#on NO LEVEL DOES IT WORK AT ALL WITH ESTABLISHED CANON
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no quiet on this earth
Joel Miller x f!reader
originally for Febuwhump 2024 Day 10 - killing in self defense | Febuwhump masterlist
words: 2.8k
summary: You and Joel run into hunters on patrol.
-- I'm a fucking menace, and this is Joel & reader from "you know you never stood a chance" (spoiler warning). BUT this can be read as a standalone. I just can't seem to help myself/let them go.
warnings: established relationship, jackson, patrol partners, hunters, Joel and reader both kill hunters, canon-typical violence, graphic descriptions of violence, lots of blood, oral (m receiving), p in v unprotected, creampie, feelings, guilt/trauma, trauma response, a little hurt and a LOT of comfort, Joel takes care of you, one (1) ass slap, pussy/clit spanking
dividers by @saradika-graphics
They had been waiting for you. Not the biggest group of hunters that’s come ‘round, but there hadn’t been any signs. It was supposed to be an easy half-day route.
It was also your first patrol with Joel.
You’re already off to a rough morning. He’s settled back into Out There Joel, gruff and tense, and you’re already feeling useless again even though you know you can handle it now.
You’re on horseback, you with a gentle brown mare that you’re a little irritated about. Penny is notoriously slow and usually used to teach people to ride. Tommy taught you to ride ages ago, but Joel fucking insisted.
“Ain’t havin’ you have to deal with a spooked horse our first time out.”
“Our first time. I’ve been out loads of times,” you grumbled. He leveled you with a look so stern that you rolled your eyes.
“Don’t start with your smart mouth,” he said. “Only way this works is—“
“If I do what I’m told. I got it. Same shit, different place.”
To say you’re pissed would be an understatement. You thought after all the shit you’ve been through that he’d trust you now. And you’ve gotten quite good with your revolver and halfway decent with the rifle.
Now, out here on the trail to the safe house, neither of you has said a word. Just like the good old days. Y’know. If they had been good.
You’re nearly there when they make their move. They don’t have guns, thank fuckin’ god, but there are five of them and two of you.
It becomes quickly clear that they want the horses. Joel makes quick work of the first hunter that lunges for him.
One comes at him from each side, and you’re too worried to notice the other two do the same to you.
One grabs the reins and the other tries to yank you from the saddle. Your boots are stuck, and they don’t seem to particularly care if they break your legs during the extraction.
You free your feet, boots left behind, and let the brick house of a man pull you down. He doesn’t care much about your landing, so when you hit the ground, you grapple for your revolver.
His partner yells, and he spins back to you, a huge fist aiming for your face. But it doesn’t connect, because your bullet does first.
He was close enough that it would have been near impossible to miss, which also meant that his stupid body landed on you, turning your clothes into a sponge for his blood.
Joel’s rampaged through the others by now and turns to take down the one trying to abscond with your horse.
But he doesn’t make the shot, because he freezes up when he sees you.
“Get the fucking horse,” you yell.
He swears and loads the rifle, one neat bullet into the head of the escaping hunter. He hadn’t fully mounted your mare yet, and his corpse crumples into the soft spring soil.
Joel whistles and Penny takes her fucking time to come back, giving him a very unimpressed look and shaking her mane.
He heaves the dead man off you. “Where?” he says sharply, eyes darting all over your body.
“Nowhere, Joel, I’m fine,” you say.
He’s already dropping to his knees, hands gripping and patting every inch of you before cradling your face. “You’re sure?”
“I mean, I think so. Unless I’m in shock, but I guess we’ll find out in a little bit.”
“Not funny, sweetheart,” he mutters, doing another check, slower this time and more thorough.
You let him. You feel kind of funny, dizzy almost, but mostly just… muted. Like the world around you is muffled and you’re suddenly hyper aware of how blood is turning tacky and your jeans are stiffening as it dries.
“Hey,” he snaps.
You’re pretty sure that means he was already talking to you, and when you look up and meet his eyes, they abandon their irritation for concern beneath furrowed brows.
“Sweetheart, listen to me,” he says, voice low and slow. It draws out the Texan twang and loops you in. “You’re okay. You’re safe. I’ve got you. You did what you had to do, okay?”
“Okay,” you echo, but the word sticks in your throat, tasting of copper.
“Say it.”
“I did what I had to do.”
You’ve done as he said, but he looks more worried for it.
“Alright, c’mon. I’m gettin’ you home.”
“But—“
“Rethink that, baby. I ain’t in the mood to argue.”
“But we were supposed to—“
“Yeah, and plans fuckin’ change. We’re going back. Tommy and I can come out and deal with the bodies later.”
He stands and pulls you up, though you follow willingly. You hover where you stand as he pulls a rope from his bag and tethers it to Penny’s lead.
“What’re you doing?”
“Want you on Oakley with me.”
“I can ride,” you snap. “I’m not fucking hurt.”
“I know,” Joel says. “But you’re gonna ride with me.”
“Don’t start this shit,” you say, mortified when your voice and hands are trembling. “I can handle myself.”
He spins around, fury written in the curl of his lip. “I fuckin’ know that! I don’t give a shit. You’re riding with me, end of fuckin’ discussion.”
You open your mouth, ready to bite back, but he seizes you by the shoulders and shakes you a little.
“Don’t you fuckin’ get it? It’s not about you,” he snarls. You’re crushed against him before you realize it’s an embrace. “You’re gonna fuckin’ ride up here, so I know you’re okay.”
“Oh,” you whisper, leaning into him. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” he says, but the fight is already leaving him. He presses a kiss to the top of your head before he lets go. “Now get on the damn horse before I put ya there myself.”
You think you deserve credit for only hesitating a little, tempted to see if he really would. But his jaw ticks and you heave yourself up onto Oakley. Joel swings himself behind you, caging you in as he takes the reins.
“You’re so fuckin’ stubborn,” he gripes.
“I learned it by watching you,” you say, voice pitched in mockery of the vague memory.
But instead of irritation, something akin to relief flashes across his face. “Yeah, s’that right?”
“Uh-huh.” Now that everything has calmed, you’re exhausted. He can tell because of course he can. He knows you too well.
“C’mon, lean back. I got ya. Not gonna let you fall.”
You don’t sleep, not really, but you fall into something between the light and dark. It’s blissfully absent of reality. You’re only aware of the soft sunshine, the sway of the horse, and Joel.
Joel, your Joel, is everything right now. All encompassing. You’re surrounded by his warmth and smoky musk, masking the chill and tang of the stains on your skin.
His heart seems to beat in time with Oakley’s hooves and the steady pace he encourages keeps you lulled in this safest place.
“Holy shit, what happened?” Carl asks at the gates, almost loud enough to knock you from your peace.
“Nothin’ too serious, she ain’t hurt,” Joel’s smooth tone settles you back down. “But do me a favor and get the horses back? Send Tommy my way in a while. I’m gonna take her home.”
Home. It sounds so nice. But you’re already there, you want to tell him. There’s nowhere you’d rather be than right here.
You must actually say it, because he chuckles. “Okay, sweetheart, but I can think of somewhere I’d rather be.”
It hurts a little before he leans in and murmurs in your ear.
“I’d rather be in a warm bath with ya. That sound better than stayin’ put?”
“Oh,” you say. “Yeah, you’re right. Way better idea.”
He makes good on his promise when you get home. While he draws the water, he peels your ruined clothes off and sits you on the bathroom counter to rinse the blood into the sink.
You sit very still with your eyes clenched shut as he cleans you.
“I know,” he murmurs. “First one’s the hardest.”
You can’t quite stopper the whimper.
“This is part of why I don’t like ya goin’ out there. I can’t protect you from this.” The admission costs him, but he seems to decide it’s worth it when you look up at him.
The tub isn’t really big enough for both of you, but he makes it work, long sprawling limbs propped up to make room for you against his chest. You lie on your side, both to make more room and to press your ear to his chest and listen to his strong, tender heart.
He holds you there, hand gentle on your head and the other around your shoulder until neither of you can pretend the water is comfortable still. More importantly, his cock’s been pressing against you for a little while now, and you’re unable to ignore it anymore.
You roll over on your stomach, legs bent a little funny to fit, but it’s the right angle to press a kiss to the fat mushroom head that you love so much.
“Sweetheart, you don’t need—”
But you just give him a look, because he knows better, he knows you’d never do anything you don’t want to. And he knows how often you crave it, how your throat aches for it.
He raises his hands in surrender. “I sure as hell ain’t gonna stop ya.”
With the convoluted seating arrangement, you’re able to swallow down his length, working your throat open in the way you’ve grown to know well. It’s a lot at once, but the way he groans is worth the effort.
You choke and gag a little, but neither of you are really bothered by it. Quite the opposite. And you’re grateful for the way the thoughts you don’t want to face are knocked from your brain each time he ruts deeper.
Too soon, though, he’s pulling you off, spit thick with precum stringing between him and your lips as you whine.
“C’mon, let’s get out. I gotta have more of you.”
You don’t dry off quite as much as you’d like, but you’re probably going to need to change the sheets anyway. He can’t be bothered to let you towel off properly, picking you up and setting you on the bed before crawling over your body.
He kisses you, ferocious but hesitant, and you trail your hands up his arms, basking in the way he encompasses you for the second time today. His soft, powerful body leaves no wiggle room, practically pinning you down with his bulk.
Except he’s holding himself up, tense. And the gentleness of his tongue and distinct lack of nipping teeth in his kiss is grating.
You turn your head to break apart. “Stop acting like I’m gonna fall apart.”
“I—”
“Oh, don’t even. It’s like you think I’m going to break if you touch me.”
“I didn’t want to make it feel like…”
“I know,” you say, softer. “But I want to feel you, Joel. I don’t want to feel the ghost of it… him. Please.”
“You wanna feel me, sweetheart? Want me to be a little rough with ya?”
“Unless you’re too tired. S’it past your bedtime, old man?”
He doesn’t fall for the taunt, but he pretends to, and you’re deeply grateful as he snarls and bites at your breast before licking and sucking at your nipple, taking it between his teeth and shaking a little.
“Oh, fuck,” you moan, hand tangling into his hair. He wears it a little shaggier these days, and you find you like it long. A lot.
“Think you can take it just like this?” he says around your other nipple. The hand that isn’t holding him up has reached down to his cock, rubbing it against your clit until you squirm, and then dragging it down your slit. “You’re fuckin’ soaked. I think you can take it.”
He doesn’t wait any longer than the first little nod of your head before he flicks his hips, parting you, forcing your body to make room for him. It takes a second thrust to push all the way in, and you cry out as he stuffs you full.
It hurts so good. It’s just the edge you need to feel awake again. The world is no less fuzzy but the haze is pleasurable and electric instead of the numb fog that refused to dissipate.
“That’s my girl,” he says.
It floods you with warmth. You think maybe the sappiness is leaking through, that he can see how stupidly in love you feel.
Or, you know, it’s actually leaking, since you’re apparently fucking crying. You can’t really begrudge yourself for it. It’s been a hell of a day.
“There you go,” he murmurs, the gentleness of his voice playing second to the harsh slap of his hips and the tight pinch of his fingers on your breasts. “Let it out, sweetheart. Let me help you.”
His pace, somehow, intensifies, the brutal snap of his cock blunt against the softest parts of you. He pushes your legs to your chest so he can shove his way in deeper, and smacks a harsh hand against your ass from his new vantage point.
He grips your hip with one hand and lets up on your tits, only to show no mercy to your clit. He skips over the gentle circles and soft strokes, instead pinching and tugging. He wrenches two orgasms from you before he eases off.
“Hold your pussy open for me,” he grunts.
You look at him with wide eyes. How can he still be finding ways to shock you with depravity? The two of you have to have fucked every which way, and yet. You slide a hand down but he shakes his head.
“Both of ‘em, baby. Nice and wide.”
Your cheeks are burning as he lifts up onto his knees, pushing your legs apart to watch as you spread your lips wide. For a moment, he’s mesmerized by the push and pull of his cock splitting you apart and the way it comes out a little slicker each time.
“Look at that,” he says, a smug smirk spreading. “Fuckin’ creamin’ all over me, sweetheart. Now hold still.”
Before you really process the order, still dying from how hot his filthy words are, he slaps your clit. You jerk and let go, crying out more in surprise than pain.
“Put your fuckin’ hands back,” he says, and you obey.
Your whole body is on fire, maybe. He brings his hand down sharply again and again, making you hold yourself spread wide for him to use as he pleases.
It doesn’t really surprise either of you when you come. He finally knocks your hands away from your cunt and leans back down over you, hips stammering sloppily.
“Can I—” he chokes out, and you’re nodding so hard it shakes your brain around. He digs his fingers into your hips. “C’mon, sweetheart, one more. Gimmie one more while I fill you up.”
He goes to reach for your clit, but it doesn’t matter. As soon as he starts twitching and pulsing inside you, you come, eyes rolling back and fingernails digging into his biceps.
When you’ve both settled, there’s something bright in his eyes, something wild and dangerous. He sinks his teeth into your collarbone and doesn’t pull out. His softening cock isn’t much smaller than it is erect, and he stays buried deep in you, eyes trailing over your face.
“What?” you say softly.
“I thought… thought I fuckin’ lost you today.” His voice is gruff but tight.
“You didn’t, Joel. M’right here.”
He kisses you, and it’s not gentle exactly, not like earlier, but it’s tender and demanding. His hands grip you and roam, not pursuing pleasure but just to have his fill of you, to feel your body warm and alive beneath him.
When he breaks away from your swollen lips, he presses a kiss to your forehead. “You did good. I don’t like it, but you did good. I’m not gonna ask you not to go out again, but—”
“I’m gonna ask Tommy if I can have a break,” you say, pursing your lips. “I’m not a coward, but I don’t know if I can do that again.” You’re burning again, but this time with shame.
“No one expects you to. It doesn’t mean you’re a coward. You’re tough, sweetheart. But y’ain’t a killer.”
“I am, though,” you whisper.
“Stop. Yes, you killed that man today. But you had to. It was him or you. You’re a survivor. But I’m going to make damn sure you don’t have to be anymore, alright? We’re safe here, now.”
You let out a ragged sigh and try to relax back into the pillow. “Okay,” you agree. You can tell he needs it. How scared he was.
At least for now, you’ll let him protect you from this.
*title from "Death For My Birthday" by Say Anything
#joel miller x reader#joel miller x you#joel miller x f!reader#jackson!joel#joel miller fic#the last of us fic#joel miller smut#the last of us smut#fic: you know you never stood a chance#fuck it we'll call this a surprise deleted scene lmao#febuwhump#febuwhump2024#febuwhumpday10
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haphazard assortment of thoughts on the unwanted guest:
firstly, it really does have to be said—crazy good, probably my favourite of all the tlt short pieces, and i say that as someone who lost my mind over as yet unsent for like a week. excellent conceit and excellent execution, just a really gorgeous piece of writing. the play format of course reminds me of what abigail says to harrow in htn—that the river bubble is a ‘play [she’s] directing’—the inside of one’s head as a stage in which other actors can intervene & whereby mileage can be gotten out of Symbolism as immediately “real,” tangible presences that the kind of realist baggage that a more quotidian prose form would usher in would probably falter in accomplishing. it’s a lot!! i think even if i wasn’t already a tazmuir writing style defender (contra the insistence that she’s yknow homestuck fanfiction serial numbers filed off hack) then this would have had me floored anyway.
the play format also works in the way that muir’s general dexterity in form and willingness to really make use of craft as a technical space where discourse can be generated always works—i’m talking about the ‘fanfictiony’ voice in gtn which manages to say something both about fanfiction and about the text itself, the use of the dramatis personae as a space where atmosphere can be established and plot points hinted towards (thus blurring the lines between what is and is not diegesis), the drastic shifts in style between different close thirds, the shifting from third- to second- to epistolary first-person, the use of poetry both diegetic and not (the noniad, the epigraph poems…), the mimicry of the ‘voice�� of the king james bible in the nona epilogue—she never stays in one place for too long and she never seems to stick to one central style or form, and it really works in her favour. insofar as tlt as a whole is a very ‘patchwork’ kind of work, building itself up from its big big index of references and intertexts and memes with hugely variant levels of ‘prestige’ or legitimacy attached to them, the ‘patchwork’ use of form really works in muir’s favour. however i am also fuming because i was right in the middle of writing a tlt fic which jumps into a play format two-thirds of the way through and now my idea doesn’t look ORIGINAL but ANYWAY—
& i really do need to flag my good friend vee’s mercy/augustine fic, which makes use of a similar conceit and pulls it off masterfully—i am deeply jealous of vee’s talent and i think the unwanted guest makes this piece (from 2021!) shine even more, if anything.
i am DYING to see where muir is going with the use of hamlet, of all things—dulcie quoting it to palamedes immediately catapulted my mind back to abigail’s reference to ‘that undiscovered country’ in htn. obviously muir likes to drop contemporary (or contemporarily canonical) references and turns of phrase all over the place, but the attention drawn to the quote as diegetically referential (“I like that. Is it from something?” / “Yes. It’s complicated.”) has me wondering about a) the survival of ‘pre-res’ literatures ~over the river and like WHY and b) what a thematic interlocking of tlt and hamlet can do, here…….real aveheads remember cytherea ophelia theory where i tried to use ophelia as a point of reference for teasing out some arguments about cytherea and death and aesthetics and white femininity and whatnot. all of which is to say i need to sit with this hamlet reading a lot more but i love it, i am so here for it.
of course ‘kissing or feeding, we can’t be sure’ calls to mind ‘how meat loves meat,’ alecto biting harrow’s mouth by way of a kiss…and the general thematic throughline of, you know, certain practices of love as practices of consumption, naberius later being figured as the ‘meat’ in question contains echoes of this eroticism which ofc guides the contours of the necromancer/cavalier dynamic, eroticism as a currency of power, we know all of this stuff because it’s all over the text but i am just thumbs-upping it from the sidelines
the coffins had me thinking of utena’s black rose arc, which is a fun link to make considering the equivalent moment in the main body of nona is also referencing utena, ie. with the ‘rules’ of the duel being that cam has to get the handkerchief out of ianthe’s pocket as kind of an equivalent to skewering the rose. i feel like the tlt/utena overlap is pretty self-explanatory but it’s just fun to see the fingerprints all over lol
i think a lot of this was treading old ground thematically (erotics of consumption, dog motifs, we’ve seen it already!) but i will say that i did Yell Out Loud over ‘who's she got dawdling behind her but that creature—tugging visibly at her leash like an overeager dog.’ reminded of the other memorable use of ‘leash’—’even the devil bent for god to put a leash around her neck’—and, of course, the endless parade of commonalities between gideon & alecto. anyway there’s not really anything in this line that we didn’t already know about gid as a character, thematically speaking, but i point it out because it inflicted +100 psychic damage when i read it. gideon as a ‘creature’ is particularly slimy, & sort of puts me in mind of ianthe's tendency to talk about what appears to us as 'butch masculinity' (as opposed to the more effete masculinity of augustine or even babs) with a notably derogatory slant (the 'hurtful threats of sexual violence' line comes to mind); i don't know that i have much to say about it here specifically but it's an interesting one that i think informs the kirianthe dynamic pretty heavily (especially when held up against, like, harrianthe ... ianthe has a kind of respect for whatever harrow's gay and stupid gender is Doing (at least insofar as she can mould it to her own desires; i'm thinking of the dios apate forcefemme scene lol) in ways that i don't think she has for kiriona? but this is v off-topic, lol).
i have never been especially taken by dulcie as a character but i think this may finally have forced me to fold and admit that she’s great. her haters!!! her agonies!!! camilla would have to cook!! the balance between levity and sincerity was really well-managed. & i love the double meaning of “unwanted guest” as both palamedes intruding on ianthe’s mind palace and naberius setting up shop inside of her.
i need a week to sit with where this idea of the consumed soul as being literally ‘digested’ such that it can begin to ‘inhabit,’ however immaterially, the host body, or like to alter the characteristics of the host body such that to carry out such a consumption is to kind of kill yourself as well, slots in with lolita theory. or like, i need alecto right now. i am however reminded of chew, a short story that muir wrote in 2013, which also plays with these ideas of sexual assault as a forcing of a part of yourself meaningfully ‘into’ another person, and cannibalism as the reenactment of such a process, figured in the story as kind of a reclamation or at least an assertion of permanence—“I was always going to be in the ground with him in me,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure, that’s all. I just wanted to make sure.”—which the unwanted guest seems to kind of, play with in reverse? i don’t know, but i’m interested—as ever—in where muir wants to take these ideas of rape and consumption and absorption that she’s got in her hands.
i keep returning to…i hesitate to say ‘parallels’ because i think that imposes a narrative onus that i’m not actually that convinced by, but these, like, commonalities between babs and gideon. gideon is played off against so many people (cristabel, loveday, alecto being the big ones) that it feels kind of inane to add another person to the pile, but like…they’re the two who get got in canaan house, they’re both ironically ‘false’ cavaliers and expressions of the ‘truest’ or most paradigmatic form that cavalierhood ‘can’/’should’ take, they both have unconventionally gendered names (‘babs’ is a shortened form of ‘barbara,’ it is a typically feminine name imo) and (by our standards) somewhat unconventional genders (gideon is butch, babs effete)—and of course the unwanted guest places a lot of emphasis on the coercive ‘making’ of cavalierhood (the reference to babs being ‘fixed’ were he to have a disability! ianthe’s glib ‘society really is to blame’ comment—ironic, obviously, but not wholly untrue) not dissimilar to the emphasis that gtn puts on cytherea moulding gideon into the state she comes to be in at the end. babs and gideon as the two possessed corpses in nona, obviously. two wildly diverse but ultimately converging trajectories! a dialectical tension between their fundamental ‘opposition’ (as by-the-book cavalier vs whatever gideon is doing) and their fundamental ‘sameness’ whereby the dialectic is resolved in their mutual deaths. also just, of course, continuing the throughline that muir has had going for a while now, of gender/gendering as a set of coercive enforcements loyal to a hegemonic structuring of the world.
that’s all i’ve got, i think. just. really good everyone say thank you tazmuir
#.txt#tlt#the unwanted guest spoilers#this was originally bullet points but tumblr's formatting is bad and i can't be bothered editing to improve the flow here. so.#rape cw
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Kinda jumping off a discussion I was having with @markantonys and @sixth-light the other day, I am really feeling excited about potentially bringing in most/all of the rest of our endgame love interests next season because I think they'll pretty much all benefit with the jump from book to screen.
(contains some book spoilers through Knife of Dreams)
I really enjoy a lot of the choices that the show has made so far, and I think they've done a lot of good set-up for the romances as well. To start with the characters who are locked in already, I really loved that Rand's three love interests all got to spend some extended time with (at least) one of his friends in season 2. Elayne being close with Egwene and Nynaeve is book canon, of course, but I like that the show essentially did that with Aviendha & Min too -- Perrin and Aviendha were so funny together, Mat and Min were also funny but had some great depth and angst. We got to see all three of them shine as individual characters before we got into any romance elements.
Especially with Min, I really loved the choice for them to take Min's self-reported past struggles with her ability and make it a current thing for her. It gives Min an active emotional storyline that is about herself and not centered around Rand, which is a big plus for me.
For next season, it's fairly well confirmed that we're getting Faile, and I think the show is set up to do really well with her:
a. the fact that we're not getting Perrin's internal narration will do so much to combat the 'constantly possessive and jealous' vibe that she often has in the books, because she frequently does not act on it but is just feeling something and if Perrin didn't basically have telepathy, no one would know.
b. Perrin's previous marriage provides a good reason for his relationship with Faile to be much more of a slow burn than it was in the books, and also provide background on why he'll be over-protective of her without falling into Jordan's "Women Are Precious Frail Flowers" trap (which Jordan did realize was a flaw in his writing -- we see him trying to interrogate it over the course of the series. But sometimes he would fall into the trap anyway).
c. And Faile and Perrin's relationship being more of a slow-burn would also make Berelain be a less ridiculous character (if they choose to still have her & her pursuit of Perrin). I'm also fond of the (from reddit!) speculation that maybe Berelain will be Graendal in disguise, which would have the potential of working really well to bring Graendal in sooner and give Perrin a proper Forsaken nemesis.
We are likely to get Gawyn, and if he's our main PoV for split in the White Tower, rather than it being Min (who is going to be in the Tanchico storyline with Mat, if that leak from a couple of weeks ago is true), then the audience will be more inclined towards being sympathetic towards him. We're also not likely to have the huge slow-down in pacing that happened in the second half of the book series, so it won't feel like Gawyn is just marching in place for forever. He's definitely one of the characters who suffers the most from how slowly the plot moves in The Slog.
Less likely but still very possible (especially if the leak about Mat is true) is that we may meet Tuon next season, and the show has done so much to make Mat & Tuon more plausible as a romance, even before we get into anything like character development.
Partly in the difference in Mat's background, in his relationship with his parents, and also in the way his dynamics with characters like Liandrin and Ishamael were played out.
Plus the set-up for what the show is doing with damane & sul'dam is promising in terms of Tuon because the show has established that the sul'dam are very weak channelers (as opposed to being learners), which means that Tuon actively beginning to channel wouldn't be plot-breaking in terms of her capabilities and would just affect her on a narrative level, which makes that feel like a much more likely path for them to choose to go with her and which opens up some avenues for some genuine character growth from her, which would be an exciting change from the books.
And, on a more subjective note, I feel like Jordan really fell down on the writing of Mat and Tuon, especially in CoT & KoD, so basically anyone else taking them over is probably going to be an improvement for me.
The show also really established a strong personality for Mat off the bat, which is something that Jordan was pretty inconsistent about. 'Mat' doesn't really gel as an individual character until the third book when he gets a PoV; and then he changes in several ways between the end of Winter's Heart and the start of Crossroads of Twilight (which is only a week later); I think that 'Crossroads' Mat could have been plausible (if depressing) as a character if Jordan had actually worked up to him over the course of CoT & KoD rather than him abruptly becoming this New Slavery-Neutral "both sides are valid" Mat in-between books (in WH he has an actual ethical & visceral objection to slavery, while in CoT & KoD, he only seems to object to the idea of being personally enslaved and views it neutrally if other people are enslaved). But I've talked about all that before, lol, so I will just say that it feels like the show already knows who they want Mat to be and has taken a pretty bold stand on the subject (re: being a Hero of the Horn), so I don't think we'll see them dumping his brains and empathy overboard between seasons.
So, yeah, I know s3 is still filming, but I am already anticipating it so much!
#wot#wheel of time#wot on prime#wot book spoilers#wot s3 speculation#wot s3 spoilers#wot s3 leaks#knife of dreams
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Hazbin Hotel roleswap au concept? maybe?
Got bored, started thinking about "What if Alastor found Vaggie instead of Charlie", snowballed a little from there.
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Edit: an expansion: How Deals Work
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What's swapped in this AU:
For now, only Alastor and Charlie.
Alastor remains largely unchanged. He's still the Radio Demon, the terrifying overlord with a meteoric rise to prominence after killing multiple century-old overlords and broadcasting their screams, then disappeared after a fight with the TV Demon, Vox.
But, now after seven years of. well. Radio silence (lol). His radio has begun broadcasting once more. And unexpectedly, what the voice on the radio speaks of is not the brutal murder of Overlords, but instead, a pet project of his. The Hazbin Hotel, an establishment accepting all, and under his protection, with its insane goal of redeeming sinners.
No one really knows what made the Radio Demon take on such an impossible, foolish task, thuogh speculation is abound. Vox, in particular, likes to ridicule Alastor on his shows to the point where it's a bit of a running gag for his viewers. No one knows anything, except that these days, the Radio Demon is often seen around a winged cat, and an odd, gray-skinned girl.
Charlie, on the other hand, is the Princess Of Hell. To the common sinner, not much is known about her. She's more of an abstract presence since her role has her with responsibilities that don't et her get out as much. What is known is that sometimes appears after an Extermination, you can catch a glimpse of the third-most powerful demon in Hell looking around the devastated circles, cataloging the destruction.
While it's unknown how much of Hell's ruling she actually does, most of the things she attaches her name to have to do with the Extermination, or more accurately, the aftermath. Ways for sinners to get back on their feet after the exterminators pop in and trash shit, for example. Most of the Overlords don't really like having to do this, but even the greatest detractor puts the programs in place with some level of competence, after how the last Overlord to disobey her rules was... Punished.
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So, why the change of heart? Why would Alastor suddenly decide to try to redeem sinners? In a word: Vaggie.
During that particular Extermination Day, Vaggie crawls in an alley, injured and in pain. Lute left her alive, but her eye will never grow back, and she left her torn-off wings to rot in a trashcan a few steps away. Leaning against a dumpster, she decides she needs to rest.
Normally, she'd be afraid of sinners finding her, but she knows from the few of her former colleagues that she's talked to that were trapped in Hell after the Extermination ended and had to be extracted, that Sinners actually have a bit of a grace period after an Extermination, where violence is at an all time low. (She doesn't know this, but this is actually a decree by the Princess of Hell).
As she begins to drift off, however, a shadow falls over her. In canon, this would be Charlie, deciding to help what she thinks is a demon lucky enough to escape the Extermination with only a missing eye for it.
Here, though, the responsibilities of the Princess keep Charlie in her office, working and unable to go see what's been happening with the devastation. Here, her eyes snap open as she senses the aura of an Overlord, and right before everything goes dark, she realizes with horror, that whoever this demon is, he knows she's an Exorcist.
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When she awakes, she's tied to a table, restrained by dark tentacles that radiate demonic power in a room lit by a single bulb. The demon from before walks in, introducing himself as Alastor, and he asks for her name.
Naturally, she ignores him, instead demanding to know what he wants. She considers threatening him that she could call Exorcists down to extract her, but she knows that she's considered a traitor, and it'd never work. For some reason, the demon acquesious, and he explains that he's curious what exactly managed to harm an Exorcist so badly.
As an Overlord, he's seen and even fought off Exorcists before, and he's seen what happens when a demon harms one. They get back up. Tear an limb off and they regenerate, punch a hole through their chest and they'll be down for a while, but it'll close and they'll keep going. Suffocate one and given time, they'll start to breathe again. Even the more thorough methods of disposal simply result in the Exorcist turning into golden light and reconstituting themself or flying back to Heaven.
So, four years into his "sabbatical", when he followed the scent of an unfamiliar type of blood to the sight of an Exorcist missing their wings and an eye, he was naturally very interested. Knowing what, exactly managed to permanently harm an Exorcist is invaluable knowledge for an Overlord, after all, even though he's on a sort of sabbatical.
He threatens torture if she doesn't tell him how to kill an angel, even proposing a Deal where he won't use the knowledge against her (as long as she doesn't attack him) if she tells him. It's his turn to be surprised, however, when she just laughs, rejecting his deal only to just tell him the answer: the only thing that can harm an angel permanently is angelic power. He couldn't kill her even if she wanted him to, and with the guilt she's feeling and the pain she's in, she actually kind of wants to die.
Alastor, after some prodding, gets her to spill her story, and sensing opportunity, offers another Deal; for her to work under him in exchange for his protection, or if not, she can just leave, and he'll let her go. Demons gain power from having Deals, after all, and having one with an Angel is far too tempting.
Vaggie, believing that this is the best option she has, and that she'd probably not have to do that much more than what she'd have to even if she struck out on her own, accepts the Deal.
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Two years later, the two have formed a sort of "friendship?"with each other. It helps that despite Alastor being Alastor, with all the cruelty that implies, since Alastor's basically decided to disappear from politics, he has no real need for any sort of "enforcer" role for Vaggie, and she's more of an assistant than anything. She's also friends with Husk, having bonded over the collective experience of Alastor having them in a Deal, though it is strained at times since Vaggie's Deal is so much more lenient while Alastor owns Husk's soul.
It also helps that Alastor did defend her during Extermination days whenever some Exorcists tried to attack them. He doesn't want to lose his Deal with an Angel, after all!
Eventually, the topic of what goes on in Heaven when they're not down in Hell exterminating demons comes up between Vaggie and Alastor. It's all well and good until Vaggie mentions a woman she knows, and how she talks about her beloved son, and Alastor freezes. That woman? It's his mother. After some talking, Alastor tells her that his only real regret to what he's done (being a serial killer) is that his mother would be heartbroken that he'd turned out like that.
The conversation eventually turns to if Alastor could do someting she'd be proud of now, and, well. He's in Hell, there's not much he can think of right now that'd have the large impact he would want it to have. And honestly, while it does eat at him, he's had decades to make his peace with the fact that his mother would be severely disappointed in him now.
But the idea of doing something that'd make his mother proud stays with him. And eventually, after a conversation with Vaggie he comes up with the idea of redeeming sinners.
And so, one year later, Alastor's radio comes back up, and sinners start hearing of the Hazbin Hotel.
#hazbin hotel#hazbin alastor#hazbin vaggie#alastor#vaggie#fanfiction#fanfic#fanfic concept#swap au#hazbin hotel fanfiction#hazbin hotel swap au#Alastor is probably ooc in this but I don't give a shit#and he's still aroace and not in a relationship with vaggie btw#I have nothing against shipping at all#infact i think its great i love shipping#but i think vaggastor isn't the ship I wanna go for for this#honestly probably still Chaggie for the Plot Points#paperbag34's hazbin hotel swap au
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omg hi bestie 🫶 could i maybe get some wesker x ftm trans reader (he/him pronouns + idc what u use to refer to his genitalia) !! sfw n nsfw are both okey, surprise me ^__^
i know what you are 🫵
SFW + NSFW RELATIONSHIP HEADCANONS FOR ALBERT WESKER W/ A TRANS MALE PARTNER
Themes: Wesker-level fluff and sexy smutty stuff
Warnings: Canon-typical violence, slight possessiveness, and he's kind of an asshole, but I think you already knew that
SFW Relationship Headcanons
- Wesker is a tsundere. There, I said it.
- He started a romantic relationship with you, which means that he saw something special in you. He won't tell you what it is.
- Before the relationship was established, he'd try and act like he had no interest in you. Negative interest, to be specific. Wouldn't even look you in the eye. Nobody was any the wiser.
- He was trying to convince himself that he'd never feel romantic feelings towards someone so much lesser than him. It probably also has to do with his repressed bisexuality.
- He'd never admit that, though. He has common sense, even if he is a total maniac.
- When or if you tell him you're transgender, he won't think much of it.
- He's a scientist and knows how biology works, so he won't ask the questions someone with less knowledge or from a time before modern medicine would.
- If you're shorter than him, he'll tease you about it relentlessly. He'll put things on high shelves where you can't reach just so you have to ask him for help.
- He's kind of protective of you. He won't say it out loud, but if another killer hurts you more than what The Entity demands, he'll take things into his own hands.
- Wesker loves putting his arm around your waist or shoulders when you're around others just to display that you're his.
- He may not say it out loud a lot, but he does love you. Just in his own way.
V CLICK READ MORE FOR NSFW HEADCANONS V
NSFW Relationship Headcanons
- Wesker isn't a particularly horny person, but if you brush up against him just right or make a move, he'll get a boner pretty quickly.
- As you'd expect, Wesker loves to be serviced, but he doesn't mind taking care of your needs once you're all squirmy and desperate.
- If you want him, you have to beg. Convince him that you need him inside you or his tongue on you.
- It inflates his ego and turns him on all the more.
- He loves using Uroboros to his advantage in the bedroom. He'll hold you against walls or pin your wrists down with his tentacles, or maybe even use them more proactively.
- Even if there's no bedroom nearby, he'll just fuck you wherever he sees fit. He doesn't care if anybody catches you two. It just adds to the thrill.
- He tries not to be a very vocal guy during sex, but if your tongue hits the right spot or you tell him how good he feels inside you, he might accidentally slip out a moan or groan.
- He loves cumming inside and watching his seed spill out, but he loves even more to finish in your mouth or on your face.
- He'll try and help you clean up afterwards if you two make a mess. He doesn't want you to think he just uses you for sex.
#dead by daylight x reader#dead by daylight imagines#resident evil x reader#resident evil imagines#the mastermind x reader#albert wesker x reader#fluff#smut#headcanons#trans reader#male reader#lgbt reader#ftm reader
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🌼Favorite Flowers🌼 (Bachelors' V.)
synopsis: Favorite flowers of all six Stardew bachelors! No farmer mentioned, headcanons. SFW.
w.c.: 1.2k words!
content warnings: None!
A.N.: shoutout to @jellyaris for inspo on the Shane section! Hope everyone enjoys these little snippety snippets...Suuure, some of these headcanons kind of diverge from canon (yeah, yeah. Alex is neutral to dandelions ingame. Sue me, LOL.) But who cares, it's Tumblr! Might make a bachelorettes' version too.
Alex
He's a simple man with simple tastes. DANDELIONS suit him well! He has fond memories of picking dandelions with his mother and blowing the seeds away, and even vaguely remembers how to make flower chains out of them. Of course, he could never get them as neat as hers, but Granny Evelyn still asks for his help when making crowns for the Flower Dance. Apart of him wonders why they have to use nicer-looking flowers for the formal crowns when dandelions work just fine. They're sturdy yet flexible- not nearly as fragile as the more 'beautiful' flowers, and as an athlete, he can admire that about them.
On a deeper level, there are many similarities to be found between Alex and his favorite flower. First impressions can be deceiving- just like most people think of dandelions as pests, Alex can come on a bit strong and even arrogant. But looking beneath the surface, they both share the same physical and mental will to push forward and survive in even the most difficult circumstances. They both go through drastic changes as well. Just as the bright and spiky bloom of a dandelion becomes softer and more delicate, Alex's spirit softens too. His own changes, though, won't float away on the wind anytime soon :P
Elliott
As obvious as it would be to say red roses, SNAPDRAGONS would be his favorites instead! As much as he is a romantic, he's just as much a daydreamer, and snapdragons would provide his imagination with ample opportunity to run wild, both with their fantastical name and lush, delicate appearance. They remind him of adventures in far-off lands, harkening reveries of ancient castles filled with wondrous secrets and the brave heroes set out to uncover them. He's a homebody at heart, but nothing is stopping him from holing up in his cabin and writing about any of it! (Or, well, fantasizing about writing about it, in most cases. <3)
But just as established, he's a romantic. Elliott is definitely well-versed in the language of flowers, and the meaning behind snapdragons in particular hardly eludes him. They symbolize grace, earnestness and strength under pressure, but are also known to represent something less than well-intentioned. Emulating the former qualities is something Elliott has done effortlessly, but in a way, the last one entices him the most. To create something beautiful, strong and mysterious; something that draws one in and sparks love and fear and longing for an endless more- isn't that what every writer wants? What every writer dreams of?
Harvey
A little like Elliott in this regard, Harvey is the sentimental type. FORGET-ME-NOTS hold a special place in his heart. It's a simple flower in appearance with an almost childlike name, but he likes them just the same. Maybe it's because of those traits that he does- they remind him of the carefree days he's missed out on, since moving to the valley. On top of his doctoral duties, he's a very lonely person overall. Forget-Me-Nots, with their hopeful pale blue, almost cheer him up to see on days where he feels less like a member of the community and more like a robot with a stethoscope and scrubs.
It's also their name that connects with him in a way...Forget-Me-Not. On top of the way they look, they cheer him up with that name. On the rare instance that the flower comes up in conversation, he jokes that the person who named it must've had terrible memory, as cheesy as it sounds. But all jokes aside, it's comforting to him that a flower otherwise unremarkable would have a name that insists to the listening ear that it shouldn't be forgotten. Almost inspiring, even. It makes him feel as if one day, he won't be another face-in-the-crowd. Somebody important, though to whom in particular...? Well, time will tell!
Sam
For Sam, it's DAISIES all the way! He constantly flip-flops between spring and summer as his favorite seasons, but daisies give him the best of both worlds. Seeing them dotting the fields in the warmer months always brings a smile to his face. Whether or not he's close with him, Sam definitely got Alex to teach him how to make flower chains one late spring...Of course, Alex may or may not have been mildly jealous of how easily Sam picked up on the skill, but when spending time together outside, Sam's restless hands sometimes find themselves picking daisies from the grass while Abigail and Sebastian chat and bicker and making the both of them bracelets!
When he still lived in the city with his mother, father and a much younger Vincent, he'd sometimes see them poking out of cracks in the sidewalk. While they weren't as common as dandelions, they still always caught his attention. While Jodi chatted aimlessly with her fellow PTA moms outside one of the countless Zuzu City JojaMarts, he'd busy himself, plucking daisies and dandelions from whatever nooks and crannies he could find and playing with them however he wanted. Back then, he didn't think much of it, but he looks at those times with almost a fond nostalgia. Things changed, but that doesn't mean it all has to be sad, right?
Sebastian
He doesn't think about this sort of thing very often, being the lovable terminally-online dork that he is. But if you ask, Sebastian's favorite flower would have to be BLACK TULIPS. It's not a very deep answer, really. Sure, tulips are more of a spring flower, but he finds the pitch purple color to be one of the more interesting colors that plants can have. They stick out among the cheerier colors that most other breeds of tulips display- the goths of their genus, if you will, and that's small part of why he likes them!
He entertained the idea of gardening, at one point, even prior to the farmer's arrival. Though he plans to move out eventually, he thought it would be a good way to get outside and get some exercise, though it wasn't ever really anything he thought to commit to. Though, he does chat with Evelyn on occasion- their shared affinity for tulips and his occasional fantasy of maintaining a small garden has ended up providing a lot more conversation than he's used to, or even expected! Even if most people see him as an asocial shut-in, it's comforting for him to recognize his softer side.
Shane
Look at him. All gruff and mean. His favorite flower is probably a thistle of some sort, or something poisonous. All things considered, his favorite flowers are FAIRY ROSES. Don't give him that look- it's just because Jas likes them so much! Seeing the way she lights up when she sees them is contagious for this gold-hearted curmudgeon. She'd spent two entire weeks planning out a one-woman recital for him and Marnie once, and when he handed her a little JojaMart bouquet of them afterwards...Well, the look on her face made the price tag worth it. Although, her excited squeal did leave his ears ringing for the rest of the evening.
The flowers are native to the valley, too...Sometimes, he feels as if he doesn't belong. Why would he? It's not as if he was born there or has any particularly close friends. If Pelican Town was a garden, he'd just be a weed. But Jas seems to have taken like a duck to water, although she's still shy as ever. Shane can be self-defeating and pessimistic at times, but he's not made of stone. He's grateful that she's in a place where she can flourish, just like the fairy roses she adores so much.
~FIN~
#stardew valley#stardew#stardew valley alex#alex stardew valley#stardew alex#stardew valley elliott#elliott stardew valley#stardew elliott#stardew valley harvey#harvey stardew valley#stardew harvey#stardew valley sam#sam stardew valley#stardew sam#stardew valley sebastian#sebastian stardew valley#stardew sebastian#stardew valley shane#shane stardew valley#stardew shane#stardew valley headcanons
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amfmn missa.. p please.. please mother … feed us
I'M BEING ENABLED PPOVERHEAT
He's an actual grim reaper. That's where he's disappeared to so often in canon, reaper duties. It's a very demanding job, you know.
Doesn't stop him from feeling terrible about being gone so often though. He misses his husband and kids and hates how often he's out of the loop :(
Fr though Phil and the kids make him so so happy after spending countless hours working such a sad job. It's also partially why he sings and makes art. That brand of fun is catharsis for the soul.
He has all his canon weapons but I ALSO gave him a reaper deathscythe. And boy is he gonna use it. Fucking AWOOGA MissaSinfonia when he's angry.
Btw as a reaper he can FEEL souls. He can see their power, their condition, feel the surface level emotions and personality of its owner. This will come in handy later in the fic. ;)
As per the post I made asking for Missa appreciation so I can characterize him properly: He's undyingly loyal, he fights hard and loves even harder, he's protective, silly, and goddamn can he flirt.
All his wet cat behavior is a result of getting too overwhelmed by The Horrors. He's seen A Lot as a reaper. But somehow Quesadilla Island and all its... Everything. Always manage to show him a new brand of What The Fuck he's never even imagined before. Hence all his screaming and weeping when he's caught up on what he's missed. Like how tf else is he supposed to react??
Somewhat attached to that, he and Phil rlly were a match made in Federation Heaven bc they both have issues with self-doubt despite being insanely skilled and sharp-witted. Missa is better abt it than Phil though. His only acts up when he messes up a lot or just. Doesn't have a clue how to handle a situation where it's dire that he does. It's more of an insecurity about being unprepared and failing his loved ones than it is a doubt he has skill. He KNOWS he does, he hates when it's not enough. That's how he differs from Phil, who thinks he has none at all.
Btw when you fuck with the people he's protective over, he gets PISSED. We're getting a LOT of pissed off Missa in AMFMN <3 Ofc there'll be a lot of reaper tears too, his husband is suffering and there's little he can do about it. :( But ohohoho when the sad turns into rage. BARK WOOF. Eventually he decides EK is catching these hands and scythe.
He also shakes hands with his husband on being a self-sacrificing little shit. And. Yeah this is gonna happen later in the fic. (He's not dying dw dw)
You have no idea how excited I am that I basically get to build his dynamics with Fit, Etoiles, and Bagi from scratch. I'm so hyped. People are welcome to reply with this with any crumbs we have of their dynamics in canon but afaik they've rarely interacted outside of very minor moments, so AMFMN will largely be a sandbox for me to establish what I THINK they'd be like. Which in my fic plan so far, is largely taking each character's personality and applying how I think they'd react to a situation, and how that would look when two of them are interacting in that situation. Ex: at one point Etoiles has to comfort Missa bc he's just having a ROUGH time with this saving Phil stuff. But Etoiles is NOT a comfort guy. So he does his Etoiles thing: hearing Missa out while also cracking his usual brand of jokes in an attempt to lighten the mood.
I also have a plot point planned with him and Bagi when shit is hitting the fan the hardest and OUUGHHH. That self-sacrificing shit am I right.
God I'm being so mean to him specifically in AMFMN though. Ender King is a sack of shit, he knows exactly who to harass most using Phil's body >:/
See in my AMFMN Fitza headcanons, I said they're each other's confidants. Which IS true. However, no one in the fic gets the honor of Phil FINALLY communicating with someone about his issues other than his husband. Missa is the person he caves and confesses things to. Missa gets the HC Deity lore and what's been happening to him lately. This is actually what Chapter 3 is :D
Also I am so sorry but I'm sliding a Missa Romantic Love Confession attempt into the fic and it gets interrupted by The Horrors. But yeah Missa is romantically in love with Phil, he just respects that Phil sees things platonically. He still wants to communicate his feelings though.
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For the Vee-Swap AU, how does the Vee polycule develop? The polyvee shippers (me) need to know!!
HEHE OK OK SO
putting it under cut bc it ended up longer than i anticipated LOL
as you already know, velvox is the established relationship in this au.
and as i believe i mentioned before, velvette and val are sinstagram mutuals, it's how val finds out about the hotel.
on val's part, falling for velvette isn't really a surprise to him - back when they just knew each other through social media, he already found her attractive, admired her work and they got along well, so all that turning into a full-on crush when he gets to know her better isn't very shocking.
his relationship with vox is where it gets interesting, because it starts out rocky. i mentioned before that vox can tell that val's putting on an act. but because vox obv can't relate to val's situation, val just sees it as vox pitying him and refuses his help. a turning point comes in ep 4 - in the swap au, it actually starts raining during loser baby, which results in val getting sick. vox helps him out and they have a tender moment, maybe a little heart-to-heart (its hard to just describe, i will make a comic/ficlet of it at one point so you'll see :3). their relationship starts getting better from that point on, and soon enough val finds himself falling for vox.
(it's funny, really - ep 4 in the swap au leads to the bettering of a grand total of 3 relationships: al & val's, vox & val's and indirectly al & vox's. load bearing episode LOL)
on vox and velvette's part, well. val is a douche at the start of the story, much like canon!angel, but vox and velvette can both tell that there's a heart of gold in there somewhere. vox because of the aformentioned seeing through val's facade, and velvette because she, in fact, wasn't mutuals with val's official account, but with his art account, where he keeps his identity hidden. he shows his softer side a lot more on there, and so that's mainly the side of him that velvette knew (so now imagine the whiplash when she actually meets him in person and he's an obnoxious jerk LOL)
(i dont know if valentino being an artist is actually canon - i read it on the fandom wiki and fandom wikis cant rly be trusted LOL but in any case if its not canon then its a neat hc that i incorporated into swap!val's character)
but anyway yeah, vox and velvette both start falling for val as he slowly becomes more true to himself and starts showing that soft side more. eventually the two of them talk about it um. somewhere around ep 6 i think? maybe? somewhere between eps 6 and 7? something like that. anyway. there we get some juicy conflict - they agree that theyre both in love with val and wanna give the whole polyamory thing a try if he's up for it, but while velvette wants to confess as soon as possible (she's scared that one of them might die in the battle), vox wants to wait until after the battle, because the stress levels are high in the hotel right now, and he doesn't want val to feel pressured.
during the last night before the battle, in a scene vaguely equivalent to more than anything (reprise), they make up, velvette admits that vox is right, and they decide to confess to val after the extermination.
and then yeah they do that (it's one of the 2 things that i'm sure i want to happen at the beginning of season 2), val is like "HELL YEAH I WANNA BE IN A POLYCULE WITH YOU GUYS" and they're a polycule and its awesome :3
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it’s been rumored that dick will appear in the next battinson movie (please matt reeves do it for the people 🛐) but i was wondering magic wand, full creative control ceded to you, what villain(s) would you want to see featured? i love what they did with the riddler in the first, managing to maintain a level of camp and absurdity while still positioning him as a dangerous and serious threat. same with the penguin and falcone. i’ve seen rumors that hush may be the central villain in the sequel? which would not be my first choice, but i’m also not mad at it
obviously (hopefully) if they’re doing dick they’ll include tony zucco but beyond him what would be your dream villain(s) appearance? (and who would you cast! if you have one in mind)
if i had full creative control via magic wand i think there’s only one right answer — an actual batman film where two face is the primary antagonist.
hush super sucks for a lot of reasons, not least because his whole shtick only works if a) tommy elliot is well established in canon prior to faking his death and b) bruce has the sufficient pool of allies to make the story beats work. the batman canon has neither. cringe. get him outta here.
unlike a lot of gotham rogues, harvey dent has a relationship with both batman and bruce wayne. he’s a literal symbol of what bruce is trying to achieve in costume. he represents how a lack of supportive infrastructure can harm anyone, even those trying to do good. his internal morality, his desperate desire for control when he lost everything by another’s actions, is a really really good foil to the batman mythos.
i also think he’d continue the riddlers ideology from the first film — here’s someone who does want to change things for the better, and loses literally everything by doing so. harvey in general is just a really interesting character who’s never gotten proper respect on screen, and i think that’s a shame!! he’s a really fascinating dude!! his relationship with bruce as a civilian might inspire bruce to develop his public persona. so many options!
in an ideal world, dick grayson would feature in the first half of the film, then two face in the second. you’d have to ignore long halloween + dark victory canon to make this work, but that’s fine. maybe harvey would be disfigured while in court with zucco — a fun connection to the acid that snapped the graysons lines. harvey also has an interesting history with robin, and this would be a great start to that too.
idk who id pick to cast — someone who could portray harveys trauma in a way that’s engaging rather than disrespectful. if colin farrell hadn’t already played the penguin id say he’d be a pretty good choice. michael b jordan or daniel kaluuya would also do a phenomenal job, and keep him around the same age as bruce. someone very charismatic and charming. as long as it isn’t jacob elordi or tom holland i think there’s a lot of potential
let bruce have tender moments with gothams district attorney and adopt an orphan!!! that’s all i want!!
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dont mind me im just gonna word dump why i personally tend to shy away from interpretations of benrey as socially inept or unexperienced and the truth is it all wraps back around to benreys existence making gordons life a nightmare.
i think a part of why gordon especially gets so worked up about ben, an extra level of salt in the wound, is that benrey is so well-liked and established among his peers, whereas gordon isnt. gordon is never believed and others tend to take benreys side [one bc they like fuckin w gordon but] bc benrey is already viewed as an upstanding employee by others in BM. tommys his friend. he was friends with other guards, even the cashier at his local gamestop. whether bubby/coomer/darnold knew him pre-canon or not, they seem to trust him off the bat based off of knowing people that already know and trust him. gordon doesnt have quite the same social trust or reputation that benrey has [or even the ability to create that rapport with others that benrey does seemingly so effortlessly]
all this to say that gordons feelings of inadequacy about his own shortcomings are reflected and exacerbated by benreys lack of them. gordons awkwardness and lack of filter in trying to make friends feels more shameful when benrey, someone he hates, blatantly disregards social conventions and get rewarded with friendship. and because from gordons perspective, everything benrey does is an intentional action to mess with him, he views benreys social success as a personal slight against him.
this can bleed into other subjects too-- gordons lack of a romantic life feels worse if benrey has substantive dating experience, his missteps and mistakes at work feel worse if benrey is frequently the employee of the month among the guards, his shitty bachelor pad he has to haul the takeout boxes out of for joshs weekend visit feels worse if benrey has his own clean and functional apartment, etc. all constant reminders to gordon how despite his efforts, he's "losing" to someone he hates and thinks doesnt deserve it
#love how much i made gordon seem like an incel there at the end lmao. hes too extroverted/headstrong/not-a-bigot to be an incel tho for sure#he just has 3476482746 insecurities and complex rituals. we've all been there#vox.txt#hlvrai#hlvrai gordon#gordon feetman#hlvrai benrey#benrey#long post
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Gale's Analysis: Frieza: Evolution of Pure Evil
To those who don’t know, Frieza is one of the most iconic villains in all of anime.
To give some brief background to the few that never heard of him.
Frieza is the Galactic tyrant, basically the emperor of Universe 7, and said to be the evilest villain in all of Dragonball canon.
Frieza is a cut above the rest in terms of villains. Mainly for 3 key reasons.
1. Frieza is naturally powerful, he was born with the power and in the Namek saga, has never trained a day in his life.
2. Frieza is established as successful. His frieza force are feared throughout the universe, even the galactic patrol doesn’t mess with him.
3. He is fully aware he is evil and LOVES EVERY second of it.
Most anime villains have some sort of backstory that made them evil, Frieza doesn’t. He was born powerful and believes EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE is beneath him.
In the show, people would be mortified at the thought of getting on his bad side. With the introduction of power levels in Dragonball, Frieza’s final form was so powerful, the system was basically thrown out immediately after his second transformation.
Frieza was established less of a character and more of a Force of Pure Evil.
At his introduction. Frieza was the antithesis of Goku.
Goku, born with a power level of 2, trained tirelessly and scraped by just to rise up and meet every challenge he faced.
Frieza, born with an ungodly amount of natural power that the only two beings his father told him to watch out for were Majin buu, a magical cosmic threat that killed the Kai’s (basically creator deities) and Beerus, the god of destruction.
Frieza knew he was hot s*** but he was also cautious, killing the saiyans after hearing about their legend of the Super saiyan, and super saiyan god. Resulting in him GENOCIDING most of them by blowing up their planet.
Frieza was never meant to be redeemable, he was the dark opposite of Goku. Which also made him an excellent foil and villain.
Frieza was so powerful, Goku needed to achieve a legend in order to fight him EVENLY!
Not surpass him, MATCH
Many Dragonball Z fans will forget that Frieza was still not at full power when fighting super saiyan Goku. It’s only when reaching 100% that the fight really begins.
But this is where the beauty of Frieza’s defeat comes in. Frieza never trained to utilize his power, so he never mastered his full power and as a result, his stamina drained quickly, allowing Goku to get ahead and frieza to resort to cheap tricks, which backfired. Frieza may have been gifted but his talent meant nothing as he didn’t work hard.
The decline and Fall of Frieza in this
Frieza eventually finds himself cut in half by his own attack on a dying world, begging for energy from his opponent. Goku, despite EVERYTHING, gives it to him. And Frieza then does what you would expect, tries to kill him only to be blasted back and left for dead.
Funny enough Frieza does survive, gets turned into a cyborg and goes to earth to get revenge.
Only for another golden warrior to appear and
And so ends the reign of Frieza, killed by the super saiyan legend he tried to prevent, sliced, diced and killed by a warrior he never knew of. And used as a stepping stone to show how powerful the NEW villains will be.
And overtime, frieza was only mentioned as a measuring stick, maybe some filler episodes or movies. But for DBZ. That was it.
“But Gale,” I hear you call. “How does this relate to your title “Evolution of Pure Evil”?”
Well my astute and very attractive Reader.
That’s where the sequel series Dragon Ball Super comes in.
During this new series, Frieza’s empire is in shambles with him gone, so Sorbet (the current head of the empire) decides to revive him. To establish order.
And sure enough, thanks to the dragon balls, Frieza is revived
In which he then kills a few guards and realizes he is rusty for being dead for so long.
Frieza is caught up with the situation and found out Goku killed Majin Buu and fought Beerus.
This is where Frieza makes a shocking declaration. He will train for 4 months and fight him.
Now this sounds ridiculous at first glance. Especially to those familar with the series. We know how powerful Goku is now. Frieza was basically as strong as Goten or Trunks (who were kids). Goku would one hit KO him. How could he close the gap in four months?
And this is where we remember, Frieza STARTED out with his current power. He never trained to attain it. He was always this freakishly powerful. Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, everyone had to train and fight impossible odds to reach his power. So now, Frieza was going to train with his potential.
And 4 months pass, Frieza shows up, and his power is massive.
Even Gohan, who despite not training was still the strongest on earth, nearly died facing Frieza in his restricted first form. (He killed piccolo who sacrificed himself to save him)
And when Goku and Vegeta arrived. Goku fought him evenly, until Frieza revealed his Evolution
A form he attained through training, choosing the color as a means of Mocking the super saiyan transformation that killed him in the past, and a way of showing everyone he was back on top.
And sure enough he was stronger than Goku, but there was a flaw, Frieza failed to realize he didn’t master the form, his stamina drained too quickly, something that Vegeta and Goku picked up on.
And the result was Frieza’s death once again.
Frieza learned the benefits of training, but he didn’t learn from his failures, something that Goku always did.
Though this isn’t the last time we see Frieza, he is called back. For Goku recruited him for the tournament of power. Where we learn Frieza learned Mental training in hell and learned to master control of his golden form
Frieza had learned another means of improvement, now being on par with Goku once again.
And in the tournament, Frieza faced many foes, defeating his universe 6 counterpart, and fighting with Goku to defeat the monsterous Jiren.
Frieza learned that the multiverse was more than he even knew.
In The movie, Dragonball Super: Broly. Frieza is looking for recruits as he realizes that no matter how strong he gets, Goku and Vegeta together can beat him. He needs an ally. Which is where we meet Broly.
And it should be noted that Frieza fought Broly for nearly an hour before Gogeta (fusion of Goku and Vegeta) appeared and put an end to broly’s rampage.
It was here that Frieza learned that there was more he needed to tip the balance back in his favor, if they have a way to fuse and become more powerful.
Now we arrive at the current time. In the manga, Frieza has returned. And he casually killed the villains of the saga with minimal effort, One of which had wished to be the STRONGEST in the universe.
And despite the best efforts of Vegeta and Goku (both of which had new forms/ techniques) couldn’t seem to put down. But Frieza did it with one hit.
Frieza tells the group he found a place where time flows differently (that’s right, he found a room of spirit and time) and stated he trained in that room for the equivalent of 10 YEARS.
Now if you do the math, Frieza after 4 months was able to catch up to Goku and Vegeta who were training with Whis. Imagine what 10 full years did to him?
And then, Frieza revealed his newest transformation
Black Frieza.
And after he transforms he does this
One shots BOTH his enemies.
Frieza was back.
And he learned from his mistakes. Frieza had become like Goku in a way. Training and achieving new power. A prodigy that learned to enjoy fighting.
Frieza had learned to evolve because of Goku, Goku had showed Frieza how working hard and pushing limits allowed him to achieve great power. Frieza was changed by Goku. But unlike Vegeta and piccolo.
This change was for the worse. Frieza fell hard and kept failing only to come back and show everyone why HE is the emperor of the universe, becoming arguably the most powerful villain in all of Dragonball once again.
Pure Evil is back on top. No complex motivations, no desires of changing the world. Just a very evil man with a ton of power and LEARNED from its mistakes.
In another anime, one punch man, there is a villain that wanted to be Absolute Evil.
Frieza, is that pure Absolute evil, and loving every second of it
#frieza#gale’s analysis#absolute evil#dragonball super#Dragonball z#Dragonball#dbz#dbs#golden frieza#black Frieza#evil at its most raw
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The absolute worst thing about Batman comics is that trying to just lay the groundwork instead of having a single good starting point, is kind of a nightmare. Like, I have to explain the mindset going into them! I have to explain that stuff doesn't always "count" as a canon! I have to explain the different continuities and constant retcons!
The thing about DC comics is that you can't approach it the way you would another source material, there is no one "true" source, there is no one "true" author of the characters, there is no one "true" canon. There is a central timeline, but it's constantly being rewritten both in-universe and out-of-universe. You have to jump into it accepting that there's no good starting point in terms of reading the story unfolding in sequence.
And you have to accept that, even googling "best Batman comics to start with" has a list of comics that kind of made me moan in horror, like noooooooo those comics will not hook you and so many of them are comics that are stand-alones because they're plays on the tropes and established status quo, like The Dark Knight Returns or A Serious House on Serious Earth won't really work unless you're already familiar with Batman stories and also they're absolutely not what fandom will be posting about. I mean, I'm not your mom, you can start there if you want, but I personally think they're pretty difficult places to start.
Instead, if you want to get into what the fandom is into (which may be very different than what think pieces write about), instead I think it helps to find someone who knows comics reasonably well, ask them some questions you have about the lay of the land (ie, "So how do these Robins all work? Why are there so many of them?" is a question I answered for a friend recently because I love to talk about this stuff, most comic fans do!) and then get yourself some recs once you have a general idea of who's who and why they're going around as the costume they're in.
(You can always ask me, too! I'm happy to nerd out about helping gain traction with a lot of these things! I may not be able to answer finely detailed questions yet, but I can give you a bird's eye view that'll get you on your feet, too.)
You'll also want to get an idea of what era you want to read in, because there's this thing called the "New 52" (or Nu52) and it's kind of a line in the sand, a "before" and "after" that's helpful to keep in mind whether or not something "happened" to the character. So, in 2011, after many many decades of convoluted comics history, DC decided that they wanted to completely reboot their entire universe so that new readers could jump on and not have to read a thousand backissues from the 70s and 80s or earlier. All existing books were cancelled and an all new lineup of 52 different comic series were announced--hence, Nu52. In theory, an idea with potential! The problem was that they gave too much free reign to the creators and not nearly enough collaboration, so nobody knew what was still part of a character’s backstory and nobody knew what anyone else was writing. And it cut out a lot of elements of the stories that people were really invested in, so despite the initial splash it made, sales slowly dropped and dropped because people just didn’t care.
So, what does DC do? Basically, since then they’ve had company-wide events that have been slowly chipping away at the divide between the “before” the Nu52 and the current storyline, that they’ve had multiverse-level events that have absorbed some of people’s favorite stuff back into the storyline, so some stuff now has happened again.
And that makes it extremely confusing to just pick up an issue of a comic and know whether something “counts” or not, so you kind of just have to roll with things and understand that there is no one “true” canon set of events, it’s constantly shifting, and you just gotta read for the things you enjoyed reading.
That’s kind of a high bar for entry and I hope this isn’t scaring you off, it’s genuinely an attempt to explain the lay of the land so you know what to expect when you pick something up and can enjoy it for what it is! Once you get a feel for the set-up, I think it’s really easy to just pick up any comic at any time and start reading!
I’m assuming there’s a fair amount of basic cultural osmosis for Batman, but if anyone needs a 101 course, let me know! In the meantime, this list of recommendations will assume that you’re familiar with things like, “Dick Grayson is the first Robin after his parents are murdered, but eventually Bruce fires him because Dick got shot by the Joker, then eventually he became Nightwing and now he and Bruce have a complicated but generally good relationship, nobody holds the family together like Dick Grayson does.” or “Jason Todd was the second Robin and he died, but then Superboy Prime punched reality so hard that Jason was jolted back to life (or at least that’s the version I go with, I don’t care for the one where Talia dug up his lifeless body) and he was real mad about it for awhile but he’s getting better” or “Tim Drake was the cutest super genius stalker who ever was and he’s got his issues but also I love him DC LET HIM KISS CONNER YOU COWARDS” or “Damian was raised by his mother in the League of Assassins and that fucked baby bird up pretty good until Dick took Damian under his wing to be the Robin to his Batman for awhile and showed him that Damian didn’t have to prove himself to be worthy of being loved, he was loved just because he was Damian, not because he was a Wayne or an al Ghul, and the others are coming around, but those two will always be the most special to each other”.
Some good places to start imo:
(Note: Pay attention to year numbers and authors, because many of these titles have earlier runs that are not the ones I’m recommending as good starting points!)
- Robin & Batman (2021) by Jeff Lemire, a three-issue mini series set during the early days of Dick’s training, when he and Bruce are still getting the hang of understanding each other, featuring some truly gut-wrenching emotional moments and absolutely stunning art.
- World’s Finest 2022-current by Mark Waid, an on-going series of Batman and Superman working together and being friends, the current volume is set during the young-ish days of Dick being Robin and it’s utter joy so far, so many good moments of Dick and Clark bonding by being the most annoying people Bruce has ever had to work with.
- Robins: Being Robin by Tim Seeley, a mini-series where the various Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, and Damian) are all working together on a case that’s tied up in the story of the role of Robin, featuring some top-tier sibling dynamics that had me howling with how much I love these idiots and a story I genuinely liked.
- Nightwing vol 4 2016-current, started by Tim Seely, currently by Tom Taylor, which skips over a lot of the timeline, but I think it’s a better starting place. Dick’s solo title is usually pretty entertaining for me (and I do like the previous volume, from 2011-2014, but I think the 2016 one is a better starting place) and is has some absolutely gorgeous art and a good amount of Dick working with other superheroes that are friends and/or family. The writing is fun, charismatic, and just a good ride. (The wiki has a list of trade paperback collections with their titles to read them in story chunks instead of flinging yourself at individual issues.) You can also start with “Leaping into the Light” if you want to read something more current and skip over some of the middle issues that are a bit of a slog. (The 50s to the 70s are not the greatest time on this run.)
- “Court of Owls” and “City of Owls” by Scott Snyder are from across various Bat-related titles (like Batman and Nightwing and Batgirl and such) and you can find the two collections/tpbs under the quoted titles. I’m currently reading this one so I can’t comment on the whole thing, but I’m enjoying the interaction between all the various Bat-family members immensely and it has a really strong story at the center of it, and it’s just a solid place to start for stories in this universe, rather than just characters.
- “Batman and the Night of the Monster Men” by various authors is another tpb with a self-contained story that’s kind of wild (comic book logic is basically “Wheeeeee!”) but had some excellent Batfamily interactions and some fun fights against giant monsters, and was an all-around self-contained good time.
- “Batman: Cold Days” by Tom King (from the Batman series) is probably a bit of a controversial rec, I know so many people who dislike King’s writing, but I had an amazing time with this book, because it’s the lead-up to Dick getting shot in the head, so there’s extra emphasis on his interactions with Bruce, to really rub salt in the wound of how necessary this kid is to Bruce’s life. Only background context you really need is: Bruce and his long-time love interest Selina were about to finally get married, but she stood him up at the altar for various reasons, and he’s in a dark place because of this. Dick comes along to annoy Bruce into a better mood, but one of Batman’s villains is trying to destabilize him so that he can take over Gotham and Nightwing is fucking up his plans by making Batman too stable, so he has KGBeast shoot Nightwing in the head (which will lead to Dick’s amnesia arc, which is not the greatest time for us readers), and the emotional stuff of it was great. Includes flashbacks to Dick’s early days in Wayne Manor that were really good for me. (I also enjoyed “Batman: The Rules of Engagement” by the same author, set just before Bruce and Selina’s marriage, it’s the run up to it, and it had a lot of great family interaction stuff, including Selina’s take on how she loves Bruce in a way that really sold it for me.)
And a final semi-rec: While the characterizations might differ a little and the dynamics aren’t a 1:1 match for the comics, the Young Justice animated series from 2010 was a lot of fun, included some great characters, had some genuinely good stories, and you can actually watch it in order!
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i dont know whether youve established this or not but for ur p!noah au, what does phobia factor look like? (if he makes it that far)
I've got a few ideas for how Noah (both in general and in this AU) would behave in the Phobia Factor episode!
My first idea, which works better for a more canon-adjacent Noah, is to have him either genuinely fall asleep at the campfire or feign falling asleep at the campfire- so he doesn't have to divulge his "greatest fear" in front of the others.
Because Noah's a very private person; both his fellow competitors and the audience at large know very little about him, and those who try to are often met with his sour, prickly exterior. Why on Earth would he ever willingly share his greatest fear on international TV with a bunch of people he doesn't even like?
(And, as we saw in the Awake-a-thon episode, pretending to pass out is something Noah would and does do to get out of uncomfortable situations.)
Of course, that scenario could be ruined by having one of the mlre confrontational characters (like Heather) shake him awake to hear his answer. But, ideally, it'd end up being more of a Courtney situation, where he never does give an answer, but Chris finds something in the shows footage that indicates Noah has a fear of [insert phobia here].
Then there's the second scenario, where Noah just straight up lies about what he's scared of (and I'm surprised no one else did this canonically). Again, why would he tell people what he's actually scared of? So he picks one of the most common phobias and runs with it- something innocuous, like a fear of the dark, or claustrophobia. Or maybe he decides to be a smartass and chooses some obscure or 'ridiculous' phobia instead, like ailurophobia/cynophpbia (fear of cats/dogs), on the off-chance that they'll have to face them as part of a challenge.
In the case of p!Noah, I think he'd do something similar to the second scenario, but claim his 'biggest fear' is hemophobia (fear of blood)- a bold claim for someone's who's decidedly Not Afraid Of Blood, in fact he's quite fond of it. Of course, no one else has any way of knowing this, so it's accepted as truth.
As a side note here, I kind of touched upon this before but p!Noah doesn't really experience fear like others do- that's why he's so amused by other's fear responses, since he lacks one of his own. It's also why he's such a thrill-seeker, he gets all of the adrenaline and none of the actual fear.
And then the Phobia Factor challenge happens. Noah's tasked with submerging himself in a pool of blood, similar to Beth's pool of worms, to earn his team a point.
Noah's fine with this. (More than fine, really. Red is a pretty colour.) But he can't let the others know that, or he'd be caught out in his lie. But he also doesn't want to lose this challenge. So he gingerly climbs into the pool, doing his best to fake fear and revulsion to... mixed results. He doesn't understand things like fear, panic and terror at a personal level, so for the most part he just looks like a soggy unamused cat. Despite how much he really wants to splash about, or get lost in the sauce.
(Maybe the more switched on of his team mates pick up on the maddened glee in his eyes as he floats in a pool of blood, or his almost carefully crafted stoicism- a far cry from everyone else's screams of terror.)
He wins a point for the team, and that's that.
Remember, Noah's strategy here is to be as unremarkable as possible; he wouldn't go out of his way to draw attention to himself. Especially not when Izzy’s still around to cause chaos for him.
...That doesn't mean he won't later make a confessional, still dripping in 'blood', where he complains to the audience that Chris used the 'fake shit' for his challenge for the budgets sake. Noah can tell! He knows the feeling of being covered in real blood.
#secret third option is having him sarcastically comment that eva gave him gynophobia#total drama#psycho!noah au#silly ideas#replies#tw blood
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TWITTER LURKERS DNI!!
Whew, It’s late as fuck and I’m tired as hell but I’m still gonna write this Jon and Damian shipping post because I’m tired of people not getting it like at all.
Firstly, I’m mentioning all of this as in before the age up because before the age up is where they had a dynamic. Right now, they are just friends who know each other.
Before the age up - Jon was established as ten in Super Sons and Damian was thirteen.
Let’s talk about that first; Jon was just created - Jon did not exist for that long since he was conceived in Thomas Wayne’s Batcave. He has barely any writing under his belt.
Their dynamic is not “Oh, Damian is the mature one who knows everything and Jon is stupid and is to be taught everything-“ No. Damian is NOT as mature as everyone makes him out to be and people only take his maturity away to make him an “Uwu adorkable cat boy-“ which is frankly annoying.
Any of these fan depictions are fine in purely fanon contexts where for fan reasons they want to mold the characters in different ways because that’s the fun of it but I’m talking entirely in a canon sense.
Anyway, Damian is someone who’s established himself as a hero, he’s come into himself and he has associates and a path he’s paving for himself. He’s supposedly to be someone that teaches Jon how to do that, he’s supposed to be someone that grows alongside Damian and with Damian and in turn Jon is supposed to be someone who teaches Damian how to be a kid.
Damian teaches Jon to be a hero - Jon teaches Damian how to be a kid.
Jon is not an idiot, he has the obvious limitations due to his age but besides that, he’s not the immature one, he’s not the sunshine one, he’s not the devoted one, he’s none of these things.
I’m so tired of these characters being watered down like this.
Jon is emotional, he’s headstrong, he’s articulate and has a level head.
If Damian is as mature as people make him out to be THEY WOULDN’T HAVE BUMPED HEADS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Jon and Damian didn’t meet and were like oh, friends at first glance. NO, THEY HATED EACH OTHER.
More so because Jon wanted to be Damian’s friend and Damian didn’t understand how friends were supposed to work till Jon coupled with the fact that they are both kids and extremely immature.
Adventures of Super Sons
Super Sons
I have never in any fandom seen people put so much emphasis on an age gap before this one. I’ve seen fandoms enjoy age gaps - if you read any sort of romantic material then you’d know that an age gap will supply a certain dynamic between two characters, it can be an extra set of maturity but that isn’t really the case here.
Their age gap is just barely big enough.
Their AGE GAP IS ENTIRELY NESSACERY to their relationship with each other. It doesn’t supply much besides an opening opportunity later in the comics to make Jon feel like he needs to chase after Damian when it comes to being a hero which we will never get to see.
Jon doesn’t have friends outside of Damian besides Kathy, no because he just was established as a character.
I would also like to add that Jon doesn’t have an established birthday, I still don’t recall that he does to this day. It could be a lot smaller than we think it is and it probably is. Although, I’ve seen people call two-year age gaps weird as well which I really don’t understand because I personally have never heard that in my entire life.
Rather or not an age gap is inappropriate really differs from person to person - if you ask one person what is wrong will differ entirely from what another person thinks. It will also span from culture to culture and region to region. It’s never really been a tangible thing - I mean, ask your parents it's likely they are much more than three or four years older than the other.
Anyway, whether or not someone is being taken advantage of in a romantic relationship doesn’t hinge entirely on the age gap between them anyway but that’s another conversation.
My next point is, that no one, I mean no one should critically consider these two characters engaging in a romantic relationship while they are young - with the way that they are I sincerely doubt that they would be able to hold a romantic relationship to the other.
They would have to find each other again when they are older, and that is what literally every shipper I’ve interacted with ever has told me.
Jon and Damian may get drawn in shippy art while they are young now but it’s entirely innocent (depending on what you think is innocent again) I do indeed indulge in reblogging this art because I think it’s cute personally and harmless but it’s just art. It’s also where their relationship peaked and where Jon was actually interesting so obviously people would rather draw that instead.
Shipping these two does not inherently mean that you don’t read comics and aging up characters is not inherently problematic - which I’ve heard as well…
If I didn’t read comics then how would I know that these characters have always been aged up repeatedly through depictions?
Dceased - which they share no age gap. Here they are the same age.
Wonder Woman - where they are in their 20s and up.
And Super Sons in the first place where they are literally in their 80s.
Or the movie where they’re the same age.
Mind you, Jon is sometimes written to be eleven when Damian is either thirteen or fourteen but double mind you, Damian and Jon have not known each other for a full 365 days before the age up. They are best friends but by default because neither of them has a lot of other friends.
We are not getting into how wonky ages are for Robins since Tim Drake and how writers sometimes refuse to allow characters to age…
Ugh, none of this even matters anyway because most people don’t and shouldn’t ship under the ideation that two characters should be canon anyway, I don’t personally because DC can’t even handle Damian and Jon being friends - their is no WAY they could handle a romantic relationship.
I get that we may have bad experiences with people who ship this ship like people who demonize Flatline and are idiots in general… like twitter damijon stans as well as antis are literally the most heinous people I’ve seen interact.
For example, RedeemedRobin is a psycho that doesn’t care about anyone or anything that isn’t Damijon…
But Damijon isn’t like comprised of adults who want to prey on young characters, no, I actually struggle to have a genuine conversation with someone who likes Damijon because they are mostly kids who don’t UNDERSTAND HOW THE SHIP WORKS and are super cringe which is literally the reason I’m making this post anyway. It’s so, so annoying not being able to have a genuine conversation about these characters with other shippers. I don’t know why people like to throw around ideas of how shipping spaces are WHEN THEY ARE NOT IN THOSE SPACES THEMSELVES?
Besides, comics are old and if you are an adult who enjoys damijon then it’s probably because you grew up with the characters if that’s not obvious enough I mean these comics are like almost seven years old?
Anyway, in conclusion, stop watering down these characters, stop demonizing the ship and shippers, and just stop being an idiot on the internet in general like it really shouldn’t be that hard to use your brain.
If you opened your brain half as much as you opened your mouth than we could both be much happier…
If you feel the same way as I do then please be mutuals with me, I need to free myself from this curse…
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Purely Platonic, Non-Contractually Obligated Sins
Chapter 1: A Fucking Day Off
Day 6 of Ace Alastor Week: International Asexuality Day (Free Space)
Word Count: 1,791 (and counting)
Chapters: 1/2 ( || Next -> )
Fandom: Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)
Rating: Mature
Archive Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Warnings: Religious Content, Angel Dust-Typical Sexual Content (Hazbin Hotel), (hence the rating), Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Relationships: Alastor & Angel Dust
Characters: Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Minor Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Mentioned Valentino (Hazbin Hotel), Mentioned Lucifer Magne | Morningstar
Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, Post-Season/Series 01, Fluff and Humor, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Humor, Attempt at Humor, Light Angst, Friendship, Platonic Relationships, Queerplatonic Relationships, Open to Interpretation, Established Relationship, Platonic Date, Platonic Romance, (I hope I’m using that tag right), Asexual Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Aromantic Asexual Alastor (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor Has a Heart (Hazbin Hotel), Sex Worker Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust Being Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Soft Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust Needs a Hug (Hazbin Hotel), (and Alastor is going to give him one), Banter, Dinner, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Series: Part 6 of Fanby’s Ace Alastor Week 2024
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Summary:
“Now what?” Angel asked. “You gonna actually take me out on a date?”
“That’s entirely up to you, my dear!” Alastor folded his hands behind his back, feeling quite pleased with himself. “I’m perfectly content knowing I’ve done my part to help the hotel’s one and only resident out of his contractually obligated path of sin for the night so that he can fail redemption of his own free will!”
*
Alastor thought Angel could use a day off, so he got him one! Of course, what Angel does with his time off is his to choose, but Alastor did offer him a date.
Better on AO3
Author’s Notes:
Originally this was day 4 – and still is on AO3 – but the OneWayStatic date prompt is turning out to be darker than previously expected, and I’d rather sandwich it between two fluff and humor fics than one fluff fic and one smut fic, so this one’s getting moved.
Also, I was hoping to finish the OneWayBroadcast today, but I don’t think that’s in the cards.
Alastor surveyed the lobby of the newly rebuilt Hazbin Hotel from the shadows. Husker was asleep at the bar – which, ordinarily, Alastor would attribute to laziness or alcoholism, but he supposed the reconstruction had taken a toll on them all – while Angel Dust was milling about, clearly restless.
Angel hadn’t bothered to wake Husk – which, in itself, was a sign of the spider’s distress – and was pacing, fidgeting, and constantly checking his hellphone device.
Well, this just won’t do! Alastor thought.
Alastor zipped through the shadows, rematerializing by Angel’s side. “Good evening!”
Angel cursed under his breath and almost dropped his hellphone. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get used to you doin’ that, ya know,” he said.
“Hardly anyone does!” Alastor said, cheerfully. He was particularly proud of his ability to strike fear into the hearts of men using nothing but low-level magic, timing, and his signature smile. “I even get Rosie from time to time!”
“You sound real proud of yourself, smiles,” Angel said, halfheartedly.
Alastor grinned. “And you sound absolutely miserable!”
Angel sighed. “That obvious, huh?”
“Afraid so, my dear.” Alastor leaned on his microphone – ah, it was good to have that back! “What’s got you so out of sorts?”
“What else?” Angel asked, rhetorically. “Work. My boss is the kinda freak that makes freaks like you look like upstanding citizens.”
“My fuckin’ skin itches,” Angel said, scratching as if saying the words out loud had pushed the itch to the forefront of his attention. “And it ain’t even withdrawals this time. I’m just… I’m not ok.”
“Ah.” Alastor wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to Angel’s honesty.
When Alastor first arrived at the hotel, he’d met an Angel Dust that buried his emotions under the mask of a performer putting on a show for anyone and everyone in sight, including himself. It was something the two of them had in common! But, as time went on, and they grew more comfortable in each others’ presence, they both began to lift their masks – Angel considerably more so than Alastor.
Angel’s newfound vulnerability was something that Alastor both envied and feared, although he would never say either out loud.
“Perhaps you should take the rest of the day off!” Alastor suggested.
Angel forced out a laugh. “No can do, smiles,” he said. “As much as I’d love a fuckin’ day off, Val’s got me booked for the night. Some bigshot who wants to” – Angel used his upper set of hands to create air quotes – “‘remain anonymous,’ but has no problem pickin’ me up at the hotel in front of Lucifer and everyone!”
“Haven’t talked to him personally, but he sounds like a pompous piece of shit,” Angel complained.
Alastor tilted his head at a forty-five degree angle, just barely covering his amusement. “Is that so?”
“Mhmm.” Angel pulled out his phone. “I’ve got receipts.”
Angel held the device up to Alastor’s face. Between the angle of the screen and the brightness, Alastor couldn’t really see what was on the damned thing, but he didn’t need to.
“Oh right,” Angel said, putting his phone away. “I forgot you’ve got the whole ‘deer in the headlights’ light sensitivity shit.”
That wasn’t exactly how Alastor would describe it – but he had developed some difficulty seeing under bright lighting since taking on this cursed, cervine form.
“Just take my word for it,” Angel insisted. “Guy talks like he thinks he’s better than everyone.”
“He’s supposed to show up here around seven – which is way too fuckin’ early by the way,” Angel said. “Johns never know what to do with me when they book me out for too long, and I wind up sittin’ around, twiddlin’ my dick because they can’t get it up again, but they can’t get a refund, neither.”
Alastor checked the time. 6:57 pm.
“I know next to nothin’ about him. No name, no pics,” Angel listed, counting them off on his fingers. “Just that he’ll be wearin’ red. I’m s’posed to recognize him from that and this dumb passcode he came up with…”
Alastor queued up an instrumental and sang a slightly modified version of the matching lyrics.
“Got a date with an Angel
Got to meet him at seven
Got a date with an Angel
And I'm on my way to Heaven”
Angel stared at him, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
“Tsk tsk,” Alastor tutted. “I know you’re a spider, but surely there are better ways to catch flies!”
Angel laughed – a real laugh this time. The honest, uncontrolled kind that left one’s sides aching and compelled everyone else in the room to laugh along.
“Alastor,” Angel said, once he caught his breath. “Ya gotta stop buyin’ my time.”
Alastor was grinning from ear to ear. “Well, if your poor excuse for an Overlord would give you a ‘fucking day off’ as you put it, I wouldn’t have to!”
It had admittedly become a bit of a habit. Not a bad habit, but a habit all the same.
Angel would start to become restless or overworked, causing Alastor to notice his distress and find some way or another to discreetly buy him some time off. Sometimes they spent the allotted time together, though more often than not, Alastor left Angel to do whatever he pleased with his newly found free time.
“How’d you even do it this time?” Angel asked. “Val had the whole conversation over Vitter and said the guy paid with Voxmo. I’ve never seen you on a hellphone or a computer or anything with internet access for that matter.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, my effeminate friend!” Alastor wrapped an arm around Angel and reeled him in closer. “I’ve had access to the ‘internet’ for as long as the Vees have been mooching off of my domain, rebranding radio waves as this so-called ‘wi-fi!’”
“Holy shit, I never thought of it like that,” Angel whispered.
“Wait a second…” The spider aimed an incredulous look at Alastor. “Are you tellin’ me you’ve been playin’ dumb about modern tech and culture this whole time?”
“Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag!” Alastor played the sound of a cat yowling – which caused Husk to flick his ear and stir in his sleep.
Angel Dust wiggled out of Alastor’s grip. “Can’t believe the Radio Demon has a secret Vitter account,” he said, shaking his head.
“Actually, I created that account specifically for this occasion,” Alastor corrected. “Just because I have internet access doesn’t mean I’m ‘chronically online,’ as the youth say.”
Angel smirked, as if a truly wicked idea had entered his mind. “Hey, Al,” he said with faux innocence. “Look up ‘Radio Demon rule 34.’”
“Angel Dust,” Alastor replied, voice dripping with saccharine sweetness. “In the kindest way possible, go touch grass.”
Angel laughed again. “Ok, so you know enough not to search rule 34 and to tell me to get a life/go fuck myself.”
“Precisely!”
“Alright, internet literacy test passed,” Angel said. “Now what?” he asked. “You gonna actually take me out on a date?”
“That’s entirely up to you, my dear!” Alastor folded his hands behind his back, feeling quite pleased with himself. “I’m perfectly content knowing I’ve done my part to help the hotel’s one and only resident out of his contractually obligated path of sin for the night so that he can fail redemption of his own free will!”
“Wow, thanks, asshole.” Angel rolled his eyes and flipped Alastor off with three different hands. “Finally startin’ to see the nun parallels now, Sister Alastor. The holier-than-thou attitude and constant guilt take me right back to my days as a Catholic schoolboy.”
“You should keep a ruler on ya,” Angel added. “Just in case I start writin’ with my left hands.”
Without thinking, Alastor rubbed his thumb over the knuckles of his own left hand – which was thankfully still behind his back, and therefore hidden from view.
“Hm.” Alastor pretended to consider Angel’s sardonic suggestion. “No, I think you might enjoy corporal punishment a bit too much for it to have anything but the opposite effect.”
Angel shrugged. “You’re not wrong,” he said. “But, now that I know you’re in it to watch me struggle or whatever-”
“Technically,” Alastor interjected. “That was my reason for involving myself with this hotel and the nonsensical notion of ‘redemption’ to begin with.”
“Yeah, yeah, reality is the best entertainment and you get your kicks outta watchin’ us lesser demons struggle.” Angel Dust waved his upper hands dismissively and folded his lower arms against his chest. “But I’m a petty bitch.”
“And you tipped your hand.” Angel took one index finger and pointed it directly at Alastor’s chest – sufficiently accusatory, without physically touching him. “So I’ve decided I’m your problem for tonight.”
“Fair enough,” Alastor said. “I suppose I’ll make good on my offer for a date.”
“It don’t gotta be nothin’ fancy,” Angel said with a shrug. “We can just hang out at the hotel and order MacMammon’s or somethin’.”
A record scratch played in response to the word, ‘MacMammon’s.’
Alastor cleared his throat. “Regardless of the circumstances, I will not be eating or serving any ‘fast-food.’”
Alastor said the term, ‘fast-food,’ like it was a curse. Because as far as he was concerned it was one.
Angel snorted. “The cannibal is a foodie,” he said. “Figures.”
“I have standards!” Alastor said. “And if I expect my date to raise his above Lucifer’s kneecaps, if only for tonight.”
Alastor queued up some lively background music. “The night is young!” he said, taking Angel by the hand. “Come with me and I’ll cook you some real food!”
“Hold it, smiles.” Angel dug his heels into the carpet, refusing to move an inch. Alastor could have pulled him along using Eldritch-enhanced strength, but…
“Time out,” Angel said, sounding a bit hesitant. “I just wanna clarify some shit before this goes any further.”
Alastor waited patiently as Angel collected his thoughts.
“This is still, uh… platonic, right?” Angel asked. “Just two friends sharin’ a meal? No happy endings or nothin’?”
“Completely platonic,” Alastor confirmed. “No strings attached. I may have purchased your time for the evening, but adding a sexual element to our relationship is decidedly not something I’m interested in.”
Angel breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God.”
“What’s He got to do with it?” Alastor asked, prompting another wave of giggles from Angel Dust.
“Thank you, Alastor,” Angel said, instead.
“Well, now you’re just feeding my god complex!” Alastor said, accompanied by his own laugh track. “And Heaven knows Gluttony is my sin!”
“Pride, too,” Angel noted.
“Yes, Pride, too,” Alastor agreed.
The two friends walked arm and arm out of the lobby, headed towards Alastor’s room for a night of purely platonic, non-contractually obligated sins.
#acealastorweek2024#fanby’s fuckery#fanby’s fics#hazbin hotel#alastor#angel dust#radiodust#platonic!radiodust#aroace alastor#asexual alastor#aromantic alastor#suggestive
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Serious talk about meta under the cut.
I don't know who might need to hear it, but fwiw mental flexibility is a huge part of analysis (and interacting with other humans lol). You need to be able to account for multiple possibilities when examining a work, or understanding a social exchange. You need to be able to separate what is objective fact from your own subjective interpretation and judgment. The most negative interpretation is not automatically the most worthwhile or true. Someone throwing accusations around in-line with their own worst interpretations does not guarantee those accusations are warranted. You are not a bad or stupid person for disagreeing. Shit needs to withstand scrutiny.
I don't always strike the right balance myself. I do the best I can but I'm definitely not perfect. Tbh I'm not beyond pettiness either--although I try to keep that out of actual analysis lol. There have been times I've griped to friends privately or blogged about how I felt (sans tags, with spoiler blocks so people can opt out). I've griped recently. I'm bound to gripe again in the future. Some level of griping is inevitable imo and I figure no one is 100% immune.
All that said, even if someone’s take isn't canon AND even if it's something I really dislike--I'd personally rather people follow their passions anyway. Hands down. I could be in the middle of a rant and my answer would still be that the subject of my frustration gets to exist. I'm not the boss and odds are we're going with different versions in our own heads. Discouraging another fan from creating due to my preferences or narrative approach would horrify me. I've seen fandoms where gatekeeping like that killed the creative community and it was fucking awful.
Not everyone is confident in their own judgment. Not everyone faced with a pissed off person trying to use lore and accusations like clubs will feel okay continuing with their own vision. Elitism and manipulation (especially through rhetoric) can be present within analysis. People are not being taught how to recognize those things properly. Analysts aren't always aware or invested enough to even be careful. It’s legit easy to get caught up in ideas or feelings to the point of forgetting about other people’s, and adjusting to account for alternate approaches takes some work. For me at least, I think having a 'no insults' policy and being super careful when it comes to absolute claims (assertions not qualified by 'I think' or 'it could be argued') helps.
Anyway. Just because a person calls something ‘meaningless’ doesn't make it meaningless. Someone pooh-poohing an observation you made doesn't make your observation less true or important. Employing a literary term doesn't mean that individual actually understands the term, how it works, or how to apply it. Which is to say nothing of romantic chemistry or whatever.
I encourage readers to extrapolate on this. ‘Shallow’ could apply as much as ‘meaningless’. Denying parallels exist by itself doesn’t actually negate those parallels. Your version of a character may not be the same as the fan next to you’s and that difference doesn't have to detract. There's more I could say on the subject (I've edited out a lot) but basically--just because another fan isn't into what you're doing doesn't automatically make what you're doing wrong, immoral, shoddy, or otherwise less.
Seriously, vet shit. Question the entire premise an analyst tries to establish then decide for yourself if it holds water. Turn over word choices and assertions in your head before deciding if they're appropriate. Do it to me too. I don't care if someone is the holy goddamn emperor of analysts. Just because a person says something is good or bad, true or false, whatever the hell doesn't make it so. Just because a person uses a technical term doesn't mean they're discussing it effectively. Quality of argument matters beyond the packaging it’s wrapped in. It's important to protect yourself from people whose priority is enforcing their own preferences, including dismissing things they aren't partial to.
I just don't want anyone shamed silent man. Not even people whose takes drive me up the fucking wall. Neither I nor any other analyst is an authority here. And there are people who are absolutely ready to take advantage of other people’s insecurities to assert themselves. Might not even be malicious, just indifferent.
For me, analysis feels kind of like uncovering a dinosaur skeleton. I want to share the cool and exciting things I find with other people. Sometimes I might be sorting out what my own thoughts and feelings are. It's also possible to examine why you're uncomfortable with something, or why you love something another person hates, while making very clear what is YOUR READING and not THE READING. Offering a variety of possibilities is very different from presenting yourself as the only correct one. One note at the end when everything else was insulting and intolerant is like a band-aid over a wound.
EDIT: As a last point, that I'm throwing in just-in-case. If anyone reading this thinks they may have overreached and done stuff I've mentioned + feels shitty about it… that's still not the end of the world. It’s okay. This is hard stuff to learn and I really don't think anyone's perfect at it. Worth the effort though. Just gotta take a deep breath, acknowledge you're a fallible human same as everyone else, and do the best you can going forward. Life goes on.
#saw one that horrified me a bit recently#involved a combination of overreaching + insults + purity culture#I can totally imagine buying in and being seriously fucked up by it when I was younger#I don’t want that happening to anyone else#it's okay to talk about NOTPs man but there are more and less responsible ways to do that
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