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skamenglishsubs · 15 days

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Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 6

Out here in the real world it's been a week since the cliffhanger ending of episode 5 where Simon broke up with Wilhelm, but in-universe it's just the next day, and Wilhelm is being comforted by Felice.

Subtext: This entire episode is incredibly meta, there are so many times characters say things that reference earlier seasons or episodes, or the entire series as a whole. This is the first time, and Felice is saying what we're all thinking. IS IT REALLY OVER?!? 😱

Blink and you miss it: Felice gives Wilhelm her sunglasses and dries his tears so he can hide the fact that he's been crying. Also, look at that gorgeous Swedish summer. It is so pretty.

Culture: The third-years are painting the banners that go on the trucks on graduation day.

Culture: They're also signing each others' student hats, which is a common tradition. You can just sign your name or write something funny or do whatever.

Culture: This car is what we in Sweden call a sossecontainer. It's an old 90's Volvo, it's square, it's ugly, and it was pretty cheap and reliable, so it was very common and popular among working class and the lower middle classes. It was never a high-status car, so it perfectly illustrates the Eriksson family.

Subtext: Oh look, another throwback to season 1 when Sara argued with Simon about their dad, and said that he should stop giving people second chances.

Culture: Oh look, another poem by Karin Boye. This time it's Eternity, a poem about cherishing your time with your loved one, and the text is about how good times feel like an endless summer, which is what it certainly looks like for the kids and their teacher in the lush landscape. But just like in the poem, their endless summer is about to end.

Culture: This is pretty much exactly the reason used when real-world Lundsberg was temporarily closed.

Culture: And Wilhelm isn't wrong, the shitty traditions are in the walls of the place, it's always been like that, and it's always been upheld by everyone involved with the school, parents, teachers, staff, and students.

Subtext: Since this is the last episode, let's prepare the viewers to say good bye to the show, and let's do it with a little montage of students crying and taking their stuff down and emptying their rooms.

Culture: This is a 100% factually true statement, Göteborg is the worst city in the world. Source: I'm a native Stockholmer, and you just have to trust me on this, ok? Look, it's just common sense, alright? Don't listen to people from Göteborg, they're just jealous they're not living in the glorious capital. Also, they talk funny. And they have no sense of humour! And everyone is named Glenn or something.

Culture: I don't think they're referencing an actual school here, and the current Norwegian royal children went to school in Norway, not Switzerland. But the current Danish crown prince went to some boarding school in Switzerland for a while, but then he went to the Danish elite boarding school Herlufsholm. However, it was rocked by a bullying scandal in 2022, so they had to pull him out of that one and deny all knowledge of the events. Feels familiar?

Culture: Solliden is the private summer palace of the real-world Swedish royal family located on Öland, an island off the south-east coast of Sweden. The show has consistently stayed away from every likeness with the real world, but I guess they couldn't be arsed making up a fictional summer palace for the YR royal family so they went with something familiar.

Subtext: Farima is talking about the problems of finding a new school for Wilhelm from an academic perspective, but he's just thinking about how this means he won't be close to Simon any longer.

Culture: Vincent and the boys are pouring one out for Hillerska. It's a way to toast a dead friend, or in this case, a place.

Blink and you miss it: August places a king chess piece on the table before telling his friends that he's Wilhelm's reserve and might be king someday.

Subtext: And he's still so blinded by the glamour of it, despite everything. Thankfully, his friends can bring him down a couple of pegs.

Blink and you miss it: While Wilhelm is returning Kris, the book from last season, the second book in the pile is a book by Kjell Westö, Den Svavelgula Himlen - Yellow Sulphur Sky. It's about a working class kid in Finland becoming friends with his upper-class neighbour family, and his struggle maintaining a relationship with the girl of the family because of their class differences. Slightly on the nose there, show.

Meta: Henry interrupting our boys at the worst possible time is just a running joke at this point. How many times has it happened now? Four times? Five? Read the fucking room, Henry!

Subtext: Last chance to have a party together, but also last chance to see Simon, "maybe ever". Oh no, we have to start preparing for a sad ending!

Culture: Red solo cups are not a thing anywhere outside the US really, but you can buy them as a gag gift in Sweden, because to us they're just a weird movie prop we've seen American movies. Every other party scene in the show has featured regular plastic cups.

Culture: Drinking with the teachers?!? Yeah, sure, why not, everyone is an adult.

Subtext: Emo outfit? ✅ Sitting on the floor? ✅ Full of self-pity? ✅ Exaggerating the catastrophic state of his world in the way only a 17yo disaster boy can do? ✅

Meta: Another throwback to how Wilhelm was referred to as the party prince back in season 1.

Blink and you miss it: Felice hides the wine bottle behind her back before Malin comes in. She knows, Felice. Malin knows everything.

Meta: Another throwback to when Wilhelm was eating the dirt at the very same football field that disaster emo boy Simon is now sitting at together with his friends, who are trying to convince him to go to the final party.

Subtext: This time, August isn't just sorry that he got caught, he is genuinely sorry for everything he did to Wilhelm. He in turn forgives August, and we're all getting closure for this plot point.

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 1 when Sara helped hold Felice's hair while she was throwing up? We're doing a throwback here!

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 3 when Felice told Sara that maybe you don't have to speak the truth all the time? Well, Sara still doesn't understand why you would lie, but this time she's right, Felice was right to tell the truth.

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are making out at the party, Felice saw it, and is making a very funny face. This is also why Stella rudely rejects Rosh, because of course she's gonna choose Fredrika, Rosh was just a distraction to make her jealous.

Subtext: Vincent is talking about Nils, who just came out, but August just saw Sara, and that's the whoever he wants.

Subtext: But despite saying that he doesn't care about anyone else seeing them, he still ducked behind a stack of pallets for this conversation.

Meta: This is a brutal Fleabag reference.

Cinematography: This scene is overwhelmingly lit in that sickly greenish fluorescent hue, but there's golden light coming from somewhere, so Sara and August share one final kiss in that golden light. But there's not enough of it to go around, not enough for their love to last, so August is left standing there alone, and all the golden light is gone.

Cinematography: Wilhelm and Simon left the party sometime after midnight, this is supposed to be a very early morning summer sunrise, and our boys are just gonna be bathed in the golden light throughout the entire scene. Gods, it is pretty.

Meta: Hey, hey, remember that scene in season 1 when Simon was singing that song, and Wilhelm instantly fell for him?

Meta: Hey guys, remember that scene in season 1 when they were discussing welfare politics in class and Simon threw shade on Wilhelm? This is a throwback to that.

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. What a nice view. The nature and the sunrise is pretty, too! Going naked into the water? Yeah, that's a rebirth metaphor as well. Lisa said so!

Subtext: This entire scene is basically Wilhelm trying one last time to get Simon back. They said they weren't gonna, but he's trying anyway. They're talking about that politics class where Wilhelm couldn't speak up because he was "not allowed". So he's still bound by his royal duties, which is why Simon broke up with him last episode.

Subtext: And since Wilhelm is still stuck, he's left on dry land, while Simon swims away from him, free. Guys, I'm thinking we're actually gonna get a sad ending! This does not look good! 😭

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are sleeping in the same bed and making out the morning after, and millions of #Stedrika shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Blink and you miss it: Walter is helping Henry up after he passed out in the grass outside after the party, and millions of #Walty shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Subtext: The last photo Wilhelm takes down from his wall is the one with him and Simon, because that's the most important memory of this place.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm shuts off his red lightstrip in his room. Those lights have typically been a symbol of his love for Simon, but he's turning it off. Sad ending confirmed.

Meta: Listen, it's a lovely little song that Simon wrote for Wilhelm, but it's 100% fanservice, it's referencing events in the show that Simon actually didn't witness, and it's even referencing the soundtrack to the show itself! I mean, come on! And we're getting yet another sad boy Wilhelm montage of him moping around Hillerska with his earbuds.

Subtext: Remember how the frog snowglobe was a gift from Erik, who in turn got it from their grandpa, the king? It's so obviously a symbol of the monarchy, but Wilhelm is dumping it in the trash. Are we... Are we not getting a sad ending?

Cinematography: The shot of the flag being raised is cut off at half mast, which is a pretty universal symbol for mourning. Oh ok, we're back on track for a sad ending.

Subtext: This is the first time this season that Simon speaks Spanish with his mom, and the first time in the entire series that Sara does, which shows that they're fully themselves again, they've pulled themselves out of the Hillerska world.

Culture: The graduating students are having a champagne breakfast before the graduation ceremony, that's also very common in Sweden.

Subtext: Felice and the rest of the choir decided to have a little rebellion and not sing the boring old Hillerska song, and instead the new improved one that Simon made last season. No-one told him about the switch though, which is why he's so surprised.

Culture: After the ceremony, the graduating students will run out of the school to find their parents and family and friends, who are waiting for them, usually with a big sign with the most embarrassing baby picture they could find of them.

Blink and you miss it: August's mom and stepdad have also made a huge sign with an embarrassing picture of August Malte as a kid. Adorable.

Lost in translation: The queen is saying "lilla gubben", which literally means "little old man", a very common term of endearment in Swedish families. The show has been pretty consistent in that Wilhelm's family are all using normal words, just like any other family would. So it's pretty funny that despite everyone else using titles and styles all the time, to Wilhelm, his parents are simply "mamma" and "pappa", as if he was a regular kid.

Subtext: As a graduating student you get little gifts from your family, flowers, champagne, stuffed animals, all with a blue-and-yellow ribbon so you can hang them around your neck. August is family, so the Queen gives him one as well. Of a frog with a crown. Which is a symbol of the monarchy in the show. Wilhelm threw his frog in the trash, August is getting a frog from the Queen. I think there might be symbolism here! I think we're setting up August to become the next king! Do we dare hope for a happy ending?

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. The composition, the contrast, the height difference, the distance between them. It's so pretty. And they're talking about how good it was while it lasted, just like how a TV show with a sad ending can still be an amazing experience. Hint hint.

Subtext: We're saying our goodbyes, Wilhelm and Simon are saying goodbye to each other, Wilhelm wishes Simon a nice summer, just like how Simon wished Wilhelm a good Christmas back in season 1, and just like back then, they both understand that they love each other, but can't be together.

Cinematography: And then Simon exits the scene, again, leaving Wilhelm standing there alone, again, having seemingly chosen his family and royal duty.

Culture: It's common to either rent a truck as a large group of students, or to be driven in a flashy car alone or with a friend. The two girls in the centre are sitting in a very nice Aston Martin, while a bunch of their classmates are on a truck. I can't make out the full text on the banner, but I think it says something like "Lock up your sons because tonight we become like animals".

Culture: Svensson is a very common Swedish last name, so to "be a Svensson" basically means that you're super average and mediocre, you're like everyone else. Whereas these elite kids are used to having everyone else bow and scrape for them, so that message is on brand.

Cinematography: We're in the car, it looks like the ending of season 1, and we're doing a close-up of Wilhelm's face. We're ready for the fourth-wall-break of him staring sadly into the camera, having been once again broken down by the system and not getting the boy. We've said goodbye to everyone, roll the credits, start your crying...

Cinematography: ...except the show isn't ending here. We're having an honest conversation between Wilhelm and his parents for the first time. Because every other time he's said that he doesn't want to be crown prince of the next king, he's been angry or upset, he's been threatening, and definitely impulsive. But he's never wanted any of it.

Cinematography: His parents let him go, they open the door to their van, Wilhelm exits, and the show turns up the volume of the soundtrack. "Energetic music" my ass, it's the Harmony theme! It's the main theme of the entire show playing as Wilhelm runs away.

Subtext: Oh, yeah, August sees him run away, and understands that he's next in line now. Sorry buddy, sucks to be you, but never mind that now. RUN, WILHELM, RUN!!! GET YOUR MAN!

Cinematography: The shows turns into the most perfect rom-com, with Wilhelm chasing down Simon's car through the incredibly lush and green Swedish summer. He catches up to them, tells Simon that he ditched the crown for his own sake, and asks if it's really over between them.

VAD FAN TROR DU?

As if the soundtrack wasn't triumphant enough, it now starts playing As Long As you Are Here as they throw themselves in each other's arms. Happy ending! They're crying, I'm crying, we're all crying! 😭

Cinematography: A montage? With all the best scenes between our boys from the entire show? With the text of the soundtrack perfectly matching the montage? I should be outraged at how cheesy this is, but it is perfect. Perfect. I love it. I swear, this fucking show.

Subtext: Finally we are at the true ending of the show. Wilhelm has managed to escape Hillerska, him and Simon and Sara and Felice have all escaped the hierarchies, the expectations, the duties, and the toxic environment of the school. He arrived in a Ferrari, and is now running away with his boyfriend and friends in a crappy Volvo station-wagon. The stiff suit jackets are gone, they're all in white, his hair is ruffled in the wind, and for the last time ever Wilhelm looks into the camera. And he smiles.

He is finally free.

#young royals #young royals subtext #young royals analysis #young royals season 3

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simplysedusa · 5 months

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PPG Headcanons I Plan On Incorporating In My Fics

Elmer is albino, and he still has his glue powers. He's done quite well keeping it under wraps thanks to Professor Utonium and his pen-pal, Dexter.

Ms. Bellum is Princess Morbucks' maternal aunt. Penelope (Princess's mom, Sara's sister) and Sara were close as could be from a typical middle class family. That all changed when Penelope started dating Roy Morbucks. Ms. Bellum never liked the guy but her parents could be happier. The final nail in the coffin was when Penelope announced their engagement, and the two haven't spoken since her wedding day.

Prior to moving to Townsville, Mr. Morbucks had business in Townsville; some of it legal, but most of it wasn't. With the Powerpuff Girls being the beloved superheroes, it'd only be a matter of time until someone hired them to look into Mr. Morbucks' establishments and discovered his criminal underbelly. He decided to take Princess and enroll her in the very same kindergarten as the Powerpuff Girls to be her eyes and ears. He didn't expect her to become a supervillain out of spite, but he decided to fund her endeavors as a distraction.

Mitch has a tumultuous family background. His mom is dead, his dad's an alcoholic whose constantly in and out of jail with a different girl of the week living with him in the trailer, and his grandmother is hospitalized. Once Professor Utonium learned of this, he allowed Mitch to spend the night whenever he felt the need to. The constant exposure to the Powerpuffs allowed him to become friends with Blossom and Bubbles, closer with Buttercup, and a nicer person overall. He's still rather rebellious but he's no longer a bully. His interests are motorbikes (or any kind of car) and animals, surprisingly. He helps the volunteers to look after Twiggy during the summers on Monster Isle, who helps keep the monsters away from Townsville.

The Gangreen Gang (minus Ace, obviously) are a few of the aforementoined volunteers. Much to Buttercup's chagrin, Mitch and the reformed Gangreen Gang are on good terms.

Beebos are outlawed in Townsville, Farmsville, and Citiesville. All of them have been relocated to Monster Island. Mitch also helps keep an eye on the population and their feeding habits during his volunteer work over the summer.

I can't decide if I want one of the Rowdyruff Boys or the Gangreen Gang to illegally have a Beebo, but one of those former delinquents definitely has one and are trying their hardest to keep it a secret lmao.

I've spoken about him here but Barnaby Mayer (aka "the Mayor") had been embezzling money from the city of Townsville for years. He came from a rather poverty stricken background and originally wanted to become mayor to help change Townsville for people like him. His newfound greed got to the better of him, and a certain someone close to him who I don't want to spoil just yet only helped push him further. Deforestation only allowed the growth of Townsville's infrastructure, at the expense of Fuzzy's property. Bribes from rich corporations in Townsville allowed the Mayor to turn a blind eye to wherever they dumped their toxic waste, which affected the Gangreen Gang and mutated the Amoeba Boys as their part of the city became the city wasteland. Sedusa's own court case was even rigged in the research lab's favor as a deal; the Mayor offers them funding and in exchange, they keep quiet about what he asks of them (future questionably unethical Chemical X experiments to extract a weakness against the Powerpuff Girls, silence on the ozone layer of Townsville and the radiation/pollution from monster waste, the Antidote X handcuffs, testing other animals which lead to the creation of the talking dog, White Kitty, and Roach Coach, etc). Most of Townsville's infamous villains link back to him (I got the idea from this post in particular, I just expanded on it).

Speaking of Sedusa's court case, I spoke a great deal about her here. Her real name is Annalise.

#ppg #the powerpuff girls #elmer sgloo #sara bellum #princess morbucks #mitch mitchelson #the gangreen gang #the rowdyruff boys #the mayor ppg #the amoeba boys #fuzzy lumpkins #sedusa #buttercup utonium

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asknarashikari · 7 days

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One thing that's always bothered me about episode 46 is that...yeah, I know Sara getting brought back is supposed to be the most impactful for the characters (Keiwa anyways) but... what about the OTHER victims stuck on that tree? Did the other riders just go "Oh yeah, these unfortunate victims don't deserve to be saved and can rot in hell for all we care" or something?! Were THEY were saved at all?

Speaking of which, I'm also not really a fan of how in Kamen Rider Geats, no one could really give a shit about bringing back the victims that lost their lives in the DGP. (It's not like these people died in some random accident or a serial murder...no, these were people that forcibly lost their lives in some fucked up competition started for entertainment by some outside source) Were they REALLY beyond saving even WITHOUT the wish granting at the cost of other's happening? Did no one really bother try to find a way to make it happen? It didn't that early in the show, it set expectations with Keiwa making that goal to bring back lives lost in the DGP only to stop caring about doing that...besides, I don't think that WASN'T even Keiwa's fault that deceased horrible riders were brought back WITH ACTUAL DRIVERS AND DGP MEMORIES they shouldn't have access to. (Sara didn't get the same treatment and Toru never returned oddly enough, like wtf?)

Long rant ahead. Not for the Geats fans lol

Well, in a show that literally just shrugged off one of the main characters being complicit in the murder of hundreds (including the main & secondary riders) in a sadistic game, what else would you expect? Of course the NPCs are barely spared a second thought by anyone, not even the writer it seems.

We're even shown Keiwa being reported missing by Sara, which should imply that everyone else who was also killed in the Heaven and Hell round were also MIA (read: dead), and yet we don't even see similar reports for other people. Hundreds of people don't just go missing without mass hysteria and people demanding answers from the police and government, even with a fucking conspiracy to cover it all up involved. But nope, nothing for the plebians 🤷‍♀️

For your second question... I'm sure they can BS some reason for why they can't revive all the victims. Heck, even Riders get shafted. All the other Riders who were killed onscreen (Taira/Ginpen, Tooru/Togetchi, Yukie/Letter and Takeshi/Shirowe) stayed dead, along with countless others who died offscreen. Fuck them all and anyone who would be looking for them, I guess?

Tsumuri revived Ace just by wishing and subconsciously using her goddess powers, Keiwa was revived by Kekera using Mitsume's power probably, and Sara was revived through wish shenanigans and/or Daichi's Jyamato Potion... But they're the exceptions to the rule somehow. What made them the exception? Plot armor, is that all?

I'm unconvinced that the Riders who caused chaos in the wake of Keiwa's wish were even ones who died in the DGP to begin with. We're told they were revived Riders.. by Jiit, aka the last person who I would expect to tell the truth about anything.

As it was, we know someone had to supply those Riders with Drivers and ID Cores because no one else who revived got their Drivers and ID Cores back automatically except for Ace (who's practically the exception for every goddamned rule this show attempts to set).

But of course, it's way easier to blame Keiwa for "reviving" those nasty people, than it is to think of a scenario where Jiit and his cohorts never bothered reviving anyone other than Sara and Keiwa's parents to lull him into thinking his wish worked, and just gave Drivers to all the worst (but living) people they could find.

#ask #ultrariderfiretornado

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rubywines · 1 year

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The legend of the Goddess of Thunderstorms

Includes: insane!Raiden Ei x f!archon!reader (presumably romantic), fan-archon!Glasea-Labolas x reader (romantic), reader x Kunikuzushi (parental platonic)

Warnings: Genshin Impact AU; songfic, the reader is the Archon of the Oceans, the reader is prone to emotionality and therefore a little myopic, mentions of death, partial rape, angst, partial description of an aphrodisiac, forced imprisonment in captivity, violent insanity.

A/n: The work is based on the song [pyrokinesis - the legend of the goddess of thunderstorms]. Also here, the reality differs from the original plot of the game in that Ei and Makoto switched places – from the very beginning, it was Ei who was the Archon. I warn you once again that this is a job focused on dark and unhealthy relationships without a good ending. And yes, there is some merging here with the previous work about Sara, since in my mind it is one universe. Maybe I should open requests for it?.. English is still not my first language, btw.

I bet you'd marvel.

The legend is not simple, La Commedia Divina.

And then there's the question:

How did the Goddess of Thunderstorms fall unrequitedly in love with the Ocean?

—

Raiden was glorified by three things. The unparalleled power of the storm that lurked in the depths of her palms, the severity that twisted sinners like a wild storm, and the all-seeing eye of eternity, beyond the reach of mortal exertions and untouchable to divine hands. She was the crowned ruler of thunderstorms, tearing the world to shreds and calling the universe into her arms with a teeth-baring roar of thunder. She drew landscapes and outlines of creatures on the earth's massif, powerfully named them, and waited for them to live up to the name they were given. Innocence would fall, kingdoms would crumble, and lives would follow. Truly so. For Hell, yielding to desire and rushing in the chariot of time, is an act of a higher will.

The other Archons looked at her with a strangely readable mixture of pity and condemnation, or rather, those who remained after that very War and events that took her sister in a golden spectrum of radiance. Those who had not kept Makoto safe and had barely escaped themselves. They were pitiful now. The God of the freest winds very soon fled, falling into a sound sleep and leaving his people in a fortress that resembled a keyhole from above. The God of the indestructible mountains hobbled with the blood of his loved ones and wiped his mouth with the white sleeve of robes from dead body, retreating from his duties with blind faith in the autonomy of men. The wisest of saints the Goddess of unyielding nature perished, suffocated, leaving behind only a young fragile creature amidst sturdy roots and grieving sighs. Is it worth continuing? There was, however, among the seats empty of mournful thoughts at their table a special throne, untainted, hardly alienated from itself. Yours.

Stoically enduring the blows of the stone oxen and the ships cutting the smooth skin, the God of all the seas and oceans which preceded Osial, being his child, but could not compare with the stinging Goddess of justice Focalor, the Archon of Water by birthright. The faithful called you Vine. You didn’t appreciate these people, rather you simply did your job, coming out of the sea-foam with indifference and then dipping into it. Prayers and praises did not occupy you, ancient offerings only repulsed; you understood that these were just people holding on to their Deity, but you never asked them for it. A hundred years ago you should have died. But there was one who disagreed and took a fierce blow to his chest, scattering almost instantly in a sheaf of sparks. Yes... Him.

Raiden had often seen you together. In your heart, torn by a love tinged with standing blood, there lived an Archon called Glacea-Labolas, Hades, known for his irrepressible despotism, comparable to Decorabian. Much senseless bloodshed he brought, much knowledge of science, art, and revenge, but no one could fathom what his cruel gaze was so appealing to you. Glacea-Labolas loved you, too, in his own way: he scratched your back with his claws to the rough furrows, kept you close and smiled only in your presence, humming impossibly sweet words in your ear. The serpent tempter made you lose your breath, and at one collision of glances a pulse of insane force ran through your divine vessel, making your knees tremble and your stomach twist with exhaustion. Together you were happy. At the level of monsters with no sense of intelligent communication, of course, but Morax was the first to blink approvingly; Raiden couldn't understand that. She didn't like it. She knew how clever you were, how full of passion and ambition, how mind-bogglingly powerful. You were the Esther of your age, and she had no desire to give the Persian beauty to the mad animal Baal. She wanted you for herself. When you sit beside her, the air fills with sea salt. The wet, cold, salty water that all living matter once was. It's like a dragging watercolor, an oil painting of half dreams, and Raiden suffocates from this scent like the heroine of Heliogabal's Rose, bends, merges with it and swallows it, gulps it down, revels in it to the point of exhaustion. To a stupefying stupefaction. Her knees move apart like the legs of an easel, asking for art – she has read such a perverse formulation in a novel or heard it somewhere, but it makes no difference, as long as it suits very well. You are certainly art and the ocean that washes over her shins and thighs. You cause her ecstatic spasms, and her desire only increases. It's eerie to have you. Because she is stern and strong and gets what she craves, so she doesn't even hesitate when she takes your salt-soaked hand and leads away from the general celebration, quite sure of your positive reaction to the further words spoken.

“You can't grieve forever, can you? We are supreme beings, we are more powerful than anything in the world, so why are you cooling off in this doldrums, why are you stopping?”

“Because my beloved is dead”, you said with a furrowed brow, incomprehensibly. “Isn't that a natural reaction in relationship?”

“Then start a new relationship, Y/N.”

Silence falls between you. The numb niche of furious shock that drives you mad becomes frighteningly alien. Half-seriously, half wheezing, you barely smile. Half face.

“Is this a joke?”

“Not at all.”

“Then what is it? It hasn't been a century yet, it's just unseemly”, you try to brush aside what's going on, you're visibly frightened and agitated; the mere mention of Glacea-Labolas brings tears, viscous salt, under your blue-dust-covered eyelids.

“Start a new relationship with me.”

The silence between you became almost physically palpable: it rubbed into skin, got under fingernails, and quite clearly disrupted thoughts and feelings. It made it hard to breathe. From head to toe, you were suddenly filled with a crushing, paralyzing force that pinned you to the floor like nails to a blackboard; the rage that had methodically scraped away from the blurred walls of your being by grief, and it splashed in your eyes, and the ends of your hair shone with a clear, menacing blue glow. Such you were simply beautiful...

“How dare you? No one dares to interrupt my mourning, even the people who believe in me mourn this loss, and you, Narukami Shugoshin, think you are something more worthy? Something better than us? Do you have the nerve to mock us?” you clenched your fists until your knuckles turned white, turning away from her sharply. “I am so disappointed. Please don't visit my lands again.”

Your departure was either ignored or tactfully overlooked, but Focalor, your patron, could not refrain from giving a reproachful look. Raiden was unwilling to speculate whether or not she'd heard your conversation, but, to her amazement, the rejection she'd received didn't cause the wave of despair she'd expected. Surely you didn't mean it. You're sad. Yes. Should have thought about that. Taking chopsticks in her dainty fingers, Raiden pacifically set about her meal, unconcerned about anything – she made the decision to give you time, which she thought was incredibly gracious. You'll realize you were wrong. Naturally.

Anger, like the pain of loss, cannot last forever, and Ei thought herself more right than ever.

—

When her sister passed away, surely Raiden was shattered – don’t consider her insensitive. Though Makoto wasn’t Archon, her strength and courage would have been worth a lesson to many: she had fought bravely, holding the fort in Inazuma, while Ei had fought with her own kind. Upon her return, she was told that Makoto had been badly wounded in the heat of battle and soon stopped fighting at all.

Despair is a hard feeling. So, in order not to bend under it, Raiden made herself stand up, straighten her shoulders, and pretend that what had happened didn’t touch her as much as it actually did; left alone, she could afford to scream and cry, but the others couldn’t see them. So the indomitable Goddess of Thunderstorms pretended, until artfully woven from her own face and posture, the lie became the truth. You were the only one who unmasked her in that time.

“I'm sorry for your loss," you said quietly after one of the meetings. “I can't imagine how hard this must be for you...”

Raiden smiled harshly.

“This loss is... irreparable. But I must move on, for the good of my people and those who rely on me, to achieve absolute balance in Inazuma. After the recent incidents, people need strong support.”

“But there is no one to support you.”

That was true. Although people worshipped her and prayed tirelessly, full of reverence, there was no one else around Ei on whose shoulder she could rest without remorse. Yae Miko would tease and bring it up, though she would certainly help in a time of need, and Raiden made no friends among the Archons. That trust was too fleeting and, as time had shown, too risky.

“I don't need support," Ei finally concluded, a little twisted in her rugged soul. “Not anymore. Makoto was the one and only, and now I have to learn how to live without her.”

“All alone?”

“If I have to.”

Your eyes reflected a deep sadness, and, looking into them for a moment, the proud Goddess of Thunderstorms was afraid to swallow, turning her gaze back to the meadow. You, Ocean, were ambivalent in your moods: sometimes you raged like the most terrible disaster, mercilessly leveling the mountains and spitting out the brutally battered remains of ships, and then you became warm and calm, so motionless that one touch of you seemed to convey a sense of peace. Raiden didn't know what to expect if accepted your pity. Perhaps you would confine yourself to a brief caress, or maybe would plunge her into attention and then rob her of it a second later, not the least bit tormented by regret. But it would be pleasant, suppose, to feel lungs burning under the pressure of your hands, and heart beating hideously fast, wanting to get just one more look... You would fist her heart, not hard enough to kill, but enough to make her grasp the edges of your clothes with trembling hands, falling to her knees and begging, pleading, whimpering... You would...

“Don't you have more important things to do?” frightened by her own thoughts, Raiden asked, raising the electric ripple in her gaze to a maximum.

“Well, we're done with Celestia's business and figured out where Barbatos went. I think I'm free enough to feel sorry for you.”

Don't smile like you have no idea what you're doing.

“I hate pity.”

“But you deserve it, don't you? Not in a negative way, more as a relief,” you unobtrusively moved closer. “Tell me about it. As a perfect Archon, it's essential for you to be free of worry, to have nothing to cloud your thoughts, you know?”

It's a tricky move, that is what Baal knows. Yet, with a feigned nibble of her lips, she did as you said, opened her soul the very least; and then, when you met, she did it again and again, until there was nothing left that your ears didn’t know about. And your empathy, uninterrupted by a storm of recriminations, was truth healing. You just listened with a soft look, sometimes gently brushing her thick, luxurious hair, whose light sparks of incipient lightning ran through it as it split into strands. Together you once spent about half a century in the farthest room, enclosed behind a billion passageways and walls, just talking. Raiden anticipated that she would want something like this before, so she created a doll that looked exactly like herself. The Shogun obediently executed the protocols embedded in it while the softened Ei lounged at your attention.

“What would you want for your people?” she asked one day, running her fingers mechanically over the patterns on your clothes.

“Mm... That's a difficult question. You know how I feel about them. If they're in trouble, I'll help them, of course, but otherwise I don't care what they do. I mean... How can I explain it?.. I believe that people should not depend on the Archons. Yes, we make their lives easier and more colorful, but what will they be if they lose the will to do everything themselves? Think of the state Sumeru is in right now. Hades was there recently, he told me...”

“I didn't know you talked to him.”

So Raiden, who was already madly in love with you, found out that someone else had encroached on your heart and won without a loud declaration of war.

—

Rejected by the Sea her grief, her tears, and pain and will and love, her feelings loaded, pressed on her shoulders with an unbearable weight and caused a strong headache. The insatiable immensity of what might be revealed to her gaze demanded a way out of the painful trance she was in; she had neither the strength nor the desire to return to that sticky darkness. Something had happened to her will. Raiden didn't want to deprive herself of the dizzying pain of looking at your stirring silhouette, irresistible and distant – a decade left since your fight, and at any other point in her life, Ei wouldn’t have noticed it with just a blink or two, but now the days had a tendency to drag on like an eternity. Raiden didn't want you to stop visiting her thoughts, filling her completely, she didn't want to give up the pleasure of imagining the ways in which you could be shackled in countless rooms or underground caverns known only to her. She could forge chains that would coil around your legs and neck, taking energy, weakening you, or she could create a crystal dome under the ground of Tsurumi Island with enough water to keep you comfortable, but no one you could talk to. Just her, popping in now and then and beginning to associate with the emotion of happiness. Raiden thinks you'd look great under glass, like a butterfly. If your limbs were immobilized, if given only enough air and energy to sustain life minimally, you would forever be as artful as she keeps you in the shards of memory. Beautiful, ready to listen, malleable. Raiden would take care of your people, even make these people of the sea her own people, introduce them to Inazuma – is that not the highest expression of her favor? You should be grateful; of course, not that you are aware of all these thoughts, but Ei will expect at least a "thank you" in the future. In her arms, you will no longer have to grieve for the withered God of Death; you will always be happy. You will have to be happy to keep your relationship as beautiful as Raiden imagines it to be – she will work, too, no doubt, and your life will be like a fairy tale.

Gradually the Goddess of Thunderstorms, observing the Eternal Sakura, came up with the perfect kind of dungeon for you; the sketches are drawn in her crackled mind on their own, looking perfect. Baal was never a fool: no matter how much she wished otherwise, she knew that you would never love her after what she would do to you, and she would do it because it would be better for both of you. Would, would, would… Will. You just can't understand it. That's all right: Raiden herself loves and can imagine how she would feel if you left her so completely. Perhaps relieving you of your grief and despair is the greatest gift Ei is capable of. She sets to work immediately, looking far more obsessed with it than with order in Inazuma, and Shogun gladly replaces her; Yae Miko remains silent, but her judgment burns back even miles away from the temple. The Goddess of Thunderstorms has decided this: if she cannot have the Ocean, then let her at least have some of It at all costs, separating her resentment, hatred, and pain from herself.

Waiting out your moment of calm was not easy. You've been angry and raging a lot lately; Barbatos, your closest friend, kept sleeping somewhere you couldn't reach, and Nahida, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't replace Rukkhadevata in your heart. Morax stiffened before your eyes, becoming calmer and more distant, and the Tsaritsa disappeared altogether, declaring a new war – it hurt you so much that the storms did not pass for six months, killing many people. Raiden didn't blame you: your heart felt too much for anyone who was ever kind to you, and you were so happy when you joined the Archons that you loved them all instantly. Some more than others, some less, in fact, you valued them as family, though in Ei's opinion, not all deserved it.

When your storm subsided and you, exhausted, were left without Morax's attention – he felt obligated after the death of the Goddess of Salt – Raiden decided to take the first step.

“I was wrong," she admitted quietly, approaching you, so alone in the vastness of Underwater Realm, and sitting down beside you. “I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding, ha? You knew how I felt about it, and yet you desecrated Hades' memory in that way.”

“I apologize. My behavior was indeed inappropriate, and if I had the chance to go back, I never would have said those words.” Ei shifted her gaze from the shimmering mother-of-pearl belly of the whale floating overhead to your chin line, cheekbones, and insistently averted eyes; she was lying, but it was the only way to make you hear. “I'm sorry. Perhaps I really don't do well without Makoto.”

The sad smile on her face finished the image. Raiden hated herself for mentioning her sister's name for this case, but your face, instantly contorted with empathy, was worth it. She knew you wouldn't resist.

“Hey..." you whispered softly. “Has it really been all this time..?”

“Please. Just believe I'm sorry, Y/N. I know how much you loved Glacea-Labolas, and of course I should have given it time; nothing can justify my ignorance. However, I would be very grateful if you knew that my words... my offer is sincere. I do have feelings for you, and that will never change; this is the first time it has happened to me. You are the most amazing and attractive Archon I have ever known. Your power is awe-inspiring and your uniqueness is admirable. So if one day you should wish...”

She doesn’t have time to finish her truly touching tirade when you gently move up and pull her into your warm embrace. It's hard to call it unexpected, but Raiden is melting for a few moments, melting from the newly turned sun with your name on it.

“I'm sorry I can't reciprocate, Ei. Really, I'm very, very sorry. But I'll try to make it up to you in friendship, if that's okay..?”

Wouldn't expect anything else, so the Goddess of Thunderstorms smiles a little more sincerely and nods. You decided to take this step only after listening to a cheap confession from a novel read by Baal not so long ago. How trite and predictable, yet how good it is that everything went strictly according to plan. You took the bait.

Your relationship has certainly changed since then. Raiden couldn't help but wonder if this was how Hades felt in your presence, when you had surrounded him with your special attention and care. The attention was different, of course, but now you were also trying to be affectionate enough to heal the wounds of Makoto's death; Ei felt a little uncomfortable using that trauma as an excuse, but there was no other way. You were beginning to let your guard down.

If she had to describe her feelings, she would have said, "Something spicy and bloody." Meat, well coated with spices. She chews it thoroughly, swallowing as the graceful collar of her robes slides down and up in time with her gulps; Raiden was carnivorous, and the metaphorical eating of you brought her to some stage of rapture.

She couldn't wait to taste it.

The table is already set: she didn't need people or Yae Miko to organize everything, so of course she hoped you'd at least compliment her. There is nothing she won't do, after all; time with you promised to be wonderful to the highest degree.

The feeling that Ei carelessly called "love" wheezed suffocatingly in your chest, twisting tight knots around Gnosis, and making her look at your serene face with scorching hunger. You shouldn't have been so careless.

You are, after all, an Archon...

Long tubes with gold plugs were very carefully inserted into the veins in your arms; Archons had no blood, but there was liquid energy, in your case represented by brackish water. It was pumped into a cylindrical tank, huge, dense, thick glass, and mixed there with a purple liquid; for a moment, the thought flashed through you that perhaps it was Ei’s energy. There were others besides these tubes. Many. Some served as arm and leg restraints in a rather uncomfortable pose, others hung side by side, dangling limply in a light draught. Everything was floating before your eyes, but when Raiden appeared in the cave, you felt her electrified presence well.

“How do you feel?” she asked calmly, keeping her tone surprisingly soft, as if the situation were not extraordinary.

“What’s... going on?”

“Oh, you mustn't exert yourself too much. Your energy is just enough to keep you viable, but unfortunately, not to negotiate. Someday I'll fix that.”

Someday. A single word was enough to determine the duration of your situation – presumably: eternity. And there's no telling what will happen to you during that time.

“The other Archons," Ei continued, stepping closer and picking up another tube, slightly larger and longer than the others, "believe that you are dead. I've come up with a very plausible explanation, but I don't think you'll be interested in it; open your mouth.”

She pressed your cheeks a little bit, executing the command herself, and, to the protest of your slightly dilated eyes, she began to slowly and gently insert the tube into your throat. Unbearably disgusting.

“I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Believe me, it's only for now, I'll get it later and make you feel as comfortable as possible. Just be patient for a while," she murmured affectionately, "good girl, good. Thought you would start to resist and I’d have to resort to other methods.”

The sensation of an oblong tube in your throat, ending somewhere among organs, taking up absolutely all the space, made you want to scream. You’d have caused the most devastating storm, and it would have gone down in history, but unfortunately, Raiden – and there was no doubt about it now – had taken care of everything. You couldn't have created a drop if you'd had the strength to lift a finger.

“I understand your bewilderment. But look, you didn't want to be with me, so I thought, why not do it myself? No one will come looking for you, I'll take care of everything, and it's just your job to satisfy my gaze and desires when necessary. Quite a bargain, Morax would say, if he knew about it, but I promise he won't. Besides, I've decided to charge a small fee for taking care of your people; I hope you think it's fair.”

Baal smiled softly.

“It was hard to find this information, but Nahida, the wonderful child, was so eager to be useful that she didn't even wonder where my interest came from,” she stepped closer and slowly began to get rid of your layers of interfering clothing. “At least part of you will love me. But for that part to come into being, I have to do what Hades was so scared of. You know, he thought you were a saint. He feared that if he touched you too foully, you would crumble like a crystal vessel, a figure made of water by trembling weak hands – he said so himself, before he, ironically, met death in that battle. But I am different. I'm much better than he was, and you're bound to feel it.”

Well, in that moment you felt three things: the way the tube trembled, filled with purple energy flowing into you, the way fingers entered your vessel, several at once, without warning and too sharply. And an unexpected readiness to receive them. A moment ago you were filled with anger and disgust, but when the foreign energy flowed into your stomach, everything quickly turned upside down, generating a shameless desire so powerful it made you dizzy. You simultaneously hated Raiden, you hated yourself, you hated the situation you were in, and you longed to know more of the possibilities that Ei could fulfill by using your human vessel as she saw fit. Under the overwhelming pressure of cognitive dissonance, your pupils visibly broke, spraying tear-stained eyes, and your mind was cracking at the seams, not knowing which thought was right and which principles to adhere to. It was too much, even for an Archon.

You could hear Raiden breathing. Breaking, hot. You wanted more, and maybe Ei saw it in your hazy gaze. Her energy inside you was stronger than any potion, spreading through your body like a virus – it was eating into your cells, mixing, and you were slowly beginning to feel... like her? A few strands of your hair slowly turned a deep blue, and your left eye turned lilac. The voice of your thoughts became remotely similar to Ei's timbre, until you finally realized what she meant: she could only get a part of you by mixing you two up and growing as if from a test tube. She was making you half of her, because that was the only way to get around Celestia's laws.

“Can you feel it?” she asked, reaching down to your neck and biting it, deep, to the bright purple marks. “Do you understand me?”

You wanted to answer yes and no at the same time. Hate and love mingled together, conveying a madness to you.

It didn't take much effort for Raiden to get the sea foam. She was careful to mix it with her energy to get a drop of the cursed seed, and, dancing off, in hideous sin the Goddess of Thunderstorms impregnated herself, while you, rid of your tubes, lay limply beneath the earth of Seirai Island. Where no light shone, beneath the ruins of the catacombs, beneath the Thunderbird platform, beneath the water poisoned by lightnings, it was there that Raiden had erected a citadel of ice – a shelter from the world where her beloved woman and the wind-born child, born in captivity from a cursed womb and without a soul, were safely hidden. Ei believed that she would love this creature as much as she loved you. Really believed.

She built a cradle, inlaid with stones of elements, visited him when she visited you – it was inevitable, because you, lost and maddened, considered the only bastion of your peace as young Kunikuzushi, the beautiful child whom you adored despite all that you had gone through for his birth. Even in his cradle, he always felt your love, smiling at the first sight of you. He didn't feel Raiden's love at all.

What a pain: his parent, as much as she wanted to, couldn’t love her chimera and locked him in the ice.

Baal assumed that loving a child born of your energy would be as easy as loving you, but she failed to consider that, in fact, she never truly loved you. This became clear when feelings for an emotional child, crying from the simplest things and weak without his mother's touch, didn’t appear as soon as she expected. This was not in her plans, and therefore discouraging. Raiden seemed to have gotten everything she could from you, everything she wanted, and now, looking at your lost silhouette, she felt neither pity nor warmth. You no longer wandered through her thoughts. You no longer made her heart race. To her surprise, Ei was no longer sick of you, infecting you with herself like some kind of revenge. And, having come to this conclusion, it was with a sense of relief that the Goddess of Thunderstorms, frustrated in her experience, left Seirai Island with your Gnosis as compensation for "lost time and effort," cutting off Kunikuzushi's bedroom from yours with an impenetrable wall.

“Don't be angry, please. Don't be angry.”

“Argh, come on, Mom, I'm not angry. I'm furious as fuck!”

The precious child grew faster when Raiden stopped coming. Perhaps her energy, poisonous and effervescent, was inhibiting growing up, because Ei certainly never wanted a pet, but she was obsessed with growing the fruit of the Gods. Experimentation never interested her; what involved using you for her purposes and crossing you with her own ideas, though, she liked very much, and you were even glad that for the last hundred years Baal hadn't thought of you. Well, as happy as a completely broken Archon can be, lost it’s Heart and the lion's share of energy, a completely weakened God with a screwed-up mind. Besides, sometimes, in particularly violent storms, you could see a little with "Ei's eye," see what she was doing, what she was looking at, who was looking back. Lately it has been a tengu-girl with dead eyes – you would know that look from a thousand; you knew that only those who have lost their love look like that. Because you looked the same way.

You couldn't say that even with the energy of Baal you could call her "dear someone". No, don't think so. It was a betrayal, along with the thick tube in your throat, penetrating under the root of your tongue, running down your larynx, into your stomach, into your intestines. It grew like mold, and with each passing year it gradually crushed the effect of the alien cells. Besides, Ei didn't like you now, either.

And your weak voice, sounding no louder than a draught, filled Kunikuzushi with a keen sense of injustice. Unlike Raiden, you cared for him through the wall even better than circumstances allowed.

“When we get out..." he often swore, gritting his teeth. “When we get out, I'll give her hell on earth. I'll return you your Heart, become God myself, and… and I’ll be a thousand times better, promise – do you believe that?”

“Of course," you answered softly. “Of course I believe you.”

“Good. Because I’m going to change everything. We are to put her here, right in your place, and I’ll give you everything and you're going to get better. You'll be strong and powerful like you used to be. And happy, so-so happy!”

You know that's just a dream. There is no escape from the ice citadel, but your voice is filled with the unbreakable love that always saves Kunikuzushi from breaking his mind. You call yourself his first follower. After all, it's the least you can do for a desperate child who has never seen the light.

But you both know that love of all things divine is unnatural.

#raiden baal #raiden ei #kunikuzushi #scaramouche #wanderer #female reader #genshin archon #genshin impact #genshin headcanons #raiden ei x reader #ei x reader

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degreeofdisorder · 2 months

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young royals s3e5 episode reaction:

well I really hope the cliffhanger isn't horrifying bc this week is gonna be really fucking long

let's fuckin do this

"tired" and it's just him contending w the fact that erik might have been violently homophobic

i can excuse [rolls down a 6ft long papyrus] but I draw the line at being racist - august, probably

"family" LMFAO sure dumbass

seriously those girls are acting like sara and felice broke up (and I get it, friendship breakups are horrifying but damn)

"are you on something?" MY LITERAL FIRST QUESTION SKFISJFKSJFKDJF

I feel like micke is gonna die. idk.

his own letter? why?

oh. hello ludwig. i forgot what your voice sounded like.

"it's hard for her to show weakness" yeah well so it is for all of us. be a mother. show up for your son.

naaaaaaaaaaa volvete serio ludwig

wdym he was perfect. are you serious. do no adults in this show have the slightest bit of common sense?? you're talking to erik's spare my man. erik's little brother who now has to take on everything erik had to do. be the most fuckin for real rn

of fucking COURSE

"it'll be nice to celebrate you. and to meet simon too" ok that was sweet.

yeah wille being in the choir was starting to feel too weird skfjdkfjd

okay? calm your tits my man? simon hasn't said anything?

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON????? HE'S LITERALLY DEFENDING ERIK?????????

oooooookay kristina jr.

ohhhh it was sara's locker. ok.

oh micke is dead isn't he

FELICE DOING WILLE'S NAILS AAAAAA

HE'S PAINTING THEM PURPLE SOULMATISM

also is this the writers acknowledging the nonbinary wille headcanons bc.......

I can't believe wille likes doing his nails. that's so fuckin nonbinary of him.

god I wish micke had been dead. that is SO much worse.

pls don't get into a car crash sara

linda honey no. it doesn't fit him perfectly it's goddamn huge on him.

love shouldn't be this hard I agree linda

oh fuck me

oh her little face sara no

oh sara is breaking my goddamn heart

WILLE'S PURPLE NAILS

wilhelm, why do you have nail polish remover in your room

MI WILLE I'M GONNA FUCKING BLOW MY BRAINS OUT

omg malin was willing to be bribed. back to fanon malin we go (after the shit show that was season 2)

WHY IS HE WEARING THE PYJAMA PANTS AGAIN SIMON

okay this is killing me inside. this is too much.

BECAUSE THERE'S A RISK OF POISONING SJFKDJFKJFDKFJDKFKFKFKDLRK

simon's FACE im

SHE CURTSIED @ SIMON

I know he must have felt disgusting sjfkdjfk

after pretty much 3 years of a polar opposite fanon interpretation I cannot *believe* I'm witnessing kristina and ludwig being genuinely happy about meeting simon. this is so insane

august are you staring at sara's boobs

oh a rolex

OH IS IT BECAUSE OF ERIK

IT IS BECAUSE OF ERIK OG FUCKKKKK

I missed sara and felice I'm ngl. I love my tiny baby girls

oh kristina is about to throw up isn't she lmfao

ludwig is being weirdly nice. this is so strange.

ludwig and simon chatting away while kristina is about to choke and die

hold on. IS kristina gonna die?

even during wille's birthday they can't stop yapping about erik. my god do royals genuinely only care about their firstborn? god

NOT DILF HUNTER SJROSUFOSIDOD

class bad boy slfjdlgj I think they had to have done that on purpose. I mean vincent didn't wanna give him the satisfaction of giving him another award. I can assure you.

august is such a *sad* character oh my god

I WISH I HAD DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY WITH YOU NAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW

oh of course she kissed him.

WHAT A SNITCH WTF

"please don't leave me alone with your parents like that again" honestly wille they could've eaten him alive

my god wilhelm you're being SO NASTY

OH HE'S GOING OFFF

oh ldkgldjgldjfldjffl

I can ASSURE YOU during my s2 liveblogging at one point I basically wrote "[points at ludwig] AND YOU" bc i was so fucking done with his bullshit skrjdlrkdlrkld

to hear wille going AND *YOU* is fucking sending me help

IT ISN'T EASY TO BE BOTH YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR BOSS OH FUCK OFF KRISTINA

I NOTICED BECAUSE YOU'RE SO USELESS AT BOTH HOLY FUCKING SWEET JESUS CHRIST

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

me rn:

my god this is the most cathartic shit I've seen in my life

OH AND SIMON IS WATCHING THE WHOLE THING

god

I knew the cliffhanger was gonna be that

but I didn't expect them to cry like that nor did I expect ME to cry like that

bro I'm sobbing I can't wait another week

#yr livenats #yr s3 spoilers #young royals spoilers

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closed-third-eye · 9 months

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I think jace and Sara truthers exist for three reasons

One it makes him look bad, in their eyes cheating on his fiance is worse than rape and child murder of team green and they can hang it over his head. Because jace is a perfect prince, hier and absolute opposite of aegon in every way. Later, mark my words, they will say he's uninteresting because of his goodness, let's ignore the fact they stole jace's and lukes book characteristics and gave it to aemond so he looks better

Second, they think it makes rhaenyra look bad, as if her children also having sex with whoever they want is somehow a case for her bad parenting when.....idk why that would be if its consensual. Marrying her yes that's a problem but again why would he do that? When there's literally nothing to gain and he's known for his political and negotiation savvy.

And three it will make him confront his bastardy when..what does he not already knows that? Wasn't there a trail held about it? Didn't aemond mock them for it? Doesn't rhaenyra confirm isn't doesn't matter who is father is when all that matters is the mother? Jace's and lukes story is heavy on the fact that their parents accept them even without the blood and its a bid for adoption based system, because anyone that mattered never cared who the hier to driftmark or iron throne was, only one who could profit and failed> alicent and vaemond

Whoever questioned velaryon boys and their inheritance because of their blood has paid for it.

Let's be real in book she does not exist, she's as real as mushrooms stories about his sexual relationship with rhaenyra, made up to make the characters on the receiving end of the rumors look bad due to their nature, making rhaenyra a whore and jace a untrustworthy bastard.

Again he most likely never married baela because his brother is dead, there's a war going on and not the exactly the correct environment to go through with what is supposed to be the happiest moment of his life. His brother dying is key reason imo, he's cursing vhagar just like joffery, and wants to confront and get rid of her with caraxes and maelys, he's not in celebratory mood. It's not a very difficult puzzle to solve, but then again if you're a green Stan who thinks cheating is more of a parents issue than rape tha idk what to tell you

#jace velaryon #jacaerys velaryon #lucerys velaryon #house of the dragon #hotd #jace targaryen #jacaerys targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #fire and blood #sara snow #baela targaryen #prince jacaerys #jacerys velaryon #jacerys targaryen #daemon targeryan #house stark #house velaryon #house targaryen

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sincerelywebsy · 4 months

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wait rq

i gotta talk about Sin from arrow bc holy shit

#1 they’re so nonbinary coded

and also THE BACKSTROY BETWEEN SIN AND SARA OMGBNBDKSS

in some episode in s2 sara is talking about how her family thinks she’s dead and sin says

“my parents think im dead too. or at least they wish I was”

THIER PARENTS ARE BORH DEAD AND SHE PROB DOESNT EVEN KNOW THATnnbb

SHE JUST THINKS THEY ABANDONED HER

the scene w sara talking to sins dad b4 he died and telling sara to look after sin 😭😭

it’s so fuckign sad

anyway thats it i love arrow!!

#tee hee #i’m on my arrow bs #this is a random lil rant but it’s so sad #is sin canonically trans? idk #they are in my heart #arrowverse #green arrow #grayson talks about arrow #cw arrow #oliver queen #sara lance

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jessicas-pi · 11 months

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this AU all started because a mutual started liveblogging lesser-known classic lit.

and then i started reading said classic lit.

and because i have permanent Rebels brainrot, i thought, "hmm. it's giving kanera."

So.

Fair warning, this AU is only like 65% thought out, and I haven't even finished The Shuttle HOWEVER I am very close sooo. I'll just outline the basic character bits and come back and give more details once i have more thoughts.

Also, I just want to add: this is not just a Rebels/The Shuttle crossover AU. This is a Rebels/The Shuttle crossover, BUT with plenty of The Secret Garden mixed in, and maybe a touch of The Little Princess? (Which, btw, were all written by Frances Hodgson Burnett!)

ANYWAY!

Hera as the Betty Vanderpoel (The Shuttle) character, a rich American heiress who is going to England to cause problems for someone. I haven't quite figured out who that someone is, or if the reason she's going to cause problems for them is that they married her sister and then proceeded to emotionally abuse her and separate her from her family, and if so, who the sister would be, but quite frankly that can all be worked out later. Hera Is Here And No One Can Stop Her.

Kanan as the Mount Dunstan (The Shuttle) character, an English nobleman. Due to the actions of his (now dead) father and brother, his reputation is basically worthless. Also, he's raising Ezra, for reasons to be explained. (He's trying his best to Be A Dad but He's Struggling.) Due to Bad Circumstances, Kanan is low on money but refuses to consider marrying a rich American heiress to pay for rebuilding his estate. Side note, he is madly in love with a rich American heiress.

Zeb as Kedgers (The Shuttle)/Ben Weatherstaff (The Secret Garden), a gardener at the English estate that Hera has crashed and is fixing up nicely. He's friendly to her but bristly when it comes to kids.

Okadiah as the Penzance (The Shuttle) character, a mentor and friend of Kanan's and also a total Kanera shipper. Also, the cool grandpa for Ezra and Sabine. And speaking of the kids:

(Here's the part where I gotta explain more because this is where we get into Multiple Crossover Territory.)

Sabine as a Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden)-inspired character, a ten-year-old American girl who is stubborn and rude and never listens to anyone. Her parents decide they have no choice but to send her to an English boarding school to teach her, if not manners, then at least how to not be a feral dirt gremlin. Being old friends of the Syndullas, they entrust her to Hera's care for the oversea voyage. This is a mistake. Sabine wheedles and begs and finally gets Hera to let her skip out on boarding school and come along to the estate.

Ezra is a Colin (The Secret Garden) sort of character, but also Sara Crewe (The Little Princess) too. He's an orphan who went to a boarding school, and lived pretty well, until he was nine and his mysterious benefactor disappeared, at which point he had to work there, and he's sad and miserable. Kanan, looking over his lousy-and-now-dead brother's bookkeeping to figure out just how many debts the guy had, discovered payments to a boarding school, investigated, and found out about Ezra. Given his brother's life, Kanan knows it's not too far fetched to consider that maybe this kid is his nephew, so he takes him in and brings him to his estate, but Ezra (age eleven--he's slightly older than Sabine here, instead of being younger than her) is sickly due to his awful life at the boarding school. He mostly stays inside, and it's only rumored that he even exists; no one sees him. He only goes outside to work in the hidden garden Kanan gave to him. Sabine, who is still very much a feral dirt gremlin, is intrigued by this rumored kid, and because she's bored, she sneaks onto Kanan's estate and finds him and befriends him. (Also, Ezra is also a Dickon (The Secret Garden) character, because he's really good at befriending wild animals.)

I wish I had more to say about Kanan and Hera and their plot, but I think first I have to figure out why she's going to England and I can form her plot around that. Because I need a villain here to really shake things up. Maul is kinda my go-to villain but I don't think he quite has Nigel Anstruther's specific type of rancid vibes. Also, maybe I'm missing someone obvious, but I'm just totally stuck on what SW character Rosalie could be. Suggestions are welcome for any of those things!

That's all for now but it's likely I'll think of more later!

#this might turn into a doodle or two eventually?#jessica's writing nonsense #rebels au #i am fully aware of how weird and niche this nonsense is btw. i take no pride in it. it is simply The Brainrot.

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agentrouka-blog · 1 year

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Jace also breaking off the betrothal would also can be him realizing that this is wrong. He can remember that Luke was uncomfortable being heir Driftmark and that can also be a driving force as well.

Especially since not only would it greatly benefit his character, it also shows my desire to see Jace and Rhaenyra’s relationship breakdown. I want Jace to become disillusioned with her and call her out on her actions and the fact she has forced him and his brothers to live this lie for so long.

Hi anon!

In the books he doesn't openly break off the betrothal and there is no official explanation given for why he and Baela don't marry apart from speculation.

Long betrothed to Prince Jacaerys, she refused to leave him, insisting that she would fight beside him on her own dragon…though Moondancer was too small to bear her weight. Though Baela also announced her intent to marry Jace at once, no wedding was ever held. Munkun says the prince did not wish to wed until the war was over, whilst Mushroom claims Jacaerys was already married to Sara Snow, the mysterious bastard girl from Winterfell. (Fire and Blood - The Dying of the Dragons, The Red Dragon and the Gold)

It would definitely benefit Baela's character development to see her have some kind of confrontation with Jace about this - whether it's in reaction to his evasion of her supportive suggestion to marry, or whether this suggestion is a move on her part to put pressure on him and demand a political commitment. Let her speak up, let her share what is on her mind! Let them fight, let them team up in a shared condemnation of their parents' mess, just give them something of their own.

I actually don't necessarily need Jace's relationship with Rhaenyra to break down, but he is the child in the absolute best position to at least make her face conflict, to confront her with the consequences of her life choices and how they affect others, to throw them in her face should she criticize his choices, or to show her how her example is a dangerous one should he aim for her sympathy. Jace will die fighting his mother's war, and there is very little pathos in that apart from "Bummer, another son dead." But if he was in conflict with that legacy, but felt compelled to fight because he loves his family, because his brother was brutally killed, because they are all caught in a trap of their parents' making? Tragic, compelling, thematically on point.

We have seen Rhaenyra give birth but we haven't yet seen her navigate the challenges of parenting in the same way we see Alicent do it, or in the way we see Viserys actively avoid like a coward.

Let them fight! Everyone benefits!

#jace x sara #jace velaryon #mother and son #baela targaryen #<- has better things to do than be quietly confused why he won't tie the knot #anti rhaenyra targaryen #<- not really but you know #anti targaryen

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saltyr3mix · 9 months

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OK SO IVE HAD THIS IDEA FOR A WHILE! i think it was inspired by a tumblr post but here is an outline for a Oliver gets possessed by litho timeline idea!

Child. was watching tv with his parents when they started to be....not great parents. ummmm he fights back and now has two dead adults on his hands but is like Sara in the sense he doesn't quite realize what hes done. or at least is one hell of an actor to the cops.

his siblings are still around but once parents died he was to young to hold custody so he hasn't seen them since that night. they moved away.

founders trio happens the same. but instead of phone calls Oliver grows distant watching some sort of news channel. still has the same effect and follows Sara's footsteps except with tv instead of phones.

Winnie shows up. we love to see it. Lewis dies the same. only Oliver is a lot less....i don't know...mischievous with it. hes more cold, calculated vibes than Sara's quick jabs and menacing one liners. i also think hes just a tad more sympathetic to Litho/Winnie than Sara because missing siblings/kids. he knows how that feels.

other deaths go the same minus the twins. because! we replace them with uhhhh idk yet. either Celio or Norman. someone close to Sara.

Sara! then gets Damien involved. for detective reasons and also because she knows hes been Olivers crush for years and can try to talk some sense into him

it didn't work. Oliver sends Sara to the basement and she get a radio instead of Tv which i think is fun!

i think Damien ends up making the virus in this au. in fact the way i see it the radio trap was meant for him but Sara ended up falling for it so hes in here looking for her but also trying to help Oliver.

Drama romance bloodshed, the series goes on as usual. other fun facts when Litho takes over Oliver's soul gets shoved into the WTD website, this is really my theory on what happend to cannon Sara. but making it cannon in this au because its cool.

Big end confrontation with the collector and stuff. we get a moment of softness from Litho seeing his brother again, and then star reveals he knows where the twins are. this is where major cannon divergence starts to happen. because that breaks Oliver out of Lithos control. even for a second. his eyes flash black to blue before Litho reeks havoc and memory stuff happens.

Wiatt ends up escaping along with Damien with their new found goal of finding Oliver's younger siblings while trying to restore everyone's memories.

Twins are either circus performers or just like genuinely living in the middle of no where with some random guy who i would connect to a character, like a sibling of one of the main cast.

Is this twin centric when it probably shouldn't be?.....yes. big reason ill never write this is because i always feel like im either dragging it to far from cannon or two close to cannon to make an au thats interesting.

Anyway feel free to ask be about it if you want. this is pretty much all i have for it but im more than happy to add more.

#welcome to dreamworld #wtdw #Welcome to dreamworld Au #oliver acrimony

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annihilate-this-week · 1 year

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I know no one will see this because no one reads my tumblr and that’s fine but yesterday was my wife’s 40th birthday and I took her on a day trip to DC and bought her a bunch of stuff and a couple really good meals and now I’m sure we won’t have rent money and the thought of calling my dad and asking him for the money I’m short is giving me major anxiety even though I am pretty sure he’ll give it to me. Imm honestly trying to keep my parents pretty far away from me these days because I know they don’t support my identity or accept me as their daughter and I just can’t stand continuing to show up for the emotional abuse and unsupportive attitudes when I’m 47 goddamn years old and it’s been going on all my life.

Buuuut on the other hand I also can’t seem to make ends meet even though I have two jobs and a goddamn Patreon (which has 12 supporters — who I love but I need more and have no idea how to get them). I probably need $3000 a month for Sara and I to live pretty goddamn well and I can’t fucking get there no matter what I do. She can’t work full-time due to ongoing chronic health issues and I just want to give her a good life without having to panic about money all the time but I can’t seem to do it. And worst of all, then she blames herself and says I’d be better off without her as a “financial burden” or whatever, completely ignoring the fact that her emotional support is the only thing keeping me from completely losing my shit right now. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I don’t want her to feel that way, but sadly, I understand why she comes to those conclusions. I just want to create a situation where she has no excuse to feel that way and I can’t.

This cis lesbian who is married to a trans girl my wife is friends with was all gung-ho about helping me do a new resume so I could get a better job, and back in January we got together on a weekend and worked on stuff and got a resume for me about 80% done. She sent me home with homework I needed to get done so we could finish it but life kept getting in the way and I needed to make money NOW to make sure our power didn’t get turned off, we didn’t get evicted, etc, and before I knew it three months passed and now the girl who was helping me isn’t talking to me anymore and I think she’s offended I didn’t prioritize my resume but it’s hard to do that shit when you’ve gotta work 40 to 50 hours a week just to keep from losing your place and whatnot. And I think the dream of making an actual good resume so I can try for better jobs is dead now, or at least that I’m on my own, and it’s so hurtful and terrifying but I guess I brought it on myself.

And right now I’m sitting on the floor of my bathroom typing this instead of showering because I have to go work with my one employee (yes I am a MANAGER at my main job and I’m still struggling this hard) who consistently refuses to gender me correctly and is also terrible at her job and I’m just fucking dreading it. So here I am.

Anyway, thanks for reading. If you got this far and want to help a struggling queer aging trans writer lady and her disabled trans queer wife cover our goddamn bills and save me from having to be further indebted to my dad who never genders me correctly and is killing my soul, well, you can paypal me: [email protected] (yes my deadname is on that account, no they won’t let me change it) or Venmo me: @Drew-Necci. But don’t feel obligated. I know shit is awful everywhere in America right now.

Regardless, thanks for reading my panicked rant. Love you.

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blazethecheeto · 7 months

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what are your arrowverse rarepairs?

okay so this is gonna be fun especially as i'm not sure what counts as a rarepair

ARROW

lauricity (laurel x felicity) <- the first words she said to laurel was 'gorgeous laurel' ok she was crushing hard

shasladiver?!?! (shado x oliver x slade + please tell me if they have another name) <- domestic. cute. island. trio. before. the. incident. "what's the worst way your ship has ever died" "oh so slade fake-died and then oliver accidentally murdered shado and then he appeared just as she died and she never knew he was alive so he held her dead body in his arms as oliver was forever shrouded in guilt then slade became corrupted from a drug and oliver had to kill him too but he wasn't really dead and came back for revenge"

smoaksiren (siren x felicity) <- i already ranted about this one i LOVE THEM.

terrificdog (rene x curtis) <- they're so gay and chaotic x nerdy duos are the best even dinah agrees

constanqueen (oliver x constantine) <- why was constantine so flirty to him in that one episode they probably hooked up let's be honest

smoakingcanary (felicity x sara) <- 'YOU'RE STILL CUTE'

alicity (felicity x alena) <- they were actually adorable oh my god

lauryssa (laurel x nyssa) <- supposed to be canon you can't convince me otherwise

(gotta love how much felicity ships are in there girlie has chemistry with everyone)

FLASH

coldflash (snart x barry) <- does this even count as a rarepair they're so popular i mean thematic parallels, red x blue, enemies to lovers, homo-erotic flirting

snowwest (iris x caitlin) <- lauricity coded also the entirety of 4x05

balph?!?! (barry x ralph) <- the entirety of s4. that's all.

blackfrost (frost x siren) <- they're each other in a different font just IMAGINE THE FUCKING POWER.

bulian?!? (barry x julian) <- enemies to lovers and just very sus moments in s3 that made me say 'hold up fruity'

killersnow (caitlin x frost) <- new ship but oh my god its growing on me they're smoaksiren in a different font

(gotta love how barry is half of them he's so shippable)

SUPERGIRL

superwire (leslie x kara) <- dude they're so coldflash coded

agentreign (alex x sam) <- i still can't believe they're not canon

psiwire (psi x leslie) <- that one episode in s3. got me thinking thoughts.

superlane (kara x lucy) <- i shipped them so much in s1 oh my god

monwinn (mon-el x winn) <- bro has a thing for aliens

scholson (james x winn) <- nah bc this could lowkey work

superbat (kara x kate + is there another name?) <- kate was 1000% flirting with kara in the elseworlds crossover

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

coldatom (ray x snart) <- snart has a type and it's self-righteous red coded dark haired boys

lovebirds (kendra x sara) <- this was so unexpected but like hello they trained together and she got sara back from the league

timehex (jonah x rip) <- actually no way u can convince me they aren't exes

whiteatom (sara x ray) <- they're so sweet and they're the time parents and so underrated

steelatom (nate x ray) <- bromance.

hellcanary (sara x constantine) <- hhhh i could rant so much bro but they get each other and they are friends with benefits and both have ties to demons and can understand each other's hurt and are chaotic bisexuals and-

atomhawkcanary (sara x ray x kendra) <- they lived together for like a year ok things probably happened.

thanks for asking!!!! damn there's a lot lol

#i usually go for rarepairs bc god forbid i ship something that has lots of content for me to consume #mine #fandom rant #arrow #the flash #supergirl #legends of tomorrow #my faves #im not tagging all of the ships my god #ask post

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addictedtostorytelling · 2 months

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Thank you for your thoughtful answer about Abby Fisher! You sort of answered this in your original response, but if you wouldn't mind elaborating, how would you have written an arc like that? In canon, we see Sara connect to so many victims/survivors in a way that impacts her own mental wellbeing, and I am wondering what it might look like if that connection was maybe drawn out longer than the arc of one episode, especially because the Abby plot has all the holes you pointed out.

hi, anon!

unsurprisingly, my answer got away from me here, so in case you don't want to read this whole monstrosity, the tl;dr version is:

i'd move the storyline up, making both sara and the kid older when it took place. i'd also show their relationship develop in real time as opposed to inserting it into previously established narrative as a retcon. from there, i'd change certain details to make it more feasible that sara and the kid could stay in contact. finally, i'd put different kinds of narrative pressure on sara to make her more willing and able to open up to the kid regarding her own past.

much, much longer version after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

so to start off here, let's discuss the background specs for this potential arc:

as mentioned in the previous post, i'm convinced this storyline would actually work better and be more viable if it were to take place with an older sara who had already "come out the other side" on her s4/s5 story arc and achieved some stability and healing in her life.

i just can't really see her being prepared to adopt a mentorship role for a vulnerable child probably any earlier than s6.

that said, i also think the most ideal time for the story to unfold would be sometime after her breakdown in s8/s9, as well.

for me, the real sweet spot with her would probably be in the s10/s11 range, when she is happy, settled, stable, and thriving (and also has some free time on her hands because grissom is living abroad).

i'm likewise of the opinion that the story itself would work better if we saw sara's bond with the kid in question develop in real time, as opposed to being told about its development long after the fact (and being asked to believe that sara has maintained this really significant and even life-changing relationship for the past ten years that we have nevertheless known nothing about until present).

along those same lines, i also think the storyline would work better if the kid in question were older than five years-old when sara actually bonded with them.

the kid can still be around early elementary school-age (between 5 and 8 years-old) during the commission of the original crime that puts them into contact with csi, but when sara finally gets to know them and adopts that mentorship role in their life, they should be older, between 15 and 18 years-old.

though i don't actually believe sara is bad with small children—again, i am the one writing a sprawling geek!baby au right now—i think the fact that she thinks she is bad with small children would make her reluctant to try to befriend one (see, for example, her protestations to grissom about taking care of brenda collins in episode 01x07 "blood drops").

that so, i tend to suppose she would have an easier time dropping her guard and bonding with a somewhat older foster child in the preteen to teen age group than she would with a literal kindergartener.

i also think that her dynamic with an older kid would just plain be more interesting than one with a younger kid (because older kids can be held morally and intellectually accountable in ways younger kids can't).

as for the kid's foster situation, i think that whereas episode 15x12 "dead woods" has abby fisher in a relatively new placement with foster parents who don't know her as well as sara supposedly does, in this scenario, it would work better to say that the kid had been in the current placement for several years and that their foster parents know them well.

since sara seemingly never experienced that kind of long-term stability in a single placement herself—according to her conversation with glynnis in episode 05x10 "no humans involved," she bounced around a lot—she might end up being a little bit weird and flighty about the kid's situation in an "i'm not quite sure how to relate" type of way that would make this whole scenario more interesting.

so then thinking of the scenario itself:

let's imagine this story as a three-episode arc (which i'm going to title the "memoriae sacrum" arc).

like i said in my other post, i'm not 100% married to the "foster kid realizes, ten years ex post facto, that their father was not in fact a murderer" storyline (particularly as i find it somewhat ham-fisted), but for the purposes of this thought exercise, we can more or less stick to those bare bones.

that said, one element from the original storyline we're definitely not going to retain is the part where they retconned the nature of sara's father's abuse from what we had always known it to be in earlier seasons.

episode 1

in real life, gary dourdan became a persona non grata at cbs after he left csi under unpleasant circumstances back in 2008—hence the reason why tptb at the show never brought warrick back even in flashback in any subsequent seasons.

that so, if these were "real episodes," there'd probably be no way to swing an appearance from him.

however, let's imagine this arc more like a fic, where we can play around with what characters we want.

so let's say that back in 2000 or 2001 or so, sara and warrick work an apparent murder-suicide case together wherein a father seemingly kills his wife and eldest child and severely wounds his youngest child, shooting them*, before dispatching of himself.

* i don't really think the gender of the kid would matter, so imagine what you like here. this kid can still be abby fisher or it could be anyone else. i'm going to use they/them pronouns in reference to the kid to leave the possibilities open.

whereas in the original case, the killings took place at a mountain campsite, let's say, in this one, they happen inside the family home (which makes them even more similar to sara's own family tragedy and also adds to the circumstantial evidence suggesting the father is the cuprit).

at this time, sara is still a csi level ii, so warrick, at csi level iii, is the actual lead on the case.

the youngest child's injuries are profound. however, when they do eventually come-to enough, warrick is able to interview them.

(sara plays no part in the interviews by her own choosing and never interacts with the kid herself at any point during the investigation.)

unfortunately, the kid is unable to provide any kind of useful information to warrick, as, at this time, they are very young and the situation is so traumatic that they simply can't recall much. they also may have sustained injuries during the attack which impact their cognitive abilities/memory*.

* whereas in episode 15x12 "dead woods," abby fisher is rather improbably shown to survive a close-range gunshot to the head with no long-term impact to her cognitive abilities, i think it'd be more realistic for injury to either be entirely noncerebral in nature or to result in some actual traumatic brain injury symptoms.

warrick being warrick bonds with the child pretty immediately—seriously: one of the joys of the early seasons is watching warrick interact with kids, like when he used to babysit lindsey willows or when he interviews suzy in episode 07x10 "loco motives"—and, as is often his wont with child victims of the crimes he investigates, gives his contact information to them and/or their new social worker, telling them to get in touch with him again in case they ever remember anything and/or even just want to talk about the case with him when they're older and interested in learning the facts.

however, in the absence of any testimony from the child which might suggest differently, the evidence in the case does seem to (more or less) indicate the father's guilt.

since the father is dead along with the rest of the family, there's no one to arrest, so, in consultation with grissom, warrick closes the case—a decision sara has no real reason to question at the time.

particularly as, even back then, as would be shown in the flashback scenes, the case does squeeg her out and somewhat trigger her, given its likeness to her own family history, and she feels like the sooner she can move on from it, the better.

fast forward to ten years later, to 2010 or 2011 (i.e., s10 or s11).

at this point, said surviving child, now an older teenager, appears in the lobby of the crime lab one morning at the tail end of the graveyard shift, requesting to see warrick.

of course, by this time, warrick is dead, so once it's determined what the kid wants—which is apparently to discuss their family's case—sara is summoned to meet with them, as she was the other investigator back in 2000/2001.

and let's say the detective on the case was ray o'riley, who is also, by 2010/2011, canonically deceased, so he's not available, either.

sara is, initially, shown to be uncomfortable at this prospect, citing the fact that she's not warrick and doesn't "have a way with kids" like he used to. however, since she is the only csi still working at the lab who has any direct knowledge of the case and its details—grissom signed off on it as supervisor back in the day, but of course he's no longer on staff—she's pushed into taking the meeting, never mind her objections.

here, i'm picturing ecklie being like, "come on, sidle, just deal with this. it was your case."

she initially tries to be very formal with the kid, but it should be clear to the audience that she's wildly uncomfortable and masking.

however, while her going line is that she's "just not good with kids," between the flashbacks and the real-time scenes, the true source of her discomfiture quickly becomes apparent: namely, the whole "orphan whose one parent killed the other in front of them" likeness between her and this kid in particular.

at first, she assumes the kid has come to the lab because, now that they are old enough, they want to hear the full details on their family's case, as per warrick's offer to them back in 2000/2001 (of which sara is aware because warrick wrote it on the business card he gave to the kid and/or their social worker back in the day).

however, to her great surprise, the kid corrects her: they've actually come to provide new testimony in their family's case, based on some newly retrieved memories of theirs.

much like in canon, they would explain that something had recently caused them to remember details about the murder they were unable to remember previously—and these details contradict the notion that their father was the murderer.

however, let's say that in this version of the story, this recollection on their part happens under even more dubious circumstances than the ones in abby fisher's case, like while the kid is under hypnosis or experimenting with hallucinogenic mushrooms or undergoing a controversial form of therapy or the like.

much as in canon, sara is skeptical, believing the kid simply wants to "rewrite their family history" (an impulse she understands but doesn't necessarily condone).

let's say unlike in canon: the thing that draws sara to this kid even more than just the similarities between their respective family histories is their personality.

honestly? the kid is whip-smart and well-spoken but also angry and rough around the edges; blunt and a little bit awkward, etc.

they match sara pretty much toe-to-toe during this interview, countering her every argument.

when sara tries to let them down gently and tell them that in the absence of any new physical evidence, there's no reason for the crime lab to reopen what seems to have been an open-and-shut case, they get in her face, citing (obviously researched) precedents re: the legitimacy of their chosen memory recovery techniques to her in an attempt to change her mind.

with all of their tenacity, it's hard not to be reminded of her younger self.

but in that resemblance, it's also hard for her not to think of how she operated as a young csi: that tendency she had to "chase rabbits" and let her feelings get in the way of her professional judgment.

she remembers how often she used to be disappointed back then; how she'd get her heart hung up on certain outcomes and then have it shattered when they didn't pan out.

let's say—again, since we're pretending we can get whatever "guest stars" we want here—that after sara goes home for the day, this dilemma is one she talks to grissom (on one of his visits to the states) about, explaining to him that for as much as this kid may want her to start digging, it's possible they may not like what she finds if she does, and she'd hate to cause them even more pain.

she opens up to him: she knows what it feels like to be this kid.

maybe she even admits that when she surreptitiously searched through her mom's legal files back in 2004 (see episode 05x10 "no humans involved"), she was hoping to find not "exonerating" information, per se—as her mother's guilt was never really in question—but at least some new context that might have helped her to better understand or come to terms with her mother's actions, or at least to fill in some of the blanks in her memories.

so she gets the impulse, you know?

(of course, she notes, she never did find any previously unknown information to contextualize her mother's crime. there's nothing that could ever really ameliorate "abused schizophrenic wife brutally stabs alcoholic abuser husband to death in his sleep," is there? the whole situation was just as awful and senseless as she always remembered.)

now, she wonders what her role is here as the adult: to play the realist and put her foot down, telling the kid there is no probative evidence to suggest their father's innocence; or to actually listen to the kid and reopen the investigation (because she understands how often kids—and especially foster kids—tend to have their thoughts and feelings discounted and she doesn't intend to be one of those grownups who just brushes off everything a kid says simply because they are a kid)?

at this point, grissom gives her a nudge: asks her when she looked through her mother's files what she felt when she discovered that there was no "hidden context" and things were always just as bleak and awful as she'd always known they were.

her realization: she accepted it.

was disappointed, but accepted it.

because at least then she knew for sure, you know?

and with that determination, sara decides to reopen the case, securing permission from catherine (who is at this time her supervisor) to do so, albeit perhaps more in a "well, i guess i can't really stop you" way than an "i fully support you in this endeavor" one.

she also enlists greg to help her—or rather, he volunteers because he remembers running dna on the original case back in the day, recalling some unknown exemplar collected from the crime scene he couldn't find a match to then and wanting to follow up on it now that codis is a more fully-developed technology.

the next morning, when the kid once again turns up at the lab, sara gives them the news that she's officially reopening the case, though she makes sure to stress: she's not promising them anything.

even with that caution, the kid still lights up.

for the first time, sara sees them smile—and on the one hand, it obviously terrifies her, having all this kid's hopes rest on her, but on the other, she also can't help but feel somewhat exhilarated, offering this kid at least a chance at an outcome she never had available to herself.

episode 2

this episode marks the beginning of sara's investigation in earnest.

the physical evidence in the original case is both limited and ambiguous in nature.

there were no signs of breaking and entering at the house.

the family members were shot with a gun belonging to the kid's father, and his prints were found on the weapon, which was recovered from next to his body, right where one would expect to find it had he dropped it after committing suicide.

however, there was also a pair of microfiber gloves found next to the father's body, which, while roughly the same size as his hands, were not ones the kid recognizes as belonging to their father.

sara and warrick's going theory at the time was that he had worn the gloves to shoot his family members but then taken them off to shoot himself, though they couldn't figure out why he would have done so, given that he didn't necessarily need to conceal his identity as the killer, his intention always being to commit suicide in the end.

inside the gloves, there is one unsmudged print. however, it is seemingly unrecoverable, due to the nature of the fabric.

the mystery dna greg couldn't match back in 2000/2001 comes from a sweaty handprint on a door handle to a part of the house seemingly out of the way of the murders; it doesn't belong to any of the family members, though it's unknown as of yet to whom it does belong or if it is even probative.

there is also circumstantial evidence to suggest that the kid's father may have been experiencing financial troubles at the time of the murders and that the kid's mother may have been having an affair back then, as well, of which her husband had perhaps recently become aware.

there was nothing at the scene to indicate anyone in the family struggled with assailants prior to their deaths, and both the mother and elder sibling were covered over with blankets, indicating remorse on the part of their killer.

meanwhile, the kid's "recovered memory" suggests that the man who came into their bedroom that night had some distinguishing physical characteristic that their father didn't have.

in episode 15x12 "dead woods," abby fisher's memory centers on a distinctive smell, and maybe the same thing could be the case here, though there might also be some other difference instead; i don't suppose this point really matters much, in terms of the overall story arc.

sara decides to run everything from the top, grissom-style (see episode 01x12 "fahrenheit 932").

of course, in this scenario, the added "warrick of it all" would throw a new wrinkle into the whole operation, as she would be sifting through his old work, potentially looking to overturn it.

imagine: once word gets out that sara is revisiting this case, nick becomes upset with her for distrusting warrick's original determination, feeling as if she is just being contrary and maybe even taking advantage of the fact that warrick isn't around to defend his own conclusions anymore.

and for what?

all because some weirdo (possibly drugged-up) teenager dreamt up a pseudo-memory ten years after the fact?

of course, given his ignorance of sara's past, nick doesn't understand sara's sense of personal connection with (and obligation to) this kid—and especially not because sara is trying with all her might to repress her own feelings and memories and "remain objective" on this case, not allowing her own trauma to color either her investigation OR her interactions with the kid.

—speaking of whom.

the kid turns up again at the lab for what is now a third morning in a row to check on sara's progress.

whereas in all of their previous encounters, the kid has had this somewhat surly attitude—think sara fending off grissom's inquiries about her "diversions" in episode 01x16 "too tough to die"—now, they are starting to come out of their shell.

while it's not a total transformation just yet (much like sara, this kid has been burned a lot and is fairly "slow to warm up"), they are becoming gradually more animated and expressing curiosity about sara and greg's investigative activities.

while it's clear they're trying not to get their hopes up too much—per sara's caution—it's also clear they're not fully succeeding in that trying.

more and more, they're becoming invested.

—and so is sara, who, despite her general trepidations about being "bad with kids," finds herself getting along with this one, especially as she starts to see their personality emerge out from behind that façade of jadedness, and especially as the kid starts to speak somewhat more freely about what their life in foster care has been like for the last ten years.

though sara lets on nothing to the kid regarding her own time in the system, we as the audience should be able to tell: the instability and uncertainty of "living with strangers," of always being the "odd kid out," is something she can very much relate to, and she feels for this kid.

deeply.

unfortunately, the gods of forensics don't seem to be on their side: it seems like whatever new investigative avenues sara and greg develop all eventually terminate in dead ends.

the mystery dna isn't in codis.

the details from the kid's memories are hard to get a fix on.

as the episode goes on, sara's stress grows.

she's still fielding passive-aggression from nick, who resents her taking on the case in the first place, and she is also starting to feel pressure from catherine and/or ecklie, who are annoyed with her for continually tying up department resources (including both herself and greg) as she pursues admittedly flimsy leads in a ten year-old solved case.

worse: the more time she spends with the kid, the harder she's finding it to keep her personal feelings out of the case AND out of her interactions with them.

despite her best efforts, she's getting her heartstrings tangled up in the investigation and in them.

she's also thinking about memories from her own past that she hasn't allowed herself to think about for a long time, and she's, frankly, worse for the wear for it.

after a hard shift fraught with disappointment for both her and the kid, she goes home to grissom, and we get a cuddling in bed scene where she admits, somewhat tearfully, to him that there is still so much she doesn't know about what happened between her parents; so much she can't remember either because it all happened when she was still so young or else because she's repressed it.

memory can be a fickle thing, grissom muses, and she agrees.

tells him she doesn't remember when her mom first got sick or why she (seemingly) never received treatment. doesn't remember when her father's abuse started. doesn't remember why her mother never tried to leave or if she perhaps did but maybe somehow failed. she can't recall what, if anything, precipitated the murder—if her dad's abuse of her mom had recently gotten worse or if her mom just finally after so many years snapped or if her mom's delusions perhaps had become stronger or more violent in nature.

she admits: there is so much about that night she has actively tried to forget and so much she is terrified she will someday be triggered to, against her will, remember.

worried about her, grissom wonders if maybe she should hand this case over to greg, but she tells him she feels she owes it to the kid to keep going, at least until she can definitively say whether or not their father was involved in the murders (regardless of if they ever identify any other potential suspects outside of him).

resolved, sara returns to work the next night.

however, as she starts to dig into the case again, she still isn't coming up with anything to challenge the original narrative.

at a team meeting, nick (who, remember, is the assistant supervisor on grave shift at this point) motions for her and greg to shelve the case, as active/current cases have been piling up in the meanwhile "and warrick already solved this one ten years ago anyway." sara pleads to be allowed to continue her investigation, and catherine compromises by pulling greg off the case while allowing sara to continue to work it solo. she also presents sara with a hard deadline: if she hasn't come up with anything probative by the end of the week, then she's got to drop the whole thing and move onto something new.

the kid appears—like clockwork—the next morning and, upon sara's dismal report, practically begs her to keep going, pushing her to dig deeper, to try just one more thing, please, please.

it's here where, overwhelmed by facing so much opposition on all sides, triggered, mixed-up, and half-defeated, sara finally snaps at the kid—says something harsh about how you can't rewrite history just because you want to; tells them that they have to learn to accept the fact that their father was a bad man, and there's nothing anyone can do to change that reality.

at this point, for the first time, the kid—who, until now, has been very tough and even recalcitrant—breaks.

starts crying.

and sara immediately feels awful.

apologizes—and, in an attempt to extend an olive branch—admits (in her awkward but heartfelt sara way) that she was maybe talking more about herself and her father than she was about them and theirs.

slowly, hesitantly, she tells the kid an abridged version of her story, enough that they also can see the similarities between their experience and sara's and know that she understands where they're coming from.

earnestly, she tells them: she wishes more than anything in the world that she could tell them for sure that their father was innocent and that she could find "the real killer" and lock them away.

but the truth, she says, is that that answer may not be the right one, however attractive it may seem.

she gets real with the kid: without more details, there's starting to be nowhere left to go in this case.

the kid offers to try more of the memory recovery technique—i.e., the hypnosis or the shrooms or the therapy—to help in the effort.

but sara tells them: memory is unreliable, and that technique is unproven.

better to stick to science.

she vows, for now, to keep going.

the kid is grateful to her, expressing that they feel like she "just gets it."

cut to the final shot of the episode: sara appearing super conflicted—honored, on the one hand, to have won this kid's trust, rare commodity that it is; but terrified, on the other, that she is still ultimately going to end up letting them down, which is the absolute last thing in the world she wants to do.

episode 3

insert sara wracking her brain to come up with one last avenue of potential investigation here.

eventually, she comes back to the latent print in the microfiber glove—one piece of evidence that was never run back in 2000/2001.

she thinks the print could be the key to unlocking this case now.

however, recovery will be nearly impossible using traditional collection methods.

even with mandy's help, there's no clear answer as to how to lift the print off of the microfiber without destroying it and while still maintaining all its ridge detail.

as the end of the work week is rapidly approaching, sara fears her time to investigate may well run out before she can derive a solution to her problem. not only does she feel like she's letting the kid down but also in a weird way warrick, who she knows would have done everything in his power to get to the truth, were he still around to run this investigation instead of her.

but just as she is about to succumb to total despair, who should approach her but nick, offering up a memory of his own?

—namely, a technique warrick taught him back in the day that might be applicable to her problem.

cue both nick and sara doing their best warrick impersonations: "i can pull a fingerprint off the air!"

of course, there's no guarantee warrick's technique will work, and it could still result in the destruction of the print. however, it is the best option sara has yet encountered.

so, when the foster kid appears at the lab the next morning, sara poses the choice to them: do they want her to take this one-in-a-million chance (knowing that it could well destroy the only remaining physical evidence that might possibly exonerate their father in the process of so doing) or do they perhaps want to hold off in the hopes that technology will eventually advance to the point where the print will be recoverable by some other, less invasive means sometime in the eventual future?

though they are nervous about the prospect, the kid ultimately decides to take the chance.

so sara pulls the print and is successful in so doing. however, she also destroys the surface from which she pulled the print as she collects it, meaning that the print now only exists in digital facsimile form.

mandy then runs the print, and eventually she determines: it doesn't belong to the kid's father.

its existence strongly suggests that another person was on scene during the commission of the murders and that they handled the murder weapon.

unfortunately, there are no hits on this mystery person's identity.

all of these determinations are made during the night, while the kid isn't at the lab, and sara knows that the next morning, she's going to have to tell the kid: while there's a possibility—and even a good one—that their father isn't to blame for the murders, as of yet, there is no empirical way to definitely prove as much, much less to find out who the real killer is.

and there may not ever be.

however, sara doesn't get the chance to tell the kid anything, because they don't turn up at the lab the next morning.

instead, their foster parent does.

come to find out, the kid had been lying to their foster parents, claiming they were going to early-morning "sat prep" and then beelining for the lab instead.

after one of the kid's friends accidentally let it slip to the foster parents that the kid had never actually attended any of the prep sessions, yesterday morning, the foster parents had trailed the kid to the lab. after the kid got home, they then confronted them.

now, upon discovering what the kid was up to, they have become concerned about the kid's level of investment in the case, fearing they are setting themselves up for a major letdown.

the foster parent explains the situation to sara.

apparently, after their family's murders, the kid bounced around in the system for years. during this time, they experienced all sorts of behavioral problems. earned a reputation with the dcfs as a "problem child."

the foster parent and their spouse were kind of a last-ditch solution; the only ones willing to take the kid in anymore.

it took them a while, but they were eventually able to earn the kid's trust and stabilize them.

now, after four or five years of living in their home, the kid is finally on an upswing: doing well in school, enjoying a social life, and just really thriving for the first time since the murders.

however, given the kid's obvious emotional investment in this case, their foster parent is worried that if they don't get the results they want, they might not be equipped to handle to the disappointment and could suffer a major backslide, right at a time when they're getting ready to "launch." the foster parent doesn't want to see them get derailed or "sacrifice their future for the past."

unaware that sara knows this fact all too well for herself, the foster parent explains: the stats on most "graduates" of the foster system are abysmal, so the best chance this foster kid has is to buckle down and study for the sat, get good grades, and attend college.

"that's their pathway out."

the foster parent has now come to sara in order to ascertain whether or not there is actually any hope that the kid will get the answer that they want, all said and done.

when sara explains the somewhat ambiguous outcome with the print, the foster parent decides not to tell the kid and asks sara for help in thinking up some way to "put the kid off the scent" for the time being, at least until they're emotionally prepared to hear potentially disappointing news.

though conflicted, sara suggests that the foster parent could perhaps tell the kid that she'd sent the print off to the fbi for further analysis and that it might be "in process" for a while (months or even years), and the foster parent thanks her for the idea, assuring her it's in the kid's best interest.

they also tell her: she shouldn't expect to see the kid back at the crime lab anytime soon, as it's probably not the best place for a teenager (and especially a traumatized teenager) to be hanging out before school everyday.

though sara outwardly expresses support for this decision, it's clear she's not 100% sold on the notion that concealing the truth is the best course of action here. she is also obviously devastated that she won't even get to say goodbye to this kid.

after her encounter with the foster parent, greg quickly sniffs out sara's upset, which she blames on the fact that she regrets not being able to get the kid a more straightforward answer.

however, he intuits: she's also sad because, despite all her protestations about not liking children, she's actually gotten attached to the kid, and now she's not going to see them again; she is going to miss them.

though he expects sara to resist this assertion, she surprises him by admitting he's right.

cut to a time jump.

the next morning.

and who should turn up at the lab but the kid, having snuck out on their foster parents yet again?

like sara, this kid has the uncanny ability to detect bullshit, and they're not buying the whole "fbi" story that their foster parents tried to sell them. they want to hear the truth from sara herself about her findings, even if it hurts, they say.

please.

at first, sara is reluctant to defy the kid's foster parents' wishes. she is also scared of sending the kid on a downward spiral and fucking up their life.

but then she realizes: she knows for herself how hard not knowing can be.

so she reaches deep inside herself, sits the kid down, and presents them with the truth in the best, most honest way she can think to, even though it's not altogether positive.

she admits: she can't tell them for certain that their father is innocent, though there's at least a chance he is. she also can't tell them who besides their father might potentially be to blame, though perhaps there is someone out there.

maybe, she conjectures, the databases will eventually kick out a match to that print or the dna that at the moment doesn't exist in their datasets; maybe technology will improve enough to someday fill in some of those blanks.

she'll absolutely keep trying, running the evidence periodically to see if anything turns up.

but in the meanwhile, there's no answer.

and there's also a chance that there will never be one.

on instinct, she confesses to the kid: she's never been certain if her mother habitually kept the knife she stabbed her father with under the pillow and pulled it out "in the heat of the moment" to defend herself OR if she had, in an act of premeditation, fetched it from downstairs after he fell asleep that night.

back when she was a kid, the detectives who worked her father's case had asked her, but she couldn't tell them.

and now she's never going to know.

"i keep trying to remember," she says, "the knife block in our kitchen. if there was an empty slot. if i heard her go back down the stairs and then up again. but i can't. that memory is just gone."

she's sorry, she says, she can't give the kid the answer they wanted.

but.

you can live with it.

there are ways to live with it.

someday, she promises, the kid will make other memories that their brain will allow them to retain; happy ones. they'll still carry the memories of their family with them, too. but they'll grow around the grief. have new experiences. give and receive love.

the kid ends up crying then, sobbing, totally unguarded and childlike, that they miss their family, and sara hugs them and says she knows, she knows.

cut to the end of the episode.

the kid's foster parents have come to pick them up from the lab.

they're apologetic to sara that the kid was "bothering her," but she tells them she doesn't mind. she also explains: she told the kid the truth, and they took it well.

"kids are more resilient than you think," she offers.

the foster parents agree.

they start to take the kid home, gently chastising them, on the way out the door, that now that they've skipped sat prep for a week, they're going to have to enroll in another session and take the course over again.

on hearing this statement, sara pipes up, "i could maybe help with that—if you want." stumblingly, she explains that she got a near-perfect score on the sat and attended harvard at age sixteen. "out of foster care," she adds.

and so it is that sara becomes this kid's tutor.

i imagine from this point, though the main storyline would be concluded, we (as the audience) would still see periodic evidence that sara was indeed keeping up with this kid and continuing to meet with them fairly regularly.

there could in time be other storylines for them.

if we want to go the tamer route:

maybe something to do with sara struggling to balance her work responsibilities with her new mentorship role.

alternatively or additionally, maybe her supporting the kid as they deal with some complicated feelings after their current foster parents propose adopting them.

on the one hand, they want to say yes, because they love their foster family and crave that sense of belonging. on the other hand, it feels like a betrayal to their bio family in some way, especially since they're so close to "aging out" anyhow.

maybe the kid meeting grissom and developing a relationship with him, too.

maybe the kid doing some kind of volunteer work or internship connected to the lab to help with their college applications, with sara supervising.

maybe them, with sara's help, starting a forensics club at their high school.

if we want to go the angstier route:

perhaps the kid still occasionally struggles. gets involved with substance abuse or has serious behavioral problems. ends up in trouble with the law, to the point that sara is obliged to confront them.

alternatively, maybe the kid has to unexpectedly move placements, and when they do, they confront sara: ask her why, if she supposedly cares so much, she doesn't offer to foster or adopt them herself. after all, aren't they close? doesn't she get it?

and who knows? maybe sara actually considers the possibility or even decides to go for it. has to broach the topic with grissom. reevaluate their lifestyle. could be an interesting development for both of them.

if we want to go the super angsty route:

turns out, the kid's dad didn't kill their family, and the real killer has somehow realized that the kid survived and the case has been reopened and that sara is periodically checking into it. maybe the killer then targets the kid, knowing they are the only person who could potentially identify them. maybe the kid is in real danger, and it's up to sara to catch the killer before they come to harm.

in any case, i'd definitely want to see more of sara interacting with this kid, building a real relationship with them over time—one that fit with her core characterization and didn't attempt to make her into something she wasn't.

excepting a scenario in which she did actually choose to foster or adopt this kid, i'd like her to toe that line, being a friend and supportive adult but not trying to fill the role of "mom."

i'd like to see her friendship with this kid challenge her in productive character ways and be consistently depicted, to the point where it was easy to believe that this bond was an important and regular part of her life.

anyway.

there would be other ways to write the whole thing than with this "memoriae sacrum" version, certainly.

but that's at least one way i could see the premise of "sara befriends a foster kid" working better than the option we're offered in canon.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

#answered #anon #asks: csi #**#my meta #meta: csi #hypothetical scenario #let's talk shop #csiverse

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