#some forced annexation is a fucking idea you know

[scopophobia-polaris]

Idk man I think a guy can do some shitty things for the people he holds as family and ultimately personal selfish reasons that make him slowly chip away at the truly good parts in him and strip him of his morality and humanity until he is nothing more than a tyrant have all of that set back to square one where he still has a conscience but has still done really shitty things and then upon finding out the monster he could be gives up the quest for ultimate power even if he thinks it's a GOOD thing for everyone, coming to find out what he thinks is good for other is not what they need OR want and ultimate try to become a better person at all costs and retain that bit of kindness that hes had all along and recognize hes an extremly selfish person with massive flaws and even if he keeps falling into his sins he perserserveres and tries as hard as possible to help the ones he loves in the way they need help instead of what father knows best and almost lay down his life to protect a place that he has treated so wrong and that MAYBE he shouldn't be executed for the future crimes that don't even exist in this timeline and that this dude and the evil version of himself are now so far removed from eachother but he should seriously face some conciquences for the crimes he has already committed but maybe straight up killing Daddydorf is fucking wrong ANYWAYS

#incoherent posts abiut Ganondorf #i might draw him today 💔 #this is a post i might delete i swear im not a ganondorf apologist i just have a violently diffrent version of him #from canon that follows the route of maybe he isnt satan incarnate and maybe some of what he was saing in wind waker wad true #even if he is a selfish guy maybe he had complex reasons for wanting the triforce i doubt that #the place they were living was fucking awful but the idea of being an indipendant settlement and the unification of hyrule also ment #some forced annexation is a fucking idea you know

[nostalgia-tblr]

Small answer id that Odin is a thorki shipper

(Jk but seriously does Odin know what kingdom alliance means)

While i was spending my literally-at-least-minutes thinking about Odin's Shit Plan one thing that occurred to me was that since getting Loki actually onto that throne would probably require military support from Asgard (some people might call that "sending an occupying force to install a puppet regime to de facto annex new territory" but obviously i would never do so, ahem) then Loki actually being the heir by law wouldn't really matter at that point either way. Odin may as well send Thor to Jotunheim instead, and then when he inherits Asgard the crowns are united and no more war ever again.

In Thorki terms however what happens is Loki is sent off to Jotunheim alone and sad and weeping, with his slim willowy build and his beautiful soft hair all he has to support himself with, and Thor is like "This doesn't seem... good? He knows fuck all about Frost Giants and doesn't know anyone there and also I miss him. Not in an incest way, OBVIOUSLY. I love him as a brother, I do not crave his touch upon my broad warrior's chest."

He stands at the Bifrost angsting hotly until a dishevelled Asgardian who went off to serve with the Suddenly King Of Jotunheim shows up to say "Yeah that didn't work. Nobody believes he's Lauffey's kid and they don't want him anyway." Oh no! Thor is shooketh and aghast! SHIT JUST GOT REAL!

He grabs an eight-legged horse (it's been hanging around for a while, nobody knows where it came from - WTF 8 legs??? - but it's always reminded him a wee bit of Loki so he likes it) and he heads to Jotunheim to save his bro! Then he stops, doubles back, gathers an army and heads out again, this time properly equipped with more than optimism and love. Brotherly love and not incest love OF COURSE.

And then idk everyone fights and in the aftermath it turns out that WAS incestuous love after all I guess? Thor tells Loki that you know what our dad's a bit of a dick, sending you off like that barely supported and away from me I mean from Asgard. And Loki's like yeah he is. I hate that bastard so much now. >:(

And Thor says Well it occurs to me that one of us is the theoretical heir to Jotunheim albeit not successfully so, and the other is the heir to Asgard and like... well if dad died I'd be king of Asgard and I would totally commit all my forces to supporting you over there. Might even. You know. Marry the two kingdoms together symbolically and literally. If you'd be into that. But this plan would rely on me being king and dad might just live forever so. Ah well, it was nice idea, right?

And Loki says, I don't know if you've noticed but we've still got that army from three paragraphs ago and that leaves Asgard basically undefended and WHAT IF - I'm not saying it's a good idea but WHAT IF... we told them Odin had been replaced by like. A witch? An evil witch pretending to be him. And that we need to go there and kill him to save Asgard from him. This sounds a bit unlikely yeah but would both of Odin's sons lie about a thing like that? And if Odin isn't really Odin then you'd be king now anyway so they'd be sworn to follow you and... As I said, just an idea. We probably shouldn't do that.

And then Thor has a think about it all (which takes a while as he is slightly Stupid!Thor in this story) and then he stands up and calls out to the army who were offscreen for the intimate dialogue bit but otherwise conveniently close, "RIGHT LADS I've just heard some bad news about Odin."

#thorki #replies #i think i just stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back and told me that it loved me #i dont ship thorki really but i can see why people write fic of it and i've read some #also look how i evoked that bit in Thor where loki talks thor into an invasion while saying he didn't so that tumblr believes him #and insists for many years afterwards that the trickster character didn't trick anyone with his wordy trickstery ways

[allycat75]

Hey, Boston Dumb Fuck, here are some ideas for that pernicious website of yours.

Since you seem to be doing that thing you do where you dig in instead of admit that you and your fellow White Savior made a huge mistake and just fold ASP for a nice tax write off, here are some ideas for your little kiddie table political site, while the adults get to work on saving democracy.

I know you have a staff whose job it is to stay aware of current events and fairly discern between fact and propaganda, but I couldn't find much about their qualifications on said useless site. But who needs transparency these days when the fate of our very freedom is at stake. Neophytes teaching neophytes, right?

The New Border Crisis- Will the US be the next territory annexed by Russia?

Dangers to Regulate- Guns, the Uterus, Books Available in Libraries and Drag Queen Bingo

Definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors (Tr**p's Version)

Israel vs Palestine- A Binary Debate With No Nuance (but pay no attention to the racist, antisemetic wifey, just like BDF does whenever he is forced to be with her; but see that nasty ring, can't miss it as it's embarrassingly shoved into the camera)

There is No Such Thing as Racism and Sexism Anymore So Why Should We Teach It (three chick's on the Supreme Court, all belonging to a marginalized community, what more do you want?)

Climate Change and How Teslas and Eating Organic Can Save the Planet (Sorry, Poor People!)

White Rich Males- The Forgotten Minority

Oh, and be sure to have all of these fit into 2 to 10 minute videos and summarized in 3 bullet points or less.

I can see why you like DC, BDF. It is quite like Hollywood in many ways- a few people with authentic hopes and dreams to put some positivity into the world, but most have lost their souls long ago (if they had them to begin with) and want to manipulate the rest of us to the point of madness and stupidity, where the truth no longer has meaning, all for a chance for at least a bit of power and, of course, the all mighty dollar.

The below TED Talk may be helpful for your dilatant staff, "in an increasingly artifical, paid-for reality". If not, it can at least help the rest of us sort through the mountain of bullshit you, and too many others, are displaying for us. Good luck 👋!

#check your privlege #you are not magnificent #liars suck! #you are the company you keep #i don't like hypocrites #i hate manipulation #coward #ai in human form #ASP needs to be put down #You are not helping #not good people on both sides #If you are at least moderately attractive you can get a pass on bad behavior- you may even get a prize!

[luxrayz64]

every time I see someone saying that tigerbabygirlstar is right for annexing riverclan I want to scream a little more. I know we're reading books made for 8 year olds but I know some of you guys are too old to have so few critical thinking skills. I don't care if you think that the way riverclan was handling their leadership crisis was "annoying", annexing another nation and inserting yourself as it's leader even if you claim it's only temporary is not going to fucking help anyone, especially when it's a rival clan with a bad history with yours. in what fucking universe is this in any way a good idea. the fact that people genuinely fucking believe that tigerbabygirlstar is doing the right thing here astounds me - he quite literally brought a fucking battle patrol to their camp in the middle of the night and annexed them by force, under threat of death. he claims that he's trying to help them but sometimes someone who is "trying to help" only makes things worse. my grandma giving me a bible for christmas is "trying to help" me. I'm sure that he believes he's doing the right thing, but he also believed that kicking out the sisters was "the right thing". tigerbabygirlstar is consistently aggressive, selfish and misguided.

not to mention that shadow makes it VERY CLEAR that his "help" is not working. all he's doing is pissing riverclan off, spreading himself and his clan thin, putting his warriors at risk, risking war with the other clans, and angering starclan. I cannot state enough that we are told starclan is angry with him, and his response is just "ok but I'm helping" no the fuck he is not!! whatever his intentions may be, this was a bad fucking idea. he is not helping. he is making the situation worse. he always does this, because he is an aggressive, hardheaded, selfish and misguided person who thinks he's doing the right thing but refuses to listen to anyone else.

I'll say it again. he annexed riverclan by force. he committed a war crime. he is not helping. he is a war criminal.

#im too old to be getting this mad about a fanbase dominated largely by 12-15 year olds but here I fucking am #espeon cries #anyway tigerbabygirlstar is a very well written character and him annexing riverclan is really fun to read about #I love how the tension is rising here. assuming we don't get cucked re a certain character becoming leader of redactedclan there might be- #another clan war. when was the last time clans went to WAR in this series?? #I loooove when these books have political drama. and I loooove when characters are wrong and actually treated as such #analysis

[yandere-sins]

Hello! Can i request a yandere bully! Bakugou, locking a darling in the locker? I may leave You there for a while, and comfort you when the reader is begging you to

Continuation of this one here! Thanks for requesting ^-^

»»———————— ♡ ————————««

You couldn’t deny that the feeling wasn’t new.

Being roughly shoved into the barely big enough locker, you both felt scared and, at the same time, knew what to do. Braking your fall with your back, you kept your head forward so you wouldn’t hit it again, the mild concussion you had last time having been learn-experience enough. You had closed your eyes out of instinct when Bakugou gripped your shirt, but they snapped open immediately, trying to help you. However, Bakugou, too, had honed his skills, slamming the door close before you could squeeze your fingers in its way.

You’d rather have a broken finger than suffer this ordeal again if you were honest.

“No!” you screamed at the top of your lungs, knowing it was futile since no one else was around. Still, a part of you hoped that you might be able to intimidate Bakugou to think this over. “Shut. Up,” was his angry reply, his fist hammering into the locker door with every word. You had to fear he might actually break through the door by force, but it would have been in your favor.

It was so damn frustrating. You always thought you had done something to Bakugou, apologized over and over to him, so maybe he’d stop his bullying. But after finally talking to someone about it, you had decided that you wouldn’t engage with him anymore, and well... it just so happened you found comfort in the arms of the new student who finally treated you well as the only person ever since you came to UA. Everyone had always been too scared of Bakugou once he started targeting you. Of course, you couldn’t blame them either...

You and the new student started to hang out at any time, so you could avoid being targeted, and you spent some of the most wonderful hours by his side. The bullying did seem to stop now that a witness was always around, and you were so sure it was finally over, and you could move on. What could have caused Bakugou to explode the way he did? Not only did he punch your new boyfriend - and possibly broke his nose - no, he also carried you off without permission, bringing you to your most hated place on planet earth.

The annex had always been sparsely visited by students and teachers alike. There were just some clubrooms around, but since it was already late in the afternoon and a sunny day, most members were out in the fields or back in the dorms already. But strangely enough, even the weirdo Bakugou had a locker here; one big enough to fit a person in it.

“You can’t-- Ah, damnit, Bakugou! Stop locking me in this damn locker! It’s not funny anymore! What did I ever do to you?!”

Perhaps you were feeling especially feisty that day. You never had screamed at him like this, except if you were pleading for mercy. But ever since your boyfriend convinced you to see the guidance counselor, you had started to come out of your shell. Everything had been so good. Why was it coming back to bite you in the ass now?

Bakugou didn’t respond. No mocking comment, no snide remarks. Not even threats or insults belittling you, even as you started hammering your fists against the door. Out of experience, you knew someone would come. You were sure your boyfriend already contacted the teachers and people were searching for you, and latest when someone passed by, you could reach out and ask for help. But were you really going to fall back into old behavior and just sit it out? Wait for the time to pass and life to go on like before?

“... like you,” you suddenly heard from outside, a tiny voice compared to the usual boom and vibrato that Bakugou had. “What?!” you hissed, annoyed that once ‘his majesty’ decided to talk, he did it so you couldn’t understand. A long groan escaped him, furious and raging. “Just listen, you idiot! I said I like you!”

This time, the ‘What’ echoing in your head was left silent. Your mouth hung open as you stared at the blonde tuft of hair through the slits in the locker, Bakugou standing there with his back turned towards you. “... the fuck...” you finished your thought, accidentally saying it out loud and quickly realizing it, but it was already too late.

“What’s your problem,” Bakugou grumbled, annoyed, and part of you was glad not being able to see his face. You wouldn’t have known how to come to terms with him blushing or nervously fidgeting around like someone who just confessed usually would. “Just tell me what your fucking answer is.”

“No,” you replied instantly, without even a moment of hesitation. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to think it over before blurting it out but never. You could never imagine yourself at the side of your bully, the person who made your life a living hell. Someone who’d lock you in a locker to confess to you. What kind of joke was this?

“No?” he mumbled, suddenly turning around, you two staring eye to eye through the slits. “What do you mean ‘no’?!”

“Is this a joke?!” you barked back. “Tell me it’s a joke, ’cause there’s no way I could be together with you!”

Bakugou opened his mouth to say something, but instead, his eyes only grew redder, expression growing mad and furious, and you heard the unexpected crashing of fists against the metal, making you flinch back. The whole situation seemed so surreal, but it was very, very real. Standing up for yourself made you feel strong, but when uncomfortable silence befell you two, you started to overthink again.

“Bakugou...” you mumbled, placing your hand against the door. You were back to only seeing his hair, but you knew he was leaning forward, probably starring daggers into the ground. Maybe not everything was too late. Perhaps you could fix this, appeal to him one more time. “Just let me out, okay? You and I... that doesn’t work, but we can stop being children and scream at each other and just go our separate ways.”

You couldn’t think of a better way to talk to him. After all, you couldn’t understand what was going on inside of him at all. He had been bullying for god-knows-how-long, yet, he thought he liked you? Couldn’t he see the contradiction in his statement and actions? But this cruelty had to end at some point and now was as good as any. Going different ways would help him too, you were sure.

“Children?” he whispered, finally snapping upwards again to stare at you with a mocking expression. “Do you think my feelings aren’t real?”

Weirded out by his behavior, you only shook your head.

“I don’t think you know your position in this. There is no ‘no’ when I ask you if you like me.”

“Bakugou...”

“It’s that guy, isn’t it? He’s in the way, right? He’s been stealing you from me, taking up all your time that you should spend with me, isn’t he?”

“Bakugou, please, we’re never spending time together--”

“He’s making you say no because you’re guilty, am I right? I can take care of that, you know?”

“Wait!” you interrupted his speech, sudden panic rising inside of you. You were well aware of Bakugou’s strength, but attacking your boyfriend wouldn’t make any of you happy! “If you go, I’ll scream! They’ll find me, and I’ll tell them what you’re doing! That’s criminal! Aren’t you studying to be a hero?!”

Your appeals were met with a cocky grin, his eyes shining as if you just challenged him. “Who says I can’t be a hero and still beat the shit out of that bastard?”

“Everyone! Everyone will know what they did! I will tell them!”

“Try it,” he hissed before pushing away from the locker. You threw yourself against it, but the door must have jammed when he kept bashing into it. Slapping your palm and hammering your fists didn’t help as you had to watch him walk away after looking at you in this typical, belittling way he used, always looking down on you. “You can have some time to think about your answer while I’m taking care of some business. Remember what day it is?” Bakugou yelled back over his shoulder, and you could hear the smug grin on his lips.

“What day...? Friday?” Your eyes widened suddenly as you realized that there were no clubs on the weekend due to the new regulations for safety, and you began to panic and scream Bakugou’s name after him. If you’d just have to spend the night, that would be manageable, but with the strange mood he was in, you couldn’t bring yourself to trust him to come let you out anytime soon. A whole weekend inside the locker would kill you for sure, and tears rolled down your cheeks as his footsteps slowly faded.

What a monster.

How could you ever like him back?

What more would you have to endure because of him?

But truth be told, what else could you do but tell him you liked him? You just wanted to get out of the hell that was this locker. Save yourself from the embarrassment and torture.

"I like you! Bakugou, I like you!" you screamed.

But the footsteps didn't come running back.

#bakugou #katsuki bakugou #yandere bakugou #yandere!bakugou #BnHA #Boku no Hero Academia #MHA #My Hero Academia #yandere bnha #yandere!bnha #yandere mha #yandere!mha #yandere #yandere imagines #yandere headcanons #yandere scenarios #yandere fanfiction #yandere writing #yandere stories #yandere oneshots #yandere oneshot #yandere drabble #yandere x reader #yandere x darling #Yandere TW

[collecting-stories]

She’s Kinda Hot - Sarah Cameron

Request: omg i really wish i could write but, can you do one with sarah and kind of like kie reader(rich but hang out with the pogues)where they are enemies and are stuck together for a project and the reader keeps annoying sarah to make her mad and the reader tells sarah she’s hot when she’s mad and then they end up getting together or something. sorry this is really long this is also my first time requesting so i’m kinda new lo

A/N: I really freaking love Sarah Cameron. That is all. Enjoy the fic. 

Outer Banks Masterlist

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

Sarah was pretty sure that there was one of those personal rain clouds hanging directly over her head as she sat in math class with you. Who even assigned school projects in math class? Wasn’t that kind of thing reserved for english or science? But no, her math teacher...your math teacher...decided that a project to highlight Women in Math was a brilliant idea for Women’s History Month and, in an even greater stroke of genius, she stuck Sarah and you together as partners. It was all your fault really, that was all Sarah kept thinking as she stared across the classroom at the side of your head. That if you hadn’t walked into class late, in the middle of assignments, Sarah would’ve ended up with the next person alphabetically behind Cameron. Instead, she was stuck with you. 

“Why don’t we just split the assignment into parts and then put it together at the end?” Sarah suggested, after the bell rang and she managed to chase you down the hall of the kook academy to your locker.  

“Why not just work together?” You replied, shrugging a shoulder as if it shouldn’t be the worst thing that could ever happen to Sarah to be paired together for the project.

“I’d rather not.”

“Cause you broke up with me-”  

Sarah hushed you immediately, covering your mouth with her hand and looking back and forth down the crowded hallway. “You know what happened!”  

You pushed Sarah’s hand away and rolled your eyes, “well too bad princess, I need this grade so you’re gonna have to deal with seeing me.” You said, “everyday. After school.”  

“That’s bullshit,” Sarah snapped, following after you when you shut your locker and started down the hallway to your next class, “you do not need that fucking grade! You’re at like, the top of the class.”  

“Are you the teacher?” you asked, looking back at her. “Don’t worry Sarah, I promise I’ll stay six feet away and I won’t try to tempt you. Wouldn’t want anyone to find out you’re into girls.” You said, whispering the last part so only she could hear it.  

Sarah stopped in her tracks, watching you walk the rest of the way to your class. She wanted to scream after you, that wasn’t the reason. That wasn’t why she’d totally annexed you from her life. It wasn’t just that she knew this project was going to get her in deep shit, it was that she was one hundred percent positive that she would not be able to work with you without letting her feelings get the better of her.  

It wasn’t like the kook academy was a big place, there wasn’t exactly room to avoid you completely, but Sarah had done a pretty decent job so far. Even when the two of you crossed paths in class, and it happened more than Sarah would’ve preferred, she managed to keep herself away from you. At least until now, she was stuck with you as her partner for some ridiculous math project. She’d been banking on you wanting as little to do with her as she tried to have with you but instead you seemed totally fine. Unbothered by everything that went down between the two of you.  

She thought about asking Kiara what she would do but Sarah could already hear her best friend telling her that she wasn’t going to take sides. Kiara was friends with both of you and the most advice she would ever offer was “I don’t get what happened between you two anyway”.  

No, asking Kiara wouldn’t work. Sarah would have to resign herself to this project. She could this. It was just a three-week project. She could survive three weeks with you.  

“Hey, if I get lunch, what’d’ya want?” You asked, hanging your head off of Sarah’s bed and holding your phone out so you could tap through your doordash app.  

Sarah wanted to scream, it was still half-way through the first week and you had been to her house three times in as many days, spending your after-school hours driving her crazy. She was pretty sure that you were doing this on purpose.  

“It’s almost 5:30,” Sarah replied, not looking up from her laptop, “I think lunch is over.”

“Dinner then.” You said.  

“No. I don’t want dinner.” She snapped, “and I don’t want lunch or whatever else...I just want to finish this project.”

“We’ve got like, two weeks left Sarah,” you pointed out, rolling over onto your stomach and looking at her across the room, “just chill out.”  

You knew you were pushing Sarah’s buttons but you couldn’t help it. When things between the two of you had gone bad, when she’d told you that it was over and, worse than that, it was a mistake, you had been heartbroken. There wasn’t a better word for it. You hated how upset you’d been after Sarah broke it off with you but when things settled, you couldn’t deny that there was still something there. Little looks, fleeting in the hallway, moments you caught her staring and you knew she caught you too. It felt like boiling tension, the same way it had before, when you’d gotten together.  

“Chill out?” She huffed, “you’ve been at my house all week driving me fucking nuts and now you tell me to ‘chill out’. No, you need to help me with this fucking project!”  

You sat up on the bed, unable to contain the smile as you looked over at Sarah, “god, I totally forgot how insanely hot you are when you’re pissed off.”  

Sarah tossed her pencil across the room at you, “will you knock it off. You always pull this shit with me.”

“What shit?” You almost laughed, “you’re the one who told me that dating was an ‘accident’ and you were ‘confused about your feelings’. What am I doing, exactly, to pull shit with you? If anything, Sarah, you leading me on was pretty much exactly that.”  

“I wasn’t leading you on.” She groaned, flicking her hair over her shoulder the way she always did when she was pissed with something someone said to her. “What was I supposed to do anyway?” She said, voice dropping lower so no one would hear her. You might’ve been in her closed bedroom but if there was one thing you’d learned about Tanny Hill it was that someone was always listening. “Do you know what my family would do if they found out?”

“Found out that you were dating...basically a pogue? Or dating a girl?” You deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at her in question. You knew what the answer was. Sarah had been trying to live up to every expectation that Ward set for her from the moment she was born. She was always trying to make up for Rafe or Wheezie doing something to upset him by making sure she never did. And while other people dating whoever they wanted was totally fine with him, his favorite daughter, his pride and joy, dating a girl...maybe if it’d been Wheezie a few years down the line. But not Sarah, who was supposed to date a rich kook and go to UNC and marry the same rich kook and they could have a couple kids and buy a big house near his. He’d been planning it all out for her since before she was born and you had thrown a wrench in that plan.  

“It’s a delicate subject.”

“No,” you laughed and shook your head, “your dad’s a total homophobe. What’s he got against two super-hot girls dating each other?”

“When one of them is his daughter, I don’t think it’s at the top of his approved list.” She replied. “We should be working on this project anyway...I want a good grade and so do you.”

“Sarah-”

“No. Cause you’ll say something that you know I wanna hear and then you’ll do the stupid slow walk over to my chair and put your hands on the arm rests and I’ll be totally defenseless and then I’ll do something I totally regret...like kissing you.” Sarah said, “or letting you kiss me.”

“You’d totally regret it if we kissed?” You asked. “Positive?”

“Yes I’m positive.”

“We could test it out? Just to make sure?”

“No.”  

You shrugged, grabbing your math text off the bed and setting it on your lap again, “okay, I guess we should get back to work then.”

“What?” Sarah almost sounded shocked and really she shouldn’t have been. She should’ve known when the teacher put the two of you together for the project that this was exactly where she would end up at some point within the three weeks. Though really, she’d held out a lot longer than she ever thought she would be able to. “That’s it? You’re just going back to the project?”

“You said that’s what you wanted to do.”

She groaned and tugged at the roots of her hair for a second before looking at you, “you are the most frustrating, annoying, dense person in the entire world and I cannot believe that we-”

While she reamed you out, you had put your book aside and gotten up, going over to her and doing exactly what she said you would. You put your hands on the armrests of her desk chair and you leaned in and kissed her mid-sentence. “Is that what I was supposed to do?” You asked, pulling away just enough to see her face.  

Sarah wrapped her arms around your neck, pulling you toward her and forcing you to stabilize yourself with a knee on the side of her leg, practically sitting on her lap. “Something like that.” She finally said, “though I would’ve appreciated a little warning.”

“Oh, sorry, you seemed stressed,” you replied, feigning innocence, “I just wanted to help you relax.”

“Is stressed the word?” She joked, tension melting as she brushed her nose against yours. She leaned forward so your foreheads were touching, her eyelashes just ghosting a touch on your cheeks when she closed her eyes for a split second.  

“Extremely hot? Sexy...a major turn on.” You joked, kissing her again. “God, imagine if you’d been paired with like...Topper for this? You’d be kissing him right now.”

“Stop trying to ruin the moment and kiss me.” Sarah laughed.

#sarah cameron imagine #sarah cameron fanfic #sarah cameron fanfiction #sarah cameron fic #sarah cameron x reader #sarah cameron x you #sarah cameron x y/n #outer banks imagine #outer banks fanfiction #sarah Cameron fanfic #outer banks fanfic #outer banks fic #obx fic #obx imagine #obx fanfiction #obx fanfic #collecting stories imagine

[tomtenadia]

My knight in shining armour

Rowaelin month Day 2 - University AU

I literally just finished this. I wasn’t going to write for this prompt but then an idea finally hit me.

The title as usual is bad... sorry

2k words

-----

Aelin had days in which she hated men. That was one of those days. 

After finishing high school she decided to took a challenging course at the University of Terrasen. Her dad, before he retired, had been an airforce pilot. She had grown up going around his base, visiting him when he was back. In doing so, she had become obsessed with planes. As she grew up, her dad had let her get friendly with his engineer and the man had started teaching her all she needed to know about aircrafts. From the basic physics to the more obscure detail of how the jet worked. Aelin had been fascinated. She had started reading all the possible books, and as she got older, her dad’s engineer had also started having her to actually help her in the hangar. In the summer when school was out, she would actually get a part-time job as an apprentice at the base and she had loved every moment of it. She had also become very close with the two female pilots and together they had spent time talking about the life of a woman in a boys club. The two women had become her role models very quickly.

Terrasen was quite and open minded country but some ideas were still quite obsolete.

In high school at the question “what you want to be when you grow up?” She always answered an aircraft engineer for the airforce. She never faltered or never doubted. That’s what she wanted to, that was her path.

But when time for uni arrived and she applied for a degree in aeronautical engineering, that’s when she realised that the boys club extended far more than she expected.

She was basically the only woman in the class. None of the guys had approached her and on the first day she had walked in the classroom, one of them had the guts to tell her that the humanities department was in the annex c. She ignored the bastard and sat down at the front. She belonged in that room and she would prove it to every single one of them.

Day after day she had shown her knowledge and surprised her professor who was amazed at the fact that she could answer such in depth questions. Last time it happened, she had turned to Chaol - the asshole who had told her about the annex c, and gave him a smirk. That had removed his stupid grin from his face. It felt amazing.

During a private one-to-one with her professor she had confessed to him she had been working at the airbase as an apprentice during the past three summers. Her teacher had luckily been very supportive and encouraged her to keep up the good work.

Now, six months in, she still hated with a vengeance the arseholes she had to study with. Some of them even had the guts to ask her for some help after they realised she was actually good. She had answered that surely they didn’t want the help of a woman, and walked away.

After another class it was finally lunch time and she was meeting Rowan down at their spot on the grass. They were a couple. He had asked her out in the summer after high school was over and they had been together ever since. He was a med student and he knew her pain about choosing a challenging degree. Both their degrees were very intense and required a lot of time so they would just try and spend as much time together as they could. They had a flat together but the public library was were they spent most of their time.

And when their schedules allowed it, they would enjoy lunch together, venting about their academical choices.

“I fucking hate that bastard.” She raged, dropping her bag on the grass and sitting at his side, depositing a kiss on his lips. She felt better almost immediately, being in his arms was all she needed to feel okay again.

“What did he do now?” Asked Rowan knowing of her struggles in her classes.

Aelin grabbed her bag and pulled out her food, the dinner that Rowan had prepared the previous night and then packed away for both of them.

“The teacher gave us an exercise where we had to design an aircraft with what we had learned so far.” She told him, while munching away her food “He was up first and his project was a effing disaster. Seriously, I’d wouldn’t want to fly on a plane designed by him.” She took a sip of her water “the teacher asked us to say what was wrong and it took me ten minutes to stop. I mean, a two year old would have done a better job with lego bricks.”

Rowan giggled at her side “then my turn came and the bastard had the guts to tell me that the aerodynamics of my plane were off and that my ailerons where wrong as well and would not allow the plane to function properly. I took my laptop and shoved it in his face and told him to find the error in my math. He had no clue.” Her face turned smug “then the teacher took over and said that actually my project was, among all, the only one that could actually fly. I felt smug as fuck.”

Rowan pulled an arm around Aelin’s shoulder and pulled her to him. He was proud of her. Every damn day.

“Then after class, he threw me a paper plane and inside it had a message saying this is the only plane you will ever build or work on. I swear, the guy is still alive only because I am not looking forward to finishing my degree via distance learning from a prison.”

She calmed down “how was your day?”

Rowan leaned back against the tree “I had anatomy and physiology. Today we covered the endocrine system and it must be one most boring of them all.”

“Well,” she added with a big smile “when you cover the reproductive system you are welcome to practice with me…”

He laughed and squished her to her chest “I am a very big fan of your… bits.” She kissed him deeply not caring that they were in public, she wanted him and hated that they had more classes before being able to go home and then alas, study more. Maybe for one evening they could study something different.

“Aelin?”

“Yes, buzzard?”

His tongue gently teased her and she opened for him while his hand brushed off a rebel strand of hair.

He pulled back “Nothing, you had tomato sauce on you lips. I was just wiping it off. Did you think I wanted to kiss you?” 

Aelin gently punched him on the shoulder, in return he gave her a massive grin. Rowan was a very reserved man who struggled with stranger, but she had her own version, the goofy one, the one who made jokes and loved to cuddle with her. She would treasure that version forever. That was just for her.

They were busy chatting away and she was showing him on her laptop the exercise she had been working on and her plane prototype and although what she was saying was greek to him, he still listened to her in fascination.

She was telling him how a plane flew and the four forces when a figure stopped in front of them.

“It must be exciting to brag with your boyfriend about your hopeless projects.” Said the man.

Rowan raised his eyes and finally saw the face of the man that had been making Aelin’s life miserable.

“What did you just say?” Rowan stood and towered on the brown-haired man by twenty centimetres. Chaol also looked frail compared to Rowan’s muscular frame.

“Chaol, you’d better go.” Not that she cared about the man, she just didn’t want Rowan to get into trouble for a petty man.

“You’d better give up while you still can, Galathynius. Aeronautical engineering is not a field for a woman.” He crossed his arms at his chest trying to look intimidating but the look in Rowan’s eyes told her it was a useless attempt. Her boyfriend was ready to attack. She knew he had never hit anyone, but had a feeling that if Chaol didn’t stop it could be a first for Rowan.

“Chaol,” she stood as well and growled his name in warning.

“Oh, so you are one of those arseholes who believes that certain jobs can be done only by those who were born with a penis. It’s the fucking 21st century. Grow up, idiot.”

Rowan swore, alarm bells rang in Aelin’s head. He only swore when he was extremely mad, something that her unflappable boyfriend rarely was.

“Oh look, Galathynius, you have a knight in shining armour.”

Aelin moved between Rowan and Chaol, trying to separate them when her boyfriend moved a step closer to the other guy.

Chaol chuckled “Did you sleep with every professor—” but Chaol never finished his sentence. She saw the scene develop in slow motion in front of her. At those words Rowan’s face had turned feral and as on instinct his arm moved and a second later his fist found its target in Chaol’s face. 

Rowan then grabbed Chaol by the collar and lifted him up slightly “You take it back, immediately or I’ll smash all the twenty two bones in your skull.”

“Go on,” said Chaol, nursing a broken lips.

Aelin stopped in between and grasped Rowan’s hand gently “Put him down, Ro, he is not worth it.”

Her gaze then turned to Chaol “now you go back to whatever shithole you came from and perhaps go back working on your project and design a real aircraft.” She moved closer to him “I know what the fuck I am doing. And I know I will have a job in the airforce after this. You will just go back being daddy’s little spoiled boy.”

Chaol glared at her and Rowan finally let go of him, bur before he fully released him he pulled the man close enough that his mouth was near his ear “you disrespect her like that one more time and you’ll finish your degree from a hospital bed while sipping your food from a straw.” Rowan flashed his teeth in a threatening gesture “you leave her alone, because if I hear you have been a bastard to her one more time, I will make your life a living hell.” And eventually released him. Chaol shrugged his t-shirt back into place and walked away without adding another word.

Rowan sighed and then turned to her, his expression back being soft as soon as she looked back at him.

“You didn’t have to punch him,” she said while snuggling against his chest. His arms quickly around her.

“Yes I had to. What he said….” She felt him tense up again “he made me so mad, fireheart.”

“Seeing you thump him was very sexy,” she kissed him gently on the lips “my knight in shining armour.”

Rowan chuckled and looked into he blue eyes “you don’t need a knight. You are fierce, brave and strong and do not need any protection,” he added, his lips on her head. Nesting under his chin was her favourite position. They fit perfectly “I, on the other hand, as a male who is hopelessly in love with you, felt the desperate need to avenge the sullied honour of my amazing other half.”

Aelin giggled hard “you really sound like a knight.”

“Come on, Sir Rowan Whitethorn of Wendlyn, let’s finish our lunch, I have an hour of mechanics of flight coming up and I need sustenance.”

“Yes, my queen,” he said kneeling in front of her.

Aelin laughed and kissed him deeply “maybe I can be your queen tonight in bed as well.”

His smirk grew wider and Aelin felt heat pool at her core at his expression.

“Whatever m’lady commands.”

They finished their lunch in peace without any more interruptions and eventually they parted ways, going to their respective classes.

Chaol did not bothered her anymore. He didn’t even met her gaze and him ignoring her was all she asked. She was there to learn, he could just go and sulk in the afterburner of a jet, perhaps while on, for all she cared.

Aelin texted Rowan a thank you and his reply was a simple To whatever end.

#rowaelin #rowaelinmonth #rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #rowan whitethorn #aelin galathynius #chaol westfall #university au #Throne of Glass series

[beauty-and-passion]

Update on life and work

1) We learned (almost) nothing.

If you live on this planet, I think you've heard at least once about the current war in Ukraine. And, as a European, you can imagine how I felt (and I still feel) about it.

The first days I was devastated: we didn't even manage to keep peace in Europe for 100 years. After two fucking World Wars, after globalisation, after Internet, with something slightly more important like SAVING THE ONLY PLANET IN WHICH WE CAN LIVE, in the Year of the Lord 2022, we're back to being monkeys who throwns stones to each other.

I can understand Russia's fears. Russia has always needed some buffer states between itself and the West, since and before the Cold War. NATO could expand, but not annex these buffer states.

Well, that's what happened and, slowly, more eastern european countries joined both NATO and the EU.

At the same time, we did nothing to get Putin back in line when he did something wrong before. We accepted this dictator and swept the problem under the rug, hoping it would solve itself.

It didn't work. And if Putin decided that invading Ukraine was a good idea, it's also because all we did before was nothing worse than a tiny slap on the wrist.

Does that justify his actions? Hell fucking no. Invading another country because you want to keep it closer or because the people around you are accommodating isn't a justification. Only monkeys and barbarians do this, not a supposed civilized country. There were a million other possibilities to make Russia's reasons heard: democracy, soft power and who knows how many other means I don't even know about. Look, I'm not an expert about this war and the entire Russia-Ukraine situation. I'm just learning things now and everything is a lot more complicated than the media make it look like: there are millions of political, economic and historical issues, all intertwined together, to the point you can't just say one is the good guy and the other is a bad guy.

The only thing we can objectively be sure about is that Putin did wrong, because no matter how many fucking reasons there might be to justify your actions, choosing violence over dialogue is ALWAYS wrong. Unless someone is shooting you and your family, but I don't think that applies to Russia.

Also we can also be 200% sure that innocent people are the ones who suffer the consequences of all of this. Ukranians who are fleeing from war, Russians who can't even say they don't want this war, all the soldiers who are forced into something none of them wants.

And if this is awful and painful, it also brought out the best of humanity. Everyone protested, Russians included. Switzerland broke its historical neutrality to take a side. Anonymous keeps doing their cyberattacks on Russia. Europe, always so conflicted about everything, took a clear side and decisions have been approved without any fuss.

And, honestly, that's the best thing they could do. Not going down to Putin's level, but using a stronger weapon: economic sanctions. This is what brings a country to its knees. And I know innocents will suffer for that - but Putin will too. Attacking Russia's economy is the only safe way we can stop this. And I really, really hope this will work. Because once this will be over, we must focus again on what's truly important - like, you know, protecting the only planet in which we live. I think it would be pretty useless to fight for a piece of land, if that piece of land will be desert, arid or drowned. Or if we're all dead.

_________________________________

2) The renovation is almost over

Moving on happier, simpler things. As I said in a previous post, I'm doing some huge renovation work in my house. It started as "Let's renew the kitchen and one bathroom", it became "Let's change the floor of the entire apartment. And repaint every room. And move away a lot of old furniture. And sure, let's renew the kitchen and bathroom".

The floor is finally ready and oh boy, what a difference compared to before. The previous brown tiles were nice and they lasted for 50 years, so they were definitely good quality. But it was time to change them for something more modern and brighter. And now the entire house seems brighter and newer as well.

Right after the floor was done, my brother painted all the rooms and he did a magnificent job. The kitchen and living room were painted two years ago, so they were fine, but the other rooms haven't been painted in 30 years. They really needed a big renovation!

And now, it's my time. I'm cleaning the entire house by myself - with occasional help from my mother and brother to clean/move some heavy furniture. I added shelves to the closets, checked every single bed sheet, piece of clothing, seashell, souvenir and cat toy. I'm donating/selling a lot of stuff I never used. And it's still not over, because the new kitchen will come on April 2nd and it will be time to organize that room too.

And this makes me very happy. Not only because the kitchen will be new and cooler and bigger, compared to that stupidly small kitchenette I had before, but also because everything will be *beautiful* and *organized* and everything will be useful. No more stupid useless stuff everywhere. Just a tidy, clean house.

Yes, I know I might sound like an old lady, but trust my words: one day, you too will be head over heels for a new oven that has the auto-clean mode included, rather than a new pair of shoes :P

_________________________________

3) New projects to come

Because of the renovations, I haven't been around lately. Hence why I want to be more active here and in general.

First of all, I want to post the fanfiction I'm translating. It's almost done, so it will come out in a couple of days. I'm pretty happy about it, for a number of reasons: it's the first time I try Roman's pov, it's the first time I try a more "aware" Logan's pov after Fitting Pieces, there are silly moments, there are some familiar dark boys moments because I'm weak for them and there's some sweet angst because I'm weak for it. And there's Janus because I'm weak for him. And yes, he's the main focus - in a way. Of course. I just love using his pov.

After that, I'm not sure what to do first. I have the episode analyses to write and I want to do a couple of them. But there's also this other fanfiction I planned which will be Logan-centric and I keep thinking about it and how much I want to write some scenes. So... well, I will probably let you know once I'll decide it :P

And now, my cats. As a treat.

#blog update #beauty talks about stuff #sanders sides #updates #I will come back I promise

[barbariccia]

it’s time to talk about Hydaelyn.

i’ve been sat on this theory for a long time - i’m pretty sure i didn’t come up with the original idea myself, but the more i think about it the more it makes sense to me. i’m not sure HOW it’ll come into play in the story, necessarily, but the new year’s eve poem posted last night has me rubbing my chin even more. so:

Hydaelyn exists under Silvertear Lake and i won’t hear no for an answer.

(please note there'll be spoilers for 5.0.)

we have known since 1.0 that there’s Something Under Silvertear. admittedly, in 1.0 it was likely just Midgardsormr, because the times have been a-changing and while the dev team has done a truly admirable job at building on what lore remained from the 1.X days, they couldn’t and didn’t keep everything intact. i do not at any point consider this a downside, just something worth noting!

the Garleans, headed by Gaius van Baelsar (acting under solus-selch’s orders), after the invasion and successful annexing of Ala Mhigo, pushed into Mor Dhona as the next part of their “invade Eorzea” project as a central location that would make continued pushes into the land easy. not only that, but Mor Dhona is noted as being (and has been since 1.X) the center of aetherial connections in Eorzea, if not the whole world, though Eorzea is particularly topped up with aether compared to other landmasses. Cid Garlond in his 1.X iteration suggests that Mor Dhona is where aether returns to rejoin the Lifestream. Quote:

Cid nan Garlond: All aether would - should pass through Silvertear Lake upon returning to the Land, but it now appears that something is bending the energy's course - drawing it away.

in 1.X, Nael van Darnus was originally drawing Dalamud down to fall on this area, where Castrum Novum (now Castrum Centri in ARR and beyond) was built, until adventurers put a stop to that and the transmitter was relocated to Coerthas, where the Rivenroad was ripped from. I’ll accept it as a happy coincidence - the castra was built in this area, it makes sense for plot events to happen there - but it does strike me as interesting, especially where the parallel between the Garlean’s Meteor Project and the original Meteor from FFVII is concerned. Sephiroth wasn’t just calling down a giant slab of asteroid for shiggles; he was doing it specifically to create a wound in the Planet that would require an immense amount of energy to heal that he could siphon off of and become a god. If XIV’s Meteor had hit (and not hatched like an egg), a similar thing might have happened.

And there’s no better place to call a lot of aether to the fore than somewhere entirely rich in it. Almost like there’s a great being in that area dependent on aether that directs the Lifestream through itself to preserve not only itself, but all life on the planet.

The second the Garleans got too close to the lake, Middy burst out with a whole host of Dravanians and the Battle of Silvertear Skies began (and ended with Dravanian victory at great cost). This sequence from 1.X is notable as being one of those things that has to have been changed from ARR onwards considering what we now know about primal summoning (they weren’t just ‘let loose’ into the world, they’ve been actively taught to certain peoples (though why only ‘now’ and not ‘before, too’ is still up in the air)) - not to mention we know that the Echo started manifesting after the battle, too, almost as though something felt like it was in danger and needed thralls (1) to protect itself - but Middy came out to protect something. He’d been known as the great protector of Silvertear Lake for a very long time, since he first appeared to the source. Quote The Rising Chorus, from patch 2.5:

Minfilia: [...] an unlikely ally came to Eorzea's aid that day─Midgardsormr, legendary guardian of Silvertear Falls, burst forth from beneath the waters of the lake and led a host of dragons against the Garlean airships overhead.

Minfilia:  Midgardsormr was once worshipped as the guardian deity of Silvertear Falls [...]

Minfilia: One of the ancient myths regarding Silvertear Falls states that when the waters came into existence, so too did the great wyrm. Althyk and Nymeia, Brother Time and Sister Fate, decreed that Midgardsormr ever watch over the source, from which all water─and magic─was said to flow.   I wonder... What if this was the covenant of which he spoke, and 'twas not the gods with whom he treated, but Hydaelyn Herself? 

minfy and ourselves can only guess as to the nature of the covenant forged between hydaelyn and midgardsormr. Following the Omega questline, we know that Midgardsormr fled the Dragonstar with his seven eggs to get away from Omega, crossing the vast expanse of space at great cost to his own personal strength. We don’t know at what time Midgardsormr appeared to the Source - whether it was before, during, or after the time of the 13th Reflection being turned into the Void as we know it - but it would have been post-Sundering of the Ancient world, considering he was able to make a pact with Hydaelyn at all (2) (not to mention there’s no dragons on the First; if there were dragons everywhere we’d know they were reflections of the First Brood! i’m still angy there’s no Azdaja and Vrtra. fucking PLEASE squenix i’m DYING for info on them).

(1) this is a good a place as any to mention that in 1.X, Minfilia - then known as Ascilia - witnessed the Battle of Silvertear Falls with her father Warburton and her Echo awoke a few years later. interesting to think that the primal that tempered Ascilia in potential desperation would later scour her clean and use her for its own purposes, though i know this wasn’t intentional from the devs at all as a plot-point.

(2) the nature of Hydaelyn and Zodiark’s battle makes me doubt that there was much time between Her summoning and the Sundering of the world

There’s an interview from 2014/15 with Koji Fox where he notes, quote,"There's a presence [at Silvertear]. It wasn't just Midgardsormr there, it was more of a force[...]". There’s definitely something there that isn’t just the dragons. Something big. It’s Hydaelyn!!! It has to be. (highlights in the excerpt mine.)

My interpretation of this event is that Midgardsormr agreed to protect the physical ‘body’ of Hydaelyn in exchange for the safety of his eggs - the First Brood - which is what he’s been doing for potentially upwards of 10,000 years. The battle at Silvertear is pretty explosive otherwise for what’s effectively a non-event. There might not have been dragons in Gyr Abania, or in Ilsabard, or Othard or anywhere else they’ve been pushing into - but there’s never been any indication of the dragons being particularly territorial. The Dravanians shared their space with proto-Ishgardians back in the day, and their issues with the elezen of the Source was due to some choice eye-vorage, not encroaching on lands like the sahagin and kobolds.

As for Hydaelyn’s physical form - well, it’s known that Zodiark has a physical form which was sealed directly into the moon. The true moon, known to us colloquially as Menphina (3) (is there another name for it? i haven’t seen anything). It stands to reason that Hydaelyn has a physical form as well, then, hidden away somewhere safe, because as we known, primals can be defeated and their essences scattered to return back to the Lifesteam.

(3) Hey, it’s worth noting here that Menphina, the Lover (whose divine stone is parked right where Haurchefant’s grave is) is said to be the younger sister of Azeyma, the Warden! and boy, while we’re thinking about the misremembered names of the Convocation coming back as names of gods in modern day, what significance does that have?

The Antitower: In all of creation, what greater mystery could there be than the fate of this very star? To sound the deepest depths, to study the aetherial sea itself─for these purposes and more was the Antitower built. Abandoned by her Sharlayan caretakers following the exodus, it has since been overrun by the magical guardians they left behind. Yet were one blessed with Her gift to brave these dangers and descend to the furthest reaches─to hear, feel, and think at the heart of this world─what would they find?

(emphasis mine.)

in the cutscenes following the Antitower, we meet Hydaelyn in the aetherial sea, and Her mouthpiece, the Word of the Mother. and by using the Antitower, something specifically Sharlayan-built, no less. I’d be very interested to know if you can reach the aetherial sea from only the Forelands, where that dungeon is, or from anywhere. I’m gonna make a stab at anywhere.

It’s been brought to my attention that in the cutscenes post-Antitower, Hydaelyn mentions in the quest The Word of the Mother (patch 3.2), and Ardbert echoes later in Shadows of the First (patch 3.4) that “across ten and three were [we] then divided, reflections of the source, each possessed of a shard”, which seems to imply that not only the people of the world and Zodiark, but also Hydaelyn Herself was sundered and became weaker in so doing. which is FANTASTICALLY interesting, all things considered! maybe She wasn’t just becoming weak (and finding it harder to take mouthpieces and the like) because of the land’s aether being drained by primals (and other sources).

The just-released (as of time of writing) New Year’s Eve poem makes me think that the “last chapter of this story” might relate back to this in some way.

[EN]

Our progeny may never know Wherefore we look unto the sky Nor why we dig for truth below; We bear their scorn or watch them die.

[FR]

With our mouths closed, we pile stone upon stone, To form a staircase leading to the lands of knowledge, As well as another pointing to the heavens of existence. Our children will remember it, no matter how angry they are.

[GR]

Committed to our silent office We seek wisdom in the deep earth. Put tomorrow in starry hands, Sung by children's lamentations.

[JP]

By staying silent and saying naught, we will not accumulate the crystals(?) (4) To gain knowledge, we climb into the earth, To survive, we climb to into the heavens. Even if our progeny resent us, it is all for their sake.

(4) 石 meaning stone rather than ‘crystals’, 水晶 meaning ‘crystal’ (and used in the JP title of the Crystal Exarch).

*** translations from THIS reddit post and THIS tweet for the EU and JP translations of the poem, respectively.

something something 6.0 is looking more likely to be Sharlayan than anywhere else, something something big tower something something learn stuff from within the earth. c’moooon, i wanna go beat some answers out of crystal mom. walk freeeee indeed.

Getting away from the poems again and back to Stuff On The Source, we can take a look at the First, a much more pristine reflection of the Source due to having no Calamities happen to it ever. The Source (not to be confused with the Source), the equivalent of Silvertear, is being presided over by none other than... Bismarck, a member of the fae (and BOY i’d like to know more about whaleboi in this world!!!!), in exactly the same position Midgardsormr is, presumably protecting something of equal importance. Having said that, I don’t know if by splitting the world, Hydaelyn also split Herself.

Having said that, there’s an environmental anomaly in that area. Fly out to Bismarck’s (5) nose, and then dive under the waves. There’s a crystal formation coming out of the ground that can’t be found anywhere else on the First - there is nothing else similar to this formation - that has patches of light emitting from bits of it. A friend of mine noted that the way it seems to be coming through in only this location is almost cancerous in origin - that is to say, uncontained and Wrong in some manner, more complex than we have words or knowledge of. The only way you can interact with these crystals is in the level 78 mining levequest Crystal Meds, which notes that you can yank salt crystals out of that formation... but it seems a little too suspect to leave as ‘just salt’.

(5) Speaking of Bismarck, from that earlier interview with Koji Fox, he also has this to say, which... what else have you been hiding in plain sight... (highlights again mine.)

Or the Crystarium’s just going around seasoning their meals with primal mama, who knows.

Eep, this post got away from me. Anyway, i’m not really sure what to DO with any of this information. as many of my friends know i’ve been harping on about this for years at this point, and i’m not the best at speculation and guessing accurately where stories end up going - but it feels more right than ever to talk about it now after that poem was release.

hells, maybe they’ll give us another tower. say... a tower of bab-il, to take us to the moon? 6.0 FFIV expansion pretty please??

#ffxiv speculation #ffxiv #hydaelyn #final fantasy 14 #ff14

[saltypiss]

Forced birthers don't give a shit about anything but the idea of a child. It's easy to take a nebulous character and apply all sorts of victimhood upon them, while also, making them victims.

Nuance is not a conservative's forte' but their politicians do in the instance of knowing what they're doing.

Republicans legalized child marriage in some shithole state that should be annexed, put bounties on mother's heads, and outlawed abortion.

Tell me. Tell me you didn't get that ping of emotion in your head realizing the republican party's projections about pedophilia, are apart of their plans aswell. That the proven pedo party is designing a situation and system where women, and little girls, are trapped with their rapists. You wouldn't leave your kid, especially with a rapist. You can't avoid being forced into a 'relationship' with a republican once he impregnates you.

And my friends, if you don't see why I don't have the patience to seperate the useful idiots from the violent pedos, it's because the violent pedos are kind've the entire party and without them it would totally fizzle out.

You can guarantee, the first of the raped child, mother, and wife will be done by a republican politician.

And that sentence is so fucking disgusting I can't fucking believe this party is real.

#republicans #abortion #depophilia

[wangxiandecoded]

Episode 12

Previous Episode | Next Episode

(Spoilers for the whole show ahead!)

Even when Wen Chao asks for their swords, Wei Ying is trying desperately to make Lan Zhan look him in the eye to telepathically understand what his soulmate is feeling. Lan Zhan hates it but he has no choice but to cooperate with the enemy. He has withdrawn to himself after the multiple losses he’s faced and being a puppet at the hands of the Wens must be rattling him some more. Even if he wanted to tell Wei Ying everything that’s on his mind, he wouldn’t have been able to find the words to. 

Lucky for him, Wei Ying has an inkling that his Lan Zhan has faced an inexplicable disaster and that’s why he’s behaving this way with him. He knows it doesn’t mean he should stop reaching out. His concern for him leads him to repeatedly seek Lan Zhan’s face, looking for anything that might suggest how he can alleviate his plight.

One of the perks of having Wei Wuxian as your boyfriend is that he was born ready to make a clown out of the most dastardly villains.

Wei Ying Says “Fuck You” In The Name Of Love

Wei Ying has a brilliant idea to talk to Lan Zhan or at least let him know he is not alone.

There is something powerfully impressive and quietly romantic about Wei Ying insulting the Wen clan by reciting the Lan clan’s rules to Wen Chao’s face, on the heels of the former decimating and annexing the latter. Of course Wei Ying is the first one in a room to stand up to a bully and protect the others but Wei Ying knows Lan Zhan’s hands are tied right now, even if he doesn’t know what exactly happened. But that’s okay, because Wei Ying will defend his honor and become Lan Zhan’s hands, his mouth, his everything that delivers the unmistakable “fuck you” on behalf of his family. And he does it in an act of rebellion that originates in the sanctum of love. Understandably, Lan Zhan falls more in love with him.

Wei Ying’s Plan Misfires 

His happiness is short-lived, but honestly who could predict his plan would go like this?

We see that Lan Zhan does want to confide in his soulmate the pain and pressure he’s been dealing with alone the whole time, but it’s too dangerous for them to talk right now. 

Wen Chao carries the same kind of smugness as a prick who’s been waiting to out a gay couple. I mean how awful do you have to be to physically abuse Wangxian for.. being Wangxian? Blatant homophobia right there.

Wei Ying has had enough of Wen Chao’s bullshit and is unafraid to clap back with his signature cheekiness.

When Wei Ying is captured, Lan Zhan blocks the whip coming his way and ends up taking a hit to his injured leg. Wei Ying then wants Wen Chao to come for him instead of Lan Zhan, and we can honestly expect nothing less from Wangxian at this point.

Lan Zhan conquers his silent grieving and mute seething to stand in defiance against Wen Chao. It is worth mentioning that his patience and tolerance can even bear the brunt of a fallen world, but cease to exist the second someone mistreats Wei Ying before his eyes. You know what they say about love being a vicious motivator. His protective stance here screams..

Lan Zhan Holds On To Wei Ying For A Short Span Of Eternity

Wen Chao sure is very curious about the nature of their relationship and unable to fathom what Wei Ying could possibly want with Lan Zhan. He’s already safe and sound with him in Qishan, so if they’re not talking about the Yin Iron, what the hell is it? This inquisition is a bit ridiculous, as if the writer specifically gave him these lines to point out to the audience that Wangxian are being soulmates in love once again.

What Lan Zhan does not say, he makes up for with the million times he reaches for Wei Ying instinctively; spontaneous skinship is one of the ways through which his love for Wei Ying finds expression. It is phenomenal that He Who Does Not Touch People firmly holds on to his lover through this whole monologue that follows.

There are few things in the world that can inspire Lan Zhan’s wrath and protection right now, and Wei Ying commands both so effortlessly. Defeated as he is, for Wei Ying, Lan Zhan is always a man of action. And this action particularly proves his willingness to send packing to hell whoever dares to come close to his lover. I wonder what would’ve happened if Wei Ying hadn’t gone to the dungeon on his own volition.

Wangxian Are Once Again Ready To Risk It All For Each Other

It would’ve been nice to see them get their alone time, but what’s one more complication on the path of true love, right?

If you thought about it, Wangxian’s universe truly conspires to bring them together sometimes. Wen Ning tells Wei Ying everything Lan Zhan wasn’t able to, and Wen Qing does everything in her power to ensure they’re both out of harm’s way. Even when our heroes aren’t able to spend time together, they are being assisted by outside forces that work to ensure their love has a future. There are always people left in the world who are rooting for Wangxian because they’re the good gays guys! 

We are well aware of how deeply and madly Wei Ying loves Lan Zhan, but it is startling all the same that even when he is in physical agony, what infuriates him to the point of madness is the news of Lan Zhan being hurt and his home being burnt down. Wei Ying is also more than willing to endure his pain a while longer if it means Lan Zhan has a shot at getting better.

Wangxian at any given point of time are ready to sacrifice themselves for the other and wage a war against the entire world for wronging the love of their life. That’s what makes these soulmates more unique than most, if not all lovers in fiction. Throughout the story, their romance is subjected to a billion tests and every choice they make is bound to make the viewers cry and highlight the unfairness of the impossible stakes they go through to be with each other. This is no ordinary romance, and that’s why it is all the more fantastic they are able to survive these unthinkable odds and come out shining in the end.

Lan Zhan’s concern and affection for Wei Ying is so open that it bleeds all over our screens. It’s like he looks at the rest of the world with aloof objectivity but the minute his lover comes into his sight, his eyes can bloom only warmth and emotion. Even the vision that touches Wei Ying from afar should be gentle and reverent, fit for holding in sight something precious beyond measure. This can be said about the both of them.

It is when NHS mentions their halcyon days at Cloud Recesses that we realize how their lives have changed irreversibly. Both Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are visibly sadder, like they’re wishing to return to simpler times when courting Lan Zhan was the biggest problem in Wei Ying’s life and fighting his feelings for Wei Ying was Lan Zhan’s. They’ve grown closer since then but the impediments on their road have also grown bigger.

Wei Ying Asks Jiang Cheng To Stay Out Of His Love Life

Lan Zhan keeps walking like #conceal don’t feel but the sad version of WuJi reveals all.

Wei Ying has been growing tired of Jiang Cheng trying to dictate what he should and should not feel or do about things that do not concern him and he rightfully puts him in his place in this scene. Jiang Cheng tells Wei Ying to not choose “someone else” as “we” already have a lot to deal with. He implies Wei Ying shouldn’t help Lan Zhan because he isn’t family and is clearly underplaying his injury despite Wei Ying emphasising its urgency. And Wei Ying is so done with putting up with that kind of negative energy in his love life.

He is quick to silence anyone who thinks they can hold him back from his heart or overstep the boundaries of his relationship with Lan Zhan. And his logic is very sound, for who on earth is capable of stopping Wei Ying from helping him? Not even Lan Zhan! 

Wei Ying breaks free of Jiang Cheng's grip and leaves in Lan Zhan's direction after patronizingly patting his arm. And that is his answer. To him, Lan Zhan isn’t just another person and there is certainly no choice he has to make when it comes to him. It will always be Lan Zhan who is his foremost priority and the rest of the world has to simply get used to being left behind.

We see that he knows Lan Zhan would never ask for help but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t need it. His soulmate will hence always offer it, and if rejected, simply throw him on his back and continue while Lan Zhan informs him once again of how “boring” it is. He doesn’t get to do that, but his sentiment is romantic enough to stay in Lan Zhan’s memory for sixteen years and become an action he boldly reciprocates when Wei Ying comes back.

Wangxian’s Love Story is Truly “Epic”

Episodes 11 and 12 trace the beginnings of the turmoil that will forge Wangxian’s path (and make us weep). Every romance starts from the idyllic state of undisturbed happiness but it seldom remains there through the whole story. And let’s be honest, calamities bring emotional depth and complexity to a plot, exposing that our favorite characters are human, flawed and a lot closer to reality than we imagined. Both the heroes stay loyal to their core values, with the conviction to be fearless in the face of unforeseen adversities in life and love.

And we hope like the hopeless romantics who are in love with the greatest love story ever told, that maybe all the tragedies that are about to befall Wei Ying and Lan Zhan won’t matter one day because their happy ending will heal all wounds. Obstacles will continue to strew our heroes apart and push them towards the other on a loop, but Wangxian are like magnets destined to snap back together. They will ascend beyond the stratosphere of romance, straight to the heavens, because their love’s greatest virtue is that they have each other and know each other more than any two people ever did in all of history. They are devoted to the other unconditionally in soul, mind and body. 

It’s just that our idiot-soulmates take the long way round to realize that their own joint force is capable of annihilating and birthing entire universes, and nothing that ever dared to stand on their path ever stood a chance. And when they do realize that their love is an infinite, impossible force that can bend the laws of nature and be a harbinger of greatness to a world that is doomed to fail, their story is exalted to an epic that doubles as a romance, effectively displacing all the bland, straight examples of love that have infiltrated our past and perpetuated heteronormativity. Because it boasts a love that all of humankind should vie to fashion their lives after and is a true sight to behold - a sight we will rewatch for as long as we live, and bequeath to posterity so they can grow up looking up to Wangxian. Because their love story is the big budget live action fantasy that queer people have been deprived of for so long and is now here to tell us : You should dare to love because it will become your greatest strength. Just like it became Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s.

#the untamed #chen qing ling #mo dao zu shi #cql #mdzs #wangxian #wangxian meta #the untamed meta #cql meta #mdzs meta #wangxiandecoded #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan zhan #wangxian analysis #cql analysis #the untamed analysis #the untamed rewatch #the untamed episodes #cql episodes #cql rewatch #ep12 #this one took a lot longer than I expected #uni was taxing me and I was also feeling unwell #i love reading all your thoughts on these episodes too! #thank you for following this blog! #by the way get ready to stream DYNAMITE by BTS out on August 21st! #Presave DYNAMITE on Spotify!!

[banyanas]

ramble invitation: when did beingverse first come about and what inspired it and how did the idea spiral? how did you decide on names for people and places like Omnoc, Paracos, Maradoth, Fairview, etc? what inspired Olde Subcon's culture, ie. how did you develop it and decide on the different aspects of it?

OHOHO NOW THATS A SUBJECT FOR RAMBLING

Beingverse first came about as an intersection of two things. 1. The concepts and ideas introduced in Dwellings, and 2. ... okay it was the Toilet of Doom

Like not even joking the initial concept for Soul-Stricken was because I was thinking too hard about the mechanics of that fucking outhouse and how it related to souls. So that idea got mushed with the pretty general concept of Subcon Forest as a sentient superorganism + some of my favorite tropes (Bodysharing, Blue and Orange Morality, Found Family, etc). From there it spiraled out to something a lot bigger than just the little canon-adjacent AU. Maybe a little too big, but it’s fun!

Names! Names are kind of all over the place- some of them, like Brigid and Galle and Cato were pre-existing characters. There are some early development outliers (like Pryce as the Prince’s last name), but for the most part a lot of the names in the Subcon/Omnoc area are greek-inspired. Otherwise? Just lots of putting the Fantasy Name Generator in my head to work. Except Fairview, that’s an actual area I know of around here.

Olde Subcon’s culture is... a Lot. From the get-go I knew I wanted Luka to be from a very different kingdom than Vanessa- and the history between those places was not a nice one. This gave a reason for staying with her even when their previously-good relationship turned sour, because it was considered really important for smoothing ruffled feathers and an important gesture for keeping the peace. Naturally, it didn’t pan out because Vanessa was Like That.

(Sidenote that cultural assimilation was absolutely a layer to the domestic abuse the Prince dealt with here. Returning to his Subconite roots after escaping the basement, leaving the crown in behind when he escaped... he freed himself from more than just iron chains down there.)

Subcon’s specific flavor of martial culture served as a foil to both Omnoc and Tempus- an internally-skirmishing country vs. the expansionist empire(s). This absolutely affects how the characters from those respective areas interact with each other. Once the basic skeleton of the Subcon/Omnoc recent history was set up, it became really easy to expand and branch out at leisure in terms of more specific historical events, political stances/schemes, and Apolonia Existing.

I admittedly don’t have much of a solid idea where the inspiration for this structure came from... probably SOMEWHERE, but a lot of the basics (Subcon as a martial country of a collection of clans forced into the get-along-margravate after it was annexed by Omnoc, Prince and Vanessa betrothed to smooth that over, culture clash) sprung up mostly-formed after a particularly frantic idea-lobbing session in google docs. There was definitely tequila and an extremely fun, extremely long voice chat involved (it was the release day of something so we were having a lil quarantine party).

Thank you for the invitation to ramble! Sometimes I forget how many brainworms I have in totality for this AU, even the ones that have already been written and posted.

#bañana post #get along hat #OPEN THE FLOODGATES

[unkownknowledge]

Hi! If you're still doing requests, could you please do some imagines for Shokichi dragging Adolf and Michelle out for a night of drinking? I feel like Adolf would end up being the designated driver lmao. Thanks!!

Sorry this took so long, I haven't had my meds and didn't want to mess this up.

I'd also like to preface this by saying I have no experience with going to a bar other than an old person bar with my grandpa so this will probably be very inaccurate.

Hope I did it justice!

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Pre annex mission

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-while one would expect Reinhardt to be the most apprehensive to the idea, it was actually Michelle.

-Reinhardt is always happy to hang with friends(though he obviously words it differently) but Michelle?

-she thought it would be a complete waste of time to have a drink when they could be training and doing work instead.

-of course Komachi was able to convince her to come(much to Reinhardt's suprise) by pointing out that she never trains nor works that late anyway.

-after the day was done at work they all had to carpool with Michelle since she's the only one with a car(I imagine U-NASA is in america) and she drove them to a nearby bar.

-Komachi would order a whiskey or tequila, whiskey because "it's a man's drink!" And tequila because he wants the mood to be happier and what's happier that tequila?

-Reinhardt and Michelle would order beer. Michelle wouldn't care what kind because she's just there because of Komachi, but Reinhardt would much prefer german beer because it reminds him of home.

-I can also see Reinhardt getting a wine that he drinks with his wife if it's there, because no matter what she does he just can't stop having feelings for her.

-Reinhardt doesn't get drunk because his liver is now the organ that makes his electricity(headcannon) and his blood is electrified(also headcanon) do it just fries up the alchohol, but this also causes steam to rise up from his mouth and ears.

-of course it's not perfect, so he ends up having really quick drunken episodes. Problem there is that his drunkenness is 100X worse than most.

-He'll get drunk for two minutes and start rambling about various things: about how his wife is horrible, about how (insert character you ship him with) would be better as his spouse, it gets so bad he even starts shouting about how "EVERYONE IS USELESS BUT ME! IM A FUCKING POWER PLANT!"

-that last bit is just drunken talk.

-at one point Komachi and Michelle have to stop him from taking some serum and "summoning the might of the lord" down on some idiot who bumped into him and was rude about it.

-every time Michelle tries and leaves, Komachi stops her by saying, "just one more!", and eventually she gets drunk from having to many "one more beers"

-this is a bad thing.

-when Michelle gets drunk, she loses control of her powers: she grows antennae, gets explosion powers, and gets her powered up strength too.

-one hiccup causes her current glass to fly out of her hands and across the room, she breaks the bar by accident by just leaning on it, and just can't control her strength.

-worst of all? She's  extremely competitive now.

-Michelle challenges Komachi to a drinking competition, and Komachi being an idiot agrees.

-they order the most alcoholic thing in the bar and just keep doing whole bottles of it without any sign of passing out.

-the end up drinking the whole stock!

-they then order vodka(because Asimov always goes on about how much of a kick it has)

-the bartender, desperately trying to stay in business, has to drug the last two bottles of vodka so that they'll finally pass out!

-the bartender then begs Reinhardt to take them home, and since he's completely sober now he agrees and apologizes for the damages.

-I can see Reinhardt giving the bartender money out of his own pocket so that his friends dont get in trouble at work for sending U-NASA the bill.

-now for driving home, hook boy.

-I headcanon that Reinhardt, even after years of normal life, never got a driver's license(because in Germany it's not as needed) so he barely knows the laws of the german road, American roads? Good luck.

-of course he can drive, he's just trained to drive military vehicles and things that move as fast as race cars, so he drives VERY recklessly for a civilian road.

-you ever play gta or halo and you just can't drive? That's Reinhardt, it's a miracle he didn't hit anyone(well he hit Asimov but he was fine).

-the next day they all get in trouble for: using powers without permission, using powers on civilians, property damage, hitting another employee with a car(Asimov), knocking out another employee(Michelle bumped into Liu and hit him full force), shaving the heads of half the personel and a captain(Komachi gets mischievous when he's drunk and shaved Newton's head, as well as the heads of half the U-NASA staff), and various other hijinks.

-safe to say that none of them are allowed to drink without a responsible adult.

-Newton is not a responsible adult, neither is Asimov. Nor is Akari. Come to think of it the only person they can drink under the supervision of is Liu.

-also, Komachi and Adolf have to relay this information to Michelle since she's more volatile than any chemical known to man when she's hungover, and I dont mean emotionally.

#request #fanfiction #terra formars #adolf reinhardt #shokichi Komachi #Michelle k davis #imagines

[horizonboundtrainer]

Most of Hoenn's people trace their ancestry from four different lineages:

1. The people of the land:

The original inhabitants of Hoenn who chose to settle by Mount Chimey and live off of its lush soil. Created the Regis and the Claydol line to acts as protectors / workers using techniques now lost. Also created a braille based alphabet system that still persists to this day. May and the Stones are the descendants of them, although May finds the very idea of identifying with them revolting.

This once included a nomadic group of desert dwellers who created the Mirage Tower around their primary water supply. They've all either died out or been folded into the other tribes living in the region.

2. The people of the sea: The second group to arrive in Hoenn after being led there by Kyogre. ( The price was, of course, paid in blood, for the leviathan is not a kind being. ) Split into two main lineages, one of which settled in Sootopolis and another who kept up their nomadic lifestyle.

Archie's descended from the latter and his people remember their oppression under first, the Draconids ( nobody likes pirates, especially not the people trying to bring some sense of order to the region ), then the Japanese government and now simply under the realities of global capitalism forcing many of them them to choose between working for corporations polluting their home and starvation. Their communities tend to be more insular than the rest of the region, with Dewford in particular being known as a place that adopts strange trends.

The Sootopolians have been much more successful at maintaining their presence in the region's politics, managing to keep the spiritual center of their people mostly independent from the League. They settled on top of the Cave of Origin and therefore control the region itself and no, I don't mean just on a religious and political level ( because both are 100% true ). Used to act as the region's kingmakers back when the Draconids were the ascendent power.

Note on the Cave of Origin: There's some weird shit down there that Wallace doesn't know about and May barely understands. If she were to go deep enough into the cave, eventually they'll reach a point where they should have breached the mantle but it just keeps going. The very walls are lined with raw mega stones, the only major source of them outside of Kalos. The Draconids had very good reasons for maintaining good relations with Wallace's ancestors.

The Alolans are a minority that consider themselves related to the other two. And they are right, given that they've historically intermarried with the others.

3. The people of the sky: Pretty much only the Draconids remain, and even then they're very different from their ancestors.

Arrived in the region 3,000 years ago. Found Rayqauza on death's door and nursed it back to health. Their relationship with Rayquaza itself is a much more complicated matter than even most Draconids realize with their pact having been broken ( often due to their hubris ) and remade numerous times over the eons. The current incarnation is bound to May alone and no, she isn't happy about it.

The modern Draconids are the descendants of their people's royalty who fled when their kingdom was torn down by hungry peasants. Their bloodline has preserved their ability to control dragon types with anything from their words to a simple thought depending on the skill of the individual. A few have been born with the ability to use Dragon type moves; these individuals are seen as having the blessing of Rayquaza and as such, are often chosen as candidates for the position of Lorekeeper. Have actual, bona fide, dragon blood but unlike what their legends claim, aren't descendants of Rayquaza itself as that's physically impossible. ( Let's just say that the pool noodle has neither the equipment, nor the urge to procreate and leave it at that )

Note: Keep in mind however, that the Lorekeeper was always female before the modern understanding of gender rendered such things outdated. Not necessarily biologically female but their views on gender wasn't the same as our own.

Zinnia wasn't born with powers. Her grandmother had them but the recessive genes skipped a generation. She was never their first choice before Aster died in a horrific accident, leaving her protégé behind. Poor Zin was never anyone's first choice :')

The people of the sky have descendants all across Sinnoh, Johto and the eastern coast of Asia but they don't usually consider themselves as such the same way the Draconids do.

4. The people of the sun: Those from Kanto and Johto. No, they don't have any connection with Solgaleo or Lunala, the term is a reference to Ho-Oh. They used to be referred to as the children of the sun and moon before Lugia fucked off into part unknown.

They've had contact with the region since it was first settled. The Draconid writing system had major Kantoan influences during its evolution. The Japanese Empire annexed Hoenn under the threat of military invasion, using it as a source of natural resources for decades before the Great War blew them apart. The idea of a united Hoenn take shape under their occupation when groups who used to despise each other found a common enemy in those forcefully conscripting their children into a war nobody wanted any part of. Modern relations with Kanto and Johto are more relaxed although there's still some older folks who will break your ribs with the blunt end of a harpoon if you call them Japanese.

Everyone thinks wine from Johto tastes off and they're right.

The idea of Hoenn as a single political entity is an idea less than a century and a half old. The current incarnation of the Evergrande League is what happens when everyone decides that unity in the face of modern problems is more important than their divisions. ( It's also the product of generations of reform. The original version run by Devon Corp was downright oppressive to towards the working class. )

#worldbuilding. #important headcanons. #headcanons.

[thedreadvampy]

Also like about your “don’t say you hate British people” post - whenever people say “British” I’m always a bit eh since it lumps Scotland and Wales fully in with England. And like yeah Scotland and Wales are not like innocent when it comes to the empire (and colonisation in general. Wales still has a colony of its own) but they were still basically just expendable soldiers to the english army. I mean the two countries were colonised by England, Wales being the first country to ever be colonised by England I think. Like they might have been more involved but that doesn’t stop them from being victims of England’s colonisation too. And like I know when people say Britain they usually just mean England but like,,, that’s not what we hear you know. Idk I’m not like trying to excuse bad actions but it’s just,,, there’s nuance that people outside the UK just don’t know because colonisation of the celtic countries isn’t much considered

Ehhhhhhh I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree, and I may get kicked out of Scotland for saying this, but honestly yes Scotland and Wales have been long-term colonised and their cultures actively and vindictively wiped out and yes I am a believer in the argument for Scottish independence but on the other hand I severely disagree with the idea that they have been “expendable foot soldiers” for England in the peak of empire. 

I want you to look at the wealth that came into Scotland through the Atlantic slave trade - look at Edinburgh New Town, and almost every historic building in Glasgow, of which there were many, and remember that the vast majority of wealth in Glasgow was built from profiteering on trading in human lives. The royal line which created the Empire was Scottish - the vast majority of colonial expansion took place under the Stuarts. So many majorly fucked military and political leaders have been born and educated in Scotland, from Gladstone to Haig to Blair, and that’s not to absolve England but one of the things that I find most objectionable about the tone of Scottish and Welsh nationalist discourse is the eagerness to push blame for imperial crimes as some uniquely English thing, as if the wealth of both countries hadn’t largely come from sea trade from the Empire, as if both countries weren’t also active, energetic participants in colonialism and racism - I spend a lot of time in lefty circles which obviously overlap a lot with scotnats and as I say I do believe in the future of an independent Scotland but I hate the idea that once Scotland throws off the shackles of Westminster it will hold no culpability for the ongoing legacy of colonialism, that Scotland and Wales don’t have a strong vested interest in continued imperialism, and that the work of Dealing With The Shadow Of Empire will be done. A country can be both historically colonised and fully and entirely complicit in the colonisation of others. Sorry bout it.

Sorry. I know you’re not trying to start something here and that you do recognise that Scotland and Wales outside the Union would not be some post-racial post-colonial wonderland. But. I’m not really reacting to you but to this consistent grating idea that independence is all it takes to make Scotland Not Colonisers.

Also I do have one other thought on the Union and that thought is: I grew up in the North East of England, in the highest area of rural deprivation in England and I think the second or third highest in the UK. I don’t feel that Durham is any more fairly represented in the Union than Dundee (and the North doesn’t have a devolved governance, despite facing many of the same policy mismatches with the reality of constituents’ lives as Scotland). The North, like Scotland or Wales, has been largely treated as disposable by the UK government, and the North, like Scotland and Wales, was substantially culturally separate from Southern England before being violently annexed and submitted to cultural and linguistic genocide (the Scouring of the North in 1067). Unlike Scotland, I don’t think there’s a strong argument for Northern independence, but I also don’t feel like Northern England is any more (or less) culpable for the ongoing colonial crimes of the United Kingdom than Scotland or Wales. Nor do I think London is. 

As I said in my post about Britishness as a whole - maybe the problem isn’t national borders or nationality but the actions and ideas of a) the ruling classes and b) the political system upheld through trying to atomise down which entire area/nation is to blame (oh, it’s the British, no, it’s the English, no, it’s the Southerners, no, it’s the Londoners) because until we get down to the level of ‘no, it’s Westminster, no, it’s the priorities of government, no, it’s an institutional unwillingness to apply critical thinking about our histories’ we are always lumping together those currently complicit in the system, those being shat on by it, those fighting against it and those actively profiting from it. What I don’t like about ‘it’s the British’ or ‘it’s the English’ or ‘it’s the Southerners’ isn’t just that it’s broad, it’s also externalising the problem. It isn’t a country! A country isn’t a real thing! It’s the people in the country, all of whom have different relationships to the history of imperialism and the present of colonialist exploitation which yes, are inevitably connected to our cultural and political surroundings and heritage but ugh, I’m not explaining this well. I just think that any attempt to say ‘the problem is inherent to [Britishness/Englishness/Londonness]’ both creates a blindness to the broader issue (see: why I take objection to people conflating colonialism and England while ignoring the crimes of France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Russia, the USA, Canada...) and sort of insists against a possibility for change from within. A lot of British people (including, and particularly, as you say, Scottish and Welsh and especially Northern Irish people, and I’m using the phrase British in the understanding that they probably shouldn’t be lumped in together but are, but also a lot of English people) are more harmed than helped by Britain’s continuing colonial legacy, and there is room for substantial grassroots resistance from the people being harmed. I think any citizen of the UK with any degree of historical and political consciousness must necessarily have a very complex relationship with Britishness, Englishness/Scottishness/Welshness, and the responsibility both for past crimes and future change.

it’s 1:30 AM I’m talking some crap and not expressing myself well. idk. I just think there’s a tension for me where I very strongly believe in independence but I also think framing British colonial history as purely the English forcing the Celtic nations into doing Bad Things is and unfortunately common and aggressively short-sighted issue which underpins a lot of people’s arguments for Scottish and Welsh nationalism and is simply not that easy. In 800 years of occupation for Wales and 300-400 years for Scotland (depending if you count from the Union of Crowns or the Acts of Union), with a Scottish royal line and a consistent if underrepresentative political and social presence in the Union, sorry, but Scotland can’t wash its hands of 300 years of active enthusiastic participation in the Empire any more than Yorkshire or Cornwall can. The boundaries are arbitrary, nations are invented, but history is real and present and so is the ongoing legacy of Empire in all countries of the Union (largely excepting Northern Ireland to my knowledge, but the very existence of Northern Ireland as a concept is a hangover of Empire)

#discourse thursday starting early this week we see

[citrinekay]

After Atlanta, Jim joins the Bureau. Holden and Jim get a lot closer. So close that Holden feels comfortable enough to confide things he's never told anyone else. Bill notices the close bond and feels out of sorts, wasn't HE Holden's partner? Bill jumps to the wrong conclusions. Things come to a head in a heated argument between Bill and Jim. Neither man sees Holden too consumed in their argument.

Who doesn’t love possessive, jealous Bill??? This was a fun, very clever prompt. Thanks for the ask! :)

When he and Nancy’s marriage started falling apart at the seams, Bill had spent a lot of time wishing for things to go back to the way they used to be. Before he was leaving every other day for road school - before he wanted to leave just to get away from the stifling silences. Before the difficulty of raising a child with special needs leveraged undue pressure on their relationship. Before she started drifting away from him, out of his reach. 

But everything changes in way one or another, and life is all about accepting those changes. He’s tried to teach himself that truth over and over. 

Over the next several months after Atlanta, Ted oversees the expansion of the unit. All too soon, Bill’s sequestered spot in the annex is overtaken by rookies and interns, a plethora of resources at their fingertips to aid in the fresh influx of investigations. 

Along with the new transcribers and equipment added to their arsenal is Jim Barney. Ted had been impressed with his role in the Atlanta case and the Hance and Piece interviews. A few pulled strings, and he’s a part of the team just like he should have been back when Gregg was hired. 

Bill should have been grateful for the extra help from someone who already has an idea what they’re doing. Ted’s plan to fast-track the study demands that they increase the speed of the interviews, and for that, they need team members who are willing and able. 

Instead, as he watches Holden and Jim’s professional relationship grow to one of mutual admiration and respect while he and Holden’s withers, he finds himself longing for the good old days again. Back when he and Holden were alive with the spark of this idea. Back when they were on the road together, alone, nothing but the radio and each other for company. Back when they talked to each other - not necessarily about matters of the heart, but about things that counted, and with unabashed honesty that was reserved for themselves and not anyone else. 

Maybe he’s just making the same goddamn mistakes over and over again. He thinks one night as he watches Jim and Holden leave together to get drinks after work. 

Part of him is screaming that he should confront Holden. He and Jim have gone on the last three interviews together. Was it so long ago that Bill was his partner? Was it so long ago that they spoke to each other outside of group discussion on interviews? He thinks about it long and hard every few days only to realize how childish it sounds. Holden can be friends with whoever he wants. 

Early one Monday morning, Bill enters the BSU to see Jim leaning against Holden’s desk. He nods when Bill approaches. 

“Morning, Bill.”

“Morning, Jim.”

Holden glances up from the dossier on his desk. “Hey, Bill. We’re all meeting in the conference room in fifteen.” 

“Okay.” Bill says. 

He knocks on Wendy’s door, and pokes his head in. “Good morning. Are we looking at the interviews out in San Quentin?” 

“Yes.” She says, looking up from her notebook. “Have you looked them over?”

“Some. I’ve had a busy weekend.” Bill says, “It was my weekend with Brian.” 

“Not a problem. I’m sure Holden and Jim are up to date.”

Bill clenches his jaw. “We’ve got a few days. I’ll get there.”

She gives him a terse nod, and a smile. 

Muttering a curse under his breath, Bill goes over into the annex to retrieve the dossiers from his desk. They have two interviews scheduled back to back in California, a trip worthy of dedicated research that he simply hadn’t found the time for this weekend. 

Once they’re assembled in the conference room, Wendy starts going over the details. 

Bill anxiously lights a cigarette while Jim and Holden offer their opinion on preliminary profiles of the two men. 

“I think Jim and I can handle this one.” Holden says, “Bill can hold down the fort here in Quantico for a few days. Right, Bill?”

Bill casts Holden a sharp glance through the cloud of smoke pouring from his mouth. The taste of nicotine sours in the back of his throat as their gazes connect, a silent tension elongating between them like an overstretched rubber band. 

Bill clears his throat, “I thought Jim had that consult for Galveston.” 

“I do.” Jim says, “I can handle both.”

“It’s okay. You shouldn’t have to when my desk is clear.” Bill says. 

Silence settles across the conference room for a moment, and Bill hears Wendy draw in a stiff breath. 

“Jim has done the research.” Holden says, finally. 

“So have I.”

“Bill, it’s okay, really.” Jim says, his tone placating in a way that makes Bill’s teeth grind. “We understand that you have a lot going on right now with Brian-”

“Don’t bring my kid into this.” Bill interrupts, heat flaring hot in his chest before he can stop it. “He has nothing to do with this.”

“All due respect, but I think it does.”

“All due respect?” Bill echoes, acid seething into every word. “Let’s keep this professional, Jim. We’re talking about work, not family. And I’ve done the fucking research.”

“Bill, I think-” Wendy begins, her tone rushed as tension swells into the conference room, sapping oxygen from the air. 

“Wendy, it’s okay.” Jim says, holding up a hand. “Bill, I’m sorry if I hit a nerve. I was simply trying to say that-”

“No, I get what you’re trying to say.” Bill says, tossing the folder onto the table, and rising from his chair. “And I’m not distracted or unfit for this job anymore because of what’s going on with Brian. I am still as committed to our work as when Holden and I founded this department.”

“Well, that’s somewhat juvenile, don’t you think?” Jim asks, his cool tone wavering as frustration seeps into his expression. “I have put a lot of effort into getting this position, Bill. More than you or Holden will ever have to experience.”

“Jesus Christ.” Bill says, “Now this is about race?”

“Bill.” Wendy says, sternly. “I think this discussion has gone far enough.”

“Far enough? How about too far?” Jim says, casting Bill a hurt glare. 

Bill glances away, feeling a pang of regret. 

“I think it’s best if this decision is made by an unbiased third party.” Wendy says, “Myself. And I think it would be best if Jim and Holden took this one.”

“You’re shitting me right?” Bill asks, swinging a glare in her direction, “Holden and I have been doing this shit since the very beginning. These are important interviews. You don’t think that I - a senior member of this department - should be a part of this level of classification?”

“Yes. And you can be part of the discussion.” Wendy says, “When Jim and Holden get back.”

Bill turns to cast Holden glance, to see if at least one person is on his side in this disagreement. But Holden is already getting up out of his chair, and marching out of the conference room. The door swings shut behind him, rattling the length of windows that encompass the room. 

Silence blankets the room as a suffocating layer of tension builds in his absence. 

“Great.” Bill says, getting up to follow him. “Then I guess it’s settled.” 

~

That evening, Bill lingers at his desk, smoking a cigarette and skimming through the San Quentin interview files. If he hadn’t digested them before, he’s gorged on them now, stubbornly trying to prove a point to himself if not everyone else. 

I’m not licking my wounds. He thinks, taking a hard drag of his cigarette. Just doing my job. 

The annex is vacant except for him as he gets up from his desk for another cup of coffee. As he pours out the last dregs the interns had left behind, the door creaks open, casting yellow light from the hall across the shadowed bullpen. 

Bill turns to see Holden slipping inside, his hands tucked in his pockets. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Bill asks, managing an amiable tone. 

“I wanted to talk to you.” Holden says, his voice carrying in a tentative whisper across the room. 

Bill draws in a deep breath. Ripping open a sugar packet, he asks, “About what?”

“You know.” Holden says, “Earlier, in the conference room.”

Bill tosses the empty packet in the trash, and focuses on stirring the sugar into the lukewarm cup of coffee. 

“So, you’re here to lecture me.”

“No.”

“Good.”

“I just think you should apologize to Jim.” Holden says, making his way past empty desks to join Bill by the coffee stand. 

Bill takes a sip of the coffee, wincing at the stale flavor. “That’s what you think, hm?”

“Yes.” Holden says, “This isn’t about him.”

Bill stares into the black depths of the coffee, trying to ignore the heat curling up his throat as Holden’s gaze lands heavily on his temple. 

Holden sighs, and turns to lean his hips against the table. “It’s about me.”

“You?” Bill scoffs. 

“I have to admit, I didn’t think you were the jealous type.”

“Jealous. Now you’ve really got it wrong.”

The words have no more left his mouth than Bill looks up to see Holden gazing at him calmly, eviscerating honesty resting in the deep blue of his eyes. He glances away, fighting back the frustration rising in his chest. 

“Bill, the truth is, Jim and I have gotten to be close friends these last few months because I didn’t think we were anymore - not after Atlanta.”

“What?” Bill whispers, his throat thickening. 

“Look at you-” Holden says, motioning around the bullpen, “You’re over here in the annex by yourself, and have been since we got back from Vacaville. You didn’t tell me a thing about Brian until I forced you to. You shut me out.”

Bill lets out a feeble laugh, and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Fuck. Holden, I … I don’t know what to say. I never meant to- … for us to-”

“To not be friends anymore?” Holden whispers. 

Bill’s eyes creep open to see Holden staring at the floor, his arms folded defensively over his chest. 

“Is that what you think?” Bill asks. 

“I don’t know. It’s how I feel.” 

Bill swallows hard against the lump forming in the back of his throat. “That isn’t what I want.”

Holden lifts his chin to meet Bill’s gaze, his mouth twitching with a faint smile. “You want to get out of here? Get a drink?”

Bill lets out a relieved laugh. “Yeah, I do.”

Holden shoves away from the table, nodding eagerly towards the door. 

Discarding the cold coffee, Bill grabs his wallet and keys from his office, and follows Holden out of the annex. The hallway echoes with their footfalls as they walk in stride down toward the elevator. 

“I still think Jim and I should take San Quentin.” Holden says, softly. 

Bill feels the frustration in his chest melt away as they step onto the elevator. He casts Holden an affable smile. “That’s more than fair.”

#bill x holden #mindhunter #my writing #Anonymous