#i can't be bothered to summarize them all on my own

[wildernessuntothemselves]

it's that time again where i distract myself thinking about all the series i wanna write so i will once again include you with me. which fics (those already published as drabbles and those in my drafts) do you wanna see be turned into series?

kingdom come He thought he was falling for a sweet, misunderstood witch. You made him believe you needed saving—so of course he fell in love, pledged his life to you, and swore he'd protect you from the world. Turns out, he needed saving. And you're the reason he’s doomed. Now he’s cursed, collared, and stuck at your side as your loyal little hellhound, He should’ve killed you when he had the chance. But he didn’t. And now? He belongs to you.

God is a Woman

You were just toying with him. A pure, church-raised boy who didn’t know the first thing about lust—let alone demons. You only meant to tease him, maybe break him a little. But what you don't know is that the boy who once begged at your feet is the one fated to destroy you.

3. Tale as old as time

You're not supposed to mess with any of them—but that never stopped you before.

Soobin’s the innocent altar boy who watches you like he’s starving. Yeonjun’s the temple guard who spoils you as if it would win you over. And Beomgyu’s the entitled noble who thinks you belong to him just because he wants you.

You can't choose, but they've all decided you were theirs.

4. Real Boy

ou don’t do love. You don’t even do feelings. You just wanted something pretty to keep you company—so you stitched together the perfect little puppet and gave him life.

Beomgyu is sweet, soft-spoken, and so heartbreakingly devoted. Maybe too devoted.

There’s something off about him. Something that clings.

But when that isn't enough, you try again—this time creating Taehyun, blank-eyed and beautiful. He’s quiet, polite, a perfect doll.

And Beomgyu hates him.

He doesn’t understand why you needed another. Why you’d want anyone but him.

And if your new creation ends up broken? Well… maybe that’s what he was made for.

5. Not even death

You promised Beomgyu you'd love him forever. Then he died.

Grief nearly broke you—until Yeonjun, his best friend, helped pick up the pieces. You never meant to fall for each other. It just happened. You loved Beomgyu. You still love him.

But now things in the house aren’t right. Pictures are moved. Bruises bloom on your skin. Yeonjun keeps getting hurt. And sometimes, when you turn around… you see him.

Beomgyu’s back.

And he hasn’t forgotten your promise.

Not even in death.

6. Stud!gyu

Beomgyu is your prized hybrid—beautiful, obedient, and always so eager to please. You’ve spoiled him since the day he arrived, and in return, he’s given you everything you’ve ever asked for. Especially when it comes to the “product” your clients are willing to pay top dollar for.

Everything was fine… until the day you skipped your morning shower.

He caught the scent of your boyfriend—and snapped.

Suddenly your sweet, soft boy isn’t so sweet anymore. Now he’s jealous, territorial, and refusing to give you anything. A very expensive contract is on the verge of falling through, but beomgyu doesn't yield. He tells you the only way he'll be getting his cum is if you collect it from your pussy.

7. Wild ones

When the wolves came crawling to your coven for help, you named your price: one of them would have to be sacrificed. You didn’t say what that meant—but they agreed anyway. And now their eldest lies chained to your altar, hard and helpless, while you wring every drop from him in front of his brothers.

Yeonjun is sweet. Obedient. Easy to break. But the others? Not so much.

You shouldn’t have teased theme. But you couldn’t help it. They’re all so easy to rile up—and you love watching them fall apart.

You’re not afraid. You probably should be.

8. pup!gyu and kitty!you

Beomgyu’s a big, clingy dog hybrid you’ve spent months avoiding—loud, touchy, and way too obsessed with cuddling. You never wanted anything to do with him… until winter hit and the heat got cut off.

You only meant to use him for warmth. But now he’s rutting against you in his sleep, crying your name like a bitch in heat, and you’re the one helping him get off just to keep him from leaving the bed.

And now that you’ve touched him, now that he knows how good your hand feels wrapped around his cock? There’s no going back.

He’s your mutt now. Your problem. And you’ll take care of him—your way. Just as long as Master never finds out.

9. Bazaar

Beomgyu’s never shown interest in the prince’s fancy mates. Not the trained courtesans or the purebred hybrids gifted to him since he was a pup.

Then he sees you—a mongrel on display in the back of a seedy market, leered at and pawed over for coins. He shouldn’t want you. But he does.

And once he gets a taste, he’s hooked.

Now you’re living in the palace, forced into silk and collars, while Beomgyu follows you around like a lovesick mutt—clingy, possessive, begging you to let him breed you. To give him kittens. To love him.

10. High stakes

You’ve killed slayers before—young, cocky, predictable. So when they send another one after you, you’re more amused than worried.

Until you get him alone.

He’s sweet-faced and flirty, but under the charm is a sadistic little freak who stabs first and moans later. You leave him dazed and bleeding on your floor… and he still finds you the next night.

You try to feed. He kills your meal.

You try to run. He makes you beg.

You fuck. You feed. You both almost die.

And still, neither of you can stay away.

[winxanity-ii]

𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓: 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃

❘ prev. chapter ❘༻✦༺❘ next chapter ❘

Sorry, not an update, but I'll try to keep this short...

I just wanted to take a second to speak directly and honestly with y'all after posting that last chapter (CHAPTER 42.5: WRATH WEARS MANY FACES). I've been seeing a few responses that, while valid in feeling, have also reminded me why I normally don't look at comments after publishing something heavy.

Let me be clear: I know this chapter was a lot. It was violent. It was cruel. It was painful. That was intentional.

This isn't fluff. This isn't comfort every chapter. This is a mythos-based story, rooted in ancient violence, power imbalance, and divine wrath.

I'm not here writing gore for fun or romanticizing harm—but I am writing a story where gods and mortals alike are capable of monstrous things, especially when they feel justified.

Chapter 42.5 was especially meant to remind you who Apollo, Hermes, and Telemachus really are—how close they sit to the divine cruelty of Olympus. I love them, yes. They're soft to MC, yes. But they are not soft to the world and those they deem unimportant/useless. That contrast is what makes their tenderness meaningful.

And I've hidden Hermes' darker side behind jokes long enough. Some of y'all forgot he's a god, and a trickster, and someone with centuries of blood under his belt. There's nothing squeaky clean about him.

If the chapter bothered you—I understand. It's not meant to sit easy. And for those of you who felt empathy for Melanion, or said this felt too much... I respect your reactions. Seriously. You're allowed to feel conflicted. That's what good storytelling should do.

But what isn't okay is the passive-aggressive commentary about my choices as a writer. I've been transparent from the beginning: this fic isn't some wholesome, "MC gets babied 24/7" kind of tale. It's a dark, myth-heavy journey with stakes and consequences. You don't get a kiss in Chapter 2 here. You had to wait because the world I'm building doesn't hand out softness that easily.

And I can't help but find it a bit hypocritical how some folks cheer for Andreia to die, but pity the man who murdered MC in cold blood. Y'all got mad at her for emotional cruelty, but want grace for someone who left them bleeding in an alley? We must not have grown up reading the same myths lol.

I'm not saying you can't critique or feel strongly. You're welcome to disagree. To feel things deeply. That's human. But don't twist the space/story I've created into something it was never meant to be. This isn't an Epic Musical fluff AU (hence the note of not needing to actually know about it). This is Olympus. This is blood-soaked marble. This is war, consequence, and love wrapped in power dynamics. I've made that plenty clear with me writing out the suitors carnage in chapter 6 instead of summarizing it.

And I say this with love but also honesty: if my content, tone, or direction rubs you the wrong way, it's okay to step away. Truly. I'll never beg anyone to read something outside their comfort zone.

Also—and this might be petty but I'm adding it here anyway—I'm even more annoyed because I had to spoil a big MC-related moment to my own sister. 😭

We promised to treat each other as authors, only editing each other's chapters once we’d both read them fully. That was the deal. But she noticed I was acting off and pushed me about it—kept asking what was wrong and finally told me to just rant before it ate me alive. So I did.

And man, I'm a damn blabbermouth because once I started venting, it all spilled out. Do you know how hard it was keeping a main plot twist from her? Only to have to reveal it because sister issues come first?? 😭💀

But yeah, back to being serious, this is my second serious fic, one where I'm trying to do something I can look back on and be like 'Xani, you ate that up fr.' And if that means I have to block people who threaten the joy or safety of my creative space?

Then so be it—rejection sensitivity or not.

That being said, I'm taking a real break from updating. I know I said I was taking a break after the last chapter, but the truth is, I was just trying to pace myself and stay ahead without losing momentum...but now I mean it—for real. I think I need an actual one to cool off and not spiral.

And yeah... maybe this rant feels a little intense or childish to some of y'all, but I needed to say it or I was just gonna end up doing something impulsive that I'd end up regretting later.

To those of you who do get it, who read carefully and trust the process—thank you. Deeply.

I'll see y'all soon 🖤

—Xani

Tag List: nerds4life246 ace-spades-1 uniquetravelerone alassal thesimppotato11 jackintheboxs-world kahlan170 akiqvq matchaabread danishland uselessmoonlight apad-ravya suckerforblondies jolixtreesunn dreamtheatre woncloudie byzantiumhollow kisskisskys b4ts1e sarcasticbitchsblog trashcannotbealive idkanyonealrr

[frostbytemyrik]

Danny Phantom Required* Watching

*It isn't actually required. I know there are a ton of phans who have never even seen a single episode of the show, but it's a fun watch and I would recommend at least catching some.

Sorting the episodes into colors (with the first letter in parenthesis by the title for those who might be too colorblind to tell). Note that this is all just my objective opinion, and everyone is free to leave their own thoughts on this!

Green (G) - Introduction of an important character or major plot development, such as a new power for Danny or another major shift in the status quo. If you can only watch a few of the episodes, watch these.

Pink (P) - Introduction of a side character or minor plot development.

Red (R) - Introduction of a new character worth mentioning or other general status quo change, but the episode is generally considered to be...not great by most people. (But hey, nothing wrong with liking these episodes!) They'll be summarized at the bottom of each episode description for those who can't be bothered to watch them.

Blue (B) - Nothing important happens to the overall plot, but it's a fun episode that fleshes out the characters.

Season 1

Episode 1: Mystery Meat (R) - Establishes the show and its main characters: Danny, Sam, and Tucker, as well as a lot of other important characters such as the Fenton parents and Jazz, and minor recurring characters like Dash and the Lunch Lady. The writers are still getting their footing so the main trio is unfortunately among the flattest they get here.

Episode 2: Parental Bonding (P) - Introduction of Paulina and Dora, first look at Valerie, and most importantly, Danny's power to overshadow people. Fun episode in general, Tucker makes a weird comment at the start but this is one of Sam's absolute best episodes as a character. (Tucker and Sam actually getting to be fun characters instead of just "butt-monkey comic relief" and "selfish asshole" is rarer than I'd like, so I always like pointing out the episodes where they get some love.)

Episode 3: One of a Kind (G) - Introduction of Skulker, a recurring major antagonist, and his motivations.

Episode 4: Attack of the Killer Garage Sale (P) - Introduction of Technus, Ghost Master of Technology and Destroyer of Worlds, Manipulator of Machines, Lord of all Gadgetry, Wizard of Integrated Circuitry, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping.

Episode 6: What You Want (P) - First appearance of Danny's Ghost Ray and introduction to Desiree and the Ghost Catcher (a Fenton device with an unfortunately rather...culturally insensitive name and design), explores Tucker and his relationship to Danny. I went back and forth between making this green and pink because I'm biased in my love for this episode, but it isn't necessary to comprehend later episodes. (If you can watch it, though, it's a lot of fun as we get to see how close Danny and Tucker are and how Tucker feels about Danny's powers.)

Episode 7: Bitter Reunions (G) - Formal introduction to main series antagonist, Vlad Masters, and his relationship with the Fentons and the ghosts of the Ghost Zone. (Antisemitism tw: Vlad has hired ghost hitmen that are vultures with Yiddish accents, hooked beaks, and fezzes. They thankfully don't show up anywhere else, as far as I can remember.)

Episode 8: Prisoners of Love (P) - Introduction to the Ghost Zone itself and Walker, a side antagonist. Shows Alicia, Danny and Jazz's maternal aunt who never appears again after this episode.

Episode 9: My Brother's Keeper (G) - Gives Jazz a focus and formally makes her a major player in the plot through a certain discovery she makes. Also introduces side antagonist Dr. Penelope Spectra.

Episode 10: Shades of Gray (G) - Valerie Gray, a background character from Episode 2, gets new motivations and becomes an important part of the series going forward.

Episode 11: Fanning the Flames (P) - Ember is introduced, and she hypnotizes the entire town to fall for her with her music. To keep Danny out of her hair, she makes him fall for Sam. Whether this episode is a Pink or a Red depends on whether or not that bothers you. (Racism tw: there's a sequence towards the end of the episode that shows people around the world watching Ember, and they're all very stereotyped appearances of Japanese, Eastern European, Arabian, and Indigenous Australian people. Thanks, Hartman.)

Episode 12: Teacher of the Year (B) - A fun episode with Technus. It does have some of that early 2000s "don't underestimate me because I'm a girl" stuff, but it's still a good episode with a lot of heart.

Episode 13: Fright Night (P) - Introduces Fright Knight. A Halloween special that has its ups and downs (eating underwear?) It's just really funny that an actual ghost, who has been to the maddeningly twisted and alien world of the afterlife, still can't scare anyone to save his life.

Episode 14: 13 (P) - It's a shame this isn't actually the 13th episode. Anyway, it introduces Johnny 13 and Kitty, while Tucker and Sam get to hang out without Danny while trying to solve Tucker's new run of bad luck and the fallout for his reputation.

Episode 15: Public Enemies (G) - Walker's back and he's making a major shift in the status quo: ghosts are confirmed to exist as he stages a major invasion of the town. Things don't go well for Danny, and the repercussions will be felt for well into the series. Also introduces Wulf, a ghost who looks like a werewolf, exclusively speaks Esperanto, and has the ability to tear the fabric of reality to create portals between Earth and the Ghost Zone. He's putting this power to use for Walker, but it's clearly not by choice...

Episode 17: Maternal Instinct (B) - Maddie notices her son is growing distant from her and tries to take him to a science symposium to bond with him, but disaster strikes and leaves them in the woods, with the only shelter available being...a cabin owned and occupied by none other than Vlad. Meanwhile, Jack tries to understand Jazz, who doesn't seem to want anything to do with him or ghost hunting. Lots of great character moments for the Fentons.

Episode 18: Life Lessons (B) - Danny and Valerie, arriving late to class because they both were out ghost hunting, get paired up in home economics class to raise a flour sack baby together. We get more insight into what Valerie's life is like after Shades of Gray, and she learns to get along with both Fenton and, temporarily, Phantom, after an excursion through Skulker's part of the Ghost Zone. As a B-plot, Tucker makes money babysitting other students' flour sacks while ignoring the one he has with Sam, and Sam tries not to get attached to the sack. It's not important to the plot AT ALL but I'd put this as a must-watch if I could. Alas, I made the rules and must follow them.

Episode 19: The Million Dollar Ghost (B) - A million dollars is placed on the head of the ghost boy, Public Ghost Enemy #1: Inviso-Bill, known to us in the audience as Danny Phantom.

Episode 20: Control Freaks (G) - The circus is in town! New villain Freakshow gets introduced, and he becomes important later. Kinda. Depending on how much you like a certain blue episode that comes on down the line. The trio go to this cool new goth circus, but there's a string of ghostly robberies in town and Danny has been acting strangely lately...

Season 2

Episode 1/21: Memory Blank (R) - Danny and Sam have a fight, Sam wishes she'd never met him, Desiree makes the wish come true and now Danny has no powers and neither he nor Tucker remember her at all. Sam gets him fried by the portal again to get his powers back, but this time with a new logo she designed slapped onto his chest. Really all that happens is Danny gets his logo. This can be skipped...if you wish. ;)

Episode 2/22: Doctor's Disorders (B) - There's a bug going around - literally - getting the kids at Casper High sick. Symptoms include sneezing, chills, coughing, congestion, and various ghost powers depending on the student. The only ones immune seem to be Danny (thanks to his ghost powers) and Tucker (wearing his new homemade cologne that smells awful in a different way to everyone). A new hospital opens up to treat them, but something fishy is definitely going on. ...But Tucker is afraid of hospitals. Great Tucker episode.

Episode 3/23: Pirate Radio (P) - Introduction to Youngblood, an occasional antagonist. A new radio program pops up, and every adult in town (and Jazz, who's 16 but sees herself as an adult) is enraptured by it and the one song that it plays on loop. Then one day, every single adult in town leaves behind a note that they're going on a cruise, and it's up to Danny to rally the teens of Amity Park to discover what's so fishy about the cruise and get their parents back.

Episode 4/24-5/25: Reign Storm (G) - The creepy castle in the Ghost Zone Danny accidentally freed Fright Knight from in Fright Night holds yet another secret: the coffin of the Ghost King, known as Pariah Dark, whose goal is to rule over the Ghost Zone and the human world with an iron fist. Vlad frees him hoping to snatch the powerful artifacts on him, but it backfires and now the King is free and follows the fleeing ghosts to Amity Park, which he promptly invades. Danny, Valerie, and various enemies including Vlad need to team up to seal King Pariah back within his sarcophagus and save both Amity Park and the Ghost Zone as a whole. Major status quo shifts happen here.

Episode 6/26: Identity Crisis (B) - Not my favorite episode, but I'm including it here because it was popular with the Phandom a decade ago. Danny gets tired of trying to balance his human and ghost lives, so splits himself in two using the Ghost Catcher that was introduced in Season 1 episode 6: What You Want. That also, unfortunately, divides his personality to two extremes; the human half ("Fun Danny") is lazy while the ghost half ("Super Danny") is an absolute ham of a superhero stereotype, and Tucker and Sam struggle to put their friend back together so he can stop Technus in a way only he can (and also because both halves are honestly really annoying them).

Episode 8/28-9/29: The Ultimate Enemy (G) - This is THE episode of all time. Maybe not the best episode, but it's great in its own right and, more importantly for this list, introduces another major status quo shift. It's also basically required viewing for the comic that came out last year (at time of writing), as that comic is a direct follow-up to this episode. Clockwork, a ghost that is essentially a deity of time, has a mission to eliminate the greatest threat to Earth and the Ghost Zone that has ever been before he comes into that role: a ghost named Danny Phantom. Danny comes face-to-face with a version of himself that caused a doomed future, and needs to fight to ensure that future never comes to pass.

Episode 10/30: The Fright Before Christmas (B) - The boy Danny Fenton, a Grinch to his core, finds the holiday season to be quite a chore. Into the Ghost Zone to blow off some steam, he accidentally causes a scene: the Ghost Writer's finished manuscript in ashes, and with Danny's indifference he clashes. He traps him in a book that warps space and time, and forces all events in his life to rhyme. You're in for a treat if you like all these rhymes, but if they annoy you, then don't waste your time. (This factoid may not matter to you, but this is where we learn of the Christmas Truce!)

Episode 11/31: Secret Weapons (R) - Jazz is overbearing, Danny doesn't like it, so Jazz decides to go to Vlad. The episode's latter half isn't bad, but it's R because Jazz's constant invasions of Danny's privacy and the repetitive thermos jokes grate on me. If you plan to skip, the thing that makes it a red episode is this: Vlad learns that Jazz is in-the-know.

Episode 12/32: Flirting With Disaster (G) - A lot of the more plot-relevant episodes in season 2 (and one in season 1) have been building romantic tension between Danny and Valerie, and here's where it comes to a head: they actually start dating! However, after some jealous stalking thorough investigating, Sam finds that there's someone pulling the strings, and manipulating their real feelings for each other to pull them together and get them out of the way... Valerie especially undergoes a lot of major character moments, and we learn a lot more about her as a person. One of my personal favorite episodes (and I don't just say that because I'm a Danny/Valerie truther) (the "engraved" ring and Sam being a stalker about it aren't great, but honestly I just try to ignore those parts. Yes, I know I'm biased).

Episode 17/37: Kindred Spirits (G) - While Danny's busy being an asshole to his friends leaving Sam and Tucker to take the blame for property damages during his fights, he finds a strange girl named Danielle (or "Dani") who claims to be his cousin and shares an eerie resemblance with him. The similarities go more than skin deep, as she quickly reveals that she's ALSO half ghost. Tucker and Sam warn Danny that there's something suspicious about the whole ordeal (in between being left behind to be blamed for collateral damage more times than I'm bothered to count right now), but when Danny winds up in trouble anyway, they still skip detention (that he got them in) to save him before it's too late. Danny's a dick, but despite that, it's still a good episode and we get introduced to Dani before her next appearance.

Episode 19/39-20/40: Reality Trip (B) - Freakshow gets the Reality Gauntlet: an off-brand Infinity Gauntlet that can warp reality to anything he desires. He gets Danny's secret revealed to the world, causing the government agency the Guys In White (from Million Dollar Ghost in season 1) to relentlessly pursue him. Luckily, thanks to knowledge Sam gained from a book on the gauntlet, the main trio manages to warp the gems to different parts of the United States, severely limiting Freakshow's power. Unluckily, Freakshow retaliates by kidnapping their parents and Jazz, forcing the three to go on a cross-country road trip to get the gems back to Freakshow and save their families while evading the law. No permanent shifts of the status quo, but one of my personal favorite episodes. It's a fun ride!

Season 3

Episode 1/41: Eye for an Eye (R) - A prank war between Danny and Vlad ends in Vlad becoming mayor and passing a lot of horrible laws specifically to spite Danny. The laws are undone by the end of the episode, but Vlad stays mayor.

Episode 2/42: Infinite Realms (R) - In trying to map out the Ghost Zone, the main trio end up meeting Frostbite: leader of a realm in the Zone known as the Far Frozen, filled with spirits that take the form of peaceful, yeti-like monster folk who revere Danny as the chosen one who defeated Pariah Dark. Frostbite is also keeper of the Infi-Map: a map that can take the user anywhere in the Ghost Zone. Now for the bad news: Vlad is here, he wants world domination now for some reason, and he wants the map to help him do it. Vlad steals the map, the trio needs to get it back. It's not the worst episode, but Vlad's villain decay is...tragic. Tl;dr: Frostbite is the leader of a tribe of friendly yeti spirits and keeps the Infi-Map, which can take the user to any point in the ghost zone.

Episode 5/45: Forever Phantom (B) - One of the only actually fun filler episodes in season 3. Introduces us to Amorpho: a ghost with the power to shapeshift into anything and anyone, who uses their power to cause mayhem for attention. They bite off more than they can chew when they impersonate Danny Phantom, however, and a Fenton device gone awry locks both Amorpho and Danny into the form of Danny Phantom. Wacky hijinks abound.

Episode 6/46: Urban Jungle (G) - Haha green. Like plants. Anyway, Danny has been cold lately. No matter what he does or where he is, he's consistently freezing. It gets worse: while Danny's in this weakened state, a giant plant ghost named Undergrowth takes over Amity Park and possesses Sam. Unable to fight the constantly-regenerating Undergrowth or to keep himself from freezing, he flees into the Ghost Zone to seek Frostbite's aid.

Episode 9/49: Frightmare (B) - Danny wakes up one night to learn, to his horror, that Nocturne, the ghost of dreams, has put all of Amity Park into a deep sleep to feed on their energy. He enters the dreams of his friends to wake them and get their help taking Nocturne down. A good episode for people who ship Danny/Sam, and a GREAT episode for people like me who like to pretend that all the episodes I left off the season 3 list were just bad dreams.

Episode 10/50: Claw of the Wild (B) - The students of Casper High are ending summer with a camping trip in a foggy forest. All seems normal until, one by one, campers go missing. Danny, Tucker, and Sam go investigating and find their ally Wulf, who seems to know something about the disappearances...

Episode 11/51: D-Stabilized (G) - Regarded by most as the final good episode of Danny Phantom. Dani had been on her own in the world since we last left her, but over time, her form has been getting unstable, causing her to be slowly melting into a puddle of ectoplasm. She tries returning to Amity Park to get help, but is now being hunted down by Valerie, who Vlad commissioned so he could melt Dani down and study her remains to make a superior clone. (Valerie thinks he's just going to keep her contained for the safety of Amity Park; she isn't informed of the cloning.) Valerie turns Dani in to Vlad, but Danny manages to form a shaky alliance with Valerie to get Dani back, since Valerie knows that Dani is half human.

Episode 12/52-13:53: Phantom Planet (R) - The only reason this is here is because the comic continues from where this episode left off. If it didn't, I'd suggest ignoring it entirely. Rapid-fire summary: an asteroid is about to hit Earth, Vlad reveals himself to the world and demands unquestioning rule over Earth (and one trillion dollars or something) in exchange for turning the asteroid intangible. Vlad can't turn it intangible since it's made of Ectoranium, an anti-ghost substance we never hear of until now. Jack leaves Vlad in outer space. Danny gets every ghost he knows to help him turn Earth intangible, it works somehow, and Danny reveals his secret identity to the world. Statues of Danny are built all over the world, Sam and Danny start dating, and Tucker becomes mayor of Amity Park. A bunch of other stuff happens too but it's all stupid. Valerie gets thrown into a dumpster on live TV and that's her only appearance besides clapping for Danny at the end. I'm still mad. Don't watch Phantom Planet.

The Comics

Book 1: A Glitch in Time (G) - Danny's life is perfect: his secret identity is out, and the world accepts him not just as a part of it, but as its savior. His parents and former bullies fight on his side now, he's in a committed relationship with Sam, and Amity Park seems to be at peace. There's just one problem: his powers are getting weaker by the day. Unbeknownst to him, there's another problem in progress: Dan Phantom, the evil future Danny from The Ultimate Enemy, is released and fuses with Clockwork, causing present Danny and those near him to experience unstable glitches in time. Vlad returns to warn Danny of the threat of Dan, and they all team up to venture into the depths of the Ghost Zone to find a way to stop Dan and get Danny back to full strength. Meanwhile, Jazz and Valerie hold down the fort at Amity Park, holding Dan off for as long as they can while the trio and Vlad search for answers.

Book 2: To be continued in 2025!

Danny Phantom can be watched on Paramount Plus, but if you don't have a subscription, there may be DVDs at your local library! Other people may also have resources on how to watch the show, so feel free to ask around!

Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time can be found anywhere books are sold! Abrams Books Amazon Barnes and Noble Google Play Waterstones

[you-aint-gotta-pray-for-me]

Hell on Earth: Chapter 1

words: 2.7k

pairing: Steve Harrington x ex-friend!Henderson!reader (eventually romantic- could be called a slow burn I guess, but they're not together right now, there's some bad blood, just read it man I suck at summarizing T_T)

summary: Things do not seem normal in simple, down-to-earth town Hawkins, Indiana. With Will Byers missing, tensions rise while the mystery claims another victim.

timeline: set in season one right after Will goes missing

warnings: language, bending of canon, fic from reader's pov (3rd person will be there as well, will warn before a pov change if there is one)

a/n: hey guys! so, I see you have found the first part of Hell on Earth :) This is a Steve x reader, yes, I promise we will get there and it'll be awesome when we do, but as much as it is a reader insert Steve slash fic, this is also an actual Stranger Things spin-off story that I'm writing, meaning there will be a lot of focus on the actual plot along with steve and reader's relationship. Also yes, reader is Dustin's older sister.

Reader POV

Will Byers was the kind of kid you wouldn't know was missing until you looked for him. He didn't bother anybody, just kept to himself and his little group doing whatever it is kids these days do, you know? He was a simple, soft-spoken kid, the last person you would wish danger upon. So when I heard that he'd gone missing, I was as confused as I was worried.

"And he was with you when you cycled back home?"

"Yes, Jesus Christ (Y/n), for the millionth time. Yes."

"Don't get annoyed you little shit, I'm trying to help you here."

"Oh, excuse me for getting worried because my best friend is freaking missing."

"Dustin! Don't talk to your sister like that!" I heard Mom scream at us from the living room, oblivious to any context. I mean, he was right to get annoyed with me. His exasperated look at Mom's comment told me he thought the same thing. I just shook my head in understanding. What more can I do?

"Listen, I know you want to go looking for him, I would too, but you can't go on your own. I need you to promise me you won't go on your own, okay? Wait after school, and we'll go together."

"You get off school like two hours after I do, what am I supposed to do, sit and scream his name from my room and hope he shows up? Come on, man. That's bullsh-"

"Dustin."

"What?"

I stared at him, hoping my disapproving-but-concerned-older-sister look told him what he needed to hear. It did.

"Fine. 2 hours. A minute late and I'm going off on my own."

"Deal," I said, knowing full well that I'd have to ditch Algebra II. I wasn't complaining, though. Staring at a newly painted wall and waiting for it to dry would be more interesting than Algebra II.

Later that day

I had exactly 5 minutes to bolt before Algebra II started. I went to my locker and hurriedly rammed all my shit inside when I noticed my locker neighbor Barbara coming towards hers. We'd make conversation when we're at our lockers and smile and wave when we saw each other in the hallway. Outside of that, I didn't really know her all too well.

"Algebra II?"

"Nah, I'm ditching. I promised my brother I'd help him with some stuff."

"Lucky," she sighed. "I can't believe I need to sit through Mr Treeger's bullshit for 2 hours."

"You are welcome to join me if you'd like," I offered with a grin. "Algebra II can be soul-sucking."

"Thank you, really, but I can't leave Nancy hanging. Besides, we've got this thing later as well and, yeah, it's a whole thing, don't bother," she explained.

"Suit yourself, Barb." I shut my locker and almost left before I heard her voice again.

"I mean, if you need notes or anything, I could- uh- I could take them for you? If you want?" she said, almost like she wasn't sure I would take her up on her offer.

"I would love that, actually. Where do you live?"

"Uh, I think I’ll be at Steve’s party later. At the Harrington's. You know the place?" She shifted her books like they suddenly weighed too much. Her expression said she wasn't entirely looking forward to this.

Hearing Steve's name threw me slightly on edge. When you grow up with somebody and you fall out with them, you don't exactly forget things about them. I practically spent half my life at his house. I practically spent half my life with him. So, yes. I definitely knew the place.

"Y-yeah. I do"

"Great, I'll have it ready, then."

"Barb, you are literally an angel." I hurriedly gave her an impromptu hug and rushed outside to get to my car, where I saw Jonathan Byers handing out missing posters. His shoulders sagged under the weight of the stack in his hands and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. I can only imagine what he and Mrs Byers were going through.

I hesitated for a second before walking up to him. I knew Jonathan from Dustin hanging out with Will. We weren't close friends or anything, but someone had to say something. His hands trembled slightly as he stapled one of the posters onto the community board near the lot, his eyes darting nervously like he was waiting for Will to suddenly appear and tell him it was all a joke.

"Hey, Jonathan."

He flinched at my voice, turning to me with an exhausted half-smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

"Hey," he mumbled.

I nodded at the posters in his hands. "Any updates? Are the cops, like… actually doing anything?"

"They found his cycle a few minutes from Mirkwood. So that's... yeah. That's it, I guess?"

"What are they thinking?"

He hesitated, glancing down at the posters like he thought they might hold some kind of answer. "They think he might’ve run away, but that’s not Will. He wouldn’t just… leave."

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I don’t buy that either. Will’s not the type to just take off. He’s… dependable, you know?"

Jonathan looked at me for a moment, his expression softening just a little. "Thanks."

I shrugged, kicking at a loose rock on the ground. "For what? Telling the truth?"

"For… caring, I guess," he said, turning back to his work.

I watched him for a second longer, the weight of the whole situation sinking in deeper. "Let me know if you need help. With the posters or anything else."

Jonathan nodded, his focus back on the board. "Thanks," he said again, so quiet I almost missed it.

I didn’t know what else to say, so I just turned and walked back to my car, leaving him to keep stapling the same plea for help over and over.

I drove back home and Dustin was practically at the edge of his seat, looking like he was at the verge of explosion.

"What the hell took you so long?"

"Jesus Christ, I'm right on time. Give me a break."

He continued to yell at me about how time is of the essence. I held up a hand to calm him down. "Relax, I’m here now, aren’t I? Anyway, listen. They found some stuff near Mirkwood."

That got his attention. His eyes widened, his mouth snapping shut mid-rant. "What kind of stuff?"

I sat down across from him, leaning forward so Mom couldn’t overhear from the kitchen. "They found his bike. Just abandoned on the side of the road. No tracks, no clues, nothing else. It’s like he just… vanished."

Dustin’s face fell, his usual confident bravado cracking under the weight of what I’d just told him. "His bike?" he echoed, voice smaller now.

"Yeah. Cops are calling it ‘strange circumstances.’ I’m calling it suspicious as hell."

He nodded, jaw tightening as his brain started working overtime. "Okay. Okay, so that means he didn’t run away. Someone- or something- took him."

I flinched a little at how easily he jumped to "something." This was Hawkins. Strange wasn’t on the table.

"Dustin, don’t get carried away. Let’s stick to facts. We know where his bike was, and that’s it. But you promised me you wouldn’t do anything stupid, remember?"

He rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. "Fine. But we need to check it out. Together."

I sighed, knowing there was no talking him out of it. "Together. No sneaking off without me, got it?"

"Got it," he said, though I could tell from his tone he was already planning something.

A couple hours later

"So that was fucking useless."

"Dustin, come on. Don't be like that."

"We found nothing, (Y/n)! He's out there, probably being tortured for all we know, and we found literally nothing."

"Don't jump to conclusions. Yes, we don't know anything now. But we are not the only people looking. Okay?"

"I'm telling you. We should look for him right around when he went missing."

"No way I'm letting you go out there at 10 pm unsupervised. Mom would gut me."

"I won't be unsupervised if you're with me."

"Dustin," I sighed, slightly annoyed at how he wouldn't level with me at all. "Whatever happened to Will could be bigger than us. If it's something we can't handle, I don't want us to go all in with literally no information."

"Oh, come on! but-"

"No buts. Sit this one out. I am begging you. At least until we know something."

Even though he begrudgingly agreed, his words stuck with me. I hated the idea of him sneaking off on his own, but I also couldn’t shake the feeling that he was right. If there were answers out there, they wouldn’t come to us- we had to go to them. And if I knew Dustin at all, I knew exactly what that meant. He’d go anyway.

The only way for me to deal with this was to either find something before he did or supervise, just in case. And both those options required me to be out in the woods in the dead of the night. Perfect. I remembered that I had to stop by to see Barb so it won't all be for nothing.

The glow of streetlights flickered against the windshield as I pulled up to the Harringtons' house. The faint hum of music and muffled laughter carried through the warm night air, the telltale signs of a Steve Harrington classic. For a moment, I hesitated, fingers gripping the steering wheel. It had been a while since I’d set foot here, and it felt strange- nostalgic in a way that made my chest tight. I didn't like it.

I stepped out of the car and walked around the side of the house, avoiding the main door. I wasn’t here for the party, and I definitely wasn’t in the mood to exchange awkward hellos with people who probably didn’t even remember my name. Also, I might punch Tommy and Carol just because.

The backyard was bathed in the eerie blue glow of the pool lights. It was quieter here, the party sounds muffled by the distance. Sitting by the pool, her legs dangling lazily in the water, was Barb. She was hunched over slightly, fiddling with the strap of her watch, looking as out of place as I felt.

"Hey," I called softly, not wanting to startle her.

She looked up, her face lighting up with a small, relieved smile. "Oh, hey! You made it."

"Yeah," I said, walking over and sitting beside her on the cool concrete. "Figured I’d pick up those notes before your night gets too crazy," I said before I noticed her poorly bandaged hand bloody hand.

"Holy shit, you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's... nothing. I'm okay."

"Partied too hard?"

Barb scoffed, glancing over her shoulder at the house. "Yeah, not exactly my scene. Nancy’s inside with Steve. I’m just... taking a break."

I nodded, leaning back on my palms and staring at the pool. Nancy's inside with Steve. That didn't bother me at all. "Can’t say I blame you. These things get out of hand quickly," I said, slightly regretting my hand pun.

She laughed at my poorly timed joke and reached into her bag to pull out a neatly folded piece of paper. "Here you go. Sorry if it’s a little messy. Mr. Treeger was really on one today."

I took the notes with a grateful smile. "You’re the best, Barb. Seriously."

She waved it off like it was no big deal. "It’s nothing. So, what are you up to?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out a worn paperback with a cracked spine and dog-eared pages. "Actually, I thought you might need this more than I do right now," I said, handing Barb my copy of The Shining.

Her eyes lit up as she took it, carefully running her fingers over the cover. "No way. I’ve been wanting to read this forever."

"Well, now you’ve got no excuse. It’s a classic. Just don’t read it alone at night unless you want to start hearing creepy voices in your house."

Barb laughed, flipping through the pages. "Thanks, (Y/n). This is awesome. I’ll take good care of it, promise." She looked up at me, her expression softening. "This one your favorite? "

"It's my comfort book, honestly"

"The Shining is your comfort book?".

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it. Besides, no matter how bad my day is going, everyone in that book is having a much worse, more horrible day."

She laughed and looked at me with a smile extending far beyond her eyes. "But seriously, why do you always have the best recommendations? Like, do you just spend all your time reading?"

"I wouldn’t say all my time," I joked, leaning back and shrugging. "But books don’t talk back or ditch you for better plans. So they’ve got that going for them."

Barb chuckled, but her smile faltered slightly, and she hesitated before asking, "Speaking of people ditching... can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to."

I glanced at her, curious. "Shoot."

"What happened with you and Steve? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking. You two seemed really close back then"

I froze for a moment, caught off guard by the question. It wasn’t exactly something I loved to think about, let alone talk about. Barb’s expression wasn’t nosy or judgmental- just genuinely curious. I hesitated for a moment, debating whether to say anything. But Barb was easy to talk to, and I felt like I could trust her.

"It’s... complicated," I said, exhaling sharply. "Before his, you know, 'coronation', King Steve and I were best friends. We practically grew up together. You stick with someone throughout middle school and still want to hang out? That's true friendship, right there."

She nodded like she related to what I was saying. "High School came and he changed. He wanted to hang out less, which was fine with me, you know? People change and everything," I paused for a second.

"It got bad only after Tommy and Carol started hanging out with him. He became this mean jerk, this person I could barely recognize. And I never got along with Tommy or Carol from the beginning, he knew that from the million times I have told him that I hate their guts. Hell, I've directly said it to Tommy and Carol. I just... I guess you could say we both grew up and became distant or whatever, but the fact is, he's just a colossal asshole now.

Barb frowned, clutching the book tighter. "That sucks. I’m sorry."

I shrugged, trying to play it off. "It’s whatever. We’re not kids anymore, and I guess we just outgrew each other. Besides, I’m not exactly missing out on this." I gestured toward the house, where someone let out an ear-piercing whoop, followed by the unmistakable sound of something breaking.

Barb laughed, shaking her head. "Yeah, I don’t think either of us belong here."

"Hey, misery loves company, right?" I teased, bumping her shoulder lightly.

She smiled, a little more at ease now, and held up the book. "Thanks for this. I mean it."

"Don’t mention it," I said, standing up and brushing off my jeans. "Enjoy the book- and maybe steer clear of the creepy twins in the hallway."

Barb laughed again as I started to head back to my car.

"You sure you don't need a lift? Your house isn't too far, I don't mind."

"Really, it's ok, (Y/n). I'll just go whenever Nancy leaves."

"It's almost midnight, Barb, you sure?"

"I am. I really am."

[entropicbias]

Last couple asks has me wondering what kind of johndave rep DO you like to read/see? Any examples you can think of in fanworks? And just your own interpretation. Thank you

i have got to reiterate that this is just a me thing. i'm not saying this to police anyone on their writing! i'm just really specific about the way i see these two get portrayed.

this is gonna suck and i'm gonna ramble about it for a while cause i'm mentally challenged. i have a hard time explaining my own thoughts with accuracy. sorry i can't keep this short and sweet. i am the type of person to just know when something is done right. i can't tell you why, but i'll try for you, anon. if you don't want to read all this here, i summarized it.

even more simplified

this is so crude. canon dave is really hard to nail for writers for some reason let alone the specific way i see him. i like a more chillaxed dave. some of the things that really throw me off with dave writing is missing the mark on how annoying he is and dumbing his character down to either angst, obama and apple juice jokes, or him being gay. i think john also encounters this issue. not enough research goes into their interests so writers can only represent them with the bare minimum. nicholas cage, con air, and 'dave i'm not a homosexual'. john and dave are assholes. they tease each other and aren't shy of doing that to other people. not that they're bad people! they care about each other and their friends a lot! but they're not afraid of being really honest about their thoughts or overexaggerating something that doesn't really bother them to poke fun at someone. they can make mendacious remarks to be polite, it just doesn't occur to them as often as just blatantly stating their thoughts on something or someone. i also like seeing them have more naturalistic dialogue. for some reason, when i think of that i think of zach from oneyplays or his character charlie from smiling friends. which is dumb even if it gives you an idea. i feel like a lot of this kind of banter is missing from these fanfics i read. at least, in the way i want it to go. think powerup comics.

gay part upcoming. i think the john and dave's relationship is best portrayed as a childhood crush that is unspoken of. a term i recently learned was "demiromantic", and i think that very perfectly describes how i think john's homosexuality would work. i mean, he doesn't really have a problem admiring dudes, which in itself could be called gay but that's not why i think he would be attracted to dave. i think it's kind of hilarious when people attribute john's homosexuality to him being "romantically interested in cage". john's idols are more like heroic figures to him. i don't like it when that is used as evidence that he's gay unless someone is making fun of him. this is the part where i talk about how john insists on the fact that he's straight. i'm not doubting that at all i think john still likes women and it's easier for him to do so. but he can also develop feelings for someone like dave. hence why i think he's demiromantic in that regard. this is exactly what my sexuality is like, so maybe i am projecting. i like to imagine i'm not projecting incorrectly, though. i think he'd only be able to develop feelings for dave in a setting where he is really a prominent figure in his life. earlier acts of homestuck were like this, but unfortunately the johndave relationship wouldn't work out on john's end with the way homestuck went. their friendship was kind of forgotten after a while, which sucks. in an ideal world, they would have remained in contact and then gotten close again in earth c. but dave was written to be with karkat and jade, which either nulls his feelings for john or opens up a whole new avenue of internalizing it. which is dumb and convoluted and i don't care about postcanon.

dave on the other hand would think about his feelings towards john a little more. i like to think that homestuck dave definitely had feelings towards john. i like to imagine they both developed a crush on each other around the same time, but unlike john who doesn't give it the time of day or even considers it as a crush, dave would. and he'd know that but he wouldn't want to act on it because of a plethora of reasons. probably to retain their friendship and his self image. i guess that could give them some 'angst'.

but you know what? i don't even care for romance all that much! they're bros before they're anything else! and that's all that matters to me! just nailing their friendship in itself is gold. john and dave mean a lot to each other in a platonic sense. even if they pursue other romantic avenues or don't, i don't care! i just like people putting them in a similar setting and showcasing their awesome bromance!

fig. 3, i also like davejade. thinking of iterations of him and john in fanworks that i like is really hard cause i don't read much in that department. what comes to mind is mr. tambourine man and some of deacon_blues's comics. kgtac has a really good dave and karkat too. cole is a spectacular writer. but i've finished neither of those comics so i'm just basing it off the very little i've read. also, none of these examples are particularly johndave related. i just wanted to note down examples of john egbert and dave strider writing i enjoyed. i read like, one comic faygos made but that was also pretty good. pinballhazard is also a phenomenal writer and artist. especially for john! you guys should check all these guys out. anyways, thanks for reading all that!

[nuexxow]

What prevents you from shifting?

(Disclaimer: if you are a very sensitive person, please do not read. Perhaps my language will seem very rude to you, but I think sometimes a rough kick is better than being in a constant state of a victim)

Nothing but yourself.

I often get questions like, "Will music in my headphones prevent me from shifting?" or "Will the light in my room prevent me from shifting?" And to be honest, I don't understand the essence of these questions. If they bother you, that's between you and them. I can't get inside your head and know if you're distracted by it.

For me, these are questions from the category "And how to breathe properly?". Do you really think that the problem is in the headphones, and not in your approach? While you are asking and waiting for the command "start!" to shifting, someone has already shifited with open eyes, in the lesson, with loud noise.

On the other hand, it seems to me that you are just looking for excuses. You can't shifit to the desired reality and instead of dealing with it, you spend time looking for circumstances that affect your successful shifting.

"I didn't shift because the music was too loud in subliminal, because of the cat, because of the retrograde mercury, and because I was tired."

And..? Whose fault is it? If you keep looking for excuses, you'll stay stuck for a long time. Your reality is your responsibility. Do you want to move forward? Find a way and take action. Do you want to stay stuck? Keep looking for excuses and complain about not being able to do it.

In fact, these "problems" are much easier to deal with than blocks, if you assume that they exist. Even the existence of blocks depends on you.

You are afraid of shifting, afraid of success, afraid of some external factors, afraid of not waking up, afraid that your cp will not suck you in from the doorstep. These "problems" are more extensive and take their root from your previous experience, which in turn can really interfere. However, this previous experience is only valid for your brain, and if you don't like these thoughts, you can choose not to interact with them. Alternatively, you can take matters into your own hands and address the issue.

But it's still a personal process, and no amount of counseling, mentoring, or anything else will give you the results you want unless you take action yourself. Even a psychologist won't give you a magic pill to solve all your problems. Well, let's start with the fact that there isn't one.

"The game itself is good, but my cat peed in my sneakers, so I gave it a 4."

Your "problems" in the face of music in headphones, bright lights, a cat, and a bad day for shifting look just ridiculous and incongruous. Your questions look the same. However, I understand that it is difficult for beginners to understand some things. Especially the fact that everything depends on them, of course... but that's another story. And now let's summarize:

Nothing prevents successful shifting, unless you decide so yourself.

[laora-ryn]

Chester, [ERROR], and Jonathan Sims: The Anthill Theory

Hello Tumblr, may I present a follow up to my initial thesis that [ERROR] is Jon? As well as a rebuttal to the argument I've seen floating around:

"[ERROR] can't be Jon! Jon is in the computers!"

Why are you treating these like two distinct eventualities?

Jon died as an omniscient, omnipotent demi-god half a step down from The Eye itself. Jon died at the exact moment that he was pulled through a rift in space-time. If Jon survived that, I doubt he'd end up human on the other side. He'd probably end up as something else entirely.

Something none of us, and none of the Protocol-universe characters, have ever seen before.

"Imagine you are an ant, and you have never before seen a human - "

1. We have Chester, who has Jon's voice, and has shown signs of autonomy and a personality where Norris and Augustus have not.

I have another meta post picking apart the fr3-d1 stuff, but for the sake of staying on topic, I will show an abbreviated, summarized list from that post below:

Mystery emails sent to various OIAR employees:

Episode 4: Gwen receives an email from an unknown source showing Lena trying to kill Klaus

Episode 4: "the system" sends Alice a notification that Sam searched for "Magnus" and "protocol"

Episode 7: Sam receives an email from a "John" with an internal email address, with Gerry's name and address

Episode 20: Sam receives an email from a garbled email address, with documents from 1999 regarding Starkwall and TMI

Error messages:

Episode 3: Alice receives a jmj error that Colin troubleshoots. Freddy snarks back at both of them

Episode 17: Alice receives a jmj error that Gwen troubleshoots. There are plenty of error noises, but imo it comes across less snarky than it did in episode 3

Other miscellaneous interactions:

Episode 5: Alice: "what the hell is wrong with everyone today?" OIAR computer, not having been touched or interacted with: [error noise]

Episode 17: Chester reads a universe-hopping statement to Celia

Episode 19: Sam asks Alice to talk with him about the Magnus Institute. Immediately, Alice's computer throws an error, like it wants her to stop working and talk with Sam

Magnus Institute Statements read to Sam:

All of the below statements are read out by Chester, and are (meant to be, in 21) read out to Sam specifically:

Episode 1: RedCanary

Episode 9: the cursed dice Magnus statement. This one starts on its own, while Sam is doing the Response Dept paperwork

Episode 14: the snake emporium. I'd almost mark this one as too much of a stretch, but Sam himself caught the Institute mention and was bothered by it

Episode 19: the one with Newton's alchemical tree that talks about the Protocol

Episode 21: the one about the Dome construction in the 90s, which Alice intercepts on Sam's computer

As far as I can see, the only statement that mentions the Magnus Institute that isn't read by Chester to Sam is the one that is read by Chester to Celia, as mentioned above

In terms of Norris and Augustus:

Martin was pulled through the rift at the exact same time as Jon, except as someone mostly human. Relatively human.

Jonah was too, but Jonah was already a static dead body at the moment of the rift - it wasn't the released potential energy of his death that catalyzed and pulled everything through the rift.

It makes sense, to me, that if all three of them are here, Jon is in a uniquely powerful/sentient position in comparison to the other two. Which leads us to point 2:

2. We have [ERROR], exhibiting characteristics that are indicative of Jon and no one else

See my other meta post for more info, but in summary:

The tape recorders spawned specifically for Jon in TMA, via the Web

Did even Elias show abilities to compel people to give their statement? He could tell people their statement, and force images into their heads, but could he force it out of their mouths? I don't remember seeing that

Along with the other evidence that isn't Jon-specific but is indicative of a TMA character:

They were initially trapped underneath the Magnus Institute - which could also be Jonah, or Martin

Their apparent desire to protect Gwen and "all of them" - which could also be Martin, or some non-familiar benevolent being

Jon being Chester and Jon being [ERROR] are not mutually exclusive.

Who's to say Jon, the Archivist, or what's become of him, or what's left of him, isn't the fingernail, and the boot, and the eye? Maybe he's even something else we, the ant, never live to see, or don't have the senses to perceive at all!

Additionally!

I think this might even tentatively explain why [ERROR] is voiced by Beth Eyre instead of Jonny - beyond "it would be way too obvious if they want it to be a plot twist"

If Jon/the Archivist is split into multiple parts of the same whole, in this universe. If, in the chaos of interdimensional travel, traits/attributes/parts of Jon were not distributed equally or correctly. For our anthill example, perhaps the color of our gazing eye, or the rubber material of our stomping boot, was applied to our fingernail instead. Maybe [ERROR] should have Jon's voice, but they don't. Maybe they didn't have a voice at all. We didn't hear them say anything at all in episode 10, only take a deep breath

Maybe they had to take a voice from one of their victims. Do you think there was a reason that we heard the autopsy statement secondhand, after the doctor transcribed it, rather than the victim's voice herself?

(When, as far as I know, the common ways to record information during autopsies is either with a voice recorder, or dictating to a secondary person to write, who was demonstrably not present? When, by all rights, there should have been a voice recorder present?)

I'm currently working on a master TMAGP timeline (and a TMA one otl), but an extremely abbreviated, specific version of it is as follows:

9 March: Sam and Alice visit the Magnus Institute and release [ERROR]

20 March: the autopsy victim is found dead in a park

22 March: Alice encounters the drowning woman

12 April: [ERROR] appears during Ink5oul's attack on Gwen

How many victims do they have, since Sam let them loose? Is it just the ones we've already seen, or were there others too?

This could go off in about 5000 different directions so I'm going to cut it here, but what I'm getting at here is - it makes a LOT of sense to me that we might be looking at another "creatures far beyond our comprehension" here; it'd make a lot of sense thematically; and it's just really freaking cool, if I'm being honest!!

[elbiotipo]

Genuine question why can't NASA just build another Apollo? why bother designing a new spaceship when you already have one you know it works?

They can't *literally* build Apollo again because the tools and hardware for building Saturn V and such are long gone, they were replaced by the Shuttle during the 70s-80s. And that was supposed to be alright as the Shuttle was supposed to be next generation (though it ultimately failed at that). And then the Shuttle was supposed to be replaced by the Space Launch System or SLS which was supposed to be like, Apollo 2 (I used supposed a lot sorry)

The main thing about this is that the US congress by law requires using the SLS in all the Moon missions, even though it's a piece of shit rocket that sucks. There are many reasons why it sucks so much, but the main reason in my opinion is that the SLS and the Orion spacecraft are built by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. And if those names haven't already raised alarm bells... well, to summarize everything, both Boeing and Lockheed-Martin are incredibly rich and powerful corporations contracted by the US government for everything, mostly "defense" (war) but also space.

So what do these corporations do? They bribe, eh, lobby the US congress so that NASA has to work with THEM and ONLY them, and they deliver subpar, costly, piece of shit products to keep sucking US state money, with the excuse that "space is hard", which it is, but they have no excuse for the expenses. And they're also competing with SpaceX, which Musk is bad on its own way, but it only furthers the corporate infighting.

And I mean these products are terrible and expensive. The cost of building and launching a SLS is ridiculous for something that the Soyuz has been doing since the 1970s. The whole "Gateway" flying circus is because the Orion capsule cannot go to the Moon by itself. I really need to stress that they built a Moon capsule that, unlike Apollo, CANNOT GO TO THE MOON. So they need to go through all this incredibly complex Rude Goldberg machine just to go to the Moon.

Many space-interested people in the US see this as an example of state bureaucracy and overspending, which is kind of true, but from my opinion, it only shows how the military-industrial complex and these war megacorporations has the US "civilian" government grabbed by the balls. Meanwhile, Trump's Space Force has no problem into getting good hardware and launches.

[deoxd]

Ok so a looooooooot has happened in my playthrough, I need to record it here. I'll summarize it for the last two posts of Tantiss Pasión y Deseo…

Hemlock is finally in his element; the medical field. And you fool no one Hemlock, you didn't take that tissue sample from Omega to help you with the diagnosis, you want to analyze her M-count.

And man, it took so long to make Hemlock and Scalder into romantic partners. Between making sure to keep the romantic square at bay, and only doing like 1-3 flirts a day (because Hemlock would get upset if too much flirting) it took irl days to do it. So… it kinda hurt when I made them break up.

In contrast, her romantic relationship with clone Scorch went up SO FAST. Buuuut they constantly fight. Looks like no matter how much they fuck, she will will end up hating clone Scorch as much as the original… not to mention they flirt with other people sooooooooooo... she cheated on him with the ex; Hemlock. And clone Scorch fucking slapped her.

In fact, everything is more toxic. Because Rampart also had a thing with clone Scorch… until he flirted with the original Scorch in front of clone Scorch, and of course, he got MAD.

And Rampart you can't tell me you couldn't tell them apart, clone Scorch has a beard!!!

Now both Scorches hate his guts and will probably double team him stab him in his sleep (I don't have the extreme violence mod installed, but I bet he'd be dead If I had).

And to make it even; clone Scorch eventually cheated on Scalder, again, with Hemlock. And if she had a nickle for every time a clone fucking Hemlock is the cause of cheating, she would have two nickles, which honestly is a lot less than I would expect in Tantiss. Of course they officialy broke up after that, so, another victim of Scalder.

But I'm done with the jealousy fest and both clones wanting to kiss/flirt with Hemlock at the same time. I kicked him out of the house and now he lives with Chuchi and her harem of clones (he sticks out like a sore thumb cuz no commando armor mod, but oh well). I hope the blue pussy makes him forget about the poison. It's for the best.

Which is funny, because on one occasion I switched control to her house, and she was like this.

Like, gulr!! I bet you're having a lot of fun and "social interaction" with your clones, but you're literally forgetting to eat, bathe and sleep! I made Scalder change careers, a much needed change for her. Science doesn't fulfill her anymore, so she's now a fashionis-----WHAT THE HELL IS THAT "UNIFORM"!?

Scalder stick to science! You have NO fashion sense! … However, after while she learned, abandoned the science, embraced the stylish ice queen lifestyle, and now this is her. Both this pics are the SAME.

Scorch, well he's a fucking idiot as always. I made him grab the mail, and in the package there were some birth control pills meant for Scalder. My surprise is that Scorch took them. On his own. I was like "Scorch…you-you just took a pill?" And now he's on birth control.

And…you know? I actually see that happening if clones were irl people with bad sex ed because the Kaminoans didn't bother, so I left the pills in his inventory, and he just went week to week taking the pills xD In fact, I needed to see if they actually work, soooooooo… I called Chuchi to the house and… of course they didn't work xD

That's Scorch's third kid, meet FailedBrthCtrl, she will be raised by Chuchi and her 6 clone step dads (lol Scorch literally cucked them all).

I won't yell at Scorch this time, because this one's on me.

Well, he's not the only problematic clone, cuz I have Wolffe too, and he's a literal werewolf. He lived in my main house for a while…until he bit Emerie, and turned her into a werewolf too, so I kicked him out and sent him to live with Hux and Krennic.

Emerie was the goodie two shoes never-gets-in-trouble girl, but now look at her. She can't even keep her manners while eating now.

And funny enough, in one if my old gym visits, I DIRECTED her to run in the treadmill, but a few Sims hours later, next time I look she's using the heavy lifting machine and now she looks like fucking terminator.

So, my Emerie is now a quiet, diligent scientist by day, and buff feral furry girl by night.

Hemlock doesn't need to send the CX troopers to kill, he can just send Emerie.

Now the boring one is Rampart. He's such a loser. In our vacations on Batuu he was just simping for the first order officials, doing tasks for them. Meanwhile Scalder autonomously THREW HANDS with them (Literally my first autonomous fist fight)! And she destroyed him. Like, don't mess with the mean bitch of the house.

She outshined Rampart in Batuu, so, in his need to feel important, he apparently disturbed the freaking bees.

He's so petty, so pathetic. Well, that's it for this one, next one I swear it's the last. That's enough of me playing the Sims xD

[desceros]

Y'kno. Leo could have taken that little secret to the grave. Woulda sucked to live with it and he'd have deserved some inner turmoil for treating some random chick like dirt. Yet V was naive, trusting and loving enough to let it go if he'd never had brought it up.

But no, he had to clear his guilt. Unburden himself. Dump that shit on her.

And fuck, he's so used to her giving he was probably half-expecting forgiveness for it.

Gotamn, V can't catch a break. One one hand you got a guy you thought you were BFFs with who

a) hated you

b) used you as an emotional crutch for his whole family

and

c) couldn't even shut up about it to spare you the extra heartbreak after literally EVERYTHING ELSE.

And another guy who you thought was as into you as you were into him because he apparently can't communicate about feelings since he's shut himself out from that part of life and you gotta use hyperspecific, robotic wording to not get your heart broken again like you're signing a contract with some fucked up version of the fae.

None of them are putting in the work to mend any of their personal shit and you're the giving type that gets easily taken advantage of, even unintentionally.

Honestly, neither of them are shitting rainbows to be worth all the effort you gotta put in their asses for any semblance of a functional friendship/situationship.

Also

"You weren't part of the family."

U kno what, he can keep it. They're the only people who'll be able to stand him at this rate.

so i addressed the first part of this in another ask re: ableism here but i'll briefly summarize things here.

leo didn't tell viola-chan what was bothering him because he wanted to "clear his guilt" or "unburden himself. dump that shit on her." he told her because she has made it repeatedly clear that she values honesty. i imagine he would have never told her... but keeping a secret felt like a betrayal. so when she asked, he told her. even though he knew it would hurt and change everything.

With a sigh, you fold your arms, then look at him. “What does this have to do with what you wanted to talk about, anyway?” “Everything,” Leo says, looking at you with a heavy stare. “Because… I have a confession to make. One that’s… that’s going to change how we are. One I really don’t want to make, but it’s—it’s eating me alive. And I don’t think I can continue being friends without telling you.”

that said. i'm not defending his actions. this is abominable behavior. but it's not selfish. not this time.

as for donnie. i'm going to take some righteous issue with how you're saying this. i've spoken before about ableism that's cropping up around this fic, but so far it's been pretty. hm. things i can brush off. but this, i feel, really crosses a line for me.

your framing of an autistic person needing someone to "use hyperspecific, robotic wording to not get your heart broken again like you're signing a contract with some fucked up version of the fae" is ringing quite poorly in my ears.

as an autistic person myself who has specifically made requests to my own loved ones that this is the exact kind of language i need to have smooth relationships, i don't appreciate your wording.

in symphony, donnie doesn't use the label 'autistic'. but he is. and he doesn't come up to you and say 'hey can i please have his kind of language used with me.' because he hasn't had to do that before. everyone around him has had his entire life to adapt to his needs. but viola-chan hasn't, hence why they have friction and misunderstandings. a large part of this story is the two of them learning to communicate. and part of that, i am sorry to tell you, is that autistic people often need language that can come across as "robotic" and "hyperspecific". so i'm going to ask you to deal with it, or perhaps look for a different fic. i'm not going to change that interpretation of things, because it comes from my own experiences as an autistic person.

lastly, you say "none of them are putting in the work to mend any of their personal shit" and that just?? isn't true??? this is literally just poor reading comprehension. an inability to look past the limited point of view of the protagonist. the entire first arc of this fic (ch. 1-11) is donnie stretching out of his comfort zone to tackle this serious problem he has. the second arc (12-20) is him pushing past things he's never done before so he can heal and touch his brothers again. leo comes to you and tells you about his issues with his sleep, where they come from, and lets you help him. not to mention mikey and raph, whom i assume you're leaving out of this ask since you haven't mentioned them. draxum even mentions, specifically, that viola-chan's presence is making them change. and the way he says it is very specific.

“Blue has been much more lively since you came around, and Donatello is much less crabby. Michael was also telling me you gave him some good exercises for his wrist. I was impressed. I’ve been meaning to ask you to work with Red as well on his trauma response since you seem to have a knack for it.”

work with. not on. i know i'm subtle, but come on.

anyway. this got quite long, but i'm not going to put it under a cut because i want these things to be open and visible. i've had a couple people say some somewhat similar things about donnie's part in this and i'm. getting kind of tired of it lmao. but thank you for reading, and i do appreciate you taking the time to send in your thoughts!!

[microcosmiclymbic]

Everything that exists is represented by a rubix cube in my mind.

Every item (like a book or a hammer), concept (like a color, emotion, or turn of phrase), or experience (like going to a theme park, cooking a meal or having sex with a particular person).

It is it's own rubix cube where each little square is both a single fact and a clustering of facts. Some cubes are representative of a single basic core thing. Others are a larger concept, each solved-side being a summarization of a core thing (and they are stored kind of stacked together inside themselves - I could reach inside the Patio Chair at 👑's house cube to access the wood cube and then zoom back out to Oak tree and further to "Oak tree at park I used to sleep at").

So it takes time for the cube to be filled in, and there are a lot of ways it can be filled in. I can turn it over in my mind and observe how the information is collected. Gain a deep understanding of the 6 core concepts that make it up the thing.

And the more squares that are filled in, the more risky I can be with actually playing with it. Mixing it up and being able to reliably put it back together. If a whole color is concealed of a real rubix cube, you can still easily guess enough to solve it after it's been all mixed. The absence of information stands out. Yet if random spots of color are missing one each side, it would slow you down. Though perhaps by comparing information across the sides you could learn what is missing where and make pretty accurate summarizations off of that. Depends on how many is missing and where. The more that is missing. The more impossible it becomes to understand, the lack of context clues.

So understanbly. I don't try play with or mix up information I know about a subject until I've learned past a certain threshold. So I content myself with observing it from different perspectives as I wait for the empty spots to be filled. "How well does the red side show under this rainbow light? What about this light?"

Complex thought outside of a single concept requires juggling a few rubixs cubes together. Takes a bit of effort but quite easy when you get down to it, especially after years of experience. And takes more effort the more you add in if you want to mix them up. Worth it though, to understand the intersections of concepts that have a lot of moving pieces. I could juggle 50 concept cubes on a good day. Holding and rotating them all in my mind to see what new observations are possible with this particular mix of understanding. That's how I can construct newer more dense cubes of information. Go from 1+1 to algebra to quantum physics.

Some rubix cube jugglers can mix and solve cubes as they juggle. Understandably it's complex and significantly drops the amount of cubes one can juggle. But it's a cool way to level up your skill.

Individually every time I mix up a rubix cube of a concept I create a new brain synapse. A new path. Perspective. Thought. Brain pattern. An increase in overall brain capacity anf/or ability. The significance of that multiplies in magnitudes. So it's very much worth the effort. And requires careful choice to determine which cubes are safe to mix up and how much.

Anyways all that to say. It is exceedingly understandable why I'd sometimes mix up actions or words that have zero outside correlation to each other. I have dozens of ways to make that kind of mistake in any given moment.

So yeah, I'm a messy person spilling shit and walking into walls all the time. Cause whoops I once again fumbled the "piloting the body" cube because of course I can't be bothered to separate that cube out into multiple levels of understanding with "walking" and "location in space" and "momentum". Listen I've got 20 cubes on a very complex ABO fic that is much more important at the moment.

[vines-of-mine]

Awakening as an Alhaitham Fictionkin

I'd sort of felt this coming for some time, though I couldn't put a name to it. It started when I realized Sumeru was my hearthome. The first thought I had was "Well, it has to be psychological because if fiction can be real somewhere then I have to change how I view fanfic writing and that's scary. It also can't be related to a kintype because that's new and scary." I've started to learn that when my first thought upon learning something about myself is what it can't be, it's just what it is in disguise.

The rest of the post will be under the cut, because this is a WALL of text. This was hours of meditation summarized, so it's a pretty big post.

So I eventually reshaped my worldview to be a little bigger. I may have needed a lot of help from Loki, and it took some time, but honestly it's the most on-brand worldview I could adopt as a witch that works with Loki. Fiction just being reality somewhere else, infinite realities that sometimes find each other in fiction; it's a very chaotic idea, and a very Loki way to handle reality.

I knew it was a kintype, I just didn't know what. Of course; I started in Sumeru. I don't use meditation in my practice as much as I would like to, especially since it typically gets me some pretty good results. In part, I'm pretty sure that's why I don't utilize it more often. It gets... overwhelming. Plus, I'm still dismantling internalized societal bullshit that tells me that my own spirituality is "crazy." That being said, I meditated with one major location in Sumeru in mind at a time.

First, the city. It was mostly things I had already known, but this time it had this air of... an almost oppressive atmosphere, because of the Akademiya. I hesitate to say that I had a negative view of the Akademiya, because I think there's room for much more nuance than that. It's just something that, no matter where you are in Sumeru, you can feel the weight of. We are the nation of wisdom; where answers are sought. If we don't have them, no one does. The worst thing one can hear in Sumeru is "I don't know," and it's also the worst thing one can be forced to admit.

Then there was Ghandharva Ville. It was....interesting, in a way I have yet to figure out. I would say it was an experience of Tighnari, if I thought I might also be him, but I feel very strongly that that's not right. I felt an ear flick when a twig snapped in the ambience video I was listening to, and suddenly I was tuned in harder than I've ever been before. I got overwhelmed. My senses were heightened, but they weren't in my room anymore. I could feel the breeze, feel everything happening in the forest around me. It was nonhuman in a way I've never been before, something far more animalistic than my draconic kintype. It felt like I was aware of the tiniest creatures scuttling on the forest floor and the birds in the trees, all of it. I had ears and a tail, which is yet another reason why I'd say I would call this an experience of Tighnari except I've confirmed with my cards (tarot for those confused) about 15 times that, yes, it was an experience of mine as Alhaitham. I had ears and a tail, supposedly, though I'm not sure what kind. Then why are the Seelie court statues winged? I have questions. So many of them.

Gods, this is such a wall of text and I haven't even gotten to the parts where things became clear. I apologize for the attention span of anyone who stumbles into this.

Vimara village was uneventful aside from the detail that I had boots, which was ridiculously specific and a random thing to be so sure of. Pardis Dhyai was where things got interesting. First I was kicked out of my own meditation because Sumerians apparently ward their conversations and I wasn't invited to my own damn memory (long story, I'm not bothering with the details unless someone wants them.) When I went back, I was brought into a back room for scholars by someone that I couldn't tell who at the time. By the time I realized it was Kaveh and got some details of his appearance, it was clear that the fuzzy conversation was frustrating to me as it happened. He eventually moved from across from me to beside me, and put his hand on my arm and was so clearly worried. It was some sort of "We're here for you" conversation. ("We" including Cyno and Tighnari, because we were at the very least close. Possibly others, but I'm not sure.)

I'll be honest, I panicked and left because it felt like a private moment and then I felt like a bit of an idiot when I realized that it's my own memory. Whoops. Oh well! If I was avoidant of feelingsy things in that lifetime, I'm allowed to be in this one too. Rip me.

By then I was sure in my identity as Alhaitham. I knew who and what I am, and after a break I knew exactly what the next memory was going to be. Next meditation was me talking to Kaveh in our home, and telling him what I was. Because I'm not canon-compliant Alhaitham, no, that'd be too easy- I come with Seelie baggage! Yippeeeee /s

I'll leave the explanations to a minimum, but the way I work as a Seelie is that I do still have a Court. Not a statue, but a person. Mine is Kaveh. I can't sleep, save for when my body hits utter exhaustion or when I'm near my Court. I spent a lot of my early life in Teyvat sleeping in classes I shared with him and generally infuriating my teachers by getting high grades anyway.

Teling Kaveh what I was/am, and what he was to me, though... didn't go particularly well. I don't think I understood then, but looking back at it is pretty clear. He just kept emphasizing his own autonomy and personhood, that he was his own person and he had a life outside of me. Back then I was agreeing, caught off guard by the reaction, not sure what he was getting at. Now I can see that it was because to a human, "You are my Court" doesn't translate so clearly as "You are my soulmate" so much as it seems objectifying, like a demand that one be a resting place.

It's not a particularly satisfying place to "leave off" but it's where I am. I have no idea how that turned out, but I trust that it ended well somehow. No matter how it ended, really, I'm in this life now. So now I'm working on integrating what I know about myself, and hopefully this weekend I'll be able to read or do some project to feel more myself.

[lemonhemlock]

a few leaks asks below the cut

Anonymous asked: Could it be because he plans on doling out executions and/or razing KL to the ground, and he doesn't want Alicent to be present for the flagrant misuse of power he's about to administer to the poor peasants, ala Rhaenyra in the text? Because it feels like they're making Aemond the super cheesy baddie of S2, instead of working on giving Rhaenyra her book due, and I am not here for it. Or Aemond's reason could be he hates everything and everyone who dares to say no to him/inject reason in him. Basically meaningless power hungry trope that writes itself into a corner. And (not) I'm sorry for calling Aemond's arc super cheesy but it is what it is. Look at the show's reasoning for his decision to turn on Aegon; no meat to it at all. Aemond sitting at small councils with his smug little smiles 🙄😒 Being curt with Alicent. Having zero remorse. No hate to Ewan at all he's phenomenal. I just can't make any sense of Aemond this season and find it all very cringe.

Anonymous asked: Probably because he doesn't want her to manipulate him by playing into his feelings ala "mommy loves you no matter what, but please be good now" and he feels its too late for that now, but if she keeps doing that it might sway him over because he still wants his mom. But after what he's already done and accomplished he feels like it's too late to turn back now. At least that's my interpretation 🤷‍♀️

i'm just gonna copy/paste my comment from the last post because it basically summarizes my answer

what is even the point? aemond should leave soon for harrenhal, why bother sending her away? she is still the dowager queen, council or no, she can still give orders to people 😭 it's just to hammer home how all the greens hate each other & how wrong alicent was to turn against rhaenyra and choose her own children (how dare she, she must be punished)

i agree aemond has been so cringe this season 😭 no real emotional weight to him, his decision-process makes him look like a graduate of clown academy. jaehaerys' murder doesn't incense him more against the blacks, it's aegon lightly mocking him in a brothel than sends him into a murderous tizzy 😭

further logical complications if these leaks are true:

rhaenicent makes more sense if both of them are in the same city. you can introduce as many scenes between as you want. ORGANICALLY. not having to rely on mission impossible: westeros-style gimmicks. why would you remove alicent from KL when rhaenyra conquers it?

daeron hasn't even been cast yet let's be so for real 😭

alicent is supposed to be leaving KL but otto is coming back just to be executed by rhaenyra?

Anonymous asked: can the writers just leave Aemond alone, he is their punching bag at this point

for real 😭

the thing about aemond is that he was never portrayed in s1 as an unfeeling robot who doesn't care about his family. he goes to his mother for comfort, he defends helaena in front of aegon, he covers for alicent when viserys demands to know who told him rhaenyra's children are bastards, he tells luke he wants his eye to give to his mother..................all of these elements are gone this season, he couldn't give less of a shit. i'm at a loss to understand how this is good and compelling storytelling, it just looks lazy and boring and uncomplicated to my narrative sensibilities

[gazeboarcade]

keenes + falcon!!

yoooo ty for asking :^D!!

Falcon: is there any interpretation of canon you feel most people get wrong?

ALRIGHT this is a big one. I had to think abt my answer to this one for a while bc I can think of a handful of smaller things that are down to my own personal/petty interpretations I don't like to see violated, but I wanted to pick one much more reasonable: The way people interpret Mike :^/

TBH: I think people don't really take him for all that he is efficiently. Surely this is somewhat rooted in racism, but I really think he does not get enough credit for being a story teller. He holds the big ass job of delivering a ton of the narrative in the book. I feel like when people DO bother to rlly characterize him, they make him into a "wise/measured" stereotype, which is weird because it removes his humanity and motivations. I gotta start talking about Mike on here more, dudez. I just think he gets an unfair shake.

And, much more briefly because I can't get into summarizing the full issue: I fucking loathe when people reduce Richie and Eddie to just... Fights-A-Lot: The Couple... There's bickering and banter but then there's the way some of yall have them just being out and out dicks to each other a majority of the time they spend speaking. That is a misinterpretation of their character, I fully believe this, and it makes me want to scream when it's all yall know.

Keene’s: any characters you picture completely differently from the movies?

TBH Eddie in It Chapter 2... Guys, I really don't like that man. The child actor does just fine, I think he's got sweet doe eyes, but I really cannot fathom James Rans*ne... I felt like his portrayal of Eddie was lousy (he's an ineffectual vehicle for Eddie's characterization) and I literally do not think I need to get started on the fucking foul behavior he's had external to the movies as a real person. I refuse to imagine Eddie like that. He's either Dennis Christopher or a blurry version of Anthony Perkins and that is literally that.

link to the post

[gay-fordeath]

Gotta scream abt smth that happened this weekend and I do not think the tags will have enough space for this particular rant. I am yelling at myself here please just disregard.

I worked a play this weekend and while driving to the theater with my colleague and one of the actors we passed some kind of sign that had some art on it that I guessed was AI generated. May not have been but it had that look so I just made a passing comment abt it. It sparked a conversation about generative AI with the actor that has left such a bad taste in my mouth since then so we're just getting it out so I can stop stewing on it.

I expressed my dislike for generative AI and how harmful it is and how distasteful I find it and I said the classic, why should I bother to read something you couldn't be bothered to write as a way to summarize my feelings and the actor we were driving seemed to take offense to that.

He started this whole thing about what if he had this dream to make a cartoon or animation or whatever but he can't draw and it's late in his life, he's almost 40, he's not gonna take the 20yrs to learn to draw and animate especially because he can't just put his life on hold for it like he has to work and make money to survive he has no time, why do that when he could just have the ai generate it? So I explained that as a visual artist (drawing/painting) the act of creation is what makes art so wonderful and is the most enjoyable part of the process etc. We went back and forth like this a bit and I'm pretty bad with words when speaking or put on the spot so I wound up saying something that wasn't like 100% the most accurate way to express the sentiment - i said if you're not willing to put in the time and practice and effort necessary to learn a skill like art, you should just give up, why bother pursuing it at all?

Naturally that didn't go down too well, and I get it cause again that's not really the best wording for what I wanted to express. But he and my colleague went into this whole thing about like what an awful thing to say and would I say that to a child, how demoralizing and demotivating and crushing for that child and whatnot and i was like ok let me try that again. The sentiment here is that these things do take work and you've got to be willing to put that work in. If you're not, generative AI is not your only option. Why not make a collaborative project then, find artists and animators and whatnot and work together?

He made examples about music too and how he tried for years to learn guitar and just wasn't any good, couldn't do it etc and why not just use generative AI to create the music he hears in his head. To that I was like well for one we already have digital music programs that are not generative AI so just use those, you'll get a better result. And again, if not, just make it a collaborative effort?? Find some actual musicians and work with them??

At the end of the day the view I hold and tried to express in a few different ways is that art is about creation. And for some people yes the end result is the more important part to them as compared to someone like me, for whom the result is secondary to the joy of the process. But even then, maybe I'm wrong but I'm willing to bet part of what makes that end result so satisfying/important is the fact that they made it, themselves, with their own two hands - there's the pride of that end result being their work, their effort. His heels were pretty firmly dug in the soil of "if I don't have the time/desire/motivation/etc to pursue learning the thing by hand what's wrong with getting it done via generative AI, you're just gatekeeping at that point."

My friend tonight said that at that point you're just looking to make content without putting any real effort/work into it and I think that sums it up pretty well. The thing is while generative AI has other issues that make me dislike it such as environmental factors, etc, I also think it has its role as a tool to add to art - I can compare it to the idea of using practical effects on TV and film that are touched up with minimal CGI as opposed to doing the whole effect with CGI.

Maybe it is kinda gatekeeping art or whatever but like. To go back to a previous statement, not to be too harsh but: if you're not willing to put even a small amount of effort to learn an art, then as far as I'm concerned, you're not actually interested in pursuing the art. You just want to make content, quickly and easily, with no active role in the creation. Even commissioning an artist to work with you to create your vision is more effort than typing a prompt into the mediocrity machine. Commissioned work is more your work than anything you rip out of generative AI. And, as an artist, it just does not seem worth it. What is the point of art - any art - if not to be the one to create it, whether the process or the end result is more important to you?

We cut the convo off because we got a bit heated abt it, and my colleague was getting anxious. The funny thing is I didn't feel like I was arguing so much as passionately debating but there's something about that actor and how he carries himself and whatnot that just made it not sit well with me and now that my weekend is done and I can relax after the chaos it's coming back like fucking acid reflux. Sorry for this ridiculous long post that's just word-vomit on your feed.

[bookishfeylin]

Hello! I hope you are doing well :)

(I needed help from a translator to write this, I apologize for the errors that this text will probably have)

Firstly, I would like to express my admiration for you. I cultivated it through reading the criticisms so well placed by you about the universe of ACOTAR.

I, having had a very intense relationship with reading over the years, was starting to despair after reading the first three ACOTAR books because I felt very alone when I realized that apparently there were almost no real critical analyzes (that I had found) about this book saga. It was then that I found Tumblr and, along with it, some very interesting profiles that talked about what I wanted to talk about. Yours was one of them.

My experience with ACOTAR is quite complex. When I first heard about it (given its growing fame), I loved the plot, as I love reading fantasy. I cultivated expectations on my own, but I also place this on fame and people's enthusiasm (and hatred) for some characters that I will later mention. So I read it… and damn, I was so disappointed after the second book. I fell off the horse completely, as some would say here where I live. I couldn't believe how SJM started to fail so much with the entire initial proposal of the books and how she managed to fail in developing characters and plots with so much potential. Furthermore, the romanticization of abuses, retcons, plot holes, catchphrases to deceive readers, narratives conflicting with actions, failure to make clear the biased narrative... among many other things. But one of the things that shocked me the most was how, to this day, many people fail to see certain FACTS and the FAULTS in all of this, their only reactions when these are pointed out are irrational responses in defense of this created illusion. Rhysand is the most disappointing character I've ever read in my life, perhaps because I see the potential that could be used in him, Sarah's true protagonist (this is just one of the things that completely annoy me about the author and, consequently, the character).

I could cite MANY examples of the flaws I mentioned, as you mentioned throughout your posts, but one thing that really bothers me is the way the characters and the fandom itself treat Nesta, trapped in the blind illusion that everything that IC does is the right thing, since that's what they think and say. It's really disgusting. I don't know why in the world I deluded myself into thinking that Nesta being the protagonist of Silver Flames would improve anything by knowing her critical perspective on the IC and things in general, since she is not very influential and very observant. I honestly don't know why I did this to myself, knowing what SJM did with the previous books.

Tamlin and Nesta are sensitive points for me, being the main characters that led me to, in fact, have an increasingly critical view of these books (they were my critical awakening). I realized that one of the main common points that makes me upset is the way Rhysand deals with them, just like he deals with anyone: the way he wants, without reprimands (sometimes it's even encouraged). As if it were his right.

I understand that Rhysand's relationship with each of them has different complex layers, especially with Tamlin as it is a story that has been developing for much longer and is something personal to Rhysand AND Tamlin (in contrast to Nesta, who had never done anything for him), although there are very superficial mentions of it in proportion to how much Rhys gets involved and returns to it throughout the books (some would say that he simply needs to have Tamlin in his life constantly because of the way he always finds a way to mention it him or go see him, he can't let go). I have A LOT of things to say about this, but I'm summarizing.

About Nesta, someone very young in comparison and who was hated by Rhys before he even met her. He didn't even give her a chance to observe her a little or ask her anything. I would think he should be intelligent and more mature because of his age and how he likes to show that he knows how to handle things, but that's not what his actions show in most of the books.

Sometimes I think he picks on Nesta and Tamlin so much because they are the only ones who actually stand up to him, question him and throw his actions in his face. They don't accept his stance easily and they have the courage to respond accordingly. They are the big stones in his expensive and nocturne shoes.

I'm not going to start talking too much about Feyre per se, but I would like to point out that I hate with all my mental strength the daemati shipp feysand and I hope in a childish way that they fictionally read this in my mind. In my view, they have absolutely nothing good or remotely interesting to add and develop from each other. Rhysand calls them equals in every way, but he always knows things and chooses what to say to her as is convenient for him. He tells her she has a choice, but he is the only one who provides the options he wants her to choose. Feyre stopped questioning, she believes anything he says from the start. She even stopped analyzing her own actions. He gives her a false appearance of power and she pretends that she knows how to use it. On the first opportunity to introduce her to the CoN, he undermines any kind of respect they could develop for her, whether through fear (as stupid and lame as that may be) or what. Her personality was an ocean and since she started dating Rhys, the ocean had become a shallow puddle of mud. It seems that the trend is getting worse, seeing as how SJM has been showing us who her main character is. Feyre was a means to the end, nothing about her position in this saga was constructed in a decent way, unfortunately. Rhys does what he wants and doesn't have the limits he should have, bringing this to Feyre when in Summer he tells Tarquin that she does whatever she wants, without thinking about the consequences, just because she carries a title that Rhys gave to her. She can do what she wants because HE is saying so. It's not about Feyre, as the catchphrase makes it seem. This is not a moment taken to glorify her in front of others. At this moment Rhysand wants to show and prove his power to another male who should have the same authority as him, Tarquin. This guy's ego, seriously.

Anyway, amidst so many opinions about the things I'm curious to know, I'd like to ask what you think is the REAL reason for Rhys' growing dislike towards Nesta (and Tamlin too, if you want. I I don't buy the superficiality with which the whole thing about the murder of their families was told, but that's just me pondering). And the possibilities surrounding Nesta and Rhysand's complex relationship, expectations and even what you would have changed. If you want to respond, of course.

Today I found myself reflecting on this specifically and I'm still putting things together in my head, so I decided to share this question with you.

This “message” was much longer than I expected, I ended up getting carried away and had to stop myself from saying more. At this point, I don't even judge if you haven't read it, hehe. I appreciate it anyway if you read any part of this.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing your analysis. I feel so represented with them! I will continue to follow you here, XD

Xx, Tess

Awwww I got teary reading this message! Thank you so much, Tess! And I agree with so much of what you’ve said here! This book series crumbles under the slightest bit of analysis, and I’m glad so many of us have started to realize that. I’m glad you feel represented here and ill definitely continue to be here :)