Anyone who thinks Charles would be crazy to sign for 5 years with Ferrari, have you considered:

There are only 20 spots in Formula 1. Even some of the world's most incredibly talented drivers can't get a seat. And most drivers whose Dads don't own an F1 team are happy to get a 2-year contract. 5-year contracts are a rare occurrence. Ask Valtteri what it feels like to drive for years for a top team on 1-year contracts.

10 teams to pick from, with the top 5 claiming all but 2 podiums this past season. So if Charles were to leave Ferrari and not take a step backward in his career, he'd have to go to one of the remaining top 4 teams: RBR, Merc, AM, or McLaren. At Red Bull, he could get podiums and occasionally win races, but he'd never be number 1 while Max is there. Lewis could unexpectedly retire, but until he does, Merc is locked in with him. And while i think Toto would totally want to snap Charles up, if the opportunity arose, not sure I see this happening any time soon. McLaren have a pretty good lineup with both drivers having contracts past 2024. Finally, AM will only have a spot available if either Stroll Sr sells the team or Alonso is forced into retirement. Neither of which seem likely to happen before Charles's contract is up.

Charles lives and breathes Ferrari. He is a tifosi at heart. He loves driving for Ferrari for all its faults and shortcomings. He doesn't just say Forza Ferrari Sempre, he says it from the heart. He wears his Forza Ferrari bracelet until it breaks. He dedicates his end-of-season helmet to all the Ferrari team members. He points to the Prancing Horse on his suit with passion. He wears so many Ferrari clothes outside of work, we are shocked when he doesn't wear them for a while. He spends hours signing autographs for tifosi. And when they ask him if he will ever leave Ferrari, he immediately and confidently responds with, "Never."

Tying in with the previous point: the tifosi adore him. We have a priest praying for him. Grown men getting his name and/or number tattooed next to the Ferrari logo. Italian journalists waxing poetic about him. Fans singing for him under his hotel window. And a single hand gesture from Charles is enough to stop a crowd from booing Max. He gets showered with a 1,000 bracelets, and he accepts (and often immediately wears) them all with a grateful smile. This kind of adulation from the tifosi is not something he will automatically get elsewhere, and I am sure he would miss it dearly if he went to another team.

Charles has said over and over again that he wants to become WDC with Ferrari. Yes, he has mentioned that if he no longer believes in the project, he will look elsewhere. But Fred is only just starting. This year's car was inherited from Binotto. It takes a while to replace staff and to implement new procedures. Where it was possible to make quick changes, we have already seen improvements - most notably with the pit stops, but also with them bringing that meaningful floor upgrade in Suzuka. Fred has said some staff will not even work on next year's car, but on the 2025 car. Changes take time and we are not privy to as much information as Charles is. He has said he believes in Fred and what he is planning.

So to have job security for the next 5 years (btw equaling the number of years Michael Schumacher drove for Ferrari...) with a team he adores, whose fans worship the ground he walks on, working with a team principal with whom he not only has a fantastic working relationship with but who seems to share his vision for the future - it doesn't get much better than this. Yes, I can see that keeping your options open would be good, but I'm sure there will be clauses built into the contract to allow both parties a way out if things don't pan out the way they envision.

In the meantime, if the article in La Gazzetta Sportiva is true, Charles would be the definite N°1 driver for Ferrari. And with Fred also seeing him as the leader of the team, and the car being more developed to suit his driving style, without a doubt his confidence would grow, which in turn would help him become an even better driver and lead to more podiums and wins.

I just want Lan Wangji to somehow accidentally get drunk around the juniors, preferably in a situation where Wei Wuxian is not immediately available, and he pouts for a few minutes about wanting his husband but he can’t go find him because!! The Babies!!! He can’t LEAVE the BABIES!!! All alone!! With No Adult Supervision!!!

Instead he tries to herd them all into his lap like bunnies because they will be Safe There, and proceeds to spend the night telling all four of them how proud he is and that he sees their hard work and he believes in them and he’s excited to see how far they’ll all go and they should never doubt that they are loved.

Yes! All Of Them Do Cry!

In the morning naturally Lan Wangji doesn’t remember what happened and he’s deeply concerned by how the boys are all acting but they reassure him that he didn’t do anything bad so he just resigns himself to being silently perplexed about the whole thing.

When it’s time for the group to part ways, Zizhen boldly calls Lan Wangji Lan-Shushu. Jin Ling, red in the face and hunched defensively, copies him. Baffled but not displeased, Lan Wangji wishes them both safe travels, collects his little Lans (Jingyi is still getting suspiciously teary-eyed whenever he looks at Hanguang-Jun for too long, and Sizhui is emanating zen vibes the way he does when he’s pretending he has never had a single emotion ever in his life) and goes back to Gusu.

(It’s Wei Wuxian who ends up getting the story out of Jingyi and Sizhui, and he laughs himself sick and then flounces to the Jingshi to give his bewildered husband many kisses. Lan Wangji never actually finds out what happened.)

Oooooh I wanna make a comic about Morro discovering his true potential so bad

But brain small and smooth and can’t think of what his obstacle to overcome could be

Like yeah obviously, it would be learning that he wasn’t meant to be the green ninja and he won’t be able to get that title, and that’s okay! But it’s very similar to what Kai’s potential was (which btw side note, after seeing other people share their interpretation and thoughts on Kai, I too like to believe that the true meaning behind his potential is “I am enough, and I won’t be seen as any less if I don’t become the green ninja”), and I really want to tie in to how he could’ve still had a good life if only he hadn’t been so hellbent on finding the realm crystal

So maybe it could be something like “I am imperfect, I am broken, I have been hurt by others and I too have hurt others, but longing for something that I cannot achieve will not fix me or anything else; I took for granted what I had, I left the one person who truly cared about me, I sought out what I thought would fill the cracks that have formed throughout the years, but it only broke me further. I cannot change my past, I cannot go back to what I had, nor can I go back to who I was. But I can try and build a better future for myself. Despite all the pain, anger, fear and loss, I can still rebuild myself, and perhaps someday, these old scars will fade, and I will feel a little more human. Despite it all, I can still heal.”

Maybe idk, I’d love to hear what everyone else has to say <3

Let's talk about Tidus and Yuna, shall we?

As someone who enjoys FFX, this probably should have come a long time ago. Tidus and Yuna's characters in the original Final Fantasy 10 are excellent.

Tidus successfully portrays a seventeen-year-old boy in this fantasy situation - slightly annoying, slightly arrogant because of his famous father and his own famous Blitzball career, and utterly overwhelmed by being thrust into an entirely new world without knowing if he can go home.

While FFX tries to fake you out into thinking it's a time-travel story where he has been thrust 1000 years into the future, the city of Zanarkand is a physical location in Spira that just requires you to be made of pyreflies to enter (aka dead or a summon). This makes Tidus essentially a summon, which is an interesting theory for another day. This means Zanarkand is just a place that hasn't changed in 1000 years, likely in some infinite loop imagining and reimagining people who had once lived there - warping them slowly over time, but ultimately just trying to keep the city alive (which is how we got Tidus from Shuyin, I think, idk I really don't care for 10-2's plot). The fayth were trying to imagine what would happen if Zanarkand was never destroyed, but I think they simply would have started running out of ideas for new people who lived there, so it did end up looping old characters into slightly newer forms. Like fanfiction characters, honestly.

But it's so great to see Tidus's journey. He starts the game a confused outsider just trying to survive, someone who doesn't mind speaking up about how he feels and what he believes. His outsider perspective provides a means for the audience to be introduced to Spira's world building as well, and we also get to see an unbiased point of view to Yevon's religion - and not necessarily a disrespectful one. Tidus, though he doesn't preach Yevon as a devout follower for his entire life, still tries to make an effort to be respectful of the good parts. When Shelinda corrects him, "That's MAESTER Seymour, or LORD Seymour", he says "Sorry, I'll be careful."

He dashes into the Cloister of Trials to save the summoner who might be in danger, regardless of the rules or presincts, because he's got a childish outlook life and a good heart despite his many inital arrogant qualities. He wants the best outcome, he's willing to believe in doing the right thing even when it's hard, and yeah it's unrealistic at times, but it's a breath of fresh air for the people of Spira who live rather docile lives always in fear of Sin and dedicating themselves to the kindness of Yevon's teachings. He admits "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea" after he breaks the rules for the first time, and watching Yuna on her pilgrimage and how she interacts with the people who admire her for her father and her own summoner status allows Tidus to humble himself while still remaining fundamentally defiant to anything he doesn't agree is right - aka Yuna sacrificing herself.

Religion isn't always a bad thing, and FFX makes a point to emphasize this. The people of Spira are kind and respectful, banding together in the hard times and unting together to have hope. Yuna is initially a beacon of hope - all summoners are - making people smile and flock to her wherever she goes, and she gives people respect and encourages them to have faith not only in her, but in themselves as well. Even when she's branded a traitor, a significant number of people recognize Yuna's dedication to the people and immediately believe the next tale about it all being an evil Al-Bhed rumor.

Yevon's corruption is just a few people abusing their power, twisting a good message into a cult-like dedication. Wakka is the most notable case, but technically all of the characters go through a period of blindly believing in the teachings and Yevon and eventually finding their own path. Even Tidus, who didn't grow up believing in Yevon or knowing its teachings, finds that the people's way of life living in rightful fear of Sin has them NEEDING Yevon and the messages of kindness and compassion it preaches. Maybe they shouldn't believe in everything the Maesters say Yevon is, but he can understand the intentions behind it and how the regular, uncorrupt people just live their lives trying to be good.

Now that I think about it, the parallels between Yevon and Blitzball actually make a lot of sense - Blitzball is the entertainment people go to in order to forget about the fears of Sin, and Yevon is the religion people worship in an effort to band together and have hope against Sin. Huh. No wonder a Blitzball sign for victory became a religious thing.

Anyway, Wakka eventually apologizes! He recognizes that the Al-Bhed are just people. They don't believe in Yevon's ways BECAUSE they care, just from a different perspective. Just because they don't believe in Yevon doesn't mean they're savages, and when their Home is destroyed by merciless Guado, he hears them singing the Hymn of the Fayth to respect their fallen as well. Wakka admits he didn't want to hear anything he didn't agree with, that he was a jerk, and Cid agrees that he's hated Yevonites just for being Yevonites too.

Here's a Wakka glare just for our collective amusement.

Who were we talking about? Ah, Tidus.

Tidus is indeed a whiny character, childish, toeing the line between humor and annoyance. But he matures throughout the course of his journey, caring for the entire crew but Yuna especially. When they reach Zanarkand and learn the truth about the Final Summoning, Lulu tells him, "If you want everything, you'll end up with nothing," and he replies, "But I want everything!" His unwavering hope and optimism even when everyone is telling him it's impossible is necessary for the story, to tell the characters that yes, your sacrifices will be pretty and give temporary relief, and you'll be dead and martyred and remembered - but how can it be right? It's not.

From his basic, outsider, new perspective on this world he only just joined, it's not right. He didn't grow up with this being normal, so even in comparison to the Al-Bhed, he knows that it's not.

There's a saying somewhere that I forget the source, but basically it goes like "Children are raised to believe the world is good and fair but are outraged when they grow to learn it is not." Tidus asks what an ADULT would do, sacrificing a summoner and just moving on with their lives like it was fine to give one life for many, just happy it wasn't them. Adults are indoctrinated into a way of life and a way of thinking, and it's extremely hard to get people to change their minds - but not, as FFX proves, impossible. Both he and Yuna are still kids, kids who are still able to grow up to see the world for what it truly is.

Yuna was betrayed by Yevon, all her beliefs torn down and the hope she had placed on the system shattered. But she continued her pilgrimage. She dreamt of all the fun things she could do if she quit, knew that all of her friends and Guardians would accept her choice, but she knew she could never let it go. She stood up to the Ronso saying that she was fighting for the people, not the temples or Yevon - impressing Kelk Ronso who says she has an iron will that towers over Gagazette's peaks.

She has given her everything to this trip, but it's not fair. Just because it's the right thing to do doesn't mean it's right - and you need a character like Tidus to put his foot down and say no. Everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves, everyone is willing to be the one to die so that others can be happy. But it's not fair. It's not right to let anyone die, even if they're willing, even if it's one for many. It's a temporary fix, it's feeding an endless cycle of lies and false hope. It's not real.

But it is YUNA who ultimately makes the choice to say no. All this time, she's been insisting she keeps going despite both Rikku and Tidus's protests and desperate attempts to get her to change her mind. She's been the most resolute out of all of them to go through with this, but in the end, it's not Tidus or Rikku who kill Yunalesca before she can get the chance or present her a stirring enough argument or some alternative. No, it's Yuna who asks directly what the cycle of the Final Summoning and Sin mean, hearing that the hope they offer is false, and when asked who will be her fayth, everyone is silent, waiting for her answer - because it is Yuna'a choice, Yuna's pilgrimage, Yuna's story. And she says, "No one."

She would have gladly died for the people of Spira, but she is done. She isn't going to join into this cycle of death and lies. Her father chose to become a summoner and defeated Sin, but it was because he truly believed that it would make a difference. He died because he had hope, and maybe it was indeed false hope, but somewhere deep down, he really did want to find a way to stop Sin for good. He and Jecht went into that battle hoping that Jecht and Auron would find a way to break the cycle. And let's be honest, they did. Tidus and Yuna were brought up differently, but they end up seeing each other's sides of the story and agreeing on so many things. The people are worth fighting for even when they're being misled.

Yunalesca's argument is that sorrow will always exist, and false hope is all anyone can offer to soften the blow. But Yuna is ready to live with her sorrow and brave whatever comes from it. She will find her own hope, even without knowing there will be another way, and she knows she will conquer it. She proved it long before she reached Zanarkand, after enduring Yevon's betrayal; now her methods have changed, but her end goal is as resolute as it's always been. She's going to defeat Sin, and she's going to give people REAL hope, even when it's hard.

Yuna says no to Yunalesca. She joins in the fight to destroy the Final Summoning forever, and slowly she learns that she can function beyond Yevon's teachings. The team who made 10-2 seemed to think that Yuna needed to toughen up and become some kind of badass (which they failed at portraying, Yuna is an utter wreck in that game and let's not talk about how Rikku devolved), but she was already a freaking strong character! She stood up for herself the entire game as a strong-willed summoner willing to give her life for the cause, but she also stood up for herself by declaring she would LIVE. It's entirely in character for her, even when she's changing her mind and broadening her horizons. Yuna was the character who smiled even knowing she was on a long, slow journey that would end in her death, who was willing to do it if it would make others smile too. That is a strong character right there.

I do agree that she might not know what to do with her life now that she doesn't plan to die, but come on, don't make her into a wanna-be who tries to pretend like she doesn't care only to reveal yup she cares, what a pushover. Her caring nature is what makes her great to watch! Frustrating when she tries to do everything on her own with the Seymour thing, but entirely in character. Empowering when she makes her own choices and decides for herself. I don't know why she does nothing for two whole years during Eternal Calm but okay maybe I can see it. But for her to try doing a 180, respecting no one and no one respecting her even though she DEFEATED SIN was such a mistake. Plus the mini games in 10-2 are utterly atrocious. Anyway, tangent over.

But then the script has flipped at the end of 10. Tidus is the one that realizes Zanarkand is what Sin is protecting, that defeating Sin will make the whole city and everyone made from the dream disappear. He is the one who has to sacrifice himself for Sin to be defeated. Unlike summoners, however, Sin won't come back if he does this. He's grown across the journey just like Jecht did, following a summoner and learning what it means to want to give your life living in hope that it'll save everyone else.

Yuna has to sacrifice the Aeons she's forged her own bond with - which, remember, every summoner makes a unique bond with the aeons. She has to say goodbye to Auron, see Sir Jecht only one more time as he gives his life as an Aeon and uses the last of his power to give his sword for the final battles to fight on (did ya notice that?). Then, in the final tragic scene, Tidus becomes intangible and tries to say a cheerful goodbye, apologizing for not being able to show her Zanarkand like they had pondered when Yuna was dreaming of the things she'd do if she abandoned her pilgrimage and lived. Now, Yuna is the one having to say goodbye to the one sacrificing their life. The soft piano, the wailing of the colorful pyreflies as they disperse with all the dead, it's freaking beautiful man.

Yuna's final line hits hard too, her speech about how everyone has lost homes, dreams, and friends. They can build new homes and new dreams, even if they can't get back lost friends. "The people and the friends that we have lost...or the dreams that have faded...never forget them." Get it? Be...Because Tidus is a dream that faded? Anyway I'll just be crying in the corner over here don't mind me.

In the end, it's sort of understandable why Yuna just sits around in Besaid after the end of 10 during Eternal Calm. Maybe. Not only did she have no plans for her life after Sin was defeated (thinking she would be the one to die), but she lost her entire purpose in life AND she's reeling from the fact that even though she made the choice not to sacrifice herself just for everyone else's false hope, someone still had to give their life - Tidus. Someone still ended up dying for the cause, even after all she went through deciding to live.

The ONLY moments I actually respect Yuna from 10-2 is during the end, when Nooj volunteers a plan to give his life to win the battle (which was already stupid even before Yuna's speech because we're talking about an Unsent, Nooj your plan does nothing to stop someone who's already dead, idiot). Yuna's lines are extremely good and well voice acted too: "'We had no choice.' Always 'We had no choice.' Those are our magic words. We repeat them to ourselves again and again. But you know... The magic never worked! The only thing we're left with is regret. No. I don't want this anymore. I don't want friends to die...or fade away. I don't want battles where we have to lose in order to win."

It also demonstrates better than that stupid minigame how difficult it was for Yuna to have destroyed the aeons she had forged a bond with. What I'm saying is, fuck Beclem and everyone else who dares disrespect Yuna, summoners, and everything they went through. Even though that time and age in Spira might be over, that's NO reason to immediately scoff in the face of everything all those people went through - everything YUNA sacrificed and endured for the sake of these ungrateful whelps.

Both Tidus and Yuna were excellent protagonists of X, despite both of them having a lot of growing to do. In conclusion, let me make use of this fun poll feature if you made it this far down:

I really like how the pjo tv show built up Poseidon's character. From the very first episode to he actually shows up on screen in episodes 7 and 8, we hear a lot of conflicting information about him. The show does a good job balancing between validating Percy's deadbeat dad feelings and setting Poseidon up to be an actually good person, so that when he surrenders to save Percy's life it doesn't surprise anyone.

We first hear about Poseidon from Sally. In her whole telling Percy his dad is a god speech she describes him as wise, brave, kind and noble. all good things. We then get Medusa who at first seem to be corroborating, she says "he told me he loved me, I felt as though he saw me in a way i had never felt seen before". Before she switches it up and calls him a monster. A thing to note here is that Percy defends Poseidon here he says "my mom never talked about my dad that way".

Then we have the arch and the Nereid, which is the first time Poseidon directly intervenes to save Percy's life and at the same time sends someone to talk to him. While we do not get the whole conversation we do hear that Poseidon does care about Percy and is proud of him. And next episode we learn that Poseidon does want to meet Percy and help him. Its also here Percy's feelings toward Poseidon change from bad to good.

But its also the episode where Ares says Poseidon loses interest in his kids and stop caring about them. Then we get Hermes and his parenting speech and them missing the deadline. and we meet the Nereid again (or another one?) who again talking on behalf of Poseidon says he is proud and it isn't Percy's fault he failed and tries to get him to get back to camp where its safe.

At the end of this its leaning pretty heavily toward Poseidon being a good person now, but because of all the negativity thats been thrown around. it isn't until he shows up in the flashback scene that that gets firmly established. I really thought before then that the first we would see of Poseidon would be on Olympus but im really happy to be wrong because this set things up in a really nice way for it all to culminate on Olympus in the finale.

Idea: A lighthearted oneshot where the players interact with low level minions, like kobolds! However, if they purposefully kill a minion, then all the minions will attack the party, except for one, who lets out a wail of despair and runs off. Turns out, the minions have a similar relationship structure to humans, and you just killed that one's significant other! So the party follows the minion, barely missing them each time due to encounters with strange creatures. Then, when they catch up to the minion, they see them as they finish a ritual with an effigy that looks extremely out of place, yet looks oddly familiar to the party... And then the DM swaps bodies with the minion, so they have to reverse the ritual and make sure the DM survives. Though they do have to wait through a bit of monologuing until they find out, and they might kill the DM themselves before they find out... and that's when you (the actual real DM) ask how to contact the authorities, and when you find out, you threaten to call the cops on your players for murder I they don't revive the DM quickly. And then if they don't you fake calling the police.

Thanks @dartp for the submitted idea! You know, I haven’t ever tried to swap bodies with an NPC. Maybe I haven’t played Dungeons & Dragons long enough to learn real magic.

I really think abjurers are unfairly maligned. A lot of it is probably residual disdain from Tsukinogi being bad on launch (at least I think that was a thing, I wasn’t playing when she came out) but I still feel like they’re just generally misunderstood. It’s understandable when their role on the team is somewhat muddy considering their dual nature, but in using them extensively on an account that isn’t allowed medics I’ve come to understand them and how best to utilize the strengths they bring.

First of all, the elephant in the room: sanctuary. I honestly don’t disagree with the sentiment that it’s not a very effective mitigation tool. I myself hardly even notice it, though I will admit I haven’t really gotten to play around with the main skills that enhance it’s capabilities very much, since I just barely e2′d 9CD and only got Tsukinogi recently and haven’t had the time to build her. generally, I would consider it a bonus minor effect instead of the main reason you would deploy an abjurer. it’s unfortunate it usurps the position of the operator’s talent like the musha guard ASPD thing, but there’s not much I can do about that except silently pine for a rework that includes it in their branch trait. At the end of the day, it does more than nothing at least, but it’s definitely the weakest aspect of the branch.

Where I think abjurers shine is in fact as your team’s main source of healing. a misconception that I used to fall under, and I’m sure others do as well, is that you need healing out all the time. It certainly feels safer to have S1 Warfarin tucked neatly behind Hoshiguma or something, but when the mission ends and that defender never even approached the health threshold to need the bonus heal from Warf, not much was really gained there (except for the battery potential but that’s a different thing). Simply put, a big chunk of the game does not have enough constant and threatening damage to require full time medic coverage, which is where abjurers come in. you get a handy dandy little friend pinging targets for some bonus arts damage, and then when your blockers are looking a bit scraped up, you switch em on and you’re good to go.

Abjurers are good healers too. It might seem that with them only healing for 75% of their attack, they’d perform poorly, but I’ve certainly found the contrary to be true. Their initial attack values are on par with the lower half of medic medics, and most of their skills either increase their attack or ASPD, mitigating the penalty entirely. There’s another thing, by the way: attack speed. All medics (except incantation medics) have a default attack interval of 2.85 seconds, which is on the slow side of things, up there with besiegers and splash casters. our little Abjurer buddies, on the other hand have an interval of 1.6 seconds, just like their more offensive-focused older siblings the hexers (and also incantation medics, conveniently). This lets them put out small bits of healing much faster, which is definitely preferable in some situations. One final point on their healing effectiveness is their range. just like with therapist and wandering medics, those extra tiles can really open up some maps to placements you never would’ve been able to cover with a single healer, leaving a slot open for another dps unit or something.

Now that I’ve given my thoughts in broad strokes, let’s talk about each one of them and their strengths.

first: Tsukinogi. While I do love her equally among her sisters, I must admit that she’s the worst of the three. you all know what I’m getting at here, say it with me: bad skill cycles. they really hamper her cycling ability, often requiring you to rely on another abjurer to cover the time she can’t. However, don’t let that take away from the fact that what she does bring to the table is quite valuable. S1 gives dodge. Dodge is both funny and stackable, and one of the better defensive effects in the game which really helps out in tense moments. Additionally, her decloak is just as valuable as it is on the other units that offer it, which is to say situational but pretty good. hers lasts quite awhile and covers area nearly as good as Scene can, so it’s quite nice to have. Her S2 does the best of any of the abjurers at making the sanctuary effect truly powerful, and I haven’t really gotten the chance to truly explore the depths of what that entails. what I will definitely say about this skill is that regen effects are awesome and pair really well with huge chunky healthbars that don’t need too much upkeep. for me and my niche account this is mostly just ling summons, but most defenders could really use this treatment.

Nine-Colored Deer is certainly the simplest of the bunch, but I don’t think it’s to her detriment. Her S1 has a really useful skill cycle that allows it to be there when you need it but not overstay its welcome and waste a bunch of uptime on a field of full health operators. The actual effect of the skill, while boring, is certainly potent. Her S2 requires a bit of forethought if you’re going to use it properly, that being that you place her down last so that she actually gets shot at. This could potentially require you bring a bard or something to keep her topped up during her offtime, but that’s perfectly fine and will help your other ops too. The uptime isn’t the greatest and it’s unfortunate that you need to M1 it to make it viable but like, can’t win em all. oh also ASPD is awesome. Also also, Nines is really loud for some reason, all of her attack sounds are very noisy. I kinda like it though.

Finally, Quercus. If you couldn’t tell, I’m arranging these worst to best. First of all, her talent applies at high health rather than low, which is certainly more useful overall since it’ll never not have some sort of effect. her S1 literally just makes her a medic, and it’s quite nice. If you can actually use a normal medic, this skill is quite weak, since all you’re really gaining is four extra tiles of range where you could be getting any number of effects on top of healing all the time. the biggest thing I’ll give this one (for the average player at least, not me with my weird account) is that the skill animation is the silliest shit. no flashy lights, no big animation, she just puts the staff in the other hand. It’s great. Her S2, however, is the pinnacle of the class’s capability. It has the shortest skill cycle of any of their skills, which is really nice to have. The ASPD she gains is even better, allowing for some really potent healing, especially considering she’s got the highest attack of the three. But it’s the SP. Her battery potential is so much fun to use, especially when you use it to battery other abjurers. Use Quercus to get S1 9CD back in action way faster, and then Nines can cover the healing for the entirety of Quercus’s skill charge. It’s real nice. Plus, putting SP into your damage units is literally never not a good thing.

Look at the end of the day? are they gonna perform like a top tier medic? No, of course not. There’s no way two weird deer and a funny cat are gonna stand up to the followers or Warf or Lumen or Ptilo or any other super strong medic, but honestly, do you really always need all of those strong medics? Maybe not. Give em a try, test em out, see if you like em and maybe an abjurer will find a place on your team and spruce up your day. or not, It’s your account. Have fun!

I Had Miraculous Ladybug Thoughts, Specifically the Chloe Lila Alliance Situation, and I'm Making It Your Problem! I am So Sorry!

Just. Read the title of this post. I am the most biased person you could have on this topic. You've been warned.

Okay, so. Chloe. If you are in the ML fandom, first off, my condolences, we shall suffer together. Second off, you know that Chloe is incredibly divisive. On the one hand, she's an absolute a**hole to everyone around her at any point in the series that is not season 2 and parts of season 3. On the other hand, it is clear that she has no adults teaching her how to not be an a**hole or regulating her behavior because the only people who have the necessary authority should not have ever been parents.

And then you have that whole thing in season 2 where they started to explain her awfulness and gave her the bee miraculous and she started getting better and developing a support structure, and then she stopped being allowed to have the bee miraculous and dove headfirst off the deep end. This frustrates pretty much the entire fandom. On the Chloe hate side, you wonder why they were wasting time with this. On the Chloe love side, you just got baited, and you're annoyed as heck, and you also are wondering why they wasted your time with this.

But fine, okay, it's dumb, but whatever, the fanfiction can work with this. What the fanfiction has a MUCH harder time working with is Chloe and Lila forming an unholy alliance over their mutual hatred of Marinette and Ladybug. Because the problem here is, it's redundant, it doesn't make sense, and makes Lila even more of a Mary Sue.

Tangent warning: YEAH I SAID IT! I think Lila is a Mary Sue. You don't have to think that. My definition of a Mary Sue is "a character that warps the fabric of the story around them without it making any sense because the author likes/hates/pities/has other strong emotion about this character/ too much to care about a coherent narrative." Not everybody defines a Mary Sue this way, but by this definition, Lila is a Mary Sue. Everyone immediately loses their brain cells around her despite being compassionate and sometimes intelligent individuals who will kill for Marinette in most other scenarios. Nonsensical story warping just because the author said so. Tangent aside:

What this alliance does is it gives you two manipulative lying b*tches who willingly get akumatized to further their petty schemes and are out to destroy Marinette and Ladybug and are weirdly possessive of but don't actually seem to care for Adrien. There's really no point in having two. They occupy the same narrative niche and it is awkward and stupid and I DO NOT LIKE IT. Neither does most of the fandom it seems, because this alliance rarely appears in fanfiction.

There are a couple default solutions in fanfiction:

1. Redeem Chloe. I like this solution. I like Chloe, I think she's entertaining, and I think her interactions with other characters as a good guy are especially entertaining, I think she brings a lot of valuable skills and perspective to the cast as a good guy, I think she has a lot of reasons for being an a**hole that should be properly addressed, and I think the reasons her redemptipn arc got aborted were stupid. Most fanfiction goes the route of having redeemed Chloe viscerally hate Lila too, because Chloe goes after enemies with passion and her whole heart. This is a clean solution, but not great if you don't like Chloe all that much or are trying to make it canon compliant (best of luck to you, canon is all over the place).

2. Only focus on one as a villain and yeet the other out of the story. If Chloe is the villain, set the story during the time that Lila was off being Cerise or wandering around Paris or whatever, or before she showed up. If Lila is the villain, give Chloe an unrelated reason to decide she's not dealing with that today, thank you very much. Usually used in salt fics to dunk on whichever character grinds your gears more without unwanted interruptions. I like salt fics, and this is also a good clean solution. Having both of them is redundant, so just remove one. For Lila, it makes sense because she's a Mary Sue and writing her is annoying, so pretending she never existed is a great fix to that. For Chloe, it makes sense because "lying manipulative ladybug hating b*tch" only really starts being her archetype after the writers screwed up her character with a million inconsistincies. Before that, she was more of a "comically loud, bossy, really obssessive fangirl b*tch," so Lila just works better for certain plots. Downside is that you can't focus on Chloe-Lila interactions, and you sometimes have to do a bit of finagling to figure out how to remove them from a situation they would ordinarily be VERY invested in.

3. Make them hate each other. This is one of my favorite solutions because I have a weakness for villain rivalries that are equal parts comedic and dramatic, but bias aside, this absolutely works. They both want Adrien's sole, undivided attention, and, prior to aforementioned screwing over of Chloe's character, Chloe is the world's biggest Ladybug stan, and Lila is her number 1 hater. They also both have a weird power over the adults in the story that two 14 year old girls really shouldn't have. All these factors make it very easy to guess they would clash. Watch as they try to destroy each other! This plays into the "they both suck, but it's different flavors of suck," and makes those flavors mix BADLY together. The one downside is that it is hard to not make this the central focus of the story, because both of them are so over the top that they're absolutely going to drown out most other going ons, and this is technically supposed to be about Marinette and Adrien. It also erases some of the storylines you can get from an actually thought out alliance.

4. Redeem Lila. I have only seen this in one place, but it is a prominent place and that's more places than my suggestion on this whole ordeal. The prominent place being the Scarlet Lady AU by the very talented and lovely ZoeOneesame. Her take on it was basically:

"Chloe in this AU has the ladybug miraculous, and Chloe sucks at her job, so Lila's ladybug hatred is justified. Marinette is in love with Chat and isn't involved in the ladybug drama, so Lila has no reason to hate her. Adrien is both much smarter and much more active in this AU, so he wouldn't deal with Lila in the same hands-off way. Everybody else is also smarter in this AU and would probably know Lila was lying and also not care because they are forgiving and compassionate. So Lila's lies would most likely get called out, she would have the freedom and desire to figure out who she is beneath the lies, and she would have a justified hatred of Scarlet Lady matched by other characters in the AU, and would probably band together with them."

And thus, no filter, vindictive good guy Lila was born! Again, I have only seen this in Scarlet Lady, but it is amazing over there, so I had to talk about it. Redeeming Lila is an unconventional choice for sure, but I think if you arrange for circumstances where Lila would rather ally with the heroes than the villains, then you can get a lot of mileage out of her people-reading/manipulation skills helping out the heroes while possibly scaring the crap out of them at the same time. This has basically all the same downsides as the Chloe redemption though. It's not fun to do if you're here for Lila salt, and it's ABSOLUTELY not canon compliant.

Now. You may have noticed that nobody who writes fanfiction for this show does the canon Chloe-Lila alliance. This is for a myriad of aforementioned reasons: it's redundant, it continues the confusion of Chloe's character arc, and Lila is a Mary Sue, so anything that involves her tends to be frustrating. But, I think there is a way to make it work, so I'm writing about it.

First of all, don't do what canon did where 6 just have Lila teach Chloe how to lie. Take full advantage of the fact that they are two very different types of a**hole. They can ally for the same reasons: they both are super possesive of Adrien and are raging about him getting together with Marinette. And while I don't like the arc of Marinette being a trash and controlling guardian who shows inordinate favoritism to Alya and Zoe and literally nobody else because she's gay for them, you can still do that and have them both hate Ladybug too. I don't like that plot beat, mostly because it's never really addressed that Marinette is in fact a bad guardian outside of some light sulking from Chat, but it can work. She's a 14 year old girl in way over her head with no adults left to help (except the kwamis, but they don't really count because they are very unhelpful). It makes sense that she wouldn't do a good job at first. But whatever their reasons for teaming up, lean into the fact that Lila is a two-faced secretively awful person while Chloe is an in-your-face publicly awful person. From there, it depends on the tone you're going for.

Chloe is a great villain for humor because she's so loud and dramatic. She can get away with saying and doing really insane and rude stuff on the grounds that she's insane and rude (and also rich and powerful). People don't have any expectations for Chloe to be nice or rational, so she can do stuff like try and write a Queen Banana character into the class film and be met with annoyance and frustration rather than outrage and shock. So if you're going a lighthearted route, let Chloe be the one who does all the public legwork for their schemes, and let her be absolutely over the top about it.

On the other hand, Chloe can also be threatening in a far more tangible way than Lila. Lila can make people think you're a bit of a jerk, but it takes a lot of work for her to come close to getting Marinette expelled, even with all her Mary Sueness to help. Chloe can just look at the principal and say "My dad will fire you and remove all school funding if you don't expel her." Chloe won't make people dislike Marinette because nobody likes her, but she can physically hurt Marinette in ways that Lila can't. So if you're going for drama, you can lean into that. Chloe is in a completely different social class than everyone else and has actual power.

Either way, let Chloe be a complete drama queen who is publicly out to get Marinette, because there isn't anything anyone can do about it.

Meanwhile, let Lila work in the background. Lila has never been a comedic villain, only getting introduced after the show had taken a turn for the more dramatic, so don't bother. Leave that to Chloe's antics. Let Lila be the actual threat who is driving their plans. A lot of the reason Chloe was manageable while Lila never was is because Chloe's rage tends to be directionless and impulsive. She has a short temper that can easily be triggered, but also easily soothed, and she doesn't have any thought out plans or long form schemes. She just does whatever she thinks will make her happy in the moment. Have Lila be the one who convinces her to think in the long-term, and who comes up with an overarching plot to get rid of Marinette, adding a sense of real tension to the situation. Sure, before Chloe could have you expelled on a whim, but she also would have stopped bothering the second Adrien paid attention to her. Lila will help Chloe drop that boundary.

Lila also has the advantage of people actually liking her and being willing to do things for her without threatening or bribing them. Lila can do things like make it so Marinette doesn't have any of her friends around to help in an emergency. She can make it so people believe Chloe might actually be justified in her crusade against Marinette this time. She can plant seeds of doubt and distrust and she can socially isolate Marinette in ways Chloe can't. Make people love and believe in her instead, slowly destroy Marinette's support system, and so on. It not only is really dramatic and upsetting, it basically leaves Mari with just Adrien and Chat to rely on, which is FANTASTIC ship fuel if that's your jam. This can also let you have some other prominent characters come to the fore. Have some Kagami focus. Have some Luka focus. Bring in Socqueline and Felix and see how that changes things.

Point is, between these two, you could have a genuine, non-redundant threat that you can get emotional mileage out of. Lila is on one side turning all of Mari's friends against her and scheming to destroy her in the long term. Chloe is on the other side threatening Marinette's lifestyle---her bakery, her school, her fashion career, her public image, her existence in Paris---anything that can be damaged by the Mayor and the Style Queen is under attack. And then you have Hawkmoth on the other end, throwing akumas in her face and forcing her to make impossible choices. I would imagine Lila also gets akumatized on purpose whenever she needs a little extra help, while Chloe just gets egged on and pushed off the deep end by Lila whenever Lila thinks it'd be advantageous. So that trifecta is super genuinely threatening. But you can also have Chloe being a really stupid drama queen whose fits of rage can still be silly and poorly thought out, even with Lila helping her. And you can have some really heartwarming stuff as the people left in Marinette's support system band together and become even closer to get rid of these two once and for all. I just think this plot beat has a lot of untapped potential if the writers didn't make then fulfill the same narrative role, and I haven't really seen it explored yet.

Feel free to use this idea in fanfic, tell me that it sucks and would be bad, or ignore me, I mostly just needed to write this down!

If the mood strikes me or multiple people express interest (yeah right), I will make a (probably much shorter) post explaining how you can redeem both of them effectively and also why I think that would be bad in most circumstances.

Congratulations if you read this whole rant, now please go to sleep. Please. So much please.

Here is your excuse to ramble more about clethubs, I think this sort of analysis is really cool

the similarity of etho and cleo's approach to the life series is that they both will say either out loud or thru their actions, "I'm going to make sure you get what you deserve."

for cleo, this is her sense of justice leading her to the iconic "do me a favor and die for me" moment; she's loyal until she's betrayed, and then everything is on the table. she will treat you exactly as fairly as you treat her, which is why scott and her teaming up twice in a row makes sense, since Scott's win in LL is tied to his unwillingness to betray anyone and going red because of not killing as boogeyman. it also means that bdubs, who she didn't know especially closely before 3L, gets particular indulgences from her when he asks her to pretend she found the enchanter and tells him no one will believe her because she's also red but cuts instantly after that to her doing it. in DL she starts lying for fun with the lie meter bit after chastising bdubs for lying to her when she has never lied to him. she lies to him after! come season 4 (manifesting) I don't expect her to be sentimental about him much.

etho's whole bit in frightening exploit tactics is the same wording but emphasized differently. he fakes being boogey to extort people and fails at it miserably, but he is primarily interested in engineering situations in which people become deserving of retaliation, something cleo doesn't seek out but takes advantage of when it happens. His fishing rod kill on scar is the most brutally brilliant example of this - seeing an opportunity so good that even scar says he can't quite be mad about dying to it! But he doesn't really escape scar's single-minded insistence on the contracts bc scar has never been interested in fairness and etho is always interested in technicalities.

this contrast is compelling on its own. But bdubs brings them together when cleo tries to get recompense for etho looting her corpse while she's doing a favor for her buddy who said etho was kicking him out even though etho (correctly) insists he never was, and it's bdubs who brings them together when cleo consoles etho when bdubs dies and trusts him because bdubs did.

bdubs is not interested in people getting what they deserve. Bdubs is interested in people getting what he can give them, like a crastle to keep them safe, or interesting recklessness to play off of if he can't build a fortress, or a commitment to a bit whether it's advantageous or not (homewrecking). he is selfish and selfless, he will take lives from tango in LL and lie to cleo and everybody in DL and betray impulse of the day 1 crew in 3L when it suits him because he has one priority and that's his partner surviving him and I guess like being alive long enough to torment etho Jesus christ he's sick in the head for that one.

together the three of them when they align enable each other's most interesting and complex traits. you can see it in the way etho is like the only one who believes bdubs homewrecking and trusts cleo even while she says etho is the weakest link to attack alongside bdubs, because now unallied she has no qualms about using her knowledge of them to her advantage, all while bdubs quest to homewreck driven literally because quote unquote I want etho causes her to treat him no longer Iike home as he'd described her and she'd treated etho by transitive property in LL but some other player.

anti-sentimental sentimentalists of different flavors, who are in turn fiercely loyal and just and ruthless and indifferent. they would not I think win as a team of three. but a guy who wants to go out in a blaze of glory and a person who's always down for arson and just desserts and a guy who looks for reasons to fall on swords.... man. man. it gets to me

huh. Jensen does say "in that moment" quite repeatedly. I guess I'm holding some hope to that, maybe I'm a massive clown or maybe I'm reading something off people's unspoken words but er... Can you please think of me if (and that's a big if, I know) something like this become true?

Don't feel the need to answer this in any way although I won't mind if you did. I just wanted to leave my hopeful and somehow uncharacteristically certain prediction on this matter, and I wanted to do that to you because I felt like you would not just dismiss it without giving it a cursory read nor consider this too seriously. Just let it wander in the mist of your deeply vast subconscious and come back to it if anything even remote to this comes true in the next... six months. That's what I'm asking.

Just to be clear, what I'm reading: Jensen is extremely cautious about being explicit on how Dean thinks of his love to Cas after the confession & face-in-hands scene. I (while risking immense ridicule from what seems to be the majority of the current fandom) think this might be because there's something in the prequel about that, and it may be that Dean came to realize that his love to Cas was romantic (not necessarily sexual) after he passed the initial shock of Castiel being gone and him losing someone who's "like" his brother.

Fits nicely with how he never really answered the original question, "what would have Dean said to Cas if he had the time to process what Cas had said?" (= what would Dean have thought of Cas' confession after some time? = exactly what Jensen's trying to avoid answering, multiple times by now) and instead answered "how he played Dean in that moment."

i also thought he mentioned in the moment a little more than i would expect. i mean i honestly think dean wouldn’t be able to process that much information at one time especially knowing that his best friend was about to be taken from him forever and you’ve just found out about it. and they were already in such a tense situation.

and after that i think that would probably be the biggest regret of his life. not saying anything to this man who confessed his love for him and left him forever, and he couldn’t even say anything back. he didn’t really get a proper goodbye, which wasn’t rectified in the last two episode’s besides the tiny ‘cas helped’ which was 😕 i mean at least that meant he was out of the empty but it just left more questions than answers.

and considering jensen will never be done with dean, as he has said himself, and likely supernatural too. i mean, the prequel having dean in it speaks for itself. jensen hasn’t accepted dean’s death, and rightfully so.

though i don’t expect there to be anything destiel in the prequel, i do believe cas may be there in some capacity. and just this last weekend jensen said ‘when we do the reboot’ and ‘when we come back from heaven’ so i know he isn’t done with cas’ story either. he doesn’t plan to expand the spn universe solely with the winchesters. so i don’t doubt we’ll get cas back someday.

perhaps not destiel in the prequel, i think personally i’d be getting my hopes up a bit too high for that. though if we see/hear/hear of them interacting that’s definitely okay with me.

22, 27, 34 and 50 for mdtb 83?

Sure thing!

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Warnings: mentions of alcoholism, mild sexual content

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22. What reminds each of their partner?

For Tobirama it's tea, because Madara is a confirmed tea aficionado, equipped with a tea cabinet full of leaves from all over the Elemental Nations, and he is very good at steeping them to perfection. Since Tobirama can't prepare a drinkable cup of tea to save his life, he just automatically thinks of Madara any time he fixes himself a cup, wishing it was Madara preparing it instead. Same goes for cooking tbh 🤔

For Madara it's books and flowers, because Tobirama loves both. He is an avid reader (everything from fiction to nonfiction) and he is also very familiar with hanakotoba (aka the language of flowers which I headcanon to be the Senju way of courtship). He considers gifting someone flowers to be very romantic. Because of this Madara will often bring books and scrolls as gifts for him from his missions and he very diligently presents Tobirama with fresh flowers that may or may not be sometimes accompanied by hand-written poems as often as he can.

27. Who is the light weight that needs to be taken care of after a party?

Tobirama.

Neither of them is a drinker, but Tobirama has a particularly hard time with alcohol and he gets drunk very quickly. He's basically the dictionary definition of what I would call an economic drinker (meaning someone who doesn't have to spend a lot of money to get very, very sloshed).

He doesn't drink very often, partially because of that.

The other reason has to do with alcoholism in the family. I headcanon Butsuma as a heavy drinker and an abusive drunk, and Hashirama definitely followed his father's footsteps when it comes to using alcohol as a coping mechanism. As a result, Tobirama is afraid of falling into the same rabbit hole of addiction (and rightfully so, since people with parents who are addicts are predisposed to addiction themselves, case in point: Hashirama).

Either way, the one and only time Madara sees Tobirama drunk he has to carry him home and take care of him the next day, because apparently someone turns into a giant baby when he has a hangover 🙃

34. Who’s more likely to tell a dirty joke or story to make the other blush?

Madara.

If it happens to Tobirama, it's an accident and he's always mortified by it.

It comes back down to their upbringing.

Tobirama was raised in a strict, traditional household where sexual humour wasn't really a done thing. Touka would sporadically tell a raunchy joke once they got older and so did Mito, but it wasn't by any means something that was common and it was definitely very embarrassing. For both Senju brothers, if for different reasons. Generally speaking, conversations about sex just didn't happen when they were growing up and Tobirama definitely still considers it a bit of a taboo subject.

In contrast, Madara grew up in a more welcoming, open environment. Despite being a noble clan, the Uchiha aren't really either very strict or conservative, at least not in the way the Senju are. In a sense they stick closer to their shinobi roots, which results in a more liberal, almost hedonistic, approach to life overall. As such, Madara had a chance to gather some *cough* experiences *cought* along the way and he developed a rather crude sense of humour as a result. He's also, when the mood strikes, a bit of a flirt and he definitely delights in making Tobirama blush to the roots of his hair any chance he gets, mostly because he finds Tobirama's reactions thoroughly entertaining and adorable.

Tobirama grouses and grumbles, and acts annoyed when he does it, but he's not really angry and he actually kind of likes the attention (he will, of course, never admit to that outload).

50. Who’s more likely to do something out of spite?

50:50 on this one. They both have a bit of a mean streak. Nothing compared to Izuna, but it's there and they will definitely retaliate if provoked enough.

I actually wrote and posted a fic a while back where Tobirama does something quiet extreme to spite someone so... 🤷 If you're interested and haven't read it yet, the story is called Talking Body and you can read it HERE 😉

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Obligatory OTP Asks

Eddie Munson HC’s

18+ Minors DNI

Warnings/ Tags: Weed, Alcohol, mentions of sex, can’t think of anything else but tell me and I’ll add it!

 he smells like weed, tobacco, and cheap cologne (sometimes sweat he’s kinda gross)

he lives in his pants until they rip all over and his uncle makes him get rid of them

like he’s for sure rocked thigh rips before

his uncle bought him his first black sabbath shirt and that’s what started it all

speaking of his uncle he took him in when Eddie’s mom kicked him out

he started selling drugs to help with the bills but she was having none of that and threw him out

his uncle is too tired most of the time to discipline him but when he does he never yells 

their serious conversations always end with his uncle telling him if he wants to get out of Hawkins he has to get his shit together 

deep deep deep down he knows he’s flunking on purpose

he’s quite intelligent, he’s just scared of what the world will think of him if Hawkins hates him why wouldn’t the world?

he’s an amazing writer i mean come on that campaign? the details? he’s incredible 

he didn’t really like being the “King of the Freaks”, but soon he embraced it found other like-minded people 

he’s not nearly as confident in himself as he projects, but his life motto is “Fake it til you Make it” and its worked thus far 

he’s not really a prepper unless it comes to DnD 

NOW WE GET INTO THE SEX TALK

I’d like to say right now I do not think he is straight although I imagine his first time would be with an AFAB person because of the time period and the surrounding homophobia 

OK NOW IT STARTS

despite the the fact that I enjoy the absolute filth everyone has been writing I don’t think he’s the sex god everyone is portraying him to be...yet?

he’s only had sex once before and it was a college girl he met at the bar 

he doesn’t know how he managed to picked her up but they ended up in the back of the van 

they weren’t drunk (he is a consent king)

but they were tipsy and it definitely did not last long 

it was just a mess of limbs, whispered apologies and clashing of teeth

he felt kinda dirty after but he was just glad it was over with 

we have all agreed he adores his partner wearing his clothes 

he’s a thigh man for sure and hips and ass honestly if you’ve got them he wants ‘em

he doesn’t have a type if he’s interested you’re his type 

he finds something attractive about everyone he’s just that type of softy

he’s whiny and needy for sure 

once sex becomes more regular in his life he likes to explore 

he’s a horny little bastard you’ll have to beat him off of you to get anything done but you love him 

he likes making out a lot like its almost better than sex to him 

he likes shotgunning (blowing smoke in your mouth) with you when ya’ll smoke

A/N this is my first time writing anything like this publicly idk if you like it please tell me i want to write more 

KINKTOBER DAY 24

kink of the day: Three or Moresome

additional kinks/warnings: sex party, exhibitionism & voyeurism, recreational drug use, aphrodisiacs

characters: Sith!Silvass and many, many other characters (@lhunuial, @kaosstar, @starrealis, @askshivanulegacy)

A/N: Some self indulgent fun with Sith!AU Silvass, who gets to enjoy the company of many different people at one of Shidohro's famous sex parties. Have fun finding all the cameos and easter eggs in this rather lengthy piece.

***

Silvass wiped his mouth and pressed a quick kiss on the inside of Shidohro's thighs, stroking her long legs until she was completely relaxed. He was in no hurry to get up, he didn't mind kneeling for her.

“Hm, you look so good like this,” he murmured against her soft skin, looking up at her satisfied smile. “Your beauty is beyond compare.” Shidohro cupped his face in her hands, pulled him up for a deep kiss, tasting herself on his lips. “You're such a flatterer.”

She finally released him, let her eyes travel over his scantily clad body as he stood in front of her, clearly conflicted about whether she should let him go. “I'm glad you made it though. I always look forward to welcoming you at my parties.”

“I'm honored by your invitation, as always.” He bowed and winked at her, ignoring the looks he got from the Zabrak and the Zeltron sitting on either side of her. Einan was more controlled, his dislike hidden by a polite smile. Drax on the other hand... if looks could kill, Silvass would probably be dead by now. He grinned at them as he took his leave, promising Shidohro that he would come by later during the party. After that he wandered around a bit, taking a drink from one of the servants, admiring his sculpted chest and extensive piercings. He didn't bother tying his silk robe in the front as sipped from the spiced wine and let his eyes roam over the party, which was in full swing by now. A handsome Sith walked by with a human on a leash, and Silvass found himself staring at the young man's flushed face and the red marks on his ass.

The best thing about Shidohro's famous parties wasn't the food or the wine or the decorations, no, it was her guests. Invitations were highly coveted among Dromund Kaas' high society, but Shidohro always hand picked the chosen ones. And Shidohro had a great and very exclusive taste in all things that mattered.

Silvass recognized many familiar faces in the crowd. Lord Vowrawn was the guest of honor, drawing most of the attention tonight. Of course Mala was here too, either in her position as head of Shidohro's security or to enjoy her day off. Their eyes met briefly, before she flashed him a smile and left with a tall stranger.

Before he could decide where to go next, someone approached him from behind. Small hands, sharp nails, he immediately knew who he was dealing with, even though he had never bothered to learn her name. Shidohro's youngest apprentice was such a feral little creature. Insatiable, irritable, and never patient enough to wait for her turn. The small Zabrak grabbed his hair and pulled his head down for a ferocious kiss, almost making him spill his drink. She growled and bit his lips when he pushed her against a wall. “Nice to meet you too.” He chuckled at her attempts to get him to fuck her. There was something endearing about the way she demanded his attention, the way she wrapped one leg around his waist, squirming to get his half-hard cock inside of her. Silvass vividly remembered the last time he'd fucked her, how loud she had been and how many times she had come on his cock, clawing at his back in ecstasy. She was always too demanding for her station, but stars, did she love being put in her place. So he obliged her, fucked her against the wall until her eyes rolled back in her skull and she cried out, a quick and satisfying encounter to start this evening off.

He barely had time to clean himself up before he saw another familiar face in the crowd, one he hadn't seen in a long time. Zesira was breathtakingly beautiful, many said even more so than her sister, a fact she loved to be reminded of. At the same time, she was nothing like Naya.

As soon as she recognized him, a grin lit up her beautiful face. Silvass followed her into one of the private rooms, where she made herself comfortable in the middle of a huge bed, relaxing in a nest of embroidered cushions, surrounded by her admirers. Her lingerie wasn't designed to cover but instead to show off the best features of her body. Silvass recognized a few of her companions, but not the man who came up behind her, kissed her shoulder. A Mirialan like herself. Big, strong, serious. Very pretty in an angry sort of way.

“Silvass! I had hoped to see you today,” Zesira purred as he sat down next to her. “Would you like to join us for a bit?” She ran her hand down his chest, chuckling when she reached his soft cock. “I'd love nothing more.” He traced the lace of her bra with the tip of his finger, regretting now that he had just finished inside of Shidohro's overeager apprentice. But if he knew anything about Zesira, it was that she was very patient, the complete opposite of the Zabrak girl. Remembering a few of the things they had done together made him smirk. “I'm sure I can be of assistance until I have... fully recovered.” “I might be able to help you with that.” Naya's sister laughed softly and leaned closer to kiss him, wrapping her arms around him. Her lips were sweeter than the sweetest wine, and as they moved against his he immediately recognized the taste. A powerful aphrodisiac commonly referred to as “red mist.” Silvass knew its effects well. Zesira parted her lips, moaned into his mouth, coaxing his tongue into her mouth. As soon as he followed her lead the cloying taste got even stronger, overwhelming his senses. The drug was potent and didn't take long to work. By the time their kiss ended, his heart was beating faster and his cock was harder than it had been all evening, throbbing and burning to be touched. “Hm, that's a promising start,” she laughed and laid back on her cushions, spreading her legs shamelessly for him. He was inside of her in a heartbeat, moaning at the delicious sensations, all of them enhanced and intensified by the drug. Her skin was so soft, her cunt so wet and tight, he felt like he could get lost in her flesh at any moment. He couldn't talk, but he loved the way she kept urging him on, despite there being no need for it. He fucked her with deep, long thrusts, squeezed her perfect breasts and showered her with kisses until she shivered and cried out. As if her moans were a signal, a few of her admirers joined them on the bed, touching her and worshiping her like she deserved. A blue skinned Twi'lek lavished her breasts with kisses, a young man came up behind her to kiss her neck. Several others joined them, their hands all over them. Others were pleasuring themselves, some of them so ecstatically that Silvass had to slow down and watch. There was a pureblood woman with dark purple skin right next to him, and she was pleasuring herself in a way that was so wildly sensual he couldn't look away.

A young man with a flushed face kissed him on the lips, and he could taste traces of the same substance there, distracting him for a moment. Long enough that he didn't notice the slick and slippery cock pressing against his ass. Only when the blunt head pierced him did he fully grasp what was happening. The blonde Mirialan, Zesira's new lover he reminded himself, pushed all the way in, not particularly gentle but with surprising urgency, his breath hot on Silvass' shoulder. Silvass saw the smirk on Zesira's treacherous lips, and he didn't begrudge her her little games. Not when they got him fucked by such a delicious, fat cock. He groaned and thrust back against the man, then forward into Zesira's heat. Stars, yes. This was exactly why he loved Shidohro's parties so much.

Look, I love the Castlevania series and the Netflix adaptation made 3 great seasons ("Um there are 4 seasons" LIKE I SAID, 3 GREAT SEASONS), but we have got to talk about how disappointing it is that the main trio never met or even knew the existence of Hector and Isaac - or honestly, that entire half of the plot. I will forever find it weird that the show set up two related but never intersecting plot threads (and arguably a third, go figure during the worst season).

It's sweet and empowering that both of them found their own ways to live before and after Dracula's death, with Isaac being a total badass and even progressing to a better person despite seeing how unfair, cruel, and rude the world is - to the point that he defeats Carmilla not JUST because she was partly responsible for Dracula's death but because he actually wanted to make the world a better place. But even though Isaac could arguably be founding an entire empire and generation of peace, he and Hector don't even seem to know about Alucard's existence or contributions, let alone Trevor and Sypha.

We can debate Hector and Lenore's fucked up relationship all day, but in the end the two of them DID end up bonding through all the lies and deceit. They were able to actually talk to one another and have the other listen; in the end, both of them were just born in different worlds on different sides. Lenore genuinely seemed to want to settle things peacefully, but she got left behind in a world that valued only overwhelming strength; she decides she can't live as a prisoner even though Hector was no doubt stronger than her for enduring his own imprisonment and subjugation, but I think Lenore was already on her way to losing herself. Despite what she did to Hector, she wanted to at least believe she understood him; even though she was a sympathetic vampire, she still believed knowing enough to control someone was the only way they could be friends - so when it turns out Hector was plotting the downfall of Carmilla and her buddies, unfortunate Lenore had to be betrayed as well. Even if Hector wanted her to live, she was a living contradiction. A vampire who is physically very strong and intimidating, but a woman who other male vampires have looked down upon, and even male humans. A creature who feeds on humans, but one who wants to settle things peacefully. She absolutely had a role in Carmilla's gang of women just surviving, but in Carmilla's mad conquest, she was useless at best and a hindrance at worst.

In the end, Lenore was one of the few vampires that might have been sympathetic to the human side of the argument, but she physically couldn't live like that. I believed Lenore genuinely wasn't capable of turning her whole worldview upside down and aiding humanity in any way - being beneath them. Dracula opened himself up to one human and it destroyed him; he saved Hector and Isaac, but he also sacrificed himself and forced Isaac away, that was the extent of his personal affairs with them. I think it's fundamentally difficult for vampires to adopt human ideologies and empathy, making Alucard the only vampire ally we really have in the series - because he's only half. Unlike Alucard, she is a full vampire. She has a divide that she can't just bridge like he can.

Imagine if Alucard got to meet the only other humans beside his mother who genuinely looked up to and cared about his father. What would Isaac and Hector have to say to the son of the man they had admired and then lost as well? Imagine Alucard meeting another human who may have even fallen in love with a vampire, but who understands how far their worlds pulled each other apart. Or maybe Sypha can relate to having her eyes opened to a world outside her Speaker family. Imagine a discussion with Lenore about what it means to be caught between wanting to make peace with humans and knowing how much harm they cause - her actually getting a sympathetic vampire perspective from someone like Alucard who wouldn't look down on her.

Imagine the tension that could come from Trevor meeting a Forgemaster, Isaac trying to explain his control over Night Creatures and his ability to even make them fight for a sympathetic cause. Both Isaac and Trevor have experience being the outcasts, understanding how awful humans can be, but they both found their way to still fighting for the right thing. Trevor understands why killing Dracula's wife would make him want to purge the world in retribution, but he still knows humans are worth fighting for. Isaac fully abandoned his faith in humanity and believed in Dracula completely, and even THEN he managed to find the good amongst the rabble. Is it right to make Night Creatures from the dead, even if they were bad people? Even if it's to champion a good cause? Even if Hector and Isaac have full control over them without a potential for any sort of rebellion?

What I'm saying is, I love the idea of a new Castlevania series, but nothing will beat the OG season 1 and 2, and season 3 should have been answering questions and tying up loose ends - not going off on at least 3, 4 tangents that were just meant to come out of nowhere and make things shitty again after our happy ending and I guess they're kinda related but not really, so now we can fix the new shitty stuff and have ANOTHER happy ending and avoid showing anything resembling resolutions, just teaser after teaser for the fanfics to finish up.

Anyway so I'm going to the fanfics and if I don't come back, tell the Final Fantasy rants I love them-

why is it awkward to get hit on by women? I get that your married, but it still seems like a compliment to me!

So, I have 2 things I meant by it

1. I'm awkward as it is. Unless I'm in one of my moods where I feel confident and powerful, that kind of attention gives me so much extra anxiety

But mostly 2. Not trying to sound full of myself here, but as a former slutty teenager, I got a lot of practice turning guys down. How they approached me determined how I did it(creepy/following me meant I was gonna be a bitch, however simply approaching or being respectful meant I was gentle but very clear about being uninterested/happily taken).

However, women are different. I had plenty of flirtation with women, dated them, but I didn't really have to deal with much letting them down. Women are terrifying in an amazing way, and between not wanting to make them feel uncomfortable or upset, I also get super anxious when hit on by them in general(not necessarily in a bad way, women are beautiful and that's scary in itself). So I never really got past the anxiety of it all, so now being older and married, it just makes me feel awkward and anxious.

With that being said, in the past few years, I don't believe I've had any truly negative experiences turning women down in person(a few online, but I don't really count those), so it's just my anxieties above all. The woman-lover in me just wants to see them all finding the woman for them and not getting their feelings hurt or feeling rejected, I straight up wish I could wing-woman some of them like I used to do with guys who had interest in me but it wasn't mutual.

mermaid lore- sunlight mermaids

okay so in light of the mermaid/siren lore i posted a bit ago, i wanna talk more about mermaids and the different kinds you’ll find!! this isn’t everything about each type of mermaid bc that’ll be split into separate posts (i.e. the title will be “mermaid lore-sunlight mermaids pt II)

bc they so kindly asked that they be tagged in my unofficial lore, @flyingthroughthemoonlight @morgansplace COME GET YA LORE!!!

so it’s been established that mermaids are not shifters, but more along the lines of vampires in their relationship to magic and humans.

mermaids are found in every ocean, sea, inlet, etc. basically in every natural body of water, so there’s more than likely gonna be a mermaid(s) living there!

today’s topic is gonna be ocean mermaids and the first light layer!

ocean mermaids exist in every layer humans have discovered, explored and then some. if u aren’t familiar with the ocean layers, here is a lil graphic for u!

we’ll be focusing on the epipelagic zone mermaids or the “sunlight mermaids”

*200m is roughly 656/657ft

sunlight mermaids

these types of mermaids live in colonies in the epipelagic zone. they are social, love speaking to other humans, and are extremely active.

environment and diet

sunlights prefer shorelines, often staying close to a reef or some sort of marine structure. this allows for protection, hiding spots, and daily activities.

they eat mainly sea life, but can survive on coral, kelp, seaweed and fruits and vegetables. please do not feed them bread.

behavior

they are most active in the daytime. hunting, gathering, weaving, etc. are all done during this time. they enjoy swimming with beach goers, beating waves with surfers, and are really friendly. some of them were human before too, so the connection to humanity can ease any homesickness they might feel.

sunshine mermaids live in groups. they’re incredibly social and are community-based and oriented. there isn’t really a “leader”, but many have noted one or two mermaids that seem to handle the communication and larger decisions in the colony. there are many colonies that do have official leaders, and they’re voted on by the group as a whole.

the young are kept in the coral and reefs for protection, with several of the largest mermaids as guards. agility and speed is what is needed in hunting, not size.

appearance

these mermaids are brightly colored, ranging in a vast array of rainbow. some of these mermaids are influenced by their parents and the food they ate the most as a youngling (similar to flamingos being pink bc of the amount of shrimp they consume). their hair is all different colors and textures.

most notable features of these mermaids: glowing eyes, non-webbed hands, jewelry, thick and muscled tails. gills, but can breathe air

there’s not much of a size difference between male and female mermaids. some mermaids are both male and female, and some are neither. there’s currently no formal explanation, and it isn’t important in the slightest.

relationship to the magical world (general)

while mermaids are not land dwelling, they are still people and must be treated as such. they are part of the department and have their own representatives, as well as their own laws and rules to keep them and the human population protected.

a lot of mermaids work in tandem with marine biologists. the historic S.H.E.L.L. treaty immensely repaired the strained relationship the water magical world and the land magical world had.

all mermaids groups share a seat, and will vote on who is the representative. this is similar to how their respective layer groups work!

customs

storytelling is one of the most important aspects of light mermaids. since they don’t have a written language, their history is all passed down orally and by song. each colony has one orator. they have been trained from a younger age by the previous orator. they must have excellent memory and show an aptitude for storytelling.

in order to be selected by the orator, the young go through rigorous testing: recitations, singing, and whatever else the orator chooses. it can take months, even years for the next to be chosen. it is an honorable role to have, and they are heavily protected their entire life.