#I must be stopped... immediately...

[timey-fandom-stuff]

I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will n

[shushmal]

The latest Family Video customer is barely through the door before Eddie explodes, "Ugh, Tyler."

Beside him, Steve scoffs in agreement, nose wrinkled with distaste. He's so hot. "Yeah, exactly, uugh."

"That should be his middle name. Ugh," Robin chimes in. Eddie's so glad they're in agreement about the bleach-spiked punk guy that graduated three years ago but is still bumming around Hawkins. "Steve, I can't believe you dated that guy."

Seriously, Tyler is the worst— Wait, what—?

"Wait," Eddie says, gaping at Robin. "What?"

"You could barely call it dating," Steve huffs.

"You were together for a month and a half," Robin says. She's got this evil grin on her face and is pointedly not looking at Eddie who is very desperate for Robin to look at him right now, please. "You drove that bum to Indy every weekend. He broke up with you on Valentine's day."

Eddie's weak "Tyler? Tyler Teaks?" gets completely ignored.

"I—" Steve says with haughty emphasis. "—broke up with him on Valentine's day. Don't get it twisted, Buckley."

Robin snorts and finally glances at Eddie. "Steve only broke up with him because the guy blew him off. On Valentine's Day. Which is basically getting broken up with," she tells him, and ignores it when Eddie whimpers at her.

"Yeah, but I'm the one to ended it!" Steve insits.

Eddie, finally, finds his voice, and says, "Tyler Teaks?! Harrington!"

"Ugh," Steve says, slumping against the counter. "I know." He cuts a glare over at Eddie after a moment. "I blame you for this."

"Me?!" Eddie shrieks, incredulous. He's pretty sure he's stepped into another parallel world. Perpendicular world? A world where Steve apparently dates guys—and guys like Tyler Teaks, no less. Eddie's sure he's gone completely batshit insane. "What the hell did I do?!"

Steve stands, cocking his hip the side, and looks down his handsome nose at Eddie. "You wouldn't be my New Year's kiss at Tina's party," he says. "So I had to settle for Tyler Teaks instead."

"What the fuck?" Eddie says, completely lost. "What—? You—? Tina—? KISS—?!"

Beside them, Robin is grinning, laughing, eyes going back and forth between them, munching on a stolen back of skittles—her own personal dramedy on stage before her.

"Yep," Steve says, popping the P. He looks distinctly bitter. "Pulled my best moves on you, and you turned me down."

"Steve," Eddie breathes. He reaches out, places both hands on Steve's shoulders, intent. The eye contact he forces Steve into is desperate. "I don't even remember getting to Tina's New Year's Party." He takes a deep breath. "I woke up in her mom's pantry the next morning with no shoes and no memory of how I got there."

Finally, Steve cracks, a big smile stretching his face. Robin cackles. "Yeah, I kind of figured as much," Steve sighs, wistful now. "You told me, and I quote, 'Steve Harrington, you are very beautiful and I want to have a summer wedding because you'd look beautiful-er with sunflowers'—"

"Don't forget the 'you look so hot in that sweater' part."

"—'But actually, I am a very straight man. So very super straight.' And then you crouched down on the floor and crawled away." Steve is biting his lip now to keep from laughing. Robin is not so nice. "Like I couldn't see you, and the handkerchief flagging in your pocket."

"Oh my god."

"Don't worry, it was really cute," Steve says, grinning. "But, I still needed a New Year's kiss, and unfortunately for everyone involved, Tyler was my only willing choice."

"Oh my god."

"Totally duped me though, he was super sweet the entire night," Steve sighs. His mouth is twisted into genuine regret now. "Plus, the next week, you acted like you'd never spoken to me before, so—"

"OH MY GOD."

Steve and Robin give him twin grimaces. Robin's is a lot more sympathetic. Steve's is confused. "Listen, man," Steve tries to soothe. "I'm sure that's pretty embarrassing, but it was a cute story! No hard feelings, I promise."

Robin's sympathetic grimace deepens.

"No," Eddie says, standing up straight. "I refuse. There is no way I turned down Steve Harrington for a New Year's kiss. There is no way."

"Wait—"

"Eddie, where—"

Eddie marches for the door, digging his keys out of his pockets. "Good-bye friends, I must go see a supergirl about time travel."

[fairsweetlonging]

just thinking about how binghe had no idea that without-a-cure even had a cure and he spent all his years as a disciple thinking his shizun would at best be disabled for the rest of his life and at worst die a slow and painful death, and it was to save him.

[keitorinrose]

My day be so fine and then boom i think about branch's past

[hanzajesthanza]

i don’t mean to jump the gun on witcher 4…

but it’s slowly sunk in for me over the past few months that ciri will be the protagonist of this new game, a new face of the brand, with an updated, witcheress design for her character

and i know the shift for her character design ignited outrage in misogynists across the internet, and i don’t mean to give credence to their arguments by saying that ciri does look different, she has changed

i don’t think it’s legitimatizing their complains by acknowledging that the character design is indeed different, the voice actress is different, it’s a new concept for ciri

and i feel the opposite way about it that they do…

because … holy shit, we’re going to actually have a GNC, not traditionally feminine female character as the very face of this new witcher trilogy, and it will be her trilogy and her story

like actually

asides from the jokes about how “she’s so gender” and “i want her”

i feel like mainstream fantasy right now (and perhaps forever) has always emphasized feminine women, and obviously i’m not against that, insert “i love femmes” meme here, i’m a man (gender-neutral term) of good taste, i can appreciate womanly women :)

but what i mean is that it is sometimes very difficult to see a space for GNC women in fantasy (… as also in society)

despite when they can “fight like men” or “just as well as men,” even when they can dress “like men” or “as a masculine dress”…

like consider even ciri in the witcher 3; she is a powerful witcheress and skilled swordswoman, but she still has to wear a shirt that exposes her collarbones or an armor piece that shows her midriff, and her face is often smiley and pleasant, even when she cries (… not saying that some of this isn’t in character for book ciri—she had the face of a perennial girl)

but watching the witcher 4 trailer over, seeing her expressions, her skin texture, the dirt and sweat, looking at the armor design they’ve given her, the ripping and tearing, the messy, dirty work of a witcher, blood and grime and magic and steel…

maybe i have a very low bar, but when most “women of fantasy” right now look like ballgowns, pristine makeup, fighting in high heels…

(and i’m not saying that there hasn’t been GNC women as protagonists before in gaming and in fantasy. ciri’s braid even reminds me of kassandra from AC)

and when to be “a woman in fantasy” or “interested in fantasy” means that you often have to conform to these gender expectations, aesthetics, which are mostly plastic and mass-manufactured anyways, no matter from what side

like just look at fantasy booktok and what it means to be a woman on fantasy booktok. i’m happy for these women and i’m happy for them genuinely enjoting their interests, but it’s like the farthest thing that i’m interested in, in fantasy, and it feels weird to be lumped together, it feels like there’s an expectation to be a certain way, to fit in with what is consumable and feminine, ascribed to my birth gender

and considering ciri who was a princess, who was raised for ballgowns

you know—and again, asides from the story implications and book lore—seeing ciri redefined for this title, given such a real, witcher design, not altered because she’s a woman, it means something.

because it’s not just one trailer, it’s going to be the whole game, she’s the protagonist, in every cutscene, there’s going to be different armor, animations, it’s going to be real. she’s going to be in the stream of pop culture, people will know her and her image, and this will become part of the contemporary fantasy genre, of the public perception, of women in fantasy, just as much as a court of fae and fuckall is

like this 👆 is a woman too. deal with it. enjoy it. bcuz i will be

[daredevils-advocate]

Y'all were so sweet on last night's Offering that I made another!

[spaciebabie]

im like actually begging for him to shut up for my own sanity. PLEASE god.

[toxintouch]

Headcanon that Ais never feels fully rested. He doesn't feel tired, but he doesn't feel right either. Not since joining the groupmind.

He sleeps, but his mind is never really at peace. When and if he manages to fall into a deep enough sleep, he's in a constant state of something akin to lucid dreaming.

He gets flashes of the other members of the group mind in place of any real rest. Their current actions; errant memories; whispers in long-dead languages he's leaned to understand.

[the-star-and-the-smols]

Taking a favorite character and making them impossibly huge has done wonders for my mental health. I highly recommend

[fisheito]

🤔thoughts about chp 16😎

the absolute audacity of making huey hot

he could have been older lookin or surprisinglynot a beautiful twink

he could have been [WHAMMO!!] exact same face as rin and eiden (THREE CHEERS FOR REUSABLE ASSETS YEEPHIEPPHYURRAY!!!!!!!) and that would have been deliriously funny to me but, ok, fair enough, deliriouslyfunnytome is probably not the tone they're going for in this chapter

wouldn't it SUCK to be rin? imagine being born and IMMEDIATELY burdened with immense knowledge.

that's tOO much. baby wants to nap, not desperately hope for the eventual happiness of my literal other half in an unknown dimension

my thoughts about rin before were: dang, u a creepy lil guy!! ok!! don't know what your deal is!!!!!!!

my thoughts about rin now (not much different): dang, u a creepy lil guy!! but you got some weirdly altruistic (definition very very confusing here. is it really altruism if it's still sortabout you?) ultimate goal as your Deal!!! well, at least i feel safe in knowing that you do NOT aCTUALLY want to mind merge with eiden! you just want his happiness????

inevitably i'm going to go back and reread every chapter just to read the rin monologues with my Refreshed Knowledge

pretty sure he'll be consistent in his "i just wish for brother's happiness" but of course it makes sense that he's going about it in a way that NO ONE ELSE understands

to be fair there's not a lot of precedent . so. it's not like. this is a common situation that everyone would understand immediately

except for GARU, EVIDENTLY

*holding up the puppy to the skies* BEST PUPPY!!!!! UNDERSTANDING, FULL OF EMPATHY PUPPY!!!!! KING OF BEFRIENDING EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DISPENSES KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM WITHOUT JUDGEMENT ! OR EXPECTATION!

maybe a little expectation. but you wouldn't want to crush those expectations though, would you? who would want to let down the puppy?????? those BIG OL EYES.....

actually, if garu has the scary piercing blue eyes of a husky i might reconsider. that would be a little menacing. intimidating, and suspicious, even.

will have to make sure garu's eyes are JUST the right shade of blue in my drawings to not reach the Scary Piercing Threshold.

eiden cries, and i cry

eiden suffers, and i suffer

i am taking eiden into my tiny arms and embracing him but for a second because i know safety cannot be found in my hold

and also because the little brat is stubborn and has Tasks to complete that he will noT abandon, especially when everyone's happiness is at stake

god, he really is just the Definition of Essence and Life Force. So full of vibrant, punchy life........

EIDEN I LOVE U

i know you'll beat this JRPG and come out victorious on a path not predetermined by God and Plotlines

you're genre-savvy, right? you've played plenty of those games, right? the ultimatum gives u 2 options

and everyone else is falling to despair

but you, the fourthwall-shattering protag, will do things the way YOU want

and that will somehow be enough to twistturn the world's rules around you

you WILL be happy

and you WILL keep your harem safe

you'll probably even add to your harem (+1 rin)

he's really like, you are an Entity separate from Me and i want you to be You

Rin be like ??? ?????? ???????? ?? ? ? ????????????????

(Huey's skill at following orders was genetically inherited and overcame any potential budding source of Selfhood. Eiden will have to work to instill that)

the ILLUSTRATIONS AT THE ENDWITH ALL THE CLAN MEMBER FIRST MEETINGS ARFOISWEDJFJIKDASKJDLDFLS

i saw those and was all "OMG! FREE ILLUSTRATIONS!!!!! *grabbing them like i'm at an AYCE dumpster dive"

i mean. technically the rest of this stuff outside those specific drawings is Free but. you know what i mean.

i did not expect NEW ASSETS and PRETTY PICTURES uwahahahahah!!!! excellent!!!!!

i heard the "can u like, not treat me like a sack of potatoes plsthx" as soon as i saw quincy's first meeting piC LOL too memorable. potato sack eiden beloved

thank u to the artists for finally making that pose Canon for yakumo (i have been imagining him defaulting to that distressed princess on the ground pose , but could never quite materialise it. BUT NOW!!!! IT EXISTS!!! FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!)

eiden with oli like LOL I'M KIDNAPPING YOU and oli going o! um, ! sure ok! (edmond screaming NO in the background)

still mad about pretty huey, 4 paragraphs later

have i ever talked about huey? i don't think i have

well, now that he's relevant to the current topic! i always thought Huey was just Some Guy

as in, no real malice or grand benevolence. he just had hella power and a job to do

even making contracts with the original clan members, i couldn't imagine him... forcing them into it, or being some sort of Big Bad?

they just described him as a sort of... curious explorer sort of deal. making pumpkin candies, trying to figure out essence trinkets, observing people and yokai. Just a Dude.

i felt sorta vindicated that the Huey Reveal indeed showed that he didn't have some great emotional instinct driving him to do everything he did

he was following (Divvine lolol) orders and trying to make sense of the world while he was doing so

when he was trying to understand why aster and morv would be so attached to him, an empty sorta vessel, and how he wished they would find solace in each other's company instead

yeah, i feel that

i was also really scared during his regeneration that. somehow. the regen would only be complete by eating up eiden's soul or smth

but. he just. regenerated. on his own. like some messed up starfish

no eiden-eating required.

i guess that's god power for ya

a relief, for sure!!!!!!

and the Formatting of his memories? yeah, a failsafe sort of measure. makes sense. Emotion really DOES get in the way a lot of the time

eternally doomed to just. do a thing. for the sake of the world. and not really feel anything about it. what an existence

immortality? COUNT ME OUT

i ,too, would not be averse to turning into dust

yes me getting really sad at the flashback to the Great Serpent

pretty sure that was the Great Serpent we saw making a bond with huey, right?

he must have lost his beloved wife by then :( he must have been so sad and lonely.... but still have some stupid kindness in him that wanted to protec otheers......

which is why he was like. well. i aint doing much with my stupid amounts of power these days. and i'm highkey depressed. you're saying that you're running around the world doing things for the greater good? and it'll protect the living creatures?? the yokai who are unfairly punched in the fface by mean people (who may or may not be humans)?? yeah ok can you take my ear

currently imagining huey as an accidental charity canvasser. he somehow ended up at the Great Serpent's doorstep, talking about his life's mission

and the Great Serpent went, "i want to subsidise your mission. take my money (power) and at least that way SOMEONE will make good use of it"

then he went to rot in his makeshift tomb for the rest of his mortal life , staring at the missing other half of his BFF pendant

huey continues his journey, unaffected, neutral as ever

once again, i warred between my two sides:

they made huey yaoiable!!! to the MASSES

(because ANYTHIN is yaoiable if you are powerful enough. but mass-appeal yaoiable? with the generic appealing twink aesthetic? that's a dangerous game you're playin)

ASEXUAL HUEY WIN

eiden rin and huey all sitting together having a sleepover

eiden going, really? you didn't think of fucking them?? NOT EVEN ONCE?

huey: that did not occur to me as a potential course of action, no.

rin: wait. what's sex. like, actually????

(actually now i'm wondering. if rin inherited all of huey's brain wisdom database, would he have knowledge of sex only in the intellectual sense? like blade? with the "i read that in a book" vibe? MAYB!E!!!!!!!)

the huey portrait reveal: one of the first things i saw was his sleeves

and it immediately made me think of kuya

because wasn't past kuya wearing his R outfit? just a short sleeve sorta deal?

imaginign that kuya with his gigantic admiration boner for huey , sees those sleeves at their first meeting and is all

hell YEAH those are some NOICE LOOKIN, FASHIONABLE SLEEVES

i'm stealing those

*starts incorporating the sleeves in his everyday outfit*

and, now, the kuya we all know today. with his fancy flowery poofy sleeves,,,,, turns out it was huey imitation

]][laughing, pointing mmy finger at peepaw

also grateful that when kuya and rei were about to throw down (again), blade accidentally intervenes

it's like a toddler , witnessing two wretched adults having a dispute, and his Pure Wisdom interrupts with impeccable timing

damn! sounds like those messed up people in my book when they don't know how to cope! wow ! what a couple of textbook cases of poor emotional regulation!

kuya: *deep inhale, withdraws his flaming fingers*

for real i expected kuya to barge into the cave at any moment during the huey reunion

yelling "WHERE'S THAT WHORE"

(not spoken outloud: -WHO ABANDONED ME")

i guess he didn't get to do that after all

understandable why he was upsetti spaegheti

ddidi they really end the chapter with everyone's eiden senses tingling across the continent?!??!

like things are blowing up and catching fire and flooding and natural disasters amok

the elemental spirits are throwing a tantrum

dante in a business meeting with the worst most illogical entity of his life (fire spirits who have spontaneously withdrawn their protective support for no obvious reason)

for real during this whole ordeal i was stressed about all the clan members who weren't there

were they stuck with this unexplainable dread?? like they just were paralysed with the Bad Feel but didn't know how to fix it??

would they feel bad for not being able to protect eiden, or at least see his state???

then i saw that they each had horrible, pressing matters to attend to on their own and that somehow cheered me up

because, at least they're able to DO something positive for their immediate environment. they're not just sad maidens waiting for their husband to come back from the war

they got they own problems to deal with

and there are plenty of problems.....

is yakumo seriously refusing to kill the invading monsters, and only hitting them harder each time (nonlethally) so they'll get the message and leave the village alone????? buddy, i don't know if that's really the most effective--

is olivine back on 25/8 altar regulation duty where he sleeps in 6-second intervals while standing up and forgetting to eat??????????? i mean. at least this time he has his clergy to help him so THANK GOD (lol) that he won't just pass out and die on his own. therew ill be others to throw food at him and idk. at least catch his body with a soft blankie if he crumples to the ground every now and then 😭

holding aster and morvay like!!!! HOW MUCH EMOTIONAL CATHARSIS ARE THEY *NOT* GETTING FROM THIS????

to see huey passed out like snow white in the dark crystal cavern,, then not get to talk to him,,,, then seeing him disintegrate after having Master Eiden stare unblinking at him for several minutes and its justs/????? THEER IS TOO MUCH TO PROCESS

this whole time morv was scared to have eiden in the same place as huey and rin...

so rin must have explained things to morv, and morv was terrified because he didn't want the mind merge to happen.....

but that means both rin and morv thoguht of the merge as an inevitability the SECOND eiden sees huey

hmm........ yall are getting swept away...... and u have forgotten the true stubbornness of eiden

maybe this really is a sign that morvay isn't too smart (as he always claims so himself?) rin says of COURSE Brother is going to fall to a horrible fate if he sees huey

and morvay is like OH I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN yeah definitely there's no way around it i definitely do not see it going any other way than what u have described

....... *furrows brow* wait.... that seems weird.... hmm....

*waves it off* nah, not gonna think too hard about it. just gonna chill out and let the story do its thing

[three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat]

When will it be Green's turn to be happy

[colors-of-my-heart]

if Richie was alive and present for the summoning

Tinky: ohohoho boy a Spankoffski, I’m going to have the whole set in my toy box!

Richie: oh fuck get behind me Pete this guy’s got the fucking prison realm

[fidgetspringer]

-

[cygnus-is-tired]

Hair Dye Head Cannons!

Richie, regularly dyes his hair, but is there about re-bleaching his roots. Changes the color every three months or so, depends on whatever anime character he’s obsessed with at the time.

Ruth, got talked into dying he hair one and was going to let it grow back out until a lady gave her a compliment on it in a grocery store. It was a religious experience.

Peter, also got talked into dying his hair once but, but he hated how it looked. He tried to fix it by dying over it with his “natural” color. Which ended up being two shades too light. Giving him bad green-brown highlights instead.

[violetdisasterzone]

I swear to god if they pull another foundations on us my heart will straight up stop

[kresnikcest]

So uh. When Emeraude injected animals with Lambda’s cells they were influenced by his distress and started killing people and were unstoppable because of the Nova attribute…

Sooooo… if Lambda!Richard were to bite Asbel and infect him—