#yes he did say that thing about not finding the right person thing to isaac but i don't think he meant anything malicious by it!!

[literallycarrie]

if james mcewan has a million fans i'm one of them. if james mcewan has five fans i'm one of them. if james mcewan has one fan that one is me. if james mcewan has no fans i'm no longer alive. if the world is against james mcewan then i'm against the entire world.

#seriously though i love him and his autism swag #yes he did say that thing about not finding the right person thing to isaac but i don't think he meant anything malicious by it!! #i honestly think he was just trying to reassure isaac but doesn't know a lot about aromanticism #and i'm hoping he can learn more next season!! #but i honestly think he's a really sweet kid :) #james mcewan #heartstopper #hstv #heartstopper tv #heartstopper netflix #heartstopper s2 #heartstopper season 2 #hstv season 2 #hstv s2 #heartstopper spoilers #<- for the tags #lova's terrible posts

[elbiotipo]

Worldbuilding: Galactic Empires

My only complaint about the Prequels is that they needed MORE politics

If you've watched Dune recently, you must have noticed the whole Emperor and space noble families thing. And yes, it's likely you heard that in WH40k too… and I HOPE you know that's where the God Emperor came from, since WH40k took "inspiration" from everywhere from Dune to Star Wars. Which also has a Galactic Empire. Like so many other science fiction franchises.

In fact, if you're a science fiction fan, it's very likely that you're familiar with space or galactic empires, they seem to be common as dragons in fantasy. Despite the fact that an empire doesn't sound very futuristic, does it?

Where did all these Galactic Empires come from? Are they just a narrative tool or are they an actual possibility? How would states and societies work in space? Let's find out, and maybe I can give you some ideas on how to write fun galactic "empires" from both a narrative and plausibility perspective.

This is going be a long post. Perhaps my longest yet. But I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Click down to continue.

First of all, where did these space emperors come from? In another post, I've talked about the influence of the idea of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in English-language fiction. However, in science fiction, I would say the influence is more direct. The Foundation trilogy of Isaac Asimov, one of the foundational (lol) works of science fiction, was intended by the author, very explicitly, as a retelling of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon in a science fiction setting. He probably wasn't the first to think about a space empire, I'm very sure the term is older, but he certainly popularized it as a staple of science fiction. Now, if your contact with science fiction comes from movies, when you hear Galactic Empire you're of course thinking about Star Wars. But yes, Star Wars is also the same retelling, because Lucas was inspired in both Asimov AND Gibbon, even though I think we should appreciate Lucas' ability to bring it to life in the screen. Certainly, Isaac Asimov wasn't the first or the last to take inspiration in history to tell stories about the future.

The most influential science fiction work of all time.

At this point you're probably telling me (or not, I don't know you) about all other sorts of science fiction works that DON'T have galactic empires, or better yet, those that don't just transpose historical societies into the far future and imagine something entirely new (my personal recommendations on this area are Banks and LeGuin). And you'd be right. But the concept of a space empire seems popular and long-lived, much like feudalism in the fantasy genre, everyone has a picture of a sorts when a videogame or a book talks about a "galactic empire" or "galactic republic" or a "federation", an "empire" much like a shorthand name for "a country In Space", regardless of the presence of an actual Emperor or not. And so, it's worth exploring how this trope could, or not, work, so we can see the possible alternatives or more fun ways to approach it.

Besides, that's the title of the post. Galactic Empires.

So, let's approach this from the perspectives of Space, Time (or to keep with the theme, Spacetime) and Technology, and lastly, the most fun part, we'll explore some fun variations on this idea of galactic empires and societies.

Space:

Space is big, and I won't quote the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy here, it would be groanworthy at this point. Let's do a quick exercise instead. Let's image a "modest" space empire, not even galactic, 2000 light-years across. Sounds quite big, it encompasses most of the visible stars we can see from Earth… however, if you project it into a galactic map, it's actually a very small piece of sky, actually 2% of the entire galaxy which is about 100.000 ly across. Now, according to the Atlas of the Universe, there are 600 million stars in a 5000 ly radius from the Sun. Jesus Christ. This is actually hard to estimate accurately as the true number of red dwarfs and brown dwarfs, the dimmest stars, are hard to count, but we already know those have planetary systems as complex as our own Solar System, even planets that could bear life. Let's scale back to our 2000 ly across space empire, again, just a small cozy corner of the Milky Way Galaxy, something that would look like a small, even tiny, nation in any setting of a galactic scale. This gives us 240 million stars (from the estimated 200 billion stars of the galaxy) in this space, which is still completely insane but let's work with that.

From Atlas of the Universe, so you can compare and contrast, the stars 2000 ly from the sun (ONLY the brightest ones), and the entire Milky Way. Notice how small 2000 light years truly are at that scale.

Even if I just told you that all of those systems might be as complex and rich as the Solar System, let's rather arbitrarily say only 5% of those 240 million are worth of note. Not necessarily having life (no way I'm getting into that yet), just worth visiting or living in for the resources or the views or the cantinas… whatever. That's 12 million star systems. Okay, let's refine this further. Let's say of those 12 million, most of them are the equivalent of gas stations or farmsteads, a couple thousand people at most. The REAL places where the action happens are the systems or worlds where millions of people live, and those are few and far between (this makes both common and narrative sense, as people tend to cluster in population centers where trade, resources, etc. are). Let's say, and let's refine this further so I don't get outrageous numbers, the average population of those systems is 100 million (about the size of Mexico, Vietnam or Japan. Many sci-fi works throw worlds of billions like Earth like nothing). And those systems are… uh, like 2% of THOSE 5% 'systems of note' (a flimsly concept already but play along). That's 2% of 12 million. We got 240.000 systems or worlds the population size of entire countries, with all that implies (economy, culture, politics). Of course, 240.000 multiplied 100 million gives this speculative fictional empire a total population of… (Jesus Christ, not the scientific notations), 2.4e+13, or TWENTY FOUR TRILLION PEOPLE.

Let's wind back and remember I tried my best to make a "small" empire for a galactic-sized setting, 2000 light-years across, that's just from here to Orion's Nebula for Gagarin's sake! A trillion people is just outside the realm of my imagination, or pretty much anyone's. Can you imagine any kind of goverment system that would be enough to provide any kind of meaningful governance to 24 trillion people? In the case of a space empire, can you imagine a single space emperor, a single person, deciding over them? Keep in mind that emperors don't rule on their own (we'll talk about that), they need bureacrats to make their will done, and vassals to govern their territories in their stead. This would apply even in democratic systems, you need representatives and civil servants and more.

Let's scale back a bit before I go insane. Instead of assuming territory, let's go with population. Assume a spherical cow space empire of… 40 billion people, that's reasonable right? You can picture that in your head? Five times the population of current Earth, no biggie, we can work with that, it's all cool. Now, how big would a goverment for such a population would have to be? We actually have reasonable answers. China has about 10 million civil servants for a population of 1.4 billion people, but that's only the administrators, not including all the teachers, healthcare workers, security forces, laborers, etc. employed by the state. India has 6.4 million for about the same population. Okay, so easy math, let's say that this space empire has 6 million bureacrats for 1 billion people, for our empire of 40 billion people, that gives us a total of 240 million… just bureacrats, nothing else. Yes, you could reduce that with technology by say, half. It still means an entire Mexico-sized country of bureacrats. Imagine.

Entire worlds of this.

NOW I WILL STOP THROWING NUMBERS AT YOU, and let's just think about what this means. If we assume a space empire like the ones common in science fiction, or just any kind of… goverment at all, we're talking about, at the lowest estimates, entire countries worth of state employees, if not whole EARTHS of bureacrats. You can guess how things can get really weird fast. Current goverments as we know them just won't work at all it even if technology gets more powerful. Leaving aside, for now, things like god-like AI adminstration (yeah, have you seen what they are like now?)… to exhert ANY kind of control, FTL or not (more on that below) you would need a very, very autonomous empire, to the point it might as well not exist at all. Why take orders from A Guy who is not only far away but also has no hope at all of actually enforcing them in any meaningful sense? Why call yourself part of his "empire" that not only cannot enforce anything upon you, but also cannot benefit you in any way? Big question, of course, the benefit of a galactic or even smaller empire, but we'll discuss that later.

What could work, however, is that instead of a centralized state like we concieve it today, or even a loose confederation, even loose alliances, even pretty much anything… 'empires' (as in 'countries') In Space could be "united" by common ideas and culture instead of any institution. Perhaps not even a written delcration or constitution, but shared ideas: a culture, a religion, an ideology. Lots of different strong mini-states (that might mean billions of people…) that all claim to be part of the same "civilization", but share no goverment at all at all, just the same 'idea', in a looser way that even the most decentralized goverments you can think of. You can say "well all countries are made up" but these would barely qualify as even that. Not even the Holy Roman Empire was this fake.

Perhaps even a single person as a symbolic focus point of unity? Which would be actually a score for the proponents of galactic empires in the most literal sense. But at the same time, such an Emperor would be completely powerless to interact with the entire galaxy. His plans for, I don't fucking know, education reform or tax breaks, would have to be filtered by literal millions of bureaucrats and vassals that at that point might do whatever the hell on his name. Military-wise, his armies would count as nations of their own. However, the overall guidance of a single person (or constitution…) as a symbol might make otherwise disparate worlds to collaborate on the same causes, being part of the same greater whole no matter the distance. So maybe, instead of a Galactic Emperor, a Space Pope?

OH MY GOD-EMPEROR WAS THE IMPERIUM REALISTIC ALL ALONG? Probably not, but also yes, let's keep talking.

By the way, I'm sure you're tired of big numbers now, but I did one possible calculation for the whole galaxy, a true Galactic Empire. Asuming just 0.2% (400 million) of the 200 billion stars are populated, with an average population of one million, the size of the smallest countries that aren't micronations. The total galactic population would be 40 trillion, or 40,000,000,000,000. Five thousand Earth populations.

Time:

Or rather, space-time. We'll talk about both, because what concern us is the speed of information and trade, and that also limits the size of our empires.

I'm sure you know by now faster-than-light travel is impossible. Most of space based science fiction has it, of course, for narrative purposes. We don't want Our Heroes to spend two thousand years to get to the lair of the Evil Space Tyrant, I don't either, and I'll discuss FTL soon. But let's start with no-FTL here, just like in real life, and a smaller "empire", much, much smaller than my previous examples. A mere 250 light years across. Let's not even calculate population now.

This, quite logically, means that the fastest your communications would flow is at light speed. So if your emperor issues orders to a nearby world, say, 5 ly away, you will get an answer 5 years later. For a more reasonable distance of 60 ly, you would know the results 60 years from the descendants of those who recieved the order (now, assume however they keep in constant conversation, just with a 60 year delay), and by then, things there would have changed 60 years from the capital. You get the idea, Einstein sucks, don't need to elaborate more. At first glance, this might be another point for old-style feudal star empires, though. What better way to guarantee your empire is working well over centuries than by having an hereditary class of nobles loyal to you, no matter how much time passes (results may vary). Of course, how would you even enforce that? Rebels might overthrow them and you'll learn about it a century later, and you'll have to send ships to quash the rebellion… or would you?

Is there a point to send ships to conquer other worlds in such a situation? What kind of resources (ah, the lifeblood of empires) could you control with such an empire where transport takes decades and industry is so developed you could, theoretically, make manufactured goods yourself? I'm assuming you can, because you can build spaceships to get there in the first place (not unreasonable), but what would justify creating an interstellar goverment controlling people, trade, resources, over light-decades? Normally, it's at this point where sci-fi authors make up Something (what Atomic Rockets calls "McGuffinite") to justify interstellar trade. In Dune, for example, it's Spice, which is kind of like, to steal a joke, petroleum mixed with cocaine. But otherwise, in a no-FTL setting (so, real life as far as we know) there isn't really the incentive to conquer or even form a goverment of any but the looser kind with other worlds. Trade, maybe, but those are long-term investments, it's difficult to think what kind of good or service would be so in demand would justify it. Especially when you consider that light-speed is your upper limit, and ships might be actually way slower than that. And I'm not even gonna begin to touch relativistic effects.

I was going to make a joke about blowing a quarter of your GDP in Star Destroyers, but have you heard of the South American Dreadnought Race? One of our dumbest moments down here, surely.

Add FTL, and things change, of course. Even very slow ships, that would take months to transverse a dozen light years, would be able to justify trade in luxury goods and passengers, for instance. This is not too far from real-life either, after all, European colonial empires had travel times in the months, and they had to install local administrations such as viceroys because of this, yet rhose places they were considered part of the same empire (most European empires could be rather considered a collection of "countries" and colonies, look at all the divisions of the Spanish Empire for instance). Faster and cheaper ships would of course, mean even more trade (here, I'm using 'trade' as 'communication between worlds', not necessarily implying capitalism, it could be mercantilism or even a command economy) between worlds, even perhaps the classic trope of agrarian and mining worlds feeding the rich core worlds. The Open Veins of Latin America In Space. Fun.

The speed of your ships and communications not only determines trade, but the power projection of your state (we can discuss 'stateless' societies too, there's plenty of fun to be had). If, again, your Galactic Emperor makes a Galactic Proclamation from the Galactic Palace near the Galactic Core (let's roll with that) and he has no FTL communications of any kind, it means that his commanding voice would reach the outer edges of the galaxy 100.000 years after, that is, almost ten times the history of agriculture on Earth. If he, however, has access to ships that can cross the galaxy in say, months, yes, perhaps he can have a series of vassals all over the stars (perhaps, we'll see…), and the faster things are, the closer they resemble our current fast-paced society, but not quite, given the available resources and space in… SPACE and the possible population, as we discussed above. As you can see, the speed of your FTL or lack of it determines everything.

There is another, more *realistic* option. Instead of individual FTL ships, you could have wormhole portals connecting worlds. This is more realistic in the sense that it's theoretically possible (though we have no idea on how to make one), but it also has some interesting implications. First of all, there is an implication that such a wormhole network would be expensive to build and maintain, requiring highly complex technology, material (I'm not sure what the hell exotic matter really is) and production methods, well, more high than what you'd expect from the usual. Second, it would be something preferably fixed, with hubs, planned routes and regular transit (and for writers, it easily allows you to map your universe). Such networks would be vital pieces of infrastructure, built and maintained by central authorities, drawing routes and transport hubs in space. Yes, indeed, almost like… space railroads.

OH MY ASTRAL EXPRESS WAS HONKAI STAR RAIL REALISTIC ALL ALONG? (last joke I promise)

There is also a very strange effect about wormhole networks. Time is relative, as you know, and this is not a metaphor, it literally "flows" differently on how fast you're moving. The "universal" "speed" of "time" "seems" to be the speed at which matter moves in an expanding universe (red-shift and blue shift) as I understand it, but as you approach light-speed, time flows differently in your frame of reference. Wormholes are strange in the sense that they connect space AND time, the observable time in both sides of a wormhole would be the same, and as such, places connected by a wormhole network will "be" at the same "time". This has been talked about by some authors who have considered about wormholes in the context of space civilizations, and it's called (STOP!) Empire Time. So a space empire might not only imply a state ruling over a population and a territory, but also over a time. I have no idea how this works and it frankly makes my head hurt, but here is an analysis of transversable wormholes if you want to indulge or hit your head against a wall.

Technology:

As an extension from the previous section: Of course there is no working FTL method known in real life, as far as we know, light-speed is the upper limit for everything. Instead of constraining you as a writer, this can be one of your biggest assets.

Because if you're doing a space setting, the existence of faster-than-light travel and its speed is the most important decision you can take about it.

Got that? Did I emphasize that enough? You don't need to actually explain HOW your FTL system works, you can do some research and invent something, but you need to be clear, in your head, what it can DO: How far and how fast it can take you. A FTL system that takes months to go from star to star will be very different to one that takes hours to span the Galaxy like the hyperdrive of the Millenium Falcon. A FTL system that is cheap and can be installed in any tiny ship like in the Elite videogame would be different from the ones in Dune where interstellar travel requires enormous motherships and lots of drugs, or a wormhole network that needs massive infrastructure maintainment and probably a railway starway worker's union, or the case of no FTL at all. This is, again, the most important decision you could make for your setting, bar none. Got that? Let's continue.

FTL is perhaps the only place in science fiction where I don't care about how it works, only about how fast it goes

Now, technology. Space empires, are of course, not possible without space travel being cheap enough (not talking about FTL, just regular space travel): shipping stuff to space should be about the same as shipping stuff by airliner or, well, ships. This is not unreasonable. Efforts are being made right now to lower the cost to access space, and while space agencies like NASA might look expensive, they are not NEARLY as expensive as the money wasted in say, stealth jet fighters or fucking advertising (people who say 'why spend so much money in space when we could fix our problems on Earth' seem to forget about that all the time. But I digress.). A technologically advanced, wealthy (as in production, not literal dollars) society could easily afford as much space exploration as they wish with no real effect at all in their quality of life, indeed, it would improve it. Space isn't as expensive as it seems. At its very, very core, a spaceship is just steel and propellant.

And steel and propellant are very, very easy (once you got the technical research to do it) to get in space. Asteroids are MADE of iron and metals, a single asteroid is richer than all of Earth's mines combined. Hydrogen is literally the most abundant element in the universe, and water is on plentiful supply (no need to steal planets for water) on comets and icy asteroids and moons. Carbon is apparently widely available in carbonaceous asteroids, and in our own Solar System, Titan, the moon of Saturn, is basically covered in hydrocarbons (yes, OIL IN SPACE). All those resources could be very much in demand for manufacturing on a planet like for example, a future Earth that has taken its industry up to space. What's more, it's only bringing stuff up from Earth/an Earth-like or more massive planet (fun sci-fi term for you: "down the gravity well") that's really expensive. Once you get there, you can get anywhere with enough acceleration and propellant. Once there is space infrastructure and industry (and I get a feeling that it might get up fast, given that space technology would need to be very autonomous and reliable), it can sustain itself without a mother planet. In fact, if there's something I imagine would be considered a luxury in spacer life, it would be truly organic things; plants, wood, meat, wool, and so much more.

i am average astronaut man i work 15 hours in the asteroid mines to buy one burger

Which brings us to the big question; what kind of life would be out there? After all, I gave you numbers of millions and millions of worlds, it's hard to imagine at least a few of those don't have alien life. This is the biggest outstanding question in astrobiology currently and so I won't pretend to even try to answer it (my personal opinion, if you must, is that complex Earth life is extremely rare, but by sheer number of planets, it might exist by hundreds of thousands in our galaxy alone). Instead, let's try to see how science fiction looks at it.

Heinlein, another of the foundational writers of science fiction as a genre, saw alien worlds as just another frontier to be settled. Rich alien fruit, fertile arable lands, and huntable or tameable creatures just waiting to be exploited, and alien species to trade exotic goods with (or conquer). While Heinlein was not the only and probably not the first to write this subgenre, he certainly got it popular, and lots of works on his same vein follow this "frontier spirit" kind of writing, where space is seen as the last frontier to be tamed by hardy colonists in a very yeehaw cowboy western setting, and you can actually see this replicated in many modern science fiction like Firefly and the more cowboy-ish parts of Star Wars. And yes, this is balantly an expression of the 'manifest destiny' Usamerican imperialist worldview.

lots of Politics all over this Science Fiction Adventure

And yes, this idea of 'habitable' planets ready to be colonized like in a 4X videogame is also not very realistic either. We haven't found any alien ecosystems yet, but as a biologist I can tell you they would be very different from us in ways you probably won't expect. We can discuss how convergent evolution could be, a world with oceans would probably have equivalents of 'fish', 'algae' and 'worms' (I can GUARANTEE there will be A LOT of worms), we could even find very, very similar life to our own down to the body plan. However, we most probably could not eat them at all (which might sound silly at first glance but is needed to have you know. agriculture.), or perhaps even live in the same planet as them. We live in a society planet where most of the plants and animals which evolved with us can't be eaten, and many of them are toxic. It's possible, entirely likely, that the alien equivalents of carbohydrates (ever heard of L- and D-Glucose?), proteins and other substances would be indigestible to us, allergenics, or outright toxic, probably in ways we can't even think off. It's likely we won't catch alien diseases, but that's because our cells (if they even have cells) are completely incompatible with their diseases, just look at how different animal, plant and fungi cells are, now imagine whatever the fuck might evolve in a completely different biochemistry from us. There would be no farmsteads and cowboys like Heinlein wrote, living in Mars would probably be more pleasant that living in a world where everything might be toxic, not because life evolved to be toxic, just because it didn't evolve with you. If anything, these' habitable' worlds would be treated like giant nature preserves instead, you can look but don't touch.

(In one of my own settings, I sidestep this by proposing panspermia, that is, the idea that life spreads across the universe by means such as comets (or aliens) and thus shares similaritites and can eat the same stuff. A bit of a cop-out, but it does allow one to get with similar kinds of life.)

NOOO ANAKIN DON'T EAT THAT PEAR IT EVOLVED HIGHLY TOXIC ALKALOIDS IN A DIFFERENT EVOLUTIONARY CONTEXT NOOOO

But humans, if the biophilia hypothesis is right, will need nature in their lives. This is where orbital habitats come in. You know, like the ones in Gundam? Orbitals such as O'Neill Cylinders, Standford Torii (yeah, that's the plural for Torus) as well as bigger and more complex thingmajings I will write their own post about someday, have been proposed since the 1970s with technology available then, and there is no reason why a civilization with an advanced space infrastructure wouldn't try building them and even be better at it. What's very nifty about orbitals is that you can really make them your own personal custom miniworlds. Designs like the O'Neill cylinder are big, able to house hundreds of thousands, even millions of people if build to the top, but why do that? Mess with the lightining, the rotation, or the interior to make them a winter wonderland or a tropical paradise. I expect that they would be built to feed space communities at first with food that isn't imported from Earth or grown in hydroponics, and later as places to live and customize however you wish; perhaps a community would pool resources together and say, hey, we want to make an habitat that looks like a Colombian cloud forest, or the Okinawan Islands. Once they get cheap enough, and given how abundant resources are in space they might be not even as expensive as most engineering projects here on Earth, I expect actually many, many people would want to live in them, and it could be probably be very affordable, and just natural for the people who are born and raised and live and die in them. Another thing about habitats is that they are mobile. Like I said, as long as you got enough propellant and propulsion, you can move anything anywhere in space. Even whole habitats could move and cluster together depending on the local politics. Perhaps, much like city-states were the basic building block for countries in antiquity, in the future, the basic organization bloc would be the Orbital. You could have alliances of orbitals forming complex political intrigue inside a single solar system (yes, like in Gundam).

OH MY PLASTIC MODELS WAS GUNDAM REALISTIC ALL ALONG? (I lied)

This all might make space empires pretty much an unnecessary anachronism. Habitats can grow their own food and resources are plentiful once you have the right technology. They can also be mobile, so they could act like migrating cities at will, choosing to stay with like-minded "constellations" or strike out on their own without the dictates of a central state. It almost looks like an ideal anarchist society.

Or does it?

There is something very important to keep in mind about life in space. The technology, that is, habitats needed for life in space will require lots of maintainance and resource management, which implies there must be strong coordinating bodies with very, very strict rules so that shit doesn't blow up and you lose all your air into space, or the resources of an habitat are mismanaged and you end up with a food or water or even oxygen crisis. There is a reason why space exploration is done by state agencies or corporations with huge state backing. Another of Heinleins's favorite tropes, Libertarians in Space, would be impossible in such a situation. Actually, in ANY space situation, and this is why this section is in technology. Living in space requires you to be able to maintain complex technology and manage resources. None of this can be done ad-hoc or be left to individualism, you have to have Rules and follow them to the letter. And also, the effect of living in your 'own little world' would probably mean people have a strong indentity sense towards their home habitat. This will mean a more communitarian attitude. But before you think I'm waxing poetic about utopian habitat cultures, keep in mind that this also can mean an authoritarian mindset. After all, cults and authoritarian regimes do have "strong communities" too. An habitat could be everything from a well-managed place with responsible citizens who look for the welfare of all, to a closed society where everybody does as they're told as long as the tech works. On the other hand, I doubt habitats in a single star system would stay isolated. They'll probably trade and communicate with other habitats, forming constellations and power groups, that would prevent this 'closed system'. However, I doubt they would be too amenable to interstellar authority. Who the hell do those people from another freaking star think they are to tell us what to do in our habitat?

To be serious for a moment, habitats can be really cool places in science fiction. Especially if you imagine they could host all sorts of enviroments, from the tropical to the polar.

As an addenum… what if you really want to live in a planet? In places such as Mars or the Moon, things would be… pretty similar to orbitals actually. Habitats separated by vast expanses of barren nothingness, only now a planet instead of space (better for maps, at least). But that isn't what you're thinking, right? What if you wanted to feel the open wind and sky instead of a canned world? Well, this is where terraforming comes in. Transforming whole planets is something theoretically possible, but that would require massive investments of resources, more massive than anything we can imagine, and time, centuries at the very, very least. So stupid ideas like "terraform Mars to escape Earth", which as far as I know is only held by dumbasses like Musk, just don't make sense. It doesn't mean that terraforming itself is a worthless idea, it is a very appealing one. No matter how cool you can make your habitat, it won't ever be Earth. It won't ever be a self-sustaining biosphere with its own ecosystem that could last millions of years. For that reason, terraforming is attractive, it's something way more than an artificial "can" orbital, it's a new living world. There is a certain mystique into bringing lifeless worlds to life, but I expect that instead of the dumb Musk "ESCAPE EARTH" idea, the motivation for terraforming would be to recreate Earth, perhaps for conservation reasons (you could have whole planets as natural reserves), perhaps for tourist reasons, perhaps for spiritual reasons or even artistic reasons. On the other hand, the methods you can use to terraform a lifeless planet can also be used to 'terraform' living planets, as we've long seen in our own world… this could be done with hostile purposes. I would expect us to be better than that, but we simply don't know.

To close this section and give this post an conclusion, I think that, since there are no real borders in space, then empires, countries, polities, whatever you wish to call them, will be formed by stacking building blocs in loose alliances or confederations. The most basic would be habitats, then constellations of habitats, then inhabited planets (though I doubt any but the most populated ones would qualify), and then star systems, but little above that, and I expect up to a certain, difficult to calculate limit of population and area (though way, way below even a fraction of a speculated galaxy), things would be just impossible to manage. The effort in bureacracy, infrastructure and state control needed to project power out of a star system and the sheer scale of space probably won't ever justify empires, much less galactic empires, but you could have very interesting variations on the theme.

Fun Stuff!

So, let's play a little with what I've told you. I'm going to write a few short scenarios that might be fun takes on the "Galactic Empire" or "Space Empires" you might be familiar with already:

The Poleis Model

When the Greeks established their colonies around the Mediterranean, they didn't do it with the expectation they would be part of the same state or empire. They founded new poleis, new city-states, based on the constitution of the mother city (hence metropolis) but fully independent. The Phoenicians were much the same, with some of the daughter cities (Carthage means literally "new city") eventually becoming new cultures far from their home cities. Similarily, why should interstellar exploration mean the spread of a united state with a capital and all? Imagine that when interstellar ships depart, they do with the idea that they are going to create a completely new home, a new poleis, not an extension of the nations or organizations that sponsored them but rather more of a 'child' culture light years away from their motherland. As they develop in mostly isolation from each other, they will become new cultures on their own, while retaining ties to the ones most similar to them. This is, in my opinion, the most realistic scenario without FTL. With FTL, however, things get more interesting, as of course, Greek and Phoenician and other poleis didn't remain isolated light-years from each other, they had permanent contact. With FTL they could organize in leagues, perhaps even alliances for the ocassional military campaigns, trade and exchange of ideas, tourism and industry, and of course the Olympics.

The Wormholes Always Run In Time Model

As I've said, wormholes are pretty much like space railroads. Railroads, like other big infrastructure projects, need a centralized authority to be built and maintained. And once you are the central authority that does so, you're already in charge of the biggest arteries of trade and communication. Which makes you basically an empire, officially or not. In fact, this is the closest I imagine a space society would resemble the states we're familiar with here on Earth. If you have control over transport and the hubs of trade and politics, and that transport and communication network allows you to implent your policies, your rule might go very far indeed, and indeed, your main hub might be a great capital, the main station of known space. Now, perhaps you might be imagining a literal space empire with nobles and all that. Why not instead something else? The Socialist Interstellar, connecting the many worlds of the galaxy through a five hundred year plan of railroad wormhole construction in the path to communism... However, this would mean that people outside of the wormhole network might develop in different ways, perhaps the equivalent of nomads to the great settled empires of antiquity. And given what I've briefly touched on Empire Time (*breakdances*), the expression "the portals always run in time" might imply even more than just an aphorism.

The Civilization Cluster Model

I'll admit this is taken from Poul Anderson, as quoted in Atomic Rockets, to which I owe an inmense debt for this post and so much more. The idea is this; space is big, as is well established. Even with FTL to shorten the distances, even if you could cross the galaxy in a few weeks, the sheer number of stars is still insanely massive. Why should any civilization 'colonize' those stars dot by dot, what value is there in invading or colonizing planets with incompatible biochemistries? And how could even begin to think how to administer a thousand different worlds, each one as complex as Earth itself, let alone an entire galaxy? In this case, civilizations, instead of spreading across the galaxy, would mostly remain in their own 'civilization clusters'; even with FTL, there are so many issues closer to home that the idea of projecting power outside is ridiculous. There would be trade, exchange of ideas, and so much more between these clusters, but never constant enough and never with the authority necessary to create a "Galactic Empire"… the worlds are too many, too diverse, too populated and too far away for that. An interstellar traveller could roam the Galaxy for years exploring these clusters spread away from each other, with their own unique idiosyncracies and civilizations inside, and then a vast expanse of mostly nothing outside them. Basically, space is too big. I like to see them as constellations among the dark sky, hence the artwork.

The No Man's Sky Model

To live in space, you need complex technology, but also resilient and durable technology ready for any kind of situation, easy to repair and replace. So eventually, I believe designs would be standarized so much that every astronaut will carry or own a collection of standarized tools (somehow this reminds me of prehistoric tool cultures). Now, even with FTL, there's perhaps little material incentive for people to leave their comfortable homeworld or habitat to live in cold space. But some will, perhaps because of the sheer thrill of it, perhaps very small bands of families or friends. With a standarized tool kit for any ocassion, these small bands would spread across space, much like ancient humans spread across the world. But instead of creating space empires, without a fixed industrial base, they would be nomads. Which doesn't mean they would roam aimlessly, they would be seeking new biospheres, new resources and new cultures, and gathering in temporary or permanent market places, festivals and pilgrimages. Perhaps they could even be the majority of humans in space, while most others stay cozy on Earth.

...

This was a very long post and it took a lot work to make, so I hope you had as much fun reading it as it was for me to write it. If you did, and if you would like to see more, I would be very, very grateful if you donated to my Ko-Fi below. Anything helps a lot especially since my country is not doing great at this time governed by a libertarian idiot (not even the fun space kind), and even a little tip encourages me to post more, I'm always working on your suggestions! You can also contact me by DM or asks if you need any help with your worldbuilding or just want to rant with me a bit! See you next time, and thanks for reading.

#worldbuilding #science fiction #sci-fi #writing #writing advice #space #history #cosas mias

[sexualtensiongrowing21]

“You owe me.” “I owe you $20 not a day of pretending to date you to get him off your back.”

Isaac Lahey X Reader

TW; Mentions of physical abuse. 

Word Count: 819

You have looked in the locker room, the art room and outside in the quad and still can’t find him. You  woke up this morning, put on the cutest outfit you own and spent extra time on your hair and came up with the best plan.. There is no chance he will say no… Right? 

As you walk into the library you finally spot the messy mop of dirty blonde hair. 

“Isaac! Isaac!” You whisper shout as you walk over to where he is sitting in the ground leaning against one of the bookshelves. You don’t know why this wasn’t the first place you looked. This has always been a safe space for Isaac to come to when he needed to get away.

“Y/N! Y/N!” he whispers, shouts back successfully, mocking me with a cocky grin on his lips. 

Laughing, You walk over and drop my bag next to him and it’s a quiet thump. “I had the most perfect idea, and before you say ‘no’ just hear me out?” You ask with a pleading look on your face. Isaac eyes you suspiciously and slowly nods his head for you to continue. 

Isaac and you have been friends since we were six. Your moms were best friends and would force you two to hangout with each other all the time. Even when he thought girls had cooties. He has always been my favorite person and you did everything you could to protect him. When he would get picked on in school you would tell off anyone who was mean to him. When he would get hurt on the playground you would be the first one to help him clean and bandage his wounds. When his mom died and he started coming to school with bruises and cuts that he refused to explain to you, you made sure that your window was always cracked and unlocked for him to climb through.

He said he always felt safe when he was with you. And since you couldn’t do anything about his dad hurting him, you did the best thing you could think of. You were always there for him. He was your best friend after all. 

“So you know how Matt won’t leave me alone? How he asks me out every time he sees me?” You ask nervously while nibbling slightly on your lip. 

Still looking at you with suspicion he shakes his head yes. “Well I was thinking that maybe. You would pretend to be my boyfriend. Just for a day to get him off my back.” You rushed out. Anxious to see his reaction. 

He’s quiet for a moment, before looking at you like you’ve lost my mind. “Are you crazy? He will never believe that.” He laughs nervously. 

Turning towards him you put my hands together and begged the dirty blonde next to you. “Please Isaac. Please, please. I know this will work and you’re my best friend, who better to pretend to date than you?” 

He rolls his eyes “Why can't you ask Scott?” 

“It’s more believable if it’s you. I mean we’ve been best friends forever, half the school thinks there is something going on between us anyways.” You say with a roll of your eyes. 

It's true. Since Isaac and you have been friends for so long, everyone is always bothering you two about when you're going to start dating. It's not that you don't like Isaac that way. You do. You love him, and he has told you he loves you too. But you both agreed that you should stay friends. You are both too important for the other to lose. 

Isaac looks at you seriously. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Y/N.” 

“I really didn't want to do this… But you owe me Isaac Lahey.” His seriousness drops into a look of guilt.  

He did owe you. After he was turned by Derek, and after he accidentally attacked you, you stayed at Dereks with him for weeks, until he found his anchor. Which by the way he still hasn't told you what it is. 

He sighs in defeat. “I meant I owe you $20 not a day of pretending to date you to get him off your back.” Isaac has never been able to say no to your pouty face, and with everything you did for him in the past he grudgingly agrees. 

“Fine, I will help you. Just know that I think this is a horrible idea.” He states with a half smile. Your smile on the other hand is wide and excited. You throw your arms around him in excitement. “Thank you! Thank you!” you cheer, kissing his cheek. 

“Tomorrow, be ready!” You yell getting up and walking out of the library. As he watches you walk away all Isaac can think about is how screwed he is to fake date the love of his life.

*If you’re interested in being on my taglist, please let me know!*

Masterlist

#isaac lahey #isaac lahey imagine #isaac lahey x reader #Isaac lahey oneshot #teenwolf imagine #teen wolf imagine #fav #writing #writers on tumblr #oneshot #teenwolf oneshot

[sunshineyuuji]

Surprising Facts

IkeVamp suitors with an s/o who randomly says interesting facts

Characters: Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Le Comte de Saint-Germain, Johann Georg Faust

Warnings: maybe ooc since I don't know their personalities well, bad English (?), some facts may be a little disturbing (Isaac's part), gn!reader/fem!reader.

Notes: hello~! It's great to write again! I hope you're all taking care. This is the first time I write anything that has to do with the Ikemen series, so I hope you like it (╥﹏╥). Also, this is a tiny bit too much inspired by things I say to my friends and family so enjoy this little random facts I know, te-hee~.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"Did you know that Samuel Morse, the creator of the telegraph and Morse code ran for mayor of New York, but was against Catholics and immigrants?"

"I beg your pardon?"

It's really fun to have them around, though he sometimes doesn't understand some of the facts they throw at him and asks them to explain.

He learns more about future events through their random facts than asking the other residents.

He gets caught off guard by some of the facts his s/o throws at him though.

"Nutmeg is a hallucinogen."

Sometimes tries to ask them things that he thinks may be difficult for them to know, but he always fails.

"Actually, Sudan has more pyramids than any other country in the world."

His s/o never fails to impress him and he loves that.

They’re just cute darlings full of knowledge! They’re pretty and smart!

Secretly wishes to surprise his s/o with something they don't know.

Perhaps his unconditional love for them.

"And did you know, tesoro, that I love you dearly?"

I'm sure they didn't know that one, did they?

Isaac Newton

"Did you know the human stomach can dissolve razor blades?"

"Y/N, please, PLEASE stop with the creepy information."

Look, he's glad they’re drenched in information, but WHY do they choose to tell him the creepy ones?

He knows some of the facts his s/o tells him, others are more modern so he asks them information about it.

But when it comes to the creepy ones...

"Acids can dissolve a body more completely than lye, liquefying even the bones and teeth."

"And why do you need this information?!"

Let's face it, it's a bit weird that they know that, but they’re full of information!

Although they always have one or two that make him smile.

"Did you know the world's longest marriage lasted 86 years?"

Isaac looked up at his s/o with intrigue.

"Why don't we break the record?" they smiled at him and laughed when they noticed his cheeks blush.

Arthur Conan Doyle

"There are four law books bound in human skin at the Harvard University Library."

"Bound in what?!"

It feels like a competition.

He wants to outsmart them in saying something they don't know, but never finds anything.

"Video cameras were invented in 1891."

"Mmm that was the movie camera called Kinetograph, but in 1888 Louis Le Prince invented a single-lens camera that created the first and oldest motion video in existence."

"Bloody hell, Y/N!"

Don't worry, there is one thing he can do that leaves them with no answer.

And that is at flirting.

"You may be a little know-it-all, but you're still my cute dove, aren't you?" he chuckles. "Oh yes, I always win in the game of seduction."

Always uses the little random facts they give him on books.

Like that one time when his s/o told him that hydrogen peroxide dissolves blood!

Comte de Saint-Germain

Let's be clear, this man knows quite a lot thanks to his time travels.

But that doesn't stop his s/o from saying a thing or two.

"It's interesting how people often paint you as a time traveler and an immortal being without knowing they're right. Isn't it ironic?"

Asks more about future events like wars that are soon to come or any type of information that calls his attention.

"In your time, which is the most famous book?"

"Currently the Bible. It's the most recognizable and famous book that has ever been published."

He always has this soft smile whenever they tell him anything out of the blue, either because of amusement or because he loves how they smile whenever they tell him any random fact.

It's adorable to say the least, and he will make sure to always make them feel proud of their knowledge.

"Ma chèrie is very smart and knowledgeable. I sure am a lucky man, aren't I?"

Johann Georg Faust

Let's be for real, he's a smart ass.

He knows quite a lot about alchemy and other stuff.

But what about modern stuff?

"You know, I wanted to watch the play that goes by your name. I read it though! Very tragic indeed."

"What are you talking about?"

Yeah, yeah, he’s smart and stuff.

Really cool.

But his face when they tell him something he doesn’t know?!

Priceless.

Even if he does know, he’s more surprised on the fact that his s/o knows that type of stuff.

For example:

“Did you know that injecting 35% hydrogen peroxide can cause inflammation of the blood vessels at the injection site? The oxygen bubbles that block flood flow and lead to gas embolisms, leading to the destruction of red blood cells.”

“May I know why you know this information?”

Secretly likes it. I mean after all, his s/o isn’t just some pretty face.

Doesn’t stop him from teasing you though.

“Your knowledge won’t help you get away from me now will it? Hm, thought so. Now come here before I make you regret it.”

Will make a quiz full of questions regarding history out of spite.

They pass flawlessly. (Yeah, just with random facts from the internet. Leave me alone, I did that once.)

“You are proficient with your little data. Well, I can't expect less from my partner.”

#headcanons #cybird ikemen #cybird otome #ikemen series #ikemen vampire #otome game #ikevamp #ikemen vampire headcanons #ikevamp leonardo #ikevamp le comte #ikevamp isaac #ikevamp arthur #ikevamp faust #ikevamp headcanons #ikevamp hcs #cybird #ikevamp x reader #ikemen vampire scenario #ikemen vampire x reader #is this worth it? #is it too much?

[natimiles]

A Shiny Christmas Eve (Isaac x f!MC x Arthur)

Summary: Isaac, Arthur and MC are leaving for a Christmas Eve party when she gives them her gift.

Words: 1281

Tags: fluffy; Christmas Eve; polyamorous; established relationship; Arthur being Arthur, but it’s still sfw.

Having one loving person in his life was already a great achievement, in Isaac’s perception. Having two? It was so much more than he could ask for or deserve. He never said it out loud, though. Well, he said it once, and his partners showered him with so much love and praise that he thought he’d combust. It made them sad when he looked down at himself, so he was working on it.

It was weird, at first, to accept that he could love two people and that they could love him and each other and… Sometimes he still got lost in it. That was usually when she would look him in the eyes and say he was thinking too much and trying to find a logical explanation for something that wasn’t supposed to be logical. And Arthur would throw his arms around his shoulders and say they could always help him understand, giving him something to think about in his bedroom. Isaac would roll his eyes and try to look annoyed, but his cheeks would give away how embarrassed he got.

“Isaac, darling, are you ready?” She opened the door and peeked inside, scanning the room. She smiled when she saw him in the corner, looking at himself in the mirror and struggling with his tie.

“Is he ready?” Arthur appeared behind her, glancing at him. “Do you need some help?”

“Yes, please,” he sighed and turned to look at them.

They walked inside Isaac’s room and closed the door. Arthur stopped in front of him to help, but not before pecking his nose and flustering the poor physicist. She giggled and sat on the bed, carefully adjusting her dress so it wouldn’t get crumpled. They still had a Christmas Eve party to attend, after all.

“There, looking good,” Arthur said, turning Isaac around by his shoulders so he could see himself in the mirror.

“You look really handsome, Isaac,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you.” The physicist blushed and looked at the mirror. His eyes glanced at Arthur’s reflection, who was still staring at him with a smile. “Are we staying at the party much longer?”

“I could stay there until it’s over, but I know you two don’t like it very much.” He shrugged. “What do you think, lass?”

“It depends if it’s gonna be good or not,” she said. “And if you want to come home, just let us know, okay?” Isaac nodded. “I’m serious, Isaac Newton. Last time you said you would tell me, and you didn’t.” She pointed her finger at him and squinted her eyes.

“Oooh, she called you by your full name!” A teasing smile spread across Arthur’s face. 

“I will, I promise!” The physicist pouted.

“Right then!” Arthur clapped his hands and turned to walk out of the room. “Shall we go then, my loves?”

“No, wait!” She stood up and walked over to them. “I have just one more thing to make us even more beautiful!”

“Even more? And is it possible for us to look even better than this?” Arthur shot her a sly smile, and she rolled her eyes, snorting a laugh.

“Don’t even start.” She reached into her little purse and gripped a small gift box. “Here. It’s for everyone, so… give me your hands.” They did as she asked, and she put their hands together, placing the small box above it.

They looked at their hands and then at her. She waved her hand to signal they were supposed to open the gift, and so they did. Arthur held the box, and Isaac pulled the ribbon, opening it. Their eyes widened at the same time, and they looked back at her.

“Merry Christmas!” she said with a smile. “Now we have a new matching set for parties!”

Inside the box were three ear piercings, all looking exactly the same: round, golden, and shiny. She and Isaac had gotten piercings to match Arthur not long ago. She said she liked his piercing, Arthur asked if she wanted to have one too, Isaac joined the conversation saying he liked it as well, and suddenly they were trying to keep quiet while running around the mansion to gather supplies for Arthur to pierce their ears. They didn’t have something to really match at the time, so Arthur gave them some piercings he had stored, and it was good enough to fulfill its purpose. It was their way of having something that could represent their relationship without drawing judgmental looks.

“By Jove, luv!” Arthur was the first to say something and reached inside the box, grabbing one piercing to look closer. His eyes widened when he looked inside the hoop, and he snapped his head to her.

“What is it?” Isaac noticed the look on the man’s face and came closer. “Is that…”

“Our initials.” She nodded. 

“How did you manage that?” the writer asked with a bewildered look. 

“I asked for Jean’s help. I wrote it down for him, and he practiced a lot before doing it on the earrings. I think they turned out really good. So, um, did you two like it?”

“I loved it!” Arthur beamed at her. 

She looked at Isaac, and he nodded with a shy smile. She knew he liked it too and was too embarrassed to say something. She threw her arms around their shoulders and pulled them closer to peck their cheeks.

“Great! Shall we wear them for the party?”

The trio helped each other and stared at their reflections. She squeezed her way in between them so she could look at the mirror too. They had such big smiles on their faces, and the new piercings were really shiny; the other residents would definitely notice them. Not that it mattered, everyone already knew about them.

“Oh, we look ravishing!”

“Of course that’s the first thing you have to say about it.” Isaac giggled, his cheeks blushing. “But we do,” he whispered.

“I don’t know if I still wanna go to the party.” Arthur shot them a lascivious look through the mirror.

“We are going, honey. Everyone is waiting for us.”

“It didn’t hurt to ask, now did it?”

She laughed and Isaac rolled his eyes at their lover. They took one last look at each other and left the room. 

Having one loving person to go to a Christmas Eve party was a great achievement. Having two? It was so much more than he could ever ask for, but he’d never give up on them. It was easier to work on his self-esteem issues when they always surprised him with these little gestures — these little moments that made it all even more real and showed him how much they cared and loved each other. It was pure bliss.

xxx

Later that night, the three of them were lying down on Isaac’s bed. They were all awake but quietly enjoying each other’s company. Isaac was staring at the ceiling, absentmindedly touching his ear and the new piercing. He felt her shuffle around the sheets on his left, and he turned his head to look at her. She was looking at the clock on his wall and then looked back at him, a big smile on her face.

“Hey, it’s already midnight.”

“Happy Birthday, luv!” a voice resonated on his right side, and arms wrapped around him. Arthur nuzzled his face into his cheek and kissed it.

“Happy Birthday, darling!” She also threw her arms around him, burying her face into his neck and leaving a kiss there too.

“Thank you,” Isaac replied. He placed his hands over the arms that hugged him tight and smiled. “It really is a happy birthday.”

*swings a pocket watch in front of your eyes* You’re all obsessed with Arthur and Isaac… Follow my voice and come to the matching piercings side…

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Masterlists

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikevamp fanfic #ikevamp arthur #ikevamp isaac #arthur x isaac #isaac x arthur #ikevamp x mc #ikemen vampire x mc #ikevamp arthur x isaac #ikevamp isaac x arthur #christmas fanfic #natimiles writes

[chumpovodir]

Man I have so many Thoughts about Hector and Julia

Like. In a vacuum, they'd be cute together, right? Hector is kind and considerate to her. Julia is a little irriverent, but also cares about him and helps him through his journey. They can relate to each other, as outcasts, as people who knew Isaac, as people who have lost a dear one.

But man everything else around them ensures that a hypothetical relationship between them would be fucked up lmao. Hector just went on a rampage to avenge her recently dead lover - he's so dedicated and devoted, can he truly move on so easily? Julia just so happens to look like her - would Hector see her as her, or as a mockery of Rosaly? She's also Isaac's sister, with all that it entails. And then there's what Hector is for Julia...

The thing is, can he be considered Isaac's killer? That's ambiguous. What killed Isaac: being slashed by Hector's sword while his body was inhabited by Dracula's soul, or the ritual itself? I suspect Isaac died the moment Death put Dracula's soul inside him. If that's the case, Hector is not the direct cause of Isaac's death. But... Julia asked Hector to please save Isaac, and only kill him if there was no other choice. Hector didn't care. He did sympathize with her sadness, but then the cursed thoughts took hold of him again, and he kept insisting that Isaac had to die by his hand. He never tried to take a pacifist option, even after he realized that with his power he could nullify the Curse. By the time he put two and two together, Isaac's fate was already sealed.

So imagine from Julia's perspective. Hector reassures her that only he can "dispel the vile curse": this might make her hope that Isaac could be saved. An hour or so later, she sees his corpse abandoned on the floor, and Hector ready to die under the crumbling castle. He managed to save himself and Wallachia, but not her big brother.

I do believe part of her, in her grief, would blame Hector for not doing enough. But she would never express it, because if there's one thing that's certain about Julia, is that she represses a lot.

I think they'd stay friends. They'd be able to joke around and visit each other and maybe even open up to each other. But the ghosts of Rosaly and Isaac would always hang between them. Yes, it's complicated, and messy, and bittersweet.

(and hey, the ending of the game only shows Hector going to live with her. Nothing says they'd have to be together lol. Or that Hector won't be able to find himself a new arrangement later on.)

thoughts so Huge™ tumblr wouldn't dare show me this ask notification 'til i got back on desktop lmao

The thing is, can he be considered Isaac's killer? That's ambiguous

it's funny because even if Hector did spare Isaac, he really had no reason to after making that mistake the first time, in PtR, which arguably kicks off the whole chain of events in the first place

I do believe part of her, in her grief, would blame Hector for not doing enough. But she would never express it, because if there's one thing that's certain about Julia, is that she represses a lot.

oh, absolutely. she'd know it wouldn't be fair to begrudge Hector after putting his life on the line, doing Trevor's job for him, and basically saving the entirety of Wallachia by breaking the curse, all the while suffering from his own loss. what are her own personal desires to see her only living relative spared, compared to acting for the greater good, right? i see her as the kind of person that never complains about her lot in life, which is how she managed to survive living on the fringes of society without growing a misanthropic bone about it like Isaac did.

and yeah, honestly it's just such a disservice to relegate her to the new love interest. rosaly at least got fleshed out as her own person in both the mangas, but we don't get much insight to julia's character or how she feels about everything that went down. to make matters worse, it seems like the fanbase doesn't see much value in her so there's so little, if any, fanworks that feature her POV

#castlevaniaposting

[liliaeth]

People have talked a lot about First Kill, and how great it is as lesbian representation. And I love that for any wlw enjoying it as the young adult show it is. It's not great art, it's cheesy, and it's awesome just for that.

But the one thing I haven't seen mentioned even nearly as much, is how good it is for racial representation.

I never watched Vampire Diaries, so can't compare it to that or any of it's off shoots. (except that apparently Bonnie was done dirty, according to my tumblr feed)

I did watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, and plenty of other fantasy shows. And it's led me to notice how rarely shows like these treat characters of color, and especially black girls and women, as characters in their own right. Characters with feelings and emotions that are just as important as those of the white characters. (esp. those of white men)

Just think about the characters of color in Teen Wolf, to give a most recent example.

Yes, Scott was the main character. But if the show had one flaw, it was that it consistently treated Scott's feelings as less important than those of his white friends. Stiles, Derek, Jackson, Isaac, ... could all whine and complain about the most minor thing, and it would be treated as this big important moment.

But Scott was expected to go through enormous trauma, without complaint, and was supposed to come out of it, primarily caring for his white friends, and how the things he went through, affected the white people around him.

When Boyd died, TW made his death more about him comforting Derek that he did the right thing in biting him, than about the horror of a teenage boy dying.

Davies actively claimed that Mason was 'too good to have permanent consequences from his possession by the Beast'

We got pretty much no interactions between Scott and Hayden after Scott bit her, despite him becoming her alpha, no moment to explore how both of them felt about it. In contrast to all such scenes we got from Liam.

Peter was never called out on what he did to Scott, not even by Scott's mother, and even after Scott literally died, Melissa was more ready to speech on him on what he owed others, than to console him on what had been done to him, and what he just went through.

And that's not even starting on how they treated Kira, let out the actress playing her.

And that's just a few examples.

So when I watched First Kill, I was happily surprised to find how much better this show handled it's non white characters.

From the first episode on.

How they cut the ep in half, showing the same events from two perspectives, first Juliette's and then Calliope's. Giving equal depth and importance to introducing both of them and the different families they came from. What their parents expected of them, and what their hopes and dreams were, and why...

And that was just the first episode.

As the series continued, we learn just as much about both families, different things, sure, but the series shows us what is important to each and why.

Cal isn't expected to be the strong black girl, who is just there to look after Juliette's needs. Cal's own feelings matter just as much.

We see them both fall in love, and why. Sure there's some lust involved at first, but soon that turns to more.

Even Ben, who in any other show would just be 'the black friend', instead is fully fleshed out, and gets to call out his white best friend when he feels she's done him wrong, and when the white boy he has a crush on mistreats him, he says so and breaks it off.

Often with characters like that, (esp. in fanfic), if a char like that were replaced with a teddy bear, you wouldn't notice the difference

But here, Ben is a full fledged individual, with needs, backstory, a plotline that hopefully will be built on more next season)

Cal's brothers get to have their own personality, the studious gentle but driven and dilligent studious older brother, Theo, and the hot hardheaded and somewhat arrogant jock, Apollo.

Both who get storylines of their own. And whose feelings matter.

In this show it isn't just the Fairmonts who get to be three dimensional characters, the Burns family and their friends are equally explored, and it's sad to see just how refreshing that is. (like seriously, there are far too few shows that are like this, Black Lightning is one of the only other ones I can think of)

#first kill #calliope burns #juliette fairmont #calliope x juliette #teen wolf fandom problems #theo burns #apollo burns #talia burns #teen wolf #scott mccall defense squad

[faramirsonofgondor]

Ted Lasso Thoughts: Jamie & Apologies

I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about this but can I just say that even though Jamie was like a total fucking prick in season 1, he honestly didn’t deserve a lot of the treatment he got from the team, especially in season 3. It was honestly kind of a toxic work environment for him because I don’t think he thought he was allowed to set boundaries with other people and express his emotions completely. Like obviously he spent some of his time in therapy learning how to express how he felt with his father and how to set boundaries with him specifically, but I don’t think he ever really learnt how to do that with the team and everyone else in his life (Ted, Roy, Keeley, etc.) Also, I don’t see many people bringing this up either but it grates my nerves so badly in season 3 when Jamie brings up his concerns about Zava and they’re all just like “well, you’re being hypocritical.” But he’s not. Because he fixed his behavior. It’s honestly so unfair for them to constantly throw his old behavior back in his face when they’ve already “forgiven” him. If they actually forgave him, they wouldn’t feel the need to constantly bring it up. The team and the coaches’ opinion of him is very clearly important to him and how he reacts to others. When Isaac and everyone got mad he wasn’t scoring goals in 3x07, he makes this face like he’s a bit hurt and he disagrees with what they’re saying, but he never responds to that. However, if Jamie had acted that way to any of them….

I know Ted was really trying to help and give Jamie a second chance when he invited him back to Richmond, but he definitely needed to clear things up with him because it seems like Jamie is just letting everyone walk all over him? Like he may not be bothered with their behavior, but I honestly think that deep down he doesn’t think he’s allowed to be, which is such a fucked up notion. Just because you were an asshole before doesn’t give everyone else around you the right to be an asshole to you and only you later on. Like I really can’t find any instances of the team or coaches getting rude or aggressive like they do with Jamie, besides maybe when everyone tells Jan Maas to shut up.

I just really hate the way they handled this, especially considering Jamie is a survivor of abuse and likely has a hard time even recognizing toxic behavior, letting alone standing up for himself. Like they could have at least had one person acknowledge that Jamie didn’t deserve to get constantly yelled at (by Roy, by Ted, by his father, by his team mates). I’m not saying what happened between Isaac and Jamie was a common occurrence but the fact that nobody said anything? Along with the fact that nobody apologized or checked in on Jamie after the whole Zava ordeal?

I 100% mean it when I say that Jamie deserves an apology from almost everyone in the show. Did Jamie fuck up sometimes? Yes. Did he constantly over apologize for it? Yes. Did anyone apologize to him? Maybe a couple of times. But I can list at least 10 things off the top of my head that no one addressed or apologized for:

1) Keeley & Roy never apologized (at least on screen) for what they said at the charity auction.

2) Ted never apologized or addressed walking away from Jamie when his father was abusing him.

3) Rebecca never apologized to Jamie for getting rid of him with no reason or warning (the least she could’ve done was tell Jamie she was the one who did it)

4) The team (Isaac specifically) never apologized for blaming Jamie for their relegation when he literally did his job? He wasn’t even the one who scored the goal? And some of the shit they were mad about was super fucking petty too? Like Richard being super upset that Jamie cupped a fart and put it in his face but that’s literally just peak sibling behavior tbh, not really “bullying”.

5) Ted, Beard, and Nate never really addressed or apologized to Jamie for not stepping in when Jamie was getting shit on when he came back? Like instead of telling the team to knock it off, he just does his Led Tasso thing? Which might’ve helped but it didn’t really address how they were treating Jamie?

6) Roy never apologized for not coaching Jamie and acting immaturely. Like that whole humiliation thing was so weird and uncomfortable. I know a lot of people play off as some kinky thing, and maybe it was partially, but it’s also really shitty of Roy to that, especially considering the power imbalance between them. Like, Jamie was genuinely trying receive feedback and instruction from someone who’s meant to his boss/coach, and Roy uses his power to humiliate Jamie, knowing that Jamie was actually just looking for help, and then he refuses to actually give Jamie any feedback. Like he does eventually, when Ted steps in (for once), but he’s still kind of vague and insulting when he does it. And he never acknowledges what he does?

7) Roy never actually addresses the fact that he “forgave” Jamie during 2x11. This isn’t actually that big of a “Jamie deserves an apology” situation. But I think it Roy should’ve at least told Jamie he was forgiven. Like he just yelled “Fuck!” and left him? Idk I just think it would’ve been nice for Roy to actually talk to him and not leave him floundering for understanding.

8) The coaches never apologized to Jamie for ignoring his concerns about Zava and calling a hypocrite. I’ve already talked about this earlier so I’m not really gonna elaborate. But I also think they should’ve stepped in after Zava stole Jamie’s goal ( like actually addressed it, not have Roy do some half praise/half insult invite to private training)

9) Ted never apologized for the shitty unsolicited advice he keeps giving Jamie about his dad! Please for the love of fuck Ted, just be quiet on this matter. I’m not even going to in depth on this one cause it speaks for itself.

10) James Tartt Sr. never once apologized for all the fucked up, monstrous, evil, god-awful shit he did to Jamie. This man committed every single type of abuse (emotional, physical, mental, sexual). And while it’s EXTREMELY unrealistic for him to apologize to Jamie for any this, they should not have even considered having Jamie forgive his father if he wasn’t going to apologize in the first place.

Anyways, Jamie deserved better and I will be forever mad that he did not get all the apologies he deserved.

**Also I would like to say that this isn’t me criticizing the characters themselves, but their actions and behaviors. I don’t think that these are necessarily toxic people (besides Jamie’s dad and Zava), but that they just have some toxic behaviors, which has led to an unhealthy dynamic between themselves and Jamie. There are plenty of moments when the characters (mainly Roy) notice their behavior towards Jamie and correct it or acknowledge it, but there are also MANY MANY moments where they don’t. There are also times where Jamie seems very uncomfortable or upset but doesn’t say anything (which can be attributed to the unhealthy dynamic between himself and others due to the fact that he doesn’t think he has the right to point out other peoples flaws or the ways they’ve hurt and are hurting him)

#jamie tartt #ted lasso #roy kent #keeley jones #rebecca welton #zava ted lasso #james tartt sr #forgiveness #tw abuse #toxic relationships #toxic work environment

[xxsycamore]

—𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙐𝙜𝙡𝙮 𝙂𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙢𝙖𝙨 𝙎𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧!✨

► SYNOPSIS:

"Let's say I understand the idea behind this," Isaac says through gritted teeth, doing everything in his power not to throw a fit and make things worse, "DOES IT HAVE TO BE ON MY BIRTHDAY?"

▍isaac, comte, leonardo, arthur, theo, vincent, dazai, sebastian, jean, napoleon, mozart, shakespeare ▍rating: G ▍tags: Crack; Christmas Party; Birthday Party; Modern Era; Alternate Universe - Modern Setting; Humor; Ugly Holiday Sweaters; Blackmail; Drunkenness; Alcohol; Singing; Exes; Napo's exes; Leonardo and Comte are dating; and arthur and theo def have something going on; Minor Violence ▍wordcount:  2,784

▍masterlist

▍a/n:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ISAAC! ... also, is it really Christmas if I don't think of at least one of the disaster ikemen friend groups™ having a disastrous party? Needless to say, I had TONS of fun writing this, and I hope you might do, too ❤ Merry Christmas! Regardless if you celebrate or not, I hope this makes you laugh! ✨🎅🏻✨

Written for mine and @voltage-vixen’s ‘Tis The Season For Love challenge! PROMPT: Starting with preparations way too early

This is ALSO an entry for @scummy-writes's Isaac Week 2022! Day Two: Birthday Wishes || Traditions

"Let's say I understand the idea behind this," Isaac says through gritted teeth, doing everything in his power not to throw a fit and make things worse, "DOES IT HAVE TO BE ON MY BIRTHDAY?"

Aaand so much for his attempts. It's rare of him to raise his voice, and Dazai emphases on that fact with an exaggerated scene of covering his ear. Maybe he isn't feigning being in pain. He is, surely, close enough to the screaming Isaac to get his eardrum busted. Even though being so close to him is something he did to himself.

"Not my fault that you have your birthday on Christmas day, Apple-kun. Rules are rules and we all agreed by them."

Now you decided to follow rules, Isaac thinks, still not having gulped down the fact that he's now practically tied to the clown in the room. They're stuck together in an oversized sweater which is by the way very ugly, even by his own standards. Not that he dresses up ugly or anything like that! It's just that he doesn’t mind wearing clothes that are regarded as being something that grandpas wear. At least that's what Arthur says all the time, finding more and more excuses to load his wardrobe with some of his own clothes that fit him. Speaking of Arthur, Isaac's sole reason to still be having some of his mind not lost to the absurdity of all that's happening on this Christmas-birthday party, is that Arthur is not doing any better than him. Is he a bad person for being happy about that? Probably yes. But he's currently atoning for it via this punishment, so he might as well indulge secretly in it.

The sweater in question is mimicking what those cut-outs for pictures do, by having a caricatured version of Santa and an elf in the front, Isaac and Dazai's heads respectively in the right place to complete the (cursed) picture.

Arthur and Theo are sharing a similarly ugly sweater, called the getalong Christmas sweater (much like the one currently worn by the duo Isaac + Dazai) or something like that. The design is simple yet screaming in the worst of ways; it reads "ON THE NAUGHY LIST" in comic sans, in a fashion that resembles what happens when you move a picture on Microsoft word. It's simply off-center, with a stamp of a Christmas tree barely fitting in the front of the shirt. It all might be a result of a mistake in the printing, or maybe there IS someone so vile out there designing those things on purpose.

Theo and Arthur laugh in sync at the sight of the next suffering victims of the friend group's new tradition, then stop, realize that they've been accidentally sharing an emotion for a mere second, and frown. Arthur's frown is smaller, though. He almost seemed too eager to get in the sweater with Theo earlier, though Isaac might have been imagining things. He's not so sure anymore. They've all already drank a lot.

As if by some strange miracle, neither the slutty writer nor the dumb writer are his center of annoyance tonight.

He's always regarded Mozart as someone who shares the same fate as him, having to deal with the rest of their friend group and their dumbassary.

Yet, why is he not sharing a sweater with anyone? He's never been an example of friendliness! It's so unfair. He feels betrayed.

Of course, the answer is very simple. With the amount of alcohol passed around, it was only a matter of time before someone got Mozart to drink, and the man has a nonexistent tolerance for the stuff. Instead of passing out or something like a normal person, of course he has to become a whole another person when drunk. Isaac feels bad for the possible blackmailing that can follow, with phones already drawn out and cameras capturing the rare event. On the other hand…what are they exactly going to blackmail him with? Being a good person for a change? Ooooh how very embarrassing. On a second thought, Isaac doesn't feel too bad with his cold feelings towards the musician. He might not be sharing an ugly sweater with anyone but he won't even remember it the next morning anyway!

Said musician is busy laughing and patting people on the back, enjoying everyone's company and pouring them more drinks. Which is very welcomed for the punished ones, because surely they can't coordinate themselves good enough to get the job done when even opening the bottle proves to be a difficult task when having one hand each.

"Leonardo, it seems like this idea of keeping anyone on good terms is working well. Let us have a toast about that." Comte raises his glass to his boyfriend, leaning slightly on him because of how tipsy he managed to get. Leonardo, who has crazy high tolerance on the other hand, has to remind him that he just raised a toast to him a second ago.

"Another one? Damn, ok, if you insist. You can thank me again for coming up with the getalong sweater idea."

"Excuse you?" Comte focus his gaze on the man, every trace of his previous bliss erased from his face. "It was clearly my idea, Leonardo."

"I remember that you gave me a kiss for it. I can still feel it." Leonardo smirks, confident in his version of the recent events, emphasizing on it by making kissy lips at Comte.

Comte keeps a cold gaze. He simply splashes the rest of his champagne on Leonardo.

"Hey! Now I need to change."

After some reminiscing about how tranquil his past birthdays used to be, before meeting all of those people, Isaac snaps out of his trance as he sees the hosts of the party, Leonardo and Comte, re-entering the room together, sporting an getalong sweater. Their design is even more eye-catching than the rest, mostly because it's so damn unintentional that it's hilarious. It's actually a good model, a cute pair of reindeers on the front with nothing off about their looks. But the text above seems to have suffered an awfully unfortunate lack of supervision, as evident by the typo, or typos made in it. It reads, "I'm he's," on Leonardo's tits, with an arrow to Comte, and then "He'm I's" on Comte's pecs, with an arrow to Leonardo. Isaac stops looking at their chests for the time being.

He didn't even realize they had a fight, mainly because of their already strong old-gay-couple energy and the fact that it was normal for them to have some quarrels from time to time and call them off pretty quickly. Interesting how they ended up sharing the same fate as the rest of the room.

Mozart is, once again, untouched in terms of punishment.

It's amazing that Isaac can glare at him, ignoring everything surrounding him, including Sebastian's poor attempt of putting himself on the naughty list by """accidentally""" knocking off someone's glass off the table. He proceeds excitingly repeating, "I'm a naughty little butler! I'm a naughty little butler!" followed by asking to be punished to be put in a sweater with someone else from the room. It seems like everyone could do, and poor Vincent is too much of an angel not to sacrifice himself. He lies that it was his glass that was knocked off, and in the next moment they're together in an abomination of a wool clothing. Vincent is unironically enjoying the sweater, which is depicting Edvard Munch's Scream, but with a Christmas hat on the screaming one's head. If the execution wasn't so bad, it would actually pass as an unique design.

"Ohh, it seems like it's time for the birthday boy to blow off the candles!"

Arthur's exclamation MIGHT have been just so Napoleon can stop drunk-singing already. Sorry, he's not drunk. That's what he insist, at least, but his little concert says otherwise. It's not a Christmas party without ABBA and other classics, that much everyone agrees upon, but Waterloo followed by Last Christmas I Gave you my hearttt but the very next daaay YOU GAVE IT AWAAAAY seems to be telling a story somewhere between the lines. It's a good time he was stopped before he can find an even sadder song to vent his feelings through.

It's impressive how Theo and Arthur are able to introduce the big cake into the room with one hand each, but their surprising sync is a story for another party. In an award event of Arthur trying to find his lighter in the pocket of his pants and Theo shouting something at him in the process where he touched in the wrong place, soon all the candles are lit and they all sing the so very familiar happy birthday tune.

 Isaac smiles a genuine smile and thinks of a wish. For the most of the evening, he wished Dazai would just pass out or something, so he doesn't have to deal with him anymore. Now he makes a more proper wish, and blows all the candles. Everyone starts clapping, and for a second, it turns wholesome. In the next second, Isaac feels a hand on the back of his head, shoving him down. He should've seen this happening.

*BANG*

Surely now, Isaac's face meeting the cake shouldn't make such a scary hitting sound.

That's when he remembers that he's conjoined with Dazai. Having his head pushed down would mean that Dazai was pushed down, too, meeting with the… table.

Arthur realizes that even before him, but his reaction is not the same as Isaac's. His eyes widen but then,

"Three times for good luck!"

BANG

BANG

Dazai doesn't stand back upwards this time. He might be dead, or at least has passed out.

Holy shit, I think my wish just came true, Isaac doesn't say out loud, features frozen in shock.

"Pft. Ahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHHAH"

The hearty laugher doesn't belong to Isaac, or Arthur, or anyone else in the room who hates the purple-haired freak, much to everyone's surprise. It's Mozart's. He seems to be very entertained from the show taking place in front of him, alcohol dulling his sense of what's morally right to laugh at, or maybe assuming that Dazai is playing dead. It wouldn't be the first time, after all.

This is Isaac's chance!

"Hey!" He points towards Mozart where noone dared say anything, "That's not very friendly of you!"

"Yeah."

"He has a point."

Isaac feels truly triumphal now. His birthday certainly started well, with justice coming to light, and with Dazai passed out.

Napoleon sobs from the side, moved from the scene. "I knew you'd call out evil when it happens, Isaac. That's why you're my good friend."

"Thank you, Napoleon."

"You deserve only nice things."

"Thanks, Napoleon."

"I hope noone breaks your heart EVER, Isaac."

"Uhh. Thanks?"

As his friend breaks down in real manly tears, Isaac scans over the room with a horrific realization: everyone else has a pair already. It's funny how they all ended up having to go through the getalong sweater punishment, even sweet Jean who is now in a sweater with Shakespeare. Their sweater is very, very bland, with a fuzzy string that is supposed to be a garland going from one sleeve to another, but looks more like a worm on a string attached to a random sweater. And the color is pretty ugly too. Thank god Jean's face is there to make things a little prettier. Oh, and Shakespere is there too, he guesses. But enough about these two. With all the possible candidates narrowed down to his dear friend Napoleon, Isaac feels karma weighing down on him.

Soon the crying Napoleon and the laughing Mozart are shoulder to shoulder, sporting an ugly getalong sweater. As noone predicted that many of them in use, the only one lying around is not even a christmas-themed one, brought on the pile by who-knows-who, and it has an among us illustration. Theo snaps a picture of the lovely disaster, just as he did with everyone that night, even if his camera roll is mostly taken by Vincent pics, because by his words, "he's the only one rocking it".

***

Much, much later in the night, Mozart starts feeling a familiar headache.

He hates himself for being tricked into drinking so much yet again. The person next to him who keeps wiping his tears in HIS sleeve is not helping with his overall state.

"Napoleon, that's enough. They don't deserve your tears and you know that."

Seeing that it had no effect, Mozart changes his strategy, wanting to give him a pat on the back along with what he says but then he remembers it's impossible because of the stupid sweater. How did they end up like this, anyway?

"Why don't you invite them here? Alexander loves drama, and Wellesley, well… I'm sure he'll find a way to have fun too."

Napoleon stops sobbing, letting out a weak laugh instead. "You know we can't. You remember what happened last time when we played uno."

That's true. The destructive aftermath of it was threatening the lives of many. They simply couldn't get along.

Mozart sighs, feeling his headache worsening.

"Look, let's at least throw that thing away." Having had his full of this sweater bullshit, he pulls it over his head until it hangs loosely on Napoleon. The latter gives no indication of wanting to part with it anytime soon, but that's alright, whatever makes him happy. Mozart stands up and finally gives him that encouraging pat on the back. "I'm going to get you water and some tissues, wait for me."

Well, at least he can be not an asshole. And he was going to go search for painkillers anyway.

Unsurprisingly, things don't work in his favor and he finds none in the kitchen, but in the process of searching for them he remembers the second cake. A second cake is another tradition of their friend group, seeing that many birthday parties result in somehow destroying the first one. He takes a plate and cuts a nice slice of it, bringing a small fork along.

In the corridor, he runs into the person he was searching for, for a chance.

"Hey Isaac."

The strawberry haired man stops on his tracks, visibly surprised. He holds a glass of water and what appears to be painkillers.

"Hangover too?"

"Ah, no, actually those are…for you. I figured, uh, that you might feel not so good after all that."

Mozart makes a surprised humming noise, thinking for a bit then sitting right there on the floor, leaning against the wall. It's unsanitary and pretty much against his  principles, but he's going to take a long and thorough bath when he goes home anyway. And he's afraid there is no available sitting area left where there are no weirdos.

Isaac follows suit, leaning his back on the opposite wall, handing Mozart the glass and the pills. He receives the slice of cake in return.

Before popping the pill in his mouth, Mozart nods towards the cake. "It's for you."

Isaac is surprised, almost embarrassed even. He didn’t expect that, and guilt is still heavy on his chest. He knows it must have been due to the alcohol that he held a temporary grudge against Mozart, he knows that the musician knows none of it too. But even after bringing him painkillers, he feels bad.

"You know, Wolf… I might be the reason why you ended up having to wear a getalong sweater with Napoleon. I'm sorry."

"Hmm?" Mozart mutters, finished emptying the contents of the glass. "Oh, that's fine. I'm glad it was him and not someone more annoying. Thank you."

Oh.

"You're not mad?"

"No? Why would I be. At the end of the night you're still the only one with a brain around here. Oh and hey, Happy Birthday, Isaac."

Isaac smiles, busying himself with the cake before he can do something more embarrassing, seeing that he's already blushing.

"Thank you."

"I can only imagine how it was being stuck all night with Dazai. My apologizes."

Isaac gulps down his bite, eager to say something. He also just now realizes that the cake is apple-flavored, and he's pleasantly distracted by that. As a whole, he needs to admit, his birthday actually has started very well. Sitting here on the floor eating cake in the company of Mozart, on this… a little unhinged Christmas-birthday party organized by his friends, he is thankful.

"Oh, don't worry about him. He hit his head thrice and passed out. You were there, do you remember?"

"No, I don't. Woah. That's amazing. Please tell me more about it."

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#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikevamp isaac #ikevamp comte #ikevamp leonardo #ikevamp arthur #ikevamp dazai #ikevamp napoleon #ikevamp vincent #ikevamp mozart #ikevamp sebastian #ikevamp shakespeare #ikevamp jean #ikevamp theo #ikevamp theodorus #ikemen series #ikeseries #ikemen vampire isaac #ikemen vampire napoleon #'tis the season for fluff #'tis the season for love #'tis the season for love content creation challenge #isaac week 2022 #cybird #ikemen vampire fanfic #ikevamp fanfic

[cinamun]

I’m finally home from the nonsense day I’ve had so I can fully unpack my feelings…or at least try to. This Mercy situation…idk. Mr. Isaac is an interesting case for sure. He’s really just toying with Mercy because it gives him something to do and he finds it fun, if that’s a word you could even use for his literal no feelings having ass. He doesn’t need her in any way. He has his own money. Yeah he could like sleeping with her but just like Kenji jumped on to Aaliyah and got what he wanted easily, how hard would it be for Bishop to leave and get somebody else? He definitely is trying to see it through with Mercy rather than start over because he’s already dug so deep into her and he’s made it clear that he is not leaving. So the only end I see is one of them ending up in a body bag and really Mercy is the only person that knows him well enough to be able to even have a chance at having that foresight and ability to get a few steps ahead of him. In a way Bishop does trust her. A guy like him has to have some level of trust for him to lay his head next to you every night and sleep. That’s the only time he’s truly vulnerable and even then he probably has some type of freaking spidey senses. Even if it’s just that he believes he scared her so bad that he doesn’t have to worry about her, that’s still some level of trust. Idk. Let’s say Mercy tries to go to Jayce. Do we really think she’d make it out the door? He’s yanked her up for less. And say she did manage to make it there undetected, do we not think that’d be the first place he’d go looking? Mercy has already been there so he has to know where Jay lives. He knew which dorm was his somehow AND broke in without notice. He is a seasoned criminal that knows how to leave no traces. I don’t want any of that mess near HoJay’s home. They’d be collateral damage for sure. We’re talking about a guy that set up his own blood with no remorse or second thought and faked his death successfully. He does not care about them and I’m sure he packs heat everywhere he goes. It’s looking real grim but in the words of Kenji, I could be wrong…idk.

You know what time it is sis...

"It gives him something to do" - Let's unpack.

He doesn't really have shit else to do right? Right. He escaped from prison, he escaped death, so now he's just laying low with no one to rob, set up or traumatize. Except for... Mercy. Mercy is his "something to do" given the fact that he's a psychopath. He literally needs something to fuck with, or someone to fuck up. He can't feel anything emotionally (which is why he won't/can't say he loves her) so why not have a little fun by tormenting a woman you love to fuck?

"how hard would it be for Bishop to leave and get somebody else?"

One thing about Kingpins, they value loyalty. The root word is King so loyal subjects matter. Mercy is a very easy, subserviant and loyal person in his life so, while he doesn't need her and could make someone else bow down to him, look at her... she's attractive, he's paid for some pretty badass curves and she's loyal... he knows the value in that.

Also, when you've been in prison for 3 decades, you deffo have some spidey senses, especially when you're sleep. he's probably a super light sleeper with an itchy trigger finger (in the figurative sense).

So about knowing where folks are... since the scene is over I can say that in my head, he pretended to be Jay's stepfather, called the school and found out which dorm. Or maybe he lied and told Mercy he would pick up Jays laundry and needed to know the room... remember, Mercy would give anything for Bishop to at least pretend to give a fuck about her son. So, unless she slips up, currently Bishop doesn't know where Jay lives. I mean... currently

So yes, the possibilities of death, destruction and armaggedon are very real as long as Bishop is somehow involved in their lives.

The real question I have is why would he ask her to marry him if he doesn't feel love? What is the motivation there? He doesn't need a ring to control her, he was doing fine without it. Maybe for the same reason he bought the piano?

Can't call it.... but he is certainly an interesting character.

#story stuff #breaking down bishop #for the one time

[beevean]

Honestly Julia is so overlooked. She was also done dirty by CoD. Rosaly was given the chance to shine in both the MF manga and PtR as the cutest thing, but Julia? No, she only has the game to go by, and CoD doesn’t exactly have the best presentation.

But still! I love love love this comment that Michiru Yamane left on her theme, Sarabande of Healing:

“I want to heal her, forced to bear the fate of her brother. Yet she's the one healing Hector! Why?!”

Oh, that hurts :(

The theme itself represents her personality. It starts off with a soothing celesta, that makes you feel all cozy inside, much like her shop is a place of rest for Hector (it even has a rocking chair for him to sit on)... but soon enough, that celesta gets replaced by a haunting, sorrowful cello. And the celesta doesn’t come back. It’s just that cello, painting her inner pain, that she tries so hard to hide.

Because that’s what Julia does: she hides her feelings. Think back of her first cutscene:

She meets a stranger who’s looking for Isaac, and she asks him what’s his relationship with him. He says that he’s his most bitter enemy, and by his voice it’s clear that he has murderous intentions. Julia... offers her help, and calls Isaac her enemy as well. When you know that she’s talking about her brother, it hits you hard.

And when Isaac dies, the most she shows is a sad face. She’s still repressing.

“The curse has reached deep inside of them. Its mark will not easily vanish. For my brother, only death could erase it.”

And when Hector starts to express sympathy, she immediately changes subject to a more positive topic, as if nothing happened.

There are clues that Julia and Isaac care about each other to some degree. First, Isaac’s reaction upon seeing her in Cordova Town, right in the middle of his fight with Hector:

He retreats Abel first thing, and then he runs away. He could have killed Hector right there when he was distracted... but no. Not when Julia is in danger of being involved. Sure, he does the whole “nah not worth killing you, become stronger first” spiel, but then why retreating Abel and making himself more vulnerable? To not hurt Julia, perhaps? The fact that he even thinks of that, as he’s Cursed up to his hair and hyperfocused on Hector, tells a lot.

And another thing that tells a lot is this comment from Julia:

“No, Hector. You must be the one to defeat him. My brother had always respected you.”

How does she know that? Yes, she has premonition powers (somehow she knew about Rosaly), but nothing indicates that she’s a mind reader. Did... Did Isaac tell her, at some point? Were they in touch when he was working for Dracula? And did he talk positively about Hector? If so, that is just wholesome 💖

So give back that wholesomeness and get this kick in the teeth from the Japanese script :)

“Only then I could accept it. Even if I lose my family...”

Julia is a witch. She was persecuted, all the way to Western Europe (Italy, maybe? Her name sounds very Italian if you fix the spelling). Whatever Isaac went through as a child, she probably did too. The MF manga implies that Isaac dragged her with him to Castlevania, but for some reason she’s never seen there - she didn’t find a place where she was allowed to exist. Then, years later, she saw her brother lose his mind to the Curse, to a degree where she decided that it would be best if he were mercy killed and be left alone in the world. And I sure hope she never witnessed Rosaly’s execution.

And yet she never complains or cries. She sells potions to Hector and hosts his Devils with a gentle smile, supporting him all the way through.

Ngl, I’d so cut that whole conversation between St. Germain and Zead that Hector overhears, and replace it with one between Julia and Isaac 😭 let them talk! I want to see Julia try to reach out to Isaac, only to be cruelly rejected, and Hector could get a glimpse of her true sadness behind her cute, slightly brusque mask.

I don’t feel like either Hector or Julia are, by the end of CoD, in a healthy place to start a romantic relationship. Julia looks too much like Rosaly, and is the sister of Hector’s friend-turned-enemy. Hector killed Isaac, even though Julia felt it was the best course of action. It’s a situation that spells disaster. But I really wish they’ll be able to heal together, and that Julia will open up more.

#castlevania #curse of darkness #julia laforeze #i have feelings #i have endless feelings #i mention here also my headcanon that julia started to repress herself for isaac's sake #i imagine isaac being a very aggressive kid and overprotective of his lil sis #to the point that if he got the impression that someone harmed her he'd retailate tenfold #and little julia didn't want it so she pretended to be fine to not worry him #but hey this is just a headcanon #canon is sad enough

[acourtofthought]

Hello there! I absolutely love all your Elucien posts. You are just a gift!!! I saw this post saying that it would be “wrong” and “unprofessional” of SJM to NOT make E*riel endgame because they’re the only ones “romantically coded” I mean idk if I read that right but….is this ridiculous or what?

That’s like saying Feyre and Rhysand becoming endgame was wrong and unprofessional for SJM to do because Feyre and Tamlin were the ones romantically coded in the first book. Also, did everyone just forget that Elain and Lucien are STILL canonically factually mates?! In SJM canon, that’s one of the most “romantically coded” things you can have.

I just….I can’t with some of these people….

Anyway, thoughts?

Thank you so much for your message and really kind words!!! ❤️

As far as it being wrong or unprofessional of SJM to not make E/riel endgame, I am completely in sync with your thoughts.

A. This is the authors book and she can do whatever she wants with these characters. Considering it's her world, there's nothing "unprofessional" or "wrong" if it's where her imagination takes her. Authors all over the world have love triangles in their novels, characters in polyamorous relationships, characters who start off the book with a spouse who they end up divorced from only to find another love by the end, enemies to lovers, etc. Yeah, maybe a reader doesn't like the direction the author went with a particular relationship but there is no place where readers should be telling the author how she should be writing her own work.

B. Arguments like this make me shake my head. Have these people never read an SJM book before? Have they not paid attention to the other characters in the ACOTAR series?

SJM has a very specific formula she often follows. Most of her main leads tend to have multiple relationships before finally settling with their endgame person. She enjoys taking us on a journey with the character, watching them grow as individuals and through their past relationships.

Celeana / Aelin was in love with Sam, had a brief moment with Dorian, was in love with Chaol, then ended up with Rowan.

Feyre had a fling with Isaac, was engaged to Tamlin, entertained the idea of what it would be like to fall in love with Tarquin, then ended up mated to Rhys.

Both Rhys and Cassian talk about the past lovers they had and we know how much romantic coding Az had with Mor at certain points.

Nesta really didn't have an emotional relationship with anyone but Cassian (which is fitting of her character) however she had a thing with Tomas and many physical experiences with others before ending up with Cassian.

Chaol was with Nesryn, then Celeana, then had romantic coding again with Nesryn, then ended up with Yrene (who he had zero romantic coding with at the start of TOD).

Dorian was a playboy, then had feelings for Celeana, then fell in love with Sorcha, then ended up having a thing with Manon.

Yes, not every character has multiple relationships because she doesn't have time to follow everyone's story. Yrene was a female lead however we only ever saw her with Chaol. But, acting like Elain and Az having romantic coding now MUST mean that they will end up together is a bit naïve in my opinion. If anything, based on history, I think readers who ship E/riel should be extremely concerned that they had romantic coding and over a year of being able to freely hang out before either of them had their own book. That rarely has a positive outcome for an SJM ship.

I feel like both Az and Elain were a stepping stone for one another. A transition between letting go of their past loves and finding their way to their endgame person. Yes, they had romantic coding but flings / rebounds often do. That's normal in real life. We have romantic coding with many people before we finally settle down with who we're meant to be with.

I hate to make a blanket statement or sound judgmental about this but anyone that truly can't understand that Az and Elain (through the author) are allowed to "think" they want the other one at the moment but have the right to change their mind and realize that maybe they aren't meant to be together long term either doesn't understand how SJM writes and / or relationships in real life.

Thank you again for your message and have a wonderful eveing!

#anti e/riel

[praecurokat]

Ted Lasso Finale Thoughts- So Long, Farewell... (I do not know what to think!)

this episode being an hour and 15 minutes..after being released at midnight... that's just cruel.. my brain cannot operate properly under such conditions..

congrats Tedbecca shippers! oop watched more.. sorry Tedbecca shippers...

most normal Beard and Jane appearance in the series at Rebecca’s house in the beginning

writers were bringing the dramatic flair in this episode! first that thing with Isaac dressed as a judge in the beginning, and then a musical number! idk how i feel about that..

speaking of the musical number, i must regretfully inform the masses that idk what the song is from.. pls lmk in the comments.. i see that it relates to the episode title

ah yes Jane acting totally normal by shredding Beard's passport.. total ✨ marriage material ✨

Trent's shirt says sat 17 may.. could this be significant?? everything in this show is..

"You know, that might be a tasty little treat for the diamond dogs.” “No. No. No. No!”-Roy, soon to become a Diamond Dog in a moment of desperation

wait did Trent name his manuscript the lasso way awww

“I only got into this to ruin Rupert's life, and he seems to be doing a pretty good job of that himself.”- Rebecca

So. Many. Throwbacks. Keeley saying “Is everybody decent?”, Jamie using lots of axe body spray like S1, the cleaner walking in on everyone, and way more i can’t think of

the complicated web that is royjamiekeeley is still being spun.. in the last episode..

“Must be awful for them, lying awake at night, haunted by how fucking easy they’ve had it!”- Mae, to Rebecca’s mom

Trent watching Ted read his book.. heart eyes emoji

the way Ted looks at him.. i meannn is this even subtext anymore?

“So you do laugh, but you don't do it until page.. 43?! And it wasn't even a big laugh!”- Trent, while Ted is reading his manuscript

"Whatever happens on Sunday, I want you to know I’m proud of you. All the work you’ve put in this year."- Roy to Jamie, before proceeding to fistfight with him later

Both Roy and Jamie seem very contemplative this ep. What are they thinking??

i am so concerned about the current royjamie feud over Keeley... what is gonna happen here???

“Would you please stay?” and “I know, I just had to try.”- Rebecca, about Ted

lmao Keeley kicking both Roy and Jamie out after they asked her to choose

“You stay put, Trenthouse magazine. You’re part of the squad now.”- Ted, to Trent

“Yeah. Someone better. Can people change?”- Roy, also this is a central tenet of this damn show

“I don’t think we change per se, as much as we just learn to accept who we’ve always been, you know?” -Trent’s most beautiful quote thus far

aww Nate finally got his diamond dogs reaction to Jade

George being Rupert’s coach sent me.. like you Really couldn’t find anyone else?

I hate Rupert but I love his dramatic slay coat swish moments.. again reminds me of Uther’s drama queen antics

“I prefer rugby, there’s just more grown men throwing other grown men into the air like children. And blood. Which is nice." - Barbara

Bloodthirsty and mysterious? Barbara is a serial killer or vampire confirmed.

“Never forget, I am always inside you.” -Zava’s note, which also came with a giant avocado

Zorro has truly entered his superhero arc and Dani Rojas is his genius creator

the fourth thing has to be 'Believe'.. aand it was? Right?

AFC Richmond Women’s club.. i sense a spinoff show opportunity…. or they could just do a show about Trent

George has begun a redemption arc!! (Telling Rupert to fuck off)

Rupert's desperation and misery at the end is not entirely unreminiscent of Rebecca at the start of S1

yesss Colin got his kiss on the pitch!!

haha the same? person from S1E1 taking pics w Ted in the airport

damn so Beard’s going home too, thought Jane would've locked him away in a safe or smth… nvm

omg Amsterdam man has a child.. hmmm Rebecca’s prophecy may still be fulfilled

Roy becoming manager feels natural

Ofc Trent renamed his book ‘The Richmond Way’… never let them know your next move

that montage at the end…so much to process....

beardjane wedding marking the end of the series.. good or bad omen for the future? i think bad

seems very fitting the series ending the opposite of how it began.. Rupert's life ruined, Rebecca in love and not owner of the club, Roy and Jamie healing and bonding w others around them, and Ted back in America with family.

#ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso #afc richmond #trent crimm #roy kent #rebecca welton #isaac mcadoo #coach beard #jamie tartt #keeley jones #ted lasso s3 #ted lasso finale #anotherofmybrilliantthoughts

[jvstheworld]

My Ted Lasso Re-watch: S1E5 (part 3)

Tan Lines

Jamie isn't part of the power circle because he still doesn't understand that it's not all about him.

The chant he does is annoying.

Ted starting to become angry at Jamie's behaviour but is only stopped by Henry running in.

Ted's sigh when Henry starts doing the chant is every parent when they know they are going to be hearing the same song on repeat, non-stop. Even though he doesn't live with Henry at the moment, it's was just an automatic reaction for him.

Yes, don't humanise the human just trying to do his job.

Jamie's showboating is annoying as fuck.

Roy is rightfully pissed off at Jamie. Sam is down, he becomes the priority. Roy knows this from experience and helps Sam look like a hero for getting back up. Something Sam will later repay this to Roy at the end of the season.

All of Jamie's antics just makes Ted's decision to bench him easier. He has a plan and he needs Jamie that it cannot be all about him. He needs to work with his team mates because neither him or the team can get better. He'll get it eventually as he's the first one one the team to get Ted's Total Football plan, but right now he is just a prick.

Roy commands the locker room and Isaac makes space for Nate to sit down too.

Ted relating his life to what the team is going through. He has a story for everything. Reminds me of Raymond Reddington from The Blacklist who can pull of story from anywhere, in any situation.

Ted isn't just talking about the team, but about him and Michelle. Only Beard realises this which is why he says 'good save' when Ted has to reaffirm that he is talking about football. And it's also why Beard appears with a pint for Ted when he says goodbye to Michelle and Henry.

Ted wants all eyes on him to say one last thing, but slaps the shit out of the believe poster. He went to the Captain Holt school of commanding attention.

Yeah Roy, we all know you hate Jamie. You don't exactly hide it. Even Sam is fed up of hearing how much Roy hates Tartt.

Richmond gets their first win! Everyone but Rebecca and Jamie are happy about it.

Nate jumping on Ted will late be used as a Christmas present for Ted in season 2.

A Back To The Future reference. Will later be mentioned in the final Diamond Dogs meeting.

Henry is making the long run to see his dad this time.

Ted explaining to Henry what a wanker is. Oh honey. He's not technically wrong, he just left some details out.

Rebecca is starting to feel a twinge of guilt about her plan after seeing Henry and Ted together. As she should.

The parallel between how Ted and Michelle met and Roy and Keeley now.

Shannon keeping Henry busy while Ted and Michelle talk. We needed to see more of her.

Ted doesn't like quitting things because that how he saw what his dad did. He does want to do the same to the people in his own life. But he's not quitting the marriage, he's letting himself and Michelle move on from something that isn't working anymore. He's tried to make it work, through couples counselling, and then by giving Michelle space, but it's hasn't worked. It's okay the let go at that point they both need to find their own happiness, unfortunately it isn't together. But they have Henry and he will be their priority from now on. They make for better co-parents than spouces.

But holy hell does everyone sell this scene. As much as I might not be the biggest fan of Michelle, mostly because of her criticism of Ted's personality (girl, you married him. You knew what he was like) and her relationship with Dr Jacob being a bit sketchy, she is still hurting too. She love him and now she's lost that. It's not something she intended, just something that happened over time. And by this episode she was kind of done trying, as much as she might say she wants to try, she really didn't. She knew it was over and didn't want to admit it. She was making herself more miserable. And my heart breaks for Ted because he would do anything to stay with the woman he loves, because despite it all, he does love her. He never lost it. I can't imagine how it must feel to be told that the person you love most in the world no longer feels the about you. All he wanted to do was be a good husband but there's nothing he can do to make it right. So they only option he has left is to let her go. The only good thing to come out of this is that it's amicable. There's no hate or malice, just two people who drifted apart and now need to focus on their son.

Beard is the best friend Ted could have, he's always there when needed. Get a friend like Beard.

#ted lasso #jamie tartt #roy kent #coach beard #keeley jones #michelle lasso #henry lasso #ted lasso rewatch #tv show thoughts

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

The Crazy Quartet Playing Crazy Chicks Song(2023)

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[Note: Do Not Reblog Without Permission.] 

Credit for Crazy Chicks goes to Ken Ashcorp

Credit for Transformers goes to Hasbro & Takara

Credit for Transformers Animated goes to Sam Register & Matt Youngberg

Credit for FNAF goes to Scott Cawthon

Credit for FNAF Security Breach goes to Steel Wool Studios

Credit for Helluva Boss goes to Vivienne “Vivziepop” Medrano

Credit for Steven Universe goes to Rebecca Sugar

---------------------

Blitzwing becoming friends with those three....uh, technically four (because Moondrop counts as the fourth.) seems like a interesting idea.

and yeah I know I didn’t draw The Decepticon Insignia, I know I was going to, but I’m gonna be lazy and just leave it as is....

and yes, I like the song “Crazy Chicks”, it’s a good song....well I think it is, but it’s okay that not everyone likes it.

Spinel is holding a boombox that is playing the Crazy Chicks song.

Sundrop is on Blitzwing’s shoulders, Robo-Fizz is on Sundrop’s shoulders,

and Spinel is on Robo-Fizz’s shoulder.

like picture Blitzwing running all over the place with them like that, all while Spinel is holding the boombox playing that song.

Moondrop is still part of "The Crazy Quartet" since both he and Sundrop share the same body.

I am working a type of Crossover that has to do with Spinel being a Crossover with TFA and some other series as well...

but it would also be interesting, if Spinel is found by Blitzwing and Lugnut, like she could still look a mess when they find her, and before she poofs and reforms on how she looks when she meets Steven, Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl.

even if Spinel is suppose to “stay perfectly still”, she ends up taking a “break”

and goes with the two, but takes that gem communicator in case Pink calls from Earth to tell her that the game is almost finished and she will be coming back to get her.....which if it’s been a thousand years, of course it wasn’t a game...

plus while on Earth, in Detroit...

Spinel could of been with both Lugnut and Blitzwing, or possibly both them, Megatron, Mixmaster, Scrapper and the Imprisoned Professor Isaac Sumdac,

when the transmission from Homeworld starts to play for all the Gem Colonies that have those Gem Communicator things....

so it wouldn’t just be Spinel watching and listening to what Steven was saying, it would also be The Decepticons and Isaac.

and possibly the Autobots if they just got there....

after listening to it, we all know what happens to Spinel like it had implied in the movie, in her heartbreak and extreme emotion after finding out she was tricked by Pink, who lied and abandoned her....

causes Spinel to poof...

and I guess if she formed a very close bond to Blitzwing, like they could be Binary-Bonded (which is a canon Transformers thing....)

then I guess after she goes poof and there is nothing left but just her heart shaped gem, I guess Blitzwing would run over to her and gently pick her gem up and hold it  gently in his hands.

what Pink did to Spinel, wasn’t okay....even if she did become a better person over time, that still didn’t give her the right or excuse to lie to Spinel like that, and if you think about it, Spinel was like a little kid at the time when it happen, and even if she isn’t a little kid anymore, Pink still technically tricked a Gem-Child into playing a game that wasn’t really a game.

even Greg has no excuse on how he raised Steven, even though he was mostly raised by Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, at least they had a better excuse than Greg, because those three wouldn’t know most of the needs of human children.....plus if some info about how Greg raised Steven is true, then he would of got in REALLY big trouble if a responsible adult found out much sooner.

even if Greg’s parents weren’t the best, but maybe there are reasons why they made him do half the stuff he didn’t like, and maybe if those three had sit down and talked about it, maybe they could of reached a compromise.

I still think it’s possible that Greg’s Mom or Dad or both of them, had suffered from sensitive hearing, where they couldn’t take very loud sounds, and that could be one of the reasons why they didn’t allow Greg to have any music, because of his habit of turning it up way too loud and it ending up causing his Mom or Dad some discomfort and pain.

the other theory I have is that back in Greg’s youth, it was really dangerous at night to be out alone, and that is why his parents wanted a curfew for him, and the reason why they made him take up wrestling for self-defense.

but because those two didn’t tell him, he ended up becoming well, a not so great father later in his life....

sure Greg has some good points about him, but it doesn’t excuse him for the other stuff that Steven had pointed out, that he is just like Steven’s Mom...

and even before we find out the truth in Steven Universe Future, we know that Greg did do some selfish actions when he was pretending to still be hurt...

yeah, it’s good he wanted to spend time with Steven, but he was also responsible for Steven’s self-doubt about his powers not working, which his own self-doubt might of caused him not to active his healing powers.

even if not all fans like Steven Universe Future, but the fact is that Steven’s emotional traumas had started away before Steven Universe Future, and it was going to end up reaching a breaking point that would be in that future series.

even the flash backs of past episodes, when Steven was being treated by Connie’s Mom, even proves this.

even if it can be good for Steven to learn about his Gem Powers and how to defend himself if should the need every happens...

but he was still a human kid, and if it were possible, I would of slap Greg over the head for how he spoke to Steven when Steven was driving...

yes Steven is part Gem, but he is also Human, and it wasn’t right for Greg to just refer to him as “Your a Gem” and that he’s “Not Like Other Kids”

I get that is how it was wrote, but still, if he had said “Your Half-Gem” that would of been not as bad...

even the moment between Greg and Connie, where they went all “Human Beings...” (didn’t they fist bump....?) and not considering how Steven might feel about it and maybe he might be feeling left out, he is still a human as well, even if he is a half-human & half-gem....

and if Sans is Steven Quartz Universe’s future self, it would be his Human side, and he could still have the light type soul of a gem that is a part of his now Monster-Soul, and his body could still have some form of minerals...?

that make up a Gem, so Sans would still technically be a Gem Hybrid.

Steven becoming Sans, could happen in different ways, either by reincarnation or a type of being brought back to life after both him and his gem were forcefully separated and Pink-Steven didn’t reform on time to re-fuse with his Human Half.....

both sides of Steven would share the same memories, since they are like the same but also kind of like siblings, which makes their fusion platonic that was born from the romantic love between Greg and Rose.

and we know what happens to the human half when their gem is forced from their body, and one of my theories are this...

that if the human-half isn’t rejoined with their gem-half, they will eventually die...

so if the Human Half of Steven didn’t re-fuse with the Gem Half of Steven, the human half would of ended up dying...

and if Gaster is Sans and Papyrus’s Dad...

Gaster could of brought Steven’s skeleton back to life, with his magic from his soul, which would end up causing Steven to become Gaster’s son.

Steven’s Soul could of already been a hybrid, and was a split half of his gem twin that is Pink-Steven, but instead of moving on to the afterlife right away...

Steven’s Soul was still in his lifeless body and not yet moved on yet when Gaster found him, and Gaster was able to infuse his soul’s magic into Steven’s Soul, that was still looked like a Human Soul, that takes the shape of a heart.

the change to Steven’s body, could end up having his age flux like how it did in one of the episodes in Steven Universe, but instead of going forward, he ages back to a baby, like he did on one of the other episodes...

Steven could of also have his full name in his jacket, which Gaster could of read when he uses the jacket to put around the now Baby Steven/Sans, to keep him warm....and after reading the name and finding the hidden “Sans” in there, Gaster decides to rename his new little son, Sans...

Steven or now “Sans” might end up not remembering his life as a half-human & half-gem, until he becomes the age where he and his gem half were forced apart....

if the reason why Pink-Steven took so long to reform from Steven’s Gem, might be that he was trying to look more like his Human Half, and even using some of the human DNA that they share to add to his reformed body, it could of taken much longer to recreate a type of “clone body” that was made up of both organic matter and physical manifestation of light.

but it would be because the Gem Half of Steven took too long, that would result in the Half Half of Steven losing his life.

if both halves are separated too long, it will result in the human half slowly dying.

and if Connie wasn’t there for Steven after White pulled his Gem out like she did, and if Pink-Steven didn’t go to him.....then the Human Half of Steven would of died maybe a few moments later if they didn’t re-fuse.

White, Yellow and Blue did feel bad for being the cause of Pink’s actions, and they are becoming better, and become like Mother Figures for Spinel.

both Steven and Spinel, were technically hurt by Pink in different ways, and Pink has no excuse for it, and even if it would just be Fanon, I still like the idea of Rose not being the same Pink Diamond, but another Pink Diamond that the other who actually left Spinel, had created to act as her double while she is away possibly colonizing other planets with another Pearl, and leaving her Pearl with Pink/Rose.

like in the flash backs where Pearl is telling Sapphire on why Rose started to rebel in the first place, it could turn out the Pink/Rose in the story is actually a new Pink Diamond that was made by the Original who did abandoned Spinel in the garden...

like the new Pink who would later be called Rose, had a fragment of the Original Pink’s light, that was placed into a new pink diamond gem.

and it was Pink/Rose that created the Rose Quartz Gems, NOT the Original Pink Diamond....this would also mean that Original Pink is Steven’s Grandmother....even if the idea would be Fanon...

even before traveling off Earth and to other Gem Worlds, Rose could of went back for Spinel at any time, but didn’t....

and in a Crossover Fanon Timeline, if there were two Pink Diamonds, the reason why Rose didn’t go get Spinel, was because she had no memories of her and didn’t know that the Original Pink Diamond had abandon her in a garden in space.

even when Rose was still being Pink Diamond II, she could of still went back to Homeworld to hang out with the other three, all while Pink Diamond I was secretly taking over other planets and making more gems in a far off space or universe, away from White, Blue and Yellow’s colonies, including Rose/Pink II’s Earth Colony.

Pink I could of gave Earth to Rose/Pink II to rule over, while she runs off to take over other planets and showing she is just as good at making colonies as White, Yellow and Blue.

we know that we loved the caring and kind Rose, and finding out she had did some ethereal heartless actions to gems that loved her, makes one wish that it wasn’t the same Pink Diamond, and it turning out there was two Pink Diamonds, and the one that is Pink II, was made by Pink I and left in charge of the Gem Colonization of Earth.

Pink I might of knew what was going to happen to the Earth, if the colonization was fully completed, but chose not to tell Rose/Pink II.

Pink II under the disguise of a Rose Quartz (but later after poofing, made that her new form when she had reformed and no longer looked like Pink I.)

had to find out on her own....

all the warps that let Gems leave the planet, could of been purposely broken, so not just Homeworld Gems couldn’t come to the planet, but also to keep Pink Diamond I from coming back....which Rose had secretly had made sure of.

if Pearl knew that Rose was just a second Pink Diamond that was created by Pink Diamond I, that could of been one of the promises Pearl made to never to speak of and not just the fake shattering.

Blitzwing and Spinel forming a type of bond with each other, just seem like a cute and interesting idea.

maybe Blitzwing could act like a big brother to her.

it be interesting if Robo-Fizz sang "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Frankie Valli. to Spinel.

Robo-Fizz might change the words a little, maybe saying “I Thank Goddess I’m alive.” I mean, even Imps could respect The Earthly Mother....right?

balance between The Masculine & Feminine energies are important, and we should be lucky that the Toxic-Feminine energy isn’t as bad as the Toxic-Masculine energy....and we all know how it can be when Toxic-Masculine ends up influencing someone or more people....some times it wont be pretty.      

like I had pointed out before (and this would include the Fallen Angels...)

“if they are gonna act like children, then they will be treated as such.”

I’m talking about the Masculine ones....and if I was allowed to, I would grab both Jesus and Antichrist by their ears if they should ever cross lines they shouldn’t....

and I would do the same to both Cain and Abel, even flick both Cain & Abel on their foreheads.

and we all know that those Watcher Grandpas and Grunkles who fathered The Nephilim, had possibly gave into their temptations because of the Toxic-Masculine energy, and yeah it did end up giving birth to the Nephilim...

but in a way, there were good things that came out of it, like some people today who are Earth Angels are descendants of some Nephilim....

even though I’m not sure if all Earth Angels are descendants of Nephilim, I guess it is possible that some percent are.

this also might be a crazy theory, but I can’t help but think that Acephobia is connected to The Toxic-Masculine energy....it would make sense, given the stupidity of Acephobia and how it is.....                                                                 like the song from Jem and The Holograms goes “You Will Never Win My Love” and “Your Going About It All Wrong.”

I think this is the only drawing I’m going to post up for tonight, I do have another one that I’m still working on, that has to do with FNAF...

also even if I would find some form of wanting to be in a relationship with someone in a romantic way, they would need to understand when I need time to be alone and have me time, to just relax, by just reading, drawing, listening to music and even playing video games.

and how I don’t like being touched at times, and I sure as heck don’t want to fall for the wrong type of guys like I did in the past....

which my falling for the wrong type of guys, might have to do with a mix of loneliness and being influence by certain energies being absorbed into my body, which lucky didn’t cause me seizures, but I guess the energies would have to be SUPER strong in order to cause seizures...

like being a large room with a lot of people, and you kind of leave your guard down, and the energy from all those people will end up flying around the room and then end up absorbed into your body, which would then make you go through a overload where the extra energies end up causing you go through a seizure.....of course because some Doctors aren’t open minded that not all seizures are gonna be the same, they will end misdiagnosing.

even though I haven’t had seizures since moving to the town I live at now, but that might be partly because the other places I had lived at before, were full of dangerous energies in most spots in it, from both a place and people who unknowingly cause the seizures from their energies.

and I’m glad that I figured out that my seizures were energy based, and not like what would be the normal type that isn’t energy based...

babies even when they aren’t born yet, are really sensitive to the supernatural, so they can sense if the said supernatural force is dangerous.

and it could be possible for babies to get seizures from a negative supernatural energy, even if most babies seizures have nothing to do with it, but in most cases it could be that....my first seizure was when I was a baby, if I remember right, I think I was told I was a year old when it happen...?

or maybe almost close to a year old...I will have to ask about it again sometime.

but the point is, that a baby who is sensitive to energies of both people and a place, can get seizures from supernatural energies.

once again, while not all seizures that some babies end up having, will be linked to energies of both people and a place, it might be possible that only some percent are.

anyway, even if Charlie’s Dad Lucifer is in charge and let’s the other kings of the other rings rule their own rings....they could be counterparts of some of their Masculine Fallen Angel Counterparts, who were part of the imbalance problem.....you can’t leave them alone for 5 minutes without them causing a Toxic-Rebellion, although they wouldn’t be the only problem....

and yeah in my weird point of view, I believe both sides are at fault, and if they stop and think for a minute, they would figure out they only acted that way, because they were infected by Toxic-Masculine energies.

and it’s been that way, since those humans from those Ancient Times during the age of the Indo-European Warriors had wrongfully dethroned the Goddess.

not sure there would be a Goddess in Helluva Boss or Hazbin Hotel, but I think in a Fanon Timeline version, they might be and she would be very supportive of Charlie and be very proud of her.

also don’t get me wrong, I can still believe in Jesus, but if he crosses lines he shouldn’t that end up hurting lives, then I will have  to put my foot down and call him out on it, and still have thoughts of wanting to take him and even the Antichrist by the ears, that is if I was allowed to....

and yeah I get he is the Messiah, but he is also technically Family, since we both are descendants of King David, and like I said many times before, me being a descendant of King Solomon is more of a blessing than a curse, cause still not taking that throne.

I’m still gonna hope Jesus is only a distant cousin, and the french royal family I’m related to, aren’t his and Mary Magdalene’s descendants....

I know that I had found out that Charlemagne is my Ancestor, but I kind of forgot what number of Great-Grandpas that he is.....and I’m still confused about what I had read before that had talked about Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s descendants, like was it saying that Charlemagne is one of the descendants or not....plus even if that were true, you can’t just say your a descendant of those two, because there will need to be some form of evidence to back it up.

so I’m just okay with knowing that Jesus is a distant cousin who shares the same Ancestor like King David....and hopefully is only a distant cousin.

even if King David wasn’t the best dad, and should of punished his sicko of a son for what happen to Tamar....and let’s not forget that Noah wasn’t the best granddad either, who instead of giving a proper and fair punishment to his son, but instead of made his own grandson the scapegoat.

and like the song goes “it’s too late to apologize” Grandpas David & Noah...

you know that song by onerepublic.

I’m listening to “She’s a Rebel” by Green Day right now, I think after I finish listening to that song, I will listen to “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry.

anyway, hope some like this crossover drawing, and I hope some like the idea of those four being friends and doing crazy stuff together, like driving others crazy by having Spinel hold a boombox playing “Crazy Chicks” all while Blitzwing is running, sounds like a crazy, weird and interesting idea.

I’m weird, so of course I’m gonna have weird ideas....and this is gonna be one of them....I have no regrets. XD                                                                   

#blitzwing tfa #sundrop fnaf #robo fizz helluva boss #spinel su #transformers animated fanart #fnaf security breach fanart #helluva boss fanart #steven universe fanart #crossover fanart #february 2023 #do not reblog without permission

[salemsimss]

Beginning | Previous | Next

Transcript under the cut

Sorya: How are you holding up? Are you doing okay?

Juliana: Yeah! Honestly, it's not painful at all. It feels relaxing if anything.

Sorya: Okay, great! Just let me know if you need a break at any point.

Juliana: Yes, boss.

Sorya: [Snort] It feels weird having you call me that outside of work.

[Tattoo machine noises]

Juliana: Oh my God, did I tell you about this weird customer we had come in last night?

Sorya: I don't think you did! What happened?

Juliana: So this guy came in, acting all high and mighty and stuff-

Sorya: [Scoff] Typical.

Juliana: Pfft, yeah. But for some reason he would not shut up about his sex life.

Sorya: Oh God...

[Chattering]

Juliana: So Rahul was serving him- poor fucker, and out of nowhere he brings up that Isaac Osario dude.

Sorya: What did he say?

Juliana: I can't remember all of it, but if I remember correctly, he was talking about how he was going to fuck him up, and make him his bitch or something. I don't know...

Sorya: Oh...

Sorya: Huh, it'd be interesting to see how that would go. I heard Isaac's pretty brutal on the streets.

Juliana: Oh he is! I've seen him fight; he's not someone you want to mess with.

Sorya: So I've been told...

Juliana: Told?

Sorya: Yeah. I asked Tom about him the other day- only out of curiosity, and he pretty much filled me in.

Thomas: Hey, can I ask you something before I forget?

Sorya: Yeah, sure. What's up?

Thomas: I'm thinking of going up to Carlisle in mid October to surprise my Mum, and I just wanted to ask if I'm good to book some time off to do so?

Sorya: I don't see why not? It's been a while since you've last seen your family. How is she, anyway?

Thomas: She's doing okay! She's got a bit more movement in her left leg, now.

Sorya: That's great! I'm glad to hear she's doing better. Put the request through online, and I'll check with Dan.

Thomas: Thank you!

Thomas: My Mum asked about you, you know?

Sorya: Really?

Thomas: Yeah. She mostly just asked how you were- she really wants to meet you.

Sorya: We're gonna have to arrange something, then.

Thomas: Yeah. She'd like that. She really likes you.

Sorya: I see you've been saying nice things about me, then.

Thomas: Well, it's not like I have anything bad to say about you.

Sorya: I find that hard to believe, Tommy.

Thomas: Okay fine, next time I'll tell her about how you're a workaholic who doesn't know when to take a break, and that you have weird eating habits.

Sorya: Leave my eating habits out of this!

Thomas: [Laughs] But seriously, though. You're the only person I know who eats food in a certain order based on the least liked to the most liked food.

Sorya: Is that not normal? I swear everyone does it! Even Isa- my old housemate, Isaiah does it. Maybe you're the one with the weird eating habits.

Thomas: Whatever you say, weirdo.

Sorya: [Laughs]

Thomas: But seriously, though. I'd like you to meet my family one day, I think you'd get along really well.

Sorya: I'd like that, man. You'll have to be my tour guide and shit- show me around Carlisle.

Thomas: I could show you the Lake District, also.

Sorya: For real? I've always wanted to go there at least once.

Thomas: Looks like you've got some holiday requests that you'll have to put through, also.

Sorya: Right.

[Car drives by]

Thomas: Sorya?

Sorya: Yeah?

Thomas: You still down for the gym tomorrow?

Sorya: Fuck yeah, bro. Just let me know what time and I'll be there.

Thomas: Great! Just... Be careful on your way back. We've had a bunch of shit happen up this road lately. Some older man got jumped by a group of lads the other day.

Sorya: Shit... I'll be careful.

Thomas: You sure? We can get you an Uber or something to get you home quicker.

Sorya: I'll be fine. Honestly. You know me, I can take care of myself.

Thomas: I know. I just worry sometimes.

Sorya: Trust me, I'll be okay.

Thomas: Okay, fine. Just message me when you get back, okay?

Sorya: Sure. I'll see you tomorrow.

[Music playing through earbuds]

#ss:intruder #intruder: chapter 1 #the sims 4 #the sims 4 story #the sims 4 storytelling #ts4 #ts4 story #ts4 storytelling #simblr #tw: mentions of violence #*sorya moau #*juliana hernandez #*thomas davenport #we finally get to see sorya at his other job #shared some screenshots in a server i'm in #and i'm glad we can agree on how cute these boys are #just two dudes being dudes #also if there's any errors it's because i literally just edited this post LAST NIGHT