#they tried to ruin my reputation for a little bit of attempted murder!!!!!

[yotsuba-to-fuck-this]

Watching wild wild country rn and Sheela... She’s fucking insane and everything that comes out of her mouth FLOORS ME 

#Ma Anand Sheela #wild wild country #with the crown comes the guillotine #calling fucking Oregon paradise #they should've given us the nobel prize #they tried to ruin my reputation for a little bit of attempted murder!!!!! #but also #... #that's just my mother #looks at something impossible to do and go yeah we'll do it #obsessed with work #talks about the guru like he's her son who got into medical school #this documentary is COMEDY GOLD #i am so fucking entertained

[phoenixyfriend]

Rey Gives No F*cks About the Grandfather Paradox

Okay so since nobody’s suggested a fic under these terms, I ended up expanding on this post on discord and things snowballed. We kept to the basics of the entire plot revolving around Rey really hating her grandad and leveraging her blood relation to not be unalived about it.

With contributions by @atagotiak​, @dracothulhu​, @thepallaspalace​, and several others. The title comes from @gelpenss​.

The basic thing I absolutely need is this: Rey gets thrown back to the middle of the clone wars, and the subsequent plot leans in really heavily on her being, genetically-via-clone-dad, the daughter of the guy running the entire galaxy.

Nobody knows what to do with her.

The timing is mid-TCW for the past (because I want Ahsoka there) and vaguely between Episodes 8 and 9 because I... never watched E9 and don’t want to worry about the timeline. The only things that matter is that Luke is dead (he can die as he did in canon) and that Rey knows she’s Palp’s granddaughter (not the way she does in canon).

We'll say Luke found out from Anakin's panicked force-ghost and just went "well, fuck, okay, I should tell her this before she ends up in a situation like mine and finds out mid-battle or something."

Luke, prior to time-travel: Okay, so, now that I'm dead I know some things I didn't before. Like who your parents were. In the interest of full disclosure because I was in a very similar situation and I don't want you learning the way I did, I'm just going to come right out and say that your father was a clone was Sheev Palpatine. Rey: ... Luke: Are you okay? Rey: I don't know who that is.

(She grew up on Jakku, the history education was a little subpar.)

Setting The Scene

Imagine Rey showing up during or immediately before the clone wars. There’s this phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater who tells you that if you ran a paternity test, it would probably pop up the Chancellor. She may or may not bring up cloning. She accuses said Chancellor of being a Sith Lord.

Your other phenomenally powerful feral teenager from a desert backwater, who may not be a teenager anymore but only barely, is very offended by this because Palpatine’s a Very Nice Old Grandfather Figure, but also he’s a little full of side-eye because if the blood test comes back as proof, then Palpatine had a kid and didn’t even know about them, or lied to Anakin, and that’s! Bad! Family’s important!!!

Palpatine hears about this daughter he apparently? Has? And is very confused because the timing doesn’t match up with ANYTHING he was doing, so the kid isn’t natural, and he says as much. (There is an explanation! It’s not a correct explanation, but he does come up with one.)

Finn and Poe and BB-8 all get dragged along because why not have the gang there? Nobody that’s already born, because [handwave] conservation of souls or something, IDK, point is the only person dragged along that’s even remotely close to already existing is Luke’s Force Ghost, who mostly hangs around begging Rey to be less impulsive. Finn is good because he is a nice polite boy, but for actual useful information they need Poe. The unfortunate situation is that the three do not land together. They land at the same time, in completely different corners of the galaxy. This means that nobody is there to curb Rey being her most impulsive self.

Time travel Rey knows two things. Luke’s dad ends up evil. Palpatine has always been evil.

She can solve one of these problems by killing the other, yes?

Rey: Ready to Rumble

See, the initial idea was this: Rey tried to break into the senate to kill Palpatine, got arrested, and then used the "he's biologically my father" card to get out of jail free. (Force Ghost Luke follows her like “please take five seconds to think this through.”)

But.

But.

It would be very, very, very funny if The Force just dumps her in a flash of light in the senate building and she just attacks Gramps on sight. Just a shouted "YOU!" and no-hesitation attempted murder.

Palpatine has no idea what's going on.

Rey took maybe two seconds to get identity confirmation and then started swinging.

[Image Description: An individual in a green metal helmet with an eye slit, holding a pistol. In the upper left, upper right, and lower middle are the phrases “I do not know who I am...” “I don’t know why I’m here” and “All I know is that I must kill.” End description.]

Of course, she gets arrested. There are Master Jedi in the Senate. There are Clone Troopers. Palpatine isn’t the weak old man he pretends to be. Of course she’s stopped.

But she isn’t executed in time for Palpatine to stop her from ruining his entire reputation.

Immediately after Rey fails to kill her Shitty Granddad, Luke's ghost shows up and begs her to not talk about the Sith thing because it will completely undermine everything she's trying to do. Pass off the attempted murder as something else!

Rey, panicking: "that fucker left me on a desert planet for 10 years!" "You owe me 19 years of child support you son of a Hutt!"

The Jedi have to do the investigation, because the girl showed up with a laser sword, and the conversation is, uh... interesting. (“Where did you get that lightsaber?” “I got it from a mysterious old pirate lady I never met before. I don't know, I was being shown around by a smuggler and a Wookie.”)

Interviewer: Why did you try to assassinate the Chancellor? Luke: Say it wasn't assassination. Rey: It wasn't assassination. Int: You weren't trying to kill him? Luke: Assassination has to be politically motivated. Rey: This was, um... not political. Assassination is political, right? Int: You mean this was personally motivated? Rey: Yes. Int: I see. What personal motivation? Luke: Jakku! Rey: He's my grandfather. Int: ... Rey: Possibly father. Nobody was very clear on that. Int: ... Luke: Tell them to run a paternity test. Rey: Oh hey, a blood test would tell us which, right? Int: ............ Rey: I spent ten years as an orphaned scrapdealer on Jakku. He's my father. I'm kind of a little angry. Int: ........... Luke: Good job, kid. You bought yourself some time. Int: I'm going to get a medic to see about that parternity test.

Obviously, it comes back positive. Congratulations, Sheev, you’re the father.

Rey comes with a ready-made built-in excuse for hating Palpatine that nobody can question or fault her for!

Rey, pouring Truth into the Force: I didn't even know I was related to the Chancellor until a few months ago, but it's his fault I grew up the way I did, and he should take some responsibility!

The entire thing is mostly kept hush hush but someone leaks it to the press and Palpatine's ratings tank.

"Chancellor, I think we'll need to waive family visitation until she wants you a little less dead." "I would like to find out why she wants me dead, and indeed, where she came from." "...sir, for your own safety--"

Who would win? A master plan years in the making spanning decades of manipulating and work? or One (1) paternity test

"Okay, so, Rey Palpat--" "Ew, no, I don't want his name." "You--okay. Sure, we can understand that. Is there a name you would prefer to put on the paperwork?" Rey, who would have gone by Skywalker in honor of Luke but can't do that when Anakin is right there and all: "Can I think about it?"

Rey: I don't know what I want my last name to be but I know I don't want his, and most of the people I’d want a name from have famous families like you... Luke's ghost, pointing out the Literal Nobody that she cares about a lot: How about Solo? Rey: ...Solo, then.

(A few months later she runs into Poe again and he offers for Finn and Rey to both take his name because honestly they need SOMETHING but at that point she’s already decided on Smuggler Dad.)

Backtrack a bit. We’ve got a bigger cast.

They all arrive separately. Poe, for one, does better than Rey, who is aiming for a murder, but not quite as well as Finn, who is currently being adopted and hidden like a secret cat by a bunch of Alpha Clones on Kamino. He vibes with the names-or-numbers thing. He doesn’t necessarily tell them where and when he’s from, but he’s very sweet and a great liar and they adopt him wholesale anyway.

The Finn situation is just... "Buir Ti, we need you to hide this man, we've decided he's our little brother but if Nala Se finds out she'll make him leave."

Of course, this leads into Shaak Ti teaching Finn how to Jedi.

Maybe consider Finn needing to almost be tricked into learning Jedi things because he willfully forgets it could apply to him. Finn does not like to think of himself as special, which is super valid, but frustrating for Shaak Ti when it comes to, you know, getting him to acquire knowledge. Finn's training at some point is "here, levitate objects with the Force to entertain the tubies." It’s a lot easier to convince him to practice when it involves the babies.

(Everyone on Kamino looked at Finn and went “oh I love him I’m keeping him and teaching him things.”)

(He’s just very lovable.)

Poe, meanwhile, buys the trust of Anakin Skywalker via R2D2 declaring BB-8 the absolute most baby of droids. R2D2 met BB-8 three hours ago but.

"Hey Obi-Wan this is Poe I met him like five days ago but R2D2 says he checks out because his droid is a baby." "That's nice, Anakin, did you know the Chancellor has a daughter who tried to assassinate him in broad daylight yesterday? Because guess who had to stop the Chancellor from getting assassinated by his daughter in broad daylight yesterday."

A summary so far:

Finn, on Kamino: Hey, um, I don't know where this is, but it's not where I was a few minutes ago. Do you think you could get me a comm? What's your name? Poe, on [dice roll] Denon: Oh, hey, you're General Skywalker? Nice to meet you, I'm so sorry about my droid, she's a little excitable and thought your R2 unit looked like a friend of hers-- Rey, on Coruscant: DIE, GRANDFATHER

Finn: [Peacefully vibing on Kamino, unaware of the chaos and bonding with the clones] Poe: [Trying to explain how he knows someone who tried to kill the chancellor and defend Rey] Rey: [Arrested for trying to kill the chancellor]

Just... just...

Anakin: Some guy ended up lost on base yesterday with his droid, how’s your day going? Obi-Wan: I had to stop someone who claims to be the chancellors daughter from murdering the chancellor after she seemingly blinked into existence in the Senate building. Poe: 😐

(Poe: Oh, so that's where Chaos^2 went.)

Poe: In her defense, she is his... well we don't know if she's his daughter or granddaughter, but she's definitely related to him, and she definitely grew up in a shitty situation that was his fault, so...

(Poe is trying very hard to explain this and not get arrested on the military base.)

As you’ve probably guessed, what's especially funny about all of this for me is the fact that Palpatine is fully aware that this girl shouldn't exist, but can't find a single piece of evidence about where she came from. He didn't start any experiments that could result in a female child, and he didn't have sex in that period of time, so where the hell--

Rey spends so much time in jail... BUT they do eventually assign her a Jedi Master. Possibly before she actually proves her evil grandfather is in fact evil. Most votes went to either Plo Koon or Obi-Wan. Plo, because he’s dad-shaped, and Obi...

"Obi-Wan, you already raised one feral desert child with implausible amounts of power, you handle this." Rey in return is very "Sweet, you vaguely remind me of Master Luke," and nobody knows who the hell she's talking about. Obi-Wan is NOT on board with this plan, she'd really be better off with Plo or like........ Mace.

Reunion Tour

What I need out of this is the eventual Finn and Rey reunion scene that is just excited screaming while someone in the background explains to Shaak Ti that yes this is apparently Palpatine's terrifyingly force-sensitive daughter who hates him.

(Finn senses Rey’s approach and just. Gathers the everyone to wait. He’s just :D REY MY FRIEND REY GUYS MY FRIEND REY IS COMING.)

Anakin shows up with Poe--just a guy who signed on to the military, no big deal--and then Poe and Rey are EXCITED and everyone's just like "Cool, how do you know this literal terrorist child?" And Poe has to scramble and "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh she saved my droid from a scrapheap once and BB-8 is basically my child so I owe her one."

Rey knows that Anakin ends up evil so she’s maybe not actively hostile but definitely very “I’m watching you.” That said, she vibes with him on a lot of things that he maybe doesn’t actively notice.

Rey picks up a snake, snaps off the head for venom avoidance, and starts biting off chunks. Obi-Wan's reaction: [undisguised horror] Anakin and Ahsoka: Ooh, where'd you find that? (Obi-Wan: And now I’m up to three feral children.)

What Does Palpatine Even Do?

OBVIOUSLY at a certain point, Palpatine is just phoning up every ally he has to figure out who broke protocol to synthesize a daughter for him.

So of course, Palpatine blame Plagueis.

She'd have been born five or so years before Naboo, just a few years younger than Anakin. It's such an EASY theory to build a conspiracy around. It is ENTIRELY WRONG, but it’s plausible! And anyone who might have been involved to say otherwise is probably dead!

A random bio-kid shows up you can’t possibly have contributed genes to? Maybe it’s the evil bio spark that did it.

Palpatine tries to placate her with the ‘my genes were stolen for an experiment and I didn’t know’ thing. It doesn’t work because her actual main complaint is he’s evil in her future but he tries.

It'd be a struggle to even get access to her, because of the aforementioned “maybe don’t try to talk to the daughter(?) that hates you” thing, but you know who Palpatine does have access to? The Chosen One.

Rey kind of decides on her favorites early on (she gravitates to Dad Energy and Sad Old Men so Plo and Obi-Wan are on her list, and that means decent time around Anakin and Ahsoka). It's really easy to talk Anakin into helping to some degree because "he'd like to connect to a daughter he never knew" and "a child of her power on a planet like that, you'd know her struggle, my dear boy" and so on. Anakin tries to connect! He tries to play up Sheev’s kind political work and how it can’t have really been his fault! It doesn’t work. Rey does not believe a word of it. Mostly she doesn’t even seem to hear him.

Rey's just like "...oh right, you're the melted mask that Kylo Ren was always ranting about," which means absolutely NOTHING to Anakin, but he mentions it to Palps, who loses his goddamn mind trying to figure out what she's talking about, because it also means absolutely nothing to him.

Here’s the thing: Rey’s already decided that Obi-Wan is cool, because Luke said so, and Plo Koon is dad-shaped, and she also gravitates towards earnest kindness in general, like she made friends with Finn real quick, so Ahsoka? Already getting along great.

She doesn’t dislike Anakin, really, he isn’t evil yet, he’s just... meh. She’s a little suspicious and she likes him less than the others but... Anakin.

Rey, to Anakin: You are my least favorite. Anakin, to Palpatine: YOUR DAUGHTER HATES ME???

And he goes from “she’s a lil standoffish” to “she doesn’t like me” to “she hates me” as is normal for Anakin.

It’s just an escalation of this one time Palpatine wants Anakin to not have rifts and trust issues with a person, at least not until later, because he needs information.

Meanwhile, that very moment, Rey is just like "huh, nobody here is listening to me about how make a sixth-hand carburetor work, where's Luke's dad?"

Anakin is venting to Palpatine about how hard it is to talk to Rey, and she's over in the Temple just like "Hey, that guy was useful last time, I should ask him," but also she only ever thinks of him as Luke's Dad.

(At one point, Obi-Wan is having a bit of a break down, and then Anakin starts having a breakdown about that, meanwhile the clones are (badly) trying to hide Finn behind their backs, Rey is watching Ahsoka practice and being like "I want two lightsabers," and Poe is trying to keep R2 from stealing BB-8 and Force Ghost Luke is just face palming in the background.)

(Rey deserved a saber staff, maybe one that can detach and turn into a jar’kai set. Possibly a pike. Mostly I just wish she got more chances to whack things with a big stick.)

#Rey #Finn #Poe Dameron #Sheev Palpatine #Luke Skywalker #Anakin Skywalker #Obi Wan Kenobi #Darth Sidious #Plo Koon #Shaak Ti #Ahsoka Tano #r2d2 #bb 8 #star wars #time travel #Rey and the Grandfather Paradox #Phoenix Posts

[minor-solemnity]

hi i love your work and am excited for your series. i was wondering if you can do a one shot where the reader comforts tom and let’s him fall asleep on her while she plays with her hair 😩 soft tom 😈

Yesssss! Soft Tom - I cannot resist! This may have gotten away from me a bit so I hope you enjoy 2.6k of fluffy comfort!

Tag List: @jinxqsu @naps-and-lemons @riddles-wifey @mainlynonsense @cakesarecute @crumpets-are-better-with-jam

What Equates to Worship

The door to your bedroom is open and you roll your eyes when you peer inside and find the source of your broken wards slumped in the armchair next to your bed. Tom’s best robes are in a heap at the foot of the bed, his smartest brogues are kicked into the furthest corner of the room, his hair - usually so neat - is disarray. He looks like the world’s most harangued man. “Good evening, my love,” You murmur as you make your way over to his side, kneeling on the floor so that you can take hold of his hands which are resting loosely in his lap. “You broke my wards again.”

It’s late when you get home. There is a Very Important Case being tried in the Wizengamot and your boss, Gerald Montague, is running you ragged in an attempt to get the edge on the prosecution. It’s a nasty case, the defendant, Mr Vickers, is on trial for the kidnapping and murders of five women. His chances aren’t looking good - there is enough physical evidence to bury him and his alibi is flimsy at best. In private, both you and Montague are convinced of his guilt but that doesn’t matter when it’s your job to convince the Wizengamot and a jury of his innocence. Needless to say, it’s not been an easy couple of weeks.

Your shoes click against the uneven cobblestones as you make your way down the narrow road to your flat situated just off the main drag of Knockturn Alley. It’s not the best part of town, but the flat itself is double the size of what you would be able to afford if you lived somewhere more reputable. Besides, it’s not as though you’ve ever been scared by the less savoury parts of humanity and society - you’d be awful at your job if that were the case. You throw a couple of sickles to the hag that operates outside your building, and she promises you glory in the afterlife in thanks. “If you could promise me glory when I’m alive, I think I’d find that more useful,” You say as you fumble with your keys.

She laughs, “That will cost you more than a few sickles, love, try again tomorrow.” You chuckle and shrug a shoulder. It was worth try at least. The gas lamps that lead the way up the winding stairs to your attic flat are already lit, casting a dim, flicking light across the stairwell. You frown slightly as you make your way up the stairs; no one usually lights the lamps, leaving it up to you to light them when you return from the Ministry every day. Your curiosity is further piqued when you reach your front door and find it glowing a dim red, indicating that someone has broken through the wards. You have an idea of who it is, but you take your wand out just in case you’re mistaken. You have a few files from the Very Important Case hidden in the depths of your bedroom, which in the wrong hands, would be disastrous for you and Montague.

The inside of your flat is dark and cold and looks just as you’d left it this morning. With a sigh, you flick your wand at the fire and smile as flames begin to flicker and burn. Your flat is relatively spacious, but the fireplace is enchanted to spread the warmth further than a normal fire would and with any luck you’ll be toasty and warm within a few minutes. You shrug out of your travelling robes and kick off your heels, rubbing your aching feet with relish. Next on your list of things to do is figure out who has broken into your flat and if it's something you should be concerned about.

You pad through the flat, your stockinged feet making no noise against the polished wooden floorboards. The door to your bedroom is open and you roll your eyes when you peer inside and find the source of your broken wards slumped in the armchair next to your bed. Tom’s best robes are in a heap at the foot of the bed, his smartest brogues are kicked into the furthest corner of the room, his hair - usually so neat - is in disarray. He looks like the world’s most harangued man. “Good evening, my love,” You murmur as you make your way over to his side, kneeling on the floor so that you can take hold of his hands which are resting loosely in his lap. “You broke my wards again.”

He makes a small sound in the back of his throat which is honestly pitiful and you are struck by a burning desire to make whoever put him in such a state pay for their crimes. Tom should never look so downtrodden - it doesn’t suit him in the slightest. You rub soft circles against his palms, smoothing the tension out of his fingers with careful strokes as the quiet of your flat weaves a gentle spell of calm and soothing around the two of you. “Is it a good evening?” He mutters and when you look up at his face, you can see the hard lines of annoyance and defeat marring his forehead.

“Hmm, don’t frown, darling - you’ll ruin your pretty face.” This at least gets a small hum of amusement out of him which you count as a win. Heaven knows that when Tom gets in these moods it can take a lot more than gentle touches and murmured sweet-nothings to get him to smile. You rise from your position and move behind the armchair, resting your cheek on the crown on his head and your hands on his shoulders to kneed at his knotted muscles. “I assume that you didn’t get the job?”

You’ve been so busy with your own work that you’d forgotten that Tom’s interview with Dumbledore was today. If you had remembered you would have taken the day off because even the most optimistic person would have known there was a fool’s chance of Tom getting the Defence job. Despite everything though, Tom is an optimist. You would never have guessed it when you first got to know him, but underneath his taciturn facade is a terribly hopeful young man who still believes that things will turn out in his favour. His idealism is part of what you love about him if you’re being honest with yourself. It’s a good contrast to your cynical realism.

It’s ridiculous, of course. Tom, despite his young age, is the most qualified person you can think of for the position. He knows more about Defensive magic than anyone save for maybe Dumbledore himself, and beyond that, he has the right temperament for it. It comes as a surprise to most people who meet him that Tom would be a good teacher, but he really is. His love of Hogwarts, defensive magic, and his desire to impart that knowledge all adds up to someone who sees struggling students and wants them to succeed. If it had been anyone other than Dumbledore, he would have been a shoo-in for the role.

“You assume correctly.” His voice is still tight and muted with resigned anger, but he begins to loosen under your hands, his head lolling to the side and coming to rest against your forearm.

“Did he give you a reason why?”

Tom sighs and the sound is world-weary and destitute. At that moment, your hatred for Dumbledore intensifies. “He never intended on giving me a chance. He invited me in and lectured me about dark magic. He essentially said that as long as he was Headmaster I would not be welcome in the castle.” The worst thing is that Tom sounds so forlorn. Unlike you, who had decided after a year at Hogwarts that the only thing you wanted to do was leave, Tom’s fondness for the school is unparalleled. “Knowing him, that won’t be for another hundred years or so.”

“I’m so sorry, Tom,” You say, dropping a kiss into the dark curls of his hair. “He’s an old coot. Still so struck by the mythology of his own genius that he can’t see past his own prejudices.” He hums lowly in response and eventually, you feel him start to relax. It’s gratifying to know that it’s you over anyone else, that he comes to when he needs support. You know his friends and followers would do anything to gain his favour, but at the end of the day, he doesn’t seek them out. No, he doesn’t trust them to see him like this, to see him in his more human moments of vulnerability. He trusts you to understand him and comfort him. That in itself is a gift.

“Now, come on. We can worry about Dumbledore later, but right now, let me find us something to eat.” Food, in your opinion, can go a long way to right a lot of wrongs and you have a sneaking suspicion that Tom probably hasn’t eaten all day. He’s annoying like that, too wrapped up in his own thoughts to care about silly little things like eating and taking care of oneself. You can’t help but chuckle softly as he mumbles something under his breath and reaches for your hands to hold you in place. “Later, my love. I promise,” You say and disentangles yourself from his grasp.

Tom follows you out of the bedroom and watches you with a look of exasperated amusement as you search your kitchen. Your cupboards are sinfully bare when you go to inspect them, the rush of the last two weeks has meant that you’ve neglected a lot of your more basic chores. “And you accuse me of neglecting my needs. You hardly set a good example, my dear.” He murmurs from where he’s lounging against the stove. You roll your eyes as you shove your feet back into your heels and head for the door.

“Veeraswamy?” You ask and have to hide your smile when Tom’s eyes light up. It’s not often that the two of you treat yourselves to restaurant-quality food as neither of your jobs’ salaries really allow the indulgence, however, tonight, you think an exception is called for. “Feel free to look over the files I brought home - maybe you’ll notice something I missed.” You don’t even finish your sentence before Tom is digging through your work bag and pulling out the offending files. Typical, you think fondly. Tom is as curious as a cat and one of the easiest ways of making him feel better about anything is to introduce him to a puzzle.

Fifteen minutes later you apparate home with a brown paper bag of Veeraswamy’s finest selection of curries and sweet treats. As a rule, they’re dine-in only, as many of the restaurants in muggle London are, however, you’re not above a confundus charm to get what you want and you always make sure to tip splendidly to offset any guilt you feel for taking advantage. When you get in, Tom has the case files splayed out on the small kitchen table and you spare yourself a moment to admire the elegant curve of his neck and the way his curls fall in graceful arcs across his brow. Without looking up, he makes a space for you to drop the bag of goodies on the table and you collect plates and the bottle of wine that is the only thing you already had in your flat.

You discuss the Very Important Case over dinner and he indulges in your complaints about Montague’s refusal to even consider your line of defence. “Vickers says that he went to a Seer and was told that these women would die by his hand. I want to make the case that he can’t be fully held accountable for the murders if it’s already foretold.” Never mind that that isn’t how prophecies or fortune work, no one in the Wizengamot understands the intricacies of Divination well enough to know that just because something is said, doesn’t mean it will come to pass. “Montague is convinced that we can prove his innocence without resorting to asking for lesser charges.”

“And he’ll lose the case because of it.” He hums, sets his fork down and reaches for your hand, his long fingers looping around your wrist. “Have you considered the fact that Vickers may have been compromised? The file says that when he was found, Vickers was abnormally placid and made no attempts to hide the evidence that would have been easily disposed of? Maybe hire a mind-healer and see if he’s been the victim of an imperius curse,” He says nonchalantly as though he hasn’t just dropped the biggest break in the case in your lap.

“Tom. Tom, you are a genius. How did you even begin to come to that conclusion?” He must hear the wonder in your voice because a small, self-satisfied smile curves his upper lip and he leans over the table to press a chaste kiss to the corner of your lips.

“These things are obvious if you know what you’re looking for.” The knowing in his voice hints at something darker and your eyes narrow slightly. Tom’s proclivity for the dark arts is no secret, neither is his cunning and ruthlessness. You don’t ask and he doesn’t tell, but you suppose it’s probably a good thing that you’re training to become a defence lawyer. Maybe one day he’ll need one.

Tonight is not the night for those kinds of thoughts though. You doubt any night will be - if ever there comes a day when you have to reckon with Tom’s less savoury pursuits, you already know where your allegiances lie. With a soft hum of acknowledgement, you stand and lead him to the bedroom. “Enough maudlin talk for tonight, I think,” You say as you settle against the headboard and motion for him to join you. “You must be tired after today.”

Even though he tries to hide it, you can see that the day has worn on him. Shadows form like ink stains underneath his eyes, and he holds himself with a kind of forlorn regret that fills you with a feeling of sympathetic sorrow. He crawls up the bed and raises an eyebrow when you don’t move to make room for him. Instead, you simply lift an arm and smile, sleepiness and tenderness mingling into something soft in your eyes. After a few second of internal debate where Tom looks from you to the spot you’ve made for him, he gingerly lowers himself against you, his head resting in the hollow where your shoulder meets your neck. He lies unnaturally still and tense in the way a feral kitten might react to the kindness of a stranger.

Honestly, it’s more than a little heartbreaking. Slowly - carefully - you rest one hand over his heart and begin to card your other through his hair. You’re not entirely sure how he manages it - you’ve never seen a haircare potion in his vicinity - but Tom has the softest hair of anyone you’ve met. It’s dreadfully unfair, really. You rub gentle circles against his scalp and smile softly in the dim light as you feel him relax against you, the long hard lines of his body soften as you continue your gentle ministrations. Gradually, you sense him ease into a contented state as he seeks clemency from the day in your touch.

That you can do this for him, that you can be this for him is not something you would have ever thought possible. You remember vividly the uptight rigidity with which he had held himself throughout your time at school. The fervent dedication he had channelled to reach the top of the pecking order, never allowing himself a moment of softness or reprieve. You’re certain that if he’s not careful he will burn himself out before he’s had a chance to truly shine, and you know just how brightly he could if given the chance.

You brush his hair from his eyes and lazily draw abstract patterns against his chest, feeling the way his breathing deepens as sleep overtakes him. In this moment of calm, sleepy repose, you feel your heart expand with all love and care you think you might ever feel, and you brush a soft kiss to the crown of his head, revelling in the almost breathy sigh that escapes him. “You’re far too good to me,” He mumbles, half asleep and entirely too sincere.

“Agree to disagree, my love. I am exactly as good to you as you deserve.” He chuckles at this, nestling deeper into your side and flinging an arm across your waist. “Now, sleep - we have so much time for everything else.”

AN: Also before anyone accuses me of anachronisms, Veeraswamy is London’s oldest Indian restaurant. It was opened in 1926 and I’ve been there once before - the food was so so so good and it was disgustingly expensive. I’m assuming that it wasn’t that pricey in the 40’s

#tom riddle #tom marvolo riddle #tom riddle x reader #tom riddle x you #tom riddle x y/n #tom riddle x oc #tom riddle imagines #tom riddle imagine #tom riddle fanfic #tom riddle fic #tom riddle fanfiction #tom riddle oneshot #minific #asks #request #prompt fill #prompt fic #harry potter #harry james potter

[melis-ash]

have you watched elite's season 4 finale already? what are your takes on caye and phillipe? no judgements here tho, just want to know your opinion on them

 Hello, nonny! Yes, I did. My opinion about Caye and Philippe has several different aspects (which a litle bit conflict with each other).

Lets write long post.)) Sorry for mistakes and typos, English is not my first language and I`m not really good with grammar.

1) Caye and Philippe story is feminist retelling-reverse of the Beauty and the Beast, where main characters didn`t became couple and The Beauty left her Beast not for Gaston other romance, but for her own path. And their relationship helped the Beast to realize his past mistakes and make to want to fix it, even if it`s too late . Comparing with many other things in that season that storyline was not bad. Really. There MANY problems with s4, I think the best stolyline had Rebe and Mencia, it was really good, and in my personal opinion, despite many flaws, Caye and Philippe storyline is second one for me. Kinda it was not really good, but it had plot, idea, composition and message. Writers knew very clear, what they tried to say, and despite obvious lack of screen time, they handle it, and this story, despite it doesn`t connect with main plot, resonate with main storyline on the level of their ideas. (About it later.) I know, Georgina is feminist, so I wonder, could she give some advice writers? Kinda “it can work better if...” something like it.

2) Personally I`m very disappointed how OOC was Caye in that season and how few screen time she had. For me Caye from s4 feels like too much different person than in s2-3. I wanted character development for her, but something more slow and realistic. S4 Cayetana feels like all her character development happened between s3 and s4 (and partly in special, which really was very good), and I don`t believe in it. Caye from s4 is good character, but there is no real connection with Caye from s2-3.

I knew, she was very upopular character in s2-3, so maybe creators afraid to gave her too much screen time. But also they still wanted she was part of story and write redemption arc for her. And honestly, anon, these two thing can`t work together well. When you write redemption arc for well written nuanced character that Cayetana was in s2-3, you need give character enough screen time and nuances. But it seems, s4 writers don`t care enough about writing S1-3 characters in character. In s2-3 Caye was bad girl, but also she was comedy relief (but s4 has very few comedy moments), she had family (where the fuck her mother and granddad now? We know only that her mother cannot work in Las Ensinas, but don`t know, why), we saw, that she did`t sleep almost, because she learn in Las Ensinas, worked as janitor and still hung out with rich kids. (I think I began feel compassion for her, when realized it). It that seson she almost has not other scenes than with Philippe. OK, she was pariah in school during previous year, but if writers began that things with Caye and Rebe friendship, can they continue it. Rebe and Caye both had problem with their love interests and they never discussed it. Only time they speak about Philippe was in 402. Also Benjamin fired Azucena, and wanted to expel Samu and Omar, but Caye still works there? And Benjamin still protects her even? Why? I mean, after whole thing with scam in s2. Maybe it because protection of Polo`s mothers, but it never was said in s4 even. It seems, Benjamin knows things about her story with Polo (like he knows about Philippe`s past), and it could be really interesting possiblity to bring on scene that aspect of situation and Benjamin`s character and him and Caye interaction. 

Also there is something with Georgina`s acting in s4, in most of scenes she acts as different character, so maybe it was and her (as actress) decision too. I wrote before, she is feminist, and maybe she wanted to bring more feminists vibes in s4 Caye, because it makes storyline works better? Given how few connection with previous seasons on script level her s4 story had, it make sense even, it`s just feel OOC for me, because Caye is not feminist at all. She is strong and ambitious, but she is not type of women what call themselves feminists, and when she said “I became my own Fairy Godmother” in s2, she meant that she was forced to do it. Caye was girl who wanted to be princess from old school Disney animation. In s3 she wanted to live and study on Polo mother money in London and was fully OK with it. When she refused their proposition, it was because thoughts, that Polo could be alive and even more or lesser happy in other school without those her messages, haunted her. Plus when Polo died, he thought Caye was with him more because his money than because Polo himself. I remember, in her first scene Caye read  The Second Sex, but it was spectacle for her schoolmates. And when she spoke with them about her fake rich life, it always was “look how rich and glamour I am”. Partly she spoke in this way because she knew very few about rich people`s life, but also there were some of her dreams. She wanted to be rich and and be part of this glamour life. In s3 she became in some way, and she had a lot of possiblities to understand how many shit, pain and tragedies can hide for glamour facade. Theoretically she knew it before. But she was exctremely poor, so it was a little bit difficult for her to think about it too much.

3) So I think more mention of Caye`s story from s2-3 could make her and Philippe story better. Philippe himself have same problem as Polo in some way: he is rich guy, and his mother indulged him too much. Caye saw how Polo`s mother indulged him and saw where it ended. Not good for Polo and many other people. Marina and Polo could be alive and Samu`s family could live with him in Spain, if Polo`s mothers raised their son better. Even if Caye don`t care much about Guzman or Samu and she never knew Marina, she had enough time between seasons to reflect of situation. So with more s2-3 reference that “matter of education thing” Caye says to Philippe`s mother could sound not only as sort of feminist  slogan, but as something very personal and painful for Caye. She was in love with boy, who was spoiled too much by his parents (like Philippe), and it brought a lof pain him, his friends, Caye. I don`t say there are not at all attempts include previous Caye experience in s4. For example, when Caye does google research about Philippe and finds nothings, she is still suspicious because she know, how easy money could erase some thing.  Also that thing with Pilippe`s mother. I think after conversation with her,Caye realized that Philippe`s and Polo`s promblems had very much same roots. But such moments really have not enough space. Guzman had at least one scene, where he speak about his reflection on s1 evens (where he compares Mencia and Marina). I would like to see something like it with Caye.

4) Many things in Caye and Philippe storyline feel offscreen. We know they regularly talk in school, but see very few of it etc. Actors have good chemistry, and since they both like fashion design, it feels enough for beginning of communication, plus Caye had crush on Philippe long before they met, plus she was first who was really friendly with him in new school (in some way it`s repeat of Caye and Polo story, but with more positive vibes). But I want to see more illustration, why Philippe fell in love with Caye so much.

5) Now about Philippe himself. I saw many hateposts and hatecomments about him, and it`s really funny, because I constantly see how many people in this fandom love Polo and think he deserved better, despite Polo is murderer. Yes, he killed Marina out of emotion, but she is fucking dead. She will never resurrect. Guzman will remember till grave that his best friend killed his sister and then was killed by Guzman`s ex-girlfriend, because policy failed to handle their job well. Samu`s brother was forced to left Spain because it. But it took 2 seasons for Polo to understand he needs go to policy and confess he killed Marina. Caye didn`t understood how wrong her actions were till Polo`s death. I don`t know how long was Elodie`s rape, but at least Philippe didn`t need someone`s corpse to realize his mistakes. Inside standart of this show that guy isn`t hopeless. “Everybody deserve second chance” was important point in Caye`s story in s2-3, so now I wonder how writers will play this card in s5 in relationship between Philippe and Caye. 

Also I want to say I was wrong, when doubted in Pol Granch acting, he`s good additon to Elite cast.

6) Caye x Philippe storyline and main storyline. In that seson Elite brings of scene, in additon of another murder and drug traid, sex crimes. Prostitution, rapes. It`s interesting, that connection here takes place through Ari, girl, who has serious problem with sexual behavior, when she`s drunk. She`s know it`s perfectly, but also she knows, that when woman says “no”, it`s means “no” and end of story. I really like her role in Caye and Philippe story and I hope in s5 there will be at least some scenes with her and Caye. Also interesting point were Ari`s word that she never report to the police without prove. It feels ambigous. She knows, Phillippe is not angel at all. But also there is other side of coin. I think, she also knows, reputation can be ruined very easy. During s4 there was subplot with discussion club. And Samu speak that ex-criminals cannot become somebody else, even if they wants. Their reputation in society was ruined. In final of Philippe story he sent Elodie his confession. So maybe writers tried to write about theme “can criminal, who admitted his mistakes, to became somebody else?” through season and I think they will continue it in s5.

Sorry if this all sounds muddled and too long. Maybe later I will make some additon into reblogs to this post, I don`t know.

#elite #elite netflix #elite spoilers #elite s4 #cayetana grajera #philippe florian von triesenberg #cayetana x phillippe #polo benavent #polo x cayetana #georgina amoros #pol granch #ari bianco commerford #elite meta #text post

[phantomwitch16]

Star Wars - ‘Cheating’ AU

So, I’ve always wondered what it would be like if Anakin and Padmé didn’t have a romantic relationship throughout most of the Clone Wars, solely because Palpatine wanted to ensure that Anakin would be his to sway to the dark side and how that would eventually bit him in the behind.

So I made one up. Also, side note, I never watched Star Wars bare a few clips that I’ve seen here or there, so apologies if I get a few things wrong and I’ll try to rectify it in a later post. Enjoy.

In which Anakin and Padmé have an affair but not really.

Padmé is forced to marry someone for political reasons, and the marriage is pretty, well, loveless.

For the sake of the story, it’s going to be Clovis.

The marriage is a ploy made by Palpatine to turn Anakin to the Dark Side.

Anakin hears about the marriage and is pretty upset about it. 

Palpatine comforts Anakin, knowing very well that the young boy has had a crush on Padmé for years.

Palpatine hopes that by marrying Padmé off to someone, it would make him easily swayed. Or at the very least, create a scandal where it would not only ruin Anakin’s reputation but Padmé’s. Either way, Anakin’s fall is always the desired outcome.

“It’s strictly politics, my boy. All in the name of the Republic.”

It creates another reason why Anakin doesn't like politics and democracy all that much.

He tries to move on from it, that it's only just a crush and puts his feelings to the Force, but it doesn’t work.

Anakin quickly realises this a year later when the Chancellor sends him and Obi-Wan to protect her from the assassination attempts.

Obi-Wan feels empathetic towards Anakin and wants to comfort him but thinks that it is not his place. They’re close, but he also remembers how he felt when Qui-Gon would randomly talk to him about his past relationship with Satine.

The exchange in her office goes as well as it did in Canon, only this time, Anakin doesn’t flirt with her. Well, he pretty much did, but he thought he was giving her some compliments.

Obi-Wan and Typho give each other exasperated looks.

Padmé finds his fumbling and unintentional flirting endearing, reminding her of the cute little boy back on Tatooine and making her feel giddy.

Clovis is not involved in the assassination plot due to his position in the Banking Clan.

The assassination plot goes as in Canon with Anakin killing the bugs, Obi-Wan jumping out the window, and the two chased after the assassin with Jango killing them.  

Obi-Wan searches for the person who ordered the hit on Padmé with Anakin and her travelling to Naboo.

The two travel to Padmé’s parents' house and meet her family. Her sister and her parents immediately take Anakin in and make him feel welcome.

(Anakin is still the only person whom she’s brought home. Padmé and her family met Clovis but only at the wedding, and they didn’t like him.)

(It also becomes undeniable that her family likes Anakin much more than Clovis. Ryoo and Pooja especially.)

The two travel to Varykino, talking and spending a lot of time together. They still have a balcony and picnic, except Anakin doesn’t confess, and the lovey-dovey scenes are just them forming a close bond with Anakin pinning excessively.

Cue Artoo rolling his dome in disgust.

The fireplace scene still happens later. It only occurs later on after a lot of pining and angst.

(Anakin wouldn’t flirt or confess his feelings to Padmé with her being married, believing that she is in a happy relationship with Rush, even if he doesn’t like him.)

He is a lot more forthcoming about his nightmares about his mother because it's weighing on his mind and he wants to be honest with Padmé about it.

Padmé decides then and there to travel to Tatooine with him to find and help his mother.

Despite being her bodyguard, Padmé doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and pretty much orders Anakin to take her to the camp with him.

There the two of them find Shmi at death’s door.

When she passes in his arms, Anakin is upset and angry. He exits the tent about to commit mass murder, only to stop when Padmé catches him.

She comforts him about his mother’s death but states that killing the Tuskens would not bring her back. That nothing good will come from senseless killing.

The rest of Attack of the Clones remained essentially unchanged, with the only last significant difference being that Anakin and Padmé don’t get married, and there is no kissing involved. There will still be some stilted dialogue but only a little.

Anakin considered telling her his feelings when captured but didn’t want to make their last moments even more depressing.

Instead tells her how grateful he is that he had met her on Tatooine.

Padmé looks up at him and smiles before thanking him for always being a good friend to her.

Oof. Knocked to the friendzone, he was.

After taking Padmé back to Naboo, Anakin gives her Threepio a late wedding gift, saying that he would get much more use with her than with him.

In return, she gives him Artoo as a gift when he makes Jedi Knight.

The Clone Wars commence, and Anakin becomes a general of the 501st and a Jedi Knight with his padawan, Ahsoka.

She, the 501st, Artoo, the handmaidens, and even a politician ships them. That politician is Satine.

Ahsoka immediately notices Anakin’s feelings for Padmé and teases him about it when the two get comfortable enough with each other. Same with Rex and the other clones of the 501st.

Obi-Wan and Typho are well aware of this and choose not to say anything. No one knows what their stance on the matter is.

Typho is somewhat empathetic as he had feelings for Padmé before getting married to Rush. But he did get over his feelings later on.

Artoo knew this since he first met Anakin on Tatooine. And despite his inital disgust with it all, he much prefers Padmé with Anakin who treats him much better compared to Clovis. He is very protective of his ship and will electrocute anyone who thinks otherwise.

Threepio seems oblivious to his maker’s feelings for Padmé as he seems more distracted by Artoo’s foul language and his tendency to insult Rush in binary.

Satine, after recognising the looks that Anakin gives Padmé when he thinks no one is looking. She feels sympathetic for him and tries to provide him with comforting advice when Obi-Wan isn’t around.

Dormé and the other handmaidens like Anakin and are aware of his feelings for Padmé. As such, they talk to him whenever he meets with them whenever he goes to visit Padmé.

Anakin tries to ignore the teasing from Ahsoka and his men, but his face still turns red with embarrassment when Ahsoka pulls the kissy-face while imitating Padmé while trying to reenact her speeches.

Obi-Wan is sympathetic but will give him a few snarky remarks, only for them to be thrown back at his face when the two meet with Satine.

None of them actively tried to push the two together, but it was pretty much like the idea of the two getting together.

Since Geonosis, both form a close bond and better understand one another as Anakin is often over at her apartment to talk about things usually bothering him.

Throughout the war, Padmé comforts him throughout the deaths of his men, Obi-Wan’s (fake) death and Ahsoka’s trial, the last of which hits him especially hard.

She doesn’t put up with his nonsense, though, and sometimes even calls him out on some things, such as the stuff Palpatine has been telling him since he was a kid.

This results in Anakin at least question his relationship with Palpatine sometimes and puts a bit of distance between him and the man, much to the Chancellors’ frustration.

Padmé also develops some concerns about what Palpatine had told Anakin as a child and some of his actions. While she knows that the man has been a comforting figure for Anakin when he first joined the Jedi, the idea that he would take her little Ani to the lower levels when he was still an adolescent alarmed her.

When meeting Rush for the first time, Anakin tries to be respectful with Rush, with the politician thanking him for protecting Padmé, but it became hard with the way he kept on looking at her the way masters would look at pretty slave women on Tatooine.

Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex met Rush once and, like Anakin, didn’t like him for very different reasons.

The marriage between Clovis and Padmé isn’t one that’s positive either.

Clovis often invades Padmé’s personal space, trying to touch her along with other things. Luckily, Dormé and the others were always able to prevent him from doing it.

She was able to keep her apartment in 500 Republica but had the displeasure of having to have at least one dinner date with him a week if it was possible.

Padmé rarely talks about her marraige to Anakin because she knows that Anakin doesn’t like him, even if he hasn’t told her. She knows talking about it would just put both him and her in a bad mood.

As the Clone Wars progresses, it becomes more difficult for Anakin to contain his feelings for Padmé.

He’s conflicted because even though he loves Padmé, he doesn’t want to make things difficult for her.

While he dislikes Rush, he’s technically the perfect man for Padmé. He was a former senator and came from a wealthy world in the Core, and the two have many more things in common.

Anakin pretty much feels inadequate to Rush. That's the basis.

He does everything he can to put his feelings aside. Putting them to the Force, putting more effort into his duties, focusing on Ahsoka before she left, but it doesn’t work even then.

Anakin gets so distressed over it, he goes to Obi-Wan and Yoda for their help despite his reservations with him. He doesn’t out right say it but it becomes easy for a person with more than five brain cells to figure out.

The two masters are shocked by this as it is quite rare for Anakin, especially after that thing with Ahsoka, to come to them with her personal problems. They give him as much advice as possible, but it's useless.

He ends up avoiding her for a couple of months, going on campaigns almost back-to-back with his men, turning down lunch together, focusing on the war. He’s always ‘too busy’ to take her calls despite the pain he causes for both of them.

Meanwhile, Padmé is hurt and confused over Anakin’s actions. While Anakin can be a somewhat good liar, it's easy for her to see right through them and knows that he’s avoiding her.

Dormé and the other handmaidens notice her sadness and decide to take matters into their own hands.

Anakin avoids them at first, but they pretty much drag him back to her apartment by his ear to talk to Padmé, much to Anakin’s reluctance and hesitancy.

Once he gets to Padmé’s apartment while Rush is away, they talk with Padmé trying to find the root of the problem while Anakin tries his best to avoid it. It quickly delves into an argument, leading to him accidentally blurting out that he loves her.

Shock colours Padmé’s face as horror grows on his. She asks him what he meant, and he sighs.

Anakin sadly confesses his feelings for Padmé and explains why he’s been avoiding her. He feels that if he’s around too much, it would only strain her marriage with Rush. Because he only wants her to be happy, even if she’s not with him.

After giving her a few apologies, he leaves a stunned Padmé and several astonished handmaidens who have been listening in on their conversation behind.

Sidious cackles as this. It would only be a matter of time before Anakin’s, and the Jedi’s fates are sealed. Anakin will fall to the Dark Side and be his.

The next few days are depressing for Anakin, who is face down on his bed, probably listening to emo music to get through the pain and mortification of telling Padmé his feelings for her, probably destroying whatever friendship they have.

Obi-Wan, Rex and Artoo notice his brooding and do what they can to cheer him up. It doesn’t work, though, and he’s still in a funk by the time they’re in their next campaign.

Meanwhile, Padmé questions her relationship with Anakin. While she was not at all oblivious to the fact that Anakin had feelings for her, she never really gave it much of a second thought, considering the war, her political marraige to Clovis and the fact that up until that point, she saw herself as Anakin’s friend and well, boss essentially. She is honestly surprised by Anakin’s sudden confession that she’s still in quite a daze over it. To the point where even Rush comments on it in their next dinner.

She remembers all the times where he has put her safety over his own, the unintentional flirting that made her stomach flips and how he listened to her even when he was about to fly into a rage back in the Tusken camp after his mother’s death.

It's after talking with Sabé she realised she might have feelings for him too.

They don't meet for a while until the Clovis Arc.

Since Padmé is his wife in this AU, it makes sense for her to spy on him as she is the closest person.

I don’t know what happens in the Clovis Arc, but it involves Padmé getting kidnap by Clovis and his men, Anakin coming to rescue her and ends the same with Clovis dying with Padmé in Anakin’s arms.

Here Padmé learns that Clovis had been spying on her since the beginning of the war. He learns a lot about the relationship between Padmé and Anakin and his accidental confession.

He is furious at this, believing that Padmé would develop feelings for Anakin behind his back and began working for the Separatists.

When Anakin storms in to save Padmé, Clovis threatens to out their relationship to the entire Republic. Even if it wasn’t true, it would severally damage both of their reputations.

Clovis dies after the fall, and Padmé is distraught over what happened. While she didn’t love him, she is shocked at the betrayal and what he did to her. 

Anakin stays to hold and comfort her through her betrayal and loss of her (shitty) husband.

After the traumatising incident, Padmé has several days of leave from the Senate, and Anakin takes the initiative to take care of her during this time.

Cue several cute moments where Anakin makes food as she recovers emotionally, talking to her when she has nightmares, arguing with Threepio when he’s needlessly fussing over her and doing little things that make her happy.

It results in Padmé falling more and more in love with him. As such, she opens up to him about the relationship between her and Rush.

Anakin feeling vindicated is an understatement, but it did deter him from making any physical contact without asking for her permission for quite some time afterward, which she greatly appreciates.

(It also made him unfavourably view Palpatine that he would force Padmé into that position in the first place when in Padmé’s point of view, there was no real reason for a political marriage between the two of them.)

(He still visits him and acts polite to keep up appearances.)

It made Padmé even happier to know that Anakin was avoiding physical contact for her well-being. Given how physically affectionate he was, she knew it was tough for him.

While Obi-Wan and Yoda should admonish Anakin for what he’s doing and keep in mind the Code, they recognise that Anakin isn’t a traditional Jedi with a typical background and, as such, allow it. No matter the other masters' insistence.

Considering all the nonsense with Ahsoka and other things that had happened in the past, they turned a blind eye to it to keep him happy.

Meanwhile, Rex somehow manages to contact Ahsoka and give her the details on what is happening, and she is squealing over how lovey-dovey he is.

Anakin goes back into battle at some point. He contacts her every night. He tells her what’s happening on the field and listens when she rants about the Senate.

It's not until a few months later he comes back and is given some time off.

Meanwhile, Padmé is on Varykino. He comms her to ask if he could visit. When he arrives, he sees her wearing the black dress from the fireplace scene in AOTC.

Anakin turns bright red when seeing her in it and fumbles over his words while complimenting her.

She looked at him endearingly before asking him to come to the living room so they could talk. She says that in a serious tone that makes any sane person feel existential dread.

As such, Anakin’s heart plummets to his stomach. He knows what this is going to be about, and it could only mean one thing. They were going to talk about it eventually but he’d much rather keep up with the facade the two have kept up for the past several months about that night in her apartment.

She walks into the room, and he slowly slinks after his doom and sits beside her with his head low.

After several moments of tense silence, Padmé talks about what happened months prior when Anakin blurted out his feelings to her. She watches him as he sinks into the couch as a look of shame grows on his face.

After several long moments of tension between the two, she confesses to him.

He snaps his head up and looks at her with an expression of disbelief on his face.

Padmé clarifies that she had feelings for Anakin for a long time, probably since their time in Naboo, but only realised when he confessed to her.

Anakin is feeling a mixture of joy, happiness, confusion, relief and lingering dread. 

Anakin clarifies that he’s thrilled with the news, but he worries about what the relationship would have over her position and if it would be good for her given what had just happened and that he is almost always away fighting the war.

Padmé, while loving that he is considerate of her position and her well-being, can’t help but roll her eyes.

She tells him, matter-of-factly, that while she does hold great devotion to her job as senator of the Republic, the last few months made her realise that with the war going, that they can only get so much comfort. And now, she wants to focus on what she wants.

Anakin is stunned at her answer before he slowly smiles at her, a cute blush colouring his cheeks.

That is how the relationship begins, and Anakin has been feeling lighter since then. Both Anakin and Padmé take the connection too slow for a little bit.

Obi-Wan and Yoda soon notice this, and they don’t utter a word on the why and the how.

Rex contacts Ahsoka and tells her the ‘The Freighter is Flying. I repeat. The Freighter is Flying.’

Sabé, Typho and the handmaidens gave him the shovel talk. By the end of it, Anakin learned that the handmaidens plus Typho know creative ways to kill him and that they could get away with murder if he decides to hurt Padmé.

Obi-Wan gave as much of a shovel talk as he could. Pretty much telling her that he isn’t the only person who cares about Anakin.

(Read that in any way you want.)

#star wars #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #anidala #anakin x padme #rush clovis #star wars au #my posts #obi wan kenobi #Ahsoka Tano

[gayestnerdsinfiction]

Rivalry

requested by @micapearls (ed hearing jon full body laugh for the first time)

Ever since he first met Jonathan Crane, Edward has had an unshakable fixation on eliciting any type of emotional expression from the other man. To the untrained eye it would appear Jonathan was unable to experience any human emotions beyond displeasure and annoyance. Jonathan doesn’t cry, he doesn’t shout when they argue, he doesn’t allow any facial expression to inadvertently cross his stoic features. Over time, Edward has been able to get a better feel for the subtle cues that indicate his partner’s emotional state, but Jonathan still makes an effort to hold his feelings and opinions close to his chest. Edward wants so badly to break him of this habit. He’s lost count of the amount of meaningless arguments he’d blown out of proportion in the hopes of making Jonathan visibly angry. But perhaps that’s just trauma reenactment.

It was after one such failed attempt to goad Jonathan into an argument that Edward finally got what he was looking for. He had unsuccessfully tried to get a rise out of the other man, throwing out the cruelest, most spiteful things he could think of. Things he didn’t mean, things he doesn’t want Jonathan to think he meant. Unfortunately, this only resulted in Jonathan disappearing off into the lab, leaving Edward to sulk alone in the living room. He’s sitting on the couch, staring absently at the television when Jonathan finally reappears from the basement, his expression as austere and unreadable as ever.

“I’m having a drink,” the older man announces, breezing past Edward and into the kitchen. He removes a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet and holds it up for Edward to see. “Do you want one?”

Edward doesn’t particularly care for whiskey but he can recognize a peace offering when he sees one. He nods wordlessly, sliding to one end of the sofa to make room for Jonathan to sit if he wanted to.

Jonathan pours the two drinks, bringing them into the living room and handing one to Edward. He accepts. Takes a small sip, trying to ignore the unpleasant taste.

“What are you watching?” Jonathan asks as he sits down a respectful distance away from Edward.

“News,” he says. “I’m looking at it more than I’m really watching it.”

Jonathan studies the screen for a few moments, sipping his own drink steadily. “Turn up the volume,” he says abruptly.

Edward obliges, directing his own attention to the TV as well. The reporter onscreen is standing in front of the Gotham University campus. There are cop cars and officers crowded around the building, many of them with heavy tactical gear and weapons.

“Shit, I hope whatever this is doesn’t screw up the heist I had planned for next weekend,” Edward mutters as he puts his drink down on the table.

“…As you can see the police are behind me attempting to negotiate the release of the thirteen hostages currently being held on the University grounds.” The camera cuts away from the reporter to show a closer shot of the police officers at the scene. Edward can make out commissioner Gordon speaking into a walkie-talkie at the front of the group. Bullock stands beside him, looking generally burly and gruff but otherwise not contributing much. “The location and condition of the hostages is unclear; all we know is that those thirteen students and faculty members are trapped somewhere in the Joker’s sadistic maze. More updates on the way as we continue to document the most recent criminal exploits of Gotham’s most fearsome criminal.”

“Ouch,” Jonathan says dryly. “Seems unfair that I’m not the most fearsome criminal in this city but I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.”

Edward, in the meantime, is too busy trying to navigate the mixture of anger, surprise, and jealousy that has begun burning in his chest to even register Jonathan’s comment. “He—I feel like I’m having a stroke, I mean, did that reporter say what I think she said?” he splutters, standing up from the couch to gesticulate wildly at the screen.

“What’s your problem?” Jonathan asks. “Joker does something like this every week, you can’t be surprised at this point.”

“You don’t understand,” he snaps, ignoring the heat he can feel rising into his face and ears. “I was going to do a sadistic maze at the university. Me! That fucking clown stole my idea! I mean, am I the only person with any goddamn integrity in this vile city?” He collapses back onto the couch, throwing his arms up. “I had the whole thing planned out, all the pieces built and ready to be set up and he just swoops in with his dollar store makeup and awful dye job and ruins everything like he always does. I mean, do you know how hard it is to build a maze from scratch and make it appear with fully functional traps and people in it before the cops show up? It’s not easy, I’ll say that. And it’s not cheap either!”

Jonathan watches Edward’s hysterical monologue in silence, takes a few moments to digest the entirety of the rant, and then bursts out laughing.

Edward’s jaw drops. Usually when Jonathan laughs it’s little more than a sharp exhale or the hint of a smile. But this laugh is a loud, unrestrained cackle, so raspy in places it almost sounds like a wheeze. It’s the first time he’s ever seen his partner seem genuinely tickled by something and he can’t even enjoy it because it’s at his own expense. He can’t tell if he’s more shocked to see his partner’s entire body wracked with laughter, or more indignant that he’s being laughed at in the first place. He snaps his mouth shut, his face screwing up into a scowl. “It’s not funny.”

“It absolutely is. Your whole thing with the Joker is hilarious.”

“It is not! He’s completely destroying my reputation, my career in this town. I mean, now I can never do that heist I had planned because the Joker already did it and everyone’s already accusing me of ripping off his costume and gimmick. If I even mention that I had the same idea, then people are going to try and accuse me of stealing his fucking intellectual property too.” He gets up again, pacing almost frantically around the room. “It doesn’t even make sense for him to do something with a school, I mean, I’m the one whose whole aesthetic and MO has to do with knowledge and learning. He should go terrorize a fucking comedy club or something, leave the higher education to those of us whose brain cells haven’t been fried by a vat of acid.” He glares at Jonathan who is still doubled over with laughter. “Stop laughing at me, I’m serious.”

He raises a hand to cover his mouth, though it does nothing to soothe his amusement. “I’m sorry. But you have to admit, you sound ridiculous right now.”

“I fail to see how this is ridiculous.”

“You’re demanding artistic integrity from a man who dresses like a clown and kills people for fun.” Jonathan manages to stifle his laughter a bit, but Edward knows he’s never going to let him live this down. “Besides, neither of you went to college so I don’t see how you have more of a right to a university based maze heist than him.”

He rolls his eyes. Jonathan loves to point out that Edward never went to college because it’s the only real accomplishment he has that Edward couldn’t easily replicate. Just because Jonathan suffered through nine years of higher education that would have driven Edward into a murderous rage doesn’t mean he’s better than him. “A maze is a type of puzzle is it not? Last time I checked I was the prince of puzzles which, in my eyes, makes me more entitled to use mazes in my traps. I also think it makes me sound cooler. I mean, ‘clown prince of crime’? How pathetic is that.”

“They’re both pathetic,” Jonathan says. “I don’t know why people keep trying to call us princes like we’re not all broke psychopaths.”

“I’m not broke.”

“But you don’t deny being a psychopath?”

Edward continues to glower at the other man who is still fighting against a smile. “I can’t believe you’re not on my side right now.”

Jonathan shrugs. “I mean, you have to admit your costume color schemes are remarkably similar.”

“They are not! My preferred color scheme is green and purple, his is purple and green, okay, they’re distinctly different!”

“Edward,” he says, using that tone he always takes when Edward is acting irrational, “Don’t you think you’re taking this a bit too seriously?”

“Not in the slightest,” he insists, knowing that this is arguably a stupid thing to care about. “You’ll never know what it’s like to always play second fiddle to everyone’s favorite costumed criminal. At least people are scared of you. Everyone just thinks I’m some kind of joke thief.”

“Well, maybe you need to give them something to be scared of. Show them you mean business.”

“Oh yeah? And how do you propose I do that in a way that is both on brand and not derivative of the Joker’s own crime sprees?”

Jonathan’s smile changes, becoming less humorous and more devious. Edward can see the familiar gleam in his eye that indicates the Scarecrow’s mind is hard at work. There’s the Jonathan he’s used to. “I bet I could give you a few ideas,” he says slyly, finishing the rest of his drink in a single swallow. “If you don’t have any qualms about torturing people.”

Despite the fact that he’s still annoyed with Jonathan for making fun of him, Edward can’t help but flash a smile back at the other man. There’s just something about those clever, sinister eyes that always draw him right back in. “What did you have in mind?”

#i know this was a long road to walk to fulfill the prompt but I hope u enjoy #scriddler #scarecrow #riddler #jonathan crane #edward nygma #batman #dc #my writing #joker #just a reference tho bc he's stinky

[ibijau]

You’re a marked man, brother, part 4 / also on AO3

Lan Xichen confronts the Magpie King as secrets are uncovered

warning for canon typical violence

It was common knowledge in the Heavenly Court a little over a year after Nie Mingjue ascended, a gruesome attack happened upon his home. His father was killed, as well as his father’s disciples from the youngest to the oldest, his father’s wives, his cousins, and every servant except Jin Guangyao, who had luckily been out on an errand. He had only returned in time to find everyone slaughtered, and to bear witness to Nie Mingjue beheading the murderer. Unwilling to risk the last mortal he was close to, Nie Mingjue had immediately brought Jin Guangyao to the Middle Court, where he had stayed until his own ascension some years later.

As for the house where the terrible crime happened, it remained empty for a long time. There was nobody left to inherit the place, and nobody willing to claim it for themselves. Even though every purification ritual was performed, the crime had still happened, it was still the old house of a god, and its reputation wasn’t very good. In the end, just as Nie Mingjue was thinking of asking some of his followers to do something with it, more bad luck struck and the place burned to the ground one night, in an act of arson.

The ruined piece of land was purified again, even more thoroughly than the first time. Then, the first and biggest San-Zun temple was established there, and there were never any troubles again. Still, the arsonist had never been found. And now that he stood in front of that reproduction of Nie Mingjue’s house, Lan Xichen realised that the fire had happened right as Tonglu Mountain opened, that time when the Magpie King rose to the rank of Devastation.

Lan Xichen ignored how his husband, who was still crushing his hand, tried to pull him back toward the woods, and took a step forward.

“Xichen, we cannot go in there,” Jin Guangyao said, his voice trembling. “That place, it can’t be…”

Lan Xichen gazed toward the Unclean Realm in silence, only to see its doors open on their own in invitation. Jin Guangyao only pulled harder, getting desperate in his attempts to make Lan Xichen leave.

They’d never found who the murderer had been, that terrible day, Lan Xichen recalled. Just a young man, a stranger nobody had ever seen before, whose soul was assumed to have been purified alongside the others in the house. But if it had found a way to hide and linger, if it had nursed for centuries the rage of being caught and stopped…

A person like that could very well have become a Devastation, in due time.

And if that were the case…

“I have to go,” Lan Xichen said, pulling his hand free. “I know where he’s keeping Nie Mingjue, and I fear I know what he’ll do to him, given the chance. You four may stay here if you prefer.”

“Xichen, don’t,” Jin Guangyao hissed. “He’ll destroy you!”

Ignoring him again, Lan Xichen rushed forward and went inside. As he passed the heavy doors, he heard footsteps running right behind him. He turned, hoping to see his husband, but Jin Guangyao was further back, trying to convince Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji to turn back while they still could, holding both of them by their sleeves. Instead it was Sangcan, trembling like a leaf and half crying from fear, who was coming in with him. Lan Xichen thought of ordering him away, unsure he could protect him after all, but there was a determination under his tears that dissuaded Lan Xichen from sending him back.

“Be careful,” he just ordered, slowing down so Sangcan could follow more easily. “If it becomes dangerous, just run. This doesn’t concern you.”

“It ends today,” Sangcan replied, struggling to keep up even like this. “It’s been too long anyway, and I knew it’d be dangerous from the start, my lord.”

Lan Xichen didn’t insist, and continued making his way through this copy of Nie Mingjue’s old home.

He couldn’t help being amazed by the quality of that replica, everything exactly the same as it had been the last time he had visited before the tragedy. It was uncanny, actually. That flower pot right there had the same chink it used to have, the one nobody every seemed to have time to repair or replace, and that door over there looked much newer than the rest, since it was installed during Lan Xichen’s last visit. It felt as though at any moment a group of disciples might come laughing and chatting into the courtyard to do their morning exercise, or else the old master Nie would walk by with one of his wives and wave at his visitors.

It used to be such a lively place, and to see so empty and silent was heartbreaking. Lan Xichen did his best to ignore his growing uneasiness, and walked on toward his destination. Sangcan and him crossed the front courtyard, then the central one, heading toward the back of the house where the family’s private rooms would be. He took a left turn just before the bedroom of the master of the house, and reached one of the side rooms, one that might or might not have been in use by some relative of Nie Mingjue at the time of the disaster. In spite of how well he remembered every other detail about this, that one eluded him. It didn’t matter. 

The only thing of importance about that room, Lan Xichen thought as he opened the door, was that the man who’d slaughtered the Nie household was caught and killed there.

The room, like everything else in the house, was perfectly recreated. There were some beautiful fans displayed on the walls, all exquisitely painted, as well as a fortune’s worth of books and scrolls. It looked every bit the bedroom of a rich, beloved young master spoiled by his family. Lan Xichen felt a wave of nostalgia hit him, though it was quickly overridden by dread when his eyes fell upon the bed. 

Sitting on the floor with his back to that bed, beaten, and exhausted, was Nie Mingjue. He had been tied with golden ropes, and a piece of fabric had been pushed inside his mouth to silence him, yet he tried to shout when he saw Lan Xichen in the doorway, his eyes jumping from his old friend to a silhouette standing menacingly at his side.

The person in question was a young man who couldn’t be more than twenty, if he was even that old. He wasn’t short as such, but among cultivators or gods where men grew tall, he certainly would have appeared quite small. His face was handsome, his features delicate and round, though there was a certain sharpness at the corner of his jaw, and his eyes were cold. He was dressed all in black, with a cloak thrown upon his shoulder made of hundreds of black iridescent feathers, and in his hand…

In his hand was Baxia.

Lan Xichen could only stare, unable to wrap his head around this.

Nie Mingjue’s sabre was no ordinary weapon. It had, to some degree, a mind of its own, capable of turning against its owner should he stray from the right path. Lan Xichen would never have dared to touch it, and Jin Guangyao feared it, since however dear he was to its owner, Baxia itself had a dislike of him. It should have been impossible for anyone but Nie Mingjue to handle it, and yet that young man seemed to be having no problems, not even bothered by the weight of such a large blade.

“It took you long enough,” the young man said in a flat voice, his emotionless eyes falling on Lan Xichen for a moment, before searching around. “And you’re alone? Don’t tell me that crossing Xinglu Ridge was too hard for your companions? Say, Sangcan…”

Poor Sangcan jumped and whimpered in fear, hiding behind Lan Xichen, which caused the young man to smirk cruelly.

“Couldn’t you at least do this properly? I’m disappointed, Sangcan.”

Trembling and crying, Sangcan sprung from behind Lan Xichen and dropped on his knees before the Magpie King.

“My lord, please! I just wanted this to be over!”

“And it’ll be over indeed,” the Magpie King coldly retorted, slapping Sangcan in the face and sending him flying to the side of the room. Lan Xichen gasped and reached for his sword, only for Baxia to be turned toward him. “That would be unwise, Zewu-Jun.”

“Let Nie Mingjue go,” Lan Xichen ordered. “And free Sangcan from his contract. Neither deserve to be treated this way.”

The Magpie King tilted his head, his expression unchanging as he raised his free hand. A fan appeared into it, one that must have been quite stunning once, but was now stained with blood.

“What do you know of who deserves what, Zewu-Jun? What do you know of justice? You’re nothing but a… ah, but here comes company.”

There were footsteps coming their way. Lan Xichen counted three people, two of which were immensely familiar to him. In spite of the situation, he relaxed a little, glad that Jin Guangyao had overcome his terror of this place for the sake of Nie Mingjue. He couldn't help a faint smile when his husband came near him, and just by having him present, he felt stronger than when he was alone.

“I know who you are,” Lan Xichen told the Magpie King, and though the ghost king’s face was half hidden behind his bloody fan, there was curiosity in his eyes. “You are the man who slaughtered the Nie family, centuries ago.”

That curiosity disappeared, replaced by boredom.

“Not quite,” the Magpie King stated, lowering Baxia and using it as a crutch to carelessly lean on. Next to him, Nie Mingjue struggled against his restraints, furious to see his sabre so disrespected. Yet Baxia itself allowed it, showing no resistance to the Magpie King, no trace of rage.

“Let Mingjue go,” Lan Xichen insisted, trying again to unsheathe Shuoyue.

This time, what stopped him was Jin Guangyao desperately grasping his wrist.

“Xichen, you shouldn’t…”

“I should,” Lan Xichen cut him, freeing himself and revealing his sword, which he pointed at the Magpie King. “Come on, tell us then! Why did you do all this?”

The Magpie only continued leaning on Baxia in silence, his lips slightly pinched. He threw Lan Xichen a bored look, then directed his attention behind the martial god, his expression remaining entirely unimpressed.

“Oh,” said Wei Wuxian.

It took all of Lan Xichen’s control not to turn and glance at his brother-in-law, especially when the Magpie King took a sharp breath at that exclamation.

“It’s not about Nie Mingjue,” Wei Wuxian said. “Well, it is, but it’s not. Fine, let me take a guess, let me… something happened to you, didn’t it?”

The Magpie King didn’t react, save to start lazily fanning himself. Wei Wuxian started pacing, entering and leaving Lan Xichen’s field of vision as he resumed speaking.

“Let me see, let me just see… That curse you use on people, the one sealing their secrets, the reason you know it is because someone used it on you. Before you died, I’d think, or shortly after? No, it had to be before, it’d take better that way. Then, what you’re hiding… you used to have a brother,” Wei Wuxian guessed. “And… ah! Yes, of course, you had a lover as well. And you were murdered…”

He stopped his pacing, and looked at the Magpie King who looked back with nothing but mild curiosity on his face.

“I’m missing something,” Wei Wuxian guessed.

“If it were that easy, I’d be free already,” the Magpie King retorted with an affected yawn. “Come on, Wei-xiong. You’re smarter than that.”

Wei Wuxian resumed his pacing, muttering to himself. Lan Xichen hesitated to use whatever was going on between Wei Wuxian and the Magpie King to rush forward and try to grab Nie Mingjue, but he dared not go anywhere near Baxia, not when it appeared to have changed sides.

Besides, he was curious about this business. For a ghost as powerful as the Magpie King, a curse should have been easy to avoid or break. Certainly it would have attached itself to him a good deal deeper if it had been cast while he was still alive and thus more vulnerable, but he was a ghost king, a Devastation. The only people who should have been able to do lasting damage to the Magpie King were another Devastation, or perhaps a god. If Wei Wuxian had been brought there to help, it was unlikely to be the first. But if it was the second, and with the way the Magpie King had once gone to such length to ruin certain corrupt gods…

“Xichen, you should attack him,” Jin Guangyao whispered, barely more than a breath against his ear. “He’s not paying attention to you. Kill him, and then we can all go home and forget all about this.”

As low as his voice was, the Magpie King still heard him and shot him a venomous glare. It was by far the most intense expression he'd graced them with so far, and at the same time, Baxia’s rage flashed through the room, startling all of them. Nie Mingjue in particular seemed shocked. Knowing him, he had to have been trying to get his sabre back under control the entire time, so to see it react to another person’s emotions must have been particularly unsettling.

"Xichen, please!" Jin Guangyao hissed, hiding behind his husband. 

At a normal time, Lan Xichen would never have ignored his husband's distress. But this was not a normal time, and there were too many odd things he couldn't ignore. 

"Why did you call this place the Unclean Realm?" he asked the Magpie King, that particular detail bothering him the most even though it was such a small thing. 

Now that Jin Guangyao was no longer in his field of view, the ghost king's expression turned bored again. 

"It's just what it used to be called." 

Lan Xichen lowered his sword, his hands trembling. He looked again at the Devastation's face, youthful and handsome but definitely unfamiliar, and yet… 

"Have we met before?" 

The Magpie King nearly fell face first to the floor, so surprised by that question that he'd leaned too hard on Baxia. He quickly straightened himself and resumed his previous position. Although he refused to answer, there was now something like hope in his cold eyes as he observed Lan Xichen. 

Wei Wuxian snapped his fingers. "Yes, that's it! You have met him before, Zewu-Jun!" he announced. "And it's linked to his curse, or else he'd say something, right?" 

The Magpie King pinched his lips, while Wei Wuxian grinned triumphantly. 

"Then I think it's like this. Long ago, this man we call the Magpie King was mortal. He lived in Qinghe, in this house. He had a brother, and a lover, one to whom he was linked by fate… and I'm guessing it's not the only good thing fate had in store for him. You used to be a lucky person, old friend, weren't you?" Wei Wuxian mused. "Enough to make someone envious perhaps. So envious that someone found a way to trade their fate for yours, hm? And then to cover their tracks they had you killed, and cursed you so you would never be able to reveal the truth about that exchange of fates, and so only you and them could know how things used to be."

Although the Magpie King was still unable to answer, his expression turned pleading. 

Lan Xichen felt his blood turn to ice, his grip on Shuoyue loosening to such a degree he nearly dropped his sword. When he glanced at Nie Mingjue, he saw on his old friend a horrified expression that had to match his own. If Wei Wuxian was right, they both used to know the Magpie king.

"I'm still missing something," Wei Wuxian said, clicking his tongue in annoyance. "But what… your name? It's got to be your name. Something in "Sang", right?"

Before Wei Wuxian could start guessing at that name, Lan Xichen felt his sword be torn from his hand and saw Jin Guangyao try to stab Wei Wuxian through the heart. If not for Lan Wangji's fast reflexes allowing him to parry the strike, the ghost king would have been pierced through. 

"Feeling threatened, Lianfang-Zun?" Wei Wuxian taunted with a sharp laugh. "I wasn't sure yet which of the three of you it was, actually. I'll admit I'm glad it's you, because my bet was on Zewu-Jun, and that would have made things quite awkward for me."

"My husband might be kind enough to listen to your ramblings," Jin Guangyao retorted, "but I won't be so easily charmed. I don't know what sort of a game Huaisang and you are playing, but I will stop you before you can cause anymore harm!" 

Wei Wuxian started cackling, and glanced at his husband who nodded. 

"Nie Huaisang," Lan Wangji said.

The Magpie King gasped like a drowning man coming to the surface, clinging to Baxia as if he might fall without its support. 

"That's me," he said. "I'm Nie Huaisang. And you," he added, glaring at Jin Guangyao, "are going to regret what you did to me."

Realising his mistake, Jin Guangyao dropped Shuoyue and jumped to hide again behind Lan Xichen who allowed it, partly out of habit, partly because the shock was too great. 

The instant Lan Wangji had said out loud the Magpie King's name, forgotten memories flooded Lan Xichen's mind, changing everything he thought he remembered of his life as a mortal. Back then, whenever he'd visited Qinghe, he would spend time with Nie Mingjue certainly, but there was also his little brother tagging along, an odd boy who'd soon started growing into a charming young man for whom Lan Xichen fell hard. Both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue had loved Nie Huaisang, both of them had wanted to take him to the Heavenly Court after ascending, and yet neither of them had mourned him when he died, because they couldn't remember he even existed when that happened. 

"Xichen, husband, don't listen to them!" Jin Guangyao pleaded. "You know me better than that!" 

"Do I?" Lan Xichen asked, pinching his nose to fight off the first signs of a headache. "You… you were there too, weren't you? You used to be a servant for the Nie, but Mingjue was pushing for you to learn cultivation. Mingjue and A-Sang as well, yet you did this to him."

"I meant no harm!" Jin Guangyao cried out. "How could I have known things would go this way? But it was unfair! I worked so hard for everything, and he…" he gesture furiously at nie Huaisang. "What had he done to deserve all his luck? What was he doing with all his luck, except laze around and paint his stupid fans! He was offered a chance to ascend and he refused!” Jin Guangyao shouted. “Everything anyone could have wanted, and he refused! Was I really supposed to let him continue to waste whatever good fortune he’d been granted, while I slaved away only to have my every effort looked down upon?”

"But da-ge never looked down on you," Nie Huaisang coldly said, still leaning on Baxia. "He promoted you, complimented you. If you'd only kept working diligently, soon enough he would have taken you to the Middle Court. You would not have ascended, not with a fate like yours, but…" 

"Who said I wanted to be a god?" Jin Guangyao snapped. "You think I would have done this if I had guessed you were fated to ascend? All I wanted was to be lucky, to be recognised by my family, and live the same pampered life you had! Do you know how hard things were for me before I exchanged our fates?”

“I’m not going to cry for you,” Nie Huaisang said.

“Of course not. Why would you? You’ve never known a day of hardship in your life!” Jin Guangyao cried. “You’re nothing but a pampered little brat, you…”

Suddenly Nie Huaisang stood straighter.

“I haven’t known hardship?” he snarled with a vicious laugh, raising the hand which held his blood covered fan. 

Coming from the very floor, golden ropes like the ones on Nie Mingjue wrapped themselves around the other three gods present, tying them up tightly and robbing them of their strength. Only Wei Wuxian was left free, but he made no movement to help the others, only checking at Lan Wangji to make sure his restraints were not too uncomfortable.

“You know well how far from easy my last year alive was, Meng Yao,” Nie Huaisang spat, pointing his fan at Jin Guangyao. “You were there when my father was wounded in a Night Hunt, when his health declined, when rumours started spreading that I wasn’t his son! You were there, and you’d suddenly become his favourite, while I was treated as a stranger by my own father who’d lost his mind so badly he couldn’t recognise me anymore! And weren’t you there that night as well, when his sabre broke and his mind fractured?”

“It wasn’t my fault! How could I have known this would happen? Members of your family always go mad, don’t they?”

“But they don’t usually find a soulless sabre and slaughter their entire household with it,” Nie Huaisang said darkly. “You were there with us, Meng Yao. How foolish I was, trying to save you, just as I was trying to save others. Do you remember how this room looked that night, covered in the blood of my mother, of the younger disciples?”

Nie Huaisang ragefully waved his fan at the walls around them, and the room changed. It became darker, as if it were the middle of the night rather than early morning, and all over the floor were the shadowy shapes of mangled bodies, several belonging to mere children. The shadow of a tall, square man stood by the bed, nearly exactly above Nie Mingjue, while a frail young man with several deep gashes over his body sprung forward to stab him through the heart with an ornate dagger. The tall man collapsed, falling into the exact position Nie Mingjue was kept in.

“You made me kill my father,” Nie Huaisang said, watching the scene unfold with a face devoid of expression. “He would have gotten out and continued slaughtering more innocents otherwise. He kept saying he was going to purify the world after purifying this house. I couldn’t let him, and I wasn’t strong enough to stop him any other way. You made me kill my father, Meng Yao,” Nie Huaisang hissed, staring at the wounded shadow of his former self. “And then you made my brother kill me.”

He waved his fan again, and a new character entered the scene presented to them: Nie Mingjue.

That shadow of the past, a young Jin Guangyao right behind him, went straight to the young Nie Huaisang who fell on his knees. The words exchanged couldn’t be heard through the illusion, but it was clear Nie Huaisang was pleading as he weakly pulled on his brother’s robes, begging either for help or for forgiveness. He got neither. In a fit of cold rage, Nie Mingjue lifted Baxia and brought it down on his desperate brother.

The illusion lifted just as Baxia’s blade was about to make contact, the current Nie Huaisang quickly waving his fan again to remove all traces of the past, as if unable to bear witness to his own death.

On the floor Nie Mingjue was crying and screaming through the fabric gagging him, but Nie Huaisang ignored him, all his attention on Jin Guangyao as he raised Baxia.

“Now, I could just show you what it feels like to have your head chopped off,” Nie Huaisang mused, admiring Baxia’s sharp edge. “I won’t say I haven’t fantasised about it… but since we’re all here together, I think it might be more fun to offer you a different option, should you be willing to take it. One where you wouldn’t die, Meng Yao. Does that interest you?”

“Huaisang, I’m sorry,” Jin Guangyao cried. “I couldn’t have known, I couldn’t have imagined, I never meant…”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Nie Huaisang cut him. “Here is my offer: if I let you live, you will descend from godhood, live as a mortal, and take on a fate worse than the one that ought to have been yours.”

Jin Guangyao fell to his knees. “Worse than my original fate? How could I bear with it when already that one was…”

He trailed off, remembering suddenly that however awful his fate had been, he had managed to escape it while condemning Nie Huaisang to suffer it in his stead. Realising he would find no sympathy there, Jin Guangyao turned to Lan Xichen.

“Xichen, don’t let him hurt me!” he begged. “I’m your husband, won’t you protect me? No matter how it came to be, weren’t we happy all this time? Haven’t I done everything I could to be a good husband, to care for you, to support you? Has there ever been a moment I wasn’t on your side? Even when your brother decided to marry a Devastation, didn’t I immediately come up with ways to help so this wouldn’t cause trouble? Don’t let that Magpie King harm me, Xichen!”

Nie Huaisang threw them both a disgusted look, while Wei Wuxian laughed.

“Lianfang-Zun, don’t pretend to be so good,” he said. “Of course you wanted to help deal with our marriage. The scandal was going to affect you too, right? And since you probably were already so scared that someone might discover you weren’t supposed to be in the Heavenly Court at all, you couldn’t risk people poking too much into the Lan's private business.”

“Was it all a plot to unmask me then?” Jin Guangyao asked. “That stupid marriage…”

Wei Wuxian laughed again, and hugged Lan Wangji who, in spite of being tied up, leaned into his husband’s touch.

“On my part, it was all sincere,” Wei Wuxian said. “But now I’m wondering if Nie-xiong hasn’t been scheming for a long while, hm? He was around when I first met Lan Zhan after all.”

Nie Huaisang shrugged, looking at best annoyed by Jin Guangyao’s begging and Wei Wuxian’s display of affection.

“You and Lan Wangji were tied by fate, so nothing I could have done would change that,” Nie Huaisang said. “But this makes me think… so, Meng Yao, you think it would be too cruel to send you back to your own fate? Then I have another option. One you will like, I believe, since it will leave you unharmed.”

“I’m listening,” Jin Guangyao said.

Nie Huaisang closed his fan in a sharp gesture and from a corner of the room came Sangcan, carrying a dagger in his open hands. Lan Xichen felt cold sweat run down his back as he recognised the weapon from the memory they had been shown earlier.

It was the one Nie Huaisang had used to kill his own father.

Sangcan, after throwing an apologetic look to Lan Xichen, dropped it in front of Jin Guangyao whose restraints withdrew, leaving him free to move once more. Sangcan then turned to his master for further instructions, but Nie Huaisang paid him no mind, and so the ghost simply remained next to Lan Xichen.

“Here is my second offer,” Nie Huaisang announced. “If you refuse it, I’ll kill you.”

“I’m listening,” Jin Guangyao repeated.

“Use this dagger to kill Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue,” Nie Huaisang ordered. “If you do so, I will take the blame, and you will be free to do as you please. Go back to the Heavenly Court or return to life as a mortal, I don’t care as long as you kill them first.”

“Now wait a minute!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed. “I’m not sure that’s quite fair on those two. What have they done to deserve this?”

Nie Huaisang reopened his fan to hide a cruel smile.

“What has anyone ever done to deserve their fate, Wei-xiong? It would please me to see this happen, I am in a position of power in my own demand, so why shouldn’t I ask for something that amuses me?”

Wei Wuxian threw him a sharp look, while Lan Wangji struggled against the golden ropes restraining him.

“If they are killed, we will demand justice,” Lan Wangji threatened.

Nie Huaisang shrugged. He put down Baxia again, leaning against it as if eager to admire the show to come.

“Lan-xiong, with your brother dead, you won’t remain in the Heavenly Court,” he explained, as if Lan Wangji were nothing but an unruly child. “Nobody will listen to the voice of one mortal clamouring for justice. I’d know. I’ve made it my business to offer an alternative to those who gods won’t listen to. You’ll have to rely on your husband then… and however powerful he might be, he’s not stupid enough to make an enemy of me.”

Wei Wuxian gritted his teeth, but didn’t deny it. Lan Xichen, watching him, thought that his brother-in-law just didn’t have the power and experience to take on the Magpie King. Not yet, anyway. Considering what he’d seen of Wei Wuxian in those last few days, Lan Xichen had no doubt the Yiling Patriarch could very well surpass the Magpie King in a century or two.

Not that it mattered, he thought, because Jin Guangyao wasn’t going to turn on centuries of friendship and intimacy just to save his own skin. He wasn’t that sort of a person. Lan Xichen refused to believe his husband could be like that, no matter what else he had done in the past.

He also couldn’t believe that Nie Huaisang could want them dead. Not when Lan Xichen could now remember the sweet and mischievous boy he once loved, the one who adored his brother long before Nie Mingjue ascended, the one who called it a good luck charm whenever he kissed Lan Xichen.

“Hurry up and decide, Meng Yao,” Nie Huaisang ordered, impatiently fanning himself. “Their life for yours, you’re making a great deal. You know as well as I do that they’re not worth much. Look at them, such powerful martial gods they’re supposed to be, and yet even someone like you tricked them so well. They disgust me,” Nie Huaisang spat. “One little curse, and they quite happily forgot everything about me, didn’t they? Well, I know I was never what they wanted. If not for fate forcing them to have me at their side, they’d never have looked twice my way. I wonder if they weren’t happier with you?” he mused, pausing his fan for a moment to throw Lan Xichen a hateful look. “They must have been, or else they’d surely have noticed something. How pathetic. So go on, Meng Yao. Kill them, and we shall both be freed from fate today.”

“A-Sang, you’re wrong!” Lan Xichen exclaimed. “I didn’t…”

Next to him, Meng Yao jumped to his feet, dagger in hand and turned to strike his husband, but Sangcan put himself in front of Lan Xichen with a desperate cry and took the blow for him. All of them stared at that dagger, burrowed to the hilt into Sangcan’s chest. The ghost himself might have been the more surprised of them all, and he raised a hand to touch the weapon. Before he could do so, Jin Guangyao pulled out the dagger. Sangcan immediately collapsed at Lan Xichen’s feet, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“A-Yao, why?” Lan Xichen gasped, looking at his husband for a trace of shame or remorse, only to find Jin Guangyao staring at him with open hatred.

“I never asked to be a god,” he spat. “And I never asked to have you as my husband either, nor Nie Mingjue as my brother. I just wanted to be rich and comfortable! Maybe for Huaisang this would have been good luck, but for me it has been nothing but centuries of misery!”

Lan Xichen stared at the man who had shared his life for so long, too numb to do anything but cry as Jin Guangyao raised his dagger to strike again.

Behind him, the Magpie King laughed.

“So many lives ruined, and you couldn’t even be happy,” Nie Huaisang said while quickly lifting Baxia above himself, and with one sharp gesture he sent Jin Guangyao’s head rolling.

For a few seconds, Jin Guangyao’s body remained standing in front of Lan Xichen. His head, which had fallen to the side, watched as if in horror. Then, slowly, Jin Guangyao’s body crumbled to the floor next to Sangcan’s.

Lan Xichen, sprayed with blood, continued crying while looking down at his husband, too exhausted to feel anything about what had happened. He barely even noticed when the golden ropes that had kept him in place withdrew and his strength returned to him.

“Wei-xiong, I will impose on you one last time and ask that you take all those people away from my home,” Nie Huaisang ordered in a bored voice. “I’ll only keep Meng Yao’s corpse as decoration, the others don’t interest me.”

Lan Xichen tore his eyes from his late husband’s remains to look at Nie Huaisang, this man he had never quite forgotten and who he had searched for centuries, even without knowing who he was. He still didn’t know who he was. Although the face and voice were the same, there was nothing left of the sweet boy in his memories.

“Are you going to plead for another chance?” Nie Huaisang taunted when he noticed Lan Xichen’s eyes on himself. “Are you going to say it is fate? Say it, I dare you! Fate disgusts me. I didn’t do this to have you and da-ge back. Being fooled so thoroughly for so long… just looking at the two of you, I want to puke.”

If he’d had the strength, Lan Xichen would have objected that he wasn’t fooled, that he’d never fully forgotten his A-Sang. He suspected that the same was true of Nie Mingjue, always giving fans to Jin Guangyao, always craving a warmth that Jin Guangyao failed to offer. Jin Guangyao had exchanged their fates and tried to erase Nie Huaisang’s existence from their lives, but he had missed certain details which came up as expectations he couldn’t fulfil.

He could almost pity Jin Guangyao. It really must have been a torture for him to live like this, always fearing they would figure out the truth if he didn’t play his role to perfection.

Lan Xichen, suddenly, wondered if perhaps Nie Mingjue too had remembered an A-Sang, if he too had looked for a boy whose face and relation to him he couldn’t recall. Maybe it had been a mistake from the start for Lan Xichen not to speak about the friend he thought he’d lost.

They would talk about it now.

They would talk about many things, but not in that house, and certainly not in front of the Magpie King.

Lan Xichen hobbled to Nie Mingjue, and helped him up. His wounds weren’t so severe after all, but he was shaking badly and seemed unable to look at his brother. Even when the Magpie King handed Baxia back to him, Nie Mingjue turned away, his hands trembling as he received his weapon still stained with the blood of Jin Guangyao.

As they left the room, Lan Xichen couldn’t resist looking back one last time. He saw the Magpie King kick the lifeless corpse of Jin Guangyao, before stepping over it to check on Sangcan’s body and waving his fan over it. The body immediately disappeared without a trace, which did not surprise Lan Xichen. What could Sangcan have been, except a tool for the Magpie King to give what hints he could without Jin Guangyao’s notice so Wei Wuxian could unravel the mystery of his curse. The only question, then, was why Sangcan had been made to protect Lan Xichen.

A question that would likely never be answered, or so Lan Xichen hoped.

From what he had seen and heard so far of the Magpie King, the reason could only have been a cruel one.

#xisang #nie huaisang #lan xichen #nie mingjue #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #marked man au #I legit have no idea how to continue after this point lol

[acrylicqueen]

My Version of FNAF Canon

(a.k.a. my attempt at cleaning up the FNAF timeline) FNAF’s canon is messy and confusing, and I personally think the story would be better if the series ended with FNAF3 like Scott had originally intended. So, a  few days ago, I wrote up a revised version of the story and explained every detail so it is all easily understood.   You can read the revised story/timeline of events underneath the read more! 

Characters:

Henry Emily

Original Founder of Fazbear Entertainment

Friendly and approachable. A family man despite being a single parent. Harbors big aspirations and is determined to stick to them. Has a tendency to get in a little over his head; has so many ideas that they all tend to muddle together and become confusing. Despite this, he is very professional. A HARD worker.

William Afton

Co-founder of Fazbear Entertainment

Founder of Afton Robotics

Manipulative and controlling. Narcissistic; possibly a megalomaniac. Has a habit of taking advantage of others for personal gain. Incredibly fake in earnest, but good at pretending to be a genuine person. Bad temper. Highly intelligent and sly, which makes him appear rather charming to most people.

Timeline:

Early 1970s

Henry has an idea for a kid's pizza restaurant utilizing animatronics and arcade games as entertainment.

He employs an old friend of his, William Afton, as his business partner. He becomes the co-founder of the company Henry's creating.

Working together, Henry and William found Fazbear Entertainment and in-turn Afton Robotics. 

Henry and William create the restaurant's animatronics, Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, and open their first location, "Fredbear's Family Diner." While they both design the animatronics, William builds them.

Late 1970s

Restaurant is successful and groundbreaking

After a few years of being open, to make the restaurant more exciting, Henry and William design new animatronics to be displayed alongside Fredbear and Bonnie. These new animatronics are Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy (what would later become their withered variants)

With an added aura of confidence due to building these new and more technologically advanced animatronics, William wants to take the company in a direction Henry isn't fond of; William is trying to take control of the company too much for Henry's liking

Eventually Henry fires William

Fuming, William files a lawsuit on Fazbear Entertainment, claiming he is the rightful owner of the physical animatronics. Since he built them he believes he is entitled to their copyright

William loses the lawsuit because when he forfeited the animatronics over to Fazbear Entertainment, technically Henry became the owner of them

Because of being fired and the result of the lawsuit, William is left penniless and disgraced

William grows to resent Henry and the Fazbear Entertainment company because not only did the company ruin him, but he also he believes it's not fair he helped the company become successful only to be fired and kicked off the team

William wants to get revenge, so he vows to figure out a way to ruin the company's reputation while also getting "even" with Henry for dropping him as a business partner

William takes his revenge to the extreme when he decides to murder Henry's daughter, Charlotte, outside of Fredbear's Family Diner in an act of vindictiveness and self-importance

Charlotte possesses the Security Puppet, binding her spirit to all future versions of the Puppet as well

Henry is devastated and the company takes a massive blow when the public finds out Fredbear's Family Diner is now linked to a child's murder

Henry closes Fredbear's down until further notice due to his grief and the negative reception from the public

Meanwhile, William gets away with his crime, no one even suspecting him since he dropped off the public radar after the lawsuit

Mid-Late 1980s (1985-1987) (FNAF 2)

Henry is being dogged by investors of Fazbear Entertainment to rekindle the restaurant 

Feeling backed into a corner, Henry agrees to make a new version of Fredbear's Family Diner, which he renames "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza." 

Henry makes new animatronics for the restaurant himself. He dubs these the "Toy" animatronics. Toy Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy (+ a new version of The Puppet, "The Marionette") 

Henry equips these new animatronics with special facial scanners to detect potential criminals in the restaurant. The animatronics identify these criminals through a database. Henry is determined to have this restaurant be safer than his last attempt. 

Note: This restaurant is most likely when the company began using the spring lock suits. Therefore, the safe rooms for bleeding out are located in THIS location specifically. This may have been a suggestion and action from investors, as I can't see Henry making this reckless idea up. 

The restaurant opens to mixed reception. This new restaurant is in a different city than Fredbear's. Henry made this decision mostly to help his mental health.

Eventually, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza becomes just as popular, if not more so, than Fredbear's Family Diner. Kids ADORE adore the restaurant for the characters, games, and prizes, and adults can appreciate the groundbreaking technology that goes into the animatronics.

Despite still being the owner of Fazbear Entertainment, Henry attempts to distance himself from holding a strong management role. He's still traumatized by the brutal death of his daughter.

William, noticing that Fazbear Entertainment is becoming successful again even after the crime he committed, becomes enraged. 

Still doing poorly mentally and financially because of his termination from the company, William realizes that in order to truly tarnish the reputation of Fazbear Entertainment for good, he's going to have to hatch a new plan (William is truly a vindictive bastard)

Note: William tries so hard to ruin the company because not only did it put him out financially, which essentially ruined his life, but it wronged him personally, and since he's so narcissistic he believes people shouldn't be able to get away with doing him wrong. This is most likely not his first experience with breaking the law/doing something truly horrible.

Under the alias 'Fritz Smith' William applies for a job at the new location, landing a position as a day-worker and part-time night guard

William changes his appearance slightly just in case anyone recognizes him from Fredbear's

Considering the fact Henry is trying to distance himself from the new restaurant, he doesn't notice William (posing as a different person) is now working at Freddy's

Note: The animatronics begin to act strangely toward the staff of the restaurant after William gets a job there because Charlotte (inside The Marionette) can sense that an evil presence is within the building now. Therefore, the animatronics start to act aggressively toward all adult figures (considering Charlotte mostly remembers that the murderer is an adult.) 

For a while, William works a normal job at the restaurant, getting close to the patrons and other staff members. He takes this time to study the inner workings of the company.

He's seen as a slightly odd, but generally well-meaning individual (and a pretty good worker too!)

After about a year or so William finally puts his plan into motion, using one of the old animatronic suits to lure five children into the backroom and murder them, just as he had done to Charlotte (maybe he does this on a day he's supposed to have off in order to have an alibi. Takes the day off and then sneaks into work anyway)

He finds great satisfaction in this and ends up having quite a bit of fun committing the crime. It reminds him of the catharsis he felt back when he murdered Charlotte.

(As an added bonus 🙂) William takes each corpse and shoves them into spare animatronic suits in the backroom closet for someone to discover later. He then cleans himself up and promptly flees the scene of the crime, lying in wait for what will happen next.

Charlotte's spirit, now residing inside of The Marionette, gives life to the dead children by allowing them to possess the animatronic they were each stuffed into. This permanently binds their souls to any and all past and future versions of that character. (So technically each child is possessing EVERY iteration of their respectful animatronic. Ex: The child stuffed inside of Freddy is haunting Fredbear, Withered Freddy, Toy Freddy, Regular Freddy, Etc.)

Note: The childrens' bodies were most likely stuffed inside the Withered animatronics. William probably figured it would take people a bit to check those specific models, which would give him enough time to prepare for the fallout that would occur when they were found.

With the disappearance of five children at the restaurant, an investigation is launched. The staff plans to have the restaurant closed for only a few days so the police can conduct it.

As expected, the corpses of the children are found during the investigation and the restaurant is promptly closed

After being cleaned out, the restaurant holds one final birthday party before shutting down to allow for further investigation into the crime

With these five murders, the animatronics are sent into a frenzy, acting more aggressive than ever and generally not working right

During the last birthday party, Jeremy Fitzgerald, the night guard that was instructed to work the dayshift, is attacked by one of the animatronics, resulting in the "Bite of '87". He survives, but with the loss of his frontal lobe he loses cognitive abilities and all motor skills. 

Note: You may ask "Why'd Fazbear Entertainment agree to still do the birthday party even though they literally just found five childrens' corpses in the building?" Money, duh. The managers don't want to miss out on a sale, and they CERTAINLY don't want to have to refund parents for the party.

This is the final nail in the coffin for the restaurant, so it's completely shut down, the future of the company unknown.

The murders of the five children and the Bite of '87 completely tank the reputation of the restaurant, and the tragedy is all over the news.

Henry is left in utter disbelief and turmoil after the incident. Unable to deal with everything, he makes the decision to sell Fazbear Entertainment, completely cutting ties with the company.

Meanwhile, William sits back, satisfied with the fact that he was successfully able to achieve what he set out to do.

Early 1990s (1993?) (FNAF 1)

The Fazbear Entertainment company is in limbo for a while after the incidents. The FNAF2 location is left to rot.

The investigations into the murders of the five children culminated in the wrongful arrest and detainment of another Freddy's employee. Therefore, William has remained innocent.

However, as the years have passed, William has begun to be haunted by the spirits of the five children.

He decides that in order to get *them to stop bothering him, he'll break into the rotting Freddy's location and completely dismantle the animatronics, effectively destroying their vessels and hopefully causing the spirits to be destroyed along with them.

*This doesn't necessarily have to be the actual spirits of the children. It could also be an inkling of William's conscious seeping through and torturing him about the crimes he committed. 

William does this and during the dismantling process is ambushed by the five spirits, scaring him into the safe room and causing him to hide in an abandoned Spring Bonnie costume lying on the ground.

This is where the spring locks release and kill him inside the suit, as seen in the FNAF3 mini games. 

Now that William is finally dead, the spirits believe they can pass on, but what they aren't aware of is that being killed in the Spring Bonnie suit has now fused William's spirit with it. Therefore, he is not truly dead. 

Mid-Late 1990s (FNAF 1)

The people that purchased the Fazbear Entertainment company from Henry decided to once again try and revitalize the company, still seeing great potential in it despite the tragedies that took place. (They want their money!)

They decide to turn the restaurant into more of a chain.

They salvage some parts from the old FNAF2 location, board up the safe rooms inside the building, and use the parts they find to remake the animatronic characters. 

(Q: Why do they board up the safe rooms? 

A: Considering these people technically still own the old FNAF2 building, I would imagine they would like to keep it around for potential other locations in the future. Therefore, they don't want anyone easily breaking into the building and screwing things up, so they just board up any and all entrances, doorways, etc. 

Q: Why did they decide to do this now? Why not earlier? The building was just sitting there, so why hadn't they boarded it up sooner?

A: Up until this point the people that own Fazbear Entertainment now weren't planning on doing ANYTHING with these old locations. They had no plans, so why would they need to make sure that one of the old locations doesn't get vandalized? They only start caring now because the building is finally a potential way to make a profit.)

These characters are cheaply made and look like a significant downgrade from the Toy animatronics (considering they weren't made by William or Henry) 

Most of everything in the new restaurant is dingier and cheaper than the past two locations because the new owners of the company care more about money than quality, unlike Henry.

Since William's spirit lives on inside the Spring Bonnie suit, the children's souls are unable to pass on, so even these new animatronics continue to act strangely and attempt to attack the night guard. 

This continues until this new location is shut down as well for health violations. The place is a mess, the pizza is nasty, and families are complaining that the animatronic characters are glitchy, smell awful, and seem to be leaking "what appears to be blood and mucus." 

~2017 (FNAF 3)

Far in the future, the Fazbear's Fright horror attraction is made to capitalize on the infamous Freddy Fazbear's Pizza "rumors"

William, now possessing Spring Bonnie, is found by Fazbear's Fright while they scavenge through the old FNAF1 location

He is placed into the horror attraction after he is salvaged. 

Influenced by his remaining bitterness toward anything Fazbear Entertainment related, plus the animalistic nature he processes while inhabiting Springtrap, he attempts to attack and kill the night guard of Fazbear's Fright

After a week, the Fazbear's Fright building catches fire and burns down. Springtrap burns with the building and, with his vessel destroyed, William's spirit is sent to Hell. It's currently debated on whether or not the fire was caused by an outside party, or by the faulty wiring and ventilation in the old building. 

Note: It's quite possible Henry found out about the horror attraction and burnt the building down himself, attempting to end all things related to the seemingly cursed franchise once and for all. This might have been an act of catharsis for him, almost like he's finally letting go of the past.

With William officially gone, the spirits of the six kids he murdered can properly pass on. 

#five night's at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf1 #fnaf2 #fnaf3 #springtrap #william afton #purple guy #henry emily #script revision #story revision #story rewrite #drabbles

[nintendylan64]

My problems with FNAF Lore

Hey guys. I felt like I wanted to explain my problems with the FNAF lore, and how the lore was ruined for me years ago.

My history with the franchise and the lore Now, I discovered the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise back in 2014 through DanTDM's Let's Play of Five Nights at Freddy's 2. It was the first time I had ever been introduced to the jumpscares and characters in-game. But I actually discovered the first game through a YTP someone made of it. With how little I knew from discovering that YTP, I assumed that Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy were anthropomorphic animals that ran the place, and that Freddy just liked to leave scary stuff in his office because he was a horror guy. That assumption was way off and DanTDM's Let's Play let me discover that the antagonists weren't anthropomorphic animals. I then discovered Markiplier's videos on the games in 2014, and fan-animations of the games like SMG4's Freddy's Spaghettiria series, and Piemations' 5 AM at Freddy's series. Besides the surprising jumpscares, what really got me hooked on the FNAF series was the 80s-90s aesthetics, and the lore behind it all. Around late 2014 and early 2015, I had discovered the hidden lore series by MrCreepyPasta, which was what got me interested in exploring the lore. I loved the FNAF lore when it was just, "Man kills 5 kids in pizzeria joint and the animatronics become haunted by the spirits of the kids". This made it feel much more realistic, as murder of kids in a place like this can happen in real life. The fact that the staff weren't behind any of it, and that the guards were originally just some average joes who got hired for a night guard position without knowing the dangers of it was also very realistic too. And the inclusion of another tragic event known as the "Bite of '87" was also interesting. But the biggest thing that made the lore have a charm to it, was how there was an implied history of Fazbear Entertainment, and FNAF 2 showed us the history of the place before the tragedies happened, as well as implying that the negative impression was stuck before the murders was also interesting. The lore was interesting back then because of how realistic and mysterious it was. And when the third game came out, it was a great conclusion to the franchise, in which the killer got his comeuppance, leaving the kid's souls to rest in peace. And the killer haunting the suit he died in as an attempt to escape his torment of being trapped in a suit, eventually leaving him to be burned alive in the location he was at was a very nice way to end things. But the way it had expanded on the story by taking place thirty years after the events of the first game, with the unsolved mysteries of Fazbear Entertainment trying to be recreated by people was a good way to expand upon the story. So basically, I prefer the FNAF lore when it was the story of how kids were murdered in a pizzeria joint, and how they eventually got revenge on their killer, while room was made to show us how the pizzeria joint handled this, and how the alleged hauntings were shown through the animatronics being possessed. Because of the lore being so interesting, I tried making up my own timelines to tie the story of the first three games together. And seeing as how the lore was concluded, it should've just ended there, right? Well... it didn't.

Where the problems crept in I think that the problems with the lore crept in with the fourth game. Now, this game could've had potential, as it could've taken place in the location where the withered animatronics were used in before FNAF 2, but it didn't do that. We got instead a child suffering through nightmares, with animatronics that have particularly stupid designs. Plus, what made it worse was that the Bite of 83 was introduced, making the topic of the Bite of'87 confusing since it was implied it happened in the second game, but now it was happening in the fourth game? But then it was revealed to be a separate event, why two separate events of the same thing? What constitutes the idea of establishing a similar event to the Bite of '87? It had nothing to impact the games itself at all. The bigger thing that was confusing is this, Fredbear's Family Diner was implied to have been closed for longer than 1983-1987, and the fact that you see the unwithered versions of the withered animatronics in Fredbear's makes it all the more confusing, since Fredbear's was established as a separate, and early location before it was later re-enfranchised as Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. So why retcon what was established in the previous games? Why not just show us in the fourth game what happened with the withered animatronics before they became withered, and then make a fifth game that took place in Fredbear's Family Diner? I don't know why Scott felt the need to retcon things, especially since most people thought that the franchise had already ended with the third game. Later on down the line, Sister Location came out in 2016. And I honestly hate Sister Location, lore-wise that is. The reason I say this is because Sister Location fucked up everything more than the 4th game. This time, there was more retconning, the horror tone and 80s-90s aesthetic was gone, the game felt like Sci-fi and less like the older games. Worse, Purple Guy was given an actual name, and turned from a cold-blooded killer that killed kids because of being a psychopath, into a mad scientist obsessed with placing souls into animatronics using soul juice in an attempt to create murderous animatronics, and he killed kids to do this, but most of them were his own or his friend's kids, Fazbear Entertainment was actually started by this maniac, and Mike Schmidt from FNAF 1 was no longer an average joe working a night shift job, but instead the son of the killer and later became an unrealistic purple zombie that somehow got hired for night shift positions. Jeremy and Fritz were no longer average joes either, and were now aliases for the purple zombie who's actual name was Michael Afton, making Mike Schmidt another alias for this zombie. And now, this was more about a family that was insane to begin with trying to put their own personal demons to rest, rather than the story of the murder of 5 children in a pizzeria joint, and the killer gets his comeuppance while the faceless pizzeria chain tried keep its reputation afloat, eventually failing which lead to the closure of it. All of this shattered how I interpreted the lore. The biggest things that Sister Location fucked up were the following. 1. Taking away the 80s/90s aesthetic. In the first and second game, the game has an 80s and 90s aesthetic with the looks of the locations and decor, as well as the camera sounds sounding like cassette tapes, and the first took place in the early 90s, while the second took place in the late 80s. FNAF 3 kept the 80s/90s aesthetic, and I'd argue FNAF 4 kept the old aesthetic too, such as how old everything looked in FNAF 3, and how the house looks particularly old in FNAF 4. FNAF SL's aesthetics look way too futuristic for a FNAF game, especially since it's said to take place before the first 4 games. 2. Making it more sci-fi. The original FNAF games, and the fourth one were meant to be horror games, and they established this greatly with audio and visual cues, as well as the storyline having a horror-esque feel to it during the first 3 games, and even the 4th game kept. The focus on sci-fi traits or elements in SL kind of kills the horror-esque feel that FNAF originally gave off, especially the whole soul juice and mad scientist part. 3. Making Fazbear Entertainment have an owner. Fazbear Entertainment should've just been left as a faceless corporation that had nothing to do with the murders, the type of company to try and cover up the damage done to their reputation by cutting costs or not batting an eye when a man kills children in their restaurant. 4. Making Mike, Jeremy, and Fritz into aliases. It doesn't make any sense as to why a company would hire a foul smelling zombie who kept changing his name. I think that Mike, Jeremy, and Fritz should've just been average joes that got night guard positions not knowing that their jobs were dangerous and not knowing the hauntings of the pizzeria they applied to work for. And 5. The Afton Family. The Afton Family completely ruined the idea of the children being killed at Freddy's by an unknown man, since now it's just about a family killing his own for a dumb mad science experiment and the son is trying to stop his own father, making it so you no longer play as an average joe that discovers the dark secrets and hauntings of a pizzeria joint, but instead you're just playing as a zombie that needs to kill his own father in order to stop his father from killing anyone else. Seriously, it feels less like a horror game, and now feels more like a badly written self-insert sci-fi story with some bit of horror mixed in. The FNAF series is way too complicated to figure out now due to loads of retconning and unnecessary changes made to the story. Worse, the Nightmare, Funtime, and other animatronics that have been added to the franchise just seems like an excuse for Scott to just add new characters simply to keep the franchise going. Now, let's look at a FNAF fan-game series with a better written story.

Five Nights at Candy's Five Nights at Candy's has a much easier to understand story than FNAF. In the first game, you play as a female night guard at a burger joint where an unfortunate incident occurred between an animatronic and a customer, and an incident involving two kids at the factory where the animatronics were made. The backstory of everything, such as the original location and the burger joint's opening are explained in FNAC 3, showing how two unfortunate incidents at the puppet/animatronic theatre led to the closure of the place. We also learn more about the main character from the first game, and the one who caused the murders as well as the victims. In the second game, everything is concluded with the daughter of the guard solving the mysteries of the old factory. The reason is because Emil Macko managed to actually tell the story in an effective way, without retconning anything and without relying entirely on twists and misdirection.

Conclusion So yeah, I can't stand FNAF lore post-FNAF 4, because of how it became way too confusing to understand, and with how the series started retconning tons of things and making unnecessary changes. And it's amazing how a FNAF fan-game was able to tell its story better than the actual FNAF fan-games. So for me, I'm sticking with the FNAF 1-3 lore, which is my interpretation of it. Before I end this blog though, what's annoying is that no matter if you mention the FNAF 1-3 lore on YouTube, people will instantly start bringing in the modern FNAF lore and correct you, even if you're following you're headcanon.

#fnaf #rant #random rant

[witcherslittledove]

A prompt sent to my main by @reveniemus that I made DD with permission! This will be on AO3 probably tomorrow.

Have some Geralt/Jaskier/Valdo.

CW: Non Con (Poor Valdo), Dead Dove Do Not Eat, Inappropriate Use of Axii, blow jobs, anal sex, threesome - M/M/M, rough sex, humiliation.

__

Jaskier smirked as he sipped at his wine, watching his dearest nemesis peacock from across the room. His witcher’s hand was on his thigh, a low growl in Geralt’s chest as they watched the man who had attempted to drag Jaskier’s name through the mud and ruin his reputation. It was only Jaskier’s high standing at Oxenfurt that had saved him from falling from grace, but the Academy’s hands were tied and Jaskier was not allowed to bite back at Marx.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t have his revenge, it would just have to be a more crude execution. Luckily, Jaskier had Geralt on his side, and the lovely witcher was rather smitten with him, so desperate to please him. Even if that meant going against that adorable moral code of his.

And thus, Valdo Marx was in more danger tonight than he could possibly realise. They weren’t going to hurt him, not physically at least. That would be too obvious, too hard to deny. No, Jaskier planned on scarring his rival in a more mental capacity. Valdo had nearly taken Jaskier’s entire career from him, his reason for existing, so Jaskier was going to take Valdo’s body. He just needed a little assistance from Geralt to… convince his dearest rival to agree.

“That him?” Geralt asked, voice low so only Jaskier could hear over the music.

Jaskier hummed in agreement, catching Geralt’s wandering hands in his own and bringing them up to his lips in a kiss.

“It’s too busy, too many people.”

Too many witnesses.

“Not to worry, dear heart,” Jaskier sang sweetly, and then slid from his seat and strutting over to the troubadour. “Marx, you overgrown peacock!” he called loudly, distracting the audience. “Why don’t you let some real talent play, darling?”

“If any arrives, I will,” Valdo shot back with a smirk that Jaskier couldn’t wait to wipe off his face.

Jaskier hissed, his fists clenching at his side, but he managed to bite his tongue before he could launch a full attack. “Your life surely must be a misery if you cannot see that I am clearly the superior bard, please, indulge me, dearest.”

Valdo scoffed but gestured to the shitty makeshift stage. “I need a drink anyway, try not to murder my eardrums.”

Excellent, the plan was coming together. Valdo would head over to the bar and Geralt would be able to lure him upstairs with a quick flash of Axii whilst Jaskier was entertaining the crowds. The audience was quickly captivated by Jaskier’s performance as he danced and twirled around the room, ignoring the stage as he flirted with the most beautiful people, fleecing them of their coin. His eyes tracked Geralt as he led a rather docile Valdo Marx away from the bar and upstairs, then after just a couple more songs, Jaskier announced that he was done and thanked them for their time.

He had other business to attend to.

By the time Jaskier had reached their room, Valdo was stripped naked, his clothes crumpled and wrinkled on the floor. His silvery grey eyes were blank and unseeing as Geralt watched him from where he was leaning on the wall. The witcher gestured to the helpless bard on the bed as if to say ‘all yours.’

Jaskier winked, his tongue flicking out to lick his lips as he approached the bed, his cock already filling out, his head dizzy with power. “Oh Valdo, look at you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so quiet.”

“Hmm.”

Grabbing a fistful of Valdo’s dark brown hair, Jaskier pulled his rival’s head back, admiring the lack of fight from the normally bratty bard. “Can you snap him out of it whenever?”

Geralt nodded.

“Brilliant, wait until he’s choking on my cock, then we’ll see what he has to say,” Jaskier winked. “Care to open him up for me, love? Don’t be too careful, we want him to feel it.”

The witcher rolled his eyes but dutifully joined Valdo on the bed, slicking his fingers in oil before pushing two of them into the bard's hole. Even in his drugged out state, Valdo whimpered, tears springing to his eyes. Jaskier noted with delight that his dear rival was hard, and if they wanted to, it would be so easy to pretend the little whore was with them willingly, but Jaskier had no such wishes. He wanted this just as it was, the knowledge that they were taking this without permission burning through his veins.

He wondered why he’d never thought to do this before. He could have fucked Valdo a hundred times over when they were students at Oxenfurt, the bastard slept like the dead, he probably wouldn’t have even woken up.

Gods, he was messed up.

But Geralt was right here with him. The monster slayer helping a monster… how quaint.

Every sound and helpless whimper that fell from Valdo’s lips only heightened Jaskier’s arousal, until he found himself palming against his cock in a bid for release. Geralt’s own erection was evident in his sinfully tight leather trousers, his eyes blown wide as he caught Jaskier’s gaze. He looked magnificent, his fingers deep inside Jaskier’s rival, silver hair falling in front of his face, his eyes almost as black as the night.

Jaskier moaned, tearing at his own doublet and trousers. He left his shirt on, too desperate to bother with it as his breeches and smallclothes fell around his ankles. He was almost tempted to jerk himself off, cumming all over Valdo’s face and hair. The other bard loved to look as perfect as possible so the image of him covered in Jaskier’s spend was almost too much.

He bit back a moan, stroking his cock lazily as he winked at Geralt. “Ready, love?”

Geralt groaned, his eyes trailing down Jaskier’s body, hungry and wanting. “Yes,” he grunted.

This time, Jaskier couldn’t contain his moan as he pressed his cock into Valdo’s mouth, gripping his shoulders as he tried to steady himself. His breath hitched as Valdo’s jaw went slack and there was very little resistance as Jaskier’s cock was enveloped by the slick heat of his rival’s throat. Gods, the bastard would struggle to sing tomorrow if Jaskier did this right, and under the sign of Axii it seemed as though Valdo had lost his gag reflex, taking Jaskier deep into his mouth until Jaskier was fully sheathed.

He almost came from the sight alone.

It was heaven sent.

“Now,” he hissed at his witcher.

Geralt’s fingers moved quickly, one hand gripped on Valdo’s hips to keep him still and pressed against his clothed erection. Silver eyes brightened with recognition and Valdo choked beautifully around Jaskier’s cock, but before he could protest, Geralt had pulled his own trousers down, fucking into the bard with one sharp thrust.

Any cries that would have escaped were muffled by Jaskier’s cock, but that didn’t stop Valdo moaning helplessly or clawing at the sheets beneath his fingers. His eyes were wide and pleading, tears catching in his long eyelashes. The poor bastard could do nothing as Geralt fucked into him, pushing his mouth further onto Jaskier and every moan, cry and pitiful whimper sent shivers of pleasure down his spine. It was electric, sparks of lightning flying through his body like magic.

The best part was the dribble of pre-cum leaking onto the sheets beneath Valdo. Despite his protests, Valdo’s body was reacting perfectly, and Jaskier knew exactly how to dig the knife into his rival’s soul.

“Such a pretty little bitch,” Jaskier cooed, “taking our cocks like this. Gods, Valdo you’re already leaking. I bet you were just desperate to be fucked, you wouldn’t have said no even if we’d given you the chance, would you?”

Valdo couldn’t reply, but Jaskier could see he was trying to shake his head.

“Now, now, darling. You can’t lie. I can see your arousal, and I have no doubt that my dear witcher can smell it on you. You’re going to cum on our cocks, aren’t you darling?”

There was another muffled cry, but Jaskier just pulled at Valdo’s hair, fucking into his mouth with little care. It felt sinful, wet and warm around him, a hole for Jaskier to use no different from his arse was to Geralt. The noises coming from the room were obscene, no better than a whore house, as both bard and witcher chased their pleasure from the less than willing body beneath their hands. Geralt grunted, his eyes squeezed tight as his head dropped forward. Strong muscles bulged as they held Valdo in place, his scarred skin covered in a sheen of sweat.

He looked like a gift from the gods, everything that Jaskier ever desired.

“Fuck,” he groaned, as Geralt’s thrusts grew erratic and Jaskier felt his own carefully crafted control start to crack.

But it was Valdo spilling onto the sheets, moaning around his cock, that sent Jaskier over the edge, and Geralt followed soon after. Once they managed to catch their breaths, Geralt and Jaskier tidied themselves up.

“Well this was a delight, Marx, truly a pleasure,” he winked at Geralt. “But my witcher and I must leave you now. No hard feelings, dearest.”

And then they left, leaving Valdo covered in cum and sweat, sobbing into the filthy sheets in some forgotten inn at the edges of civilization.

#the witcher #dead dove do not eat #jaskier/valdo #geraskier #valskier #geralt/Jaskier/valdo

[enderbird]

Anniversary Special

Summary:  The 65th Anniversary Special for the Warner Siblings happens. Yakko learns some things that, in the end, don't matter.

Words: 1808

Warnings: talk of the canonical neglect of the warners : i am staring at the water tower :, mention of attempted murder? that is. kinda it. 

Notes: I watched the 65th Anniversary Special of the original Animaniacs yesterday. I had some feelings and shoved them on through Yakko tgyhu  They’re probably OOC as I have never written the Warners before. I threw in the beginning of the story from Wakko’s Wish in here because I thought it’d be cute. and I also have no idea when they actually started working on the movie. we out here.

AO3

This wasn’t beta-ed... or like. yeah. It’s probably got a few mistakes in it because I did start this at 1am today. but yeah.

He shouldn't have been surprised as he was, not that it was clear he was surprised about anything. Yakko was drawn an actor and, even though he can't die, he likes to say he'll die one too. It's just... everyone knew they were in the water tower. Everybody. Other toons, the staff, the big man upstairs too.. probably. Everyone except the public seemed to know they were locked up in a water tower for sixty years of their toony lives. 

 He can't express his anger, of course, it's their 65th Anniversary Special! He should be celebrating sixty-five years of wonderful time with everyone, not wishing he hadn't spent most of them locked away with his siblings. 

 Yet here he is. About to explode he's so upset. 

 Yakko always thought maybe the other toons were working on trying to free them and such other things. They were fellow toons! Trapping children in a space with nothing but their half-formed hammerspaces and imaginations in a fucking water tower isn't how toons should be treated. He'd hoped someone, maybe Bugs, the very face of the company, had tried to get them free or something, you know? But no.

 In the end, it seemed  everyone  at Warner Bros was happy to have been rid of them for sixty glorious, glorious years. Not a full sixty, though, they still got to be free one day every few years so the tower could be checked for termites and whatever. He never bothered to listen to what they were let out for because it honestly never mattered. For one day, even if it be only every few years, he got to be somewhere else. 

 That was something they all had always looked forward to. Running around in search of new things. Everything was always changing and it was so hard to keep track of it all when you only get to see snippets of it every few years. But it was okay! Even if they always got caught at the end of the day after the company was done doing god knows what, they still at least got to see something new. Something exciting.

 Yakko grabbed his siblings' hands in an attempt to pull himself away from his thoughts as if they wouldn't just return later in the night when they got back home. Back to the tower.. back in his ball pit. For now, though? He might as well enjoy what was left of the show, as much as his revelation hurt him. He really did hold onto the hope the other toons would try and free them. 

 Honestly, when they were first locked away, he'd thought it was a joke. He sat there for almost two months just waiting for the punchline to kick off. He'd only actually thought that because everyone just seemed so excited and happy when they were put in the tower.. he wanted to hold onto that, not that he was able to for long.

  When he'd looked back up at the screen he saw Daffy, talking about their original nonsensical cartoon. The one about the flypaper or whatever it was. Complaining about how it went on for eight hours. This was kinda rude to show at an event that was supposed to celebrate them, right? It felt rude at least. Whatever. 

 He just squeezed his siblings' hands and ignored the show, seeing as nothing good had come from actually watching it so far.

 --------------------

 Hours later, he couldn't sleep. The night had gotten better after they got back home. After Buddy tried to kill them out of jealousy for his old, ruined reputation, and after he'd found that no one cares about them stuck in the tower. You'd think Yakko would be a little more shaken up about the dying thing, but no. 

 It seems he was the only one not able to sleep so far, as he could hear Dot moving around in her sleep above him, and Wakko making noises in their sleep on the top bunk. He'd probably wake them up so they could all sleep together if that didn't just make him feel a little iffier. He was the oldest, right? The oldest doesn't need to ask his younger siblings if they could all sleep together because he couldn't just sleep alone. That's stupid.

 He just gave up and got up. Wakko would probably be up soon, as the middle child always got up for something at some point in the night. Dot would follow after Wakko accidentally wakes her up, etc etc. Yakko probably knew his siblings better than anything, more than any song he's had to memorize the lyrics for or the very backs of his paws. 

 He placed any balls that had fallen out when he got up back in his ball pit bed, rubbing his eyes and wandering off in the dark towards their little kitchen. He might as well wait there... it's where everyone ended up at some point in the night. 

 --------------------

 A few hours later, give or take, Yakko heard the unmistakable sound of Wakko climbing down the bunk bed ladder and making their way around the water tower. They sometimes sleep-ate or talked.. or walked.. so if that ended up being the case tonight then he'd wake up Wakko, but only then. 

 He'd pulled a light out of hammerspace to read with, but ended up messing around with and breaking it. How he broke the light didn't exactly matter as he saw, heard more than anything, his sibling finally stumble into the kitchen. 

 What really sucked about the dark was, even if they were supposed to be animals and such, they had terrible night vision. It didn't help with gags, and they weren't any specific animal, so they didn't have the luxury of most other toons when it came to the dark. That was what really got him about being stuck in the dark for so long. 

 He squinted at the other toon from his spot at the kitchen table, only to find he was being squinted at back. 

 "What're you doin' up?" Was the only thing he found Wakko saying, who now standing in the doorway and waiting for an answer.

 Now obviously he can't just answer with "Oh I was thinking about all our time stuck in here with no clear way of being able to ever leave" because that's upsetting. This was one of the last people he could ever find himself trying to upset, not that'd he'd want to go and just do that anyway. It's against his very purpose as a toon, isn't it? 

 "Just couldn't sleep. Thought I'd come in here and run into you sooner or later, you know? Did you wake up Dottie?"

 Both brothers knew never to call their sister Dottie, it was Dot or Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca the Third, and she made sure it stayed that way.. but it didn't seem she'd wake up yet tonight. Maybe later. It should, at least, be safe to joke about until then. 

 Wakko seemed to accept that answer as they continued their journey to the fridge, blinding a very tired Yakko when they opened it. They pulled out a giant cake from god knows where before going over to sitting across from their brother.

 "I didn't hear her getting up this time. Just her normal movin' around. Did you wanna talk to her or somethin'?" Is what Yakko finally got in response, but only after Wakko had taken a huge bite out of the cake.. as well at their plate. 

He just shook his head, laying it down on his arms. "Thought maybe we could spend the day after our 65th Anniversary Special doing something together. Only if you guys want to, of course."

 It took longer to get a response, as Wakko had just swallowed the cake and plate whole, which wasn't anything new. "Maybe you could tell Dot the story from that script we got a few days ago. She'd like getting to practice.." 

 "I'd like to get to tell you both the story, even if it's mostly about Dot. You're not there for it in the movie, are you?"

 Wakko just shook their head, laying it on their arms as their brother had done a bit before.

 "Well, that just can't do. How about.. we all sleep in my ball pit tonight. You could go grab Dot after you're finished snacking, and I'll see about finding those scripts to look back over, yeah?" 

 Wakko nodding along, seeming pretty happy with the idea before running off to get their sister. 

 While Wakko did that and about got their fingers bitten off for it, Yakko just continued to sit there, looking happier than he had earlier. Not that anyone could see his face. Wakko probably knew he didn't have to look over his lines but agreed so he could be alone a little longer, or maybe they were just that tired. He didn't care which.

 Yakko probably needed Wakko and Dot more than they needed him. He was okay with that, but it's not something he'd tell them. All that mattered right now was getting to his siblings before Dot or Wakko got impatient and came looking for him, which he was completely fine with doing. 

 He stepped into the little spot they'd sectioned off from the rest of the water tower and called a room before clearing his throat, which he mostly did just to let them know he'd finally gotten back. 

 "Dot, if you didn't murder Wakko over your 'cutie sleep', I'm gonna go ahead and say sorry for waking you up. If Wakko did perish by your hand I'm taking it back." 

 That was mostly a joke. They'd never kill over sleep, not usually at least. Dot did just get annoyed if woken up for almost any reason. 

 He slid into the ball pit he, for some reason unknown to him, called a bed. The last time they were out he found some kind of time-traveling dohickey Brain had made for one of his failed schemes and decided to go and mess around for a bit. See what the future was like. Just found some ball pit laying in the middle of some convention hall.

 He can't remember what it was called now (Mashcon? Stashcon? Dashcon??) and it didn't matter. What mattered now is he could feel both of his siblings with him that he needed to start on a story for. 

 "Alright, you two. Here we go," he cleared his throat again, with no real need to... again. "Once upon a time, a brave knight married a beautiful princess-" 

 Yeah. This would turn out okay, even if he wasn't too happy with the other toons right now. He'd always be just fine with these two. That's all that was important.

#ozzy writes #thats a shitty writing tag #but whatever #Animaniacs #Yakko Warner #Wakko Warner #Dot Warner #Bugs Bunny mentioned #Daffy Duck mentioned #I know the ball pit bed is from the reboot but like... #it seemed like it'd be fun to add. #Brain mentioned #the only comment so far is about dashcon ball pit and it's like... my favorite thing #yakko warner is very tired and trying his best #Nonbinary Wakko

[bush-viper-cutie]

“No One Listens” || YEAR 3 – Ch.40 (HP au)

                              Chapter List

<-- Last Chapter                          Next Chapter -->

Day posted: 2/6/2021

Word count: 2,888

Relationship: EVENTUAL severus X oc (slow burn)

Rating: E for everyone

Warnings: none

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A/N: This is my first fan fic I’m writing mainly as a way to practice. This is a retelling of the hp books with an inserted character. Although most every character will be written about, this is mostly for the pro snape fandom. Please do not fear, although this is a severus x oc story, it is an incredibly slow burn as I do not intend for them to get together at all until after the final book events. Chapters will be posted twice a week.

This derivative work follows the events of the Harry Potter books by Jk Rowling and is intended as a fun way to practice my writing. Thank you for reading :D

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~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

Heather and Hermione followed Madam Pomfrey as she moved Harry into a bed next to Ron. He looked pale and there were beads of sweat trickling down his temples.

“When will he wake up?” Hermione asked.

Madam Pomfrey placed a cold towel on his forehead and sighed. “Soon I suspect. How many where there?”

“Dozens, maybe hundreds… or more…” Heather tried to count all the misty cloaks in her memory but they all morphed into one nightmare-ish cloud of anguish and torment.

“Oh dear.” Madam Pomfrey shook her head and moved onto Ron again.

Heather and Hermione sat on the chairs by Harry’s bed and waited for something to happen. Hermione seemed to be waiting for Harry and Ron to wake up, but now that Harry was safe under Madam Pomfrey’s care, Heather waited for Professor Dumbledore to show up like he always did after these events.

She would settle everything with Professor Dumbledore as soon as he arrived and save Sirius, their only chance at a better home. She and Hermione would tell him everything that happened and their reputations as good students should at least warrant an investigation into it all.

“Shocking business…” a grim voice sounded from outside the hospital wing, just barely audible enough in the quiet chamber. “Shocking…”

Heather turned and strained her hearing.

“Miracle none of them died…”

Heather turned to Hermione and whispered, “I think that’s Fudge.”

Hermione nodded. “Is he alone?”

The voice was growing louder. He must be walking down the hall towards them! Heather moved to stand at the foot of Harry’s bed, ready to face the Minister of Magic with the unbelievable truth they’d all learned tonight.

“Never heard the like… by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape…”

“Thank you, Minister,” Snape said courtly.

Heather’s courage began to diminish. If Professor Snape was the one he was conversing with, then her reputation as a good student would surely be ruined if he mentioned her attack on him to Cornelius Fudge. She wondered if it was possible for her school file to transfer to a ministry file. Would her future employers be able to open up a file and know all the reasons for her detentions? Maybe she should hide again…

“Order of Merlin, Second Class, I’d say. First Class, if I can wrangle it!”

“Thank you very much indeed, Minister.” Professor Snape had never sounded more kindly.

Heather and Hermione exchanged wide-eyed looks. Although Professor Snape had done nothing for uncovering Peter Pettigrew and his whereabouts or listened to Sirius plead his innocence OR saved them all from Professor Lupin’s werewolf attack… She supposed she could look the other way, considering Harry was safe in bed next to her and not at the mercy of hundred or more soul-thirsty dementors.

“Nasty cut you’ve got there… Black’s work, I suppose?”

Her courage drained completely.

“As a matter of fact, it was the Potters.” He now sounded right on the other side of the hospital doors.

Furdge gasped. “You don’t say! Why, I wouldn’t have thought Harry to be the kind to – ”

“Black had them bewitched. I recognized it immediately. A Confundus Charm on each one, Weasley and Granger included, judging by their behavior. They seemed to believe there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren’t responsible for their actions… However, their interference might have led to more serious consequences had I not regained my consciousness in time. I believe they thought they were going to catch Black single-handed. Had their previous bad behavior not been excused, I’m sure they wouldn’t have even attempted it. They’ve gotten away with a great deal before now… I’m afraid it’s given them a rather high opinion of themselves… And of course the Potters have always been allowed an extraordinary amount of license by the Headmaster – I can hardly manage the girl with the boy being permitted just about anything.”

Heather closed her gaping mouth and crossed her arms. ‘Manage’? Her frown was as deep as Hermione’s. How were they to convince him if Professor Snape was going around saying they had been Confunded!

“Ah, well, Snape…. You know how it is, with Harry Potter and of course his sister… We’ve all got a bit of a blind spot where they’re concerned.”

“And yet – is it good for them to be given so much special treatment? Personally, I try to treat them like any other student. And any other student would be suspended – at the very least – for leading their friends into such dangers. Consider, Minister… against all school rules set in place for them, after all the precautions the Ministry put in place for them, they found themselves out-of-bounds, after hours, consorting with a werewolf and a murderer – and I have reason to believe they’ve been visiting Hogsmeade illegally too – ”

“Yes, yes, well… We shall see. We shall see… They have been undoubtedly foolish – ”

“Foolish. Half-witted. Irresponsible. Imprudent – ”

“They are children after all – say, you’ve really no idea what made all the dementors retreat?”

“No, Minister… By the time I had come ‘round, they were all heading back to their positions at the entrances.”

“Oh dear… Their behavior both amazes me and frightens – to be perfectly honest. You don’t think Black had commanded them in any way before he fell to their effects?”

“Trust me, Minister, Black hasn’t the skill or capacity for the knowledge. He is merely a dangerous murderer through sheer excitement for chaos and his atrocious disregard for lives. Potter is lucky to be alive. If the dementors hadn’t exhausted Black half to death – ”

Heather jumped. Was Sirius really half dead? But he wasn’t being treated in the hospital wing… Hermione looked to her with concern. She hoped Professor Snape would leave already so they could have the Minister’s ears to themselves.

“I am sure this night would have ended quite differently,” Professor Snape finished.

“Ah, you’re awake!”

Heather turned to Madam Pomfrey and saw her looking down at Harry. She was carrying the largest brick of chocolate she’d ever seen.

She took out a little wooden mallet from her nurse’s apron pocket and began crushing it on Harry’s bedside table. “Belgian dark chocolate, only used for emergencies. And don’t mind the cocoa solids if you find any, those’ll perk you right up – What do you think you’re doing, Mr. Potter?”

Harry sat up and slid his glasses up his nose. “How’s Ron?”

“He’ll live – Just one moment, Potter – ” She tried to push him back into bed but he wiggled out before she could.

“We need to see the Headmaster,” Harry said hoarsely.

“Fudge is right outside,” Heather told him. “When he comes in here we can, but first – hey!”

“Good then let’s go tell him right now.” Harry pushed passed Hermione and Heather and headed for the door.

“Potter,” Madam Pomfrey said as soothingly as possible. She had come around the bed and planted herself in his way. “It’s all right. They’ve got Black. He’s likely already locked away upstairs. The dementors should be performing the kiss any moment – ”

“WHAT?” all three of them yelled.

Madam Pomfrey angrily sushed them. “Mr. Weasley is resting – as you should be, Mr. Potter.”

The hospital doors swung open and Professor Snape and Cornelius Fudge stepped in, having heard their exclamation. Fudge didn’t look very pleased, seeing Harry out of bed and trying to get around Madam Pomfrey.

“You should be in bed, Harry.” He turned to Madam Pomfrey, “Has he had any chocolate?”

“Excuse me, Minister, please,” Heather cut in before Madam Pomfrey could drag Harry away. “Please, its important – ”

“Sirius Black is innocent,” Harry began talking over Heather. “We saw Peter Pettigrew tonight! He faked his death – we can’t let the dementors do that thing to Sirius! He’s – ”

Hermione joined in the explanation. “He was Ron’s rat, Scabbers, of course we didn’t know that – he’s an animagus you see and – ”

Fudge was shaking his head and waving his hands around, trying to halt their talking. “Harry, children – Please, you’re all very confused. This dreadful night has been far too much, hasn’t it? Let’s get you back in bed, Harry. Madam Pomfrey, please. Don’t worry, we have everything under control, children – ”

“BUT YOU HAVEN’T!” Harry yelled. “YOU”VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!”

Heather clasped her hands together pleadingly, desperate. “It’s true, please believe us, he’s innocent and Peter Pettigrew is getting away – ”

Professor Snape approached from behind Fudge’s shoulder. “See, Minister?” he whispered. “Completely confunded… Black’s done quite the job on them all.”

“NONE OF US ARE CONFUNDED!” Harry roared, throwing his arms up angrily.

“Minister! Professor! This conversation is distressing my patients and I must insist that you both leave.” Madam Pomfrey now began motioning them both away. “Mr. Potter, Miss Granger – this way to bed, please.”

“No! I’m not distressed! I’m trying to tell them what happened if they’d just listen!” Harry said furiously but Madam Pomfrey had found the perfect opportunity at the last word and stuffed a chunk of dark chocolate in his mouth.

Madam Pomfrey pulled Harry by the arm and forced him into bed. She turned back around and pointed at the door. “Now, visiting hours are over, please, Minister.”

But before Madam Pomfrey could shoo them out, the door opened and Professor Dumbledore came in, spotting them immediately.

Heather ran up to him and walked by his side as he approached the group. “Professor! Peter Pettigrew is gone – and Sirius Black is – ”

He walked on, ignoring her completely without even a look her way. Her heart dropped. Everyone was ignoring them! An innocent man was about to die and not a single person in the room was willing to hear them out!

“Headmaster, I’m trying to deliver the proper care to these students. I must insist that everyone leave so that they may calm down – ”

“Of course, Poppy, my apologies. However I do need a word with the Potters and Miss Granger for just a moment.” Professor Dumbledore looked at Harry, “I’ve just been talking to Sirius Black – ”

Professor Snape scoffed in revulsion. “And is he still telling the same fairy tale he’s planted in their minds? Something about a rat and Pettigrew being alive – ”

“That very one,” said Professor Dumbledore, regarding Professor Snape closely over his half-moon glasses.

“And does my evidence count for nothing?” Professor Snape spat. “Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds.”

“That was because you were knocked out!” Heather said too quickly to rethink her words.

“And who’s fault was that!” he snarled.

“But it’s true,” Hermione began, sounding like she often did in class. “If you had only arrived in time to hear – ”

“Miss Granger, HOLD YOUR TONGUE!”

The Minister jumped at Professor Snape’s tone. “Now, Snape. They are clearly disturbed in the mind. After what happened, we must make allowances – ”

“I would like to speak to Harry, Heather, and Hermione alone,” Professor Dumbledore cut him off. “Cornelius, Severus, Poppy – Please leave us.”

“Albus! But they need rest and – ” Madam Pomfrey frowned at Professor Dumbledore’s polite smile and huffed. She marched off across the room and slammed her office door shut.

Fudge took out a large golden pocket watch from his waistcoat and consulted it. “The dementors should have arrived by now.” He looked out the window and shivered, turning back to Professor Dumbledore. “I’ll meet you upstairs.” He walked to the door and held it open for Professor Snape.

Professor Snape made no intention to leave and Fudge walked out, letting the door close on its own.

“You surely don’t believe a word of Black’s story?” Professor Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Professor Dumbledore’s half-lidded eyes.

“I wish to speak to Harry, Heather, and Hermione alone,” Professor Dumbledore repeated politely.

Professor Snape took a step closer. “Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,” he breathed. “You haven’t forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven’t forgotten that he once tried to kill ME?”

“My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus,” Professor Dumbledore said quietly. He stared down at Professor Snape for several seconds until he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the door louder than even Madam Pomfrey.

As soon as it turned quiet, the three of them began speaking at once.

“Sirius is telling the truth! We saw Peter Pettigrew escape – ”

“ – he’s an animagus and ran when Professor Lupin turned into a werewolf and – ”

“ – a rat with only four fingers – ”

“ – is completely innocent and it’s really Pettigrew who – ”

Professor Dumbledore pressed his finger to his lips and they immediately stopped talking.

“You three must listen very closely, and there is no time for interruptions,” he said calmly. “It is your word – the word of three thirteen year olds who have already been accused of being confunded – and the word of a convicted criminal against the Minister’s and a member of my staff – a head of house no less – with no shred of proof to discredit the street full of eyewitness accounts who swear they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potter’s Secret-Keeper.”

“But Professor Lupin can – ” Hermione was cut off by Professor Dumbledore’s hand held up to stop her.

“Professor Lupin is currently running deep within the forest, unable to tell anyone anything. By the time he is human again, it will have been too late for Sirius. Even if Professor Lupin could give his account to the details of tonight it would count for very little. Werewolves are deeply mistrusted by most of our kind and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends – ”

Harry was shaking his head. “But – ”

“Listen to me, Harry. It is too late for explanations. By the time you get anyone to listen to you, Sirius will be worse than dead. Professor Snape’s version of events is far more convincing than any of yours.”

“He refuses to listen because he hates Sirius!” Hermione wiped the tears that had started running down her cheek. “That’s why he refused to listen in the shack. All because of some stupid trick that Sirius played on him YEARS AGO – ”

“Sirius’ actions this year have not helped his reputation. The attack on the Fat Lady, entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife, none of those are actions of an innocent man. We would need Pettigrew, alive or dead, to have any chance at overturning Sirius’ sentence.”

Heather frowned. “But if you believe us, Professor… Can’t you – ”

Professor Dumbledore shook his head. “I have no power to make these men see the truth, or to overrule the Minister of Magic.”

Heather’s lips began to tremble as she ran out of ideas. What could they do? Their word didn’t matter. Sirius’ word didn’t matter. Professor Lupin couldn’t give his word and even if he did it wouldn’t matter. In a matter of seconds Sirius could be given the kiss and not even Professor Dumbledore could save him. Do they just give up?

She hugged herself and squeezed tight, wishing she could go back in time and act more enthusiastic about possibly living with Sirius. She regretted feeling so cautious about him and not participating in their special moment in the tunnel, godfather and godchildren reunited. “So then, what can we do? What do we do?”

Professor Dumbledore’s tone changed and he spoke very slowly, “Sirius is locked in a prison cell inside Professor Flitwick’s office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. To save Sirius… we’ll need – ” His eyes moved to Hermione. “more time.”

Heather stared at Hermione intensely as she pieced together what Professor Dumbledore was saying.

“But – Oh!”

Professor Dumbledore smiled. “Keep in mind, you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law – and you know what’s at stake… Do – not – be – seen.” He turned on his heel and was already across the room by the time Harry had realized their conversation had ended.

“B-but what – I don’t – ” Harry sputtered.

Professor Dumbledore opened the door and looked at them over his shoulder. “I’m going to lock you in. It is – ” he pulled out a pocket watch and flipped it open, “five minutes to midnight. Three turns should do it. Good luck.”

He closed the door and a click echoed through the chamber. Harry whirled around and stared at Hermione with Heather – who was crossing her arms over her chest, still staring but with an added frown.

Hermione ignored them and pulled on a golden chain around her neck, pulling a little trinket out from under her sweater. “Come here, both of you, quick!”

Harry moved towards her and Heather was pulled into them before she could open her mouth to start her long string of complaints. Hermione threw the chain around the three of them.

“Ready?” Hermione didn’t look up at them for confirmation. She picked up the trinket – it was a tiny golden hourglass with sand that sparkled with the light – and began twisting.

Heather watched her closely. “And when were you going to tell us about – ”

At the third twist, the hospital chamber dissolved.

~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~ * ~~~

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#harry potter #heather potter #pro snape #severus snape x oc #severus x oc #snape x oc #severus snape x reader #severus x reader #snape x reader #snape fanfic #snape fanfiction #snape fan fiction #fanfic #fanfiction #fan fiction

[undefined5posts]

Credit: Jordan J. Lloyd

I've been trying to dive deeper into politics, discover the genuine roots of our society, the origins of our beliefs, and the consequences of our economic system. It's a big, long, wide journey and through multiple sources such as articles, images, videos and multiple social media platforms, I've been trying to educate myself more on important subjects.

Communism, capitalism, libertarian, conservative, the left, the right, the history, the impact. It is scary to commit to everything because once you start, you simply cannot stop, once you start waking up your conscience about the horrible reality, the lies, the truths, you cannot put it back to sleep. You can't just ignore prejudice, especially when you're extremely conscious of it's omnipresence. I have continually tried to build my own opinions all while actively creating bullet point arguments in my mind because I just know that at some point I will have to defend my thinking, and I want to do it right.

Now, I am so far from being enlightened, I am a beginner and an amateur in all of those themes, but I am trying, which is the only way to start and grow.

So to tell you about my beliefs, I am a militant human rights activist, I believe in equal opportunities regardless of gender identity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and disability. This is a fact, not a belief, but the system was obviously not built to protect all people, its wasn't created to serve everyone equally but to grant a privilege to some and harm others. The current state of the world is not a slip, an accident or a misfunction of our brilliant system but a testament of it operating remarkably well. I believe that equity leads to equality, and I believe that we cannot "fix" methodologies that were immorally created with absolutely no honor whatsoever. I believe in reproductive rights, in legal, safe abortions for anybody who needs one. I believe in the decriminalization of marijuana. I believe that the death penalty is a despicable punition that should be banned as soon as possible. I believe in defunding the police and the military. I believe that it is a shame that I even have to talk about police brutality, I don't want to have to say that it is one of the most horrible things our world has originated, I feel extremely dense when I do because it seems like the most obvious certitude and I refuse to believe that this is a controversial statement. I believe that everything I have just stated, along with many more, isn't anything grand but the bare minimum, the bar is low, and yet, we still have the fight for basic human decency.

Humanity has become an option. We have normalized supporting people that represent everything wrong in this world under the name of tolerance. The left has never claimed to be tolerant towards hateful beings, We have never accepted homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism and sexism. We cannot, for exemple, accept nazis, as too much tolerance inevitably leads to intolerance. This picture explains it perfectly:

I consider myself a communist/ socialist. The two terms still confuse me a little, some say they are the same, some say they differ quite a bit. What I know is that socialism is the transitional period between capitalism and communism. At the end of the day, the final result and goal is a stateless, moneyless and clasless society that will provide to each his need.

Our capitalistic society has brainwashed us way more than you may think. It is the root of so many of our issues, the underground demon of our problems. Every idea, thought, belief, and misconception of ours were all affected by our current economic system. It has sold us the billionnaire dream which is one of the most toxic things capitalism has offered. We have looked up to billionaires for way too long, why are they so idolized? Most of them come from high upper class families that can easily afford to invest in their inventions and creations. After starting up their companies and occasionnaly stealing other's people ideas to ultimately get undeserved merit, they then can start to properly exploit their hardworking employees's labour. And for unlimited hours and a minimum wage which probably won't even suffice you to survive, you will have to either pick up more shifts or a second or even third job, especially if you have a family to support. All while the CEO barely does any of the work and gets all the praise and money. So no, they don't all come from really poor families and have built everything for nothing.

The worst thing is that we've been so gaslit and brainwashed that we're proud of our own exploitation, we are wired to think that to be successful we have to suffer, work 10 jobs we all hate, constantly pick up extra hours, have 2 hours of sleep, have no free time to do anything we love, waste our entire youth, be depressed our entire adulthood, to finally have a few pennies to spend when we're eighty. We so strongly believe that this is the only right way to be successful that I don't think many of us have dared to question it's authority, and even if we do, we quickly accept that this a truth, a fact we cannot change and this is just the way things are.

We have capitalized water, food, land, forests, oceans, space, and everything in betweeen. Money is social construct and we have deliberately let it take over our lives. To think about the wasted opportunities and the misery that we have to endure so others can enjoy life truly angers me.

Also, communism is not an ideology that has every actually taken place. Despite what they say, there was never actually a communist country. However, every nation that has attempted a socialist system, for exemple Burkina Faso, has thrived. But of course, once capitalist countries noticed that, they decided to murder it's leader. So in conclusion, the only reason socialism failed is because of capitalism and it's interventions.

"As President (1983-1987), Sankara initiated economic reforms that shifted his country away from dependence on foreign aid and reduced the privileges of government officials; he cut salaries, including his own, decreed that there would be no more flying in first class or driving Mercedes as standard issue vehicles for Ministers and other government workers. He led a modest lifestyle and did not personally amass material wealth. President Sankara encouraged self-sufficiency, including the use of local resources to build clinics, schools and other needed infrastructure. [...] President Sankara promoted land reform, childhood vaccination, tree planting, communal school building, and nation-wide literacy campaigns. He was committed to gender equity and women’s rights and was the first African leader to publicly recognize the AIDS pandemic as a threat to African countries. Although Sankara became somewhat more authoritarian during his Presidency, his ideas, and the possibility that they could spread, were viewed by many as posing the greatest threat. President Sankara was assassinated during a coup led by a French-backed politician, Blaise Compaoré, in October 1987. Compaoré served as the President of Burkina Faso from October 1987 through October 2014, when he himself was overthrown."

Via:https://africandevelopmentsuccesses.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/success-story-from-burkina-faso-thomas-sankaras-legacy/

I have been reading and watching some amazing human rights activists, notably Angela Davis, Malcolm X and James Baldwin. The people that were villainized, labeled as violent and radical, when every single word that came out of their mouhs were pure facts. They are probably some of the most eloquent people I have had the pleasure of hearing. Every sentence, every argument, every single detail made so much sense and opened my mind to so many new realizations. This is the perfect exemple of how the media tarnishes the reputation of wise black women and men. I would strongly advise you to research more about them.

"Socialism & communism are demonized in the west to the point of erasing influential individuals' socialist advocacy. Heres a short list of people you may not have known were socialists/ communists:

MLK

Albert Einstein

Nelson Mandela

Frida Kahlo

Tupac Shakur

Mark Twain

Malcom X

Oscar Wilde

Bertrand Russell

Hellen Keller

Pablo Picasso

George Orwell

Shia LaBeouf

John Lennon

Woody Guthrie

Socialism & communism are not dirty words. Some of the most brilliant minds of our history were socialists and communists. Embrace it." Via @sleepisocialist on twitter

So what else can I say, capitalism has ruined our society and the way we act and think. I know a lot of people refuse to support communism because they think it's too much of a perfect ideal utopian world for it to ever actually exist. And to that I say, first of all, so you agree, it is a wonderful theory, and second of all, a world without racism, sexism, homophobia or any kind or discrimination could also be perceived as "too ideal to actually exist", but does that mean I'm giving up on talking, educating myself and others, protesting and trying to build a better future? Absolutely not. This is the objective, it would be so dumb to think that we just couldn't achieve that so let's not even try.

I want to talk more in detail about communism, theory, human rights, etc... but I don't want to make this post any longer. I will however be posting more about it soon enough.

I know this is a little different than what I usually post, but I want to speak, tell you all my own opinions, I don't want to just repost activism related stuff. I'll continue to do that, but not exclusively. I know it won't get as many interactions as my other posts, but this is what I needed at some point in my life, and if I could make understanding some basic informations easier to some people, it'll already be a great accomplishment.

Thank you for reading.

#malcolm x #angela davis #martin luther jr #martin luther king #james baldwin #internalized racism #racism #discrimination #black lives matter #blm protests #fuck the police #defund the police #defund the military #activism #activist #abortion is a human right #human rights #oppression #prejudice #communism #lgbtq community #lgbt rights #karl marx #communist #socialism #socialist #politics #change the system #fuck the system #operating system

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Vid - The Untamed

I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…

Nah, I just think he's hot.

Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.

I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.

And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)

I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.

WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???

I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.

I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.

I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.

Clip choices:

I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.

Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way

I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.

Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take

I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)

'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.

Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say

The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.

'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.

Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)

There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown

I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.

It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.

We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid

WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.

The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D

WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)

I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"

For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.

And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!

Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,

Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.

ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Other vidding notes:

I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.

Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.

Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.

Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.

The vid:

Available on AO3.

#vidding #wen ning

[aaluminiumas]

Old Junk

        They didn’t meet often.

        In all honesty, Heisenberg himself didn’t know what he was waiting from those meetings: Julia couldn’t teach him any specific techniques, nor was she able to give him a piece of advice that may come in handy in the future, but somehow her decrepit hut on the outskirts of the village turned into a temporary shelter, a haven where he could conceal himself from Miranda’s omniscient eye and Dimitrescu’s stupid jeers.

        Julia barely spoke; in fact, she preferred to express herself by gestures and smiles as if she were mute. Unlike the secretive Donna, who'd rather stay aside and never mingle with the crowd, this particular woman never failed to be understood – touches and glances helped her reach her goal. Conversations were not her forte, but she didn’t need them anyway: something within her lukewarm brown eyes mildly directed the discussion, and Karl felt at ease. Albeit he rarely warned her about his visits, she seemed to be always waiting for him – and, spotting the familiar bulky figure clad in an old coat, she tended to stare at his swarthy face. Sometimes she brushed her hand across his hand and tenderly dragged him into the room. She beamed, literally. Why did he keep coming anyway?..    

        Heisenberg couldn’t remember where and how exactly they encountered: Julia had appeared in his life long before the factory, and, evidently, owing to her modest taciturnity, this manufacture was finally outlined and constructed. Fed up with Moreau’s mourn wailing, Alcina’s commanding tone, and Angie’s shrills, he set off to the shabby shackle on the riverbank and got down to his drafts. Julia never diverted his attention – she kept knitting, humming an ancient lullaby under her breath while Karl was trying to recall whether he’d heard the melody before. Someone had sung it in the past, but he failed to recollect who exactly did it.  Or maybe it was an illusion, and he’d caught the lyrics just because of the brief visits. Every once in a while he sneaked a look at her askance, from beneath the dark glasses:  gaunt and tiny, she practically dispersed in the ugly fuscous-colored sofa that creaked and squeaked so loudly that drove him crazy in a matter of seconds. Karl had offered to throw this monster away and get a new one, but Julia, laughing quietly, shook her head. She always loved old junk. Old junk like him.  

         Actually, Heisenberg wasn’t prone to nostalgia at all, as his reminiscences had always fallen apart in fragments; however, Julia's visage was printed to the back of his brain. If anything, she became the only person who wasn’t afraid of him. Her surprisingly smooth hands cautiously slid across his scars on the back and the chest, scrutinizing them and lingering on the blemishes that once had been the most painful wounds. She even dared touch his face and carefully took off his glasses. Did she think he wanted to show off and tried to evade her stare?..

        Putting the glasses aside, Julia tenderly took his visage in her hands.

        “I can’t quite grasp the color of your eyes,” she explained with a smile, “they are constantly changing.”

         Her fingertips soared over his nose bridge and flew over to the mark on the cheek, then lingered on the thick lips and softly ambled towards his chin and neck. The odor of car exhaust and cigar smoke didn’t scare her away; she still wanted to stay by his side. Till this very day, he racked his brain about her behavior: did she ever care about her life knowing she was crossing the line?..

        And then – Miranda, of course. A presumptuous witch with a local goddess’s manners. Called on him, invited him to visit her – and for the first time, he was there alone, without that sarcastic super-sized bitch.

        “What?” Heisenberg frivolously leaned over his hammer and lit his cigar. “Problems?”

        “Yes, Heisenberg,” replied Miranda revealing her holier-than-thou attitude, her pale eyes glued to him. “Problems indeed. And one of them is you.”

        The engineer saluted her jocularly.

         “At your disposal! As a matter of fact, I was sure that was the crux of your, ahem, system.” 

         “Don’t be a clown,” she snapped, “You perfectly understand what I am talking about. And you must get rid of her.”

         “What’s the point?” the glasses glimpsed from beneath the hat, his face imperturbable and slightly disinterested. “Lycans are going to take care of it anyway.”

         “Did you hear my order, Heisenberg?” Miranda repeated, completely ignoring his answer. 

         “I did,” he extinguished his cigar. “I’m on it.” 

         Arrogant bitch. He grabbed his hammer and left.

        “Just don’t hurt me too much,” Julia pleaded quietly, “I’m afraid of pain.”

        He couldn’t wrap his head around it. What was it like, to be afraid of pain? His entire like was somehow entangled with it, but he barely remembered those bits; he could count the highlights by the fingers on his one hand. First off, The Cadou, obviously; and the cold caused by the medical instruments – somewhere in the bowels. Then that goddamn steam machine that exploded in his hands. Thanks to it, his hands are now covered in scars. Details that flew off under pressure, a broken cyborg – something had almost blinded him, but luckily, all went well: the

only repercussion that remained was that his eyes were sore when the light was too bright.

         He killed her that night. Well, he didn’t like that – unlike the atrocious, brutal Dimitrescu, Karl didn’t see any point in regular, commonplace slaughter. Of course, he had little patience with intruders and those who got in his way, but the majority of the villagers rarely ventured to stick their noses outside, let alone confronting any of the lords. But Mirada obviously, hated this non-committal relationship of his: her “children” belonged solely to her. They must guard her and her interests. Advocate her. No one had the right to compete with her or to rebel against her. And Heisenberg, who had managed to avoid her omniscient eye, did fall into the category of the mutineers, even though he initially denied the mere idea of revolution. She loathed his independence and free will, she detested his attempt to break away from the others, and she showed her teeth, thus involuntarily revealing her intentions.

         Heisenberg gave his workshop an apathetic look, then glanced at his contorted reflection. Grinning to his doppelganger in the old sooty mirror, the engineer fished a cigar out of his pocket, fumbled with it, and lit the tip. The gloves and the coat were saturated with odors of oil and tobacco – that must be the reason why both the witches, Miranda and Dimitrescu, sniffed at his sight. Prigs. Useless creatures ready to slit anyone’s throat for power, butchering those who dared impinge upon what never truly belonged to them. He did not belong to them; but Miranda, that crazy bitch concerned about her own safety, held a different view and amplified her positions. Julia’s death – or Dimitrescu’s so-called daughters', – did not mean anything to her. In the former case, she found a quiet insurgent in those short meetings: they undermined her authority and monopoly over her ‘son’. As for the latter… she simply didn’t give a shit. Winters’ intrusion may have ruined her entire game, but his resolute resistance and Bela, Daniela, and Cassandra’s murder just proved his abilities and evinced his fighting qualities. He was a rival to be cautious about. Alcina’s feelings were never a thing to her.

         Go to hell, he thought. Instead of dealing with the problems on her own, Miranda keeps them on a tight leash impelling to clean things up after her. The villagers believed in her piety while their reputations got distorted and finally sullied. In the end, they were demonized to the extent that only the Duke dared speak to them. Well, there’s nothing to complain about, though: his cigars significantly dropped in price.

        Heisenberg leaned back in his chair and smirked under his breath. We’ll see what’s next. Not all his drafts had disappeared – the abysmal factory preserved a variety of secrets that would eventually help him overthrow this viper. Just you wait – and the decision will come by itself. Every minute counts: Ethan Winters has already got disposed of Donna and Moreau.

#Karl Heisenberg #re8 Karl heisenberg #heisenberg #re8 #resident evil #resident evil village #alcina dimitrescu #Lady Dimitrescu #mother miranda #fanfiction #fanfic

[hanbereviews]

Kageyuki Shiraishi Route Review

We’re almost done y’all, Shiraishi is the second to last route you play chronologically in Collar x Malice and as such is one of the more complex characters in the game. A lot of things are revealed via Shiraishi, pretty much a good 90% of the secrets behind the greater plot in the game. Some of those secrets are going to be revealed here, but only as they pertain to my review and Shiraishi’s character. Warning, Shirashi’s my all time favorite in collar x malice so my final thoughts are definitely going to be a glowing endorsement of him. I mean, he’s got cat ears! What’s not to love?

Characterization

Phenomenal, dare I say showstopping. Shiraishi in my opinion is the toughest nut to crack in Collar x Malice and while I won’t argue he’s the most complex character in the otome genre (I certainly would put up a fight about that though), his characterization and his development throughout the plot is amazing. Shiraishi’s a criminal psychologist, a profiler who until being on his route is mysterious and doesn’t care for human connections all that much. Most of what you know about him is he’s incredibly flippant, and his assistant hates him. So it’s not surprising his working with Ichika turns him into a polarizing figure. 

To put it bluntly, he starts off as a huge dick. In a normal circumstance you’d have to be a complete saint to put up with him, he’s rude, has zero social etiquette to the point you’re led to believe it’s intentional and the way he talks down to people can be infuriating. However I think what kept me going throughout this route was how Ichika reacted. 

See, the payoff is enormous, because there’s effort from each side of the relationship to work out their differences and get to know each other more. Ichika immediately writes off Shiraishi as someone she intensely dislikes, but after speaking with the other detectives she makes an effort to understand him better. Shiraishi on the other hand, in an effort to work better with her on their case begins to learn her likes and dislikes, her temperament and generally kind of bumbles his way through cozying up to her. He gets her gifts, he tries to spend time with her. It’s kind of fun to watch because the burden this time isn’t 100% on Ichika to fix a man’s issues. 

Though like I said, he’s polarizing. I could definitely see a world where you’re either a Shiraishi lover or a Shiraishi hater. But in my opinion that’s what makes his character all the more interesting throughout the route. 

Plot Relevance

Shiraishi’s route is filled with an abundance of plot, but before we get to the big reveals about Adonis, let's talk about his Adonis pairs. 

Shiraishi’s enemies in this case are a pair of twins named Shion and Suzune Uno. Who went through the tragedy of their mother and father dying and are on a revenge streak. While I think the general idea of the plot is good, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The entire lynchpin of the case is that the twins’ mother was a schoolteacher, and due to a well off student organizing a harassment campaign against her she had a psychotic break, attempted to kill them (which their father prevented by sacrificing himself instead), and then took her own life. Since then they swore to get revenge on everyone who wronged her. Pic of them down below

My problem with this is how wholly unrealistic it is. If it wasn’t a student, say a principal or another teacher orchestrating this campaign I’d get it. It’s hard to deal with authority in schools, and not one culture is a stranger to a teacher abusing their position when they don’t get what they want. But even if you could call the explanation plausible I think it sends a pretty odd message when you craft a scenario where a student is completely able to ruin a teachers’ life and reputation. But outside of that, the twins came off completely sympathetic. And there was even a very non ableist description of DID included that wasn’t exactly a plot point, but was pretty decently handled I’d say. No multiple personalities murdering people, just the acknowledgment that one was there. 

Now other than that, we have the super fun stuff! Shiraishi’s route reveals a lot about Adonis’s internal structure and reveals perhaps the biggest thing (GIGANTIC SPOILER WARNING) Shirashi’s actually a brainwashed member of the organization! See there’s an ever looming idea that there’s a mole for Adonis in the police, turns out Shiraishi’s that very mole. This part was very well written and flowed into the narrative, now for all the explanations surrounding that reveal. Well I’ll leave that to the game. 

Character Interaction

Ichika gets a girls coalition in this route. Since she interacts so frequently with Shirashi she ends up becoming friends with his assistant, and she already has a female friend in the police force to start with. So she gets to have regular girls night outs! The girls are a pretty endearing trio, and I found myself giving a little half smile at their interactions. Ichika definitely needs someone who isn't an emotionally constipated man to have a real conversation with from time to time so this was a big refresher.

With Shiraishi, I described a bit of their relationship above. But when he and Ichika get closer leading up to his reveal as the mole it’s incredibly sweet. Shiraishi displays a unique love for cats that explains the incredibly embarrassing cat memorabilia he wears around his job. And you start to learn his lack of etiquette isn’t him being an asshole on purpose. He just genuinely hasn’t gotten much social interaction. He doesn’t have many friends, and the way he talks can be frustrating and hard to navigate. Now, he’s a grown man, so I’m not gonna pretend like a lot of the way he talks is intentional. But I became super endeared to him as I saw a much softer and more genuine side. 

Final Thoughts

Route gets a solid 8.5/10 for me. Shiraishi’s awesome, this route was very well constructed even if I had a lot of qualms with the actual story regarding the murder case and Ichika was pretty proactive! I enjoyed thoroughly going through this entire thing, and I hope to see more Kageyuki Shiraishi’s as I go through more joseimuke and otome games.

#hantome review