#HES IN MY WALLS HES READING THE FIC

[stevie-petey]

FINN WOLFHARD ON STAGE W JOE !!!! FEBRUARYS CANON ONCE AGAIN U NEVER LOSE

I LITERALLY FUCKING SCREAMED

[skadoodle-with-extra-ification]

Tango from @watcheraurora's fic: King's Tide!

HIGHLY recommend this fic!!! Honestly WatcherAurora is one of my favorite ranchers writers EVER!!!

Tango's showing off his amazing swimming skills for his pretty human lol wheeee backflips!

[so-long-soldier28]

a requirement of the chimera pack is to be gay, sorry, i don't make the rules

[camellcat]

y'all I used to be normal about xander harris. I used to go yeah y'know I like him he's just a totally normal guy. I think he's really sweet actually, but hey I completely understand why some people may not like him

but the way the fandom treats him has pushed me SO far into defense it's like rewired my brain or something. actually he's done nothing wrong ever. I don't even care anymore. I take back every critique I've ever made of him. you don't Get Him like I do. he's written as terribly inconceivably ooc sometimes and you're all treating it like it's NORMAL!!!! when other characters are NOT subject to the same bullshit even when they're sometimes written even worse. we can wave away SO much shit for others, but xander? no, no, no. and when he IS in character, does ANYONE care to perhaps I dunno EXAMINE WHY HE'S ACTING LIKE THAT? oh? no? we're just gonna take it at face value, when we would not do that for any other character??? when he's written off and sometimes even intentionally off, then that's perfectly in line and just Who He Is Actually

I need to talk about the pack specifically because I have GRIEVANCES with the fandom here. what in the actual hell is going on. why are we acting like the possession was who he really is deep down??? it's clear that the hyena spirit is simply taking him at his base sort of thoughts I suppose (e.g., him having a hard crush on buffy, being jealous of angel, secretly knowing about willow but not requiting) and amplifying them to be HORRIBLE. at the end, he's visibly guilty over what he's done despite it being out of his control. he doesn't say anything because how COULD he? what would he even say? these are the most important people in his life, and he was forced to hurt them. and they obviously forgive him and don't blame him for what happened, because he's not exactly subtle about remembering, and I sincerely doubt they'd just let what he did slide if they thought he truly was responsible. these guys are all with the silent communication, and it's not always good, but it's how they roll. also, GUYS. THINK OF SPIKE'S MOTHER!!!! THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY SIMILAR SITUATION!!!!! he has never in the entire time we've known him actively go out of his way to hurt people the way he does in this episode. because that's not who he is or who he ever wants to be

I also want to talk about how brave he is. I keep seeing people calling him a coward and it genuinely baffles me. are we watching the same show? what are you ON about?? even the show points it out: he's completely and utterly human, and standing up to fight evil on the front lines with everyone else anyways. there two absolute standout moments I especially adore and want to point out. and there ARE more moments, but these are my favourite. the first is when xander decides that if no one else will, he'll go help buffy fight the master, and alone if he has to. and he saves buffy, because he TRIED. I honestly don't think anyone else would've tried to save her once they saw she'd died like they were all told she would, but he did. because that's who he is. and the second is one my friend pointed out to me that is just so good, where xander stands up to angelus in the hospital. angelus could snap him in half within a blink of an eye, and xander tells him to leave. he's terrified, because he KNOWS if angelus wanted to then he'd be dead without being able to fight back, but he guards buffy like a little dog facing up against a lion. he wouldn't win, but maybe he could buy her just a little more time, maybe someone would notice and help her, maybe angelus will decide it's too much effort and leave like he desperately hopes, maybe maybe maybe. he's gambling with his life here, just like before by walking into the master's nest, and he'd do it again without a second thought to protect his loved ones. he DOES do it, again and again and again over the course of the show

this isn't to say xander doesn't have his flaws. he's not the best boyfriend for sure, and while those are mostly out of his own insecurities and trauma, it's still not a great. I don't give any of the other characters that excuse to let bad relationship behaviour slide and I won't give him it either, but it is at the least an explanation. that is just a real flaw that he struggles with throughout the whole show outside of anything else. he can also be very snippy and mean when he's feeling defensive, and he's got a bit of a possessive, jealous streak that isn't fantastic, but he's the heart for a reason. in fact I honestly think those traits work really well as cons for the heart

the xander we see in the show is someone who wants to be good and do good. he cares so, so immensely for everyone. EVERYONE who sticks around in this show, does xander latch onto to as one of his own people to look out for. he tries and tries and tries to do the right thing, to protect and take care of the ones he loves in any way he can, and he kind of sucks at it sometimes. he makes the wrong choices even when he means well, and sometimes when he doesn't. but god is he trying harder than almost anyone else on that show to just be A Good Friend. I'm going to go so far as to say I think he is actually a better person than almost every other character on this show (other than buffy and tara of course)

why isn't he enough when there are other characters who are SO much worse than him in this show?

[kanomitri]

“You’re not my Sova.” Cypher said carefully. [...] “No, I’m not.”

(aka kano recently read can't commit to a thing, be it heart or hospital by @cysomen , and chapter 2 in particular fucked it up /positive)

oh wow, you clicked the read more? well, here's some alternate versions then! as a treat. for morale.

above is the original finished render! it felt like it was missing something so i had the idea to add some sova ui since this would be his pov. (i drew inspiration specifically from the ui of his Hunter's Fury [since that uses his eyes instead of his drone], mainly focusing on the circle in the middle of the screen because the rest is a timer and a shit ton of lightning LMAO)

the result of that is the version below! plus some blue'ing that i did to clue it in more than just having the crosshair. i tried it without the red overlay and was originally going to keep this version, but then i realized i actually kinda did prefer the brighter one, so yeah. anyways.

um yapping complete shutting down now frfr :zzz:

[questerine]

CHAT. i just finished reading all the worlds a (alien) stage by @realfakedokja and it genuinely altered my brain chemistry. PLEASE GO READ IT AND SEND 8970 KUDOS IT IS SO GOOD IT MADE ME KICK MY FEET AND GIGGLE UNCONTROLLABLY.

[hideyseek]

director's commentary: 日复一日 | Day After Day

“What do people even do at a mountain retreat that can’t be done in their own homes?” asks Zhao Yunlan, partway through the winding drive up to the retreat grounds. He’s jogging his leg again, and peering out the windshield as if getting a good look at all the greenery they’re passing will get them there any faster.

Shen Wei had proposed taking the train up, but had been vetoed in favor of a “controllable getaway.” He suspects Zhao Yunlan just wanted to drive his car up another mountain. Shen Wei shoots him a look. “Didn’t you read the pamphlet?”

Zhao Yunlan shrugs. He’s leaning way too close, and when he seems to realize this, he tilts a little closer and says in a quiet tease, “It sounds like you read the pamphlet, husband. Why don’t you tell me?"

Shen Wei pulls in a fortifying breath of air against both the proximity and the husband and says primly, “I won’t reward slacking, Yunlan. You’ll just have to see when we arrive.”

this is a bit of a spoiler, but it's so so fun to me to see in retrospect that the main weilan dynamic of the fic — zhao yunlan unaware of things, shen wei aware of things and refusing to tell him — is already being demonstrated for the reader so early on the fic. they're already playing out the interaction that becomes their biggest interpersonal conflict in this fic, and they haven't even made it to the retreat yet! admittedly they're both acting out of very different motivations than what puts them in the bigger version of this dynamic later in the fic, but hah! i love foreshadowing.

[howlsthewoof]

Fume, flame, smolder by @the-stove-is-divorced

I- am going to go die now. Yummy fucking character analysis and the fucking- the fucking way Debbie is shown to be a fucking PERSON and not just MOM is so- so fucking perfect. Omfg I am never drawing a fucking room ever again do you know how hard backgrounds are

Version without text below

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Multiamory Month, Day Thirty-One: Morning routine (Valicer In The Dark AU)

It's the grand finale of Multiamory March -- thank you again @polyamships for creating this challenge! I had rather a lot of fun doing all these little fics. :) But it's time to wrap things up now (apart from the inevitable masterpost), and today's prompt was another one where I had a fairly firm idea of what I wanted to do, but wasn't sure what verse I wanted to set it in -- "Morning routine!" AKA, for me, "Smiler is a morning person and Alice and Victor are not." XD Accordingly, the first thing that popped into my head for this prompt was a scene where Smiler was up early, preparing tea in the kitchen and greeting Alice and Victor as they came in for breakfast -- but I wasn't sure which universe I wanted to set the scene in. It could fit so many! After much pondering, though, I decided to go with setting it in the Valicer In The Dark verse for three key reasons:

After doing a count, I realized that I'd written five stories each for the Modern AU and the Multiplayer Wonderland AU, and I wanted to make sure what is arguably my favorite AU for my trio got equal time

I also realized that putting it in the VITD universe would allow me to do an even cuter version of the scene, featuring all the gang's pets (and, after a last-minute remembrance, Elder Gutknecht as well)

And I couldn't resist the irony factor of doing this prompt for a world that, thanks to being shrouded in pretty much constant darkness, does not really HAVE mornings. XD

So yeah! To send off Multiamory March, have a look at a typical "morning" in the Three Pillar's lair once they've gotten all their pets and suchlike. Enjoy!

--

“Happy Numbers, Alice!”

Alice looked at them, then shook her head. “I still don’t understand how you can be this perky this early in the day,” she muttered, pushing her hair out of her face.

“Oh, I’ve always been an ‘up with the Embers’ kind of person, you know that,” Smiler said, grinning as they dropped the tea balls into everyone’s cups. “Anyway – sleep well?”

“You were in the same bed as me – you should know the answer to that question already,” Alice replied, though without any real rancor. She headed to the pantry, pulling out flour and sugar. “Pancakes this morning?”

“Yes please!” Smiler stooped and got her the frying pan. “And while I was in the same bed, we were both unconscious at the time, so the question stands.”

Alice snorted. “All right – I slept fine, thank you,” she said, accepting the pan. “And I hope you did the same.”

“Rawk!”

“Peeep!”

A flapping of feathery and scaly wings announced the arrival of Sooty and Benny into the kitchen. Sooty promptly soared over to Smiler’s shoulder, giving their hair a greeting preen, while Benny wrapped himself around Alice’s neck like a dark blue scarf. “Hello you two,” Smiler greeted them, stroking Sooty’s head. “Looking for breakfast yourselves, I take it?”

Sooty nipped lightly at their finger, while Benny peeped again and looked with interest at the flour and sugar tins. “I’m sorry – if you want those, you’re going to have to wait until I’ve mixed them together,” Alice informed him as she got the mixing bowl. “Plenty of rats about if you want something now.”

Whatever reply Benny might have had for that was cut off by a “Ruff!” from the doorway. Moments later, Dogmeat trotted into the room, followed by a yawning Victor. “Happy Numbers! And hey, you’re just in time,” Smiler said, nodding as they checked on the steeping tea. “Give me a moment to get it the way you like – sleep well?” they added as they headed to the cold box to get the milk.

“As well as I ever do,” Victor replied, giving Dogmeat’s fur a ruffle – the dog barked and licked his fingers. “Good boy...I did start having a bad dream at one point, but – well. A certain someone took care of that.”

We couldn’t let our spooky friend feel bad!

Us scurried into the room, followed closely by Guide. Besides, you told us we could eat your bad dreams, they continued, waving their tentacles at Victor. You said it was allowed.

“I did,” Victor said, crouching down to give Us a pat and Guide a scritch under the chin. “And I appreciate it.”

“Mmm – anything that helps Victor sleep better is fine by us,” Alice agreed, smiling as Guide came over to wind about her legs. “Smiler, while you’re over there, could you grab me an egg?”

“Sure thing!” Smiler pulled one out of the carton and brought it over to her. “Pancakes,” they added in Victor’s direction.

“In roughly twenty minutes, anyway,” Alice added, dumping her flour in her bowl.

“That’s fine – I can wait.” Victor stood, leaning against the table as he shook his head and blinked. “Ugh...I do wish I could wake up easier in the morning.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, my boy – I was always a late riser myself.”

Elder Gutknecht floated in through the wall, getting a startled “merow!” from Guide. “Granted, that was probably because I often stayed up half the night studying, but still,” he added with a chuckle. “So long as you’re awake enough to eat breakfast, you’ll be fine.”

“We’re working on it,” Alice said, bending down to stroke Guide before resuming getting the pancake batter ready. “Aren’t we, Benny?”

Benny agreed with a “peeep!” Dogmeat added a “woof!” of his own, then playfully bopped Us’s side with his nose before hurrying away. Hey! Get back here! Us cried, scurrying after him in hot pursuit.

“Be careful!” Victor yelled, watching as they came dangerously close to upsetting a chair. “Don’t knock over anything!” He sighed and looked over at Smiler. “Goodness, we do have busy breakfasts, don’t we?”

“We do,” Smiler agreed, adding the milk to Victor’s cup before stealing some of Alice’s sugar. They looked around, taking in the cozily-crowded room, and smiled. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

[anqueerism]

“You’re romanticising—“

Have You Heard Of An Unreliable Narrator?

“This fic doesn’t condemn—“

Have You Heard Of An Unreliable Narrator?

“Why are you fetishising—“

Have You Heard Of An Unreliable Narrator?

“Author’s barely disguised fetish—“

Have You Heard Of An Unreliable Narrator?

“You’re literally encouraging—“

I am going to eat your fucking kidneys.

[skippygiraffee]

Hi, I'm the Raileon anon from a while back. Thank you for answering my ask! I loved reading your thoughts, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you for some more. You mentioned Leon and Raihan were both fascinating characters to you separately as well, and I wanted to ask why you felt Raihan was fascinating? I have my own reasons ofc, but I'd be delighted to hear yours as well.

I absolutely never mind, thank you for the ask!! (even if it takes me a while to answer things sldjfksjf). genuinely I love talking about these characters, all the SWSH characters (and SuMo) really, and talking about Raihan is top tier for me. under the cut because it's both long and I have included images from the manga as little Raihan treats :3

in regards to Raihan, what a character, yeah? when I got this ask I immediately went into chat with @beammeupbroadway and we had the following exchange (she's the Furby icon, I'm the first message):

and to elaborate a little, we're all introduced to Raihan in the framing of him being Leon's rival, and we're not really reintroduced to him until midway through the game. so for a while we're left with this impression that Raihan is the hotheaded rival to Leon, setting them up with the same sort of framing as like Hop vs Bede (which is more a rivalry than with the player I argue) or even Red vs Blue (certainly with the Charizard and the color imagery at play with both Raihan and Leon's designs). Raihan is, at his core, a peek at what someone looks like when they grow up in the shadow of someone else.

it's stated in game he has different interests, hobbies, a career, but he's still Leon's rival Raihan. where his job as a Gym Leader and his work with the Hammerlocke Vault serve the narrative purpose of bringing the player closer to Leon and closer to solving the mystery of the Darkest Day, rather than things that allow us a better view of Raihan. not to discredit those moments, because they absolutely do allow us as to see more of Raihan, but I guess I want to argue that the game just uses them as a jumping off point to get to Leon. even Raihan's accomplishments as a Gym Leader and battler are framed within the context of him being so good he could be Champion of another region, but he can't beat Leon. from a world building and audience perspective I think it's interesting to see, but man, picturing that as how he's painted in Galar, in universe? where all of these insanely amazing accomplishments are pushed aside to market himself as Leon's rival I think genuinely ruined his self image, his self esteem, and the way he views anything he does. Raihan's social media presence got started because of Leon, even if he sometimes takes random pictures of sand storms, and the only thing removed from Leon is his love of fashion and history, but we don't even get to see a lot of that as the audience/player of the game because it's not relevant to the story in most cases, and definitely isn't relevant to Leon. this was definitely a little rambly, but at least right here I just think that like Raihan being literally overshadowed by Leon makes him fascinating to rotate around like a rotisserie chicken, because you take one whiff of that guy and you can tell he was spiced up with self loathing and angst strong enough to turn the average character into a straight up villain

ties to Leon aside, the little things about Raihan I adore ARE those little hobbies he has. fashion, history, social media all are super interesting, and ignoring the Gym Trainer battle with WEATHER EFFECTS INSIDE THE TAPESTRY VAULT aside it's clear he is a trusted expert on the matter. Sonia goes to him, even if it's a way to get the player closer to Leon Raihan is the one who grants access to the vault, and anyone who loves tapestries is immediately boosted in my books

his characterization in the manga is really cool, and I adore manga Raihan a lot. it's actually when I really fell in love with his character because he's given a lot of really neat moments, where he's kind of this key player in having everything come together. also he was a trouble maker when he was younger!!! which I think is a logical reaction to being pitted against the literal undefeated Champion for so long. but, allow me to picture that below:

I also love him spraying himself in the face with a potion after being poisoned by Eternatus in the manga. like yeah he's confused, but literally no other character is brought up, only Raihan which is funny to me

also him and Piers are just buddies!! which is neat, especially since in the post game of the base SWSH titles they're shown not to really have interacted that much

he's also super polite to Melony (my beloved Mummy Melony scene), and he's overall pretty fleshed out, with being both serious and goofy, while having this odd tension with Leon when it comes to serious moments

like it shows a lot of complicated things brewing under the surface for him, even in the manga, and I love how it keeps his characterization in tact, while expanding on it in a way that feels natural

I think in short, there's an argument to be made that Raihan could have been left as this one dimensional rival to Leon whose only purpose to push the player along their journey. a road block as a Gym Leader, a helper as the keeper of the vault, but nothing more. and yet he's a pretty fleshed out character, who has other stuff going for him. he could be so many things, and yet he's Raihan, the dragon guy who loves fashion, is a bit silly, but also takes things as serious as they need to be taken. who had a bit of a rebellious streak when he was younger, to the point Rose knows about it in depth. where, in game, he can flip from smiling like :3 to hunching over in the stadium yelling out moves. he's cool, like undeniably, but also not, and I love that skdjfklsfd. I think Raihan is a testament to the subtle ways the Pokemon writers can dish out characterization without explicitly writing things in, and I love him for it

[saph-yells-into-the-void]

god let me find the time to finish that kaisagi fic i started a few days ago because i think about it CONSTANTLY

[uss-genderprise]

thinking about john hart's gender again

like. he's from the 51st century, right? and it's safe to assume that by that point gender would be completely unrecognisable to us in the 21st century and i know it's just a few throwaway joke lines but hear me out. he uses he/him (or at least, never corrects anyone who does) and presents masculine (to our 21st century eyes) but is clearly very comfortable using "feminine" terms. jack calls him a wife and john says he was a good wife and we know jack would never misgender anyone and john is clearly happy taking the title and running with it. the name he suggest gwen calls him by is vera, which is a traditionally feminine name. in the torchwood comic shrouded his ex calls him a girl. that is a whole ass he/him woman. i am so normal about him

[doctorsiren]

sorry i haven't been active the past week (i've been enjoying family time)

here's a JJK oneshot I typed up today because we finished S2 yesterday and i need to pretend i'm okay :')

[thedocs-in]

Brit is really Cecil's closest friend

These two are my BroTP. Like from what's shown in the comics, these two are fairly close. Given that Brit has been shown numerous times, along with his sister, calling Cecil old man. And teasing him. I really hope they include Brit and his sister. Like please, give me.

Now without further ado, the headcannons:

When Cecil joined the GDA, he was a cocky little shit. As a new recruit he was probably thinking high and mighty of himself until a drill Sergent, or better yet Brit, kicked his ass proving him wrong.

And when he first met Brit, Brit immediately thought, "This little shit is gonna get himself killed or his ass kicked."

Though, tbh I'm leaning more towards it being Brit who kicked his ass, which was a reality check for Cecil. Considering Brit can't be hurt.

Brit has saved Cecil’s ass on numerous occasions. Like, they've done some missions together, but they didn't really become friends until one mission where Brit saved his ass. Obviously pre-scar.

After that, Cecil began to tolerate Brit a lot more and their friendship grew.

Brit has both encouraged Cecil's urge to beat people who deserve it and had to hold him back when he gets out of hand.

Like when they'd go drinking, Brit is very much the designated adult. And has had to stop Cecil from starting something with some idiot who deserved to have their ass kicked.

There has probably been at least one incident where Brit had to keep Cecil from getting arrested.

But outside of that, Brit teased Cecil a lot. And obviously still does. With Brit messing with him often, like taunting him with the photos he took of Cecil reading a Playboy.

Brit still has those photos and continues to remind him about them to this day.

And there are plenty of embarrassing photos of Cecil that Brit still has. And Cecil has told Brit that if he shows anyone else, he will try and find a way to kick his ass. Or get back at him with the embarrassing photos he has of Brit.

But Brit is truly one of Cecil's closest friends. A confidant. Like, he considers several people friends, like Donald or Nolan. But they aren't as close to him as Brit is.

They are quite literally ride or die.

[sixaustralia]

i usually can look past characters being a bit ooc in a fic but sometimes they will say/do something so detatched i have to click off and genuinely deliberate whether the fic is worth finishing