i read somewhere that, after the war, zuko at least hands hama over to the swt instead of keeping her in fire nation prisons 'till the end of her life. Which is nice, I think. But I'm also curious as to how that would work out.

Most notably: how do you think it'd go down if she were to meet Pakku? given they both have some sort of connection to kanna's life, the idea of them being forced to interact even once entertains me very much. like, old waterbending master pakku—white lotus member—who has grown up in a patriarchal society and actively forbidden women from training to fight, under the precedent they are somehow ontologically weaker, fragile, and belonging in the healing huts... THAT guy, meeting his former fiancé's old friend: (or current wife's if you go by canon, which, eugh) A woman who not only fought in the front lines but ended up becoming one of the most skilled, creative, and deadly waterbenders in history. How would he react when finding out that a woman came up with blood bending? How badly would Hama mind-fuck him?? Because I'm confident they'd hate each other's guts-- no way she'd tolerate him,,,

And on a similar note—how would Kanna feel upon reuniting wirh Hama and discovering what she put Katata through, in your opinion? Idk, I'm just full of puppetmaster thoughts today. Hama is incredibly interesting and I wish she wasn't handled so much like a Halloween Specisl creepy witch, (even though katara herself is handled and written pretty well in this episode, i think. but i digress.)

i mean obviously i think about this all the time. i personally think that zuko hands hama over to the swt upon katara's request, and she and aang personally deliver her on appa (sokka is not there, for the very deliberate reason that if he knew what they were doing he would very vocally disapprove). and so katara is sort of retraumatizing herself by doing this, but she also feels like it's necessary specifically because she needs to be able to look hama in the eye and tell her why they're not actually the same (especially now that she actually did bloodbend someone in cold blood). katara has the love and support and safety to step back from her anger and her pain and her grief and hang onto her own humanity and allow herself to be the bigger person even in moments of abject rage and acute trauma, and hama doesn't. hama is a victim of her circumstance, and that's part of what makes her so uniquely terrifying to katara, because katara has that same capacity to make people hurt, she has the same tools at her disposal, and she has the same justifications to exercise that power. but unlike hama, she hasn't actually been pushed past her limits. sometimes she can see the cliff's edge, and sometime she even teeters on the line, but hama was fully just shoved off without a parachute, and that's really what separates them above all. i think katara should be allowed to acknowledge that and forgive herself for that, even if hama doesn't directly apologize to her (although in my mind she does, and it's not enough, but it's also so much more than katara ever expected to hear). even if it is too late for hama, katara deserves to heal.

frankly, i don't really give a shit about pakku or his reaction to hama. i also don't actually think that he thinks woman are ontologically incapable of being talented waterbenders of whatever; he's a pretty worldly guy, the reason he clings to these traditions isn't born of the belief that they're grounded in logical evidence like sokka's is, it's because he believes in the preservation of a system that benefits and valorizes him. pakku thinks katara belongs in the healing huts because he comes from a culture that dictates that women belong in the healing huts. like, he might also subscribe to the bioessentialist logic that women are better healers and men are being fighters, but that honestly doesn't really matter, because (unlike sokka) his epiphany lies not in the fact that woman can fight, but in the fact that his role in upholding these systems has actively driven his loved ones away due to his cruelty. he decides to be kinder, to women and in general, because he realizes that being an asshole has negative consequences. but frankly, who cares what he thinks of hama. realizing that your sister tribe in the south deserves aid and protection after being subjected to a century of genocide is kind of too little too late imo. unlike katara, sokka, aang, or kanna, who can approach this situation from the perspective of being a genocide survivor who even remotely understands hama's trauma, pakku really has no place in this conversation to me.

as for kanna...... god. hama/kanna reunion is genuinely one of the most heart-wrenching concepts to me in all of atla. as a sidenote, hama/kanna fanfic goes so hard every time. there's a total of like 15 fanfics for them on ao3 (last i checked) but they're all sooooooo. fucking delicious. tide locked........... ugh. anyway. i cannot fathom kanna's reaction upon learning that her closest friend once upon a time is not only alive, but also a convicted felon, for crimes including but not limited to manipulating her granddaughter, violating her (and sokka's) bodily autonomy in cruel and perverse ways, and forcing her to participate in that mode of violence in a way that traumatized her forever. even if you don't read them as former lovers (although it is indubitably better that way) it's so gut-churning. kanna lost so many people over the course of her life, and to learn that one of them has returned but in the worst way possible must be mind-boggling and distinctly unreal. like how do you even process that. first, how do you process how much pain she must have went through to become the kind of person who is capable of doing this, and then, how do you process the knowledge that the person you once loved most in the world irreparably hurt the person you now love most in the world? obviously she would always prioritize katara's safety over anyone else's no matter what, but god. kanna has led such a fascinating and impossibly difficult life, and it's not over yet.

Okay how about yandere garden warfare plants (or just plants that are able to move around and shit) with a potted plant m/c that can’t?

MC is going to be a heal flower, because I feel like the plants will be more around them if they are a healing plant.

Now I don't what plants to pick, so we'll go with a peashooter, chomper, and Kernel Corn (Rose is mommy-)

Tw: zombie killing obv, light possessiveness, aggressive behaviour

Peashooter:

It likes to be on top of rooftops and other high-altitude places so that it can protect you from afar. It won't really directly interact with you unless it needs some healing. It'll shoot any zombies trying to near you so that you just stay happy and heal the comrades.

Totally tries to act all tough when it's being healed, but genuinely feels happy/lovey-dovey when you heal it. Maybe a little nuzzle before it goes off to fight some more zombies.

It is kind of possessive despite being a basic plant. It will steal all the healing so that its comrades can't steal your precious light.

Chomper:

Chomper will stay the most around you since it's a melee-kind plant. It likes to target zombies from hiding so that it gives them time to chew while also protecting you!

It's a lot like a clingy dog. When it's not busy fighting or chewing, it likes to nibble on your petals. Not to hurt you, just to show some affection. Licks are another thing it likes to show affection with.

Chomper gets nasty if zombies are a threat. It will become aggressive and won't stop until the threats are all gone. Then it'll just snuggle up to your light so it can rejuvenate and have some snuggles.

Kernel Corn:

Kernel Corn is similar to Peashooter, and is less close to you. But unlike Peashooter, he tends to come back to you more often since he's on the front lines. He tends to check on your health whenever he comes back, and ABSORBS your healing.

Kernel Corn likes to be the hero for you. Literally will tell you all his vanquished zombies and how he worked so hard to keep you safe. Might ask for a little kiss on the cheek because he's kind of cocky to me. (Watch MC flat-out reject him haha)

Kernel Corn doesn't get overly aggressive like Peashooter and Chomper, instead, he takes the chance to show his dominance over the battlefield. He'll then ask for some praise definitely.

(I love Chomper so much. It's like a goofy little dog.)

- Celina

The Warriors Trio reacting to Marco's ex/sibling trying to befriend or romance them

Spoilers for everything surrounding Marco Bodt's death + Season 3. Masterlist! _ Join the taglist!

For Annie it's an unfortunate situation. She sees Marco's face in yours, in the shape of your eyes and the lines of your mouth. In how you strap on your gear or tie your shoes. Whether you're an ex or relative, all she can see is him. Marco's death isn't something she's forgotten or forgiven herself for.

Bearing a cold front, Annie had always been aloof. Seeing her react to the loss of battle is different than most others. She gets silent, eyes distant. It's understandable because she had been on clean up duty.

What isn't is how she reacts to you, bearing the knowledge of how you wept over Marco's body. How you had been closer to him then Jean had been. Out of everyone, it's clear that she's avoiding you insistently.

Being near you leaves her feeling raw and vulnerable, regret pooling inside her chest. Because Marco had been kind to her, she had known him. To strip him of his gear like that, to see your grief laid bear, it's a different kind of tragedy.

Annie is far more hot-headed towards you, snapping short and quick remarks. Coming to her for grief bears little fruit; she tries to adamantly pawn you off to someone else. Anyone who sees her would swear that that's the most expressive she's ever been.

Maybe that's why you keep coming back. It's only through sheer persistence that you'll be able to break through.

Eventually, she collapses beneath your attempts, falling silent whenever you sit next to her. It's through this tender vigil that you bond over your shared grief. Annie is persistent on training, her duties, so with her it's "easier" to bury memories of Marco. You feel this grief because you are alive.

Dating her comes as a shock to both of you. If it happens, it'll be slow. Every time your knuckles brush, Annie is reminded of Marco's skin under her hands, his pleading voice. Feeling all these complicated feelings for you - letting herself feel them, had begun to heal old wounds that she didn't know she had.

Annie never makes it official with you, neither confirming or denying if anyone asks if you are dating. Doesn't rebuke it when/if you refer to her as your girlfriend.

Annie fluctuates a bit towards avidly making the most of these moments with you and feeling like shit for what she's done.

Learning that she had been directly responsible for Marco's death had been a low blow, rupturing the foundation of your relationship. The thing is, you want to believe her; remember how glassy her eyes got whenever you two got into deep conversations about Marco, the tremble in her fingers when she kissed you.

Knowing this and Annie's role in Marco's death, you can't help but wonder if she'd have reacted the same if it had been you who eavesdropped that day.

Reiner, at the end of the day, has filed this away like everything else, flitting it behind closed doors. He's adapted to it the only way he knows how.

He's appropriately aggrieved when Marco's death is announced. After all, he had been Reiner's friend too. This is something that he carries within himself, never quite understanding why he has nightmares about stolen equipment and begging.

Reiner, actually, is the one who approaches you. He sees your pain and as a fellow comrade, will do anything to soothe those feelings. Sits beside you whenever you need someone to talk to, always offering an extra bread roll.

Often, he talks about who Marco was, what a great friend he had been. But there's something aching beneath his ribs, beating fast. He's quick to talk about other matters, burying it under rounds of training, of bad jokes and long walks around the training yard.

Something twinges inside his head every time he looks at you, seeing Marco's compassion in you, familiar in how you eat your bread. Something feels wrong inside of him when he interacts with you, something like a rolling furnace, grief stricken in a different way. Like your loss of Marco is somehow more personal.

Somehow, you end up comforting him over Marco's death a little more than he does you. Which is completely understandable! He was one of Marco's friends.

Usually he likes taking you out for long walks, both of you silent or just talking about whatever came to mind. It's during one of these moments that he realizes the extent of his feelings for you.

Dating him goes surprisingly smoothly! It's a lot like being with him normally. If there's periods where he's suddenly distant, recoiling from touching you (aka thinking about Marco)... well, it's just written off as PTSD. He'll be a dutiful partner, proud to show you off, even if there's something so very reserved in his actions.

Then you overhear him talking to Eren on the wall and realize that maybe you didn't know him at all.

Bertholdt is, perhaps, the one most adapted to the necessity of Marco's death. It sits in his chest like a weighted stone but he understands. That call was a necessary one to make. He's so sorry that the call was made but it's now nothing that any of them can take back.

Grief is a funny thing. Reserved and withdrawn around you, he knows how much Marco meant to you; it was public knowledge of how close the two of you were, after all. But he'll engage, listen to you when you come to him for comfort. He'll respond to what you tell him. What you ask him.

While he doesn't know Marco well, not like Reiner or you did, Marco's passing is not as bad as it could have been. Certainly better adapted than Reiner by default and Annie. He just has an easier time of putting it into perspective, separating his feelings from the outcome.

When Marco gets brought up, especially by you, he gets quiet and sullen. But he's always claimed to be your friend, and a shoulder to lean on and he'll follow that duty to the end.

Bertholdt takes more of a quiet grief approach, a little like Annie who ruminates over the events. He's more likely to try to take your mind off what happened, redirect it to something more positive.

For Bertholdt, him mentally flagging Marco's death as necessary does make him both easier to befriend and woo. Marco may not be here but you are and so is he. Marco's death has nothing to do with his feelings for you - even if the burden of guilt sometimes suffocates him.

He still gets odd whenever Marco is brought up but is the best out of the three at hiding it. He'll love you despite what he did.

But, as necessary as things are as a warrior, Bertholdt does feel obligated to choosing Marley over the Walls. Over you. But it doesn't stop him from reacting vehemently if anyone ever makes the implication that Marco was killed so that he could get close to you. (Also refers to you present-tense as his partner so, there's that to deal with.)

That's not what that was, not who he is. He cares for you, with or without what he's done to Marco. Nothing will change that.

In the end, it might change your feelings for him.

More resident evil 8 Au! I don't think I will ever run out of things to talk about for this AU!

First I'm glad you like my idea for julieta's mutation and I 100% agree that Miranda was trying to get rid of Alma's voice but she didn't directly go for her voice box she was just kind of hoping that it would be a side effect of the experiment so it didn't happen.

The Dimitrescu family does need to chill. They try their best but given their mutation and what I feel like is an ingrained primal/animalistic instincts they have a very hard time reeling in their emotions and with self-control in general. They've gotten a lot better over the years but it is something they still struggle with.

I just realized that we haven't got the families opinion on the other Lords or their first interaction with them besides the Dimitrescu family. As you know with Alcina and her family things were very tense and it took them a little while to be able to get along with each other but they managed The family doesn't have very high opinion of them because of their diet and their overall attitude but they are grateful for the fact that they took Mirabel in and took care of her when she was young. None of them like Monroe mostly because of the smell and the disgust that they feel being near him but also because of the fact that he is constantly trying to trick them into doing things to help him look better in the eyes of Miranda. All of them were creeped out by Donna at first, most of them still are, but Donna and Isabela built an odd little friendship over their special interest in gardening/plants. None of them like karl because of his abrasiveness and the attitude that he takes with Mirabel Plus the fact that his solution to the Miranda problem is to experiment on people and create these horrible monsters although camilo does like/appreciates the chaos that karl brings to certain things.

I feel like when Ethan is in Mirabel's creepy Casita he could go to different sections of the house and find different things. Like when his in the kitchen which is Julieta's area he could find healing items that would randomly regenerate more and could probably buy cheaper food items from Julieta, for weapons and ammo I'm torn about who he could get that from I feel like Luisa would be a good person to get that from because of how much she wants to protect her family. But I also feel like Pepa and Felix would be a better choice because in this Au they go crazy protective over the family plus I just get that type of vibe from them better than I do Luisa because at the end of the day Luisa is a cinnamon-roll sweetheart and I can't really imagine her hurting anyone or dealing with weapons.

Yes Ethan lives! I don't trust the B.S.A.A especially after seeing how they treat Rose. She literally didn't have a childhood in their care, and they were going to shoot her because she had a very reasonable reaction to what that one guard dude said, plus the fact the guy even felt comfortable to say something like that to her when she's visiting her father's grave is just gross. In my version The Madrigal family goes back to their encanto with Ethan and Rose, it's the place they all love and they all miss it very much, There are a couple villagers that are still alive and remember the family but not that many. Casita is still standing. Nobody lives inside because Casita refuses to allow anybody to live in her pushing away anyone who tries to get inside. When they get to Casita they were all basically pushed inside Casita was so happy to see them again! Casita had added a room for Mirabel while they were gone, the family doesn't know why or when. They make Ethan a house near Casita so he can have his own privacy and raise Rose the way he wants to. They of course help him whenever he needs it and spend a lot of time with him and Rose!

But I've been thinking. By the time Ethan happens Mirabel would be fully grown and would have been fully grown for a while before Ethan/Rose happens (all the Lords/experiments seem to stop aging after they reach adulthood) and with how much Miranda likes to experiment do you think it's possible that in between that time Miranda would try and experiment on Mirabel to create a vessel for Eva? In this Au Mirabel is considered the favorite and Miranda does have an unhealthy obsession with her so I wouldn't put it past her to try it but I don't know I would really like your opinion on that.

Any art you would like to make is always appreciated!

PLEASE DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT BECAUSE I LOVE IT❗❗ Honestly, Resident Evil by far like my favorite Video Game Media, and in the top five of my favorite media of all time 😭😭 like if you want my attention just mention resident evil

ANYWAYYYYY yeah, I think it's cool for Julieta <333 makes me also think that since her hands leak mold and infect the food, if someone did eat it to heal, it would more effectively heal people who had some form of black mold or any mutation like that; an idea, maybe Ethan, if he goes to her kitchen for healing items, he can take food (if she offers it to him), and he can use it to help regenerate or repair stuff; it can’t regenerate whole limbs though, not unless he has them, hence why Ethan is still missing fingers <\3333 And anyone without mold or mutations have to eat more in order to heal properly. Or maybe ut doesn't heal at all. Idk 🌚

The opinions are so real 😭😭 like I can see why they don’t like Karl (and even Camilo probably only barely tolerates him), and Moreau, for obvious reasons is disliked. Like I know bro is a victim, all of them are, but he SO manipulative it’s not even funny, and he’s just trying to make himself look better in the end. Alcina and the daughters…yeah. By far, if they had to choose one for Mirabel to be around, they prefer Donna, like yeah, she’s creepy, and yeah her weird dolls are creepy, but she’s otherwise pretty chill, and Angie is really just a vessel for her to speak through. I like how Donna and Isa bond over gardening, that’s cool <333

ALSO ETHAN IN CASITA 💪💪💪 he finds the house and family creepy at first, but honestly, with how much he’s been through, he gets over it when he realizes that they only want to help him. Him raiding Julieta's kitchen is so funny, and like she doesn’t care 💀 also I think Pepa and Félix fit for weapons; maybe Luisa can still have a role, since she’s still strong, she can and will defend herself, especially against Lycans. If she’s not at Casita, she will roam the villages and knows her way around, so maybe Ethan can go to Luisa when he needs to know where to go next or where to find certain items (not the flasks though)??

AND THE B.S.A.A…I haven’t watched gameplay of the Rose DLC yet (I need to lmao), so I was going off the B.S.A.A in previous games like 3/5/6. I’m glad they went back to the encanto, and I’m glad Casita is still standing and was so excited that the family came back 🦈🦈 The Madriagls pretty regularly check on the Winters. No Mia. We don’t talk about Mia 👹👹

As for Miranda trying that, yeah, I think so too. Even with her, and the family getting older, Miranda still treats her like a child, like her child. Arguably, her obsession gets worse, and it affects her both Mirabel and even her family to some extent. Mirabel wants to be herself and live as herself, but Miranda essentially ends up viewing her as nothing but a vessel for her daughter, and treats her as such. She either treats her as she would Eva, or she would treat her like the experiment Miranda will ultimately try and turn her into. Mirabel fully believes she won’t fail this time. She refuses to listen to Mirabel, much less her family.

Mirabel might even be a little happy Miranda doesn't really like her family, becayse at least that way, her family is safe from Miranda's obsession with getting her daughter back. Miranda tolerates them but you know. She's not above brutality and LITERAL ASSAULT AND MURDER 🌚)

ALSO ART❗❗ so fun to draw. Honestly, I'll draw a lot for this au 🤭🤭 LIKE...its insane. I had this idea, but it doesn't work with the timeline of RE8 and Encanto 😭 Anyway, I want to do a snippet, so if you have any ideas or more lore 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

I find it funny that “I’m getting her back” is mate behavior but “I’m getting my mate back”, which happens first, is not. Especially considering Lucien is, in fact, Elain’s mate.

Lucien would have gone into Hybern’s camp 100% to save Elain. But he wasn’t there because he listened to Elain, took her visions seriously and went to find Vassa and bring an army. And apparently get close with daddy Archeron.

While Az and Elain can make a cute couple, that’s a novella story, not a 700-800 page book. There’s just no tension or angst between them that can’t be resolved with one simple conversation. People go from “Az and Elain defying destiny” to “Az is Elain’s true mate” when they remember Az wants a mate of his own.

Many people have helpfully pointed out that mates aren’t given when someone turns fae (because then how the hell do born fae get their mates?). Rhys was having visions of Feyre before he even met her. Cassian suspected Nesta was his mate when they first met and she was still human. Lucien reacts to Elain and tries to protect her *before* she was thrown into the Cauldron.

Lucien was the one who was trying to get to Elain in ACOMAF, both before and after being put in the Cauldron. Lucien was the one who was beside himself over being separated from Elain in ACOMAF. Lucien was the one who was desperate to see her in ACOWAR (while we are given zero indication that Az had any interest in visiting Elain at the HOW). Lucien and not Az has shown Elain mate behavior. Also, the only reason E/riels get to claim any interactions between Elain and Az in ACOWAR (including the "I'm getting her back) and parts of ACOFAS is because Lucien or someone else was unable to do something first. Lucien was blocked at every turn when he tried to be there for Elain. Had Feyre and Nesta not directed their interactions and when they were allowed to occur, the start of Elucien would have looked much different. Had the sisters not demanded Lucien leave Elain in the library, LUCIEN would have been able to ask her directly if she'd like to go outside. Had Elain had time to actually answer Feyre rather than having Az jump in and speak for her, FEYRE would have been the ones to take her to see how the garden was coming in. Had Feyre known more about the Fae world, SHE would have known Elain was a seer rather than looking to Az (as spymaster and the ability to know things others don't) for answers. Had Cassian not been injured, HE would have been the one to go after Elain after she was stolen by the Cauldron. Had Elain been more comfortable with weapons, CASSIAN's dagger would have been the one she accepted (but as it stands, she only took Az's after Feyre reassured her that she wouldn't have it use it). And had Az had any interest in Elain at all during the start of ACOFAS, he wouldn't have needed to ask Rhys whether he was supposed to get her a gift. Az never showed Elain mate like behavior, he simply copied the actions of everyone around him and then, once he saw Elain shied away from her mate (for reasons unknown) and he started to realize Mor was never going to return his affections, he decided that the cauldron must have screwed up because then he could have had a bond with a sister just like his brothers had and that math makes such perfect sense to Az because he and his brothers need to stick together with everything (including sister wives). E/riel is built on Az having to observe the way others responded to Elain and that is not instinctual mate like behavior. He basically jumped on to the bandwagon after he started to realize Mor wasn't going to be his and rather than taking some time to process and heal from that information, he immediately focused on the next available, attractive, seemingly in need of a hero female in his orbit. E/riel could have made a cute couple if written by another author who is not known to be a fated mates author. They could be cute if the author in question hadn't already established that she finds males who try to prevent the female from doing more as problematic (i.e. Tamlin / Feyre). They could be cute if SJM hadn't confirmed that Az's thoughts of a future with Elain have never actually gone beyond his sexual fantasies however he has put a lot of thought in how he'd go about winning the snowball fight. They could have been cute had she not introduced a different female who Az has expressed admiration for (when he's never expressed it for Elain), who makes Az's shadows dance (when they disappear around Elain), and who makes him feel settled and whose happiness brings a smile to his face. If SJM wanted E/riel to be a cute couple, there were a lot of things she could have written differently to convey that.

What Happened After VoR <Part Three>

Part Two

In this part, and the next, we will take a quick detour from the Sundown Psyche to the VoR one.

Yarn arrives in the Computer Room of VP <VoR Psyche/The House>, injured from the transit, and unnaturally numb from having his strings ripped out <also caused by the transmitter>.

It is Night, and Coda is struggling to get Tinker's body off of him, impaled by its own healing-hindering trident. There is no solving this with words, and the two quickly devolve into violence.

The Soul, who is for the lack of a better word rabid, manages to damage Yarn's leg before being fully silenced and incapacitated... by relocating the trident from his abdomen to his collarbone. It threatens to cripple or kill Tinker, relying on Yarn's flimsy understanding of their immortality as a bluff. It fails, but in the scuffle Mind's modulator is irreparably broken.

Yarn can only wait briefly, in the dark and the quiet, for the Vessel to wake and Tinker with it. He does, rousing from the nightmare temporarily. <In VoR, the Thirds have never and will never be able to interact with the real word, the Vessel, directly.> Tinker rips the trident out of Coda's body, not trusting the Soul with the weapon.

The following game of charades is short-lived and gets them nowhere, so Tinker leads them to his room, from where he can get a replacement modulator. On the way, Yarn's strings start regenerating, and with it the full force of the emotions he'd shoved aside. He starts panicking, quietly. It doesn't help that he can't 'detect' the Vessel at all, a set of background noise completely missing here.

Tinker scrounges up his first ever modulator, and some of the pieces of Coda's halo left over from the events of the comic. This modulator isn't pitched down. He needs help putting it on, since his right hand is permanently crippled from housing the trident for so long.

This is all for moot, though, because as Yarn's panic reaches its peak, a string passes through Coda's halo-glass and contacts Tinker's halo. This initiates a link, without the need for Twine to be there and mediate the connection.

Tinker, it rapidly becomes clear, rarely says what he thinks. His thoughts are vile. He is not a nice person. The Mind tries to assure Yarn he is not lying, that he quite despises lying actually, but he is not believed. Unsurprising, considering the degree of dissonance between his instinctive reactions and filtered output.

Tinker has changed very often in his 'long' life. Ripping out parts of his personality and replacing them, with intention to perfect himself. This is his newest self.

He is trying to be better. At least he can admit when he doesn't know something, now.

Tension is high, but both fall back and the link is cut. Tinker retrieves a bizarre harpoon launcher device from the piles of scrap in the room, intending to restrain Coda more reliably with it and allow Yarn to go home.

This plan is immediately dashed upon their return. Coda, who is still shrugging off the regeneration-blocking effects of the trident, half-drags himself over to the transmitter. If Tinker shoots it with the harpoon, the delicate machine will not escape unscathed.

To make a bad situation worse, the Vessel is falling back into sleep, taking Tinker with it.

Yarn is done with this shit, and rushes Coda. They get into another nasty but brief fight, abruptly cut short when Soul slashes open his throat with its own halo shard.

This, understandably, makes Yarn freak the fuck out. He thinks he's dying. In a would-be final 'fuck you', he constricts his attacker in his strings. This.... yeah. Another link.

Pros: Linking, apparently, makes the VoR Thirds' regeneration mutual. Yarn is not going to die.

Cons: Everything else. Coda's personality, its not-capitalised mind, is utterly shattered. Existing in its psyche-within-a-psyche <it's complicated, and very metaphorical> is like being in a tornado of glass. It can't properly comprehend that Yarn is different to Ozzy, and has gotten stuck on the utter desperation of not letting him leave again. It doesn't want to die.

Through the screaming in their heads, since both of their vocal chords are shot, Yarn slams Coda's skull into the floor until it's insensate. He then rips the strings out again, since even in that state, it is not asleep, and won't let go.

The sheer violence wakes up the poor Vessel again, and Tinker is forced to postpone letting Yarn go home. He IS bleeding everywhere and shaking, after all. Tinker pins Coda to the floorboards with the trident, to not make the same mistake again.

They recoup in a warped washroom. Tinker gives Yarn a music box that plays 'Introduction to the Snow'. He also offers his notepad and pen to let the Heart write his thoughts. Another panic attack begins to bud.

It blooms once they reach Ozzy's room<s>, in order to get a new hoodie for Yarn. Tinker awkwardly stands there, pretending Yarn isn't losing his shit, and/or ripping apart his old hoodie, behind the door.

They link, far more amicably this time, and Tinker continues to be awkward by suggesting a tour. Reestablishing contact with Twine and the others is more important at the moment, though, so they make the trek back to Coda.

The Soul is barely conscious, still. Crippled from blood loss and a poorly-healing concussion. Spent. Now all it has is how pathetic it is, to hope to convince them to stay... or just take him with them.

It keeps asking questions. Confused, almost innocent. As if he doesn't know what it did wrong.

Still linked, Tinker assures Yarn that it's okay. That Yarn saved his life, and he's endlessly thankful for it. That he did the right thing. It falls on deaf 'ears'.

Yarn kicks Coda in the face. It is too dazed to put up a fight.

The conversation they have with Coil <and some others> requires them to unlink, for privacy reasons. Tinker is mildly sour about having secrets kept from him. Coda just keeps asking questions that nobody answers.

Or, well, until Tinker stops to talk to it. He asks how it feels. It can only concede that it hurts, and it is missing something. This is... well. A lot of pieces of his halo have fallen out, crystallised habit and personality traits. They have names, but I won't get into that now.

Tinker is just sorry that he hates it. That he cannot forgive him.

It doesn't know what's going on. It pleads that they take it with them on their 'tour' <things aren't ready at Sundown>, and Tinker admits that he'd rather not fight Coda again when they return.

So it's the three of them in tense silence, with Coda limping behind them.

They reach the greenhouse, though Tinker jokes it's a greyhouse instead. It's... miserable. A single gnarled ex-apple tree punctures a hole in the glass, but nothing is really visible beyond it. It's all a glaring white, like an overcast day. Ice slicks what surfaces aren't dripping with condensation. A 'gravestone', left under the tree in spite, is something that Ozzy left behind.

Unfortunately, once Tinker admits it's for Whole, Coda snaps. Its major point of denial is the refusal to believe that recreating Whole is impossible. They have to, or they will die. Coda despises Whole, but he doesn't want to die! It is a broken machine running on conflicting commands, and all it can do is run.

Tinker, and shortly after Yarn, make chase.

They find it at its room, but directly outside there's a more pressing matter. Mere meters from the grey doors that house Coda's domain, is The Incoherence.

The Incoherence is a sort of 'out of bounds' region. Beyond where the passages are unique and ultimately 'normal'. These places consist of singular cells of space... repeated ad infinitum. Forever. And the fact that this border has crept so close to their rooms is a horrific sign. A sign that this surreality is collapsing faster than anticipated. It should have been kilometres away. It is at their doorsteps now.

The Incoherence is heat death. Once it swallows their rooms, there will be no more creation. There will be no more chances for escape... or resolution.

Time is running out.

To be continued...

( continued from here with @holygroundscafe )

Truthfully, he barely remembered getting through the door. After a certain point, everything became a haze of pain and dissociation, only broken up by the occasional detail.

The footsteps that he'd heard behind it, the whirring of his metal hand in his pocket as it balled tightly into a fist. The cold laugh from a face dappled with freckles, and the very satisfying feeling of his right hand connecting with tha freckle-dappled face, giving surprise to those conflictingly deep green eyes. His own stumbled footsteps and the pain coming from his side, quietened only by the bell above he door and a nest of voices he didn't know or couldn't pick apart with a single voice he'd instantly recognised as Milo's.

The blank spot in the middle didn't bother him as much as it probably should have; half of his life was a blank spot, an empty hole where memories used to be with nothing to replace them. He was used to this, and that was likely another thing that should've bothered him more than it did.

The irony of him being friends with a witch who could interact with memories as someone with severe memory loss was not lost on Bucky.

"Thanks," he said, fighting back a wince; Milo had managed to put his hand directly over a sore spot, "for all of this." It hadn't been his intention to cause any problems, to almost fall through the door of the café, to probably scare the customers, but he hadn't been told that trouble had followed him so he was at least glad that the punch to the face had probably made them rethink the decision to follow him. At least the decision to follow him into a back alley, where none of them had been able to get distance.

There was a sigh with the statement that they should get him inside and do things to help him. Usually, if he was at home where he knew every hidden knife and thus knew he was safe, he would have argued. He would have insisted that he didn't need to move and he could just clean himself up later, once the surface injuries had healed. As it was, he just nodded. This wasn't his home, so he didn't get to insist on not moving. Instead, he braced himself for having to stand; there was an ache through his ribs that could have been a break or a bruise and the effort required to stand would only make that ache sharper. The focus on that disappeared with the appearance of the question, though, and Bucky shot him a look.

"You ain't gotta worry about me fallin' over and dyin' or anythin'; survived worse than this." He paused before taking a deep breath and instantly regretting it, fighting back any wincing from that ache. "I can stand. This is nothin'." Despite how certain he was that this didn't look like nothing--because those aches and pains weren't going anywhere--and despite how much he wasn't about to list his top 10 beatings, this didn't make that list.

Can we be moots?

Also, am I wrong for feeling this way, or is it reasonable?

Personally, I’m not mad at Gwen but definitely irritated. People like to claim it wasn’t her fault and that she didn’t betray Miles because she was just doing what she had to do to survive.

NEVER will I bash on someone for doing what they need to do to survive. However, it also doesn’t mean that there were some personal choices that she made regardless of her circumstances that hurt Miles and hit their relationship a bit.

And I’m cool with them being together. Do I absolutely ship them? No, but I’m fine if it happens. What certain people hate on me for is not wanting the relationship to happen right away in the next movie.

I like things being realistic, and I don’t think I could justify in my mind them being together simply because Gwen came to save him and then everything is all sunshine and rainbows.

Does that make sense? If you don’t agree, feel free to say so

Hell yeah we can!! ALSOOOOOO You're into my other blorbo who I never talk about on this blog or else I'll go off the rails (Carmy)

But yeah I think some of the behaviors Gwen does is a lot more to comfort herself or save face sometimes.

This REALLY made me think about something and i make a post about it a couple minutes ago

I noticed this in the scene in HQ, when she's lying to Miles and Hobie is correcting her.

Gwen lies to Miles maybe three times directly in the movie -

Once when he asks how many months shes been working with the society. The second is when he asks about the 'small elite strike-team comment', which Hobie corrects her on. And then one more when she lies about how many missions her and Hobie have been all, which he also corrects her on.

And I realized something - that none of those lies contribute to the Society. As in, every time she lies it's not for the society, it's to ease her own anxiety.

And it seems like when she downplays the society, saying it's smaller than it is, it's because she's feeling guilty.

So I think it is important no matter how someone see Gwen, to acknowledge that not everything she does is out of survival mode. It's outta guilt too. And sometimes that guilt leads to her lying unnecessarily - which Hobie always immediately corrects. So I can totally get where you're coming from

And THANK YOU -

I mean it's not that I don't ship Gwen and Miles but if they didn't kiss in BTSV I wouldn't notice. Like if they implied they were gonna kiss and didn't I'd notice, but if they went the whole movie not even coming close to kissing once, I would not notice.

I wouldn't say I'm not invested in them, just not the romance element of it. I guess when I think of Miles and Gwen hanging out I think of Pavi and Hobie too. I'm never like 'awwww Miles and Gwen going on a dinner date' the way I am with Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker

And i FULLY expect Miles to be like 'why did you follow me?' or at least a little bit upset with Gwen. Like...if he doesn't I want Hobie to be like 'wait up no we need to talk about what just happened cause Gwen and Peter you owe him an apology.'

I really want the betrayal to have an emotional payoff or else the romance won't have an emotional payoff either.

I think the final scene they're in together shows how he feels about her so far - their last interactions were when he was leaving HQs and he cut her web and gave her an upset look. Then after that he leaned that she knew about all this.

So I think the next time he sees her he's still gonna be like 'nahhhhh wtf Gwen dont tell me my mama was right :((( '

I would be the development Gwen's character needs, being able to openly express her feelings enough to apologize and give Miles space to heal

It just hit me now, but was it ever specified that the Witness can bring Disciples back to life? Is the reason why it hasn't brought Rhulk back yet because it doesn't have access to the Pyramid in the Throneworld for the Guardians' presence? Does it need the body to be accessible? If Eramis brought to it even just a relic could it bring Nezarec back as well?

I honestly have no clue

Most likely not, primarily because it goes against the Sword Logic, aka the Darkness philosophy.

Rhulk died by being subdued by those stronger than him which proves our strength in the Sword Logic and his weakness. He was defeated by those stronger, therefore he no longer deserves to exist. This, on top of Rhulk failing the Witness before, removes Rhulk from the "right to exist" entirely.

The Witness is not particularly attached to those that serve it; they are all tools in the race towards the Final Shape. Those that fail along the way do not deserve existence or to be near the Final Shape; and Rhulk failed.

With Nezarec, it's a bit hard to say because there are a lot of unknowns. For example, we don't know what exactly happened with Nezarec, how he died, why his Pyramid crashed, who buried him and what do the "Sin" and "Traitor" on his items mean.

It's also unclear if his ability to persist after death (pieces of his body whisper and still have residual energy of him) was something that he gained as a Disciple OR if that was just an ability that he had personally (perhaps whatever alien species he is just does that? Remember, Ahamkara and Worms also persist after death so it's not unheard of).

We also have no idea why the Witness wanted pieces of him back. If the current speculation is correct and Nezarec betrayed the Witness back in the Collapse by working with Savathun (knowingly or unknowingly), then I genuinely do not know why the Witness would want pieces of his body back. Maybe to use the residual energy inside of them to influence more people into following the Darkness or maybe to learn more about the betrayal during the Collapse. If that's the case, it wouldn't need Nezarec revived in any way.

But if we're wrong about these details and Nezarec never betrayed the Witness and he was, in fact, just defeated in the Collapse (possibly by Savathun), then maybe the Witness would want its disciple back now that it knows it was deceived during the Collapse.

However, as I said at the start, reviving someone would be against the Darkness philosophy. So it depends on whether the Witness would think that Nezarec was perhaps killed in a way that works outside of the Sword Logic (by deception and lies, not through pure strength); in that case, bringing him back would possibly be okay.

There's a curious interaction between the Witness and Rhulk back on Lubrae, in Shattered Suns, when Rhulk fell into the Abyss and was finally directly approached by the Witness. Rhulk recounts that he was "broken" and then "unbroken" as well as saying that the Witness granted him life:

(I rise. Broken and then unbroken. What is this thing that grants life?)

The Witness' "luster" was involved to mend both Rhulk and his glaive. It's incredibly vague with how Rhulk talks; what does being "broken" mean? Physically broken? Mentally broken? Rhulk does say that he was "granted life" but also consider that he was thrown into the Abyss and then met a paracausal entity so he may not have been in the right mind to fully understand what happened to him. We only have his perception of something that happened when he was in a highly compromised state. In short: unreliable narrator.

So despite this hint that the Witness has a power that Rhulk calls "luster," we don't really know what it does exactly. Rhulk suggests that it can both mend and destroy. If he's correct, then the Witness does indeed have the power to mend/heal/revive. If that's true, then the Witness could feasibly be able to revive its disciples. However, whether it wants to do that or not is up to each individual case.

Reviving Rhulk? Almost certainly not. He lost fair and square in accordance with the Sword Logic. Nezarec? Unclear since we have no idea what happened to him and what was his final relation with the Witness (if there was a betrayal). It's also unclear if the Witness would be interested in that at all. We'll have to learn more about it before being able to judge.

Important to note is that we know from the Lightfall trailer that the Witness most likely in some way restored Calus. Again, unclear, but the last we fought Calus, he was this presumably disembodied entity merging with the Leviathan and attempting to merge with the Pyramid. In Lightfall, he clearly has a body. From his own words:

You wonder if I am a spirit, if I have become something beyond Cabal, if I have ascended like Acrius did when he cradled the sun in his grasp. Allow me to soothe your curiosity: yes, I have become all you have imagined, and so much more.

But also note that this is brought to us by his loyal scribe and is literally called "propaganda." These characters lie and obscure things a lot so ultimately we have to wait for things to happen before we know the truth. Overall, the Witness probably has means to restore someone, but it would never do that for someone who lost the "right to exist."

[i am on my little hands and knees] pls hit me with some gabi x denji facts. who is the protective one. who is the better cook. they seem so cute i need to know MORE

Omg haiii ｏ(*≧∇≦)ﾉ hai hai haiii ty for giving me an excuse to talk about Gabi n Denji :3ccc

▪︎ I like to think that they're both protective over the other 💭 Maybe equally so, it's just a little hard to tell. Denji is more physically protective. He wants to make sure Gabi is safe!! Because he values her and doesn't like seeing her hurt. He isn't overwhelmingly protective, but if she's going somewhere? He's going too (so he can keep her safe !... and so he can spend time with her but shh)

□ Meanwhile, Gabi is protective in the more emotional sense. Ofc she's also protective in the physical sense, but moreso emotionally. She doesn't wanna see Denji hurt in a way that he can't drink blood and heal from. Looks out for him and steers him away from people who only wanna use him!! Gently reminds Denji that he's got people in his corner. Let's him know when someone is ... suspicious. Stuff like that! Or something idk it's like really late right now :3

▪︎ Denji is a better cook, but Gabi is the better baker. In situations where they live together, they'll take turns cooking, but Gabi will always make meals that she doesn't need to make from scratch, like salmon or whatever, whereas Denji would be fine with making things from scratch... sort of. He's definitely willing to learn, at the very least. Gabi? Not so much. She likes baking, though. Finds it easier than cooking, for some... odd reason.

▪︎ I've mentioned this before sometime in the past, but they definitely have promise rings. It's nothing serious, of course. Just an idea that Gabi played around with for a little while that started off as something silly (getting them silly spider rings from Party City) but soon developed into something with a little more merit (getting thin, gold bands). At first Denji wasn't really into it but I like to think he accepted it after a while 💭 And by "accept it" I mean he probably gets really petty when Gabi takes hers off to do something.

"Does that thing mean NOTHING to you?!" And she's just trying to put on some gloves to season some meat or smthn💀

▪︎ Gabi acts as Denji's impulse control. Goes "Hey, let's think about this for a moment!!" When she sees Denji about to make a not so smart decision. She doesn't dictate what he does, she let's him do what he wants at the end of the day. She doesn't like being controlling, and wants Denji to be able to make decisions for himself. But she does let him know when something doesn't seem like such a good idea.

She will, however, put her foot down if he tries to eat raw meat. Or trash. Or something that fell on the floor.

"Put. That. DOWNN."

She's serious when it comes to his health. Will let most things slide w/ his decision making unless it'd directly harm him (eating.. tidepod for $5)

▪︎ Denji sometimes has to squeeze Gabi just to confirm that she's real. Gives her a hug and holds on tightly. Squeezes her hand. Stares at her for a bit before smooshing her face. Yknow. Just to make sure.

▪︎ They're both like.... really jealous people. Sort of ties in to the protective thing mentioned earlier, but Denji's the type of guy to side eye a dude if he's talking with Gabi. It's usually just a feeling of " >:/" because guys don't really approach Gabi and Gabi is ... not a very big fan of speaking with others in general. But sometimes when he feels like there's some ulterior motive behind an interaction, he starts to get more obviously jealous. Definitely whines to Gabi afterwards about how that guy was "totally checking [Gabi] out" and how he didn't like that guy .. He was just asking Gabi for some directions </3

□ Gabi gets jealous easily, but it usually doesn't really bother her. I'd always imagine that, while Denji is insanely loyal, he's still very partial and bias for women. He won't beg for attention from girls, but like ... yk. Ykk. He'll act as a chair for girls, or he'll do things for them if they ask, and Gabi will sometimes be a little iffy about it, but she's got enough trust in Denji not to get too upset. It's really a 50/50% chance if she does something if a girl is like... actively flirting with Denji, though. Sometimes it makes Gabi uncomfy to the point where she's awkwardly standing there, mentally going "who tf ..??", but sometimes Gabi will be petty and not so subtly drop hints indicating that she's his s/o and that things are pretty closed. (Both of their jealousy issues probably stem from .. like.. GENUINE issues tbh but I can't think of what those are rn)

▪︎ As nice as Gabi finds it that Denji would like to help her with her hair, she does NOT let Denji in her head. He wants to play with her hair? Sure, fair game as long as he's careful about it! But she'd rather not let him help her wash her hair out, nor does she want him styling her hair. She knows he'd be willing to learn, but had decided to make the executive decision to. Not let him.

□ Gabi LOVES being in Denji's hair, though. Likes playing with it, running her fingers through it, washing it for Denji. Despite the hypocrisy, he let's her do it with minimal complaints (but the complaints aren't complaints, just him whining that he wants to do her hair too)

▪︎ I like to think that they take baths together 💭 Not all the time because Gabi prefers showers (and she takes them alone) but sometimes they'll hop into the tub for some bubble bath time. I'd imagine that they'd help each other wash off 💭💭 also. Prime time for Gabi to wash Denji's hair for him :3c Although ... Gabi probably did try and drown Denji once but it's okay she was j playing ☆

▪︎ Denji is sort of into Sonic, but only because of Gabi. She's the one whose super into it. In a modern timeline, Gabi forced Denji to watch her play Frontiers (he had to comfort her when she sobbed over the ending. He didn't get why she was crying so hard though </3)

▪︎ Gabi and Denji usually live separately, but want to move in together. But to be honest? They might as well be considered actual roommates considering how much Gabi comes over to Denji's place 💀 Like you sleep, eat, and just chill at his place atp you might as well pack your bags and stay there (lowkey it's because of the dogs. She loves em!! But there's alot of them and unfortunately Gabi is much more of a cat person </3)

▪︎ In instances where Gabi's debut is in part one, their first ever date was a dinner date ♡♡ They prepped and ate Makima btw (delicious)

There's.. MORE about them in my brain but I don't wanna ramble </3 Also my brain is fried !!! Because I haven't eaten yet so my hungry brain is kinda. pffttt. Yk?

Anyways ihihi thank u for the ask 🫶🏽🫶🏽

i had this all typed up as a response to a post i saw on the heartstopper tag which was criticizing alice oseman for her treatment of ben’s character in season 2, but then i decided i can’t be bothered to interact directly with that tumblr in particular, as they said they are not actually a fan, and i doubt they would go into reading my reply with an open mind. anyways, on the topic of ben:

**heartstopper season 2 spoilers ahead**

i’m actually surprised people are coming away from the show with the impression that alice oseman didn’t give ben a redemption arc? his and harry’s arcs actually parallel each other in a lot of ways in this season, with the overarching messaging being that you can be sorry for what you’ve done and try to make amends and make yourself a better person, but that doesn’t mean that the people you’ve hurt have to let you back into their life.

i can see why it may come across as a static arc, because of the fact that neither of these characters is forgiven, but we can very clearly see by the end of the season that, as people, they are heading in a positive direction.

and as for ben specifically, we do get a bit more insight into his character, definitely more than we get in the comics. we learn that his family isn’t supportive and probably never will be, and this troubles him deeply. and in the end when we see the rainbow reaching out to him before he walks away, we can see how that fear and lack of support still affects him even though he’s realized how much of an asshole he’s been.

this is the end of the story, yes, but it’s not because of lazy writing. ben’s situation is one that will take him years to get out of, given that they are still two years out (i think? the british schooling system still confuses me) from university and even after leaving for university you’re not really out from under your parents’ thumb because they are still your financial support. the show (and the webcomic) is not likely to span further than their teenage years, and from context clues, it doesnt seem likely that ben will be able to fully accept himself in that time.

and even if all that wasn’t true, the fact remains that this is a story about nick and charlie, and if the storyline doesnt have to do directly with them or adjacent to them, it has no place, because then there’s no anchor for the story (stranger things, im looking at you. i love you, but the disjointed storylines are not the look). and ben simply cannot be adjacent anymore, because he DID assault charlie, and charlie is going through enough already without having to deal with seeing his face. (fans of the webcoming will KNOW the shit he’s about to go through with mental health.)

alice oseman writes her stories primarily so that they can be healing to young queer people (or just young people in general, tbh) dealing with the trauma involved in growing up. charlie cannot heal if he continues to let people walk all over him and treat him badly. charlie’s rejection of ben was what a lot of us needed to see, because not all of us had his strength to stand up to people who have hurt us and not let them back into our life.

because its hard when you can see that the person who you used to genuinely care about is genuinely sorry and trying to be better. but sometimes having that person in your life is only going to hurt you in the long run, and its so great that charlie was able to recognize and avoid that.

tl;dr the redemption arc was there, but that doesn’t mean the forgiveness had to be

For the ask meme - 001 | send me a ship:

m!handers to start!

Hi! Thank you! 💖

when I started shipping it if I did: On my first playthrough last year :) I was unsure who to romance and all of the love interests were in the running EXCEPT for Anders. But I was flirting with everyone indiscriminately for fun and uhh... the moment he gave his little confession it was all over for me. He needs to be held and loved and cared for. Romanced him on the spot.🥺

my thoughts: I have always loved stories about love blossoming where it shouldn't. The world does not want mages to live free and normal lives, they are deprived of even their most basic right to love and be loved, to know safety and protection. I love that throughout the romance love and safety are things you can provide him and I love that it comes full circle with him doing what he must to assure mages in the future (and even Hawke) can experience those basic rights, even he needs to give up everything he has to do so. (I play mage Hawke so part of my interpretation/view is shaped by that)

What makes me happy about them: Everything :)

What makes me sad about them: A lot of the aforementioned stuff of course, but also Anders's ongoing struggle with mental illness (on top of everything else in the world he has to deal with) and the way he winds up so isolated from everyone but Hawke. I love their their love endures and is completely unconditional and understanding but it does make me sad that, by the end of it, that's kinda all he has left :( And then, of course, the ending where he fully prepares himself to sacrifice even that.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don't read fics often but think the only things that really "annoy" me are harmful narratives. Like biphobia, ableism, demonizing mental illness, etc. of course. but I also don't personally like to read Anders-negative fics (downplaying the oppression he and others faced, making him seem like an unhinged murderer on a power trip, etc.), fics where he is needlessly tortured (not in a whump or hurt/comfort sense but in a sense that it feels like you're meant to be cheering for his suffering), or fics where he is an abuser/being abused. I guess I also don't like fics where he dies but that's just a broader extension of me not liking any fic about character death regardless of the character (too sad😅).

things I look for in fanfic: Again, I don't really read fanfic much. But! I think I would like to read one where Anders is once again in a safe, healing environment post-canon. From a writers perspective, I like to write fics where he is facing adversity, self-doubt, and people (including former friends) misunderstanding his motives, but is still able find healing, inner peace, and connection. So maybe I'd like to read that too!

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I think I could see my Hawke getting with Isabela since they are very close friends. I could also see him getting with Dorian, perhaps in my Inquisitor!Hawke AU. As for Anders... 🤔 Well, my Warden thought he was pretty neat!

My happily ever after for them: In all of my canons (that will surely be contradicted by DA4 but I'll just keep them as permanent AUs anyway) they end up moving to Skyhold and opening up a little clinic there. Whether that's because Hawke became the Inquisitor or because, when visiting to lend his aid, Hawke scoped the place out and thought that could be a nice, safe place to move his husband if he wielded enough influence for them to allow it. A quiet life where they can help and are appreciated and don't have to run anymore. A place where they can directly interact with other displaced mages and form a community with them, free from persecution and constraints.

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Reversible! I kinda also picture them sleeping face to face all tangled up sometimes or one of them flopped on top of the other.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: Perhaps not their favorite activity, but one I picture them doing a lot. My Hawke is actually pretty mediocre with magic. I mean, he made it this far just fine, but so far his method has been "just throw a fireball at it and let the others take care of the rest" and he has honed his fire skills pretty well... everything else though? I'd like to think post-canon, especially when their lives and futures are more on the line than every, Anders takes the time to teach properly and Hawke comes to really appreciate and take pride in his magic, for all the trouble it's caused him. Though I see it often derailing into silly conversations or playful bickering. It's both useful to their life on the run but also a bonding activity for them.

Men with Chiron in Aquarius

The Aquarius Chiron man may be more susceptible to anxiety because of his unique characteristics. It is a sign that symbolizes freedom and holding a vision for humanity. The Aquarius man's Chiron influences his behavior and feelings. He may need a new place to fit in. He should look for similarities with others to overcome this fear. He may find solace in silence where he can communicate directly with the universe. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Chiron in Aquarius man is the charming naivete that makes him charming. He enjoys being with others but also craves social interaction. He loves solitude, but hates it. He likes being alone, but he would like to be part the group. He may look up at popular people and be in awe. The Aquarius man with Chiron yearns for acceptance by others. He is determined to prove his worth in the world but his desire to be accepted from others causes him withdrawal from society. He wants to be viewed as an authority figure but he withdraws because he is not worthy. If his desire to be accepted is strong, he might even go to great lengths to get it. This is why the Chiron man admires those in positions of influence. The Aquarius man, Chiron, can display some distinctive characteristics. He might feel independent, be a leader or heal a physical injury. Ultimately, his biggest lessons are about overcoming insecurities and learning to innovate. He may sometimes find it difficult to express himself. However, communication is an essential part of his soul's evolution. In fact, the Chiron in Aquarius man has a dual personality that relates to his feelings, desires, and purpose. People with Chiron Aquarius are often lonely and feel out of place in society. They may turn to solitude when they feel lonely. They may feel connected with others but feel lonely. They may avoid commitment to a relationship, or even a family, because they don’t feel accepted. They may feel selfconscious, but they want positive change in the world. The https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N486Dzij9BU ">Aquarius Chiron Man has the ability to change how others see them. They may feel afraid or careless, and they may not be able to express their true selves. The Aquarius man Chiron might not have the same qualities that the Cancer sign. Cancer is a nurturing sign. It is very sensitive and sensitive to energy. Cancer can be protective of others and feel guilty if he doesn't feel his best in social situations. Chiron in Aquarius can make men uncomfortable around group situations. He may be friendly, approachable, but distant towards others. A person with Chiron in Aquarius is wary of showing himself to others and may shy away from close relationships. He may also become obsessed with a social cause and feel they belong to a group. These behaviors may indicate loneliness. This can be a sign of loneliness.

Started watching Parallel World Pharmacy, and I have some thoughts.

It’s not bad, exactly, but it’s not as interesting as it should be. The big problem I have with isekai is that so many of them are so similar. You’ve got your nerdy teen who dies, ends up in a fantasy world with super-awesome magic powers that let him beat up monsters real good and attract 2-5 hot girls that want to befriend him (or more, depending on the target audience), who uses those powers to beat up some monsters real good.

PWP should be different, and to an extent it is. So far, no monsters have been beaten up. But he still has super-awesome magic powers, some of which would let him beat up monsters real good if he ran into them, some of which are restricted to only trivializing everything within a two-field radius of pharmacology. There’s still the hot girls being set up as our hero’s technically-not-a-harem, still a bunch of exposition about lore that doesn’t really matter, the story still centers around all the awesome stuff the hero can breeze through.

I’m disappointed.

If you want a more detailed but stream-of-consciousness series of thoughts, keep reading.

Why is it that fictional hard-working scientists need to have some dramatic reason for wanting to develop life-saving medicines or whatever? Maybe it’s just me, but “I want to invent better medicines so nobody has to suffer like my sister did!” feels like a weaker motivation than “I want to invent better medicines because it’s good when people can be healed.” Like, yeah, the first is more personal, but it’s also more superficial, if that makes sense. Makes it seem like he’s not trying to save people because he knows it’s the right thing to do, so much as because he feels bad.

Dr. Kanji musing on how long it’s been since he directly interacted with a patient and wanting to be a small-town pharmacist some day feels like a way to blunt the impact of a researcher motivated by wanting to find a cure/treatment for a fairly specific kind of tragedy being sent to a world where he can’t actually research that. It’s also a nice touch of characterization.

The name of the dude Kanji got isekai’d into is Farma de Médicis. Farma de Médicis, the medical pharmacist. He makes a joke about how his name sounds like a pharmaceutical company, but still.

Having Kanji/Farma and his maid walk by some paintings of his family while she was expositing about them was a good way to add a bit of visual interest to the exposition scene, without needing to budget too many animation frames. It’s not that interesting, but as exposition-dump scenes go, it’s…above-average.

Speaking of which, I’ve seen and read plenty of isekai and isekai-adjacent stories, and I’m kinda sick of them hovering in this area where the hero is treated more or less like normal despite asking questions that would be really weird for someone from this world to ask. Amnesiac or no, it’s weird to ask if “that kind of thing exists here.” Some characters remark that Farma seems different after the lightning strike, but in more of a “comedy beat” way than a “foreshadowing” way.

The maid worried about the possibility that Farma might not ever remember how to do Divine Arts (magic). I think that it would be pretty neat if Farma had to make do with modern medicine instead of healing magic. Farma casts a water spell ~30 seconds after the scene with the worried maid ends. His biggest problem is that he casts too much magic and can’t make it stop. About a minute later, he starts conjuring everything from gold to sugar. Apparently he can conjure any kind of pure material, and “eliminate” (vanish) it too.

Kanji’s also able to recall Farma’s old memories of how the fantasy world’s medicines work, though I’m not sure whether they’re magical/alchemical elixers or just mundane folk remedies.

Did we need a maid-exposits-about-Farma scene and a tutor-exposits-about-magic scene in the first episode? Also, one of the five magical elements in this world is “none of the above”. (They’re technically called “attributes” and the fifth attribute’s name is just “none,” but still.)

Apparently it’s supposed to be impossible for people to conjure more than one type of substance (ie, both water and earth, like Kanji/Farma did), and that conjuration like the water trick he did practically by accident normally requires a divine wand and an incantation, and Farma using just the wand lets him conjure a “water spear” the size of a small waterfall. And he breaks the magic-potential-meter thingy his tutor grabs to make sure he didn’t waste his whole life’s magical reserves in one shot, and apparently breaking the Divinometer (its actual name, at least in the subtitles) is completely unheard of.

Kanji insisting that his divine mark is a perfectly normal burn while it’s glowing with divine light is pretty funny. I wish it was a consistent funny character trait instead of one funny moment, though. This show could use more moments where Kanji is wrong.

Apparently this world is so primitive that they don’t realize that blurry vision can be improved by looking through a small gap in your fingers. Which is basically just squinting with extra steps, but it also activates Farma’s divine diagnosis-vision, which is another power he has. Ugh. Boundless reserves of not-mana, power over all four elements and “none,” a Divine Eye, knowledge of cutting-edge modern medicine in a world rubbing bat wing lotions on wounds—pick one cheat power and stick to it!

Anyways, Farma’s tutor sees all of these weird inhuman powers, realizes Farma has no shadow (by the way Farma has no shadow), and assumes he must be some kind of monster. He shows up later to bring her medicine, and she answers the door in full plate armor. I mention it because I found her paranoia funny. Also, she apparently did this (and assumed he poisoned the medicine) because she thinks Farma is the incarnation of Panactheos, the god of medicine, which makes me wonder what kind of dude that god is. What kind of medical god tries to murder people for freaking out over the god being weird?

Also, nobody else notices that Farma doesn’t have a shadow. He doesn’t hide from people once he realizes he’s deshadowed, the inside of the manor isn’t dimly- or evenly-lit enough for shadows to not be a thing that happens (as in, the artists drew some shadows in there), and Farma even goes outside just for the heck of it, in the middle of the day, where his shadowlessness would be obvious.

“I need you in my life,” Farma says to the tutor. And a moment later, he gives her flowers. I’ve mentioned that the tutor is a pretty girl, just a bit older than Farma, who shows up in the OP as what looks like an employee at his pharmacy, right? So, um, we’re up to two not-so-subtle love interest characters, because this is a much more conventional isekai power fantasy than I’d been lead to believe.

Farma’s Divine Eye means there’s no House-ish tension around him trying to diagnose people—he just looks at the parts that hurt, guesses a diagnosis, and prescribes something when his diagnost-o-vision glows. Synthesizing the medicine is practically handwaved, since Farma can just conjure all component chemicals, so there’s no early-Ascendance-of-a-Bookworm struggle. There isn’t even a Dr. Stone appeal to learning how various medicines get made or work, because the anime rushes through the synthesis process and doesn’t discuss the biochemistry involved. Is the source material better about this? This feels like something that a light novel would be able to handle better, but also like something a typical author wouldn‘t bother with.

I am really getting tired of this thing where Kanji does un-Farma-like things or casually hands out medicine that shouldn’t exist, someone points this out, and then nothing comes of it. Either have Kanji/Farma be good at hiding this stuff, or have the people around him realize something’s wrong, or just don’t have there be this Big Secret! The tutor figured things out, so it’s not as bad as it could be, but still.

Apparently Kanji has the knowledge, skill, and tools to build a handheld microscope that can look at bacteria. Not, like, “he spends a whole episode scraping the necessary materials together,” or even “there’s a montage of him assembling the microscope”. The first we hear of this project is when he’s putting the finishing touches on it. Because he wasn’t gifted enough already.

Lots of isekai anime have this same round orangish city surrounded by off-white walls in the middle of a green field with a river running through it. Parallel World Pharmacy’s version of that city is hexagonal!

The Gifts

A gift is basically a particularity that your character has had since birth. He must learn to master it during his life so that it is not a handicap to him, which is why wizards with gifts who are also talents have much more mastery on their ability given that they have had to work on it since childhood.

The gift request implies that your family carries the gene for this gift, we ask you to take this into account when writing your file, because a Muggle-born wizard cannot have a gift, he can only develop talents. You must therefore make a half-blood or pure-blood character (See the list in the roles channel).

━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━

𝐈 - 𝐏𝐒𝐘𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂

⁣  𝟭 - 𝘓𝘌𝘎𝘐𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘐𝘈

Legimoria is a gift that allows a person to search people's memories based on physical contact. Without advanced mastery of this complex gift, the wizard is not able to literally search the memories of others, but they have flashes of the person's past. WARNING: This does not happen with every physical contact. It is rare for their power to activate without their will and before advanced mastery, it is almost impossible for them to activate it every time they want (a roll of more than 75 is required to activate the power voluntarily , a roll of more than 90 to find the memory you are looking for. For wizards over 25, you need to roll more than 25 to activate it and more than 50 to find the desired memory).

⁣  𝟮 - 𝘓𝘌𝘎𝘐𝘖𝘉𝘐𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘐

Legiobiecti is an ability that allows someone to obtain the past of an object. This gift is little known and little recorded in the world, which makes it rather mysterious. It is impossible for a wizard to obtain a particular memory from an object since it is an inanimate being, without consciousness. However, they can get a view of all important events as well as those that may be most useful to them, as if the object knew what might interest them. (A roll of 75 is required to activate the donation, a roll of 90 to obtain precise information. After 25 years, you need to do more than 25 to activate it and more than 50 to find the desired souvenir ).

⁣  𝟯 - 𝘏𝘌𝘈𝘓𝘐𝘕𝘎

The gift of healing has been extremely rare since World War II, during which the Axis attempted to exterminate them all to weaken the Allies. They are capable of relieving suffering, regenerating organic tissues and putting bones back into place or reconstituting them with their hands. However, it takes a lot of practice for them to be able to use this gift on someone who is not close to them.

⁣  𝟰 - 𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘓 𝘖𝘍 𝘌𝘔𝘖𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕𝘚

The gift of control of emotions acts directly on the person's brain, allowing the holder of this gift to calm or excite a spirit, to inspire fear or respect. It is very useful for imitating great charisma. This gift is very rare.

⁣  𝟱 - 𝘓𝘌𝘎𝘐𝘓𝘐𝘔𝘌𝘕𝘚

Legilimens are wizards who can read the minds of others, as well as navigate their thoughts through images and sounds.

⁣  𝟲 - 𝘖𝘊𝘊𝘓𝘜𝘔𝘌𝘕𝘚

Occlumens are sorcerers capable of countering psychomagic attacks, especially those of legilimency. They are very powerful in defense and cannot be attacked psychologically.

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𝐈𝐈 - 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

⁣  𝟭 - 𝘚𝘌𝘌𝘙

A seer is a sorcerer who can have visions of the future, thanks to objects, people or simply following a psychological shock. They can manage to control their gift but most do not do so because it involves knowing what will happen but not being able to do anything about it for fear of worsening the consequences.

⁣  𝟮 - 𝘔𝘌𝘋𝘐𝘜𝘔

A medium is a wizard capable of seeing through the veil of death. He can thus see the spirits attached to Earth but not visible to the eyes of sorcerers, often the most dangerous. They can also interact with them and generally suffer from this strange connection with the world of the dead.

⁣  𝟯 - 𝘚𝘖𝘖𝘛𝘏𝘚𝘈𝘠𝘌𝘙

A soothsayer is the ancestor of fairground charlatans. Often coming from ancient lines of oracles, they use cards, crystal balls or other objects to determine probabilities, and are thus useful in determining which path to follow to achieve the best result. Only they cannot see whether they will succeed or fail in the end.

━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━

𝐈𝐈𝐈 - 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐒

⁣  𝟭 - 𝘔𝘌𝘛𝘈𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘗𝘏𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘜𝘚

A metamorphmagus is capable of changing his appearance without the aid of any spell. Most often they use this gift to correct their complexes, but during wars, they are very useful for infiltration.

⁣  𝟮 - 𝘈𝘕𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘜𝘚

Animagus are sorcerers capable of taking the appearance of a particular animal, temporarily most of the time, but with long work or a psychological shock, they can remain in their animal form for an indefinite period. . they have a very strong bond with the animal race whose form they take, becoming half that animal.

⁣  𝟯 - 𝘔𝘈𝘓𝘌𝘋𝘐𝘊𝘛𝘜𝘚

A maledictus is a sorcerer who has been cursed by a powerful sorcerer, doomed to forever transform into a particular animal. The curse is passed down from generation to generation, which is why maledicts should never have children.

deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I've been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi's side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just... the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you're not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can't become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won't give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I've seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true. 

As a young child he didn't have anyone's goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as "like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals". He can't resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can't do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And  how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father's acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian's own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don't think it's a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I'm writing this because I don't like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn't want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being "people pleasing" for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they'll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it'll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he'll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today's meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run... breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is). 

I've seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn't he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn't have the luxury of. And he's so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can't express, that he's had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

When Wei WuXian is with Lan WangJi, there is no work to be done. Lan WangJi cannot be swayed by him, and so there's no point vying for resources or favors. Lan WangJi will either give him everything or refuse him everything based on who he is, it does not matter what Wei WuXian does and he can't do anything that will change Lan WangJi’s mind. Someone he literally can't win over. After the resurrection, they are often in an adorable tug of war, where Wei WuXian tries to take care of Lan WangJi, while Lan WangJi won't allow him to but demands to care of Wei WuXian right back. Actually, Lan WangJi insists that Wei WuXian take everything he wants or needs from him and is even angry when he doesn't take or when Wei WuXian tries to offer a gesture in return, even something as simple as a thank you Lan WangJi won't accept. It’s kind of adorable how frustrated Wei WuXian is in doing this thing he's learned that he needs to do, and just... so confused by Lan WangJi, and has to find a way to please this person who aggressively refuses to be pleased and is ONLY pleased by Wei WuXian being pleased.

(Not to mention the way Wei WuXian delights in finding that Lan WangJi can’t say what he wants, and they have sort of these chaotic cohesive both-being-so-pleased-by-working-hard-to-please each-other moments where Wei WuXian is letting Lan WangJi please him by finding out what pleases Lan WangJi and giving it to him.)

The wildness Lan WangJi had always hidden within himself is something he sees as just as dangerous as Wei WuXian thinks of his desire to refuse. He saw his mother be socially alienated, shunned, and eventually die because of her wildness. His ability to survive in the world, aka to be accepted by his family, is contingent on him being able to control this inner wildness. From a young age (re: Phoenix Mountain kiss) he could only understand his sexual desires for Wei WuXian as something repulsive or dangerous that had to be repressed and controlled, and that the only way he could imagine his desires as possible was as non-consensual. His secret gay desires were never available to him as anything but something monstrous.

Importantly, it’s not like everyone else other than Lan WangJi are all vampires cruelly demanding Wei WuXian’s constant sacrifice. Wei WuXian is always vibrantly, charismatically offering so much, before anyone has asked. It’s Wei WuXian who creates this kind of relationship for himself again and again. It’s Lan WangJi who simply refuses - he refuses to charmed, to be cared for. And so in the end Lan WangJi becomes the one person who Wei WuXian feels doesn't need anything from him. When he says he's eating the corpse's fruit to save Lan WangJi money and Lan WangJi says that will never be necessary. Or when Wei WuXian asks what toy he should win for Lan WangJi at the market game, and Lan WangJi says anything Wei WuXian gets will be the one he wants. (XD stahhhhp it’s too sweet !!!) He really just wants Wei WuXian to be, to exist, to spend his life discovering his own desires and allow Lan WangJi to help satisfy them, he doesn't want anything from Wei WuXian other than him living - happy and safe.

It takes someone like Lan WangJi to refuse Wei WuXian’s aggressive generosity, it’s definitely not an easy thing to say no to Wei WuXian, dazzling or annoying people so chaotically before they even realize there’s something to say no to. The sacrifice he gives to Jiang Cheng, he never even offers a choice - and perhaps it would have been too much for Jiang Cheng to accept if he had the chance.

Lan WangJi’s statement "Between us there is no need for thank you and sorry" seems like one of the most important sentences in the novel, and you can’t help but noticed the way “sorry” and “thank you” is littered meaningfully through the book. What is owed, what the characters owe to each other, the give and take, touches every part of the story (down to wangxian's erotic explorations!).

When Jiang Cheng talks to Wei WuXian at the Guanyin temple he makes a lot of contradictory statements about what Wei WuXian owes, what he was given, what he took, what he (Wei WuXian still) is owed in return. Wei WuXian, according to Jiang Cheng, took everything from the Jiang clan, and paid them back with their deaths. The Jiang clan give him his life when they took him in, and he owed Jiang Cheng service for the rest of his life as the right hand to the sect leader, that’s what Wei WuXian had promised anyway. At the same time, Wei WuXian sacrificed everything (his golden core) to Jiang Cheng, by giving everything he was taking one more thing - Jiang Cheng’s right to even be angry at him. Jiang Cheng had taken everything from Wei WuXian. Everything that happened around Wei WuXian after could be said to be because of the loss of his golden core, which Jiang Cheng might be said to be responsible for. But he never asked for it, maybe he never would have wanted it. He wishes Wei WuXian told him, but Jiang Cheng never told Wei WuXian his golden core was melted while he was sacrificing himself to save Wei WuXian. He wants Wei wuxian to say sorry, but that makes him feel pathetic. And Jiang Cheng says sorry too. It’s a mess of paradoxes, and in the end somehow it seems like the scales are balanced in the most hollow, dismal way.

What is owed, what is given, what is taken ... Wei WuXian has never been part of a family. He has always had to say thank you and sorry for everything he's taken. Wei WuXian himself admits that he used "thank you" as a way to enforce distance between himself and Lan WangJi. Lan WangJi's point i think is that they belong to each other, Wei WuXian is his, and he is Wei WuXian's, unconditionally. The way that Jiang Cheng speaks of him in the Guanyin temple (admittedly I read a fan translation and this is very nuanced, related to slight variations of grammar), even when Jiang Cheng clearly is so broken by the loss of Wei WuXian from his life, he talks about Wei WuXian as an outsider. It is what MY family gave to YOU, never what you took from our family. But at one point Wei WuXian was part of their family - but he takes too much, and becomes an ex-disciple, not a brother. Wei WuXian’s inclusion as a Jiang was always conditional. 

Even when Wen Qing and Wen Ning leave him to go take the blame for qiongqing path they tell him "thank you and sorry", drawing a line between them and him, so he doesn’t even belong to these people who he sacrificed everything for. The way Wei WuXian acted when he was younger, he was always keenly aware of this - he always knew that he didn’t belong to anyone, no one is going to protect him unconditionally. And after first escaping the Burial Mounds, he is done pretending. When Lan WangJi warns him about what a demonic cultivation path will do to his heart, Wei WuXian replies: “After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?” He is done pleasing. Nothing has changed really, he still belongs to no one and is alone, but now he is angry about it, and instead of saying thank you and sorry he is going to become too powerful to be at anyone's mercy. And then we see in the story afterward what happens to people who don't say thank you and sorry.

The whole point I think is the impossibility of choice, the impossibility of consent in this society. If he didn't forgo the behaviour his social acceptance was conditional on, he wouldn't have survived the burial mounds. But once he becomes powerful enough to survive and get revenge on the Wens, he is socially outcast. Except he was already outcast from the beginning.

And so how do Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi find a way through all that to a life together where all their desires are possible, where Wei WuXian can say no while also being pleasing (safe) to others, and Lan WangJi can indulge in his wild desires while still being good? The answer is kinky sex!

It is kind of miraculous and beautiful how Wei WuXian finds a way to say no, while simultaneously pleasing Lan WangJi, giving pleasure, while taking it, saying no, and knowing his refusal is not just tolerated, but gives Lan WangJi pleasure, knowing Lan wangji and knowing the painful belief Lan WangJi holds within that his desires are unacceptable and unspeakable, and that Wei WuXian can take care of Lan Wangji in a secret little way and please him and give everything to him by craving this wildness in Lan WangJi while at the same time he gets to say no again and again , and it won't push Lan WangJi away, he can refuse everything while at the same time be totally pleasing and thus safe, and also for Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian's pleasure at saying "no" while still being held onto, that he genuinely wants to be fucked even while begging Lan WangJi to stop (and the many ways he does give his consent for this throughout, especially their first time), allows Lan WangJi the ecstatic feeling that this idea that his sexual desires are only possible through force are not just something his lover forgives him for but something his lover is SO turned on by, and that he has consent for his fantasies of non-consent, Wei WuXian has the same fantasies from the other side, he is doing what he is supposed to while doing what he shouldn't, and actually these monstrous feelings in him allow him to take care of Wei WuXian in a way that he needs - that they both need - and all these impulses that are so wrong with Wei WuXian become very right and a way to do good. And they are just both so perfect and perfect for each other and I love them and I am so happy for them to have a long kinky life together.