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fishyfod · 3 years

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Winter & Yang Parallels and Contrasts

A comparison of Winter Schnee and Yang Xiao Long, and how they are shaped by their society and circumstances.

Or a thinly veiled excuse to gush about two characters I like

[gif by 5by5brittana]

This is split into four parts:

Pre Volume 1 backstory and characteristics

Relationship with younger siblings

Parallel Journeys between V1-5 and V7-8

Rough Speculation for Volume 8

Spoilers for RWBY V8 E1-7. Under the cut because this turned out very long.

Also, take this with a grain of salt? I wrote this for fun. This really is just, me going off the deep end.

I. Childhood and Upbringing

Winter and Yang are both the eldest children of their respective families, and have spent most of their lives growing up in the shadows of their legacies: the Schnee name and the fallout of team STRQ. These legacies are tragedies, and for better and for worse Winter and Yang are in the unique position where they also know the before, the brief time their families were whole (at least on paper). As their families broke apart, Winter and Yang have felt the need to fill the parent role for their younger siblings (more on that later).

This is the curse of the parent-sibling*, in which the lines between adulthood, childhood and parenthood are all blurred together when one is still a child. Winter grew up as Willow and Jacques’s facade of a marriage slowly fell apart and Willow turned to alcohol, leaving Weiss and Whitley under the care of Jacques - a manipulative abuser - and someone had to step up between him and Weiss and Whitley. Klein, it should be noted, was the exception to the rule, as most staff reported to Jacques. Yang never had Raven, she lost Summer and for a while Taiyang after he shut down - someone had to take care of Ruby. Qrow just couldn’t be a full-time replacement to any of them

* [I believe the professional term is “parentification”.]

[RWBY Official Manga Anthology Vol. 4: I Burn]

This is Winter and Yang’s own personal tragedy, and as inspiring as it might seem from the outside - a mature, responsible child that helps parent their younger sibling - it is not at all healthy for the child in question. It does not matter if things might’ve improved later, the damage has already been done. Parent-siblings tend to become caretakers as well, and this manifests in both Yang and Winter, albeit in very different ways.

Which leads me to the next point, which is to emphasize the differences in both of these scenarios. The expectations from the Schnee name are very much a product of high-class society and Atlas superiority, which is very different from STRQ’s private falling out. Winter is roughly 7 and 10 years older than Weiss and Whitley, so she’s about 12 when Weiss (5 at the time) would become more aware of Jacques’s behavior, 17 when Willow began drinking. Yang was about 6 when Summer disappeared and the trek to the woods happened, and it is unknown for how long Taiyang shut down. Willow became seriously depressed just before Winter left for Atlas, whereas Taiyang eventually got back on his feet. Winter was abused by Jacques, Yang was abandoned by Raven.

Winter’s speech often involves doublespeak with hidden meanings, a strict deference to decorum, and a fair share of veiled (or unveiled) insults. She is closed off, and rarely engages in open physical contact. In private with her siblings or close friends, she tends to be softer, and may hug or pat on one’s shoulders. She has learnt this behavior in order to navigate Atlas society and quell her father whilst protecting herself and her siblings. Unfortunately, Klein appears to be the only staff to put the children’s needs before his servitude to Jacques, so even Winter’s interactions with Weiss and Whitley are soured by this prim, and at times, hurtful behavior; even then appearances must be kept. This is why Winter doesn’t act like a typical “Mom friend”, and why her need to take care of others manifests differently: in her conscience and willpower to protect others. Hence, she trains to become a huntress, the personification of protection, a way to help despite her difficulties expressing that need more conventionally.

Yang is open and outgoing, an easy conversationalist and very physically affectionate with her peers. She is upbeat, and also tactful at the same time. Why? Some of it has to do with her severe abandonment issues, making her more prone to bask in her connections to others. Equally important are the experience and circumstances she had growing up. She grew up in Patch, a relatively small community that is at best middle class. She had Ruby - only two years younger - to entertain and to teach, and in such a small household that also means many chores and mundane responsibilities to take on. By all accounts, Taiyang made enough of a recovery from his depression to parent well enough, and seems a fairly affectionate person himself. With all this encouragement and learnt skills, little hinders Yang from caring for Ruby and others openly and proudly. Ergo, Yang acts like a “Mom friend”.

These are Winter and Yang’s main personas, one uncaring and one unreserved. It is only natural that away from prying eyes or when put on the edge, they drop the facade and act contrary to it. For example, when Winter is angry or provoked, she lashes out and loses her composure. Usually, when Yang is angry she acts quite cold and restrained in her anger, and tries to project an unaffected persona. Alone with those she loves, Winter is more open and talkative, where Yang allows herself to be melancholic.

Yang may be open and candid, and could even be described as wearing her heart on her sleeve, but she is extremely reticent when admitting weakness or sharing her own personal grievances. Which is incredibly like Winter, though she is also taciturn in general. They have a tendency to avoid creating truly personal connections with others. They’re both used to putting on mask of strength and reassurance, and are quite adept at controlling their emotions (to a point). This is a defensive mechanism - they emulate the adults in their lives (who know the values of keeping up appearances) since they do not believe they will be taken seriously otherwise. They have internalized that no one will act on their behalf unless they offer something in return. By acting quasi-maternally to their younger siblings, they continue this act because it’s how they think a responsible adult should raise children.

[RWBY Official Manga Anthology Vol. 2: Mirror, Mirror]

The “practice” in home on their sisters developed in them the belief they should put others before themselves, even outside their family. Selfless as it may be, without moderation this behavior could be quite unhealthy. The lack of concern to themselves makes them feel lost and without purpose, with low self esteem and self-destructive tendencies.

Winter gives up the luxury of the Schnee inheritance for servitude in the army, a perfect place for someone who believes herself expendable. She says her personal feelings don’t matter, and is willing to throw down her life for others. Sounds familiar? Yang wants to become a huntress, which conveniently allows her to help others while drifting along life with no true purpose. She has very low self esteem initially, and her semblance literally benefits her taking hits for everyone else.

Intertwined with this, is a desire to find purpose, and to find value in oneself. They seek independence and a sense of control. For Winter, this meant training in the Atlas Academy and abdicating the title of Schnee Heiress. She remembers well when she could no longer rely on her father’s allowance. For Yang, it’s having a bike of her own and going out at night. She becomes protective of her appearance and long hair.

It’s worth noting that particularly a physical aspect of this independence - fighting - was something taught to them by the neglectful parents. Taiyang taught Yang to fight hand-to-hand before Beacon, and the hereditary nature of the Schnee semblance means Willow was most likely Winter’s first mentor.

Part of this behavior is also a need to escape the situation at home. With Winter that goes without saying - Jacques is abusive. Yang wants to leave the home she held together when she was a child; note her desire to travel the world, and her attempts to distance herself from Ruby so she won’t have to be relied upon even at Beacon.

In a sense, they’re both searching for the same thing - a parent to replace the ones who failed them. Ironwood and Raven both offer to be their replacement parent, at the cost of asking the children to leave with them to a new home, the one they’re leading and ruling. This doesn’t fix their family problem, and personally I believe neither Winter nor Yang full-heartily saw it as a solution, but they were both desperate enough to find anyone - anyone at all - that would take a weight off their shoulders and put them first. Yang searches for Raven, hoping she’ll find in her a mother despite everything. Fortunately for her, Qrow saved her from running after Raven prematurely. Unfortunately for Winter, James’s close friendship with Jacques meant he has known her from a young age, had observed how Jacques manipulates her and her family, and eventually offered himself as a savior from her situation at home. He had subtly groomed her into thinking the military - and more importantly, himself - was her only option to escape Jacques.

Despite this major difference, some similarities between Yang and Raven’s relationship and Winter and Ironwood’s relationship persist: the bandit lifestyle Raven offers Yang is militant and violent, similar to Ironwood’s army. Yang’s learnt conditional trust in authority would fit quite well with a bandit hierarchy built on perceived strength. Winter’s authoritarian outlook lends itself quite well to rise up in the ranks of the military.

Lastly, I’d like to point out the “inherited” philosophies of their respective replacement parents:

Raven’s philosophy: The weak die, so the strong survive on their own.

Yang’s philosophy: If I am not strong, I am weak and will be alone.

Ironwood’s philosophy: Every sacrifice is worth the cause.

Winter’s philosophy: I am not worth anything, so I can be sacrificed.

They’re all destructive mindsets, but the children inverted the implied destruction caused to others into their own self-destruction, in concordance with their shared need to put others before themselves. Part of the children’s progression will be to rise above these philosophies.

II. Yang & Ruby vs. Winter & Weiss

In the previous section I explained why Winter and Yang both act quasi-maternal and how it affected their growth and character. Now let’s examine their primary familial relationship, with their younger sisters Weiss and Ruby.

The simple truth is that much of what I said about Winter and Yang’s childhood is equally true for Weiss and Ruby, which could be explained quite easily - there’s only so much a child can do to replace adults. The important distinction is that for Weiss and Ruby someone did put them above everyone else, and that’s Winter and Yang. Consciously or by instinct, the elder sisters wanted to provide the younger sisters the safety they felt robbed off, and to give them the opportunity to grow and live as children like they couldn’t. In turn, the younger siblings put them on a pedestal and idolized them.

It is heavily implied Winter acted as a buffer between Jacques and Weiss, and was her confidant. Note how fluently they communicate their true thoughts to each other by hiding them in sneers and insults, yet drop all pretense in private and speak clearly what’s on their mind then. Winter worries about Weiss’s health and well-being, and isn’t interested in her studies and ranking; this is a deliberate choice to belie what Jacques instilled in Weiss, to put her happiness before her image. Winter mentored Weiss’s semblance training and is her harshest critic. She was Weiss’s main motivator to rebel against Jacques, and advised her to cut ties with the Schnee name like herself; she warns her of the futility in trying to reason with their father on his own terms. Winter encouraged Weiss to follow in her footsteps as a huntress, and also in her decision to figure herself out independently.

Yang, in her own words, was the one to hold everything together following Summer’s disappearance. She protected Ruby from feeling loveless and alone as she herself felt, by putting herself there where Taiyang couldn’t be. She gave her attention, she read to her and hugged her. She played with her and entertained her, and went along with every joke and scheme Ruby wanted to make. She enables Ruby to let loose and have fun, to take pride in her accomplishments and to stand up for herself. It’s important for Yang to show her support and pride in Ruby as frequently as she does, most likely to compensate the times Tai couldn’t. Among her family, Ruby goes to Yang when she is worried and afraid. Yang truly was Ruby’s best friend growing up.

Note how both Winter and Yang instilled values in Weiss and Ruby that are better than their own, and encouraged them to be better than themselves. They want them to actively search for happiness, although they themselves seem incapable of following the same advise - Winter went to a thankless job with little reward, Yang is afraid of forming friendships that are not just surface deep. The younger, prodigal sisters are assertive and have set themselves clear goals and ambitions in contrast to their elder sisters, who both prefer to follow and dedicate themselves to others.

[gif by deshieart]

The idyllic picture I described here is not complete. Winter and Yang may have significantly improved Weiss and Ruby’s childhood, but in their limited power as children - or perhaps their simple human limitations - there are blind spots in their relationships. There are issues the younger sisters have separate from the ones the elders tried to shield them from.

Winter still grew up in Atlas and under Jacques, and she is not immune from the dangerous influence of both. Early on, Weiss seemed to believe in similar ideas, and part of that behavior is due to Winter’s influence. Although Winter’s escape from home is understandable, it must’ve left some Weiss bitter being left behind. Winter forwent the Schnee name, where Weiss wants to change it for the better, and part of me can’t help but think Weiss’s conviction was affected by Winter leaving home.

As she grew up, Yang had two main caretakers - Taiyang and Qrow - who both experience difficulties addressing and sharing their problems openly. Yang, in turn, learnt not to share her own issues and put on a reassuring facade. She compartmentalizes, keeping her issues separate from what she shared with Ruby. But children are more perceptive than we might think, and Ruby must have picked up on Yang’s behavior and took it in. Ruby has her own version of keeping to herself - she ignores her problems and represses, avoiding the issue altogether with seemingly no healthy outlet. [x]

The narrative of the show tends to juxtapose these relationships against each other, cutting from one to the other and comparing them side by side, parallel or anti-parallel. The most obvious contrast is in their warmth: in Volume 3, Winter and Weiss are polite and reserved even privately, having lunch at an outdoor cafe. Yang and Ruby are loud and brash, playing video games and ribbing each other with their uncle. Winter pushes Weiss to confront Jacques directly, Yang seems content to support Ruby’s initiative by following her.

In volumes 4 and 5, the narrative matches the sisters in opposites: it is Yang and Weiss that are bound home and want to leave, and Winter and Ruby fighting in Mistral. Yang and Weiss overcome their personal struggles, and view their sister as their salvation, but end up finding each other first by chance (incidentally, Yang “returns” to Raven at the same time Winter returns to Atlas back to Ironwood). Meanwhile, Winter and Ruby become aware of Salem and the larger war at play.

When they are united with their sisters, this trend continues as Yang initiates the hug with Ruby and stops her nervous blabbering, and Weiss hugs Winter to stop her alarmed frenzy. Yang and Weiss reassure Ruby and Winter of their well-being.

[gif by sirianhewigxiii]

Come Volume 7, Winter returns as a full-time character and we see how after their respective reunions, the sisters return to their preestablished roles. Winter and Yang support Weiss and Ruby in their decisions and actions, listening to their younger sisters as they did before. Now, however, the sisters are on a more even footing: Weiss is now free of Jacques like Winter, Yang acts more assertive like Ruby. As a result, the relationship is less one-sided. For example, though Winter is not as doubtful of Ironwood as Weiss, she listens to her input and divulges a secret to her, showing that despite having differing opinions they begin to see each other as equals. Yang goes along with Ruby’s plan to hide Salem’s immortality from Ironwood (and even takes it a step further when she reveals Amity to Robyn), but she’s not afraid to tell her she doesn’t feel comfortable with that decision. It’s a step up from what they had before.

In the finale of Volume 7 and the premiere of Volume 8, the bonds between sisters are challenged, and they separate from each other. Winter chooses her loyalty to Ironwood over her trust in Weiss, Yang chooses her conscience over her innate trust in Ruby. Mind, these situations are not completely the same: the split between Ruby and Yang is pragmatic and they still view themselves as united, the split between Weiss and Winter is ideological and they are on different sides of the conflict.

I’ll leave my speculation what will happen to the sisters in the latter half of Volume 8 for the last section.

II.V - Winter & Whitley

A brief aside about Whitley, would be to ask if what I said about Winter’s relationship with Weiss could also apply to Whitley. The answer is of course no, Whitley and Winter clearly have an entirely different relationship here. Frankly, pinpointing its exact nature more precisely is difficult, since the center of the Schnee narrative is Weiss and we have little interactions between the Schnees that don’t involve her. I cannot offer you a definite reason as to why the difference exists, but I have a few guesses.

I’ll assume what we see of Weiss and Whitley in volumes 4 and 7 is similar to what Winter and Whitley had, and take into account Weiss’s statement that Whitley never really liked Winter (or her). As Willow pointed out to Weiss, Whitley was left alone with Jacques, and began imitating him and emulating his hurtful behavior. Jacques took him under his wing, when Willow was at her worst, Winter away, and Weiss in the process of leaving. Deep down he understands he was being abused by Jacques, but with the cards stacked against him his damaging attitude becomes clearer - and particularly, the likely reasons he resents Winter and Weiss for.

[gif by chittychittyyangyang]

So how come Weiss and Whitley turned out so different, and how does Winter factor into this? For starters, I’ll point out again that Winter’s influence on the Schnee household is very limited, and that humans tend to make mistakes. For her to gloss over Whitley, or to presumably ignore him, could be due to several reasons. Perhaps connecting with someone 10 years your junior was just too difficult. Maybe Jacques intervened more often with Whitley, seeing as he was younger and impressionable.

It’s difficult to tell what exactly happened here between Whitley and Winter, and I don’t think specifying here is helpful. I’ll sum up by saying that however their relationship turned sour, I lean towards the reason being human error rather than malicious intent. Family situations tend to be complicated.

III. Yang & Blake vs. Winter & Penny

Here I want to talk about more subtle parallels between Yang’s journey throughout volumes 1-5 and Winter’s journey in volumes 7-8.5. The major comparison here would be between Yang and Blake’s relationship, and Winter and Penny’s relationship.

Before I begin, I’d like to stress that although Bumbleby is clearly romantic in nature, here I’m more interested in their development separate from the romantic aspects of it. As such, it’s not my intention here to argue in favor of romantic Winter/Penny, though I have nothing against it. I view it more as a platonic relationship with some familial undertones.

I explained in the first section how Yang and Winter keep people at arm’s length, so it’s natural to wonder about the exceptions to that rule, their relationships with Blake and Penny respectively. When they meet their new partners, Yang and Winter seem mostly set in their ways, with no real tangible goal beyond wanting to help others where they can. To them, Blake and Penny are a breath of fresh air, determined and purposeful, and they’re challenged by their perspective.

To me at least, how Yang and Blake interact during Beacon is quite similar to what we see of Winter and Penny’s relationship in volume 7. It starts off as a working relationship, but the continuous presence around each other has lead it into easy affection. It’s a give-and-take of differing personalities finding common ground, though here the more apt analogy would be Yang/Penny and Winter/Blake. They begin feeling safe with one another, opening up and sharing intimate details about themselves, and the other’s opinion and well-being matter to them. They even work well together as fighting partners.

[gif by chittychittyyangyang]

Yang tells Blake about Raven and her complicated family life, partially in an attempt to stop Blake from overworking herself. After Winter’s outburst at Jacques, she shares with Penny her vulnerability regarding her family, and tells her she can’t let her emotions take control of her. Neither Blake nor Penny accept their lessons at face value, and question those beliefs. Was Blake’s determination really like Yang’s quest to find Raven? Are Winter’s emotions truly a hindrance and Penny should follow suit? Still, their disagreements don’t stop them from caring about each other, as we see when Yang hugs Blake and Winter holds Penny’s hands.

Blake is a faunus rights activist who fights for what she believes in, and Yang admires her for it, and is also subtly inspired by her. Penny is dedicated to her role as the Protector of Mantle, and Winter is endeared by her devotion to the cause. In both cases however, this beautiful aspiration is soured by Adam and Ironwood, who use Blake and Penny’s noble efforts for their own gain.

Next both relationships experience a “falling out”. Yang fights to save Blake from Adam at the end of Volume 3, and sacrifices her right arm trying to protect Blake. At the end of Volume 7, Winter and Penny fight Cinder, and Winter sacrifices her body (and purpose as a Winter Maiden) for Penny. We have Yang and Winter, defeated and critically injured, left behind by Blake and Penny, both running away from their controlling abusers Adam and Ironwood.

There’s an interesting tidbit here about their natures as characters, as both “falling outs” hammer on a shared flaw between the couples. Yang and Blake are both afraid of putting their trust in someone else, one is afraid of being deemed unsatisfactory and the other afraid of hurting by association. Winter and Penny are both self-sacrificial, the former thinks her opinion and thoughts are worthless, the latter wishes to put all the weight of the world on her shoulders. The finales and aftermaths of volumes 3 and 7 are a cruel display of these flaws.

Yang and Winter are both injured enough to require a replacement for parts of their bodies, a robotic arm and an exoskeleton. The supplier of both limbs is Ironwood, who projects himself onto both women, “rewarding” them for selfless acts of heroic sacrifice like he sees himself. He saw Yang’s fight the the tournament, criticized her harshly for it, then heard about her noble sacrifice and told her he wishes she’d return fighting soon. He groomed Winter to be his second, scolds her when she disobeys him, and after her injury emphasizes her importance to him. It seems to me that Ironwood attempted to make Yang indebted to himself like he managed with Winter before.

The process of recovery for both women is difficult, and in Winter’s case rushed. On a purely physical level it could be argued they have recovered from their injuries, as both eventually return to the field after their recovery. If we consider their emotional state, things become trickier; though Yang was at first offered a fairly lengthy recovery period on her own terms, in Volume 4 her main motivation to recover is not for herself but for other’s sake - appeasing Tai and worrying for Ruby. Similarly, Winter’s recovery is overshadowed by Ironwood’s orders and the current situation’s time constraints.

This behavior on Yang and Winter’s part is not so strange to me, when I consider Taiyang and Ironwood’s roles in their lives. Because of Taiyang’s issues when she was a child, Yang learnt to put others before herself, particularly when it concerns Ruby and Tai. Yang’s recovery becomes less about herself and more about others after Tai subtly insults her intelligence and her “moping”. I view this as falling back into old habits, Yang learning that if Tai is put through too much then she’s taken too much space (she puts on her arm after overhearing Tai saying he has to stay to take care of her), and must compensate by putting Ruby (and in a sense Tai) first.

[gif by sister-ilia]

After accepting Winter to the army, Ironwood acts as some form of surrogate father to her. Winter looks up to him because he offered her safety from Jacques, and looks for his approval constantly. Look at her reactions when she’s scolded by Ironwood for misbehavior. Ironwood offered her asylum in exchange for subservience. When Winter is in her hospital, he first reminds her how reassuring it is to have her on his side, and then proceeds to kill a councilman for disagreeing with him. It’s an indirect threat against Winter, one carefully cultivated throughout their working relationship in the military.

Regardless, the physical recovery is only part of a larger process Yang and Winter have to go through. Volume 5 made it quite apparent Yang suffers from PTSD and emotional trauma from her fight with Adam, and Blake leaving triggered Yang’s fear of abandonment. She faces Raven for the first time, and is haunted by Blake’s mere mention. She struggles against the past - the parent she wanted to put hope unto - and the future - the hope she has in Blake.

Winter faces similar struggles in the first half of Volume 8 parallel to Yang in Volume 5. She is traumatized by the fight against Cinder, most likely with PTSD as well, and Penny leaving as she did has shook her inner beliefs. For the first time, we see her visibly struggling to adhere to Ironwood’s orders with ease, and she’s deeply concerned for Penny’s well-being. She is torn between her loyalty - to Ironwood, the parent she put her trust in - and her moral compass - to Penny, who challenged her to follow her feelings.

Coincidentally, RWBY chose to portray Yang and Winter’s stress with a shaking fist, where they were injured. Having said that, Winter displays many similar physical ticks like that before her injury, but the deliberate focus on the same tick as Yang is too great for me to ignore.

Both of these struggles are also marked by a decisive choice to take action and be assertive, which is remarkable where these two are concerned. Yang forms the plan to find Ruby via Raven and refuses her offer to join the tribe. Winter forgoes Ironwood’s orders to bring team JYR to custody, and instead relies on them to save Oscar from the Whale.

Yang’s recovery does not in Volume 5 either (nor does it end in Volume 6 for that matter), but at the moment Winter’s parallel arc is unfinished. I’ll speculate about this a bit more in the next section.

IV. Rough Speculation

So when I say rough speculation, I mean it in two different ways. One, is that I’m mostly focused on characters arcs, and they’ll be fairly abstract. Two, is that I’m fairly sure most of these parallels are accidental and not intended, so I don’t hold much hope any of these will come true. Instead, think of these as “if I wanted to make these parallels intentional, how would the story proceed next?”

One parallel I do think is intentional is between the sisters. It is the first time we observe both relationships put into the test, and the outcome of this split will obviously change the sister’s dynamic with each other. How will these two relationships compare to one another by the end of the volume, I do not know, the current arc isn’t finished yet. I can only comment on how I want and hope these relationships will proceed. Currently, I see the physical split between the sisters as an opportunity to reevaluate themselves independently of the other’s influence. And, I think this change will be positive for all of them.

Though it’s obvious Yang’s choice deeply affects Ruby and will contribute to her expected breaking point, I think Ruby will come out stronger at the end of it. Yang’s choice to take charge herself is obviously very important to her growth as a person. Given how RWBY framed their split around a mutual understanding both sisters’ viewpoints are correct, I don’t think their reconciliation will be one-sided - they will come to understand where the other is coming from, and their relationship - and team RWBY - will grow from it.

Despite the difference in circumstances, I think Winter and Weiss will echo this development as well. Jacques may be mostly neutralized, but the Schnee family won’t be miraculously healed because of it. At the moment, Weiss is facing that reality now with Whitley and Willow, and I think her arc this volume will lead her to begin healing her family in earnest. Winter will almost definitely leave Ironwood, and for the first time in her life she’ll be free from someone seeking to control her, free to follow her conscience. It will also give her an opportunity to reconcile with her family without Jacques’s influence, which ties in quite nicely with Weiss’s arc - Weiss pulling her family together, Winter letting herself be pulled to them. Weiss and Winter’s bond will come out stronger, and the Schnees will finally have a chance to heal.

[gif by wnterschnee]

You might’ve noticed I put a lot of emphasis on when and where Winter and Yang make choices for themselves, because I think these moments are vital for them to grow as a person. Starting with Volume 5, there’s a been a slow progression where Yang asserts herself more often, which culminates in her decision in Volume 8 to break away from Ruby with her own objective. Like her, Winter in Volume 7 quite often disagrees with Ironwood’s plans, yet follows them anyway because of her loyalty to him. This loyalty is no longer enough to sway her in Volume 8 when she starts disobeying his orders.

Again, I’m comparing two unfinished arcs, but I’m excited to see where this development will lead us. Having Winter and Yang parallel each other like so would really hammer home how similar these two can be beneath the surface. If at some point it involves more direct contact to drive each other, that’d just be icing on the cake. For now I’ll enjoy that their only personal interaction with each other is Yang telling Winter “[she’s] still just following orders?”, followed by a glare - hopefully this preludes a future conversation between them talking about this exact point.

I’ve already touched upon predictions related to the first two parts of this analysis, what about the third? Here we can go a bit wilder, because we already know what happens to Yang (and Blake) in Volumes 5 and 6. How would I mirror Volumes 5 and 6 with Winter (and Penny)? When I think of Yang’s recovery arc, two major scenes at the ends of Volume 5 and 6 come to mind.

The first is her confrontation with Raven in the Maiden Vault, an incredibly powerful scene where Yang properly confronts Raven and calls out her cowardice. One of the reasons it works so well is how difficult it is to realize Raven’s place in Yang’s life is not clear cut; Yang hates her for abandoning her and shirking her responsibilities as a parent, yet there is still love between them. Raven’s reaction itself is both an admission of care when she concedes to Yang, and also another failure on her part by leaving her off with the responsibility, running away again. In simpler terms, Yang reluctantly confronts someone she cares for deeply, yet isn’t on her side.

Who would be the Raven to Winter in a parallel scenario? One possibility is Ironwood, who holds a similar position to Winter as Raven did to Yang. Ironwood is an almost paternal figure to Winter, but he’s making wrong and dangerous choices, and Winter seems to realize it as well. He used her and exploited her, but also offered her safety and stability. Even after Winter defects, I don’t think Winter will want to fight him physically (if she’s capable), and would probably attempt to sway him with her words. Admittedly I don’t foresee Winter’s attempt at non-aggression to be successful like Yang, so it might come to blows anyway.

A second possibility it to put Penny in Raven’s place. Given that Penny’s also Maiden like Raven, and she’s on her way to the Atlas Vault, there’s some potential thematic parallels. Given their established relationship, I think neither would want to confront each other physically, and would rather talk instead. It’s possible here Winter and Penny will switch metaphorical roles, and it might be Penny that gives Winter the final push towards the heroes sides. It’s also possible, given Penny’s hacked plot line, that Winter will instead have to sway Penny back from whatever the hacking did to her. The last interpretation would also fit in quite well with Winter and Penny’s arc focusing on personal choice and feelings winning over.

The other incredibly important scene in Yang’s arc is the Bumbleby vs. Adam fight. Blake and Yang finally liberate themselves from Adam, Blake’s abuser and Yang’s personal enemy, and they defeat him by working together. Yang is freed of her personal demons, Blake of her literal demons, and in the aftermath of his death they mend their relationship. Their trust in each other won over strength.

[gif by sister-ilia]

If a parallel scene to the Nevermore fight would exist for Winter and Penny, I can think of three characters that could fulfill Adam’s role. Cinder already set her eyes on Penny and is fairly likely to fight her again, and in their previous clash injured Winter. It matches fairly well plot-wise, but I don’t think Cinder is enough of a personal villain to either Penny or Winter to match the same gravitas as Adam. For similar reasons, Watts, Penny’s “puppeteer”, can also fill Adam’s proverbial shoes in this imagined scenario, but I fear he’s too inconsequential overall.

Or, it could be Ironwood in Adam’s place. Ironwood seeks to control Penny (like Adam did with Blake), and acts as Winter’s personal demon (like Adam was to Yang) by continuously conditioning her to repress herself. Like the Nevermore fight, there’s a motive for them to avoid killing him, but given Ironwood’s current state of mind he might push them to that edge in self defense. Even if Ironwood’s defeat would not involve death, it would be a liberate Penny and Winter, freeing them from his control once and for all - but a Pyrrhic victory all the same. I’ll admit, this might be my favorite way to defeat Ironwood.

Coda

I’ll emphasize one last thought regarding these character arcs - it is my strong belief character progressions, and healing arcs in particular, do not have a clear and set timeline. What I outlined here are not endings, but steps in the way. RWBY seems to agree with my train of thought, and with Yang in particular we see this in her current arc: yes, she has progressed immensely from Volume 3, but the healing process does not simply end, even if it may seem that way on the surface. I approach Winter’s character in the same manner; I have high hopes of her character and as a person, but change is an ongoing process, and I’ll treat it as such.

Thanks for reading my analysis! I know it’s a bit long and messy, I’ve had to skim through some ideas that could be expanded upon, so send an ask my way if you’d like me to elaborate on anything.

Other interesting reads:

Kali-tmblr’s essay regarding siblings relationships.

Tumblingxelian’s review of Yang’s Volume 4 arc.

Petracore’s review of Winter’s Volume 7 arc.

Theseerasures’s comparison of Winter and Yang.

Schneefamilyincorrectquotes talking about Schneeblings.

#Winter Schnee #Yang Xiao Long #RWBY Analysis #long post #RWBY8 #RWBY #my posts #fishy.analysis

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prince-of-elsinore · 3 years

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On "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox" and "Carry On"

Or, The Tragedy of the Hunting Life

I'm rewatching Season 12 and was doing a little write-up of my thoughts so far, but this episode (12x06) really deserves a post of its own. It epitomizes a core theme of the show, the toll of the hunting life, and highlights the inherent contradictions of its premise in a way that sheds light on the finale, as well.

Just a few episodes prior, Mary once again reaffirmed that every hunter dies young. In this episode, we see that play out, gut-wrenchingly, over the course of a single montage. Mary Winchester (supposedly already retired herself) saves a young Asa Fox from werewolves, and he becomes obsessed. Mary inadvertently sets him down his path of becoming a hunter, and a skilled one. In so many ways, Asa parallels Dean, from his single-minded obsession with killing monsters, to his single-minded obsession with his "lucky" car, to his ever-rotating cast of one-night-stands. This man lives for the hunt, and then, quite suddenly, dies from it.

At the wake, Dean comments to Sam that dying on the job is the best way to go. This exchange follows:

Sam: You really believe that? Dean: Yeah. What, you don’t? I mean, come on, Sam, it's not like we're in the “live till you're 90, die in your sleep” business. This? This only ends one way.

Sam lets it drop, because he clearly disagrees, but it's not something they're really capable of talking about, at least not in this moment.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, after watching the finale, to know that Dean did die on the job, and Sam did "live till you're 90, die in your sleep"--in essence if not to the word--because he gave up hunting. Furthermore, Dean's death wasn't all that dissimilar to Asa's; as we learn at the end of the episode, Asa was in the wrong place at the wrong time, killed accidentally by an inconveniently placed rock. It's not always the evil thing itself that kills you, but in the violent life of a hunter, death comes one way or another. The show reminds us of this again and again.

This is indicative of the complex relationship the show has with its core premise, hunting. Hunting is simultaneously heroized and criticized by the show. A long time ago, a young Dean told his little brother that their dad was a superhero (3x08 A Very Supernatural Christmas) because he fought monsters. This is an attitude Dean never shed; saving people, hunting things, makes you a hero. And he's not wrong. At the start of the episode we get this exchange between Mary and the young Asa:

Mary: I’m retiring. Well, officially I’m already retired. I’m just tying up a few loose ends. Asa: But if you retire, who’s gonna save people like me?

Asa's not wrong. People will always need saving. The good hunters do is real. But every hunter who doesn't retire, and even some of the ones that do (prime example: Mary), dies. Usually young and bloody. Not to mention the other tolls the job takes, on family life and mental health. Asa at least had enough good friends to give him a celebratory send-off, and had a casual romance going with Jody. He even had kids (the witch twins), though it's not clear how much of a relationship they had. Asa is described by his mother, though, as obsessed, and it seems he was on the healthy end of the spectrum when it comes to hunters. So many of the hunters we meet over the course of the series are socially awkward at best and paranoid, revenge-driven psychopaths at worst. Some of that could be chalked up to whatever trauma pulled them into the life, but undoubtedly, some of it is the job itself. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. Obsession breeds obsession (as with Asa). A life of isolation from the comforts of society breeds self loathing, which drives a person further into isolation (as with Dean--a lot to unpack there, but I'll leave it for another day).

The question the show seems to be asking is, what do you do with the burden of knowledge of evil, of the things that go bump in the night? Do you live (and ultimately die) for others, or do you live for yourself? The hunting ethos, enabling as it is of selfish revenge and obsession, encourages the former. In the end, there is good and bad in either choice. The show does not offer up one right answer. Ultimately, Dean chooses the former (as he always has) and pays the price in the finale, saving two little boys in the process. Sam chooses the latter, leaving hunting and the untold numbers of nameless strangers he might have saved, but he lives for himself and for a son of his own.

The more I consider it, the more I believe there's no other way it could have gone. Sam is at peace with hunting, but only as long as it's with Dean, as he tells Charlie in 10x18 Book of the Damned:

Sam: I guess I really understand now that….this is my life. I love it. But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t….

Dean, however, could never give up the life. Thankfully, in later seasons, he has reached an inner equilibrium with hunting, though. He derives meaning and identity from what he does, no longer driven by a conviction that his life is only worth whatever cause he can sacrifice it for. In 14x13 Lebanon, when Sam expresses his wish that they could send their father back to the past with knowledge that would change the courses of their lives, Dean has this to say:

Dean: I mean, look, we’ve been through some tough times. There’s no denying that. [...] And for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom, too, you know? I was angry. But say we could send Dad back knowing everything. Why stop there? Why not send him even further back and let some other poor sons of bitches save the world? But here’s the problem. Who does that make us? Would we be better off? Well, maybe. But I gotta be honest – I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is. And I’m good with who I am. I’m good with who you are. ‘Cause our lives – they’re ours. And maybe I’m just too damn old to want to change that.

In the end, Sam and Dean each give a different answer to the question the show poses, of what you do with knowledge and responsibility: live for others, or for yourself? Each answer is complex, though, and layered. Neither is better than the other. It's not a yes or no, good or bad question. The show has always been about choices and consequences. It was true to its premise till the very end, just as Sam and Dean made the choices that were true to themselves. It's bittersweet. It's heroic. It's tragic. It's right.

#spn meta #spn finale #celebrating the life of asa fox #12x06 #spn finale positive #spn season 12 #my meta #spn episode celebrating the life of asa fox

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dissociativedaydream · 3 years

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Vertani - OC!Species

Appearance

Humanoid race.

Skin

Tones vary though remain similar to the human species

Eyes

Iris colors are usually gold, red, or purple though brown eyes are also seen.

Have a reflective lens behind their cornea which allows them better night vision.

They display signs of photosensitivity around their eyes when in bright environments, less severely their skin when exposed to sunlight for long periods.

Teeth

Canine teeth are the easiest identifier to spot as the top teeth are double-pointed in an inverted V, longer peak to the front of the mouth.

Hair

Generally thick and black, textures vary by home region

Curls are rare but are the ideal native beauty standard

It’s usually kept long regardless of gender

Braids are commonly used to show status or life events

Hair is kept up unless in the presence of immediate family or highly trusted friends

General Biology

Bodies are able to regulate body temperatures very well except when sick

Will become sluggish if too cold but thrives in heat

Skin will dry out easily in dry environments regardless of temperature, oils are frequently used to keep skin healthy

Omnivores - Cannot physically go onto a vegetarian diet but can become strictly cavernous and remain healthy.

Homeworld

Their home planet was destroyed and race enslaved up until approximately 35 BBY during which a number of slaves were released though some remained in servitude as they had no other means of survival in the galaxy.

The name has been forgotten by their species but stories let them know that it had been covered by jungles and swamps. It was mostly a temperate climate, jungle regions could get cooler than their swamp counterparts though still remained rather warm.

Culture

Language

The native Vertani tongue has gone extinct, basic now being their first language though many are multilingual.

Religion

While their language died out, their religion continued. The primary god was a dual deity, one side being a god of death, the other being a goddess of fate. Like with many dual deities its symbol often shows as the sun and moon imagery. While the exact name of the animal species that the deity is associated with but it’s generally accepted that the god of death is a large, ground predator while the goddess of fate is seen as a flight-capable bird.

Occupations

Before enslavement, the Vertani people were a warrior species, many of which native-born of the species were frequently force-sensitive though they were unaware of what that means to Jedi/Sith. Instead, they saw those with gifts as chosen by their deity to lead or teach in their military. As their species intermixes with others, force sensitivity is becoming less common but still probable at a 70%:30% ratio.

During enslavement, their skills were used by their masters to assassinate rivals/work on bounty jobs for them as a means of income. Some continued with that line of work after being given freedom since it’s what they know and easy for most because they don’t have a home planet any longer.

Clothing

Clothing is usually layered with the bottom layer being a tunic and leggings. Metal rings usually hang from their waist to gather skirt layers to allow for easier movement. Some wear armor consisting of a breastplate, vambraces over their lower arms, with guards over their thighs and shins. There’s no distinct difference in male or female clothes.

Common for warriors to wear metal caps over their canines, sometimes they’re decorative but if they’re bounty hunters or mercenaries the caps usually contain poison that the wearer has developed an immunity to. If captured or don’t care if their opponent lives or not, they’ll bite to administer the poison.

Courting

Courting without an arrangement was rare to see but still expected even if marriages were arranged. Gifts are usually exchanged between the two betrothed, Ventari encourages their betrothed young to research their to-be mate’s species to decide what present would be best. Frequently these gifts are handmade.

Marriage/Divorce

Most families stick together in small nomadic tribes, members would only really leave for marriage purposes. Since their freedom, many marriages became strategic in a political sense, often marriages were used to buy the family resources, land, or even protection.

Marriage ceremonies are usually large affairs when they can afford it. The ceremony consists of hand binding and vows afterward there’s a feast/party with music and dancing. Traditionally the two newlyweds will dance together in the middle of the dancefloor with their families dancing around them until one spouse carries the other off to their marriage bed.

Divorce is not permitted in the first 3 years of marriage at that point, if there are no children present, the two spouses can basically just walk away from each other. If children are had during that window, divorce is less common and also more frowned upon by their society.

Reproduction

Birth rates for the Vertani were relatively unaffected by their enslavement, families remaining large but gender ratios were skewed, females outnumbered male births 4:1. Due to this, it was incredibly common for females to commit to each other (whether romantic or platonic) or to marry outside of their species, some earning their freedoms prior to liberation this way.

The Vertani have proven to be compatible with numerous species, their reproductive cycles have shown to adapt to their mate’s needs through their regular reproductive cycle follows the typical heat/rut cycle. Once married, after some time, their cycle timing will match their spouses’ cycle to give the couple an optimal chance of having children (this occurs whether the spouse is the same gender or not the same species).

A standard Vertani pregnancy is 8 months with a fetus able to survive outside the womb by 6 months. But more often than not the pregnancies vary in length depending on the Vertani’s mate’s species. After having a baby if the Vertani is the birth giver, their reproductive cycle will pause for the following 9-12 months.

Misc. Customs

Younger generations greet older family members by taking their hand and touching it to their forehead as a sign of respect.

While families usually eat together for meals, parents will usually feed their children first, making sure they get their fill before they start eating.

Tea is consumed for ceremonies, especially weddings. They will consume alcohol if it’s integral to their spouse’s culture but only when required. Frequently to them, alcohol tastes bitter and they can easily get sick off of it. Despite this alcoholism ends up being a frequent problem.

Facial piercings and tattoos are common (body piercings are less so since there’s less cultural significance and more personal preference). Tattoos usually display life events of the individual as well as significant symbolism to their families.

#Vertani #OC!species #star wars #clone wars #for my monster lovers #or monster fuckers #I don't judge

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janeaustentextposts · 4 years

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Why didnt the Bennets have a governess? Were they unable to afford one or was it not as necessary as Lady Catherine made it seem?

It’s not really said why they don’t have a governess--and to pay the salary for one person to see to the education of five girls would be relatively cheap for the Bennets to get their daughters educated as a package deal (but oh my god that poor woman would not be paid NEARLY enough for all that work,) so I don’t think it was a case of them being unable to afford one. But for female education, especially, families could really pick and choose what level of investment they wanted to make. Elizabeth admits that they had whatever masters they wanted (presumably for dancing/art/music,) and fancy-work could be picked up from female friends and relations, so it doesn’t seem as though they were entirely neglected by Mr. Bennet’s refusal to have them educated in accomplishments; but more that it was very self-directed by the Bennet daughters, and if none of them asked for a governess or bothered Mrs. Bennet to teach them things (and it feels unlikely she’d have the skills or will to do so in the first place, so I doubt any attempts went very far,) they could just...do whatever. Imagine if a house full of girls these days were home-schooled but allowed to set their own curriculum and nobody ever made them take any kind of standardized test.

Elizabeth has eked out her own education by reading--as has Mary, though with different results in what they do with that reading. Elizabeth’s is more for personal enjoyment and enrichment, and Mary’s is more along the lines of making her reading another ‘accomplishment’ to display in how she dispenses her nuggets of wisdom in a performative way for social cachet. Kitty and Lydia no doubt enjoyed their dancing lessons, and do that very well, but everything else has been neglected. The Bennet girls essentially have very little structure, and it is their parents’ fault for leaving their educations to their own wills (and young girls/teens are not very likely to get strict with themselves, especially to apply themselves to subjects they may not enjoy.)

There are probably families who COULD have reasonably well-rounded educations for their daughters at home and without a governess (Austen herself only briefly attended school before illness forced her to return home, and I’ve never heard that the family employed a governess, so her mother and father saw to all other aspects of her education, and encouraged her to read widely.) But without some adult to provide structure and encourage disciplined application to learning, it’s almost entirely up to chance whether a girl could scratch out a meaningful education for herself.

That being said, governesses and schools are hardly a guarantee that a girl will develop into an educated person--but then it depends on your definition of education. The famous dialogue about what makes an Accomplished Woman in Pride and Prejudice rather reveals a lot--the Bingley sisters were educated at a very fine ladies’ school in London, and while they have accomplishments such as the things Caroline Bingley lists, (and to master several languages and talents such as music and art is no mean feat!) the sisters are still not quite on Elizabeth’s level, where Elizabeth’s more self-directed reading has perhaps enabled her to better develop her own critical thinking skills and to think outside the box.

Then there is Mrs. Goddard’s school in Emma, which is an unpretentious place and a very good sort of school for what it is--but the text admits that it is not turning out any particular geniuses or artistic talents, but fitting its girls up to be reasonably appealing and capable managers of middling genteel households. But for all that, it’s described rather lovingly: “Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a School—not of a seminary, or an establishment, or any thing which professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality, upon new principles and new systems—and where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity—but a real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girls might be sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies. Mrs. Goddard's school was in high repute—and very deservedly; for Highbury was reckoned a particularly healthy spot: she had an ample house and garden, gave the children plenty of wholesome food, let them run about a great deal in the summer, and in winter dressed their chilblains with her own hands.” It reads as the next best thing to solid instruction at home by a capable and motherly sort of woman, so between this and Austen’s own education I think we can tell of her views on female accomplishments--a certain measure of flexibility and freedom is good for children as they grow, as well as a dignified simplicity which is in stark contrast to the sort of school the Bingley sisters attended in order to become the multi-accomplished beasts they are.

Almost every novel has something to say about female education--Mrs. Elton and Lucy Steele, I think, are school-girls in a similar vein to the Bingley sisters, and they have grown up to be two-faced and supercilious creatures. But then we have Mrs. Smith, who was at school with Anne Elliot, and is one of her truest friends from the beginning. In Mansfield Park we see the difference between the Bertram sisters and Fanny, though they all share the same governess. In these contrasts we can tell that the manner of a girl’s education is as much about developing her social persona in many ways as it is about giving her skills to befit a genteel woman, and the differing notions of what Society thinks an accomplished woman ought to be. Some of Austen’s least ‘educated’ characters are also some of the sweetest and kindest, whose seemingly inborn good sense carries them through difficulties; and some of those who have had a high degree of professional investment in their formal educations have turned out to be the meanest and/or most useless of women.

To bring it back to the Bennets and Lady Catherine, it’s almost certain that Lady Catherine is inquiring about their education and whether or not they had a governess in order to be a snob as well as nosy about Mr. Bennet’s income--hiring a private tutor for one’s child was basically the most expensive educational option available--and while Elizabeth is well-aware of the particular defects in how education has proceeded in her own family, she knows that is more due to her own parents’ lack of structure and discipline, rather than something which could have been fixed by the hiring of a governess. Even if they had one, it seems unlikely Mr. or Mrs. Bennet would exert themselves to make Kitty and Lydia mind the woman and apply themselves to scholarly things. (Other novels make it clear that girls ill-disciplined by their own parents can pretty much get away with murder when it comes to disobeying or ignoring their governesses.) Of course Elizabeth isn’t going to give Lady Catherine the ammunition of admitting that her parents dropped the ball, but she goes as far as she can to defend the general practice of at-home education without a governess, because many families did so (Austen’s included) and their daughters turned out just fine with a little genuine effort, thank you very much.

#Ask Me Anything Austen-Adjacent #AMAAA #Jane Austen #Pride and Prejudice

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butterfly-winx · 4 years

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One more girl on the lineup! Empress Heir Xiang Galatea of Melody, Fairy of Composing/ Composed Music! Super shiny, super brassy!

Details below!

Galatea was born on Melody during a summer of spoiled harvest, and as it is custom for the emperor’s family to share the perils that hit their people, Galatea and her mother suffered significant undernourishment. This shaped Galatea’s years of early development and led her to appear frail and stick thin. At first the court’s medimagicians even suspected she would be an insufficient conduct for magic and never manifest any skills despite all her ancestry sporting strong magic users, but Galatea proved them wrong with her first fairy transformation, right on schedule on her fifteenth birthday. Using magic stabilised her and got rid of many of her fatigue issues, making her a lot more healthy than she looks to the eye. However this came with the side effect that her small treble clef shaped wings never fully disappear when she detransforms, always circulating some amount of passive magic through her.

“Xiang Galatea” is Galatea’s zí name, the one that is respectable and polite for people to use who don’t know her or are below her in standing. This name would usually be chosen when the person reaches adulthood and is ready to join society, but Galatea belonging to the royal family, she received it rather early so that she could make public appearances. Xiang is her family name that she inherited from her mother (which is a tradition on Melody that makes heritage tracing extremely difficult) meaning “lucky, good omen”. Her míng name that close family calls her by is “Wei Qing”, which derives from “small” and “blue,green” in reference to the light eyes she was born with that darkened over the years to her current brown. Platinum is shockingly also not Galatea’s actual hair colour: she dyes it meticulously, but her transformations make the colour appear natural. She used moving away from home to Alfea as an excuse to change up her look without her parents knowing and went for the choppy pixie cut that has grown to be her staple since.

Arriving at Alfea one year after the Winx made their debut, Galatea was very thankful for being able to enjoy her first year at school without great disruptions (whatever was going on in the Dungeons with a whole dimensional portal was not her problem, bless her soul). From a young age Galatea has been extremely dutiful, doing exactly as her grandfather wished or her country demanded of her, but this attitude slackened a little bit once had her own taste of the wider world. She knew she had to be thankful for the social position awarded to her by birth, for the continued faith of the people of Melody in the Emperor’s institute of power, but she couldn’t help but wonder. Did it even make sense to uphold the Empire? Wasn’t the court on its own enough? She just wanted more perspective, a little bit more from life, which probably sounded incredibly ignorant of her privilege as part of the heritage line of one of the world’s oldest dynasties. If her grandfather and father enjoyed a long life, then Galatea herself would have decades to enjoy life and build a family before she even had to consider ascending to the throne to rule. She had conversations with her father however, who suggested withdrawing from his position thinking it would be much better for Galatea to become Empress sooner so that the country could have a younger person at its head... That wasn’t exactly the kind of monarchy abolition Galatea had been hoping for.

Galatea was in general also tired of being followed around and supervised at all times, which probably influenced her change of spirit. There was painfully little however which she could have expressed her dissent with, aside the little promise she made her grandfather about connecting their countrymen abroad. She kept in touch with the other students at Alfea who also hailed from Melody as advised, but she didn’t really develop a friendship with either of them aside from Musa. Musa in her own way was already hardened from knowing two (and a half) princesses, so her attitude towards Galatea was completely different from the other Melodian kids. They were much too stiff when conversing with her and tried to mimic a proper Melodian high court accent that were just a little bit on the side of mocking putting Galatea off wanting to talk to them. So she didn’t and lied trough her teeth about tea ceremonies they supposedly held together, praying no babysitter to be sent after her.

Her second year hit like a sledgehammer to a wall with Valtor and the Trix causing upheaval all across the Magic Universe. Melody escaped their scrutiny for much longer than their neighbouring countries on the planet, but eventually Tian Qi Feng, the guardian fairy of Melody paid her and Musa a grim visit and cautioned them against returning home until the unrest has been settled. Worried about their families the two girls bonded comforting each other with a little piece of home, making music and cooking. To take her mind off the stress, Galatea threw herself into another kind of stressor with high expectations attached: her studies. She spent hours after class in the library, switching meaningful personal contacts for written text.

She was just in a wrong place at the wrong time when the Trix sneaked in and took her hostage and forced her to hand out Alfea’s secret spell collection. The witches first tried their luck with the librarian who got knocked out by the force of Stormy’s attack before moving on to Galatea and torturing her by freezing off her wings. Absolutely and helpless in shock, all she could do was send a distress signal to Musa, deeply ashamed by her lack of skill facing the witches. The Winx swooped in not a second too late and chased the Trix off, but not before Darcy set off a cursed fire in the library that not even Bloom’s fire control spells could tame. The others carried the unconscious librarian off while Musa and Galatea stayed behind, the latter feeling responsible for the situation and the books that have given her so much comfort over the last few weeks. Loosing information was the biggest curse that could strike a society and Galatea didn’t want to let so many important books perish because of her mistake. It took Musa a minute to tear her away from her futile attempt and lead her towards the exit that had since been blocked by a fallen over bookshelf. Galatea pointed out that Musa could easily fly over the obstacle, but Musa objected that her Charmix wings wouldn’t be able to carry the weight of them both. It would be a strain on a clear day, but amidst all the fire and exhaustion from the smoke they didn’t stand a chance. Dutifully, Galatea told Musa to leave her behind, but Musa refused to trying to figure out a way for both of them to get out alive. Her stubborn dedication made Musa earn her Enchantix. Subduing the cursed flames with her fairydust, Musa led them out with Galatea clutching the precious book in one hand and Musa’s hand in her other.

Outside Faragonda, teachers, other students have rushed to the burning library. Enchanti were instructed to use their dust to dampen the flames and Faragonda then used her powers to restore the books to their previous form, not a char mark left behind. Musa immediately returned to Galatea’s side once that had been dealt with and used her fairy dust one last time to give Galatea her passive wings back, ending the hour long anxiety attack Galatea didn’t even notice she was having. The two of them had a long conversation after that about low self esteem and feeling like the only worth one could earn was from how useful one was to other people. Galatea beat her insecurities about not being allowed to trust people and opened up to Musa admitting that she did want things from life, just for her own sake and Musa gently encouraged her to take that lep of faith next time a choice presented itself to her. In doing so, Galatea earned her Charmix.

Despite not much harm coming to her beloved books or herself, Galatea had been deeply shaken by the incident and developed a fear of the Trix, remaining apprehensive every time they were mentioned. During the Crisis of the Seas she stayed reserved in her grandfather’s shadow, right until the Trix started joining the mix. From there on she campaigned on behalf of Andros getting the help they needed and her words moved the Melodian court to mobilise troops for the final showdown.

(In the time between the two eventd, she did earn her Enchantix and graduated Alfea with stellar results in the same year group as Mirta did. Similarly to Mirta, she had been swept up in the consequences of magic returning to Earth and the unrest it caused across the Galaxy as well. Unhappy masses protesting the data collection regulations placed on witchers (lest they collaborate with the Black Circle from Earth, who were known terrorists, was the reason given) derailed a train she had been travelling on. Even though her magic aspect lay in something completely else, she tried to protect everyone in the carriage from the crash - and unlocking her Enchantix she did manage to do so!)

In the S6 timeline she shows up likewise late in the story arc, but at a crucial point to offer help to the Winx after they have been beaten back by the Trix despite having gotten rid of the Legendarium. Despite their partial victory, the girls were once again without weapons as their Mythix spells didn’t pack a punch against the physical attacks of the Trix. So Galatea temporarily gifted her vial of fairydust to Musa to use as a last resort. Ever since the library incident the two women have been tied together by a life debt Galatea owed to Musa, which now has been resolved. Galatea herself joined the Red Fountain and Company of Light forces sent to liberate Alfea and detain the Trix.

Having powers over Composing makes Galatea able to give other people inspiration and see harmonies, not just in music but in philosophy and life as well. She knows a lot about composed music as well - written songs, not passed by oral tradition - and can recite many to the great pleasure of her diplomacy skills teachers. It certainly helps if she can demonstrate knowledge on her conversation partner’s culture. Having an abstract power source Galatea is far from being a fighter and she absolutely prefers it so. Her very first battle (if you can call it that) showed her that she did not have the nerves of steel needed to handle such a dangerous situation with the acuity and quick-wit needed. She knows she is a weak conduct and has to take good care of her body and can’t afford to express large quantities of magic without fearing the rebound consequences. It took her a while to come to terms with it, but Galatea now knows where her strengths lie, and that is in politics: as her father’s and grandfather’s successor leading Melody.

Galatea is very underappreciated because she stays away from the action so much, but I took the chance to make it a part of her character. Just because people are capable of magic doesn’t mean they have to work towards becoming the heaviest hitting canons in the universe. Galatea as a casual magic user has her own place in my heart and in my story!

#winx club #winx galatea #galatea enchantix #locally sourced art #I had better writing seshes I'm not gonna lie #technically worldbuilding #also tumblr blue here to screw with my colours again

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cr0nu5-archive · 4 years

Text

a post about me word vomiting about tomura’s mental maturity (contains manga spoilers) its gonna be a bit all over the place sorry haha

a bitch (me) really be thinking about tomura’s growth in mental maturity throughout the series. we all know in the beginning of the series despite being a young adult didnt have a very adult way of dealing with stress and anger specifically. tho i feel like its safe to assume that is exactly what afo wanted. he wanted a volatile tomura shigaraki who acts out and destroys things he hates without a second thought beyond “i hate it so it needs to go.” he wanted to build someone who was very good at destroying and would follow his word unlike his precious little brother. he never taught tomura any healthy coping skills and told him the only way to calm his itch was to destroy his cause of stress and frustration. he actually gave tomura an incredibly UNHEALTHY way to bring a bit of calmness to his stress by pushing him to wear what remains of his family.

even after destroying something he hates there is no real satisfaction. he seeks to destroy and destroy in hopes to be finally free from his crushing feelings.

afo encouraged behavior an adult is supposed to teach a child to prevent. and im not at all surprised that when this enabler was torn from tomura’s life the young man went through change. though i believe forming other bonds with the league of villains members also did a lot to help this change and you can see a bit of that change even just before afo was taken in.

when bakugou blasted an attack in his face (tomura’s unusual durability is a post for another day) instead of throwing a fit he assure everyone it was fine which is quite the change from tomura attempting to murder toga and dabi based on not liking their personality. tho he was still seemingly pissed he was taking steps to control his anger.

it was likely because having a team pushed him into the leader position. and once afo was out of the picture he had no one above him to give him orders or make sure everything went smoothly. that was all on him now. the league was his responsibility and he had to carry the burden of being afo’s successor.

hell even interacting with other villains like stain and overhaul helped him grow. he was shown their view points and their ambitions. he learned from his rivals.

he was probably very sheltered growing up. afo was trying to groom him and wouldnt want tomura to interact with people who might change his view on some things. tomura was already not going to school. before the death of his family he wasnt in school yet because he was only 5 years old tho he did interact with kids in the neighborhood. but after that they only people he interacted with were afo, the doctor and kurogiri. before his rise in fame he’s been shown to go on walks but it didnt seem like people were often kind to him.

he was frustrated. it didnt seem like he killed since his father. in this scene he actually closed his fist because he didnt want to kill them even tho he was upset. he even complained to afo and afo encouraged him to give in to the need to destroy.

afo is not in the picture currently. nor is his caretaker kurogiri. all he has is the league and their growing trust and care for each other. they are not above him in terms of who calls the shots but he wants to help them be free with him. free live how they want without society fucking them over.

he’s got people who arent trying to hold him back. they are fight with and for him.

now when he gets angry there are more thoughts than just “destroy.” he makes plans before he acts. he’s even shown more control than his team during the overhaul arc. after magne was killed (in a pretty hot headed move) he tried to tell compress not to rush in because he knew rushing in was a bad idea. and when he agrees to working with overhaul he doesnt hide his disdain but kept things civil until he was able to carry out an act of revenge.

he’s more open with getting angry on behalf of his comrades now and i cant remember the last time he was pissed because of his own personal annoyance.

spinner literally yells in his face and he looks more like “bro chill” than anything else. he realizes spinner isnt his enemy even tho he is being faced with disrespect he doesnt throw a fit over it.

in conclosing the league is the best example of the found family trope, tomura shows incredible growth throughout the series (even symbolized with a visual of a butterfly creature tomura hatching from a cocoon), i dont know how to type anything cohesive and i’d let tomura unplug my life support to charge his phone.

#shigaraki tomura #bnha #i scream into the void about tomura all the time but rarely write anything down bc its a mess #long post

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totally-normal-boy · 4 years

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Utenalysis #1: Utena ISN’T Dumb

Every Revolutionary Girl Utena fan has heard jokes about how Utena is dumb. Most of us have made our fair share of them as well. However, However, even though she is an innocent character with a (sometimes frustratingly) optimistic attitude, she is not stupid. She’s an intelligent teenage girl being deceived by two very skilled manipulators who have exploited her desire to be part of a family. Anthy and Akio are actively discouraging her from asking questions about her situation, just like society actively discourages people from questioning unfair systems. To say that Utena is stupid oversimplifies an interesting character who is just as complicated as the rest of the cast.

In the Student Council Arc, Utena demonstrates that she is a clever person. At the beginning of the series, she asks perceptive questions that show she is looking for the right sort of information to help her figure out what is going on in the duels. In the second episode, she asks Anthy how she could be involved in the duels but still not know how they worked. This shows that she was suspicious about Anthy’s role in the duels, but she doesn’t get the answers she needs because Anthy deflects the question in two ways. First, she asks Utena why she wears a boys’ uniform, which Utena responds to by saying “because I like it." But then, after that, Anthy asks Utena if she’s bothered by having her and Chu Chu around, which leads her to introduce Chu Chu to Utena. This is not one, but three, different manipulation tactics. Anthy makes Utena come up with the answer to her own question, then she makes her feel guilty for asking it in the first place, and last she distracts her with a silly monkey.

However, even as Anthy discourages Utena from asking questions about the dueling games by giving her vague and confusing answers, Utena tries to use logic and reason with Anthy. From episode 3 up until episode 12, Utena tries to encourage Anthy to make more friends. This is a combination of her desire to give herself a sense of self-worth by “saving” Anthy and a projection of her own desire to be less lonely. To do this, Utena tries to be straightforward when talking with Anthy. In episode 3, she tries to explain to Anthy how her lack of friends is a problem instead of just dragging her along to the school dance. This is presumptuous of Utena because she is imposing her values onto Anthy. However, it does show how Utena is not completely oblivious. She is intelligent enough to understand that she needs to engage with Anthy's opinions.

Utena proves that she's smart in an academic sense, along with just an interpersonal sense in episode 4. In this episode, Wakaba tells Utena that she usually gets good grades in spite of doing poorly on her most recent test. This represents how even though Utena is a smart person, her intelligence will not help her succeed in the dueling games. Akio designed the dueling game so that it only benefits him. So, intelligent people like Utena and Miki, the duelist who is the focus of that episode, may believe that they can beat the system. However, Akio and Anthy are manipulating them both, and neither of them will be able to outsmart the system.

One of the biggest reasons that many fans think that Utena is dense or unintelligent is because she doesn’t pick up on the incestuous nature of Anthy and Akio's relationship. However, Utena has been bonding with Anthy since the beginning of the series. She has been bonding with Akio for almost as long because she started to view him as a mentor figure during the Black Rose arc. While it is impossible to deny that Utena genuinely views Anthy as her friend at the start of the Akio arc, many people forget that Utena also views Akio as her friend.

While the audience knows Akio is an evil person, Utena does not. She sees him as an intelligent older man who treats her as his equal, even though he is the Chairman of the school. While the audience knows that he is the Ends of the World, Anthy tells Utena that her brother knows nothing about the duels when Utena first meets him in episode 14. Utena starts lying on Anthy's behalf which incentivizes her to not connect Akio with the duels. If she did that, both her trust in Anthy and the illusion of her normal friendship with Akio would be broken.

Additionally, Utena does not find any reason to distrust Akio throughout the entire Black Rose Arc. While Akio is undeniably grooming her during this arc, he does not do or say anything to make Utena so uncomfortable that she will stop spending time with him. He is biding his time so that it will have the maximum negative emotional impact on her when he finally does take advantage of her. But to Utena Akio is smart, kind, and in a committed relationship. On the surface he seems like decent guy. He’s the Chairman of the school, but he’s young and cool, so she simultaneously sees him as both a friend and an authority figure. One could argue that she even sees him as a role model because he is simultaneously both someone who defies convention and lives up to the archetype of the prince. He has the power to be whoever he wants without being judged for it, which is something Utena wants as well. However, Utena wants this freedom so that she can define her own identity, while Akio uses this freedom to abuse other people.

Utena is drawn to both Akio and Anthy because Anthy lets her be a prince while Akio lets her be a “totally normal girl.” She can have both of her fantasies at once when she’s with the two of them by living in two separate worlds. The world of the duels lets her feel like a savior, especially after she protects Anthy from multiple people who were threatening to kill her in the Black Rose Arc. Even though Utena doesn’t remember the duels after this arc, she does still remembers protecting Anthy from the student council, none of whom respect Anthy’s autonomy. Utena never questions whether or not she respects Anthy's autonomy because she has been conditioned not to question her involvement in the duels. Anthy has encouraged Utena to try and fulfill the role of the Prince because that is part of her role as the Rose Bride. While Anthy gives her a chance to fulfill her dream of being a prince, Akio gives her the chance to feel like she is still a regular girl in spite of that. She gets the power that comes with being a prince and the societal validation that comes with being the princess.

By the time that Utena moves into the Chairman's office, she has good reason to purposefully avoid admitting that Akio and Anthy's relationship isn't as wholesome as she had originally believed. Early on in the Akio arc, Anthy apologizes to Utena on Akio's behalf, because she is worried that she was offended by him referring to the three of them as being family. However, Utena tells Anthy that it made her feel good because she doesn't have any family herself. As much as she genuinely values Anthy’s autonomy, she does want to uphold the system of her being the Rose Bride. While she wants to improve the system so that Anthy has more freedom, she does enjoy how the system gives her a sense of belonging she never had before. Later, she realizes that sense of belonging comes from her relationship with Anthy, and not her status as part of Anthy and Akio's family. However, by this point, she has yet to realize that because Akio is using the fact that she lost her family at a young age to manipulate her.

While the audience has known the truth about Akio and Anthy's relationship since episode 14, Utena didn't even start spending much time with both of them at once until she moved into the Chairman's tower. In addition to this, she does not have a framework for what a healthy family is supposed to look like since she grew up without one. Even if it doesn't seem like Anthy and Akio have a normal sibling relationship to her, Utena doesn't feel like she has the right to criticize them for that. They’re the first family she’s ever been part of and Utena seems to be uncomfortable with the general concept of empathy. She often shies away when Wakaba is extremely friendly with her, so one can assume that any sort of closeness feels unfamiliar to her. Also, the fact that she still believes she is helping Anthy keep the duels secret from Akio probably makes her feel like an invader in their family.

When Nanami moves into the Chairman's tower, Utena using her as a sounding board to validate her opinions about the true nature of Anthy and Akio's relationship. If Nanami agrees that they are a regular pair of siblings, then it must be true. However, if Nanami disagrees with her, Utena can blame Nanami for looking for evidence that Anthy feels the same way about Akio that she does about Touga. In episode 32, Utena tells Nanami that she thinks Akio and Anthy are sleeping in the same bed because they are "really close siblings." She already knows that Nanami thinks there is something incestuous about the relationship between the two siblings based on the conversations they had in the previous episode. So, if Nanami validates her theory now, then everything is all right. She doesn't have to reevaluate the way she's been living her life up until this point. She can have a family.

In the end, all that Utena wants is to overcome the pain of losing her family at such a young age. In episode 37, Anthy tells Utena that she wants herself, Utena, and Akio to stay the way that they currently are forever. But that's not Anthy's fantasy, it's Utena's. Utena is tired of feeling alone. She’s tired of feeling like she isn’t strong enough. She doesn’t want to have to rely on some man like a delicate princess, but she doesn’t really want to be a prince either. She wants to know that she can be free from those roles without being completely alone. And eventually, she does find that in Anthy. Even though their relationship was never perfect, they learn to see each other as people. They find freedom and companionship in each other, and that’s what makes their relationship beautiful.

#revolutionary girl utena #utenalysis #Utena Tenjou

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beerecordings · 4 years

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This might be a bit much to ask but . . . What exactly ARE all the different kinds of therapy? Or at least the common ones? I’ve only ever heard of CBT.

okay so I saved this for the night before my Intro to Counseling final so I could actually use this as review hahaha. this isn’t exhaustive, though, these are just some of the forms we talked about in class. and hopefully I don’t get anything wrong or I’m going to be missing points on the final tomorrow lmaoo

Important note first tho: the most important factor in therapeutic success is not the techniques or even viewpoint employed. It is the client-therapist relationship. You need to find a therapist you can trust who doesn’t seem crazy or ridiculous to you - which ties in to their therapeutic model, but is not dependent on it. Okay? Okay. Don’t be afraid to try out a therapist just because they’re not the exact type that seems right to you. Most therapists function using multiple models and techniques anyway :) Also some of these are more empirically-backed up and reputable than others lol

Okay so yes CBT therapy or Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy! There’s a reason you’ve only heard of this one - it’s popular, effective, and empirically-backed-up more than almost any other therapy because it relies on techniques which are easily empirically tested. CBT looks at the problematic behaviors present in the client’s life, investigates the cognition behind it, and seeks to change the cognition so that the behavior will change. They often use homework and exercises in changing cognition, so the client’s dedication is vitally important.

CBT was derived from early Behavioral Therapy, which does not focus on changing the cognition but merely the behavior. This might sound a little shallow, but it can be very helpful sometimes. You can change precursors to the behavior (driving past the bar makes me want to drink, so I take another route home) or consequences to the behavior (I give my child a popsicle to calm her down when she’s crying, but now I’m going to stop rewarding her). Behavioral therapy functions on the assumption that every behavior is the result of operant or classical conditioning - rewards and punishments in the environment have shaped all behavior. Behavioral therapists help clients set goals and then find concrete ways to work towards them. It is home to treatments such as progressive muscle relaxation, systematic desensitization, and several off-shooting therapeutic models such as DBT, CBT, and mindfulness training.

Psychoanalytic Therapy, to start nearer the beginning, is that Freudian stuff and it’s the worst. The therapist is very much the expert and will tell the client what it is that they are experiencing, even using dreams and other sub-conscious processes as the basis for their assumptions. This version of therapy is what allowed Freud to convince multiple women that they had not been sexually assaulted as children and to dismiss many of their issues as female hysteria. It focuses on the sexual stages of development (which Freud made up and which have been empirically disproven). This form of therapy is not in use anymore, at least in that same original form, but it bears mentioning because it is the sexist old grandpa of pretty much any other form of therapy we use today.

Adlerian Therapy is another old-timer, but much warmer and still in use today. It focuses heavily on early childhood memories, and may ask the client to recreate them using sandbox models or through story-telling. It has a large social focus, encouraging clients to make friends, establish healthy intimacy, and contribute to society as its three main goals. The therapist is the expert in this relationship and happily offers suggestions for ways to develop social interest and encourage self-understanding through childhood development. They will challenge and confront irrational beliefs, but are always very encouraging and ask clients to define themselves in their own context.

Feminist Therapy assumes that the cause of people’s problems is society, not necessarily shaping. They do not like traditional forms of diagnosis because, to them, the problem is not that you have depression or anxiety or BPD or whatever you would traditionally be diagnosed with - the problem is that the system is unjust, and your reaction is an outcry against it. Therefore they encourage social action, social skills training, and power analysis as part of their treatment plans. In feminist therapy, the therapist and client have a completely egalitarian relationship, meaning the therapist is not the expert, but equal to the client. To demonstrate this, the therapist is likely to self-disclose (talk about themselves and their issues and struggles) and work hard to relate to the client. Feminist therapy seeks to show people of all genders, races, cultures, nationalities, sexual orientations, and more the ways that power plays a role in their life and how they can live defending others and themselves.

Person-Centered Therapy is related to the positive psychology movement, so one of its goals is to always see the client in an extremely positive regard! Even when the client does something wrong, the therapist assumes that they were doing the best they could at the time with the mental and emotional resources they had. This model strives for self-actualization: being able to have deep and trusting relationships, accepting that fact that anxiety is a part of life, and being able to be spontaneous and creative! They hold clients in the warmest regard and do not like traditional diagnosis either, because they do not seek to be the expert in the therapy room and make the client the expert. They are present-focused and do not emphasize technique but relationship.

Post-Modern Therapy is kind of out there, I’ll tell you right now. This therapy functions on the viewpoint that reality is always subjectively defined, and seeks to meet the client exactly where they’re at without challenging even irrational beliefs or practices. They don’t use specific techniques, but seek to build up a strong relationship, empowering the client to find solutions based on their own personal view of reality, and have little interest in the causes or history of problems, only in their solutions. They may use strong metaphorical language and can develop a whole personal system of speaking with the client that allows them to express themselves in their own unique terms. Often this therapy is very positive and encouraging, but can be seen as a little… what’s the opposite of concrete? Whimsical, perhaps. Still, some people really find power in it.

Existential Therapy, though? Oh, no. Existential therapy will challenge you and your irrational beliefs. Existential therapy will challenge every belief that you have and every system it hooks up to - your morality, your religion, your life outlook, and on and on. Existential therapy wants clients to see the ways they have taken on irrational and dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors from others and destroy those irrational and dysfunctional thoughts. Once they’re gone, the client can begin rebuilding a system they actually truly believe in. These guys are intense too - they embrace the fact that life causes anxiety, involves pain, and will one day end in death. They seek to help clients deal with that by taking control of their own fate and creating their own meaning in an otherwise meaningless world. The therapeutic experience is meant to be intense, with the deepest part of the therapist meeting the deepest part of the client, and both of them coming out of it changed.

And lastly, Family Therapy is, as you may have noticed, designed for families and relationships! It’s great because it does not assume that the individual is the problem, but that there is dysfunction within the whole system which needs to be addressed. This is great especially for young kids with disorders such as ADHD - family therapy does not allow parents to go “here is the problem child, fix it” and walk away. It requires the whole family to become involved in the dysfunction in the home. Sometimes called Marriage and Family Therapy, this idea is sometimes strange to Westerners, who are used to seeing a single person as a diagnosable problem, but it’s very effective across cultures. Usually the whole family or both members of the couple are invited into the therapy room and the therapist serves as facilitator between them. That being said, there are actually versions of family therapy which work only with the individual, but they always assume that there are other forces acting on the person which are changing their behavior. Family therapists work to help you change your family or relationship environment, but if that is not possible they may help you to cope or even to escape.

But like I said, the relationship and trust with the therapist is what’s most important! Still, I hope this helps people to see just how cool, varied, and unique the therapeutic experience can be, and empowers them to seek the model which will work right for them :)

Wish me luck on my test!

#there's like nine of the most popular ones here #psychology #therapy #counseling

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maddmuses · 4 years

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Avatar Li of The Fire Nation

faceclaim: Chella Man

Age: 18 Gender: Non-binary (They/Them, presents as male) Sex: Male Affiliation: The Fire Nation's Royal Family, The Fire Nation, Order of The White Lotus Date of Birth: June 21st, 288 AG (Year of The Dragon) Place of Birth: The Fire Nation Capital Ethnicity: Mixed (Predominantly Fire Nation, though some Earth Kingdom Descent) Predecessor: Hojin (As Avatar), Fire Lord Zaiho (As Crown Prince) Successor: Ichizan (As Crown Prince) Family: Fire Lord Zaiho (Father), Zashi (Mother), Ichizan (Younger Brother)

Universe Inspiration: Un-Retconned Retcon post-Korra universe

Appearance Li is a young person of average height, though for someone who tends to bend they bias more towards the solid side of build. Being predominantly of Fire Nation ethnicity, and in fact a member of that country's royal family, Li has physical qualities that are common among citizens of this country, notably dark hair, light skin, and dark eyes. Notably, pictures of Li have been compared to paintings and tapestries of Fire Lord Sozin, though his eyes are possessed of a gentler quality, one described by his grandmother of being more reminiscent of Uncle Iroh.

Generally, Li dresses in a fashion that is typical for the post-Hojin era, often dressing casually, and favoring jeans, usually dyed blue or black, to remain comfortable and able to move when bending. Though they generally wears long-sleeved shirts, Li most often rolls them up to prevent singing from fire bending, though in environments that are much colder than a Fire Nation's winter, they'll often pull the sleeves down.

As a bender, and furthermore as the Avatar, Li has spent much of their youth and adolescence learning the forms and techniques of Firebending, resulting in a muscular stature. This is a quality that's fairly common among more striking-oriented bending styles, as well as many Avatars who have to employ a variety of forms, stances, styles, and techniques to become fully realized.

Personality Li finds themself in a unique situation. Growing up, they thought that they were the crown prince of the fire nation, though by the age of six, the lessons in diplomacy and culture became less frequent, as well as the emphasis from their father on any duties that would be expected of them. With time, upon their sixteenth birthday, the reason for this was revealed that they were determined to be the Avatar.

As an avatar, Li finds it a difficult position, as they feel a strong affinity and loyalty to their home country, but now has to be an ally and protector of the entire world, rather than simply one part of it as Fire Lord. Due to being a part of the fire nation's royal family, Li grew up with a healthy respect for the title and position, though the story of the two avatars that preceded them, Hojin and Korra, left the young firebender largely unimpressed. This would be compounded upon the beginning of their journey to become avatar, and learning to connect to their spirituality, rather than solely their firebending.

Through this, and connecting to previous Avatars, an ability that Hojin had rediscovered, Li finds themselves frequently at odds with their prior incarnations, thinking the both of them too bullheaded and short-sighted to be effective. Even Hojin, as avatar, was best known for his ability to rectify and undo something that Korra had done, in severing future reincarnations from their past lives. Despite this, Li may still consider their advice, and does still read the letters written, a tradition that Hojin chose to keep alive despite reconnecting to Korra, but often gives more credence to the allies of their past lives, rather than the avatars themselves.

Strong willed and prone to outbursts of temper, though, Li is not always the most vindicated person in their criticisms of Korra and Hojin, as even in childhood they struggled initially to develop the discipline necessary to become an effective firebender. The qualities that Li expresses, though one might think would make them a natural firebender, serves as a double-edged sword, as it is difficult to teach Li anything, which requires not only teachers with infinite patience, but also those who can allow Li to discover for themself how to do things. Many often blame this on Li's royal upbringing, but when asked by their younger brother, Ichizan always insists that "Li has always been that stubborn."

Biography Born in the summer, Li correlates to the traditional superstition of firebenders, within the Fire Nation's Royal Palace. His birth occurred during a period of time known as "The Stoking" in which the fire sages search for an avatar by way of exposing children to a small open flame, in fear they would, typically, bend other present elements to protect themselves. This is not an unfailing method of determination, however, as a normal firebending child can merely snuff the fire out as easily as an avatar child might use airbending to blow it out. However, due to a longstanding superstition that the royal family didn't produce avatar children, Li was never tested for this quality.

Growing up in the temple, Li had a very typical upbringing for a crown prince, including a great amount of time being spent with their father, and eventually with another child named Tooru, a girl who had been falsely identified as avatar after a display of airbending ability. The two made fast friends, though Tooru often failed to produce any flame, it was simply assumed that her more passive nature meant that she may have not only been an avatar like Korra, who was able to bend prodigally, but also was most well-suited to air, not a typical quality among firebending avatars, but not also unheard of.

As the two spent many of their days training, and learning of their respective duties, it was understood that Li's and Tooru's teachers would have a difficult time with both students, once believing that Tooru was simply too weak to be a firebender. It wasn't until an incident at which Li was twelve that the teacher questioned which one was actually the avatar, when he had begun to notice the air around Li shift as they used more circular forms and techniques.

At about this time, the fire sages paid the royal family a visit, under the guise of checking on Tooru, to instead test Li at their teacher's behest. By encouraging him and Tooru to stand in a heated chamber, and practice meditation and breathing exercises, they noticed that not only did the water, but so did the air, respond more to Li's breathing, while only the air occasionally overpowered Li long enough to respond to the other.

This information was brought to the fire lord who, honored that his child was the avatar, felt some melancholy that such a strong-willed heir was taken out of consideration for the throne, though at the request of the sages they withheld the revelation to his child, allowing Li's friendship with Tooru, who still believed she was the avatar, to remain unstrained, and giving the former heir opportunity to become more mature before learning this. Accordingly, though, Li began to notice that they were treated differently following the visit, with there being fewer invitations to formal and state-related affairs, though they were still welcome, the explicit invitations that were once always extended now went to Li's younger brother Ichizan.

The result of this was a period of resentment towards Ichizan that Li held, the sages must have told their father that Li's firebending was too weak, or that there was something wrong with their character. Maybe the sages had figured out Li's gender? Maybe this was some sort of bigotry? Regardless, Li would grow cold to their younger brother for about five or so years, focusing more on their firebending, and spending most of their time with Tooru. As time went on, Li's firebending eventually did become stronger, though hardly at a level that one might mistake them for a master.

Eventually, though, Li's sixteenth birthday would come, and culturally they would be considered an adult in their society. At this time, one would expect Li's position as crown prince to either be formally declared, or an absence of any such declaration would make the young royal's position evident and clear.

What ended up happening took not only Li, but anyone ignorant to these facts by surprise as well. Indeed, Li was the avatar, and was to depart for their journey to become a fully realized avatar, though their firebending may not be quite satisfactory, it was assumed to be acceptable that Li would grow in their fire, along with the other elements, like avatars before them. It was at this time that Li was given the letters of the avatars, and expected to travel to the Air Nation in Republic City for training in a familiar setting.

Skills, Abilities, and Powers -Avatar Spirit: Like all Avatars, Li is the reincarnation of the first Avatar, an incarnation of the planet's spirit given human form. Connected to the Avatar Cycle, though only to Korra and Hojin, the predecessive avatars in the current cycle. This enables Li to not only bend all four of the elements naturally, but also enables them to learn techniques such as energybending, as well as allows Li to initiate a state of spiritual acceleration known as "The Avatar State" that enhances Li's ability to bend, as well as drawing upon the knowledge of all Avatars before Li. Though Li can only consciously access the knowledge of Korra and Hojin, they may still do so on a subconscious level for the others. --Firebender: As an avatar in the fire quarter of the cycle, Li naturally bends fire, and developed skill in the element first. A late bloomer in this art, Li is considered a strong firebender, but only slightly above average when compared to what one would expect of a master, less a firebending avatar. --Airbender: The second element for Li to learn in the cycle, Li has expressed a small amount of ability with the element, though this has been passive at best. They are currently seeking out a teacher for this element. --Earthbender: Not yet trained, the ability to bend it exists. --Waterbender: Not yet trained, the ability to bend it exists.

-Martial Arts: Beyond the simple ability to bend, Firebending itself is a martial art, and can be applicable external to throwing around fire. Capable in a style similar to Northern Shaolin, Lin uses a style with many quick movements and strikes with a great amount of power, as well as a certain degree of ability using close range to evade the attacks of others.

-Swordplay: Traditionally taught among the royal family, following the institution of this practice by Zuko, Li is more skilled with swords than he is flame. Traditionally known to use broadswords and sabers, the young avatar is known to be especially deadly when armed.

-Poetry: A popular discipline in the fire nation, Li is particularly fond of haiku and songs. Li has spent a great amount of their time listening to, and composing, poetry. Through some connection, possibly to a past life, or multiple, Li believes that poetry is the embodiment of being. To live is a fine poem, and the way you live it is reflected in the prose and plot.

-Paisho: Much like other Avatars following Kuruk, Li is talented at Paisho, though like other qualities consistent among them, their recollection of strategies and talent is not a cerebral process. It's actually when Li plays by feeling, rather than strategy, that the skill of their past lives begins to show.

-Education: As the heir apparent until the age of 12, but also a member of the royal family, Li received a more sophisticated education than most, with an understanding in a variety of subjects. This was given to Li, as well as their brother, through a group of tutors hired by the fire lord.

-Leadership: Through the years, Li was lectured by their father, and expected to become a leader on the world stage. This predominantly had more to do with state affairs, though, and as Li begins to work with a Team Avatar, they'll discover that these are totally different.

Bending Abilities and Techniques -The Avatar State: Through delving into the power of their past lives, Li is able to unlock something called The Avatar State. In this state, the power and knowledge of their past lives courses through Li, though they can't experience any specific memories or recall information, for any incarnations prior to Korra. Notably, in this state, Li is able to metal bend like their predecessor Korra could. Aside from technique, the Avatar State also enhances the potency of an avatar's bending, acting as something of a boost. While in the Avatar State, though, there runs a risk of permanent death of the Avatar Cycle, as when one uses this state and dies, the cycle ends forever.

-Lightning Redirection: A common technique, especially in the region of the New Republic, Li is able to capably redirect the attacks of lightningbending.

#The Third Wave (Avatar Li)

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crystallized-iron · 4 years

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Fic Recs

I really don’t read as much as I should, but there have been some really great ones. MCU and X-Men recs under the read more.

I think... if I counted right, this is 25 recs here. I may have gotten carried away a little bit. Enjoy.

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Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Kellyscams Rating: Explicit

Steve's just moved back to Brooklyn after spending ten years in California trying to make a life for himself as an artist right after high school. Having escaped to the other side of the country following the sudden death of his mother, Steve feels guilty about abruptly leaving all his friends for so long, unfulfilled, scared and nervous about started college at his age, and unbelievably lonely. So when he meets Bucky Barnes, a young sex-worker, at a bar the night before his first day of classes, temptations might be too high to resist.

One night paying for sex with the most sinfully gorgeous guy is nothing to brag to the papers about, huh?

S'not like he'll ever see him again anyway...

...Right?

And we pulled each other like gravity by hllfire Rating: Explicit

Erik accompanies Charles, Crown Prince of the Xavier Empire, to his first diplomatic meeting on the planet Themis, where he finds out something about the Prince and they end up talking about the past and how their paths had crossed before.

Fill for the Day 1 of Cherik Week: Space AU.

Bitter Sweet by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Teen

Bucky comes home from the war, finds out he has a daughter he never knew existed and now he must cope with life after the war while taking care of her.

Alternate timeline where Bucky's rescued after falling from the train, but Steve was never told and goes into the ice anyway.

Broken by NotEvenCloseToStraight Rating: Explicit

It took months of therapy for Bucky to break his Winter Soldier conditioning, and Steve was there for him, encouraging him to talk about his past, his fears, his time as the Soldier. And Bucky talked about everything-- except why the barest mention of an Alpha makes him panic. When Steve brings Bucky home, Alpha!Tony is ready to welcome Bucky with open arms and wings, but Bucky can't look at him, can't be in the same room without his wings flaring out to keep the Alpha away, a broken Omega panicking in the presence of a strong Alpha. But Tony is a good Alpha, and the team pulls together to help Bucky, showing him what it means to be loved, to be healthy and whole, and one day when Tony holds his hand out, Bucky trusts him enough to take it. And Bucky realizes that with a family behind him, with the safety hes found in the Omegas, the companionship from the Betas, and the unconditional love from the Alpha--HIS alpha, he isn’t broken at all. But with a team like the Avengers, tragedy is never far off, and this one rocks the family to their core. How can they fix the broken pieces of their lives when their Alpha is gone?

Close to you, I’m home by OneWithoutAName Rating: Teen

As Erik is searching the manor, he finds something strange in the attic. He knows that he needs to go to Charles, if he wants some answers. After all, why would there be a nest in a small dusty attic room, when there were countless rooms with ridiculously soft beds all around the manor?

Goodbye Brothers by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Teen

A look at Dum-e during the events of Iron Man 3 and beyond.

It’s Not What You Think... by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Teen

Bucky walks in on Tony dirty talking in the lab but it's not what he thinks.

Letters to Bucky by NotEvenCloseToStraight Rating: Explicit

Stuck in rehab after a near-fatal accident, Tony reaches out via letters to a soldier overseas, and Bucky is more than happy to write back, drawn to Tony for a reason he can't quite name. One or two letters turn into a years worth, then come the phone calls, with Tony quickly realizing that Bucky's voice, with that rolling Brooklyn accent might be his new favorite sound. When Bucky shows up unannounced at Tony's door, one thing leads to another and maybe a confession or two is made. But Bucky's tour overseas isn't over yet, not even close, and they have months more of distance between them. Then Bucky disappears, missing in action, and Tony doesn't know if he will ever get his soldier back. And if Bucky DOES make it home, will he be the same boy from Brooklyn who sent Tony love poems, or has his time away and his injuries changed him for good?

BONUS CHRISTMAS CHAPTER ADDED 12/10/18

Let your light shine by OneWithoutAName Rating: Teen

Inspired by Moomin TV series from 1990 and the episodes “The invisible friend” and “The invisible Child”. It’s the start of the summer break and Erik, a 13 year old boy living in a small house with his mother in the outskirts a small(ish) English town, is stuck in home because of the rain. The evening seems to get interesting though, when a strange man arrives with an invisible telepath boy and asks them to help him become visible again.

Loving a Vampire by Feelingsinwinter Rating: Mature

In the 19th century, Tony is a greatly appreciated and skilled inspector. His dire need to find the murderers and killers to every case he is given is well known among the people and while it doesn’t always help him to get the answers he needs, at least it makes it easier to convince people to talk to him. When Mary Ann Nichols is found dead, Tony Stark doesn’t know the investigation will put his life in harm’s way, put his marriage with one James Buchanan Barnes on shaky ground and shove him in a situation he wasn’t ready to face.

When a murderer does their best to earn the name of a monster, Tony is ready to do anything to stop them.

My beacon in a storm that is the world by OneWithoutAName Rating: Teen

Erik hated this planet. And he had seen a few along the years as a pilot of the most troublesome research team that had ever existed.

Or, they find a new alien species and Erik catches a bad case of feelings ragarding his relationship with Charles.

Of Broken Dreams and Mended Hearts by Kellyscams Rating: Explicit

When the House of Barnes is left in massive debt after the death of George Barnes, their oldest son and heir, Bucky, is forced to sacrifice his own hopes and dreams by entering an arranged married to Steve Rogers. Steve seems kind enough, has a prominent job in the government, and was even voted Society's Best Catch. But the House Rogers is significantly higher in status than Bucky's family, which means Bucky is marrying up in Society, and marrying up doesn't only come with rewards, it also comes with certain...expectations and losses--some of which Bucky might be willing to do anything to avoid. And those opportunities might come his way.

Unless, of course, he actually starts falling in love with his new husband...

Pirates Heart by NotEvenCloseToStraight Rating: Explicit

The 1700s, the Golden Age of Piracy, and Captain Steve Rogers has all he wants: a ship, a loyal crew, Bucky at his side, and the horizon offering a new adventure everyday. But an impulsive kiss gone wrong leads to a marriage between Steve and Tony Stark, and now Steve doesn't know what to do about ANYTHING. Steve loves Bucky, but something about Tony draws him in. Tony is too innocent for this life, but he picks up a sword anyway. Bucky is Steve's, but when he offers his hand to Tony and now the three of them are something new. When the truth about Steve's mission to ruin the Stark name comes out, Tony runs away, leaving Steve and Bucky behind in search of answers to the secrets hidden from him his whole life-- about his company, about Uncle Obie, about his parents death.

Steve and Bucky cant abandon their mission against Stane and Tony cant deal with the answers he finds in New York. Is this the end? Is Tony gone forever? Or will he leave his old life and return to the sea and the Pirates that hold his heart?

**BONUS CHAPTER ADDED 2/4/19!!** **BONUS CHAPTER ADDED 5/15/20!!**

Random Encounter by g33kyclassic Rating: Explicit

Charles is just a typical London commuter...until he sees the most gorgeous man on earth standing a few feet away from him.

Regret is in the past by OneWithoutAName Rating: Teen

Six years after first class, the cold war escalates and the missiles are fired, destroying the world as it was known. Those who managed to live, fight for survival against each other and against the living dead. One would think that the mutants have advantage, but Shaw was wrong in his assumption that the radiation would make them stronger. On the contrary, it made them weaker, their powers only half of what they used to be. In this world of waste land, Erik and what’s left of the brotherhood are trying to survive. It’s five years later, they are cornered by the zombies while they were trying to gather supplies in abandoned town. The situation seems hopeless, until a silver haired boy appears out of nowhere and tells them to be ready to run.

Small Indiscretions (Can Save the World) by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Teen

Captain Steve Rogers has defeated the Red Skull but lost his own life in the process, leaving behind a grieving Peggy and guilt-ridden Howard Stark. After looking to Howard for comfort following her great loss, Peggy finds herself facing the scariest mission she’s ever encountered: motherhood.

While this news is devastatingly unwanted for Peggy, Howard sees this as a golden opportunity to give his bride Maria the child she never thought she could have. With a little convincing and promises that she won’t have to be involved with the child’s life if she doesn’t want to be, Peggy agrees to keep and have the baby for the Starks, own personal comfort be damned. She wasn't planning on it being so hard, or finding someone she didn't want to lie to along the way. AKA what if Peggy Carter was more than just Tony Stark’s badass aunt?

The Consequence of Hiding by g33kyclassic Rating: Explicit

Charles is completing his PhD at Oxford when he finds himself in dire need of a new job to support himself and Raven. Erik is a grumpy Mutant Student Counsellor who has yet to fill his student assistant position. Enter Prof. MacTaggert and her matchmaking ways to bring her student and her friend together (in platonic, professional compatibility, of course). Will things stay platonic for Charles and Erik? Only time will tell.

The Funeral by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Teen

Tony attends the viewing and funeral of his parents. The other members of the company's board are not amused by his actions there.

The Risks by OneWithoutAName Rating: Teen

Inspired by post on Tumblr It takes Erik by surprise how Mystique doesn't seem to remember just how much Charles has done and risked for them, for their kind. But it seems that Erik wasn't quite aware of the risks either.

The Robot Who Could Feel Pain by slightly_salty_ace Rating: Teen

In which Tony leaves Afghanistan more machine than human. Or rather, Iron Man leaves Afghanistan. To the world, Tony Stark is dead.

Or...

Steve is convinced that Iron Man is just a robot with sass because the future is a strange place and he's stopped questioning things.

But when someone from Tony Stark's past returns, putting Iron Man in danger, Steve is forced to start asking questions. Specifically questions about his feelings towards a certain red and gold robot.

The Shared Dream by TurtleTotem Rating: Teen

Charles's cryo-pod malfunctions and wakes him up a century before everyone else. Will he spend the rest of his life alone on a ship full of sleepers? (A Passengers AU.)

The Soldier by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Explicit - Read Warning and Tags!

There's something wrong with Bucky. Something very wrong and it may have dire consequences for his friends and loved ones.

Time Falls Away by NotEvenCloseToStraight Rating: Mature

The Battle of New York: Tony flies himself and the nuke through the wormhole and when his suit shuts down and he starts to fall, he knows he's going to die. But then he wakes up in an alley in Brooklyn, two strangers staring down at him in confusion and Tony is sure he is dreaming when he shakes hands first with pre-serum Steve Rogers, and then Bucky Barnes. Trapped in 1942, Tony befriends Steve, and falls in love with Bucky but America is at war, and Bucky and Steve ship out to join the cause. Tony knows all the stories about the Howling Commandos and knows what’s coming for the soldiers, and has to live through history as first Bucky falls, and then Steve disappears. Tony is left alone in the 40's, crying himself to sleep in the house he had shared with his best friend and his lover. But then he wakes up on the pavement in New York, the Hulk roaring in his face, Steve staring down at him, and he has to wonder if it was all a hallucination. When Tony fell through the sky, did he fall through time as well? Why does Steve act so cold towards him? Were he and Bucky really that happy together?

Did it all really happen, or is Tony in love with a life he can only have in his dreams?

We want the same thing by hllfire Rating: Mature

Charles is locked up underground, where his telepathy won't be a problem, deemed too dangerous now to be kept free. Erik pays a visit.

Fill for the Day 2 of Cherik Week: Dark!Charles.

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough by LadyDarkPhoenix Rating: Explicit - Read Warning and Tags!

In an alternative post Civil War, Clint and Bucky fell in love and tried to make a life together. But then Thanos happened and Clint embraced the darkness within himself trying to cope with all his loss.

This is how after Bucky returned, Clint still can't cope with what happened and who he's become. How even though he seems to have it all, his own mind is his now his greatest enemy. Bucky tries to help but how do you help someone that doesn't believe he should be saved?

#fic recs #too many different ships #mcu recs #xmen recs #enjoy

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clansayeed · 4 years

Text

Bound by Choice ― IV.i. Complex Creatures Are They

PAIRING: OC x OC x OC (Valdas x Isseya x Cynbel) RATING: Mature (reader discretion advised)

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Choice ⥽

Before there were Clans and Councils, before the fate of the world rested in certain hands, before the rise and fall of a Shadow King ― there was the Trinity. Three souls intertwined in the early hands of the universe who came to define the concept of eternity together. Because that was how they began and how they hoped to end; together. For over 2,000 years Valdas, Cynbel, and Isseya have walked through histories both mortal and supernatural. But in the early years of the 20th century something happened―something terrible. Their story has a beginning, and this is the end.

Bound by Choice and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the Bloodbound series. Find out more [HERE].

Note: Choice is the only book in the series not based on an existing Choices story. It is set in the Bloodbound universe and features many canon characters.

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Choice/series tag list!

⥼ PART IV ⥽

— London, 1876. They have been everywhere and done everything. Watched empires rise and fall and seen marvels never even dreamed of. The Trinity have wealth, they have youth — they have each other. But after two thousand years... is it still enough?

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

Invitation to dine at the Montes Estate is a desirable thing. Earning the ire of its Lords and Lady; less so. Though the years continue to change the Trinity's devotion to one another will always stay the same.

[READ IT ON AO3]

London, 1876

“If you ask me my opinion on the matter —”

Valdas sighs around his forkful of mutton — a little thing easily missed by mortal ears, but they catch it quite plainly. Valdas has the patience of a man who has weathered the petulance of monarchies for ages. If he cannot hold back his disdain there must really be something worth disliking about the man.

Well that much is more than obvious. And this is only one of the several evenings they are meant to host the boorish Viscount?

“Please,” Cynbel encourages with less than half a heart, “do go on, Lord Edwards.” And because his head is so far up his own rear end he does. In such a fashion that matches his red-faced appetite no less.

“Well, my opinion is that of Her Majesty’s. Shame only that she could not have exerted her authority enough to silence that ponce Gurney permanently.”

Pick any other dining room in London and one might find Edwards’ sentiments met with agreement from all around. Here, however, he’s lucky to get similar views out of even a third of the table. The best part is that he has the misfortune of realizing it far too late to take it back.

That they have been able to surround themselves with like minds so quickly since their arrival is nothing short of luck. Or perhaps, he’s willing to admit, expert skill on the parts of his lovers.

There’s a reason Cynbel is no longer allowed to attend even a simple tea without one of them; at the very least. Usually it takes both to undo the damage he unwittingly causes whenever he opens his mouth.

Because the Viscount Edwards is a fool he waits — lets the silence drag on uncomfortably in the hopes that someone might raise their voice to agree with him. Doubtful such a fragile ego could handle healthy debate.

Valdas and Cynbel exchange glances of barely-contained bemusement. They do so enjoy watching her tear into lesser men — even if it no longer means literally so.

“If you would not have women in the medical profession, my Lord, where would you have them then?”

Their darling girl — she’s never been known for her mercy. She doesn’t even allow the Viscount a moment’s offense before she snaps her fingers brisk, startling him into attention. “I asked you a question. As you are in my home and at my table, and as the words you so childishly spew are wetted with my wine, the least you could do is muster me an answer.”

“Such a brazen young wife you have, Lord Montes.”

Cynbel covers his mouth with his hand — if he starts to laugh now he simply won’t be able to stop. Valdas, too, looks ready to mock the man but he knows better by now. Both of them know this is simply the mentality of such fragile creatures; it is in the nature of the weak to find someone to subjugate as a means of removing that weakness. But it is still there; they are merely blind to it. And it will be the death of them.

“I believe it was the Lady Montes who was addressing you, my Lord, not I.”

But Cynbel’s restraint is only so much, and far less than his beloveds. “Unless you picked up a fair talent for ventriloquy in secret. Have you, Valdas?”

“I doubt even a master of the profession could impose upon my Lady his will.” She would eat his tongue for even trying.

With every quip the Viscount huffs and puffs, red face now a compliment to the plum of Cynbel’s dinner jacket.

And if there is one thing the Trinity has learned since immersing themselves in the upper echelons of Victorian society it is this: the wealthy are fools who equate riches with longevity; because they have money they think they will live forever.

Yet they do so love to dig their own graves.

“I admit there are certain advantages to having the nurturing concern of a woman at one’s sickly bedside,” Edwards digs and digs and digs, “but there is an inherent difference between the sexes that cannot be denied. That has been proven scientifically! And by those very same who would now burden themselves with the task of catching a woman up to their decade’s worth of knowledge.”

“‘Nurturing concern?’ Who, our Iss’?” Cynbel whispers for Valdas’ amusement even though it receives him the sharp sting of a shoe on his toes.

Though if either man had not seen the carnality Isseya was capable of with their own eyes they might not believe any claims to such. Not of late, anyway. They humor her these lashings of wit because she suffers the brunt of the burdens among this closed-minded society — the least they could do is allow her to bring men like the Viscount to heel like the dogs they are.

A task which she has not only accepted — but which she flourishes in. More than once her words have been enough to sway the dustiest of aged lechers, the young men raised to think their mothers less than them, the whole lot.

And when words are fruitless—because some are born and will die ignorant—both Valdas and Cynbel watch with delight (and no small amount of desire) while she serves them threats on their lives dipped in honey with their wine.

Cynbel shifts so as not to do so obviously — but one look to Isseya’s perfect features and he knows the Viscount will join the latter ranks this night.

He slips his hand down to rest on her thigh. Draws soft circles with his thumb, carves the old tongue they try desperately not to forget in the light drag of his fingernail over silk. Her tension eases slightly.

“Bold that you would impose such vulgarity on me in my own home.”

“Your husband’s home.”

Valdas tsks and folds his hands over his meal. “Best I’m kept out of this, I despair to think of the mess.”

“My home,” another snap to draw the Viscount’s attention, “where you have grossly overstayed your welcome.”

Of course men like him have the gall to look offended. Guest of Parliament or not Cynbel is having a hard time resisting the urge to tear his spine out in the middle of the entree. If he could manage to find it, anyway.

“I beg pardon?!”

“No amount of begging could change my mind, though you are welcome to try.” Isseya smooths her skirts and stands, her lovers following suit. And with them, the rest of their guests save the Viscount join in.

“Montes, surely you see this—this —” Don’t say it… don’t say it… “— this hysteria for what it is!”

Innovation has been a wonderful thing but Cynbel knows firsthand he and his are not the only vampires resentful to some of its finer points. Disposing of a body used to be such a simple thing; you could just leave it out and save grieving families and vengeful lovers nothing more would come of it. Do you know how hard it is to make a body vanish these days?

But the effort of it is a necessary one. His title will spur investigation, and already he’s contemplating when the constable will come knocking with statements of this very argument in hand. And it will be worth it for the satisfaction their beloved will get in eviscerating him.

It is Valdas who speaks and they both know why. Neither of them particularly eager to deal with the consequences of the fangs Iss’ will undoubtedly bare.

“Get. out.”

“My Lord —”

“Now!”

They scurry like the insects they are. Those who have been to the Montes Estate for before—and wish to do so again—are polite enough to push their chairs in before they join the crowd. Valdas takes note of their faces. They wouldn’t have survived this long without knowing the faces of what few humans were worth getting acquainted with.

The Viscount takes his pitiful time. Still aghast; unable to fathom that he is somehow in the wrong despite insulting the hostess numerous times, lacking in the common sense to read the bloody room.

He is the last to leave. As though lingering might somehow change their minds, as though they might apologize. He has the political clout to make Valdas’ work with the House of Commons difficult and he’s undoubtedly petty enough to do just that.

Or he would if he had the chance.

He won’t.

Only then does he notice that Isseya isn’t still at all. She’s shaking.

“Iss’…?” Cynbel moves to pull her close by the waist — or he would if she doesn’t slap his hand aside with a noise of discontent.

He doesn’t know what to say, to do. Looks to Valdas because he is their Light, their Lord, and he always has the answer. But even he seems uncertain.

His tone is perhaps a little too warning and not sympathetic enough. “Isseya, that was uncalled for.”

“Fuck your ‘uncalled for!’”

Cynbel is a victim of proximity and bears the weight of her lashing; squeezes his eyes closed so tight the spectacles they once thought so amusing on him nearly slip off his nose. The stale evening air doesn’t lessen the five points of pain where she gored at his cheek. Feels his blood wet and warm in rivulets trickling down his skin to drip drip their crimson stain on his collar.

Not like they haven’t struck one another out of passion in their eternity together. They have before and no doubt they would again; such is the burden of loving too hard—too much.

But Isseya doesn’t even look remorseful. No, she looks satisfied.

It stuns both of her lovers still and silent. She bares human teeth with a fire in her eyes. “You think all is made calm with a—a touch?! That fucking me content undoes the words I take night after night after night?!”

“Neither of us would dare,” replies Valdas cool and calm. It only angers her further.

“I will not deny it was amusing at first; toying with their heads, seducing their wives, dismantling the safety of the disgusting mentalities they have held for far too long. But I can only take so much. Why should I have to make argument as to whether or not I am worthy of personhood in front of these worms?!”

Cynbel has to wait until his cheek has healed to speak, until he can no longer feel the breeze near the candles against his teeth. “You seemed as if to enjoy it.”

“Like I said — at first.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

She snarls. “I do. Every. god. damned. night. I do.” Her chest heaves against her corset with every word and Cynbel can’t remember ever seeing her like this; so repulsed by him, by them. “But I don’t even get to kill them! To show them just who they have angered — who they have wronged. A thousand years ago no man would dare say such things even in my presence lest they lose their precious cocks, or find their entrails strung up like garlands in the trees, or taste their pathetic little spines.

“But I can’t do that anymore, can I? Not without risk of exposure, of being caught. If not as vampires then as murderers.”

“We have all made sacrifices in the face of a changed world, darling.” Valdas insists, but they all know it to be true.

She raises her chin despite the trembling of her lower lip.

“I can no longer, my Lord. Do not ask it of me, not even for another night. I can’t.”

When their Divinity rounds to her Isseya struggles, even if only at first. Tries in vain to pull her wrists from his grasp, to push him away, but Cynbel knows firsthand the efforts are fruitless.

Then, not even a needle of space between them, she dissolves into tears in her God’s arms. Wails with the might of a banshee muffled into his collar and he weathers the storm of her in an eternal embrace.

Of course. Of course they have all given up the old world, the old ways in lieu of progress. And Cynbel thought himself the most resistant to it all but he could not have been more blind to the truth. In many ways he is still given a berth to be the hunter, the predator that lurks beneath his skin. But not her, not Isseya.

When Valdas goes to rest his hand upon her hair the ornaments braided in stop him. Ornaments, baubles they bought her, bound her with Cynbel’s mind unhelpfully reminds him — but he pushes it aside to gently comb them free, to free her even if just a little bit.

He could—should, is about to—step back. But with claws still stained by his blood Isseya reaches back for a fistful of his dinner coat. Don’t go. So he doesn’t; rests his forehead against the crown of her and allows them both to envelop her until she is no more.

It was a drunken amusement to them; this echoing cavern of a house in the heart of crowded London. Certainly it was more space than they would ever need. They had their bed, as they had always done. And more often than not every other room stood still — as preserved in time as the home’s occupants.

Only by force has the Trinity ever slept apart.

Until now.

He’s awake but Cynbel doesn’t open his eyes. And when he does his arm is thrown over them. Trying to keep the world away for as long as possible.

It’s with a selfish relief that he wanders into the dining room to find the other parts of his soul looking as just as sleep-deprived and lost as he feels.

Cynbel’s half into his seat at Valdas’ left when he catches Isseya’s subtle cough. Looks up to her as perfect as ever and strangely he’s a little disappointed their healing did not let her stay red-eyed and savage — as though it somehow seeks to invalidate her agony — but he can’t imagine not being at her beck and call and makes his way to her instead.

Before Iss’ can rise to meet him Cynbel takes a knee at her side.

The absent rustling of papers stops behind him; Valdas taken with the sight of them even all these years, decades, centuries later. But pride is for those better-rested, so Cynbel settles on contentment that only grows when Isseya’s hesitant hand begins to card through his hair.

“Waking was…”

“Torture?” she offers, and he takes it because it’s true, “I… would fall to the edge of sleep, but there was such a void around me I never really rested.”

Cynbel nods, knows. “I must have come to around midday but could not bring it upon myself to move.”

The Children of Valdemaras look to him as one. Neither of them could expect the stack of bound papers he produces from his lap. “I finally finished that play I started with William.”

They laugh because it’s ridiculous and because they could not possibly lament any more than they already have. There’s a comfort between them even if he’s sitting on the rug so that’s where Cynbel stays; where he pulls the manuscript down and flips through it while Isseya tries to read over his shoulder. “No no, go back, I saw ‘cock-chamber’ what the bloody hell is a ‘cock-chamber’?” And when Valdas does not answer his Golden Son makes use of long legs and nudges teasingly at the man’s groin for incentive to do so.

“Come on, tell us. Tell us. Please tell us? Tell us please!”

“You’re like a child!”

“You adore it.”

“I — you both know very well that this catastrophe of a script was started under some very strong hallucinogenics. Get your foot — we’ve discussed my dislike of your feet!”

Valdas bats away the offending foot; fixes what likely would be a harsh and cold glare down at his firstborn. But there’s a snort up above Cynbel’s head and both of them look to the sight of Isseya with different tears in her eyes, desperately plugging away at her nose and they’ve only made her laugh like that maybe ten times in two thousand years and she’s so beautiful — he’s so beautiful — they are both so fucking beautiful it hurts him all the way down to his bones.

“Oh I remember,” Isseya agrees, “and if my memory serves me—which it usually does—you came back to us in full costume regalia for the role of a… what was it, beloved?”

She looks down to Cynbel, whose mischief matches her mirth.

“Why my dearest love I do believe it was the role of a whore.”

Not that they haven’t told him this story dozens of times for the sheer amusement of it, but that each time Valdas still manages to look so offended makes it all the better.

“I—without proof I refuse to believe —”

“You made such a pretty whore,” Isseya croons.

“I would have paid you in the crown jewels.”

“You—the both of you are such awful, terrible, ungrateful progeny!” And I will love you as I have loved you, as I love you now; boundlessly and effortlessly and eternally. He doesn’t need to say it. That’s what makes it wonderful.

By the time their attending man comes in with the post Cynbel has returned to a proper seat. But the corners that divide the three of them no longer feel so sharp at the edges; the distance no longer so vast.

How delightfully, dreadfully domestic they are in these moments. One could forget they once ravaged continents were they to see this, now; three vampires pouring over letters, missives, the paper.

Isseya lets out a noise of discontent, a lilted “bastard,” as she devours a small handwritten missive. Cynbel glances at the envelope but doesn’t recognize the handwriting.

“Not another wedding invitation, I hope.”

“You know I would prefer it to this betrayal.” She takes no small amount of satisfaction in holding the thick vellum sheet over the nearest candle; lets it burn bright and until the flames tickle her fingertips before she drops what remains onto her empty plate. “It seems my own ungrateful progeny has taken it upon himself to choose the new home of the Musea Sanguis.”

Valdas frowns. “We agreed Jingyi was to move the collection here, to London. Don’t tell me he’s kept it in Paris.”

“On the contrary, snide little worm stabbed us in the back. He sends his ‘good tidings and well-fucking-wishes’ from New York.”

And they all know what that means. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with the Godmaker taking principle ownership of the Musea, in fact given the political unease on their side of the world it makes the most sense.

Still. “It would have been nice to reclaim a few of our things before they fell into his hands,” Valdas mutters, and is not disagreed with.

With the fewest ties to society Cynbel rarely has anything specifically bearing his title. And if he does its importance is always greatly exaggerated. Like the invitation to Tepes’ new estate in Prague — he thought the man would have given up by now; what with his other dozen requests for their attendance at his bal masqué ignored. Unfortunately not.

Today, though, is different.

“Would you look at that…” He drags his knife along the common stock envelope but there’s only one person who would take the time to address him these days. “Seems Ambrose has made his way North. Though I suppose if there’s ever a time to wander those winters it’s when you can no longer feel the chill.”

“The boy from Virginia? He still writes?”

Cynbel shrugs and hands the letter off to Valdas’ curious eye. “What can I say, he saved your life and I was feeling nurturing.”

It’s the word that earns Isseya’s scornful mocking. “Then you shall be the one to keep the estate tidy.”

“I am the fairer sex, thank you for noticing.”

“Positively porcelain.”

“Isseya, my love?”

“Hm?”

“Kindly fuck off.”

It’s the kind of laughter that can’t help but be infectious. Seeping from one to the other to the other and linking them as they link their hands.

This. Cynbel knows it, feels it between and through them. This is worth living for.

And it is.

They’ve given themselves this gift for a reason. This indulgence, this life of excess. It is their reward for such a brief time without. Is it possibly too much too fast — he won’t say no. But what is endless life without going a little too far sometimes?

And though they are so desperately (painfully, yearningly, eternally) in love, the Trinity accepts that there are simply some facets of life in which they will never agree.

That would make this splendid time — trivial though it is — a first for them. A time in which they are all contented enough.

He should have known it would come crashing down sooner or later.

It takes a few days, lulls them into a false sense of security, but it does. It always does.

Cynbel’s mood sours the moment he steps into the mortuary. The smell that tickles the tip of his nose — fake death. Just let corpses rot, fucking humans.

“You’d better have a good reason for dragging me down here so close to dawn, Whittaker.” He barks because he knows his voice will echo harsh on the room’s tiles, because he knows the skittish man will (and does) cringe and make his shriveled self smaller at the mere presence of him.

Whittaker is a small whelp of a man. He never stops fidgeting, messing with his hands. Cynbel has half a mind to take one of his medical devices and saw his feet off at the ankles just so he doesn’t have to hear the rustling of his shuffled steps.

As expected he jumps out of his own skin; barely puts it back on before he’s tripping over himself in an attempt to greet the vampire at the door.

“As I ss-said in my letter, I deeply apologize for the inconvenience, sir,” and his words are oily with prostrated subservience, “but this could not w-wait. You will thank me f-for the warning.”

Exactly how Whittaker’s mortal life had crossed paths with enough evil to curse him revenant is a mystery Cynbel will never solve, but one that will haunt him until the end of his days.

“This way, if you please.”

Technically there is not a living soul among them. Three bodies — two who just so happen to have the fortune (and misfortune in Whittaker’s case) of permanence on this the plane of the living.

The revenant’s translucent hand hovers over the sheet for a moment. Perhaps he debates on whether or not to withdraw his summons — though they both know Cynbel will not allow it. He grasps the edge and pulls it back.

Cynbel isn’t surprised to see Viscount Edwards there; their unwilling guest of honor. Gladdened, perhaps. Concerned, deeply. But not surprised.

“You recognize him then.”

“Would you have called me here if you thought I would not?”

There is almost an “ah-ah,” from the mortician as Cynbel reaches for the corpse, but he thinks better of it and simply hovers. A fly seeking spoils while the vulture circles carrion.

His touch is clinical, methodical. Fingertips over peeling lips and down the full face. Eventually he whips the sheet aside and lets it fall behind him to be forgotten. Hears the mad dash of Whittaker to pick it up but doesn’t really listen to it.

“I feel no trace of warmth coming from him.”

His question, unspoken, is answered; “Lamplighters pulled him from the Thames not a few hours ago.”

“A drowned man doesn’t look like this.” Like this, he says, but even for a connoisseur of death such as himself Cynbel struggles to put it to better words. And he cannot help his reluctance to turn the man’s chin this way and that — but there are no wounds to be found even on his neck.

With every answer, a dozen questions more.

When he finally manages to wrench his eyes away Whittaker is back on the other side of the table straightening his smock. “I’ll need a carriage and a disposable driver. He’s not yet in rigor — have you a trunk or a crate? Something discreet.”

No creature as low on the evolutionary food chain as Whittaker should ever look at him like that; with pity. He’s feeling enough strangeness as it is — adding anger would only be adding fuel to the fire. “This is not a task to be negotiated, whelp. I’ll take him back to Montes and you will claim the death a suicide.” Why else would he have brought Cynbel here if not to help him cover it up? “Isseya can perform her own autopsy.”

“Ah, see…” Whittaker ticks his tongue; Cynbel takes great pleasure in the thought of ripping it out with a pair of nearby forceps, “that — I mean to say — that won’t be possible this time.”

This time. Because he’s to believe this creature has suddenly grown a spine? Bodies in far worse condition and definitively by the Trinity’s hand (because this, this he isn’t sure) have gotten the same treatment. Why else would he keep Whittaker’s ill company? He wouldn’t.

Cynbel leans forward and braces his hands on the edge of the table. It creaks under the weight of his years and Whittaker is right to jump in fright.

“And the logic to your insanity would be…?”

There is a great deal of fumbling and the metallic clatter of scalpels on the stone floor. All leading to an offering; a file of worn leather — something that has seen its share of reports all of them with bodies such as the Viscounts; set about in an endless cycle of morbidity.

“A—A detective of the Yard, sir. He’s already opened an investigation.”

Happenstance and the Trinity’s bad luck, really, that at the same time two skin-and-bone Lamplighters soaked through were catching the attention of a night constable, across London a detective was doing his level best to avoid his wrathful wife by staying on the job as long as he could. That he was two steps out into the night just as that same constable was rushing up in a fright.

Happenstance and really. bad. fucking. luck.

“So you s-see,” Whittaker hastens to finish his tale, casts glances at the poor excuse for a window near the ceiling to gauge the morning’s arrival, “I must dissect the poor Viscount here. Claiming his body gone would — dare I say it — be even more suspect than it already is.”

“So you brought me here to make a mockery of me?”

“Of cc-course not sir!”

“Then why —”

“To warn you.”

There’s a twinge of the Veil in the bespelled man’s warble. Whispers both his and not on lips that don’t move, a tongue that doesn’t speak. Cynbel prides himself on being a worldly man, on knowing secrets of both the worlds of light and shadow, and has seen this from Whittaker before.

If only it would stop the sinking pit of despair growing inside.

Their home is vast, yes. But Cynbel is loud.

“Isseya! Isseya!”

He breezes past the one who tries to take his coat and thinks little of it. No break in his bounding strides up the stairwell three at a time even though he hasn’t an inkling where they might be hiding at such a cunning hour.

“This isn’t the time for games! Valdas — Isseya!”

“Grief, you’re a dramatic one. We’re in the drawing room!”

Cynbel rounds the doorway to a peculiar sight. The first of its kind and for them that’s a bold statement.

But Isseya does not look up from her careful medical practices. Her grip doesn’t waiver even slightly on her scalpel where it slides like a hot knife in butter inside their Divinity’s abdomen.

Valdas reaches up what little he can where he lays prone on a chaise and dabs at her forehead with a handkerchief. As though live and conscious surgery is as much a part of them as lovemaking.

If this their darling girl’s fascination with the medical profession continues it may very well become such.

Cynbel’s words choke back down his throat as he approaches. All thought gone but for the sight before him. Watching intently as she slices along the layers of Valdas’ skin until she can pull back the flesh enough to expose bone.

Valdas hisses at that, which causes Isseya to still. Not to remove herself from him, but to wait until he gives the go-ahead for her to continue.

“I’m glad you’ve returned before she finished,” wheezes Valdas — a noise that draws Cynbel’s attention up to his similarly-filleted left lung as it goes through the familiar process of molding itself back together, “here I was beginning to worry I wouldn’t get the opportunity to ask your opinion on the matter.”

Would his opinion have stopped her? “My opinion on what, exactly?”

“How lovingly our dearest penetrates me, of course.” Both of his children can see the strain on his insides as he holds back his laughter. “She’s not as thick as you are, Cynbel, but she’s a quick study.”

“Obviously.” She mumbles back.

“Do you mean sexually or medically, beautif—aah, ow—ul?”

Even at the compliment she remains focused. “Yes.”

For a moment it’s almost enough to forget; to imagine all is well. Until it isn’t.

Valdas picks at a stray bit of flesh absently. “Whatever had you in such a maelstrom must not have been that important. Though if you care to explain why you return so close to sunrise, I would hear it.”

Isseya muses alongside; “One would have thought you got your fill of sunlight for the next century or so. I certainly did.”

Yes, right. “Whittaker sent for me.” And their disgust is understandable.

“What could that thing have possibly wanted that warranted such an outrage?” asks Valdas, but it’s Isseya that Cynbel fixates on when he speaks next.

“He wished for me to identify a body pulled out of the river. That of Viscount Edwards.”

Her composure slips in an instant. Her blood-slicked grasp veers harshly to the side, is followed quickly by their Lord and Light’s cry of malcontent and fresh blood bubbling up from the new incision. Of course he has sustained greater wounds, he is the Made-God of countless ages and innumerable battles. But that doesn’t stop Valdas from watching their darling beauty with a hesitant shadow on his previously carefree expression.

It takes little time for Isseya to regain her composure, she clasps fingers interlaced over the wound as if to demand the pieces of him knit back together. Cynbel grabs a cloth from the nearest washing bowl and kneels beside her to help.

That she goes rigid at his touch hurts him more than she can ever know.

The Made-God speaks first. Because his Golden Son has no more to say. Because his Priestess will not.

“Explain yourself.” But the movement only agitates the wound and the doctor.

“When you’ve healed. Stop talking.”

“I am not beholden to your whims, Isseya,” Valdas doesn’t care that he smears his blood on her as he grasps her chin; forces their eyes to meet, “you are beholden to mine. I seek an answer, and you will not deny me.”

Decades have passed since they have heard that voice from him. The one that demands their worship and takes nothing less than all they are. The voice of their Maker; more than a God in affectionate compliments but real and true. Old and craven.

Even Cynbel feels the pull of his blood towards Him, how it turns his skin inside-out and bends his spine in supplication. Were he not so desperate for the same answers he would almost pity her.

Fuck, she’s so proud. Not defiant—never—but proud. “Of course, my Holy One. I could never — would never think to.”

“I will not repeat myself.” Explain yourself.

“There is nothing to explain.”

He moves in a blur; a speed they will never hope to match. Grip tight enough to part her lips and expose her tongue. Her scalpel still stained with his blood now with the tip pressed against it. She learned her favorite torture methods from Him after all.

“You would lie to me with mine own tongue? Then I will take it back.”

“Were I lying I would cut it out myself in offering,” and for the first time she actually wavers, “but I am not, and would ask my Holy One to spare me for it.”

Two fights in the same fortnight. He wants to scream. But he cautions a tender hand between her shoulder blades instead. “Iss’… think about this.”

Not like they haven’t killed for revenge before. So why does she tempt his wrath like this here, now? Why would she not boast of this cur’s well-deserved death like she would any other?

The thought must occur to Valdas at the same time. He drops her and the blade all at once and pulls her against him, teeth grit through the pain of his healing body but that would never be enough to stop him.

Their kiss isn’t one of apology. This is what the two worshipers of Valdemaras walked willingly into millennia ago. They love Him for this. And He loves them in return.

Cynbel’s wide palm rests where their thighs meet. Their hands cover his on instinct.

“Wash up,” he tells them, “I worry that the revenant calling on me was a sign that this will not be a thing so easily ignored. The Yard has called for an investigation.”

It’s a messy thing; the way three bodies intertwine fingers. But they have seen the uniformity of two held hands and deemed it mundane; too mundane for what they are together.

“I…” Isseya tries to speak — but the words catch in her throat. So of course Valdas kisses her again; of course he takes the words she cannot say.

“I know.” He rasps.

“You swear?”

“On my love for you,” he squeezes their hands again, “for both of you.”

Promises like that are not easily cast aside.

“I’m still struggling to understand what makes this one instance different than all the others.” And Isseya has a point, really she does — but the growing petulance in her voice is admittedly unbecoming of someone with her rank and years. “He was a disgusting, pathetic little nuisance and — and surely the both of you can attest I was positively tame that night.”

Valdas exhales through his nostrils long and slow. A pointed effort on his part to continue sipping his tea rather than speak his thoughts on the matter.

“Unlike the Ambassador to Bombay?” He’s the most recent in Cynbel’s memory and only because he still remembers the smell of fragrant oils, burning flesh, and tropical fruit. A wonderful chance to reminisce of their days trekking across the continent.

“He touched me.”

“And lost those charming looks he so coveted for his troubles.”

Valdas’ cup clinks against the saucer and draws silence from them both; has them waiting on bated breath.

“A fine memory to be sure, though made less so when paired with the hefty sum it cost our coffers to shut him up.”

Cynbel averts his eyes. Isseya refuses to regret her actions — rightfully so — but even she can’t deny the effort it took to smooth over that particular incident.

“My point remains. The Viscount and I exchanged words but he left very much alive. Call upon the other guests — force them to speak on my behalf.”

What made Cynbel think Isseya was behind the Viscount’s midnight swim in the first place? It didn’t take a genius to come to that conclusion. Revenge is to justice is to swift acts of cruelty — all things they love about her.

Valdas pinches his brow. “He was a guest of Her Royal Highness. She will want to see a culprit found and hanged.”

“Well that’s not so bad.” Cynbel himself has been hanged more times than he can count. But his relief is not shared among them.

“If Isseya is hanged we will have to flee London.”

And as always their Divinity is the most rational even in irrational hours.

“Worse —” the serving spoon in her hand doesn’t survive intact; is quickly replaced by the attending butler so used to their displays of frustration, “— if I am hanged he wins.”

“He is dead, dearest.”

“His ilk, those fucking skeletons with their skin that clings like wet lace to their outdated ideals of broodmares and sacrificial virgins.”

A word choice that has Cynbel adjusting his cravat. “You say that like being a sacrificial virgin was a bad thing…” And its a sympathetic offer his God gives but he takes the outstretched hand nevertheless.

Isseya continues; “Hang me and any woman who dares challenge those living mausoleums will suffer the same. And that I will not abide.”

Their God hums his approval. “I was wondering when you would find your righteous cause.” And her confusion only amuses him, but he takes pity and continues; “Thank about it. All of my attempts at freedom from my Maker—fruitless at times but not always—they have fueled me as much as your companionship. And Cynbel… well.”

“Such lofty compliments you bestow.”

“You tread dangerously, beloved mine. But you always have, haven’t you? Just as Gaius will always be snapping at our heels there will always be war and you haven’t exactly been subtle in your desire to seek it out.

“But nothing has held my Priestess’ interest for long enough to consume her, as we have been consumed.”

She hesitates.

“Now that I have found it I will burn London to the ground before I let it go.”

“We would not dare ask it of you. This is a good thing, Isseya. Even shadowed in death as it is.”

“A little death isn’t a bad thing.”

It takes a moment but soon his lovers wear matching smiles; the pressure of what might come eased from their shoulders.

Truthfully it would solve much of their current strife if something were to rile the world. Something to silence the aristocracy and cull the herded masses. Something to distract the Yard so the Trinity may take care of this unpleasantness swiftly and quietly.

Cynbel would kill for a war right now.

Idle hands supping on silver spoons have always fueled the world’s creativity. Didn’t matter where they went, what they saw, what was tearing nations and empires in half outside the safety of gilded walls.

The rich always find a way to make life interesting. Anything for them to feel something, even the barest spark, that their wealth no longer offered.

All those brimming vices, the pot so very near boiling over, paired with the stiff and reserved top of the English social class? Fucking insanity — and the best kind, too.

All one had to do was pull back the velvet curtain to see every temptation succumbed to, every fantasy explored, every debasement given if only for a night — if only here. What? They had to be known for something; better sodomy and seduction than for their body count. Or… that was the plan.

“Forgive the interruption, my Lord,” says the butler with all the tact of an ass in a thoroughbred race, “but your presence has been requested in the library.”

How laughable, he thinks, and because the opium started to kick in mere minutes ago he does indeed laugh. Swings his head heavy with no crown in sight and looks up with utter disinterest.

“It’s not Whittaker, is it?”

“No my Lord.”

“Thank the Christian god.” Cynbel, however, makes no move to stand and take his leave. Instead he goes back to the far more enjoyable show of paint-smeared flesh closest to the window. At least his abandoned hobby was good for something.

“Ahem, my Lord.” What are they paying him, again? Whatever it is it isn’t enough — such determination, such professionalism and decorum. Though his voice strains the third time; “Please, my Lord.”

“Cynbel just go with the fucking man,” growls Valdas from his confines; his eyes brighten red when his firstborn doesn’t immediately obey, “because at this rate I’ll have his head just to shut him up and Tobias has been so very good to us.”

“He’d be far better if he would let me enjoy the show in peace.”

There it is; the barest chip in Tobias’ almost preternatural ability to stay composed. The young man nearly rolls his eyes but catches himself at the last breath of it — especially when he sees Cynbel has indeed abandoned his delights.

“Very well,” he relents, but Tobias’ relief is short-lived, “can’t you just invite whoever it is up here? I hate that I should be inconvenienced because someone didn’t bother to send word they were calling.”

That the butler’s hesitation is confusing doesn’t make it any less amusing to him. Not until Tobias forgoes his usual announcing tone to lean forward and practically whisper into Cynbel’s ear.

“Forgive me, my Lord, if I speak out of turn. But I would rather think you would want to keep a detective far away from events such as…” he gives a shaky exhale, “such as these.”

His ease drops out from underneath him and makes Cynbel pull back; judging the truth in the familiarity of Tobias’ too-bright eyes. A detective, though of course he should have suspected this it comes no less of a surprise.

The Trinity seek one another out about the width of the drawing room. Statues of flesh soft as silk but no less stone amidst passions abundant; their artist might call them The Tragedy of Youth. Or something equally waxing philosophical and waning in temperament.

Valdas nods almost imperceptibly. Go.

Well there’s no use in staying now, anyway. Nothing kills arousal quite so easily as the police.

Just before Tobias opens the library doors Cynbel stops him with a touch to his shoulder. “Wait — did you sense anything about him? Is he…?”

With the high almost completely vanished it’s easier to see through Tobias’ glamor. He prefers to keep himself ignorant to the young man’s true face — even despite coming into a fair bit of contact with various sects of faerie outcasts through his long life there’s nothing quite so disturbing as when the shimmering veil of magic is parted and one catches the first glimpse of them. Cat-like eyes and too-high cheekbones on faces nearly always perfect and even.

Unlike in his earlier years it’s nearly impossible for the Trinity to come across an exile of the Fair Folk that meets even half their age but it isn’t impossible. Tobias is a mere three hundred at best — “But time is so different in our lands,” he had told them, “your ilk are so easily measured in generations, but we are less so,” — yet how his true face looks upon Cynbel now makes the vampire feel…

It makes him feel vulnerable. The gall of him.

Cynbel does little to contain his relief when the butler shakes his head no. “The detective is entirely human, my Lord. His aura carries echoes of will-o’-the-wisps, but —”

“But they are likely from his interactions with the revenant at the Yard.”

“I thought the same. My Lord, if I may…” he hesitates; to see an elven face uncertain is an ominous thing, “he carries the burden of grief in his soul.”

“He has seen death, it doesn’t surprise me.”

But Tobias is insistent. “The grief is not his own. Mortals are dull things to be sure but few among them have been known to… understand our world even if they are not conscious of it.”

There’s no masquerading it — its a warning; one Cynbel would be a fool to ignore. And of course he wants to hold them both back just a little longer, ask Tobias what exactly he’s trying to say, but he knows it would just be in vain. Powerful creatures were the fae. Powerful and utterly incapable of saying anything plainly and not laced in a thousand metaphors.

So Cynbel just nods. “Thank you for telling me.”

Tobias’ glamour begins to shift back into place. Though his eyes may look human now, though, he can’t see anything but the seelie truth. “The Trinity has been good to me. I could have found the same fate as the rest of my kind; wandering the foggy moors up North and giving the humans something to both fear and revere. But I have work, I have my own earned wealth… I would not see that taken from me so soon.”

As long as our interests align. It’s the only thing about the boy Cynbel half-likes.

He gives the go-ahead and Tobias opens the doors.

#bloodbound fanfiction #playchoices fanfiction #playchoices #choices bb #bloodbound #oc: isseya #oc: valdas #oc: cynbel #oblv: bound by choice #oblv: new chapter #; my fics

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awed-frog · 5 years

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When you say romance should be 18 and over do you mean the brand of romance we know today (aka toxic) or romance as a whole? If we wrote healthy romance aimed at younger crowds or presented unhealthy behaviour as unhealthy behaviour in regular romance (for older crowds) would that be a good solution?

Well - I see three questions here, all of them incredibly complex and beyond interesting: should art be political and is censorship ever a good idea and also is the romance genre okay? The answer to all of them, in my opinion, is ‘no but’.

1) Should art be political?

The stupid thing is, art is inherently political, whether you want it to or not, but art that’s deliberately political tends to be awful, and that’s a universal truth both for left-wing stuff and for right-wing stuff. When you willingly create political stuff, what you’re crafting is propaganda, and proganda is generally sad and bad. I guess there is propaganda that’s also good art - Victor Hugo’s The Man Who Laughs comes to mind - but the problem is, not all of us are Victor Hugo.

That said, since whatever we create is political (because man is a social animal) and will have some kind of moral message, yes - ideally we want more art with an ethically ‘good’ moral message than we want garbage, because art (and here I include everything: books, movies and so on) is perhaps the most effective and impactful mind-shaper ever. That’s why Disney is doing its very best to be a monopoly, after all. But: I don’t have a good solution for how to ensure art is nice. I think art is nice when artists are nice, and artists are nice when they grow up in good, healthy societies. So the more a society rots from the inside out, the more likely it is you’ll find art that’s also rotten. I mean, while romance as a genre was always a bit dodgy (see below), what that article was talking about - the rise of the possessive, violent boyfriend and domestic abuse as the great love story - is sort of a recent phenomenon, and goes hand in hand with the deterioration of women’s rights in (Western) society.

(As an aside, I’m not sure I agree (young) women are necessarily misogynistic for reading crap like Fiftfy Shades: I think (young) women are exhausted. Fifty Shades is, more than anything, an ode to undeserved capitalism - the only kind that seems open as an option today. After all, we know trickle-down capitalism doesn’t work and most of us will toil and toil for very little; Christian Grey is the antidote to that, the guy who shows up, basically kidnaps you, and smothers you in a life of riches for which the only thing you must do in return is give up. Having someone else decide on your job, your car, your possessions and clothes, where you’ll live, what you’ll eat and when, whether you’ll take birth control (lol: obviously not), when you’ll see your friends and family plus when and how you’ll orgasm - what women tried to escape for generations is suddenly the dream for many of us - not because of any new political ideology, but because we’re beyond tired. Women, like men, are now crushed in a neverending cycle of bs, underpaid jobs, and are apparently fed up enough in taking responsibility for anything that not only romance and ‘superhuman’ characters are booming, but a very specific kind of subset of that: essentially, slave fics.

Just give up your agency, and you’ll be taken care of and cherished - forever.

I understand a kink is not the same as your actual political opinion, but still - I’m not enthusiastic about this trend, and I’m even less enthusiastic when it gobbles up young women who haven’t had time to experience real life relationships.)

No, I think that in the end, the answer is - if you reverse the rotting of society, automatically - statistically - you’ll get healthier artists and a healthier audience. So, really, the fight is always the same: better paid jobs, better (and free) schools, more opportunities for continued education of any kind, more democracy and transparency, more green spaces and better living conditions.

2) Is censorship ever a good idea?

Sadly, no. You’d think the logical conclusion of what I just said would be, ‘In the meantime, let’s ban the most dangerous stuff’ or something, and while part of me is tempted to support that, censorship has a way of ending very badly no matter how good and noble your intentions are.

(Self-censorship should be more of a thing, though: not everything that goes through our minds deserves to be seen and shared.)

What sucks at the moment is that on the one hand, capitalism is operating its own censorship; and on the other, its desperate search for new markets has led to a disastrous disintegration of actual human interactions.

So, problem one is that we only publish and market what makes a lot of money, and while that’s normal, to an extent, the result today is that everything is ‘almost the same’ as the previous thing (think sequels, prequels, remakes, obnoxious book covers for books that are basically all the same). So if ‘asshole boyfriend who beats you up’ suddenly makes money, it becomes very hard to escape the trope, because what will be offered to you everywhere is exactly that. This was less of a thing back when our main sources of entertainment were shared (movie theaters, the one family TV, school libraries and so on); now, it’s an epidemic, and as we see with Youtube algorithms, a dangerous one, because this obsession with watching and rewatching ‘almost the same’ inevitably leads to more and more extreme stuff.

Meanwhile, problem two is that the more tailor-made our entertainment is, the less we connect to real people. I know I sound about 90 here, but when all family members are glued to a different screen - mom watching the 50th remake of Eat, Pray, Love, dad down the rabbithole of lizard conspiracy theories, big brother now exploring some milk&peanut butter weirdness on Youporn and younger sister 30 fics deep into Stucky high school AUs - what do they have in common? What do they talk about? What can they even learn from each other? Until recently, and for aeons, fiction was shared, and its primary goal was to form a connection between group members. Now, that’s gone. We destroyed it, without even realizing what we were doing, in the space of twenty years. And yeah - I know you can create new communities, but a) these communities are virtual (which means, for the most part: not real) and b) they tend to connect like with like, which is comforting, perhaps, but not very useful. The whole point here is that we need to learn how to feel empathy and trust for those who’re different, and build a community with them - instead, what the internet is doing is isolating us inside our little bubbles, so much so that any minor disagreement is now seen as good reason to break off contact.

Censorship, however, doesn’t solve any of this. For starters, we need more regulation on how big corporations can get, what social media companies can and can’t do and who can access what kind of material. And it’d be great if we could all unplug a little, but uh - fat chance of that.

3) Is the romance genre okay?

Again, just my opinion, but personally, I mistrust it. There are no romance books for men? Instead, books for men feature a Main Character doing stuff and improving himself while accidentally meeting a Sexy Lamp he can go home to at the end of the story. And, well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but isn’t this a healthier way to look at life? While good relationships are very meaningful (or even the most meaningful) part of any human life, if your goal is to get them, they won’t grow right. You shouldn’t be hyperfocused on finding love; I think it’s much better to be like Main Character: you work on your drawing skills, try a new sport, read poetry, defeat evil Russians, thus developing inner happiness and self-confidence, thus leading you towards towards a partner who’ll fall in love with who you are - not a partner who was looking for some empty shell to fill with their own expectations and preferences.

And I know - romance books and movies are full of exciting non-romantic events and stuff - but still, the fact they’re classified and intended as romance does imply that finding a romantic partner is the ultimate goal. Which, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s healthy, and is a particularly inappropriate message for young women. After all, why is it okay that young men are encouraged to go on ghost hunts, study dinosaurs and save the world while young women are taught to wait around for a broken (possibly violent, but it’s not his fault) bad boy only they can fix? It’s messed up, is what it is, and I may be extreme here, but even the tamest, sweetest romance revolves around the same message: that you’re not complete on your own, and that you should focus on relationships as a way to become a better, happier human being.

Now, as much as I love this quote -

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” — Oscar Wilde

- obviously there’s no direct cause-and-effect here - you don’t read one book and become a mindless Stepford wife - so I’m not saying, ‘no one should read romance ever’. It’s just - as I said in that other post, we should all enjoy diverse stuff. Read your romance novels, but also read the classics, read some philosophy, a random poem, a badly-written thriller - read Stephen King, read how the OED was written, or a Wikipedia article on the French resistance - anything and everything. Because of capitalism, because of this push towards personalized entertainment, we’re being forced and pigeonholing ourselves in smaller and smaller cages, and the worst thing is - we’re comfortable inside them, because this is the awful truth: cages are comfortable, and that’s why we need to get out before we forget what cages are for.

[As a final point: you say ‘if we wrote’, does it mean you’re an aspiring writer? If so, you shouldn’t worry about any of this. You write what you want, you write the stories you want to read. Just remember to get out of your cage as well - experience, discover, grow, read, dare - and then put all that into your books. I’m sure they’ll be great, whatever your favourite genre.]

#ask #books #romance #entertainment #capitalism #ya #fifty shades of grey #narrative tropes #old woman yells at cloud #the end is nigh #i miss the 90s #potentially unpopular opinion

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