#why is it so hard to abandon structure a little where it's not needed. where it doesn't help Anything

[ignatiusteto]

i think people should stop thinking in stark black and white and stop taking things violently at face value and maybe society would be a little better. or at least stop making it the problem of other people. it really is a great brain exercise to stop and be like well okay wait a minute. you literally feel better.

[maskedbyghost]

Simon knew marriage came with adjustments, but nothing could have prepared him for life with a writer.

It wasn’t just the weird questions—though there were plenty of those—it was the way your mind never seemed to slow down. You’d be doing something completely normal, like folding laundry, and suddenly stop, eyes going distant.

He’d barely have time to ask what was wrong before you’d rush off to scribble something down, muttering about plot twists and character arcs.

Sometimes, he’d wake up in the middle of the night to find you sitting up in bed, phone screen lighting up your face as you frantically typed notes because “this idea can’t wait until morning.”

It meant half-finished coffee cups scattered around the house, abandoned when inspiration hit.

It meant narrating your own actions under your breath, like “she sighed, stretching her arms above her head” while actually doing it, which always made him raise an eyebrow.

And then there were the moments that made him question everything, like when you casually asked if he thought someone could realistically survive being shot twice in the chest or how long a body would take to decompose in a swamp. He used to answer with concern. Now, he barely looked up. “For a book?” “For a book.”

At first, he thought the strangest part was the research, but then he realized it was how easily you pulled him into it. You used him for everything—testing out fight scenes by making him grab your wrist so you could figure out how a character would escape, running your hands over his shoulders and down his arms as you mumbled about muscle structure and “what kind of build do you think my main guy should have?”

You studied him constantly, stealing phrases he said, describing his expressions in your notes, even admitting once that a few of your male characters had a bit of his attitude.

And then there was the way you used him for other inspiration. He figured it out one evening when he saw you sitting on the couch, staring at him with that look—one that usually meant you had something on your mind, but this time, you weren’t saying anything. Just watching.

He glanced over from where he was cleaning his gun. “What?”

You didn’t answer right away, just tilted your head slightly. “I think I want to write a new scene.”

He raised his brow, setting his things aside. “What kind of scene?”

A small smile played on your lips as you stood, walking toward him. “Something a bit messy.”

Simon leaned back, arms resting lazily on the couch as he looked you up and down. “You need details, then?”

“Mhm.” You straddled his lap, fingers toying with the hem of his shirt. “Need to get it just right.”

He smirked, his hands settling on your waist. “That why you’re lookin’ at me like I’m about to be put to work?”

“You don’t mind a little hard work, do you?” you teased, nails scraping lightly against his skin.

His grip tightened, voice low. “Not if you’re gonna make it worth my while.”

Much later, when you were tangled in the sheets, catching your breath, you rolled over and reached for your phone. Before you could even unlock it, a strong arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you back against Simon’s chest. “Nope,” he muttered against your shoulder.

You laughed. “I just had a thought—”

“Don’t care.” His voice was warm and heavy with sleep. “Whatever you’re about to write down, you can remember it in the morning.”

“But—”

A hand slid down your hip, fingers pressing into your skin in a way that made you shiver. “I said, in the morning,” he murmured, his lips brushing against your ear. Then, just to make sure you listened, he added, “Be a good girl and go to sleep.”

Your entire body heated at the words, your brain short-circuiting for a second before snapping into overdrive. Without a word, you bolted upright, nearly diving for your phone as you started typing furiously.

Simon groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Are you serious?”

“Shhh,” you hushed him, fingers flying across the screen. “This is really good.”

-------------------------------------------

@daydreamerwoah

[ponett]

Bobby's 2023 Media Wrap-Up

So! Like I said before, this past year I kept a running list of everything I watched, every game I finished, every new album I listened to, etc., and wrote one-paragraph blurbs with my thoughts on every single one. Please enjoy this journey through everything I liked, or didn't like, in 2023, with my favorites of the year listed at the bottom.

(Yes! This is long!!)

Some notes:

I mainly only included things I finished. Exceptions are marked with an asterisk.

I included some YouTube stuff as "TV shows" - mostly particularly long, high effort video essays and documentaries.

I was a bit less adventurous than I'd like to have been this year. Part of this was just that I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with Big Releases I felt obligated to check out, and part of this was just executive dysfunction from burnout. Wait until you see how long it took me to beat Mario Wonder lmao

Yes, I need to read more books. I don't read a lot of books these days. I need to get back to Discworld.

COLOR KEY

Video Games • TV / Web Video  •  Movies  •  Comics  •  Music

January

1/15: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (MSQ) - Very slow at times, the Primal shit is generally extremely lame to me outside of the boss fights themselves, but god if the quality of life improvements over WoW, the JRPG energy, and the fact that it Actually Has A Story carry it pretty hard.

1/18: Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island miniseries - One of the most creative and compelling uses of the Sonic IP… ever? Fantastic little self-contained arc about the struggles of Eggman’s abandoned creations that gracefully weaves between heartfelt optimism and moody horror with some of the best art ever seen in a Sonic comic.

1/18: Mega Man X4 - Glad I finally actually beat this after never even beating any of the Mavericks as a kid! I can see why it’s a lot of peoples’ favorites. The gameplay has very little of that X series bloat and is just fun, especially after getting X’s armor upgrades. (But the story really is a long series of missed opportunities.)

February

2/2: Donks - Felix Colgrave continues to be an exceptional artist. The sound design on this is fantastic and really sells this short as something unique. Had to go back and watch his older stuff again after this.

2/4: Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (3.0 - 3.3 MSQ) - I get it now. I get why people say this is just a proper mainline Final Fantasy game built into the framework of an MMO. That shit ruled. Not even walking back the drama in Ul’Dah from the end of ARR can sour me on it because the main storyline was so strong.

2/8: Disneyland's Forgotten Sci-Fi Rock Band - Live From the Space Stage - A nice and honest tribute to a group of artists who could have easily been forgotten. In hindsight this feels like a precursor to Kevin’s Disney Channel jingle video, a tribute to the unsung artists pouring their hearts into “lesser” art for a megacorporation, art that was designed to be transient but sticks with people nonetheless.

2/9: Metroid Prime Remastered* - Not gonna finish because I just played through the Wii version in 2021, but still. Very, very pretty remaster.

2/16: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - It’s more Theatrhythm. What more could I want

2/17: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (anime) - Probably the best part of the anime so far (assuming they continue on to SBR). A near perfect mix of the more structured plot of part 5 with the goofiness of parts 3 and 4 that crescendos into a fantastic, bombastic, emotional, bittersweet ending. The use of footage from the original opening and the new ending set to Roundabout in the finale were perfect, and made me intensely nostalgic for the early days of my JoJo fandom between seasons 1 and 2 of the anime.

2/22: Aggretsuko Season 5 - I don’t really know what to make of this one. Once you get past the agonizing initial arc all about Haida where Retsuko has to be his overbearing mommy GF who flips out and starts spying on him when she’s left on read and chides him when he misbehaves, it feels like an improvement over the previous seasons. But I don’t know how much of that is due to the extremely low bar set by season 4. And then the ending is extremely rushed and anticlimactic. They got legally married and the only acknowledgement was a shot of them signing the paperwork in a montage partway through the final episode?????????

2/24: Double Fine PsychOdyssey - God, what a journey the making of this game was. I already loved 2 Player’s past efforts at documenting Double Fine’s process, but this takes it to a whole new level. This feels culturally significant. The depth and honesty with which they depict not just the nitty gritty of making a game, but also the inherent struggles of working on a collaborative creative work for years at a time, is astounding. Not to mention that they were there to capture the shift from office life to remote work as COVID hit. So much of this would have been nightmarishly stressful to watch if I didn’t already know how successful the game was, but that’s just because they really didn’t sugarcoat it. And yet even after all that, it leaves me feeling optimistic about video games as an art form in a way that the constant headlines about cynical live service games don’t. There are still people out there pouring their hearts into making real art, and this is their story. Everyone who plays video games should watch this.

2/25: Cracker Island (Gorillaz) - New Gorillaz albums feel like less of an event these days, but after Humanz it feels like they’re just more chill with the project and their ambitions with it. Every couple years we get some more laid back jams from Damon along with some fun new collabs. Hard to complain. Favorite track: New Gold

2/25: Pool Kids (Pool Kids) - I discovered this band because Derek knows them and was excited when they got a song added to Fortnite through the Bandcamp collab. Always down to find more cool indie rock bands I can vibe with. The mix of dreamy vocals and energetic riffs on some of the tracks here almost fill the Crying-shaped hole in my heart. Almost… Favorite track: Conscious Uncoupling

2/25: Insane in the Rain (insaneintherainmusic) - I thought it was really funny timing when Carlos announced that his first original project would be a jazz fusion album inspired by acts like T-Square and Casiopea right as I was getting into those two specific bands. The final product does not disappoint. Favorite track: Insane in the Rain

2/26: Get Up Sequences Part Two (The Go! Team) - I’ve never been one to believe that a band’s sound has to remain exactly the same forever, but it really does hit you hard that the first two tracks here sound like classic The Go! Team. Their more recent cleaner sound is still here too, though, for a nice mix of old and new. Favorite track: Divebomb

2/28: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (Season 1) - Oh my god. Oh my god. I got distracted around the time I was finishing SLARPG, but finally catching up now, wow. My assumption that the seemingly lighter tone of the series compared to the prologue was there to lull us into a false sense of security before twisting the knife when war finally breaks out was spot on. This is peak Gundam.

March

3/4: Pizza Tower - One of the best platformers I’ve played in a long time. It transcends its blatant Wario Land inspirations with the sheer speed at which Peppino can move and the way things like the level design, his wall running, and even the hidden ability to do a second lap around the level reward getting into a flow state where you’re just constantly moving. This is the type of game that wants to turn you into a speedrunner. My only real complaint is a few iffy enemy designs that I wish would get patched.

3/6: Bloons TD 6 * - I bought this before bed one night on a nostalgic whim and then the next morning woke up and saw the Steam receipt email on my phone in one of the most “what did I do last night” moments of my life. I like when the monkeys pop the balloons.

3/7: The Book of Boba Fett - I put off finishing this show for a very long time but finally caved upon the release of The Mandalorian season 3. This show spends four episodes failing to make me give a shit about Boba Fett trying to be “the daimyo” and drive the drug trade off of Tatooine, then just gives up and becomes season 2.5 of Mando, which in turn feels like it undercuts the main series. It fails as both its own story and as a spinoff. I know that finishing this after Andor did it no favors, but WHOOF.

3/12: Obi-Wan Kenobi - Some interesting ideas in the first half hinting at a more introspective show, but it’s mostly swept aside in the back half so it can become a generic Star Wars adventure remixing things from A New Hope and Rebels (and apparently Jedi: Fallen Order). Action scenes have zero stakes because you know nothing can happen to any of the returning characters and none of the new ones are particularly interesting. Why there’s a second climax hinging on a Luke Skywalker death fakeout eludes me. Obi-Wan throwing the rocks at Vader is one of the funniest things in Star Wars history. But it was still better than Book of Boba Fett, I guess.

3/19: The King of Braves GaoGaiGar - Wow, cool robot indeed… GaoGaiGar isn’t going to blow anyone away with its writing, but sometimes you just need a really fun monster of the week mecha show with great action and lovably goofy characters. This is a show where like 20% of every episode consists of recycled transformation, combination, and signature attack sequences and I ate it up every time because they look fucking cool as hell. I don’t care. I’d watch Final Fusion another 49 times.

3/21: The Last of Us (HBO) * - Watched the first two episodes out of curiosity, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue because I don’t give a shit about The Last of Us. It’s definitely a well done adaptation, though, even if I know it’s inevitably going to devolve into miserable torture porn with questionable politics if they adapt Part II faithfully. The ending of episode 2 also lines up perfectly with where I stopped in the game in 2013 lmao

3/27: The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse (Folding Ideas) - Another banger from Dan Olson. This time the premise inherently gives him more time to just show off a bunch of stupid ugly bullshit made by crypto guys, which is fun. My main complaint was that I wished he would’ve brought up Second Life more as a point of comparison (a thing I basically always want out of discussion of “the metaverse”), but he at least did touch on it in the last section.

3/31: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog - I can’t believe after years of begging for the supporting cast to get more and better material in a Sonic game I got my wish in the form of a freeware murder mystery VN released for April Fools. This kicked ass.

April

4/7: Berserk - Completed Miura’s run and caught up on the chapters that have been released posthumously. It’s hard to say anything that hasn’t been said about Berserk, universally agreed upon as one of the greats of manga and fantasy fiction as a whole. What begins in its first few volumes as a nihilistic and edgy action comic built to facilitate as much sex and gore as possible quickly evolves into something deeply human and vulnerable and beautiful, both figuratively and in terms of its lavish art. The world sucks and is immeasurably cruel, and you will see that cruelty illustrated in graphic, sickening detail repeatedly throughout the series. (Perhaps a little too often throughout the Golden Age, where it feels like Miura never misses an opportunity to threaten Casca with sexual assault mid-battle.) But the point isn’t to wallow in that misery. It’s the story of a victim of horrific abuse learning to slowly open up to others, having those people he cares about torn away from him in the worst night of his life, hardening himself into a cold killing machine, and then slowly learning to open back up again, even if it means leaving himself vulnerable to more hurt. Anyone who says that the series peaked with the eclipse and went downhill in the “Guts’ JRPG Party” era is missing the point. Guts needed to find new people in his life to care about, to begin to find happiness again. Because no matter what unspeakable things Guts has gone through, it’s still possible for him to heal and to be loved. It takes time, but eventually you stop and realize that life has moved on.

4/8: Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe - Skipped it upon release because I didn’t particularly care for the minigame in Triple Deluxe, and I didn’t miss much. It’s fine as a little distraction, but not as a standalone rhythm game with only seven songs. If you don’t bother with the hard modes or chase after high scores this game is 15 minutes long. Oh how I yearn for Kirby to get the Theatrhythm treatment.

4/10: The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar FINAL - Eh… It was okay. Lots of cool robot fights, but said fights are stitched together with a mediocre plot that tries too hard to be more “mature” than its unabashedly schlocky kids’ show predecessor. Not crazy about the ending, either, which tries to be a bittersweet farewell closing off the series once and for all while also teasing that maybe there’ll be ANOTHER sequel after the OVA series they literally called “FINAL.” Ah well.

4/11: The Owl House - Sad to see this one go, but it’s hard to imagine them doing a better finale than this, even if they had gotten the six seasons they deserved. I’m not as obsessed with The Owl House as I probably would’ve been had it come out when I was, like, 20, but it’s a really fantastic show for all the reasons people always say. Great characters, great world, great story. I love that this starry-eyed fantasy story about a teenager finding love and a place where she belongs is also set on the rotting corpse of a titan with Hieronymous Bosch-inspired scenery and freaky monsters everywhere. What a great mix. If anything, I just wish I would’ve watched the first season as it aired so I could’ve had more time with it.

4/29: Mega Man Battle Network 3: Blue Version - FINALLY beat this via the new collection, 20 years after playing it as my first Mega Man game. (Technically my first was White, not Blue, but whatever.) There are more annoyances than I remember - lots of really really bad forced backtracking sections where you have to revisit every previous part of the internet, low chip drop rates, some really aggravating bosses like BubbleMan and KingMan, etc. But it’s still a great time overall. It’s Battle Network. In the back half the story gets surprisingly emotional, too. I was always under the assumption that the Hub stuff never came back up much in the story after 1, so I was pleasantly surprised with how relevant it was to the emotional arc of 3.

4/30: Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun * - Yeah I’m not playing through the whole thing lmao. I just wanted to play the first couple hours for nostalgia’s sake, and as a baseline for how much better the rest are. Even before getting deep in the game and having to deal with all the shit gated between doing two new game+ playthroughs, it’s immediately obvious how much of a downgrade this one is. Tons of glaring errors and typos all over the script, blander music, a way more boring aesthetic for the internet, and a premise that mostly just recycles the tournament idea from 3.

May

5/14: The Venture Bros. - Glad I finally sat down and watched all of this with Anthony after having seen one (1) episode as a teenager and a bunch of random clips in the years since. Great show. Some jokes in the early seasons haven’t aged gracefully, but what the show grows into over time... man. Hank and Dean go from being the butt of the joke to being characters you actually sympathize with - while still also being funny little goofballs. And the journey Henchman 21 goes on throughout the show. Man. Amazing that a comedy like this could run for 20 years and maintain its level of quality. Can’t wait for the movie.

5/18: Future Me Hates Me (The Beths) - Okay yeah I’m now just discovering bands through Fortnite lmao. I can’t complain really, they pick some really great indie artists for the in-game radio stations. Anyway: It’s very easy to win me over with a combination of energetic power pop, catchy guitar riffs, and earnest lyrics like this. One of those albums where three or four tracks in I know I have to buy it. Favorite track: Not Running

5/18: Jump Rope Gazers (The Beths) - Ditto. Favorite track: Dying to Believe

5/18: Expert In A Dying Field (The Beths) - Another good album. (I’m listening to these in release order.) I’ve been a bit slower to warm up to this one, initially thinking it was a little too mellow overall, but it might be my favorite after a few listens. Some real high highs. Interestingly, the lead singer’s New Zealand accent is also coming out more in her singing? Favorite track: Your Side (or maybe Head in the Clouds)

5/19: The Super Mario Bros. Movie - As a Mario fan, I think I enjoyed it? As a movie, less so? It was decent, in spite of feeling like they came up with a list of fun action setpieces first and then wrote the absolute bare minimum possible for the story scenes tying it all together. Full thoughts here. (This is the first movie I’ve seen this year, huh? I really don’t watch a lot of movies.)

5/23: Don't Know What You're In Until You're Out (Gladie) - I feel like I don’t like Gladie as much as I should. Their style of noisy indie rock is very much in my wheelhouse, and I do enjoy listening to them, but I dunno. Maybe it’s that the particular style of vocals makes it more monotonous to me. A good album nonetheless, if not 100% my thing. Favorite track: Nothing

5/24: City Slicker (Ginger Root) - Yes I am still making my way through Bandcamp artists I heard on Fortnite don’t @ me. Any excuse to get me to listen to some cool city pop-inspired funk like this is a good excuse. Favorite track: Loretta

5/24: Rikki (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: Why Try

5/25: Spotlight People (Ginger Root) - Favorite track: The Classic

5/29: Succession - A good dramedy series that increasingly focuses more on the drama than the comedy as it progresses, but it’s hard to complain about that since the drama is so compellingly produced. I enjoyed it. That being said, I kind of rankle at the claims that it’s The Greatest TV Show Of All Time. It’s great, don’t get me wrong. Amazing performances all around. But the show LOVES to spin its wheels, to repeat itself, and to let most of its interesting dramatic developments fizzle out before anything really comes of them, almost as if the show is constantly getting bored with its own ideas. To some extent this is intentional - Logan Roy is the untouchable billionaire, his kids fail at everything (but will nonetheless remain billionaires), and in the long run none of them really give a shit about anything other than their own status. But it’s not like things tend to visibly impact anyone else, either, be they supporting characters or the world at large. Even the Big Scary Election, where the Roy siblings are directly responsible for plunging the nation into chaos, ultimately has zero impact on the finale a mere two episodes later. Certain Other Things do have an impact in the last season, though, allowing things to meaningfully change for the cast and for the show to sit with the ensuing drama, which has stopped me from souring on Succession more. There was finally a payoff for something. But it does still kind of feel like a show that goes in circles until it’s ready to call it quits, even if those circles did contain a lot of great acting and music along the way.

5/29: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - I’d watched the first 12 episodes when they originally released, but I guess the Netflix binge release and the fact that all three “seasons” came out in one year led to me waiting until it finished… and then I just never got around to finishing it. Glad I fixed that! Really fun and stylish cartoon with an art style reminiscent of Teen Titans, a hip hop-filled soundtrack, dynamic fight scenes, and a colorful post-apocalyptic world filled with mutant (mostly anthropomorphic) animals. I’ll admit that at times I do kinda roll my eyes at Kipo’s unshakeable belief that everyone can be friends in a way that I don’t necessarily with similar shows like Steven Universe, and not every joke lands, but I dunno. It’s a kids’ show. That’s to be expected. It doesn’t detract from the overall package for me.

June

6/1: Craig of the Creek (Season 4) - It’s been years and I’m still processing the fact that kids can turn on Cartoon Network and hear Jeff Rosenstock. Anyway! Craig continues to be one of the best cartoons on TV, consistently funny and creative and way more engaging than a show about a bunch of kids LARPing in the woods has any right to be. This season turned into One Piece with the gang effectively hunting down the Poneglyphs in search of a legendary treasure. The kids think it’ll be magic. It isn't. An increasing number of cartoon logic gags aside, this show is firmly set in the real world. Does that make it any less interesting? Hell no. Season 3 turned a game of capture the flag into an all-out five episode war between the heroes and villains, filled with dramatic turnabouts and a climactic guest appearance from Del the Funky Homosapien. I’m sure however they wrap things up in the (sadly shortened) final season, it’ll be great. (Also? I would watch a whole show based on that “what if” episode that jumped forward to everyone’s 20s.)

6/6: Barry - Holy shit, what a show. I ended up binging it in less than a week in a cycle of “okay, just one more episode.” The way this show is able to swing between tones and genres while still feeling like a cohesive whole is truly masterful. It’s a layered character drama, a tragic crime thriller, a farcical comedy, an understated action series, a surrealist morality play, and a scathing satire of Hollywood, all in one. Even within the criminal underworld subplots the show ranges in tone from Breaking Bad to Paddington 2. And it works! While the show naturally gets bleaker over time as it confronts the repercussions of Barry’s murders, it never completely loses sight of its comedic roots. My favorite episode was easily season 2’s “ronny/lily,” a mostly self-contained episode that somehow manages to keep throwing the perfect curveballs to escalate its dark comedy.

6/12: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) - Y’all heard of this movie? Pretty good, it turns out. (I’d seen the theatrical cut before, but this was my first time watching the extended edition. I’ve also only seen parts of the other two movies, so it’s time I finally watch all the extended cuts. The Gollum game pushed me to this.)

6/13: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition) - give it to us RAW and WRIGGLING

6/17: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition) - I’m not crying YOU’RE crying

6/22: Clone High (Season 2) - While the first episode being about “cancel culture” (or, more accurately, a teenager from 2003 being transported to 2023 and putting his foot in his mouth a lot) put a lot of people off, I ended up enjoying the new season of Clone High. The new clones grew on me as the season went on and their roles in the web of teen romance melodrama crystalized, and it made me laugh a lot, and Cleo/Frida is galaxy brained. Also they played one of my favorite Antarctigo Vespucci songs like a minute into the first episode. I don’t think I could really ask for much more.

6/28: The Mandalorian (Season 3) - I'd been watching this weekly but put off the last episode for no real reason. Responses to this season have been all over the place, but my blistering hot take is… it was fine. Is it as good as the first season? Probably not. But Mando no longer needs to carry the whole franchise on its shoulders and set the bar for how good the live action Disney Star Wars shows can be, because Andor exists, and it’s never gonna top Andor. The Mandalorian is free to just be a pulpy space adventure show where Giancarlo Esposito plays a scenery-chewing cartoon villain and a little puppet does wire stunts. These are things Andor cannot and should not do, but that’s Star Wars, baby. It’s delightful. I could watch Grogu get underhand tossed like a sack of flour all day.

July

7/2: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (Season 2) - LOVE WINS. (More nuanced take from way later: It definitely feels like a lot of the more messy political conflicts in this show got swept aside by the big final battle where some more easily resolved family conflicts take center stage. I’m not sure the ending is the most satisfying. But also this show only got half the episode count that damn near every other Gundam show ever made got, so that might be a factor here. Idk. Still one of my favorite Gundams.)

7/4: Final Fantasy XVI (watched Anthony play) - I had to write my longest Medium article ever about this one because I was so frustrated

7/10: Home Movies - “Things I like that I’ve never seen in full” has certainly been a recurring theme this year. Home Movies remains an all-time classic of animated comedy that went out on a high note before things got stale or the characters became parodies of themselves. While it’s mostly known for its funny improvised banter, throughout the last season you can really see the arc where Brendon no longer enjoys making movies, yet he feels obligated to keep using them to escape from the real world. In that light, the ending where the nature of their dysfunctional makeshift family is cemented, Brendon’s camera suddenly breaks, and life moves on really does feel like the perfect note to end on. Truly one of the best to ever do it.

7/15: The Legend of Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom - Wow. Just… wow. I had serious doubts about TotK in the months leading up to release due to how close Nintendo was playing their cards to their chest. I didn’t want this to be a Saints Row IV, where the game is fun enough but the recycled map makes it feel like a rehash. Instead, I found a game that made me look at BotW’s map in a whole new light, brimming with so many more things to do and people to meet. Add on a better, more versatile set of tools, more varied dungeons and bosses, and a story that I felt was told somewhat better and we’ve got a real contender for my new favorite Zelda game. It was hard to tear myself away, but as this list shows, it’s been basically the only game I’ve played since it came out.

7/16: Sonic Prime (Season 2) - I liked the parts with Shadow and Chaos Sonic, but I’ve come to the sad conclusion that most of this show is just mediocre. More thoughts here.

7/18: We ♥ Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie - “I’m a dog, but I love Katamari Damacy.” Truer words have never been spoken.

7/19: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts - Pretty good! It didn’t blow me away, but after how bad the Bay movies got I’m just thankful to have a decently cohesive Transformers movie where the human story is okay and I like the bots (although half of them needed more screen time), even if it is just another Hollywood blockbuster about two sides fighting over a macguffin that devolves into a big CGI battle against an army of nameless monsters in the third act. This is basically a mid-tier MCU movie but with Transformers, which won’t do much for most people, but again: the bar was underground.

7/22: The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart - God DAMN. A phenomenal ending for the series. While I would have loved to see a full final season to get some more one-off episodes in there, this doesn’t feel creatively compromised in any way–either due to the time constraints, or due to a desire to make it more marketable as a movie. It really does feel like they just took their outlines for the canceled final season and gently massaged them into the shape of an 84-minute movie, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s completely on par with the previous seasons. A hilarious and fitting sendoff for one of the greats of adult animation.

7/23: Beautiful Katamari - This was one of my first Xbox 360 games, but a frustrating temperature-based level made me put it down for 16 years. “Maybe it won’t be as bad now that I’ve beaten the first two games and am better at Katamari,” I thought. Nope! Still an absolutely dogshit level. But also, turns out the whole game is only like two hours long lmao. It’s still Katamari, so it’s still fun - the final level in particular, which seamlessly takes you from ground level all the way to space, feels like a logical endpoint for the series - but beyond that it just doesn't have the same soul without Keita Takahashi's input.

August

8/4: Doom Singer (Chris Farren) - I’ve been waiting so long for Chris and Jeff to do another Antarctigo Vespucci album, but god damn. This is the best of Chris’s solo work, and a contender for his best record, period. Every track’s a banger, with more energy than some of his previous solo work but also a good deal of variety. Favorite tracks: First Place, Cosmic Leash

8/4: Transformers Earthspark (Season 1) - This show had a bit of an uneven start, unsure if it wanted to have the emotional maturity of a more serious action cartoon or a preschool cartoon where the characters have little kid mood swings and outbursts and learn basic lessons. It also felt like it was speedrunning its Wholesome Found Family Dynamic with characters who just met, which didn’t feel earned. While these problems never completely go away (see: the cheap and corny way the otherwise very dark season finale suddenly resolves), the show improves quickly, and the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s so great to have a Transformers cartoon that feels fresh, giving us a post-war setting with a bunch of new characters and new dynamics between the Cybertronians and the humans. The returning characters are also uniformly great as the old veterans overseeing the new generation. (Reformed Megatron! Danny Pudi as Bumblebee! Steve Blum returning as Starscream! Keith David as Grimlock!!!) And those super dynamic action scenes! I can nitpick, but Earthspark’s a ton of fun, and easily the best new Transformers cartoon since Prime and Animated.

8/5: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (remaster) - Everyone who told me this game was a masterpiece was right. I had played the first chapter when it dropped as the demo for the iOS version years ago, but never went further than that until now. What a game. Absolutely incredible through and through. Great story, great twists, great characters, great puzzles, great art direction. Everything comes together so perfectly to form a totally unique, unforgettable package, a top tier video game murder mystery. Everyone should play this, preferably going in as blind as possible.

8/15: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 16) - Wow! Recent seasons of Sunny have been kind of up and down, with some interesting experiments (Mac Finds His Pride, the Ireland arc, etc.) paired with some comedic duds. Most of this latest season is standard fare for the series with fewer big creative swings, but it’s just hit after hit in terms of comedy. Not a single dud, whether we’re seeing Mac and Dennis try to start a rental business for inflatable furniture or watching the gang meet Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, believing the entire time that the latter is Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle. Even the attempts at topical comedy landed better. Easily the funniest season in years.

8/16: One Piece Film Gold - It’s easy to see why this one has kind of been forgotten in the wake of Stampede and Film Red, which revolve around established fan favorite characters, but this was still pretty fun. Perhaps a little too long, but it’s fun to see the Straw Hats fool around in a giant casino and do a heist. They definitely cranked the fanservice up even more than usual in this one, though, as I probably should have expected for a movie made alongside the anime’s adaptation of Dressrosa.

8/17: One Piece: Stampede - This one goes for a different kind of fanservice. While most One Piece movies are isolated from the ongoing plot and its expanded cast of characters, Stampede instead asks “What if we just put damn near every active character on the same island and had them fight?” The answer: a fun time! It would get old if all of the movies were like this, but after a bunch of movies that are just like “the Straw Hats are gonna land on another new island and fight some more weird guys” it’s fun to see characters like Law and Buggy and Smoker get in on the fun. It’s also nice to get a movie with the Wano era art style, and Usopp surprisingly gets some really good character moments in here.

8/18: One Piece Film Red - This really is the best of the One Piece movies, huh? (Baron Omatsuri is a close second.) It really feels like a change of pace after the last four with the most interesting and emotionally engaging story out of any of them. And even if the events of these movies are never canon, it still feels significant in my understanding of Shanks as a character as we move into the final phase of the manga.

8/21: Pikmin 4 - The opening hour of the game made me really question if they’d changed too much, with all the focus on your new dog unit over your Pikmin and the extremely dull, drawn out dialogue scenes with your new companions back at the base. But once I got into the swing of things I had a blast. This is probably my new favorite Pikmin game. There’s a great mix of activities here to keep things fresh. I also really ended up liking Oatchi’s role as basically your second captain who can also serve as your tank or a rideable mount. The Dandori stuff and nighttime missions in particular show off how useful Oatchi is for your multitasking without necessarily overshadowing the Pikmin.

8/22: Never Get Tired: The Bomb the Music Industry! Story - I literally backed this on Kickstarter eight years ago (my name is in the credits!) and then never got around to watching it for no reason. It’s on YouTube now, and Jeff’s got a new album out next week, so now feels like the perfect time to watch it. And man… what a great documentary. Obviously I’m just a fan of the band, but this also really spoke to me as an artist. Jeff wanting to stick to his principles and give out his music for free and play cheap all ages shows, his discomfort over the idea of selling merch, and the struggles that come with not playing the game like that… It's hard. They readily admit that Jeff is an idealist, that people fight him on this stuff, that he’s missed out on some big opportunities because of these stances, and that he’s had to compromise a bit on some of these things over time. But that incredible climax with their final show, including a full opening performance of the slowly building “Campaign for a Better Next Weekend” and the closing performance of “Future 86” where the whole audience is singing along as the members of the band are hugging and crying… it’s beautiful. This may have been a band where the members had to go back to their shitty day jobs after every tour because they weren’t selling out arenas, but their art meant something to people, and that makes it all worth it.

8/25: Nimona - I haven’t read the original comic (yet), so I can’t compare them too much, but it’s nonetheless pretty apparent that some things were softened and easy kids’ movie jokes were added by the studio to squeeze this graphic novel for teens into a PG animated movie. Regardless, the emotional throughline hits REALLY hard, particularly the very blatant trans allegory and the climax. (It’s no wonder Disney was afraid of this movie seeing the light of day lmao.) The animation is also very squishy and fun to watch throughout. Great movie.

8/26: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Spider-Verse really has done so much for animation, huh? This one was as good as everyone said. Beautiful use of stylized color and lighting throughout, and every time this movie very conspicuously shifted to different framerates for a flashy fight scene it owned. Very cute and heartwarming story, too, which thankfully gave its second act plenty of time to explore the cast and let them go on their journey, unlike a certain plumber movie that came out a few months later. Also I would let Death [redacted]

8/28: Holocure: Save the Fans! - This isn't really something I can beat, but I've been addicted to Holocure lately. I don't even watch VTubers aside from maybe seeing a funny Korone animation every now and then, this is just a really, really good freeware Vampire Survivors clone with a huge roster of varied characters to pick from.

8/31: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock) - A new album from Jeff is always a major event for me. If there were any worries that he was starting to go soft at 40 (because one of the three singles off this album was a gentle acoustic piece), the frantic opening of this album put those worries to rest. The first two tracks are Jeff screaming out for help as he’s pulled in a million directions by the chaotic state of the world, a theme that becomes the thesis of the album. I’d say it lags slightly in the middle, but overall this is another extremely well-rounded record full of bangers that’s unapologetically Jeff, with possibly my favorite closing track he’s ever done. Favorite tracks: I WANNA BE WRONG, 3 SUMMERS

September

9/3: One Piece (live action, Season 1) - They did it. I can’t believe it, but they did it. While I have my nitpicks (Usopp and Sanji don’t get enough big moments to shine), this is an extremely solid and faithful adaptation of the first few arcs of One Piece with a great cast. For the most part the changes feel smart and logical, and the big emotional beats of the story are all there and executed very well. I doubted it a little in episodes 2-4, where the Orange Town and Syrup Village arcs saw some major changes to shift the action indoors, and the increased focus on the drama in favor of repeating every gag and battle from the manga 1:1 took a bit of getting used to, but by the end I was having a blast. It’s a different take on One Piece, but it still feels like One Piece. Genuinely very excited for season 2.

9/4: Pseudoregalia - A great little N64-style 3D Metroidvania focused on platforming and very satisfying movement. I always love entries in the genre that are less prescriptive in what order you have to tackle areas in, a la Symphony of the Night or Hollow Knight, and this one’s great in that regard. While there are a number of new moves to find, most of the map is open to you very early in the game, and smart use of your moveset can allow you to “sequence break” without even realizing it. (You would not believe how long I went without getting the wall run.) I do wish it had a map, but that’s already being patched in.

9/6: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk * - Not a bad game at all, but I quickly remembered how bad I am at skating games, so like… eh? Not sure I have much desire to play past chapter 2. Also the soundtrack is sadly kinda hit or miss for me outside of the obvious Naganuma tunes.

9/9: The History of the Minnesota Vikings (Dorktown) - Jon Bois never misses. Even as someone who doesn’t actively follow sports, Jon Bois is a master storyteller, using graphs and statistics and funny anecdotes to explore these deeply human stories. He can convey why people care so much about these teams, these people, and sports in general, and how our popular sports reflect on American culture. He could tell the story of just about any team or player in any sport and I just know I’ll come out the other side a misty-eyed fan. And what a fascinating cast of characters we have this time, with origin stories for everything from the Hail Mary pass to a Minnesota state supreme court judge to the Griddy. Nine hours well spent.

9/10: Timespinner - A fun and highly polished Metroidvania that maybe doesn’t quite have enough of its own identity in its quest to replicate Symphony of the Night…but also, like, this was pitched as a Symphony throwback on KickStarter in a pre-Bloodstained, pre-Hollow Knight world, so I can’t really blame ‘em! Stopping time to avoid boss attacks is fun, the pixel art is gorgeous, and I liked the dark science fantasy story about warring empires and meddling with time a lot more than I thought I would - lore journal text dumps and all.

9/14: The Decay of Sam & Cat (Quinton Reviews) - All the stuff at the end with Matt Bennett (the actor who played Robbie on Victorious and Sam & Cat) in this was really good and sweet. It’s that kind of thing that makes these videos feel like they’re still worthwhile on some level. But the padding and the things Quinton chooses to spend the colossal runtime on does drive me more and more insane with each passing Nick sitcom video. I don’t know how much longer he can keep this schtick up. I hope he’s able to move on to other things before too terribly long instead of continuing to extend this “miniseries.”

9/19: Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales - AKA Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 1.5. It’s fun for the same reasons Peter’s first game was fun. I had a good time swinging around New York again in preparation for the sequel, and there’s a lot of cute stuff with Miles becoming Harlem’s neighborhood hero, but WOW did the Underground v. Roxxon conflict fall flat for me.

9/20: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson - I understand so many posts now.

9/25: Spider-Man (2002) (rewatch) - It’s you who’s out, Gobby! OUT OF YOUR MIND!

9/25: Futurama (Season 8) - I was ready to be a hater, recalling the fact that Futurama has already had three “perfect endings” with the show getting a little weaker with every revival. Then I watched the first new episode on a whim and thought it wasn’t bad, so I was like, eh, sure, I’ll watch the rest. Overall Hulurama is hit or miss. There are chuckles to be had, and it sure as hell beats modern Simpsons, but almost every episode is either a belated take on an overplayed Topical Issue (the pandemic, Amazon, cancel culture, etc.) or a direct sequel to an old episode people liked. Or both! It’s also really noticeable that certain voice actors sound way older - Billy West is struggling with the Fry voice in particular, and it hurts his comedic timing. But just when all hope seemed lost after the nigh-incomprehensible toy-themed anthology episode, possibly the worst episode of the entire series… the last episode, where the Planet Express crew explores whether or not the universe could be a simulation, was really, really solid. Great note to end on to make me not regret my time with this season as a whole.

9/26: Spider-Man 2 (2004) (rewatch) - Once the GOAT, always the GOAT.

9/27: Spider-Man 3 (rewatch) - Revisiting this movie for the first time since I saw it in theaters… it’s not bad. It’s fine! It continues to have the heart and sincerity that make the first two movies work. It’s just not as concise with three villains vying for the spotlight, but I also wouldn’t cut any of them, necessarily. I guess Eddie/Venom would be the easiest, but Peter getting the black suit and giving in to his resentment feels too central to cut. (Yes, even with Emo Peter becoming a meme.)

9/28: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake - I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one, especially since I was never really a fan of the genderbend episodes in the original show. (At the time they mostly just felt like an excuse to crank up the teen romance stuff to 11.) But MAN. This was a fantastic coda to the original series. It made me care about Fionna and Cake and their friends as their own characters separate from their original counterparts, it gave the Simon/Betty arc a much more satisfying (if no less bittersweet) resolution than the original finale had time to do, and it even managed to be a multiverse story that didn’t make me roll my eyes in 2023. A+ all around. Makes me wanna rewatch the original show again. [spoiler: I did]

9/29: Meanwhile (aivi & surasshu) - It’s been a whole decade–they were busy with, you know, all the music in Steven Universe, among other things–but we finally have a new aivi & surasshu album! Their chiptune/piano fusion style is familiar, but they’ve definitely grown as composers in subtle ways. Favorite track: Time Travel

October

10/1: This is Financial Advice (Folding Ideas) - A lot of the nitty gritty finance law stuff turned into white noise for me, but still, great video. I had no idea that the GameStop stock craze devolved into this bizarre cult that thinks they’re going to crash the global economy and rise from the ashes as the new kings with the value of their GME stocks. Glad this video exists to try and balance out the narrative.

10/5: Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon DLC - Good ideas, absurdly frustrating and tedious execution. Full thoughts here.

10/10: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (rewatch) - I didn’t plan this, but very fitting that I would end up rewatching this on 10/10.

10/12: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - ha he! (Seriously though, that finale was a fucking masterpiece. The RTVS crew has an incredible knack for using the framing device of video game livestreams to blur the lines between comedy and horror, or ironic anti-humor and complete sincerity. I’ve never seen anything else like this.)

10/15: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Not sure how much I can say that hasn’t already been said. The most visually creative movie I’ve ever seen, grounded by some really excellent storytelling about Miles (and now Gwen) that’s probably better than his actual comics. But it also does feel like it’s about to end and then the movie just keeps going like ten times over lmao. Can’t wait to watch this a second time on a better TV.

10/20: Sonic Superstars - A mostly really solid and fun 2D Sonic game that’s unfortunately dragged down by an extremely hodgepodge soundtrack and some overly drawn out boss fights. I spent HOURS trying to beat the final boss of the bonus scenario (which is required for the true ending in this one) before giving up. Really a shame that that’s the note I’m leaving the game on, because I otherwise enjoyed it, but ah well. More thoughts here.

10/27: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 - Another good Spider-Man game from Insomniac. Liked the story more than the one in Miles Morales, but maybe not as much as the first game. Extensive thoughts here.

10/28: Venom - Was in the mood for more Venom after the game. As expected this was not a very good movie, but the dynamic between Eddie and Venom made it a fun watch. Tom Hardy is constantly about to shit his pants in this movie. It’s great.

10/28: Venom: Let There Be Carnage - I had a way better time with this one. Is this a good movie? No. But it cranks the insanity of the first movie up to 11. Goofy as fuck in an extremely watchable way.

November

11/5: Pluto - An absolutely masterful series that anyone interested in sci-fi needs to watch. The anime adaptation was great, and I immediately understand why people who’ve read the manga speak so highly of it. Really makes me want to get into Astro Boy more, and also read some of Urasawa’s other works.

11/18: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - Wow, just wow. When news of a Scott Pilgrim anime broke I was cautiously curious to see if we’d get a more direct adaptation of the comics, and instead it veered off in the exact opposite direction in the best way possible. This is almost entirely a different story, one that’s in conversation with the previous versions (sometimes in very meta ways), and I think it’s really valuable to see O’Malley revisiting these characters with new things to say about them. The major story divergence gives us a chance to examine the characters from a new angle - particularly Ramona, who’s the real protagonist of this version, and the evil exes, who completely steal the show. This was a great reminder of why I fell in love with this series as a teenager. I now genuinely hope we get more Scott Pilgrim.

11/22: Void Rivals (Issues #1 - #6) - The first arc of the new Robert Kirkman series that kicked off Skybound’s new “Energon Universe” is now complete, and I’m left thinking Void Rivals is… okay? I thought the first issue was a decent (if not particularly original) sci-fi comic with an appealing art style, which just so happens to also briefly have a Transformer in it so there can be a Big Surprise. And the series still hasn’t quite shaken that feeling to me. It’s an okay sci-fi series that arbitrarily dedicates a couple of pages of every issue to something from Transformers, but I’m not really sure what the shared universe stuff adds to Void Rivals, or what Void Rivals adds to Transformers and GI Joe. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

11/22: Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History (Defunctland) - Yeah, gotta be honest, I only got halfway through this one. It seems like Kevin just 1) really wanted to push himself creatively and 2) make a love letter to Epcot, and while I respect that, I think it suffers as a historical documentary. It’s Fantasia but for the creation of Epcot. That might be very impressive on a technical level, but it feels more like a piece of Disney propaganda than prior Defunctland videos due to a lack of context and nuance. 

11/24: Aperture Desk Job - A short, sweet, and funny little tech demo for my new Steam Deck set in the Portal universe. More effort was definitely put into this than was strictly necessary.

11/26: ESCHATOS - I am not good at bullet hell games, but I enjoy them from time to time and I really love this one’s FM synth soundtrack, so I picked it up on a whim in the Steam sale. I only beat it on Easy, but still, I had a lot of fun with it! It’s straightforward but very flashy, with the camera dynamically zooming around from set piece to set piece at ridiculous speeds and each level segueing directly into the next. The lack of a powerup system on the main mode in favor of just needing to know when to use your different shot types makes it feel very approachable.

11/27: Lunistice - A great little 3D platformer with a good soundtrack that I had fun hunting down all the secrets in. This is an easy recommendation for fans of games like Kirby or Klonoa - whimsical games set in colorful dream worlds where the underlying story can get a bit more somber. (Although the story in this one is mostly told through mildly cryptic lore dumps, so your mileage there may vary.)

11/28: Spark the Electric Jester 2 - The leap from 2D to 3D here is impressive, but this is very clearly a rough draft for Spark 3. Very, very fun Sonic-style 3D platforming, but the combat is lacking and the storytelling is just kinda bad. More extensive thoughts on this and the above two games here.

December

12/2: Fortnite (Chapter 4) - This was my first full chapter of Fortnite, after having been roped into the game by the siren songs of Zero Build mode and Goku during Chapter 3. This means it’s harder for me to compare this chapter to previous ones, but still, Fortnite remains a genuinely very well made Battle Royale shooter that’s a blast with friends. If I have any complaint about this Chapter, it’s that they would regularly introduce zany ideas and then slowly reel them back in, whether it was the Augment system or the increasingly mundane movement items. It also felt like it was a little too easy to get the perfect loadout in every match, meaning the final showdown would almost always be against players with Slurp Juice and gold shotguns. And I missed the smaller mid-season map updates of Chapter 3. But overall I still had a really good time, and look forward to playing more for the foreseeable future.

12/4: Plagiarism and You(Tube) (HBomberguy) - This will get written off by many as “YouTuber drama,” but this really is an excellent video essay that feels like the kick in the pants that YouTube needs. If video essayists are gonna be a major source of information for so many, then they gotta have standards. I also think it does a good job of highlighting the people that have been plagiarized and trying to drive more attention their way in an attempt to right those wrongs.

12/6: Transformers (Skybound comic) - We only got the first three issues of this in 2023, but I just HAVE to say something about how incredible this series is here. Daniel Warren Johnson is knocking it out of the park. This is the new bar for Transformers. The hand-inked art is extremely dynamic and full of character, and the story is using the familiar beats of G1 Transformers but doing very new things with them. You can tell this from the very first page, but the emotional scene of Optimus accidentally crushing a deer in the forest and realizing how fragile life is on Earth sealed the deal for me. And yet in the very same comics Optimus can do suplexes and clotheslines and lord knows how many other wrestling moves on Decepticons, and it doesn’t feel like tonal whiplash? These comics just fucking rule, and anyone with even the slightest interest in Transformers should be reading them.

12/8: What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5) - [spoilers] WWDITS has very much settled into being a status quo show. Every season has its own little arc where one or two things change to keep things interesting, but then everything returns to normal by the end. Guillermo finally becoming a vampire, only to become a human again in the end, might just be the most egregious example of this yet. But also… the show’s still really funny? And I continue to be happy that Kristen Schaal has stuck around as a series regular as the Guide. So it’s hard to complain. I could see the show running out of steam over the next few seasons, but it’s still hitting for me right now.

12/12: Pony Island - Finally got around to this since the trailer for the sequel dropped. I feel like playing this years later in a post-Inscryption world where Pony Island is a known quantity kind of lessens its impact, but still, it’s a fun and funny puzzle game where you try to hack your way out of a possessed arcade machine. I’m not sure I found it particularly scary, but I’m not sure it’s supposed to be? The way the game messes with you during the Asmodeus “boss fight” was probably the highlight for me. I also like being able to say things like “The part where you have to not kill Jesus was so hard. I kept getting terrible butterfly patterns.”

12/16: Breaking Bad VR but the AI is Self-Aware (wayneradiotv) - As always, Wayne and co.’s commitment to the bit is unrivaled. This kind of got interpreted as just a way to troll HLVRAI fans, but so many moments in this genuinely made me laugh out loud.

12/18: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude - As someone who would list Cucumber Quest as a big creative influence, I was naturally very excited for this first chapter of GGDG’s new visual novel. Their mentality of both scaling things back in terms of labor while also going more shamelessly self-indulgent in terms of storytelling after burning out on making webcomics has really spoken to me, and WOW, the end result of that new process of theirs is shaping up to be something really special. The art and music are sparse but extremely evocative, giving you the rough sketch of the world and letting your mind fill in the rest. The story blends literary high fantasy vibes with the style of fantasy seen in ‘90s JRPGs (you can definitely tell this came from an idea for an RPG), but rather than constantly winking at the audience and making self-aware video game references it plays these storytelling ideas extremely sincerely, giving them real dramatic weight while still indulging in fun tropes to their fullest extent. While it’s a far cry from their most famous work with much more mature content, GGDG always excels at creating characters and worlds that immediately grab me. I can’t wait for the rest.

12/18: Barbie - I’m only… what, five months late for the whole Barbenheimer thing? Perfect timing. Anyway! On the one hand, I get the critiques saying that this movie is just a major corporation funding a self-aware feminist critique of their own product as a marketing ploy. And I kinda agree with that. And the movie is a little too long, and I don’t really know what to think of the way the Barbie/Ken conflict plays out. Anthony asked me to summarize what the story ended up being about, and I had no idea what to even say. But also… I did still like the movie? We don’t get a lot of cartoonish, absurdist, fourth wall breaking comedies like this anymore, and this is a good one of those. Also the whole cast is great, the set design is kind of stunning, and the cinematography is consistently appealing. I wouldn’t say it’s a revolutionary work of feminist filmmaking by any stretch, but it’s a good comedy movie.

12/21: Dr. Stone: New World - Man, Dr. Stone is great. I’ve said this many times, but I just love that this series uses all the trappings of shounen that would normally be used to hype up the protagonist learning a new move to instead hype up things like the protagonist building a loom or a hot air balloon. It’s shounen Bill Nye. I didn’t completely love everything about the Treasure Island arc this season, but it all built towards a really fun climax with a lot of satisfying turnabouts where the heroes use their ingenuity to just barely win.

12/23: The History of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out World Records (Summoning Salt) - Truly one of my favorite Summoning Salt videos ever, even with how repetitive Punch-Out can get to watch. It’s just so hard to beat “and that runner… was me.”

12/24: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - What more can be said that hasn’t already been said? It’s the best and most creative 2D Mario game since the ‘90s. The only real flaws are that it’s a little easy, the Search Party stages are annoying in singleplayer, and I wish that every boss prior to the final boss wasn’t just some form of Bowser Jr. fight. But those aren’t nearly enough to drag the whole experience down. It was a blast.

12/24: Do a Powerbomb! - Got this from Anthony as a birthday present. This is the previous series by the creative team currently doing the new Transformers comics I was gushing about a few entries ago. Even with the high bar set by those comics, Do a Powerbomb! exceeded my expectations. Holy shit. An absolutely entrancing fantasy wrestling miniseries full of dynamic, energetic action and tons of heart. These comics where a guy wrestles a giant talking orangutan almost made me cry. Twice. An instant favorite.

12/25: Adventure Time (rewatch) - We ended up finishing our rewatch of Adventure Time (the main series, anyway) on my 30th birthday, which feels appropriate. I already kinda knew this, but this rewatch has truly confirmed that Adventure Time is my favorite TV series of all time. The entire show is even better on a full series rewatch. In hindsight, even parts that annoyed me when they aired end up being important parts of the beautiful tapestry that is this series. The many low points of Finn’s adolescent love life are important stepping stones in his growth as a person, which leaves him in an extremely satisfying place by the end. Jake having kids didn’t get to be a huge status quo change because they grew up instantly, but then they did a bunch of fun episodes about Jake’s relationships with his adult children that deepened him as a character. And most of the big lore questions they kept teasing over the years (“Where’d the humans go?” “Who are Finn’s parents?” “When’s Finn gonna get a robot arm?” etc.) ended up getting satisfying and creative answers, because the show left itself the room to figure those things out later. This is a truly special, one-of-a-kind series, one that lasted nearly 300 episodes and yet still seems like it was over too soon. And yes, I did in fact cry during the final montage, like I knew I would. I will always cherish this show with all of my heart.

12/25: Olive the Other Reindeer (rewatch) - Haven’t seen this one since I was a kid! It was a favorite of mine back then, and while it might not be quite as funny as I remember it’s still very cute, with a 2D/3D hybrid art style that remains very unique and appealing. As an adult I can also appreciate the cast they got for this, with like half the cast of Futurama bolstered by guests like Michael Stipe from REM and The Sopranos’ Joe Pantoliano.

12/26: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio - Anthony and I capped off our Christmas with the most jolly and festive stop motion movie of all! Jokes aside, man, what a beautiful movie. The animation is immaculate, and we really just don’t get children’s animated films like this anymore. Ones that overtly feature real world politics and religion and so many other dark themes in a way that doesn’t talk down to kids or sugarcoat things. This one hits hard. We need more movies like this.

12/31: Oppenheimer - This was an interesting one. Despite being three hours, the way that first hour jumps around in time makes it feel like Oppenheimer is constantly being propelled forward through life at a breakneck pace, swept up by the rising tide of nationalism in spite of his personal left wing politics, never really reflecting on what he’s doing until it’s too late. Then when he’s no longer useful to the empire, he’s chewed up and spat out, only to eventually be honored as a national hero as a symbolic gesture. It’s a compelling story. However, I’m a little torn on how certain aspects of history were framed. Does the abstraction of the bombings detract from the true weight of those events, in favor of sympathizing with the man who built the bomb? Or is it clever a way to show how the realities of the war were compartmentalized away by people who were complicit in its most heinous acts of violence? One minute a bunch of physicists are talking theory, thousands of miles away from the theaters of war, and the next they’ve killed 200,000 people. So which is it? Eh, probably somewhere in the middle, I guess. But I liked it overall.

12/31: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe - I’ve been really surprised by how good this rerelease is. It kind of flew under the radar for me. I liked the original game, but at the time it also almost felt like the New Super Mario Bros. of Kirby. It was a straightforward throwback game where you went through a grass world, then a desert world, then a water world, etc., and also they added four player co-op. But returning to this one after the kinda mid Star Allies has made me appreciate just how solid RtDL is as a Kirby game. I really like the updated graphics, too - yes, even the new cel shaded outlines around the characters - even though I didn’t think it looked that great in screenshots. Also the two new copy abilities (Sand and Mecha) are fun, the minigame collection is shockingly fleshed out to the point that they could’ve sold it as a standalone eShop game, the collectible character masks are fun, and the new epilogue mode where you play as Magolor is one of the coolest bonus modes they’ve ever done. This is a top tier Kirby remake any fan of the series should check out.

Ongoing things I followed in 2023 that don't have a blurb:

Halo Infinite multiplayer

IDW Sonic the Hedgehog (main series + specials)

One Piece

Chainsaw Man

My Hero Academia (not caught up)

The JOJOlands (not caught up)

Things I started in 2023 that I still need to finish:

Freedom Planet 2

Hi-Fi Rush

Live A Live

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Picross 3D Round 2

Rhythm Heaven MegaMix

Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Spark the Electric Jester 3

Sonic Dream Team

One Piece (Wano arc, anime)

Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 (I’ve already read the Shibuya arc already in the manga, though)

Astro Boy (2003 anime)

Futurama (original run rewatch)

One Piece (manga reread)

The Amazing Spider-Man (Lee/Ditko era)

Scott Pilgrim series (reread)

And finally... my favorites of 2023!!!

Overall favorite game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Favorite indie game: Pseudoregalia

Games remastered in 2023 that are now among my all-time faves: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, We Love Katamari

Most pleasant surprise in gaming: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Favorite film: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Favorite live action show: Barry

Favorite anime: Pluto

Favorite anime written by a Canadian guy and an American guy based on the Canadian guy's old graphic novel series: Scott PIlgrim Takes Off

Favorite live action adaptation of an anime that I still can't believe they didn't fuck up: One Piece

Favorite Western cartoon: Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake

Favorite older cartoon I only got around to watching in its entirety this year: The Venture Bros.

Favorite documentary: Double Fine PsychOdyssey

Favorite semi-improvised semi-scripted absurdist comedy/horror/tragedy Twitch livestream performance art thing: Half-Life Alyx but the Gnome is Self-Aware finale (wayneradiotv)

Favorite manga: Chainsaw Man

Favorite older manga that I only read this year: Berserk

Favorite Western comic book: Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers

Favorite album: HELLMODE (Jeff Rosenstock)

And that's a wrap!!!!! Happy new year, everyone! Here's to me maybe actually reading a goddamn book this year

[ohthethingswedoforlove]

Can you do a yandere!wheatley oneshot where the reader escapes but gets caught by him?

Attachment

Summary: His unpredictable fixation towards you is perhaps all that's left keeping this facility intact. Though "intact" might be a bit of a overstatement.

Warnings: yandere character; imprisonment; vague description of death;

  Wheatley likes you.

  Though, that's a sentiment he's not sure he should be feeling. Or, technically speaking, if he can even "feel" it. The ones responsible for his existence might have programmed a personality and a certain ability to recognize and simulate what a human can feel, but that doesn't make it any less of a fabrication. Still, he guesses it's real enough for him. If a turret can scream in pain when it meets its sudden demise, why wouldn't he be able to call you his friend?

  How else would he describe it? At first you were just a human, a surviving test subject, a way out of this place. The only way out of this place. He needed you for practical reasons, but you... You needed him more as a sort of an anchor.

  He endeared himself to you faster than he thought he would. Humans require some sort of connection, he's aware, and you have been locked inside this abandoned facility with barely any notable traces of humanity left. It's tragic, really. Who else would you be leaning on, if not the only sentient thing who didn’t seem to want you dead in this place?

  That’s when he realised it. He realised that you needed him. And found himself feeling quite proud of that! Would you believe it? Someone actually found him useful! Who needed his guidance, who wanted his company and who actually cared. Someone cared about him.

  But he's above all that now, right? Right.

  He's certain of it, probably just as much as he was certain he convinced you (and himself) that he doesn't need you. He got everything he could ever want now! Long gone are the days of pathetic little Wheatley, who took orders from higher-ups and was dependent on their mercy to even just move around the facility. Now he's the higher power, now he's the one in control!

  So why would he care?

  He doesn't! He doesn't. He doesn't care, he doesn't need you. You're just a human, an insignificant test subject. Who cares! He's just keeping you for... Practical, scientific purposes, of course. There's tests to run, and he requires test subjects to run them, after all. That's all there is to it.

  But his reaction to your abrupt disappearance spoke of a different story.

  During a moment he neglected to pay attention, in a rare instance that his gaze failed to be trailed onto you, you managed to get away. Though you finally decided to take advantage of a distraction, to slip through the faults of his supervision, you weren’t expecting your escape attempt to go that smoothly.

  Finding a fault in his "security" wasn't the hard part. Not really. Wheatley's intelligence has... Very noticeable limits. The hard part was not meeting your sudden and very painful death shortly after. The structural integrity of this place is about as stable as Wheatley himself, and it's honestly quite impressive how either are still standing.

  It actually didn't take him long to locate you, but he nearly destroyed whatever parts of the Enrichment Center are still functional, and he also nearly took you to your death while he was at it.

  Wheatley's anger is something that you, on most days, try to avoid. Despite still having the very fresh memory of him as your small, harmless and slightly idiotic spherical friend; you would be lying through your teeth if you said he doesn’t scare you in his current position. He's still an idiot, sure, but that doesn't make him any less of a terrifying idiot.

  "Sooo... Are you done with your little temper tantrum?" His voice has become somewhat of a background noise as your time trapped in here passes.

  You’d think at this point you would rather tear your ears out than hear him talk for even just a second longer; and at some point in the beginning of all of this you did find that idea enticing, but nowadays you can barely find it in yourself to care. Besides, at least it’s a sign you’re still alive, you suppose. The rare few times he does leave you completely rotting alone in a test chamber for long stretches of time make you question that fact.

  As usual, you don’t give him an answer.

  "Oh, c'mon, we both know that you can't keep this going forever." You wonder how he hasn’t gotten tired of this yet. Or if he ever will. He does like to keep mentioning how easily he could get rid of you, but he never follows through with his words.

  "Ok, maybe you can. I wouldn't put that stupid stubbornness beyond you, actually..." He’s technically not even in the test chamber with you, but you can feel his gaze searing into you through that large screen, even despite the cracked glass (courtesy of a particularly angry moment from you). "But my point still stands, mate. You're gonna grow desperate. And guess who's the only one left you can turn to?"

  You know he likes you.

  Maybe that’s the worst part. There’s no one else waiting for you outside these walls. And from what you vaguely remember of what GLaDOS told you before, is there even anyone still alive at all outside these walls? Had she told you the truth or have you just now grown exhausted and complacent enough to finally believe her?

  "Me. It's me- Just in case you couldn't guess. Wouldn't surprise me, humans tend to be a bit slow, afterall-" Your lack of response never really seemed to discourage him. If nothing else, he tends to get a bit lost in his monologues when you offer no input of your own.

  "I'm sorry." Your voice came out a bit hoarse, you barely remember when was the last time you actually spoke out loud instead of just screaming or giving him the silent treatment.

   "Of course you are-" He was so caught up in his speech that it took him a second to process what you said. "Uh, Wait- You are? And-" You watch his eye squint in disbelief. “You’re talking to me?” But he pretends to recover quickly.

  "I mean, of course! Oh, of course you’re sorry, why wouldn’t you be?” You would have rolled your eyes at the immediate switch up, had you any energy left. “And, as you know, normally I wouldn’t humour you, but well…“ He trails off.

  “Considering we’re having a civilised conversation for once, I might just let it slide!” He was doing a terrible job of pretending to be indifferent to the situation at hand, it’s been a while since you heard him sound this chipper. “I can be gracious, after all. But, well, you’re gonna need to say it again.” You can tell he had gotten really close to the camera, with how the screen only had visibility of his bright blue light “iris”.

  “No reason! No particular reason, it’s just-” You didn’t let him continue.

  “I’m sorry, Wheatley.” If you had to take a guess, he just missed hearing your voice. 

  There was a silence that lasted for a precious short while, a rare moment where he simply stared at you without saying anything. Observing. Absorbing.

  “Good to know you can still do that. Talk, I mean. Had started to think you lost your ability to speak. That can happen sometimes, you know?” For a moment, you could swear he sounded just like you remember him. Trying his best to sound helpful and knowledgeable. Well, you suppose he never lost that habit, just with way more of an ego now.

  “You know what? I just had the best idea.” 

  “Truly an ingenious plan. From now on, you’re going to stay with me. Right here, in my lair.” He put an unnecessary amount of dramatic flair on the last word. “I know, I know, what an honour.” You didn’t particularly want to be in the central AI chamber again, nor did you want to be physically near him, but… Maybe this could work out in your favor. 

  “That was the problem, right? Humans need company, of course. Failiable creatures with their impractical needs.” He sounded a bit too unpreoccupied for someone who was currently messing with the structure of this place, opening up a path for you to follow along. You wished this place would just collapse already. But you have a feeling he wouldn’t let you go even if it did.

   “And that way you won’t need to be going anywhere ever again.”

[recklesslycaffeinated]

As someone who is also writing fanfics, I wanted to ask, how do you lay out your plot-? I love your writing, the emotions are so strong and so realistic, but even more so, I love your plot. You have great foreshadowing and even better plot twists. Plus, when you change the POV for chapters, it truly feels like a whole different person, which can be hard (for me) when writing. Do you have any tactics you use/would be willing to share?

Oof, good but complicated question. Particularly hard to answer when you believe plotting is your weak point! Maybe that's why I put a lot of effort into it. Okay, here we go... and spoilers for Skeleton Crew.

Most important rule - you can’t foreshadow if you don’t know where you’re going. And you can tell if a writer abandons their original idea, because the end doesn’t feel natural or satisfying.

There are so many ways to plot, but I use the 16 point plot plan. It covers all the key beats, so I can’t ever get really lost. Even when my characters do their own bloody thing without permission (Alastor, Sans, I’m looking at you two), I’m not losing any of the structure or foreshadowing work I’ve done.

https://writershq.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/magical-16-point-plot-planner.pdf

When foreshadowing a twist, the biggest fear I have is ‘this is too obvious, everyone’s going to know’. But from experience, few do. I thought for sure everyone would realize Tido was the mole when I laid out the early hints. But I only really remember maybe two or three comments, guessing it might be her.

There’s a belief twists are supposed to be completely out of the blue. Nah. You need to lay the groundwork. “And then the meteor hit” is not a twist if it comes out of nowhere. No one wants a deus ex meteor strike. The twist needs to be a logical extension of the story, not a random plot device.

Knowing who knows what, and what they choose to reveal, is a good way to foreshadow. The way a character speaks can hint at a twist. It can be subtle and written off - a character reminiscing about a dead man in the present tense can be written off as an expression of grief. Twist! He’s alive! It’s an oldie but a goodie.

When I’m writing something with a lot of characters, I keep a little list about who knows what and at what point in the story. It’s useful to keep your facts in order. I wrote a draft of a sci-fi novel (over 100k) before realising that one character couldn’t possibly know what they know and it messed the whole thing up.

*Pained author sounds and redrafting.*

Thematic foreshadowing! Tricky, but worth it, and also requires you to understand your story before putting it on paper. Or the internet. Another classic example - Romeo and Juliet isn’t shy in hitting you over the head with its themes of fate, destiny and tragedy. If it wasn’t clear from the opening lines, the constant messaging of being unable to escape your fate foreshadows where we’re ending up.

In Skeleton Crew, I wanted to explore the idea of picking a side and fighting for what you believe in. The nurse, bless her naïve socks, starts the novel hoped that though her actions are criminal, she was not herself a criminal. That the world is basically good, and she was just fixing a wrong. She starts the novel with a tranq gun and ends it with a shotgun.

Ending with the nurse shooting someone with a shotgun was one of the first things I realised when planning. Everything was leading to that pivot in her character. Because I knew that, I could shape everything around it. By the end, she’s accepted there’s something wrong with the world, and she has to stand up for what’s important to her. Not as a nurse, but as a soulmate and a fighter.

Anyway, forgive the rambly thoughts. If you want further reading, or just better advice from someone smarter than I am, I’d recommend https://jerichowriters.com/what-is-foreshadowing-in-literature/

[incomingalbatross]

Sooo... I just watched Labyrinth, and I remember seeing some posts of yours talking about how it's good and similar to other stories (like OTGW). And in some ways, I see that? But also like.... I need a little help making any sense of it, lol

Sorry, I know this is super random, but I was just curious to find out why you like it and what you see in it, so I thought I'd ask!

Of course, I'm happy to talk about Labyrinth! :) Thank you for the ask!

(Disclaimer that I haven't watched it in a year or two, but I still remember it fairly well.)

In terms of similarity to OTGW: both stories center on a teenage protagonist who is a dreamer, but too caught up in themselves, and to some extent running away from their life. This manifests PARTICULARLY in their neglected and/or rejected responsibility to their younger half-brother. They end up in a liminal, otherworldly space that operates on much more narrative logic than they're used to, and can only save their lives/souls and make it home again by saving said younger brothers first.

Sarah rejects her brother at the beginning of her story, while Wirt abandons his care for Greg near the end, but you can see the similar beats there, right? They're both dealing with normal teenage stress + the stress of parental divorce (probably) and remarriage, and seeing their younger brothers as an emblem of Everything Wrong In Their Lives. In reality, their younger brothers are forcing them to live in reality, where they have duties and connections to other people, and can only find maturity/fulfillment through embracing that.

Jareth and the Beast are also very similar figures, I think; Jareth is a more seductive tempter figure, playing to Sarah's ego and to romance tropes, while the Beast plays with hope and despair. But they are both trickster figures who use bargains -- seeming windows of hope -- to entrap vulnerable mortals (Wirt and Greg, in the Beast's case).

AND. Both Jareth and the Beast are defeated by someone calling them out as empty and powerless! Wirt says, "this is dumb," and demolishes the Beast's entire facade -- he's not keeping souls in the lantern, he's the one dependent on the lantern, and he can't keep Wirt or Greg if they're ready to go home. Sarah's "You have no power over me" has the exact same weight -- it's wrapped up in theatrics of these being Specific Magic Words, but it's the meaning of them that shatters Jareth's power and sends her and Toby home.

In both stories, evil tries very, very hard to convince these kids that they need it. Jareth wraps it up in a lot more complicated temptations -- I'll make you happy, I'll make you powerful, I'll give you glamorous parties and material comfort and everything you ever wanted if you fall down and worship me -- while the Beast sticks to a brute-force message of despair, with the crumbs he offers as all that there is -- "There is only my way." But in both cases, the message is: you need me.

And in both stories the protagonists go: No. I don't need you. I don't need anything from you. In fact, you have nothing to give.

At which point it's revealed that evil needed them. Needed them to buy into its strength, its ability, its substance -- or it doesn't have any. It crumbles away, and they go home.

...So! Those are the big similarities between them, I think, for me? I like Labyrinth, as its own movie, because I like the classic fairy-tale structure of "the fairies/goblins/elves took my loved one because I messed up, and now I gotta get them back the hard way." I love the atmosphere of the Labyrinth and Sarah's friends (though your mileage may definitely vary on this movie, depending on your tolerance for Henson Creations ;P). I love Sarah, who messes up, but who is still plucky and brave and kind through most of her trials! The friendship between her and Hoggle (...a Woodsman parallel?) is my favorite. And while I'm very much in the minority of this fandom in not really feeling Jareth's appeal, as a villain I think David Bowie does an excellent, glittery job. And we get music.

[mixterglacia]

CONTENT WARNING: Vivziepop Critical/ Stolitz Critical below the cut.

This episode made me incredibly angry, so it's not going to be as well structured as I try to manage.

TL;DR The pacing and tone was a horrible mess, and this should have been split into at least two episodes to pull this off.

To start, we prove in the first five minutes how little these two actually know each other. They're surprised by very simple things and I don't like that. It tells me that neither of them, but especially Stolas, EVER asked about the other's interests. Cool, that's good to know I was right about that the whole time.

Blitz is WILDLY out of character in the bulk of this episode. I LOATHE how he's waiting on Stolas hand and foot. If we're being honest, he'd probably just say "figure it out yourself" and focus on his life, business, and daughter. Why are we always having to baby Stolas' feelings? It feels like he's the only one allowed to actually be doted on. (In a non-humorous way.)

And now he remembers Via? Sure, just run off without thinking about your family. You have never let that stop you before. And now Stella is being cartoonishly evil in front of her daughter? We've never had it proven that she's a bad mother. In fact, from what Via states later, that's the case! I really think they have no idea on how to be subtle with her.

In a similar vein to the moment with Blitz watching the family later. You didn't need to tell us who he was imagining in that window. The moment worked without you punching it down our throats.

Likewise with Millie's pregnancy. I wish they'd left that as an open thread, rather than taking time to fully confirm it. Like maybe all the way up to the point where she went into the bathroom and left looking a little fucked up? That way it can be an engaging thing to return to in S3.

The non-drama parts of the episode (especially the first five minutes) dragged HARD. They gutted any emotional moments and just felt like padding for the runtime.

I am so annoyed at the way this show is trying to lessen what Stolas did.

HE CHEATED ON HIS WIFE. HE DESTROYED HIS FAMILY. HE ABANDONED HIS DAUGHTER. HE IS A TERRIBLE MAN WHO GETS EVERYTHING HE WANTS BECAUSE THE SHOW BABIES HIM.

This is not some cute little quirk. His wife was never implied to cheat on him first. She was a bitch, but she didn't do anything to deserve this. I can't stress enough that if you showed her playing around too, it would immediately solve most of the hypocrisy with this.

Trying to weasel around that by Blitz trying to say cheating really so bad is fucking gross. It's not like they had an open relationship and Stella got jealous. Stolas is a slimeball. He doesn't deserve Blitz. He doesn't deserve Via.

He hasn't earned any of this.

While it came out of nowhere, the Via song is STELLAR. As a product of divorce, she owes her father nothing. She deserves to feel so hurt and betrayed.

"My tears won't fall upon your shoulder...I'll just get older and you'll only know my name." Hit me like a truck.

So imagine my outrage when we aren't allowed to sit and think about her feelings for more than a few seconds after the song. We aren't allowed to focus on her pain. If they staged a sequence between the number and her finding her dad's pills, I think it would work better.

Or even uploading the song by itself. But no. You have to CONSTANTLY remind us to feel bad for the stupid fucking owl. Feel bad because he's depressed. Feel bad because he's trapped in the same loveless marriage as his wife. But don't feel bad for her because she's a bitch.

Fuck. Off.

My dad was manic depressive, that doesn't mean he got to treat our family the way he did. Stolas didn't even think about her before throwing his life away over his booty call.

This show has so much potential that it just squanders. There are two different series being forced together and it doesn't work. You have the comedy series shoved into the same sweater as the soap opera. They aren't mutually exclusive, but truly the team seems incapable of making this work.

I'm done.

This isn't even fun to critique anymore.

If folks want my opinions on future Helluva Boss content, you'll have to directly ask me to watch the piece in question. I'm still going to give S2 of Hotel a shot, but as far as this?

I'm throwing in the towel. Of the two, I was so excited for Helluva. I loved the characters, I loved the idea, and I truly loved the first couple episodes.

But that show doesn't exist anymore.

Once again, I'm going to take a moment to remind you all:

You are allowed to love this series. I am just a dude on the internet. I am not trying to change your mind. I am not trying to ruin your fun. If you love it, that's awesome. I am so happy you found something that sings to your soul.

Don't let me harsh your buzz. Okay?

[gretavanfleetposts]

Fire in the Water: Chapter Ten - Part One

Summary: You had thought dating a vampire would be the most complicated thing you'd ever done. But as it turns out, becoming one is even more complicated. The boys are determined to make your transformation as smooth as possible while each fighting to maintain the relationships they once had and those they now lust for. Author's Note: As always, I'd like to thank the lovely @gretasmokerising and @earthlysorrows for everything Content Warnings: swearing, talk of the afterlife, death, talk of dead souls, dead people, skeletons (18+ minors do not interact) Word Count: 5k

Add Yourself to the Taglist

Rebecca had been hard to find.

Jake had searched for her for months alongside his twin, turning up empty time after time, month after month. They would get so close so often but each time, she evaded their grasp. It was like she knew he was looking for her. It was like she was toying with him. He couldn’t even say he was surprised if that was in fact what she was doing. But Jake was running out of time. How long could a body go unlived in?

They spent months going from motel to motel, paying people for information, buying people to get them off their backs. But finally after four long months, Jake darted into the singular room he and Josh had been sharing for several days just outside of New Orleans, just beyond the bustle of nightlife in the heart of the city.

“I found her,” he had said. And his eyes had held a hope that Josh hadn’t seen since their journey began.

That journey had brought them to the warehouse they now found themselves standing in front of: a large, empty structure that looked like it had gone abandoned for the last decade. That was where they had finally pinned Rebecca down.

When they did finally enter, they found her sitting at a large oak desk, the only piece of furniture left in the concrete room. And it was clear she had let them catch up to her.

They crossed the sprawling, utilitarian room to her quickly, nothing but the sound of boot heels clicking on the concrete beneath. Jake led the way, eyeing Rebecca carefully. She sat with her knee-length-clad boots propped up against the edge of the desk, swiveling lazily from side to side in a rusted and hardened green leather office chair with her hands folded in her lap and her eyes doing a dance between the two brothers.

It all felt far too casual for Jake’s taste.

Josh looked on her with softer eyes from behind his brother. The good cop in the situation. Or at least, that was what he had prepped himself to be.

Although they had never spent much time together, Josh recognized her as the woman who had been the first in Jake's vampire life to break his heart. He'd had to do quite a bit of damage control thanks to her. But even so, he understood her to be a bit more nuanced than Jake ever wanted to believe. He knew what she had done to him but he also knew why she had done it in the first place. It was all very complicated. Still, he often wished she had chosen a different vampire to do her dirty work for her.

“Josh,” Rebecca greeted him with easy eyes and a lazy smile when she saw the curly-haired twin that she had always liked a little more than his brother..

“Rebecca,” Josh greeted her back just as amicably.

On the other hand, Jake and Rebecca needed no introductions. It was pointless. Frivolous. They'd never had that kind of relationship, one where they pretended. Or at least, Jake had never thought they'd had that kind of relationship.

And they certainly weren’t ones to play nice when he had tracked her down several times over the years, unbeknownst to his family.

“Is there a reason you've been following me?” she asked, settling back into her chair comfortably as she set her accusatory eyes on Jake. “I thought we were done with this.”

Jake silently hoped Josh never asked questions about that.

“If we were done with it then why did you let me find you?” he asked, his tone just as accusatory.

“You clearly need something,” Rebecca answered. But then her voice went a little softer. “And I guess I still have a soft spot for you.”

Jake wasted no time. Rebecca was slippery and he didn’t like finding himself a slave to the very thing he had thought he’d outgrown when he became immortal. “I found my tie. She died stopping Cassius from killing me. All because I turned her. All because I turned you.”

“Sounds like you should have taken better care of her,” Rebecca quipped.

“It never would have been a problem if you hadn't done what you did,” he argued back just as quickly

Rebecca dropped her boots off the edge of the desk and stood to reprimand him with her tongue.

“Oh Jacob, don't tell me you're still hiding from your responsibilities with that stupid party trick you call a gift and your pretty little face. You very easily could have let her die a natural death the first time.”

Normally he'd fight back, chuckle off the insults, throw a few of his own. But the time Jake had spent without his gifts and grieving his tie had left him exhausted, the type of which sleep couldn't touch, even if he could convince his body to do it. And it had put him on edge, a place he always teetered now. Always so close to losing it.

“Please, Rebecca,” he breathed slowly with closed eyes and clenched fists, “this is the only thing I'll ever ask of you.”

Rebecca could hardly poke fun at him in this state. Actually, she’d never seen him this way before. Jake with a soul tie, it was something she couldn’t imagine. But the way he was now without said tie was something she hoped she'd forget soon after his departure.

“What is it that you want, Jacob?” she asked with a flood of sympathy warming her otherwise cold demeanor.

“You can resurrect her, I know you can.” He nodded to himself as he said it as though he were trying to convince himself of it all the more.

“I'd need the body if I were to do it.”

“Yes, I have her.”

Rebecca was silent for a moment while she thought about what Jake was asking of her.

“Did you bind before she died?”

Jake shook his head, trying not to remember his last night with his tie. It was a night he still couldn't face, not without his gifts. Not unshielded as he was.

“You've lost your gifts then?” she pressed.

Jake clenched his teeth tightly and gave her a tired nod, not so much as uttering a single word that he hardly had the strength for anyway.

Rebecca fell silent again as she contemplated everything she knew about necromancy. Things Jake knew nothing about that he now asked for so easily. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, even harder on the dead than it was on the living. But something told her Jake wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“I'm not sure you understand what you're asking me to do,” she said simply, like she was testing the waters of his resolve. How far he was prepared to go to be reunited with the woman he loved.

“I understand quite well,” was all he said. And the growing tension in his voice and in his body was palpable.

“She sacrificed herself for you, yes? Then she is at rest. You will be ripping it from her and it will not be gentle.”

Before Jake could further agree, and rather blindly, at that, Josh interrupted with a concerned look knitting his brows together and tugging down at his lips that never formed such a look very gracefully.

“What exactly does that mean?”

Rebecca breathed deeply before she found a seat propped up on the edge of the desk, like a teacher preparing for a lecture.

“When a person dies and becomes a vampire,” she began, “it isn't like actually dying. Their soul never touches the afterlife. Your tie, however?” she gestured toward Jake, “She's become one with it. Bringing a soul back from that is terribly violent. It's even more unnatural. Even more painful. She'll struggle to feel right in this world.”

“I'll help her,” Jake answered quickly, growing tired of this line of questioning when he was running out of time, a feeling he wasn't used to and didn’t plan to savor.

“Now wait a minute, Jake,” his twin stopped him, “are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

Jake turned on his brother incredulously, his feet slipping so casually off that edge he'd been riding precariously.

“What the fuck are you even saying?” he snapped. “Do you hear yourself right now? Don't you want her back or did you never fucking care about her at all?”

“Of course I fucking care about her, I loved her before you ever laid eyes on her! But we'll be changing her life forever. Again.” Josh fought back with tears in his eyes and strain in his voice that had been sitting just behind the thin veil of strength he’d adorned for his brother.

He couldn't help but feel this was all his fault at the end of the day. He was the one who had sought out the human. He was the one who had invited her into his life. He was the one who had introduced her to the people for whom she'd die.

“How am I supposed to live without her?” Jake croaked, his voice breaking in a way that he hated to put on such visible display for others. But it was unavoidable.

And it rendered Josh silent.

“Why did you come all this way if you were just going to turn against me when we found her?” Jake asked again, this time resentment rearing its ugly head. “You knew what this was. You knew what we were here to ask for.”

Josh shook his head, just as exhausted as his brother if he were to admit it. And he hadn't. His brother needed him; he didn't have time for the self pity he desperately wanted to bathe himself in. But he was exhausted.

“I'm not turning against you,” he said quietly. “I mourn for her too, you know. I do. I ache for her. I…I grieve for her.”

He had been crying for her since long before she had died the second time but he left that part unsaid for his brother’s sake.

“Then let me do this,” Jake insisted.

Josh fell silent again, offering up only a simple nod of his head as he cast his eyes downward and swore himself to silence. And in the wake of the fight, Rebecca braved the aftermath.

“I can't guarantee she'll still be tied to you when she returns. Soul ties are vampire magic, evolved to help the loneliest of creatures cope with their endless existence. When she comes back, she'll no longer be just vampire. You might do all of this, Jacob, all of this, and still lose her in the end. Are you prepared for that?”

Jake gave her an unconvincing nod that caused a sigh to erupt from her chest as she leaned further back onto the solid oak desk behind her.

“How long has she been dead?” she asked.

“Four months.”

Rebecca's eyes went wide. “Four months? Are you out of your mind?”

“Well maybe if you hadn't been so fucking hard to find-” he answered tersely, barely meeting her eyes.

“Jacob, four months?” she continued, “Four fucking months? It’ll be torture, you cannot do this.”

“Oh come on, Rebecca,” Jake finally snapped and stared her down, his impatience and anger showing. “You've done worse.”

“I've done worse to people who deserved worse,” she corrected. “This would be torment for her.”

Jake's teeth clenched harder, threatening to shatter the bones.

“Rebecca,” he spoke slowly to control his anger, “can you do it or not?”

Rebecca found another deep sigh bubbling in her chest. She wasn't exactly morally opposed to much but this just seemed cruel to Jake's lover. Still, she could see just how badly he needed this. He needed his gifts to get by and clearly, he needed her too. And if this was the last thing he'd ever want from her, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

“Yes, I can do it. But there is something else. You didn't bind before she died. If I bring her back and the tie does still exist, it'll be weak. Weak enough to break, if she asks me to. Are you so certain she'll still want you?”

He waved her off with a single hand but she couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn't just doing it to get her off her back, something he'd worry about when she wasn't around.

Rebecca only stared at him, captivating his eyes when he realized she'd gone silent. And Josh, being an onlooker in all this, the things said and the things unsaid, took that as his cue to leave them to whatever fight must have been brewing that he certainly didn't need to be a part of.

“I'll give you two a minute,” he said softly before ducking out of the warehouse with only a single nod to Rebecca and a single nod returned.

When he left, Jake released a heavy sigh. “You don't need to say anything. I hear you, okay? I hear you.”

“I'm not sure you really do but I guess that's your problem to deal with.”

Jake chuckled out a dark laugh and brought his hands to his tired face to wipe at his skin and dig his fingers in to stop the headache before it came.

“If she really hates me that much after it all, you should stick around. Maybe we can rekindle,” he joked.

It earned a hearty scoff from Rebecca.

“Even tied, you're still exactly the same you you were when I left.”

“An opportunist?” he smiled weakly at her.

“Blinded by your own interests,” she corrected.

But his face fell with the weight of what he'd been dealing with for months and Rebecca could see that he'd hardly meant it.

“I can't cope. I feel like I can't even fucking breathe without her.”

“You don't breathe,” Rebecca quipped, earning another dark laugh from Jake whose smile didn't even come close to touching his eyes.

“Don't make me miss you, Rebecca. My heart belongs elsewhere.”

Maybe he was different. That's what Rebecca couldn't help but think as she watched the vampire she had known for so long to be cool and calm and collected practically twitch and wince with visible pain right before her eyes. She might have even felt bad for him if she liked him a little more.

“Well then let's get her back so I can get you out of my hair.”

—

An endless tide on an endless shore. You could reach out your arms in either direction and feel nothing but warm pebbles beneath your skin. You had crawled up and out of the ocean only to sink your body against the warmth. That's where you stayed, unmoving, as clouds danced along the sky and gulls played in the air.

There was no time that bound you. There were no sunsets and sunrises to mark the persistent drum of change. There was only warmth holding your body to the ground as you sunbathed, memories of your life coming to you as gently as the tide grabbed further and further up the shoreline.

You’d felt the presence of your parents alongside you since you’d crossed over from shore to beach, lying on those warm rocks on either side. They had made that beach for you. They had harnessed the sun and let it beat down to warm the spot they had saved for you.

They had walked with you along the beach many times, your mother especially. She practically never left your side.

“My beautiful daughter,” she said often. “Oh how I missed you.”

You let your eyes fall shut at the sound of her voice every time, soft and yet somehow overpowering the sound of waves crashing. It was just as you heard it in your memories, sweet and melodious.

Sometimes you’d stroll alone, taking in the waves as they crashed and the sun which never seemed to set. You couldn’t even remember how you’d gotten there but you remembered the hands that had sent you. You remembered the hands that had given you such peace.

But that was the thing about peace. It could come crumbling down at any moment. And when yours did, it turned to ice first, splintering at the edges and chilling you through, before it rained down like fire.

“Oh,” you had heard the voice of your mother say as she stood on the beach and watched balls of fire fall from the sky. “My dear, I don’t think they want you here.”

When you had turned to seek her face, you found only a pile of bones where she had stood.

“No!” you screamed out as you ran to her, your hands trying to collect her amongst the sand so grotesquely.

You gasped and heaved and sobbed as you turned your eyes toward the sky. The world around you that was once warm and filled with deep blues and stark whites now turned black and red, angry and smokey. You choked on it as you stood to run before it could overtake you.

But you weren't fast enough. The smoke reached you, enveloped you in its angry grip and flung you back out on the other side. And as you went, you felt the hands of a million lost souls scream at you and grab at you, hitching a ride with you as you went tunneling through time, now a lost soul yourself.

You shot upward with a gasp, scanning your scenery for your parents and the birds and the ocean. But what you saw instead was a metallic gray room, cold and lifeless and filled with standing bodies just as similar in state.

“Where am I?” you gasped out, barely even able to speak as your body groaned with stiffness and fatigue and a pain radiating throughout the entirety of it as it woke from a sleep from which it hadn't planned to return.

“You're alive,” the boy closest to you answered with a smile that seemed to signal relief forming on his lips. “We brought you back.”

We brought you back. You didn’t understand.

“No, no, no…” You struggled to your feet, pushing the boy off of you hard when he tried to catch you. “My parents were-they were-” You glanced around the room at the surroundings you didn’t recognize, your body and your lungs fighting through a searing pain while you collapsed not far from the metallic bed you’d been lying on.

“What have you done?” you frantically questioned everyone and no one all at once, your voice all but failing you as you sank against the cool floor and scooted your body ungracefully back and out of the boy’s reach until you hit a wall. “What have you done? What did you do to me?”

But the boy continued to follow you across the room until he came to a kneel before you, raising a hand to stop the movement happening behind him as some of the onlookers seemed to stir.

You glanced about the room again, slowly coming to the realization that you were back in your body, back on Earth, back in your physical form and surrounded by the concerned faces of the people you must have left behind. You blinked hard, trying to urge the fuzzy figures to focus in your field of vision. And eventually, each one turned from a haze to a distinct person with features, some that you recognized, one that you didn't. But to your horror, they weren’t the only ones there. There were shadows and voices, clawing and moaning and whispering. The ones that had grabbed at you on your journey back from the place you had been, beings who could find no rest the way you had.

Your face hardened when it hit you: you'd been torn from the warmth of the beach just to be brought back to this cold, unforgiving place.

You settled your eyes back on the face that now sat crouched close to you. You recognized him, you knew you did. And yet you struggled to put face to name.

“Do you…do you remember us?” he asked softly as you squinted at him.

He looked teary-eyed and worried but like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, a weight you now feared you carried around on yours. But you did remember him. And the longer you stared at him, the clearer the memories of your life together, short as it had been, became.

“I remember you,” you answered in a quiet voice, still not totally sure how to use your voice at all although your body seemed to remember. It quivered and faltered and you did your best to clear it as you tried just as hard to remember your life on Earth. “I-I died for you, I think.”

He nodded quickly, mouthing out a ‘yes’ as his voice failed him and tears began to stream steadily down his face.

“I had to…I had to make it right,” he croaked weakly.

It was peculiar to see such emotion on his face. You hadn't seen anything so messy in ages and your fingers instinctively reached out to touch the water droplets as your brows hunkered down in confusion. But the moment your skin connected to his, you felt a wave of yearning wash over you, like this was a piece of you you had been missing without even realizing it.

It was Jake. Of course it was Jake.

“My soul was yours,” you reminisced in a gasp as your fingers lingered curiously on his skin.

Suddenly, you remembered the last night you had spent with him. You remembered the tie that connected you, running through you both and joining you together. You remembered how hard you had fought it until the day he was in danger. And you remembered dying for him at the hand of another.

But he looked confused at your revelation.

“Was?” he questioned.

“Pieces of it are gone now,” you answered simply, still studying your fingers now wet with his tears.

He shook his head and glanced back at the others around him before turning back to you.

“I don't understand.”

When you dropped your fingers from your field of vision and met those golden brown eyes again, a wave of sadness washed over you. You could tell that he had spent many agonizing days awaiting this very moment. In fact, he almost looked dead himself. The skin on his face sagged downward farther than it seemed to want to stretch. And the bags under his eyes had taken on an almost bruise-like hue. He had kept misery for his company as long as you had been gone; it was plain to see on his face and in the way his shoulders fell so quickly and so far with your mention of a soul now shattered across realms. And even though you could guess why he had done it, you knew he didn't fully understand what exactly it was he had done as the invisible souls lining the edges of the room crept ever closer.

Even now you could hear them, the voices of the dead who weren't yet at rest, some supernatural, some human, many seeming to have attached themselves to the unfamiliar face in the room. You could see them all, hear them all, feel them all. They wished to usher you back down but their hands, greedy and helpless, could no longer get a grip on you.

Your lips fell into a hard, thin line.

“You should have left me dead, Jake.”

You heard a whisper from across the room, urging a large, curly-haired man out the door with a gentle and almost imperceptible, “Come on,” and nudge against his arm. Danny and Adele. The names flooded back to you as you watched them don sympathetic smiles, Danny clapping Jake on the shoulder gently just before they both left the room without another word.

The strange woman on the wall adjacent to you was the next to turn and leave, bringing another boy trailing behind her who looked just as tired as Jake. He was familiar, too. Maybe even more familiar than the others. And as soon as you saw the soft, toothy grin he gave you, the memories flooded back to you.

It was Josh. How could you have forgotten him and your time together?

When the room emptied, your eyes found Jake again and your hand found his as he fumbled to keep his emotions in check.

“I can’t feel you,” he shook his head almost frantically. “I can’t feel anything.”

“How long have I been gone?”

“Four months.”

You inhaled a deep breath at the time you had missed. Of course, time didn't exist wherever you had been and four months had passed as slowly as a lifetime for you. Maybe for Jake too.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t let you stay dead. I couldn’t live without you.”

You rested your hand on his cheek and he leaned into the touch to savor it. He even seemed to lose himself in it. It made you feel all the more guilty knowing that something he now needed so desperately would never bring you the same comfort again.

“I just hope you don’t come to regret it,” you answered softly.

His eyes dropped open again to look at you, confused. “Why would-? I would never regret it, y/n, never,” he insisted.

But you dropped your hand, settling back with another sigh at your lips and letting your eyes quickly dart around at the beings left in the room that he obviously couldn’t see.

“I’m not what I was, Jake. I hear them. They're crying out. There are lost souls all around us. Some of them even want to take me but they know I'm not theirs anymore.”

You watched as his eyes followed the trail yours had made, desperately trying to see what it was you could and looking scared that he might. But of course, they saw nothing but the empty room before him.

“I’ll protect you,” he answered quickly as he turned back to you. “I'll help you drown them out.”

He looked equal parts desperate and hopeful, frantic and optimistic. So much dissonance on one beautiful face. So much contradiction for one lonely man. But it was your stoicism that seemed to decimate him most efficiently, your even, calm demeanor even as you said things he didn't want to hear, things he didn’t understand but that hurt him regardless. Even just this way, he could tell you were different. Not so much as a single smile had even graced your lips in the time you'd woken gasping and hurting and desperate for the dead you had left behind. It all threatened to make the tears fall harder from his eyes.

“I can’t feel you,” he whispered through the sea of pain that raged on in his body, pain that was visible even to you. “You have…you have to tell me how you feel."

"I don't know how I feel," you answered flatly as your eyelids drooped and your body sank lower.

He took his own face in his hands to rub at his temples and along the bridge of his nose, inhaling deeply to steady himself. And as he did, you watched him carefully. You watched his hands work over his own skin and thought of the many times he had touched you with purpose.

It was your fault, you suddenly remembered. Your refusal to bind to him had put you both in danger. And for four months he was left alone to cope with the loss, no ounce of his gifts to untangle him from the mess of his own emotions. You weren’t certain you belonged here anymore but you knew you didn’t want him to make his home in grief. Actually, you couldn’t bear to see it.

“I died for you,” you whispered, prompting him to raise his head again so as not to miss even a single word you might speak.

He shook his head quickly, back and forth for a long moment. “It was never supposed to happen that way. It should have been me.”

Of course, it was always supposed to happen that way. But it was hard for mere immortal things so plagued by the illusion of control to understand such things. It was an illusion, the things you had deemed meant to happen, just like your tie, a force that now felt weak and strangled in comparison to how you'd remembered it feeling just before you died.

You had died for Jake, yes, but it was another who had killed you. You knew this. Could almost remember it, too.

All you were left with in the way of memories were the hands, soft and gentle, that had taken your face between them. They had taken you away from it all. They had brought you peace. They weren't here now but they hadn't followed you to where you had gone either.

Hands. An ocean. Deep and dark and all-encompassing. A boy drifting out in front of you…

“Sam was there.” You remembered him in an instant. And suddenly, you remembered how badly your heart throbbed over his absence.

“Do you remember it?” Jake asked, bringing you back to him with his voice.

Now that you had remembered it, it was impossible to expel from your mind.

“I was in the ocean, under the water,” you recalled aloud. “And he was there. It was peaceful.”

Sam was the one you had longed for in the end. You remembered it now.

Jake seemed to wince at the mention of his brother but he said nothing. But even in his silence, you felt a familiar pang of guilt that your vampire form had lived with for months. And you remembered the circle you'd been caught in. An entanglement, someone had once called it.

“I don't…” you trailed off, unable to word the way you felt coming back into your body.

You felt off. Actually, you felt entirely wrong. You weren't supposed to be here. You were supposed to be back on that beach with your parents, lying peacefully under the sun. You weren't supposed to be alive or half-alive or half-dead or whatever it was you were now. And there was an anger that rang familiar in your body, too, but this one felt much more dangerous, the fire not yet lit inside of you to feed it properly, the way it desired and demanded to be. But you felt it. That was the cacophony of emotions you had thought you'd left behind you for good. And now, once more, they plagued you, just like those spirits and demons less than thrilled at your second-or third-opportunity to fuck things up.

You didn't know how to live with it.

“Don't what?” Jake questioned, his brows hunkering down as he braced himself for whatever tragic words you were about to speak.

“I…I don't remember how to be alive.”

It seemed almost a relief to him when you said it and he couldn't help but laugh. And that smile; it suited him much better than the pain. You remembered wanting to protect it if you could.

“I’ll remind you,” he promised with another squeeze to your hand.

You gave him a smile back but in your mind, you already knew the truth. He wasn't the one you needed.

Taglist: @gvfcinema @jakekiszkasbuttsweat @hippievanfleet @crossczeched48 @cassiesgreta @sunfl0wer-power @abby-gvf @joshkiszkasfoot @joshskittytickler @lightsofthe-living-gvf @i-choose-the-road @am-bam @alwaysdaydreamingoffiction @themoreyou-love @bumblebeewrites @coolmedown @sacredthesin @jonch-gvf @justdamnpeachy @fallenstar1708 @vanfleeter @laurengvf8 @allybtj @watching-over-hypegirl @hr33gvf @kaitburb @threadofstars @jennasometimesreads @samiiijones @jakekiszkasmommy @lallisonl @therobynsworld-blog @misshunnybee @sparrowofthedawnsworld @demonrat444 @malany-gvf @myownparadise96 @capturethechaos @st4rdust-ch0rds @montenegroisr @sacredjake @notthedroidz @sinarainbows @kissingthegoat @eraofstardustchords @cherryflo @blacksoul-27 @lyndz2names @earthgrlsreasy @gvfmarge @carlyfleet @thetroublegetssoloud71 @withlovegvf @suzi107 @gracev0609 @objectsinspvce @kissakiszka @amorlizette @stardustcatcher @notsostrangerthing @brokebellsgvf @sweet1squash @imleavingyoufornewyork @lipstickitty @mavvanfleet

[rotm-channel]

The Legend of the little Boy.....

Twas a cold dark night in auttum and Pippa was resting in her little bed,she was tired and was almost ready to go to sleep,Jack tucked her in gently.

Pippa however was not ready to go to sleep yet

“Jack?Could you tell me a story, you know lots of them!Could you tell me one please?”

“Okay,but you'll have to go to sleep after”He said,Jack really did hear plenty over the years and liked telling them to the kids

“I will!Could you please tell me one of your spooky stories?”

“A spooky story?”But it's not Halloween just yet,besides you're trying to go to sleep and a scary story will just keep you up and give you nightmares”He said to little girl

“Oh!Don't worry about that youre stories never scare me!Go on now!Tell it.”She replied,eagerly awaiting his answear

When Jack heard that a mischievous grin formed on his face 

“WE-L-L If you insist,here is an old story about a boy from long,long ago”He said as he sat on her bed and began to unfold his old story:

He lived in a little town. I don't know his name but I do know he was a chipper and eager little boy who was part of a family of LumberJacks.

He worked hard day after day with his dear father and other fellow Lumberjacks and was friendly with everyone and loved his little town very much and all of its surrounding….

There was however one particular part he didn't really like…

There was an old abandoned quarry a few miles away down a sideroad,many claimed it to be haunted,the little boy was always nervous whenever he had to venture there.He didn't know why exactly,but he always felt as if he was being watched....

One night he came back to town along with a last load of lumber in a horse drawn cart with other lumberjack, when one of the Lumberjacks came to him “Little boy could you please go back down the road to pick up a cart,it was left there by mistake and well really need it for tomorrow”

The brave boy was always happy to help so he got on a pony and raced into the night to find the missing cart.

As he headed boldly in the darkness though a fog came down “Surely it will pass over soon,besides it'll take more than a bit of fog to stop me” The fog however quickly became so thick that he lost his way down the road.

And ended up getting lost and going the wrong way.

The boy was unaware of this until he reached his destination.

For in the fog he became so lost that he hadn't realized that he was heading towards the abandoned quarry.

The little boy was scared of being at the quarry all alone in the dark,but he was tired and so was his pony and he knew it was unsafe to head back down the road in the thick haze…

In spite of his fear,he decided it was for the best to wait until morning in hopes that the fog would be better then

He went into one of the old buildings and drifted off uneasily to slumber.

Late that night awoke startled to a noise coming from beneath the building.

He opened his eyes and saw long ghastly looking fingers reaching for him through the floorboards!

THERE WAS A MONSTER under the structure.

Terrified, the little boy ran out of the building as fast as his legs could carry him, with the horrible man-eating monster chasing him through the night……………..

“The-then what happened?”Pippa asked nervously

"Ahh,but thats where the story ends little Pippa no one ever saw the little boy again…."Jack replied stoically

“Bu-bu-but what about the Monster?!”She stuttered

"No one knows for sure….legend has it the monster still lurks about to this very day,hiding by unsuspecting people….."

"Waiting for the right moment…. TO STRIKE…"

“Anyways theres your story,so it's time to sleep”He said giving little Pippa a frosty kiss on her cheek

He went to the window and said “Goodnight”and flew off into the darkness…

Pippa however was far too scared to even think of sleeping,while she was no longer bothered by the cold presence of the frost sprite,her thoughts now dwelled on Jack story

“It couldn't be real!....could it?Pippa dared not to make a sound just in case any monsters were listening…

One terryfing tale for:@rotg-halloween

[mandrakebrew]

Never Ever Getting Rid of Me

Pairing: Moond.rop x Phoenix Words: 1,859 Rating: G Content Warning: oc x canon

Masterpost

Summary: Phoenix reunites with the Daycare Animatronic after a fire destroyed the pizzaplex.

They don’t know why they’re here. Maybe they can find something in the ruins of the pizzaplex to take home to remind them of their time here. Phoenix takes a deep breath and makes their way into what used to be the daycare center.

Small noises echo throughout the building. Phoenix chalks it up to animals that had moved in since the people had abandoned it. Some noises though, sounds a little too familiar. The sound of whirling gears and clicks. They brush it off as their mind playing tricks on them, and move forward. The place was a wreck. Despite that, it brought back memories of time spent here with both Sun and Moon. The music that once played over the speakers runs through their head and the taste of cheap soda fills their mouth.

Maybe that’s why they’d come back, to force themselves see they were gone.

Before they can react to the sound of metal gears moving right next to them, a large metal hand grabs onto their arm. The yelp they let out is buried underneath the voice of the animatronic.

“Naughty, naughty! Time for your nap!” It’s Moon, horrendously damaged, but still functioning none the less.

Phoenix doesn’t move at first, too stunned that he’s here to even speak. Thankfully, Moon’s sensors are working well enough to realize that it isn’t some random human he’s grabbing onto.

He freezes, stilling every little joint in his large metal body. He lets go and attempts to flee. Phoenix grabs onto his wrist first.

The animatronic’s arms are strong enough to pull itself free, strong enough to rip Phoenix’s arm clean out of its socket. Instead, it stays still.

“Moon? You’re still alive? I- I had no idea. I would have-”

He cuts them off with a low, distorted growl, before pulling his arm away and crawling towards one of the play structures before climbing it.

Where was he going? It was hard to think of an answer while still grappling with the fact he was alive. Sun was most likely alive as well.

All this time they’d been alone in this place, likely thinking they’d abandoned the two.

How badly was he damaged? They need to get a better look at him. He didn’t hurt them, so he clearly recognizes them.

“Moon!” They call out, moving towards the structure he climbed. They really didn’t want to get inside of it to get to him, but it was marginally safer than attempting to climb up the side of it. They crawl through equipment made for the children. Thanks to their small size, it’s not too difficult. After several cramped tunnels and the occasional run it with a rodent, they reach the top.

Looking around, they spot Moondrop perched on the side of the structure, facing away from them. “Moon.”

He glances over his shoulder at them, but says nothing.

Phoenix folded their arms over the plastic tubing they stood in front of. “I didn’t mean to leave you here. I didn’t know you survived the fire.”

Still, Moondrop said nothing, but didn’t leave. Phoenix took that as a good sign.

“I should have at least checked. I’m sorry.”

He didn’t respond. Phoenix isn’t surprised. He isn’t the forgiving type, and they’d likely hurt him deeply. A hurt they were familiar with. Inflicting it on him or Sun was the last thing they wanted.

A loud crashing sound coming from elsewhere in the pizzaplex grabbed both of their attentions.

Moondrop turned his body fully to look at them. The damage to his voice box causing the words to crackle. “It’s not safe.”

“I know. That’s part of why I didn’t check sooner.”

The next thing they knew, Moondrop was pulling them out of the play structure and holding them in his arms. They can feel sharp bits from its arms and torso poking into them, but not hard enough to cause any damage. He calls his wire and flys them both close to the entrance of the daycare.

Phoenix used to be petrified by heights, and the idea of letting the animatronic pick them up, let alone fly with them, was a hard no.

Not that Moondrop ever respected that. He delighted in making them scream and cling onto him when he’d snatch up while they weren’t even aware he was around.

“Leave.” He orders them, setting them down near the door.

Before he can get away again, they grab onto its hand as hard as they can. “No. I’m not leaving without you.”

He tries to pull his hand away, but their grip is firm. He growls, less intense than his initial angry reaction to their presence. “...Fine.”

Really? Just like that? Maybe it was his safety protocols making him put their safety ahead of his emotions. Even if he hadn’t forgiven them, he was willing to do what it took to them somewhere safe. Or maybe he had forgiven them but wasn’t willing to admit it yet. Either way, he followed as they pulled him out of the daycare and towards their office. Luckily, getting to it and inside it wasn’t difficult. Very little debris was on the way to the place.

Once they arrived, they let go of Moon’s hand. They open the large duffle bag they brought, thankful they brought it. There were parts and tools they doubted they could just order online. But they then notice something off to the side of the room.

There are blankets and pillows on the floor. The same ones that used to be in Sun and Moon’s room. In the same spot that Moon always sat while they worked, safe from the bright overhead lights just outside their office. Phoenix liked to work with just a lamp on their desk, or one on the head. That’s why Moondrop originally begun to stay in their office when the lights were on in the pizzaplex at night.

“Moonshine, I-” They stopped, a sob escaping them. Yes, they were guilty that they’d left him and Sun all alone, but now they were just so relieved to have them back. They missed them so much.

“Shhh,” Moondrop shushes them, moving around so it is now in front of them. He places his hands on their wrists to ground them, careful of his now claw-like hands.

“I’m sorry.” They force out in between gasps for air.

He shushes them again, his voice crackling.

Eventually, after Phoenix wipes their face clean, they dig through spare parts and place them in their bag. They also grab a device to reboot Moon. It could come in handy while repairing his software components.

Before they put it in their bag, Moondrop snatches it from them.

“No!”

His sudden actions startle Phoenix, making them jump slightly. “Moon, give it back.” They order him.

“No more Sun!” He growled, clutching the device in his hands to his chest.

They knew about Eclipse. The lights were no longer functioning in the pizzaplex. He was free to roam while Sun was trapped. Moon probably considered it fair. Not that Phoenix could really blame him. They also couldn’t blame Sun. He was only trying to keep them from getting decommissioned. Still- “It wasn’t fair. I know,” Phoenix speaks gently.

He seems to relax a bit.

“You trust me, right?”

Moondrop tilts his head slightly.

Phoenix mirrors him, waiting for his answer.

“... Yes.”

“Let me take you home and fix you up. I promise you’ll both get fair share of the body.”

He doesn’t respond right away. So Phoenix just waits, letting him think.

“… Promise?” He asks, after almost a minute.

“Yes.”

Moon hesitates, but hands the device back to the mechanic.

“Thank you.”

When they leave, Phoenix holds the door for Moondrop. Who stops when he steps outside, security measures meant to keep him in removed before the two (three) had left. He looks up at the sky. The light pollution blocks out all but a crescent moon and a few stars.

“Can you see the moon? I’m not sure how damaged your optic sensors are.”

“Yes.”

“I live outside town. You can come out and look at the moon whenever you want.” They gently grab and pull on his arm towards where they parked. As much as they don’t want to cut his first moments outside short, they don’t want to be seen “stealing” him.

It was a tight fit, but they get him in their small car, after putting the backseats down. With their duffle bag in the seat beside them, Phoenix drives away from the pizzaplex for the final time.

In the rear-view mirror, they watch as Moondrop seemingly cannot keep himself still. His weight shifting the car anytime he moved too much. Looking out every window as the city went past.

“You’ve never been outside that building before, have you? It must be a lot to digest.” They don’t voice it, but they wonder how Sun’s reacting to all this.

He says nothing in response, looking at every building that goes by.

Going into their bedroom suddenly has them feeling the wear the day has had on them. The clock on the nightstand says it is nearly four in the morning. They flick on the table lamp that has just enough to light to let them see without bothering Moondrop. He’s busy scuttling around the room, looking at everything it holds.

He suddenly stops and stares at their bed.

Phoenix pauses in the middle of getting their pajamas on. When they follow its gaze, they see the Moon and Sun plushies that sit on the bed, propped up by the pillows.

“Oh. I usually keep those on the shelf with the rest of my plushes, but…”

“... I missed you too,” Moondrop says after Phoenix trails off.

They’re fairly certain Sundrop shares the sentiment. If they weren’t so tired, they’d go ahead with the reboot. It feels wrong to leave him trapped another day. It would most likely take more convincing to get Moon to let them. He would also likely use their very human need for sleep to argue putting it off until tomorrow, anyway.

They finish getting dressed, and pull back their blanket, careful to move the plushies so they don’t fly off the bed.

They turn the lamp back off. Leaving the room bathed in red light from both the string of lights at the top of the walls, and Moon’s one working eye.

While they get comfortable in bed, Moon crawls over to their side. The bed is not nearly big enough for him, let alone both of them. In their tired state of mind, they consider whether they should get a bigger bed, and what kind of bed frame could hold its weight.

Moon pets the shaved part of their hair with his knuckles, “Nighty night~” He speaks in his singsong voice. While of course “nap time” was only enforced on the kids, Phoenix is sure he’s delighted to watch them sleep. He never disturbed them when they accidentally fell asleep while working. They sleep well after such an eventful day, and knowing that Moondrop is keeping watch over them.

Taglist:

@cybotgalactica @devilzfruit @tulaytullahs @alice-nineteenth @hexusproductions @deregirls @frozenhi-chews

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #4

On time for once!

Let's do this.

Hmm. Not quite sure how I feel about this? Admittedly, Illyana is a character about whom I know relatively little in the grand scheme of things, but given that she's been fighting for control of Limbo for a while, been a protege of Scott Summers, and was a War Captain on Krakoa, I would think her tactical skills would be up to snuff enough that she could be half decent at chess?

That being said, the trope that tactical ability can be measured by chess ability isn't one that I think has to be followed. It's as much a test of logic as it is of tactical planning and forethought, and between Illyana's more chaotic nature and her lack of formal schooling, maybe it's just the case that she would rather show you how good she is in the field than go on about chess ability. And I can think of a good reason why she would choose to play chess with the person she has blocked, rather than any other game.

Anyway!

Trevor Fitzroy isn't allowed his weird little gremlin bro-pal possible love interest guy Bantam anymore, because of woke. (I know fuckin' nothing about Fitzroy, incidentally, this is based off of their weird relationship in that one X-Men: TAS episode I watched.)

And yeah, what WAS Krakoa all about, huh? Where DID all those babies that got abandoned go?

. . . Well, anyway!

Hank, chairs are for sitting on, not perching on . . .

It's interesting that we're doing split team issues - clearly, this run is taking cues from New X-Men not just in terms of some of its plot points, but also some of its structure; there were multiple arcs that focused exclusively on Charles and Jean, or Logan, Scott and Fantomex, with the rest of the team in the ether. It's not a bad way to tackle a team of this size, and given the news that both Magik and Psylocke are getting ongoing solo series, I'm less worried about them getting focus in a team book now.

Where is the Marauder, incidentally? I can't imagine you need that for a psychic rescue? Unless Max is using it, I suppose. Something that'll come up in #5, I imagine.

It's a sign of just how poisoned the discourse about Hank McCoy is that I saw multiple comments on Reddit saying that this scene heralded a return to evil Beast, because he also didn't like to go out on field missions and would regard his work as more important.

That being said, this reaction was weird to me, given that this Hank comes from an era where he was at his most pro-active, heroic, and willing to fight for people he didn't know - until I read the Infinity Comics, which made it all make a good degree more sense.

Hank isn't being cowardly or showing a case of poor priorities; no, instead, he appears not to trust himself, and he'd rather not place what he perceives to be a volatile, potentially morally untrustworthy element (himself) into a live situation. Working on Magneto's illness is a cut and dry net good with no downsides, so it makes sense he'd want to keep working on that, especially if Hank has reason to believe a similar condition could affect any one of them at any time.

Not sure I love Illyana's antagonism towards Rogue here? Feels kinda like it came out of nowhere and is just being done to foreshadow the upcoming 4 part crossover where these two teams come to a head. Scott's frustration with Rogue's attack on Graymalkin in #3 felt a bit more naturalistic than this.

Idie icesliding like that really does make me wonder if MacKay also wanted Iceman for this team but he was earmarked for Eve Ewing's Exceptional book. I doubt it, just because MacKay's done some really good, pointed work with Idie, which continues in this issue, but the visual parallel is just hard to get out of my brain.

I missed this Hank, a lot.

Also, good time to note that we do have a different artist here! Netho Diaz's style isn't a million miles away from Ryan Stegman's, so it's not a very jarring shift, and I do like how Diaz renders a lot of these characters - less heavily stylised, but heavily styilised isn't always to everyone's taste, so I feel like this was a good pick of fill-in artist.

Man. Have I mentioned I missed this Hank, a LOT? That happy little smile on his face in the bottom right panel really does delight me.

Still not quite the bouncing effervescence of Defenders Hank, but this is still very solidly 90s Hank, who I do rather enjoy, especially when he's in the hands of a writer who knows when to really let his loquacious qualities out to play, and when to let brevity be the soul of wit.

Idie's really come a long way since Wolverine & the X-Men, and I'm really, honestly, very happy to see it. She's coming from a place of real experience and wisdom and the struggle of loving yourself in what can feel like a loveless world, and I hope MacKay continues to showcase her maturation and development. Considering how worried I was that she'd be wallpaper in this series, this is encouraging stuff.

If you had asked me which member of this team of X-Men I expected to give what amounts to a really popping Batman speech, I would not have picked Cain Marko, but this feels real and earned in light of his genuine Krakoan redemption. The elevation from avatar of destruction to protector, to bodyguard, to living target, is fucking awesome.

Yeah, work that pole, Hank.

That being said, this dialogue does still sound kinda weird for Hank. This feels a little more like X-Force Beast than anything else, so I'm wondering if this is a seed of something, or if Hank is just kinda frustrated that what feels like a side quest popped up just as he was about to progress the main quest and enter act 2. God knows that if I woke up in the morning and found out I had to tangle with Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts, I would also be a little annoyed - this feels a little bottom of the barrel for the X-Men.

The X-Men fandom at large just heaved a great sigh and said, in unison, "Oh, this fucker."

Not the AoA geneticist I would have wanted to see in this book, but I'll take it, I suppose. Hopefully we get an explanation about where this guy came from, because I was fairly certain he was dead? Not that that's ever stopped anyone before, but just, you know, so we can put it on the Wiki and all.

Laksa! Apparently a spicy noodle dish, usually made with thick rice noodles, with toppings such as chicken, straw, or fish - that being said, given we were told that Glob is a vegetarian and that he therefore only cooks vegetarian, I have to imagine this might be a coconut soup laksa that might include eggs, deep-fried tofu, beansprouts, and herbs, or some variation thereof.

Hank definitely seems to approve. :)

God, please tell me that Colossus is going to join the team, I would absolutely love for Jed MacKay to get to work on our beefy Russian lad, he deserves some TLC after the trauma conga line that was Krakoa and the years before that.

Interesting that he's a blocked number and yet they're still interacting, but then again, I have a browser extension that blocks Reddit on my computer, and I still go on Reddit, so maybe that rings truer than I'd like to admit.

This leads me to my guess as to the reason of why chess - it's playable long distance, and doesn't require any elaboration on moves. You just say the piece and where you're moving them to. Something easy to play with someone who doesn't feel communicative. A way of talking without really talking.

All in all, a decent issue, but it definitely feels more in line with #2 than #1 or #3 - I almost have to wonder if the edict to double ship issues came down, and MacKay felt more able to decompress things and spread them out across multiple issues as a result, especially since I think that, if this were paced more tightly, we'd be progressing through the plot fairly quickly.

If we're taking New X-Men as the blueprint, Morrison would absolutely have squished the last four issues into two - but they weren't double shipping, so.

If we're looking at odd numbers being the plot heavy, characterisation heavy issues, and the evens being action and a bit more 'filler' issues, then I don't think that's an awful structure - I just think that, in a world where single issues cost $3-4 a pop, people might start skipping the even numbered issues in an effort to save money. This might read better in trades, which feels A) bad to say, and also B) increasingly common about modern comics. Not sure how I feel about it.

[insufferablefirehazard]

I watched a video on yanderes. Honestly the whole idea that people find that trope attractive is sickening and worrying. Because first of all: it's usually the woman being crazy and the stalked being male. Once again, centering the male as per fucking usual as the one being taken care of and completely dismissing the woman's feelings as being "crazy" and "dominant" and "sexy." Completely missing the deeper layers of her needing help, support and never having felt secure in love before. second: oh no little man baby needs a mommy to take care of him, as if we fucking need more of that BS. GET SOME FUCKING BONE STRUCTURE IN YOU

It always comes back to “crazy girl does everything for the bland, expressionless boy who did nothing to deserve it except EXIST.” And then when she snaps because her abandonment issues and emotional trauma go untreated, it’s played off as titillating. Like wow, her mental breakdown is SO HOT. 🙃

Meanwhile, she’s over here bleeding out emotionally and everyone’s like, “Aww, she’s psycho in love 🥺.” No. She’s deeply traumatized and needs therapy and some goddamn friends who care about her as a human, not a violent kink-fantasy wrapped in pigtails.

And YEP—yet again, the dude is the passive recipient of it all. No inner life, no accountability, just his lukewarm reactions treated like they’re worth dying for. Like bro. Brush your hair and form a sentence longer than six words before a girl kills for you, okay? WHERE’S HER SECURITY?? WHERE’S HER PEACE?? WHERE’S HER GODDAMN SLEEP SCHEDULE??

The whole “mommy gf who breaks down for you” fantasy is the rotten cherry on top. We’re supposed to swoon over a woman who’s falling apart because she loves too hard—and not ask why she’s in that state. Just consume it. Just fetishize it. Just ignore the heartbreak at the core of it all.

NO. LET’S START WRITING CHARACTERS WHO GET HELD BEFORE THEY SNAP. Characters who get emotional support instead of a plotline about being “crazy hot.” Characters who don’t have to become monsters just to feel wanted.

[oneofthosebells]

hey! omg I would love to hear about all of your WIPs but particularly Sweden’s last prince please?? Maybe also Simon and Sara?? (And also grief fic but I’m being really greedy hahah)

Hey! Ha, well, I'm enjoying talking about my WIPs (beats procrastinating over writing them!) so be as greedy as you want! Post got a little long though, oops...

Sweden's last prince: ooh, the only one with an actual title of sorts. Been hanging round my drafts for ages. Wilmon are in their 60s, living quiet lives of retirement in the country (possibly Scotland because why not?). They give an interview for the first time ever about the end of the Swedish monarchy.

But Wilhelm corrects me when I suggest [Erik's death] is where the story begins. In his version it all started a few weeks earlier, when the 16-year-old Prince Wilhelm - as he was then - got sent by his family to an elite boarding school called Hillerska following a viral incident in a nightclub. "They thought it would straighten me out," Wilhelm explains, before appearing to realise what he just said. The pair exchange a look and break into matching smiles. (This will not be the last time this happens.) "But I met Simon on my first day there. So, you know, ironic."

Sara and Simon: siblings through the years type thing - rough 5+1 structure, 5 times Simon tries to fix things for Sara and 1 time he realises he doesn't have to. Started writing it for the Sara prompt for Simon's month, couldn't make the structure work, abandoned it for now.

“Let’s go find a grown up and they can fetch Dad,” he says, cheerful and confident because Sara doesn’t need to know he’s scared too. “Somewhere quiet,” he adds, seeing the way her eyes flick nervously over to the beer tent and the raucous laughter coming from inside. “Dad said to wait here…” she says uncertainly, voice hoarse from crying. “Maybe he’s got lost and he needs us to find him.” After a long pause where she seems to be thinking hard, Sara jumps down off the bench to stand next to her brother, wiping the tears from her eyes. On impulse, he gives her a fierce hug, arms wrapped around her middle as she hugs him back. “I’ll fix it,” he promises. “You’ll be okay.”

Grief one-shot: melancholy one! Future fic, Ludvig dies, Wille has complicated feelings about it, it brings up some stuff for Simon too.

"Wille?" He tries again, completely at a loss. "Did you hear what…?" Simon trails off, suspecting Wille hadn't heard a word of the phone call after Farima had broken the news, debating with himself whether to repeat the details or just get Wille back to the hotel as fast as he can. To his surprise Wille nods, though his face is still ashen and his eyes aren't his own. It's a cold stranger who speaks. "I heard. They're arranging a flight for us. Makes sense. Get ahead of the press. We should go." He turns on his heel and starts to walk back down the hill. Simon follows, a shiver running through him despite the baking heat. After a few steps he slides his hand into Wille's, almost faint with relief when a still silent Wille squeezes back, holding on tight.

Thank you so much for the ask! 🥰

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OUR FATHERS WEREN'T THAT STUPID

You can thus gradually work your way into their confidence, and maybe charge for premium features. What do they have to go pretty far down the list, and indeed, no one is sure where the end is. From what we've seen, being good seems to help startups in three ways: it improves their morale, it makes other people want to help them, and IBM could easily have gotten an operating system elsewhere. If you feel you're really helping people, you'll keep working even when it seems like your startup is cheap to run, you become a member of an institution. And yet all those people have to be even faster, and more efficient. But when you ask adults what they got wrong at that age, nearly all say they cared too much what other kids thought of them. If you plan to get rich, and this essay is about how to make money by inventing new technology. But maybe not. It's a smart move, but we didn't do it because we want their software to be good. Maybe it's not a coincidence.

When I was running a startup, there are probably two things keeping you from doing it. Thanks to Ken Anderson, Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Giffin, Sarah Harlin, Shiro Kawai, Jessica Livingston, Matz, Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this essay. Structurally, the list of n things is in that respect the Cold War teaches the same lesson as World War II and, for that matter, how much is outside of our control. Or rather, any client, and if you try to make it as a portrait by an unknown fifteenth century artist, most would walk by without giving it a second look. But why should people who program computers be so concerned about copyrights, of all things? And no one can stop you. It's not for the people who make things. It was written by just three people. Ultimately you always have to guess. It's not something you face and read to an audience that's easily fooled, whether it's someone making shiny stuff to impress would-be startup founders but to students in general, because we'd be a long way toward explaining the mystery of the so-called real world. Otherwise their desire to lead you on will combine with your own desire to be led on to produce completely inaccurate impressions.

What are people doing now, using inadequate tools, that shows they need what you're making? Visiting Sand Hill Road. A startup is like a giant galley driven by a thousand rowers. That is a liberating prospect, a lot like a charity in the beginning. It does help too to feel that you're late. Facebook. But in fact if you narrow the definition of beauty to something that works is by trying things that don't. Mainly because it's easier than satisfying them. SLAC goes right under 280 a little bit south of Sand Hill Road precisely because they're so boringly uniform.

And there is a natural fit between smallness and solving hard problems. Anyone can adopt Don't be evil. Naturally wealth had a bad reputation. My Y Combinator co-founder Jessica Livingston is just about the easiest thing in the world. Microsoft, who have abandoned whatever mysterious high-minded principles produced the high-paying union job a myth, but I suspect that if you can't raise the full amount. The other students are the biggest advantage of going to work for a company, and his friend says, Yeah, that is a very real element in the valuation of companies. I would rather cofound a startup with a friend matters.

Imagine an American president saying that today. They just represent a point at the far end of the world. Sometimes young programmers notice the eccentricities of eminent hackers and decide to adopt some of their own are enormously more productive. The situation pushed buttons I'd forgotten I had. The worst case scenario is the long no, the no that comes after months of meetings. In the late 90s my professor friends used to complain that they couldn't get grad students, because all the undergrads were going to change something, all the hackers I knew were either writing software for the first few months comforted ourselves by treating the whole thing as an experiment that we might call off at any moment. The thing about ideas, though, if I've misled people here, I'm not eager to fix that. Wealth is what people want. But galleries didn't want to start a startup. The best place to meet them is school. Fortunately, there were few obstacles except technical ones. I knew the founder equation and had been focused on it since I knew I could see using something like that.

[koukaaa-descent]

info post for indigo

I am using this format to organize my thoughts about him and just generally solidify my idea of him. yippee.,, this will probably be edited every once and a while so that I can add/remove stuff.. huzzah

Indigo is about 6’3 although he hunches over slightly, mainly to be more comfortable with his stature because of his peculiar anatomy. Seems to be (physically) around the age of thirty, but it’s very hard to tell since it’s not as if he retains enough human features to compare examples of age. You’d have more luck trying to compare him age-wise to a Bracken.

He is technically undead. Kind of a Frankenstein’s monster situation. The company stitches people and creatures together and ‘programs’ them so that they collect scrap and willingly die. It’s not an easy process, and a lot of individuals fall through the cracks and get thrown into it all with free will. Most of the time, those individuals simply go along with the flow. A majority of the time none of them actually remember anything before their placement with a crew, and thus rarely find the motivation to defy, abandon or otherwise act in ways unsavory to the company. A select few have ever actually been willing to do so, often with little results.

Since the scanner messes with memory with use and he’s unsure of when he was ‘revived’ or if he was even alive beforehand, as far as Indigo knows, he is 53 days old at the time of his death. A certain member of his original crew knew otherwise, but died before anything could be said about it.

Indigo is curious, apathetic towards other people, and empathetic towards creatures. He regards other humanoids as a person might regard strange animals; he knows that they are like him in theory, but he simply separates himself from them.

Indigo ‘matures’ extremely quickly. The average lifetime of a scrapper is usually around two weeks. He manages to live for about a month and a half, a record unseen before.

Indigo is ‘born’ into a cruel, short world. He acts accordingly. In his short lifetime he is only able to recognize Monsoon as family just before his death—after Monsoon, too, has died. Before then, he views Monsoon as a strange creature, and is unsure of why such fondness lingers so deeply.

Indigo struggles to recognize emotions and has varyingly successful attempts to put a name to them as he feels them. The most knowledge he has of emotion was originally learned from his first crew, who died within his first week of life. Two of them died because of his actions. The third died attempting to protect him from a Masked early on—on the first day. Indigo does not mourn them.

Indigo was ‘born’ understanding how to speak, read, and write. However, he cannot sing. His vocal cords cannot handle extended held notes. (Totally unrelated to this—he is able to mimic some stuff with unnerving accuracy. A few examples would be a Snare Flea’s shriek, the sound a Masked makes as they convert another individual, and an Eyeless Dog’s breathing.)

Indigo, while fairly humanoid, has varyingly strange features beneath the suit. White eyes (entirely, without a glow, sort of glassy), short & curly hair, varying patches of scales as well as very short talons. They extend from the bone of his fingertips and do not function well as claws (think passerines). His legs are just barely digigrade in a way that makes walking ache constantly, as his shoes do not fit very well for his unique situation. Indigo prefers to stand on the pads of his feet rather than his heel, seeing as he has more support and his bone structure is significantly more comfortable like that.

Indigo named himself.

While he/him pronouns are preferred, Indigo does not mind being referred to with it/its, or they/them. He is first and foremost separated from humanity. (need to emphasize this later)

He struggles with verbal speech, and occasionally lisps because of his teeth. Where molars should be, fangs were; it created a rather terrible problem regarding speaking and just existing. He bites the inside of his cheeks and his tongue a lot.

Indigo has an extended tailbone. This means; extremely short tail. As in, just a tiny wiggly pointed nub that isn’t even visible if he doesn’t pull his shirt up over it.

The relationship between Indigo and Monsoon is entirely platonic. Indigo himself has no perceived notion of social stereotypes regarding physical touch and intimacy, and does not care much about public displays of affection.

Indigo is extremely sensitive to light, likely as a result of whatever entities the Company ripped parts from in order to create him. This creates some odd scenarios (ex. getting flash banged might actually outright blind him for up to seven minutes, pointing a flashlight at his face without warning will have the standard effect of a flash bang minus the deafening for a short duration, he cannot stay outdoors without his helmet as the sunlight forces him to squint, etc.)

If I had to give percentages, I’d say that Indigo is 20% human, 70% entity (stuff taken from standard entities), and 10% ‘where the fuck did that come from?’

He retains a humanoid shape solely because of the company-issued uniforms. They’re rather baggy, as one could imagine.

His nose is flatter than usual, almost feline in nature. This creates the illusion that his face is rather flat from the sides. His facial features themselves are sharp if that makes sense, with rounded edges.

Indigo does not have ears. He only has small ear-holes and the tiniest outer ridge extending from it, like a lizard.

Indigo dies in the process of destroying Gordion, otherwise known as the beast named ‘Death’. (I know it’s named Jeb, I’m dramatic.) I’ve taken liberties with lc lore for the sake of my ocs if that hasn’t already come across.

He cannot cry. He is physically incapable of it, despite retaining the reflex to do so.

other ocs (in advance once I finish info sheets for them); Monsoon, who is directly related to Indigo, and Lamp, who is… technically a jester.

related posts (containing lore regarding Indigo); the antithesis of hate, holding on real tight, excerpt from myth maker, visual reference for indigo’s coloring, another info post regarding both Indigo and Monsoon, both of us are going to die here, I just hadn't expected that you'd be first, the death of gordion

last updated 2024/3/12

[yandere-fics]

78 and maybe 91 for Miriel? Nepo baby upset that you suggested visiting your parents and offers that you write them a letter instead explaining why you won’t need to see them ever again

78. “You want to see your family? Why? You have me and I’m all you need.”

91. “They are going to hurt you. They are going to leave you, mock you, betray you, abandon you. But not me. I’ll be here for you. I’ll worship you, love you and protect you from the world. Just you and me. Forever.”

(I like the way you think anon. As usual sentence structure is changed to fit characters personality.)

Things had been going so smoothly. You never usually pushed back when Miriel clung to you and didn't let you out of the house. You accepted her clingy love with open arms, you must have also realized that the two of you only needed each other because you had allowed her to push your friends out of the picture entirely. So why were you now asking for other people near you, it didn't matter if they were your parents, you were supposed to only need her. Had she not done enough to push all those silly thoughts out of your mind and get you to see things the right way?

"Your family?" She hummed, only taking your words into consideration for a moment before pushing them aside and nuzzling closer to you on the couch. "The answer is obviously no, babe. Why would you need to see them? You have me and I'm all you need anyways."

She thought you would drop it afterwards. You never push back, you know that you two are soulmates so why should you waste time fighting with her when you two can just be happy. You're going to give in, in the end so why bother. Except, you don't want to just take it this time. you've allowed her to have her way every time because in the city, leaving your mate is impossible. but you couldn't let her keep you from your family this time. You were going too stir-crazy, only having her to talk to.

"Miri, they're my family and I love them, please just let me visit them. It's important to me." You didn't miss the way her body tensed before soothing herself back into her delusions once more. It was always shocking how quickly she managed to ease straight back into her delusions. It's why you threw on the sweet nickname, just to ease her mind so she wouldn't snap at you. A careful dance to try to distance yourself without letting her know that you were sick of her constant presence.

"Hmm... nope! Here's an idea babe, why don't you just write a letter instead? That'll put your mind at ease I'm sure." Though there'd be no point in writing a letter when Miriel wouldn't even dare to send it. If your parents saw your letter then they might write one back and put silly ideas in your pretty little head and she can't have that. You had just gotten to the stage where you finally accepted her love and she wouldn't let them brainwash you.

"I- but I just really want to see them! Please Miri, this isn't fair." You felt like you might cry in frustration but held it back because it would only cause her to think that your parents were even more of an unneeded stressor in your life. She really couldn't have that.

"Babe, please stop. I'm only trying to protect you! They'll hurt you. They'll just abandon you at the end of the day, they won't be there to help you through all your hard times! But I will! At the end of the day, it's me and you against the world babe. So please, don't ask again, you don't want to hurt your beloved soulmate's feelings, do you?"