#<- which is just. like that's just history. but I've only read abt it in the one other place before hence the post ajhhsgh

[lwieserce]

why is gi twitter lately obsessed with discussions on whether what hoyo does with their ships is queercoding under censorship or queerbait

[fluentisonus]

guy who's only ever read one literary account of waterloo reading another: getting a lot of les mis vibes from this

[quartzalynlove]

Dating Johnny Cage Would Include

Pairing: Johnny Cage (mk1) x reader

Summary: hcs about dating our favorite movie star

Warnings: none

A/N: I've got so many Johnny ideas running around this head

Alright let's cut to the chase

This man's love language is gift giving

Jewelry, clothing, shoes he's buying it all for you

You know in Iron Man 3 when Tony bought the giant Christmas bunny for Pepper? Yeah expect something like that from time to time

But he's also very sentimental and will buy you things he knows you love/will make you happy

That book you've been talking about reading all year? He'll surprise you with it on a random Tuesday just to see you smile

And don't be a collector or something

You like mugs? Funko pops? Magic the Gathering?? He's the sole sponsor of your collection

His net worth may be in the millions but nothing he owns is worth more than pure joy on your face

Speaking of your face he's constantly trying to get you on the screen

Whether you think you have talent or not Johnny just wants your perfect being captured on film

"C'mon, doll, I found auditions for a lead in a rom-com. You'd steal hearts on the big screen!"

Lord knows you've already stolen his

The man's a huge kid and nerd at heart so if you're also a movie buff he'll be on cloud nine

He hasn't had many people to talk to about the magic of entertainment since his mom when he was younger

The two of you would lose track of time talking about the good, the bad, and the cheesy of movie history

This also means he will talk and flirt with you almost exclusively in movie quotes

And if at any point you start thinking they're cheesy he'll switch it up with an expression bc he knows they always make you laugh

While he is silly, nerdy, and impulsive Johnny also values quality time with you

He wouldn't trade his job for anything in the world but sometimes it's a lot

Sometimes he just needs a movie night you

Nothing but the two of you cuddled on the couch, a bottle of wine, and the entire Star Wars saga

He could never thank you enough for supporting him and in turn he fully supports you in all of your passions

Imposter syndrome and insecurity are not allowed in the house

For every flaw you see in your work he will list 10 things he loves about it

"I know it's hard not to feel like this, but even when you can't believe in yourself, I'll always be your cheerleader."

Where's his favorite place to kiss you? Where isn't

It all depends on which part of you looks most kissable at any given moment

He'll kiss your lips, cheek, forehead. He'll even kiss your stomach totally unprompted.

Got freckles or beauty spots? He's abt to become a problem

In his eyes, you're walking cinema that he can touch, taste, and love. He wouldn't miss a second of you.

Bottom line: Johnny's happiness in life is bringing joy to the world and you're no exception

The smiles of millions of his fans at Cage Con is only equal to one of yours

[whorediaries-09]

okay but popstar!reader and rockstar!sirius where reader performs a song, and wears sirius' leather jacket while doing it and screams "yes i'm his girlfriend, do what you want with that information"and sirius is SHOCKED or in which reader is in an interview and get questioned abt siri and she's like "he's the love of my lifee" and he is all gooey and melty

eep! i'm sorry i've been inactive, i hope you forgive me. i was on a little trip and also have my exams. anyways, i hope you like what i've written.

smoke on my clothes;

pairing- rockstar!sirius black x popstar!reader warnings- fluff, 18+ content (i had to incorporate it cause its him-) use of y/n (aghhhkdjci4utcisn). let me know if i should add more a/n- okay so i mixed both the ideas like-um- idk how to explain, you'll see.

the slut club

lovelorn and nobody knows love thorns all over this rose

he was known for his notorious dating history. he was known for his "sex appeal". he was known for cigarettes after sex. he was known for his black leather jackets. he was known for his distinct rough voice, booming through stadiums. and through the years, he had a gained a reputation of being nothing but a man who seemed to a 'playboy' of sorts.

that pushed the media to slut shame him. but what happened behind close walls remained in his memories, and only he knew. while he could usually laugh it off when asked in interviews, he still felt hurt. he wasn't a man of commitment, and whenever he took a woman to his bed, he specified he didn't want any emotional bonding. it was supposed to be just a one night stand.

that was until he met you. you had agreed to collab with him on a project he had been working on. while the both of you rehearsed different genres of music, sirius wanted to experiment with his style a little bit. you were truly a sight to behold, clad in your cream oversized sweater and black jeans when you walked in the studio. there was something so mesmerizing about you, something that truly enchanted him.

that is how you got to know him. the sobs behind his smiles, the addiction behind the smoke on his clothes, the kisses behind his stage. he'd hold your hand under tables, kiss your pretty face stupid in private, he'd braid flowers into you hair. and in the perception of the hues of dark oceans, his gray stormy eyes would melt into your tear flooded haze when his cock was buried into you, hitting spots you'd never knew existed. his well defined abs would be soaked in sweat, lit under the moonlight. his lips would melt into your lips, his fingers pressing into your skin as your walls would clench around his cock, hinting the arrival of your orgasm. he would ghost his fingers at your clit, your moans and screams of his name falling like a cacophony of a melody into his ears. you'd shudder, shake and curl your toes with your breast heaving as you'd come down from your high euphoria, hitting you as he'd paint your walls with his hot white cum. he'd pepper kisses upon your hot skin, murmuring phrases of affection and falling asleep with his arms wrapped around your body.

he was a liquor you could be drunk on. but loving him was like holding a love thorned rose.

****

you wrapped the jacket around your body, hugging it closer, smelling sirius' scent upon you. the interview consisted of the same old questions but you still had to answer them with a faux smile on your face. sirius wondered how you could manage to do it all the damn time.

you shuffled with the cards, reading the tweet by a fan. you looked into the camera,

'so sirius motherfucking black just collabed with y/n? i think i'm about to faint. oh holy lord, they'd be the hottest couple if they dated.'

sirius almost about fainted. bells started ringing in his ears, as his heart thumped against his heart. truly against your wishes and his, the love you had for each other was hidden. once when you had brought it up, he'd laughed it off by saying it would blow up on your pretty face. but deep down he wanted the world to know how amazing you were, and maybe being slut shamed for you, would be worth it, for once. and while you had the image of a sweet popstar, and the world wanted you, it felt like it would be a crime to confine you with him. but his love knew no boundaries. he'd kill for you, he thought when you were so accepting of him and his flaws when he revealed that he was so 'imperfect'.

he gripped on the edge of his table, his knuckles almost turning white when you opened your mouth to answer. you smiled, holding up a finger as you did so.

'actually he is the love of my life,'

the sentence slipped so casually from your lips, as you proceeded with the tweets and questions. if he could, he'd hug you. but you were behind a screen on his phone. he felt wanted, accepted and desired. without his realization tears pooled into his eyes. he felt loved.

because you didn't care about the smoke adorned on your clothes. you didn't care about getting lovesick all over your bed. you didn't care about handprints in wet cement. you didn't care about that he was rose with thorns. you were truly drunk in love, and maybe it would be worth it even for once if it blew up on your pretty face.

[anna-scribbles]

hey anna! the wait for kwami’s choice part 2 truly is abysmal and it’s so hard to navigate through the tag with all the leaks about, do you have any fic recs to tide us over until gloob puts us out of our misery?

not only do I have fic recs, I also have way too much to do rn and therefore will spend an inordinate amount of time crafting a detailed rec list for you 😘 (we can also just consider this my 2022 ao3 wrapped lol)

goes without saying perhaps, but ANYTHING by @peachcitt is gold and also uniquely devastating, some of my particular favorites being:

metamorphosis - 97k, enemies, sleepovers, you get it. i'm normal

those benevolent stars - 23k, ladrien thief/prince/soulmates au. what more do I even need to say

chat noir's white french man hit list for feminist purposes - 7k, hilarious and devastating, this fic is a child to me

double dare - 32k, ladrien, absolutely everything. cemented my friendship w/ peach bc I had to scream at her everyday abt it

I thought the plane was going down - 11k, attuned to my tastes specifically, adrinette having a History while on airplanes

@carpisuns also puts out banger after banger like it's her dayjob, specializing in understanding the ridiculous nature of the lovesquare to such a degree and also being the funniest person alive. some of my faves from her are:

tell me something I don't know - 120k, the marichat fic EVER, mar's dissertation on lovesquare and guess what she's right

pink - 14k wip, adrien loves marinette, SOFT

two idiots and a hamster (collab with @botherkupo) - 24k, adrinette roommates, makes me cry laugh

@picayunearts is a goddess on earth. she bends word and image flawlessly to her will. recently she has enraptured me with

final girl - 41k, marichat, au where marinette succeeds in giving up her miraculous to alya in origins. INCREDIBLE marinette character study

@rosekasa invented ladynoir and i'm not afraid to say it. check out everything on her ao3 but just note the following

when things were good - 15k wip, breakup fic/post hawkmoth takedown, has been ruining me in a SPECIAL way

new marinette 12k, post-guardianship memory loss marinette, a classic

like poles of a magnet - 12k, enemies au, hurts my feelings

ya'aburnee - 13k, ladynoir, HURTS ME VERY MUCH. I'VE NOT RECOVERED

@buggachat's fics always feel like i'm attending a course on adrien and marinette's true characterizations explained to me by someone with a PhD in lovesquare and I walk away enlightened. she has an incredible gift for storytelling and just Getting It. anyway read

maintaining a professional distance - 43k, ladynoir hotel room shenanigans, god-tier characterization

when you're near 10k, ladynoir dating but adrinette have never met, a classic

@sha-nwa should honestly quit her career and write lovesquare fanfiction for me full time. proof:

the way I loved you - 68k, marichat break up fic, will be cemented into my mind forever

photograph - 1k, sweet adrinette, abby loves making me cry

things WOULD be amiss if I did not mention @officialratprince (carolinaa on ao3) bc their fics derailed my homework schedule on several occasions last semester, though I'll be honest that their fics are not for the faint of heart or those who wish adrien agreste to have a good time. my faves are

I will take it / it can't go wrong series - 3 fics at 16k, 25k, and 39k, adrien's journey through experiencing child abuse and his friends being there for him, culminating in gabriel's court trial

home sick - 14k wip, adrien gets pneumonia and Everything Is Really Bad

other various fics I love for various reasons:

how hawkmoth got his groove back series by @agrestenoir - 2 fics at 3k and 1k, one of my favorite crack fics i read last year. had me crying laughing

1 step forward, 3 steps back by agnes writes - 10k, breaks my heart every time I read it. also makes me legitimately angry at adrien while still keeping him in character which is a feat in and of itself

the last day on earth by reiaji - 10k, chat blanc keeps happening as marinette gets older, I am incapable of not recommending this fic

okay now go forth and don't do your work<3

[eurydicees]

pls can u tell me everything about fhq and esp fhq iwaoi i don’t really know what it is but every time i see you repost one of those beautiful heart wrenching artworks i want to die in the best way

YES GLADLY I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING I CAN !!! under the cut because you're getting everything.

ok so some of the history lesson portion of this may be a little off, it's been a hot minute since i've done much research into this lol. but final haikyuu quest first appeared as a spread in one of the bonus pages in the manga! throughout the manga's run were occasionally drawings of the characters in little fake movie posters, one of them being an action/fantasy movie called final haikyuu quest:

this first poster and the original character designers are drawn by furudate! from there, it went on to become a mini bonus game in the haikyuu 3DS game, which is kind of crazy if you think about it too hard.

there's a playthrough uploaded on youtube here, but it's obv in japanese and i don't think there's been a translation of the game. there's a translation of part of it here on tumblr, but i don't think it's complete. poster from the 3DS game:

from there, it went on to be a CD drama (videos 8-10 on this youtube playlist, with subs), which is super neat. it's also one of the haikyuu light novels, but i have yet to find a full english translation of that.

i haven't read the novel or watched the videos with the CD drama audio myself, so i'm not sure how much it differs from the 3DS game. i assume they're pretty similar though.

so the premise at its most simple is that hinata and his party of adventurers are off to defeat the demon king oikawa and his henchmen! those are the basics.

the "canon" characters in hinata's party are hinata, kenma, aone, iwaizumi, and kageyama. on the opposing side we've got oikawa (the demon king), kuroo, and kiyoko. kiyoko has servants in the form of tanaka and nishionoya (they don't care for oikawa, they're just there for kiyoko). there's also michimiya, who is in the "fair princess kidnapped by oikawa" role that hinata & co. are trying to save. the full character profiles can be found here (everyone in game) and here (heroes only)!

now this whole premise is like. a little silly. the whole deal is a little silly. this is a volleyball manga.

with THAT being said, though, sometimes the most fun to be had is when you take the silly thing and make it devastating. and it's so easy to do that with FHQ. so let's talk abt iwaoi now <3

so in the story, oikawa is the demon king. because the premise is so simplistic and boiled down to good v. bad due to, like, this not being a real piece of media, oikawa is objectively on the "bad side." iwaizumi, on the other hand, is a knight, presumably human, and "oikawa's (former) friend."

iwaizumi being oikawa's former friend is literally his speciality and i think about that all the time btw. for context, kageyama's specialty is "prodigy" and hinata's is "strongest decoy." and fucking iwaizumi is out here like yea hey guys i used to be on the bad side but im mad at oikawa so now i'm with y'all. also my specialty in this fantasy universe is that i used to be oikawa's friend :)

like. what the hell. as you may imagine, the iwaoi angst potential here is ENORMOUS. iwaizumi who has betrayed oikawa and joined the heroes' side to take him down, iwaizumi whose greatest strength comes in knowing oikawa in and out, because the villains you love are both the hardest and the easiest to destroy. iwaizumi who loves oikawa, and who cannot save him.

(**side note, there's a lot of kuroken angst potential involved in this au as well, but let's focus on iwaoi for this post and save kuroken for another day)

so, as i said, the game's interpretation of all this is pretty simplistic and pretty silly. but personally i love thinking too hard and finding depth in things that are so not that deep. and it seems like most fhq fans also employ this as a favorite hobby because holy shit the angst people put in this au is INSANE.

the way i've interpreted it myself has been that iwaoi were besties/lovers/unclear situationship until oikawa kind of "fell into the dark side," because this is an au of every fantasy trope possible, and his reign over aoba became corrupted and "evil." iwaizumi betrays him to join hinata and take him down--save the world, at the cost of the demon he loved so much. but that demon, who oikawa was, is gone already, isn't he?

one of my favorite comics about them is here by @/ichigomaniac, where oikawa falls to the dark side and iwaizumi kills him to save the kingdom he loves. another FAVORITE similar one is here by @/hawberries! the premise of a lot of fics/art in this au run along these lines <3333

another super fun interpretation is a 5 part comic by @/duskisnigh, where oikawa and iwaizumi are running a kind of underground rebellion/safehouse in a world demons are oppressed by the human race. but as oikawa sees more and more evil on the behalf of humanity, he gets more and more unhinged until iwaizumi feels that he no longer knows him--and runs away with kageyama, with the intention of taking oikawa down.

personally i think the BEST aus are where iwaizumi--so loyal, so in love--is forced to leave because he can't stand to watch oikawa fall to more darkness, while oikawa himself is so devoted to iwaizumi that it's his love for iwaizumi that is corrupting him.....

in the fic i wrote, it's a story about forbidden love and how oikawa just wants to be allowed to love iwaizumi and he'll fight a war in order to do it. but iwaizumi can't watch oikawa fight this war anymore, because he's getting more and more dark as the war rages on. so he leaves, and was any of this ever worth it?

ggaahadhgjkadg . fhq. its crazy. i have a tag for it here, where i have been curating my favorite art. special shoutout to @/amezure who has some GORGEOUS pieces in their tag. OH ! and some of my fave fics in this au :

in the arms of loyalty and the hands of devotion (iwaoi, 23252 words), self promo lol

i can go anywhere i want (just not home) (kuroken, 3662 words) by keplcrs

wondering if your heart's still open (iwaoi, 683 words), by birdintheriver

Diorama (iwaizumi & kenma, 2027 words) by PlumTea

the ao3 tag is beautiful everywhere you turn, but i have a special love for those fics <3

so yeah that's the general deal! if you ever want to talk more about it, i am HAPPY to discuss !!! pls pls plsplsplsplsplssplsplslpslslslss!!!!!!

[angstflavoured]

You have any fic recommendations? Any fandom really lol. You have good takes and interpretation so I feel like you’d have some fire recs

AWH WELL THANK YOU !! I dont actually know how great the ones I read are gonna be since usually the fandoms Im in are scarce on content 💀 but ill go ahead and list a bunch of the ones I really like. I definitely spend way too much of my time reading one shots. REALLY wanna get back into longer fics, but its hard to find ones I care enough to sit down and dedicate time to these days 💔

Smiling Friends

bittersuite, charlie/pim: AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED !!!!! THIS FIC CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER !!!!! It is hurt/no comfort, but its soooo good it hurts so good and also there is supposed to be more eventually so i'd get on this one first bc when the second one drops its gonna be a day in history

Dimples, charlie/pim: I just read this last night and was so pleasantly surprised ☹️ Its so damn cute and I love how it delves more into both of their characters.

Portal 2

interface, chell/wheatley: HANDS down, best portal 2 one shot out there. the way the characterize chell is fucking insane, altered my brain chemistry forever. also wheatley is so hehehheheheh

You Do It, adventure/fact: I have a very love/hate relationship with this author..... Im not the BIGGEST fan of how they characterize them, esp Fact, but its definitely the most decent factventure content out there. I so like this one quite a bit, though their ideas are definitely better in theory than completely in practice. That's how I feel abt a lot of their works, but this person unironically holds the title for like 90% of the factventure content. If you just want some quick cute smut of them, i'd say you should check out their acc, cus I get the factventure fandom is starving LMAOO

I've got the fuse if you've got the light, adventure core/reader: ....erm, very self indulgent for me hehe!!! i was so fucking excited when this dropped

Half-Life/HLVRAI

Autonomous Sweet Mesa Response, benrey/gordon: THIS FIC IS SOOO FUCKING FIREEEEE !!! OH MY GOD, I can't even count the times I've read this one. their dialogue is as good as it comes next to canon. If you like this one, this is the first in a huge series and litearlly all of them are just as good as the first. such a good sit down and binge author. They also have a shit ton of other good hlvrai stuff on their page and they make fire art

If You Asked Me To, benrey/gordon: the way they wrote the sex scene in this changed my brain forever, it was so fucking awesome.... frenrey dynamic makes me WILD

Whispers and Moans, barney/gordon: this whole author has a lot of super cute freehoun :'[ this one deals with them before the resonance cascade AND after and shows how things changed between them and its so precious grrraah

Promise, barney/gordon: again, deals with the timeskip stuff which just always makes my heart hurt... also shower sex smiles

It’s Only Natural, barney/gordon: I DIDNT REALIZE THIS FIC JUST GOT FINISHED THIS YEAR OH MY GODDDD I WAS OBSESSED WITH THIS need to reread this immediately

Team Fortress 2

He's a Rebel, sniper/spy: SUPER fucking cheesy and corny but oh my god its like one of my fav fics ever..... it's just so much fun, like stereotypical fanfic and that's always a good time to me. biker gang member/school teacher au are you fucking kidding me i'll vomit

It IS the Size That Matters, sniper/spy: erm.... BLOWJOBS!! always find myself coming back to this one sorry i really like it hehe

Secure, demo/solider: Not a lot of fics of these guys, which really sucks!! super underrated ship. I liked this one a lot tho, its pretty cute and a little emotional

Something to Rely On, sniper/spy: casual sex but really sniper is in love will forever be my favourite thing ever, it never gets old istg

The Silent Game, sniper/spy: can you tell I really like sniperspy, MORE BLOWJOBS!!!

Disco Elysium

The Collision in Cardiozone HQ, harry/kim: holy. fucking. shit. actually life changing i am not joking. so fucking heartbreaking, it left me hollowed out for like a WEEK after the ending. A longer one for sure, but SO worth it like oh my god

The Catacomb Killer, harry/kim: I don't think I ever fully finished this one, but I remember REALLY liking the whole case the fic was set around. there was so much thought put into it, it was genuinely interesting like a murder mystery show

Retour à nouveau, harry/kim: I did really like the whole plot and buildup in this one, but from what I remember, them getting together was super anticlimatic :P i recall being disappointed, but the whole actual case and their interactions during the fic are super cute

Mortal Kombat 1

the game of idiocy, johnny/kenshi: BY THE SAME AUTHOR AS BITTERSUITE!! this one is sooo fucking cute, the way they write them interacting is so much fun. a little troupey and on the cheesier side, but cmon who doesn't love that

Undertale

Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach: no ships but delves a lot into flowey and papyrus relationship and there's so much good sans development too. SUPER GENERIC, it IS one of the most liked fics, but I remember reading it back when I was a teenager and it blew my fucking mind. ghhghggh i love the way they write the brothers interacting so much

The Party Incident and Other Embarrassing Anecdotes, sans/reader: uhmm.... soo sorry, this fic will forever hold a special little place in my heart. I'm sure if I read it now it would be SO corny cus oh my god it was fucking 2016 like are you kidding, but I'm just a fucking sucker for fake dating. there like 5000000 troupes in this one and theyre all so cute and its just a fun and silly time. it subconsciously inspires so much of my writing in fics. will probably forever be unfinished before they get together though HAHAH so definitely do not read if you're looking for a solid ending. its just about the journey i swear

[gumbaigumbai]

Ramblings on Modern AU Ogata

Modern AU Ogata has so much potential when it comes to the different ways his mental instability could be displayed, along with his living situation as well.. so I'll write down some thoughts I've had/collected below (& I'm well aware Noda mentioned he'd be a dentist but I wanna explore other possibilities)

^ to preface I've read a couple works on ao3 abt this as well so some ideas are heavily inspired

Work: I think a job as a photographer would translate over his sniper skills very well, links such as steady hands and a good eye, staying still in a required position, "shooting", and freelance of course.. Though I don't think this would pay well enough for him to maintain a decent living, so he would primarily work as a morgue attendant for a couple reasons; respect given when needed, no customer interactions (or if so, very few), most talking is between co-workers which I don't imagine there's plenty of, he wouldn't be opposed to being in the space w. all the corpses, it could worsen his mental state (🤤), to an extent links back to his "canon" modern job via medical field

As for the home life; small apartment, can't imagine him caring about upkeeping the place or getting "fashionable" furniture so most items inside are just necessities. while he was only doing photography he used to sleep on a mattress but after the attendant job he upgraded to a simple bed. Definitely has a computer setup that he saved up for, used for editing/organizing his pictures and doom scrolling. I like to think he has some interest that he researches in his spare time, could be really into the history & different types of guns, or if we want to be less on-the-nose he'd enjoy deep sea creatures - just reading up on them or watching videos, maybe those informational documentaries. Also has a small amount of fondness towards Hello Kitty (bc ofc I have to add this), though it's something he's embarrassed to admit (Usami found this out & never let him hear the end of it)

Relationship w. ppl

I think he'd be pretty good at coming off as collected while working (outside of home) but when he's not required to talk with others he's contrived in public, says the bare minimum and leaves. He'd keep in touch with Usami and Tsukishima - they always have to reach out first but in his better moods sometimes he starts talking w. Usami. He used to have some sort of relationship with Tsurumi (relationship not used in a romantic sense here) but they fell out and he doesn't have contact with him anymore. Yuusaku has his # and tries inviting him over for the holidays but he declines most of the time, another instance where you must catch him while he's prone to social gatherings..

Mental state 😻

Okay this is where I take a lot of liberty so I apologize if ppl don't like this… I think he would definitely be depressed to some extent, falling into episodes where he's more of an active suicide risk, but it's not often enough to become debilitating to carry on normally. He wouldn't reach out for help, and would over time get much worse before he ever gets better (I'd like to think in the modern world he'd have a real chance at reformation though). Usami would unintentionally worsen Ogata's mental state by affirming his negative thoughts, though as an avid Usao shipper I have to give myself a treat and pretend Usami would take care of him during his worst times… And wouldn't make fun of his attempt at getting better if he ever enters therapy (delusion works in mysterious ways). Ogata would engage in self-destructive behavior; taking light drugs at a younger age but as he got older he resorted to sh. The first step towards rehab however would be a holiday dinner with Yuu where he actually showed up, and they entered a genuine conversation over his issues after Yuu grilled him enough about his worries.

Anyway, sorry this was so long & I didn't include many other characters, & if you just don't really see this as plausible for him - I like to play with him like a Lalaloopsy in my head

[sokkagatekeeper]

Hey uh this might be a weird question (and cw for eugenics and racism mentions, feel free to discard this ask if you don't want to engage with those topics) but i saw an old post of yours abt the antrophologist guy who measured aangs skull. And like. That was always so INCREDIBLY jarring to me. I'm swedish and here those things are p exclusively known as a symbol of eugenics (specifically the "racial hygiene" aspect of eugenics, including things like forced sterilisation of indigenous people) Like, in school history books, the eugenics section is p much always illustrated w pictures of sami (indigenous) pp being forced to have their skulls measured. And idk if those devices are less known in america? If they have different associations? Or at least not the same symbolic value/immediate eugenics association? Because i WANT to believe that they didn't actually intentionally throw in an eugenics symbol like that. Especially for a character that's supposed to be somewhat sympathetic. Avatar might handle some heavy topics but this was just thrown in there so flippantly, I was legitimately shocked the first time i saw it. Idk it's just insane that i've never seen anyone talk about it, so surely that association might not be as prevalent in other countries or something?? Right???? Or how have people just brushed over this???? What the fuck actually

oh i mean i've definitely seen discussion of this in the fandom before, if mostly somewhat flippant references to how bad that was. yes, phrenology has been used as a tool of racist oppression in far more places than just sweden. it's possible that it's less known in other places, but i'm american and was able to recognize it. my inclination is to believe that the scene with professor zei measuring aang's skull was written thoughtlessly, by someone who had seen references to skull-measuring at some point but didn't actually know what it implied. it's possible that they were trying to subtly imply something about zei (maybe that he cares more about knowledge for knowledge's sake than about how that knowledge is applied and who it harms). that would also go along with the fact that he refers to aang as a "living relic"—a truly insanely offensive thing to say to him—and really does seem to think of him as an object of study rather than a person. he then, of course, ends up being buried in the library, because of the very fact that he values "knowledge" in the abstract without caring about being able to accomplish anything material with it. but again, this may be too generous of a reading; even if this is what the writers were going for, i still think it's pretty distasteful to show a skull-measuring scene completely out-of-the-blue like that in a children's show without properly addressing it. like you said, atla handles heavy topics, but this really only works if the audience recognizes the device for what it is and what real-world history it has, which many of the children for whom the show is intended would not.

[heich0e]

hewwo liv i think you mentioned you read nonfiction so i was wondering if you had any recs? i'm trying to widen my repertoire a bit more and start reading more nonfiction (as much as i love fiction i think my brain has started regressing a little), but the only nonfic ive ever dipped into are my econ textbooks haha

also i hope you're having a good day !!!!!

HI GUY!! i think one of the best parts abt non-fiction is how nondescript that classification is, and consequently how enormous and diverse your options are within it. i think it's easy for people to generalize non-fiction as being boring retellings of fact or history, because most people's first introductions to non-fiction reading are academic. but in reality there are so many different types of nonfiction, and so many different styles of presenting it in writing. (for the sake of simplicity i'm gonna just limit this convo to narrative nonfiction, but if u wanna read something expository like a text book or instruction manual power to ya.)

my recommendation would be to start with something like a biography or memoir. to me, reading a really good biography doesn't feel very different from reading a novel. you're still following someone's story, they're just a real person and not a character. from where i'm sitting right now i can see trevor noah's biography 'born a crime' on my bookshelf, and i remember really loving that one the first time i read it. having been a fan of his comedy, his narrative voice felt authentic and familiar throughout the book. setting aside his demonstrated talent for storytelling, it's also just a very interesting look into life in south africa under apartheid, along with its lasting impact, and as a mixed race child, noah's personal perspective is extremely compelling.

(keep in mind, i read that book as someone who was already a fan of trevor noah's so i immediately had a personal connection/interest to the story. if you have any comedians/musicians/actors/artists you really enjoy, maybe see if they've done any writing—that could help find something you connect with! i also recently read david mitchell's 'unruly' and i really enjoyed that one too—but i find him funny, and like learning about the history of monarchies. 'crying in h mart' by michelle zauner is also great.)

true crime is another popular non-fiction genre that i find people have an easier time getting into. i'm not a huge true-crime reader myself, but i've read a few interesting ones! i tend to go for ones that are more local to me, so i won't necessarily give any recs for this one.

i also had a weird phase where i was reading a lot of books about boats and shipwrecks. not sure what that was about. i read walter lord's 'a night to remember' when i was like 10 and i think that really is what it can all be traced back to. 'the wager' by david grann was fantastic (he also wrote killers of the flower moon which was very good, and not about a boat) but i recognize this is a very niche area of interest that u probably do not care about.

i also really like essay collections!! they tend to sort of cross or blur a lot of lines when it comes to genres, because while some would consider 'essay collection' a genre in and of itself, the essays themselves usually as collected around a particular topic or theme. another added benefit of essay collections are u can kind of leisurely pick away at them, or jump around in the book, since you usually aren't beholden to reading them cover to cover and following a single narrative thread. less pressure!!

a couple other recommendations, though at this point i'm sure you've given up on me (fair):

'the patriarchs' by angela saini

'i want to die but i want to eat tteokbokki' baek sahee

'persepolis' by marjane satrapi

ok i'll shut up now!! i don't even think this was helpful!! my advice to you would be to think about something you're already passionate about/interested in, and find a book about it!! or think about something you'd like to know more about or be better educated/informed on. it's out there i promise <3

[maulfucker]

I saw you had a post where you thought abt Dathomirian culture and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how specifically Dathomirian queer culture manifests. I'd like to come up with things myself but I don't actually know a lot in general abt Dathomir yet, so I want other opinions. I've got two ideas tho

-Dathomirian queer ppl call each other "family" like some queer ppl did in our world

-Trans men might like earn their horns thru hunting and using animal bones and stuff as their horns? Idk like I said I don't know much

Good question! I haven't actually thought that much about queer culture in Dathomir despite having a gay nightbrother oc,,

I think the calling each other family thing probably wouldn't work very well since they already treat their clan as family and call each other brother and sister even without blood relation, but I love the idea of trans nightbrothers earning their horns! Dathomirians as a whole seem to be pretty open to body modifications, with tattoos being so natural in their culture, so hunting animals to use their bones or teeth or something to produce "prosthetic" horns sounds very fitting. It could be a whole thing for both trans and cis nightbrothers, using the extra horns as a way to show off their strength. plus it opens up the possibility of nightbrothers implanting horns in whimsical shapes such as smiley faces, stars or penises

I think as a people composed of multiple isolated communities, there's probably not a uniform queer culture across the planet. But also as people who tend to live in single-sex communities they are likely far more queer on average than what we see in the rest of the galaxy, like how cowboys were famously queer. They supposedly spend most of their lives around the same gender, so it wouldn't be unusual for that to be the gender they express attraction to more often. Though, much like how cowboys have been "reinterpreted" as a symbol of straight white masculinity, there's probably also a popular misconstruction of their culture as extremely straight, and/or extremely celibate. The "Nightsisters rule over Nightbrothers" reading of their culture is very obviously meant to show them as a reverse-sexist society, making the nightsisters a sort of "girl power" icon — they are strong independent women who can pick any man they want (implying that they do want men), which is like saying cowboys are strong fearless men who woo every damsel that crosses their path. which. sure, cowboys did have sex with women. sure, nightsisters do have sex with men. but more often than not they will be around other nightsisters, so they will more often than not have relationships with women (even if they're not really gay).

but I am not usamerican and my brain has the consistency of molten ice cream, so my knowledge of american cowboy culture is. basically just that. (the brazilian cowboy culture is quite different, especially considering there's like three distinct cowboy "sub"cultures, each with their different history, territory, and associations) So that's as far as I can take the cowboy comparison, but cowboys can be a pretty good source of inspiration I think. maybe look into that?

A quick look into medieval monasteries (another famously gender-segregated culture) says they were also pretty gay. And that the sexual persecution that is so commonplace in christianity today was not really a thing yet back then, which is also something to consider when trying to conceive the queer culture of a people who have nothing to do with our modern (overwhelmingly christian) society — do they have a reason to reject queer people and relationships, or are we just projecting our own worldviews and experiences onto a people who have none of the sociohistorical context that shaped our experiences?

I think homosexual/romantic and even polyamorous relationships would be pretty normalized, since there's not really any reason to only accept hetero relationships if they rarely ever live in mixed-sex communities. That said, there's probably still some expectation of heterosexual activity, in the form of the Selection and its implied procreation purposes. Dathomir is a very isolationist world, so to keep their population stable they need to procreate, even if it "goes against" an individual's sexuality. And this is where I think polyamorous relationships have reason to be encouraged: if a nightsister or nightbrother who already has a partner takes part in a Selection, why not bring their partner(s) into the relationship as well and increase the likelihood of producing offsprings?

As for the gender side of queerness.... well that's probably A Lot more complicated than I have time to discuss here. The gender binary seems pretty enforced in their culture from what little we see, and their sexual dimorphism probably makes trans and/or intersex people stand out A Lot more

I've mentioned this before, but I headcanon that the skin color difference is not a sex-chromosome-bound characteristic, but instead a sex-hormone-related expression of pigmentation, like in some birds such as peacocks. Both males and females are shown to have a range of skin tones, but in females it manifests as grayscale while in males it manifests as a color scale from red to yellow. So intersex people might have colors that are in-between, or that don't "match" their apparent sex, and trans people who undergo their equivalent of hrt might slowly change skin colors over time.

As for how nonbinary people work.... well as someone who is from a latin american country and speaks a romance language, I would like to imagine their "nonbinary" is a lot like ours — there is no "neutral" gender, they simply play with their presentation to be between one and the other, leaning towards whichever one might be considered more "transgressive" at the moment.

I don't think trans people would be forced out of their clans for being a different gender than everyone else, but it's possible their role in the clan might change to something more "befitting" of their new gender I also think there's probably a lot more contact between different clans than just the Selection, so it's possible for people who decide to start over as a new gender to take one of these moments of contact as an opportunity to "visit" another clan and never come back.

..... aaand it's almost 2 am so I gotta hit post

[verstappentime]

“director’s commentary” for 'my heart knows your name' please !

oh man, the whole fic? okay !!

this one came from a prompt by @ikeracity for a holiday challenge, basically asking for a situation where charles and erik get together bc of an injury or illness near the holidays.

i LOVE h/c but i wasn't keen on doing a getting together fic, i wanted there to be some history there that would make one of them rush to the other's side. so the idea started with them being exes who got back together instead of a new couple.

my mind immediately went to a car crash, and i've been working on a different AU where charles is a doctor (not quite working out lol), so "doctor charles" was already a character to me and that led me to erik seeing charles again in the ER while he's working.

i love this fic tbh, i wish it got a bit more traction, but that's okay! i really love their relationship and i love that erik's a dad. i like that charles's drinking got in the way before. (i had just re-read 'August' by Red for like the 900th time too, which has a line i often go back to abt charles's drinking impacting their marriage at some point, so i also wanted to slide that in.) i do think it's a teeny bit rushed bc i was trying to make the challenge deadline -- but also, pretty much all of the ideas i had made it onto the page.

anyways! i think my favorite bit is the beginning with charles knocking his head against the wall freaking out to sam. the sam cameo in general was fun, tbh. but this one does have a special place in my heart, and other than my current WIP it's the only AU i've published <3

let me know if there are any particular lines you want to hear abt :')

(for anyone that wants it: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52441138)

[sleepy-vix]

hello hello hello!! i hope this day is treating you well <3

so. erm. i finished if we were villains one second ago. there are tear tracks still glistening on my face. and i have Thoughts TM

to be frank i wasn't a fan of most of the book (i found the very excessive shakespeare-quoting stilted, pretentious and cringey — and i'm saying this as a person who quotes shakespeare too much for the average sane person and is very annoying about it) but something changed when i was reading act five. i then proceeded to cry through the end bit of act five and the whole epilogue.

i have no idea what i feel about it skjfksdfj i have no idea when i started caring about these pretentious ass bitches enough to cry over them, seeing that for most of the book i was just incredibly annoyed by all of them. although i am proud to say i clocked james and oliver for what they were in their first few interactions. the power of the gaydar ladies and gents

i think part of the problem was that i was comparing it to the secret history so much in my mind (which is practically literary perfection in my mind. i personally believe that donna tartt is a greek muse in disguise and should be treated as such/j) it just paled in comparison — honestly, people need to stop comparing the two or just lumping them into "dark academia" (i'm personally not the hugest fan of aesthetic-based grouping for book recs, but that's a rant for another day)

i think it's a one-time read for me. like yes it was definitely an... interesting experience but probably not good enough to reread? i don't know?? i have zero idea if you like this book or not i just know that you've read it — so apologies if i accidentally offended you or something 😭😭 i would love to hear your thoughts on it though (especially the ending)!

I READ IT BACK IN GRADE 8 DURING THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS AND I WAS JUST DEPRESSED FOR THE WHOLE 8 WEEKS LMAO

im like ehhh about it now 😭 which is sad because i was so obsessed with it i made a playlist for james and oliver (im such a geek it's actually so embarrassing 💀)

also i completely agree with you about the shakespeare quotes. it got to a point where i would just skip the quotes and only read the actual writing because is it ever THAT serious?

also i have a few other icks about the book:

- oliver and meredith getting together (that was so ???? like i lowkey hated oliver for that)

- filippa's character. it was so ?? like m.l. rio did such a bad job writing her... the idea of her character is awesome but the execution was really not, which was disappointing.

but in general i really liked it :) i read it before the secret history, so thankfully i never unconsciously compared them with eachother (which i've heard is actually really common between people who read tsh first).

i agree with you in the dark academia lumping thing sooo much. like, you often see them side by side, but the only thing they have in common is a friend group + one person dies + school setting. which really doesn't mean much considering that alot of stories are set in schools and include friend groups.

also not to mention that tsh is twice the size of iwwv 😭 idk i get so defensive when ppl bash iwwv for being worse than tsh (even tho i agree)

tbh i loved it alot but i wouldn't reread it either because the oliver and meredith parts where so 💀

m.l. rio is writing another book btw! its called grave digger. im looking forward to it because i'd like to know if she's actually a good writer or if she was only good in my 13 year old mind.

im so happy that u sent me this ask :)) its not very often that i get to talk abt iwwv with a person who agrees with me that the book is sad but not that good

[roboticbuild]

Hello everyone I need to be insane Abt Asuka NOW!!!! Warning for anyone who cares Abt it I guess this post is gonna have guilty Gear spoilers? I doubt people who see this are gonna care but better to be safe than sorry.

But also hey what if I overanalyzed the lyrics of the Guilty Gear theme for Asuka, The Gravity? Haha, just kidding.......

........Unless?

Read more just in case it becomes long lol

Anyways I've been listening to the Circle on loop and there's obviously a LOT of symbolism, it's guilty gear, but there's a very specific set of lyrics that's making me feel like an insane madman (or thatman.)

So I wanna go over each lyric MOSTLY one by one kind of. And now I will immediately be inconsistent.

Find it, find it

Something unseen

Play back the history, answers within

I think this part is so so important bc I think it shows how Asuka doesn't only choose to never leave the past, but ACTIVELY chooses to stay in the past. It's only MAYBE at the end of strive where he thinks somewhat about the future of himself and the people around him. And even then, he continues to run from his consequences, and the truth of how everything is now. And so, he looks into the past, to find the answers he needs for the present. He thinks about Fredrick, he thinks about Aria- but in the end he doesn't think about Sol Badguy, or Jack-O Valentine. He looks into the past and can only think about his sins, and how he needs to persecute himself to "repent"- when it never was the answer. This isn't to deny he's changing- he absolutely is. But timeline wise? It's only recent. While Sol and Aria's soul (and the fragments we see chars become from her soul) have been changing CONSTANTLY. They've never stopped changing.

And I think it makes something very, very interesting. Where somewhat recent, Sol decided to not look too far into the past, while also being blinded by it. He didn't think of the future, because he- at least in my opinion which is a whole other post- didn't plan to be in a future after his original goal of destroying all gears. Asuka wants the past to be the past again, and Sol wants the past to be destroyed in something similar to a blazing glory.

And Aria? She's like a god damn anchor. She doesn't want to look at the past. She doesn't want it, knowing what has happened. She looks toward the future, and she stands in the present, and she decides she refuses to let the cycle continue. She knows this present and this future isn't her own- she was never supposed to be this far. And so, as she refuses to overwrite Jack-O, she decides one thing, her own choice for herself- this isn't her world. It's Jack-O's. She already had her own time, and she's not going to rip it away like it was ripped away from her.

Does existence have a meaning?

This one is extra interesting to me, as it's eventually followed up by "Does meaning have (a) meaning?" And I think it kind of shows the way Asuka thinks. He over thinks everything, but not the things in the now. He thinks until the definition of things are ripped apart- and on the way he questions his own existence. He questions if all of this was meant to happen. If what he did to Fredrick, to Aria, was truly an act of himself or an act of fate.

And maybe this is me overanalyzing in the "analyze everything" game series, but I think it's in a way shown that Asuka in this song and some parts in general finds fate to be something horrifying. One of the hardest things he has trouble understanding is something out of his control, something that doesn't fit his visual, even if the visual is caring. He couldn't understand why Aria would choose to eventually die than be cryo frozen into a cure, after all. He just... Can't understand it, when isn't the essence of humanity to survive? To live? When he wants to help the people he cares about most? When he loves them, god he loves them, so why would they choose to the "obvious answer" to continue being alive? To continue existence and love and care?

And so he rips down meaning after meaning to do what he can to understand definition and not person, because he doesn't know how.

The reality of truth, the reality of truth

what should we accept?

Reality of truth, reality

This. Makes me fucking insane.

Because it's a part of Asuka, understanding he needs to accept the present. The reality of truth- that Sol isn't Fredrick, and Jack-O isn't Aria. The reality that Sol isn't just gonna be buddy buddy with him again like old times, nor is Aria coming back. That everything has changed, and he barely has. And he can't help but wonder, if he should accept it. If he should accept the now instead of his original goal of making the past real again. He isn't sure, and after the events of Strive ESPECIALLY not sure at all. And it kind of scares him, I think. He fears change so badly, after all.

As the Universe turned black

Okay here's the part that led to me making this post at like seven am. I think the "Universe" turning black is a part of the next lyric, but also its own type of thing. He almost ended humanity. Even if for the people he loves and cares about, even if outside forces were involved- He still almost ended humanity.

And I think this shows how hopeless he felt, witnessing the Crusades. Watching as he knew that was Aria, that was fucking Aria, in Justice. Even if it was a mixture of things, it was still her! It was still her!!!!! And he fucked everything up. And he knows this so god damn well, especially as he witnesses Sol bring her down.

Did the Sun ever defy fate?

This one is connected to the above part, yes. It shows Asuka's fear of fate, shows how he believes it to be inescapable and world ending. After all, when the Sun goes out, so does the world. And when the sun is gone, only black will fill the stars, without the light of the Sun.

But not only that: It's also about Sol.

It's about how Sol, with the Flame of Corruption within, who tries to burn the past and present- and with every attempt, everything traces back to Sol as well, and he's the one to stop it because it's in his way. How Asuka sees what Sol does now as an inescapable path of horrifying, world ending fate. And how Asuka has felt for so long it was his own fate to be killed by Sol.

Beyond it all, do you recognize me?

THE BIG INSANITY INDUCER EVERYONE. MY GOD. I THINK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME.

It's so. Clear as day. It's how Asuka hadn't confronted Sol because he was scared of losing his friends. How Asuka runs away and away and away. How Asuka wonders, I must be so different now. He must not recognize me anymore. How in one of the dialogue things as vs Sol, he says Sol is the one who hasn't changed. And when Sol replies that he's one to talk? It just makes me crazy. Because Asuka sees himself as someone who has changed so god damn much, when he hasn't. He simply hasn't. And he continues the cycle, to fulfill his want for knowledge and understanding of this world and universe. He continues, over and over, and admits it to himself: he's not different. He's so recognizable to the point it's horrifying. He has the hair from the past. He has the demeanor, everything. Meanwhile, Sol has changed so much he could be considered near unrecognizable.

And, in the end, even if he's starting to finally face the present? He wants everything back. He wants Fredrick back. He wants Aria back. He wants it to be the same again, and he wants Sol to recognize him as his friend, not the person who caused him so much despair and pain. He doesn't want Sol. He wants Fredrick. He wants Fredrick.

And, with the backing vocals? The "the wings, the wings, Gravity"? The sun burns Asuka's wings every time, and makes him fall. And he continues to fly again and again, to continue the cycle he made for himself.

So in conclusion. This guy is so fucked up and I think about him a lot.

[lavenoon]

1st of all, need to say, adored Dove on the Roof and I'm sending you the longest review once I can after work, this is a threat 🔪 2nd of all–if you've thought of it and you wanna share the tidbit–I loved how after sharing Horizons name and Y/N admitted they only used his gadgets, Moon said he was gonna tell Eclipse abt it, Re:

“I’m going to tell him you said that. It’ll be terrible, because he’ll get even smugger, but it’s too good not to.”

and like. Luce. If you wanna share. I'd love to know how Eclipse reacted to that. Bc yes he'll be so smug abt it i just know it, but i also think he'd be really touched that like, his brothers' partner feels that strongly abt the stuff he makes? Struggling to stay coherent bc English is not my first language, but I just gosh. i loved it. going bonkers. hitting u w that long review later. get ready. -Soldrope ☀️💧

New morning new braincells, let's go!

I have devoured your comment(s) and I have been so so normal about the amount of thought and analysis and how many things you've caught that I tried to write in! I'm so so happy that it all came across and I literally cried reading your comments already gfdhjs now I only hope I soon get the spoons to go through my ao3 inbox and reply to the comments I've amassed

As for Moon telling Eclipse? It didn't happen in that window between Moon date fade-out and Sun date, because Moon was too busy cuddling and being a lovebird (he finally gets to be a bird too! <3), though it'll happen after the Foxy conversation after Sun's date.

That conversation will be addressed in a proper drabble/ chapter (they've been getting longer, so by now drabble feels no longer appropriate gfhdjs), so since I haven't written that yet this might not quite fit with how things turn out, but it'll be a fun thought until then!

Because after all that, and not charging the night before due to cuddle priorities (and they haven't quite yet reached the stage of a permanently installed charging cable at Y/N's side of the duplex) (it's definitely a thought though, because lugging around their cable for sleepovers has a bit of a hassle), Moon will excuse himself for a quick charge before work, and handle a little special phone call <3

(Eclipse will be smug enough. Moon doesn't need to make the gloating even easier by providing something to screenshot)

Eclipse, on the other hand, is positively surprised and doing his best not to be weirded out by a spontaneous phone call from his brother. That just didn't happen before! He's still getting used to the closer contact, too, and his first thought won't be a good one. Maybe another emergency? At least this time he'll hear about it sooner?

Well, only for Moon to pull the rug from under him completely.

"What do you mean, you haven't talked about me before?"

"I mean, we were trying to flirt, which already kept misfiring. Adding complicated family history that paints a rather ugly picture of us when they never asked wasn't really... Something that came up."

A sigh, and Eclipse does his best to cover up the lingering hurt. He knows their relationship was rocky at best, and he wasn't exactly eager to talk about them to other people either.

(It helps a little, knowing that part of it was guilt - he wasn't forgotten, instead his brothers felt too bad to casually bring him up. But he also doesn't like being a guilty secret either. In the end, he pushes it away to unpack later, and focus on the conversation at hand)

"How did it 'come up' then?"

Silence from the other end, as Moon quickly decides that no, he's not going to explain that he made his own first date emotionally charged in the heavy way to finally talk about his brother, much less the exact conversation that sparked it.

Eclipse never asked for their favorite colors, either.

"No, no, look, that's not the important bit. They went off on me for not telling them."

"Makes sense."

"Because they're a fan of your work."

"Makes s- huh?"

"They like your designs. They exclusively buy their own gadgets, except for when one of yours gets distributed. They said, and I quote, 'That Horizon?'"

Again, silence, as Eclipse processes that. That's so far from what he expected, or even figured would ever be in store for him. He knows his work is good, the agency doesn't really entertain slackers and subpar work, not for leading researchers - but that doesn't mean he feels appreciated. The people he works with are more neutral to annoyed by his antics, and the actual results he produces seemingly fade into the background.

So hearing there's someone out there who, dare he say it, is a fan?

He already thought Y/N/ Robin is nice enough from just the stories Sun and Moon shared before, but this? Now, within seconds, he's decided he has to meet them and become friends.

Hopefully they'll still like him once they've met him.

By now, he's been silent for a while.

"... Eclipse?"

The anxiety gets pushed away yet again, and instead Eclipse starts laughing. Softly, first, but then it turns into a full blown cackle.

Moon just sighs.

"Here we go."

"Since when? How long have they liked my stuff?"

"I didn't ask, that wasn't exactly the focus of the conversation."

"You can ask right now though! Ask them!"

"They're at work!"

"Send them a text then! You'll say you forgot if you don't do it now!"

"I wouldn't forget!"

"Yeah, but you'd say that!"

They squabble a bit, and it feels nice - just your normal, comfortable sibling banter, something they didn't get to share for the longest time. Both draw it out, just a bit, to enjoy it more.

Moon does send the text, but only after making a production out of "not wanting to". Eclipse laughs some more, that smug snicker of a younger sibling winning out over the older one.

And then he thinks of something else, too.

"Oh, oh, have you told them about that drone I've been trying to get approved?"

"No, I haven't, tell them yourself. Did that still not go through? You mentioned that weeks ago, they're really dragging their feet."

"They say it's a fire hazard, and I keep trying to explain that that's the reason why I need them to approve the more expensive fireproof material. Somehow they don't seem to understand that."

The conversation drifts towards other topics, then, but Eclipse is very much soaring from the start of it. That little "tell them yourself" is enough to reassure him on so many levels - this isn't an exception, this is going to be normal, his brothers want him to meet their partner, want to introduce them and give him a chance to talk to them himself.

The anxiety is still there, and a bit of it we see in Duck Duck Goose - he needs them to like him, needs things to go well, and to leave a good impression. He's more than just his work, and unfortunately he's afraid that they won't like the person behind the codename, and that confidence boost of them liking his work doesn't quite shine through.

They'll get there! It'll just take a bit of work, and time, but they're all very willing to put that effort in <3

[vivi-scera]

ohhhh i have so many questions to ask now that i apologize beforehand for throwing you questions instead of actually giving a response-reply to your ask 😭

1) “i like thinking about jason-robin's relationship with bruce the most but i like tim as robin best” plss if u could pls elaborate on this? this is so interesting bcs for a second i thought it would be jason robin or even dick robin since hes the first one!

2) ”i think i was mostly thinking bruce/jason since i was talking about johndean” this is interesting too bcs i was hyperfocused on comparing dean’s devotion to dick’s, hence my ask & why i bring dick robin specifically, and now im curious abt your comparison :D

3) “i'm going to be actively problematic and say that bruce sees dick as something less than his partner and something more than his son” is it like what i think it is is it more in line with smth smth owning smth smth *eyes emoji*

4) your tags!! thats interesting too that you prefer jaytim as batcest, instead of like timdick whos more like brothers or jaydick with jason’s “envy” (to simplify it) at dick’s golden boy ness (also to simplify it) which could be a source of conflict between jason & bruce

haha no worries, i did totally set you up.

1.yeah so tim is my favorite robin <3 relatively unpopular opinion to have in my immediate circle apparently. though probably not as unpopular as saying damian is your favorite. but like, tim's the underdog! the odd one out!! he understands the meta-narrative role that robin plays in batman's life and tries to fulfill it. he's such a deeply interesting character not only in how he views himself as the weakest robin/the robin batman didn't choose, but also in how the other robins, canonically, view tim as the best out of them (because he's the most like daddy). i don't mind as much when fanon obfuscates his characterization because he really can be such a blank slate, more or less. as in, meta-narratively, tim decides to be whatever/whoever is best for batman, erasing the part of himself that is tim drake in favor of coalescing with "robin". he's the only robin who really is robin. which is really very tragic if you think about it. but also makes for fantastic bruce/tim fodder :) i would expand more on my love for tim but this ask would get WAY too long. read Liminal Space by Calamityjim on ao3 if you've watched young justice and have read the red robin 2009 run (an EXCELLENT read btw) if you want the gist of the angst.

as for the others, i think jason has had the best character evolution —not just in the batman storyline but as a comic character in general. i really think his death, and to a much lesser extent his rebirth, is the best/most impactful development in all of superhero comic history. superheroes as we know them today would largely not exist without his character. dick is fine, i like him third best. just because he was the first doesn't make him special to me lmao. the fact that others came after him is what makes him interesting to me, in addition to his relationship with batman— which is currently the most interesting batman-robin romantic relationship to me rn. i've seen some insane meta about him around but mostly based on somewhat outdated runs, which really doesn't mean anything when it comes to comics i guess. i don't think he's been in anything interesting/good in over a decade. i also wish i could mail tom taylor anthrax <3 damian is... my least favorite (skipping steph, sorryy i do love her but there's not enough canon for me to have an actual opinion). i think damian's interesting but only as a source of conflict (and ofc his dynamic with dick-batman). he doesn't really stand on his own and he's annoying.

2. i don't necessarily think that bruce/jason is closer to johndean than bruce/dick is (i actually think bruce/tim is closer relatively, but there's not a comparable pairing imo. i also just don't think dick is necessarily "devoted" to batman as much as tim is. his goals, like mentioned, align more with being able to call himself bruce's equal, which could be conflated with desire i.e. in bruce/dick). but there are a lot of functional aspects of the jason-robin & batman dynamic that is parallel to the relationship between dean and john as hunters imo— mostly having to do with consensual practices. is dean/jason-robin in control of his narrative purpose as a hunter/sidekick or are they doing what is necessary to survive? what does it mean for either of them when duty and pleasure are conflated? etc. i really love the headcanon that jason was a child-prostitute, which would be a functional role that carried over in being robin for another older man, so that was mostly where i was coming from. child soldiers... can't get enough of em.

3. haha i don't really know what the "something" is that i was referring to, just some vague middle ground that's gonna go undefined because where's the fun in defining the relationship that a man shares with the preteen ward in his possession who he may or may not want to be his son but who he treats like a spouse because mentally & emotionally he hasn't moved on from the day he was 9 years old and his parents died. maybe dick grows up but bruce never will :'). well, maybe he grows up a little when each robin leaves him

4. and yaaaa jaytim, favorite pairing of all time. they can be enemies to lovers. the ghost and the haunted. rebecca and the narrator. brother-rivals trying to become their father but who are held back by the lack of a quality that the other possesses (see nearmello death note). i'm gonna go the fanon route and say jason was tim's robin (even though, timeline wise, it could totally have been dick). so there is that adoration-envy (that tim would have for jason) that jason would have for dick in jaydick (which is a pairing i also like, don't get me wrong! i just maybe like it as a one-sided thing. or we could have the worst love triangle in the world with damian->tim->jason->dick->bruce all unrequited lmao). but in jaytim there's the addition of the danger element— jason at one point or another did want to kill tim. and not only was jason tim's robin, he was also his ghost story! an example of what would happen to tim if something went wrong. so adoration-envy-fear which transmutes to sexual interest. very sadomasochistic route we could take there. and for jason, tim is the kid who replaced him! who's evidently better at being daddy's favorite! he can die psychosexually mad about it. neither timdick or jaydick have that enemies/lovers edge that i really like (see kurokura hunter x hunter). they also just have some interesting canon history that writers never get into— like batman-jason trying to conscript tim as his robin during battle for the cowl. i am TRYING to write a jaytim fic but i keep getting distracted by other pairings. i thought i was gonna get to it after finishing the one i'm working on but i might just do brudick next so we'll see. send more questions/responses if you have them <3