... brooklyn?

no offense to people who like/enjoy kenji and brooklyn, you are free to love them, but the way their romance was written is... quite possibly the weakest point of the show. it felt like they were just trying to appease the upsetto heteros in charge, because there was definitely another het pairing that had a lot more potential than kenji and brooklyn (hello darius x brooklyn aka darilyn, you would have actually made sense because your relationship had amazing buildup and multiple standout scenes from s1 on. dgmw, i love that we got a m/f strong, supportive, purely platonic friendship out of them, i live for those and we really need more of them. but we could have had that with kenji and brooklyn, or darius and sammy, or ben and yas, literally any other pair instead).

kenji and brooklyn as a couple came out of absolutely nowhere. i honestly think they decided to shove them together last minute, and had no actual plan for them until they were working on s4. because their development barely started at the VERY end of s3 (the abruptness of him caring about her being held hostage so much more than literally anyone else in their group despite them having like zero buildup to that point gave me whiplash), but honestly didn't really even become "meaningful" development until s4, over halfway through the series. the two spend the first 3 seasons basically not particularly gaf about each other individually, only as part of the whole group and on an equal level with everyone else. they otherwise have no deliberate narrative foundation. it just starts in s4 with no prior hinting. which makes their development rocky and difficult to believe. the funny thing is their characters literally have dialogue (in s4) trying to draw comparisons/parallels between them to say that they especially have a lot in common and like??? no? they really don't? not any more so than any other two kids in the group. their relationship just, really falls flat.

it was disappointing to see it take such a massive spotlight in the series for almost all of seasons 4 and 5, overshadowing the friendships that have been the focus of the show and should have remained so, to the point where at times it just felt like i was watching some stereotypical het highschool romance. genuinely, it made s4 & 5 more of a drag to get through. yasammy and ben and yas' growing bond (which by the way was so sweet, it had the strongest queer solidarity vibes good lord, i sure wonder why yas chose ben out of everyone to come out to first, hmmm) were some of the few things that kept me invested, otherwise i would have dropped it if it had leaned much farther into becoming the kenlyn show than it already was. especially when it was that pair so much of the focus was given to, even though we had so readily and perfectly available, the pair that could have, should have been: benji. which finally brings me to:

ben and kenji

benji's foundation was laid in s1. their interactions, the situations they found themselves in, were deliberate (on the writers' part). i'm even gonna go out on a limb here and say the pairings were fully established in s1e3, even with parallels between yasammy and benji (sammy clinging to yas and ben clinging to kenji throughout the episode), and darilyn gets the beginning of their development too.

even though they bicker a lot in the beginning, they clearly care about each other? kenji protects/helps ben multiple times, and there are definitely some looks ben gives kenji at times. at the end of s1, the one who seems the most deeply effected over ben's "death," other than darius (understandably since he's the one who failed to save him), was kenji! immediately after it happens, we get two close up shots, darius and brooklyn then yasmina and sammy. after which, we go back to the whole group with kenji in center frame, the focus is intentionally on him. it is only kenji who drops to his knees at the loss, and then we get a close up of just kenji. he was saved for last, and he was alone in frame (tbf bumpy was in frame too, but i'm talking humans here), which implies his feelings are especially important in this moment. that is the reason for solo close ups.

after ben's "death," kenji takes to always wearing ben's fanny pack, and up until bumpy--who ben cares VERY much about--got separated from them, kenji was the one who (however briefly) took over her care, ensuring she got off the monorail with them, and he's extremely distraught, more than pretty much all of them, when they can't find her, and he's last to leave when they decide to accept that ben's gone. even when they do leave, he's distant and distracted and his mind is clearly still on ben.

other than darius, kenji is the only one (if i'm remembering correctly) to mention ben/say his name after they lost him, upset because he was actually trying not to think about him. he has clearly thought about ben, probably a lot, because it's hard not to be reminded constantly when you wear something that belonged to a deceased loved one. and frankly, he appears to be the only one who dwells on him that much.

when ben reappears alive (which btw he found the group again because of kenji's butter knife, hello), the frames literally purposely focus on kenji's reaction. he's the one in the foreground every time they show him and brooklyn in that scene. he is the first one to say ben's name, the first one to go to him and hug him, and the scene takes special care to highlight kenji's strong emotions at ben's reappearance, lingering on his teary face as the focus for a bit even after brooklyn enters the frame to hug ben (because she is not at all an important element in the scene at that moment). just like when ben "died," the way this scene is written and shot HEAVILY suggests that ben holds significant importance to kenji, specifically. because again, the focus here is on kenji and ben almost exclusively, with brooklyn as only an afterthought lol. and quite frankly literally everyone else's reaction to him being alive was pretty lackluster compared to the special attention they gave to kenji on this.

and then in s3 we have the infamous hat scene, where darius and ben are in the limo and ben sees and mentions kenji's sailor hat, looking sad and sounding like... longing?? then directly after we switch to kenji realizing he forgot his hat?? the scene has no real significance tbh other than to draw a connection between ben and kenji. like, it acts as a transition to switch to the pov of the group on the boat, but it was entirely unnecessary? why not just have darius say something about the others and then show them on the boat? if there were no special relationship between ben and kenji, it would have made far more sense if they really wanted it to be ben to say something, that he sees the hat, and sadly says something along the lines of "i hope the others are okay/doing better than we are right now/etc" which implies that the hat made him think of everyone, their whole group. rather than what we got... which very much implies that he was mostly just thinking about kenji 💀 and then kenji thinking about the hat at the same time ben's looking at it and thinking of kenji. like, this is.... a very blatant connection being made by the writing/directing here.

all of that. so many deliberate connections made between ben and kenji, they had a very solid foundation laid for a romance to develop, and by all intents and purposes one already WAS developing according to the show's own subtext. which was why up until s4 obliterated the idea, i was positive the queer couple in the show was either going to be yasammy or benji. it was extremely obvious imo. but as soon we started getting the typical, loud, cliche "we are going to pair off these characters" scenes for kenji and brooklyn, i knew we were getting yasammy and not benji (to be clear, i'm not at all upset about yasammy, they're beautiful and i love how their relationship was done, i wouldn't have had it end any other way for them. but i do personally prefer benji, i just like their personalities and dynamic more. and i feel they had so much potential that got wasted to make way for a far less interesting pairing between kenji and brooklyn. why can't we have 2 queer couples, huh? and if we really needed a minimum of one hetero pairing to appease whoever needed appeasing, darilyn was right there).

but then??? their like entire bond just gets dropped (honestly ben himself gets pretty heavily sidelined for almost all of the last two seasons, which is criminal imo). mostly so that a rushed kenji x brooklyn can be established. like there are still a few small moments here and there in early s4, and one episode in s5 (ep 10), but from early s4 till pretty much the end of the series we hardly see them have any meaningful conversations or interactions, meanwhile literally every other combo in the group does.

it's so weird? why build up benji so deliberately over the course of multiple seasons just to like, fully discard it for a pairing with far less chemistry, even after the chemistry-building scenes they shared, some of which literally had no other purpose than to affirm their connection? even though they were very sparse, the moments benji had were just so blatant (kenji leaps into the rock crevice right onto the back of a saber tooth to save ben?!!?? like he literally was just willing to exchange his life for him like that?? he basically says that he wasn't really thinking, he just did it. so he moved out of what, emotional instinct, that's what we're meant to intuit from that series of events? implying that he specifically has strong emotion and doesn't think things through when it comes to ben? because he doesn't do that kinda stuff for any of the others in the group! even better, this parallels when sammy jumped on the nothosaurus to save yasmina. and then the way benji look at each other after it's over??? hello??? and then how kenji pulls both brooklyn and ben in for that hug a couple minutes later... side eyeing the writers for that choice. they knew what they were doing there and they were evil for it). i just can't see any reason to have dropped them like they were, after all the development they shared for 3 seasons. confounding. biggest disappointment of the series.

i know this probably reads to some as just "wahh, my ship didn't become canon" nonsense. but that's not why i'm bugged. this wasn't just a ship i liked and wanted canon despite no actual narrative support, as most ships tend to be. this ship did have narrative support. there was intent behind many of their scenes together, lingering looks and little things that matter narratively and are always used to signify a stronger/special connection. and it led nowhere, for no good reason. that bothers me. writing that implies and promises something, but never delivers on it. like a person who never finishes their sentences (think Dr McPhee from Night at the Museum). ultimately it's not a HUGE deal or anything, at the end of the day it's just a ship and just a kids' show. but as a writer, it's just irritating to see something like that be done. what can i say 🤷

conclusion

even despite the wasted potential between certain pairings, and even though i do think the first three seasons were superior to the last two, overall i really enjoyed the show, and for what it was, it was really well-made. the overarching focus was of course on found family and friendship before anything else, which i absolutely love, and it was masterfully done. out of 6 kids, all of them had at least one or two meaningful bonding moments one-on-one with another in the group, so every possible combination had their moment to build strong, believable friendships with each other. i'm just so surprised by how good it was as a whole honestly, good enough to binge over the course of a week. i will happily recommend jwcc to anyone willing to give it a watch regardless of age, because i definitely think there's no age limit for a good story, no matter the medium it's told in. :)

#jwcc #jurassic world camp cretaceous #benji jwcc #benji #yasammy #yasammy jwcc #i would say that there's prob an age minimum tho... it's a bit scary so depending on the kid i wouldn't rec it to under 10 years #this is a long post #omg so long i'm sorry #i just have a lot to say #gotta shout into the void #it just be like that sometimes #fair warning this post is literally just me praising the show in the first half n then going absolutely off about benji in the second half #review #tv show review #as always with stuff like this that has any mention of ships it is bound to ruffle some feathers #so let me postface this with the reminder that this is all just MY OPINION #you are free to disagree but i'd rather you don't share your disagreements on my post via reblog/notes #feel free to write up your own show/ship review if you feel so strongly #otherwise if you dislike anything i've said you can just scroll past or block me <3

[zuko-always-lies]

Have you considered that Zuko is just a bad friend?[This will not be a Zuko friendly post]

While this title is a bit of a joke, the point remains: there is a very strong argument to be made that canon Zuko is just not a very good friend, that he’s someone who doesn’t treat his friends very well. Obviously there are many events in Zuko’s life which negatively affected his interpersonal relationships, so I don’t intend this to be an exercise in blame. I’m merely noting a pattern that I think Zuko will need to work on in the future:

Ty Lee: Zuko is extremely vicious in what he says to Ty Lee in “The Beach,” which stands out because it’s about the only substantive thing he ever says to her, and because Ty Lee is extremely kind to him that episode. He never apologizes for it. He also deliberately tries to provoke a fight between Ty Lee and Mai.

Mai: Let’s us just say that Zuko treats Mai very poorly in “The Beach,” and never really apologizes for it or recognizes what about his behavior was wrong. This includes getting into fits of violent jealousy the moment Mai even lays eyes on another boy.

Now let’s turn to the Gaang. In all cases, Zuko starts off eager to please and gain their approval. However, once he passes this initial hurtle, his behavior doesn’t necessarily measure up.

Toph basically approves of Zuko from the start, and he has to do little to win her friendship. As a result, he largely although not entirely ignores her. He feels comfortable dumping his emotional issues on her, but when she tries to do the same to him, he’s dismissive of it. All things considered, Zuko isn’t a terrible friend to Toph, but I wouldn’t say he’s a great one, either.

Aang rapidly warms up to Zuko, particularly through their field trip in “The Firebending Masters.” However, we see some questionable treatment of Aang later on. Zuko twice mocks the culture of Aang, a genocide survivor whose culture was murdered by Zuko’s ancestors, in “The Southern Raiders.” Worse, Zuko, in the series finale, decided it was a great idea to try to light Aang on fire in order to terrify him into submission, because said best friend didn’t want to train and Zuko didn’t feel like reasoning with him.

Sokka is an interesting case. Zuko tries hard to win his friendship in the “Boiling Rock” episodes. However, once this is accomplished, Zuko starts behaving differently. In “The Southern Raiders,” Zuko uses Sokka to find out about Kya’s death. However, although Zuko emphasizes the importance of revenge, it doesn’t occur to him to offer the opportunity to Sokka. Zuko doesn’t directly tell Sokka what he found, nor does he give Sokka the chance to join on the little “vengeance expedition.” The fact that Sokka already forgave Zuko means that Zuko has no reason to care about giving him an opportunity for closure.  And of course, when Sokka, who also lost Kya, says that he thinks killing Yon Rha is a bad idea, Zuko ignores him.

Zuko’s treatment of Katara is a whole mess of its own, although it’s largely confined to one episode:

1. Zuko feels entitled to Katara’s forgiveness.

2. Zuko ignores Katara’s very clear and reasonable explanation about why she doesn’t like or trust him to instead decide it must be all about her mom.

3. Zuko decides to manipulate Katara into liking him by giving her the opportunity to murder someone she hates. That someone is a bad person who did something truly awful, but whose actions are not necessarily much worse than what Zuko himself did, much less what Zuko’s believed uncle Iroh did. Zuko claims this is all about “justice,” but the fact that he had no interest in giving Sokka an opportunity to come along and participate shows the real character of Zuko’s actions here.

Zuko is mostly nice to Katara after “The Southern Raiders,” but his treatment of her in the episode always feels terrible to me.

Zuko and Suki don’t seem to have any significant friendship, so there’s nothing to say here, one way or the other.

#Zuko critical #anti Zuko #tagging the last to be safe

[feraliminal]

Cross-Faction Diplomacy

Titan TV tries to give Titan Speaker reassurance, but makes things worse. They both use various forms of communication to calm down. Ship-ish, but with plausible deniability.

I’m back from a super busy week and I want to start turning some of my (many) scraps into actual fic! This was inspired by speculation on how the Alliance communicate and think, and an essay on consciousness called “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” which concludes that you can’t know unless you are one.

—

“Why did you call me? Is that it?” The TVmen’s titan gestured across the hill range from where they stood with the speakermen’s titan, towards a very tiny, very new base. It was a few floodlights casting a glow over a few shipping containers, and a few speakermen on night watch, instead sitting on their arses and playing cards. This was exactly what they’d expected to see, no surveillance system had picked up anything more interesting than a few wandering toilets for miles, at least none that they had access to. But they also suspected it was worth keeping up appearances - two things could be happening, either the speakermen had picked up something big on surveillance that wasn’t linked to the Alliance’s general network -

- or their titan had pulled off a sneaky social call

“Strategic importance, and we’ve only got to make sure nothing happens until everything else arrives in a few hours.” Titan Speaker insisted through a speech transmission, using their faction’s habit of transmitting emotion data as well. In this case, it was something like you trust me, right? “And nothing else is happening.”

The emotion thing, Titan TV found hard to know what to do with. TVs didn’t do it, unless they really meant it. Or were trying to convince someone they really meant it. It was difficult to know if and how to respond, and they recalled Polycephaly describe addressing those kind of differences as cross-faction diplomacy - and as a pain in the arse. They switched to transmission too, encrypting it in case anyone at the base was feeling nosey. “Sure. What’s this really about?”

“Seriously?” Titan Speaker made a dismayed buzz. “You aren’t supposed to say that.”

“What was I supposed to say?” It seemed obvious that this was a way to justify an in-person chat without factions having to figure out a playdate protocol. But with the spectre of cross-faction diplomacy hanging over them, Titan TV tried to do the emotion thing. It didn’t work. Sincerity somehow became contempt-fondness. You’re an idiot but I like you hadn’t been the intent, but it was sincere.

The speakers’ titan tilted their head, lights shimmering a little brighter. “I guess you weren’t supposed to do that either,” they teased. “I thought you’d think meeting to talk is a waste of time, but…?”

“If you need to say it in person, I trust it’s important.” A dozen possibilities, and none particularly easy to contemplate. The TVs’ titan noticed they were shifting their balance a little, foot to foot, and stopped it.

Transmitting uncertain-awkward-worried, Titan Speaker looked out towards the little base, then up at the night sky, as if the words they were looking for were floating around. “Not important, I just… I dunno. I want to ask something first. Does it now feel like there’s more than one… uh, you?” They gestured with their finger, as if drawing an air-circle around the other titan’s primary and secondary screens.

“No, not a lot different. My conscious processing is more or less the same, just spread out and harder to kill.” Not a lot different was still different - the first time they’d switched from automated to conscious control of their secondary heads was an experience they still hadn’t entirely come to terms with and didn’t want to revisit just yet. Not while they needed to be in the here and now for whatever was going on in Titan Speaker’s own head. “Are you thinking about upgrades?”

“No. Well, yeah, maybe one day. But I asked because I’m thinking about weird brain stuff.” Wrapping their arms around themself, the speakers’ titan crouched down on their heels. They started to transmit something, a jumbled, ghostly kind of feeling, then paused. “Okay, I called you to talk about…”

But they didn’t. They stayed silent, on comms and audio.

The TVs’ titan noticed where the pools of light cast by the pair’s respective glowing components overlapped. The new outpost sat in its own pool of light downhill, part of a landscape of similar little points of light that made their mental map of the Alliance’s networks mirror the night sky. In the outpost, the guards were swapping tunes. Twenty miles away, a turret was dealing with one of those wandering toilets, the only other thing remotely interesting happening. Titan Speaker’s glow was receding “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

Titan Speaker flopped back off their heels into a slumped seated position, and signed ‘No shit.’ Then, when their companion turned their main screen to watch, ‘Sorry, do you understand this? I’ve never seen a TV do it.’

“We understand it, we don’t tend to use it ourselves.” It was one of (many) indicators of how well the speakermen and cameramen had managed to operate as one, and their people hadn’t. “Use it if you need to, I can try too.”

‘Thanks. You don’t have to, it’s dark and my vision’s low resolution, so if you’re not used to sign…’ The speakermen’s titan shrugged, paused again, and with a might-as-well-go-for-it burst, quickly signed, ‘Being able to remember what I did when I was infected is still freaking me out and I want to know what you make of it. I know it’s not the same, but it’s all weird brain stuff and you’re the weird brain stuff faction.’

It was difficult to reconcile the ridiculousness of being called the weird brain stuff faction with the desperation in the request. Titan TV felt their screens flickering and needed to make an effort to hold back whatever might leak into the transmission. “You need to ask your science team.”

‘I don’t mean that, I don’t mean what happened to me, but what happened to me.’ They emphasised the last sign with a sharper movement, and had stopped transmitting emotion. The TVs’ titan supposed it was for similar reasons that they’d chosen not to - this needed straightforward discussion now and a fuckton of firepower later, save the anger for then. ‘They said it wasn’t me, but I was there, the parasite made me do it and I did it, it’s like, now I know I can do that, I can’t trust me not to do it again.’ They paused. ‘I haven’t asked again. I didn’t want to freak them out as well.’

“That was your body, and your body saved data. The intrusive thoughts are probably just subconscious metacognition systems sorting it all out. Really, ask someone, engineers think about this stuff so we don’t have to.”

Titan Speaker shifted to stare straight at their bigger companion, signing more slowly with a perceptible shake in their hands. ‘Me is also what my body does.’

The Alliance had shared (heavily redacted) schematics for the titans across faction borders, so Titan TV knew that what their companion was perceiving. Audio data and electromagnetic signature first, then visual data was a secondary source. But still, they angled their side-screens to illuminate their body and softened all their lights to reduce glare. Even with simulation or data transference, it would be impossible to know what it was really like to inhabit Titan Speaker’s perceptual space, with all its memories, meanings, metacognition. And even if visual data wasn’t that important, considering it was part of how Titan TV showed respect from their own perceptual space. “It won’t happen again. That was not you in any meaningful sense of what you are.”

‘I’m tired of everyone saying that.’ The speakermen’s titan rocked forward to crouch on their heels again, made an intention movement to stand that didn’t go further than a twitch, and clasped their arms around themself. They switched to comms again, and the transmission came out cracked with static. “I thought you, of all people, would get that. Everyone’s telling me it didn’t happen but… I was forced to kill my friends and I just… I just want to be allowed to feel like shit about it.” They let out a distorted audio “Fuck.”

“Fuck.” Titan TV echoed that statement, in reverse.

Neither of them had much to say right after that. There wasn’t really else that could be said. The TVs’ titan watched their companion looking up at the stars, softly illuminating their own little patch of red light. They uncoiled, slightly, from their gargoyle crouch, still hunched but dropping on to their knees.

No longer bothering to keep their slight swaying motion in check, Titan TV offered, “We need to get out of here. There’s a suspected underground lair, you’ll be able to locate it, and we’ll blow the roof off. I don’t have clearance to investigate yet, but two of us will be more than enough to overcome anyone’s concerns about risk.”

The sag in Titan Speaker’s shoulders was unexpected. “No. I’m not outsourcing my shit, not to my engineers and definitely not to everyone else by sneaking off.” But not nearly as unexpected as what they shared when they were the first to use emotive comms again. No anger, just sadness, confusion, and grief. Uncoiling a little more, they signed ‘Stay here. Sit with me.’

It wouldn’t have felt right to say no to this poor creature who’d sooner arrange an awkward clandestine meeting with someone they, really, barely knew than upset their friends. Titan TV shook their primary head with exasperation, and settled down cross-legged on the hillside. Titan Speaker watched, looked away and signed something to themself, then did an ungainly shuffle-flop to move right beside them.

They both took their time to adjust to the dissonance of this whole thing, pinging little status requests and presence acknowledgments at each other until they realised that they no longer needed to and had been enjoying doing it just for the sake of it. The speakermen’s titan trilled their approval and did a tiny wriggle.

“I like watching you move,” Titan TV commented.

‘I like that you moved your screens so I could see you better. Can I lean on you?’

“Yes.” Titan TV’s side-screen was obscured by the smaller titan moving closer and working out how best to arrange their speaker array, finally settling in and gently nudging their head against the screen casing. Making an adjustment themself, the TV leaned in little too. Staying had been the right decision, providing a few stabilising moments for both of them.

When they leaned back, the TVmen’s titan thought they felt something that could have just been an artefact of their movements, but it was a bit too persistent for that. Suspecting what it was, they inclined their primary head against the top of their companion’s array, and there it was - a barely perceptible vibration that was becoming more noticeable until it somehow managed to travel through their body and into the ground under them. It made their vision blur very slightly at the edges, but otherwise didn’t feel unpleasant. “Purring?” they rumbled, purr-like themself.

“You don’t mind it?” There was a new contentment in the speaker titan’s transmission, and the vibrations became a little wobbly. Signing would be tricky in this position, but they were making the most of that by sharing emotive comms freely. “Kind of. I’m just… feeling everything. Grounding myself. No sense of impending doom?”

“That’s oddly specific. Infrasound?” What Titan TV felt as a vibration was likely composed of echolocation and electrolocation and, being too low frequency to be useful for scanning, the infrasound component was probably just there for communication or self-soothing. They found it fun (if a little tragic) to imagine someone, possibly the cameramen’s titan, getting creeped out by an overenthusiastic purr. Cross-faction diplomacy again. “We use it too. Although admittedly not for purring.”

“For…?” Titan Speaker looked up, blinking their lights at their companion, who went ‘ ≽^•⩊•^≼ ‘ and said “Slaughter.”

“Terrifying.” They’d both aimed for a deadpan delivery - but it was interrupted for the better by the speaker titan’s failed attempt to suppress a squeaky giggle.

“You’re terrifying, you see sound and your idea of grounding is making the earth shake.” The TVmen’s titan wondered if speakermen were able to perceive the world as assemblages of vibrating particles. It was one thing to have the knowledge of that, it must be unsettling to really feel it. There was a lot to learn about the other factions, and their titans. “You’re well worth my time. We’re a sample size of three, and should be sharing data.”

With an affectionate hum, Titan Speaker bumped their head against the bigger titan’s chest and released a silent burst of something that interrupted their train of thought as well as their vision, and really did feel as if it had made the earth shake for a split second. A mischievous confirmation of you bet I’m terrifying.

“I’ll find something really strategically important next time.”

#first fic in five years and it’s bloody skibidi toilet lmao #skibidi toilet #skibidi fanfic #titan tvman #titan speakerman

[britishassistant]

I have literally just spent the last few days going through all of the twst supervillain au posts. ALL OF THEM.

It’s not 3 am here for like the third night in a row what are you talking about

I have so many thoughts and could ask so many questions but I am limiting myself for now because spamming is bad! No spamming, me! 😂

SO we got the event of Azul and the twins finding out that Yuu is the child of Crowley. And we got that little snippet saying Yuu wanted Azul to help them tell the other villains so they could just get it out of the way because they were tired of having it hang over their head.

BUT WE NEVER ACTUALLY GOT THOSE SCENES/THAT SCENE!

I wanna know how that wentttttt!!!! What happened?!?! How did it go??? Did Yuu tell them one on one? Or did they sit them all down together? How did each of them react to the news? I feel like it would have to be one on one because telling them altogether would be a recipe for a LOT of emotions all mixed together to create a volatile bomb.

Pleaseeeeee I wanna knowwwwwww!!! Please gift me us with your words of wonder oh supervillain AU writing deity!!!!!!

(Also I just wanted to say back when you were giving out names to everyone my first thought for a name for Kalim was just ‘Minion’ because you compared Jamil and Kalim to Megamind and Minion and I was like “that would be a total Jamil thing to do - just call Kalim ‘Minion’ because he was tired of Kalim getting all the attention in their civilian lives and this was supposed to be about JAMIL DANGIT so even though Kalim invited himself along he doesn’t get a cool name he just gets ‘Minion’ and Kalim would unironically love it. But then you named him Water Boy and that has the same energy lmao 😂)

Thank you so much for enjoying the supervillain AU so far!!

(Make sure you get some sleep though!! It’s important to try and maintain a regular sleep schedule!!)

And basically the answer to your question is that Yuu called a quasi-truce of sorts to sit down all the supervillains to deliver the news. Both because it was the easiest way to avoid the accusations of favoritism that would arise if the reporter went around one at a time, and ensured they’d only need to go through the whole thing once.

Of course, the other six supervillains are only willing to humor this because it’s Yuu that called it. They may have all brought their most trusted aides along with certain, ah, “safety measures” just in case anyone else tries anything, but even these are pretty tame compared to their usual fare. It’s a silent agreement that everyone is on their best behavior in front of their host.

Even if they’re a bit disgruntled by the fact that this meeting is being held in the second Monstro Lounge location, and Leviathan and the Leech twins are flitting around Yuu like a particularly jealous school of fish.

Worse, the reporter isn’t even telling them to stop.

And then Yuu finally comes out with what they want to say and—

Oh.

Oh, now the other supervillains can understand Azul’s protective impulses.

Vil and Idia are having the hardest time processing it and have the most questions, all told. Their mental image of Crowley and their mental image of Yuu are so different after all, it’s a struggle not to ask, “but has there actually been a paternity test and are we sure this isn’t just one of the world’s most depraved lies?”

In fairness, Crowley has done nothing to disabuse them of the notion that this isn’t the exact kind of behavior he would sink to if mildly inconvenienced.

Of all of them, Malleus and Riddle are probably taking it the best. After all, they both know what it’s like being the prized heirs of people who cannot afford to let them shirk their duties. Either because the well being of others’ depends on them taking up that mantle, or their parent’s pride.

Either way, they’ll support Yuu’s search for freedom from their villainous father’s legacy, by taking up the mantle of head of Night Raven themselves if need be.

Please give Leona and Jamil two to five minutes to reboot. Both have partially blue-screened at the motifs of being cast aside and the inesacabilty of family bloodline inherent in Yuu’s backstory. Once they’re back to normal, they’ll be some of Yuu’s staunchest defenders, but give them forty eight hours to process first.

Maybe eighty two.

After Yuu’s answered almost all the questions, Ace butts in, “So, you kept sticking your nose in ‘cause you wanted to get kidnapped?”

Yuu shrugs, “Not, not wanted? But it was a bit less nerve wracking if I knew I’d done something to merit being there, so to speak. Made it less likely that it was because you’d worked out my heritage.”

The other villains and minions nod, satisfied.

But Deuce pipes up with a worried frown curving his brow.

“So, does this mean you won’t be investigating our schemes anymore?”

A hush spreads through the room. All eyes are fixed on the reporter, waiting for their response with bated breath.

Yuu grins, a gloriously competitive spark in their eyes. “Oh, you wish.”

#twisted wonderland #twst #supervillain au #twst yuu #twisted wonderland yuu #azul ashengrotto #leviathan #vil schoenheit #poison queen #idia shroud #charon #riddle rosehearts #royal flush #malleus draconia #tsunotarou #jamil viper #snake charmer #leona kingscholar #king #jade leech #floyd leech #ace trappola #deuce spade #the prefect #dire crowley #the night raven

[byizoyas]

© byizoyas

SFW | academic rivals trope. | ayato x gn!reader | you never knew you craved to be this close to ayato, until you got forced into sharing a dance with him. or perhaps you’ve been in denial the whole time.

‘come on y/n… it could be fun.’

you sighed. the exasperation you were desperately fighting to hide could easily be read by anyone that would pass by you right now. so of course; your friend did not miss it.

‘i won’t force you to go but you’re going to miss something i swear.’

i won’t force you she said, but the way her eyes were looking at her own feet, with an imprint of sadness, was definitely not helping you denying her request. she probably knew what she was doing, but you couldn’t blame her for it, after all she never did anything wrong to you.

nothing wrong except taking you to parties you weren’t particularly fond of; and she wasn’t either, but she always felt the need to go there and since you’ve never been far from each other for long, you always followed her everywhere.

‘i don’t know ayaka, i hate dancing, and i’m awfully bad at it too.’ you tried to justify yourself, nervously laughing as if it would be less painful to hear.

she looked up, facing you and taking your hands in hers, a large smile slowly forming on her glossy lips as she suggested she’d teach you. ‘i can help with that.’

seeing her all enthusiastic, and cheerful made it even harder to refuse it now, which is why you ended up nodding yes. she threw herself into your arms, looking genuinely happy to the idea of sharing that prom ball with you; happier than you that’s for sure, but it wasn’t too bad seeing her this childish once in a while.

you could almost get used to it.

you were half listening to her plans for the night coming when the ring announcing the next classes echoed in the corridors of high school.

‘i’ve got math, i hope the lessons you helped me with are questioned today ! see you later y/n’

you waved goodbye at her before going back to your own classes. you sat on your usual place, next to the other kamisato sibling, the one your age, and also the one you despised.

‘good morning y/n, what interesting conversation did you share with my beloved sister earlier ?’ he asked, his eyes intensely staring at you.

his chin was lazily resting on the palm of his left hand while the other was playing with a pencil against the paper, making an annoying sound to your delicate ears.

‘that is none of your business.’

to that he only chuckled before looking back at the teacher who just showed up in front of you. y’all got up to greet her and her call voice gently allowed the whole class to sit back down.

‘is friendship the ideal form of relationship with others ?’

such question was always interesting to think of. it did speak to you, more than historical subjects, perhaps that was the one reason you were always listening more to your philosophy lessons.

‘does anyone have anything to say about our subject ?’ she asked, opening a debate between students.

the first ones to speak weren’t so invested, they have a few ideas and couldn’t find the way to describe them. only after a few minutes of silence that seemed like an eternity, did the blue haired guy you avoided finally spoke up.

‘loyalty is an important factor in a relationship. it gives respect and trust, which are two pillars of any relationship. however, friends are selfish. they do like you when they find something interesting about your person. if not, they simply won’t care about you and be moving on. i personally think no friendship will be as sincere as a familial bond, or a rivals relationship.’

‘what the fuck is the rivals thing doing here ?’ you exclaimed right after he gave his idea about today’s question.

‘y/n please, i appreciate that you’re invested in the debate, but watch your language will you.’ the teacher advised.

you indeed forgot you were assisting a lesson, with a whole class behind you and a teacher listening, it could’ve made you feel embarrassed, but you were too busy mentally hitting ayato for his arrogant attitude to feel that way, and so you only shrugged as a response.

‘rivals are more intimate than friends. but they are nothing more than rivals.’

‘this is where you, y/n, are wrong. rivals share so much more. they’re honest. they do not hide their own bad traits. they are competing, and what in the world is more beautiful than an equal, passionate combat between two hard workers ?’ he asked. but rather than a personal intervention, it seemed like the question was asked to you directly.

you raised your eyes, to look at him, and you both shared a tensed visual exchange. both your gazes were saying multiple things, yet none of you spoke up for the whole lesson. instead you simply looked at him, the same way he looked at you, wearing a provoking smile and crossing his arms as if it gave more impact to his attitude.

‘and then he looked at me the whole hour ?’ you concluded after telling ayaka everything that happened during the philosophy classes.

it always felt weird to talk about ayato with her. after all they shared the same blood, and here you were; complaining about him. but ayaka did assure you multiple times it was okay and well, you didn’t really have another person to tell this to.

‘yeah ayato likes to observe people. he says it’s to ‘understand what they’re made of’ she said almost making fun of her older brother.

she joined you on the living room, with two pieces of cake, sitting right next to you and turning on the television, even though you both knew you wouldn’t watch it.

‘this is for you. it’s from ayato’s birthday.’

‘oh, when was it ?’

ayaka frowned a bit, taking her phone from the table resting right next to her. ‘why do you even care ? don’t you hate him ?’ she added before taking a sip of her cold drink.

her question echoed in your mind. indeed, why did you care about such thing if you truly didn’t like him ?

also you started asking himself where he was, and just when your mind kept on thinking of him, his name appeared on ayaka’s phone.

‘hi ?’

‘is y/n home ?’

‘yes. why ?’

okay. just wanted to know, have fun, i will come back home in a few hours

‘’kay see you.’

and just like that she hung up. she put her phone down, looking back at you, who were sitting confused after hearing only her part of the conversation. but you did not ask anything. after all it might not be about you and you had to respect that.

the two of you kept on chilling, telling each other about your days, sometimes picking your phones and doing your own stuff in silence, only television to interrupt the dead silence in the room.

it could’ve felt awkward if it was with another person, but it was not with ayaka. you liked to be together even if it was only to use your phone.

‘shall we start training for the ball ?’ ayaka suddenly said, getting up to put on some music.

she handed out her hands to help you getting up from the comfortable couch you’ve been spending a few hours since you both left school.

after that, all you did was moving, following ayaka’s instructions wasn’t so easy. not that she was a bad teacher, she was great actually but you had difficulty keeping up with her rhythm.

she was clearly better than you at this. of course you knew she was going to be, she practiced dancing ever since she started walking. but it was still hard to see her feeling all good while you needed to drink water and take fresh air regularly.

only when she drained the energy out of you, did she choose to put on some slower music. she invited you to dance with her, and now that you were dancing in her arms, it felt way easier. you followed her steps attentively, careful not to step on her feet. just when you finally developed enough confidence to take the lead, did you hear a familiar voice calling out from behind.

‘hello y/n.’

you jumped and looked behind only to find ayato there, obviously enjoying himself over your flustered reaction.

‘that was a pretty nice view, do not care to stop for me.’ he calmly stated, his usual arrogant smile on his lips.

he was leaning against the living room door, legs crossed and hands buried in the pockets on his light beige pants. he was still wearing the school uniform and obviously just got home, only to find you and his sister dancing in the middle of the house.

‘we did not stop for you.’ ayaka spoke up for you. while the two siblings were arguing, you were standing there, smiling and laughing to the attacks both sides were throwing at each other.

they definitely had a true connection, since they fought like that often and ended up forgetting everything about it. they genuinely cared about each other.

and in a way, you cared about them too.

a long week had passed, and here you were, standing in the middle of the crowd, awkwardly unmoving. you were still not fond of dancing, even after learning with ayaka.

you did come together to that party, but she left with her flirt and left you all alone in this. of course you couldn’t blame them after you insisted for her to go. you truly didn’t want her to ruin her potential relationship with someone only for you; but now you were alone.

of course it was not long before someone you feared to meet here came to you.

‘are you feeling lonely ?’

you turned around only to be blessed by the sight of ayato. it wasn’t your classmate anymore nor your friend’s older brother. he was so elegant you could hardly detach your eyes from his silhouette.

‘earth to y/n.’ he said, waving his free hand a few times in front of your eyes, making you blink a few times before refocusing your attention on him.

‘hey.’

‘not being very much talkative mh ?’ he said, handing out a drink to you, which you took after hesitating.

of course you knew he wasn’t evil, only a bit arrogant at times but the two of you never shared a conversation outside the classroom.

you did talk to him a few times, but ayaka was there everytime. now you were finally alone. not that you waited for it, you pretty much fearing it, but now that he was there, perhaps you could make an effort.

‘happy belated birthday.’ was the first thing you found to say, which made him laugh. a soft laugh, almost as pretty as him.

‘it’s tomorrow, but thank you.’

‘but ayaka gave me your birthday cake’s piece.’

ayato looked in front of him, at the several people dancing, then in the direction of people screaming and as the music was getting louder, he leaned over you to make sure you heard him correctly. ‘we celebrated early because my parents are leaving inazuma soon.’

‘oh i see. what will you do on your birthday then ?’

ayato got lost in thoughts for a minute, then decided to tease you a bit. ‘i’ll study to be better than you.’ you were used to it, but in a sense it would always surprise you how bold he could be sometimes.

but what surprised you the most was your own audacity when you told him he’d spend his own day thinking of you instead of focusing on himself, which seemed to make him laugh.

‘perhaps you could study with me then.’ he suggested and just after you nodded yes, someone approached the two of you, taking your hands and leading you in the middle of the dance floor where no one was anymore.

‘congrats the two of you were the only ones standing, now you’re gonna steal the show.’ he shouted in the mic and the rest of the room followed, supporting the two of you.

you had been so busy listening and staring at ayato that you didn’t even hear the guy talking before when he said those who didn’t sit would have to dance for the others.

now you were stuck with him. after training with ayaka you did memorize a few moves, but your mind could only think of how good looking ayato was under the light and how good he smelt now that his body was so close to yours.

could it be that you felt something more ?

‘you’re absolutely splendid tonight. i had no idea you mastered these dancing moves too.’ ayato suddenly said, as he gently caressed the palm of your hand, pulling you closer to him in rhythm.

it did catch you off guard, and you couldn’t find anything to say, especially when his purple eyes that wore a mocking gaze most of the time were now looking at you as if you were the most precious thing in the world.

‘t-thank you.’ you only found to say, secretly wishing he didn’t catch your stuttering. but when his smile grew larger and his eyes looked back at yours, you knew.

you knew he heard it. he might never let you go with it. ‘where has your eloquent self been ? are they on a vacation ?’

he couldn’t help it. not teasing you was definitely not his thing, he preferred to make your life much worse. you looked away, in embarrassment. ‘shut up.’

he approached his lips to your ear, and the proximity between the two of you made your body shiver multiple times. you felt a thousand things that made your heart skip a beat or two. ‘i like it when you’re being vulgar, y/n’

the way he insisted on your name. his whispers and caresses. the music surrounding you, you could hardly focus on, too busy thinking of his breath on your skin and words.

you knew you got lost. he had you wrapped around his fingers, and he absolutely adored it. he slipped his second hand towards your waist and you abandoned yours on his shoulder, seizing your other hand and wrapping up your arms around his neck.

‘no friendship is as sincere as a rivals relationship’

you quoted him, just when you thought something was growing between the two of you. perhaps you were trying to reassure yourself too. perhaps you feared it to be one sided. could you even handle to feel romantic feelings for someone you thought you hated until now.

‘so you see us as rivals ?’ he asked. the tender in his voice was unusual and it did confused you a few times.

‘i don’t know.’

you genuinely didn’t know. a rival is what you always saw in ayato, but tonight something changed, or perhaps it was always there, and waiting for you to wake up and realize it.

ayato took a slight distance from you. his fingers traced your jawline until it reached your chin, locking it into two of his gloved fingers. both of you gulped at the same time. for a minute it seemed like everything surrounding you faded away, allowing a minute of peace.

a minute of love.

ayato’s face approached yours dangerously, and it seemed to be never ending. you closed your eyes, depriving yourself from one of your senses only to intensify another.

after only a second of waiting, his lips crashed onto yours. the kiss was long but felt so good too. it was soft. it was your first kiss too, and who would’ve thought kamisato ayato would be the one delivering it.

his right hand left your chin to slide through your hair. his touch was gentle, such as his kiss. and his other hand was softly caressing your naked shoulder, pulling you closer as if never wanting to let go of you.

you couldn’t hear well because of the loud music and the obvious shocked reactions of the crowd who was now looking at the two of you, kissing and dancing to a famous joji song; but you swore you heard him whisper a love confession.

‘to me, you’ve always been more than a rival. but never once did i consider you a friend. romantic feels have no place in friendships.’

author notes; i believe this is my first fic genshin ever (written i mean) idk if im comfortable w it bc I’ve been lazy to reread it fkwkdkk and perhaps there’s plenty of typo or grammar mistakes OR perhaps it’s shitty as hell or doesn’t make sense but i like it, i love soft ayato too he makes my heart melt

#byizoyas. #✦. . . gender neutral #֎. . .fluff/comfort #KAMISATO AYATO #ayato x y/n #ayato x reader #ayato x you #kamisato ayato x y/n #kamisato ayato x reader #kamisato ayato x you #kamisato ayato fluff #ayato fluff #genshin x y/n #genshin x reader #genshin x you #genshin fluff #genshin impact fluff

[zombiifyd]

Hey mate uh what are those qphilza head canons you got that are driving you mad?

Asking for science

for science... yesyes. although some of them may be general hcs and not that well written??? i'm used to them living in my head. and also i'm not particularly all that normal about this bird man. so anything can make me go insane. but anyway... welcome to my word vomit

1. so ive made it known that i like to make minecraft hcs often. like for the game mechanics. and so i describe The End as in like a vacuum. there's hardly any sound, except a sort of static sound, and the sounds of the natives of the End. there's no temperature but end stone had a cold touch to it. it's hard to breathe in the End, unless you're a native there, and also because the End is basically mostly Void. so this is important for the hc that i made

although phil, in canon, is a crow. there's small entertainment within the fandom that he's also an elytrian (which is a type of native to the end... i suppose) either way, he's avian. now avian hearing is less sensitive than humans. but given the fact that phil is a hybrid, he has a mix of both which sort of clash. so i'd say that phil's ears are as sensitive, if not more, than humans. (especially shown with how phil hears literally everything.)

then, before coming to quesadilla island, he came from his season 4 hardcore world. living for YEARS on end by himself. the only company he had were the crows, the livestock, the sounds of nature outside, etc. so he isnt USED to all the sounds and clamor and people talking over each other to get their cents in. so when coming to the island and meeting everyone, the sound is absolutely overwhelming. he gets overwhelmed which leads him to step away for a bit just to hear silence just for a little bit. regain his bearings before stepping back into the crowd.

people would notice, especially close friends, but not really think about it. when tallulah would finally come around and he would then take care of her, he would use her (for himself and for her) to get out of loud situations. because both of their ears are sensitive. so phil understands what she goes through. and such and such.

2. there's this one !!

i love this hc so much, like the whole "friendship emeralds" thing means so much to me.

anyway, phil is a natural hoarder. which includes all sentimental things and materialistic things he needs. plus with crow/bird brain mentality, he likes shiny things. so giving out these emeralds, although so sparingly, means a LOT to him. meaning you mean so much to him and he trusts you. and a lot in that matter.

also, other people he would give it to:

i put it in the tags BUT: etoiles. his friendship emerald would be in the pommel of his axe/scythe (whichever he uses more than the sword). phil would've asked to see it, to maybe borrow it to see what enchantments etoiles has on it. but then changes the pommel to add in the emerald and handing it back to him. like its nothing.

another i put in the tags: cellbit. the emerald phil gave to him was just a regular emerald. i say it was given one day where they were hanging beside forever's bed whilst he was in a coma. cellbit was filling phil in on whatever happened/will happen in the order bc now he is an important member. and phil was like "oh right, i have something for you." and passed over the emerald with a small smile. and cellbit keeps it in safe keeping somewhere, because then he knew it was a token of phils trust and he cherishes it.

all the other kids would have one too, in various different accessories. dapper would have a keychain on his backpack, ramon would have a bracelet of it, same with richas and leo, and pomme would have a necklace!!

3. perching

this post is kind of the reason this is on the list. its not necessarily MY hc but.... i like thinking of this nonetheless.

but also just thinking abt how phil will perch around peoples places and they would take notice to it, and maybe even build something and not say anything. i once saw an art on here where there was phil and cellbit in the order's like... meeting room with all of the sofa's and everything. but instead of phil being on a sofa on cellbit's side, it was a perch instead. and i CANT stop thinking abt it. its so good.

bird man perching. not really a hc, i admit, but i shall make up for it

4. singing

DONT LISTEN TO THE STREAMER!!! i believe that qphil can SING!!!!!! but ofc, out and in character, phil is a self-deprecating man. so he would say "i'm shit at singing" but when he tries it and sings his kids songs, it doesnt sound half bad.

when building, farming, mining, or anything really, you can hear him hum. not any particular tune most times, but it sounds nice and calming nonetheless. and it fits him just right

although when singing jort storm he's being bad on purpose 🙏🏽

but just THINK about the coziness you'd feel in the bunker. the soft natural light of the shroom lights, the natural feeling from the moss and flowers in the room, the soft humming and singing from phil as he tucks his kids into bed. brushing some hair from their faces with a soft smile and helping them put away their things before he sits on the chair and waits until they fall asleep for him to leave. its so cozy and so nice to think abt that i cant even

5. touch/physical affection

now, this hc is one i made in the dsmp era. where phil didnt like to be hugged because all it made him think about what him killing his son. hugging wilbur as life slowly left him. it leaves a man scarred, yknow?? and he'd only ever accept hugs, scarcely, from techno. (bc techno isnt a touchy guy either.) but dsmp isnt canon in qsmp. not that i know of, and frankly, i dont want it to be because its weird to think about.

but even so, i think this hc would even transfer over to qsmp phil. and it definitely has to do something with his wings. the sensitivity of the area and how big they are when they're closed and tucked into his back. the habit he has, with close ones, to wrap his wings around them in an even warmer, bigger, hug. but with his wings so fucked up and the fact that he has to wear a backpack to counteract the lost weight.... i..........

either way, phil would then only accept scarce hugs from close friends. and when he doesnt give hugs, his friends do this: fit would always give a hard and good pat on the shoulder, a side hug perhaps, a good strong handshake. wilbur always gives phil a small lighthearted punch on the arm. missa rests his hand on phils shoulder and gives it a squeeze. forever, a naturally touchy man, would just simply lean into phil's side, give a handshake, or a simple smile. etc etc

but an exception to this were his children. (excluding will and tubbo from this, even though it is slightly canon that they are his sons,... in a way) chayanne and tallulah always get hugs from phil. waking up from a nightmare and phil has them wrapped in his arms, shielding them away from harm. happiness to see him after he comes back from a trip of wandering, his arms are wide open. anything for his kids.

6. wings :3

on my other acc (zmbiicrsh) i sometimes, very rarely, post snippets of writing that i do. and in one of them i explain phils wings briefly.

i think, personally, phil's wings are big. since he is a crow hybrid, he's a human... with crow wings scaled to his size. which are BIG. (and then also the feathers coalescing around his ears/cheek and forearm areas. blah blah blah) they're supposed to be big because of his size and nature. but i also think about the color a lot. from first glance, they're a jet black. black, silky, feathers. with patterns of white stars at the bottom (when they were full.......). but if you look closely in the sunlight. if he angled them just right, you'd be able to see the multicolored shine to it. a rainbow shine that glided along the edge of the feathers.

i think a lot abt his wings......

here are some of them!! ,,,, these arent much. but i cant seem to gather all of my scattered thoughts together to give more hcs i have. but i then compensated for just infodumping and giving context. i hope u enjoyed(?) :D

#UMMMMM #tbh this is all just word vomit im sorry #long post #qsmp #qsmp philza #philza #q philza #headcanon #qsmp headcanons

[atopvisenyashill]

In a Rhaenys as Queen au what does Otto do if assuming Aemma still dies and Alicent still marries Viserys but he's been pushed down the line of succession and Rhaenyra is set to the future queen consort and Laenor is the prince of dragon Stone?

Okay so...the thing is there's several ways Rhaenys could come into her throne, and the most important note about this is that Rhaenys pushes Laenor's claim and not her own, likely because she realizes that the men will not be okay with her pushing her own. It would be one thing if Jaehaerys had supported Rhaenys' claim since Aemon died but if Viserys still married Aemma and Alicent, that says to me that Rhaenys came into her throne because she won the GC 101 by an incredibly slim margin, and against Jaehaerys' wishes. But it's not Rhaenys that is the claimant - it's Laenor. So if Rhaenys won the GC 101, what I think is more likely is that she is named Queen Regent, and Laenor is named King. I'm not sure what this means for Corlys' title (I'm assuming Prince-Consort but it might be more difficult than that, idk) but I do think this means Corlys is Hand, which means Otto is either something else (Master of Coin maybe) or, again more likely in my opinion, to ensure that her reign is not contested or usurped in any way, she just fires the whole Small Council (because it's Jaehaerys') and puts in her own people.

If she sends him home or demotes him, that makes sense to me that he would then attempt to get in with Viserys instead, and that's how the Viserys-Alicent marriage happens. Because of how close the GC 101 was, Rhaenys' claim is not as tight as she would want it to be. Marrying Laenor and Rhaenyra joins the competing bloodlines and helps her a bit but of course, having too many heirs is a problem and so I think what Otto does is suggest a marriage match between Laena and Aegon, or perhaps some match between Daeron/Aemond/Helaena and one of Laenor and Rhaenyra's kids. Because the thing here is - no one is changing anything here. They are literally just following Andal custom of a daughter before an uncle, and there's nothing in the rules that say that a girl cousin can't remarry back into the family - as a matter of fact, that's common even outside the Targaryens. Rhaenyra isn't doing anything wrong, and since the GC 101 decided to acclaim Laenor, Rhaenys isn't doing anything wrong either. If Otto genuinely tries to push Aegon as the true heir to the Iron Throne, his little rebellion is just going to end with Rhaenys taking Meleys to Oldtown and having a little talk with this upjumped second son and her favorite cousin, and not only would she be right to do so, she'd likely have the backing of a lot of the lords for taking a hardline approach to what is undeniably treason. Otto is just not that stupid, and I do not have a high opinion of that man's intelligence hah.

But an Aegon-Laena match is, imo, not Otto acting particularly "upjumped" (at least, I don't think it would come across that way completely) and considering that it's likely most of the votes against Laenor and Rhaenys were from the Reach (because of it's ties to the Citadel and the Faith and the Hightowers), if Otto pitches this as "this is how you ensure the Reach stays loyal, by having a child that is part Hightower marry back into the main line" that may be a convincing argument. It also may convince Rhaenys that she can't trust Otto, and she pulls the entire Targtower family out of Oldtown and makes them accept her as a pseudo-mother (foster mother?) to keep Otto's influence at bay even as she's agreeing to a match, or just straight up freeze that entire line (minus Rhaenyra) out of KL, the way she was effectively frozen out by Jaehaerys after Aemon died.

The main issue Otto runs into here is that Rhaenys is not the fucking one. If she thinks he's conniving against her, she's just going to get rid of him, not beg for him to come back when things get a lil difficult the way Viserys does (no shade) (well, a little shade). He has to be very careful how he approaches her because she is not going to fuck around, and if he fucks around, he's going to find out.

#asks #anons #that is very interesting tho.....what he would do. what would all of them do if rhaenys wins the gc 101 by a handful of votes. #canon divergent au #rhaenys velaryon #i'll tag otto later. this is not a hate post but we all know my feelings on that man and i don't want to upset someone aldjsfkl

[smartycvnt]

Team Effort

Title: Team Effort

Pairing: Jennifer Jareau x Reader

Summary: JJ has a hard time dealing with Ash going on a mission.

Word Count: 702

Pt. 2 to Sniped

JJ paused at the door as she saw Ash's bags. It was a reminder that in just a couple of days, she'd be all alone for the next several weeks. Ash was supposed to be done with the special operations. She had, in a more official capacity, retired. Unofficially, there was no better shot than her.

"Oh good, I thought I heard you come in." Ash greeted JJ with a quick hug and kiss, just like she always did. JJ didn't want to think about having to go without their little shows of affection for that long.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long. Traffic was horrible," JJ said. Ash could tell that the blonde was clearly distracted. JJ always got a little weird whenever Ash went away on missions. Ash didn't know if it was the time spent apart that upset JJ so much or the idea of Ash being in danger.

Technically, Ash never felt like she was in any sort of danger. Her job was the safest one in the squad's. She was always the furthest away from whatever the actual danger was. Ash was a long range sniper, generally shooting from hundreds of yards away from the blast zones. It was highly unlikely for anybody to even know where she was shooting from.

"Come on, I made us something for dinner." Ash ushered JJ towards the dining room. There was nothing particularly special laid out, but it still meant the world to JJ that Ash tried. Especially since JJ knew how important it was for Ash to use this time to get herself in the right headspace. The smoother the operation went, the quicker that Ash would be back in DC with JJ.

"I wonder how different our lives would be if you decided to become a chef instead," JJ mused. Ash had spent her teenage years working as a cook in her parents' restaurant, and it was not something that she could have done any longer than she did. It was stressful as a job, but Ash loved cooking as a hobby.

"We wouldn't know each other. I'd have kept my sorry ass in Iowa and married some big farm boy," Ash said. JJ could tell that Ash knew the specifics of what her life would have been. They didn't talk about that sort of thing very often, and for good reason. "Enough about hypotheticals, I'm leaving soon and I'd like to actually enjoy my time with you."

"I wish you would just tell them no," JJ said.

"Look, when I signed the resignation papers, I wasn't ready to go yet. I like being an independent contract, it means I can stay here with you instead of having to run back and forth between here and the training center. I doubt that you're suddenly willing to uproot your life and move." Ash had a good point, but that didn't mean JJ was happy about it.

"I just wish that you could find something here that you like doing that much. Have you tried meeting with the Pentagon again? Hell, I bet that you could get a spot in the FBI as an instructor if you wanted. There's no reason for you to go so far away where I can't make sure that you're safe!"

"JJ, I know that I'm not a phone call away, but I'm always safe. I have my team to keep me safe just like you have yours. We have to trust in each other's teams because if we don't, we'll put ourselves through hell," Ash spoke softly as she took JJ's hands into hers. "It's not easy to think about, but it's the way that it is. You understand that, JJ, I know that you do."

"It's different with you. People aren't actively shooting at me," JJ said.

"And they aren't shooting at me either. I'm pretty far away from the danger. I just need to immobilize my targets or clear paths for the team to do what they need to. I'm not a soldier anymore, if anything, I'm there to minimize the casualties." Ash could tell that JJ wasn't completely over her fears, but she was calm enough to enjoy their evening together.

#my writing #one shot #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds #cm x reader #cm #jennifer jareau x reader #jennifer jareau

[dcfanficsgallore]

I got you

Nightwing x GN!Reader

Warnings: Depressive episode, anxiety, minor suicidal thoughts, crying. But it has a happy ending. Hurt/comfort

1K words

Masterlist

Summary: You had a bad depressive episode, fortunately your boyfriend was there to cheer you up

A/N: Hiiii, I know this is a weird one to post but I just had one of the worst depressive episodes ever and after a long shower, this came out. It helped me to write out everything with my comfortiest character, I hope you enjoy it! DPFT 4 is coming I just needed to get this out of me first.

PS: This was written in, like, two hours not proofread at all Sorry!

Nightwing knew the second he got the notification on his mask, to drop everything and go back to your place. He gave you that for this specific reason and he would not disappoint when you actually used it. But first, he made a quick-stop.

After carefully opening the front door to the apartment and laying the bags he brought on the counter, he found you curled up on the couch, tear-stained cheeks staring into nothing, not even registering that he had arrived. This was a particularly bad depressive-episode and he knew that this would be difficult, but Dick Grayson isn’t one to leave when things are hard.

You felt the end of the couch dip slightly, you didn’t even remember calling him. Way inside your own mind to remember much but the little button with his symbol on it was in your hand. So that explained it.

- You came - You said, voice quiet still not meeting his eyes. You didn’t think he’d come, he has a whole city to protect, you’re far less important than the city. No one would notice if you just disappeared.

- I did. - He said scooching a little closer - What made you think I wouldn’t? - His tone was light, wanting you to open up but not pressuring either.

- I don’t know, I just… Thought you had more important things. I don’t want you to drop everything when I’m sad, I’ll be fine. - You said, still keeping your voice low, not trusting yourself to not burst into tears.

That when he decided to try and interlace your fingers together, when you didn’t push him away he kissed your fingers.

- You’re not just sad, and it’s the least I could do, you’ve been with me for so many of my worst moments I’m honored you called me.

- But, the city. You just left it alone, I can’t be more important than this place you just- - You started to ramble, repeating yourself, falling deeper and deeper. He saw this happening and put his other on top of yours, placing it on top of his heart. Grounding you as you felt his calm heartbeat.

- You ARE important to me, you are important to so many people. The city can exist without me, but I don’t know if I can without you - He said honestly and that broke through, you threw yourself on him sobbing and holding him for dear life, he still smelled like his cologne even though he’d been out fighting crime for a while. The smell brought you comfort. - You want to tell me what’s got you like this. - He spoke quietly into your ear holding you tightly, his arms protecting you from anything.

You told him about your day, and how you hadn’t been taking your meds for a couple days since they ran out and you didn’t have the energy to get more. Throughout it you never let go of him, he stayed still and listened intently, only letting out a low-hum when you mentioned your meds. 

- Do you feel better? - Dick asked softly - Or do I need to bring out my secret weapon? - He said with a little more joy, he knew that when you got it all out of yourself you were more susceptible to his games.

- What did you bring? - You said, a little smile forming. You knew he never half-assed his attempts to cheer you up, so of course he brought something. Even though just his presence was enough.

- It’s a surprise. - You pulled yourself out of his chest and pouted. You both knew he couldn’t resist it. So he covered his eyes, not wanting to fall prey to your charm.

- No fair. - you nudged his shoulder, he chuckled. Dick uncovered his eyes and smiled at you.

- I’m gonna prepare the surprise. Are you okay with picking a movie for us? - You knew what he was asking, he was asking if you needed him to stay with you some more. But you were better now that Dick had returned home, so you nodded.

After a few minutes you put on a musical for both of you to watch, and he returned to the living room. Balancing two cups of hot chocolate on one hand and two plates of pancakes on the other, all while humming a circus song. He really looks like a balancing act from the circus, or the beginning of a clown act if you didn’t help him.

- Grayson! You’re gonna drop them if you try this any longer - You lightly scolded him before taking the plates.

- I’d never put innocent pancakes on the line for a joke! - He retorted with a fake offended look.

- Pancakes? - You looked at the plates. - but it’s 10pm.

- You have school tomorrow? - He asked with a smirk - We’re both adults! We can eat whatever we want whenever we want.

- You’re right. - You said with a smile.

- I know.

You two sat down, ate your pancakes and drank your hot chocolates. It was perfect. By the end of the movie you felt yourself start to fall asleep, you held on a little longer just to see the ending. You started to cuddle closer to Dick and he to you. Eventually the movie ended and Dick saw you were fighting sleep so he decided to carry you to bed, he changed into his sleep clothes and got into bed with you. Wrapping his arms around you.

Before sleep could take you, a question popped into your head.

- You didn’t actually leave Blüdhaven alone did you? - You knew he must’ve left someone at least on lookout. But in your depressive state, you didn’t even think about it.

- I did not. - He answered - The Titans are protecting it.

- All of them? - He nodded - Isn’t that a bit overkill?

- So I could spend more time with you? Never. - You kissed him on the cheek for that response. 

After he said that, you felt like you actually were wanted. He actually liked you. You actually had someone who looked forward to seeing you. And that felt warm, and you let yourself sleep in his arms.

#nightwing #nightwing x reader #dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #my fic #DianaSimp

[ernmark]

Who was in charge of marketing for Harry Potter?

(This isn't about She Who Must Not Be Named or her bigotry. This is purely about the business of bookselling.)

If you were a YA reader at the time, or you're into fandom history, you might know the story: July 16, 2005, in the wee hours of the morning a car pulls up to a bunch of teens and children standing outside a bookstore, and some jackass shouts at the top of their lungs: "Snape kills Dumbledore!" and then speeds away.

That story was infamous. THE biggest plot twist of THE biggest book series in the world, spoiled before anyone could even crack the pages.

Which is... actually kinda weird, right? How'd they know?

Had they read an advance copy? Did they stand in line since like 4 PM to get their hands on the book, and then the second they got their hands on it just frantically start skimming the last hundred pages or so until they found a particularly devastating bomb to drop? (Trolls being trolls, this was not considered particularly extreme behavior).

Or were they paid to do it?

This is adult me with conspiracy goggles on, but consider: The message that was sent is not that a character killed another character, but that no matter how hard you try to avoid spoiling your favorite story, some bad-faith actor is going to jump out of the bushes and do it anyway. There's no time to wait for your library's copy to be available, no time for your friend or your sibling to finish and hand it to you-- you have to buy your own copy right the fuck now.

And everybody and their sibling (literally, people were buying multiple copies per family) around the world buying the same book in the space of the same two weeks? That is how a book guarantees a spot on every international best seller list for a long ass time.

The thing is, whether this was a deliberate move or an amazingly convenient and lucrative bit of trolling does not matter. Regardless of the source, the marketing department pounced on an opportunity. Every brick-and-mortar bookstore left had piles of bookmarks and buttons, posters plastered on the windows, dividing readers into one of two teams: either "Trust Snape" or "Snape is a Bad Man". People wearing those pins sparked conversation and debate in real life, to say nothing of what was going on in the forums. Essays and treatises and manifestos were written. Books were published-- both officially licensed materials and unofficial ones full of theories and details.

When that next and final release was coming out, you bet your ass everybody on the planet was going to be there (or risk another drive-by spoiler). When the next movie was released that November, it didn't matter that what had come before was kinda iffy in quality-- people were showing up in costume.

Even before The Drive By Spoilering, the marketing team was honestly the stuff of legend. Gorgeous hand-illustrated covers and chapter header artwork, branded title fonts that could be recognized from a mile away in the dark, big fancy displays present in every single school book fair, and then that website-- the official website was a thing of absolute beauty, especially in that time. It was colorful and had a million moving parts and secrets to uncover, it was updated frequently and with a lot of little secret extra tidbits on the character and world, and oodles of essays from the author herself that were often very endearing to the readership. It was a gathering place for fans as much as the fan-run websites.

(I should point out that with marketing this robust, I have no doubt in my mind that all those tidbits and essays were themselves run past the team for approval, to make sure nothing particularly egregious slipped through the cracks. But that kind of editing isn't cheap, and I suspect it would only really have been employed during the Important Years for the franchise.)

I remember wanting to be a writer as a teenager, embarking on that career as I got out into the world and started querying books I'd written, and for every single one of us in the writing community, that kind of marketing was the dream. The midnight releases in full costume, the gorgeous custom covers, the posters in every library and bookstore, the breathtaking website. But all of those things turn out to be heinously expensive, and for every franchise that returns on that investment, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, who didn't make back enough, or cover their expenses at all. And that's where you get to the point where querying authors were advised to establish massive followings on social media in order to demonstrate that they were a safe bet, that half the work was already done if the publishers would just give us a chance-- and sure, for some of them that effort did get them publishing contracts. At which point, even if the publishers felt inclined to spend more than a pittance on promoting new authors' work, there wasn't any point in doing so to the degree that the Harry Potter books received. There's little room to stand out in a saturated market; a flash in the pan is only impressive if the pan isn't already on fire.

These days there's little hope of any one new author rising to that kind of fame, though with self-promotion and self-advocacy, a lot more diverse authors are starting to carve out places for themselves. But marketing yourself is exhausting, and it's expensive, and it makes you vulnerable to all sorts of stupid blunders and career-ending missteps.

I'd rather stay indie. But I wouldn't say no to that marketing team.

#harry potter as a cultural phenomenon #the business of writing #writing woes