#<-that tag came up as a popular tag...fyi

[sam-glade]

Find the Words Tag

Tagged by the incredible @iced-ginger-tea here @charlesjosephwrites here. Thank you💜

I'll pass it gently onto: @void-botanist @sarahlizziewrites @sunset-a-story. Your words are: lonely, silent, happy, sad.

From @iced-ginger-tea daylight, cheer, sunset, dress

DAYLIGHT ❌ I'll look for: SUNLIGHT

The woods were dense. There was something growing in every available bit of space. The largest trees - oaks and ashes - were so large that five men would have trouble joining hands when standing around them. Moss covered every last bit of their bark. Between them younger trees and bushes formed the understory, birches, silver firs, hornbeams, aspens… Below them, ferns created a dense layer, mixed with various berry bushes. Clumps of hazels stuck out in places. Closer to the fallen tree Lissan could see patches of the forest floor, with snake grass, blooming violets, and colourful mushrooms. Everything was growing, fighting for space and sunlight.

CHEER

Katya the Catnip crept up on him like a cat. He turned to face her, forcing a smile. He felt drained.

She looked like he remembered her - short and a little chubby, with a mop of very curly auburn hair surrounding a round bronze face. She grinned at him. One of her upper front teeth was chipped; that was new.

“A little birdie told me that you need someone to cheer you up,” she said as a greeting.

“I’m pretty sure it was a squirrel,” Lissan retorted, shaking her wrist.

SUNSET

Nikols wielded a Djerid, a short javelin-like weapon, more popular across the Sunset Strait, kept in a quiver at his hip. Ianim supposed that at a distance it could be mistaken for a fanciful sheath for a short sword, but he knew the truth.

DRESS

Reinforcements came in the form of Artio and his Bear. The Colonel of the Heavy Infantry was in dress uniform and clean shaven, having come straight from the parade. The Bear's fur was brushed, although it was now covered in black ash. That was still the neatest the Lissan had seen them.

~*~

From @charlesjosephwrites thought, find, paper, light, and reach

THOUGHT (a little longer, but so worth it)

“Master Lissander, this was not Leshy. This was a creature known to charm people and lead them to their death,” Claren pointed out with exasperation. "Surely you know that nymphs take on the most alluring forms…"

"Master Claren. If she really wanted to charm me, she would take on a man's form.”

"…Oh."

Lissan frowned at him, going over the encounter in his head. Master Claren chased the nymph away only once Lissan started asking for details, but he looked wary from the beginning. Not charmed.

"It didn't look like it worked on you either, Master Claren," Lissan observed carefully.  

"I do not believe that there is a form a nymph can take that would charm me," the teacher informed him, now calm and focused.

Oh, Lissan's thoughts echoed Claren's reaction.

FIND (talking about Lissan, of course)

“You mean to tell me that there is a thing he can find intimidating about a person?” Ianim said with a hint of amusement.

Claren laughed and quipped lightly:

“I merely suggested that he has more tact than you give him credit for, Princekin.”

PAPER

“Lissan?” A hand on his shoulder stopped him. “What are you doing here?”

He blinked a few times before turning to face Gullin. Gullin looked tired and in a rush. He was holding a thin paper folder in his other hand, clearly on the way to the upstairs offices. Lissan bit his lip, reminding himself that the Lieutenant General was on duty and very busy. Anthea’s voice echoed in his head. A mature person does not allow emotions to interfere with their duty.

He should tell Gullin that he was on his way out and that Gullin didn’t need to worry about him, but no words could squeeze through his clenched throat.

LIGHT (FYI, 100 occurrences in Gifts of Fate, 154 in The Prince's Shadow, 155 in Prodigal Children, excluding 'lightly' or 'lighter')

Not a minute later Anthea climbed the stairs to the gallery, Mikkel following a few steps behind her. He took the bay nearest the stairs, sitting with his back towards Erya and sipping red wine in silence. Anthea stopped in front of the spymaster.

Erya stared. Without the crowd and all other sorts of distractions, she could finally appreciate how breathtaking Anthea looked that evening, in the wine-red dress with silver embroidery, with a sabre and her Sword in matching scabbards at her side, with her braids coiled at the back of her head in complex patterns. In the dim light, she seemed more like a nymph or an apparition, too beautiful.

REACH

With an angry sigh, he returned to his chore. He did his best to concentrate on chopping wood. The axe felt primitive and soulless. Dead. It wasn’t a weapon, just a tool. He swung it again and watched two pieces of wood fall off a stump. Lifeless.

His Sword lay safe near his bunk, in the room he shared with Marta. He tended to leave it there when he was working around the household. He reached out to it with his thoughts, and the spirit of the blade stirred. The large She-Wolf appeared to be napping. She did it a lot recently, while he couldn’t sit still.

[monarch-sparrowhawk]

Sam Alexander - Legacy Characters and Their Development

Been wanting to do a mini-essay about my thoughts on Sam Alexander Nova for a long time, so here we go. Put it under the cut so as not to clog up the tag feed. Warning there will be lots of tangents as I am ADHD and cannot help it.

Alrighty, so as we know Sam is a relatively newer character in terms of comic books. His first debut was in Marvel Point One #1 in the Avengers vs X-Men crossover. This was back in November 2011. This would make him around 11 years old. In this short span of time(because yeah, compared to other characters Sam is still pretty young) he has had three volumes( Nova Vol 5-7), been apart of at least three team books (New Warriors 2014, All New All Different Avengers, and most recently Champions), and has had a variety of cameos and one-offs and specials, and that's not even getting into the animated stuff he's been in. While his appearances have thinned out over the years, we still see him pop in things every now and then despite not being very popular at all(this is unfortunate, but he's still my favorite at least). A good question to explore, perhaps, why is this character still keeping up appearances? Why is he being kept around?

The answer I believe lies with his creator, Jeph Loeb. He is one of the original writers for Sam, basing him off of his own son he lost to cancer back in 2006.

*moment of respectful silence*

After that, it was probably not much more than 1 or 2 years after that that Jeph was pulled into the creation of the Ultimate Spiderman Tv show. It was originally announced in 2010, which means it was definitely worked on before then, and then debuted in 2012. Jeph was one of the main creators, and he decided to pull together some admittedly underrated and kind of unknown characters for the show. But when it came to Nova, he decided to start completely from scratch. Instead of going with the original, Richard Rider, he went with his own creation, Sam. This could have been for a variety of reasons such as: Richard Rider being too similar to Peter Parker(just take a look at his origin issue and you'll see what I mean), he was just killed off in the comic books which would lead to a natural opening for a new character, etc.

These are all substantial factors to take into consideration, but combined I think Jeph saw the opportunity to honor his late son. Legacy characters happen quite frequently in comic books(pretty much the entirety of Young Avengers for example), but Sam Alexander definitely feels a bit more... personal. He not only represents a connection to another beloved comic book character, but to a real person as well. Even though Loeb didn't stay on as a writer for Sam very long, you can see in his beginning issues where he added the info about the conception of Sam as a character that this was very important to him. And Sam being important to Loeb I think is what initially drew some people in, because the kind of dedication and love that goes into a character like that doesn't go unnoticed.

So people gave Sam a shot(ignoring the anal Rich Rider fans that cropped up in the beginning, FYI you can't be a fan of Rich if you hate Sam, thems the rules) and so it went. I remember reading all the issues of Volume 5-7 as they were coming out, and when Gerry Duggan took over for quite a large portion of the original run it was magnificent. He gave Sam interesting storylines, endearing character development, and overall I think did a superb job handling the character. His writing of Sam is most definitely what made me grow fond of the character, I don't know if I would have become a fan otherwise. Unfortunately the whole Marvel Comic Universe was being rebooted so they had to wrap things up quickly with a cap at 31 issues, but he ended Volume 5 on a good note with Sam reuniting with his dad.

Then enters my least favorite volume, Volume 6. If you thought the white-washing with Sam in Volume 5 was bad, it got so much worse. Not to mention the complete 180 in personality. In the beginning(Vol 5), Sam was an asshole. There's no sugarcoating that part about his character. But I liked that. Because when you start out a character like that, the room for development is immense. And honestly, I love watching characters grow. I love watching Sam grow. Volume 6 felt like a slap in the face because I wasn't reading about Sam. I was reading the generic teenage superhero Peter Parker clone. Sam went from being impulsive and reckless to boring and dull. Not to mention the whole 'evil clone' cliche with his dad made the ending of the previous volume feel so hollow and cheap. His original supporting cast was gone(and my ship was exiled from canon, so long Carrie), and the hinted at storyline of Sam possibly being half-alien was long since buried under the rug. It was not enjoyable for me to read at all.

Moving on before I seethe in rage, let's talk a bit about Volume 7. Never have I felt more robbed that a series was canceled too early. We had some major wins. Beautiful artwork(big points for not white-washing Sam), the dynamic between Sam and Rich(they're like squabbling siblings, I love it), and the writing was heading in a promising direction. My only complaint is Carrie and Principal Philbin not returning, along with Sam being in the chess club. Sam becoming a proficient chess player is so important to me, you have no idea. The comedy potential is golden. Imagine him beating Amadeus Cho in a game. That nerd would die from the shock. Anyways, I did like Sam's personality in this. I felt like he had developed into a jerk with a heart of gold. The jerk part is more toned down from Volume 5, and he isn't the goody two shoes he was in Volume 6, we reached a good mixture. Because that is what Sam is. He's a kid with a good heart, he just doesn't always go the best way about it. Which is understandable, given that most teenagers are not very mature in the slightest. This series would have been good development for him, and I'm forever heartbroken that I will never see where it would have gone.

But circling back around to the question, even though his character isn't that popular, the right people care about him and that's what keeps him relatively in the loop. And perhaps when he gets adapted to the MCU we will see a surge in popularity, but hopefully not at the expense of destroying what was so special about Sam in the first place. Let's hope that Feige and them don't forget what Sam was originally meant to be:

A grieving father holding onto his son in the most loving and familiar way he knew how.

By doing so will keep him in some ways alive forever. It's beautiful. To any and all future MCU adaptations, please keep this in mind when it comes to Sam. Sam's a character created from grief and love, and should not be taken lightly. If you managed to read all of this, I would love to have an open discussion about Sam and the Nova comics. It's been a bit quiet around here.

[mochimiyaas]

EM TALKING ON HER ACCT?? WHAT?? ok but yo, here me out!! and fyi! this is a "dni with me and this post" post. i just need to vent somewhere.

the kpop post where i screamed in the tags made me so emotional! like. B.A.P. were done so dirty?!?!? i am still angry about how they were treated. omg they broke up for the same/similar reasons that EXO's luhan and tao and kai???? i think??? left. it's been a while so i forget the exact details of the drama butdjdjsjr B.A.P. were on fcking fire!!!!!!! they were performing in america and doing global tours before BTS was even a thing! they were the og global kpop boyband sensation. imagine if they were treated with the fairness and respect and dignity they deserved????? omg the places they'd have gone! their music was powerful and mature and thoughtful. but also fun and cute and sweet. like. B.A.P. walked so that BTS could run. i never forget that. yeah, without the drama that B.A.P. and EXO and, i am sure, a lot of other kpop boy and girl bands (and maybe even solo artists) had to deal with and fight through/against, BTS and LOONA and RED VELVET and other kpop boy and girl bands would have also crashed and burned. but bc B.A.P. and EXO's drama was so public was bc they were so popular. therefore, their drama was brought to light making other kpop groups come forward about their injustices stopping it in its tracks and saving kpop groups of today the hassle of having to go through ththe same shit they went through.

now, yuh. each of the B.A.P. members are living their best lives with their solo careers. i still keep up with zelo's, youngguk's, and jonggup's solo music careers. i am so happy and proud of them and will remain a huge supportive of them. but i will always remain forever a strong B.A.P. fan! no one can change that about me. i remember watching clips of their reality tv show appearances on korean tv on youtube. i watched almost every "live" performance on youtube. i listened to every song they came out with. HECK! I HAVE A PLAYLIST IN THE DEEPEST DEPTHS OF MY SPOTIFY WITH MY FAVE B.A.P. SONGS!! and i followed the drama with their TSENT *spits*

[raibebe]

Send me an aesthetic or a color and if it makes me think about ones of the idols I write for, I’ll write a little something about it. 

[againstthegrainphoto]

......................okaaayyyyyyyy................but what about all the other girls........

[copperbadge]

Heya Sam! Fandom and databases - I must preface, this may be dispiriting for writers struggling for visibility. Showing hits on AO3 does stress me out (they can be turned invisible, fyi). However! Spotted an outlier with a whopping 17% kudos / hit rate. At 'only' 144 hits. Whoa?! Yuletide exchanges typically 6 to 10%. If any nerds want to automate this? Easier to identify This Story Is Beloved, Actually; and on other end, This Hidden Gem Needs a Better Header, Series, Collection.

Yeah, it's nice AO3 is so flexible that you can really turn any given stat invisible if you can skin it right. I know people who get really unsettled by kudos, too.

I think this debate will probably go on forever (in part because while we have "data", what we do not have is "good verified data"): whether hits, kudos, hit-kudo ratio, comments, or some other form of stat are good indicators of a fic's quality, and what the "proper" sorting method is.

Not everyone who loves a fic leaves kudos or comments, and not every hit is a valid one, and I think the margins on those are significant enough to spoil the data. A lot of times hits are "returns" from people who've read the fic before. Fics that are older than Ao3 but now being archived there won't have many stats regardless of quality (I run into this a bunch with some of my fics -- "Why doesn't this have more kudos if it's ten years old?" Well, it's only been on the site for ten months) and may show up either very recently or far in the past depending on how the author chose to date it.

So I find kudos and comment counts kind of irrelevant in terms of finding good fic, and hit count is mainly good for indicating "Whether or not this fic is GOOD, it is likely to be popular." I think with the kudo-hit ratio you still run into significant data problems because you can only kudo once but you can hit a million times. And a lot of people don't kudo.

I rarely sort by any of the above, tbh. I'm very picky about what data I see (I want to see as much as possible and triage it myself) which makes me really good at my job and means I tend to see things other people don't, but also takes more effort and time. Like, I can't deal with the idea of asking for information from Alexa or Echo or whatever they're calling them now; you're just telling the program to google the question and pick an answer and then not give you the source of that answer. No thank you.

Generally when I'm looking for fanfic in a new fandom, I just sort by date and go through them for stuff that looks interesting. You can tell enough by tags and summaries to know what to skip, and while you hit a lot of duds the back-button isn't hard to find and sometimes you find a gem. When I find someone I like, I read through their back-catalogue and/or subscribe. If I'm looking for new fanfic in a fandom I'm already familiar with, I find the "updating bumps the story to the top" function somewhat irritating, so I just turn the tag I'm interested in into an RSS feed, which means every new fanfic gets fed to a reader I can access when I have time. If it's a WIP that looks interesting, I subscribe to keep up to date on it.

This is also a great indicator of when a ship or character tag is full of either garbage or stuff you don't personally want to read, because in a given day you can review 10-50 fanfics and see trends. There are ships I've followed in the past where I came to the eventual understanding that the writers for that ship just...weren't very good on the whole. And while I love me some Steve/Tony and thought we had some really great writers, eventually it became about 80% divorce fics after Civil War, and I don't follow a ship in order to see the people in it divorcing each other. Even before that the proportion of Steve/Tony-as-Peter's-dads, which is fine conceptually or whatever but which I personally dislike tremendously, was pushing me away from it. (It may be totally different now, I left the tag like....three, four years ago.)

So I mean, one could pretty easily create some kind of widget that would produce automated kudo-hit ratios for the fics in a given tag, but I wouldn't care to use it. I'd rather just throw everything in a bucket and go through it myself. But for people who don't have the time, energy, or desire for that, at least AO3 gives them a lot of options to suit their preferences!

[prettyboykatsuki]

Oooh, what are your favorite animes then??

*puts on my annoying weeb hat and cape on*

well since you asked..

i have watched many anime in my life because i didn't have any friends growing up and was on the internet for a long while b4 was normal so my list is a very very random fucking assortment of an me. my top ten is a mess but these r reccs where im like. if u think anime is lame.. Watch These

also this list won't include anime like hq, bnha, kny, aot, jjk, any of the big three or rlly anything that came out more recently i dont think since you probably already have seen those animes b4

ALSOO i didn't think it fit here but another anime i love is silver spoon - its a farming anime with a rag-tag group of characters and it's near and dear to me. my favorite slice of life ever.

tldr ;; if you don't wanna go through the list, number 3, 8, 9, and 10 are the must watches imo.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER,

ARI'S ANIME RECCOMENDATIONS!

PLEASE PROCEED W CAUTION AND LOOK UP WARNINGS - a lot of these are super dark!!

1. baccano - a fast-paced non-linear mafia anime that follows the storylines of several interesting and charismatic characters in the prohibition era in the states. has elements of surrealism and gets pretty violent albeit it's a little slapstick. i think this anime is fucking fantastic. think the story-telling is brilliant and interesting.

2. zankyou no terror - a psychological anime about two japanese teenagers responsible for a giant terror attack using a robot named sphinx. despite the title and the intial episodes - zankyou no terror is not an anime about terrorism but about politics and reflections. its really great but i can't tell you much about it without spoiling it.

3. inuyashiki - this anime is a fucking mess and it is incredibly dark. the same death note air but with a lot more sarcasm and black humor slash comedy. the gist is that two men encounter robotic powers. while the older of the two mcs finds that being responsible and heroic is important despite his pathetic life - the younger more apathetic one immediately starts fucking killing people. 😭. home to the iconic "do you watch one piece scene."

4. psycho pass - one of the first animes i ever watched and im genuinely really elated that ppl are watching it. about a society where everyone's thoughts and feelings are carefully monitored and how that reflects onto their careers and lives in general. very dark and has a lot of content warnings, but it's great.

5. durarara - this is a very biased opinion but i think this is one of the best animes ive ever watched. i couldn't pin why. i think the cast of characters is absolutely stunning but i also enjoyed it a lot conceptually. it's a gang anime with supernatural elements but it's honestly hard to explain other than that. still so fucking good though.

6. say 'i love you' - this is a random one i know. but it's a romance anime between a subdued highschool girl and a popular highschool guy. seems very generic but the characters and world-building are real and raw and every single person has a story. from a writers perspective it's brilliant and yamato was a childhood crush for me. there's a lot of discussion with one character about eating disorders as an fyi but god. god. we deserved another season but the manga is good too.

6a. honorable mention on great romance anime is maid-sama. don't let the cover fool you - our main lead is a badass but she works at a maid-cafe. one of her classmates happens to catch her. very sincere romance that i highly reccomnd.

7. cowboy bebop - this anime is literally a classic, so i don't feel like i have to tell you to watch it. probably one of the greatest animes that will ever exist. space cowboys kickin' ass and a goddamn fucking banger if i've ever seen it. of everything here - a must watch.

7a. honorable mention - gintama. one of the funniest animes ive ever seen but it's hella long. hijikata is goddamn funny though.

8. samurai champloo - this is . ONE if not THEE best fucking animes you'll ever fucking watch. this anime is witty, charming, historical - with an iconic cast of characters and some of the most funny and wholesome interactions you'll ever witness. mugen is cynical and badass and his dialogue and swords skill will keep you engaged no matter what. essentially two samurai and a waitress end up being fugitives in edo-period japan and it's just so fucking fantastic. please watch it.

8a. honorable mention - afro samurai. similar samurai concept with the coolest mc you've ever met. more shounen-y if that's your thing.

9. mushi-shi - this anime changed my life. no joke. this anime is probably my number one influence on me as a person and as a writer. it is slow-paced and episodic and it follows the story of a man named ginko. mushi are the main element in the world, they are small creatures that can't be seen to everyone. this is one of the best animes ever imo. it's not for everyone but if you like something a little more subdued and sentimental - please check it out.

10. steins gate - this anime is probably one of the only animes that people universally agree on being a must watch. follows the story of a mad scientist and talks about subjects of time travel and a secret society. the execution of the tropes in the show are done flawlessly. objectively one of the best on the list. very.. melancholy? psychological? but so fucking good. a good watch if you liked death note or psycho pass.

THIS WAS SOOO hard to write. im sure no one cares but this list is very near and dear to my heart with anime i think is fucking incredible. if you give even one of these a watch - please talk to me about it!!! i have so many more even w/o the honorable mentions but yes... Yes.

[shirophantomvox]

Illumi Analysis | Hisoka Analysis | Killua Analysis

What’s up, everybody! I am back yet again with another Hunter x Hunter post. You all really like my Hisoka and Illumi character analysis and thoughts. I figured why not analyze Chrollo as well? Apparently, Chrollo, Hisoka, and Illumi are considered the Adult Trio on here so that is why I used the tag. I understand that this is a Voltron blog but I changed it into a multi because I have a love for other shows that deserve to be talked about. I post these character analyses because they will help me define and develop characters of my own and I love talking about them. Where are they from? What do they do in their spare time? And so on. Read the entire post for links and references!

Let’s get into the post!

I’ve stated in my "Hunter x Hunter Thoughts #2" post that Chrollo caught my attention immediately in the Yorknew City Arc. It was a combination of his large eyes, his calm, smooth voice, the tattoo on his forehead, and his hairstyle. I’ve noticed that my heart flutters a little when these characters speak (don't make it weird. You know what I mean) because their voices are smooth and calm. I think this tactic often used to get the viewers to “love” the villain regardless of any wrongdoings they do in the show. I noticed numerous things about him that made me wonder why he dresses the way he does, why is he so calm and dark, and why does he lurk in the shadows?

I have to be honest. One thing that often annoys me about several anime/manga(s) is they introduce SEVERAL characters at once, push some characters off to the very end, and do not give proper backstories for villains, especially. I don’t side with villains but a backstory should be a necessity. The only main antagonist that has a proper backstory is Illumi because we know that he was raised by crazy assassins. Hisoka doesn't have a backstory except for a one-shot that isn’t canon and neither does Chrollo.

I’ve only seen 2 flashbacks regarding Chrollo and his past. He was born in Meteor City which was a town full of trash; no houses, plants, or schools. It is implied that he only survived from stealing from others. His current members are people he met in his hometown. Chrollo often states that he is the head of the group and if he dies, he trusts that they’ll make a great decision on who the new leader will be. In the present, Gon asks him how he could kill people he didn’t know. The silence and rhythmic thunder-claps imply that he doesn’t know why.

Is it something he does...impulsively? Throughout this arc, it seems that Chrollo is having somewhat of an identity crisis. He has stated several times about trying to figure out “who he is”. By that, Chrollo must not like to steal and destroy but to him, that is what he needs to do to survive.

This raises the question of: “If he has stolen for all these years, why is he still living in a destroyed church?”

He’s been a bandit for years. I’m sure he’s on the radar somewhere. He can’t walk around with the troupe members in broad daylight because someone will recognize them. Maybe this is why they only travel in the dark. Machi was brave for walking from Heaven’s Arena in the dark.

He can’t buy a house. What name, card info, or co-leaders would sign the lease? He’s a bandit, remember. His face is somewhere waiting to be caught.

He has accepted this state of living. I thought that since he lived in a trash town that he would want to live in a luxurious place if he could, but no. He lives in a destroyed church, in darkness, and only speaks to his members.

When Chrollo stole the girl’s ability to tell the future, he took it for two reasons. A) because he needed it to see what would happen to Uvo in the new world and B) because the girl’s father used her ability for money and didn’t care for her.

The only reason why I feel an ounce of sympathy for him and not Illumi is it seems like Chrollo raised himself. He took it upon himself to steal and whatnot so he could eat. Chrollo came from nothing while Illumi had a mansion, butlers, protection, and anything he wanted. FYI, just because you have a luxurious lifestyle doesn’t mean you’re happy but in this case, Illumi had shelter while Chrollo didn’t.

Face

Chrollo’s face is what I aspire to create for my own OC’s but manage to fail every time. His face matches his body. If it weren’t for his tattoo and his main hairstyle, I wouldn’t have thought he was a threat to anyone. His face is well-rounded and reminds me of a young adult. His skin is pale and often covered in shadows because he is always in a room that is only lit by a candle. His ears are rather large for his head, but they match ok. Although, I wish his tattoo was removed. To me, that ruins his character design. He already has an inverted cross on his coat and is implied by the destroyed church he lives in. The tattoo just reminds me of a cult for some reason and that is why he gave me unsettling feelings at first.

Eyes

Chrollo’s large eyes are another feature that had me aghast. Some people love big eyes, but his grey pupils capture you almost like you're hypnotized to do anything he wants. They’re a pretty shade of grey, though.

Hair

I am going to say this loud and proud: CHROLLO LOOKS MUCH BETTER WITH HIS HAIR DOWN! Yes, to me he looks much respectable, mature, and serious with it down. His hair is jet black and is shiny like Illumi’s. I could only imagine if I had the chance to touch his hair, the dye would come off on my hands. The down look? The best way to go!

Clothes

His clothes are very stylish. The coat he wears would be PERFECT for the winter seasons! If I ever cosplay, I’m wearing that coat while it's snowing. In the first scene, he was seen wearing a black shirt with white lines going in numerous directions. After that, the creators decided to let his rippling chest show for the rest of the arc. Damn, rippling chests have been a popular decision and NO ONE is complaining! His black pants remind me of skinny jeans and even if they are, he’s lucky because I CANNOT wear skinny jeans. Once I wore them, bent over, and ripped them! I said to myself, “WTF? I paid $35 for these!”

Shoes

He wears black boots that reach up to his leg. He isn’t as stylish as Illumi and Hisoka, but that’ll do. His clothing is much simpler for anyone to cosplay.

Voice

As stated above, Chrollo has a soft, calm voice. He is the only villain I’ve seen that maintains composure during tough situations. I don't know if this was planned or not, but the main antagonists have calm soothing voices. When Chrollo went out with the fortune teller, I forgot he only did that for his selfish gain. I thought he generally enjoyed the date.

In conclusion, I wish Chrollo had a backstory like many characters in this manga. I think Hisoka and Chrollo’s backstory would be the most interesting to me. When these twisted characters appear before us, you want to know why they became this way. Having an empty villain isn’t good and is quite annoying.

Thank you for reading this post! If you’d like me to analyze any characters from Voltron or Hunter x Hunter, send me an ask!

[sledgefuweek]

Each year we take a close look at the prompts for Sledgefu Week, for those who may be stuck for ideas or not quite sure about what the prompts could entail. Below the readmore are all seven prompts, as well as a short write-up exploring what they mean and some ideas to help get the creative juices going. Enjoy!!

Sickfic

This is a really popular and well-known fanfic trope that I feel probably needs little explanation, but I’ll write a little bit about it anyway! It essentially covers fic where one character is ill and the other cares for them -- it could encompass any kind of illness at all, (including chronic illnesses) and there’s a lot of room to get creative with it. You can go for angst, hurt/comfort, or fluff: it’s just a really good general prompt that I think works nicely to kick the week off!

It suits for Sledgefu pretty well, considering Snafu’s canon mild hypochondria, as well as the fact that Eugene’s dad is a doctor. It could be fun to lean into it: make Eugene play doctor for an actually-sick Snafu, and it could be just as fun to subvert it! There’s really endless options for canon fic: shrapnel wounds turned bad, heat-sickness, seasickness, illness from bad food or bad water or any kind of tropical disease you can think of (malaria is a big one!). You could make one of them (or both) a medic; you could genderswap them and write the gay field nurse fic this fandom sorely needs. And of course if you choose to branch out into modern AU you can begin to think of what might afflict them outside of a war setting: has Eugene been working too much and come down with a cold? Are they hungover, and need mutual care (and lots of takeout)? A lot of the time sickfic focuses on one character doing the comforting and the other character feeling unwell, but there’s nothing to say they can’t both be feeling shitty! I think we say this every year but there’s really no rules at all, you do whatever you feel inspired to do. With Sickfic, just be mindful to tag anything that others might be affected by eg. vomiting, blood, needles, etc.

Tarot

I feel like Tarot is pretty well-known to the Sledgefu fandom, or at least to those who like to write Snafu or his family a little witchy. In case you just have a vague idea of what Tarot actually is and what its purpose or origins are, I’ll explain it as concisely as I can! Tarot decks started life in Europe as playing cards, but eventually began to be used for divination. It’s made up of four suits, or the Minor Arcana, (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) as well as a twenty-two card Major Arcana (the imagery of which you’re probably very familiar with). Commonly, tarot decks and tarot reading is used as a means of communicating with the higher self, deities, or with the universe. They can be used as a way to see the future, answer questions, or to give/receive advice. There are different ways of reading them too, depending on how one lays out the cards: I don’t want to make this too wordy, but if you’re curious I encourage you to check out this site to learn more!

For writers, there’s a lot of places this prompt could take you! Probably the most obvious will be fortune teller fic; a classic. Lean into Snafu’s Louisiana roots and have him telling fortunes in the depths of the French Quarter, or go against the grain and have Eugene reading cards and palms and tea leaves as a practice passed down through his family. Or maybe more casual: modern AU Sledgefu flirting through amateur tarot readings with a deck picked up from a junk shop. If you read Tarot and have a connection to it, you can express that through writing! It’s a pretty open-ended prompt, especially if you consider some of the meanings of the cards; you could even write a story inspired by that! The Hermit: Snafu withdrawing, leaving Eugene on the train to spend the next few months in solitude, working through things. The Moon: Snafu and Eugene hitting a rough patch, hiding things from each other. The opportunities really become endless once you start taking the readings of the cards into account! And for visual artists, this must be such a fun prompt: I feel like it’s so a visually rich, whether you’re re-drawing the cards to encompass Snafu and Eugene within them, or making a collage based around some of the things mentioned above: fortune tellers shops, witches cottages, etc.

Trinket

Every Sledgefu Week we tend to have a couple prompts that are a little more open to interpretation, and this year’s ‘Trinket’ is one of those. It might be difficult to try and think of something to base a whole fic or piece of art around, but we really encourage you to let your imagination run wild! There’s already some great trinkets in the show itself: Eugene’s ring, the lighter that Gunny Haney gave him, Snafu’s stolen gold teeth, or their dog tags. Think of small, special objects that you might have: what imbues them with comfort or meaning? What makes you love them? You could have Eugene giving Snafu his ring, or have Eugene musing over war and death and loss while smoking a cigarette lit by his lighter. If you’re into Modern AUs, how could these objects carry through to modern day? Once you start thinking about it, the ideas start rolling in. Feel free to invent special trinkets for them: or maybe trinkets that they hate and want to get rid of, trinkets that remind them of bad times. Trinkets that remind them of each other, or family, or war. So much meaning can be held in the things we own, and I think it’s such a lovely concept to explore!

Crossover

So this prompt was born from the sheer number of suggestions we had for various movie, TV, and book AUs. We didn’t want to put them all to the poll and risk a lot of you feeling disappointed over the one you wanted not being selected, so thought it’d work best to condense them into a ‘Crossover’ prompt so everyone could do whatever they liked. So this is a very very broad one! It would be impossible for me to really go through the prompt and highlight some things that you could do for it, because you can really do anything you want to! Anything! It encompasses movies, video games, TV, books, musicals... if something tells a story, you can do a crossover. So if there’s ever been a film/book/etc. AU you wanted to do for Sledgefu Week but couldn’t quite get it to match the prompts, now is the time!

Vacation

A pretty self explanatory prompt, and one that I think can appeal to people who prefer canonverse and those who like modern AU too! Do you want to send Snafu and Eugene on the holiday of their dreams, or are they gonna be bickering in a gas station over who gets control of the map? Is Snafu gonna drive across a couple states to surprise Eugene by visiting? Is Eugene gonna do the same? There’s a lot of scenarios you can apply to the backdrop of them vacationing, and a lot of emotional journeys you can take them through! And for the canonverse crowd, you have the extra addition of letting them go have fun on an R&R, or taking a road trip post-war, visiting 1950s Paris... you can really do whatever you like!

Historical

This was another prompt like ‘Crossover’ that came from a lot of various suggestions that all boiled down to a similar thing: different historical events or periods. So like Crossover, I won’t linger too long on it (this post is long enough already) except just to say again: do whatever you’re inspired to do! There’s no rules here, you could even take everyone out of the Pacific and put them over in Germany: give them a different experience of war. In fact, you can do that with any war if you wanted to! Wanna do a M*A*S*H AU but made something else for Crossover? You could do it here! Want to put them in the 1920s? You got it. In the 1850s? Yeehaw, they’re cowboys now. 1969, Summer of Love? 1600s, make Snafu a prince? Literally the world is your oyster!

Horror

Past Sledgefu Week prompts have included things that could come under the horror umbrella (Supernatural, for example) but didn’t necessarily have to be made 'horrific’. For the ‘Horror’ prompt this year, we want to see frightening! Disquieting, uncomfortable; creations that either cross over with existing horror franchises, or lean on horrific things you come up with yourself. Horror movies, or TV shows, or books or podcasts or pieces of art all seek to elicit a sense of fear: this can be done by tapping into common phobias, or nightmares, those things which are universally and almost instinctively scary. We want to see things which lean into that, in whatever way you want to do it! 

I’m no horror media expert (not by a long shot) but the opportunities for this prompt are really vast simply because horror has so many subgenres to work with. You could go gothic horror; Dracula, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights (a personal favourite AU -- Eugene soaked out on the moors, searching for Heathcliff-Snafu? Divine). Or you could go to the opposite end of the spectrum: Jennifer’s Body AU, Final Girl AU -- there’s no set way to do horror, in fact you could even bring horror into canonverse if you don’t like AUs. Think the Terror: some unknown beast lurking beyond the borders of their camp on Pavuvu, or Okinawa. Or you could even take the prompt entirely literally and explore the horrors of war and the toll it takes on them both. Please don’t feel stuck into needing to do Scary: horror is about fear and revulsion and dread, and these feelings don’t necessarily need to come from a haunting! (This is also a prompt ripe for monsterfucking, just FYI).

                                                - - - - - - - - - -

So that’s the prompts for this year! They’re all really really great, and have a lot of potential to make some fantastic stuff :~) And to reiterate something I said right at the start, there are no rules here! I think every year we normally get at least one person unsure whether their idea will be okay for the prompt they’d like to make it for, so I just wanna say here: don’t second-guess yourself! As long as it can be linked back to the prompt in some way or another (can literally be the vaguest way possible) you’ll be absolutely fine. We don’t vet submissions at all, especially not for their content relating to the prompts. All we ask is that you remember to stay respectful in what you’re writing, and when the time comes to post it, you tag and warn appropriately :~)

On the subject of writing respectfully, we’d like to just take a moment to link the document on mindful writing re: race and gender that was made last year. Please take a look at it, even if you read it last year! It’s always good to keep these things at the front of your mind, as fandom is a community sport and we want to keep it fun and safe for everyone involved! So thank you if you’ve made it this far through this whole post, check out the doc, and enjoy the rest of the run-up to Sledgefu Week!

[bearsgrove]

contrary to popular belief *spins around so you get a full view of my all-black vampiric outfit with a fishing hat* i am still here

i mean not really. tbh i just find being here such a waste of my time lol but unfortunately i can't leave because i still keep coming here solely to lurk in the tag and on one d2 blog for the memes, news and lore so there's that. everything else is just................... meh. i don't know man. rancid vibes, as i often say. won't elaborate. doesn't matter.

But i came here to say that i completely forgot the queue function exists i've been mass saving things to my drafts like a fool but i'm gonna queue up some stuff on my sideblog probably. which brings me to my main point: @uldrenssov is gonna be just a destiny sideblog until i start caring about something other than that godforsaken game but just fyi that means i won't be tagging the game anymore so feel free to unfollow if you had my destiny tag blacklisted or smthin. if i happen to post about something different i will probably tag it as "not destiny".

as for this blog,, idk. same old. for now i'm just cozy posting about my favourite things to my secret dashes for whatever reason. well. like i said, cozy reasons. Except for dh, i actually made a dh-only sideblog as like a comfort blog one weird sad tuesday night weeks ago. for dh stuff and aesthetics. if you want to follow it you can pay me 9.99€ a month to see the exclusive premium dh sideblog by yours truly. joking ofc. partially. if you are curious i'm totally fine sharing it with friends but otherwise i won't be sharing the url here lol i love dh too much in a toxic gatekeeping way. i don't know what gatekeep means i just see it in memes so i made my conclusions. don't care. anyway. lately i just like enjoying things by myself and i hiss and bark when someone likes the same things as me i don't know what's wrong with me i feel,. eel. dh is special to me tho so i just felt like making a comfort dh blog for myself.

also my phone died idk when. weeks? months ago? time is always a blur but especially lately it is extremely so. my motivation to scroll through here has diminished some more since i would often come here on my phone while waiting for things in game to load. never really thought i was attached to this phone but now that it’s gone i’m like :/ we’ve been through so much together...................... on the other hand i can finally just. go to bed. no late night app refreshing. quite freeing actually.

anyway. my thought process on most days is "i want to post again i miss posting" and "no one cares lol why waste my time" and then i'm like "ok i don't care either actually" *holes up in the game and doesn't leave it until i go to sleep rinse and repeat the next day* so it's like. idk. i got some art. might post it one of these days. like this blog is still my main, for art, for oc stuff, etc. i just currently don't know what to do don't feel like doing anything and at the end of the day i don't even care.

this has been a messy psa good night 🐑

[firstofficer-williamyiker]

Ok, ok, ok, ok. I am way too focus on this but I really really wanted to list out every Star Trek ship (from TNG, DS9, and VOY cause those are the ones I have seen most of) I could think of and give my opinion on it. Why? Because I don’t wanna do my math test. Lets go down the spiral of hyperfixation and little impulse control. (FYI, this became a long ass post, so read through if you want or don’t lol)

Let’s start from the beginning. 

The Next Generation: (aka gays that all share one smart brain cell) 

Picard x Crusher: Honestly, I like their chemistry, and if it became canon I would be alright with that. No real strong feelings on this ship.

Picard x Q: The epitome of enemies to lovers slow burn in 300k words. The sexual tension is too much to handle, I absolutely adore these two. They probably fucked once and Picard regrets it immeasurably. 

Picard x Riker: Nah, not for me. But you do you dudes.

Riker x Troi: Again, I quite like these two together. Two Bi Icons getting together, I’m here for it. 

Riker x Worf: Eh, Worf isn’t really a fav of mine so that makes me bias against this ship. It cool tho.

Riker x Crusher: *war flashbacks to when Crusher had sex with a Trill worm that was inside currently inside Riker’s body* Haha, fuck no. 

Troi x Crusher: Two queens getting together and tearing down the patriarchy, I stan.

Troi x Tasha: I tend to block out season one of TNG from my mind, but honestly, I like the vibe.

Data x Geordi: My OTP for this show. It should have happened. Rick Berman is a coward. They are just so sweet and they understand each other like no one else. A few of their scenes in this show made me cry. I ship

Data x Tasha: Nah, I don’t vibe. Would have been better as mlm and wlw solidarity. 

Worf x Troi: They had a few cute scenes together in the later seasons, I don’t hate neither super enjoy.

Deep Space Nine: (aka no straights in space)

Sisko x Kasidy: I liked them better in the early seasons. I think the writers low-key forgot about Kasidy until she was convenient plot device. 

Kira x Odo: I preferred it in the first few seasons where Odo had a little crush on Kira and it was kinda adorable. But after their relationship had become canon in the later seasons I was kinda disappointed.

Kira x Jadzia: I am here for this ship, two powerful women ready to take on the world together but also have their own insecurities that come up as the situation arises. Immaculate, I want it.

Dukat x Kira: Fuck no, they are enemies. Idk why the DS9 writers thought it would be a great idea to pair THESE two together. But thank god for Nana Visitor for being such a queen. 

Odo x Quark: Again, another amazing enemies to lovers ship. I love seeing those two on screen together, their chemistry is just *chef’s kiss*.

Miles x Keiko: Miles is like, the token heterosexual on this show. He loves his wife, his kids, and his job.

Bashir x Garak: Fuck yeah, OTP of this show for me gang. It was so heavily implied and it would have been so cool to see, especially in the 90s. But oh well, at least we got the actors writing and performing fanfiction for us.

Bashir x Jadzia: Yeah no, I wouldn’t ship them romantically. And the writers definetly did not favors to Bashir when they make his crush on her a bit creepy in the early seasons. But would be a BROTP for me.

Bashir x Ezri: Hnng, I don’t like. It just feels like Bashir is trying to date the Jadzia he never had and I don’t like it.

Jadzia x Worf: It’s fine, I guess. I don’t really see the chemistry.

Ezri x Jake: I mean, it’s better than Ezri x Bashir, but like, Dax has known Jake over 3 lifetimes and watched him grow up soooo, nah.

Jake x Ziyal: I am a fan. I think these two would have been really cool together especially since they are both artistic people with Jake’s writing and Ziyal’s painting. They could have done some really cool stuff together. Plus, it would make some interesting family reunion moments between Dukat and Sisko hehe.

Jake x Nog: Again, I am a fan. Tol and smol dynamics are what I am here for.

Garak x Ziyal: No

Voyager: (aka gays lost in space)

Janeway x Chakotay: The of the few straight ships I would die for. I am quite disappointed that nothing ever formed between the two because it would have been really cute and oh my god the tension the writers made between the two. I feel baited for this ship, AND IT’S A STRAIGHT SHIP! I’m sorry I have feelings about this. 

Janeway x Seven: Not a top ship of mine but I definitely see the chemistry here and I support it. 

Janeway x Paris: I only bring this up because in like season 1 or 2 they have axolotl children together because the writers were probably high as a kite when they came up with this idea for an episode. But a hard pass. 

Janeway x Coffee: I’m pretty sure this is already canon and I stan. 

Chakotay x Seven: I haven’t completely finished Voyager yet but I heard that this is the endgame for the two and WTF. I don’t see or understand it and it makes me upset, like really upset.

Chakotay x B’elanna: I’m just glad this wasn’t canon. I more just bring it up because I remembered B’elanna had a crush on Chakotay in the early seasons before Tom. And like, I get it because if Chakotay was my commanding officer I’d probably crush too girl. 

B’elanna x Paris: It’s a canon ship that I honestly kinda like. There are some moments where I’m like “oh no” and other where I’m like “YES”. But overall, I enjoy it. I just feel like there is something missing.

Paris x Kim: Fuck yea, I love these two together. Two bros turned lovers I am fucking here for it my dudes. But again, I feel like there is something else missing here.

B’elanna x Paris x Kim: Oh hell yea, I found what was missing. This is my personal OTP of Voyager. In my head I think Kim and B’elanna are just really close friends who do engineering things together. While Paris is in the corner, loving them both, but also setting the Delta Flyer on fire for the third time this week. I haven’t really looked into the Voyager tag (because spoilers) so idk if this is a popular ship. But I think they all have some really fun chemistry and I enjoy it. 

Paris x Delta Flyer: This just came to my head 20 seconds ago as I wrote the last one but I’m pretty sure this one is already canon. 

Kim x Seven: Nah

Seven x The Doctor: Hmm, do I dislike it as much as I do Seven x Chakotay? No, I do not. But do I like it that much? No, no I do not. I ship them as friends.

Tuvok x Nelix: No, not really. Opposites attract is not really my cup of tea all the time.

Nelix x Kes: Oh damn, I almost forgot about Kes. I know this is canon but where did this come from. The writers NEVER EXPLAIN IT! And then they never explain why the later broke up. I just... I just don’t understand. 

I doubt I have covered every ship, these were just the ones that came to me while writing this. Also, these are just my personal opinions please don’t come for my knees.

[yeswevegotavideo]

Opening Line Tag Meme

Edit: In true tumblr fashion the formatting got all fucked up so the first 10 aren't numbered anymore, fyi.

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Hoo boy, ok! Gotta' figure out when I started writing what, 'cause I've got some unposted WIPs in here.

Thanks to @gottagobuycheese for the tag! I tag @arcanemoody, @teadrinkingwolfgirl, @holycatsandrabbits, @slow-burn-sally, and anybody else who wants to do it! :)

List after the cut, 'cause it's long lol Now then, from most to least recent, let's see...

In the Beginning, only the Creator existed, and She Knew Not From Whence She Came. Fic: you will exhale cinnamon clouds Fandom: Good Omens Comments: That is italicized on purpose - the fic implies that if you see italicized narration in serif font, it is possibly the Voice of God...maybe. This was my first time participating in a Big Bang, and it was very fun and EXTREMELY STRESSFUL and I doubt I'll ever participate in another one.

The Angel of the Eastern Gate was…fascinating. Fic: Time Can Do So Much (WIP) Fandom: Good Omens Comments: I'm gonna finish this someday I swear, but it's a lower priority than Close to Home. (Because let's face it, Close to Home is more popular lol)

"Little demonic miracle of my own," Crowley said casually, handing off the bag and sauntering past the stunned angel, "Lift home?" Fic: Close to Home, So Far Away (WIP) Fandom: Good Omens Comments: That line barely counts, since the dialogue is lifted directly from the show, and I almost included the next one. But the action description is obviously mine. This is the WIP that currently dominates the anxious part of my brain (along with the writer's block part, the creative part, the restless part, and the guilty part). But I'm. Going. To. Finish. It.

It was a perfectly lovely brunch. Fic: Velocity Fandom: Good Omens

Comments: First fic I ever posted in a large fandom. Well, large compared to any other fandom I've ever posted in, anyway. It was insane getting that number of comments/views/kudos on any fic all at once. (It's even more insane how quickly one gets used to such a thing and starts comparing it to subsequent works lol)

“Regis, it’s time.” Fic: Hope in Darkness (working title, unpublished WIP) Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Comments: So, I have this FFXV fic. I'm probably never going to post it. Idk. Maybe someday when the fandom is mostly dead lmao. The fic follows the lives of the quad from infancy to the start of the World of Ruin/Darkness. It's followed by another, even WIP-er fic with working title Decade of Darkness. I'm currently stalled immediately after getting their quad together, at Gladio's 21st birthday party. (Yes, that means Prompto is 17. Yes, that is exactly why I'm hesitant to post it.)

They entered the stairwell and the moment the door closed, Vyvyan shoved Rick against the wall with the force of his kiss. Fic: Love & Mobsters - The Lost Scenes (perpetual WIP, entirely PWP) Fandom: The Young Ones Comments: One of those "this is where the porn goes" WIPs that will probably never actually be closed and may or may not ever be added to. *shrug* What can I say? It's just where the porn goes.

There's something wrong with the garden. Fic: Paper Boats Fandom: The Young Ones Comments: I love this fic. I don't honestly care if others do, though I'm glad many seem to. That is all. Btw that line is in italics because it's thought. That's definitely a convention of mine. That, and writing flashbacks in present tense.

The new kid arrived around two in the afternoon, driven in especially by one of the many social workers known well to the residents. Fic: Infinity (WIP) Fandom: The Young Ones Comments: Another WIP I swear I'll finish eventually. This one kind-of lost steam because I realized I don't actually know how to write teenage British boys in the 70s, nor prison stories in general. Idk, I'll figure it out eventually, probably.

Vyvyan closed the door behind him and slinked into the night. Fic: Skin Fandom: The Young Ones Comments: In direct contradiction to what I just said two fics ago, this story features flashbacks that are in past tense. And then in present tense in the next chapter. I believe this is what they call "inconsistency".

It was December 24th, and all throughout London, preparations for Christmas were kicking into high gear. Fic: Winter Holiday Fandom: The Young Ones Comments: This was a fun one to write. I basically tried to write a Christmas episode, and commenters largely confirm I succeeded. My favorite comment was, "It was just like watching a very special extra episode, with bonus shagging."

Note: the rest of these are from The Young Ones - Love & Mobsters, my TYO series, so I'm not going to keep listing fic & fandom and commenting. The quotes will just directly link to the corresponding fic. They're still in reverse order, from newest to oldest, meaning they'll be linked to the series backwards.

"Would you still love me if I were ugly?"

Rick woke to the feeling of Vyvyan stroking his cheek. He smiled softly as he yawned and opened his eyes.

The punch to the stomach had hurt.

Vyvyan is awake in bed, staring at the ceiling.

I thought I was in love with him, diary, I really did.

I'm horribly disappointed.

A life of crime did odd things to Vyvyan.

Vyvyan talks in his sleep.

So I'm standing outside this shop, waiting for the bloody door to open and freezing my bollocks off in the meantime.

The razor buzzed by Vyvyan's ear.

More than anything I think I've learned that there's no discernible pattern to my opening lines! lmao.

[danwhobrowses]

20 AEW Dark and Elevation Regulars that AEW should sign

Now I know, AEW has a very stacked roster, in fact I've considered writing an essay on the risk of AEW's growing roster being top-heavy

I mean we've barely scraped the potential of Brian Cage, Scorpio Sky, Wardlow, Sammy Guevara, TH2, Sonny Kiss, Matt Sydal, Proud and Powerful, Nick Comoroto, Will Hobbs, Serena Deeb (who I know is injured atm), and many more. But with Rampage oncoming maybe there is room for them.

But, we'll stick a pin in that for now, because tonight is AEW's 100th Episode of Dark. A big deal still considering it's one of AEW's 2 weekly youtube wrestling shows, and one of AEW's many Youtube weekly shows if you include vlogs such as BTE, SammysVlogs, Ethan Page's vlog and the AEW-promotional Countdown to and Outside the Ring with Lexy Nair segments and the Unrestricted Podcast. In the pandemic era, Dark became a home to several indie talents in need for work, some got signed but not all, so I'm gonna list 10 men's and 10 women's wrestlers who were regulars on Dark and Elevation who AEW can and should still sign

Note: I will not be including wrestlers who look set for regularity, so Wheeler Yuta, Jora Johl, Fuego and the Wingmen won't be on the list, as will any AEW Women's tournament entrants (Maki Itoh, Madi Wrenkowski, Nicole Savoy etc.). Danny Limelight and Konosuke Takeshita are also signed to MLW and DDT Pro just fyi

10 Men AEW should sign

The men's division is already stacked, and it has a lot of up and comers too, but there are still a few areas where AEW's Dark stalwarts have proven they can fill a void for.

Honorable mentions for: JDX, El Australiano, M'Badu, Jake St. Patrick, Brick Aldridge, Megabyte Ronnie, Suge 'Pineapple Pete' D and Vary Morales. Also Kidd Bandit, but he hasn't wrestled on Dark or Elevation so I couldn't add him in.

10. Marty Casaus Better known as Marty 'the Moth' Martinez from Lucha Underground, Marty trained with AEW after some time out with injury and made some appearances on Dark. As the Moth, Marty demonstrated his character work as a gross heel, but his size was also an asset to his disturbed and near-psychotic persona.

9. Dean Alexander An alumnus of the Nightmare Factory, Alexander has frequented on Dark and Elevation usually in tag action where he hasn't been able to get his dickhead persona across. He is your traditional cocky heel which in the Nightmare Factory showcases has led to his hilarious downfalls, even losing to Negative One in his multiple failures to win in the Main Event of these showcases. Frankly, this is what Baron Corbin should be like if you're gonna mock him, he's also very impressive in the ring.

8. Dillon McQueen Another Nightmare Factory alum, Dillon McQueen has also only been used for jobbing, but his character is actually great. The King of Queens, Dillon brims charisma that would be a winner for crowds, but he has a babyface fire to him as well, easily could be a rising talent with the right training.

7. Dan Barry To be honest, I like his Hawaiian Shirts. He has a lot of experience in the indies and can work in a similar way Colt Cabana works balancing serious and comedy wrestling, would just be pretty cool to see him more.

6. & 5. TNT (Terrence and Terrell Hughes) Sons of D-Von Dudley, TNT have had less appearances on AEW as of recent, which is a shame, because they can definitely be developed as some of the next gen tag teams the Acclaimed and Blonds have been. AEW haven't shied from legacy wrestlers in the past, and the duo definitely have potential.

4. Chandler Hopkins Chandler Hopkins has shown up to be squashed by the big men a lot, but somehow he also manages to eke out some strong entertainment and fluid wrestling in it. His match against Brian Cage is an effective example of this. Like Fuego, Chandler is definitely someone you can use on the undercard for some enhancement, maybe even push up once more character comes across.

3. Ryzin Ryzin has stuck with AEW for quite a while now, even having skits on BTE. The Unholy Father however never got a W on AEW, which is a shame because he has character and promo skills in hand. He could easily be a fit for Chaos Project as well or teamed with Abandon in a James Mitchell kinda role.

2. Carlie Bravo One of the first class alums of the Nightmare Factory, Carlie Bravo remains charismatic and athletic in his showings, he even had a great little pairing with Shawn Dean until Dean's signing, I'd love to see them bring that back - two Navy veterans tearing up the tag scene would be pretty awesome.

1. Baron Black Few have stayed the course during the pandemic era like Baron Black. Debuting in April and still yet to get his first win, he was one of the three touted stars by Cody on Sammy's vlog who he encouraged to be booked around the world because of his workrate and skill. If anyone has earned it that isn't named Fuego del Sol (or that other name Cody mentioned), it's Baron Black.

10 Women AEW should sign In contrast to the men's division, AEW's women's roster does look like it could use some buffing, for midcard and even building more stars.

Honorable mentions are plenty in this one, so just missing out are the following: Ashley D'Amboise, Leila Grey, Renee Michelle, Jazmin Allure, Savannah Evans, Willow Nightingale, the Renegade Twins, Holidead, Kenzie Paige, Jennacide and Brooke Havok (who I would guess will be signed once her leg recovers).

10. Ashley Vox With or without her Sea Stars tag partner, Delmi Exo, Ashley Vox has proven herself a frequent flier for AEW. Talented in singles and tag competition. She also has a strong rapport with many of AEW's current roster.

9. Alex Gracia The Pink Dream has been on ROH as of recent but remains a freelancer, her last appearance being a squash from Dr. Britt Baker DMD. AEW must've been high on Gracia at one point because they gave her a title shot on Dynamite. With experience in Shimmer and Stardom, Gracia would definitely be a worthy addition.

8. Tesha Price Another woman who AEW put on Dynamite rare times, Tesha proved herself to play face and heel during her time on Dark and Elevation. As a heel she showed a lot of fire especially against KiLynn King and Ryo Mizunami, the Psycho Sweetheart definitely has something she can give to the division - who are tbf lacking in heels right now.

7. Vertvixen I am not sure what it is about Vertvixen specifically, but whenever I see her I think she has the look, not to mention the athleticism to boot. Her triple threat on MPW against Jennacide and Jazmin Allure was a definite highlight as of recent.

6. Miranda Alize A former Mae Young Classic competitor, like Jennacide and Gracia she's recently been used by ROH, but she is definitely a confident wrestler and does not shy from the intergender matches either, having fought Laredo Kid and Danny Limelight. She's worked with many impressive wrestlers too, including an Impact Knockouts Title match against Jordynne Grace and matches against Deonna, Taya and Tessa.

5. Reka Tehaka The Samoan Savage may've debuted on AEW's first ever house show, but regular Dark and Elevation appearances have been met with positive reactions. Being partly trained by the Nightmare Factory, Tehaka has done well to establish herself despite only wrestling for a year and a half, she could definitely be a prospect.

4. Veda Scott Okay, so I cheated a little by saying no competitors, but I could not leave out Veda on this list. She has in-ring talent and intergender experience - tagging with her Speedball husband - but on AEW Dark and the Deadly Draw she proved herself excellent on commentary. A female voice in the booth even for just the women's matches would go a long way for the division and Veda's the perfect voice for it.

3. Dani Jordyn The Mean Girl is definitely someone you can call a regular on Dark and Elevation. She works hard and works with a lot of main roster talent, and I don't think I've seen her put on a bad match. So it would be nice to reward her with a contract.

2. Diamante It still baffles me actually that Diamante has yet to become All Elite. Deadly Draw winner and involved in a lot of the Elevation/Dark women's feuds, Diamante has a wealth of knowledge and experience under her belt. She's still popular with fans and can easily step back into her LAX days by pairing with the Inner Circle. Few unsigned talent have won as much as her too, I would say it's when rather than if, but when is taking a long ass time.

1. KiLynn King The three names Cody praised highly were Fuego, Baron Black and KiLynn King, so I think above all else they should be given contracts. In fact, I was surprised King wasn't on the Dark 100 card, by virtue that although King has shown up on Dynamite a few times, she has been on Dark and Elevation 41 times since debuting in May 2020, it was a shock that someone so regular wasn't on the card. King showed she could work as the bully heel but also as a charismatic babyface, even having a little faction brewing with Swole and Red Velvet as RSK, but when crowds came back we seemed to drop the potential of AEW's first all-women faction. King is over with fans...so long as you don't put her against someone as over as Thunder Rosa, and she has put on some lowkey bangers during her time on AEW, especially the one against Riho. Tall and powerful, but fun in the ring and outside the ring with clips of her in the crowd chanting and even vibing to Angelico's music. King would definitely be on the top of my list of AEW Dark regulars that deserve a contract.

I'm sure I might've missed some and opinions may differ, but I think these lot would definitely be able to fit into AEW effortlessly thanks to their time on Dark and Elevation. Many of whom could be used to build or become future champions themselves, and I hope still to see more of them beyond Dark 100.

[fairweathermyth]

2020 Creator Wrap: Favourite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works.

Tagged by @distantsnows who makes the sexiest gifsets ever, just FYI. Thank you María! <3 I kept putting this off because I was not ready to confront how much time I spent making gifs in the year of our lord 2020 lmao. It was A LOT. Anyway, because of this I am definitely cheating :)

I really like doing big costume appreciation sets, but they are SO time consuming so I don’t do them often. So I am proud of these costume sets of Max from Black Sails and Simone from Dispatches from Elsewhere that I actually committed to completing :)))

The Schitt’s Creek + text post sets are very fun to make, and I honestly think that they are ALL very good lmao. But I do love this Alexis one a lot :’)

Kinda love how the Jack Rackham + iconic lines and Max + iconic lines sets came out and might do more characters if I get inspired :)

Schitt’s Creek + a little bit iconic. This was also time consuming but I really like how it turned out! And I love how many people in the reblogs vibed with the [eyebrows] gif lmao

I’m obsessed with my Favorite Women in Music meme, even though half of the sets have less than a 100 notes lol. It’s okay because I am fully aware that this one is just entirely catered to me <3

Bonus! I also had a lot of fun giffing The Great this year which is just visual candy, and I’d like to give a shout-out to this Alexis Rose set that I barely remember making, but somehow blew up and became far and away my most popular set <3 OH and I almost hit post before I remembered the Timothy Olyphant typecasting set which I still think is very funny!

if you’re interested, tagging some gifmaker mutuals! @idontwikeit @tomerkapon @gilmoregeller @phoebesbridgers @kiwimidnight @lukearnold @lady-arryn  @findsilver

[prettyoddfever]

P!ATD in New Zealand & Australia – October 2006

THE MAIN POST

main picture tags for October: onstage & offstage

NEW ZEALAND:

The band arrived in New Zealand on September 30th. They walked around Auckland, went to that Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium place, and took some pictures of their own. Fans were sharing intel online about where the band had been spotted and it looked like some kind of coordinated scavenger hunt to find them.

P!ATD wanted to do a presale for just one day in August where tickets would be under $40 (and that’s New Zealand’s currency, so it was way cheaper in USD). Those 2,500 tickets sold out “almost instantly.”

The Edge did a couple radio interviews with Spencer in September and told him that P!ATD was probably the fastest selling concert they’d ever promoted. They said there was such a frenzy for tickets that they had “thousands of fans” lined up to suck someone’s big toe just to win a ticket in an event called Panic! at the Big Toe... they said “there wasn't much that rhymed with disco that we could play with so that's how we came up with big toe.” I don’t know how much of that is true lol but it’s definitely true that New Zealand’s fans were extremely excited to have P!ATD there. 

a NZ magazine mentioned that some fans there had sent in P!ATD songs to the local radio stations before the band’s record label had even done it.

AFYCSO went gold in New Zealand. The album took a bit longer to become popular there, but it had been in the top 20 since summer.

the show was at St. James Theatre on October 2nd. here’s Brendon stage diving & introducing the band. and then here are some other fan videos (fyi there were some majorly flashing lights at that show).

48May was the opening band. P!ATD had never heard of them before.

this was the last appearance of the rose vest. Zack told fans at the next show that Ryan had lost it. He forget it in the hotel room in NZ and when he went back it was gone. The NZ fans knew where the band had stayed... a couple girls said they called the hotel and asked them to check the lost & found but had no luck. 

It’s pretty easy to recognize the New Zealand shows at a glance if you can see more of the stage or if someone else is in the shot... however, if you’re sorting through hundreds of pictures of Ryan in his rose vest, then you can get into the summer tour mindset and forget to look at smaller details (exhibit A).

here’s an article that mentions the rose vest.

a few people said some bottles were thrown at the show and one fan tried to get Ryan to wear some underwear from her? idk what was up with that.

An article said that Ryan went gambling for the first time in New Zealand and then he also said the same thing in a couple interviews.

The rain was the main thing Brendon had observed during the European festivals in August... and that’s what the Vegas boy noticed about New Zealand too haha. 

A New Zealand magazine asked Brendon why he thought P!ATD had succeeded. Brendon said “I would like to think it’s because of our fans. That our music means something to people, that we actually have a message getting out there. That’s what we like to think. But I can’t really say for sure.”

Ryan told the NZ Herald: "I always said as long as I had enough money to feed myself and have a place to eat then I'd be doing music. Even when we were stuck touring, earning $100 a day, I never thought I'd even make it that far. Now, I feel five years older than I should. But I wouldn't have it any other way and in the last year I've learned more than in my entire life.”

New Zealand & Australia interviews:

here’s a playlist of some interviews that includes C4′s Special Features, TV3′s Nightline, Video Hits, whatUwant with James Mathison, Undercover’s interview, the Triple J radio interview, the Hot30 radio interview, the Nova 106.9 radio interview,  the Take40 stuff, and the clips from when P!ATD hosted Rage (that was filmed while the band was in Australia but didn’t air until a Saturday in November. The guys picked a ton of music videos & hosted for several hours).

Brad and Sharyn from The Edge radio in NZ did an interview with Bden & Jon before the concert (that’s the first picture in this post. and then the second picture is from Triple J and the third is from C4).

Ryan did a phone interview on C4 with Joel Defries before the tour and one with 101.9 The Fox.

AUSTRALIA OVERALL:

the Australian shows all had really positive reviews. A lot said the band sounded even better live. Ryan later mentioned that “the crowds were just insane” at those shows.

The band did a myspace secret show.

A Time Off review of the Brisbane show said “the boys have the crowd in the palms of their hands and are clearly enjoying it. Resplendent in black satin and velvet, tight fitting double breasted suits and eyeliner, the band are perfect, each song sounding much better live than on their album... this is one band that deserves the hype.”

It sounded like the Australian crowds had a wider range of ages (and not only the 18+ Melbourne show). However, there were still the same usual complaints about P!ATD crowds being extra pushy, mean, aggressive, etc.

A Melbourne pit sounded like it was getting miserable, so apparently Brendon actually got everyone to move further apart, sit down on the floor, and be calm for one song (I only heard stories about this, so idk for sure how accurate it is).

Kisschasy opened for all of the Australian shows and I think Something With Numbers did too. Apparently Kisschasy said some not-so-great stuff about P!ATD... like the guys kept to themselves and weren’t social enough or something.

P!ATD played Bohemian Rhapsody during soundchecks in Australia. They were trying to see if they could do it for the NRWC tour, but by mid-October they’d changed their plans to Killer Queen. I mostly remember the fans who were buttheads and said the band probably couldn’t pull off Queen and should try aiming lower.

the Australian shows sold out so fast. Fans were trying to get tickets literally minutes after they went on sale but were out of luck. The shows got bumped to bigger venues then and still sold out quickly... the band was super popular, but I’m pretty sure scalpers were involved in part of that too.

I don’t know why some fans were still discussing Bden’s diet so much and analyzing whether or not he was vegan, but the fact that he was spotted eating crab legs in Australia was a big deal to some fans.

Ryan bought a grey jacket in Australia that he wore a lot onstage & offstage. That jacket + his yellow scarf and hat started to look like his uniform in late 2006.

Jon told Blunt Magazine that the band went out in a boat on the harbor in Sydney and saw the Opera House.

The Australian Shows:

I’ll add links to a few of the better videos that are still left online:

October 4: Brisbane @ The Arena – here’s one video and another

October 5: the Myspace secret show 

October 5: Sydney @ Hordern Pavilion – most fan videos were impressively shaky or looked like this... so here’s the best one. and then a couple of the others: one, two, three, four.

October 7: Melbourne @ Festival Hall (all ages) – cameras weren’t allowed, so the videos mostly look like this or this. some of the best: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten (bless that one rebel who brought in a camera that could get good audio).

October 8: Melbourne @ The Palace (18+) – some videos: the best, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and it looks like Bden almost trips in the middle ha. And then here’s a magazine review.

[cristobalrios]

okay lets start easy.... 001 for star trek, 002 for syrios, 003 for cris and also for steward

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Specified VOY on Discord so

Favorite character: Doc. Seven is a veeery close second if not tied. Depends on my mood.

Least Favorite character: UMMMM Does Seska count??

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Okay so Tom/B’Elenna obv, umm I love Doc/Seven but like his unrequited love for her honestly. That one episode where Doc fell in love with a patient he made a holographic body for while he was treating her. Neelix/Kes had a lot of issues especially later on but they had their moments?? There really weren’t a lot of canon pairings were there so I’m going to go non-canon because it says both. Janeway/Chakotay had their moments of tension but nothing ever came of that.

Character I find most attractive: Tom tbh

Character I would marry: Tom is with B’Elanna so... Doc? Harry?

Character I would be best friends with: Doc

a random thought: WHY DID THEY FORGET THE BORG BABY

An unpopular opinion: Okay so for the whole Tuvix debate idk which side is actually more popular than the other but at least Controversial Opinion: Janeway murdered Tuvix and it was not the moral decision (that doesn’t mean it was the incorrect decision)

My Canon OTP: Tom/B’Elanna Seven/Raffi oops that’s Picard

My Non-canon OTP: Hmmm I have no idea how this is gonna go down but Icheb/Q2 were kind of cute tbh

Most Badass Character: Janeway is queen. Seven is also queen

Most Epic Villain: Idk species 8472?

Pairing I am not a fan of: ... idk I feel like the Seven/Chakotay stuff was not done well

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Neelix when it comes to his relationship with Kes towards the end the whole jealousy stuff was not cool

Favourite Friendship: Tom & Harry, Doc & Seven

Character I most identify with: Seven and Doc

Character I wish I could be: Seven

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you: Syrios

When I started shipping them: It kind of just happened so like right away

My thoughts: They are adorable disasters a terrible mess who deserve each other

What makes me happy about them: Everything. They care about each other so much they really need each other. Clueless married gays in space (well gay & pan)

What makes me sad about them: Neither of them care about themselves. Sylar ends up hurt, Rios panics, Sylar is more concerned about Rios’s panic than his own condition that’s just how it goes they’re a mess

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Nothing the only fics written about them are written by De. Okay but actually that one person who left a rude and stupid comment on one of the fics that’s it that’s the thing

Things I look for in fanfic: Clueless married gays in space

My wishlist: My entire #Headcanons (Sylar) tag - Just fyi Rios is the first human/non-Vulcan to solve this like puzzle to get into the super secretive society of T’Paal it takes him like a year when it took the slowest citizens of T’Paal several months but he WOULDN’T GIVE UP he needed to prove himself to Sylar’s people - Syrios doing their own version of Tal’oth for their honeymoon because what else would they do other than some messed up ancient Vulcan survival ritual

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I mean the only other person Sylar has been interested in is Sarek and that’s.. not going to happen so

My happily ever after for them: Honestly this is hard like?? Okay so get this: I doubt Rios is ever going to return to Starfleet BUT he’s like in his late 70s (so Sylar doesn’t have to watch him grow really old) and captaining a Starfleet Starship with Sylar and they go on basically a suicide mission just the two of them and they succeed in whatever the mission was technically for and they’re killed in the process, together, in a blaze of fire after a long life of being happily married idiots because otherwise one of them will have to watch the other die and that’s not okay because they won’t die of old age together

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you: Rios

How I feel about this character: ksjdhfkhsd he’s my sad caring baby he cares too much and I care too much about him because of it

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Syrios @plaktow-ed, Agnebal @agnespjurati, Cris/Anna @manenimittliv, Cris/Kira @kiranerysmajor, Cris/Ellie @bakcr, Cris/Enoch unrequited sadly @ncthingstars Enoch deserves better Enoch deserves Emil

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Cris & Enoch (see above), Cris & Raffi, Cris & Seven, honestly?? Cris & Lore have had some great moments yo @soongtypefrankenstein

My unpopular opinion about this character: He’s mine

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Okay sooooo.. I still like the ECH theory honestly?? Like I’m not saying I’m disappointed with how it turned out but it would’ve been a nice twist + the whole Ibn Majid figuring into the Main Plot was a bit too much of a coincidence idk

Favorite friendship for this character: Cris & Raffi/Seven literally the three of them as bffs (with Seven/Raffi as a couple)

My crossover ship: Star Trek crossover? Cris/Kira

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you: Steward

How I feel about this character: HE DESERVES BETTER He tries so hard

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: ???? Idk man @ncthingstars was super into enemies to lovers and mentioned Steward/Emmet once and I’m not saying yes but I haven’t stopped thinking about it

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Steward & Sylar and Steward & Enoch and Steward & Anyone who will actually give him attention pls love my broken hospitality hologram also Steward & Emmet rivalry always. I want him to meet Neelix AND I want him to meet Vic Fontaine

My unpopular opinion about this character: HE DESERVES BETTER

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: MORE more holo squad in general but someone just give this man a hug or ask if he’s alright or show any sign of caring about what he wants because it’s literally his job to take care of everyone but who is going to take care of him

Favorite friendship for this character: Steward & Enoch, Steward & Sylar

My crossover ship: Steward/Rimmer from Red Dwarf?? idk man