#I LOVE BEING A LIL SHIT

[vaguely-concerned]

the fact that irving canonically survives through the end of asunder to be at wynne's funeral is so fucking funny to me. nothing but love and respect for MY unstoppable cockroach morally grey machiavellian mage dad!!! he's survived in his position through multiple attempted rites of annulment and blood mage plots popping up left right and center around him. the chantry keeps trying to stamp him out but his dodge game is simply out of this world, divine. civil wars, political machinations and minefields, chantry atrocities, this wily old motherfucker is dodging and weaving his way through it all, not-quite-no-hits-taken-running-it-but-honestly-close-enough-under-the-circumstances style. if solas does succeed in tearing down the veil I would fully believe that one of the like three people still alive at the end of it all would be a very weary 90 year old first enchanter irving going 'oh this shit again huh'. the maker has cursed him for his hubris and his paperwork is never finished (affectionate, it's fine he canonically loves paperwork)

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 199

“Where the fuck are my legs?” 

Danny wasn’t happy. It wasn’t funny! Usually he just had a ghost tail when flying really fast, like super speed, not all the time! It’s not funny Clockwork, you’re used to having a tail, he isn’t! 

What do you mean it’s permanent?! He needs his legs! Clockwork!! He wouldn’t have agreed to the adoption if he knew he’d lose his legs! 

…Okay, that was a lie, Clockwork was a great parent who encouraged his chaos and enjoyed screwing over assholes like the Observants. But still! He looks like some sort of snake person now! No he doesn’t want a nap, he’s not a baby! 

Clockwork, why are you being quiet? He’s not a baby! He’s not a baby, right? What do you mean all ghosts are babies until they’re a hundred years dead!? But he’s a halfa- what do you mean it takes longer for Ancients?! 

No he doesn’t want that nap, he’s having a midlife crisis here several years too early! 

[casualavocados]

Learn from who? Learn from you?

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[kristiliqua]

CHUNSIK MY BELOVEDDDDDD

[berrysquared]

my favorite father that stepped up

[raineandsky]

#120

When the villains caught wind of a new hero on the team, they’d all taken interest. When someone came back claiming he’s blind, it’d sparked a whole new debate.

Straightforward, they’d all said. He won’t even see us coming. They’d laughed at how easy it’d seemed.

The villain feels like they’ve stumbled on a pile of gold when they come across the hero. He’s running his hand along something on the fence in front of him, something that the villain will later realise is a braille description of the view ahead of him. A white cape drifts around his ankles, an equally white suit flattering against his typical heroic body, the lightest of smiles on his face as his fingers trace the patterns of dots along the railing.

The villain can’t help but grin as they slowly make their way towards the poor hero, so oblivious, so stupid. They’re barely a hair breadth away, their dagger practically unsheathing itself, when the hero spins towards them with a swish of his cape and a flick of a blade.

The villain barely reels back in time. Staying quiet doesn’t occur to them when they’re startled. The hero looks like he’s staring right through them, an arrogant smirk on his face.

“Ah,” he says brightly, “you’re one of those criminals I’m meant to be looking out for?”

The villain sidesteps, careful to keep their footing quiet, but it doesn’t matter. The hero’s head cocks towards them as they try to step out of his blade’s path.

“You’re almost silent,” the hero continues. A smirk adorns his face, intrigued. “Incredible.”

The villain is close enough to strike, the hero looking slightly too far beyond them to be right in his assumptions. The villain shifts in fast, their dagger poised. The hero dodges back and retaliates with a swing of his own.

The villain stumbles out of reach and the hero follows. The villain’s unprepared; they were expecting a hero who’s unsure who they’re looking for, where the villain is. They were expecting an easy plaything that they could stab when they got bored.

But this—the hero is nothing but brazen confidence.

The villain shoves their dagger up to meet his blade, throwing his arm out. They move in for another strike but the hero’s already recovered. His blade easily tucks under their arm and slices into their side.

Something of a strangled gasp escapes the villain before they can stop it. They stagger back, a hand touched timidly to the wound, their eyes flitting back up to the hero. He simply waits, his blade crimson and his eyes blank. How? How?

“Would you do me the honour of telling me who I’ve met?” he asks, as if this is nothing more than a casual meeting between friends of friends. The villain wants to snap him in half for the audacity.

“That’s none of your fuckin’ business.”

“Aha,” the hero says, almost a laugh, “You’re [Villain].”

The villain can only stare at him in horror. The hero seems to feel the tension in the silence, because he continues. “You’ve a bad mouth, favour in the blade, light on your feet.” A teasing smile. “And you’ve a smooth, caramel voice I haven’t heard in many like you.”

“Wh— Excuse me— You—” 

The hero just smirks, the stupid smirk of someone who knows he’s untouchable in every sense of the word. “Flustered by compliments, too,” the hero finishes with a laugh. “Good to remember for next time.”

“I’m not flustered!” the villain finally manages, “and my voice isn’t caramel. That isn’t a thing. You sound stupid.”

“I’m happy to be stupid if it means I can recognise you as the villain who speaks in caramel.”

The villain’s side is beginning to really ache. They need to be somewhere that’s not here when it inevitably gets worse. “Do what you want. I’m going home.”

“May I escort you to a prison cell?”

The villain barks a laugh, their side practically splitting with the forced fakeness of it. “As if you know where the agency is from here.”

“I always know where I am, [Villain].” A smile again, softer this time. Knowing. “You underestimate me for a characteristic I think makes me as interesting to you as you are to me.”

The burn in the villain’s skin is an ode to that. “Sure.” The villain turns on their heel before a thought occurs to them. “I’m going to walk away, loudly. Do me a favour and don’t fucking shank me when I do.”

The hero’s face twists back into a smirk. “As long as I hear you moving away. Until next time, [Villain].”

A blind hero! everyone had cried. It’s almost too easy!

The villain scurries away with a gash to the side and a slam to their ego, and they know now to know better than that.

[pepperpixel]

SAID HE LIKES CRAZY GIRLS,

BUT HE HATES WHEN I ACT CRAZY,

IT TAKES TWO TO TOXIC!

FINALLY!!! Finished these pics of jinx I’ve been working on!!!!! HOLY SHIT, these took so long…. But finally… they’re done… pls enjoy this art of my beautiful princess w a disorder. Featuring alternate colors for the big pic and also a closeup! Cuz I rlly like how both the lines and coloring on her face turned out… like the pink gradients w her eye… her deer in headlights expression,, like uve just startled a raccoon digging thru ur trashcan and r two seconds away from getting mauled.. m proud of it!

[unrelatedsideblog]

Stealing from Twitter (og post(tweet?)) because DAMN I LOVE THIS LITTLE SHIT

[skillbattle]

uhhh sorry for nothing posting since (checks watch) february 😭😭 umm i haven’t been too active on this blog bc im focusing on a different one but uh. hey i made a new fursona. smiles weakly 🫶🏽🐒

[fujii-draws]

I can only imagine Dusknoir getting filled in on the events he missed while he was in the dark future and just being flabbergasted and concerned.

Aimilios: “Oh yeah. Ribbons and I had a baby while you were gone and we lost custody not too long after.”

Dusknoir: “You WHAT-?!”

Ribbons: “Hey, Dusknoir, I need to ask you something.”

Dusknoir: “Certainly. What is it?”

Ribbons: “So me and Aimilios defeated the guy who drove your boss insane and created the dark future-”

Dusknoir: “What.”

Ribbons: “-And he tried to escape through a dimensional hole, but Palkia attacked him and he lost his memories like I did. Aimilios and I found him wandering around in a dungeon and we took him back to Treasure Town with us because he’s no longer and threat and has no where to go-”

Dusknoir: “WHAT.”

Ribbons: “-And it’s still kind of weird for us because he tried to trick us into thinking death was the best option and tormented a lot of people we cared and loved. We’re doing our best tho. What I mean to ask is, do we think we should be paranoid? Palkia said he was no longer a threat, but you know a lot more about dimensional holes and legendaries losing their sanity, so you’d likely be able to tell us if we should worry about Darkrai going evil again.”

Dusknoir:

Ribbons:

Dusknoir: “. . . what.”

Well i mean it’s ONLY fair.

[kitthew]

i think the reason that kaos is such a successful adaptation, despite being so inaccurate to the myths, it’s that it’s so new, fresh, and entertaining

like, there isn’t one canonical Greek Myth. there are, of course, surviving texts from the era—homer, euripides, aeschlyus, etc. — but those are only what have *survived,* there are countless other myths and ancient retellings that have been lost to time. besides, even between the original myths, there are discrepancies and different interpretations. the myths originated in an oral storytelling tradition, and with each teller, the stories were different. sure, there were some things that stayed consistent throughout the retellings, but almost every myth has elements that varied across sources.

you could always argue that even though that might be true, they could have based the show more on less common myth alternatives that still have sources from the time period, but i personally think the fact that they’re kind of doing their own thing is literally just what the ancient greeks were doing with their myths as well lol

plus, the reason successful greek plays *were* successful was that they told existing stories in a new and interesting light. sure, it was more of a “no one goes to the theatre to find out what happens next, they go to hear how the writer is telling the myth in a new and interesting way” sort of vibe, and kaos *does* have an element of watching bc you don’t know what happens next bc so much has been changed from the original myths, but again, i think this is basically just what the greeks were doing. when something originated in an oral storytelling tradition, there isn’t One Definitive Way to retell it. kaos takes a lot of creative liberties with the source material, but there’s always room for new interpretations and ways of telling these stories

BUT the show is imo so engaging and successful despite all that bc it really gets at the heart of the myths, even though, again, it isn’t at all accurate. zeus is cruel, power-crazed, and incestuous. dionysus is literally just a boy. hera is trying so so hard to be a GirlBoss. hades and persephone are the only ones who seem to have their shit together. poseidon is a douche on a yacht. there’s some incredibly interesting and compelling world building. and at its core, the show is about two things: 1) the gods are human and fallible and 2) you cannot outrun your fate, no matter how hard you try.

and what’s more greek than that?

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 6

Let's make it some in-world memes this time :)

[missmeinyourbones]

dabi + mutual pining 👁️👁️?

…

when dabi returns from the bar without an old-fashioned in hand, your interest is piqued.

you can't help but smile at his sulking shoulders and sullen eyes, "why are you drinkless?"

"don’t ask," he waves you off before slumping into the booth beside you.

after a moment of feeling your beady little eyes focused on his through his peripheral vision, he eventually caves.

"forgot my wallet, so i tried flirting with the bartender for a free drink and—"

his voice trails off, admitting defeat as he uses his open palms to gesture to the empty table before him, the one that represents his failure of negotiation (and smooth talking) skills.

and you would be laughing at his misery if it wasn't for the gears busy turning in your head at a tiny detail of his sentence.

"you know how to flirt?"

dabi’s jaw physically drops in disbelief, "and what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"nothing, i don't know!" you're quick to put out the fire, so you sip your drink and brush off the comment. “i just didn't think it was something you did."

dabi grimaces at your amusement of the whole scenario, so he picks the dry skin from his lips with a defensive sigh. 

"i mean, it's not something i do frequently, or to just anyone," he assures, doing his best to keep his voice level. “it's… selective."

"so what i'm hearing is that you're picky."

he looks over to you, and you're enjoying this. cheeks slightly flushed from both the alcohol and the laughter you bite back, you're clearly getting a kick out of his borderline pathetic demise. 

he scoffs before turning his head away from you, not wanting to look you in the eye when he bares his next confession.

"i’ll have you know, i flirted with you the first time we met,” he wraps his knuckles on the table to busy his drinkless hands, “y'know, before i got to know you and became repulsed by you."

from the corner of his eye, dabi can see you giggle behind your drink, fiddling with the straw between your lips. 

you swirl the ice around in the glass. "the first time we met, you said i had a stupid laugh," you knowingly remind him.

and you expect him to fight the accusation, to defend his flirting skills and recall the memory differently; but when he turns to you with a shrug and tight-lipped smile, everything begins to click for you. 

"that's your flirting?” you practically gawk in surprise and he’s tsking away from you once more. 

you’re not satisfied though, now giddy with the realization that not only was he bad at flirting, but he’d willingly admitted that he was flirting with you. your smile is blinding, and he would be content with letting it beam, if it wasn’t at his disadvantage in the first place. 

“oh god it's worse than i thought. no wonder no one wants to fuck you."

“it's not my flirting that's bad,” he holds a defensive finger to the air, “it's the fact that the person i usually flirt with is a fucking idiot. that’s why i’m not fucking anyone.”

his confession brings a wave of heat to your cheeks, and whatever alcohol was buzzing through your veins seems weak compared to the affect of a few passing words from him. 

you clear your throat before shaking your head, "well, maybe you should learn to flirt better. y’know, maybe don't make fun of their laugh within two minutes of meeting them.”

"well, i don't see you coming up with any suggestions," he passes the ball right back to your court.

and you plan to not answer him, prepare to scoff at his silly tease and change the subject. but the more you think about it, the more you let your curiosity get the best of you. 

"compliment them," your voice speaks up after a few moments.

dabi’s eyes light up with a mixture of surprise and pride, "on what?"

"anything you like about them," you shrug casually, as if it’s a simple thing you do all the time. as if you’re constantly bathing him in the knowledge of how much you love his expressive eyes, his quick comebacks, his frowns and smiles and everything in between. 

and it's not until he laughs under his breath that you realize you've been staring at him for a bit too long. that he’s been returning the eye contact and the two of you have been admiring one another for what should be an uncomfortable amount of time. but it feels relatively natural, like admiring how the moon seems to follow your car window on a midnight drive.

you decide to break the tension and stand with a playful scoff, "it's not that hard.” 

dabi’s furrowed brow silently questions your sudden absence, but when you grab your wallet and gesture to the bar, he lights up with realization. 

"you owe me one," you mumble while standing. 

he smiles and nods in appreciation, and when you're walking away from the table, he calls out to you.

"hey," you turn on your heel to be met with his lazy smirk and a look of mischief glowing in his eyes. 

naturally, he grins, "i like your stupid laugh."

[morninkim]

the son becomes his father or something

[dreamingticklee]

when you're being a little shit and laughing about something you did and they go "oh you wanna laugh huh?" and attack you with tickles and teases to make you laugh even more 🙈