#I really like where they’re going with Roy rn

[robinhuntr]

@ DC:

Everyday I wake up and pray DC will fix the mistakes made by the New-52

[its-time-to-write]

I’ve always had this idea that reader is like, one of the fittest people that work at AFC Richmond, like she can hold herself in a fight. Maybe she does boxing and the team shows up to support as a surprise and they’re all like DAMN. And a certain Manchester man goes googoo over her and ALSJDISPDODJKLL I feel like in my mind it’s an idea with lots of potential behind for any character matchup and scenarios but yeah that’s it (ps I love your writing it brings me so much joy!!)

got it! thanks @coloursofyen for a) the ideas and b) keeping me on track with these last few fics.

I rage-wrote this fic bc I accidentally saw the Man City score before I had a chance to watch it. I’m very upset rn😂 Also, I know nothing about boxing.

move fast and keep quiet

Ted’s been on this thing recently, where one day of training out of every five is a “physical and mental enrichment day,” which is a fancy way of saying the team does yoga or some shit together. Recently he’s been bringing in this boxing coach for “the team’s aggressive tendencies,” in wake of the whole West Ham debacle, and no one’s quite sure if that was really the best response to the situation. Teaching AFC Richmond how to fight better? Maybe not the best idea. 

You’ve been coming once a week for a month now, teaching them how to spar on the pitch. Isaac, Jamie, and Bumbercatch are definitely the most enthusiastic about it, with the way Isaac studies each punch, Bumbercatch practices the footwork, and Jamie asks a million fucking questions every single time. 

According to Sam, he’s been an absolute menace, practicing his moves through the halls of Nelson Road.

“What is your problem?” Jan asks one day. “Can you not just walk to the gym like a regular person?”

Jamie shrugs. “Where’s the fun in that?”

It isn’t long before word goes around the dogtrack that Jamie has a crush on the boxing instructor.

“You like her,” Dani singsongs. Jamie doesn’t deny it. 

“She’s mad fit. Even her smile,” Jamie defends.

He’s not exactly wrong. The team starts an unofficial countdown until their next training session, and are disappointed to walk into the regular setup when the day rolls around. There’s a whiteboard with a new play from Roy and Beard, and the whole team barely tries to hide their disappointment.

“Oi, where’s Jamie’s girlfriend?” Isaac asks the moment Ted walks in.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Jamie interjects.

Ted points to Jamie. “We’ll unpack that later. For now, I need you fellas to get ready to run this new play Coach Beard and Roy have cooked up. I want everyone ready to show a lotta teamwork.”

Richard raises his hand. “Coach, where is Jamie’s girlfriend?”

Jamie puts his head in his hands and says, “She ain’t my girlfriend, lad,” but it doesn’t matter. The name is going to stick.

Ted says, “She’s busy training for a match tomorrow, but she’ll be back next week. She told me to tell you all that she hopes you can come watch.”

Sam loudly whispers, “You mean she hopes Jamie will come watch,” and the rest of the team says oooh.

“Fuck off,” Jamie replies, but he’s blushing.

—

They end up commandeering the team bus. 

The fight is… well, let’s just say it’s convinced Jamie that he needs to make the “girlfriend” jokes a reality. He will never admit how smitten you make him, what with the way you’re dodging and weaving, wiping sweat from your brow as your braids fly. But when it’s all over and you’re announced the winner, he’s almost positive you can hear him cheering over the rest of the crown because he’s just so damn happy.

The team waits around while the rest of the arena clears out, but Jamie can’t wait. He slips away from the group and asks a security guard where he can find you. The guard looks at him and states, “You’re Jamie Tartt.”

“Yeah,” Jamie responds, unsure of what else to say because it wasn’t exactly a question.

“She said you could come back. Follow me,” grunts the guard. Jamie turns around to make eye contact with Sam before hurrying after the security guard.

“In here.” The guard points to a door then leaves Jamie alone, staring at your name printed on a metal plaque. Shit, how good must you be to have your name here?

He knocks once and hears you call, “Come in,” so he pushes the door open. You’re sitting on the floor downing a bottle of water, still sweaty. There’s a bit of blood dried to your forehead and Jamie is a little worried that he finds it sexy.

You smile at him and pat the floor next to you.

“I’d get up, but I’m really fucking tired,” you say. “She got me good.”

Jamie slides onto the floor next to you. “You were fuckin’ amazing,” he says. “Made me rethink my whole career.”

You wheeze out a laugh. “With the way you run your mouth? You’d get brained in a week. I make sure none of my partners hate me. Me ’n the girl you saw tonight are going out to lunch tomorrow.”

Oh. That’s new information for Jamie. He’s trying to figure out if you mean lunch as a friend thing, or if you’re going on a date. Shit. Maybe this was a bad idea.

You nudge him with your shoulder. “Oi, what’s your deal? Upset you’re stuck as a sad little footballer when you could be getting punched out on the daily like me?”

Jamie shakes his head. “Nah. Just thinking how cool it were tonight.”

You grin and take another swig of water. “Hey, you wanna take me out on a date?”

Jamie chokes on air. After a moment he manages to cough, “Sorry, what?” and you shrug.

“Told myself if you came back here after the match I’d ask you out. I let security know you could come back if you wanted, and I figured you might be kinda fucking interested if you tried to get back here without me inviting you.”

“Uh huh,” Jamie says, still trying to get his breath back.

You look at him sideways. “Is that a yes? It’s all good if not.”

“No, yes!” Jamie says. “It’s yes. Where do you want to go? When’re you available? We could do something tonight if you want.”

You make a face. “I’m absolutely knackered. I was planning on going home to take a nice long shower and then passing out.”

Jamie nods. Right. Sounds logical.

“You could join me,” you suggest, and Jamie chokes for the second time.

“Jesus, Tartt, you’re excitable,” you tease. “It’s just a shower and some sleep. Although I might be convinced that I didn’t get enough cardio in tonight. Depends on if you’re willing to drive me home so I can nap.”

“Done,” Jamie says immediately. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” 

You grin as he pulls you up off the floor. “Oh,” you say, studying his perfect lips, “one more thing before we go…”

[k-ky]

(same anon as previously)

I think Gary loves carra a lot, but they have very different love languages (fucking hate that term but for the lack of better one.) I used to work with neurodivergent people. And at one point it was my job to spot the signs of autisms, adhd etc etc. so we could forward them to a specialist. And oh boy does Gary tick some autism boxes. (For legal purposes I AM aware that how he behaves on camera could be very different from how he behaves irl.)

He seems to invite the people he loves into his projects and things he loves. Like co92 with Salford, hotels with giggsy, The Overlap with Scholesy and Roy and yes, Carra. Booking him a hotel he likes and telling him to go see Springsteen. And I guess that's his love language. Involving people into his obsessions.

And Carra's is bullying and touching and remembering everything about the other person.

And I think Carra's insecurity comes from the fact that he can't quite read Gary, whereas Gary has spent plus 30 years getting bullied by Scholesy and Roy etc., so he's very content.

Hi anon, sorry it took some time to reply but I wanted to express myself well and give a thoughtful response! I was being a bit silly before, but being fr rn, I think you make some really valid observations about how Gary and Jamie express care in different ways. You can defo see it in the way they interact with their family, Gary definitely plays the more breadwinner type role while Jamie seems to be more physically affectionate, and verbally too.

That said, while I get where you’re coming from with the neurodivergence angle, and I don’t doubt your expertise, I think it’s worth considering that sometimes, a guy is just… himself? I myself work with neurodivergent children in healthcare, and my final year thesis was on neurodivergence in the medical field, as well as being neurodivergent myself.

Like, Gary’s quirks could just as easily be explained by personality, upbringing, or even the regimented mindset of a lifelong athlete. And if we’re being reductive, we can argue Jamie ticks just as many neurodivergent trait boxes: hyper fixation on football (staying up till 4am watching obscure lower-league games, remembering stats and trivia knowledge since childhood), rigid routines, meltdowns when plans change, food repetition, rumination, socially inept (like he seems to be unable to read social cues, says he has no friends in football but is proven otherwise when many ex footballers has mentioned they liked hanging out with him). His wife admitted he spirals if his day gets derailed or when plans change from what he had planned the day before and he needs her to talk him down. She can literally see how he starts to spiral just by looking at his eyes. The difference between him and Gary is that he presents as more extroverted, so it reads differently. Hell, you can even suggest he probably masks better because he seems to internalize his meltdowns vs Gary outwardly expressing his displeasure and making people change accordingly on the spot (eg the seating arrangement on STF).

In fact, one could argue this seems to apply to loads of ex-players. For eg, Kelly Cates has talked about Kenny Dalglish’s rigid schedule for the whole family. Does that mean they’re all neurodivergent? Or it could be the constant training and regiment they had to adhere to over decades just made them unable to really let go of that disciplinarian and rigid attitude (much like military men).

That’s why it flattens them, imo, to base their entire RPF characterization on a disorder they’ve never confirmed or even hinted at, like reducing them to a checklist of symptoms feels… weird. Personally, I prefer when interpretations like this are kept subtle or hinted at but never treated as definitive. At the end of the day, we don’t know these people, and there’s something a little uncomfortable about assigning real-life labels to public figures who’ve never spoken on it themselves. Leaving it ambiguous respects that boundary while still allowing for interesting character exploration. Like you also mentioned you can't diagnose someone remotely based on how they act on TV because their on-screen persona is very different from their off screen one, which I 100% agree.

Anyway, not having a go at you specifically! Just something I’ve been thinking about. Appreciate the chat, though and I hope you have a great day!

(Actually, I could point out how knowing Jamie hates hates HATES his plans being changed when he's already sorted them out, like i mentioned his wife says he would really be quite bothered and spiral from the most minute of changes in his plans, Gary booking that hotel anyways when Jamie already insisted he's already booked everything is quite... insensitive and dismissive? Thankfully it's Gary and Jamie always lets Gary and only Gary have his way. if not I'd imagine Jamie would be quite very annoyed at the person...)

[perch-the-cat]

Me ranting about the new Mario Kart game cause I nothing better to do rn (this is gonna be a long post fyi)

First of all: why did they have to make DK look like his movie design? It just feels uncanny to me.

Second, the roster: the roster they put so many random characters in the game, that just don't belong there I feel like. I get why they put Goomba in there, the Goomba is one of the first enemies a normal Mario fan would think off aside from the koopa characters. But what really throws me off, is that how many characters they put in there that realistically, would not be able to drive. Such as, the goomba, the regular piranha plant, stingby, swooper, cattaquack, the fucking dolphin, cheep cheep, fish bone, coin coffer, pokey, buzzy beatle, the snowman, and peppa (I might be missing a character or so here), but why this feels wrong, they’re either missing the top or bottom limbs. Your probably thinking, "what about King Boo, he doesn't have legs!" Yeah well King Boo being able to drive doesn't feel as off because if he's anything like his Luigi's mansion counterparts, he is probably using some sort of magic to move the vehicle forward. The other characters probably wouldn't possess that magic, but it doesn't really matter, because it's Mario Kart and I'm just overthinking. On the topic of King Boo, I've seen these costumes for characters, and since we probably aren't able to specifically choose a Luigi's Mansion KB I hope that the L's Mansion KB is an available costume for King Boo or even a Sunshine KB would be better than the generic KB Nintendo always gives us! For the Koopaling fans, if you haven't seen already, there is hope that the Koopalings will be playable (Roy was found on the mini map and there was a very blurry picture of what looked like Ludwig). Another thing, since we are gonna be so many playable characters, PLEASE PLEASE have SOME SORT OF MARIO RPG CHARACTER, PLEASE🙏 I don't care if it's Paper Mario, Mario and Luigi or just Mario RPG, I FUCKING NEED ONE OF THESE CHARACTERS TO BE PLAYABLE! I literally want to pull up to the race as Fawful or Dimento! That or Nintendo puts them into a dlc in the future! Now onto the penguin, nothing wrong with him, but I know that when this game comes out there are going to be so many memes of Mario butchering this lil guy. Me and one of my friend's little brother came up with a story for the penguin and that it was the baby penguin that was thrown off the cliff in Mario 64 and it managed to survive and now its back, in Mario Kart to beat Mario in a race.

Third: very unlikely from what we've seen, but my parents where wanting the the time for the laps (like Mario kart 64)

Forth: is it just me or did they make all of the characters gain a little bit of weight?

Fifth: is it just me or did they make Toad's head look more like a mushroom? Like his head is more fat round at the the bottom.

Anyway that's all I'm ranking about in this post, goodbye!

[skyguywrites]

Dylan 'Jack' Buckley

inspo // 28 // sexuality: queer // ship: kennedy chappel

irish

from a small village in the arse end of nowhere, has 3 older brothers and 1 older sister. he is the baby!

his brother is, unfortunately, the cunt that ended kian’s career

dylan has never met kian and isn’t even aware he’s in nyc but he has no real relationship with his brother

he plays nice and acts civil at family events but thinks he’s an absolute prick

tbf he thought he was a prick even before all that. being the youngest he was picked on a lot and had a tumultuous relationship with his older brother who taunted and teased him a lot

he’s openly bisexual to all his closest friends and loved ones but not to his family bc well. you know. his brother committed a homophobic hate crime!

he left home at 19 and only really goes back for weddings and the like

he’s a firefighter!

doesn’t really do relationships because he doesn’t think he wants to be tied down?

so he sleeps around a lot and tends to either leave it as a one night thing or a fwb type situation

he lived in california for a fair few years but he’s irish and absolutely couldn’t handle the heat lmao

he goes by jack on like, dating apps and social media bc it’s just one of those Things. irish people love a good nonsensical nickname and because he was a bit of a flirt and a bit cheeky he became known as a bit of a ‘jack the lad’ which then just became jack and now that’s just how a lot of people back home know him. even tho it isn’t his name lmao.

he finds it easier to go by jack on socials when he doesn’t wanna be giving strangers his name and access to him because? well? stranger danger LOL and he usually refers to himself as jack to his one night stands/hookups unless they’re friends or people he intends to see again

wanna be so clear this man IS dylan and that’s what everyone should call him. the irish are just stupid LOL

he would never admit it but he’s on a lot of dating apps and forums and stuff just for a bit of chat? he uses them to hook up too but i think he gets lonely away from home too

i’m making up an imaginary app that i imagine he uses that allows users a bit of anonymity? you can chat to people who are near/in your city for romantic and platonic reasons but without the preconceived notions of what a person looks like/without a glimpse into their life and faux online image and somewhat free of judgement?

he’s not wealthy and he knows he’s not got people lining up at his door (he knows his accent does a lot of the work for him and that he’s not tall and ripped in the same way a lot of people in his job are) so he enjoys the mystery of it a bit

he’s been talking to a girl (kennedy) online for a while rn who he has surprised himself by actually liking? he’s tried to meet up with her a few times but smth always crops up. whether it’s a work emergency for him or just him chickening out and making excuses

so he’s never seen her and vice versa/they don't know each other's real names

his roommates recently moved out so he’s got an ad going for 2 new roomies to help him with the rent/bills

he’s got a border collie named keane (after roy but everyone always thinks it’s after the band lmao)

spends a lot of time at the gym building his strength and always pushes himself to go the extra mile, almost to his own detriment

very strict on himself and his diet and never lets himself have cheat foods and doesn’t drink

he is a secret softy and generally spends a lot of time at the hospital checking in on people from accidents/rescues he was part of and making sure they’re all right

which doesn’t always end well for him if it’s bad news and he sorta beats himself up about it a lot

has probably bickered with doctors/paramedics in the past where he’s demanded info and kind of Expects if just bc of his job role even tho he’s not a family member or next of kin

he means well but he can be a bit rash and tends to think he’s right and people are being unreasonable in situations like that

his favourite movie is, unfortunately, fight club

but his second favourite is tangled so make of that what you will

while training to be a firefighter he was a stripper for a while

he’s quite insecure and meticulous about his body bc he’s like! not built like others in that industry but it was the best way to pay his way through school/get by

and then he got his job! and he stopped!

but sometimes when he’s struggling and rent is hard i imagined him venturing back onto that scene every so often

as well as having an onlyfans or smth similar that he like, occasionally opens up for requests and stuff

he's pretty ashamed of it but not because he thinks it's Bad or Wrong but moreso just embarrassment? he feels like he'd get a lot of judgement from people in his life

[cursed-elo-images]

Nobody:

ELO on WhatsApp:

Jeff: *literally uses a blue theme* *gets upset quite a lot after he gets trolled by either Hugh or Bev* *Hugh would you please literally stop what you’re doing??? Man… why are you ALWAYS like this…” “OKAY BEV this is the last rickroll I’m going to accept from you ✨🙄💅😐💙🦋🩵🪁🐋🪐🚀🎤🎸🚂” “I’m quite literally trying my absolute BEST to stay calm rn yall” “Aww Richard thank you for wishing me a happy birthday mate! <3 you’re the best!” “Melvyn why do you keep talking” *always sends Melvyn the Joe Jones song “You Talk Too Much”* “guys guys guys I’m going to hang out with Del tomorrow yay!!!” “I love the Beatles so much they’re the best band ever” “ROY ORBISON JUST RELEASED A NEW ALBUM”

Bev: *overuses the word bruh* “bruh Hughie what are you doing rn” “epic bruh moment Sharon” “literally bruh” “hey so here’s a selfie of me at the gym today hope yall like it I tried my best 💕💕💪🥁💪” “bruh Walmart is all out of protein shakes you guys” “bruh Richard I so need to try the food you buy, bro” “guys has anyone seen Mik??? I miss him :(“ *constantly pranks Jeff specifically* “no Jeff I won’t stop sending you rickrolls 🤭🤭🤭” “no offense Hughie but why are you crying?” “oh no not Cleo smh” “BRUH”

Kelly: *very chatty and uses all caps a lot and sends so much stuff* “WELL HELLO THERE YOU WITH THE PRETTY FACE, WELCOME TO THE HUMAN RACE!!!” “Here’s this adorable puppy I found just the other day!” “Here’s Hugh cosplaying Waluigi at the mall!” “Does anybody remember that gif Bev made of Sharon pushing me into the bathtub full of cream cheese!? Please send it to me!!!” “GUYS I BOUGHT A NEW VIDEO GAME!!!”

Richard: *usually reads messages but talks the least on there, does so rarely* “hi” “Happy Birthday Jeff” “Happy Birthday Melvyn” “Happy Valentine’s Day everyone” *doesn’t make a new message until literally next month*

Mik: *is technically on there but like Richard, barely talks* *does talk to Hugh, Bev and Melvyn frequently though* “sorry Bev I’m here what’s up?” *common catchphrase is: “yall are weird ngl”*

Hugh: *the troll* “hahaha who cares about the beatles” *enjoys annoying jeff and bev* “hey check out this cool video I found!! *sends a rickroll*” “i miss Cleo 🥺🥺🥺” *sends random voice messages of him crying and ranting about Cleo at random times of the year* “hey beatle-boy have you seen Mel?” “average Roy Orbison fan moment” “sorry guys I was reading” “Mel you’re the best bro 🫂🤝🎻🐍🛩️” “LOL” *sends cursed messages of him laughing really hard when something chaotic or funny happens, or if anyone gets annoyed*

Melvyn: *literally always active*

“Oh hey guys! How are you?” “Does anyone want to see my model airplane collection???” “Hey has anyone seen Sharon? I want to talk to her about how cork heeled shoes precisely float on water!” “Hey Hugh I’ll get you a new snake for your birthday!” “What does anyone else want for their birthdays? Whatever it is I’ll get it!” “Hey am i the only one active here at this hour?” “Guys? Hello?” “WHERE IS EVERYBODY ???🤳💅🎻🛩️” *sends a bunch of very long voice messages detailing about his day, thoughts, feelings, and dreams about life* “Ohhh Hugh I’m sorry mate, I know what it’s like to give up a pet!”

forgot I had this on my phone lmao

[organic-guacamole]

205 SPOILERS (ignore if the points are out of order, I was sobbing so much I couldn't write it down in order😭)

My first thought when the episode started: "what in the horror movie-"

And then that shifted into "aw Seb's animals, Jimmy with social anxiety is my favourite"

Then at some point I'm thinking, "Zackey, with all due respect, shut up"

"Those hips never lie" ok Ms Jenn, there are children present.

Enough of this man's crusty face, lets talk about seblos holding hands in school.

And omg Carlos' locker is adorable.

Where can I get Seb's flannel though, that's the real question.

What is up with the sexual tension in this season-

First redlyn during the blackout and now Rini in the barn? y'all go to horny jail

Seb is adorable.

Gina what did you do-

She's scaring me, what happened that night???

The after the musical video calls we got were so ambiguous too. if they don't address this asap I will scream, it'll be just like them to drop this plot point and then forget about it.

Ricky.

Gina.

RICKY-

GINA-

WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT RICHARD???

YOU'RE NOT DATING, STOP DOING THAT

GINA OMG YEAH GO OFF ON THIS IDIOT BUT STILL IT WAS HYPOTHETICAL CALM DOWN-

Anyways.

Mike Bowen is hot.

I said what I said.

The ok boomer-

I cant-

"I WAS BORN IN THE 70S"

I love Mike

Mike really dressed up for this woman-

I must admit, the writing for the adults is very interesting imo. I genuinely want to see what's going to happen, who's she going to pick?

Mike? aka "her biggest crush in salt lake"

Benjamin? aka "her arsonist partner"

Zackey Roy? aka "her gay ex boyfriend"

*sniff sniff* What's that I smell?

Jealousy, jealousy following Benjamin Mazzara.

Honest Abe who?

I only know honest Seb.

But fr, how adorable is it that he can't lie to the people he loves, so he just keeps his mouth shut so he doesn't say the truth?

Seb is adorable.

how did ash and Biggie make all those pizzas in a few hours-

honestly-

I've said this before and I'll say it again,

Don't: make Kourtney and Howie a thing.

Do: make them both gay and best friends.

YAY EJ!!!

As someone in the hsmtmts discord server said, "Wait Matt Cornett is in this show?"

Round of applause for Gina's dance. Also it seems like we're shipping Gina and Kaden(platinum blond dancer for those who don't know) now....I don't make the rules🤷🏽‍♀️

Alright here's the moment we've literally all been waiting for:

The Seb seranade.

The way Seb was inspired by Carlos all those years ago made me tear up full on sob.

Who made those mean comments? Drop the addy, I just wanna talk.🔪

Me after the song finished: sobbing "CARLOS BABY GET UP THERE AND KISS YOUR BOYFRIEND"

Me when Carlos stood up: "ITS HAPPENING"

Me when Carlos hugged seb: "ROBBED, IVE BEEN ROBBED! IM CALLING THE POLICE THIS ISNT FAIR"

Me when they lean in again: "OK WAIT"

Me and the police officer when they finally kiss: jumping up and down squealing "FINALLY"

I'm a little bit upset someone's head was blocking half of it but still, it's been years so I'm honestly just glad they got to kiss on screen.

Seb is adorable.

So after all that, I was an emotional mess, shaking like a jackhammer and spamming the server, and when Carlos chooses Ms Jenn as his madrina....I FULLY LOST IT.

"I look like the clown from IT" girl I look like that every day and I don't even wear makeup-

The writers of this show really don't like us to be happy for more than 5 seconds huh? the proof is that EJ's only on screen for 5 seconds at a time

They really had all that emotion, just to slap us in the face with reality/Lily and Zackey's faces.

But like, is that allowed in the Menkies? To just steal the musical that another school already registered with?

And why don't they just try harder with the little mermaid instead of trying to sabatoge and take over the one thing east high has???

But I mean, go off ig.

EJ and Mr Mazzara is like, the duo I never expected, but already love so much. I can't tell if they're "bros" or if they have a father-son relationship. Either way, I hope we get a lot more of it.

EJ's so sweet to Gina in this episode but I don't like the way he looked at her near the end.

Like yeah I like portwell, but as friends. Ignoring for now the fact that Gina is 15 and EJ is literally 18, I don't want them to be anything more than friends because rn it just seems like they're the "leftovers" so the writers wanna couple them up and get it over with.

But please, no.

Gina really just said "lemme crush their little hearts even more, right at the end😁"

Honestly, I feel really bad for her. I totally get where she's coming from with everything. I still don't condone the way she's been treating Ashlyn, not at all, but I understand how she may be excusing it in her own mind.

[snarktheater]

Hey, d'you have any French book recs? I'm trying to work on my French, and rn I have downloaded one of my favourite book series' French translations, but I figured maybe books already written in French might work better? Also have you read the Ranger's Apprentice series? 1/2

RA's def flawed - the books' narration does like to point bright arrows at the protagonists' intelligence, and the last few books def have the tone of 'old white man trying to write feminism', although at least he's trying? - and it's aimed more to the younger side of YA, but it is still a very fun series, and I can ignore the flaws fairly easily, at least partly due to nostalgia? This rather long lol but I'm wordy.

I'll start with the second question: no, although every time the series is brought up I have to check the French title and go "oh, right, I've seen these books in stores". But I've never purchased or read them. It sounds like something I probably would have enjoyed as a teen but I just missed the mark, and these days I'm trying to drown myself in queer books, so that probably isn't happening.

As for your first question, geez, I haven’t read a French book in years, so this is gonna skew middle grade/YA, though that may not be so bad if the point is to learn the language. I will also say that as a result, these may read a little outdated.

I'll put it under a cut, even if Tumblr has become really bad with correctly displaying read mores. Sorry, mobile crowd.

It's also likely that old readers of the blog will have seen me talk about most of these. I don't feel like going through old posts.

One last thing: while I was curating this list I took the time to make a Goodreads shelf to keep track of those.

The Ewilan books by Pierre Bottero

(It's a testament to how long ago I read these books that these are not the covers of the edition I own, and I can't even find those on Google. I'm settling for a more recent cover anyway since it'll make it easier to find them, presumably)

There are at least three trilogies (that I know of) set in the same world.

The first trilogy is essentially an isekai (so, French girl lands in parallel fantasy world by accident) with elements of chosen one trope, though I find the execution makes it worth the while anyway.

The second trilogy is a direct sequel, so same protagonist but new threat, and the world gets expanded.

The third one is centered around a supporting characters from the previous books, and the first couple of books in it are more her backstory than a continuation, though the third one concludes both that trilogy and advances the story of the other books as well.

Notably these books have a really fun magic system where the characters "draw" things into existence. It's just stuck with me for some reason.

A bunch of stuff by Erik L'Homme

I have read a lot of this man's books, starting with Le Livre des Etoiles.

They also skew towards the young end of YA, arguably middle grade, I never bothered to figure out where to draw the line. They're coincidentally also using the premise of a parallel world to our own (and yes, connected to France again, the French are just as susceptible of writing about their homeland), but interestingly are set from the point of view of characters native to the parallel world.

It also has a very unique magic system, this one based on a mix of a runic alphabet and sort-of poetry. I'll also say specifically for these books that the characters stuck with me way more than others on this list, which is worth mentioning.

This trilogy is my favorite by Erik L'Homme, but I'll also mention Les Maîtres des brisants, which is a fantasy space opera with a pirate steampunk(?) vibe. I think it's steampunk. I could be mistaken. But it's in that vein. It's also middle grade, in my opinion not as good, but it could just be that it came out when I was older.

Another one is Phaenomen, which was a deliberate attempt at skewing older (though still YA). This one is set in our (then-)modern world and centers a group of teens who happen to have supernatural powers. I guess the best way to describe it is a superhero thriller? If you take "superhero" in the sense of "people with individualized powers", since they don't really do a lot of heroing.

...I really need to brush up on genre terminology, don't I.

The Ji series by Pierre Grimbert

This one is actually adult fantasy, though it definitely falls under "probably outdated". It is very straight, for starters, and I'd have to give it another read to give a more critical reading of how it handles race (it attempts to do it, and is well meaning, but I'm not sure it survives the test of time & scrutiny, basically).

If I haven't lost you already, the premise is this: a few generations ago, a weird man named Nol gathered emissaries from each nation of the world and took them to a trip to the titular Ji island. Nobody knows what went down here, but now in the present day, someone is trying to kill off all descendants from those emissaries, who are as a result forced to team up and figure out what's going on.

I'm not going to spoil past that, though I will say it has (surprise) a really unique magic system! I guess you can start to piece together what my younger self was interested in. Which, admittedly, I still am.

Once again, this one also has a strong cast of characters, helped by rich world building and the premise forcing the characters to come from many different cultures (though, again, I can't vouch for the handling of race because it's been too long).

The first series is complete by itself, though it has two sequel series as well, each focusing on the next generation in these families. Because yes, of course they all pair up and have kids. Like I said: very straight.

A whole lot of books by Jean-Louis Fetjaine

OFetjaine is a historian, and I guess he's really interested in Arthurian mythos especially, because he loves it so much he's written two separate high fantasy retellings of them! I'm not criticizing, mind you, we all need a hobby.

The former, the Elves trilogy (pictures above) is very traditional high fantasy. Elves, dwarves, orcs, a world which is definitely fictionalized with a pan-Celtic vibe to it. The holy grail and excalibur are around, but they're relics possessed by the elves and dwarves with very different powers than usual. Et cetera.

Fetjaine also really loves his elves (as the titles might imply), and while they're not exactly Tolkien elves, there's a similar vibe to them. If you like Tolkien and his elf boner, you'll probably like this too. And conversely, if that turns you off, these books probably also won't work for you.

This series also has a prequel trilogy, centered around the backstory of one of the main characters. I...honestly don't remember too much about it, but I liked it, so, there you go, I guess.

I said Fetjaine did it twice. The other series is the Merlin duology, which, as the title implies, is a retelling of Merlin's story. Note that Merlin is also in the other trilogy, but it's a different Merlin; like I said, completely different continuities and stories.

This one is historical fantasy, so it's set in actual Great Britain, and Fetjaine attempts to connect Arthur to a "real" historical figure...but, you know, Merlin is also half-elf and elves totally exist in Brocéliande, so, you know. History.

Okay, that's probably enough fantasy, let me give some classics too.

L'Arbre des possibles et autres histoires - Bernard Werber

Bernard Werber is a pretty seminal author of French sci-fi and I should probably be embarrassed that the only book of his that I read was for school, but, it is a really good one, so I'll include it anyway.

It's a novella collection, and when I say "sci-fi" I want to make it clear that it's very old school science fiction. It's more Frankenstein or Black Mirror than Star Trek, what we in French call the anticipation genre of science fiction: you take one piece of technology or cultural norm and project it into the future.

It has a pretty wide range of topics and tones, so it's bound to have some better than others. My personal faves were Du pain et des jeux, where football (non-American) has evolved into basically a wargame, and Tel maître, tel lion, where any animal is considered acceptable as a pet, no matter how absurd it is to keep as a pet. They're both on a comedic end, but there's more heartfelt stuff too.

L'Ecume des Jours - Boris Vian

(no cover because I can't find the one I have, and the ones I find are ugly)

This book is surrealist. Like, literally a part of the surrealist movement. It features things such as a lilypad growing inside a woman's lungs (and, as you well know, lilypads double in size every day, wink wink), the protagonist's apartment becoming larger and smaller to go with his mood and current financial situation, and more that I can't even recall at the moment because remembering this book is like trying to remember having an aneurysm.

It is also really, really fun and touching. Oh, and it has a pretty solid movie adaptation, starring Audrey Tautou, who I think an international audience would probably recognize from Amelie or the Da Vinci Code movie.

I don't really know what else to say. It's a really cool read!

Le Roi se meurt - Eugène Ionesco

Ionesco is somewhat famous worldwide so I wasn't even sure to include him here. He's a playwright who wrote in the "Theater of the Absurd" movement, and this play is part of that.

The premise of this play is that the King (of an unnamed land) is dying, and the land is dying with him. I don't really know what else to say. It's theater of the absurd. It kind of has to be experienced (the published version works fine, btw, no need to track down an actual performance, in my humble opinion).

The Plague - Albert Camus

You've probably heard of this one, and if you haven't, let me tell you about a guy called Carlos Maza

I'm honestly more including this book out of a sense of duty. The other three are books I genuinely liked and happen to be classics. This book was an awful read. But, um. It's kind of relevant now in a way it wasn't (or didn't feel, anyway) back in 2008 or 2009, when I read it. And I don't just mean because of our own plague, since Camus's plague is pretty famously an allegory for fascism, which my teenage self sneered at, and my adult self really regrets every feeling that way.

Okay, finally, some more lighthearted stuff, we gotta talk about the Belgian and French art of bande dessinée. How is it different from comic books or manga? Functionally, it isn't. It really comes down more to what gets published in the Belgian-French industry compared to the American comics industry, which is dominated by superheroes, or the Japanese manga industry, which, while I'm less familiar with it, I know has some big genre trends as well that are completely separate.

The Lanfeust series - Arleston and Tarquin

This is a YA mega-series, and I can't recommend all of it because I've lost track of the franchise's growth. Also note that I say "YA", but in this case it means something very different from an American understanding of YA. These books are pretty full of sex.

No, when I say YA I mean it has that level of maturity, for better or worse. The original series (Lanfeust de Troy) is high fantasy in a world where everyone has an individual magical ability but two characters find out they're gifted with an absolute power to make anything happen, and while it gets dark at times, it's still very lighthearted throughout, and the humor is...well, I think it's best described as teen boy humor. And it has a tendency to objectify its female characters, as you'll quickly parse out from the one cover I used here or if you browse more covers.

But still, it holds a special place in my heart, I guess. And on my shelves.

The sequel series, Lanfeust des Etoiles, turns it into a space opera, and goes a little overboard with the pop culture reference at times, though overall still maintains that balance of serious/at times dark story and lighthearted comedy.

After that the franchise is utter chaos to me, and I've lost track. I know there was another sequel series, which I dropped partway through, and a spinoff that retold part of the original series from the PoV of the main love interest (in the period of time she spent away from the main group). There was a comedy spin-off about the troll species unique to this world, a prequel series, probably more I don't even know exist.

Les Démons d'Alexia

Something I can probably be a little less ashamed of including here.

Some backstory here. The Editions Dupuis are a giant of the Belgian bande dessinée industry, and for many, many years I was subscribed to their weekly magazine. That magazine was (mostly) made up of excerpts from the various books that the éditions were publishing at the time; those that were made of comic strips would usually get a couple pages of individual scripts, while the ongoing narratives got cut into episodes that were a few pages long (out of a typical 48 page count for a single BD album). Among those were this series.

For the first few volumes, I wasn't super into this series, probably because I was a little too young and smack dab in the middle of my "trying to be one of the boys" phase. But around book 3 I got really invested, to the point where I own the second half of the series because I had canceled by subscription by then but still wanted to know more.

Alexia is an exorcist with unusual talents, but little control, who's introduced to a group that specializes in researching paranormal phenomena, solving cases that involve the paranormal, that kinda stuff.

As a result of the premise, the series has a pretty slow start since it has to build up mystery around the source of Alexia's powers, but once it gets going and we get to what is essentially the series' main conflict, it gets really interesting.

Plus, witches. I'm a simple gay who likes strong protagonists and witches.

Murena

There was a point where my mtyhology nerdery led me to look for more stuff about the historical cultures that created them, and so I'd be super into stuff set in ancient Rome (I'd say "or Greece or Egypt" but let's face it, it was almost always Rome).

Murena is a series set just before the start of Emperor Nero's rule. You know, the one who was emperor when Rome burned, and according to urban legend either caused the fire or played the fiddle while it did (note: "fiddle" is a very English saying, it's usually the lyre in other languages). He probably didn't, it probably was propaganda, but he was a) a Roman Emperor, none of whom were particularly stellar guys and b) mean to Christians, who eventually got to rewrite history. So he's got a bad rep.

The series goes for a very historical take on events, albeit fictionalized (the protagonist and main PoV, the titular Lucius Murena, is himself fictional) and attempts to humanize the people involved in those events. Each book also includes some of the sources used to justify how events and characters are depicted, which is a nice touch.

It's also divided in subseries called "cycles" (books 1-4, 5-8 and the ongoing one starts at 9). I stopped after 9, though I think it's mostly a case of not going to bookstores often anymore. Plus it took four years between 9 and 10, and again between 10 and 11. But the first eight books made for a pretty solid story that honestly felt somewhat concluded as is, so it's a good place to start.

[gamespritearchive]

yes i like fullmetal alchemist brotherhood a normal amount (<- lying) this post is going to be long so open the readmore at ur own risk

ok this is genuinely going to be a mess because im really terrible at summarizing things and organizing my thoughts so if ur actually gonna read through this then good luck!

here are just some short thoughts before the longer paragraphs

- i absolutely LOVE the note that plays right after the alchemists clap their hands together that indicates that theyre abt to use alchemy. the sound of the clap + the note that plays is incredibly satisfying

- the strong and well-written female characters in this show was a really good touch and i loved how they brought them (izumi and olivier) together at the end :') also their beefy husbands together was super nice too

- my favorite part of the story was actually the part where ed and al go to briggs because thats wher they introduced olivier. it was super nice to see her talk about how strong-willed she is and her army and all of that

- lan fan is another example of a strong female character but a little less favorable since she serves ling yao. that doesnt make her any less cool though she was super badass and i definitely cried over her more than once

- the details in this show was really nice. alphonse's body being malnourished was something that seemed really obvious, but the fact that when ed got his right arm back it was noticeably less muscular and had longer nails than his left was such a good detail

- in the last episode there was a scene where alphonse made a dumb face that was animated just like how ed's faces looked and that made me really happy that we finally get to see al emote just like his brother :')

- im pretty sure i cried through the entirety of the last episode because being able to see the characters laugh and smile without feeling burdoned by anything after youve seen them go through repeated heartache and physical pain for 63 episodes is a super nice feeling

- "i'm a terrible father but i want to make you two proud" .

- "i'll give you half of my life and you give me half of yours" UGH

- also right after this when ed was laughing at how flustered winry got because normally hes the one who gets flustered :') that was so sweet

- i literally guessed that it was morse code whenever they showed selim banging on al's head because its like why would they put so much emphasis on that and let it go on for like 10 seconds without any music over it. this happened like multiple times too and i guessed it before they made it incredibly obvious bye im the smartest guy alive

ok heres where i talk more besties lets go

fmab was absolutely worth watching 64 episodes. i was convinced that i probably wont finish it because i have trouble finishing 12 episodes but as it may be obvious i got super invested. fmab being this long allowed there to be enough time to explain aspects of the story separately and to watch them all come together at some point. it also allowed for a ton of details that even though they're small, they're still important to the story. they rehash a lot of points because it was a simple detail that could get lost through the story but when its rementioned and you recall the time, it's such a nice feeling to have that click in ur mind.

also the character development was really good and ill get more in-depth about characters later but the length of this anime also allowed for a ton of really good character development. it ties into the whole thing where you learn about a characters backstory and you don't understand why it's important to the show until later on and then you're like ohhhh holy shit that makes sense now! also all that time for character development also lets you get attached to more than just the main characters and makes you care more about the role they play in the story.

roy mustang. at first i liked him, but when he started to speak about how he wanted to become the fuhrer president before he knew the military was corrupt, i assumed that he would just become as corrupt as bradley was ("starting wars for no reason"). i was convinced for the longest time that he would eventually just turn out to be the second bad guy and that nearly came true whenever he was trying to kill envy but riza helped him :) i loved the entirety of their relationship they're so sweet and compliment eachother so well. the scene where roy demonstrates the sheer amount of trust he has in riza's abilities by blindly (heh. he was blind during this if u didnt know.) following her directions and hitting their target ... it was just so good. also even though i didnt trust roy i thought he was super badass the sound of him snapping was always super satisfying as well

i almost want to rewatch fmab because it would be really nice to pick up on things that were later referenced in the anime. because of how long it is, its super easy to forget about things that happened early on in the anime (especially for someone with memory issues lol) so being able to watch back with the second half of the show still fresh on my mind would be almost an entirely different experience. the first thing that comes to mind is whenever we were shown kimblee in prison super early on. i know he had dialogue but i remember nothing about it because i was focused on thinking "literally who the fuck is this guy lol" but now i know. wow.

edward elric. im aware that this is going to be incredibly biased but i literally do not care. anyways. character development is always important and needed within a story but i genuinely feel like ed's character development was interesting to watch. it was never super obvious and his core values never changed. he did somewhat have a change in attitude when he nearly died to kimblee, but thats like expected you know ... being that close to death and all. i think that event was essentially the beginning of the end of his naivety. he was always consistent with the people he cared about though :) he never stopped calling them stupid and weird and he never stopped threatening to punch hohenheim whenever he was frustrated even if they were like in the middle of like a life or death situation. i just think he's neat

when ed destroyed pride('s vessel) i felt my heart well up with. pride LOL. that was his very first explicit win against someone who has been against him this entire time, and seeing him defeat pride with his own two hands was such a nice feeling. it wasnt technically his own win since he was only able to get to that point because of his friends and family around him

episode 60 was suuper good it was the part where the father was gonna swallow god because of the solar eclipse. its super hard to explain if uve never seen it but basically the scene was super cool simply because of how well the animation showed the sheer scale of what was happening. like this guy was literally reaching to the moon. theres a lot of unnatural things that are shown in fmab and although this scene didnt introduce any new concepts, it was still incredibly captivating because of how well the animation was

aand thats it i think! i regret not writing down how i feel during the earlier episodes but i think watching it with little to no distractions was a better experience. if u actually read this im giving u a kiss on the cheek rn ilu

[mego42]

I was going to go through all of these and pick a range, but it turns out I really want you to answer the first three, haha, so A! B! C!

v alphabetical, i like it.

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

oh man, so many. lets see:

beth x rio (good girls) still have me by the throat, obvs

and as long as i'm listing gg stuff, beth + ruby + annie also obvs

and the rio + mick relationship i invented in my head

diane + the girls (🎶 i want moooooooooorrrrreeeee 🎶)

the roving pack of himbos that make up the afc richmond football team (ted lasso)

keeley + rebecca (also ted lasso)'s budding friendship was the moment i realized how deeply fucked i was over the show

keeley x roy (again ted lasso, look i'm obvs in a ted lasso space rn) bc human sunshine/cranky badger is a god tier dynamic and the way they see and understand and respect each other is *chef's kiss*

ted + rebecca is another amazing friendship (actually just assume every friendship on the show is amazing and you'd be right) and while i can def see the ship potential there and am by no means against it, i'm v much enjoying where they're at rn

the roy siblings (succession) and i am so mad about it i didn't ask for this

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

i feel like you 1000000% know the answer to this was gonna be mick x mary pat. they never would've crossed my mind but thanks to you i am somehow so??????? into it?????????

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

ooooh hmmmmm. this is actually kind of hard to answer bc i am continually talked around on ships if presented with a compelling enough case for them. that said, while i love the triangle thing happening on gg with beth, rio and nick, idt there is enough compulsion in the world to get me on board with beth x nick if the show seriously tried to sell it.

fandom asks

[thequiver]

What did you think of Roy as a Black Lantern and his voice in Infinite Frontier? Where do you think he will go?

MY BOY IS THROWING SHIT AGAIN AND I AM LIVING.

But uh as to the Black Lantern thing I’m …. withholding judgement for the time being. I’m still unsure about how much of his Diné background they’re bringing back and I think if they do focus on that the juxtaposition between the way the Diné perceive death and dying and being a Black Lantern could be really interesting. (Should be noted I’m white af and live in Appalachia, I am by no means an expert on Diné culture and what I know is mostly from a YouTube channel I found years ago of an elderly Diné man talking about their culture.)

I’m cautiously optimistic about Infinite Frontier rn, he feels more like Roy to me, and uh…. I finally got my Roy looks sexy on page rights so I’m happy at the moment.

[tsaritsa]

author interview tag!

tagged by @royai (tyyy katie)

name: ana

fandom(s): hagaren, bleach, ben10, stranger things, dw

where you post: here/ffn/ao3. ao3 is the most comprehensive tho (i’m bergamots at both)

most popular oneshot: y’all really liked my riza hawkeye interview

most popular multichapter fic: someone go give may i feel a kudos rn so i can giggle at 420 being on the kudos stats for it again briefly. honestly tho i’m blown away with the love it receives. it is a great royai fic! i’m glad we can share it with y’all too

favourite story you’ve written so far: mifsh is in its own, separate category. but despite the origins of enthrallment, i’m still proud of myself for finishing it and exploring a diff kind of concept - that i think i will revisit a few more times. bradley/riza is good food. sue me.

fic you were nervous to post: bellyache i guess bc implying that kimblee is gonna rape riza is... not a happy thought. and like i tagged it and all but this fandom gets really fucking weird about subversive themes in fic so u never know. tune in next week for another cancelling lol

how you choose your titles: song lyrics, poetry, whatever ~pretentious~ thought is swimming around my brain 

do you outline? depends on the plot. mif? absolutely. this firefighter one i just did? i know they’re kissing next update

complete: not enough

in progress: too many

coming soon/not yet started: have a few fma ones - me smashing grumman, roy smashing the drink too much, royai smashing booties some more.

do you accept prompts? yes! i wanna write tons next month

upcoming work that you’re most excited about: other pieces i’ve been working on are star wars stuff, some spider-man too. also monster fucking in the very literal sense but i won’t subject y’all to it on this blog

tagging @riza-hawkeyes @hirayaart @ymir-me @wrongnote

[splendidshinobi]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 6-10

back at it again with the white vans

episode 6: the alchemy exam

alrighty then

um mustang calling edward “ed” is EXTREMELY offputting

ohhhhhhh noooooo not shou tucker

FUCK

im wholly unprepared

them all being in central instead of east is low key jarring like my brain isnt computing it

alexander’s intro is basically the same 

nina bbyyyyy girl u deserved so much better

ed is such a fucking nerd...chemistry club modern au confirmed

god the more tucker talks the more i wanna beat his face in

al pretending to eat by tossing a potato in his armor i-

aww theyre playing in the snow theyre so pure

wonder how long thatll last

“bigger brother” and “little big brother” and ed doesnt even get mad

ed’s birthday party????????

A MELON? ED YOURE SO RUDE

so 03 had ed’s bday instead of elicia’s...CAUSE THEY GOT ELICIA IN THE WOMB

“it’s here!” “the tea?” “the baby!” hughes is a fuck head

ok so now they’re having elicia replace rush valley baby arc

this was winry’s time to shine in fmab i miss her 

if winry isnt here who is gonna birth this baby

oh my god they just realized ed can use alchemy without a circle

no wonder he’s been using circles this whole time

SO ELICIA JUST POPPED OUT????? WHAT

STUFF ALEXANDER IN THE ARMOR AND PRETEND YOURE A TALKING DOG???

“i dont think thats very funny” NO ALPHONSE IT IS NOT

THEY KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THEY WERE DOING WITH THAT ONE I SWEAR TO GOD IN THIS ESSAY I WILL

damn bradley what up homie

im so thrown off by the way theyre doing the exam omg

seriously what the hell is fuhrer bradley’s purpose right now is he even the fuhrer in this i feel like they wouldve mentioned it

oh lord ed is about to impress everyone with his clappy hands

ok so next episode is nina FUCK

episode 7: night of the chimera’s cry

havoc babeeee

im gonna marry him my himbo king

also can RIZA DO SOMETHING PLZ

“huhhhhhhhh nina” ew tucker that was weirdly gross

wonder why

cant do it cant do it

do we think jean kirstein was modeled after jean havoc slightly looks wise

was that purposeful 

ill have to google 

serial killer who only targets women?  it cant be scar...scar drinks respect women juice

barry or slicer bros maybe? um ok

why did we start with liore if they were just gonna hop right back into the past for a huge chunk of episodes idk

assessment day??? oh noodles

AL WHY DID YOU TELL TUCKER TO MAKE ANOTHER TALKING CHIMERA ALPHONSE NO

THE NOISE I EMITTED IM GONNA TAKE A LAP

im gonna FUCKING SCREAM

ed r u writing to winry??? that’s a bit out of character for u good sir

no tucker put that baby down

im gonna fucking SCREAM

aww he burned nina’s picture thats not sus at all

SHESKA!!!!!

wait does the ironblood alchemist know what tucker did to his wife? thats kinda the vibe im getting

SCARRRRRRRR

looking like a pirate too damn

his voice sounds different is that j michael tatum 

apparently not it was dameon clarke in 03 ya learn something new everyday 

ew elicia has a lot of hair for a FUCKING NEWBORN

ed really is such a cynic very suspicious of everyone as he should be really

basque grand knowS SOMETHING

oh jesus oh fuck oh god please do not TOUCH THAT BABY

ed and al snuck back in to the house well u know what its for the best

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

im gonna cry again please god no

FUCKING DIE SHIT HOLE

she’s hurting? oh my god

my sweet angel

ew his eyes!!!!!!! 

tucker is such a fucking failure...like look at the chimera squad and greed’s theatre troupe being the way they are. ugh it really hits how fucking unfair it is 

ed was really about to split them? boy you know better

where is nina going...im hurting

ed really tried to save her in this one

SCAR KILLS NINA IN THE STREETS???????? SIR

thats different

oh snap 

oh FUCK

SCAR WHY DID YOU LEAVE HER BODY LIKE THAT

THE WAY SHE WAS ARRANGED ON THE WALL THAT WAS FUCKED UP

AND THEY FOUND HER LIKE THAT???? AT LEAST IN BROTHERHOOD THEY DIDNT HVE TO SEE HER CORPSE ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

that was fucked.

episode 8: the philosopher’s stone

can yall get ed and al away from nina’s fucking MURAL 

get out of the car mustang

finally jesus christ

roy mustang talking about healthy coping mechanisms dont make me laugh but alright baby boy go off i guess?

im curious about who this goddamn serial killer is though lets turn to that plot thread

r u kidding me

mustang is making ed and al take over tucker’s research?? thats actually wildly messed up

oh tucker was straight executed that’s a choice i guess

tucker and the philosopher’s stone sounds inaccurate but ok

ed please stop being mean to your brother

03 mustang has got me reaching for a fucking baseball bat on GOD

scar and edward having this conversation right now i literally cannot

WINRY yes bitch

BRADLEY WHAT IN TARNATION

JESUS LORRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD

alphonse shut your mouthhhhhhhhhhh

im so confused what is bradley up to

“alchemists are not cold blooded murderers?”

i mean

kimblee would beg to differ for one

whos this creepy lady 

her voice sounds familiar

barry’s food shop?

the killer is barry ok got it

IS BARRY DISGUISED AS A WOMAN

I KNEW THAT WAS JERRY JEWELL’S VOICE

WELL I KNEW IT SOUNDED FAMILIAR AT LEAST

WINRY GET OUT OF THE FUCKING TRUCk

has PINAKO TAUGHT YOU NOTHING

ok so i VASTLY prefer suit of armor original manga canon barry

this is such an odd plot what in fuck

um OW the meat cleaver

im so confused this fucking plotline

oh hey alphonse nice of you to show up!

is barry still gonna become a suit of armor later on

it makes NO SENSE to introduce him otherwise 

everytime i see 03 mustang i wanna beat his ass HONESTLY

literally i will shove my foot up his ass

fullmetal here we go

ed thinks he’s so punk rock 

oh great scar’s seen the watch

episode 9: be thou for the people

ed you simp buying winry all this stuff my edwin heart is ascending

SIMP SIMP SIMP

“mr. elric”?? you mean MAJOR ELRIC

to be fair though fuck the military

YOUSWELL??? oh LORD

im gonna need to read a full chronology of this show

 alphonse continues to be a precious angel 

where’s my boy yoki!!!!!

edward you idiot don’t go flaunting your money

woof woof ed

al looks so offended by ed saying they just met

whereas in brotherhood didnt he totally throw ed under the bus??? 

a choice to be sure

ah there he is hello yoki

who’s the chick

shes a lesbian

yoki makes me miss my baby girl mei chang

mei where r u

WAS THIS MILITARY DUDE REALLY ABOUT TO CUT DOWN A CHILD??? oh my god

hawkeye getting a promotion yes bby girl

jesus theyre transferring them to east now OKKKKKAY thats not how it happened it the book but ill take it....just doing it the opposite way i guess

who is lyra who is she

cute some military bribery 

umm lyra what the fuck did you do

lyra is a homunculus im callin it now

they definitely invented/changed up some homunculi in fact im certain they did and shes one of em. gotta be

i feel like 03 wrote ed as much more insensitive towards others than he really is...just a vibe im getting

i know he was faking for the townspeople’s sake but i still get this vibe from other instances 

i mean i cant say its not “canon” because its 03 canon

anyways what a show off

i cant believe theyre going to east...fuery and breda better be there

ok finally some answers on their ages....ed got his license at 12 like normal and nina and youswell were when he was 12...liore was 15, 

if they didnt flash the ages on the screen id be lost honestly

at least we’re back up to “present day”

episode 10: the phantom thief

ed saying he doesnt wanna see mustang

same

03 mustang is activating my fight or flight and im choosing fight

ed cheating at cards totally checks out

um who the fuck is this woman

what is she wearing

SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THAT CUTOUT MAAM HOW DO YOUR C**CHY LIPS NOT POKE OUT

idk but this is fem!hisoka

“hey shouldnt we talk first” after getting handcuffed??? christ almighty these innuendos

siren??????? siren is probably also a “fake” homunculus

ugh

ok so the nurse is siren

ya aint slick girly

alphonse control your crush

I REFUSE!!!! ALMEI RIGHTS

why is al’s hair so brown in this flashback anywayssss

oh its spelled psiren ope

like she’s literally a batman villain...

oh my god...............the tiddy grab. my son would never

my son is respectful

is this her homunculus tat or just a random alchemy tat

the added plotlines and original content continue to confuse and astound me every single time....

ok but if psiren really was doing this for the hospital she wouldnt be so flashy about it. like thats how you get caught sweet cheeks

girly stop flirting with this child on god im gonna fucking kick you

now shes a nun????????????????

Shes a fucking troll i hate her

im going to kick alphonse into the sun 

oh great now shes a teacher

wow shes a savior. the savior of amestrian venice. greatttttt

ed looking exactly like this emoji on this gondola rn 🧍‍♀️

STOP FLIRTING WITH THE CHILD 

GOD THIS IS SO BATMAN VILLAIN ESQUE

alphonse plzzzzzzzzzz she aint your girl

ok so probably not the last we see of this ding dong con artist

ok so its starting to get muddy. im scared the 03 stans are gonna come after me like i do like it and im having fun watching it but some of the plot and characterization choices are just....odd??? idk i gotta keep going though!! im sorry i just stan arakawa and her work in all her glory!!!

[cosmicheromp3]

sort of follow-up q to your snowbirds meta - did roy & ollie consider each other father/son early in their relationship, or was that something that developed more later??

this has been sitting in my inbox nearly since the day i posted that meta and i don’t wanna feel like i left you hanging, so i’m gonna reply quickly with the reasons why i’ve been so unsure about the answer, but i’ll keep it in mind as a topic i could write a future post on!

one of the things that makes it hard for me to answer in the sourced way i’d want to if i was trying to write proper meta is that most of the comics featuring their early relationship are golden/silver age. this is the case with a lot of characters like the original teen titans – by the time we get to post-crisis they’re already young adults and most comics will portray them as such. so if we get anything post-crisis for roy and ollie’s early relationship, it’s gonna be either through the lense of a flashback (most often tinted with their current thoughts and feelings) or a retelling (which can also be tinted in that same sense). so it’s hard to get a sense of how they felt about each other at the time, with no filters to distort it.

there’s also dc’s issue in general with calling adopted sons/wards and their parental figure “father” and “son”. since i haven’t read any “green arrow and speedy” type pre-crisis comic, i’m getting this from letters in reaction to green arrow #75, which i mentioned in my meta post; from people’s reaction and general excitement about seeing them refer to each other as “dad” and “son” (and hug!!!!), it wasn’t something that happened often in panel (not that it never could’ve happened in that time, just that we didn’t see much of it). (again, this is very much conjecture on my part, i’m just trying to give an answer while getting around the issue that i haven’t read pre-crisis comics w them lmao. if anyone knows more abt this please educate me).

all this to say: it’s my personal opinion that yeah, they wouldn’t think of each other as father and son from the beginning of their relationship. if we go with roy’s better known origin, he already had a father in brave bow when he became ollie’s apprentice for the “superhero business”, and he wasn’t legally ollie’s ward from the beginning. when brave bow died and roy was put actively under ollie’s care, feelings of grief must have complicated the way he looked at ollie. plus, ollie wasn’t really a… responsibility kind of guy, probably wouldn’t have used the word father himself, and at times he viewed roy as a sort of little brother.

as they grew their relationship solidified into the father-son relationship we see when they’re both adults, but even then it’s still influenced by the things i just talked about and it’s complex in that sense. i couldn’t tell you the point where they started considering each other father or son, but we know they explicitly do by the time green arrow (1988) #75 rolled around, and more implicitly (iirc, i’m not looking at it rn) it’s the relationship dynamic they have in snowbirds. it’s unlikely that would’ve developed after those events, cause their relationship most likely wouldn’t have had ground to stand on if there wasn’t already something solid before.

so yeah! i’m sorry for this roundabout way of getting to your question and for all the rambling, i hope i gave you some semblance of an answer!

[x-rainflame-x]

1, 4, and 14 😁

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  –   what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Well, most of you know what Dead on Arrival and Starlight, Star Bright are about, and they’re my two focuses rn xD 

For SSB, it’s coming along very smoothly, I’m in a patch where I’m wondering is this getting monotonous, do I need to whittle this down some more, etc. as we dive into the final arc. I’m trying to tighten up my timeline a bit, so I’m trimming some scenes that may or may not be frivolous and just something I want to read instead of being majorly contributive xD Honestly more than anything, I just love the familial connections everywhere, and exploring the grieving process in different ways. 

On DOA, I’m at the end where I’m like, lol hope this isn’t a let down xD Also, I’m struggling with the order of scenes, but overall, things are going pretty well. I love the supernatural element to the whole fic, and Roy getting haunted is just funny to me. I laugh at my own jokes way too often xD

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

Recently: 

Ed turned his wide, traumatized eyes to his brother. “Al, listen to me. Mustang has completely lost it. He’s going through some stuff. Probably senility. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

Probably senility xD It just makes me giggle.

There I go, laughing at my own jokes again. 

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

This varies tremendously. Sometimes the title inspired the fic (Stairway to Paradise), and sometimes I’m scrambling to find something as I’m posting it and hoping I can make it work at some point in time (First You Dream). 

Thanks for the asks! 💕

[emsartwork]

ask dump pt. 1

1.  You haven’t sent me this! Im just gonna do color blobs because i know people get freaked out my blood. keep in mind i know almost nothing about blood chemistry so all the reason behind these color choices are bs lmao @drops-of-moonlights​

2. lol alright alright twist my arm why don’t you (sarcasm i actually want to do one lol) i’’l get on that in the next week or so

3. hmmmm so i haven’t actually watched the episode but from what i’ve gathered from the fandom icy was a princess with a younger sister when a witch showed up turned her sister into a fox and froze her entire planet? so like. first of all, this was entirely pulled out of rainbows ass, but that doesn’t mean i don’t like it?  if they had wanted to reflect Bloom’s story icy should have been the younger sister, but with her as the older sister i don’t think of it as reflecting Bloom but Daphne, and honestly that’s the more interesting choice from my perspective. Like i know people are partial to having fire and ice parallels but its less of an obvious paralell and more of a “what if” What if Daphne hadn’t been able to protect Bloom? Would she have turned out like Icy? If Icy had successfully protected her sister would she have lost her life? would she have been forced off the planet? would she have attended alfea and not cloud tower? Where were their parents? who was the witch lady? why did icy choose to become a witch when that was the source of all her trauma? like i don’t really give a crap about her being a princess(i guess its cool?) i just want to dive into the relationships and the effects they have on people.

4. omg yes earth is the USA of Magix.  and Magic super weapons are a TERRIFYING concept. Like thats probably what obsidian and the realix would be considered? but those were both made accidentally (in my version) so something like a nuclear bomb made with magic on purpose is indeed controversial. (but on a less serious note, imagine the memes about earth) 

5. Yes i am! I just haven’t gotten to them yet

6. THE WHOOSH!!!!!! THE DRAMATIC FUR LINING!!!!! THE POTENTIAL FOR THIS WHOLE AESTHETIC!!!! only to be a weird ass version of sirenix/harmonix. so disappointing. @hug-all-platelets

7. ooooh nice

8. nah. first problem is that Aidan has already grown into his magic fully, adding the dragon fire on top would cause some issues( its safest to pass it on to an unborn baby where it will grow in along with their core magic). second is that Adian isn’t part of the Domino Royal family and the dragon flame (and technically the shadow flame as well) is part of that. Third, Ophelia is like..... weirdly proud that she has the dragon flame? like you know when you have a cold and you hate having a cold and you feel awful and have to take medicine but you love that you don’t have to go to school like your non-sick siblings? its like that

9. ooooh that would be super cool!

10. Thank you! @knightsofeclipse

11. so among the winx its the YAY! group(bloom, stella, flora) and the WTF group(aisha, musa, and tecna) and then the besties Stella/bloom, aisha/flora, tecna/musa. Outside of that, Tecna and flora actually get along pretty well. and of course musa and aisha. In the specialists the gym bros are riven, brandon, nabu, (and eventually nex), and the problem solvers sky, timmy, helia (and sort of roy) between the two groups, helia and bloom do life drawing together sometimes. Musa sometimes works with Helia on her lyrics because of his poetry angle. Brandon and flora are basically the moms of their groups so they’ll get tea if the other ever has to vent. Timmy and stella will sometimes DIY clothing together (stella for the FASHION and timmy because thats how he was raised lol) Riven and aisha have a friendly sometimes not so friendly competition and come up with challenges for each other. Sky and Stella hang out and bitch about being royalty with strict dads’. Sky also wants to implement more technology on eraklyon (they’re fairly tradtional rn) so he and tecna will talk shop sometimes. Nex and Flora can hang out and get along rly well but literally nobody understands HOW because they’re so different. Nex can also hang out with musa but that only has two outcomes: united chilled out apathy or BLOODSHED. Timmy and musa also like to mix music together as timmys actually pretty good on a launchpad type thing, they have a youtube channel.

12. i can’t remember what i had it as originally so i guess its just zhen?

13. I might eventually do Stella’s monster form! For valtor’s mark, its a very subtle mind control thing and power up for the victim. It created a link between the victims and valtor, allowing him to plant thoughts in their head and transfer them a little bit of his magic so they’re more powerful. @inversway

14. Thank you!

15. I’ll probably end up drawing the nymphs eventually! 

16.  I’ll probably end up drawing the nymphs eventually! and no male magic users have a system more like witches where they have different names based on where they source their magic and how they channel it. only fairies have “transformations”

17. i think its just my goal to make everybody gay for all the winx ladies and i am crushing it

18. Thank you! and yeah, Diaspro did a lot wrong but so did sky and honestly? so did Bloom. I think the reason people like to go the “diaspro did nothing wrong” route is because sky is pretty dick-ish in the first two seasons, and bloom is already the center of attention so we side with diaspro because we like an underdog. but diaspro is also a walking trope combo of mean girl and crazy ex so we have to erase that in order to like her the way we want to. idk i just wanted to make one of the villain girls (who all get the short end of the stick most of the time)  redeemable with out erasing her flaws and mistakes(like rainbow did with selina)