#Activation Code

[dadamilo]

Russian UVB-76 "The Buzzer" Shortwave numbers station 4625 kHz April 15 ...

Real activation code for Winter Soldier who never stopped being the Winter Soldier, he's just a sleeper agent waiting to be awakened.

Sleeping with static is so soothing Bucky thinks until a voice wakes him up. And then he remembers everything.

Thanks to Captain America, Hydra has weakened its grip on Russia enough to quietly eliminate the main players. And after the departure of the real Captain America, leaving James Barnes behind, Russia can finally get its operative back.

[ajastu]

[Rook voice] maybe if you had some friends you'd calm down 🙄

[nenoname]

thinking about how stan was able to play off finding journal 2 so easily in front of so many people

but when he soon finds out 3 was under his roof for over a month he needs a moment to regain his composure

he's been looking for the books for over 30 years and they both just fall into his lap in less than a few days

[pangur-and-grim]

it's funny, I was talking to someone last night who didn't really know what an illustrator was. so when I introduced myself as one, he gave a speech that would've probably gone over well with a gallery artist, but which was precision-tailored to make any illustrator within a 50 mile radius go into eyes-glowing-red kill mode.

his speech was about how there is a difference between craft and art, and how people can practice craft (as in, skillfully execute a painting) without it having any artistic merit.

so I'm someone who gets paid to paint waffles for restaurant menus and dinosaurs for museums exhibits, and AHHHHHH! AHHHHHHH! you can't make art without it being something something you've made. does that make sense? like every illustrator I know has an individual way of approaching any given imagery that is informed by a lifetime of inspiration, and of passive intake of culture, and of the specific mistakes they make because of whatever their particular mass of grey matter deems as important thing to render or unimportant, just fuck it up.

I can make something that is informed by both a century of Canadian print-making and by my own particular neurosis, and it can also be commissioned commercial imagery that I regurgitate without care because I want to pay my mortgage. everything is art, nothing isn't art, art is something sticky and impossible to shake off of you.

anyway he got very wide-eyed and said "I'm sorry if I offended you," so today I feel a bit bad for having gotten so, uh.... excited.

[shepscapades]

Uhhhhh. Uh. Do you ever think about the fact that Welsknight is the only member of the Evil Empire that joined simply because Xisuma convinced him to, and that he’s the only one there who is never directly manipulated, controlled, or corrupted by Evil X (Android 24)? Completely unrelated thought but I wonder what it’s like to be surrounded by the people you trust most slowing becoming brainwashed, the only ‘sober’ one as you watch their familiar faces slowly become unrecognizable

Alternatively: I got possessed by my corner of the magmaboard and the incomprehensible horrors Freakin Got Me

[cashmoneyyysstuff]

i keep thinkin about katsuki who just doesn’t give a fuck. like, yeah he’ll walk over and pull you closer by the waist to press kisses all over your mouth to hear you giggle. and yeah he’ll groan and jokingly tell you to “stop runnin’” when he’s slobbering n’ biting all over your cheek while you try to push him away in between giggles and pecks. so what if he’s right outside of his classroom and what he’s doing is quote unquote “inappropriate ” ? you’re his girl. you mean to tell him he’s supposed to walk right past you and not try to initiate a make out session at 8 in the morning ??? while you’re looking like that ?? yeah right, mind your business glasses !!

[chemicalbrew]

friendship ended with <style> my new best friend is <span class=''>

[heartless-aro]

People when a character is aromantic or aromantic coded: Wowie! They’re aroACE! Because they aren’t interested in romance! Look at how aroace they are!

People when a character is aroace or aroace coded: Isn’t it cool that this character is asexual? Asexual icon! They’re such great asexual representation :)

[supreme-leader-stoat]

If you like to talk to tomatoes

[ilovecatfr]

You don't have to be like everybody else

You don't have to fit into the norm

You are not here to conform

I am here to take a look inside myself

Recognize that I could be the eye, the eye of the storm

I am not my body, not my mind or my brain

Not my thoughts or feelings, I am not my DNA

I am the observer, I'm a witness of life

I live in the space between the stars and the sky

[bigmoon-is-bigwife]

I do like TR!Ros being a character who is ruled by this idea of justice but is so biased and flawed about it. She told Aimsey the main reason she didn't want to rebuild the castle is because that would be undoing Green Faction's punishment. She admitted that blowing up her own castle was to punish Green. She suffered far more from that loss than they did (and still continues to suffer from it) and yet all that was on her mind was that rebuilding would benefit Green and that's not allowed. It's just so unbelievably petty. Morality and justice don't really exist on the server and everyone is some shade of morally gray but she has such a strong sense of what she thinks is right and wrong (and its very flawed and biased) but she believes it to be absolute truth and stands by it. Ros would set herself on fire if she thought the flames would burn someone she deemed deserving of it. She is absolutely miserable but as long as they're unhappy too it's worth it.

[yourlocalabomination]

I am not immune to funny crackships.

+ Bonus

[thebrainrotsreal]

EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK!!! I want to be coherent about this season but please picture me foaming at the mouth and running on the walls. S2 being what if Mark's just like his Dad? Insanity. I love this show. Anyways, AU where an Evil!Mark tries to make Our!Mark worse, and Our!Mark tries to make the other better. Something something confronting your idea of the worst version of oneself. Plus, tweaked black and yellow costume because I saw it and immediately went murder hornet lookin' ass and knew I had to draw it. Evil ass Mark. Horrible. I think he should be dragged kicking and screaming into redemption.

[10yrratiolover]

guys I'm THRILLED over new Ratio crumbs omg!!!

So much to unpack! I'll go paragraph by paragraph.

He received a gift from the Nightingale family? Was it a gift to him personally or to the Guild? I'm assuming it was to him personally, as it's with him in the bathtub, but then from who?

I'm not surprised that he's so uninterested in the fall of The Propagation after the end of the Herta Station quest, but again, was the book a gift or did he just borrow it from the Guild?

And the IPC gifting him a book about Dr. Primitive. That's more interesting to me because not only does he refer to it as a 'street tabloid' (which is the first time he's shown any kind of disrespect towards a member of the Genius Society) but also, and again, why did the IPC give this to him? Are they also interested in finding more info on Dr. Primitive and so they're tossing articles down to the Intelligentsia Guild to try and find answers?

I love how he 'relaxes' by doing more thinking instead of less, like in his daily message where he asks TB for something to stimulate his brain.

Also, doing some reading and most epsom salts can be effective for up to an hour, which (unsurprisingly) confirms he takes very long baths. I've seen people asking who would be calling him professor while in the bath, but I think it's likely not an actual person given it's a dream.

I also just really enjoy the last little line of dialog as well, it's really easy to forget that Ratio is just some guy under all his intelligence and achievements. He, too, wonders what he's going to have for dinner tonight just as anyone else.

[tomialtooth]

I firmly believe in an uncanny valley Bell. A Bell who's vibes are off just in the right way to trigger that part of your brain that keeps a look out for things that look like people but aren't. A walking fugue state who can quote off all the lines they've been fed but never truly make it seem natural. Bell's head swiveling like a dog's does when he hears something and wants to triangulate it better. A Bell who lingers far to long for comfort in the periphery of peoples visions. When there's nothing to keep Bell's mind on track in the few rare moments of downtime they have Bell could buffer, a dreaming while walking state that should make anyone nervous to shake them out of it lest Bell turn all of their barely muzzled aggression and subconscious rage onto them. In general, I like it when Bell's general aura is that of a taut bowstring waiting to snap.

[bonebrokebuddy]

I get that this is due to people not read comics but, if you want a fun lighthearted batfam dynamic, I cannot recommend enough putting your story and characters in the Silver Ages. I see so much fanon material that would fit in this setting perfectly and it pains me that it’s not more popular or well known.

If you don’t know what the silver age of comics is, I’d recommend checking out this article!

And here for the 1956 Comics Code Authority.

It might not be in continuity anymore but the silver ages were such a large era of comics that defined the characters. And the format & restrictions of the silver ages allows you to easily bypass several common issues folks have with plots. In modern comics, there’s constant interpersonal drama because there has to be, if you resolve all those issues then you can’t sell more comics & they lose a lot of tension.

But due to the Comic Code Authority that is no longer an issue!

Randomly ignoring a dark past that makes connection between characters difficult [the poor aging of Jason’s bag of heads making it difficult for him to reunite with the rest of the batfam, for example] because it doesn’t fit with the theme you want?:

Comics are episodic in this era. Think of it like a early 2000s TV show. Things that happened in past comics/episodes often won’t affect the current story at all as the setting resets to default at the start of every comic. Additionally, literally all gore, torture, or explicit descriptions of murder is banned due to CCA restrictions, so you can choose to have it simply never have happened!

Characters that don’t fit at all in a story but you want a crossover for?:

The Silver Ages had SO MANY crossovers of heroes solely bc it sold comics. How compatible they are doesn’t matter in the slightest. The thinnest of reasons why they met works perfectly. You can even just have the characters know each other already and go “I know who can help me with this case! [Insert character you want here]! I met them in my last trip to Antarctica!” You only need maybe one sentence, two if you’re feeling frisky, to explain why they met and then you’re free to run wild.

Want a character to randomly acquire a superpower or meet a long lost cousin they have for one comic and then it’s never mentioned again?

I cannot state how frequently this happens. Silver Age comics were pretty much written cover first. Meaning the cover was made and the story was written after with the philosophy of “if my comic cover is more bizzare and eye catching then kids will buy it!” Like, there are multiple comics where Superman’s head got turned into an ant and Batman gets powers practically every other World’s Finest issue. Like it’s not even an “au” to do these things. That’s just what the Silver Ages were like.

Comic science and comic physics run rampant as well as bizarre villains! You can have so much fun with this!! Heroes often play the straight-man in bizarre scenarios with over-the-top villains in this era, making that aspect shine brightly can make for an inherently funny plot. You could either keep it fun and light or turn it into a psychological horror as the characters realize they can’t disobey the CCA code and have to follow a specific plot.

Also the restrictions of the CCA at the time would also help create some fun and unique plots if you wanted to keep the plot time-period accurate.

There’s a lot of restrictions but there are still many ways to create conflict in your fic! Plenty can come from the CCA directly!

Canon or HC LGBT+ characters could be pressured to not come out or face tremendous backlash. Time accurate homophobia, essentially.

McCarthyism and paranoia ran wild. Oh no someone suspected your blorbo of being a communist/socialist and now it’s ruining their life!

Characters dealing with how the CCA’s restrictions/their reality is inherently bigoted and can’t be themselves. (See: comics on topics of racial & religious prejudice aren’t allowed, characters can’t speak in “slang” or “vulgar language” and “good grammar” is emphasized (often targeting minorities), and the sanctity of family must be respected (no divorce, no queer people).

Also! Crazy over-the-top villains with deadly stakes are played with a lighthearted tone. Play it straight and suddenly your comic changed genre into horror if you think about it for more than a second.

Characters that used to be antihero’s are just straight up villains now or suddenly wake up with massive gaps in their memory and no one else can tell them why. There is no grey with the CCA. Just good and evil. Because that would make the villains sympathetic and we can’t have that!

If you want to just have a fun, campy and lighthearted tone however, that’s the Silver Age’s bread and butter. While keeping the CCA’s code in mind is good to keep a Silver Age story feeling time accurate and Silver Age-y, it’s definitely not necessary to follow each and every rule.

Here’s some more links to free silver age comics and places you can go to find information on silver age comics if you want to learn more that aren’t fandom wikis but rather made by nerds with a passion to catalogue and share their interest to others.

Your local library has a decent chance of having an omnibus of 50s-70s comics or you can order one from a nearby library if your local one doesn’t carry them.

A local comic shop or bookstore. Silver age omnibuses & “50 year anniversary/best of” type collections are usually present and have a good variety of silver age comics.

Jenny Blake Isabella (the creator of Black Lightning) has delightful reviews of the Batman Silver Age Omnibus on her blog that add context, critiques, and overall are a delight to read

Takes some hunting but this Silver Age Comic blog has a bunch of single issue reviews of Silver Age Batman comics.

Want a specific issue to read? Here’s super brief summaries of soso many issues curtesy of The Comics Archives blog.

The Internet Archive also has a few:

Batman & Superman world's finest. The Silver Age. Volume one

Justice League of America, the Silver Ages volume 1

Batman: the dynamic duo archives. vol 2 (I cannot find volume 1)

A good tip to find legal and free comics decently intact is to search [comic run title/character hero name & issue number if you have it] + “blog” + “review”.

There are so many in-depth reviews of comics in blogs by comic fans out there that practically share most of the comic panels in the post while giving context to past issues while the poster adds personal insight and opinions on the comic. Is it going to give you the whole issue unfiltered? No. But it allows newbies to get insight from old fans and old fans to get a new perspective on a comic they’ve already read. Blog reviews are such an underrated way to get new fans into comics considering how great of a resource they are! Don’t know if you’ll like a comic run? Read a bunch of reviews on it from different blogs! It’s truly so underrated.

I see a lot of dc fans that don’t read the comics because they don’t like the violence and dark tone of modern comics or don’t know where to start. Simple solution: Why are you reading reading modern comics then? Give the Silver Ages a try! They’re utterly corny and campy & I love them dearly.

They fit all of those bills with the CCA. Plus, with the episodic stories of that era, you can just pick up an omnibus, open it at a random issue and start reading. Hell, you can toss a stack of silver age issues in the air 52-pickup style and read them that way and you’re still be fine. You rarely, if ever, need knowledge from previous comics as they’ll often directly explain what happened to you. If you really need previous context, just like modern comics, they’ll directly tell you which issue(s) to read first.

Lastly.

It’s good to keep in mind the “By it’s time. For its time. Of its time” rule of comic analysis when reading old runs. Comics are: relevant during their time of publishing, for its intended audience (in this era, young american boys with a non-nuanced worldview) & with little care of how it’ll age, just that it’ll sell.

How history ties itself to comics is fascinating but also it’s good to be a little “👀👀 uh zoinks scoob that was a bad narrative or character decision that didn’t age well” and not dismiss it because that poor interpretation does have historical value as how it shows the moral, social, and political conflicts of the time in a neat little bow. Even if that bow is like, puke green.

Writers of comics will follow the misogynistic and racist ideals along the historical & social conflicts and ideals during the time of the comic’s publishing date. It’s uh, just kinda something ya gotta deal with when reading a lot of old comics runs. Most collections of silver age Batman/best ofs don’t often have comics that aged super badly but if you end up encountering any, it’s good to keep this in mind.

If anyone is inspired to write something based off of this, please tag me so I can read it!