#and actually it is Fun that the fandom seems to miss this and/or go along with his image

[buttered-milky]

How maglor gets treated in fandom is so interesting to me because like? I feel like it just…it exactly what the canon narrative wants from you? This is not articulated well let me try to do that better—

Maglor generally gets treated as the softest of the sons, and I don’t blame people for this. We see comparatively little of his Atrocities tm than we do of some others, and we also see comparatively More of his personality than some of the others. Like. Caranthir and Amburussar have maybe the same level of atrocity description in my mind, but also. Let’s be so real. They do very fucking little besides kinslay and get killed—which is something we already know about all the others. They aren’t given much extra spice to their personality. (I’m talking about in the published Silm here bc tho I know many of us have read other extra shit also a lot of us haven’t!)

We get a lot of time with Maglor and we actually get to see him be remorseful towards the end. He tries to save Elrond and Elros, fucked up as that situation is, and he tries to convince Maedhros to just surrender.

Also, he doesn’t die nearly as violently as the others.

Maglor is in this odd space of still being very much A Fëanorian and also having some interesting sense of morals and (at risk of this sounding weird, but idk how else to put it) an artist’s soul. What do see of him feels markedly less dangerous that what we see of the rest of his family.

And that’s interesting! The narrative has painted Maglor as a little less dangerous and a little more sensitive than the rest of his family, and it has painted him nicely, and we know from having read the fucking book that that is probably not fair. He has killed so many people.

He has killed so many, but he has good PR. I actually kind of love that the fandom is not immune to the PR because shit like this happens in real life. I love when we can all learn a little lesson from a fictional guy. People in real life have great PR and commit great atrocities all the time. Also people in real life make wonderful art and then are terrible people in the rest of life.

Sometimes I see people say we should treat Maglor different and maybe not as soft but I disagree. Getting this take on him is on purpose I think. The text is trying for that. Because this is a real thing—crafting yourself an image which is better than you actually are is a real thing.

Whatever if he’s some weird sensitive goth. Do you know how many weird sensitive goths turn out to be horrible fucking people? Maglor I love you just as much as the next guy but if I saw you in the goth scene irl we would be fighting. This is the guy people are talking about when they say “keep your scene clean.”

Maglor should probably be treated as harshly as his siblings but also I’m okay that he isn’t. I actually prefer it this way because it can be a good lesson in the difference between someone’s image and who they are.

Tldr; it’s actually a little funny that the fandom treats maglor the way they do and i hope it never stops. Play into his pr it’s fun. And a good life lesson

[neos127]

enha boys + variety shows

synopsis. headcanons in which your group along with enhypen are on a variety show together and fans seem to notice the connection between you and one specific member… genre. fluff pairing. enhypen boys x idol!fem!reader notes. if there are typos��they’re not there then!!

lee heeseung

being the oldest of the group along with heeseung, you were both paired together when playing the whisper challenge. heeseung tried to contain the smile on his face when he sat across from you, knowing that all the cameras on you both could pick up his reaction. it was cute to see you so flustered while trying to guess what word heeseung was trying to tell her. you would never let the boy know, but constantly looking at his lips made your stomach twist and you wished you could kiss him at the moment. sometimes you would zone out, missing what heeseung was trying to say because you were too distracted by his face. your members would laugh while you put your face in your hands in embarrassment.

your clips with him went viral on twitter later for how intimate your eye contact with him was and how you seemed to be doing the ‘triangle method’ with your eyes. heeseung texted that night you after seeing the posts— the notification made you shriek and drop your phone.

park jay

your group was featured on enhypen’s en-o’ clock episode for a game of mafia. it got intense quickly with everyone yelling and accusing each other. the chaos was amusing but in the midst of it, you were the calmest one. jay became suspicious of you, believing that you were the mafia since you had barley contributed to the conversation. when you locked eyes with jay, you smirked, causing the boy to blush a bit. he was sure that you were the mafia and got all of the boys to vote for you when the time came. turns out— you were simply a villager and the mafia actually ended up being sunghoon. you wanted to throw people off, it was funny that way. especially jay who seemed to react the way you wanted him too. it was fun to tease him and watch him become all flustered.

engenes and [your group fandom name] freak out over the interactions between you two. you’re described as being very flirty towards jay while he looks at you as if you hung all the stars in the sky. so much for being subtle…oops…

sim jake

since your group only debuted a year ago, you had not yet been subjected to the classic haunted house game. when the company finally set one up, your group was paired with you brother group, enhypen. you and jake were paired together for the challenge which made the boy excited yet nervous. he had a huge crush on you ever since he first saw you in the company building, preparing for your debut. when the two of you started the challenge to go through the abandoned building and look for clues, you were immediately jump-scared. you swore jake screamed louder than you did. he grabbed you hand and immediately pulled you away, running in the opposite direction. jake wanted to seem more tough and have a vibe of ‘i’ll protect you’ but he was sure he already ruined that. the whole challenge basically consisted of the two of you screaming, grabbing onto each other and falling all over the place. but you wouldn’t have done it with anyone else.

fans on twitter were obsessed with the chemistry between you two. the way you conversed and bickered as if you were life long friends was something they adored. and the light touches and lingering gazes that suggested more than friends was immediately pointed out and analyzed like crazy.

park sunghoon

being paired with sunghoon for the heart flutter challenge was nerve wracking to say the least. you were positive that the boy knew about your feelings, and he would definitely be taking advantage of it. once the cat ears were on your head, they began to move slightly only by you looking at sunghoon. he laughed and your heart raced because of his pretty smile. it was obvious that he was making you flustered and your group mates could be heard teasing you in the background. you tried to defend yourself and make sunghoon flustered as well, but it was hard to without seeming overly flirty.

on twitter everyone is talking about how much you were blushing around sunghoon. while it was a bit embarrassing for you, it was worth it to see all the shipping comments and videos.

kim sunoo

your group and enhypen did a special weekly idol video together. you both had back to back comebacks to promote and fans loved seeing the two groups interact so the company decided to do something about that. you felt nervous being there especially since you had the biggest crush on one of the members, sunoo. you tried not to look at him too much, scared that the camera would capture your lovesick stare. what you didn’t catch was sunoo staring at you as well, a small smile on his face whenever you talked. he thought you were adorable, and he could tell that you were slightly nervous which made you even cuter to him.

later that night when you’re scrolling on twitter, you see a bunch of screenshots, videos and even edits of you and sunoo. everyone is talking about how the two of you looked and smiled at each other the whole vid. some people tried to deny it, saying that you guys were just being friendly. but it was obvious that the stares were anything but friendly.

yang jungwon

your group along with enhypen were on a variety show together. being considered their ‘sister’ group, you were paired up for a lot of activities together. one of the challenges in this show was random play dance. being the main dancer, you knew a lot of different group choreographies and were able to execute them well. being a secret enhypen fan, you were able to dance to their songs perfectly which caught jungwon’s attention. his eyes sparkled as he watched you, feeling flustered from seeing a pretty girl perfectly execute his group’s choreography. when ‘bite me’ came on, he immediately joined you, making all of the members yell out in surprise. one person wolf whistled (jungwon swears it was ni-ki).

enegenes go absolutely insane over the two of you dancing to ‘bite me’ together. everyone used to call the two of you ‘siblings’ considering that you were both young leaders and main dancers. but after seeing the way you looked at each other, people decided that it was a little too intense for ‘siblings’.

nishimura riki

being the maknaes of the group, you and riki were paired together for the telepathy challenge. the both of you stood back to back, headphones on so you couldn’t hear each other’s movements. your groups members would hold up a sign in front of you and riki that said the same word or phrase and if you could both make the same move or action, you would get a point. you and riki proved not to be very telepathic considering that all of your moves were different. that was until you both had to act out the word ‘dance’ and started doing the ‘sweet venom’ head move at the same time. both of your groups yelled out in excitement, causing you and riki to turn around and give each other high fives.

one clip of you two went viral where riki holds onto your hand a bit too long during your celebration, his eyes only trained on your face. when the boy sees it he feels extremely flustered, but he sends the clip to you with a winking emoji, hoping to send a subtle message.

©neos127

[bekolxeram]

I didn't realize until yesterday when someone pointed it out that our two lovable idiots actually did not show up to the bachelor party wearing matching costumes. They both dressed up as Crockett and just assumed the other would be Tubbs. It flew right over my head at the time because the episode was breaking the sound barrier, the drama in the fandom was going even faster.

So here is another thing I somehow missed until now.

Tommy flew Eddie to Vegas for a fight in a chopper. It's inspired jokes such as Tommy initially making a move on Eddie first, or Eddie being on a date without realizing it, but it's also given rise to opinion like Tommy putting more effort into his friendship with Eddie than his relationship with Buck, or even outlandish theories like Tommy trying to infiltrate the 118 to help councilwoman Ortiz bring them down.

But as we can see here, Tommy enjoys flying, he even flies for fun outside of work.

He's also been practicing combat sport long enough to match Eddie, who once participated in illegal underground cage fighting, in Muay Thai.

Tommy didn't go out of his way planning some expensive romantic getaway especially catered to Eddie's personal interests. It's stuff Tommy's been doing before meeting Eddie. He didn't even need to try that hard to get tickets, because he "knows a guy". It's like getting your hands on tickets for a gig you want to go, so you ask your friends to tag along.

To Buck, to the 118, people who don't live Tommy's life, he might seem "SoOo cOoL", but for him flying to Vegas to watch a fight is just another Tuesday. Going to a bachelor party while being on call (probably missing out on most of the fun), rushing to an impromptu hospital wedding after fighting a wildfire overnight without even stopping by to clean up and change, now that takes some dedication.

[le-fruit-de-la-passion]

Not a request but imagine Viktor debating whether or not to augment his dick because on one hand fun sexy times and on the other it's his dick shit can go wrong and he doesn't want to affect his fertility if he decides he does want kids

You know, as a fandom, I feel like we don't discuss the dick situation as much as we should... like, I've given my opinion on what's up with the Arcane Herald Penis Predicament (go read more on that in my one-shot The Prophet spoke, and the faithful knelt 👀), but I can't imagine the Machine Herald Cock Conundrum is the exact same...

Here is my hypothesis:

So, Machine Herald replaces the parts of his body that he considers weaknesses or that could be augmented with technology and machinery.

Dick and balls are pretty inconvenient from a technical standpoint, they're an easy target to incapacitate someone in a fight ((fun fact, some animals actually know this and will attack the face or the genitalia of other animals/humans to inflict the most damage)). Plus, they are a strong testament to how much the human body is controlled by emotions and impulses, so it wouldn't be that far-fetched to assume MH!Viktor would have gotten rid of them.

HOWEVER

I believe that this theory would be missing an important aspect of MH!Viktor's philosophy and identity. What he craves is an evolution of the human species through the removal of weaknesses of the flesh, such as illness. And evolution REQUIRES the continued existence of a species through time, which means reproduction is still a key aspect in his vision. It would be counterproductive for him to want to get rid of reproductive organs: they're an essential part of making sure a long-term evolution is even possible.

Additionally, MH!Viktor has been shown through various parts of his lore to be exceptionally caring about children. In that same vein, season 1 Viktor often brings back the concept of having a personal legacy...

Considering both of these factors, I'd say that, yes, MH!Viktor still has his human penis. BUT, he would also definitely get rid of the flaws I mentioned earlier.

For example, he would likely be able to at least partially regulate blood flow to his cock, in order to be in control of his own bodily reactions (ie., when he wants to be hard or not). He would also probably add some sort of protective cover or coating over it, with a flexible but resistant material that would prevent genitalia from being used as a weak spot. Almost like a permanent, metal cocksleeve.

If he was to gain a lover along the way, perhaps the sleeve could be tweaked a little, to add some bonus features. A length enhancer, or some bumpy ridges... the possibilities are truly endless. But it would all be solely for the purpose of his goal, of course, not for something as trivial as pleasure. A lot of research seems to correlate female orgasm to higher chances of pregnancy; he's only doing what has to be done to strengthen the future of the Glorious Evolution. Any additional physical enjoyment is merely a side effect, nothing more.

IN CONCLUSION, according to my professional, scientific opinion, I believe MH!Viktor would keep his human penis, but remove all its conceptual weaknesses with technology. There is simply no version of Viktor in the multiverse that doesn't make use of his big, fat cock, and that's just the way things are 😌.

[rebelliousstories]

Home for the Holidays

Relationship: Logan Howlett/ The Wolverine x Reader

Fandom: X-Men

Request: No

Warnings: Fluff, Angst, Mentions of Alcohol

Word Count: 2,190

Main Masterlist: Here

X-Men Masterlist: Here

Summary: If there is anyone that can convince him to stay home, it was her. And if there was any time for him to stay home, it was now.

Consider Donating: Here

“Logan!”

“Logan! Come back!”

“Logan! Wolverine!”

Too many times had he heard the call of his name by those he loved. Too often did he refuse to turn back to go to them out of his own stupid pride. And, because of this, far too much did he miss out on fun events and memories. That had apparently went out the window the second that he decided to date his girlfriend.

Do not be mistaken, Logan still manages to find ways to slip away from the school in order to not join in on festivities. But it had been greatly reduced since she came along. A mutant who has the ability to decay anything with a single touch, that somehow fell in love with the man who could not seem to die.

Logan was picking up the keys to his motorcycle when she came to fetch him.

“Log, hey honey.” Her wide beam smile threatened to infect his own face, but he let a small tilt of his lips escape.

“What do you want, darling?” He grumbled, plopping his heavy body on the machine.

“Will you stay home with me tomorrow?”

Her eyes begged him, oh so cutely. But he knew what that was code for. It was what she did each and every time.

“Nope.”

“But, Logan.” He began to start the bike up, which drowned her out for a second.

“No. You’re not dragging me to another party.” The rumble of the beast underneath him was a calming feeling and sound. It was part of the reason he went on so many drives on it. Silence was so hard to achieve when you could hear things most people could never.

“Log, wait just a second,” her arms wrapped around his shoulders, keeping him right where she wanted him. “Please, it’s Thanksgiving. Just stay home with us please. With me?” Her pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“I don’t do holidays. Besides, I’m Canadian.”

As he drove away, Logan could still see her crestfallen face in his side mirrors. Once he was out on the open road, he tried to put her upset expression out of his mind, but found he could not. This happened every major holiday; even the minor ones too. It was not that he did not like spending time with her, quite the opposite really. But it was that he did not care for the major celebrations.

Too many smells and sounds. People pretending that they wanted to be around him when in actuality they could not care less. As they got closer to the holiday season, people spent money that they did not have to impress people who would still think those same nasty things about them. The falseness of the months of November and December repulsed him.

But the long he went, the more he thought about her. This was their second Thanksgiving together, and he had done the exact same thing last year. Driven off on his bike, camped at a dingy motel for the next two days with a constant supply of alcohol, before returning on Friday. Would it have truly been so bad for him to stay at home with her, and suffered through the festivities?

A ding broke his gaze from the road. He was running low on fuel. Sighing, Logan kept his eyes out for a gas station along the deserted road he was on. There was nothing he hated more than to run out of gas before he got to a place to fill up. Thankfully, that was not the case.

An old station that had probably not been repaired since the mid 70’s came upon his journey. There was a lone truck at the pumps when he pulled in, and another around back meaning that there was at least two people inside the building. For some reason, Logan felt the need to go inside and grab a snack. As soon as he stepped through the door, a warm scene greeted him.

There stood a dad with his children who were laughing while their mom checked out with their snacks. All of them were so happy with each other. Even the woman at the register was smiling because of them. Logan could hear their conversation, and it was all so hopeful. The children were talking excitedly about what they wanted to eat for the holiday, and which cousins they would see. Their father was happily listening to them, and prompting them to talk more about what they wanted to do.

It was so beautiful to watch that he was a little sad that they had left afterwards. He set his pack of beer and chips on the counter, but let his mind wander. Logan had long since given up on the concept of having a family himself, even though he would like one. With his mutation, it was probably not possible. He very well could outlive his own children, or whoever was their mother, and that was not a fun thought for him to have.

Getting the case of beer and food onto the bike took a bit of maneuvering, but the mutant made it happen. Instead of going back to the school though, he just continued down the road now that he was refueled in more ways than one. What was once a peaceful drive meant to clear his head and heart, had quickly turned to quiet for him.

All he could think of now was being home with his girlfriend for Thanksgiving. During the school year, he loved watching her interact with the younger children. It always stirred something in him that he kept dampening down whenever it sprung up. This was part of the reason that he was so reluctant to spend holidays with her.

She always made sure that the kids who had no family to go home to were taken care of; unfortunately, that was a majority of the students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. But she never made them miss out on fun festive activities. He knew that leading up to the big day, her lesson plans always took some time to make decorations. The younger kids had made hand turkeys, while the older ones used the changing leaves outside to make their own collages or scrapbooks.

That was just how she was. Even though her mutation caused destruction, her spirit repaired others. There was nothing that she was not willing to do if it meant making others happy. It often caused some insecurity to sprout in Logan’s chest. Because, how was someone so kind, so caring, so lovely, so precious, dating someone like him? A mutant who tried to find solace in the bottom of a bottle, and kept killing bottles to find it. A mutant who got into fights whenever he felt like it, and kept true to his lone wolf personality.

The motel that evening did not provide the comfort he was looking for. Usually, there was a little ease associated with it. A nice, calm, stable environment for him away from the hustle and bustle that he knew was overtaking the school at this very moment. As Logan cracked open his first beer, he thought about how shut down she was when he drove away. His pride would not allow him to admit that he was wrong, and frankly, up until this point, he had not believe that he was wrong. And yet, there was just a little something in his chest that tugged on his heart as he went to sleep that made him believe other wise.

After Logan had left, she went back into the mansion with a frown etched deep onto her face. But there was little time to dwell on the fact that her boyfriend was leaving once again. There was so much to do for the big meal tomorrow. Cooking for an entire school was an arduous task, but one that her, and the other adults, took on gratefully.

Her mind was kept free from thoughts that would damper her mood all through the rest of the day. So many people had joined together that year to make their feast. Different dietary restrictions, different cultures, and different preferences had made for one interesting prepping day. She did make sure to include a couple turkeys on the table that had to be prepped, but there was just so much variety.

However, sleep continued to evade her that night. The blame was partially on the lack of her space heater lover not providing adequate warmth for her. During the colder months, Logan’s ability to run warm was her favorite thing about him. He was just a big, hairy, perfectly warmed teddy bear to latch onto in the middle of the night.

But most of the blame was on the fact that she would, once again, be alone on the holidays. Sure, she had her friends and the kids, but that was not the same as having her Wolverine. He would be doing whatever he was doing for the next two days, before coming back like nothing had happened.

And that was how she found herself in the kitchen, stress baking, at four o’clock in the morning. Her ever so popular iced lemon cookies were on the menu. It was a process that she had done so much, that she did not need to think about what she was doing. She knew that these would be going like hot cakes tomorrow, or rather today if someone wanted to be technical. So she did not worry about making too many; there would never be enough.

Five am came far faster than she ever thought. There were a few of the older people that had begun trickling in, and here she was. Still baking. Charles got his morning tea before retreating into his office. Scott made his and Jean’s cup of coffee and left to go to their room. Storm, however, stayed. She made both of them a cup of coffee before starting on food preparations while the other woman finished off her baking.

They snacked on cookies and remnants of food for breakfast while the rest of the school woke up. Remy and Rogue both came down to share a plate of eggs and toast in the dinning room, aiming just to stay out of the way for now. However, as soon as they were done, they were put to work warming up side dishes that had been prepped the day before to save on time.

In a few hours, the adults had the perfect Thanksgiving meal on the tables. Everything was served buffet style, with additional chairs and tables inhabiting the dinning and game room. Every one fixed themselves a plate with a little bit of everything they wanted, and sat down to enjoy a nice time together. But she just watched from her little corner.

Sure, she had a plate of food, but it did not seem too appealing right now. Right now, she was just enjoying watching everyone enjoy themselves. She saw Scott and Jean laughing, feeding each other bites from their plates, and chatting with the youngsters they had come to take in as their own. It made her a bit bitter on what was supposed to be a day of thanks. Pushing around a bit of Rogue’s green bean casserole, she did not know what she was expecting when someone cleared their throat behind her.

Logan was the last person she expected to see, though.

He stood a bit awkwardly. His hands were shoved deep into the front pockets of his jeans, right next to the big belt buckle he loved wearing. The flannel covering his arms and chest was the one that she had gotten him as a belated Christmas present last year. Not because she forgot to give it to him on Christmas, but rather because he was not there for it. Logan cleared his throat again before trying to speak.

“Mind helping me fix a plate, darling?” Her shock was recovered quickly as she stood, leaving behind her own plate. She talked him through each dish, and helped load up his plate with things that he may not have understood, but would definitely enjoy eating. There was a little something that was nagging her as they went to go sit down again.

“What are you doing back so soon?”

For once, Logan did not have what seemed like an appropriate response. He never bothered with giving a good answer before because he never cared who took offense to what he was saying. Now, he was terrified to upset his girlfriend even more.

“I just figured I would give this thing a try.” Logan tried to keep his eyes to his food, and shoveled a bit in before he could speak more.

“Well,” she began putting together her own first bite, “thank you for humoring me.”

“Don’t get used to it, darling.”

Anyone who did not know Logan would assume that he was being serious. But she knew better. That twinkle in his eye let her know that she just might turn his cynical heart around yet.

[abyssalpeach]

in the case of the people vs. bell's hells...

and also the campaign 3 finale overall. disclaimer: this is gonna get long bc of my propensity to yap so i'm gonna simultaneously try to keep it short but also put it under a "read more." spoilers will be referenced throughout.

i wouldn't call these rent-lowering gunshots, but i desperately need some of the folks in this fandom to get a grip. so instead i'm asking: walk with me. hold my hand. i am looking you in the eyes and want this fandom to be a nice place. please forgive me for any attitude but i am tired of being talked down to.

"they never faced any consequences" consequences are the result bad dice rolls. of which they had plenty. if you think their narrative choices should have resulted in more punishment, say that. but i think you missed the part where they have targets on their back from several factions and now-mortal deities and you need to kill the cop in your head.

"it was too confusing and the pacing was bad" i don't even disagree with this takeaway. i will say this was actually the easiest campaign for me to follow. m9 is so fun, but was very narratively scattered at times. however, i think this is just the nature of ttrpg/actual play. it's not scripted. it's messy and sometimes you'll zone out about it. sometimes what the players want isn't what grabs you personally. it doesn't mean they're wrong or bad to play it that way.

"i fell off c3 and everything i've heard about the finale is stupid" fall off, then. totally fine, i'm not here to stop you, sincerely. and not to hurl cliches, but with tabletop it really is more about the journey than the destination. without context, you are missing too many pieces to pass judgement. that's all i'm gonna say on that.

"the other PCs were just so much better" i gotta say this one seems like a skill issue lol. there's not a single party i haven't loved with my whole heart, but they satisfy different purposes or dynamics! vm was destined for greatness. m9 was destined to pull important strings. bh was destined to shake up the order of things. they were supposed to be controversial in-world. they're salt of the earth, rising far beyond their stations ever expected. they became important at work and it very nearly ruined their lives.

"it was like sitting in a philosophy 101 class" praytell what philosophy classes that you've sat in discussed the ethics of magic, direct divine involvement in human* lives, and potential outcomes that would come along with killing all the gods or releasing something called the god-eater. look. i grew weary with the rehashing of these conversations too, really i did. that said, i think it needed to play out this way in order for the finale to go the way it did.

allow me to explain. one of the defining qualities of bell's hells was how different they all were. whether it's their perspectives, life experiences, backgrounds, desires, aspirations... you get it. this was the point. they were bound together by compassion and love for each other. and this extended to those they stood for personally, and those their friends cared about. it was how they approached ruidus, the gods, the people of vasselheim. and they walked the walk and trusted the process, prepared to face anything. including death.

*obviously including all exandrian/ruidian races beyond just human

"the finale cheapened the ending of vox machina" it didn't. i'm sorry but it very fundamentally did not and if that's your takeaway from a change of circumstance ~30 years down the line, i am worried that you are too lost in the sauce due to favoritism. if your takeaway from vax being allowed to return to the material plane is that now his conclusion from 30 years ago was just him going on a work trip, that is a you problem.

the narrative doesn't treat it like that. the characters don't treat it like that. the cast doesn't treat it like that. let me repeat myself: if you think vax's c1 ending is now nothing more than a glorified work trip, that is a you problem.

life goes on. the state of the world is changing constantly, especially in a world with gods and magic and different planes of existence. matt allowed these players to have direct involvement in the ways it changes. if vax was allowed to return in some capacity as a result of those changes, the cast made that happen. it wasn't even on bell's hells priority list! this was a natural change of circumstance. if that's the kind of thing you find upsetting, maybe unpack that elsewhere.

i'm gonna wrap it up here but i hope you keep this in mind: if you don't like a thing anymore, you can absolutely drop it. you don't need anyone's permission. but what i ask is that if you want to engage in thoughtful conversation and criticism about it, you keep these things in mind.

i don't believe this show or cast to be above criticism. i have plenty of critiques of my own. but the campaign three finale was the opposite of bad. it was the most satisfying conclusion we could have possibly gotten. it was the culmination of the last 3 years with almost everyone who encountered bell's hells and honored the last 10 years of their hard work. i am so so proud of matt and the cast and i think you should be too.

[dismissivedestroyer]

As much as I enjoy it when the fandom portrays Dexter and the other Spooky Month villains as getting along quite well, I raise you my personal interpretation:

He actually strongly dislikes them, because consider this: he's been plagued all his life by violent needs he just wishes he could get rid of, and always fears he'll end up not controlling himself and hurt someone on accident, and these FUCKERS go around and kill people??? For FUN??? He'd be like that meme "Wow all these people are insane, thank God i'm normal"

I personally think he'd actually would've gotten along quite well with Lila and the kids. Lila thinks he's a bit off-putting, but she didn't seem particularly wary of him in Unwanted Guest, so I think she'd know he's got a good heart despite everything. I can see him teaching the kids about his job like "And then the rat will get stuck in the trap, and won't be able to escape!" "That's so spooky!" "I know, right?!"

The kids would be SO exicited to spend time with him, just saying.

Also, I thought about an Average Spooky Month scenario where Lila and the kids are in danger, and Dexter just comes out of nowhere and starts horribly maiming the villain, only to then turn to Lila and be like "Hello Miss Lila! Seemed like you needed help, so I decided to exterminate the issue for you!" with the biggest smile ever. He would've 10/10 picked a fight with Bob.

[snickerdoodlles]

I was gonna ask you for ☕☕☕ on Kim characterisations but I know that could put you at risk of assassination 💀 so free choice! Any ☕ on anything you need to get off your chest - I love u

😂 it is a choose violence game, let's play with fire 🔥 three Kim characterizations i don't much care for:

writing Kim as really old

like. hmmmm. i feel like a lot of fic out there is just really bad at characterizing young 20 yos, there are a lot of stories that write Kim's vibes like he's 38 yo or something. it's. bizarre. 21/22 yo is still so young. there's still so much uncertainty at that age and so much self-discovery to come. i've complained about this before so i don't want to just rehash that but. yeesh. some people really kinda suck at writing "kid in college" aged characters.

not letting Kim be playful

honestly, this one kinda follows on the previous point? there's a very annoying trend of writing ~older~ characters as only ever very serious. and like, aside from the irritation at the way people are really bad at early 20s vibes, people never outgrow playfulness. in canon, i'm pointing to Porsche trapping Kinn under the sheets and farting or them huffing their morning breaths in each other's faces (i love u canon ❤). but people still do ridiculous shit at 40/50/60/70/80/ALL THE AGES too. 40yo sisters who greet each other by punching the other in the boob. the 60yo neighbor who tells me my shoelaces are untied every time he sees me in sandals. the 50yo uncle who flicks popcorn in the mouths of anyone who falls asleep during movie night. there's no age limit to this sort of thing!

but while some of the ultra seriousness seems to be a weird age thing, it's like people also missed that Kim is playful? he's very intense when he's in mafia business mode and he's a nightmare to the guards (❤), but he plays along with Khun. he teases Chay. he has a good rapport with other university students. he can be more lowkey playful than others, but Kim's not made of stone, he has his fun too.

Wik being a burden on Kim

this one starts running into differences in headcanon-- like personally, i'm looking for fics where Wik is Kim's home. i've cried about this elsewhere so i'll keep it short, but Wik is the life Kim poured blood, sweat, and tears into to build up brick by brick. Wik is the life Kim wants, it's the parts of him he thinks are the best of him. i actually make the MC of the ep4 university one of Kim's best friends (i call him Green), and one of my favorite headcanons i've come up with for them is that everyone thinks Green twists Kim's arm into doing outreach events, but actually Green is Kim's connection to university news because he loves doing them but never knows who to ask. Kim desperately wants to be a source of good inspiration to others and have purpose outside of violence, and Wik is his way of doing that. Wik is not a burden on Kim (in fact, i'd argue Kim all but said he is a burden on Wik, but i digress).

so, that's my personal preference for Kim's relationship with Wik, but obviously not everyone's going to have the same characterization and that's cool. where i start to get annoyed is when people write him as very...hmm. dismissive? of it. or otherwise seems like he doesn't like any aspect of it. i straight up back click on any fic that has Kim fuck up the name of some popular musician. this is not a specific call out, but for example-- i remember reading something where there was this offhand line of Kim being like "and there's a request for a show with some other musician, wangson jack?" and just. no. back click, goodbye, nope. shit like that really starts to bug me. some of it is personal irritation at how awful a lot of english speakers are towards asian artists (which like. random fandom people are not at fault for the crimes of USamerican music reporters. but maybe consider that until people overall are less shitty and dismissive towards them, one off lines referencing real life musicians like this are better off deleted). but over all i just...really, really dislike disrespectful attitudes like that (esp for something related to the arts) and i don't want to read them in my favorite character. Kim is pursuing a career in the music industry for himself--Kim being, u know, Kim, he's going to take it very seriously and with that, also hold a lot of respect towards his fellow musicians generally speaking. at the very least, he's going to be cordial and pleasant with them because no one likes working with an asshole and Kim is trying to keep his mafia bullshit far away from his Wik goals. not everyone's going to have the same characterization headcanons i do for how much i think Kim would pour himself into music and love it, but i really don't vibe with any take where Wik is a burden on or a drag for Kim.

and a bonus ☕ because i luv u too anon: anything where Kim doesn't love his brothers or sees them as actual competition instead of the ones he wants to protect the most. this is not a surprise to anyone here, u all know how much i love brothers, but i've noticed that fandom gets kinda caught up in the chess metaphors sometimes. and to that i say: 1. Terry Pratchett yall: sin is when you treat people like things. 2. Terry Pratchett again: chess is a stupid ass metaphor for real life. 3. kp canon agrees with that. Korn is shit at playing chess. (the fucking. ep1 game. omfg. Chan is all but eating his pieces to let Korn win. i'm still howling over the scholars mate in ep5.) Korn is noticeably shit at all his hobbies that are metaphors for controlling people. which is the point! the boys fail every time they try to play his games, because you cannot play people like you would a game. every triumph is rooted in overturning the game board completely.

[ send a ☕, get a bitchy* fic opinion ]

*personal preference related, we’re not here to be mean

[dragon-creates]

Five Times Jax and Pomni Share Dreams of Their Past Lives (And One Time Where They Remember)

Read on AO3

Read Part 2 Here

1/2/3/4/5/6

Jax and Pomni know that they can’t actually dream in this digital world, nor can they remember who they were before coming here. But after retiring to their sleeping quarters each night, they begin to have dreams of people who they have never seen before, not the circus themed cast of characters within this realm, but real people! Why do they seem do real? Why do these dreams feel more like memories? And why do these people remind them so much of each other?

I can't believe how much the silly circus show won me over, and how much brainrot these two have given me. I won't update for I while as I have other wips for different fandoms I'm working on but I wanted to get the first chapter up to help motivate me. Anyways I hope you like this and check out the rest of my tumblr to see what I get up to.

Also yes the chapter titles are Taylor Swift songs because I'm weak.

Fearless

The air was crisp and cool, though not to the point where people were shivering in their costumes, neon lights were in every corner anyone could see, flashing the paths with pinks, purples and green, different stalls and rides were up, ranging from candy apples and sweets stand to rollercoasters and Ferris wheels and every single person were dressed as either monsters, characters or whatever their imaginations would come up with. Truly, the festival had set the perfect atmosphere for Halloween…well, everyone except for Penny.

She was a short young woman, 23 years of age with long dark hair that reached her waste and curtain bangs along her forehead, with pale skin and a bony structure (she hated that part about herself).

It wasn’t that she was forced to come here – she had heartily accepted when her sister Riley and her girlfriend Winter asked – but now that she was here, she wasn’t so sure anymore. Penny wasn’t really the bravest person around, she flinched at the slightest sound, she dreaded talking to new people who would come her way and had relied on her older sister to help her out for most of her life, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t trying to overcome any of it. After all it wasn’t like she could control her anxiety, it was something she struggled with ever since she was little. But tonight, she wanted to prove that she was able to enjoy Halloween outside the comfort of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters from the safety of her home. So far, she really did like it, she had fun buying sweets and going on rollercoasters, and though it could be overbearing and loud sometimes, Riley and Winter would take her to a nearby café to help Penny catch her breath before doing something else.

However, this was part of the night that she both desperately wanted and dreaded doing…the haunted funhouse. She knew what was in there, jump scares, clowns and nightmares to last for the next few nights to come, but she didn’t want to miss out, now when she heard about how much fun people have had in there. She just wanted to prove that she wasn’t this scared little nobody, that she was a person who wanted to have fun like everyone else, to enjoy the things that everyone else had fun with. So here she was, dressed in a hastily sewn purple rabbit onesie of her own making (she had made it in a time crunch when learning about the festival) into a terrifying funhouse that deep down, where she wasn’t lying to herself, she did not want to go in.

“Penny no,” she turned to see Riley, holding Winter’s hand as the other girl was texting someone on her phone, “You know what your anxiety’s like, you don’t have to go in there.”

Riley had quite a lean build with noticeable muscle on her arms, she had shoulder length dark red hair, brown eyes and pale skin. She was four years older than Penny, and while she did seem a bit intimidating, she was always soft and protective over her younger sister.

“He’s still not answering,” Winter murmured, shaking her head, “He was supposed to meet us an hour ago.” Winter was slightly taller than Riley, with dark black hair and eyes with a tanned complexion. The two women were dressed in a couple’s costume, Riley as Poison Ivy and Winter as Harley Quinn, they were also supposed to meet with Winter’s friend, but the mystery person still hadn’t shown up yet.

“Maybe he’ll show up while I’m in the funhouse?” Penny suggested as Riley sighed, “I’ll be quick in there, if I run then I’ll have less time to acknowledge the bad stuff in there!”

“Penny, I know you and I know that if you go in there, you’re gonna have a panic attack,” Riley took her little sister’s hand, offering her a pleading gaze, “Please just stay out here with us and we’ll meet up with Winter’s friend. We could go on the rollercoaster again; I know you really enjoyed that one.”

Penny smiled fainty, Riley looking out for her wasn’t anything new, but she didn’t want her sister to be burdened with her. It wasn’t right, Riley deserved to live her life, have fun with Winter and not worry about her scaredy-cat sister all the time, she deserved better than that.

When Riley turned to face Winter again, Penny pulled her hand out of her sister’s and ran into the funhouse, ignoring Riley calling her name the deeper she went in.

She took a few more deep breaths, she was doing! She was doing it and oh…oh she fucked up. There were multiple paintings of disfigured clowns peering down at her from the halls, the eerie sounds of deranged crying and laughing made her hairs stand on end, there were paths twisting and turning as they reminded her that she could get lost in this dreadful house and mirrors that not only showed her in different shapes and sizes, but also her terrified expression. Riley was right, this was too much for her, she didn’t even want to come in here in the first place why did she do this?!

A crazed laugh made her jump, looking carefully over her shoulder, she noticed a tall jester from down the hall, his yellow suit stained with red, and his mask had a twisted smile, hiding dark secrets that she didn’t want to find out. With a scream, she tore off down the hall, the jester chasing after her. She knew that were going to be actors, trained with scaring the guests, but it didn’t mean that she liked it! She really, really shouldn’t have come in here.

She skidded to a stop when she came to a dead end, her back pressing to the wall as the jester came closer and closer to her. She bit back a fearful yelp as he slammed a hand next to her head, peering down at her. She took a few more breaths, trying to keep calm. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real repeating the mantra in her head to help herself from screaming out…before fainting right into the jester’s arms.

.

.

.

“You have some nerve scaring her like that?! Aren’t you supposed to be trained with scenarios like this?!”

Penny groaned at the sound of a loud and angered voice, it sounded like it belonged to a woman and seemed very familiar.

“I am trained for your information!” A male voice retaliated, “I didn’t know she was going to faint!”

“Okay, Riley calm down, Jack be nice!” Another female voice entered the conversation, sharper and more direct than the other two, “What happened right now was an accident, we just need to wait and see if Penny wakes up before we call an ambulance, that was the procedure right Jack?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the male voice was quiet now, “I’m sorry again Winter, I genuinely didn’t know.”

Penny opened her eyes, squinting at the light as she sat up on what seemed to be a mattress. “Oh good you’re awake,” there was a woman she had never seen before beside her, wearing a white hoodie with a red cross on it, “My name is Lianne, I’m a paramedic for the funhouse in case something like this happens.”

“Penny! Oh thank God!” Riley rushed over to her, wrapping her arms around her younger sister and pressed a kiss at the side of her head, “You gave me a heart attack going into that house, and then hearing that you fainted?! Don’t ever do that again!”

Oh that’s right, she fainted, that explained why Riley sounded so angry when she woke up. God help which soul she was speaking to that suffered her wrath. “I’m okay Riley, you were right I shouldn’t have gone in,” Penny sighed, “I’m just tired of not being normal so I wanted to prove-”

“-You don’t have to prove shit,” Riley interrupted, “And you are normal, who the fuck made you think you had to go into a haunted house to prove that you’re a ‘normal person’?”

“Uh…myself?” Penny smiled awkwardly.

Riley shook her head and smiled, it was good to see that she wasn’t actually mad, just really worried, but to be fair worse had happened to Penny to make her sister go into ‘overprotective mode’. “Just don’t push yourself too hard again, okay?” she asked. Penny nodded again, Riley smiled one last time before her eyes furrowed and she turned away to face someone else, “And as for you!”

Penny looked up to see how her sister was talking to when her cheeks suddenly turned red from embarrassment. It was the jester from earlier! He was quite a tall man, with golden brown skin and eyes, with his hair in short dreads pulled up into a ponytail. His face with mixed with both frustration and shame, it wasn’t helping with Riley shouting at him.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook for scaring my little sister!” Riley growled, “I can’t believe you made her faint!”

“How did I make her faint?!” he retorted, “I’ve never had a reaction like hers before I didn’t know she was that scared!”

“That is enough!” Winter stepped in, grabbing them both painfully by the ear for a few seconds and then let them go, “Riley, go outside so I can talk with you, and Jack please apologize to Penny.”

Jack signed, turning to Penny as the girl flushed even more, she still couldn’t believe she fainted in front of him! “I’m sorry,” he said honestly.

“This is the friend I was taking about,” said Winter, “We were supposed to meet up, but he got called in since someone cancelled their shift last minute, but someone forgot to text us!”

“What are you taking about?” He reached into his pocket for his phone, “I sent you message before my…oh…I forgot to actually send it.”

Penny snorted, she tried to hold it in, but she burst out laughing instead, she couldn’t help it, the absurdity of the situation was just too much. She was so caught up in laughing that she didn’t catch the soft smile that Jack had at her reaction.

“Jesus Christ Jack,” Winter rubbed her temples, “What am I gonna do with you?”

“I have a few ideas,” Riley glared at him.

“Okay, you!” She grabbed Riley’s hand, “Come with me, Jack, keep Penny company while I have a chat with my girlfriend.”

“What?!” Penny and Jack said in unison, but Winter had already slammed the door.

“I should, um,” They whipped round to see that the paramedic was still here, having witnessed the entire interaction, “I should go tell my boss that there’s no need to call an ambulance.”

With that, she rushed out the door, leaving the two to stew awkwardly with one another. Penny’s rapidly beating heart wasn’t helping either, she really didn’t want to have another fainting episode again. It didn’t help that this Jack guy was really handsome. Huh? Why did I think that?

“So…” she spoke up, gulping as Jack turned to her, his eyes focused as though he were studying her, like a bug being examined, “What’s the jester like life? I mean! What's the jester life like?! Not the other one, forget about that. In fact don’t talk to me at all! Or do! Don’t let me tell you what to do, I mean, you’re not the one spouting out word vomit!” Jack raised an eyebrow at her, Penny shoved her reddening face into her hands.

It was then Jack’s turn to start laughing, messy chortles escaping his mouth at her bizarre sentence, leading Penny to pout at his reaction. “Sorry toots,” the laughter died down once he saw he face, “I thought you were funny, didn’t mean to offend you. And to answer your question, the jester life is pretty good.”

“You think I’m funny?” she asked. It wasn’t the first time someone laughed at her, but not because they found her humorous.

“Yeah, not everyone can ‘spout word vomit’ and make it cute,” he told her.

Penny blushed. Okay, first he found her funny and now he found her cute, she really hoped he couldn’t hear how loud and fast her heart was beating. “Um, sorry for fainting on you,” she murmured, “Surprisingly it was not the lowest moment of my life.”

“You’re sorry for fainting?” He raised a brow at her again.

“Well it led to my sister yelling out you,” she told him, “I’m sorry about that as well, Riley can get pretty overprotective over me or our mom.”

“Yeah, Winter warned me about that,” he replied, remembering the way he tried to not tremble at her fiery gaze. “If looks could kill.”

“Tell me about it,” Penny nodded, her eyes scanned the costume he was wearing, now having a face attached to it made it less frightening. The way the fabric was stitched and how the everything on the piece was placed, it looked less like something from a Halloween shop and more something homemade. “Did you make this?”

“Huh, oh this? I wish,” he said, “I actually had it commissioned, sure it cost a bit more, but I wanted it to feel a bit more real, you know, to scare people and that.”

“Yeah, well it definitely worked,” Penny giggled, “As someone who does commissions for others as well, its nice when someone reaches out for us to make something.”

“Us?” he titled his head.

“I’m a costume designer, well, studying a course in costume design at college,” Penny explained, “I noticed how your outfit was made and it instantly clicked in my brain.”

“Oh really? Did you also make that rabbit suit you’re wearing?” he asked as he pointed to her onesie.

Penny rolled her eyes, “Not my best work but I had limited time when Winter and Riley asked me if I wanted to come to the Halloween festival. But hey, its warm and cozy for the season!”

“I think it looks cute on you,” he smiled and winked at her. It was a friendly wink, nothing behind it, but it still made Penny’s toes curl. “How about we start over, I’m Jack.” He held his hand out to her.

Penny took it in her own and shook it, “I’m Penny. So, how do you know Winter?”

There was a nervous flicker in his eyes, but he blinked it away before Penny asked anything else, “We meet as freshmen in high school, she was a few months older than me, but she took me under her wing, and we’ve been friends ever since. I met Riley as well when they started dating but I have a feeling I might be on her bad side now.”

Before Penny could say anything else, there was a crash and a scream before Winter and Riley rushed back into the room, slamming the door behind them. “We forgot this was a haunted funhouse,” Winter trembled, her and Riley’s faces paling.

Penny and Jack shared a glance, stifling their laughter as the couple pulled themselves together. “Anyways,” Riley brushed herself off, “We should head home and tell Mom what happened.”

“Right,” Penny nodded before turning back to Jack, “Hopefully we’ll see each other again, but somewhere else cause with all due respect I’m never stepping foot in this funhouse again.”

Jack chuckled, “That’s understandable, and sorry for scaring you again.”

“That’s okay, at least we finally met,” Penny grinned.

“Alright, home time for you miss,” Riley pulled Penny up, giving a final glare towards Jack before leading her sister away.

“It was nice to meet you, Jack!” Penny called back to him.

“The pleasure’s all mine!” Jack called back, giving Winter a hug before she chased after the sisters.

In the car ride back home, Penny found herself smiling. Jack was nice, granted she wished it didn’t take fainting for them to meet but she was glad she did. “So,” Winter turned in the passenger seat to face Penny in the back, “Sorry that it was under these events how you met Jack, hopefully you were okay with him.”

“I’m not,” said Riley, focused on the road.

“Just keep driving mama bear,” Winter rolled her eyes before turning to Penny again.

“I was okay with him, we actually got on pretty well,” she admitted, “I’m glad I finally met him.”

Winter smiled and turned to Riley to smirk at her, “So, it looks like ‘big bad Jack’ won over your little sister.”

“Must you taunt me?” Riley groaned.

“But that why you love me so much,” Winter teased kissed her loudly on the cheek, “It was my taunting that drew you to me.”

Riley tried and failed to repress a lovesick grin. Penny chuckled at her older sister and turned to face out the window again, counting the stars that passed. Hopefully she would meet Jack again.

.

.

.

Pomni woke with a start. What on this digital earth was that?!

Ever since she arrived here, she never had actually dreams before. Whenever she ‘slept’ it felt like she was switching off, like a button on a computer game and blacked out before she was ‘switched on’ again.

But that dream, why did it feel so real? She remembered the concept of dreams, how anything random would happen and the little control you would have over them. Maybe she was a lucid dreamer in her past life and that’s why this one had more will power in it?

She thought back to that Penny girl, she acted so much like her, the nervousness, her fear of mostly everything and her reaction when she went into that funhouse. Although now, she would gladly take that funhouse over this ‘Amazing Digital Circus’.

Then there was Penny’s sister, Riley. Despite how threatening she was at first glance, the protectiveness she had with her sister and the loved-filled eyes for her girlfriend made her feel a bit safer than she ever felt here.

Did Pomni have a family before the circus, did she have an older sister that would protect with without a second thought? Did she have a family that worried about her, wondering what happened to her?

Then she thought of Jack. She thought about him interacting with Penny, how cheeky yet sweet he was with her. And the way he looked at Penny. She felt herself blushing. In a way, his laidback attitude and mischievous grin, he reminded her a little bit of Jax…

She shook her head, she was being ridiculous, regardless of what Ragatha said when she came here, this was just and only a dream. Besides, it probably wouldn’t happen again, and things would return to its usual format here, just switching on and off again.

She sighed and shoved off her bed sheets, mentally preparing herself for whatever sanity Caine had up his sleeves.

Its not like anyone else was having these types of dreams, right?

That would be the case…for anyone who wasn’t Jax.

The rabbit was currently at the breakfast table, he Gangle and Kinger waiting for everyone else to arrive.

Just when he thought we finally got used to this place, he had an actual dream last night, not the usual shut down he received every night. He remembered every detail from the lights of the festival to the noises supplied from the funhouse and that Jack guy in the jester costume.

There wasn’t much he got from the dream about him, just that was someone who worked to scare people and make money out of it, honestly it seemed the ideal career path he would take if he weren’t stuck here.

But what made that dream so memorable for him was that Penny girl. The way she would shyly peek through her hands, to her kind smile and her knowledge with costumes, and of course he couldn’t forget about her fainting spell. Talk about an unexpected surprise.

Although, she did seem sweet in a way, whoever this Jack guy was he hoped that he was smart enough to see her again. Jax sighed, what was he talking about? This was a dream, plain and simple, yet here he was acting as though he knew this Jack person.

Just leave it he thought bitterly its stupid anyway.

“I’m gonna check where the rest of them at,” he told Gangle and Kinger, “Zooble probably lost one of his arms again, so I might as well hide it if that’s the case.”

“Wouldn’t you rather help them find it?” Gangle whimpered.

Jax huffed out a laugh, “And where’s the fun in that?”

He got out from his chair, only to bump into another body, almost losing his balance, “Hey, watch where your-”

He looked down to see Pomni sitting on the ground, probably from him bumping into her, her red and blue eyes widening when she realised what she did.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she burst out, “Usually I sit next to you whenever we eat, and I didn’t see you sitting up but I’m still really sorry either way I shouldn’t have done that-”

“-Not the other one, forget about that. In fact don’t talk to me at all! Or do! Don’t let me tell you what to do, I mean, you’re not the one spouting out word vomit!”

“I’m really sorry!”

Jax snapped out of his trance, looking down at Pomni again, her eyes looking both sad and apologetic. He signed, reaching down to pull her up by the end. “Relax pom-pom, it wasn’t like you planned to do that…unless?”

“What, no, of course not!” she yelped.

 Jax laughed, the newbie was easy to rile up.

“Shut up Jax,” Zooble moved past him to get to their spot, “Let’s just get breakfast over with before we need to deal with the headache Caine is gonna give us.”

“Whatever,” Jax slumped back into his seat, Pomni gently placing herself upon hers as Zooble and Ragatha did the same.

The way Pomni acted just then, the way she was quick to flush and stutter over her words, and the fact that she was so nervous about everything as well. It was all just like Penny.

No, don’t, don’t be stupid Jax. Jack isn’t real, Penny isn’t real, so don’t bother comparing her to Pomni.

With that, he let himself continue with his food.

But it wouldn’t be the last time he or Pomni would make these comparisons, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last time they had these ‘dreams.’

See you next time, let me know if I've written them well, this is the first time writing for this fandom. And who knows, perhaps next chapter the sillies might actually go on a date? 🤷

[purplephloxpress]

It's August 21, which means: Happy Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day! If you are a writer of fanfic, please know just how appreciated you are!! Fandom would be such a different space without your creativity and labors of love. 💜

In celebration of this most glorious holiday, @renegadepublishing ran an event where we bind copies of fics to gift to their authors, and I had the joy of binding The Tranquility of Water for @noppoh! It's a truly fantastic post-canon story and I love the exploration into the effects of the main story on its characters after the fact. (This is a story I love so much that I wrote up a page and a half crash course on The Untamed so I can try to force my sibling into reading it as well. Take that as you will)

The walls of the Hanshi creep in on him and so Lan Xichen leaves. He leaves Cloud Recesses and his seclusion, stealing away in the night with no-one the wiser that he even left. His feet bring him to Lotus Pier where a surprisingly kind Jiang Cheng seems determined to help him heal.

With a title like "Tranquility of Water" and the story largely taking place at Lotus Pier, I may have been a little heavy handed with the lotus imagery throughout the book, but it felt very fitting! The lotus on the cover was a last minute addition, but one that turned out so lovely. Just, you know, to tie everything together lotus-wise. (Another one of my favorite design details in the typeset is that both title fonts from the chapter headers and title page get repeated within the text of the story as the main characters handwriting fonts!)

I started the physical binding process of my copy while at the Renegade Retreat in April (and decided the week before that I wanted to change my body font... can you say formatting speedrun?) and up until that point I hadn't actually figured out what the cover and endpages were going to look like. Special thanks to everyone who contributed pieces to this binding (and who moral-supported me along the way -- my copy holds so many fun memories now) because it LITERALLY would not look like this without you all. I really love the way the color transitions worked out, with a predominantly blue/green case, fading into green, into pink, into the title page, and then transitioning back out at the end of the book.

And these endbands!! Friends, that is SILK embroidery floss that a friend brought to the retreat especially so I could experience the decadence of silk endbands. I will never be the same. (They're so smooth... so shiny... so slippery to work with, but SO WORTH IT)

(Binding details under the cut)

The pieces that went into this bind:

Fandom: The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi

Pairing: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin / Lan Huan | Lan Xichen

Bookcloth: Renegade Retreat Swap Table Special (I have no idea what it is, but it was just enough to make a copy for myself and the author and the color worked PERFECTLY!)

Cover paper: Opal Momi paper

Cover paper: Opal Momi paper

Endpapers: from the Craft Consortium Ink Drops - Dusk paper pack

Titling: foil quill

Endbands: leather cording core, silk embroidery floss for the bands

Body font: EB Garamond

Title fonts: Wintersoul and Bastian

Handwriting fonts: Bastian (Lan Xichen), Richardson Script (Lan Wangji), and Wintersoul (Jiang Cheng)

Tumblr insists on eating and doubling text in this section at its own whim, so if there's something missing that you're curious about, feel free to DM me an ask!

[tired-fandom-ndn]

I just got a year long Dropout subscription before the price went up and I'm looking for suggestions of what to watch. I'm caught up on Game Changer, because I love that show so much. I'm definitely going to watch Um, Actually. I've watched Tiny Heist for the McElroys. Any suggestions of what to watch? My instinct for Dimension 20 is to start in chronological order of release, but I'm not sure if that's the best move and I don't know anything about any of the other shows. Thanks for any help!

Congrats on the subscription! I will ramble now lmao

With regards to Dimension 20 in general: Tiny Heist is really great and it was one of the first seasons I watched too. I obviously recommend Fantasy High too because it has the most content (canon and fandom) and there are currently three seasons (Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years) along with some one-offs and spin-offs (The Seven and Pirates of the Leviathan are both spin-off seasons). Honestly, I enjoy all the seasons with the Intrepid Heroes (the original D20 cast; Siobhan, Lou, Emily, Murph, Ally, and Zac with Brennan as GM) though I haven't watched s2 of The Unsleeping City or finished A Crown of Candy.

For the non-FH Intrepid Heroes seasons: The Unsleeping City is really great if you love urban fantasy the like; it's very popular but I personally think it's too American lmao. A Crown of Candy seems very sweet (heh) and fun but it is EXTREMELY intense; it's essentially Game of Thrones if everyone was food and it's much more emotional and violent and tragic than the beginning and the aesthetics would lead you to believe. A Starstruck Odyssey is so so so much fun; it's a scifi space story that is absurd and violent and silly and great even if you're not into scifi. Neverafter is a horror season and it's violent and intense with a lot of body horror and gore and themes of child abuse; it's actually one of my favorites but I HATED the epilogue.

For the other D20 seasons: Misfits and Magic is a Harry Potter-inspired story that is so so so much more than that and it does an amazing job at deconstructing a lot of tropes that Harry Potter used and popularized; the chemistry between the players and Aabria's GM work make both seasons phenomenal. Aabria also GMs in A Court of Fey and Flowers (fairies and magic and drama and romance! very little action but great if you're into either fairies or court intrigue) and Burrow's End (the characters are cute little stoats but do NOT be fooled, it's an intense and violent and tragic story that will make you bawl with the players).

If you're looking for something more fun and light-hearted, I highly recommend Never Stop Blowing Up (absolute absurdity and ridiculousness and it will make you CACKLE) and Coffin Run (vampire story inspired by old Hollywood Dracula films with frankly amazing prop work and a small cast with great chemistry). If you're looking for something more intense, I recommend Mentopolis (a mix of Inside Out and a classic detective noir film, with a blend of absurdity and seriousness; NOT appropriate to watch with kids in the room lmao) and Mice & Murder (anthro Victorian murder mystery with a lot of players who don't feature on D2O much if at all and bring interesting styles and perspectives to the game; it also takes advantage of social distancing and playing over zoom to really play with secrets and deception between the characters AND players).

You don't have to watch anything in order (except the ones that are sequels or spin-offs lmao), just go for whatever looks the most interesting to you! Though avoid the Time Quangle episodes until you watch the Intrepid Hero seasons.

Aside from D20: Make Some Noise!!! It's fucking fantastic, please please please watch it. Very Important People is also fantastic; the latest episode with Brennan and Izzy as the guests has got the entire fandom in a tizzy (in a good way). Smartypants and Thousandaires can be hit or misses tbh; they're usually very fun and enjoyable but there are a quite a few parts that just make me roll my eyes or get aggravated at the cast treating certain things too flippantly. Um, Actually and Dirty Laundry both make excellent background noise shows, though Dirty Laundry is NEVER appropriate to have on when there are kids around lmao. Breaking News is also great if you just want something short and sweet, though it's best after the first couple seasons when the cast gets to improvise more. Gastronauts and Parlor Room are very very new shows but I think they're definitely worth watching. A Message From the CEO is an older and extremely short series but it's also one of my absolute favorites to rewatch; Brennan shrieking about Oreos never gets old.

Aside from all that rambling, I basically just recommend scrolling through the shows and watching what looks interesting to you!

I watched the Cloudward trailer while typing this and I am extremely excited for it!!!!!!

[a-simply-simping-simp]

SEGA WHEN I CATCH YOU SEGA SEGA WHEN I CATCH YOU

So mad so mad so mad so mad so mad at SEGA why why WHY must they do this to me. Imagine falling in love and then KILLING that same love. Hahahahahaha imagine being a kid when it happened. HAHAHAHAHA IMAGINE HAVING ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS JUST WATCH YOU SOB AS YOU HOLD THE TRIGGER TO SHOOT YOUR LOVE. HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH IMAGINE ALL THATS LEFT OF HER AFTER YOU EXPLODE HER WITH AN ENERGY CANNON IS A SINGULAR SEED. IMAGINE NOBODY EXCEPT ONE PERSON REALLY COMES TO SHOULDER YOUR PAIN AND TEARS. IMAGINE NOBODY THOUGHT THAT MAYBE A CHILD SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SHOOT HIS NONOFFICIAL GIRLFRIEND. IMAGINE-

Anyway, all greiving aside, I miss her.

I joined the Sonic fandom in a kinda odd way ngl. At the time, I was stupid and a fresh middle schooler and it was extremely popular to make fun of the sonic franchise cuz it was a whole meme and stuff. I also made fun of it cuz I thought I was supposed to. But I realized it was stupid to make fun of something I haven't even seen before. So I wanted to educate myself on it. Coincidently, I saw a video. It was by CourtneySNT about her first ever sonic fancomic around that time. I really enjoyed it actually. Sometimes I go back and rewatch it. Anyway, in her comic, she had introduced Tails to the screen and I fell in love with the fandom. Grant it, her depiction of tails at that moment was the polar opposite of what he's actually like, but still. It compelled me to watch Sonic X, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Boom, Sonic Prime, A bit of Sonic Underground, and just...Sonic the Hedgehog. I also watched a few gameplays and a lot of cutscene movies of the videogames as well as parodies and fan content. So...yeah.

Now it's just a Sonic Prime Nine analysis/rant below lol

Also, since I mentioned SONIC PRIME, I might as well rant about it. NINE. WAS. SO. PERFECT. He was well written, well scripted, and well developed. Everything about nim was chef's kiss. His story was literally just a what if. What if Sonic never met Tails? Well, number one, he wouldn't be named Tails. He'd make his own name. Nine. Also, he became cold and distant because he expected others to treat him the same due to his two tails. Perfect character already but then they fleshed him out some more and introduced this...guy named Sonic.

He didn't know Sonic at the time nor did he really know...anybody. So when this blue loser comes waltzing into his house unannounced, he obviously gets hostile. Why? Well, one, because a rando broke into his casa. But also because everyone he met was hostile to him first. Crazy. Then this guy seems to be friendly. A first. So, Nine lets down his ice cold walls and trusts him. Let me emphasize that. NINE TRUSTED SONIC. Remember that. It is SO important.

So, Nine goes along and helps this guy for no real reason other than the fact that he considers him a friend. Now, you'd think he also helped to stop the egg council, but he really never had bad blood with them in the first place. He isn't in the resistance nor shows any resentment. He's Nine all on his own, with or without the council. In fact, he probably doesn't care if they rule because he wanted to be alone anyway. But he helped. Why? Because he wanted to help his FRIEND.

This goal warps when Nine discovers an empty realm called the grim. He can have a fresh start there with him and sonic. Just the people he cared about. He asked Sonic to go with him because he wanted to share his dream with him. He wanted Sonic to be a part of it with him. But Sonic undermined his dreams. It'd be one thing if he simply disagreed with it or gave a good, justifying, and well explained reason for refusing, but instead he didn't explain himself well. Sonic entitled himself to the prisms, assuming him getting home was everyone's priority. I don't mean to villainize him because this was simply reckless and unknowing behaviour, but still. Nine got upset that his FRIEND was trampling on his dreams as if they didn't matter nearly as much as Sonic's.

So, he "betrayed" Sonic. I want to bring this to everyone's attention. Nine had critisized Sonic because he recklessly didn't think about what woukd happen to everyone else if he DID bring back his home. Like, nobody knows jack squat about the prisms. Sonic, Nine, Shadow, even the egg council was lost when it came to those big shiny rock things. It shines and made our universes. That's all they knew. So, with that in mind, it makes sense to be concerned. Like what if it kills us? What if it destroys our world in order to bring back yours? They only exist because of the prism being destroyed, so if you fix it, would that kill them? Idk, I feel like this was mentioned once and never brought up again and it makes me mad. Such potential.

Anyway, after the situation, Nine goes back to the grim to make his dreams come true by himself. Because the one person he TRUSTED broke his trust. So, after a bunch of irrelavent stuff happens, Sonic goes to the grim after making a deal to Nine. Nine lets him into the grim and Sonic starts to preach to Nine about their friendship. Nine listens and almost starts to trust him again, maybe thinking about his actions and how they might not have been the best. How their friendship could maybe be salvaged. Why? Because Sonic said he woukd sacrifice himself to save Nine too. But then an entire army shows up to beat Nine into a teeny tiny pulp. Grant it, Sonic did not call them to the grim. But then he imediently sides with them in taking Nine down in an all out war. After saying he'd sacrifice for Nine too, he pulls an uno reverse on him. Trust broken. Again.

So now, he wants to trust nobody. Why? Because Sonic broke once too many. So he starts fighting. And fighting. And fighting. Like he's been doing his entire life. Who is he fighting? Someone who he thought was his friend. Someone who claims to be his friend. Someone who he thought he wouldn't need to fight. And he's clearly breaking his own body in desperation while doing so. Nobody really said anything about it either btw. Like, he's literally hurting himself and Sonic, his "friend" didn't even try to stop him because he was hurting himself, but because he was huring others and taking the prisms. I understand of course because he's hurting your friends, but his own pain wasn't even a slither of his drive.

Anyway, the ending sucked personally. It was anticlimactic. Nine gives in just because and then Sonci goes home, mystery never discovered, and yay we're done.

[sir-walton-goggins]

All That Matters

4.312 words

Fandom: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relationships: Arthur Morgan/Original Female Character

tw: graphic torture, canon-typical depictions of violence and gore

credit for the header as always goes to the lovely @raevennsge, Arthur pic credit is mine

“Where is Arthur."

Kris’s heart sank into her stomach, burning through it like a hot ball of lead.

Dutch and Micah rode back into camp.

Something was off.

"Where. Is. Arthur" she gritted through her teeth.

"He didn't meet us at the fork in the road." Micah replied.

She ignored him, not being able to shake the horrible feeling that her husband was in danger. 

Dutch's pleas went ignored as Kris wielded a rifle on her right shoulder and jumped onto her mare, Cloud. The woman’s ears were buzzing, heart beating in her ears like a mad drum, vision focused only on the stretch of road in front of her. One thought on her mind:

“I need to save him.”

Hosea watched her silently from his cot, book open on his lap ignored, bowing his head silently.

"Dutch, I told you it was a trap."

Lately his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Not to Kris, though. She practically had begged Arthur to stay. But he was still Dutch's shadow, and as pulled by an invisible thread, or rather, an invisible noose, he followed along.

The mind of the gang followed her horse galloping away, eyebrows knitted into a worried expression. His son was in danger.

"Dutch, we need to go get him!"

The leader opened his mouth to speak, but the mustached gunslinger preceded him.

"Oh, old man, let's not get ahead of ourselves!" He approached, hands in the air in a ridiculous attempt to look harmless.

"Arthur is just fine. He's probably out gallivanting and rolling around in the dirt like he usually does" he grinned. He never let the opportunity to make fun of him go to waste.

"That girl is gonna get herself killed, for Christ's sake!" Hosea snapped, begging Dutch to listen.

The wanted man took a long drag of his cigar, his eyes shifting in conflict. Hosea stared at him like he lost his damn mind. Where did his determined and protective partner in crime go? He was somewhere behind those brown eyes, he knew it. But he was fighting a battle unbeknownst to anyone in the gang, even to him, who knew him so well. Or, at least, he thought as much.

"He'll be back" was the leader's lapidary statement. Cigar smoke engulfed Hosea’s face, making him cough repeatedly.

The evening was turning windy, making Kris's eyes water and she wondered if she was actually crying. She felt out of control, like everything she had was slipping away from her hands with every second Arthur was away from her. The horse sped up, the woman bouncing rhythmically on the saddle, reins in one hand, the other wiping some tears away from her face.

"Please, Arthur, be alive" she repeated, mumbling the words like a prayer.

She rode to the spot where the three men had met Colm O' Driscoll, pistol drawn and ready to fire. But the place was deserted, if not for a single lost deer wandering the plains. The prey animal lifted its head up to stare at Kris with its big doe eyes. Staring back, she saw Arthur’s own eyes, the words he left her with before disappearing resounding in her head.

“I’ll be just fine, darlin’.” He hid his nervousness behind a sweet smile, crinkles around the ocean eyes she so bitterly missed. He knew something was off, she had sensed it.

‘Should’ve never let him go.’

The woman put her revolver back in its holster and examined her surroundings. She closed her eyes, trying to picture the events of earlier that day: the three men dismounting, the plan taking shape, Arthur’s role in it. Since he was called on missions either for protection or intimidation, Kris assumed he was ordered to protect Dutch and Micah from afar, since they could never trust a dirty snake like the O’Driscoll leader. He was the best shot between them, after all. Mrs. Morgan’s eyes landed on a nearby hill: jackpot. Perfect place for a sniper.

The sandy dirt of the hill had hoof marks imprinted in it, so she eagerly followed them to the top, watching her back the whole time. She feared another ambush from the Irish bastards. Yes, 'cause it had to have been an ambush. The O'Driscolls would never offer a parley. How did she know? Because Colm was a vindictive piece of shit. Eye for an eye. His brother for Annabelle. He wasn’t gonna stop there.

It was starting to get dark, the pink horizon steadily drowning in shadows, entirely swallowed up in blue and black. The view from the high ground was hauntingly beautiful, but Kris felt a heavy presence nearby and a cold gust blowing through her heart. The new moon rendered the night sky even more sinister and pitch black. She took out her lantern and turned the knob to light it up. As soon as she did, a murder of crows rushed menacingly over her head, spooking her. They were heading north. She followed their trajectory: it led her straight to the warm light of a campfire in the distance.

Kris Morgan released a shaky breath; Arthur had to be there. He had to.

‘Please, don’t let the crows be a bad omen.’ 

“He’s alive, he’s alive” she whispered, trying to build up her courage and not give in to despair. Arthur needed her, there was no time for weakness.

She pointed the oil lamp to the ground, examining it closely. There were signs of a struggle, a big hollow mark dragged out and several foot prints all over it. The depression was large enough to have been made by a man about Arthur’s size. The woman’s breath sped up, her chest hurting at the thought of his darling being knocked unconscious and overpowered. It was a feeling she wasn’t used to: Arthur Morgan was as strong as an ox, he was the one who incapacitated others. Imagining him vulnerable made her stomach knot into himself tightly, leaving her out of breath.

She shook away the thought and resumed her inspection. The dirt was smooth where the body was being dragged away, leading downhill on the opposite side. Kris followed it down to the base of the hilltop, where the marks stopped.

Noticing the open nature of the cliff, it was plain to her that Micah had only brought Arthur to have him kidnapped. Her husband was probably so focused on protecting him and Dutch that his back was left completely exposed to attacks. The mere thought of this being staged filled Kris with murderous rage. Oh, when she returned back to camp, there would have been hell to pay.  And she wasn’t coming back empty handed, no fucking chance. 

Desperately trying to keep her emotions at bay, Kris sneaked towards the camp up ahead. But first, she called her mare over.

“Stay, Cloud” she commanded, taking her rifle from the saddle.

She was like a cat, quick and nimble, her dark hair blending into the dark landscape perfectly.  She stopped behind a big boulder and scoured the area with her binoculars:

A few tents, a wooden shed, doors to an underground basement and a single campfire. Luckily, it seemed to be a small camp. She could handle it.

“Dumb bastards gonna regret their choices very soon” she thought, murder on her mind, gripping the binoculars harder.

All seemed quiet, apart from two drunken bastards laughing their heads off by the shed, checking some guns that looked vaguely familiar and playfully pointing them at each other, making shooting sounds with their mouths. Kris zoomed into one of the weapons and exhaled rapidly. She recognized the engravings on the grip: those were Arthur’s pistols.

“He has to be here” her mind consoled her. At least she found him. But where did they keep him?

She didn’t have to wait long for the answer: as soon as she thought it, two men slammed the basement door open and emerged dragging a large feller forward.

“Arthur!” she almost screamed, but it came out choked and painful. She wanted to run over, kill the two bastards point blank, fire at the drunkards by the shed and just be done with it. But she had to be smart about this. She didn’t want her husband to pay the price for her stupidity.

She followed his steps through the binoculars. God, he looked rough: they took his clothes off, leaving him in just a union suit. He stumbled forward heavily, like he was injured, and his features were contorted into a mix of pain, fear and anger. This man towered over his perpetrators, and yet he was so fragile, like a wounded bear attacked by a pack of wolves. Suddenly, they pushed him and almost sent him tumbling on the ground. Instead, he crashed against what seemed to be a large wooden tub of water. A bit of it splashed out the side on impact.

Since they stupidly didn’t tie his hands up, Arthur turned around and tried to fight back, punching one of the O’Driscoll boys to free himself from his grip. The other one reacted just as quickly, hitting the kidnapped man on the back of his skull with the butt of a gun. Kris winced, phantom pain hitting her in the same spot. Tears burned behind her eyes as her husband collapsed on the ground, red blood staining his blond hair.

She held her breath until she saw him move, slowly and disorderly, but moving. Colm’s henchmen grabbed a stunned Arthur and pushed him towards the tub. The last thing Kris saw before bolting towards the camp was one of them putting a white hood over his head and fastening it with a rope.

Panic settled into her whole being. “Shit, shit, shit.” She had to act fast.

Kris reached the back of the shed, scouting the grounds attentively. She located the two men who were playing with Arthur’s guns earlier: they were far enough apart to be taken out stealthily.

Creeping behind the first victim of the night, Kris drew her knife slowly. She jumped up, locking the bandit’s neck with her forearm and plunging the blade deep into his throat. Before he even fell to the ground gurgling and choking on his own blood, Kris was already tailing the second feller. This one was taller, so she took advantage of her lower position. With a swift kick behind his knees, the man fell on the ground with a gasp, the air knocked out of his lungs when the woman sticked the knife into his temple, pressing and releasing it as a gush of warm blood stained her hand. 

“See you in hell, fuckers” she murmured, releasing the tension with a short exhale.

The sound of splashing and roaring laughter alarmed her, so she turned around, searching frantically for Arthur. What she saw made her freeze in horror.

While one O’Driscoll held Arthur down with his whole weight, locking his arms behind his back, the other plunged his hooded head into the tub, keeping it down until he squirmed violently, on the verge of drowning. The he pulled him out, Arthur gasping and sputtering and coughing, only to stick his head back into the water, over and over again. The two were talking and laughing maniacally, but Kris didn’t even register it. Both her vision and hearing was focused on her husband being tortured, his desperate sounds unleashing something primal in her that she had never felt before. Everything went white, a blind rage enrapturing every fiber of her being. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was drawing her rifle, directing it at the torturers. 

All reality froze in that instant, slowed down as if coated in honey. Every movement felt heavy and automatic, white-hot rage taking over Kris’s central nervous system, sending impulses to the nerves, urging her fingers to manipulate the trigger.

Two shots to the head. She didn’t miss.

The second blast echoed in her ears, unbearably loud, making the white veil lift off reality, and she gradually resumed control of her own body.

Arthur sprung backwards, choking and sputtering water as his hands clawed at the completely soaked cotton hood, struggling to remove it. The water had made it stick to his head like a glove, the fabric getting into his mouth and nostrils, making it impossible to breathe.

Kris slung the rifle over her shoulder and rushed over to him; she gripped base of the hood, lifting the rope that closed it and pulling it desperately upwards. It started to budge after a few pulls, Arthur’s struggle becoming more and more violent as more oxygen left his lungs and terror took ahold of him. Finally, it came off with one last desperate, violent pull.

Arthur inhaled sharply, erupting into a coughing fit as too much oxygen filled his severely deprived airways. Kris reached out to touch him, like she needed proof that he was really there, in front of her. Alive.

She checked him for injuries: he had a bullet wound in his left shoulder, the blood barely visible on the red union suit they left him in. It looked pretty serious: it must have been a double barreled shotgun, because the gash was huge. The cotton had melted into the skin, fusing with the charred edges of the wound and slowing the bleeding up a bit. The risk of infection was very high.

“You came” Arthur managed to speak hoarsely. He seemed surprised that someone actually came to rescue him.

Kris hugged him, careful to avoid his wound. “Of course I did”, she whispered, choking up.

Arthur wrapped her in his arms, but gasped in pain as his shoulder muscles contracted. He was rapidly reminded of the gravity of his injury and let his harmed shoulder slump to the side, right arm cradling his left deltoid in an effort to reduce the sudden pain.

“We need to get you back to camp” Kris urged, wide-eyed, inviting her partner to lean on her.

Arthur looked back, taking in the torture grounds before leaving: multiple men on the ground, slit throats and burst heads in pools of brains and blood; the nightmarish hood, which disturbingly still retained the shape of his face, was floating in the tub like a dead fish. The campfire burned furiously, fueled by shreds of cotton thrown in it, now as black as coal. He recognized his own clothes.

Kris walked in front of him, kneeling down to grab something by the entrance of the tool shed. Arthur limped over there to have a look: it was his gun belt and all the weapons he carried during the ambush. His wife helped him tie the belt around his waist and handed him his rolling block rifle. His dignity back.

Arthur held it, savoring the familiar feeling of wood and metal in his hands. He swung the weapon on his unharmed shoulder, but the movement was enough to send a sharp stab of pain directly through his flesh again. He groaned, clenching his teeth so hard they hurt and he went as pale as a sheet. He struggled to breathe, his limbs slowly becoming numb, his heart-rate slowing down. He could tell he didn’t have much time before passing out from blood loss.

“Shit,” Kris exclaimed, noticing his rapidly worsening condition. “We need to leave!”

With the loudest whistle she could muster she called her horse over. Cloud galloped into camp diligently, neighing and shaking her mane furiously upon seeing the lifeless bodies on the ground. Kris helped Arthur get on the horse, struggling to support his weight. She then mounted in front of him and took the reins. 

They were halfway home when Arthur started to lose consciousness. His grip on his wife’s waist grew weaker, his head heavy, slurring his words.

“Arthur? How are we doing?” Kris asked anxiously.

“Dunno… how much” Arthur tried his best to articulate, “…I can hold on” he coughed, breathing raucously. His eyes felt heavy and the world was becoming darker by the minute. He was in and out of reality, lights flickering on and off, a mysterious veil clouding his vision.

“Please, hold on honey,” she encouraged him. “It ain’t much longer now!”

Kris spurred Cloud on, going as fast as she would take them, hoping Arthur would keep holding on tight behind her. She rode and rode and rode until she saw the familiar camp entrance through the woods, sighing with immense relief as Arthur clung to her with all the strength he had left.

“Charles! Sadie! Someone, help!” Kris screamed her lungs off long before approaching camp, urgency and distress rendering her voice shrill. 

Arthur moaned and grunted, finally letting go of all the efforts to stay vigilant. His body slumped over and he fell unconscious. Kris barely had the time to get off the horse to try and catch him, but he was too heavy and he almost fell on her. Luckily, Charles had heard her call and was already behind her, ready to catch his friend. A few others rushed over to help them carry Arthur over to his cot.

Kris made her way through the small crowd that had formed around his wagon. She checked his breathing and heart-rate, which were both slow, but regular. Arthur was gradually starting to regain consciousness now, breathing faster and trying to speak, only incoherent, jumbled words coming out.

“You’re gonna be okay, dear. You’re safe now” Kris cooed, stroking his hair tenderly. Arthur opened his eyes and was met with the worry and love in his wife’s. He rolled them back shut, way too fatigued to keep them open. He smiled.

“Thank you” he muttered, trying to squeeze Kris’s hand, but too weak to.

“Ms. Grimshaw, can you please have someone tend to his wound?” she asked, pointing at Arthur’s bleeding shoulder. “It’s pretty bad.”

The older woman saw all the fiery determination of a loving wife in Kris, all the pain and anxiety she was suppressing for Arthur’s sake. It was such a familiar feeling for her. She nodded, pulling herself out of the shock of seeing her adoptive son gravely hurt.

“Of course.” As she ran to get the doctor, Dutch and Micah approached the small group gathered at the man’s bedside.

“Arthur, my poor son!” Dutch lamented, filling Kris with disgust. What a shameless farce.

Arthur groaned, shifting his weight on his right side. “I told you it was a trap, Dutch” he growled, pushing the pain down and letting the anger resurface. He allowed this to happen.

Fury and bitterness enveloped him so intensely, he managed to send the pain to the backseat for a moment. Sitting up to face his mentor, he spoke, his tone the lowest Kris had ever heard:

“You let my wife risk her life for me.”

Extreme pain and anger were making him delirious, but this he saw as clear as day: Kris put herself in danger to rescue him. Dutch didn’t come looking for him after he didn’t show up at the meeting spot. He let his wife go after him alone.

Everyone fell silent, two sets of furious eyes and several shocked ones pointed at Van Der Linde, who stood there like a salt statue, his expression indecipherable.

“Micah planned this, didn’t he?” Arthur pressed on, rage white hot, pronouncing Micah’s name with pure disgusted disdain. “He was the only one who thought it was a good idea.”

The accused man dropped into the conversation with his usual fake apologetic tone. “Hey, cowpoke, no reason t-“

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Arthur erupted, coughing and wheezing as the pain abruptly came back to torment him, leaving him no choice but to back down and rest. Kris helped him get back into a comfortable position.

“I’ll deal with this, Arthur” she promised sternly. Then, turning to the crowd:  “I want everybody except the doctor and Ms. Grimshaw out of here. Now!”

Nobody wanted to further aggravate an upset wife, so they all scrambled back to their cots or scattered throughout camp.

Dutch turned his back to leave like everyone else, but Kris stopped him.

“Oh no, you stay here. I need a word with you.” Her tone didn’t admit reply. Van Der Linde slowly turned around, lighting himself a second cigar.

“Miss, I-“

Kris corrected him, vitriol in her voice. “Mrs. Mrs. Morgan.” She emphasized each letter deliberately, her patience wearing dangerously thin.

Dutch recognized his misstep, so he resorted to fawn and praise, like he always did. Still, he strangely refused to acknowledge her title.

“I’m so sorry about this, Kris. You were so brave, to rescue Arthur and bring him back to us in one piece.”

“One piece?!” she retorted, in complete disbelief. “Does my husband look in one piece to you?!” she gestured towards Arthur, laid down on his cot while the doctor examined him. Susan watched over them both.

Dutch raised his hands, softening his tone. “We’ll take care of him. This won’t happen again.”

Kris had grown tired of this man’s empty promises. “You say that, but how long until he’s lined up for the next stupid, deadly, useless mission? Huh?” her voice was starting to crack, the pent up emotions of the whole day taking their toll on her. “What then?”

“Were you going to come for him?” she asked softly, too tired to hold back tears now. “Be honest, Dutch. Were you?”

The dark-haired man stared blankly in the distance, over Kris’s shoulder. The charismatic leader finally had no words. They bolt jolted at the sudden scream that resounded through camp. The doctor was removing the bullet from Arthur’s shoulder, Susan holding his hand like a doting mother, whispering words of comfort to her surrogate son.

Kris dried her tears on her blood stained shirt. Arthur’s blood. “Dutch,” she called, voice shaking. “look at me.”

“Do you still have faith in me, Kris?” he asked, all of a sudden emotional. “Like when you did when you were an orphan on the street, and I took you in as my own daughter?”

Kris looked up at him, tears dry on her cheeks. 

He knew that would make her feel guilty. 

He knew she had no choice but to join, and that she had been grateful. 

He also knew how much Arthur came to mean to her. 

Did she still have faith in him? Her mind was way too tired now, her emotions too jangled up to verbalize them. She shot her mentor a doubtful look and left him there.

Kris went to sit by Arthur’s cot, head buzzing with too many thoughts. The doctor had just finished bandaging him. Seeing her approaching, Susan promptly gave her the seat next to her husband.

“The doctor says we need to change his bandages frequently to avoid infection, but he should feel fine in a few weeks” she reassured Kris, laying her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder.

Kris smiled, grateful that the worst had passed. “Thank you, Ms. Grimshaw.”

Susan nodded and gave the couple some privacy.

Arthur was understandably tuckered out, so Kris just sat on the chair next to him and held his hand as he slept.

“You’re gonna be okay” she said, more to herself than to him. She would have never admitted it, but seeing Arthur like that stressed her out to no end, a profound anxiety shutting her stomach down and keeping her awake.

And awake she sat, all night, checking Arthur’s breathing from time to time and changing his bandages every few hours.

Arthur woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn to see his devoted wife slumped forward on the chair, head bowed and fast asleep, still holding his hand. He smiled: she looked so cute when she slept. Poor baby looked exhausted, and yet she never left his side. God, how did he get so lucky? A brute like him hardly deserved such devoted loyalty like the one she showed him. If it wasn’t for her, who knows what would’ve happened to him. He loved her with all his soul, provided he had one to begin with. 

Sensing his eyes on her, Kris woke up, taking a while to adjust to her unusual surroundings.

“Good morning, beautiful” Arthur squeezed her hand and immediately winced, the effort making his wound wake up as well.

“Beautiful?” she huffed, sarcastic. “I’m tired, dirty and covered in blood!”

“Did I stutter?” he replied, inviting her to get closer. She obliged, sitting directly on the cot and leaning in to kiss him. It was the softest kiss, tender and intimate. It was a ‘I’m glad you’re alive’ kiss, savored slowly by both of them.

“Did you talk to Dutch?”

Kris shifted her weight from side to side, reminded of the uncomfortable conversation between them last night.

“I don’t want you to worry about this, not until you’re fully recovered.” She ordered, gently kissing his cheekbone. Arthur sighed.

“If I am gonna make it, that is.”

Kris repressed the urge to elbow him in the ribs. “Arthur Morgan! Of course you will” she scoffed. “Or I will descend into hell just to drag your sorry ass back here. Hear me?”

Her husband chuckled softly, then grimaced. “Oh, don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

“Sorry” Kris grinned, suddenly overcome with a deep-set, warm relief. They were back in camp, having their usual banter. They were together.

“So, what do you need? Water? Something to eat? Do you want me to read for you?” she yawned so intensely that she was left disoriented for a second.

Arthur shook his head. “I want you to get some sleep, first.”

“Ugh. Fine” Kris protested, Susan already coming back to take over. 

“I’ll be back, honey” she cooed, leaning down to kiss Arthur’s lips again. 

“I’ll be right here.” he smiled, seeing her off. 

[aotopmha]

Since I'm back into playing Sonic games, I'm also catching some of the news.

Out of all of the Sonic games to remake, seems Sonic 06 is under consideration?

My opinion on remakes in general is that I'd rather have something new.

Right now I'd just like a 3D Sonic game with wholly new levels that are unique and fun to play.

Give me a new list of boost stages or adventure stages or even zones in Frontiers except less generic and messy. The last truly original level themes in 3D were in Colors, which came out 13 years ago. Everything after it was full of increasingly derivative Green Hill/Chemical Plant/Speed Highway imitations or a bunch of generic theming like Winter Zone or Forest Zone.

But if you're going to remake a game, remake one that would gain from it and Sonic 06 is kind of a genius risk/reward idea.

It's still one of the most famous failures in gaming history.

Were it to succeed, we'd have a success story not so unlike Final Fantasy 14's or No Man Sky's.

It would be fantastic publicity/marketing.

But were it to fail or be less than great, they'd double down on the failure.

I'm of the opinion they'd have to overhaul the uncanny hyper-realistic art (particularly character designs) and definitely entirely rewrite the story.

I think Sonic's design philosophy just is not compatible with that hyper-serious and hyper-realistic aesthetic. It has the same issue the initial Sonic movie design had to me: it looks wierd and creepy when it aims to be "realistic".

One counter-argument I've heard in regards of this aesthetic along with storytelling style is that other similar mascot properties can be dark, but I think all of the actually good ones understand how far they can take it before it reaches that uncanny valley, jarring threshold. They understand the limitations of the aesthetics they use.

Sonic can be "serious", but just like everything else, it has always had its own brand of serious.

Scrap Brain Zone, Doomsday Zone and even Hidden Palace are good Sonic serious.

The final stories of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are good Sonic serious. Gamma's story is Sonic Adventure 1 is good Sonic serious.

They understand Sonic is a joyful series that has meaningful, darker ideas within, but isn't only those elements.

For example, I think the edgy elements of Shadow are best when they're fully sincere and bombastic, not when telling you how dark, cool and edgy Shadow is and how much you have to think how dark, cool and edgy Shadow is.

(Yes, I am also aware Shadow The Hedgehog's reliance on it is very much a localisation choice, but these elements are still present in everything after it, too. These stories sometimes want you take them so seriously, anything actually fun in there is smothered.

You can argue interpretations, but I think Sonic definitely shouldn't be joyless.)

That's what people who criticise Sonic for having any serious moments also miss: these characters still do have arcs and stories. Most actually good cartoons work that way just like any other stories and people who like Sonic like the sincerity in it along with the dumb cheese.

More on 06, though, I hate the Elise and Sonic romance stuff. I don't find any part of that appealing.

A few fandoms I'm in have a furry contingent, and I find anything to do with it squicky. I guess it's better than some other groups of people who find far worse stuff sexually attractive?

Mascot fursuits at least don't resemble anything human (or even animal, actually, they're hyper-stylised cartoon creatures I'd rather not think about in any sexual sense), so it's better than some of the really, really bad stuff?

I don't want to think about it any deeper than that.

So, I'm 100% for the removal of this aspect.

Gerald and Maria were handled well in Shadow Generations, so maybe just making it a simple friendship is the best solution because Elise is still important to the original story. Also make her a character that's not just an object to be kidnapped every few levels?

But the most important aspect of a potential remake is that Sonic 06 could actually be a really good game because a bunch of the level design is actually solid and there are some really solid gameplay foundations.

They already have it all there, so they don't have to spend time on making stuff up from scratch.

So, an 06 remake does have merit due all of the above points.

Personally, if I had to choose any remake above a completely new game, though, I'd actually like an Heroes remake (or even just remaster, as I don't think it's a fundamentally broken game like Sonic 06 and apparently one is rumoured for it, as well, actually) because I love the variety of level themes and the foundational level design in that game.

A lot of Sonic games are messy in the polish sense, but Heroes is up there.

I think it actually deserves it the most because what ruined it to me were very specifically the glitches.

Awkward controls and stage design you can at least learn to play around, but glitches are sometimes pretty firmly out of your hand and dying to them so often just completely sucked out the fun of the game by the end more than any Sonic game to me.

And Sonic 06's level roster is a lot less unique/fun/cool.

Hang Castle? Frog Forest? Egg Fleet? Even Grand Metropolis and Rail Canyon? The Metal Sonic fight?

Adjust the controls and clean up the glitches and that alone would make for one of the best Sonic games, I think.

[bookie-bookdust]

going thru ur blog on a rough night and smiling as the anxiety jitters slowly melt away (u said u were worried u scared me off but rlly i’m so scared i’ll scare u off like)

thank u for being a safe space, for posting/reblogging reminders about fandom etiquette, for sharing ur beautiful creations (i said it b4 ill say it again) and also for lowkey encouraging engagement! i agree wholeheartedly with your post ab creating 4 yourself, and not 4 validation, but i just mean how kind and receptive you are when ppl do interact with you!

unfortunately, i was a silent reader for most of my existence— still giving kudos and things of that nature, but i was so scared of… for lack of better words and since it’s late where i am, i’m gonna stick with what u said the other day— scared of scaring the author/creator with my excitement etc etc. or scared i would say smth wrong, come off wrong etc. it prevented me from making friends in the fandoms that i was a part of, and i feel like i missed out on that sense of community bc of it.

it wasn’t until i was on the other end that i rlly understood how much engagement meant (no matter how big or small), and it wasn’t until i came across ur tumblr and another author’s tumblr that i realised how important engagement rlly is. (i swear i don’t live under a rock, there was maybe just a decently sized pebble over my head)

i was originally going to just send u that first lil paragraph, but then i got carried away 🥲 sorry i seem to be making a habit of sending u long asks 😭 and i apologise(but also don’t apologise?) in advance for all of the comments i will be leaving on ur future posts and when i finally catch up on ssfs i will not shut up (im being dramatic, i won’t spam u or anything LMAO)(it’s my own self induced exposure therapy, but just know i mean every comment i send with my whole chest)

anyways, i’ll scream it to the mountaintops, ur amazing, ur inspiring and i’m so grateful that i get to see a glimpse into ur breathtaking lil worlds. ♡

p.s. as i said previously, it’s late where i am so i hope this all makes sense 🥲

Awwwww you're so sweet. Thank you🥺🥺💙💙

Listen I've always been a lurker myself. Doing all this was my own exposure therapy too LOL because I became a hermit over the last few years and had to reset myself. Engagement is so important in fandom but also speaking from experience - don't burn yourself out with it either. Set boundaries. You don't have to carry it all on your back. If you don't have the energy to engage, you don't have to all the time!

I get what you mean though - don't be afraid of creators (or influencers or celebrities for that matter because we're all just meat bags with brains and bones. Lets be honest lol. No one is actually that important - no matter how they might act). Some people may not answer (either because they missed the notification, they're too busy, shy themselves, or are weird or whatever idk), and sometimes you'll come across some not very nice people too, but that's their own problem. I lurked in HL from the beginning myself before I decided to post something. Sometimes I regret not biting the bullet and showing up sooner, but it happened the way it was supposed to happen. Your love and excitement is appreciated at any point in the game, and you get to meet some lovely people along the way too!

Ultimately, if it's fun, enjoy yourself and engage. When it's no longer fun, pressure wash it all down, give yourself a break, and go back to what you loved about it to begin with. Fandom is our escape away from the real world, so don't pressure yourself in the social experiment too hard or you'll get a bad hangover😅😂 (I need to take my own advice tbh hahahhahaha).

Thank you so much for the message. You are so so kind 💙💙💙 And it's okay that you went hard on the yapping. I do it all the time clearly hahahaha

[cuddlepilefics]

Condensed breath

(DAY9) @12daysofchristmas

Christmas fair/market

Late shopping (together)

„Hm, this is actually not bad.”

“When you’re still waiting for the snow to fall, doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all.” -Coldplay

@fluff-cember

Fandom: GOT7

Sickie: Bambam

Caregiver: Mark

 

No one’s POV.:

With GOT7 planning a comeback after such a long time of being apart and Jinyoung getting discharged from the military, there were many reasons for Mark to feel cheerful. In a way, Seoul had become his home too over the past years and he had missed it while being abroad. Still, the mood wasn’t as cheerful as he had expected it to be. The weather had been gloomy ever since his plane had landed and most of the members busy with their solo schedules, so there was no one really to greet him. At least, his arrival had been kept secret from the media, so he had been able to make it through the airport and to his rental apartment in peace but once there, it was a little lonely.

Mark took the opportunity to try and sleep off as much of his jetlag as possible, so he wouldn’t be completely out of it when he met up with his friends. He’d also have to do some Christmas shopping once he was less tired because he already had too much luggage and figured it’d be easier to just buy Christmas gifts upon arrival. Maybe one of the members would accompany him once they were free because navigating a chaotic mall in December alone always sucked. He only needed to find a victim to drag out along with him.

Said victim ended up being Bambam a couple of days later because he was the only one without a schedule that evening. The younger didn’t seem pleased at all when Mark informed him that they’d be going out. He had a feeling that Bambam generally had become less fond of being in public lately, so maybe he was just the right person. It might do him some good to get out of the house for something other than work for a while. Well, Bambam didn’t see it that way, his annoyance evident when Mark informed him that he needed to do some Christmas shopping and that they would be going together. “Hyung, you don’t need me to do your shopping. You can do that perfectly fine on your own”, the younger argued, crossing his arms. Giving Bambam a sad look, Mark pouted: “Yeah, I could but I missed you. Come with me, pretty please?”

Mark’s prodding eventually worked and his dongsaeng grumbled as he put on his boots. Bambam had been feeling pretty rundown lately and would’ve been fine if the elder had just come over to play videogames together but he really didn’t feel like going out right now. It was far too cold outside and there’d be so many people at the mall and the Christmas fair, Mark insisted on visiting. Bundling up in a thick coat, Bambam put on his mask but also pulled his scarf up to conceal his face even further. Don’t get him wrong, he was happy to see Mark again and had missed him just as much but did they really have to go shopping together?

The mood may have been different if there had been any snow but despite the temperature being low enough, all they were left with were patches of ice that made walking a little tricky. “When you’re still waiting for the snow to fall, doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all”, Mark sighed, folding his collar up to keep the wind from blowing in his neck. Rolling his eyes, Bambam complained: “Why exactly are we doing this again, hyung?” – “Because I gotta buy Christmas gifts”, Mark smiled, bumping his dongsaeng’s shoulder, “Do you already have everything or do you need to buy some too?” – “I was planning on ordering them online, as could you…”, Bambam grumbled, making the older laugh: “Where’d be the fun in that?”

Bambam didn’t see the fun in shopping in person either, his nose starting to run behind his mask while his fingers slowly grew numb from the cold. Noticing the his dongsaeng was dragging his feet, Mark linked their arms and pulled the other along. He would get Bambam to cheer up at some point because who could really be grumpy at a Christmas market surrounded by sparkly lights and nostalgic scents? It turned out, the mall had been a bad idea, the place unbearably crowded, making them feel claustrophobic. The Christmas market on the other hand was a true treasure trove. The crisp evening air that hit their faces upon leaving the mall instantly let them breathe a little easier and Bambam tugged the mask off his face, inhaling deeply.

Sighing, Bambam’s breath created a small cloud in front of his face, emphasizing just how low the temperature had dropped. He gave a soft sniffle before pressing the side of his index finger against his septum, breath hitching ever so slightly. “Bless you”, Mark chuckled but Bambam shook his head. Though he managed to fight back the sneeze, the younger’s nose ran even more afterwards and when Mark noticed and handed him a tissue, he muttered an embarrassed: “Thagks.” – “Let’s go grab something warm to drink before we continue. We might even get some snow later, at least, I think it's cold enough for that now”, the older smiled and pulled Bambam to one of the market stalls. Before Bambam could refuse, he already held a steaming cup of hot cider in his hands and a small smile crept on his lips as the feeling slowly returned to his numb fingers. “Hm, this is actually not bad”, he mumbled, more to himself than to Mark.

The pair stood a little to the side with their drinks and Mark was confident that Bambam slowly made peace with being dragged outside. Although he seemed less gloomy now, something about his eyes still looked off. “Have you been sleeping alright lately”, Mark asked softly as he blew on his cup. Surprised where that question might be coming from, Bambam raised an eyebrow and hummed: “Why, what’s wrong?” – “That’s no answer to my question”, the older laughed, “But seriously. Nothing’s wrong in particular, I just noticed the circles under your eyes.” – “Oh.”

Bambam didn’t really know what to say but eventually admitted: “I guess, my insomnia has been kicking my ass lately. I’m just so freaking tired all the time. It sometimes feels like my body is shutting down.” – “What do you mean by shutting down”, Mark whispered, stepping closer to cup Bambam’s cheek. The younger evaded him though, shaking his head. Scrubbing at his nose, Bambam sniffled: “I’ve been feeling pretty rundown and a bit under the weather for a very long time now. Like, the days before a cold hits, only that it’s been like this for weeks. Sniffly, achy and overall out of it but a cold never hit, so I’m figuring this is my body’s way of telling me it needs rest but how? I’d sleep if I could.” – “Mhm, you do sound a little stuffy”, Mark confirmed, “Is that why you didn’t wanna come?” – “I dunno, jus’ not in a people-y mood lately”, the younger shrugged, taking a sip of his cider to soothe the irritation in his throat. Giving his arm a little nudge, Mark smiled: “You know, I’m here if you wanna talk, yeah?”

Mark had really hoped they’d get at least some snow that evening and he expectantly glanced up at the sky repeatedly. “When you’re still waiting for the snow to fall, doesn’t really feel like Christmas at all”, he mumbled and finished the last of his cider, offering, “Tell you what, we’ll check out the rest of the market and maybe also grab a bite for dinner here, my treat. Let’s see if we can find the prettiest stall out here. Maybe the fresh air will help you sleep better tonight and even if it doesn’t, you won’t be alone. I now officially invite myself over to your place. We can cuddle and sleep or talk all night if you can’t sleep. Plus, I might just beat you at our past videogames ‘cause I had some time to practice.”

After a moment of silence, Bambam breathed: “You wouldn’t mind if we ended up awake all night? Cuz that’s how it’s often been lately.” – “I don’t. I’m jetlagged anyway, so who knows whether I’m able to sleep. Besides, I meant it when I said I missed you”, Mark encouraged, slipping his hand into Bambam’s, “I enjoy every moment with you. Awake or asleep and although you’re a little low on energy, I also enjoy this. It’s kinda romantic with all the lights and it would’ve been a pity visiting this market by myself, so thanks for involuntarily letting me drag you along.” That earned him a surprised laugh, the younger muttering: “You’re unbelievable, hyung.” Believable or not, Mark did stay true to his promise. Not letting Bambam suffer through another restless night all by himself.