The Long Con (Chapter 34  & 35)

Chapter 34: Historia

Can be read here on Ao3!

Summary:

For over two thousand years, persistent belief kept her alive in a prison of magic and stone - but what is time to a deity?

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Chapter 35: Unbound

Summary:

With the Triptych combined and Hecate awakened, the girls find themselves desperate for survival as the reality of their situation is brought into question. What can they do against the power of a Goddess?

*** MAJOR SPOILER IMAGE BELOW ***

Currently rewatching Pit Babe episode 1 and I think the reason why I'm so obsessed with this is just. Even without the omegaverse this show is so fucking unhinged.

Some guy follows his favorite race car driver into a staff-only area and then even into the changing room, insists he's not a stalker, does this bc he... Wants to borrow a car?? Somehow this does not end with the police getting called but with them fucking and now he's his favorite race car driver's live-in fuck buddy. Also he just immediately gets invited to tag along to the afterparty where he almost gets sold by his favorite celebrity reverse-wattpad style. The guy he almost gets sold to is called Winner and he's the biggest loser ever and also there's two youtubers just constantly hanging around and filming everything. This all happens within the first half of episode 1.

"witches are EVIL they steal men's SEMEN" nadja you eat people

“one day im going to have to make like a three hour long video essay that's just called In Defense of Helluva Boss” Please do. I see more anti videos than I do with defense ones. Like the ones that say season 2 is terrible even though it’s barely completed and the ones that say Stolitz is a bad despite them barely having a relationship.

no literally i am sick of seeing more anti content than actual appreciation videos but the anti talking point i see most that drives me up the fucking walls is that it's "bAd RePrEsEnTaTiOn," as if that is all that queer people are allowed to have; just the vague nebulous concept of "Rep(TM)." the fact that if a straight character is a bad person then it's just that This Character is a bad person, but if a queer character is a bad person then This Is Bad Representation Of The Community And Is Homophobic. can we not just HAVE characters?? vehicles to tell a story??? tools to craft a compelling narrative??? this is part of why Helluva/Hazbin being adult shows is such a THING because i see this get shut down a lot under the guise of "uhh well just because it's an adult show doesn't mean that it can handle whatever topic it wants however it wants" and like. yeah buddy! that's true! and that's not what this is fucking about!! when people say "it's an adult show" what they mean is that it's made to be engaged with under the assumption that you would know better than to take information to shape your worldview and perception of other real life people from a fucking cartoon! the show doesn't NEED to tell you that Um Hey Guys Just So You Know This Isn't Actually Meant To Reflect How All Real Life Gay Relationships Are because you are an adult who should already be able to discern this.

"bad rep" doesn't mean "characters that are nuanced, morally gray, or just bad people." "bad rep" would be if helluva boss was a show that said "the REASON these characters are in toxic relationships / are bad people is BECAUSE they are queer, or at least directly correlated to that fact." which is. you know. very fucking different than "these characters are in toxic relationships / are bad people because they 1) live in a classist society that actively encourages them to be their worst selves and 2) are extremely traumatized."

Still laughing at how carmy decided to invite claire for a home cooked dinner cuz no one had ever cooked for her before and then he made spag bol 💀😭

Rust snippet

“The problem with Morrigan,” Azriel admitted, knee sliding against the softness of Nesta’s dress, “Is that it did work, once.” With a primness that might have fooled, Nesta uncrossed her legs, framing Azriel’s thigh in a soft flash of bared skin. Casual. Close. But what tipped the odds was her mouth, smile developing an edge, delight. “How?” Azriel shrugged. “I was eighteen. Stupid. A girl like her had never looked twice at me.” Morrigan, a wilder, younger, less brittle version, had looked expensive. Like a person Azriel should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to touch. Four years of scholarship at private school had gotten him to college, gotten him here, and taught him too, to keep his fucking head down. Not looking had never made wanting any less. “And then,” Nesta hedged, sliding closer. “Never again? So”- “So I’m a fun challenge,” Azriel agreed, savoring that faint, phantom warmth. The ferric tang of wine, so sharp it turned right around into sweet. “It was stupid and meaningless then. Means even less now.” Nesta grinned, totality of the expression briefly breathtaking. “You must make her insane.” “Says the woman Cassian seems to think is going to have his babies.” He was sorry to see the smile turn to disgust, but not regretful. Full-body, her shoulders moving, lovely posture shifting. It was choice- it was a choice at all that Azriel had come tonight, against all better judgement, a decision that was now seeming wise to the point of psychic intuition- it was a call, and Azriel made it, skimming her bare knee as Nesta’s horror turned right around into a scathing little laugh. She watched him do it. Slow, smile stilling but not fading, as Azriel traced a curve upward. Nesta leaned forward, catching her chin again with one steady hand. “We should go to dinner.” A slow line, his thumb on her soft thigh, like Azriel could match the clear cut shape of her jaw, drawing him in. He cleared his throat. “We should.”

ok so fans who hate alicent LOVE to say shit like "book alicent was beefing with a child lol" totally unironically. and it just confuses me. like Bro... all f&b tells us is she Stopped Being Nice to rhaenyra after aegon was born (when viserys showed no sign of naming him heir). because, reportedly, she was originally kind to rhaenyra. apparently kind enough for at least one or two people to note a sudden change in demeanor.

and like im sorry. is it that crazy that when alicent began to understand rhaenyra and her own son were going to be pitted against each other in the future she chose aegon and distanced herself from rhaenyra? she wasnt "beefing with a child" like i feel thats so clearly just a little joke someone made thats been taken at face value and regurgitated. because its not true. or at least f&b gives us no indication of it - we're never told about her acting maliciously toward a young rhaenyra. in fact i dont think we're given much indication they really interacted at all. and anyway, wouldnt it have been worse for her to continue to keep rhaenyra close ? so she could try and manipulate her?? people make book alicent into this great seductress and manipulator and theres basically no textual evidence to support it. if anything i feel like alicent distancing herself shows she very possibly DID genuinely care about rhaenyra once, perhaps enough to worry her attachment might undermine her cause to prioritise aegon in some way. and this is only further supported by rhaenyra's decision to spare alicents life later when the rest of the greens became dragon snacks.

then theres the fact book alicent was the one who asked viserys to betroth aegon to rhaenyra. why would she do that? a woman from a house with such close ties to the faith no less. she asked when aegon was 6 and she must have known by that point viserys was likely never going to name aegon heir - imo she was exhausting options to try and protect her children. no matter what choices aegon made he had every chance of becoming a symbol others would use, forcing rhaenyra to make an example of him to maintain control. marrying them to each other would do a lot to avoid that eventuality. it was both a smart political match and what Targaryen tradition demanded. viserys was convinced alicent was only acting out of ambition which is why he rebuffed her, but we're repeatedly shown viserys is kind of an idiot. especially politically.

theres this Obsession with the idea alicents characterisation was changed so dramatically for the show. 'i wish they'd made her like book alicent' they did...? they made her a victim who is scared and anxious and bitter. theres nothing to suggest that wasnt who book alicent was. everything we know of her is filtered through layers of bias - her story told by men who dont give a shit what she felt or desired. and what? you dont like it because you wanted her to be some one dimensional villian? because doubling down of f&bs oft misogynistic, cardboard cutout representation of her would have been So great. like please, i get that so much of f&b can be interpreted a whole bunch of ways but 'alicent the evil step mother' is the most basic, boring interpretation. it shows no depth of thought at all. theres at least a few clues in there as to who she Actually might have been, if you bother to look.

its just insane to me honestly. you read that book and thought she was pure evil? this woman who doted on her daughter and grandchildren so completely that her grandson's murderers knew to find them in her rooms. this woman who spent her last moments embracing death, pining for her dead children and speaking fondly of the old man she used read to as a girl. its really not that hard to percieve book alicent as a trapped and embittered woman desperately scared for the lives of her children. seriously. where is the critical thought? the empathy?? im so tired.

"she's everything. he's just ken."

it's crazy how ken represents everything (he's women! he's men! he's incels! he's beach! he's a leader! he's a lover! he's the proletariat! he's sylvester stallone!) to such an extent that it makes barbie and her arc completely superfluous in her own film

The thirsting over Logan Sargeant has me in a chokehold.

This man is literally your typical garden-variety frat boy, and it tickles me to no end that my European F1 besties are throwing heart eyes at him.

You are not immune to the US fratboy propaganda

yeah, okay that last scene with Alan, Jeff, Charlie and Babe was whatever, can we please know what happened to Kenta and Pete?? and all the children of the foundation?? Why wasn't there a scene of Pete and Kenta working together to find and free all the children that got sold?

just a gentle reminder that high or low note count does not determine whether you are a good or bad writer. i repeat: having a lot of notes or no notes at all on your writing does not make you good or bad at writing. it does not mean your work is less or more than someone else’s. separate your work from the note count, notes don’t equal talent. the beautiful paragraphs and prose you crafted and spent your time on to share with the world equals talent!!!!

another thing that's great about Pit Babe is how I'm honest to god just shipping half the characters with each other atp like. anyone could end up with anyone and I wouldn't be mad at this rate.

Kim and Winner? peak "let me punch you... but with my mouth" potential. Kim and Kenta? could be either enemies-to-lovers or secretly in cahoots and I'd be enjoying the hell out of both. Winner and Dean? we love two idiot villains in love. Pete and Way? it's giving "I can fix him" and I'm here for it. Pete and Kenta? now idk wtf that knife-to-throat scene was but it sure was something and I wouldn't mind more.

Imma be completely honest here, as fucked up as it is, even Way and Babe has potential-

Oh no.

I HAVE become the kind of person that says "you are selecting on the dependent variable" and "your case selection strategies unfortunately prevent generalisability of your findings " to a jurist.

Curse you, political science.

Why do you care about someone’s ethnicity????Why are you defining Rosie ??Why the f*ck do you think it’s okay to define her ethnicity???? Who gave you the right to talk about her ?Made a post that she is Chinese or Korean or black ? Why are you gatekeeping ethnicity. She can speak Korean / Chinese or English or whatever she wants . And I respect that . You have no right to talk about her . MIND YOUR BUSINESS. And don’t send me bad vibes/energies/curses. Cuz it’s not gonna reach me . It will be back to you 100x. I am not hating you . I am telling the truth. I am safe . And get some therapy. And learn about respecting others . Instead of making a whole a** post about someone’s ethnicity . Let me tell you people like you can never be successfulAnd your stupidity is shown on post you made . You are the dumbest person I have seen on internet. And let me tell you are gonna pay for it. Hurting someone is not gonna get you anywhere. Your karma is done. You will get it back . And don’t send any bad vibes/curses/energies. I am safe . And if you send me that sh*t you will get it back 100x. You are not a child , grow up . Instead of doing dumb controversy . Do something useful in life that could help you be success in life . You will remember this post and would be so embarrassed and ashamed when you are older . We all have been there but the most important thing is learning from you mistakes and improving yourself. Seek forgiveness. Be more helpful to others . And later in life Even if someone lies it’s their fault not yours . If it doesn’t affect you or isn’t harmful than don’t intervene. I didn’t mean to be harsh on you but it’s was my anger . Hope you understand and be more positive.

not to ride emerald fennells dick too hard here but have you actually listened to her talk about saltburn at all? in a couple of interviews she’s talked about how she wrote the movie in the middle of quarantine and how it wasn’t until she was done that she really let herself address the fact that during deep isolation she wrote a story about somebody whos entirely unable to reach out and touch the person they love. idk i think that kind of stir-crazy touch starvation is so present in the movie and it’s a little disheartening to see people say that the movie was completely soulless when emerald’s manner of talking about it is so intimate and personal.

well i wish she did make that movie because i wouldn't be annoyed about it if it had conveyed any of that to me

M8TE — a modern a/b/o au

M8TE is the premiere app for unmated alphas and omegas. Just enter your location and the dates of your rut or heat cycle, and you’ll be instantly paired with up to 3 potential matches in your area. Who you choose is up to you! Just be sure to tick the appropriate boxes on your profile to signal if you’re looking for a mate or a one-time thing.

M8TE. What are you waiting for?

a part of day 2 of gallavich week 2022, hosted by @gallavichthings . based on a prompt by @ianandmickeygallavich with brilliant beta work by @thisdivorce ☎️🖤

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chapter eight: MEND

rating: e

word count: 5.5k / 48k total

chapter summary: ian is missing in action and mickey's going into heat.

additional tags: au-modern with a/b/o dynamics, omega mickey milkovich, alpha ian gallagher, online dating, angst with a happy ending, internalized omegaphobia, panic attacks with some thoughts of self-harm, gratuitous smut, come swallowing, knotting, mild blood, bipolar disorder

[ read HERE on ao3 ]