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anyathefandom · 2 years

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You know what I'm bored and have time right now so...

Things that aren't working on GH right now (for me of course😉

Fiz: Mainly because Finn is a boundaries crossing asshole who beefed with 14/15yr olds until proven wrong. Liz doesn't deserved to be stuck with sl and pairing. Bless her.

Cody bell aka: Truck nuts. Rodeo clown. Stinky horse man. Stable baby. Enough said.

CarSona: Carly vs Nina is old and stale. Sona are having the same talk about their relationship in circles. Repetitive dialogue all around. Just reunite CarSon's toxic asses. I'm over it.

Drew: Drew's characterization is off so it doesn't even feel like drew. Liked him at first but then they quickly made him a Jason stand in because Carly needed a hand to hold as usual.

Crew: Everything about them feels forced. Drew forgave her so quickly because they didn't want Carly and drew to have any conflict but they should've let them have conflict for the sake of ✨drama✨. We should seen drew resenting her for dropping him so quickly for Jason and she should've worked to be back in his good graces. I wouldn't have shipped it still because I don't ship anyone with Carly but I would've been like "okay I see why people ship it.🤷"

Auxie and Austin's sl: Auxie have negative chemistry. Like I rather see spixie reunite and I don't particularly care for that pairing anymore.🥴 Austin's sl doesn't intrigue me. It's boring.

Spinelli's sl: Why is this his sl? Honestly who cares about Cody blackmailing spinelli over how he gets his info for the dating app. Honestly the whole sl could've stayed in the drafts.

Michael's revenge: His vendetta against sonny isn't intriguing because nothing is really happening. The sl isn't moving. Like Mikey move your plan along or stfu.🙈Only good thing we've gotten out of this is Dex.🥴

Alexis x Gregory: alexis and Gregory aren't giving me anything. Honestly instead of fiz they should've tried Alexis x Finn again (back when I didn't hate Finn). Or gave her another problematic bf because let's be real Alexis and toxic men go great together.🙈

Sasha's spiral: Sofia is a great crier but enough is enough. Sasha's character is being tortured and it's so depressing to see because they won't let up on heaping misery on her.

Millow: I mean y'all knew it was going to be on the list and I've posted too many times over the past years about how they don't work for me. All I'm going to say is TreeJ needs to rise up 😂

Rorina: Rory is a non character. We only know that he's a cop who makes brownies, will only spend 50 cents on you for a soda, and will put his badge above you and snitch on your mama. Y'all I was so hyped for this love triangle because I actually wanted someone who could compete against Spencer for Trina's heart and yet we got Rory instead.😒 (It should've been Dex or cam🙈)

Jex: No chemistry. I didn't fuck with Caoss because they had no chem and looked like siblings and won't ship Jex for that same reason.🤷

Josslyn: I try so hard to like her but maybe I should just accept that I don't.😂 She has her moments where I go "lol, Joss your right." But otherwise she's just not my cup of tea.

Olivia: She is utterly annoying about this Nina mess. I can understand she's mad on Carly's behalf but why won't the writers have her be mad on Dante's and Rocco's behalf? That makes way more sense than her hate for Nina being wrapped up in her loyalty for Carly.

Nikolas: I want the man dead and gone, oh but no before the whole town finds out he slept with Esme. I need him dragged and I need for Esme to pop up pregnant and make his life truly miserable then he can "die". Also because Marcus coloma really showed us he doesn't have the range.

Chalynn: This hurt my soul to put them on the list but it's the Truth that their not working. It's not for a lack of chemistry but because of the writing. The PG 13 writing for them sucks and they deserve better.

Sidenote: I'm thinking about making what is working for me list and I just know it's going to be short.😂

Willow's sl: The only way I'll care if we get more tj x willow moments. Willow's sl isn't even her sl it's Carly's and Nina's. Girl got leukemia just for it to be revealed that Nina is her mom and Carly knew the whole time. More fuel for the boring ass feud.🙄

Kristina not having a sl and just being their to prop people. Give her a sl!!!!

#general hospital

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gloriousncss · 3 months

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Cold, yet confident, Maria is next into the room. The first thing she notes is the way the room smells of incense, the heat overtaking the room as though to make its participants sweat a bit. Or maybe that was just a trick of the climate. It's quiet... almost too quiet.

Hello, can you please tell me your name, country, && what role you provide your court?

"Maria Ortiz," she drew in a breath as she slowly took her seat, "Second eldest to the Spanish Royal family." Is that what she was supposed to say? Is that how royals introduced themselves? Damn it all. "Formerly known as Lady Ortiz of Barcelona."

And who do you believe to be your closest allies, either nations or individuals? Do you trust your allies?

"Mine? Or Spain's? Because, truthfully, I can only give you one answer," she shrugged, "I am only loyal to myself. I will protect my sisters with everything I have, but if they asked me to choose between the crown and myself... I will choose to fight for what I believe in."

Ah, yes, I see... how about your enemies, then. Who do you not align yourself with, and why?

"It should be the Bonaparte family, shouldn't it?" she shook her head, "I don't know if I believe that. Their parents were no better than mine, believing that wearing a crown will solve everything..."

Interesting. Do you have a personal vendetta against any of the courts, or even individuals, here?

"No... not yet, anyway."

What are your thoughts on the mysterious deaths in so many royal families?

"It's the result of greed. I've seen it firsthand, the effect the crown has on all of us can tear each other apart. The desire to have more than you do will cause you to take it from someone else."

How do you feel about the system of monarchy as a whole?

"It's broken, flawed. Anyone who sees it otherwise is lying to themselves. If I could somehow make it so that my sisters were okay, I would tear the whole thing down from top to bottom and start it all over again."

So, what would be your best theory as to what is going on, then?

"Someone wants to make real change, but is going about it all the wrong way. Those aren't the royals that deserved to die to create a better world."

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else you'd like to add, anything else that would be useful to the investigation?

"The person who's probably behind this either comes from nothing... or has everything."

#⚔️ ( maria ortiz )#theopulent.task #task 01: the interview

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zevvin · 2 years

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I've never seen vendetta is this what happens

#chris redfield #leon s kennedy #chreon #resident evil #caption courtesy of flynn #who has seen vendetta and who i drew this for #older art btw if it looks funny #paceart #my art 2021

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pyroclastic727 · 4 years

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Is Amity autistic?

In the Owl House fandom, we hear a lot about how Luz is written to be ADHD. Now I would like to present the flipside: Amity is coded as autistic.

Here’s the breakdown.

Amity is touch-averse. “BuT aMiTy ToUcHeS LuZ aLL tHe TiMe” nice try. The key to autistic touch-aversion is only being okay with touch when she initiates it. And that totally matches up with Amity. See, Amity is really happy when she initiates touch with Luz. She’s also cool with it when Luz holds her hand after standing near her for enough time that Amity can predict an incoming touch. That’s because Amity consents to that touch and expects it.

But when other people touch her? She doesn’t take kindly to that. When Luz initially bumped into her at Covention, she snapped at her and degraded her. Even when she bumped into Luz in Enchanting Grom Fright, her initial instinct was to snap at Luz, since she didn’t expect to be touched. When Hooty touched Amity’s face without consent, she flipped out and beat him up. Not even Lilith beat Hooty up when he wrapped her up in his mucus-filled tube, but Amity gave Hooty the injuries we all wanted to see him with, because he breached her boundaries without her consent. Even as late as the last episode, Amity fell over when her face got close to Luz’s on the bleachers, because she didn’t expect it.

Amity stims. Okay, this one took me a while to catch, since most of the time, Amity is very controlled with her actions. This symptom isn’t very intense; her senses aren’t understimulated too often, and she really only does it when she’s really excited.

Mainly, when Luz offered to carry her. While she adorably scrambled for words, she also flapped her hands against her legs. At first I thought it was just a cute thing she did, but there’s more to it. She was so excited to be held by Luz that it showed up in her hands flapping...a common stim. With Amity feeling more comfortable around her new friends than the old ones, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more stimming in the future.

Amity always has The Mask as her expression. You know, the one with her eyes half-lidded, eyebrows raised, mouth slightly downturned. I also call it the Resting Blight Face, for...reasons.

At first I thought it was just a way to hide her true emotions, since her parents are assholes. But even though Luz makes her feel accepted, she keeps doing it. It’s more like...you know that feeling when you’re thinking really hard, or uncomfortable, or ashamed, or even just relaxed, and you can’t think of which expression to wear quickly enough, so you put on an unreadable one to tide people over? Apparently most people don’t do that, since allistic people tend to have expressions for those feelings, ones that arise naturally.

Another symptom of autism is having hard-to-read expressions, or being less expressive. In Amity’s case, it’s the fact that she doesn’t see a need to have an expression in calmer moments, so she just uses her usual expression.

Amity hyperfixates. This has several facets, so I’ll break this down.

She initially hyperfixated on school. And that’s how she became top student. Amity Blight is who you would mistake for a “gifted student.” But make no mistake...she is not gifted, and gifted is a bullshit label used to overexert people and force them to keep school as their special interest for their entire lives (and I may have a bit of a vendetta against it). Anyways, we already know she’s a perfectionist. My theory is that Amity originally was hyperfocused on school--the Abominations track, to be exact--and that’s part of how she got so good. Then, her focus shifted, but the school expected her to keep being top student. Cue the perfectionism; she was no longer able to focus on school like she wanted to, but everyone expected her to, so she got insecure about it.

She hyperfixates on Azura, just like Luz did. Yeah, she keeps it secret from the world, for most of the time. But she definitely likes Azura a lot. I mean, she started to reconsider her opinion on Luz when Luz offered her an Azura book. She destroyed her jock career because she tried to use an Azura move in real-life Grudgby. Her interest in Azura is long-lived, starting about the time that her interest in school would have expired (which would explain why she stayed closeted). And we can’t ignore the fact that she sees Azura in Luz and is definitely enjoying the parallels between herself and her fictional counterpart. (Which might not be a coincidence, but that’s an entirely different theory).

She hyperfixates on Luz. Yes, part of this is a crush. But a lot of us have watched Amity’s personality go from alpha bitch to cutest little bean in the Boiling Isles, all thanks to Luz’s influence. Lumity is not a rivals-to-lovers speedrun due to bad writing, it’s due to Amity hyperfixating. She’s already extremely introspective, going so far as to keep a diary where she analyzes and makes sense of herself. It’s not a stretch to say that she identified the faults that kept her from Luz and worked hard to change those off-screen.

Amity keeps a journal. To me, this seems like masking. You see, Amity is what people would consider to be high-functioning, since she can pass for allistic. But in order to do this, she has to put in significant effort on her part. See, when she does something that makes it so she doesn’t pass, she just sees it as a problem (since she probably doesn’t know about autism, and she passes well enough that she would totally be undiagnosed). Then she tries to fix the problem, in order to keep being perfect.

Amity has awkward body language. Thanks to the journal and other ways of masking, you don’t see this early on. But once she feels comfortable enough around Luz to let her guard down...she completely forgets boundaries. To review: in episodes 15-17, she throws herself at Luz, holds her formal rival’s hand for 24.71 seconds, blushes every time she sees Luz, and loudly declares her thirsty thoughts about Luz in uniform before literally running away. While some of this can be seen as normal gal pal things or crush things...you’d think a repressed wlw like Amity would try very hard not to touch Luz, so as to avoid being outed. Or at least she would do less of that stuff, so as to respect Luz’s boundaries the way she wants her boundaries to be respected. But that’s not the case, since she straight-up misses a lot of social cues. And since she feels comfortable around Luz, she doesn’t feel the pressure to be so paranoid about the cues, and can be her awkward self. From her point of view, she probably sees it as being freed from her parents’ judgment.

Amity takes things literally, sometimes. Now, this doesn’t happen all the time, since she isn’t heavily affected by this autistic trait. But when Luz says “I’m picking up what you’re putting down” and Amity says “I’m not putting down anything” and looks down...she not only missed the conclusion Luz drew from her words, but also assumed a literal meaning from her words. I can’t come up with many other instances of this, mostly because this doesn’t happen often. I would assume that Amity missed these a lot early on, and learned how to mask/identify them.

Amity is easily upset when things don’t go as planned. Let’s review these. In the library, she gets really mad at Luz when they end up stitched to a book, and it takes Luz’s sweet personality to get Amity to loosen up and laugh over it. When she goes to practice magic, and Luz steals her wand and uses it to get her siblings kidnapped, Amity locks Luz in a cage and assumes that she will get badly injured if she tries to fix the problems she caused. When Luz comes to her school, she panics and focus on how that doesn’t change anything. When she burns Willow’s mind, she appears absolutely terrified of being punished, flinching and bracing for impact when Luz finds her near the memories, constantly trying to distract Luz as they work together to save Willow, and hiding behind Luz when she confronts the Inner Willow. When Luz asks her to join her in Grudgby, Amity doesn’t initially agree, instead taking much more of the episode to come to terms with her involvement in it.

Amity likes predictability. She’s not attached to routines, but she does like being able to expect things. If she makes a plan for the day, she expects that day to adhere to that plan, and she doesn’t respond well when it changes. When Luz comes to her school, she focus on how that doesn’t change anything...not how that would ruin things or complicate things. Whenever she gets involved in Luz’s shenanigans, she either gets angry, scared, or takes a while to accept it. In a broader sense, she takes a while to accept that Luz and her shenanigans are a permanent fixture in her life--sixteen episodes, to be exact.

Finally, it would make for some excellent representation. An ADHD Dominican-American bisexual protagonist is pretty groundbreaking. But an ADHD Dominican-American bisexual protagonist girl who dates an autistic wlw witch girl from another dimension is exactly the kind of intersectional representation you’d expect to see from an unrestricted Owl House crew.

...Now, this might just be me hardcore projecting. I’m a little scared to post this because I don’t know how much of this is me reading into imaginary things, or trying to convince myself that Amity is like me. Feel free to debate/disprove me or support me in the comments.

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readerbell · 2 years

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Moiraine is SICK AND TIRED of dealing with petulant kids. 😂

‘And who are you, child?’ Moiraine asked.

The young woman drew herself up even more, which Mat would have thought was impossible. ‘I am Berelain, First of Mayene.’ She tossed the parchment down on the table in front of Moiraine with a haughty gesture and turned back to the door.

‘A moment, child,’ Moiraine said, unfolding the parchment.

She’s just out here insulting leaders of nations. This patronisation is the reason why a certain Wisdom has a one-sided vendetta against her. 😂

‘And you thought it was done? You are ta’veren, Mat, a thread more crucial to the Pattern than most, and the sounder of the Horn of Valere. Nothing is done for you, yet.’ They were all looking at him. Nynaeve sadly, Egwene as though she had never seen him before, Elayne as if she expected him to change into someone else.

The girls are shocked Mat is the Horn sounder but Nynaeve is just sad for him & for the burden on his shoulders. If it was up to Nynaeve all these kids would be wrapped up in cotton wool. Never mind the fact that she’s what? 3-4 years older than the boys? She’s guilty of infantilising them while she rails against being infantilised. The paradox of life as a young Wisdom who isn’t allowed to act her age, or see those close to her in age as peers.

Mat, of course, is planning his escape and so continues the story of Matrim Cauthon vs Fate. This marks the end of The Dragon Reborn. Funnily enough, I didn’t hate it as much as my memory told me lol. Next comes my favourite of the first half of the series: The Shadow Rising starring my three faves doing THE THINGS.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #Moiraine Damodred #berelain #Egwene al’Vere #Elayne Trakand #Mat Cauthon #Nynaeve al’Meara #the dragon reborn reread

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radiosandrecordings · 3 years

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Crossposting my @summer-in-the-archives-event fic here too. [AO3] [Accompanying beautiful art]

He’d never get used to the rolling fields of quiet.

Miles behind and miles to go, not that he could see any of it through the thick blanket of fog that clung to his ankles, and his wrists, and his eyes. Miles to go before I sleep…

It was hard to describe the rain that fell, because even ‘fell’ felt like too active a descriptor. It didn’t pour, it didn’t ‘beat down’, it didn’t pelt, because those all required a sense of agency that the landscape just felt too apathetic to muster. It simply existed, and just happened to be moving downwards by coincidence.

Jon wasn’t sure if he knew or Knew that it seeped into his clothes, coating his skin, but he couldn’t even feel the droplets landing, even pinpricks of touch creating too much of a sensation for this place. He briefly wondered that, if he still had need for his glasses, would the rain even make the effort to trickle down and cloud the lenses.

The last Lonely domain he’d passed through, he’d never seen the avatar that lorded over it. He didn’t have any real interest in finding out, not like the personal vendettas that lead him to seeking out Jude, or Jared. Because with Peter dead he wasn’t left with any Lonely avatars left to chase, save the vague notions of the Lukas extended family. He was simply going to keep his head down and keep trudging, hopefully emerging through the thick banks of mist before he lost his mind to the monotony. If there was ever something to make you miss muffled cries from beneath the earth…

“Why are you here?”

The sound was accusatory, and may as well have been a shotgun in the silence. The damped chill was nothing in comparison to the ice that shot up his spine. The voice had no clear origin, no figures even silhouetted in shadow against the overgrown grass, but it came in close, delivered on the gentle, numbing breeze. Despite this, though, never in a thousand domains could he forget the sound of it. Of course it was his. Of course. Of course. “Martin?”

“No! ”

The voice sounded… Angry. But hurt, like it flinched away from the word. Like something that had been left to sit in the dark too long, that recoiled back from a stinging source of light.

“... I’m going to assume no one has called you that in a long time.” He tried to keep his voice light, as much as the stifling atmosphere would allow it.

“No one is anything here. It’s easier that way. If you’re somebody, you can be hurt. If you have too much personality, too many little facets and cracks, things start to snag and catch on it, and it drags you down to where things ache. But if you’re nothing, then they don’t have anything to cling onto. You can just slip away unharmed.” The voice sounded like it was moving, curling around him and moving from ear to ear, forward and back as it droned on in that echoing monotone that Jon had hoped he would never hear again, and at the same time, had longed to.

“And what about the good things?”

“There isn’t anything good, not anymore. You saw to that.”

Jon snorted. “Low blow, but fair.” He hesitated for a moment, trying to summon the words.

He’d had time, after he left the Lonely, to consider his actions. Regret pooled like acid in his stomach at the memory, and somehow it hurt more than ending the world. He wouldn’t say it was more important. He knew whatever he felt, and moreso, knew that one human life, was not paramount to the suffering of every creature great and small, but it felt more tangible. When he walked through the hellscapes, they were dreamlike, hazy, information in such clarity but to an extreme where it still felt nonsensical to perceive it as reality. He knew the fundamental truths that surrounded him but it still felt hard to accept them even as he lived them.

Yet despite having lived without it for eight months prior, the space beside him that failed to solidify into Martin still stung with his absence. And Jon regretted it every not-day he spent walking the hellscape, both in knowing he doomed a good man to suffering, or worse, revelry, in this new world, and in the far more personal, and far more selfish, part of him that missed him so goddamn much.

“But- But Martin, I think I made a mistake.”

“Obviously.”

“Not- Not that. I mean, when we were in the Lonely. The- The first time. With Peter Lukas.” The silence droned on, and Jon took that as his cue to continue. “Do you remember what I said? That maybe you were safer here? And that’s… That’s why I let you stay. I didn’t push you to, to leave with me because I thought you wanted to be here, that you’d be safer here than you’d be with me. But I don’t think that was entirely true.”

“I am safe here.”

“Maybe so. It doesn’t mean it’s better though, does it. Martin, I saw those people, in the last Lonely domain. I know it’s different, they were victims and you’re… You’re an avatar, here, you’re feeding off of all of this, but I promise you they were not happy. They were so alone and it didn’t protect them, it just made it worse. Think about it, the logic of this world. There are threats out there of unimaginable horror, and yet they were still assigned here, it’s their worst nightmare. And you were assigned here too. You’re all suffering, just in different ways, but all calculated to be your personal worst.”

“The Martin Blackwood you thought you knew doesn’t exist anymore. He had to be filed down, too many breaks and tears in him that grew and grew, any time someone raised a harsh word. The best way for him to be protected, is for him to go away entirely. You cannot hurt something that doesn’t exist.”

“Are you sure about that? Because you just said ‘I’.”

“What? ” That anger reemerged again, and as staunched as it was it was beautiful, a return to form amongst the dull monotone, reminiscent of the few times Jon had been privileged enough to witness a truly pissed off Martin Blackwood.

Jon found himself grinning. “You said ‘I am safe here’. Emphasis on the ‘I’. Ergo, you still have some form of identity left, and thus I would wager that the part of you left is Martin. Unless I’ve wandered across some other avatar of the Lonely who sounds like him, of course.”

“You’re always so fucking smug, you know that?”

The voice is coming from behind him. Actually, physically, presently behind him and Jon spins around so fast he’s almost dizzy.

And as much as it made his heart soar, and much as he was glad to finally, finally , see him again when he’d thought he never would, Martin looked… Bad.

His skin had darkened, mottled and blotchy with large swathes of a bruise-like blue or sickly green cropping up across his face and neck, or the parts of his forearms visible where his cable knit sleeves rolled back. It was like frostbite from the cold, or some disturbing onset of trench-foot from the damp, corpselike and unsettling. What was worse, though, were the parts that simply ceased. His hair didn’t even reach the tips, simply fading out into a grey static that merged with the mist, and it consumed his eyes whole, tear tracks streaking down his face in patterns of fuzzy, crackling grey that snapped and popped in the silence, far too reminiscent of a tape.

The sight made Jon’s heart clench like a fist, the combination of relief and horror, and in that moment he understood Jane Prentiss more completely than he ever had before. It would’ve felt like a rude comparison to consciously make, the person he cared for most equated to a pulped and writhing mass that churned out creatures that made your skin crawl before tearing into it. But he knew what she had seen in it, that call towards the thing that fascinated you, despite the turning it causes in your stomach.

Despite this, however, Jon steeled himself. This was rapidly becoming a battle, and he couldn’t afford the cost of emotions. He had to keep Martin, well… Martin. Draw out the emotion. In short, be a bit of a bastard. So instead, he cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you liked that about me?”

He could see Martin’s fists clench, the colour of his extremities dyed black from frostbite. The irritation was still clear as he started into “Fucking hell J-” but they both appeared taken aback as he dissolved into a choking, hacking cough.

It took everything in him for Jon to tamp down the need to surge forward, put a hand on his back and ask if he was okay. It was a strangely mundane thing; the man was made out of static and fog and despite seeming to have an on-and-off-again relationship with his corporeal form, this was the first recognisably human thing to adversely affect him. Why, though? What had Martin done to trigger- Oh. Oh .

“That- That priest from the statement… 0113005? Father Burroughs. He couldn’t say the name of god. Anything related to it, really. And you… You couldn’t say my…”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Martin spat. “You’re not a god or thee god, whatever your new eye magic might imply. It’s just…” He let out a breath that turned into a grumble. While his eyes had always been cloudy, he was now refusing to meet Jon’s gaze.

Regardless, it still drew a breathy laugh out of him. “No, I’m not that far gone into my own self importance yet. But… It’s about the connection, isn’t it?” Something in the conversation had changed, it’s tone or it’s flow, that felt contradicting. Tension coiling up to spring, or they’re barrelling towards a culmination, but at the same time, Jon felt like the wind had been kicked right out of him. He lowered himself to the ground, slowly, settling among the grass and trying to ignore the unpleasant dampness under him. Hey, he could feel the damp again. That was something.

“That’s more flattering, actually, I would say… The Lonely, it thinks if you acknowledge me directly, that would loosen it’s hold on you.” Jon huffed out a breath. “You know I listened to all the tapes. What was it that Daisy said to you, when I was on the run? ‘People say you two are close’? Well, the Lonely appears to agree.” He took a minute before adding, “I would, as well. And, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was too… Too in my own head, before, to admit it. Too much of a coward to do it before that, even. But you need to know I love you. And I know that you… Cared for me, at least? Even if I stuck my head in the sand to ignore it. But the Lonely seems to think you do, still. So will you please come back to me? I know it’s not- I know it won’t be much better, travelling through the domains, but it’s all I can offer and it has to be better than this. I can’t promise anything kind will be waiting for us in London, but you’d be yourself again, and I can’t… Martin, I can’t lose you again. To leave here, again, without you, I’d be losing you. Please.”

“No.”

There wasn’t even a delay to his response, stating it in monotone the second Jon had finished speaking. It felt like ice, lancing through his heart.

“Martin. Martin, please -”

“I said no. I thought you would’ve learned by now; I’m not exactly amenable when you come crawling to me with half baked plans of escape. Because you don’t love me, you love the idea of me. You are quite literally the only free man left in the world and you’re lonely . So you’re looking for a familiar face. Kind Martin, caring Martin, always there with tea and taking your side in every argument. Defending you to Tim when you’d just as soon slag him off behind his back, or on tape. Pretty appealing when everyone else is trying to kill you. At least he treated you like a god before this even started.”

Each sentence felt like another dagger to the chest, and it took him a moment to compose himself, tears forming at the corner of his eyes. Eventually, though, Jon spoke. “That’s not true, though. I- Martin I can’t apologise enough that that’s what it’s felt like, for you. But I need you to know, that isn’t true. A-At the start, maybe, I can’t deny I was stupid and spiteful, but you didn’t deserve any of it. And after that… I didn’t do a one-eighty and decide you were a doormat. I liked you because you were secretly enough of a prick as well. Any time you’d pull me out for lunch when I dragged my heels, or argued back when I said something shitty, that was… It felt like I was seeing the real you. The one you didn’t want to let people think of you as, but the one you were, because despite wanting to appear like the picture of innocence, you are a bitch, Martin Blackwood. And that’s my favourite thing about you. Maybe time is sweetening my memory, slightly, but I truly don’t believe there’s rose coloured glasses here. If we walk out of here, I’m not under any sort of illusion that it’ll be a honeymoon. We will doubtless find something to argue over, if not several, but I want that. I want you at my side to, to disagree and point out all my blind spots. We’re both stubborn bastards but I’m stupidly fallible, and I need you to keep me balanced. I don’t want a yes-man, I want you, Martin, and I’m asking for that knowing full well what it entails.”

When the words stopped flowing, he found himself gasping for breath, sobs building in his chest and threatening to spill over. But Martin was standing closer.

“That’s- I don’t- Fuck.” As Jon looked up, wiping at his own eyes, he could see fog starting to trickle from Martin’s mouth, coming in short bursts as his nostrils flared and chest rose and fell noticeably for the first time that Jon had seen since he stepped foot onto the moors. This caused a conflict of emotion in Jon, because while it seemed to be another step towards humanity, Martin letting the Lonely fall to the wayside in favour of reclaiming himself, it also looked far too close to a panic attack to be something worth celebrating.

“I don’t understand,” he finally settled on, voice cracking on the words. He slowly let himself sink to the ground opposite Jon, knees pulled up to his chest. “I left you. Time and again I left you. I left you to work with Lukas, and I left you when you tried to get me to run away, and I left you when I stayed on the beach.” His palms were pressed into his eyes, mist seeping from between his knuckles as he dragged them across his face, though Jon couldn’t be sure if he was attempting to wipe the fog away, or if he was stalling while he faltered, trying to summon the words. Both, maybe. Jon took the silence from him.

“You didn’t really choose that, though. You didn’t feel like you even had a choice. So Martin if… If you’re worried that I think badly of you for that, I don’t. Martin, I’ve done so many terrible things, so to- No, no, actually I don’t mean it like that. I don’t mean that you’re a good person, compared with me. I think you’re a good person full stop. And I just want you to be able to see that. I know the Lonely is quite literally clouding your judgement right now but… Please, just, just make me a deal?”

Martin’s palms were resting on his chin now, cupping his cheeks and curving around his neck. He nodded once, wearily, for Jon to continue.

Jon drew in a breath “I think I’m in some sort of… Bubble. Like a miniature domain, when I’m travelling. I think, if you agree to come with me, even for a little bit, that might dissolve some of the Lonely’s more adverse effects. Make it easier to think, to, to be yourself without its influence. If that is what happens, and you want to return… I’ll bring you back. But please, just… Try? For me?”

Martin sighed, hands dropping from his face. “...Fine.”

“You- Really?”

“Yes. I… Look, J-” Martin bit back another coughing fit. “Look. I am… There is a lot of me right now that wants to leave. The fog is… It’s in my head, figuratively, probably even literally, but… I remember something Basira said. When she got back, from, from The Unknowing . Melanie wanted to know how she got out, when the other three… When you, and Daisy, and Tim, didn’t. She said she reasoned her way out. So I’m going to listen to reason for a minute, as much as it’s paining me.”

Despite those final words, Jon felt his face crack into a smile. “That’s… Yes, you’re right. Well that’s… That’s a very reasonable connection to make.”

And for the first time in a long time, Martin smiled.

“Uhm, so how does this work then?” He eventually said, hand coming up again to scratch the back of his neck in an old nervous habit Jon could not be more happy to see.

“Well”, Jon said, taking a moment to brush sodden grass from his trousers as he got to his feet, “I would say, based on the dream logic that everything here seems to run on here, it should be rather simple.” He held out a hand to tug Martin up after him.

Martin took it.

It was almost cliché, how the Lonely fell away from him. It only took a few seconds, all in all, for the bruising to fade, receding their colourful splotches until his skin lay clear again. His frostbitten fingers healing themselves, sewing broken skin back together and returning to a healthy colour. His face, too, was returning to its original pallor, the change creeping up his neck and across his cheeks and leaving rich brown in its wake. Dark eyes stared down at Jon from behind long lashes, blinking away the last of the fog. He was beautiful.

“Hi,” Jon managed to choke out.

“Hi,” Martin said, and pulled him into his arms.

Jon just let himself be held in the pressure of the embrace for a moment, before bringing a hand up to card his fingers through Martin’s hair. While it had solidified into soft curls, the colour had stayed the same, bleaching it white under his fingertips. He wasn’t sure if Martin had noticed or not, but that was a conversation for another time. They were both a little preoccupied for the moment.

“How do you feel?” Jon eventually said, words pressed into the side of Martin’s neck.

“Uhm. Strange?” Martin eventually settled on. “It’s… I can remember what my thought process was, what the Lonely was pushing me to believe, but it’s like… It’s like the camera panned out, and now I can see it all clearly, and it looks… It looks stupid. Thank you, Jon. For coming to get me.”

“Of course,” Jon whispered, “Of course.”

Another moment passed before Martin spoke up again. “...Did you mean what you said, though? Or was that… Was that just to try and get me to leave? I- I won’t be angry, if it was, that- that’s very clever, I just want to know.”

Jon furrowed his brow. “Which part do you mean?”

Martin let out an agitated sigh. “You- You know which one I mean, Jon. The- The part where that you said that you…”

“That I love you?” Jon said, picking up where Martin trailed off.

Martin’s face flushed, and just the sight of colour spreading across it made Jon’s heart soar, let alone the implications of why . “Of course I did. I- I’m sorry that you would think I would lie about that, even for something like this. No, Martin, I love you. So very much. And I know you might not feel that way anymore, in which case I am very much embarrassing myself here, but I know that you did at one stage so I hope it won’t make things too awkward between us.” “I do, Jon.”

“What?”

“I do. Still feel that way. I love you too, of course I do. My hero.”

It was Jon’s turn to feel his face flush, pleasant warmth bubbling to the surface. “Oh,” was all he managed to stutter out.

“Can I- Jon do you mind if I…” Martin trailed off again, and Jon began to think this might be a recurring theme between them. He’d make it work. He was pretty good at reading Martin, and the eyeline pointed directly at his lips made intentions quite clear.

“Is- Would just the cheek be okay?” He replied. It didn’t really feel like the time for a full run down on where boundaries lay, but he figured it was a start.

“More than,” Martin said, leaning down to press his lips softly against Jon’s cheek. He lingered for a few seconds, skin largely healed but still chapped from the cold, and it was one of the most beautiful things Jon had ever felt. He slipped one hand into Martin’s, and he felt their fingers twine together.

Martin leaned back, clearly trying to calm his grin into something more close-lipped and calm. “Where to now then?”

“Uhm. Forward, really, is just how I’ve been going. There isn’t any real sense of geography to it, we’ll just…. Get there when we get there.”

“Right. Because nothing can be simple these days.”

Jon missed this. He missed him. But he didn’t have to miss him anymore, did he? He was right there.

He squeezed his hand once, and started leading the way.

#My Post #Jonmartin #The Magnus Archives #I'm maybe pushing this one a little hard but I just. crave validation okay #And I want to see what the difference is between how a fic does as a tumblr post vs ao3 #lets call it science #My Writing #Martin Blackwood #Jonathan Sims

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interact-if · 3 years

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Day 1 of our Pride Month Featured Authors interview, babey! We're so excited that we get to feature these amazing authors, so without further ado... Jasper!

Jasper, author of Crosshollow Foundations

Pride Month Featured Author

Taking place around the turn of the century, you take on the role of an ancient, incorporeal being. Many centuries ago, following a series of bad decisions, you found yourself here on Earth. To maintain your link to the physical world you must maintain a “tether” to a human- a psychic bond that can only be broken by death. And death is always close at hand, as you are being pursued by another of your kind- somebody with a grudge and infinite patience to take out his revenge.

Alongside your most recent tether, Tobias (customizable name- this is simply the default), you have been traveling around North America and staying far away from your pursuer. Short on cash, the two of you find yourselves hiding out in the remote mining towns of the Colorado mountains. The people here are not quite as they seem, however- and as tensions rise in the community and your pursuer draws near, you find yourself at the center of a conflict of both rural and cosmic proportions.

Demo: TBA

Tags: supernatural, speculative

Other projects: An Angel Among the Aspens, 13 Laurel Road

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!)

Q1: Tell us a little bit about your project(s)!

Crosshollow Foundations is the story of how the fictional town where my games take place was founded. You play as an otherworldly incorporeal being who must form bonds with humans to stay on Earth. Trying to keep a low profile and avoid a mysterious individual with a vendetta against you, you and your companion find refuge in the remote mining town of Gothic, Colorado. But despite its quaint exterior, something sinister is brewing in Gothic- something you’re about to find yourself stuck in the middle of.

It’s a fun little Old West romp based on real historical roots, and an introduction to the world of Crosshollow.

Q2: Why interactive fiction? What drew you to the medium?

Interactive fiction wasn’t actually my first choice! I experimented with a lot of different mediums to tell this story, like 2D point and click games, visual novels, comics, and even ARG-style multimedia projects. I eventually rediscovered Twine, which I had experimented with in the past, and made my first game (An Angel Among the Aspens) in a couple of weeks. That’s when I realized, hey- I can actually do this, if I put my mind to it I can make those dream projects and actually release them. That’s the beauty of interactive fiction. You can do it all yourself, the only limit is how much work you want to put in.

Q3: Are your characters influenced by your identity? How?

I never intend to make things about my identity, but it often ends up happening anyway! My game 13 Laurel Road, in particular, has a lot of my own identity as a transgender man woven into it. I think a lot of trans people can relate to having family members initially react to your coming out with a lot of hatefulness and ignorance, only for it to strengthen your bond in the long run. It’s something I’ve definitely experienced myself, but something I’ve rarely seen portrayed in media.

Q4: What would you like to see more of in LGBT+ fiction?

LGBTQ+ people in historical media! Once I mentioned that I was interested in transgender history to an acquaintance and they laughed and said, “If there is any!” It’s a really commonly held belief that trans people popped into existence in the year 1990, or that every trans person in history was closeted, and that’s just not the case. I want to see stories about a trans noblewoman in Baroque France, or a trans doctor in Victorian England, or a trans cowboy in the Wild West! There are so many incredible dramas just waiting to be told.

Q5: What or who are some of your biggest inspirations?

I am a horror lover at heart, and especially indie horror games! My main sources of inspiration have been surrealist horror games, Newgrounds-era point and click flash games, and narrative-focused walking simulators. The Rusty Lake games in particular have been a massive influence on the Crosshollow universe, and 13 Laurel Road was greatly inspired by Gone Home, even if I didn’t realize it while I was writing it!

Q6: What’s a super vague spoiler for your current project?

I swear all of my games are connected, it just might take a little while for that to become apparent!

Q7: Lastly, what advice would you give to your readers?

This is a big moment for the LGBTQ+ community. Things are changing! There are opportunities out there that there never have been before. Go out there and advocate for yourself, create the media you want to see, and forge your own path in the world.

#if: events #pride month #queer fiction #queer authors #queer creators #pride month 2021

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grimmywrites · 3 years

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So, about Infinite Darkness...

I’m gonna try to be as succinct as I can (I failed) about all the problems I had with it, but my list is pretty long... Yes, this has spoilers. Let me state upfront: if you’re not a hardcore RE fan, you can skip the show. Below I’ll tell you why.

Story: What a mess. Honestly, they turned me off right at the beginning with all the military stuff. It’s the same reason people didn’t like Chris’ campaign in 6; didn’t they learn anything from that? So, the story wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen. Honestly, it had more plot holes than anything and so many points where I went: “I don’t care about this.” Again, it was a jumbled mess. Capcom, hire me and I’ll do better, I swear. Let’s just sum it up by saying it’s a rehash of things we’ve seen SEVERAL times in the series before. If you’re gonna do it AGAIN let’s make the story unique and interesting. Oh, there are shady people in the military that want to use bioweapons in war? Okay, we’ve known that since the first game. We’ve seen it time and time again. Look to re8′s ending for example: the BSAA are now starting to use engineered soldiers - THAT was a reveal that was far more interesting. The way it was addressed and overcome in this show was just... so lackluster. Ultimately, it just felt like this entire thing didn’t need to happen. It changed nothing, it impacted nothing, and I’m aware that it really couldn’t since it was after re4 and before re5. There was just no lasting point and all the ‘themes’ (if you can call them that) made absolutely no sense, but I guess I’ll get into that with the characters? Pacing: Absolutely god awful. One minute we’re in the White House fighting zombies then I blink and it’s over and I’m like: Oh, we’re done? Another we’re in a sub and then I blink. Oh, that’s over, too. Also, the creators must’ve taken a page from the last couple of seasons of Game of Thrones (which is an abysmal idea, don’t fucking do that) because with a few cuts here and there we went from Guam to China back to DC. Guess everybody learned how to teleport so they got exactly where we needed them to for the “climax”. Let’s talk about that climax: There was none. Let’s look at Degeneration and Damnation (no I won’t talk about Vendetta). Both had their weaknesses but Leon and the climaxes were BADASS. Leon doing parkour in Degeneration? Leon going against Lickers and the huge Tyrants in Damnation? Those were amazing scenes. He did a few cool things here and there but nothing that got more of a laugh out of me. My man is coming off re4 where he rampaged through a village, a castle, and an island of mutated creatures to save one girl. C’mon now. Characters: By now (if anybody is even reading this rant), you’ve noticed that I’ve talked a lot about Leon. But what about Claire? Yeah, they lied to us about them working together. She got sidelined again. A lot of people are upset about this -- and yeah, it sucks because I do love Claire. Leon has just happened to be my favorite since 1998 so I wasn’t as heartbroken. That doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed, I’m just not very surprised. Leon - My main problem with Leon is Nick, his voice actor. I’m so sorry for all those who like him, but he just isn’t good enough for me. Paul Mercier (re4, Degeneration, Darkside Chronicles) and Matt Mercer (Damnation, Re6, Vendetta) would have been more appropriate. Nick tries his best, but he’s just too soft sounding to be post-re4 Leon. This is a man who is quipping one-liners left and right a couple of years ago. Now he’s barely smiling and doesn’t feel confident at all, and I think a lot of that is because of his portrayal. There are times where the lines hit, but more often than not they fall flat. I never felt that way with Paul who is my favorite Leon or Matt who gave emotional performances every time. Also, his decision at the end? I can understand it, but explain to Claire! Claire - I like Stephanie as Claire, I have no problems with her. She makes her sound tough and ready to do what she thinks is right. Unfortunately, the story completely sidelines her and makes her role obsolete. Everything she uncovers (because that’s her role apparently, just there to Nancy Drew) is already told to us through flashbacks and other characters. Why even have her? Was it just to show us WHY her and Leon don’t talk often? A waste. Shen Mei - I don’t care. I felt nothing for her. They tried really hard, but they just failed to flesh these new characters out and when her time was up I once again went: Oh? That’s it, then. ‘Kay. I think I laughed a bit, sorry girl. Her whole plotline was to get that chip in Leon’s hand, nothing more. Jason - I don’t care. A character I thought I felt sorry for with his ptsd but nope. Once his story unfolded - messily, I might add (I hate the REPEATED flashback shit. Tell me once and stop teasing me.) I just went... okay, what the hell is your plan? To spread fear? ‘Kay. It was dumb and made no sense. What, he wants everyone to feel terror so they know? It needed to be clarified. It’s like they couldn’t figure out more synonyms for fear and terror. So, what? It helps keep Leon from going public with the chip and that information? Because he knows it’ll just cause mass hysteria? And then you’ve got Claire’s side - she’s not an agent and she believes the people have a right to know. They’re both right, but there’s no goddamn communication between ANYONE in this show. I just felt exhausted by it, nothing else. Not to mention it’s useless angst because of the plot of Degeneration. Wilson - Our bad guy. Let’s just sum up really quickly in case people were confused by the plot: He was putting infected soldiers into war zones so that even after they died they’d kill anybody involved, then he’d bomb the area and clean up the evidence. These soldiers didn’t show any symptoms because they had inhibitors that kept the virus at bay until they died, so they had to take regular shots to stay human. He’s the one who gets the zombies into the white house so that he could blame it on China and get the US into a war with them. That way he could send in his soldiers and infect the populace. From there, he’s the only one with the cure so he could rake in LOTS of money selling it to the world. AKA: he wants to use the US military to infect everyone so he can make a profit. He gets infected by Jason and gets away... then meets up with someone who gives him an inhibitor. This someone is working for Tricell, the big bads of re5 who work under Wesker. So it leads right into the fifth game. That’s all he is, a tie in and yet another example of someone in power trying to profit off the viruses of the RE world. Honestly, nobody else is worth mentioning. Animation: They’re getting better at it. Leon and Claire looked especially pretty, but there’s still a stiffness here and an issue with everyone’s mouths while they talk. I want to praise how different SOME of the characters look - the president and his aides all look appropriately aged and grizzled and distinct. Same with Jason. Other characters (side characters mainly) kinda look generic. Shen Mei for example isn’t very distinct. I mean, her grandpa and brother (both one scene wonders) were more realistic looking than she was. Even Claire - they gave her a bigger nose and made her look more in line with her Revelations 2 model (thank god I love that model). Movement was pretty fluid, I wish we’d seen more fighting and cool action -- though not to the extent of Vendetta. Maybe that’s what they were trying to avoid, but it didn’t make it any fun to watch. Enemies: This is the last thing I’ll comment on. The zombies were fine - they always are. I heard a ton of reused sounds from remake2, as well, but I thought of it as an Easter Egg more than anything. They looked good, their gore was good, all set there. Problem was, they were basically the only bad guys. That’s a huge fucking disappointment. I know people recognize this series as ‘the one with the zombies’ but that’s not true. Every game (save 7) had MULTIPLE enemy types all created through bio engineering. In this show we see three types. THREE. Zombies. Zombie rats - a one-scene wonder that Leon dispatches fast and easy. I’ll admit, they looked cool but there was nothing else to them. “They’re a bioweapon” and then Leon fries them all with some electricity and we’re done. Jason’s mutated form. Okay, I have to admit, I really loved his design. He was cool, I liked that he could talk and emote. But, other than that? He didn’t DO anything cool. He mutated once and hopped around a lot. That’s it. I mean, a bioweapon that keeps his mental capacities? C’MON! We could’ve done so much more with him. Again, this goes back to why the climax was so bad -- he and Leon didn’t fight. One jumped, the other ran around to catch up and fired a few bullets and a rocket at him. Then he used an acid bath to finish the job. (Also, explain to me WHY he mutated into a tyrant-like creature while everyone else with that specific virus was another form of zombie? We see Jun (Shen’s brother) mutating almost crystal-like at one point but... what? You leave them off for a while and they turn into crystal zombies? Make it make sense.) I’m sure there’s more to say, but honestly, unless you’re a hardcore RE fan like me, I’d say you can skip it. It wasn’t a fun ride, there weren’t any stakes, it wasn’t emotional... it just... was. I will end on one good note that made me smile, though: I loved seeing the Ashley Easter Egg.

#resident evil infinite darkness #resident evil: infinite darkness #resident evil #my opinion #Leon S. Kennedy #leon kenney #claire redfield

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murswrites · 4 years

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Bewitched ⎯ Luca Changretta Headcanon

Pairings: Luca Changretta x Shelby!Sister, Thomas Shelby x Shelby!Sister Fandom: Peaky Blinders MASTERLIST Warnings: Cursing SUMMARY: How Luca would go about changing the vendetta when he sees you. Request from anon: Headcanon for Luca Changretta where he sees the Shelby sister (John's age) for the first time in a meeting with Tommy and he falls for her so he has to rethink his plan? (edited)

A/N I really hope this is good? I never really focused on Luca’s character since he was a “villain” so... if this out of character, I do apologise.

Luca went to visit Thomas when he knew Tom would be alone. But alas, you were sat in the corner and Luca hadn’t seen you when he entered.

But when he did see you, Luca was sure his heart stopped for a moment

He hadn’t been aware of a second Shelby sister... in fact, he was sure Ada was the only female Shelby... how had he missed this very large fact?

Nobody knew who you were and you liked it that way, you are John’s twin sister and due to constant illness, you never left the Shelby home.

Luca found himself drawn into your beautiful eyes and immediately knew he had to take a step back to rethink his plan...

He couldn’t kill you, no... Luca knew he had to do something

When Tom started speaking, Luca acted like everything was normal, he ignored you and just sat down.

“I’d like to discuss my terms.”

“Fucking terms? You killed my brother and have the fucking gall to ask for more?”

Thomas drew his weapon as you watched in silence, you weren’t supposed to be at Tom’s office.

But you had to speak to him... maybe it was for the better you showed up?

“Yes, terms,”

Luca would pick at his teeth with his toothpick

“I want her. And the rest of your family is free to go.”

Your brother’s blazing eyes met yours and he shook his head no

“Can’t have her, off limits.”

“I don’t take no for an answer, Mr. Shelby. I will find a way to get her... don’t worry pretty girl, I’ll save you.”

Luca found you nearly a week later, alone at a pub and tried to get you to dance

“I don’t dance with strangers,”

“Luca Changretta, now we ain’t strangers, don’t leave me hanging.”

Despite how much you hated his family for murdering your twin, you didn’t want to risk your own life because of your stubbornness. So you agreed to one dance.

Luca surprised you, he was spectacular at dancing and soon enough it was nearing midnight.

You had to leave but he didn’t want to look at anything but you.

“I’ve got to go,”

“You never told me your name,”

You would smirk at him and although he was on the opposite side of a vendetta... you couldn’t help it.

“If I ever want to find you, Mr. Changretta, I have my ways.”

All in all, Luca was absolutely bewitched by you and couldn’t figure out why. He internally thought it had something to do with your gypsy blood... but at the same time, he saw something darker in your eyes.

Luca saw himself, his pain behind the piercing color of your eyes... and he wanted to remedy it.

#luca changretta x reader #luca changretta #luca changretta headcanon #luca changretta imagine #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders #peaky blinders x reader #luca changretta x shelby!reader #adrien brody #shelby!reader #thomas shelby x shelby!reader #thomas shelby

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someillplanetreigns · 3 years

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Shadow Play

Summary: Whilst a fake was sent to the Collector, Loki kept the real Aether on Asgard. This does not change the Asgardians' encounter with Thanos and the Black Order - except in the ways that it does. AU of the start of Avengers: Infinity War from the mid-credits scene of Thor: Ragnarok

Rating: T

Pairings: Loki & Thor

Tags and warnings: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence; Fix-It; Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies; Canon-Typical Violence; Blood and Violence; References to past trauma; Referenced suicide attempts (canonical)

You can also read on Ao3 here!

Thor’s muscles are locked, unable to look away as the Titan drops Loki’s limp body to the ground.

“No resurrections this time.”

The Titan raises his hand and the remnants of the ship – littered with the bodies of his people, with those he’d sworn to protect with his life – are hit with the force of the Power Stone. With a wave of blue Tesseract light, the Titan and his Order are gone as the ship fractures, splits apart. The monstrous vessel jumps away from them as the Statesman finally disintegrates.

And then disappears.

On the real Statesman, Loki sags beside him, catching the table to support himself.

“Don’t,” Loki says before Thor can do or say anything. “You should tell your people we’re safe.” He swallows, heaves a breath, manages to continue: “For the moment. We need to get to Earth. Establish New Asgard, make sure they’re safe. And be ready for the war that’s coming.”

“Loki –”

“Later.” Loki finally looks at him. “You can say it all later. Just – go and be King now.”

Thor puts his hand on Loki’s slumped shoulder. He doesn’t know what to say.

“You’ll be here? When I’ve spoken to them?”

Loki’s eyes close, and it almost feels like he leans away from Thor.

“Yes. Yes, I’ll be here.”

The enormous ship loomed before them. Thor thought he heard Loki swallow. He grasped at words.

Loki spoke first. A soft, rasping voice: “Tell them to cut the engines.”

“What?”

“Tell them to cut the engines,” he repeated, finally tearing his eyes from the hideous vessel to look at him. His eyes were wild, and he’d paled to an almost sickly degree. “Thor, I don’t have time to explain. You have to trust me. Please. Make them cut the engines.”

There was an aching chasm between them still, but Thor saw his brother; it was a rare moment where, silently, Loki was reaching across that chasm to him. Thor seized the comm and gave the order.

The former gladiator’s confusion crackled over the line. “What do you –”

“I said. Cut. The. Engines. Now,” he repeated tersely, eyes fixed on Loki.

Loki was facing the ship through the glass. As the Statesman went silent, his eyes closed and he drew a breath. And then from all around him there was a glow. Not the usual glow of Loki’s seidr, not the familiar green, but...

“Loki, no!”

“Ssh!” Loki hissed back, eyes snapping open. His eyes were black, consumed by the Aether. The aura around him glowed that horribly familiar dark red, the glow that ought not to have been a glow at all it was so much a thing of darkness.

For a wild, awful moment, Thor thought Loki was about to vanish, or to hand them all over, to betray them all, to betray him.

The leviathan that loomed over them blasted a beam. It hit... It hit a spot ahead of them, where they would have been had the engines not been turned off. Yet there was a ship within that beam – a ship that looked exactly like the Statesman.

“What’s going on?” It was the Valkyrie. He hadn’t even realised she’d come in, he had been so fixed on Loki.

He shook his head, helpless, indicated Loki and what could be seen through the window.

The Valkyrie swore.

“I need to see what they’re doing,” Loki said suddenly. The pitch of his voice was off, and it was gravelly, as though it pained him to talk. “You may not want to watch this part.”

With a twist of his fingers through the swirling dark aura, the window transformed, and they were seeing the inside of the Statesman. Soldiers like none he’d ever seen ripped into the ship. He watched himself – a copy of himself – blast them with lightning, and saw himself knocked aside by a blast of purple light.

Loki cursed. “He has the Power Stone.”

His fingers played through the Aether again, moving the copies of their crew like puppets. He was putting up a good fight. They were being cut down nonetheless.

Thor tore his eyes away to look at the Valkyrie. Her hand was resting on the hilt of her sword.

“Keep the people calm,” he ordered.

“Heimdall’s ahead of you. He’s gathered them in the bay in case we need to evacuate.”

“Good. Keep them ready to move. For now...”

Valkyrie nodded in Loki’s direction. “For now, he’s handling it?”

“Tell them.” As he spoke, a spray of blood hit the illusory Statesman’s floor. “Spare them the details.”

She nodded, glanced at Loki once more, and ran back to join the gathered refugees.

What Loki played out on that copy of the Statesman wrought by the Reality Stone... Thor never could have imagined anything like it. And it was so lifelike...

Sparks crackled around his knuckles, and he had to breathe deeply through his nose to suppress the roiling storm that what he was seeing raised in the pit of his stomach.

He watched the copy of himself say, “You really are the worst, brother.” And those became the last words he said to Loki...

Thor burnt the suppressed bolt of lightning into his palm.

He hadn’t been sure Loki would still be there, despite what he’d said. He feels guilty for that when he sees Loki there, folded into one of the ostentatious chairs with a tumbler of the spirit they’d found on the ship.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Loki says, waving the glass in the air. His tone implies he doesn’t truly care whether Thor minds or not; he is so wry, so nonchalant...

Thor has a thousand other, more pressing questions to ask, but the one that bubbles up in that moment, almost to the point of him voicing it, is when exactly that prickly armour of disdain had appeared. He’d never been like that as a child. What was it Thor had missed?

A great deal, most likely.

“Well?” Loki says over the rim of the tumbler. “Aren’t you going to let me have it?”

“Are you alright?”

Loki gives him a bemused look. “Well the vintage leaves something to be desired, but...”

“I mean the Aether, Loki.”

“The one I had your dear companions take to Knowhere was a fake, obviously.”

“It could have consumed you. Are you hurt?”

Loki lowers the glass. At length he says, “No, I’m not hurt. I spent the time you were gone learning how I could harness it. I’d been anticipating a... confrontation with Thanos for some time. I worked out how to channel the Aether through my own seidr. I can safely contain it in a pocket dimension and pop it out when needs must.”

“Who is this Thanos?”

“You heard the one called Ebony Maw’s little spiel.” Loki’s stillness, his movements, his words, his silences... everything about him has the quality of a knife’s edge.

“He was the one who sent you to attack Earth?”

Loki makes a vague gesture with the tumbler. “Something like that.”

“Were you one of the... what did he call them? The Children of Thanos?”

“What do you think?”

He may as well still be consumed by the Aether he is so darkly unreadable.

Thor lowers himself into the other chair. “I think they sound like a cult. That’s not like you.”

Loki makes a bitter sound in the back of his throat and drains the glass. He pours himself another and slides the bottle across the table to Thor.

“Too much a megalomaniac to serve, eh,” Loki says to his drink.

“Loki, what did –”

“Can we just skip to the part where you berate me for endangering everyone with my reckless power lust by retaining two Infinity Stones on my person?”

“I – berate you?”

“Surely you’re itching to.”

“No!”

Loki raises a mocking brow. “Oh, come on. It was reckless, selfish, a damning and yet utterly typical indication of my lack of care for anyone but myself and my continuing, indeed truly ingrained criminality.”

“No one else was thinking about the risks with the Infinity Stones. What would have happened, if the Tesseract had been left on Asgard when it was destroyed?”

Loki sighs. He speaks almost reluctantly. “There’s no knowing for certain. My supposition is that it would have opened a wormhole so big it would have swallowed all nine realms.”

“And that fake Aether on Knowhere, that will buy us some time?”

“Some. It was... a challenge to forge convincingly. It should generate illusions but not do anything tangible. That seemed... safest.”

“And you gave him a fake Tesseract too?”

“A considerably inferior fake. I used the real Tesseract for their grand finale, but he’ll realise very soon that it’s not doing what he wants it to. So we need to get away.”

“We should be prepared to face him again?”

“We need to get to Earth. There are two more Infinity Stones there. We can set your people up as safely as possible, and then... well, what you’ve been preparing for all your life.”

“A war, you mean?”

“Yes. Finally your chance to wipe out monsters.”

Thor lays a hand on his shoulder. Loki tenses.

“Loki...” Thor hunts for words. “Asgard is your people too. It’s because of you that that,” he gestures to the window, “didn’t really happen to us.”

“It’s also because of me that it nearly did.”

“But you prevented it.”

“Self-preservation.”

It takes Thor a moment to push the words out. Finally, he says, “And will you continue to... self-preserve?”

Loki barks a dry laugh. “Are you asking for advanced warning of my betraying you?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“On the Bifrost, and on Svartalfheim...”

Loki puts his tumbler down very slowly and carefully. “What are you implying?”

“I don’t want to lose you, Loki.”

He makes a derisive noise in the back of his throat. “You have a very strange way of demonstrating such.”

“I know I’ve... I’m sorry.”

Loki determinedly does not look at him.

“Selfishly, I want you fighting at my side in... whatever we’re going into. But if this Thanos has some sort of vendetta against you...”

“There’s nowhere I can hide.”

At length, he meets Thor’s eye. And it is then that Thor knows. Had they really faced Thanos, Loki would have subjected himself to the same fate as his simulation: his life for as many who could be spared as possible.

“We’ll fight together, then.”

“Your Avengers will clap me in irons on sight.”

“They can try,” Thor says.

Loki rolls his eyes. “And you’re going to oppose them, are you? In a time when you need their full support? You saw what we’d be up against.”

“It won’t be me alone. All of Asgard will stand with you.”

The look Loki gives him is painful: like he is searching for deception in what Thor said. But at last he purses his lips and gripes, “Mad, the lot of you.”

But he doesn’t argue.

#this is my writing tag #shadow play fic #infinity war au #violence cw #please read the tags in the description!

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sarasapen · 4 years

Text

Batfamily Playing Among Us

This was in my notes so I figured why not. I have a lot of ideas for this that I could turn into a mini series. Hope you guys like this

Headcanons of how the bat family play among us

how the best detective family in the world plays a randomly generated detective game

they’re super competitive and its a life or death situation in their minds, trying to one up each other and prove who the best detective is

anyone who thinks that relationships have nearly been broken over this are absolutely correct because they’re,, so,,,, petty,,,,,,,,,,,

Dick, Dark Blue

vv trusting of Damian

Is heartbroken when Damian stabs him in the very first game

No matter how many times Damian kills him, or how suspicious he is, Dick chalks it up to ‘coincidence’

With Bruce, on the other hand, if he was so much as on the same side of the map as the body, Dick was voting him out

He gives away when he’s imposter with Damian because he gets really happy.

likes to team up with babs to troll sometimes

Jason, Red

he smirks when he kills

Swears when he is killed

Uses the ‘I’ve died before so you should keep me alive now’ tactic

Also exacts revenge

When he’s imposter, people die in the order of who killed Jason in previous games, but he can still have vv good arguments

Surprisingly good team of Imposters with Bruce.

(he pretends to hate it but he gets vv fuzzy inside whenever Bruce mentions teaming up with Jay-lad is his favourite)

(Jason likes to be B's partner, and B likes to be J's partner no one can convince me otherwise)

Tim, Orange

half asleep most of the time so barely manages to say anything, but when he’s the slightest bit awake, he’s no. 1 target because he finds the imposter in like a minute flat

Scary when imposter

has lost only his first game as imposter

he has a perfect plan and his partners usually just run around and don’t interfere

The only thing scarier that Tim being imposter is Tim being imposter with Damian.

the two of them are kings of double kill

those fuckers get everyone before people realise they're dead

how do they do it?

no one knows

Damian, Lime

rage when he’s crew mate

rage when imposter

will always vote for Tim no matter what

Even when they’re both imposters, he has to keep up the illusion

The pair of them are brutal, with Tim manning the traps and sabotages, and Damian being the ultimate master of venting

The pair have yet to lose a game.

Damian ironically hates being imposters with Bruce and Dick

Dick is always hovering, and Daddy dearest usually doesnt know how to press two buttons at the same time

(that moment when Dick kills him and Bruce was there and did nothing because he was also imposter has nothing to do with his vendetta against them)

Barbara, Cyan

poker face, vv good imposter

Queen of electrical

She’s always somehow near electrical

Someone died in the reactor? I was near electrical

Lights go off? Dw guys babs got it

She’s always the one that finds bodies in the electrical

Always

And when she’s imposter, you bet she’ll use electrical to stack kill and pin it on Dick.

works extremely well with Alfred

they usually convince Steph of their innocence and she third imposters for them

you’d think she’d learn

Stephanie, Purple

snorts every time she kills Bruce/Tim or finds their dead bodies

Usually humming, and is the person that swears as a body is reported because she was in the middle of a task

When she’s imposter, she immediately goes for reactor, kills the first person there, and then self reports as soon as someone else walks in

also the person that will call emergency meeting on someone else, and panic, and get kicked out bcz she's just. like that,,

Cassandra, Yellow

Quiet, speaks only when necessary, either to defend herself or to report a body

good in both tasks and killing

Usually when she’s imposter she can survive without suspicion until about half the crew is dead

Plays best imposter with Duke, who plays in a very similar manner to her

When the team can’t tell if it’s her or Duke, odds are that it’s both of them

Unlike Duke, however, Cass is never seen

This drew suspicions the first few games, before they realised she was just avoiding everyone to avoid being killed

is rarely killed by imposters because of this

kinda weird though, because with everyone playing, you’d think someone would see her around at least once

Duke, White

king of being precisely where he needs to be when he needs to be

Happens to see Jason walk out of a room where Bruce’s dead body is

Happens to be near a vent when Steph pops out

he just happens to be everywhere

and everyone can vouch for him?

It’s rather unnerving.

rlly scary when he plays imposter with Cass because everyone can say Duke is innocent and no one can say Cass is guilty

Alfred, Dark green

on the rare occasions that he plays, no one suspects him ever

Vv quiet, doesn’t participate in discussion and never needs to

not even to defend himself

they just dont vote for him even if it is him?

Bruce, Black

the first few games everyone just kicks him for fun

doesn’t realise ghost tasks are a thing

doesn’t realise venting is a thing either

He actually goes ‘how do I vent like Jason did?’

And gets a book thrown at his head

Very competent as Imposter, however, once he figures out how to play

Not the best, but no one (save Damian) is upset if they’re imposters with Bruce

(Bruce likes being imposters with Jason because the pair of them have an unspoken routine that is very nostalgic for the old man.)

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bunny--ships · 2 years

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😍 😘 🎤 💤 🌌 💐 for Sabo ~ rebeccaselfships

thank you rebecca!!!

😍: Name your three favorite things about your f/o

UGH i'm totally outting myself here but. i really like the chivalrous/princelike type trope. like. an absurd amount, and it's what i think first drew me to him. i also love his ideals and how he's very vocal about his anarchist, anti-government nature (that part where he says "these claws are made for tearing apart the authority of an arrogant government" i just 😳😳)

but i think most of all is his relationship with luffy that makes me love him. the way he puts his baby brother over everything else in his life is something that i think says a lot about him. if you're family, if he loves you, he'll literally raze the earth just to make sure you're safe.

i have way more than 3 favorites this was so unbelievably difficult A

😘: What’s your f/o’s favorite thing about YOU?

UGH sabo's a little shit he'd love how easy it is to fluster me. my s/i, jackel, is kind of um. "tsundere"-ish (my sincerest apologies for uttering that term in this house of god btw) and tries really hard to suppress her affection for him, but like. all he has to do is act charming and flirt just a little and she just curls up into an embarrassed little corn cob its awful actually . he thinks it's cute, though, and loves seeing the exterior crack to reveal how much she actually cares for him

🎤: Describe your f/o’s voice

> guy whose only seen the dub im so sorry im a horrible multitasker i cannot watch subtitles and pay attention at the same time

sabo is currently voiced by johnny yong bosch in the funimation dub of one piece, and i know people have this weird vendetta against dub actors, but i really think johnny fits sabo perfectly. it's a great mix of boyish charm and his voice literally radiates confidence and really gives off the impression of a protector and a leader while still sounding appropriately fitting for a guy still in his early 20s.

also johnny yong bosch voiced like. one of my very first f/o's when i was in high school so i think i may have a slight bias..

💤: Do you sleep together? If so, describe your sleeping positions and patterns (E.g. who steals the blankets, are either of you insomniacs, etc.)

jackel and sabo are Rarely ever physically together, what with sabo being in the revolutionaries and jackel being a pirate. but i am extremely soft for him and i really like to imagine tropey scenarios where he's joining the straw hats on some sort of adventure and he likes sleeping together with jackel literally anytime the opportunity presents itself.

sabo's a cuddler for sure, he likes to hold jackel close and rub her arms while he drifts off. it's heaven for him but also he's quite literally a human fucking furnace so jack never gets any sleep this way and has to fucking wiggle her way out of his death grip so she doesn't die of heat exhaustion. sabo gets so unbelievably pouty everytime this happens.

🌌: What was your first date like?

so i actually have this extremely unrealistic and self-indulgent au where jackel was at baltigo with robin during the timeskip and he grows really close with sabo after they trade stories about luffy together while sabo recovers from his sudden memory resurgence.

at some point in the au, sabo literally climbs up to the window of where jackel sleeps at the base and basically strongarms him to come along with him while he sneaks out for some reason. when jackel reluctantly agreed, sabo lifted him bridal style and just jumped from the window which actually nearlyfuckign caused jackel to die of a heart attack.

it turned out that there was a meteor shower going on over the beach. sabo had overheard some officers say that they were expecting a very unique one that only happens once in a lifetime, and he wanted to see it with jackel. it was pretty much right there while they were under the moonlight together that the two realized "oh"

💐: How did you two meet?

*sweats as i stare at the above au*

canonically, they met at dressrosa, specifically in the coliseum. jackel could feel some sort of disturbance in the building because of his haki, and when he went to go investigate, he found himself face to face with donquixote grunts that were harassing sabo after catching him sneaking in, and he rushes in to defend him cus well fuck those guys.

sabo's pretty unbothered with the whole situation, and doesn't really do anything until jackel steps in just in case he gets hurt. it's after the grunts are taken care of that sabo grins and introduces himself as luffys brother and jackel just stares at him like

#THIS WAS SO LONG.SORRY. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS MAN #rebeccaselfships #ask game #❤️ sabo

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ghosttrolls · 3 years

Text

Haunted House

I finally finished what I was planning on posting for Halloween! I’ve posted it on AO3 and FFN; here’s a little bit of what I wrote. Click one of these links to read the full thing!

Danny had had enough. It was almost Halloween, and everyone was planning on going to a haunted house. Dash talked about it while he shoved Danny in his locker, Valerie mentioned it while she shot at him when he was in ghost form, and he was sick of it. He always had to hold his tongue, and it got the most annoying in October. Everyone was talking about ghosts, about their plans. He always felt like he’d been through worse, been more terrified, seen more ghosts, in his daily life. But he couldn’t tell anyone he was the Ghost Boy, even when everyone kept shoving him around. All that power and he had to keep it under wraps.

He wanted to go to a haunted house himself. But which one? What would that change? It never did anything for him usually, anyway. The house he lived in was already haunted.

Suddenly, he had an idea. His own house was already haunted! Why not make his own haunted house? The scariest haunted house ever, the talk of the town. A haunted house with real ghosts!

The truth is, he longed so much for some kind of recognition from his peers. He had his two best friends, sure, but when the entire rest of the school has personal vendettas against at least one version of you, it can get demoralizing. Everyone at school would look at him weird, or would say or do something to demonize the Ghost Boy. But there were two people who were the biggest thorns in his side: Valerie Grey and Dash Baxter.

The way Valerie would look at him in the hall was so different than how she looked at him when they were fighting. She hunted him as a ghost, but didn’t know he was also her classmate. At school, she almost looked ashamed, like she was sorry they drifted apart, bashful at the few short weeks they had together a long time ago. But in battle, her eyes filled with rage, her voice only telling him she hated him, and he felt that so much stronger. The missed connection pulled at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to even be friends with someone who wanted to kill him. He wondered how she would feel if she found out he was the Ghost Boy… he couldn’t even guess how she’d react.

And Dash was just a terror. He’d found so many unspeakable ways to humiliate Danny over the years - even before high school. What he found so repulsive about Danny, he couldn’t figure out - but there was something that Dash hated, or maybe envied? He could never figure it out. The rivalry was strong, and constant, and it would be so easy to use his ghost powers against Dash. He could win. It would be so easy. But he knew he shouldn’t.

Still, maybe he could stick it to them and everyone else by throwing the best haunted house in Amity Park. Dash was known for doing pretty average hauntings, and one time Valerie hosted one that was killer, but her dad got so mad at her she wasn’t allowed to do it again.

He cracked his knuckles and began brainstorming.

After school on Halloween night, the line to get into Danny’s house was longer than expected. Everyone wanted to be scared, terrified, or to prove it wasn’t scary at all.

Dash was first in line, of course. He was first in everything (as long as it wasn’t academic). The line was long behind him, chatter filling the air as everyone started getting impatient. Would it just start already?

As he peered in the windows, he realized the lights were off. The sun was down, and it was peak haunting time. “Is this place even open?” he wondered aloud, trying the doorknob. It was unlocked. Dash turned the knob and pushed open the door, peering into an eerie darkness.

“Creepy,” said Kwan, who was behind Dash in line. “I didn’t sign up for this! I’m going to the house on First Street.” Most of the other people in line followed him. What was the point of waiting for a haunted house that could be closed all night?

Dash stayed. He was going to prove Fenton sucked as bad as he said he did. If he was wrong about something like that, his social standing at school could take a hit. And he didn’t have anything else. He turned back to the open door. Lights from the street shined in the doorway, highlighting floating dust bits, but there wasn’t much else to see from outside.

“Well?” said a voice behind him. He turned around and it was Valerie, a girl who’d been part of the popular clique. She’d been booted when she couldn’t afford as many expensive things after her dad lost his job. “Are you going in there or are you just going to stand there looking stupid?”

Dash tensed, trying to scoff. “Stupid, shmoopid.” He took a step forward, and hesitated again.

Valerie drew in air through her clenched jaw. “I forgot you don’t just look it. Look, I’ll go first, if you’re such a wimp about it, alright?” She pushed her way ahead of Dash before he could react. It was so dark, her eyes couldn’t adjust. She took out her phone and turned on the flashlight.

#ghostly posts #danny phantom #my writing #dp fic #blood mention #there's a bit more story under the readmore but i cannot fit the whole thing #so you just get a taste here on tumblr. sorry #danny fenton #valerie gray #dash baxter #vlad plasmius #click one of my links at the top for the whole fic!

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