#this isn't about the ship war in the slightest and don't even think it is

[antimony-medusa]

Okay this is 100% discourse, so maybe avert your eyes if you don't want to see me wail at the heavens, but for a fandom so anxious about boundaries, we haven't actually been very good in practice at respecting the actual stated boundaries the streamers put down, and I think it shows what we're actually policing, which is not things to make the streamers comfortable, it's stuff to make us comfortable.

This ranges from inventing new boundaries for people (you can't use neopronouns for ranboo, their pronouns are he/they; there's no boundaries on dark content for streamers so obviously we have to invent and enforce dark sbi rules ourselves) and then harassing people based on those boundaries that we just made up, to ignoring the actual things that the streamers said if we don't agree with them (cc!dream said he was uncomfortable with gore art back during the revolutionary war/exile but he's a villain, right, so we can just do whatever we want with the character, right?) and just doing whatever we want.

This is a recurring problem, with people violently policing boundaries that the fandom has all agreed on, to the point of doxxing and harassment and death threats, and ignoring boundaries that they have decided "don't make sense".

Like here's the example I put in the tags earlier, which is Technoblade related. Everyone knows that family dynamic is great and shipping is a no-go, right? But if you actually go looking for the clips, (or listen to streams in the background recursively while you're doing other things), you'll find that what Technoblade said about shipping was that it was "kinda cringe" (I think the list of things he said was cringe included reading percy jackson books and talking like you're better at video games than you actually are), and he was MUCH stronger in saying that he didn't like family dynamic in canon, saying that he didn't like it, that it was non-canon, and he'd never betray his family like that.

But if you look at the entire "found family" tag on Ao3, 19,860 stories, Technoblade is tagged into 29% of them. That's 5,760 fics just blowing right past what Technoblade said. Boom. Taking that character from his political anarchist setting and setting him right down in a royalty au w. younger siblings.

Because obviously a family dynamic isn't actually going to hurt someone's feelings or make them feel weird, the fandom has agreed, so what he must mean was that saying that family dynamic was actual literal canon is the only bad thing (I have been clotheslined by family dynamic written into stuff tagged as "canon compliant" multiple times as well,) and we can continue with the fun family stuff, right? Because someone saying they don't like family dynamic doesn't make Sense, in the way that I like it, the fandom has agreed, so we can just ignore that clip. Honestly I think that a ton of people have no idea that Technoblade ever said anything negative about family dynamic, because that clip is never brought out or talked about. I literally only know about it because I've watched that stream.

Meanwhile, the much less firmly stated boundary when it comes to shipping is absolutely doubled down on and brought out to justify mobbing people off the internet, because everyone already knows that shipping is bad and terrible and tainted and horrible to do and we don't like it, so even the slightest indication that it's out has to be grabbed and used to police people. So that everyone can be very to sure themselves that what they're doing is not weird, and the streamers are okay with it, and if I showed them my fic they'd say they liked it.

They're not going to give the Ok to your fic, because the fic isn't FOR them, and it shouldn't be. It's for the other weird fans who can't stop thinking about the block men characters, it's not for the actors. The actors have their own lives, leave them alone.

To be clear, I am not saying that we should stop writing family dynamic to respect Technoblade's feelings. Among other things, I don't think he's checking his character tag on Ao3 right now. But like, I've talked before about the way that boundaries culture ends up working in practice, and how constantly bringing problems up to streamers just ends up showing them all the things that are the most weird to the streamer. You only have to look at what most of Benchtrio has done in terms of boundaries, which has been transitioning from very explict boundaries with details on everything to just saying "just use your manners," stopping answering questions, and telling people to actually think about what they're showing the streamer instead of expecting someone to weigh in on it for them.

But even when it comes to the boundaries that we do have, that we know about, the way people enforce them seems to be less about actually respecting what the creators like, and more about making sure we're morally pure and never have to see something that we personally don't like, and we don't happen to have any of that nasty boys kissing content in our work, because we all know that's terrible. (And as someone who's seen crackdowns on LGBTQIA content several times, that certainly has unfortunate overtones.)

As long as it's all kept away from the creators, I really think that fluffy cuddly family dynamic and kissing fic and hardcore whump all falls into the category of "not for the creators, they might find that one weird, but you do you". Like keep it away from the streamers, use your brain, but like, it's all a bit weird and for fun. Let it be weird and for fun in a secluded part of the internet, keep it away from the streamers, tag your shit for people who don't want to see it, and go to town.

So just like, I really think that "creator boundaries" should be more about using your brain as to what you show the streamer, and less about harassing someone off the internet cause they drew kissing art.

#discourse #technoblade #dsmpshipping #how's THAT for a rent-lowering shotgun blast #fandom meta

[achaotichuman]

It's that time again people.

Acotar Rant Time

This started because I was reblogging someone elses post, and making a point about something, then I got sidetracked. And it turned into something else entirely, so here I am ranting about it.

CW Discussions of domestic violence, physical abuse and child-grooming.

I don't think we should throw the whole idea of rejected mating bonds out altogether.

I know the theory mostly stems around Elriels who want to find a way to make their ship become canon. That is not the point of this post. I do not like elriel in the slightest.

I DO THINK that someone rejecting a mating bond to get into another relationship, would mentally harm the persons beyond any ability to cope with the broken bond.

However, we have examples of women who may have very well been better off rejecting their mating bonds then remaining in them. The example I'll be focusing on is Tamlin's mother.

She was taken as the bride of the Spring Lord, because of the mating bond she had with him. We have no idea who she was before, but unlike say Rhysand's mother where her mating bond quite literally saved her from her wings being mutilated. Tamlin's mother isn't said to have been in any bad situation, at least not one I can remember.

For the sake of simplicity, we will say she was born and raised in Spring. Living a, we'll say middle class life. Maybe the daughter of a Lord or Courtier. Maybe she was a peasant but doing well. Just generally, the lack of information when it comes to SJM's writing at least, usually means there wasn't much to be said. So, I will assume she was in a fine situation.

I believe if she was in a horrible situation before the mating bond snapped, that would have been explicitly detailed, like how Rhysand's mother's situation was said to have been.

Then boom, she finds out she is mated to the High lord of Spring, which brings about several changes in her life.

She is taken from whatever living situation she was in before, put into the Spring Lord's manor, and lives amongst his Court. She becomes the Lady of Spring, is put into a high-ranking position as the High lord's consort. She is his mate, so their bond is even stronger.

From the outside, it looks like she has gone from, not much to be told, to something far greater. From outside, everything looks perfect for her.

But as it turns out the High lord of the Spring Court, is worse than Beron himself.

Beron lays hands on his wife, she comes into the High lord's meeting looking malnourished and pale. She can't even make eye-contact with Helion, who is her lost lover. But at the very least, we get a moment of tenderness from Beron, when he puts his hand on hers when speaking of her dead sisters.

(Going off topic real quick here. I think Beron wasn't always as abusive towards his wife as he is now. Not defending him at all, I think it adds nuance to his character. Beron clearly knew the LOA's family, and wanted to have her as his bride for the power in her bloodline. It is quite likely he knew the LOA personally, and marriage with her was purely a political choice.

Plus after the LOA had heirs for him. Beron sent her to live away from the Autumn House. Which is said to be to spread his Court over Autumn. At that same time, if it was that vital to spread out his Court. Then once the War was over, he would have sent the LOA back out away from the Forest House, so clearly it wasn't that important. I believe it was more sending her off, so he didn't have to be around her, and she could live with her sisters.

There is some form of tenderness between them, at least from Beron's actions. I think this may stem from some form of lovingness that was strangled when the LOA had an affair with Helion. I don't think it was her fault. I don't think Beron was a good man to start off with.

And I do not even slightly believe the LOA wanted her marriage. It was forced. I just believe in the theory that Beron once upon a time, may have been quite similar to Eris. Where he keeps emotion away from the game and plays the long run.

However he has succumb to rage and hatred. For reasons that may have had outside influence again. Another layer of nuance to his character. He easily gave into hatred and anger, but I kind of want to know what steered him to that course.)

That was a little off topic, back to what I was saying.

Beron at the very least has some form of empathy. The High lord of Spring is worse.

Meaning I believe he generally has no empathy for his family. Is extremely explosive and angry. And most likely has little to no care for his wife.

It's quite easy to put together that the Spring Lord would have abused Tamlin's mother quite ferociously. But she didn't care, and didn't care for the abuse her sons went through, because she was blinded by her love for him which was made from the bond.

It was not real love.

The point I make here, is that what would have happened if Tamlin's mother rejected the bond?

The rose-tinted glasses would have been forcefully torn off. Of course it would influence her, but the mating bond is said to just linger. It is there and will follow her for the rest of her life, but it would not be nearly as strong. More of a reminder of what she went through.

I think if she rejected the bond, the love she had for Tamlin's father would have been torn away as well. And the abuse he put her and her sons through would be far plainer to see.

Especially when we look at how Tamlin's father dragged him to Hybern, where Amarantha was preying on him as a child. Another note, we have no clue on just how much reign Amarantha had with Tamlin in Hybern. If he wasn't full on touched, it's likely he was mentally and emotionally groomed.

I think the mating bond would influence anger within the Lady of Spring. Not just for the life she was torn away from, but the sons she was forced to bear and how they were being treated.

Anyway.

Give me a fic with the Lady of Spring battling with withdrawal like symptoms from a broken bond.

Give me a real Hades and Persephone story, with Amarantha as Hades, Tamlin as Persephone and Tamlin's mother as Demeter.

Tamlin's father being racked with the grief of the bond and going ballistic, yet Tamlin's mother no longer blinded by fake love, fights back against him.

All this to say, I think there are instances where the rejected mating bond theory would be fucking awesome.

Then the bitter-sweet ending of Tamlin's mother never being completely rid of Tamlin's father, but being able to take a breath that is finally not overshadowed by abuse and a fake love.

All of this was inspired by this post by @the-darkestminds

Yeah the broken bond trope, I don't see happening for Elriel at all. But I think the idea of a broken bond would be awesome. Kind of self-love instead of outside love.

#acotar #tamlin #pro tamlin #tamlin's mother #acotar rant #acotar headcanons #acotar au #amarantha #tamlin's father

[alynnl]

🔥 for whatever's been bugging you lately

Oh, boy. I'm about to touch on a topic I have ranted about extensively in private spaces. Only now I'm going to make my opinion public because I feel like I need to take a stand.

"Across media fandoms, so many fans refuse to stay in their lane and it leads to a lot of unnecessary trouble."

Allow me to explain.

Perhaps I'm only seeing the loudest of the vocal minority, but this behavior is grating to me. In general I come to my fan spaces to have fun, discuss media with others who've viewed it, and relax after taking care of my real life responsibilities.

I've seen shipping wars since my earliest days in fandom, and those have not died down in the slightest. In some ways, they've actually gotten worse, because people bring in purity culture and real life politics where I feel like they don't belong. (People who act like it's a moral duty to ship their rare pair instead of a more popular ship, as an example.)

This mentality of only having the most "morally correct" opinions on a piece of media goes beyond shipping too, when it comes to discussing individual characters or the (perceived) message of the media overall. Who and what is "problematic" is a dominating theme in many fan discussions on this website and others. There's this idea that a person's taste in media, characters, and even ships gives any indication of their real life morality. When really, most people (if not all) I've met who are into the darker, tragic and more dramatic themes in media are just interested in that part of storytelling and would never condone acts like murder, genocide or abuse in real life.

On the other side of the coin, there are other fans who try and label what is and isn't "cringe." I've seen them take aim at self-shippers, OC x Canon shippers, or even themes within the media itself that they've deemed "cliched" or "predictable." There's this smugness that comes with pointing out flaws CinemaSins style. It's very elitist in its way and to me translates to "I see what you don't, Sheeple!"

I'm sure there are other details of annoying fandom behavior that I have left out, but these are the main ideas to me.

It all comes down to one thing.

"When people dislike something, they turn around and make it everybody else's problem."

This is in spite of the widely available blacklisting tools and block button that are very easy to use to curate one's Tumblr experience. (I cannot speak for other websites and how easy or difficult it is to curate one's feed there, but I imagine there is something similar to Tumblr's system.)

Instead of accepting that a ship, piece of media, OC, or even an entire user's feed isn't their cup of tea and moving on, people have to say something rude about it.

And it just seems like a waste of time and energy. I think it would be better spent with things that actually spark joy.

All in all I feel like I’m getting too old for this sort of thing. Or maybe since I have more life experience, I’m more aware of what I want and what I’m better off without. Having to balance work and home life will do that. I’ll keep on sharing my thoughts with people who I feel I can truly be myself around. I hope everybody has at least one person, if not a few people like that. Because I think everyone should have a chance to be happy, in fan spaces and elsewhere.

#Lynn speaks #personal #fandom woes #fandom wank #purity culture #elitist culture #I really am too old for all this #no fandoms named #it’s ALL of them #but I blacklist block and curate til the cows come home #Sometimes I gotta pause and ask if I’m being fair #but most of the time my instincts are right and I insta block bad vibes

[oneatlatime]

Season 1 Zuko & Iroh Thoughts

Zuko

zuko is a villain when he's trying, an asshole when he's not. He's not even very effective! He's bad at being a bad guy, and when he isn't actively being a bad guy, he's just an unpleasant person. -Do I have enormous sympathy for him? Yes, especially after The Storm's backstory revelation. -Is he in an enormously awful situation? Yes, although he's not the only character in an enormously awful situation, and others in situations as bad are doing far better. -Do I like who he is as a person? Nope. Not at all. He's an unpleasant scoundrel. He's an ass. He does have some useful and arguably good qualities - he's driven, has (some) planning ability, is bonkers at swords, and occasionally remembers not to be a dick to his uncle or his crew.

I don't deny that a lot of what I dislike about him is caused by the difficult extenuating circumstances that apply to him. But, even if all those difficulties disappeared, I feel like I wouldn't find his base personality appealing either. That being said, I don't know if I've glimpsed the "real" Zuko yet. I don't think there has been an episode yet where he doesn't have a reason to be on high alert. But in episodes when he's not actively pursuing the Gaang, he's yelling at his crew or his uncle.

He does seem to have a (deeply buried) inner core of decency and lines he won't cross, unlike Zhao. After Sokka and Katara helped Aang escape Zuko's ship back in episode 2, he didn't go back and destroy the southern water tribe. Zhao would have. Zhao never would have accepted Aang's deal to protect the tribe in the first place. But rather than making Zuko an appealing character, this inner core of decency just makes him a less effective villain. It's too small to make him someone to root for; it's just big enough to have enough of a restraining effect on his villainy to make him seem pathetic compared to other Fire Nation villains.

At the end of season 1, my question regarding Zuko is this: why does any fan like him? You can't root for him as a villain, because he's not callous or suave enough to be a badass, crazy enough to be entertaining, or competent enough to be a threat. You can't admire him when he's not actively in villain mode, because he's a disrespectful shouty little butt. My very limited knowledge of this show before I watched it did include the tidbit that Zuko had a big fanbase. Why tho?

Iroh

Iroh obviously has something deeper going on. Which I find confusing. He obviously doesn't have the same 'burn the world' zeal as Zhao, and in fact is more interested in defending the world as a whole than advancing Fire Nation interests when the chips are down (see him defending the moon fish). I think he still supports the Fire Nation cause; I think he would be more actively discouraging Zuko's Avatar hunting if he didn't still support/believe it.

It was Zuko's ship they were on, so Iroh doesn't have command over or responsibility for Zuko, which means that he can't just tell Zuko what to do. But he's shown himself to be someone capable of subtlety (at least the amount of subtlety required to get something past Zuko). And he's shown himself to be capable of teenager wrangling. So I'm forced to conclude that the 'something deeper' that is going on with Iroh is the fact that he is either currently on the fence about, or slowly drifting away from, Fire Nation ideals. He can't actually disapprove of what the Fire Nation is doing, otherwise he would have taken advantage of the last three years of totally uninterrupted contact with his nephew to start steering him in an anti-war direction.

So either Iroh has only the slightest anti-war leanings at the moment, or it took literally every second of Zuko's last three years at sea to recover from getting half his face blown off. While I can believe that the injury was slow to heal (especially the psychological side), one of the first lines that Iroh says in episode one is cautioning Zuko against getting his hopes up about having found the Avatar because there had been countless red herrings previously. Which implies that they've been actively Avatar hunting for a while.

So my question is this: if, as I am being led to believe, Iroh does not fully support the Fire Nation war, why has he not, at any point over the last three years at sea, attempted to sway Zuko into thinking the same? I could understand not wanting to rip the rug out from under Zuko if they were a few months into their banishment, but after three whole years, is it not borderline irresponsible of a guardian-ish figure to allow their charge to keep believing in something they suspect may be untrue? Surely in the three years since banishment, Zuko has seen enough destruction caused by the Fire Nation for him to start putting the pieces together himself?

That being said...

I'm meh on Iroh; I actively dislike Zuko. But Zuko + Iroh? That's good stuff. Their dynamic is exponentially more than the sum of its parts. Their interactions are believable and entertaining. Of the first ten episodes, my favourite is The Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World, in part because of their odd couple dynamic. Zuko is only tolerable when he's bouncing off Iroh. Iroh is at his best when he's in Zuko wrangling mode. I forget that I dislike Zuko when he's having a non-shouty interaction with Iroh. And then he goes and talks to shouts at someone else and I remember why I dislike him.

I do think Zuko is an ass on a very fundamental level, but I also wonder if he plays that up when he's around people he's not comfortable with. Take Zuko and Iroh's interactions when Zuko is stowing away on Zhao's ship to the North Pole. Quiet, controlled, genuine, almost as much left unsaid as is spoken aloud. They obviously have a deep understanding of each other. And they have mutual respect, although Zuko would never admit it. Now compare that to Zuko and Katara interacting in the Spirit Oasis when Zuko is trying to kidnap Aang. The jerk tendencies are turned up to 11. Which wasn't actually necessary, and probably detrimental since Zuko's one liner announced his presence and took away the element of surprise.

So maybe Zuko isn't that much of a jerk deep down. But since Zuko is not the main character of this show, we're pretty much guaranteed to only see Zuko in the context of interacting with others in the cast, where he will be a jerk. So whether or not he is as much of a jerk as he appears will be irrelevant, because we'll only see him in contexts where he is at maximum jerkiness, if that makes sense?

Honestly I don't even know if Zuko and Iroh will be in season 2. Zuko is on the box art for my season 3 DVD, so I guess he comes back at some point, but by the end of season 1 he and Iroh are no one and have nothing. The days of them being a threat, even a nuisance, to the Gaang are over. What can the writers even do with these characters now? Where can they possibly go?

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #season 1 #zuko #iroh #avatar the last airbender

[medievildead]

for the ship opinion bingo kratos/heimdall 👉👈

HOOOO BOY SORRY THIS TURNED INTO A RANT however you did ask for my opinion and this is my blog so you know what. I am gonna post it. And this will be the only time I talk about it.

I reeeeeally don't like kradall it creeps me out and I don't understand it at fucking all. I see people try to make Hear Me Out posts about them and AUs about them and it just makes less and less sense to me (and I KNOW this is bold ass words coming from me I KNOW) but the canon dynamic that does exist for them at no point to me ever at all in the slightest tipped me off or made me think to ship them. Never clicked.

Then again you gotta remember that I'm someone who has been autistic about Kratos since 2005 and I am so incredibly damn picky about shipping him unironically with anyone. Shipping Kratos with Heimdall knowing the kind of person Kratos is and what hes gone through to Become his new self in the norse saga just doesn't make sense. A lot of kradall I see (that isn't non/con honestly another huge reason I don't vibe with it is that a bunch of people use it as a bolt for r/pe stuff in the early moments of Ragnarok fandom) is just them in a very ooc marriage situation I can't wrap my head around. Throwing Kratos into a heavy intense relationship is dumb to me like it took him centuries to fucking get over Lysandra and then moving on to Faye and I'm expected to belive the Hear Me Out posts about why Kratos would be in a long term relationship with.... Heimdall? The guy who is a complete prick to giants? Who actively said misogynistic shit about Atreus' mom who Kratos still loves with his whole heart? And threatened to actively kill his 14 year old son? Kratos's son? Kratos who has lifelong trauma about his child dying from war? I'm not buying it im sorry. No way you cook it will convince me.

In the early points of the ships existence honestly felt to me like people who were into Heimdall just wanted to explore a crutch for brat breaking. But its just genuinley not something I'm into. I'm a firm believer of ship and let ship as long as its harmless and for the most part it is! It's people having fun but it's not for me and never, ever ever will be no matter what and there is a reason I don't talk about it on this blog.

I've been in this fandom a long time and let me say Kratos x Heimdall reminds me a lot of when GoW3 came out and people started shipping and writing tons of Kratos x Hermes dubcon stuff for the sole reason of yaoi fujoshi people wanted to fetishize the gay male power dynamic. Its like I honestly feel some people see a big muscular man and a smaller effeminate man and are like "oh I need to make one a submissive girl" like again I know its just words and pictures on a screen but I have been here long enough to be Very Tired of seeing my sexuality get used as a fetish tool sjshskdnks

And. And ill be honest. And this is petty and trust me this is literally just me and my opinion but I cannot fucking stress how utterly confused and flabbergasted because FREYR IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE. HE IS RIGHT FUCKING THERE. BLATANTLY INTO KRATOS, A COMPLETE KIND SWEETHEART FULL OF LOVE, EXACTLY THE KIND OF GUY THAT WOULD SHOW KRATOS A GOOD TIME AND HAS AN ADORABLE ONSCREEN DYNAMIC THAT DOESN'T EVEN NEED TO BE AU'd OR CHANGED TO MAKE SENSE AND THIS FANDOM DOES NOTHING WITH IT. I see so many AUs where Heimdall survives to get with Kratos and valid but you know what??? I am gonna be angry, WHERE ARE MY FREYR LIVES AUs. WHERE ARE MY AUs WHERE FREYR LIVES AND GETS KRATOS ASCENDED ON THAT VANAHEIM ZA???????

LIKE FORREAL. I honestly feel like this fandom gets so blindsided by Heimdall and wanting to put him in situations and hell I'm guilty of it too, but I have genuinley met GoW Heimdall likers that straight up forgot Freyr existed and it shocks me. I don't get it!!!!!!

Theres a reason I ship Heimdall x Hermes together and its because their individual dynamics are so unbelievably compatible and I like to explore that. But I get people wanting something more realistic in universe as a muse. When it does come to shipping Heimdall with someone else in canon that makes absolute dynamic sense to me, I gotta be honest, Heimdall x Gná is the only "heimdall gets a dom" pairing that I can realistically get behind. Since they both would actually like each other despite being hated by all their peers for their devotion to Odin. Is it healthy? No, but Kradall isn't exactly peaches and cream either. So we work with what we got babey!!!!

#god of war #kratos gow #heimdall gow #freyr gow #gna gow #gna #freyr #kratos #heimdall #god of war ragnarok #gow #gowr

[catgirl-catboy]

Oooh my god Gravity Falls.... I got really into it about a year and a half ago, and I made the incredible mistake of looking at r/gravityfalls. I hadn't even thought you could hate Mabel, and certainly not that strongly, but I underestimated redditors. I've never had a gen to ship fic ratio that went this far on the gen side though, and there were some really good fics. I think the best things I've read for it were a really cool timeloop fic in which Stan and Ford patch things up and a fluffy verse with sweet feelings. Oh and there was one soulmate fic that was purely platonic, and usually I love romance but my aro heart cherishes platonic soulmates every time I stumble upon some. But the show is absolutely great, and I'm a little sad I wasn't there in its heyday, but what do you want. What I would not recommend is what I've been trying to do, ie slowly try to get into Marvel comics stuff (the same way you get into a pool a little, go up to your knees, water on your neck, don't jump in to avoid a shock). The hell of trying to figure out who's who and what comes when and are we talking about MCU verse or comics verse and who's that canon AU guy and where does blorbo appear - and all the while you see the wonderful opinions of dudebros with no taste and women who are really into Taylor Swift (one of those being worse than the other of course, liking TS isn't a crime). Almost like Star Wars but also worse :) sorry I rambled there, I don't actually think we really share fandoms? I wanted to talk a little too haha

No worries!

I am not a fan of bill/dipper in the SLIGHTEST and read mostly genfic, but all of the recent antis of it are so annoying to me. Like, learn your history! The ship has been in the fandom longer than you have,

Eh, I can kind of see where the distaste of Mabel comes from, since I feel like she gets slightly too much screen time, at the expense of Dipper. Thats more of a fault than the writing than the character. That being said, its way overblown, and a lot of people tend to forget that she's 12! If I were 12 in these situations, I'd be way worse.

Platonic soulmate fics are either the best fic known to man, or garbage, depending on how its written. (sometimes you just get the vibe that whoever wrote it is looking down on probalematic ships, yk?) If you liked this one, send me the link!

I've never been into MCU comics, they seem like they have a high barrier to entry. Glad you're having fun, but I highly doubt anything can be Star Wars, but worse. Feels like the current writers of SW hate what made it great, so I feel disconnected from anything post-TFA. Shame, since SW was my childhood.

#ask tag #moinstalks

[rangerbeads]

ficwip

fic writer asks

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again? - I broke up my multi-chapters into one-shots and shorter fics. It worked out so far! Makes it much easier to work on.

How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!) - Five. Four are published, I've got the fifth one almost ready to go. I'm hoping to have it finished before the new year, but it's... long now.

What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer? - I am really drawn to damaged characters, I like to explore them and try and bring them some peace and healing. While also doing that writer thing and poking them with a stick.

What piece of media inspired you the most? - Hannibal the TV series. That will become readily apparent later.

What fandom(s) did you write for this year? - Marvel (Blackhill) and Harry Potter (Fleurmione)

What ship(s) captured your heart? - Fleurmione!

What character(s) captured your heart? - Listen, I didn't know I liked Hermione Granger, at all. It was very surprising to all of us.

Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year? - Yes, see above. Harry Potter and Fleurmione. I even joined a Discord server!

What fic meant the most to you to write? - Ooof. It's probably still Red Sorrow, but Life Signs is really fun.

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? - Wash Out The Salt From My Hands and this Christmas fic "My Arms Are Open" that I'm still working on.

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? - Red Sorrow, for sure. It's so long and I'm really proud of it.

What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it? - Red Sorrow was probably the most difficult, because it's time consuming and is requiring a lot of editing work. Life Signs is also difficult, though, because it's in a new area for me.

What fic was the easiest to write? - Wash Out The Salt From My Hands.

What were your shortest and longest fics this year? - There Is Something Beneath is the shortest, Red Sorrow is easily the longest.

Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023 - Red Sorrow for Blackhill. Life Signs for Fleurmione.

What were you go-to writing songs? - According to Apple Music... Sleep Token, Bad Omens, Evanescence, I Prevail, and Asking Alexandria are my top bands. Which isn't surprising in the slightest. Top songs were Take Me Back To Eden, Euclid, Just Pretend, Alkaline, Rain. All are Sleep Token tracks except for Just Pretend... Shocker.

What were your go-to writing snacks? - I'm not much of a snacker? I like pistachios if I'm going to snack.

What was the hardest fic to title? - None of them were hard to title. I guess the Christmas one took me the longest to narrow down from my options?

Share your favorite opening line - "The pain would never end."

Share your favorite ending line - "I'll remember that."

Share your favorite piece of dialogue - Oh no, I don't think I can pick a favorite. I love all of the banter in Red Sorrow so much. Maybe "... Do you know that you look like a Star Wars villain?" in the beginning?

Share an excerpt from your favorite scene - My favorite scene of Red Sorrow hasn't been posted yet... have this one:

“So you looked up something someone said and it pulled up porn.” Maria waved a dismissive hand. “Case closed. At least now you know what NSFW stands for.”

“It’s everywhere,” Rogers said, transitioning seamlessly to his thousand-yard-stare. “Like a minefield - and that’s when people aren’t actively sending it to you! I was shocked at just how much it, just, pops up. Stark was trying to help me with the internet and social media but then I kept getting messages about thirst traps and… it spiraled.”

“Ah ha, it was Stark! Should have known.” Barton slumped back down into the couch and returned his attention to the television. “That guy lives to push buttons. Especially yours. Maybe even more so than Fury’s.”

“Maybe we should put a parental lock on Cap’s devices,” Natasha added, a familiar mischief in her eyes and that lopsided grin of hers when she looked at Maria. “Commander, can we make that happen? We really can’t have his respectability violated. Imagine if the world found out that Captain America watches porn.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Maria said and nodded gravely. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Rogers. Rest assured that I will punish the filthy miscreant and we will make sure to protect you from smut from now on. Can’t have our paragon sullied.”

“At least he isn’t in the porn.” Clint grinned. “Yet.”

“Very funny,” Rogers said with a huff. “You’re all so hilarious.”

“We know.” Natasha groaned and turned away from the laptop. “Change of subject. Are you ready to start the questioning? Rock-paper-scissors for who goes first?”

“Excuse me! You can’t just kidnap me. I want my lawyer!”

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out? - "The pain would never end. The intricate agony Bellatrix weaved for her, like the conductor of a torment symphony, reached deep, touching and torching everything. Every nerve and fiber, every stray thought, it burned through her synapses and fried her emotions, her rigid control to ash. Her torturer's masterpiece of anguish seized and strangled her lungs, stabbed through her belly, poured on her tongue and down her throat like honeyed acid. It twisted around her spine, pooled in her joints, and snapped every finger and toe." - I was trying to get the horrendous torture across without being too graphic and gory about it. As a horror fan and someone who loves a good action movie, too, I don't usually shy away from writing violence, but I wanted to be gentle here and I had to find a way to do that. I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. To me, it's much, much nicer than the more detailed version I originally had written.

24. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? - I had some interesting ideas pop up while I was outlining Vigilante (I haven't published that Fleurmione fic yet.) It didn't change that story so much, but I did end up going back and creating 5 other fics that will be precursors to it.

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.) - I use Novel Factory to track my word counts and keep all of my details in one place. Very handy. I usually draft in Word and paste into NF when I'm finished. This is all on my laptop, unless I'm breaking down a scene or taking notes, then I use my reMarkable tablet.

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? - When I posted a chapter of Red Sorrow and a chapter of Life Signs one right after the other! Two fics going at the same time! WILD.

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? - I went to bed early LOL

28. How did you recharge between fics? - I consume a lot of media. If I'm feeling depleted I give myself permission to watch something like Brooklyn99 or a dumb slasher movie, maybe Lord of the Rings if I have the time. Just to watch something for fun instead of studying or seeking inspiration.

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? - Sarah, Seamount, AJ, thank you so much for reading things that I've thrown at you and finding all of my missed or incorrectly used commas. - My new friends on the Fleurmione Discord, thank you for being so welcoming. It's been a crazy year and I really appreciate you taking me in so readily!

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024? - Oooh. Okay. I want to start the Fleurmione fic "A Ghost In The Hallway Grinning," and my really fun Blackhill fic "Everyone Goes Home." I've got a lot of things outline and ready to go, just haven't had the time to knock them all out yet. I hope 2024 will be a fun and prolific year! Maybe I'll even get around to finishing a WonderCroft fic or my Supercorp fic.

#rangerbeads is writing #rangerbeads answers questions

[violetsystems]

I sometimes can't believe how desperate and try hard the past is when trying to hurt me. I love watching the Prisoner as a tv series. Don't really appreciate living it in real life. For the record, I should be somewhere in my life by now and more importantly I feel like I'm on the cusp of at least earning some income. That is if it isn't impeded by Hollywood, techno promoters who dabble in human trafficking, or paid off government officials with a social justice grudge agenda that matches their cocaine budget for the month. I would have loved to be a writer and in some ways I still am. But ultimately, I'm someone who isn't going to die with regret. And though I'm a big fan of redemption especially during the Holy Week? I don't think Jesus can save you from making the same selfish ass mistakes over and over again. I definitely think religion is a personal thing. And I'm definitely not making choices God would damn me for every night when I go to sleep alone with my cat. But I will say that people need to face the reality of what they do to people as a mob one day or another. This isn't a life without consequences. And the more batshit and mean spirited things get I'm reminded that validation is a curse. If only God can judge you in the spiritual sense. Whatever god that is? Then the only real validation comes from making choices you decide for yourself. Going down with the ship theoretically. Figuratively and literally what else can I really do. Connect with a bunch of people from my past that literally scream white supremacy? I fought that shit for years with those people and they pretended I didn't exist. Now when I come across little articles bragging about their life they're doing motion graphics work for the American Revolutionary War Museum and bragging about working on Lord of the Rings. I remember when they shaved their head, threw on a bomber jacket and hung out with all the hardcore kids that threaten to beat me up for asking questions about their sudden change in ideology. Nothing has changed. People accept the lies because they're afraid to be ostracized. And here I am. The thing you fear most. Authenticity. Fuck you for trying to hurt me if that was your intention. Fuck you for trying to hurt the people I care about. And generally fuck you for thinking you can hide from the government. I've always been right here and you've always been hiding on my property listening to every word I say. What the fuck is your excuse when you can listen to reason? Make up more shit about me for all I care. Nobody believes you are a good person in the slightest. Not even God. I'm reminded about how many times over the years when people called you out for your shitty private room hitler jokes and cocaine abuse and you just laughed and said "I'm just a piece of shit." You are and so are your stupid ass wannabe drug smuggling mma dj friends. Happy Easter. I hope you get jailed in another country since you hate America so much.

[probably-haven]

Hello!! After seeing what you wrote about xiaoven fics I went to see what things you usually write and omg, your archon Venti headcanons????? I am absolutely in love. So if it isn't annoying, could you talk about xiaoven or Venti or Xiao or whatever ship or character you like? I don't care what you are going to say, I just want to know more about your thoughts ^^

I- is this... bestie, this is essentially a free ramble pass- kerujsgheskdfug. Trust me when I say that in no way is this, and in no way will it ever be annoying in the slightest- i literally- lets just say rambling off thoughts is kind of my specialty, especially when provided a topic to branch off of because otherwise I'm just- really indecisive about it so- iujskdh yeah- 100% definitely down to talk about Venti, Xiao, and/or Xiaoven XD. Also, yes- it may have been awhile since i last posted one(cuz again, indecisive about which direction to take part 5), but the Archon War Era Venti headcanons are still without a doubt my favorite posts I've made. It's just such an interesting topic with such endless potential that so few people actually think about or consider or even realize is there, so i always just get really psyched whenever i see someone interact with them lol.

.... this ended up being a bit of a mess: warning in advance

Anyway! onto the actual content!

- You see the thing about Xiaoven is that there's a lot of different ways that it could end up working out, and just personally my favorite way of portraying Xiaoven in my mind is as an unlabeled relationship because if anyone in genshin would give off that vibe its these two. And a number of other reasons.

- Firstly, I heavily headcanon Venti as being an aroace polyplatonic or perhaps heavily demiromantic. However, regardless of this I just don't think that Venti is really the kind of person to worry about how he should label his feelings, thinking it's silly to try to put them in one box or the other, especially with feelings and emotions being as fluid as they are in general. Plus it fits his whole God of Freedom vibe. I just- dont think he's the biggest fan of labels or social categorization in general.

- And secondly on the hand of Xiao... his defense mechanisms are very much ingrained in his personality. It's probably hard enough for him to not go into fight or flight(the answer is fight) at the slightest affection at first, at the slightest feeling of vulnerability. Even further down the line, with his fierce dedication to Liyue, I cant help but get the vibe that the moment he recognized that he was falling for Venti he would begin avoiding him, not only to avoid distraction from his duty, but to avoid corrupting him or losing him in general like he has with like basically every other person he gets close with(even believing that the cycle had repeated once more when he first heard of Morax's death)... now imagine Venti tryna slap a label on their relationship and tell me Xiao would have a positive reaction.

- The thing with Xiaoven.... honestly, i feel like theres more ways that it can go wrong than it can go right, but if they do manage to make their relationship work out, it's just simply beautiful in all terms of the word.

- Lets talk about killing. - During the Archon War, both were forced to kill a large number of people and gods alike- Venti out of a need to remain alive to protect Mondstadt, it's freedom, and the nameless bard's legacy by extent- and Xiao out of servitude to the god that was once his master

..... actually- break here- ive talked a lot about Venti on this blog but I havent actually spoken about Xiao all that much- so i should probably do that a bit first... do note though that my characterization of Xiao is pretty flexible actually- this is just- the possible characterization of him that i tend to favor as being the most- uh- "realistically complex"

-

Theres a line I saw this one time in a certain story: "He is a trained weapon. That's what he is, was, and always will be. You cannot change that so stop trying." And i just- think its a really interesting concept- that applies pretty well to Xiao now that i actually think about it. - the concept behind it is this: After spending more than a vast majority of his life killing or otherwise in battle, it's become a part of who he is, a normalcy that after centuries and centuries would be near impossible to get rid of or reverse, and even if it was possible, with his karmic debt constantly eating away at him its unlikely he has enough time left for that to happen. - it sounds like a cruel thing to say about him- but in context it's actually pretty layered and i think about it a lot. It's not as much a "he's a killer lol, that his whole personality" its more of a "The centuries of trauma he experienced have conditioned him into a constantly alert and battle ready mindset while also shaping his dehumanizing inferior-in-worth-but-superior-in-capability view of himself that would have likely been necessary to get through those time, and at this point he's been under that conditioning for long enough that it's essentially ingrained itself in his personality."

- the main idea is- it's a part of who he is, that needs to be accepted as who he is because its not something that he can just up and change. It's not all he is of course but his constant battle mode, as though always waiting to be ambushed or to be granted a new target to eradicate.

a couple character story quotes:

-"His past of service under the evil god had rid Xiao of his innocence and gentleness. All that remained within him was the means to kill and the weight of his sins. The only way he could be of service to mortals was in combat." -"Xiao does not feel any hatred. Having lived for over two thousand years, no single karmic debt constitutes anything more than a fleeting memory. No grudge can last a thousand years; nor is any debt so great that it cannot be paid off in this time. Xiao has spent many long years alone. But his battles have never been in vain." -"where did Xiao have to return to? He was merely leaving the battlefield." -"since Xiao wages a constant war against dark forces powerful enough to devour Liyue in its entirety, any bystanders who witness him in the heat of battle are likely to end up as collateral damage." -"The war he fights can never be won, and will never come to an end." -"Because ultimately, the one with whom Xiao wrestles is himself."

i feel like at some point this very nearly did consume his whole personality, almost turning him into nothing more than a being of slaughter under Morax's control, devoid of any "humanity" at all, consumed and corrupted by his karmic debt like his fellow yakshas before him. - until he experienced a moment of clarity- a song in the wind, the peaceful melody of a dihua flute. - and pulled back from the border of something he wouldnt have been able to return from, there a was a shift in his mind- a concept grown unfamiliar enough with time that it took him a great time to identify what it was; a curiosity. Something that there was no place for on the battlefield, something that by all means should have been completely useless to Xiao, and yet he held onto that curiosity, slowly regaining over time, a sense of who he was and who he could choose to be with each song that the wind chose to carry towards him every once in a blue moon.

and eventually that curiousity turned to longing. Longing "for a day to come when he will wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers"

...... uh- heh- if you couldn’t tell already i have a tendency to make my characterizations/analyses of characters more serious that i probably should. 

to summarize: Xiao is constantly toeing the line between his ingrained nature and his humanity- almost as though still trying to decide how much of that humanity he deserves to have, how much he is allowed to have, and how much is safe to have.

^looking back after writing this, i think the best way to explain it is that this is the view that i keep in mind/the lense that i tend to most enjoy looking through and refering back to while examining and/or analyzing his character, actions, story, lines, and overall personality.

idk- i kinda got off track but i just think its a really interesting interpretation to think about because it has some really interesting implications ig- it’s not the full extent of how i view him of course, but i kinda got ahead of myself and its long enough as is so ill just elaborate as i go- Lol i actually have in progress playlists for both him and venti and just- vibes- i could ramble about the playlists alone for hours explaining everything... It’s probably a problem- uh- ill keep going now lol.

anyways! stepping off the angst path for a brief break! Brought to you by their lines in the snow: both waiting for it to get thick enough, Venti for the purpose of a snowball fight and Xiao for the purpose of a tasty and nutritious breakfast.

but its actually something of note that Xiao doesnt actually need to eat so anything he does eat is usually out of obligation or enjoyment- so like.... snow.... like i dont blame him, but of all things- an adeptus who refuses to eat basically anything but almond tofu looks at the freezing-cold-floor-water that yeeted itself from above and decided at some point- damn- that seems more edible than basically ever single actually edible thing ever.... im gonna eat it- like- im glad if eating snow makes him happy but- at the same time...

He probably convinces Venti to eat snow too though and Venti wouldnt even resist I mean he’s wind and has probably consumed worse things in his time so- 2 anemo cryptids with glowing tattoos sitting in Dragonspine monching snow in the dead of night is an amusing thought to me.

- kay, now back to more serious-toned thoughts

One of the things about the ship that i really like is the different contradicting parallels between them:

A lot of how i view Xiao’s character is someone formed largely by the things he cant control and who was forced to accept that accepted that and learned to thrive in it as much as he can.  Venti on the other hand is surrounded by things he cant control and is ever adapting to control as much as he can while embracing whatever he cant as being part of the unpredictability of the world, seeing beauty in it. 

both of them have lost people and do what they do to honor their memory: Xiao continues to do what the Yakshas once did And Venti chooses to do what his friend couldn’t

Xiao’s power coming from himself  and Venti’s from others And both seem to appear to use their power for their own gain while truly helping others behind the scenes

both have killed a lot of people during the archon war Xiao views it as another necessary event out of his control and Venti would likely view it as a tragedy he chose to enact himself

and this is where we meet out balance

Xiao- contrary to how i think a lot of people view him as thinking of himself as a monster- seems canonically to have accepted this as part of his duty, as long as those he killed are not mortals. I dont think he enjoys it no- but someone has to do it and he’s just accepted that its a part of his duty Venti on the other hand-

See the beauty of the ship- as someone with an angst-centric mind- is this- these are two of the most traumatized mfers in the game 

Xiao is by far the one who needs the most help and who can serve to benefit most from the ship- but he is nowhere near self aware enough to recognize that there’s anything wrong or unhealthy about his mindset in the slightest-

whereas you have the contrast with Venti who sorted through most of his trauma with the nameless bard alone during the archon war and while the result appears more healthy- is still really not- but he’s not self aware of that either because i mean- who’s going to tell him? nobody even knows. 

however- venti is aware enough to notice flaws in Xiao’s mindset and “Venti” enough to want to help them through it-

Xiao- while not aware enough to recognize the flaws in Venti’s mindset, can recognize where it contrasts with his own, and is blunt enough to point it out- and then it’s out there to be mulled over- 

they’re so similar and yet so different and a feel just conversing between the two of them, being in each others precense, just being exposed to two mindsets that are so very different could do both of them a whole lot of good.

GEEE THAT BIT OF RAMBLING HAD LITTLE TO NO DIRECTION AT ALL- LET ME-- LET ME MAKE THIS START MAKING SENSE- WITH... DYNAMICS OR SOMETHING

I don’t think Xiao needs to sleep really- and i dont think that sleeping would do anything except make him uneasy at first- he’d probably just get nightmares after all he’s been through- but with Venti he would soon learn that it doesn’t have to be that way, lulled into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in... as long as he can remember.

anywho back to not making sense cuz im fickle and i think most questions about ships are best displayed through character interactions so like- a possible exchange thats cliche but cliches exist for a reason

Xiao: Why do you try so hard to help me, it isn’t easy. I know that much Venti, with the most adoring expression: Because you’re worth it, obviously Xiao: But surely there are others more deserving of- Venti: No Xiao, everyone is just as deserving as the next person, you included Xiao: Then why me above others? Venti: ehe, cuz ur my warrior of course [O//////O oh shit, hes right] Xiao: My contract is with Morax alone [gay panic but in broody yaksha]

it’s kinda difficult cuz neither of them really address their feelings.  I mean Venti does but he does it very indirectly and its rare that he ever does it with like- genuine directness- even spilling his backstory was in the form of a song- and told in the third person- so a lot of their interactions would often have some deeper meaning, especially with Venti being the bard he is. 

I come up with a lot of- errant thoughts about Xiaoven- but this is making me realize that a true analysis of their ship is rather difficult because it just encompasses so many dynamics so its hard to settle on just one and not go rambling about who knows what bouncing from one end of the ship to the other-  Because you truly can and thats the beauty of it

within one moment you can be having a heartfelt conversation about the archon war the impact of lost friends and times past, and the next moment Venti is trying to forcefeed Xiao an apple while Xiao screams about disrespecting the adepti and its just- so lovely

so while they have picnics with nothing but apples, dandelion wine, and almond tofu they can sit down and talk about the dreams Xiao once devoured, and the dandelion wine and apple cider that the first Ragnvindir invented from the plants that never could have grown in Old Mond. The foods that tasted of familiarity, or of the grilled ticker fish Pervases always used to eat, foods that tasted of friends and frankly family that had since passed, glaze lilies and cecilias and qingxin flowers scattered in the surroundings and woven into Xiao’s neat braids and Venti’s now messy ones, rebraided by the steady and inexperienced hands of one unused to gentle action. 

and then of course Venti steals Xiao’s tofu once the mood becomes too grim and replaces it with a bottle of wine that Xiao refers to as “vile poison,” a remark that fatally wounds Venti as he collapses on the floor, proclaiming how he can only be healed by a Yaksha’s kiss. Xiao ignores this of course and simply takes back his tofu with a slight smile on his face, but as Venti persists he soundlessly places a kiss on his own palm before intertwining their fingers and pulling him back up from where he was dramatically sprawled on the floor, grumbling about how such action was “unbecoming of an archon.” A sign of affection only Xiao would ever know about. But Venti is literally wind and I hc his senses work differently anyways so he definitely knows- plus Xiao’s face is red as the blood of his enemies and the way he is pointedly not looking at Venti at all really speaks volumes anyways. 

 -Venti playing epic battle music whenever Xiao goes into fights in what looks like a ridiculously extra performance to anyone else but is actually doing wonders to keep Xiao’s karma at bay

-Venti preaches the practice of “kissing wounds better” and Xiao is unfamiliar with this medical treatment but views it as unnecessary regardless because adepti have accelerated healing, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop him though. 

-Messages whispered on the wind

-Venti’s 1000 year sleep- an accident, not a fun time for the yaksha, and not a fun time for Venti once he woke up. Venti is actually more afraid of restful sleep than Xiao is, hence the sleeping in trees thing, but when Xiao is there, he can sleep restfully with faith that Xiao wont let another millennia slip through his fingertips. 

- Xiao tends to make excuses when doing things that aren’t necessary to his duty, like in his birthday voice line “Have this, it’s a butterfly i made from leaves... Okay. Take it. It’s an adepti amulet -- it staves off evil” because at the current point in his progress it helps him to feel like he’s allowed to do these things. Not wanting to put him off from progress, Venti never comments on his excuse but never fails to whisper a quick reminder of how proud he is of how far Xiao had come.

- Xiao’s karma saddens Venti greatly- not only because of how it effects Xiao but also because its a reminder that as much as Venti tries to honor the memory of those he’s killed, there will always be those who resent him for it, and when he took the option of living away from them, he truly can’t blame them. - And when he gets too wrapped up in thoughts, whether around this topic or similar ones or otherwise, eventually, he’ll hear the sound of a flute on the wind. It’s not divine by any means, but as his own wind connects him to the source, he gets the sentiment all the same. “What impact does one individual’s remaining wrath have on the present. You have done much to help the living in the present” the unspoken idea that Xiao has included himself in that statement, because now, with Venti’s help he’s beginning to learn just how to experience living for himself. 

- Venti’s form and Xiao’s mask are off limit topics though because if either mentions it the other will counter with the opposite and the mood will turn immediately bitter at the idea that both know that what they’re doing is destructive but neither are willing to change

- Venti who has different tells for negative feelings than most people because as much as he likes to pretend it is- this form isnt his, and Xiao who is able to identify those

- many fanfics and headcanons have Venti recognizing when Xiao is uncomfortable and getting him out of those situations. I see that and I love it but i raise you: - Venti taking Xiao to Mondstadt, careful that he doesn’t get to the point that he’s uncomfortable. And nothing goes wrong exactly, but Xiao notices the the way Venti’s cape is blowing in the wind, the way he’s holding his weight, barely on his feet so much as floating on the wind, connected with the ground only for the sake of appearance, all the while he looks just as happy go lucky as ever. And without a word, he grabs his hand and teleports them both out of Mondstadt.  - turns out it was just a slight thing that reminded him of the archon war (cuz i will die on the hill of him having more tragic backstory than just Decarabian), and he of course gives a sincere if not flustered thanks to Xiao, because he’s really not used to people noticing. 

- Venti trying to vent sneakily through fictional stories and Xiao is just like “Didn’t that basically happen to you” and Venti is just like “<_< shit”

- Venti once said affectionally that he wished he had met Xiao sooner and Xiao immediately and seriously shot it down by saying “If you had, I would have been forced to kill you” and both of them now stay up at night wondering who would have won that fight, not sure which result would have hurt more. (because honestly I have no idea who would win in that fight and that terrifies me- I like to think it would have been one of those legends that end with “and the fight persists to this day” or something along those lines)

- “How long have you been together?” “Adepti have no need for-” “1000+ years T^T how dare you deny our love” “O///O our...? ...useless”

- its disney- let me explain- i have this- i have this headcanon inspired by watching too many animatics- - so venti has a human form that isnt his- which he would have had to get used to moving in- and he’s a bard- - uh- anyway- as a third degree black belt in mixed martial arts, i can speak as an authority on this(not really an authority since i havent gone since quarantine but lets pretend). We have a thing referred to as the big three(most things do), and those things are martial arts, gymnastics, and dance. The idea is that they reflect really well off of each other and the best in any one category are good in all three. Timing, balance, form, discipline, technique, hand-eye coordination, grace, ease of motion, they all play a part- anyway-

- Venti taking Xiao’s prowess in martial arts and acrobatics and teaching him how to dance, and as someone who’s extremely skilled in the first two, the third comes easy to him, almost naturally. And it’s delicate and beautiful and lovely and it isn’t hurting anyone. And Venti points all these things out and more and despite how much Xiao insists that he feels ridiculous he truly does enjoy it and it goes a long way towards helping him form more healthy views of himself and his worth.  - Verr Goldett walked in on him once and made a joke about performing at the inn. unfortunately Venti was there and agreed on Xiao’s behalf before he could protest and- and it wasn’t as bad as Xiao thought it would be... he still wouldn’t do it again though without reason, but with good enough reasoning he could probably be convinced. 

- anyways point is he likes dancing to Venti’s songs and i just think that’s really cute - just picture the idea that all the animatics you see actually have the potential to be canon- ugh

- venti tries holding something out of Xiao’s reach since he’s taller and Xiao just fucking teleports 

- both need their space but when they dont, all they have to do is speak the other’s name and they’ll be there.

- and because i just had to.... love languages

- lets start with Xiao- i don’t think he’d view acts of service or quailty time as a love language tbh, and he blunt but really bad with words so affirmation is out, leaving gift giving and physical touch. However, he seems to view most material things as meaningless so- - Xiao who’s love language is in his fleeting touches, something he’s only recently grown comfortable with because of Venti, and now is giving back, which he knows he doesn’t have to do, but that he want’s to, though he’ll still continue to make excuses for each one. “you were shivering” “The inn is high up, you could have fallen..... I said what I said, you’d question an adeptus?”

- and as easy as it is to say words of affirmation for Venti- he does that for everyone- i want to say his is actually acts of service - its the acts of service that let him see just how much Xiao has progressed afterall, from teaching him to dance, to playing another song on the flute, to supplying him with the almond tofu he seems to enjoy so much. Every little thing he does helps Xiao to grow and he couldn’t be happier about that. 

-

- of course most of my headcanons for the ship do take place latter into the relationship because- y’know the less serious unhealthy vibes allow for greater range of thought, but i do still love to think about the serious implications so i kinda hopped back and forth. So sorry about how messy it is btw, i kinda- got carried away- it kinda got some kind of structure near the end tho so- maybe it’s okay. anyway- back to... lol something, we’ll see where thought forests lead. 

#genshin impact #genshin xiao #genshin venti #xiao #venti #xiaoven #genshin analysis #genshin headcanons #xiaoven headcanons #xiaoven analysis #this is a mess i really shouldnt be putting all these tags but oh well #oh wow the grammar and spelling here is truly repulsive #sorry to all my english teachers i have failed you all

[hanadoesstuffwrong]

Tonight on, I should definitely be sleeping but feel a senseless need to write this instead:

Surprise Kissing!!

So I'm very anti-kat/@ang for personal reasons, and back when I hyper fixated on avatar for a bit, I read a lot of really awesome metas about why it was badly executed... And I might've written a couple of sub-par ones myself....

But I noticed how one critisicm that kept coming up was A@ng's habit of kissing Katara without asking permission.

At first I just kinda blatantly agreed, but then I remembered that many of my favourite ships don't verbally request permission before kissing, and I never had a problem with those scenes.

Now, on a surface level I can see why requesting permission to kiss someone makes a lot of sense and is a pretty good thing to put in shows (especially for pre/teen audiences).

But, honestly, it can be a bit of a moment killer, from an entertainment/aesthetic standpoint and often, surprise kisses make u jump up and down squealing as u watch...

So why does kat@ang doing it gross me out so much?

(Now, the fact that I don't like the pairing could have something to do with it, but honestly... Replace A@ng with Zuko and I would still get uncomfortable watching these scenes play out this way.)

To answer this question, allow me to present another canon ship:

Rayllum

Ah yes, the OTP that can literally do no wrong!

However! Their first two kisses are both surprise kisses...

JUST LIKE KATA@NG!!!

I am going to analyse them now because it is only 01:29 right now and sleep is for the weak!

(All the Rayllum gifs I've used here were created by @ jlassijlali , just so u know)

So!

1. Blinking..... Matters?

Here's one of kata@ng's kisses:

And now rayllum's:

Watch the girls' eyes!!

Neither girl is expecting to be kissed in these moments (whether because of deep-seated self-loathing or literally being in a warzone). Rayla's are open wide and take a moment to fully close. Similarly, Katara's are wide, but then they continue to be wide until she shuts them, after blinking twice. (Note, u can't see this in the gif because I suck at making gifs)

Rayla relaxes into the kiss.

Katara does not.

Rayla kisses him back.

Katara kinda just lets it happen.

These girls are supposed to be feeling the same way: The guy they have been pining after for the majority of their time together is finally returning their feelings. If Katara has been wanting this for almost a year, why isn't she reacting in a similar way to Rayla, who has only been wanting this for at most two weeks?

It looks like they were going for shock and surprise, however, keeping this expression going for too long into the kiss turns it into something else: Discomfort and confusion. She looks a bit too surprised. As if she never saw this coming. As if she wasn't secretly hoping this would happen at some point. As if she never saw the person kissing her as a romantic interest and therefore wouldn't expect this from him.

And don't give me that "they're in the middle of a war! So she's very confused about her feelings!" She can be confused about her feelings, sure, but if she had really been in love with- and wanting to kiss- A@ng since season 2, as the creators claim, I think she might give in to those feelings a little more... Maybe by smiling, or revealing even the slightest sign of being happy about this development!

Which brings me on to my next point:

2. Reaction & context

But after all, maybe I'm misjudging, maybe these two characters just react differently while being kissed. That's valid. In that case, I'll compare what happens after the surprise kiss in each show, since that will tell me how they felt about it more explicitly and reveal whether or not the surprise kiss was well-received.

So let's see Katara's giddy expression, the light in her eyes and joy slowly giving way to confusion or regret because of their situation. Show me Katara's elation at-

-And she looks like she wants to die...

Okay then!

I think Rayla's reaction speaks for itself:

[◇okay! I have slept and will now continue◇]

So this bit is less about kata@ng and more about when surprise kissing works. Imma look at rayllum again:

Okay, first kiss:

See how close they're standing? See the expressions?! This adorable boy has been pouring his heart out over how amazing he thinks Rayla is, calling her beautiful and smart and strong! I would kiss him for that!!

Kiss number two again:

Again, close proximity, serene expressions, and again, this boy has just finished singing her praises AGAIN!!

Nobody points out these surprise kisses as points against rayllum being well executed because the creators utilised them well. Nobody is interrupting the other, there's no grabbing, the moment is romantically framed from the get go, and once they're over, their reactions fall in line with a romantic narrative:

This is Callum's reaction to the first kiss. Now u might say,"that's exactly the same as Katara's!"

However... Context:

Callum: That's not what I was expecting.

Rayla: You were saying all those things, so I thought-

Callum: No, I was- I- I wasn't saying all those things so you would [gestures]

He explains his reaction

In the context of the scene, her kissing him and him reacting in this way make perfect sense! She's veeeeery emotionally vulnerable atm, and he explains that he wasn't trying to get her to kiss him, he wasn't manipulating her. And that's why he reacted in that way to the kiss.

They COMMUNICATE

Now, Kat@ang...

Since dude immediately flies away, and then they seemingly forget the kiss happened for a fat number of episodes, the only time we hear Katara explain why she reacted in that way is way later:

Katara: A@ng, I'm sorry, but right now I'm just a little confused.

A@ng:

You don't see it so much in the gif but FROWNING, ARMS CROSSED OVER HERSELF, PLAYING WITH HER HAIR, NOT LOOKING AT HIM, EYEs FREAKIN SHUT!!!! THEY'VE FRAMED THIS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THE LAST THING KATARA WANTS TO BE DOING IS KISSING THIS BOY!!!

Do they want me to want these two together?!?!?! What was the thought process when making this scene?!!?!

3. Equality

Rayllum's SEVEN kisses:

Rayla surprise kisses Callum

Callum surprise kisses Rayla

Rayla kisses Callum back

Mutual kiss •Relationship begins•

Mutual kiss

Mutual kiss

Veeeeery mutual kiss post rescue and dramatic love confessions

They get ONE surprise kiss each, and then the rest are mutual or reciprocations (I hope that's an actual word)

Kat@ang's three kisses [because we don't count kiss-or-die, cheek kisses or dream kisses in this house, thank you very much!]:

A@ng surprise kisses Katara

A@ng surprise kisses Katara

Mutual kiss with zero dialogue or meaningful romantic interaction since the last kiss •Relationship begins???•

See the issue???

Conclusion.......

Rayllum's surprise kisses do not kill their romantic story because they are animated to clearly display their emotions; they work well within narrative context and they each do it, demonstrating equal interest in the relationship.

Kat@ang does none of this by having these kisses be forgotten about rapidly and shoe-horned pointlessly into scenes with zero romantic framing. A@ng always being the one to do the surprise kissing simply makes it seem like Katara isn't really into it, and just kinda accepts it by the end in spite of having no romantic build up over prior episodes.

That's why it grosses me out when avatar does it, and not when Dragon Prince does.

..................

Anyway, none if this probably needed to be said, but this is my void, let me be. I just get annoyed when the only times I see these ships compared they're always saying how "Rayllum reminds me of kata@ng"

I watched Avatar way after watching Dragon Prince, so I hav no nostalgic connection to it at all. In fact- unpopular opinion- I would say that Dragon Prince is better than Avatar in many ways! Most specifically the romances!

#why is this longer than any a-level essay i've ever written #me: hey if ur gonna hypefocus on something could u try fitness or schoolwork #my adhd: No i don't think i will #my posts #im sorry #salt #miraculous and avatar are just in my bad books because they are so popular and beloved and i am not #i am mwrely a bitter fish #atla #anti kataang #kataang salt #meta #anti-kataang meta #rayllum #rayllum meta

[bookwyrminspiration]

What if. What if the fandom had a revoloutionary war of sorts. Those who wish to seek freedom from the love traingle can be the patriots. Those who are obsessed with the triangle and only ships associated with the triangle can become loyalists. Then they fight it out to the death using a variety of fanart, headcanons, fanfics, etc. If Keefe or Fitz gets with someone besides Sophie, including eachother, in canon, than the patriots win. Bonus points if its lgbt.

oh no. fandom wars. who are we, the pinterest fandom? /j

Your comparison as having two sides going against each other to create art sounds like an excellent way for you to end up with more content in general, nonsie! You could be like one of those mysterious third party people in the plot who incites chaos for their own gain--or at least were I to take on a role that's who I would be. Encourage the drama so i could enjoy content from both ends.

on the one hand, we'd get a lot more art of Sophie, Keefe, and Fitz! And I love all of them very dearly and think they make an adorable ship (in any configuration), so I wouldn't be opposed to that in the slightest. But there'd also be a lot of other ships, and those are wonderful too! I could never pick a favorite ship in all of keeper, so getting art from the other side would be a benefit for me as well.

Wait wait wait can we have another division that's creating content for non-ship content? Those focusing on "fighting" for the plot and worldbuilding and all the details? because that's the side I'd want to be on. Though I wouldn't want to fight the ships, but instead amicably create content together.

Ooo!! Combine our efforts! We could all collaborate to create an awesome combination of different fics and art and concepts into an even cooler world. Apply the complexities of the worldbuilding side to the ship sides and analyze the characters in different dynamics to play off each other. Instead of tearing each other down we could make each other even more powerful...I am intrigued.

I will say as funny as the idea is I wouldn't want to have actual competitions or real victories between the groups. Shipping drama is already so exhausting, so while I am humoring the idea there are a few elements I'd request we change before fully implementing it! All the ships people have are so cool regardless of what happens in canon, and getting to play around with these characters together is so much fun. If someone truly wanted to get into an argument about ships, there's plenty of sites that are fully capable of just that--I'd prefer this one wasn't one of them (this isn't targeting you or your idea, just a comment. don't worry!)

I think it'd be fun to like pick associations and teams to be a part of, like choosing to dedicate yourself to a particular pairing or something. But that just means that's what you'd create content for, not that you wouldn't like the others!

There's a lot of potential to your idea!! I am greatly intrigued by the idea of creating a lot of content, as with such a vast time gap between the books the fandom is dependent on each other right now. And it's fun to uplift and encourage others! Encouragement helps artists continue creating!

#considering how the story has been going for the past decade I think I can predict who would win the war should we make it about the love #triangle #I also just don't enjoy competition all that much so maybe I'm not the best person to pose this idea to #I just want us all to enjoy this story and each other's creations!! #so I kinda veered off the war path and more towards just making things #I hope that's alright! #I don't know if anyone would even be interested in this kind of thing #but it's fun to think about!! #i'd probably go for the plot/worldbuilding team as my first pick #and then something to do with tam as my second #i simply love him your honor #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #quil's queries #kotlc war

[the-ghost-king]

Interestingly enough the fandom isn't always rational with their criticism. Take Percy and Rachel for instance. A perfectly healthy cute and functional relationship dynamic, but people really hated it because it got in the way of Percy/Annabeth.

I think it can also come down to the fact that not all situations are exactly equal if that makes sense. If you have a character dynamic in couple A, that often playfully bully of fight with eachother that's a different dynamic than relationship B, where one person has trauma resulting from bullying and the other parter behaves in roughly the same way as couple A do. In that case the behavior may be seen as inappropriate. Not that this example has anything to do with the ships at hand, but I think a long form meta examining the different paralleling issues from both relationships and their validity would be easier.

Also I haven't seen anything about about Nico/Will being called toxic. Yikes, what are people saying exactly, because I don't doubt a lot of people might be projecting unconcious bias.

Oh absolutely, I may seem young but I remember the Rachel vs Annabeth ship wars all too well... I do not want to go back 😅

The rest is under a read more though, I got a little carried away talking! Also this isn't my best post on the issue by far so please feel free to check out the tags I mention later on!

(AN: I use nblm alongside mlm in this post because some nblm individuals will consider their attraction to men as gay, or queer, while others will not and those individuals are often closely connected to mlm experiences and they also deserve to talk about their thoughts and feelings if they wish. I am aware nonbinary people are not a monolith and not all nonbinary people will categorize themselves or their attraction this way, it's up to nonbinary individuals reading this to determine where they fall on what)

As for Solangelo being toxic some of the conversations revolve around the ableist nature of the ship, this is definitely most obviously a dynamic in BoO, and it's a more than fair point about the ship I don't have anything negative to say there in the slightest!

(The above parallels with the idea that Will is introduced as a "healer character" for the "sad gay kid", which is a fair criticism as well but one that's often left rather one sided, because while that is true- if it's a way Nico likes being treated (watched closely for injuries and cared for) then it's not wrong, and in ToN Will is seen overstepping Nico's boundaries which causes a healthy argument about Will doing so and he stops, so if Nico doesn't tell Will "no" or some variation he's obviously not horribly uncomfortable with the situation, or from the way it would be interpreted alongside previous text, there's fair reason to think he likes it)

The thing with Solangelo I see often is "Nico is still processing trauma, and internalized homophobia and isn't ready for a relationship" which is a huge misunderstanding on how trauma and internalized homophobia work as a whole, because the experiences can be different for everyone. You can absolutely date someone while processing internalized homophobia, you may struggle with certain things but it is absolutely doable for some people. And trauma is such a varied thing, and it's not like he's solely relying on Will either, he is seeing Dionysus for therapy and getting the help he needs! Your life doesn't have to go on hold for therapy no matter how much trauma you are sorting through! (Not disclosing my medical history or anything but I have struggled with both things and my life didn't stop for me to deal with them, I made new friends, went on dates, etc- it is possible depending on the person so the very narrow view of "this is unhealthy" and "this is impossible" rubs me wrong when it's treated as fact over opinion, because it's an opinion).

There's also constant discussions about how fandom (in current) fetishizes both Nico and Will, which I, and other mlm and nblm have spoken our own thoughts on multiple times to be largely ignored by the biggest perpetrators of this "they're overly fetishized narrative". There's also fairly consistent discussion of how fandom treats Nico and reduces him to uwu small gay boy, which more often than not seems to mean "effeminate" rather than actually harmful stereotyping (yes queer men are allowed to be "girly" especially considering there is some canon text that could be interpreted with that meaning, if there wasn't a plausible way to determine canon that way I wouldn't care if people were going after others feminizing Nico a bit- but the issue is again, fact and feeling aren't the same and fandom seem to conflate the two rather often).

(Some of that ties into nonbinary Nico head canons which are common as of current, and that argument quickly becomes transphobic is people don't watch themselves... Even without bringing nonbinary Nico into the equation, headcanoning Nico as femme isn't bad or wrong, and to say otherwise becomes gender policing which is bad).

There's also this weird obsession with there being a "correct way" to ship mlm ships (specifically solangelo), which when considering it's not mlm or nblm saying those things, it becomes really uncomfortable. Especially because the wording of some posts is less "hey this is homophobic" and comes off more like people are more upset at seeing an mlm couple than at the fact that they're being shipped poorly.

All of this in combination with the constant, talking over of queer guys (specifically mlm and nblm) comes off really messed up, and yeah homophobic.

It's not something that can be pinned down to one specific thing but rather a series of smaller microagressions (which in sure most of are intended in good faith but are being filled with subconscious bias) that build up over time- which is why my concern is that solangelo is facing harsher criticism/different treatment that percabeth simply for being a queer ship.

I can't be 100% sure on that like I said, because that's something that is hard to gain tangible evidence for, or maybe even impossible :/

If there wasn't so many other small things going on alongside the harsher criticism of solangelo, I would honestly just ignore it... But the weird policing of "how to ship solangelo" while proclaiming it's "overly fetishized" all while speaking over a not insignificant number of mlm and nblm who have agreed with certain opinions, or taken time to write their own (+ some of the rhetoric that can be found on he blogs of people commonly expressing these opinions) is super uncomfortable and definitely homophobic... Even if they were treating the ship kind of weird, but treating the queer guys talking about it well and actually listening (because the current solangelo fandom probably has the highest proportion of queer guys in comparison to any other fandom I've been in with an mlm ship as of right now) I wouldn't be so bothered... But sadly that's not the case..

(I'd also like to note out of my posts criticizing the current conversations happening around the issue my post saying "listen to mlm voices" got a lot more notes than some of the other ones, which I can't say is specifically anything, because like solangelo perhaps being treated unfairly to percabeth, I am willing to acknowledge there might not be an issue- but it's weird how often mlm and nblm's posts on "listen to us" will be uplifted but never any actual criticism... Just a thought)

I detail things a little closer and in more detail in some of my posts tagged #fandom homophobia, #mlm fetishism, and #gender policing in fandom, it's not a full or comprehensive list (I've only really started speaking up in the last month or so), and it is largely solangelo specific. However I am always interested in listening to the voices of other queer guys about the issues and hearing out their thoughts as well (people aren't a monolith and I'm interested in trying to be as nuanced as possible!) and I acknowledge that although I am mlm and am going to be a little better at recognizing issues and calling them out (although I like every person am not perfect of course)

So yeah! That's a bit of the current ongoings, again not a full comprehensive list, and definitely not my best explanation ever but I think the point gets across well enough? Definitely check out my other tags if you're interested in more, there's also definitely more posts I need to make on some of the things I've seen (maybe not all of them so solangelo fandom specific, and maybe some of them even more solangelo fandom specific) but it's rather slow work in progress!

#asks #anon #long post

[dreamteamfanblog]

Hey so it's been like nine months but one thing I still think is Really Cool about the election is how IMPOSSIBLE it was for good things to happen here.

Now, the baseline premise, first off, that i've gotta establish? Quackity was the only good candidate.

Wilbur was always messed up and his whole plan was to rig the election from the start. Fundy was...incompetent...to say the least, and he tried his hand at voter fraud as well. And, well, Schlatt showed up shooting at the other candidates right off the bat and we all saw how that turned out. Quackity on the other hand joined specifically to prevent corruption, didn't use any dirty tactics throughout, seemed like he wouldn't be completely incompetent, and as we saw later when he turned against Schlatt actually did have a vested interest in making sure the people were okay.

And now that i've established that premise imma make another claim.

Quackity was completely and totally fucked over during that election.

Okay going into more detail now.

I'm going to talk about what may seem like a very irrelevant detail for a bit here. L'manburg's border policies before the election and each parties stance on it. That being the policy that Americans are banned from L'manburg, the way Wilbur argued in favour of keeping it, and the way Quackity opposed it.

Quackity's objection to it is actually super fair.

At the time a lot of people used this as a way to insist Quackity was out of touch from L'manburg's history/culture and didn't care about the nation itself or at least wasn't fit to run it (oh boy is this gonna be important later). Which. Is bullshit. Because he had a damn good point. I often complain about it when characters who don't know the countries history pop in and start taking for granted their history, reasons for existing in the first place, and the reasons behind their policies/stances. However Quackity's complaints about this policy were actually very well grounded. Now, I think it's a more nuanced situation than "nobody who isn't european is allowed, fuck off" vs "open the borders to everyone, nobody's denied access, nobody's denied a place no matter what, uwu" obviously. But Wilbur's stance was the most harmful one present honestly and he literally just fullstop insisted "nobody who isn't european is allowed, fuck off". This is obviously a very dumb rule. Again, while the "oh we're all european and they're....mostly...all americans, lol" observation is funny and a neat coincidence, it's not something to base policy in. Wilbur's argument was basically;

"the americans oppressed and traumatized us!"

but.....no, if we're talking about the Dream Smp faction, three specific americans and two british man oppressed and traumatized you. If we're talking about the independence war specifically in which the Dream Smp faction asserted their ultimate leadership/control and attempted to destroy the L'manburg rebellion despite their attempts to negotiate for independence? Then we're talking Dream, Sapnap, George, Punz, and later Eret. Alyssa, Callahan, Sam, Badboyhalo, and Purpled were all americans who absolutely did not have anything to do with the attacks against l'manburg during the war. If we're talking before the war as well, then while a case can be made that implicates Purpled I guess, it also implicates another european, Ponk, not to mention that Fundy, Tubbo, and Eret were all involved in the initial conflicts on Sapnap's side and only switched over later, so i seriously warn against deciding to extend beyond the war itself to include purpled here or three other europeans end up implicated next to the one new american while there are still four other americans on the server who haven't done a thing to the people of L'manburg at this point in time.

Not to mention later editions to the server like Skeppy, Quackity, and Karl, none of whom were even really on the server at the time of the war if i remember correctly, and didn't have anything to do with what happened to l'manburg. In fact, while i'm not sure about Karl, Skeppy and Quackity were both immediately much more L'manburg aligned than Dream Smp aligned. Quackity was deeply enamoured with L'manburg and never even glanced in the general direction of a dream smp affiliation, meanwhile at this point Skeppy was rather neutral in his allegiances but had never antagonized L'manburg and was in fact openly antagonistic to Dream, holding spirit over his head and even before that scolding him, calling him a colonizer outright, and telling him he was in the wrong during the independence war, and yeah one could argue that it's a point against him that Skeppy had one of Tommy's discs, but how long have people been whining about how Tommy's discs shouldn't be a factor in L'manburg's government generally? Not to mention that Tommy didn't even know Skeppy had his disc at this point. Those are two Americans right there who L'manburg not only didn't have any reason to dislike, but who had aligned themselves with L'manburg's side much closer than Dreams at this point. I'm pretty sure the only reason Quackity didn't formally join l'manburg literally the moment he laid eyes on it is because he wouldn't have been allowed to, lmao, for real his passion for that country kinda baffles me sometimes cause I don't know where on earth it came from, lmao, and while Skeppy likely wouldn't have joined anyway, alienating and outright banning someone who defends your rights and antagonizes your enemies doesn't seem smart in the slightest. There was no reason to make laws that barred the agency of L'manburg aligned neutrals who weren't even active server members at the time of the first war.

That's just ludicrously nonsensical and honestly even just plain unfair. This also extends to people like, again, Bad, Sam, Alyssa, Callahan, most likely Purpled, and probably Karl (i honestly don't remember much about his role at this point but i don't think he was aligned against l'manburg/with the dream smp faction at any point? not taking a hard stance on that one but still.) who hadn't exactly aligned or allied themselves with l'manburg but also literally did not do anything to them. Wilbur's argument that they needed to ban americans because the Americans had oppressed and traumatized them was just..like...not true. Not all or even most of the american's on the server by the time of the election had contributed to trauma or oppression from the Dream Smp, and in fact, nearly just as many europeans were just as guilty of that as the americans.

The policy was unfair and didn't even make sense and has incredibly flimsy historical backing despite Wilbur's attempts to make it sound like every single american had personally oppressed/traumatized them and were inherently against l'manburg's ideals and coveted their downfall. Even the ones who never did anything to them. Even the ones who weren't on the server yet. Even the ones who speak out in their favour.

But what if I told you this law actually did serve a purpose?

Just not the one Wilbur argued?

What's been done there is we trojan horsed in a false equivalence. Ship of Theseus'd a problem, a non existent dynamic, into existence. If you don't know what Ship of Theseus is, it's basically the concept that, if you took a boat (say, the ship of theseus), and replace every board of wood on the ship one by one, is it really the same ship at the end of it. That's what, theoretically, one could do with the L'manburg border issue here. They started with a true statement. The Dream Smp are responsible for oppressing and traumatizing L'manburg and L'manburg needs to be free from them. Well, okay, I notice The Dream Smp are mostly american. The statement can then become as follows. A group of mostly americans are responsible for oppressing and traumatizing L'manburg and L'manburg needs to be free from them. Well if they're majority american then a point can be made that one could just say Americans for simplicities sake surely. Americans are responsible for oppressing and traumatizing L'manburg and L'manburg needs to be free from them. Well then it's easy to justify banning americans. And taking it a step further, you could plug any two names in there, one american and one L'manburg citizen, and even if on its own the sentiment looks absolutely nonsensical, when smuggled in as a Thesus' ship, it may be taken for granted as being factual. Suddenly? Alyssa is Tubbo's oppressor, Sam is Fundy's oppressor, Purpled is Tommy's oppressor, Skeppy is Niki's oppressor, etc. For the most part the specific one on one combinations aren't used often, or at least aren't specifically pointed out (though they do exist to an extent when l'manburg citizens are a lot more ready to shut any given american out of their in group because 'they're on the oppressors side', even when they're not), and is just used as a means to promote general group dependence and rejection of The Other. But it's oh so easy, when a challenge to this idea is presented, to pull out the one on one comparisons.

And I mean you may think I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but...

Wilbur used this mentality to his advantage in the election.

Because the fact that Quackity was an american and Wilbur was a legal member of L'manburg was a point against Quackity in the election.

Nevermind the fact that Quackity was in no way aligned with the Dream Smp faction, had already heavily allied himself with L'manburg, and was not a citizen because he literally legally was not allowed to be on account of unfair border laws. He's still an american, one of them, not one of us.

Now, the specific trait could've been anything, lets be real. It doesn't matter what random attribute Wilbur picked out of the lineup and decided is The Enemy. I mean, european vs american was just the easiest one, but it could've been any random categorization. I mean really, functionally, what does european vs american actually mean in relation to the Dream Smp characters anyway when you really think about it? Some of these characters were canonically born on smp land and have never lived elsewhere, and I know for damn sure none of these characters ever lived in america or europe. Like, yeah, real earth history/geography is like...referenced by characters kinda sorta, but when you get down to it from an in character perspective what does being american or european actually entail? None of these characters live in american or europe? Like, I may have missed the scene where Wilbur ran his plans to form a British Colony by the queen, or like, that time Britain, Germany, and The Netherlands made their official agreement to share this newly discovered territory and allow their citizens to settle it as L'manburg, and if I did then that's on me. But like that didn't happen because none of these characters are citizens of actual european countries. And none of the characters on the flip side are citizens of actual American countries either. Within the context of The Dream Smp characters, european vs american may as well be defined just by how some of us kinda sorta talk in similar ways and you guys also kinda sorta talk in a similar way that's kinda sorta different from us I guess. Having that law in any serious lore capacity is really Weird.

And I heavily suspect Wilbur didn't just coincidentally make a really Weird law choice and decide to die on such an arbitrary hill for no reason....and that it just happened to promote wariness of people outside of his group from those within it and set up an easy us vs them mentality that can be played between his people and All Outsiders (even if the outsiders are characters who have cc's that are european because choosing to be an outsider is said to negate the whole "one of us" aspect of any given person entirely anyway) whenever it may be needed.

Like, for example, if hypothetically a passionate young law student who's loudly calling Wilbur out for acts of corruption and chooses to run a campaign against him....just so happens to be part of the completely arbitrary group labeled The Other....well, he's not one of us (even though he's been involved as long as niki who is considered 'one of us' at this point and he's only not a citizen because the laws wilbur put in place mean he legally cannot be one), he's An Outsider, and he's trying to open us up to other Outsiders, and that in of itself is tyranny! That in of itself Wilbur won't stand for! And he gets to at least put them on even ground, then, because, well, Wilbur may have tried to rig an election, which may or may not be a taaaad bit tyrannical, but Quackity's one of Them and he wants to let Them in so that They can destroy us, and that's just as bad. No, worse, even! This puts the very foundation of our country at risk! Our very freedom and lives! It can't be stood for!

This isn't a hypothetical angle i'm making up, this is...very much an angle Wilbur pulled. It wasn't their entire angle, it wasn't the only angle, but he did bring up Quackity as one of The Other out to destroy them and spun this whole narrative about how he was the actual corrupt one here, that his behaviour was borderline tyranny, because he....wanted a more open boarder policy that doesn't randomly exclude a bunch of people because they don't spell colour with a u or whatever other very vague irrelevant differences that this categorization actually means for the characters in question.

And the reason I bring up the border policy issue at all isn't just to point out Quackity doing good, but also because it kinda goes to show how completely fucked Quackity was in this election.

Even if we give the benefit of the doubt to Wilbur and say he actually thought that policy was a good idea and believed what he was saying about it, the law itself was still ludicrous and harmful, and it still resulted in a very Us Vs Them mentality. I mentioned it earlier myself, Wilbur made a point of being outraged over Quackity's desire to open the borders. Wilbur made a point of implying that the suggestion in of itself was tyrannical, even. This very easily has the effect of making Quackity look like the bad guy. Outsiders are banned, they're banned because they're oppressors, they're tyrants, they've traumatized our people, and they'd be our downfall if we let them in. Quackity himself is actually part of the group being unfairly shut out here, part of the Other, and that was incredibly exploitable given the ideals Wilbur was pushing. Not only was Quackity himself one of these oppressive outsiders, he aimed to let more of them in! And by driving L'manburg's founders out of office no less. "For years, the Dream Smp has ostracized my group of people! L'manburg is not a place of oppression, it is a place of sanctuary for our people! What you intend to do is come into our land and open it up to them! This in of itself is tyranny!" That was Wilbur's stance. And I mean it's all there. "Us" vs "Them", the harsh righteous use of Tyranny as a buzzword he knows will resonate with the people of L'manburg (as well as taking attention away from wilbur's very recent corruption and putting it onto this tyranny that he is outraged about), and while he doesn't explicitly point out that Quackity himself isn't one of them within this speech, his use of "our land", "my people", his description of how Quackity intends to come into their land and open it up to their oppressors. It's all very sensationalist and feels a lot like propaganda via fear mongering if i'm being honest.

And there wasn't exactly much Quackity could do about that. He couldn't have conceded on the point of not allowing outsiders into L'manburg if he wanted to because he himself was technically one, and that, by default, painted him as dangerous in Wilbur's campaigning. And, well, who are you gonna listen to? Our brave heroic leader (and oh boy the donning of l'manburg uniforms throughout the election and consistent references to the war were absolutely meant to invoke feelings of patriotism in wilbur's favour as well), or.....Them™. From the word go Quackity was screwed over in the perception from L'manburg's public by Wilbur's manipulative corrupt bullshit.

And that's not the only way Quackity was pretty fucked from the start either. On top of the first point (which honestly would be a pretty impressive thing to recover from overall)

Just really quick there's the minor point that Pog2020 engaged in more light forms of shady tactics like burning Quackity's stuff or posting fake quotes from him.

But much more pressing, there's the aspect of how the parties eligibility to run was handled.

First off, none of the parties except Quackity's should have even been allowed to run. Wilbur was outed early on for voter fraud which should've been it for him and by the rules of the election neither Fundy nor Schlatt should have been allowed to run.

But beyond that, there's the fact that Schlatt2020 and Coconut2020 being allowed onto the ballot disproportionately effected Quackity's campaign.

I mean honestly while there were all sorts of reasons people had for voting for whoever they voted for....there's not really any denying that the camps were "Wilbur And Tommy" or "Not Wilbur And Tommy". Quackity is bright and passionate and all, but up until this point he's not been a politician. He entered the election to stop Wilbur's corruption, Quackity himself had never really considered assuming a position of power beforehand, and as such the votes he got were honestly primarily more A Vote Against Wilbur than a vote for Quackity in specific. That's not a diss against Quackity by any means, but he didn't actually have some big grand idea of what he'd do as president, nor did he have the sheer star power/influence/historical basis for his campaign that Revolutionary Hero/Current Leader Wilbur Soot did. Quackity's main stance was not being the other guy, the whole reason he joined the election was literally to oppose the other guy. People who voted for Wilbur were probably gonna vote for Wilbur no matter what happened. Maybe a few of them were charmed by Niki and Fundy and switched over there, but even then, the new entries almost certainly didn't put much of a dent in Wilbur's numbers. Why would they? Wilbur had a guaranteed loyal voting base right off the bat. There were absolutely quite a few people who no matter who the other candidates were, would have voted Wilbur. The fact that Wilbur so heavily references and draws upon his revolutionary past and invokes feelings of solidarity/patriotism even to the extent of fear mongering the other major party only solidified this voting base. Wilbur was kinda the de facto vote, even. Quite a few people took a Pogtopia victory for a given here, and the guy who's been running the country and who talks about His Nation as..well...being his nation every chance he gets? That guy's obviously going to feel like the default vote as the popular patriot with a long history behind him. Adding the fear mongering and other techniques used to lower morale/public opinion the other party (like the fake quotes and burning quackity's builds) to the mix and, well, many of the people who didn't vote for Wilbur were most likely doing so specifically because it wasn't Wilbur and for one reason or another they didn't want Wilbur to win rather than making the vote because they specifically liked Quackity. Which means that the addition of two other parties disproportionately hurt Quackity's campaign and not Wilbur's. The two solid sides were Wilbur or Not Wilbur. He had a very loyal base right off the bat who were going to vote for him no matter what, and since he felt like the default and went out of his way to reinforce his status so thoroughly throughout the election, that means most people who voted against Wilbur were very much opposed to Wilbur more than anything, especially since Quackity's main reason for joining and general draw was that Wilbur isn't fit to lead.

I think it's pretty obvious how that was a lot more damaging for Quackity's campaign than it was for Wilbur. Wilbur's loyal base most likely almost entirely stuck to him even with the new additions, however "Not Wilbur" as a position was suddenly split in three different voting options instead of the one it started out with. Niki/Fundy and Schlatt didn't have enough time to campaign or make their stances clear or really garner any chance of winning, mind you, but they managed to snatch quite a few votes, most of which i'm certain came from Quackity's pool. Honestly the introduction of these new parties was kinda the best thing that could've happened to Wilbur's campaign here. The people who adamantly support him or defaulted to him almost certainly mainly stuck with him wheras the people who wanted Not Wilbur to win were likely splintered much more heavily. It was never going to be enough to give the win to Fundy/Niki or Schlatt because of how late the entry was, but it damn well could be enough to seriously damage Quackity's chances. Coconut and Schlatt had a total of 25% of the vote between them. I highly suspect the large majority of these votes would have otherwise defaulted to Quackity, 18% or more of total votes I highly suspect otherwise would've been on Quackity on account of how much more likely Quackity's voter base would have been to switch than Wilbur's at this point in time. The fact that neither Schlatt nor Coconut got many votes- not nearly enough to even come close to winning really- may make their entering seem pretty harmless, but honestly this most probably cost Quackity a possible overall win.

Just for a helpful graphic:

I won't make a definitive claim on whether Quackity or Wilbur would have won without the new entrees (hence why it's 50-50 on the graph even though obviously it probably wouldn't have been exactly 50-50 lmao). But I do believe that the majority of votes that went into the two new parties came out of Quackity's pool, but that could mean anything from an overall 45-55 for Wilbur to a 50-50 to a 55-45 for Quackity. As far as Wilbur vs Not Wilbur camps I can't make an actual judgement here on what the initial projected outcome would have been because we don't actually know how many of the votes for Coconut or Schlatt came out of which original candidates pools. I highly suspect the majority of them were out of Quackity's original pool, because whether you think Wibur shouldn't be leader for the drama or because you genuinely caught onto him being corrupt, you're more likely to vote Coconut or Schlatt than Wilbur's much more loyal base. But of course I also acknowledge that some of Wilbur's voters may have been charmed by Coconut because, well, the L'manburg fundamentalists know Fundy and Niki are a big important part of L'manburg as well and they can appeal to national pride almost as well as Wilbur with that added bonus of their bright innocent energy that probably made some of Wilbur's voters coo over fluffy little Fundy and sweet shy Niki (wilbur's own view of them during the election, though he wasn't so willing to humor them) and their yummy cookies and their own L'manburg uniforms and give them some votes. So I have no doubt Wilbur also lost some points.

Of course I also have no doubt Wilbur may have paradoxically gained points because he was seen as the safest vote for a win and when the two new parties showed up i'm certain at least a few people who were in it for an actual good outcome and not just drama thought Wilbur was better than the new options (namely schlatt, backed by dream) and swapped their vote for Quackity into a Wilbur vote specifically because they were freaked out by the new candidates and swapped to the safest vote they could for a win that wasn't a new candidate because Quackity wasn't stable enough to risk anymore. But note how no matter what, I cannot see this scenario gaining Quackity any new votes despite literally all of the other parties having a chance to do so and Wilbur's voter count possibly even evening out if not increasing paradoxically with about as many or more people than were charmed by Coconut being freaked out by Schlatt and voting for the safest non-Schlatt option.

But note that, in all of that, there wasn't any chance of Quackity gaining any real voter percentage from this. His main base of "Not Wilbur" supporters were splintered. Many of the people who were in it for the drama poured their votes from Quackity to Schlatt who was more reactionary and overtly violent. Many of the people who thought Wilbur was too corrupt were still somewhat L'manburg fundamentalists at least on some level and would have voted for Wilbur's rebellious son rather than Quackity. And even many of those who wouldn't vote for either were likely freaked out enough by the broadening of the pool to flip their votes onto Wilbur (who's win, need i remind everyone, was anticipated, and possibly even taken for granted, by many) in hopes to offset the possibility of a Schlatt win, no longer seeing Quackity as a safe enough vote to risk with the new more overtly destructive wildcard in play. Wilbur was safe, Fundy was L'manburg, and Schlatt was fun. Quackity on the other hand? He still got votes. The second largest fraction, even. Likely for two reasons. First off, while a lot of people impulse flipped to Coconut or Schlatt, most people who thought it through seemed to realize that they didn't have any real chance of winning here and stuck with Pog or Swag. Secondly, many people had already resolved themselves to voting for Quackity so despite the splintering still thought "eh, i already said i'd vote for him, so..". But note that neither of these cases actually allow for new votes. Anyone who knew Schlatt and Coconut wouldn't win anyway and just stuck with one of the two main parties had already made up their mind about who they wanted to win beforehand. Anyone who just shrugged and went "well I already said i'd vote Quackity so why move now?" were much the same. There was no reason to switch your vote onto Quackity now if you hadn't already. If you wanted Wilbur to win before the new entrees then you obviously weren't going to vote for Quackity because you already decided you wouldn't vote for Quackity beforehand and he didn't suddenly become any more safe or native to L'manburg or fun after the new entrees, but if you were going to vote Quackity? Damn right there's a reason to switch. Multiple reasons to switch. To ALL other parties. Twenty five percent of combined votes went to Schlatt or Coconut, Wilbur's numbers likely stayed the same or even increased as well, and Quackity's voter base likely tanked entirely.

Which, you may be going, "Okay? Who cares? Look, who cares why the votes didn't come out in Quackity's favour, they didn't come out in his favour, he lost, the numbers don't change just because we know why they turned out the way they did, and if Quackity bled votes, that's his problem?"

Which, i'd agree with you, if any of this had actually been natural or fair or legal!

If the other two parties hadn't been an option and Quackity had just bled votes for some other reason whether a misstep on his part or because Wilbur made a really good point or because some other unrelated big event happened that shifted public opinion, that would be one thing.

Hell, if the other two parties had been in the run since the beginning- or at least since relatively early on- and everyone had a chance to campaign in a four party race, that would be one thing.

But this? The new parties weren't legal entrees, they shouldn't have been included, and it is specifically because of the illegal entrees of these two new parties that Quackity bled votes. It was artificial, it was manufactured, and i'd go as far as to suggest it was sabotage.

Because something tells me Wilbur caught on to this.

Fundy and Schlatt were both late entrees, entrees that shouldn't have been allowed in, I mean, hell, if Wilbur had succeeded in his plan to close the ballot before anyone else could sign up he was literally depending on rejecting people who tried to do exactly what Fundy and Schlatt did. His entire plan was to refuse to let anyone sign up after it closed because Dems The Rules, Sowwy, and yet he agreed to let Fundy and Schlatt enter as well the day before the election. Wilbur almost certainly knew that his voter base was loyal and had spent his entire campaign appealing to this loyalty so when the day before the election two new parties showed up he likely very much would have clocked that the solid voter base he had that took his win as the default or were specifically loyal to him weren't as likely to splinter, especially not so last minute with such little time for Fundy or Schlatt to do any campaign work, which means that allowing them in was almost certainly at least partially knowing sabotage to Quackity's campaign.

And what Wilbur did next actually makes me even more certain he understood this because what he did next was the smartest move he could have made in this situation, and Quackity's response, in turn, solidifies for me that he knew the score as well.

You see, Wilbur extended the offer of pooling votes with Quackity, however this wouldn't go into effect unless Wilbur lost, meaning Wilbur himself was accounting for the idea that, with these new entrees, there would be shifting votes. However Quackity's push to make this deal unconditional and Wilbur's subsequent insistence against doing so shows who felt they were at more risk. Wilbur felt confident enough in his voter base being in tact even with these two new options that even with the anxiety bringing them in gave him he was more than willing to sacrifice the possible coalition with Quackity if it meant not having to share a potential win wheras Quackity was significantly more frightened and also seemed to recognize that Wilbur still had a good chance of winning popular vote even with the new factor. There's a reason Wilbur felt comfortable setting the condition that the combination votes only went through if neither of them won, he was very much aware that the two new parties would be a massive hit to Quackity's votes wheras Wilbur still had very good odds on account of his more loyal base who very specifically wanted him to win. I'd venture to argue that Wilbur possibly even specifically guessed that Quackity would remain the runner-up when it comes to votes and that he specifically extended a deal to Quackity here, not for the sake of undercutting the other parties, but for the sake of undercutting Quackity. Quackity's voter pool had been shot, that means it's very likely he won't win on his own, however he could be a threat if he formed a deal with another party, which means that Wilbur's best bet would be to offer to pool on the condition that it only go into effect if they both lost, not because he's worried they'll both lose, but because he knows they won't but is counting on ensuring Quackity can't pool with anyone else, knowing that Quackity is still likely to have the biggest chunk of voters of the other three parties. This is functionally the only reason to make the deal he did, if Wilbur was really so scared of the other parties winning he'd have agreed to make the teamup unconditional, and quite frankly there was no reason to think the other parties would even pose a threat honestly to begin with so if Wilbur was worried about losing generally he would have offered to pool with either of the other parties instead.

Of course, though, Quackity also likely knew the score here. Which is why he demanded they make the coalition unconditional or don't pool at all. He knew that Wilbur had the absolute best shot of winning and that making a conditional coalition to protect against the other two parties who were bound to lose anyway would basically be throwing his votes away. He knew about Wilbur's initial attempt to commit voter fraud, he certainly knew about the more open slanderous/threatening/demoralizing behaviour that the other party engaged in to hurt his campaign, i'd be surprised if Quackity didn't catch the bullshit Wilbur was pulling with his fear mongering and appeals to history/patriotism as well as his use of both buzz words and deflection as a two in one when he named Quackity's suggestions tyrannical in of themselves, and I highly suspect Quackity knew the score when Wilbur let two new parties enter the running against the rules of the election and Wilbur's own initial plan. None of it was fair by any means, like, the entire situation wasn't a Wilbur Winning Fair And Square situation, his tactics were dirty at their best and literally flew right into illegal/fraudulent territory multiple times. If Quackity wasn't certain that Wilbur absolutely could not be allowed to lead at the beginning of all this, he certainly will have been by the end of it. But, well, he'd been so thoroughly and unfairly screwed over that he didn't exactly have many options.

This left the only options that didn't result in a solo Wilbur administration open as Quackity siding with Fundy or Quackity siding with Schlatt. If Quackity tried to pool with Wilbur anyway the numbers would likely come back as a Wilbur win and by the terms of their agreement Wilbur alone would take charge, and if Quackity doesn't pool with anyone and keeps his votes to himself then Wilbur is still given popular vote and still goes on to a solo administration. A Wilbur solo administration at this point in time is the worst case scenario given Wilbur has presented as the biggest threat to everyone thus far, meaning Quackity is absolutely forced to choose one of the other candidates to pool his votes with Either of these options weren't guaranteed to work either, and also weren't ideal even if they did.

So at that point it was just a case of running the numbers of which party was more likely to result in a success/which candidate would be least harmful to the people/easiest to mediate the damages of. Cause at this point they both presented as disasters waiting to happen but they only entered the election the day before and there really wasn't time to scope out just how bad they each were or how public opinion was leaning between them.

Right off the bat Schlatt seems like the more traditionally dangerous option. He's a feral drunk mess whos candidacy announcement consisted of literally hunting the other candidates for sport with sharp deadly weapons. And while chaotic violent shenanigans aren't exactly unheard of on the Dream Smp to the extent that one could reasonably expect to be able to rebuild a respectable reputation after a stunt like that, Schlatt hadn't done so, and Quackity's only impression of him at this point was being chased down with a sword by this creepy old drunk guy who randomly on the spot decided he'd like to be president, actually, so....not exactly inspiring a lot of faith here. But at the same time? Quackity had much bigger things to be scared of from the other candidates than some stabbing. And quite frankly Schlatt being so feral and drunk out of his mind may have even been a relief in some odd way compared to the more calculating and aware candidates. Any damage Schlatt did was likely to at least be less ambitious, more upfront, and likely easier to clean up, at the very least. He seemed simple enough. Manageable, even if more than a bit scary.

Fundy and Niki, on the other hand, were...very different. They were much more openly presentable, at least. They hadn't pulled a knife on anyone at least and apparently the bar's that low for presidential candidates around here. By all means they were relatively friendly, even, in their presentation. They were clearly very out of touch and didn't seem to really get the weight of their position, but that in of itself would be manageable. The more concerning thing, however, is that these are people who are very clearly reckless, at least a bit selfish, and had their own agenda as well. Certainly they weren't as sophisticated as Wilbur. However it was very apparent to near everyone that Fundy and Niki weren't entirely here just for the fun of it. The ever present motive of "Proving My Dad Wrong >:3" (and speaking of, the two being such close friends to wilbur doesn't ease the nerves regarding them) as well as their history of blowing conflict out of proportion (*cough* pet war *cough*) and dragging others into it would have been unnerving and quite frankly whether or not Quackity would have been able to mediate it if they got into anything stupid/reckless/selfish like it seemed at this point he'd likely be able to with Schlatt's more simple behaviours is incredibly uncertain and is a reason not to back them in of itself. Not to mention that they very much seemed the least likely winners between themselves and Schlatt from the word go.

Which means Schlatt, as the more popular of the two, is the best bet of preventing a solo Wilbur administration via vote-pooling. So Quackity chose the seeming lesser of two winners and proposed a coalition. A gambit that paid off as they win by one point and this proves to be the only option that would have prevented a solo Wilbur administration.

But no matter what, the election was...actually super fucked. Like. Almost every option was going to lead right back to Wilbur after his dirty campaigning and the choice to allow in two random new candidates the day before the election, and I actually find the whole thing REALLY interesting specifically because of how fucked it was.

#dream smp #dream smp discourse

[flamingredanon]

The sound of gun shots rang through the corridors of the orbital station, that had been in space for a week or so. Everyone ran towards the sound, only to stop in shock as they saw Reginald on the ground, a bullet hole through his chest, and another bullet hole through his forehead.

Henry and Right ran towards his body. Tears streaming down their face. "No no no no NO!" Henry yelled out, Right sat in silence, as the body bled out, Dr V would no longer listen to them. So that wasn't an option. Reginald is dead.

More Toppats surrounded the area. Looking at the body, some were crying, others were filled with rage, a large portion of the Toppats were panicked. Whoever did that, was still on the ship, and they didn't know if it was a fellow Toppat or someone who got in without anyone noticing.

That question was answered sooner then anyone would expected, a person wearing a hoodie walked towards the body, some kind of shield around them. They took their hands out of their pocket and a gun, was now in view. It was made clear who did this. "You bastard!" Yelled Right has he stood up to try and attack. Before he could though the mystery person wrapped something around him and held him still, it was the same thing as the shield protecting the mystery man.

"I apologise for hurting your feelings, I guess, but it was needed to be done" . Henry stopped trying to free Right when he heard the person speak. Everyone stopped. The mystery person took off their hood, and everyone stared. "Reginald, but-" "that isn't me, it was some fake who took my place a long time ago. I've only gotten out of that cage she shoved me in recently. So I'm sorry I have no idea who you were" the person who looked like Reginald and has the same voice as Reginald, used some sort of dust, he sprinkled it on the body and it was revealed that magic was used to look different.

Reginald stopped and unwrapped Right before speaking again. "and I'm sorry, but the person you loved no longer exists. Sure we have the same name and look the same, but she was someone I'm not, she created the Reginald Copperbottom you know that I will never be." The real Reginald spoke now walking away from the body with a bullet piercing right through the face. "And no, I won't join your Toppat Clan or try to get to know you, I not joking when I say stay the hell away from me and we'll stay in somewhat good terms. I already don't like you Toppats very much, don't push anything and maybe won't have the urge to kill you all". Reginald smiled saying that, a bitter smile that made it very clear to Henry and Right that they wouldn't be close to the man who was apparently the real Reginald Copperbottom. Someone who was a stranger to them, no one knew what to do, this wasnt something that happened everyday. The real Reginald probably wouldn't answer questions either, so the Toppats were now stuck on what to do.

It had been a few days since everything happened. Right decided to burn off some anger by punching some Government dogs in the face and Henry tried to continue to lead the Toppats, but his mind was elsewhere, so Sven was put on temporary leadership for a few days.

Henry laid in his room and texted his dad, explaining everything that happened about Reginald not really being Reginald, and hoping that Terrence didn't think he was too crazy. A few minutes later Terrence called Henry and said "Do you know why that random witch disguised herself as Reginald?"

Henry was confused as hell because he never mentioned the duplicates original gender to his dad. Terrence continued speaking "Because you two knew the original Reginald, before the accident. She fed off yours and Right's memories when you two fell to Earth, creating the Reginald persona and taking advantage of your memory losses."

Henry was even more confused now, falling to Earth? Knowing the original Reginald? Memory loss? Henry asked his dad to elaborate because at this point, what was going on anymore. Terrence just told Henry that he would be at the station tonight and to bring Right, that he was going to unpack a shit ton of things.

---

So Henry and Right are sitting in Right's room as Terrence starts to explain things "Have you two ever noticed having strange abilities, like an odd control over the elements or the ability to stop time?" Henry and Right looked at each other before Right spoke "We have, it is kinda second nature for us."

Terrence crossed his arms and nodded his head before continuing "You two aren't from Earth, hell the real Reg, myself and Wilfy aren't from here. We all come from a world where magic is bountiful but a dark magical war is going on. Reginald was a magitech scientist trying to find a way to end the war, mainly to spend more time with the prince and his knight, but he was always too stubborn to ever talk about his love life publicly. Did he try the whole "don't get close to me or else" schtick with you two?"

Henry and Right only nodded as a fourth person flew into the room, locking the doors with that familiar sheet of magic. It was that Reginald again, now glaring at Terrence.

Terrence only shrugged as he continued, almost as if he was used to this Reginald's behavior "Listen Reginald, I understand you want to protect these two, you were always the protective one of the three, but my son and his knight need to know this, they need to remember who they are because those bastards are on Earth now."

Henry and Right continue to look at Terrence and this Reginald in confusion, not understanding anything. Reginald just sighed seeing their faces, he was always a sucker for the prince's sad blue eyes. "What his majesty is trying to say is this. Henry you are actually Prince Henry, son to King Terrence, and Right, you are actually the noble knight Wright, personal guard to Henry."

"The reason you two don't remember anything is because of an attack one day by the enemy Nrevog forces. Their top attacker, Charles the Unpredictable, had thrown you two at one of our light crystals with an odd spell, causing a bright light and for you two to disappear."

"We searched endlessly for you two, before finding out you two were thrown into Earth and without your memories, you two were separated, and given false guardians disguised as myself and the King."

"Sadly we were caught, and sealed away in those damn magical cages. His majesty got out and killed his fake, and as you saw, I killed mine as well. Sir Wilford is still in his cage, but on purpose because he is reporting what the enemy is doing back home."

Henry was looking down on the floor, the look of guilt filling his face as he spoke up "So we fell in love with a fake who was deceiving us? Was I so stupid to be fooled and probably-" Reginald lifted Henry's face with his hands, slightly squishing his cheeks "You and Right were not stupid in the slightest. You two lost your memories and the Nrevog forces took advantage of an opportunity. The fact that you two do remember your magic means everything is not lost."

Reginald saw Henry's face get red and quickly stood back up before rubbing his moustache and looking at Terrence "Your majesty, I suggest we take our leave and find somewhere not riddled with the magic stealers that caused this whole incident in the first place. Don't worry you two, we will explain everything else soon and get us all back home."

Before Reginald undid his lock, he quickly turned around and asked "Was the "Supreme Dominance" built on this thing?" Henry nods his head as a smile formed on both Reginald and Terrence's faces. "Take us to it, and we can get home sooner then that."

Henry and Right had heard quite the tale, and in any other circumstances, they wouldn't be trusting these two after hearing all that. But they had magic, just like Reginald and possibly Terrence did, while no one else on Earth did. And the Toppats had a huge collection of strange treasures that were almost like they weren't from here.

So Henry and Right led the way to the area Supreme Dominance was at, and could only guess at what crazy things could happen next.

#lizzyask #henry stickmin #right hand man #reginald copperbottom #terrence suave #murder #impostor #gun shots #bullet holes #being decieved in a relationship #another world

[fullmarvelheart]

Wakanda

Pairing: Avengers x Enhanced!OFC

Word Count: 3,000

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of violence, mentions of past trama

A/N: Welcome to Chapter 5 of Blue Starlight. I hope you all enjoy the story as well as the way I wrote the characters! The gif is not my own. All rights to the original creator. I hope you guys enjoy!

Series Masterlist

The plane lands and I'm almost blinded by the bright sunlight that reflects in off the tarmac as the ramp is lowered down.

Waiting for us is whom I'm assuming is the King, based on what Cap briefed us over, along with his personal guards. When Cap told us about the Dora Milaje, to say I was impressed is a gross understatement. I knew they were the fiercest warriors in Wakanda but seeing them up close, they're almost as intimidating as Natasha is. Even the Kingsguard looks exceptionally deadly.

"Should we bow?" Banner asks Rhodey as they exit the jet before me.

"Yeah, he's a king." Rhodey responds in an almost serious tone. Which apparently Banner doesn't catch onto.

As the Captain greets King T'Challa, Banner clears his throat and starts to bow.

"What are you doing?" Rhodey questions loudly enough to catch the King's attention.

"Uh, we- we don't do that here." The King says, somewhat awkwardly.

I chuckle to myself as the group begins to walk.

"So how big of an assault should we expect?" I go to answer the king but am cut off.

"Uh sir-sir, I think you should expect quite a big assault." Banner says pushing his way to the front while I roll my eyes.

Shut up. You don't even have the slightest idea.

"Thanos will most likely send one of his support ships, like the one that was in New York not too long ago. He calls them Q-Ships. He won't send his full army here, just what is deemed to be enough to overwhelm the forces on Earth, so the stone can be retrieved." I explain loudly but lower my voice as I get closer to the King, who looks at me curiously.

"How are we looking?" Natasha asks softly, diverting attention away from me, thankfully.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..."

"A semi-stable 100-year-old man." A new voice says walking up to us.

I take in a sharp breath and freeze. The Winter Soldier. Please don't let him still be with HYDRA! That's not something else I want to deal with today. But, he's smiling and doesn't look anything like the last time I saw him. He's not glaring at anything and he has plenty of emotions that I notice, just with one glance. He outwardly looks happy, healthy, but I can see pain and guilt still present in his steel blue eyes.

I can see it because I recognize it in myself.

As both Cap and him share a friendly embrace, I see Sam move into my periphery, though I don't acknowledge him.

"Are you alright?" He asks in a whisper.

I blink out of my frozen state and give him a tight smile and nod. As I'm turning back around, I see Natasha give me a curious look before turning back towards the Captain.

"How you been Buck?"

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world." He says solemnly, yet with a small smile

I swear, this is the most I've ever heard him speak in one go. His voice isn't raspy from misuse anymore either. Maybe he's-

As if he can feel my eyes burning holes into the side of his head, he turns to face me. His eyes widen in recognition as his face changes from shock, to confusion, to anger, to regret, and then suspicion, all within a second.

"It's good to see you again, Blue." He says skeptically.

"You too, Soldier." I say in the same tone, brushing my fingertips over the hilt of a dagger on my thigh.

He glances down, catching my movements which freeze immediately.

"You remember...?" I ask softly, not knowing if I need the confirmation for his sake,... or mine.

"I remember everything." His piercing gaze moves back to me, his features stiff and cautious, waiting for me to make a move.

"Blue?" Natasha inquires, trying to lessen the tension.

"My ability..." My explanation comes out more timid than I would like as I move my hand away from the blade and give her a shrug.

Come on! Surely he's not more terrifying than Thanos! At least this one I know I can stop.

"There won't be any problems, right?" Cap asks seriously, after clearing his throat.

The Winter Soldier, or Buck I guess, says no. I can only shake my head.

"Good. Coms on and Rhodey, suit up. Saddie, I want you out here while we go in with Vision, incase anything happens." I nod in understanding as he, Natasha, and Dr. Banner follow the King and his men inside where Wanda and Vision had disappeared earlier.

I watch them trek inside while a knot forms in my stomach.

"You're nervous."

"Huh?" I turn to find Buck staring at me curiously.

"You used to make that face whenever the men were in the room. Whenever he was in the room." He explains.

I sigh and wrap my arms around my stomach while letting my head hang over.

"Can you blame me? This whole situation is something I was hoping to avoid. Plus, I wasn't exactly expecting to see you and when I did... I didn't know what would happen, or what to expect." I keep my gaze fixated on the pavement below me as I hear him take in a deep breath. Though, I know he was thinking the same thing as I was. "But I'm terrified. Like I was then." I admit with a whisper, looking up at him.

He hums, walking closer to me.

"What should I call you?" I ask suddenly causing him to snap his eyes to mine and stop.

He hesitates looking at the ground before back at me.

"Bucky please, Saddie." He says teasingly.

I roll my eyes but crack a small smile. So Buck is a nickname then. Didn't know he knew the Captain that way...

"Your arm is different." I note as I look at the black metal appendage edged with gold markings. Much different from the previous silver one with the infamous red star.

He hums thoughtfully, looking down at it with a small nervous smile.

"I like it, it suits you." I tell him sincerely as I turn away from him, not waiting for his reaction.

I walk over to Sam and begin to talk to him while Bucky joins us with a rifle one of the Kingsguard gave to him. Rhodey appears in his armor and things begin to click in my head as I remember Sam and Rhodey's hero names. Falcon and War Machine. Definitely not who I'd expect to be next to at a time like this.

At one point, I decide to sit crisscross on the tarmac with my fingertips pressed into the pavement and my eyes closed. It's almost like I'm in a meditative state. I feel the energy running through this city, running under it. There's an endless supply far below me, that I manage to tap into.

It's immensely powerful!

"What ya doing there, Saddie?" Sam calls out. I realize there's probably blue wisps circling around my hands or even arms.

"Recharging and resting." I say, distantly.

"Meditating." Bucky answers at the same time, causing me to huff and send him, where I think he is, a playful glare.

"Are you already tired, kid?" Rhodey jabs humorously through the ear piece.

"I'm a creature that relies on energy for power. If my stored supply runs out and I can't tap into a source fast enough, I have to rely on the power my body holds. Meaning, I'd lose consciousness soon after I'd start pulling from my own life-force. Thanos has an army coming for Earth, and I want as much power as I can hold." I tell them, still in my meditative state. "Plus, relaxing like this allows me to extend my powers beyond Earth."

"Creature?" Sam mumbles in question to himself.

"What does that mean?" Bucky asks curiously in reference to my abilities while talking over Sam. He still doesn't know the full extent.

"It means that I can sense when they arrive." I tell them, ignoring Sam's notice of my slip. Though, with that and what I said in the aircraft, he should be piecing it together soon, if he allows his mind to focus on it.

They don't ask anymore questions after that, and leave me to myself. After what feels like several minutes later, I feel a very strong hum of power moving towards Earth, and quickly. I call my power back to me and absorb as much of the energy as I can from below me, I can see the bright blue growing brighter from behind my eyelids.

"Saddie?" Bucky sounds worried.

My eyes shoot open as I jump to my feet, looking towards the sky.

"Saddie!" Sam calls, trying to get my attention.

"They're here." I say fearfully, not moving my eyes.

I summon an energy ball as I see one of their ships quickly descending straight for us.

"Hey, Cap, we got a situation here." Sam says while looking to where I am.

That wasn't enough time to get the stone out safely!

I prepare to launch the ball in my hands when the dropship pings off the shield, exploding instantly. The force of the strike is absorbed back into the shield.

"God, I love this place." Bucky says in stark amusement while I reabsorb the power in my hand.

"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome." Rhodey warns as the rest fall fast, impacting the Earth.

I feel the vibrations from the impact rattling though my bones and my breathing becomes harsher. The shockwaves bounce off the dome, making me feel only the tiniest bit safer.

"Is this what you were expecting?" Sam asks, looking at me.

I nod slowly with wide and fearful eyes, unable to speak. Though, how do you speak when one of your worst nightmares is occurring before your very eyes and is becoming reality?

Alarms blare through the city and the dread I have been feeling for some time now, grows in the pit of my stomach to the point it becomes nauseating. Unfortunately for me, I joined this fight, so I can't back out now. I swallow back whatever fear I can and focus on the chaos around me.

After several minutes, the Captain, Natasha, Dr. Banner, King T'Challa, and his warriors come running out of where they led Vision and Wanda. Dr. Banner goes straight to where a big red and gold suit had been laid out as warriors rush out to the tarmac.

"You two," Nat gestures to me and Bucky. "Come with me."

We chase after her into a transport ship that is filling up with other warriors of the Kingsguard. I see Cap and T'Challa board theirs with half of the Dora Milaje. When we get in, Natasha stands up front with Bucky right behind her, and me on his right, like it used to be. As much as I hate the memories, the familiarity of a fight and his presence is comforting.

Sam and Rhodey take off and fly above us as we all head towards the front line while we begin to merge with other ships on the way.

"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asks through the coms.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it." I hear what sounds like rockets through my ear piece and cringe at the loudness "Wow! This is amazing man. It's like being the Hulk without actually..." His loud enthusiastic voice is cut short as I hear him fall.

I try to stop myself from giggling at him but can't help but slightly laugh out loud when I hear Bucky's chuckles beside me.

"I'm ok, I'm ok." I hear, but before I smile again, I actually notice just how many of the dropships there are... and just how big they look from here. I've never seen them in person, just heard stories.

My stomach lurches at the sight. There will be so many. Can we even win this?

"I've got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line." Rhodey calls out.

I move forward slightly, in hopes of recognizing which two of the puppets Thanos sent here. Bucky gently grabs my arm, snapping me out of my head, and gives me a questioning look. I move back to his side but keep my eyes set on the edge of the dome in front of me, not looking at Bucky. I'm not sure if I'd be able to hide my fear if I do. Rhodey and Sam do a fly over as they begin to circle back around.

The Captain, King T'Challa, and the Dora Milaje pile out of a transport. My transport group follows and Natasha, Bucky, and I merge with them. One of the legions begins to chant as we move forward. Though I can't distinguish the words over the sound of my blood pumping in my ears. Natasha comes up next to me and gives me a small assuring smile. I try my best to do the same, though I'm sure it's more of a grimace. We form a line and I finally spot the two of the Black Order that Thanos sent. I scowl and clench my fists at the sight and memory of those two.

"Do you think there's any chance of surrender?" Natasha muses.

"No, it's not the way of the Black Order." I say with a slight growl.

"Well, there's always a chance." Captain says, but it's not reassuring.

He looks at me and motions for me to follow as him, Natasha, and King T'Challa start to walk in the direction of the dome's edge. I swallow the lump in my throat and proceed to fall into line with them.

Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight become clearer the closer we move to them, and I try to push back my fear again. While Cull stands several feet tall than the other, with a much broader stance and deadlier appearing body and weapon, it's Proxima I fear the most. This sight of the midnight blue and black hair, brown horns, black and blue war paint, and lifeless grey eyes that make me tremble slightly. Proxima drags her sword along the dome's edge, almost hypnotized by it, watching the power crackle along her blade. She finally stops when we're at the edge, only separated by the dome.

Cull and Proxima snarl once they set their eyes on me and my lip twitches up in annoyance.

"Where's your other friend?" Natasha quips, and I have no idea which other one she's referring to.

"You will pay for his life with yours." Proxima says in the most emotionless tone I've heard her use. Her mechanical voice sends an unpleasant shiver down my spine. "Thanos will have that stone." She moves closer, as to intimidate. But so do I.

"That's not going to happen." Captain says, seemingly unbothered but determined.

"I will make sure of it." I growl.

Proxima directs her gaze to me.

"The traitor... or at least, one of them." She muses, a gleam flashes in those deadly eyes as she smirks at me. "You are nothing without your other half. A child in regards to your abilities. Weak." I know she's trying to get a rise out of me, I know it, but it's working.

Her words stroke the grief and self-doubt I had buried for this fight, making it rear it's ugly head. Before I get the chance to even move, King T'Challa speaks as Natasha moves me back.

"You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." I look at the King with wide eyes, knowing he doesn't realize just who the Mad Titan is.

"We have blood to spare." Proxima states before striking her sword up into the air.

I scowl at her, but that falls into a frown when the drop ships begin to whirl and extend. We quickly make our way back to the frontlines.

"Are you ok?" Natasha asks as me move back towards the group.

"No, not really. But I'll be able to fight." I tell her, gathering what courage I can. She gives me a hesitant nod, but says nothing else. "I really hate her." I grumble, which earns me a small chuckle from Nat

I try to clear my mind and focus on my powers on the rest of the way back. I focus on what I feel, where it is, and how I can use that to my advantage, like I was taught. We get back to our forces as Bucky looks on edge but doesn't look away from the ships.

"They surrender?" He asks sardonically, knowing the answer.

"Not exactly." Captain breathes as I move to Natasha's side.

I feel the ship release the army that lurches inside.

"Here we go." I nervously breathe.

Falcon flies along the edge, circling as a scout, but I can already feel the pounding of their sharp and deadly paws vibrating against the ground. As they get closer, the thunderous pounding reaches my ears over the sound of my own heartbeat. I absorb the little bits of kinetic energy from them as they run. I feel Natasha's stare on my loose fingers which begin to glow a slight blue.

King T'Challa begins a battle chant as I feel the army slow at the edge of the tree line. Proxima strikes her sword down, letting it fall out of the air, and the army begins their charge forwards. There's more of them, more than I imagined. And they spill out of the tree line like a tidal wave of death, charging towards the dome.

#marvel #my writing #writers on wattpad #writers #writers on tumblr #the avengers #avengers x ofc #avengers x oc #avengers au #avengers #natasha romanoff #steve rogers #captain america #nebula #gamora #bucky x oc #bucky banres #loki x oc #loki odinson #loki #thor #thanos #hydra #infinity war #tony stark #clint barton #wanda maximoff #winter soldier

[themadauthorshatter]

(Approaches stand and microphone in shackles, but smiling because I'm an asshole😅)

I stand before you all as a traitor to my fandom, as a criminal charged with forbidden shipping on the first degree. I plead not guilty, but insanity instead, AND ON THE TERMS THAT I HAVE NO REGRETS BECAUSE I'M BORED AND HAVE SOME WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A while back, I made a post wondering what would happen if Cal had to marry Iris instead of Evangeline, and my poor, love sick heart couldn't help but make these two get along. This is going to get REALLY fanfic-y, so if you're not fond of this idea, I'll understand if you don't read this.

Regardless,

Here are my personal headcanons of what I think(or hope) would happen if Cal and Iris were betrothed Part 1: The news. Aka: I need to stop pickimg on Cal😅

Tibe only got the idea when Maven made a side comment about it. Elara yelled at him for it, but stopped when she realized his plan and sort of fanned the flame in Tibe's mind.

IT BACKFIRED.

At the breakfast table, a week later, Tibe delivered the news: CAL was going to marry Iris Cygnet of the Lakelands while Maven married Evangeline.

Elara's face dropped into an, "ARE YOU SHITTING ME!?" look.

Maven choked on his food.

Cal was torn between wanting to scream and being in shock at the news. He was silent as Elara demanded answers and Tibe explained why he was making such a risky move. Maven tried getting his attention, but got no response. When the king and queen where done arguing, Cal finally responded:

"No."

You know that one look a parent gives you? The wild, murder eyes when you do something wrong and you have at least 10 seconds left to live? Tibe gives Cal that exact look.

Elara and Maven exchange wide eyed looks and brace themselves when Cal repeats himself. He also explains why it could possibly be a terrible idea because of how the Lakelanders could only agree because all they want are Nortan resources.

Tibe is not having any of this.

It quickly turns into a yelling match with Elara and Maven only watching out of astonishment, because they've heard of Cal and Tibe arguing, but never had a front row seat to see it actually happening.

The argument continues until Tibe pulls the emotional manipulation card and asks Cal if he wants to be the one responsible for Norta's fall.

Of course it gets Cal to stop arguing, but he does utter that he won't be the king that SET UP that fall before storming out of the room.

Tibe sits back down and does that stressed, head holding thing as he leans his elbows against the table.

There's a long stretch of silence. No one talks. Elara only talks to Maven through her whispers, and even then, all he can do is give the most minute of gestures as they "converse."

I know I'm playing this up like this never happened before, but think of it like this. Cal is the golden child. He barely steps out of line and usually does what he's told, save for building in the garage or training harder than he should. Neither Elara or Maven have seen Cal actively refuse something that his father told him to do. The only example of this that they had before was the slightest hint of reluctance on Cal's face when he learned he was arranged to marry Evangeline.

With his plate already empty, and no one stopping him, Maven excuses himself from the table to see if he can calm his brother down.

Tibe simply waves him off as he just wants to exist in the silence for a little while.

Maven doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth and quickly leaves the room to look for his brother.

Where do you go to sulk if you get bad news? Your room. And that's the first place Maven checks.

When he gets there, knocks on the door, and doesn't get an answer, a servant tells him that Cal isn't there. She saw him walking away, but towards either to the training room or the garage.

Maven hopes it's the former because he's not very fond of the garage. It smells and echoes too much, ESPECIALLY WHEN A TRANSPORT IS STARTED.

He checks the changong room and training, slipping into his uniform to do so, but no luck. At all. Which can only mean one thing. With a grumble, Maven leaves the training room, changes back into his clothes, and walks to the garage, angrily laughing at the fact that Cal has him going on a wild goose chase.

He is right to hate the garage because he hears loud music playing right as he enters inside. Cal is currently on one of those back boards and is fixing a broken transport(its engine, at least).

This is the conversation as Maven finds his brother. Remember, they have to yell over a loud as hell speaker playing some rock music(I'm headcanoning that Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions and other rock songs are playing):

"You're really that upset over marrying someone besides Evangeline Samos!?"

No response.

"You LITERALLY said ypu didn't want to marry Evangeline!"

Cal still doesn't respond, mostly because he can't hear him.

"CAL!" Maven, a little fed up, picks up a wrench or small hammer or anything else that's metal amd that Cal threw because he didn't need it, and bangs it against the tool box lid. "CAAAAAAAL!"

This finally gets Cal's attention and he rolls out from under the transport with a scowl on his face. "What do you want!?" He shouts.

Maven only gives a confused look. "What?"

"WHAT. DO YOU. WANT!?"

"I didn't know where you were! And you left breakfast with no explanation!"

"I know!"

"You're really THAT mad!?"

Cal's turn to be confused. "What!?"

"You're THAT mad!?"

"WHAT!?"

Maven's sick of all the yelling and points to the speaker. "TURN THAT DAMN THING OFF!!"

Cal nods and gets up to turn off the music.

Okay, fun's over. Back to bullet points.

Maven repeats himself, not yelling his head off, and Cal leans against the table.

He admits he's more upset than he should be, but feels that their father is taking too big of a risk. It would be smarter to keep the engagement between Cal and Evangeline because at least they would have a more men to fight and more metal, if shit hits the fan(my words, not Cal's). That, and it is a terrible idea to piss of Volo Samos, regardless of the rank you have.

While Maven agrees that it's shaky, he should know because it was HIS idea first to call a truce, but can't deny that it would be a solid deal to marry Iris. Not only will they have a steadier supply of food, but they'll have more reinforcements to deal with the Scarlet Guard. Besides, it's also a good idea to stop one war before another one can start.

Cal is silent as he nods, avoiding Maven's gaze.

He was already anticipating a life married to Evangeline Samos, who is at least on the same side as him and he at least KNOWS her. He has no idea who Iris is and is not excited to marry someone who is on his opposing side.

The two are silent, Maven partially inspecting the transport before asking if Cal was planning the sabotage the drive to the runway. Cal smirks and warns Maven not to give him ideas.

The two leave the garage, after Cal picks up the tools, and decide to talk more over a game of chess.

Despite his mother's request and what he learned in trying to block her out, he does not tell her everything he and Cal talked about.

#red queen #possible au #cal calore #tiberias calore vii #maven calore #elara merandus #tiberias calore vi #iris cygnet mention