#she's still complying with the narrative
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The fanatic-crazy-eyed-Catholic-mother strikes again, wuhuuu! I knew that she couldn't contain herself much longer!
So... here in Italy there's this fucking military asshole who wrote a book. This book contains things that would make the Republicans smile like proud fathers. And obviously, all the news outlets just NEED to invite this piece of shit to "debate" his fascist opinions on every television channel ever. I fucking hate the word debate nowadays omg, forget the Greek philosophers, those debates don't even exist anymore, they're just the perfect excuse to let fascists speak their mind freely and hate minorities publicly.
Now, what happened today? So we have both our Literature/history teacher (let's call him MVP because he's great) and the Fanatic in our classroom. And MVP makes a comment about how he can't stand this dude and how ridiculous it is that our media has made him famous and now he's trying to get into politics (I fucking hate it here, our piliticians are getting too many inspirations from the USA and I reallydon't like it)
And this woman... THIS GODFREARING CREATURE starts saying how "something in his liglfe must have led him to his conclusions and ideals" and "maybe he is voicing what Italians think" and then... the anecdote. She tells us how her son had reacted to seeing so many foreigners when they were on holiday on a famous ITALIAN location. And her logic conclusion was that "for having such a reaction he must be tired of the forced incusivity and kids must feel affected by this" or some shit instead of worrying about our politic landscape nowadays.
So now both me, ALL my classmates, and the MVP are looking at her like the freak that she is and each other trying to suppress either laughter or homicidal intents. I'm done with the load of bullishit she's spewing, and I say
"Well, no, I don't think that's the problem... the priest who married my parents was black, I've played for years with my mother's best friends sons who are Japanese, I literally learnt what racism was when im elementary school they thought me about ANTIRACISM and geography. So, no, kids don't just inherently hate foreigners if they aren't taught to in the first place. Also, no. This is not some kind of vox populi, and it's worrying that he felt so comfortable writing this kind of book"
Listen, I probably wouldn't win a Twitter argument with this, but that's what I felt I needed to say. And she doesn't even care, it doesn't affect her, she ignores what I said and keeps talking about how her viesw might be interpreted as "bigoted racist or homophobic BUT..."
It's not even about age, I WILL NOT FREAKING EXCUSE HER. She's not even 50 probably, and the MVP is almost 60+ but is one of the smartest, open minded people I've ever met in my entire life and a far better parent than her. Fuck it those children of hers are either going to become bigoted assholes or will end up developing religious trauma.
She's failed (at least me) as a teacher.
#art school#steel rambles#it's the second time I call her out#I'm tired#like why can't people just don't be assholes?#I'm the queer person who's afraid of being beaten when I'm jot at school for dressing alternative or holding hands with the “wrong” gender#not her#it doesn't affect her marriege her class her status her profession her children or anything else in her life#nor anyone else's life#the words in that book affect immigrants people like me women etc#and even if she's not openly posting about it on social media#she's still complying with the narrative#she's still being someone who's not “safe” at our school#and I'm tired of this#I'm angry but I'm tired
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PLEASE PLEASE MEGADUMP THE ARASOL!!! PLEAAASEE MR BEESCAKE I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGING YOU
HFHGHD GLADLY aaa i’ve been adding notes to it here and there for months but just hesitant to post it bcs im 🧍♂️🧍♂️🧍♂️🧍♂
also this is just my own takeaway of the events, it doesn’t necessarily comply to the Ultimate Truth of Canon-Alignment or represent the actual facts of what hussie intended! v sentimental smh but hopefully its still interesting to read
i love when characters inform each other by proximity, it's one of my fave things to see in media :') it feels even more significant when two characters deliberately choose to stick together, so that when one operates, you can tell the other is similarly aligned in associative solidarity.
sollux is a keystone of this trope — whoever he aligns with is a wordless statement, a nod of approval. this stood out to me bcs the main four humans were alr friends by default, but once you reach hivebent you realize the trolls can actively choose who they want to hang out with.
and as we all know, after assessing every troll's biases/loyalties, sollux is the only one who maintains his selective preference for innately Good 👍 people.
aradia is such a beautiful character honestly, she evokes such incredible feelings in me. she might not have been consistently written with care but the best parts of her character are truly stunning. i think it's easy to remember sollux as the self-sacrificing one bc he's so open about it (and his friends frequently react to his Moments) but when you compare him to aradia, it's always struck me
how much more. raw it is
to be so alone as an agent of time, having to orchestrate immeasurably harrowing events nobody understands or gives a fuck about
with your role painted in the story as one who must tend to the needs of the narrative, responsible to match every next note
because when you're given the capabilities, it becomes your duty to carry it out.
it becomes expected of you to keep experimenting and arranging the machinations to work for everyone, dusting off hundreds of necessary failures to keep going
and having to be so unwavering in your drive knowing miserably that there's no one who can help you but yourself.
or alternatively: to make things fun! so other people won't think twice about letting you go off on your own.
sure she's had some very good buds, notably thanks to Team Charge v Team Scourge antics.
and yet, at the end of the day, the one friend that kept choosing her time and time again was the friend with the highest standards.
i can see why people like to define arasol as moirails/matesprits but surprisingly i find the nondescript, unlabeled aspect of their relationship more straightforward to understand.
there's no shortage of people who would accommodate sollux. most of the surviving trolls are his oldest friends bcs he’d chosen them well. his transparency with his feelings had built him strong friendships that won’t falter or break, regardless of how much of a dick he can be. they’ve already seen and accepted him at his worst, and they still like him for who he is.
contrast that with aradia, who'd been so approachable, friendly and reliable in her exchanges it was super fun to talk to her. but the moment she became depressed, all her connections broke down.
her friends became hesitant to interact with her (until she became god tier, “happy” and amicable again) because her gloom and resignation didn’t serve them. she dealt with it alone.
there’s def something of note here abt the disparity between the way male & female characters are written+perceived in homestuck (esp parallel arasol with davejade) but i won’t go into that lmaoo
with this in mind i like to think of sollux as a gift to her, a loyal companion given to complement and commend her resolve. she's capable of doing so much alone but hussie took the time to build her and sollux's relationship as one of a unit; a set.
the ambiguity of their status does complicate things, but i do believe it makes sense with their characters. aradia's relationship with romance is a rocky one, the dubious stringalong equius had with her is a pointed reminder that her feelings of attraction are ultimately controlled by the author writing her.
unlike the other trolls who can openly address and own up to their crushes, aradia had romantic emotions forced upon her (especially when hussie implies 'she kissed equius back on her own volition'). and it seems like her character is so intrinsically neutral abt attraction that even when forced by the almighty powers above, she's unable to retain it wholly.
however, looking back to pre-game when she could actually "choose" her own feelings, she did have a crush on sollux.
their soft spots for each other were so obvious to the point where other people could see it.
taunting aside, when vriska comments on their unit as bf/gf it actually informs the audience that arasol's relationship is romantic in nature despite not aligning with the quadrant system.
even while dead, aradia could still describe her care for sollux, expressing that she would like to see him happy. if they had more time to explore their relationship on alternia, it's possible they could've settled in a quadrant once they grew older.
but going back to the lack of labels, their dynamic was affected once more when aradia became god tier.
to me, her ascension was both the perfect culmination and possible closure of her character. it's the light at the end of her journey toiling through countless of timelines where she had to actively assess and participate. that's why it's cool to see her being silly and having fun giving guidance, passively exploring and watching other people do their parts.
and yet the joy of her freedom makes it hard to explore further introspection. if we take her by her word, she'd already come to terms with the hurt she's been through and forgiven those involved.
i can't help feeling attuned to how impersonal and detached it can be, to devote and meld your identity so completely with your designated position as Maid of Time until you've become hard for your old friends (and even some readers!) to personally connect to.
idk post-canon but i assume there’s some degree of similarity to be bridged here with aradia's god tier and how the hs2 humans' Ultimate forms was described as a consolidation of all their possibilities. since aradia's classpect is inherently of service to Time, going god-tier may have elevated her beyond personhood with the "game construct" possessing her entirely. sollux doesn't realize the extent of it bcs he's still mortal, but a part of him may have subconsciously understood this.
i think there is a core aspect to aradia that was lost to the dehumanizing glory of god tier — a core aspect that may have contained an element of why sollux enjoyed talking to her in the first place.
to him, aradia hadn't just been a nice girl, she was a cool girl. despite not having much in common, he's still willing to chill next to her so she's not alone while she does what needs to get done.
back on alternia, they held a mutual and equal-level regard for each other that could've definitely settled into something permanent. but now, he's placed himself in a position where he can be kept around or left behind at will. the parameters of the relationship are largely in aradia's court, so any label she suggests to identify their relationship with he's likely to accept.
but that's why it's so difficult to label it. because god tier aradia may not necessarily Want quadrants or relationship labels. rather than the initial romantic attachment, their commitment to each other had evolved into one fundamentally of companionship.
no label? ok fine. no matter what, he still thinks she's a good soul worth latching on to. the best, actually. aradia > everyone else.
even if it gets stilted at times. there's an unexpected struggle to connect when sollux's go-to default for talking points is his feelings about things, and aradia may not want to talk about emotions all the time.
not to mention god tier aradia became an observer, especially of chaos. but sollux's avoidance of involvement comes partially from his innate pressure to get involved if something goes wrong. and he can't always tell when something goes wrong, because aradia doesn't mind if things go wrong anymore.
it's a non-negotiable preference that causes them to take the occasional time apart, a new boundary that wouldn't have existed before the game and aradia's god tier.
but just like how his friends tolerated his moods, sollux accepts aradia as she is. with no quadrants, their connection doesn't break down because there's no implicit romantic expectations to be disappointed by or resentful over.
sometimes when i see hs content that deliberately distances sollux from aradia, i assume this is the dissonance people might have felt. people might find it "easier" to be cynical about them bcs of this strange tension.
but idc lmao. grab that shit by the neck
lack of easy resolutions and cleanly tied ribbons is pretty standard of homestuck and imo it doesn't make arasol's dynamic any less incredible. with the right affection and consideration, there's still so much potential to develop the nuance of their relationship outside of the popular quadrant-based depictions.
hs has a lot of really great character compatibilities but the way aradia and sollux are in their own special orbit is why i can write this much about them in the first place. it's that frail innocence between first loves that makes it so sweet to me, two kids who grew up too fast playing guesswork without being clear where they're going.
ultimately i do think you're meant to feel a little tragedy for just how much they care for each other, even if they can't quite establish it in simple terms.
maybe they keep taking breaks to progress their own paths. maybe they remain as anchor partners while seeing other people. but even if you decide to separate them, they're still (awkwardly) texting each other updates all the while. and when they reunite it feels like coming home.
and well. more than anything, i like to believe that they do want to be exclusive.
they're just afraid. after all, they're still learning how to love, beyond the projections of the foursquare quadrant system they had inadvertently distanced themselves from since young.
they might not have everything figured out, but they'll get there eventually if you just hold them together and write them there.
optional post-canon segment:
one of the limitations of main hs is that (monogamous) relationships are often written as the go-to solution to wrap up character growth; it's an easy "patch" to imagine characters getting their happy ending because they have a partner, and those who don't end up with someone don't get that closure (most notably jade).
hs2 reaffirms this by suggesting that aradia's character cannot progress without letting sollux go, because happily settling in a relationship automatically locks your potential.
that pathetic panel of sollux staring emptily into the sky is still my fave hs2 spoiler ngl i find the impact of their parting so emotionally provoking precisely bcs they were written in original hs to be each other's forever, coming back together again and again
but now, they're subject to the decisions of the post-canon authors who might choose to deviate from that.
it's not new for them to part, but now there's an underlying worry that her dropping him off this time might be the last time. while i think the prospect of shattering their stability to make them grow separately sounds fun on paper, no amount of me desperately hoping for a good execution is gonna guarantee it
idk. i guess prediction-wise im expecting sollux in classic dramatic-hs2 fashion to tell dave to back off aradia LMAO. otherwise it's just gon be sollux and karkat pathetically watching aradia and dave from a distance swimming in their unresolved feelings for narratively-powerful time players smh obvs it sounds corny as hell but who knows its still plausible
srsly tho i hope they take the opportunity to develop arasol's relationship in a fresh direction that doesn't hurt me too badly...... and i hope they force sollux out of his comfort zone. i like watching him struggle :-)
#sorry if this isnt fully accurate heh its just my personal impressions/feelings#despite best efforts to simplify my annotations the wall of text still ended up massive#there's also a comparison i wanted to make abt characters who “broke up” from romantic expectations losing a lot of what they had before#dave(sprite)/jade‚ karkat/terezi‚ dirk/jake etc = which is why i think arasol was rescued by hussie on purpose. arasol endgame truth#ngl there mightve been more moments that shouldve been mentioned but i have no memories of... limited cloud storage#long post#ask#anon#homestuck#arasol#aradia megido#sollux captor#arapostings#2024#vioart#not disqualifying acespec/qpr reading i think its also possible :]#if anything i dont understand fanon killing off aradia for their sollux ships haiyaaa why is this trope so damn popular#every time i open a slkt fic and aradia is dead i go outside and burn a tree. global warming could not come sooner#slkts who treat aradia like dvkts treat jade…. i punt u football style
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SPINA VENATORES
A small organization of mercenaries working for Manus Vindictae, tasked with erasing people from history as a way to call upon the "Storm". Their targets' names, families, influence and connections to this world will be dragged into oblivion.
Individual profiles and some more info/ramblings under the cut <3
The whole point of Spina Venatores is to be a parallel to Vertin's own independent group of Arcanists - the same way St. Pavlov's Foundation has her, Manus Vindictae has Venison and Spina. They're the mouth and teeth of Manus.
But whereas Vertin aims to create a safe, neutral space for Arcanists to thrive without human influence despite being tied to the Foundation, Venison is aiming to create a paradise for those they care about and no one else due to the heavy influence Arcana and Manus have on them.
Spinas Venatores is, at its core, a cult that was allowed to grow thanks to Venison's codependent and obsessive mindset - with them as the leader, all the troublesome and rebellious members of Manus Vindictae (that are much too powerful to get rid of or who are still clinging on to their former lives) will simply be assimilated into Spina or pressured to comply with Manus Vindictae as a whole. The third secret option is dying <3.
They also serve as a narrative device to remind everyone of the fact that, no matter how hard one may try, there's no way EVERYONE can be saved from the "Storm" - all five main members are related in some way or another to Arcanists that Vertin has met, they're people that weren't lucky enough to be taken in, who found themselves in the right time and place for Manus Vindictae to take advantage of their vulnerable state.
R1999 also portrays a LOT of oppression from various minorities that overlap with each other in very interesting ways, so I also wanted them to tackle similar things that mean so much to me - they're problematic queers is what I'm trying to say lmfao
The thing they share is that all of them are delusional to a degree, and that they're constantly haunted and defined by their relationships to others. The loss and discovery of the self through another, Ship of Theseus, cannibalism, body horror, being transgender as a really visceral and intimate experience, an obsession for love in all of its forms etc etc.
I don't have the FULL scope of their backstories, but I do know who they're tied to!
Venison was Pavia's coworker in a constant, obsessive loop of wanting to kill and save each other. Mutton was part of Schneider's mafia and romantically involved with one of her oldest sisters. Chevon was a regular visitor in Necrologist's museum and a friend of hers, she later went on to exhibit his many, many tombstones. Poultry is the "Lilian" mentioned in Darley Clatter's Stories. And Veal is a mystery even to me </3
Their uniforms are meant to look outrageous and outlandish, entirely out of place with the setting and their respective eras/times, inspired by fantasy - just BARELY reminiscent of Manus Vindictae by virtue of using a similar palette, as a way to drive that feeling of not belonging and delusion even harder.
Whereas everyone else is dealing with very real issues, all members of Spina Venatores live pretty much in their own heads (similar to Forget Me Not and how Manus Vindictae causes their recruits to become... YEAH.....THOSE MONSTERS....)
Venison gets the BIG COAT and the biggest silhouette because they're responsible for pretty much 80% of what happens within Spina Venatores! Veal gets the more simple design to allude to their whole unassuming, shapeshifter/Doppelganger thing.
They all have ribcage/bone motifs in one way or another, most of their jewels are meant to look like rosaries, they wear the Manus Vindictae silver cross and Arcana's blue color more often than regular members of Manus. Also! Hands!! Love the fuckin hands!! DID YOU GUYS SEE DIGGERS' MANUS VINDICTAE SKIN???? YEAH.
The naming convention being. types of different meats. is entirely because of Venison, you can ALSO blame that entirely on them <3
#reverse 1999#reverse: 1999#reverse 1999 oc#manus vindictae#spina venatores#purinsu art#my beloved r1999 OCs#also i love drawing stained glass GRRR ITS SO GOOD#i have so much info about these motherfuckers idk where to put it
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Didn't want to derail that last post since it's specifically about novel canon, but it got me thinking about the ramifications of the changes that the drama makes:
CQL Mianmian is a Jin disciple. I like this change overall because it facilitates her being a larger part of the narrative and implies that Jin Zixuan has a life outside of being That Rich Guy Wei Wuxian Hates. Still, as is also the case with Meng Yao and Lan Xichen due to them meeting earlier, it means that Jin Zixuan is defending someone already dear to him rather than protecting a stranger simply because it's the right thing to do. Don't shrug off his heroism yet, though, because...
A nameless Jin disciple is the one who tries to hand over Mianmian. Jin Zixuan (and only Jin Zixuan) strikes him down and says in disgust that he can't believe the Jin clan contains such cowards, or something like that. However, Mianmian herself reminds Jin Zixuan when they're giving up their swords that they're under orders from their sect leader to comply with whatever the Wen clan asks of them. Jin Zixuan's choice to defend Mianmian is potentially in defiance of his father's directive. (Why is Jin Zixuan willing to disobey his dad here but stays awkwardly silent during his family's BS at the Phoenix Mountain hunt and conference later on? Well, his dad's not in the room with him here.)
Su She is not involved here, as Lan Wangji is the sole representative from Gusu Lan. The selfishness/cowardice of trying to feed Mianmian to a monster is replaced with his (more socially unacceptable in-universe but IMO more sympathetic to the viewer) revealing the Cold Pond Cave secret. There aren't any Lans standing by as nobody but Lan Wangji does the right thing.
The hostages generally show a lot of solidarity! After Wen Chao punts Wei Wuxian deeper into the cave, everyone else climbs down after him. None of them responds to Wen Chao shouting questions from up above, forcing the Wen guards to climb down to their level to investigate. The Jin guy attacking Mianmian is an outlier, indicating a problem with Lanling Jin culture rather than the jianghu as a whole. They cooperate well when it's time to band together and escape!
So the takeaway in CQL canon isn't that everyone is a coward or overly concerned with politics except for the protagonist, his love interest, and Jin Zixuan for some reason, but more like... here are these young people and future leaders who are fully capable of acting together for the good of the group. They refuse to comply with their captors despite being unarmed, and they'll convince the older generation to take action against the Wen clan. (Nie Mingjue, the only sect leader who's part of the younger generation without an older relative's influence, has already been in open conflict with them.) And isn't it a shame, then, that Jin Guangshan--and his sect culture that would've excused feeding one of his own disciples to a demon turtle--is going to crush all of this.
*I initially assumed, when I started making this post, that Cloud Recesses in the novel gets burned after the indoctrination in retaliation for Lan Wangji's part in killing the Xuanwu of Slaughter. But the wiki timeline has the indoctrination still coming after Cloud Recesses is attacked? If that's the case, how do the Lan have that many disciples to send?
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On Fantasy High, Redemption, and Agency (General Spoilers for Junior Year, sort of?) Also this post about FHJY is long as fuck, as all of mine are getting. In short it's my understanding of how Brennan Lee Mulligan sets up the teenage villains of Fantasy High.
Fair warning, this is LOOOONG below the cut.
Y'know when I said I wasn't going to talk about Ratgrinder discourse? I lied.
So Brennan as a DM has a very specific narrative language for how a villain is 'redeemable' and it primarily has to do with the level of agency a villain has in their actions. This isn't particularly hard to notice when you look at our very own (and fan favorite) reformed villain squad.
Starting with Ragh, while he was in his right mind for most of his villainy in Freshman Year, he really didn't do too much other than beat people up and be a bully? While he worked with Daybreak on some level, he wasn't anything more than muscle and not very in on most of the plans. There was also some implication of grooming and manipulation from Daybreak to Ragh.
Zayn as an example also helps build this thesis, while he also hasn't done a TON evil he's generally a bit more discerning than Ragh. However he builds the understanding of how Fantasy High looks at it's redeemed teenage villains, when Zayn is found as a ghost he explicitly calls out Daybreak as being the only reason he's still housed, were he not to go along with the Freshman Year scheme he'd have been sent back to his abusive parents, the foster system, or homeless as like, a fifteen year old boy.
But the actual silver bullet to understanding this is Aelwyn, to preface. Aelwyn fucking sucks in freshman year, way worse than Ragh or Zayn. She's also responsible for way worse than any other teenage villain in the series. She's arguably committed worse than Dayne Blayde or Penelope Everpetal, but there's an important component to her redemption in Sophmore Year, something Brennan has her stay conscious despite making death saves to explain.
In tears Aelwyn notes that Kalina was actively threatening to kill her had she not complied with the Kalvaxus plan.
So there's a running theme here, Ragh didn't seem to have much of an idea of what the wider plan even was and was just muscle, Zayn was under significant threat to his personal safety (and unbeknownst to him, also under threat of death, a threat that actually gets carried out), and Aelwyn was literally convinced she'd be murdered for not complying.
This tracks with the teen villains who DON'T get redeemed by the way, Dayne had no qualms about casually murdering his classmates with a great sword, Penelope didn't seem to mind the idea of throwing her best friend Kalvaxus for a power play. They both get killed because they don't seem to really care what happened, were fully complicit, and had no form of remorse at all.
This leaves us with our code to cracking if Brennan sees the Ratgrinders as possibly worthy of redemption (IMO, signs point to yes, but it's complicated.) We know the Ratgrinders are being manipulated heavily by Porter (I have so many more thoughts about Jace's place in this but that's for a whole other post,) however they don't have Ragh's excuse of being mostly in the dark.
Kipperlilly and Oisin for sure know exactly what's going on, and the rest (sans Buddy) probably do too. The actual question is how much does Ankarna rage affect one's reasoning, and the thing that's interesting about how the Ratgrinders have been set up is that question is sincerely ambiguous.
Signs point to the corruption needing some sort of genuine anger or frustration to latch onto, but this is my first hot take here. This isn't really that damning? Pre-Rage Kipperlilly said some concerning things, in private confidential counseling. She (at the time) understood her fixation on Riz was a problem and perhaps not fair. Oisin probably was mildly frustrated or saddened a girl he had a crush on didn't notice him, but to cast Pre-Rage Oisin as a full on Biz Glitterdew incel is, in my opinion, unlikely. Ruben was already seeking attention but wasn't anything worse than a mildly annoying teenage boy, etc.
These aren't exactly 'good' feelings but they are pretty normal for 14-15 year olds. Pre-Rage Ratgrinders really aren't that much worse than Pre-Character Development Bad Kids, let's not forget that they too definitely act out in really mean, unfair ways at around the same time as Pre-Rage Ratgrinders (Fig and Fabian, most notably.)
As for agency though, they clearly have a bit more of it than previous teenage villains, and are a bit more aware of their actions. They're not under direct threat of violence like Aelwyn or Zayn (though the way Porter and Jace act around them may make that threat implicit.) and they don't have Ragh's excuse of being seemingly largely in the dark.
The Ratgrinders I feel are an intentional test for the Bad Kids (and the Intrepid Heroes as players) because they're significantly more antagonistic than previous teenage villains. Heck, even ones that turned out totally evil. Dayne's kinda chill to the Bad Kids initially, Penelope is a bit backhanded but she isn't outright mean. If you count him, even Johnny Spells humors Riz and is relatively lax to him. Ragh's honestly way more harsh for most of the first half of Freshman Year, Zayn's initially more rude and confrontational to them too.
That said they're both being influenced by a much worse adult (Like everyone in the Reformed Villain Squad) and have a rage god clouding their judgement to an unknown degree. If we follow previously established patterns, they're salvageable by the story's own logic.
The test is for the party, it's easy to forgive Zayn when he openly cries and apologizes immediately when finally confronted about his place in the villain plot, it's easier to forgive Aelwyn when she openly puts herself in harm's way and almost dies to save Adaine.
It's going to be harder, emotionally, for both the player characters and the players themselves to forgive the Ratgrinders and recognize they're also victims in some sense when the Ratgrinders have been actively fucking with the Bad Kids for the whole season, and taking an obvious amount of satisfaction in it.
The challenge Brennan has set up for the party, I feel, is a test of their character. Fighting a possibly ascended god Porter is gonna be a lot easier without a whole other party of enemies in the fight (and even much easier if you can convince some to fight alongside you as a part of heroes.)
#fhjy#fhjy spoilers#fhjy meta#dimension 20#rat grinders#brennan lee mulligan#i just think there is a good discussion about the line between us as viewers and the players at the table to be had#like we haven't been immersing ourselves AS characters getting toyed with by the ratgrinders for over 20 hours of playtime#the reason they seemed to want to recruit mary ann was because shes funny and hasnt actively antagonized anyone#there's something to be said about how PC morality towards NPCs often stems from how fun the NPC is for the player to interact with#like the bad kids hated kipperlilly and treated her terribly way before she did anything mean or evil to them#mostly just because they thought she was annoying this is how npc treatment goes in most dnd campaigns d20 or not
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Shuri and Namor are the heart of Black Panther Wakanda Forever and I think that’s personified by their parallel character arcs and their journeys throughout the narrative
Shuri is only a child when she loses everyone important to her. This sends her down a path of vengeance which is emboldened by her own ancestors struggles. Killmonger appears to her out of manifestion of her vengeance and anger, and it’s exactly what she wants to hear. She grows from her “child” label and takes on the responsibility she was hesitant of prior. And more, she uses this vengeance as a propelling force to attack Talocan and get that revenge. She wants Namor dead, and that’s what she intended.
It is only when she sees the true reality of what being a leader means, that she can make the right choice for her people by being merciful and honorable, like T’Challa. No matter how much her heart screams for vengeance, no matter how much she wants to burn the world, she does what she must. She lets Namor live, and she protects her people (and the world) from burning at the hands of a never ending war.
Likewise, Namor is only a child when he loses his mother. This sends him down a path of vengeance against the above ground world, and it’s only emboldened by the struggles of *his* ancestors. He is powerful, he is unforgiving, and he does everything in his ability to protect his people and ensure their safety. But more than anything, he is a boy without love, and he has a deep rooted hatred for the people of the above ground world. He won’t risk his people, but he wants nothing more than to wage war on everyone else, to burn the world.
When he is provoked by the Vibranium locator, however, he sees that opportunity. He forces Wakanda into an ultimatum, and when they don’t comply and kill his people, he is compelled to attack and go to war with Wakanda. It’s the perfect excuse to enact his vengeance and anger on the world, and better yet it’s on the only other power that could stand against him. He wants the above ground world to pay, and that’s his intention.
Even with this vengeance and anger in his heart however, he still is a leader, and in the very end he makes the difficult decision to yield to Shuri. Namor isn’t blind to the reality that M’Baku pointed out, eternal war and demise would plague his people if he were to die. So he doesn’t.
Both characters chose being a leader over anger and vengeance - in a way at least.
I think what’s very interesting about Namor, however, is what sets him apart from Shuri. Yes they follow similar narrative arcs, they both end in very different places by the end of the movie.
By the end, Shuri has moved on from anger and vengeance, and has accepted the death of her mother and brother. She burns the white clothes of the funeral rituals as a symbolic passing of her grief
However, Namor is seemingly deeper in his vengeance and anger by the end of the film. Not only is he physically damaged from the battle, but he is actually shown to etching the experience and battle into the walls around his room. Almost as if the experience has only worsened his need for the world to burn. And we know by his words that he still plans for that reality to happen someday, proving he hasn’t moved on - or maybe it’s better to say he *is* in fact anger and grief and vengeance incarnate.
#mcu#marvel#black panther#wakanda forever#black panther wakanda forever#shuri black panther#mcu shuri#namor#mcu namor#tenoch huerta namor#character arcs#parallels#marvel mcu#character study
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mean!dom!lottienat x bratty reader with aftercare, you can choose the plot!!
A/N: dear anon, this is definitely not what you asked for im sorry, don't come at me, or at least not ONLY at me because in fact, this is a collab with @lottienatswife:) go follow her lolllll, craziest collab ever. We are not smut writers and this is personally my first smut ever lol, we just decided to have fun with it!!!
Also this is pretty long :)
THIS IS SATIRE (maybe)
hope you'll enjoy either way :) (Marina if you see this go away this is not for you, this post is Marina DNI)
TW: smut, lots weird stuff, quirky seggs, tentacles are mentioned, dildo attacks girl's face, toys and ropes :)
Night at Lottie's
“Where are you parents again? On a business trip” Nat asked from Lottie’s bed, Wannabe by the Spice Girls played in the bedroom, Natalie didn’t exactly enjoy that but whatever made her princess happy.
“They are at a funeral actually” Lottie answered from her spot in a rocking chair near the bed, lately she has been getting into reading, the current book she’s reading? Poems of Sappho, she told you and Nat multiple times that she would’ve loved to join a book club, if only those were real…
Nat frowned but before she could say anything Lottie continued “Uncle Joe passed away last night”.
After her affirmation Nat moved from the bed and got closer to Lottie, placing a hand on her knee “I’m so sorry Lottie…was it a peaceful death at least?”
“He was actually eaten alive by a dolphin-” Lottie couldn’t even finish her sentence, suddenly interrupted by the door slamming open, you were running for no apparent reason, maybe the writers just need a narrative expedient to make you end up sprawled on the bed…or maybe not…who knows? I definitely don’t.
Either way, Nat’s backpack, which was conventionally thrown on the floor, made you trip and not so gracefully fall on the bed, face planted in the mattress, bum in the air, emitting a little groan.
“Eager aren’t you?” Nat exclaims and without missing a bit she gets closer to you and just like you landed on the bed her hand lands on your ass, giving it a smack.
Lottie gasps still sitting comfortably on her chair, looking intensively at your interaction with Natalie “Little sapphics” she whispers with a hint of amusement.
“Hey!” you yell at the contact of Nat’s palm with your skin, but Nat doesn’t really seem to care since she has her hands already placed on your hips, flipping you around and manhandling you until your back was against the headboard, her body straddling yours and keeping your hands in hers. And even though you felt like a barbie being tossed around by a three year old kid you actually didn’t mind at all, and while you and Nat were clearly having the time of your life Lottie opened a package of organic rice cakes and munched on it while watching attentively “It’s just like national geographic” she mumbled to herself while chewing.
Nat leaned in for a kiss and who were you to comply after all, and as the smooching got more and more heated your bodies grew sweatier and sweatier, especially your hands, making Nat falter, causing your foreheads to collide in a painful crash.
“STOP STOP STOP!!!! CUT OFF THE CAMERAS CHAD! NATALIE, Y/N ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?”
“NO!”
“OH DAMN, MHHH, 20 MINUTE BREAK EVERYONE!”
*some time later*
As Natalie straddled you, with her hands on the wooden headboard this time, Lottie, finally may I add, got up from the rocking chair placing her rice cakes on in and walking to the bed sitting down on it next to Nat who was already aiming at your shirt pulling it off with ease, revealing your bra. Natalie shifts over to look for something in the drawer, rummaging through it and pulling out a quite peculiar object out of it.
“Is it a unicorn horn?” Lottie wonders as soon as she looks at it
“I’m pretty sure it’s a dildo Lottie” you said, still laying under Natalie, your affirmation made Lottie’s eyes squint “Then why is it rainbow?”
“I don’t know maybe it’s gay” you shrugged as Natalie kissed your neck not really caring about whatever conversation was going on between the two of you, raging hormones they say.
Slowly realising the destination of the gay allegated sparkly rainbow toy Lottie’s eyes widened "NAT! NO.... IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH!!" Lottie yanks it out of Nat's hand, and gets out her purple- "it's not purple its heliotrope, damn I’ve told this to the production so many times and nobody listens"... heliotrope dildo... it was bigger than the rainbow one “It kinda reminds me of an octopus” you said as you looked down at the thing “Did you know that one of the tentacles of an octopus is actually it’s dick?”
“Not now Lottie please” Nat brushed her off as she started undoing your pants, pulling them off she smirked at the sight of your undies...Peppa Pig printed underwear was really something...Natalie bit her lip she took off her own pants, as did Lottie. Nat was wearing her super special underwear, pink Hello kitty underwear, Lottie on the other end showed off her spiderman (writers care to specify it’s PS game spiderman) panties.
"So…my little gold digger…”
“Lottie, leave the dirty talk to me please-”
“SHUT UP...can I tie you up??" You look at Lottie... and shake your head, you already knew what was going to happen, she did it all the time, and you needed money for that one dinosaur pillow. As expected Lottie groaned and pulled out her wallet which was conventionally already on the bed "I'll pay you"
"deal..!" You happily take the money shoving it inside Nat’s bra “Keep it safe baby” you gave her breasts a pat pat “Since when are my knockers a piggy bank” she mumbled but neither you or Lottie paid too much attention to that.
Lottie had already taken out the purple…no wait…heliotrope ropes she kept stored in a small box and tied your wrists up to the bedpost. So now that you’re stuck like a worm on a hook Nat and Lottie exchange a knowing look, as Natalie adjusts a harness to her hips
“Kinda looks like a bricklayer's belt”
“Shut up”
Then she immediately pulls off your panties and once they are discarded she lays her chin on the mattress to see your core "....mmph…" Nat hums in satisfaction once she sees the faucet was left running “While Lottie’s parents cry at the funeral I make this pussy cry”
“HEY UNCLE JOE WAS-”
“DON’T THINK ABOUT UNCLE JOE RIGHT NOW LOTTIE”
Suddenly Lottie shoves Nat away, taking her turn to stare at you. Determined, Nat pushed Lottie down the bed, gracefully slapping her face with the glittery gay dildo, and just like that, after she regained her spot on top of you, the object found its home…once again.
After a couple of small thrusts Natalie really started going at it and you started moaning, in that exact moment, jealousy creeped inside Lottie and once again Nat was shoved away, this time ruthlessly shoved down the bed and onto the floor. Taking Nat’s out of you so she could insert the heliotrope toy. Your faucet kept running, until it broke and Lottie cheered, she broke it first.. and Natalie groaned still on the floor, annoyed.
Lottie carefully unties your wrists, placing little kisses on the small bruises the ropes caused. "You want shoulder rubs?" Lottie asked, while pulling you on her chest to let you rest your back against her breasts "What about pussy rubs?" Nat smirked.
Before you could answer, Lottie shoved a rice cake in your mouth as Nat just groaned, unbuckling her harness and throwing it aside.
Lottie pampered you with little kisses on the top of your head while she rubbed both your shoulders and neck, slowly, Nat crawled back on the bed, giving a kiss to both you and Lottie, hugging the two of you and laying her head on your shoulder.
*later that night*
“Y/N? Are you still awake?”
“Yeah”
"I never got to fiddle with your riddle”
“Technically you-”
“LOTTIE ROBBED THE GLORY!!!"
If you've reached the end, here's your throphy 🏆
#natalie scatorccio#yellowjackets#natalie scatorccio x reader#nat scatorccio#yellowjackets x reader#nat scatorccio x reader#yellowjackets x you#nat scatorccio x#natalie scatorccio x y/n#lottienat#lottie matthews#lottie mathews x reader#lottienat x reader
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We Know The Context But It's How It Was Badly Executed That It Turns Us Off
The narrative is trying to throw everything at us to feel sorry for this sad shit of a bird because Vivziepoop has now made it the complete focus of the show instead of running an assasination business as it originally was supposed to be. Originally his cheating was just a feature of being an asshole noble, but now it's about how we should feel sorry he is despite the fact he lorded the deal with sex which skewed skeevy and the fact he neglected his daughter when pursuing Blitzo. While Stella is obviously meant to be a blatant bad wife, his affair with Blitzo is at least shown to affect his daughter and she has fears he will leave her to pursue him. And at times that doesn't help with him fawning over him and doing stuff that is disgruntling to her. So now he shouldn't be seen as completely innocent just because of his wife.
Also I would take Stella seriously if she was a better written abuser instead of a one note villain who has no depth to her character. She's just there to be that derailed female paired character that the writer hates for being their way of their ship. Seriously, there is no way that Octavia would be oblivious to the abuse if Stella is portrayed that way. I would buy that she was subtly abusing Stolas in a way she wouldn't pick up, but in this case it's really couldn't be more blatantly out in the open. If they wanted to portray the situation as it is, I would have it that Octavia knows her parents relationship wasn't healthy but still feels mixed about her father pursing someone not her mother and sees for the first time her father is looking at someone with love unlike her mom. It's the lack of consistency that makes it not work and unbelievable.
Stolas could be a sympathetic character to us if he was actually held accountable for shit he's done and not just given the easy way out to make him into a sad boy yaoi character. While he would be better off with Blitzo in theory, the narrative never fully holds him for how unintentionally racist and classist he can towards Blitzo. He frequently demeans him to the point he's got him trapped in a deal that has his business on the line if he doesn't comply. His relationship with him might be freeing for himself, but he doesn't realize how trapped Blitzo feels. That's what makes him unsympathetic is when the narratives tries to just make him into a perfect dream boy instead of the demon lord he should have been depicted as.
#helluva boss#helluva boss criticism#helluva boss critical#helluva boss critique#vivziepop critical#vivziepop criticism#vivziepop#anti-vivziepop#stolas critical#stolas criticism#stolas critique#anti-stolas
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while discussing csm 163, i'd mentioned how the fan's monologue revealed more about/reiterated asa & denji's character arcs. & i think that lays the groundwork for 164 very well:
the rules regarding intimacy being laid down by Nayuta (symbolic of family) during asaden's first date are really interesting. now you see nayuta (or rather, her absence) being determinant to denji's Compliance. the house & its rules are *burnt* (fire/dreams) to ruin.
within nayuta you can still locate makima's initial thesis with family as the location for control. the shattered husk of family, haunting where & how you form relationships, where you comply with state, with church, with structure.
and this quality is relevant to asa too. she specifically brings it up here, she was robbed of her family in the orphanage. family as context. asa is made uniform & outside narrative frame. her deprotagonism occurs in concert with the gendered labels she's assigned,
wherein she's pushed into the role of a Fan. even her harkening back to context is brought up in relation to denji: she knows how it feels *too*. this area of empathy is a point i'll mention later in this post, re: another Fan from part 2.
but even then: right now in the manga it seems apt then that we see asa's strain of self at its weakest. her strong individuation|aversion that marked her prior interactions are kind of bled away? we're given startlingly little writing re: her interiority, she's oddly passive.
the point of deviation here is her declaring that she hates sushi. it's unreasonable, absurd against the scene. you're reminded of the aquarium arc, where she'd said the same thing: her hating fish. her being stubborn.
this is at the same time where she hugs her knees & tells denji that making him into a weapon goes against her principles. she can't eat fish, even when cornered up & starving. neither can she make him into a weapon. or follow this script.
strangely enough, it's in the aftermath of this scene that i find asa's sense of self to appear the strongest. she's flushed and giddy with victory. she's entirely Protagonist, denji is relegated to the background.
which is why her shafting & the way this is seen alongside fanhood is extremely compelling when we consider the other character who'd brought up SUSHI: fumiko. fumiko categorises herself as the Denji Fan, at many points engineering her own exit from the narrative.
as opposed to asa who is thought of in association with the CSM almost involuntarily, tripped & restrained distinct from her selfishness. at the amusement park, fumiko attempts to relate her own family/background with denji too. it's a moment that particularly gets to me.
because denji's response to this is him trying to sort of find a commonality between their griefs, in an event where he lost his family as well. he turns to her but she's still talking about the fucking chainsaw man. not his grief.
& asa here, all of CSM's motely fanclub, wanting different things out of him, talking to him about family, like fumiko, within his home's burnt remains, one built out of the product of his Hunger for makima (quite literal) brought to culmination by cannibalism, nayuta's birth.
the home is torn down, & nayuta is gone. denji is hungry again, says kiga. he's hungry for sushi. fumiko The Fan, in her affiliation with denji, talks to him about sushi, tuning his hunger, in a manner. food underlies p2's narrative marvellously well with kiga & falling.
fire used in cooking & transforming fans into tools. & asa at many points finds this same fanhood sticking onto her, palpably gendered. her hating sushi is written as absurd instead of solemn as it was earlier. & fumiko, in her condensed fanhood *likes sushi*.
asa getting over her dislike of sushi for denji would be absolutely horrifying TBH. i don't know how else i'm meant to see it.
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Look at Us Now - ch. 17
Fic masterlist
Hey! It feels like forever since I last posted, probably because I was kinda handling a crisis at home 😅 the crisis is very much still on, but I’m ~excluding myself from the narrative~ for mental health reasons, which hopefully means I’ll stop skipping classes and write more lol. Anyway. Have fun!
Warnings: language
Words: 2,7k
Rowan failed her.
He was reminiscing, reflecting on a rocking chair, under the faint light of the beach house’s side porch. Alone. The hammering sound of the rain against the roof was loud, but not as much as Rowan’s thoughts.
His doom was a lot easier to deal with when Aelin was just someone who broke his heart because she didn’t care enough about him.
He rocked his chair a bit harder, his muscles strained. He was too angry at himself to stay still, but too gloomy to have an eruptive reaction.
Rowan got up, pacing around the porch. He couldn’t stop thinking what would’ve happened if he’d done his job right. Maybe they would be together now. Maybe their co-parenting arrangement would’ve stayed friendly. Either way would be better than what it became.
The purely physical affair he had with Aelin was brutally interrupted by his incarceration and the discovery of her pregnancy. After that, they bonded in a way that made him feel like their souls were melting to be forged as one, but it was just another way of not having her.
Aelin was never fully his, and she would never be after what he’d done.
And even if she wanted to take a risk and have him, what if Rowan broke his family all over again?
Three knocks against the doorframe snapped Rowan out of his thoughts, and was all warning his mother gave him before sitting on a rocking chair.
“I brought some hot tea for you to tell me what happened. Come on.”
He complied, knowing he didn’t have the energy to defy Rory Whitethorn right now. Rowan could trust his mom to read his moods like a manual. He sat on the other rocking chair next to hers. “Did I ever tell you you’re too nosy?”
“I’m your mother. If I didn’t pry, I wouldn’t know anything that happened in your life ever since you left for college.”
He let out a quiet chuckle and sipped the chamomile tea she brought. Breathing the rain’s fresh air in, he let it fill his hollow chest. Rowan couldn’t even begin to explain his situation without uttering the words he dreaded the most, something he’d never dared say out loud before.
“I’m in love with Aelin.”
He stilled, bracing himself for the I’ve been telling you that forever or You’re six years too late, but all he got was an unreadable motherly look.
Rory reached for his upper arm, stroked it with her thumb before she said, “That’s a good thing, honey.”
“We were growing closer lately, and I… well, I didn’t have a plan, but—“ Rowan ran a hand through his hair, closed his eyes and let out a pained breath. “She explained today why she asked me to move out of her house. It’s bad, mom.”
“I see…” Rory trailed, his chest caving as she did. This was a bad indicator. The situation was so serious his mother was actually thinking before she opened her mouth. She continued, “I’m assuming you won’t tell me what happened?”
“I’m not sure I can.”
Even if Aelin allowed him to tell Rory about her mental illness, everything that happened between them back then still felt too raw, too intimate.
“That’s okay.” His mother gave him a small, reassuring smile. “Did she forgive you?”
“I—“ Rowan’s mouth hung open for a moment, then he closed it. He was about to say ‘no’, but even though Aelin didn’t say the words, she didn’t look mad or wounded either. “I’m not sure.”
“It was a long time ago, and she doesn’t look upset about it anymore.” His mom’s voice was soft, her touch on his forearm gentle. “This looks a lot like forgiveness to me.”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point.” His mouth was ajar as he flailed his arms in front of him, struggling to explain that weight in his chest. “I shouldn’t be looking for cues and forgiveness. I shouldn’t have done anything that—“ Rowan rubbed both hands against his face, coming to terms with the fact that it’d take a while until he found the right words. “I don’t even feel like I deserve her forgiveness, to begin with.”
Rory recoiled. “But that’s not your decision.”
The sudden change in his mother’s tone, from soft to firm, snapped Rowan out of his spiral of self-loathing. “What?”
“Honey,” she pursed her lips, that trademark Whitethorn frown on. “Only Aelin can decide whether you deserve her or not. If she thinks you do and wants to try again…” Rory shrugged. “Just take that chance and don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Rowan’s mouth and shoulders went slack. “Am I supposed to forget I deeply wounded the mother of my child?”
Because that’s exactly what happened. Rowan was so scared to hurt Maisie it made him blind to some of Aelin’s needs, and he hurt his family anyway. His throat closed, and he felt as heavy as Aelin’s words on the night that crushed his dreams. That’s what happens, right? It’s impossible for a man to wound the mother exclusively. As if this isn’t bad enough, it leaves a trail of hurt that affects the entire family.
This one was on him.
“That was included in the ‘don’t fuck up again’ part.” Something about his expression made his mother soften. “It’s normal to wallow, but you can’t let that stop your life, Rowan. It’s always the same thing.” Rory sighed, and Rowan felt she was gazing right into his soul with the same green eyes she gave him. “Honey, you’re so full of what-ifs, it’s putting your entire life on hold. Sometimes you gotta be a little bold to get the things you want in life.”
Rowan stared at his mother, dizziness taking over him as his insides sank to the pit of his stomach. The rain was dying down, the gentle wind rustling his hair, but he couldn’t move.
At that moment, Rowan wanted to defend himself. He didn’t have the energy to, but he wanted to say that his mother was wrong, that she didn’t understand. He wanted to get up and scream.
He doesn’t like the way things are now, he never liked the co-parenting arrangement.
He didn’t choose this.
He never chose to wait for things to settle until six years passed by, it just happened.
Rowan is a careful person, that’s part of him. Always weighing his next step, always waiting for the right time.
And while he waited for the timing to be perfect, Aelin got pregnant, moved in with him, birthed his baby, kicked him out, grew to hate him, stopped hating him, and now their daughter is five years old.
He was still gravitating around her, waiting for the right time to do something. Anything. Rowan wasn’t even sure what exactly he was supposed to do, he just knew it involved bringing Aelin back into his life.
Sensing his struggle, Rory sat back and decided to not press on the subject. “This reminds me of your dad, you know?” Her gaze grew distant, a bittersweet smile on her lips. “It’s easier for him when I mess up than when he does. The guilt is always the worst part for him.”
“Sounds like Dad,” Rowan said around a faint chuckle.
Rory wiggled her eyebrows. ”You know what helped him a lot?”
“Huh.”
“Therapy.”
Rowan tensed, and he narrowed his eyes at his mother, trying to decide if he should believe her. “You’re lying.”
“I am! But it got into your stubborn head, didn’t it?”
Rowan chuckled, his gloomy state not strong enough to survive his mother’s antics. “Not now that I know it’s a lie!”
She gave him a small grin, then reached for her son’s hand. “Honey, your father’s mental well-being is called retirement, a grown child, and leaving the big city to a beach house. You can’t have any of that now, so you should consider therapy.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rowan waved her off. “I’ll think about it.”
“Also, you should really talk to Aelin. You’re not good at reading cues, honey, you got this from your dad as well.”
He gave her a sidelong glance, noticing that she was off her handling-my-son-in-crisis mode, back to her usual self. “Is that so?”
Rory adjusted herself in chair, picking back the long-forgotten mug of tea. “Did I ever tell you your father hired a band when he proposed to me? You have no idea the amount of unsubtle hints I gave him.”
“Mom.” Rowan interrupted, giving her a pointed, knowing look. “I don’t remember saying anything about proposing.”
He had no idea if Aelin would let him get anywhere close to that.
“I know.” Rory’s elbow on his side was as faint as her subtlety. “But keep that in mind.”
He chuckled. “The band or the hints?”
“Both. Especially hints about bands.”
~~
“And what if you want to swim?” He asked, crouched on the floor and eye-to-eye with Maisie, his face as serious as it could be.
“I can’t swim without a grown-up.”
“Any grown-up?”
“No strangers!” She dramatically shook her head. “Just Mommy, Auntie Sellene and Aidan.”
“Maisie.” Rowan’s voice was firm. “Your cousin Aidan isn’t a grown-up.”
“But he’s nine!”
“No, he’s still a kid. And…” He bowed his head, running his palm against his forehead. “I’m forgetting something.”
“Daddy.” She gave him a pointed look. “You’re being a buzzard.”
Rowan bit back a smile. The weight in his chest almost crushed him to pieces the first time Maisie called him that, about a month ago, but he was growing to love hearing the nickname Aelin gave him come from his daughter’s mouth.
“Oh.” He looked back up to her. “And what do we do about the beach animals?”
Maisie crossed her arms. “Leave them alone because it’s their home.”
“Perfect.” He kissed the top of his daughter’s head. “Time for sunscreen.”
“You done, Buzzard?”
Rowan startled, snapping his eyes to the doorway and finding Aelin there. If he wasn’t on his knees already, he would be now.
Her pink bikini made his eyes linger, but was enough to make him train his eyes back to her face, and Rowan thanked Mala she was at least wearing denim shorts. He plastered on a smile, looking at her face. Not her pink bikini and exposed curves. Blonde hair—not the ends hugging her breasts—and blue eyes. He focused on her face.
It was a regular beach attire, but Aelin didn’t need much to take his breath away.
She smiled at her daughter, pointing at the lotion in Rowan’s hand. “Auntie Sellene can’t find Bree’s sunscreen, can you hand yours to them?”
Maisie got the tube from her dad and ran downstairs, a girl on a mission. After a quick peek in the hallway, Aelin closed the door and took a step closer to Rowan, her arms crossed.
“You sure you don’t wanna come?”
Rowan shook his head. “I got a thing.”
“You got a thing… in a city where you have no work, and half the people you know are going to the beach?”
His lips pressed together in a slight grimace. “I’m staying home with the other half.”
“Rowan, are you—“ Aelin took a step closer and lowered her voice before asking, “Are we alright?”
“Yeah.” His voice came higher than intended, then he corrected, “No. Um.” Rowan grimaced. “Actually, can we—“
“Come on, Aelin!” Sellene shouted from downstairs.
He gave her a close-lipped smile. “You should go.”
“Sure.”
She took a step back, eyeing him carefully before fully turning around. Rowan’s shoulders dropped in relief when she left. They needed to talk, yes, but Rowan needed to organize his thoughts before they did.
He waited in his room until the rental car drove off the garage, and headed towards his dad’s office. Rowan flinched every time the wooden floor creaked—he didn’t know why, since he wasn’t sneaking, but something about that moment made him want to go unnoticed. It wasn’t his childhood home, but it still had the same smell of baked goods and the same pictures on the wall. Except that now the pictures of Rowan as a kid were side-by-side with Maisie’s.
In one of the frames, he was wearing his daily camouflage uniform, while Aelin wore the hospital staff’s maternity uniform—white pants and a white wrap blouse she absolutely hated, but her blinding smile suggested she wasn’t worried about it at the moment. Rowan remembered it was taken on the day they moved into her house, but he never understood why his mother kept it there. She wasn’t even with them that day, Aelin texted her that one, but maybe she noticed how Aelin’s silly smiles and enormous bump broke his usual serious stance in pictures.
Rowan didn’t miss how she ignored his love confession yesterday.
He glanced at the watch at the end of the hall. It was almost time. He wanted a better way to look at things, but it was a difficult task. What was Rowan supposed to tell her? Hi. Remember when you made me realize the biggest mistake of my life, I confessed my love to you, and you stayed silent? I already have my rejection, I just need the complete humiliation to have some closure.
It could be a dramatic depiction of what he was going to say, but he couldn’t find a better way to put it right now.
Depending on how the conversation went, Rowan could even grovel enough to confess that he didn’t need Aelin to love him back, that was not his issue. If she chose to share her life with him, that’d be more than he could ever ask for.
But would that be what he deserves?
Deserving of her or not, Aelin is the mother of his child, the love of his life. He didn’t expect her forgiveness, but he couldn’t let go of her either.
He opened his dad’s computer and logged into his email to get the link. He opened Zoom two minutes early, but the meeting’s host was already there.
“Hey there!” Yrene cheered from his screen. “I wasn’t expecting your text, but it’s good to see you.”
This session had been canceled for a very long time, since he and Aelin decided to not do therapy during their vacation. However, it came in very handy that Rowan’s mental turmoil started a day before their weekly session was supposed to happen, so he texted Yrene asking if they could meet online.
Rowan tried to smile, but his expression was strained. “Did I crash your plans?”
“Not at all! I was going to lie on the couch and play Subway Surfers for an hour. It’s a good thing you called, since I’m always encouraging people to fight their vices.” Yrene leaned closer to her screen, as if it’d help her see Rowan’s better. “Where’s Aelin?”
He scratched the back of his head, fighting the unease in the bottom of his stomach. “It’s just me today.”
She straightened her posture, squaring her shoulders. “An individual session, then?”
Rowan nodded.
“Good!” Yrene cleared her throat and continued in a serious tone, “I mean, good. What made you take that decision?”
Rowan swallowed, fiddling with his fingers and steeling himself for what he was about to say. For the second time.
“I’m in love with Aelin.”
“Go on.”
He frowned. “You don’t look surprised.”
“I’m really not.” Yrene’s own blunt answer made her grimace. “What I mean is, I’ve been working with families for a long time. It gets easy to tell.”
“Sure.”
He looked at Yrene. She looked at him. He was the first one to break, darting a glance at the wall, feigning interest there to ignore the awkwardness of this situation. Rowan wasn’t used to leading conversations, Aelin and Yrene usually did that.
“Okay.” His therapist cleared her throat. “I’ll give you two options, and you’ll choose how we start: you can tell me what happened in your vacation, or we can talk about how you only choose therapy because of your family, never yourself.”
Rowan was halfway into a flinch when he schooled his expression. This wasn’t a difficult choice at all.
“We arrived here last Saturday…”
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#rowaelin#rowan whitethorn#aelin ashryver galathynius#throne of glass#rowaelin fanfiction#rowan x aelin#aelin x rowan#rowaelin fanfic#throne of glass fanfic#look at us now
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So look in my mercy mirror.
m!Dark Urge x Gortash, m!Dark Urge x Astarion.
Redeemed!Durge (but not morally), good run.
The team confronts Lord Gortash in his keep.
Karlach wants to kill the man; June has another idea.
TW: tadpoling (not graphic), June refers to Gortash solely by his name.
What are you doing?
Emperor’s voice rings in his ears - in his mind - slightly tinted with suspicion. Funny, for how much the mindflayer insists June can trust it, it doesn’t seem to trust June at all.
You said I need to gather my allies, he replies absentmindedly, hands working on taking this damn cork off and opening the bottle. Such a small thing it is, and how much it contains.
Enver was personally responsible for the creation of this new, nether-touched illithid parasite.
Enver and him; the details are hazy, but June can easily see himself fit into the narrative the lordling painted for him. He can see himself, on top of the world, with crown of Karsus in his hands, ready to conquer the entire Toriel for his father.
What a fool he was.
It’s changed now. He is a changed man.
“June?” Karlach looks uncertain and that hurts.
Hadn’t she learned by now to trust his judgment, had he not proved himself to be a good, loyal friend? The mere fact what she doubts him still is simply unacceptable.
She’ll see, June knows. Once he puts his plan in action, she will see the brilliance of it.
What use Enver’s death would be to her? It would not turn back the time, it would not give her back her heart or ten years of her life.
But this? This can turn the tide.
“It’s alright,” he smiles, but for some reason she doesn’t smile back. Damn it, did the smile come out wrong again? “Just hold him firm.”
She complies, but looks even more unsettled.
“This is...Not what I’ve expected,” Karlach admits. “You...What are you going to do with this thing?”
June smiles; this time the smile comes out right.
“I am going to fix it.”
Enver lets out a deep, throaty chuckle.
“And there I was, concerned they’ve somehow ruined you,” for a man beaten bloody and pressed down the cold tile floor he looks surprisingly content. “Worried Orin damaged your brain too much and somehow turned you into...” he trails off. “But I was a fool to fear that. No, you’re just as you’ve always been.” Another annoyingly long pause and then- “You’re going to tadpole me.”
“Yes,” June smiles.
Of course Enver of all people would understand.
He pulls the specimen out of its glass cage and holds between his fingers. Gently, ever so gently.
Enver’s eyes trail the movement.
“We worked so hard on these curious little things; you’ve worked so hard on them. It would be a shame for you to not test out your own creation, would it not?”
“June,” Wyll calls out and June doesn’t need to turn around to know his friend looks downright horrified.
Why can’t they see?
This is the right thing to do. Death is too simple, too easy. This? This will give Enver a chance to atone for his crimes. No, it will downright force him to cooperate.
And cooperation is exactly what June needs.
He is in your head, comes out an echo of a conversation long passed. Gortash, Gortash, Gortash – this damned lordling is all you can speak of these days! I doubt father approves of that, brother dear.
But June doesn’t care if father approves anymore. June doesn’t do his father’s bidding.
He is a free man, a free and a good man. And if he can change like that, who knows how Enver could?
“This is a chance,” he thinks and realizes he’s spoken aloud. “To work together. To fix the mess we’ve started. To make things right.”
“This is wrong,” Wyll argues. “You know this is wrong, June-“
“Juniper,” Enver speaks. There’s a strange glint in his eyes and it takes June some time to decipher it. There’s dread, of course, but also...Satisfaction? Like this is expected outcome. Like this aligns with Enver Gortash’s image of the world.
June frowns.
“You look entirely too pleased, my dear,” he comments lightly, crouching down to Enver’s level. The parasite dangles from his fingers, sharp jaws opening and closing in a rather rhythmical manner. As if it senses the prey nearby.
Enver manages a weak shrug, still pressed firmly down; Karlach looks distressed but her hold does not waver.
“No sense to panic over something I can’t change, is there?” True, but that does not explain the smugness. “And it’s a relief.”
“A relief?” June slowly reaches out, hand getting closer and closer to Enver’s face. Did he caress this face before? Were they that close?
The deep, annoying longing inside insists they were.
Close. Closer than Bhaal would permit, perhaps. Was he the reason for June’s little rebellion?
If so, it’s only right to repay for that.
“This thing with Selûne,” Enver frowns. “It was entirely...anticlimactic. I am glad you’re as ruthless as I recall you to be.”
June frowns right back.
“You’re delusional,” he replies. “I was ruthless once, but no more. This is mercy. I am sparing you, sparing your life. Enver, I am your savior.”
That makes the lordling look even more smug.
“Of course you are,” he smiles as if he knows something June does not. Annoying. “Now, shouldn’t you cut this ‘will he, won’t he’ business and finally-“
His voice cuts short as June drops the parasite on his face, as close to the eyes as he manages.
The creature crawls up and immediately buries itself into the depths of Enver’s skull. Clever little thing.
June watches, fascinated, as the man struggles while parasite takes a hold on him.
Then he raises an artifact.
Emperor? He calls out. Will you do the honors?
Of course.
A wave of pcionic power washes over them and Enver’s mind clears. He blinks; once, twice, brushes the uncalled tears away. Then looks up, straight at June.
“Not too bad,” comments plainly, asshole. Like June didn’t just turn his life upside down. “I assume you’ll force me to comply with your clever plans now?”
“Of course,” June thought it was rather obvious. “Now we’re going to save the day like the true heroes we are,” he smiles. “We don’t need any gods for that, we don’t need any cults. Bhaal and Bane can fight over the rubbish all they want, but we know better. We are going to have Baldur’s Gate eating from our palms. But first,” he feels his smile turn slightly malicious. “We’ll visit an old acquaintance. Halsik has everything prepared and stands at the ready.”
At that Enver perks up.
“You’re dragging me to Hell,” he comments rather cheerfully. “Again. If I didn’t know better, I’d think a trip to Hell is your idea of a date.”
June snorts, and Karlach snorts, and even Astarion, who was mostly silent through the entire encounter, snorts, though his snort is more unkind than the others'.
“No, silly,” June drags his hands up Enver’s torso until they lay placidly on his chest. Warm, he notices absentmindedly. Warm and familiar. Selûne’s Grace, am I in love with this man?
That would be...unfortunate, all things considered. But not entirely unexpected.
“We are going to break into the House of Hope,” he feels Enver stil underneath the touch. “I assume you’re more than familiar with the place, are you not?”
The lordling wets his lips, then grasps June and uses him as a leverage to stand up. Karlach almost doesn’t let him, but June waves her off and she, rather begrudgingly, lets go of the man.
There’s still a sense of unease about her, unease and...A hint of distrust? Of him, of June? But he is fixing things, surely she knows that!
“And what exactly are you planning to get there?”
Enver is close, gods, he is so close and his breath is warm on June’s forehead and it’s hard to think- Fuck, they definitely were lovers and June is definitely not over it. Astarion is going to kill him. Or worse, going to be hurt by him, by that. Stop, stop, stop, he needs to stop-
Two things happen at once.
Enver’s hand finds its place on June’s waist and takes a sure, firm hold of it.
Astarion’s mind, gentle in a way a mind of a man intimately familiar with all the ways personal boundaries can be broken, making damn sure he is not breaking and entering into the depths of June’s mind unwelcome, brushes past him.
June lets him in.
Stop fucking fidgeting, his glorious lover complains immediately. You’re giving the bastard a leverage over yourself.
I’m sorry, June immediately blurts and does it with such a force he is sure both Karlach and Wyll heard him. He avoids thinking of Gortash being linked to them the same way now. I’m sorry, I didn’t know, or maybe I did, but didn’t want to acknowledge it, but he’s here and he is so close and I- I am sorry, I am so, so-
Do you take me for an idiot? Comes out a huff and how did Astarion manage to huff through a mental link? You might have emotional intelligence of a redcap, but I’ve been aware you two knew each other on a level what’s far beyond any niceties the moment Gortash stopped his own coronation to gape at you.
He didn’t gape at me, June argues, thought he isn’t so sure now. Was Enver gaping at him? He sure looked friendly, much friendlier than Ketheric and Orin combined. But gaping?
He stopped his coronation, Astarion repeats. To come down from his high horse and chat with you. To welcome you back. He took control over one of his steelwatchers simply to invite you to the damn thing. And you- now there’s an actual, visible huff coming from his lover.
June catches Enver watching Astarion closely; a loose, entirely self-satisfied smile on his lips, hand still on June’s waist, head leaning on his. Enver invades June’s personal space like it’s his life goal, like instilling his presence in June’s life is something he has at his top priority.
This is...flattering.
“No, the fuck, it isn’t,” Karlach says aloud, and it’s a cue for June to realize he might have been thinking too loudly. “This is disgusting is what it is, I can’t believe you would-“
“My sweet June has his strong suits and his weak ones,” Astarion speaks, giving Gortash the smile so sharp it should’ve splinted the man in half. “His awful taste in men is, admittedly, one of the later. Not me, of course,” he chuckles, but June hears the underlying self-degrading tone noneless. They should’ve made Cazador Szarr suffer more. “But other,” vampire spawn gestures at Gortash. “Lesser men.”
“Lesser, you say?” And of fucking course Enver would take the bait. “I would-“
“Enough,” Wyll all but barks and for once they all comply. “We have bigger things to worry about but you two fighting over June’s affections,” June catches Karlach make a gagging face at that and Enver sending her a rude gesture in response.
Children, he is surrounded by literal children. Worst of all, these children are the ones saving the world with him. Ridiculous.
“Right, right,” he sends a grateful smile Wyll’s way and is relieved to see the man smile back just as warmly. At least someone is in his corner. Someone other than Astarion, but that’s given; June and Astarion are bound for life now, for as long as both of them live.
Admittedly, said life might include Astarion murdering June’s former, current – who could tell? – tyrannical lover in a cold blood. Or hot blood. In a pool of blood, definitely.
June isn’t even sure he would be very angry about it, mostly just...sad? He does seem to care for the said tyrant a lot. Oh, bother.
“We are going to break into the House of Hope,” he reminds these literal children who now are making faces at each other. If anything, seeing Karlach and Enver flip each other off would work for an evening entertainment. June will have to work on this destrusting undertone of her; talk her through it, explain things.
Karlach is a good person, she will understand. June is sure of it.
They’re doing this for the greater good.
“For what?” Enver cuts the chase off. “I assume not to make a deal with Raphael, he usually comes to his victims himself.”
“No,” June agrees. “Not for that, though he tried to strike a deal. He needs the Crown of Karsus, you see? And has something we need. But luckily, Raphael was kind enough to let us know he has it.”
“And why would we strike a deal with him,” Astarion hums. “When we can simply take what we need?”
“Exactly.”
Enver smiles.
“You are planning to steal from him.”
“No,” June leans into him almost involuntarily. He smells...good. He smells familiar. He smells like home. “We are going to steal from him. You,” a sharp nail hits Enver in the chest. The hand is immediately grabbed and held firm. “Are going with us. Care for some heist, my dear lord? Not Mephopheles’ vault, I’m afraid, but just enough for an evening entertainment.”
Enver smiles, wide and sharp and entirely wicked. An evil smile, people would call it. How he managed to convince people of the Baldurs Gate he is not villainous villain is beyond June’s comprehension. By brainwashing them, most likely.
“When let’s rob the devil,” the lordling speaks.
Then he kisses June.
And June can finally breathe.
#dark urge#dark urge x gortash#gortash x durge#astarion x dark urge#dark urge: june#bg3#dark urge x astarion#baldur's gate spoilers#june is delulu#he is lowkey terrifying in that#also yes june's full name is juniper but literally noone but gortash uses it#june in response always calls gortash just 'enver'#it's so instilled into him recalls it even after the brain trauma#baldurs gate 3#avery.txt#fanfiction#june: i'm a good man!#everyone: DOUBT#unproofread#june is unhinged without realizing it and gortash digs it#isn't it fun when your lover is capable of horrors without realizing he is capable of horrors#or what he's doing is indeed a horror#not pictured: karlach and astarion getting into a fistfight with gortash behind the tents#they kick him so hard withers has to resurrect him#asks like 10 times if June is sure#song: mercy mirror by within temptation
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Do you think Anakin did the right thing opening the Jedi Holocron for Cad Bane (the one with the location of all the force sensitive infants) to save Ahsoka, or is this another example of his character flaw of not being able to let things go and sacrificing the greater good for his attachments?
Anon is referring to this scene, from the TCW Season 2 episode "Cargo of Doom".
Earlier in the episode, Cad Bane tortures another Jedi, Bolla Ropal, to death. Having seen that Ropal - like any other Jedi - was willing to die rather than endanger children, he decides to use a different tactic.
Bane says it himself: the bond between a Jedi teacher and his apprentice is strong.
So he lures Ahsoka into a trap, takes advantage of her impulsiveness and captures her, then makes Anakin choose between her and the Holocron. Anakin saves Ahsoka, because of course he does... and in doing so exposes countless Force-sensitive babies to Cad Bane, and, indirectly, Darth Sidious.
Normally… a Jedi should've put the mission first.
Then again, the Jedi believe all life is sacred.
Any Jedi would've done their best to save both.
But the question becomes which do you save first?
So, in theory, it's a tricky situation because you need to choose to prioritize one of two selfless acts. It's sorta like the classic "trolley problem" thought experiment:
You gotta pick between two choices knowing they'll both have terrible, awful consequences.
But this type of choice is also a very common storytelling trope.
When a protagonist is faced with two choices, they'll usually pick a third out-of-the-box option. An example off the top of my head:
youtube
Spider-Man saves Mary-Jane first and then the ferry in one swing.
Now, upon first glance, it seems like Anakin chose to do something similar, but failed. In reality, though... Anakin didn't choose at all.
Instead, he surrendered and obeyed Cad Bane's orders because he can't lose Ahsoka, as he states out loud. Bane cornered him and Anakin went along with it out of a selfish fear of loss, rather than selflessly putting duty first.
Dave Filoni had this to say on this moment:
"I mean, [Anakin's] angry, he’s intense. He’s willing to kill everyone in that room to save his Padawan. In a way, we’re seeing this dark side of Anakin, and in a very real illustration of why Jedi should not have attachments, we see that attachment issue get exploited before our very eyes."
- Dave Filoni, “Cargo of Doom” Featurette, 2010
That's the issue.
His decision-making abilities were compromised and he complied with the villain. He went from an active position to a passive one.
Sure, later, he tried to fix it and recover the Holocron, but by then the damage had been done and Bane was holding all the cards.
Other Jedi would've gone for the Holocron or, hell, gone for Ahsoka, but they would've acted, they wouldn't have given up their advantage because that would've been irrational.
Ahsoka herself told Anakin not to do it, and we saw moments later that she was so resourceful that she hung on long enough for Anakin to press the button. Chances are, if he hadn't given in to Bane's demands and cut him down... he would have still managed to press the button and save Ahsoka too.
We'll never know, because Anakin was emotionally-compromised and refused to roll those dice.
Again, it's a verrrry tricky situation. As Bane points out, some other Jedi would've hesitated too, nobody is perfect.
Anakin's action (or lack thereof) is understandable and it doesn't make him a bad person.
But, according to the episode's narrative, it was a failure nonetheless.
#QnA#anakin skywalker#ahsoka tano#jedi order#the clone wars#cargo of doom#cad bane#star wars#attachment#long post
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Circle of Witches
Summary: You were always there when Wanda needed help, so if she didn’t have you in her universe, she’d just have to find you in the next
Pairing: Wanda Maximoff & Reader
Word Count: 1713
Warnings: Manipulative Wanda, Wanda goes on her murder streak same as Multiverse of Madness. It’s not angst but it’s not fluff either
A/N: Based on ‘If you were there, beware’ by Arctic Monkeys. It took me a while to get the ending right but I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out :) Hope you enjoy! And please comment/reblog if you do because it gives me so much motivation to write more!
—————————————————
if you were there, beware the serpent soul pinchers
three hundred and fifty no thank yous and nobody flinches
“Steve, you said you’d keep her safe.”
“We were trying to, Y/N, obviously this isn’t how we thought the mission was going to end.”
The Captain’s call came 15 minutes after the news coverage had been broadcast. You had already packed and booked your flight home before it did. Assigned on a mission of your own, you had entrusted Wanda’s safety to her teammates, asking them specifically to protect her from the press, and they’d failed.
go on, girl, go on, give us something gruesome
we require your grief, the thugs help the thieves
as they're trying to rob the words from her gob and take the swords to the innocents
Newspapers made their own narrative, and since Sokovia, their minds were set on making Wanda the villain; nothing she said or did could change that. You’d fought to keep her on low-interest missions until now, anything to mitigate the media scrutiny, but reporters crowded around her no matter how mundane the mission or how little Wanda did. They seized upon her every move, goading and pushing her to mess up until she would finally fit the narrative they formed.
You barely said a word before you shoved past Steve.
Natasha was in Wanda’s room. You stood in the doorway, listening in before you made your presence known. The pair were practising interview techniques, Natasha preparing the younger woman with a stock set of answers. Wanda’s voice trembled more with each line she spoke; her script forced her to recount the event, and then admit her own guilt over it.
can't you sense she was never meant to fill column inches
ain't you had enough? what you're trying to dig up isn't there to be dug
Wanda slumped when you finally stepped in.
“Leave, Natasha.” You commanded. You could feel the Widow’s gaze as she stalked past you, but you didn’t spare her a glance, too focused on the broken witch in front of you. Every thought in your brain wanted to round up the others and berate them for what they had put her through, but seeing Wanda curled up so tightly, you knew you had to be there for her first. The others would hear it from you later.
—————————————————
as they're trying to beat the good grace of a sweetheart out to the point she'll comply
So much changed as the years passed, but Wanda still needed you. She knew she always would.
From her very first day with the Avengers, you’d shown her kindness by welcoming her into the team. You’d defended her against those who painted her as a villain, or who scolded her - in your opinion - too harshly. The younger Wanda had thought herself deserving of that imagery; after all, your word seemed to be the only one refuting it. But she’d trusted you, and found herself believing you wholeheartedly.
The sorcerers were coming for her now, accusing her with venom on their tongues. She had to find you, because she could trust nobody else to defend her.
Except… she didn’t have you in this universe anymore. Neither you, nor her children, and she wanted it back. By any means.
—————————————————
there's a circle of witches, ambitiously vicious they are
You had peace in this universe. A dwindling number of global threats had diminished the need for heroes. You’d been given the option to retire, after years of fighting alongside your team, and you’d taken it.
You still knew where your former teammates were, most even lived in your area and stopped over from time to time; which is why it was no surprise to you when Wanda knocked at your door. The two of you had moved to the neighbourhood together, living just a few doors apart so you could offer your support in raising the twins.
“Do you want-” Your voice trailed off. You’d rushed to open the door for Wanda -not even setting down the laundry basket first- expecting a babysitting request. Instead, you saw your ex-coworker barefoot and bleeding from one side of her head.
“Oh my god, Wanda, are you-”
“Y/N, I need your help.” She interrupted.
“I’m here, come in and explain. Where are the boys? Are they safe?”
A small smile appeared on Wanda’s face. With the blood, you could only find it disturbing. “They’re home, they’re fine for now.” Wanda sighed, “there are people after me, Y/N.”
“Who? Why?”
“Because I’m not your Wanda,” she explained. Wanda narrated slowly for your benefit, letting you ask questions as she went. “I just stumbled into this universe to escape my own one. There are sorcerers after me, ambitious and vicious in their mission to kill me.
I had to come to find you here, you were the only person I could trust back in my universe…”
Her face fell as she whispered, “until I lost you too.”
You didn’t dare ask more about your variant, Wanda looked distraught enough without having to narrate your death. However, rage built inside you; Wanda hadn’t indicated a single thing she had done to deserve the witch hunt these sorcerers had started for her. And they were ruthless enough to murder anyone in their way?
“What can I do to help?”
“I need you to talk to the Illuminati.”
—————————————————
and our attempts to remind them of reason won’t get us that far
Wanda had warned you that these beings were dangerous and deluded, too stuck in their own beliefs to see that they were doing wrong, but you had to try. Wanda had gone after something else and without your intervention, they would go after Wanda.
but I don't know what it is that they want, I don't know what it is that they want
You entered the hall in silence, each echoing footstep felt unbearably loud against the vacancy of the space. The company in the room looked down to follow your every movement, though the two guards escorting you never left your side. It all seemed a bit much for a retired Avenger; you hadn’t fought for years, and you didn’t plan to now.
However, you understood the precautions. The Illuminati had superseded you, and even you hadn’t heard of them. They were a secret to the world.
“Y/N.” A man breathed. He was also handcuffed, and beside you rather than on the podium, so you assumed he wasn’t a member. It took you even longer to recognise his face – it was one of a dead man.
“Dr Strange?”
“Wanda sent you here?” He guessed. You nodded in affirmation. “It makes sense she would come to you; you were her go-to for help in our universe as well. But if she sent you here specifically… then she knows our location.” The sorcerer rambled to himself for the most part, but after his realisation, he spoke directly to the heroes gathered before you.
“Will you listen to me now?” he urged. “The Scarlet Witch is a threat to every universe, Y/N being here is just a warning that she knows where we are! You have to let America and I have the Book of Vishanti. It’s the only way!”
“Wanda isn’t a threat.” You spoke softly, but all eyes in the room turned to you.
“Hm?”
“Wanda isn’t a threat.” The words were louder this time, you were more confident in them. Wanda couldn’t say why the sorcerers were after her, but she’d warned you they would fight to get the Illuminati on their side.
I don't know what it is that they want
but I haven't got it to give
and she hasn't got it to give.
“She said you would try this. To convince them to take your side when it was you versus her. I don’t know what you want from her but she can’t give it. All she wants is to escape you, the one who has chased her through the multiverse.”
A member of the Illuminati spoke. “Is that so, Strange? Once again you have proven to be the greatest threat to the multiverse as a whole.” You didn’t know their names and you didn’t care to ask, glaring down Dr Strange instead, as he stared right back.
“You have to listen to me, Y/N. She isn’t telling you the truth. I knew you in my universe, I knew how you used to defend Wanda like your life depended on it, but now it does. This is not the Wanda from your universe, and this is not the same Wanda you defended in my universe. Did she say she lost you?”
“Yes,” you grimaced, “she didn’t keep that from me, no matter what you thought. I know what happened to me in that universe.”
“Y/N. Nothing happened to you.”
“But Wanda-”
“Wanda lost you, that much is true, but not to death.”
You froze. You would side with Wanda through everything, you could imagine nothing but death changing that.
“She took a town hostage, Y/N, tortured them. She isolated afterwards and you still managed to find her and forgive her, but she didn’t stop. Reading the Darkhold, experimenting with the laws of nature, she was corrupted, Y/N. This isn’t Wanda anymore, this is the Scarlet Witch, this is a woman who will murder without a second glance just to get what she wants.”
Alarms cut him off.
“The building’s been breached”
“Status report on sentries.”
Images flickered up behind you, showing Wanda’s demolition as she ripped the robots to shreds. Almost all of the council filtered out, ready to fight her.
It was an agonisingly silent wait for their return.
“Stephen,” you conceded, “what do we have to do?”
“What you have to do…” her voice sang. You turned slowly, seeing the person you considered your best friend in the world, covered in the blood of the heroes you had just been speaking to. “...is be better than that. I expected more of you, Y/N.”
With a flick of her wrist, everything went dark.
there's a circle of witches, ambitiously vicious they are
and our attempts to remind them of reason won't get us that far
You hoped Stephen had a plan.
#wanda maximoff#wanda maximoff imagine#wanda maximoff x reader#wanda maxmoff x y/n#wanda maximoff & reader#marvel#mcu
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do u really not see the difference btwn writing fanfic on the internet and buying a game whose storyline is actively being written by white supremacists and having the money go directly into the pocket of the most vocal & influential terf in the UK? that's not even touching all of the other racist and offensive bs in her series inc her antisemitism, appropriating first nations cultures, her asian racism, etc? i guess thats why you dont have 'antisemitics dni' on your blog
First, let me be clear – I do not give one single shit about Harry Potter. They are the best memories of my extremely shitty adolescence, I still read fanfic from time to time, but other than that, if I never hear the word "Harry Potter" again it will be too soon. I care about the fact that you clowns are
encouraging bullies and endangering mentally ill marginalized fans
leeching the air from leftist and queer discourse
fuelling a Western culture war that distracts from combating systemic transphobia
making suffering Black and brown communities, who mostly see white and Western trans people, think that trans people don't have any real problems beyond video games
Now, on to your ask:
I said never said not buying the game was the same as writing fanfic on the internet. I said that the furor over buying the game is leading to everyone who had anything to do with Harry Potter, including just writing fanfic, being bullied. I've had to unfollow so many people for reblogging posts attacking people for being in the *fandom*.
Asking people to refrain from doing something to prove that they care, especially demanding that they don't, has never in the history of activism worked. Black people have been speaking out against copaganda shows forever and STILL get harrassed. Indigenous people have been asking people to boycott Avatar and gotten nothing. Some people comply, but more do the thing simply out of contrarianism, and the entire issue becomes a culture war divided along political affiliation. People on the right go out of their way to do the thing, the people on the center and center-left won't really care, and people who identify as leftist divorce themselves even more from the rest of the left as being no better than the right, which eventually devastating results when it comes to actual elections and agitating for political change.
What works a lot better is harm reduction. Pirating is harm reduction, asking the HP fandom to offset JKR's fuckery by making their own merch, promoting indie games and donating to trans healthcare funds is harm reduction. People won't stand for being policed, but they like giving and also not paying for stuff with a clear conscience. You would have raised so much fucking money and promoted so many different things in all this time you've spent giving the game negative engagement clicks and keeping it trending on social media so long after its release.
You keep insisting that people shouldn't be fans because JKR equals her fandom with her own influence. This is called buying into the right-wing narrative. The woman is delusional (I can't think of a non-ableist word atm, and I honestly think that she's not all stable) and you're enabling her and her terf cult. We created the online HP fandom ourselves back in the aughts, before there was any merch, before movie rights were ever sold to WB, a full decade before her advertising machine ever woke up to the fact that an internet fandom existed. JKR has lost relevance for HP fans a long time ago; imagine the slap in the face for her if the fandom starts countering her bigotry by very prominently engaging in trans activism? The JKR terf cult in the HP fandom are a minority, like TERFs themselves (they're only so loud because the right-wing promotes the shit out of them). The vast majority of fans are just the kind of vaguely well-meaning cis people who don't agree with transphobes but are pretty ignorant about trans issues. And I do mean the vast majority, because literally a billion people grew up on her books and only a bare fraction is on social media at all, and even fewer even see the leftist drive to boycott the franchise.
Let's talk demographics. Because of the aforementioned vastness of consumers, the majority of HP fans are cis het, abled, neurotypical Millennials. Because of the way internet penetration works, the majority of HP fans online and even in fandom are white or Western. Leftist spaces mostly attract young and marginalized people, and transformative fandom is full of neurodivergent women and queer people. Which means the majority of people you're reaching are young queer neurodivergent people who have limited economic power themselves. And the people most vulnerable to and impacted by policing and harrassment are trans, Black and brown, Jewish, mentally ill, poor. Do you see the problem? You're policing the very bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder on the off-chance of maybe influencing a privileged few who might give a damn.
This is literally why we say that boycotts, especially over social media, don't fucking work. Firstly because they penalize the most disenfranchised consumers, it's hard to reach enough people to even explain why they matter, it's hard to keep up with the constant discourse and changing information, and it relies entirely on performance. Someone can stay quiet or nod along furiously to whatever you're saying and then just...go out and buy the thing. Social censure doesn't work when you have the option of not having to face the consequences. Contrary to hellsite opinion, the Fantastic Beasts franchise died because it sucked, and Harry Potter is dying because it's fading from relevance and JKR is being an embarrassment. The wider market doesn't even know y'all exist.
As for the game being racist and antisemitic...you come on my blog, a South Asian who has been in fandom for twenty years, and try to tell me about racism in media???? NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF ALL MEDIA IS RACIST AND ANTISEMITIC YOU ABSOLUTE CLOWN. I'm from South Asia, our children grow up on books written by colonizers! LORD OF THE RINGS is white supremacy! NARNIA is white supremacy! Disney and Marvel is one of the biggest figures in US military industrial complex that razed the Middle East to the ground. It's so ubiquitous that we have to accept the racism and white supremacy as a matter of course to engage with any Western media! And even then fandom is so racist it's hard to even exist in it! We get run out of it when we try to talk about it. You suck on white supremacy every single day you live like it's your Mum's teat! Do you know what it's like to hear whiteys ranting that people who consume this one game they hate are being antisemitic and racist??? While still fawning??? Over cop shows???? And Disney???? And sending Black people??? Death threats??? Over a game???
I don't say "anti-Semites DNI" for the same reason I don't say "racists DNI". Nobody identifies as a racist or antisemite, that's not how systemic oppression works. Radfem and Zionist and Communist are political identities. Radical feminism is underpinned by transphobia and racism, Zionism is currently entrenched in Palestine occupation, Western communists refuse to acknowledge USSR and Global South genocides. See how that works?
Bitch, you didn't just come at me about JKR's indigenous cultural appropriation when I was among the few who were trying to discourage people from supporting Fantastic Beasts back in 2016 and literally got flamed for it. You people did not give a single shit about Natives back then, and you don't give one now. Just like you don't actually care about Jews and never did. I literally never heard about why and how openly alt-right people keep getting this kind of power and position in the gaming industry. Conversations about antisemitism in gaming and antisemitic tropes in entertainment haven't gotten this much traction. No wider revelations about how entertainment media directly funding and promoting social harms. But sure, it's about antisemitism and racism and has absolutely nothing to do with a mess of white queers realizing they can weaponize it like a cudgel against anyone they believe are against them. We know you whites. You care about excuses to take the moral high ground without having to do any self-interrogation or cost to yourself.
Finally, to give y'all one example of where the current discourse around this stupid shit is at:
Fuck you.
#harry potter#fuck jkr#transphobia#antisemitism#racism#fantastic beasts#western leftists#white privilege#white people#imperialism#knee of huss
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A TED talk- the PR edition.
I know very little about PR.
Megan Moss Pinchon, the founder of Narrative, had every chance to pull her client, Chris Evans out of this situation. But no. She only sees him as a six-foot-tall walking dollar sign. I'll explain.
Pulling Chris out right after the pap walk. Talk about cringe.
Pulling Chris out right after the family's annual Disney trip. Mama Lisa's annoyed and murderous expression says it all.
Pulling Chris out after the trash nun's famous shower tantrum, which got her suspended on IG, and would have gotten her on a sec offenders registry. But, no. Meg swept that under the rug.
The Ghosted premiere. The trash nun's shoes up uninvited. Chris looks pissed! That's unusual for him, given his happy-go-lucky demeanor.
The laser focused comment. Meg needed to pull Chris from this, but no. She stood by, making sure he stuck to the script. When he didn't, Meg certainly gave him an earful. Instead, we get 5,000.artickes about them being "IG official", onky to have another 5,000 articles about Valentine's Day photo dumos when it's fucking clear he can't stand her, and can"t stand beinf around her.
After Scott's comment. It was clear Scott was put on the spot, and didn't know what to do. Instead, you used a People article to sweep it under the rug.
After the engagement rumors. Boom, there was a huge chance. But no, you just cleaned up using a dog shelter video and a People article about the family.
The "wedding". It's clear that fraud was committed. You had Chris claiming this the same weekend as 9/11, but wait! Was it that Friday? That Saturday? That Sunday? Nobody can keep the timeline straight. When the met? 2020? No, there was a global pandemic, and at that time, you had your client go to London to help clean up the cocaine Cinderella 's mess. He would have been nominated for an Emmy for Defending Jacob, but no. 2021? No, there were still lockdowns. 2022? Think again. They never met. The trash nun was still with Lucas while seducing old men, making internet porn, and selling foot fetish pics and foot fetish videos. You had every chance to pull him out of this. Then, later that week, you had your client in a "second wedding" in Portugal, the trash nun's home turf, only to avoid immigration laws. Where is the marriage license? Visa's with her name on it claiming that she was here? Where is the spousal visa? They don't exist. Ask anyone who has dealt with immigration, and they can tell you becoming a U.S. citizen is a process, albeit a very long one. Anyone who has married a non-U.S. citizen knows that your spouse is not leaving U.S. or foreign soil for a minimum of four months.
The Con. You had your client, Chris, wear an ill fitting ring the entire time, and admit to fraud. His panel wasn't recorded. How convenient. He spent more time talking about Dodger than he did about the trash nun. He looked very exhausted, haggard, and drugged. Since he was drugged to comply, Meg could have wound up in jail for possession with the intent to distribute, but no. Even that was cringe, and Meg was at the Con the whole time, making sure her client stuck to the script. You also had two people right next to him, one taking gifts from fans, and one watching intently. For what? In case he wanted to escape? I wouldn't blame Chris for making a run for it.
Another People article on Thanksgiving. Chris wanted to handle his return to IG and social media privately. But, no. You had to go ahead, embellish the crap out of it, and again, mention the trash nun, when it's perfectly clear that he hasn't said her name this time, and she's not on his list of followers or peopke that is following him. He is only following two accounts, and two accounts are only following him. Again, you had a chance to pull your client, but no. You chose to announce his return to IG loudly using People.
The manipulation quote in the SMA interview. The trash nub is famous for this, and Meg is, too. Again, you had a chance to pull your client from this.
The GQ article. Again, you could have protected and pull your client. But, no. He was drugged to comply, and you had Mama Lisa there making sure he stuck to the script. I'm pretty sure Mama Lisa didn't want anything to do with it.
We all know Meg loves her designer toys and clothes and accessories. Whatever makes her money, that's the tactic she takes. She cares nothing about her Chris and her other clients. I can guarantee she's done the same with her various other clients, but nothing to this extent.
At the end of the day, Meg is working for Chris. It's not Chris working for Meg. Chris just needs to fire her. She's done more harm than good, and all at the expense and the safety of her client.
I just want to give Chris a hug, and tell him it's going to be okay. I'm still sticking around because I believe in him.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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You got into an argument with a Lenore simp on Reddit who is 100% convinced that she was a perfect angel who loved him from the get-go
My post on Twitter about how Hector should have shown more resentment and Lenore more guilt attracted the attention of three Lenector shippers who started to converse under my thread about how much Lenore "deserved" better (I didn't even attempt to follow their conversation, both because Twitter sucks as a confrontation platform and because where do I even begin)
I guess this week is Lenector Week. Can't say I'm thrilled.
Anyway I love when Hector in the games ran away from his mad Lord who was forcing him into a life he didn't want and then found love in a woman who came to genuinely like him as a person and human being 💖 I love when a victim of abuse finds their hard-earned freedom away from their abuser and they can heal properly 💖 I love when abusers pay for what they've done and are shown as being terrible people 💖 and most importantly, I love the them 💖
(to be fair, the dudes on my thread were being very civil when they disagreed with each other about some stuff, and sometimes they even said things I agreed with, such as "Isaac didn't deserve that big happy ending after all the shit he did in S3". Always nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks Isaac was too much of a darling babyboy of the narrative. Too mad it always came from the perspective of "if everyone got a sappy happy ending, then Hector and Lenore deserved one too, it's not fair", which I'd say is a childish way to see a story 🙄 and i'm being generous and not calling them out for ignoring lenore's actions. at least one of those people admitted they wanted to see them addressed properly before they could move on. baby steps.)
i wish that person's argument was just that Lenore was a perfect angel who twuwy wuvs Hector. i don't really take issue with people seeing Lenore as more compassionate than how she's presented, there's some stuff in the show that supports that view but i had to draw the line with the way they were very insistently downplaying or even justifying that it's okay Hector was essentially raped because he got a better bargain in the end. the wording "it was for his own good" is especially vile
the sticking point for me is that while, yes, she did manage to secure a better position for him, it still stands the way she went about it was downright heinous - she did not have to do any of that. especially when it was already established that she's supposed to be this master manipulator diplomat who holds all the cards, while Hector is easily manipulated to begin with, and has since the end of S2 been suffering indignity after indignity that no doubt already wore down his spirit. the situation was already so stacked in favor of Hector complying out of his own self-interest, i dont even know why the enslavement ring has to exist, and has to specifically be activated by the wearer declaring their loyalty except as a really roundabout way to justify that sex scene happening. it could've still been a magical ring that binds the wearer to a master, which she then could've tricked Hector into wearing by way of something innocuous like trying to show him they're all equals or something. the point is, the whole situation was set up in a way where she's clearly taking advantage of him, and because they just had to introduce a sexual element to it, people should just call a spade a spade and say she raped him because that's what happened. even if she didn't she was taking advantage of him for her own gain and that should be recognized as being y'know. a bad thing that outweighs any good she got out of it for Hector.
i know that person was probably viewing it super positively as a kink thing they enjoy, but the whole basis of kink is mutual consent which obviously none of that was and was just. so frustrating and lowkey kind of worrying to see someone just. not able to see a horrible, toxic relationship for what it is, just because it wasn't outright abusive.
also ahhhhh Hectaly my beloveds <3 their story is much simpler but do you really need more than that?
sounds like you got the better end of the deal lmao. it seems to me like Lenector shippers are at least willing to acknowledge all the parts of their (hypothetical) relationship, and it would actually be interesting to see how that would develop from such a rocky place. it felt like there should have been an entire extra season between S3-S4 to explore not just this, but the rest of the plotlines properly, and also build up to those happy endings
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