#I never got to know my grandpa on my dad's side either because of the same reason.

[erisolkat]

god i hate everyone

[alexa-fika]

I don't know how but I had these ideas while working out

1- Rayleigh x winged!child!reader (w)

W gets sent back in time and meets his grandpa and Roger Pirates

2- sanji x ghost!child!reader

Okay so the reader is basically Danny phantom and he doesn't die (because he's already dead yohohoho sorry) and doesn't need to eat so a story about that idk

3-law x son!reader

Okay you wrote a story about laws son being able to see dead people so he gets kidnapped by Doffy and ghost Corazon trying to reassures him until his dad rescues him

🐼💕~

Adventures in the past ( Roger Pirates x gn!child! Reader)

A/N here we gooo, Im kinda meh on this one and I ‘ll be honest I din’t even noticed that it was a winged!reader request until I was done so I had to kinda mix it in? But regardless here we goo, I can’t tell you how many times I went back and rewrote it again and again cause I kept getting stuck 😩

Reader here is Replaced by Dokucha which means reader in Japanese

Dividers by @/saradika

Dokucha groans, wriggling their way out of the barrel they had found themselves in, looking around their surroundings, shaking their wings

“Grandpa is gonna be mad that I ruffled them again,” they mutter

They squeak as a knife flies past them, digging into the wooden walls behind them

They slowly turn around, staring at the entrance of what looked to be an office of sorts, spotting two kids, a red-head with a straw hat holding a sword menacingly and a blue-haired boy with a red nose, holding an array of small knives between his fingers

The two seemed to be young but still relatively older than they were

“Um… hi”

“Who is it, Shanks, Buggy?” a voice calls behind the two young boys

“Uh…” Shanks lowers his sword, staring at the scared child in front of them

“It’s a Bird-kid!” buggy, never one to be at a loss for words, exclaims

They stare at the man for a few seconds, their eyes glancing at the familiar marks on his chin and grin, flying towards the man and crashing into him

“Grandpa!”

The boys give the man a side eye from where they stand

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t know this kid!” he exclaims, looking down at the child who was now holding onto him and hugging him

“Kid, I think you got the wrong person…”

“No! You are Grandpa Ray!”

“How do you know my name,” he says slowly, looking at the child hugging him

“Because you’re grandpa!” They cry

“How old do you think I am, kid.” he frowns at the child clinging to him

At those words, the child pauses, taking a closer look at the man before him; it was their grandfather, that was for certain; the scar and the markings were unmistakable, not to mention the powerful aura their grandfather carried.

But the closer Dokucha looked, the more they noticed something was not okay; the silver-white long hair was now short golden yellow locks. The markings that characterized him, although there, rather than framed by his beard they, were now inked on his chin, the beard nowhere to be seen. And his face that was before marked by time was now much younger

“Um, Granpa Ray…. This joke is not funny. Why do you look so different?” They said, poking the man’s cheek, trying to find their ‘disguise.’

“Wait, wait, you actually think I’m your grandpa?” he asked in disbelief

“Who put this idea in your head?” he asked before letting out a slight chuckle

“Shanks, Buggy, is this your doing?”

“Hah? I didn’t do anything!”

“Not me either.”

Dokucha turns their head at the mention of their names, glancing down at the two teens

“Uncle Shanks? Uncle Buggy?”

The two looked a bit surprised; how did this kid know their names

“Uh, yeah,” Shanks said nervously

“How do you know who we are?”

“Umm, what year is it?”

The two exchange glances before looking back at the little kid in front of them; it was an odd question

“It’s… 1486.” the teen with the hat said

“Uh oh”

The two look at each other again a, very concerned looks on their faces

“W-what do you mean, uh oh?”

“W-Well, Grandpa Ray said it was 1522.”

Dokucha now had found themselves on Crocus's lap, the latter performing a quick examination on the latest visitor of the Oro Jackson

“I'm okay, Uncle Crocus,” they said, inching back at the cold feeling of the stethoscope

“Are you sure?” He asks, repositioning the stethoscope

“Your wings seem fine, no broken feathers or anything embedded in them, no lacerations or damaged blood vessels.”

“No fever, Heartrate is good, breathing is good, the pulse is normal.. they’re good,” he said, giving the rest of the crew his approval as he put his tools away

“Yay! I'm free!” They said hoping off and flying off

“Not so fast, Sweet thing!” laughs Roger, effortlessly picking up Dokucha

“Awe”

“So, what brought you here?” Roger said while carrying Dokucha in his arms

“A barrel did,” Dokucha responded

“You got yourself trapped in a barrel?” Cuts in Buggy

“Yeah, I couldn’t get back out because of my wings.”

Shank lets out a slight snicker at that

“Hey! It’s not funny!” Dokucha exclaims with a pout

“It’s quite funny, you got yourself trapped in a barrel,” Shanks said, snickering harder

“Haha, yeah, it’s quite funny.” Buggy joins, laughing along with Shanks

“Fight me!” They said, lunging at them

Roger lets out a belly laugh, holding back Dokucha

“There, There”

“They’re being mean, Uncle Roger!”

“I think they’ve only teased you lightly; they haven’t really been mean per se,” he responded, patting Dokucha’s arm

“Your future self sure raised a wild one, Rayleigh.”

Rayleigh rolls his eyes, walking closer to his Captain and plucking Dokucha from his lap

“Grandpa Ray!”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re back to Grandpa Ray now?”

He chuckled, patting the kid on the head

“Grandpa Ray looked so handsome when he was young,” the child exclaimed, moving Rayleigh’s head around and inspecting the younger version

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment now and an insult in the future…”

“Don’t worry, Grandpa Ray looks handsome as he is now, too; he got to be with grandma after all,” they said, giving the man a thumbs up

Rayleigh rolls his eyes at this

“You’re something else, kid

“Now-Grandpa Ray says the same!” They chirp

playing around with his sweatband

“I'm sure he does,” he stated, putting the sweatband over their wrist

Dokucha smiles at this, glancing at the new addition and, sliding down his arms and walking to the two teenagers

They observe them for a while until a pout comes on their face

Shanks just stares at the kids as they pout

“What? Is something wrong?” he asks

“I wish I had gone back farther… I'm still shorter than Uncle Shanks and Uncle Buggy.”

Shanks chuckles a little before giving a small pat on Dokucha’s head.

“It’s alright, kid. You’ll catch up to us soon.” Shanks’s voice is kind and reassuring

Buggy just giggles at the situation

“No, I won’t; when I'm as tall as you are now, you’ll be all grown up, just like you are in my time! And then I ‘ll still be smaller.”

“Why do you wanna be tall like us anyways?” asks Shanks with a raised eyebrow.

They shrug

“to make fun of you.”

Buggy lets out a hearty laugh

“That’s the most honest reason anyone could give.”

Shanks snorts at this and lets out a laugh of his own

“I know”

“You are something,” said Shanks

“A lil brat,” says Buggy

They gasp,

“Says the red nose!”

Buggy’s eyes light up with pure rage.

“What did you say, bird-brat?” he growls

They stick their tongue out of them and running of between Rayleigh and Roger, who just observed the situation amusedly

“Are you going to let a little kid get to you, Buggy?” Rayleigh chuckles with a raised brow as he watches Buggy’s rage get the best of him

“Dokucha!” He growls

“Come and get me then!”

Buggy shoots off like a bullet, lunging for the small child

“Come here Dokucha!”

The kid laughs and giggles as Buggy tries to snag them.

Roger chuckles at this scene, watching the two

“Dokucha!”

“Dokucha!”

Dokucha looks around as Buggy’s voice soon begins to shift, becoming echoey and distant, changing into two familiar voices

“Dokucha!”

Dokusha blinked their eyes open, looking around and finding themselves in their room, Their grandfather and grandmother glancing down at them

“Good morning,” smiles Shakky, puffing out a wisp of smoke

“Geez kid, that was one heavy dream you were having,” Laughs Rayleigh

“Grandma, Grandpa?”

“Look like you’re still half-asleep. I'm going to get breakfast going,” Shakky says as she leaves the room

“What did you dream about?” asks Rayleigh, lifting the child from the bed.

“…”

“Still asleep? Hmm? Say, Dokucha, when did you get that sweatband?”

“Huh.” they look down, confused, only to look at their wrist and spot the familiar red and white wristband, a grin growing on their face as they realize what it meant

“Someone gave it to me!”

“Huh... I used to have one just like it; it brings me back.”

“Hey, Grandpa?”

“Yeah?”

“You looked really handsome when young. I can see how you got with grandma.”

“Hah?!”

Here we go thoughts? It’s not kicking your legs type but hopefully you got a chuckle, I will start working on the other one’s now 👀

Taglist:

@imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

[oh-koenig-my-koenig]

Young König

the headcannons about könig in Fit for a King made me think about young könig a lot

(cw: body image, alcoholism)

he totally would have listened to metallica as a teenager in the 90s

like just sitting at his desk, BLASTING 'ride the lightning' until his grandma came in and yelled at him (even though she doesn't like to yell at her sweetest grandchild at all)

I can see it right in front of my eyes, young long-haired könig sitting on his bed with a bass in his hands (@kathy-ifnt this is your fault btw) that he spent all of his saved Schilling (the Austrian currency before the euro) on

playing along to ‘enter sandman’, wearing a black sabbath shirt and boxershorts, his right arm is full of sharpie drawings that he can't wait to get tattooed as soon as he's old enough. the long hair hanging over his face, the tips of the brown strands grazing the instrument in his lap

the walls are plastered with posters and drawings of his favourite bands and artists, if his Oma would let him he would just paint the walls. the white paint is still shining through here and there, not many free spots left on it anyways.

he has a split lip because he got into a fight again, his bullies just won't leave him alone, but he's finally found the courage to fight back... but it hasn't gotten better yet – if anything it's gotten worse. he started working out a little bit a while ago and it helps. helps with the anger, with the feeling of helplessness. he mostly does push-ups until he collapses onto the floor in front of his bed, but he actually got his grandpa to get his old dumbbells from the attic. they're lying under the bed.

he got so tall those last two years, but his muscles haven't gotten the memo. his backpain is finally a bit better, it seems like he finally stopped growing, now over two meters tall. it's hard to fade into the background when you're the tallest person in the whole village. he hates it. because it reminds everybody of his dad. the guy who stayed for a week and then up and left without even saying goodbye. still managed to get his mom pregnant. "Du schaust erm so ähnlich." (You look just like him) it's the only thing his mom says when he picks her up from the Kirchenwirt (the village inn right next to the church) because she's too drunk to walk back on her own. And when his grandpa gets angry, he always curses him out like that "Groß und bled wie dei Voda, der hod a nix kina." (Big and stupid like your father, he didn't know how to do anything either).

he really hates how tall he's gotten.

the only person who never said anything about his height is grandma. she just keeps feeding him bigger and bigger portions of his favourite food. he loves Gulasch with Nockerl (a Hungarian beef stew with little cooked blobs of dough – it’s really good, trust me) and Kaiserschmarrn (cut up pancakes with sugar, raisins and apple mush on the side), so she often cooks it for him on Sundays. he eats the bigger and bigger portions, finally ready to get not only groß (tall), but stark (strong) as the german saying goes.

wishing for his chest to finally fill the band merch t-shirts, so that the fabric doesn’t loosely hang from his shoulders.

[kqtzvv]

project sekai backstory in a nutshell!

note: i’m not trying to water down their story! i had this in my notes app for so long so idrk 😭

leo/need

ichika: awesome childhood friend group but separated because someone decided to go to a hospital far away… (not ichika)

saki: same as ichika… but saki was the one who went to the hospital. and who’s bunny appear’s in her older brother’s sekai.

honami: the exact same thing as ichika but honami distanced off because she was scared of what others thought and judged of her that she didn’t want to ruin the rest’s reputation.

shiho: THE EXACT SAME. but she distanced off because she didn’t want to interfere with the rest of their reputations since she had a bad one, coming off as cold, intimidating, and a mean bully.

more more jump:

minori: unlucky girl wants to bring hope and be an idol but she got rejected 47384839 times and was roasted that she could never be an idol. she fangirls over a damn blue hair penguin lover and was taught the basics of being an idol by a vampire pink hair girl.

haruka: has been an idol since she was a child but quit for unknown reasons, penguin lover, got convinced to be an idol again with her #1 fangirl.

airi: tomboy who got in fights but has a secret kawaii uwu side. became an idol but overheard she was average and should be a tv personality star so she quit right there and then. former rivals with light blue hair girl idol.

shizuku: her friends sent in an application to be an idol FOR HER without her knowing so she was really overwhelmed and on the verge of tears when she was accepted because she was scared of being a “burden”. she’s seen as perfect.

vivid bad squad

kohane: got lost when trying to find a really awesome cd for mother and fell in love with a girl who’s goal was to surpass her dad’s event. they teamed up to also overcome their duo rivals.

an: her goal is to surpass her dad’s event. she also works for her dad’s cafe and teamed up with shy hamster girl to sing

akito: mmm pancak 🤤🤤🥞. soccer guy, left, sister brought him to a festival with music, he got into beat boxing and found a blue version of shoto todoroki off the streets to team up with.

toya: papa said no friends, no electronics, no touching grass, etc. piano and violin all day every day. broke rules, ran away to beatbox.

wonderland x showtime

tsukasa: world future international star!! he originally wanted to be this for his sister but later started to forget the goal but he remembered again!! we all cheer in unison!

emu: a pink haired dora the explorer doing front-flips off a stage onto a guys back. works at the park that her grandpa owned and wants to make people happy to continue her grandpa’s legacy.

nene: nene yasuhiro from tbhk mentioned?? shy gamer girl who was neighbours with a purple haired robot loving guy. forgot her lines on stage as a child and the stage fright stayed with her since.

rui: purple haired robot making guy. he’s always been seen as a loner and usually does performances at the theme park (trespasses) or in the streets by himself but always wanted to connect with people to do it with them.

nightcord at 25:00

kanade yoisaki: awesome sauce childhood, mom dropped dead at 30. dad was living off commissions and she helped one part which helped her dad win but it only won because of her part. her dad kept getting requests for commissions to sound like her part so he overworked himself, fainted, hospital, severe amnesia and still thinks his wife is pregnant. now she’s desperate to save this one girl.

mafuyu: emotionally abused by her mom to get good grades and become a doctor. she was pressured by everyone around her and started playing a facade, using a fake smile to cover her emptiness inside of the void.

ena: art>>>everything. she’s an attention seeker and knows it, social media cures depression frfr, always thinking she isn’t perfect and her art isn’t perfect either.

mizuki: heavily implied tranfem, was always seen as weird or an outcast so they often skipped school to avoid bullies and their bad reputation.

[polarmary]

Rating MILGRAM shoes because- what are those?!

Inspired by a post I stumbled upon talking about Kotoko's T1 shoes I decided to go to check all of them and rate one by one both the drip and how pratical they are for a prison. (This is satire please guys don't cancel me over shoe opinions)

1-Haruka Sakurai T1 Shoes

Ok....bro has that psych ward drip. Honestly they look comfortable for a prison, I'll give him that. 7/10

T2 Shoes

He's not even wearing one of them- how did I never notice that. He clearly doesn't know how to tie the laces either but anyways, still comfortable and to be honest, I like the shoes. He loses points for not wearing one of them so- 7/10 (Mu teach this poor kid how to wear shoes pls)

2-Yuno Kashiki T1 Shoes

Typical school shoes, not bad but still boring, they also start to hurt after a while. I've seen how you dress girl, come on you can do better than this..... I'd say 4/10

T2 Shoes

(Why did she have to split her legs so much....have one of them) There was an upgrade i guess, it's more stylish but still uncomfortable to stand on for days on end in a prison. 4/10

3-Fuuta Kajiyama T1/T2 Shoes (man didn't even bother changing shoes)

What are these bulky ah shoes.....I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say they must at least be comfortable since they look like sports shoes. (can we talk about those socks tho-) 6/10

4-Muu Kusunoki T1 Shoes

Ok first of all, who the fuck goes to a prison and wears high heels?! Like- out of everything you could wear, you use the LEAST comfortable or pratical choice possible?? She really said slaying first, comfort second alright..... 3/10 im not sorry

T2 Shoes

.......I'm not even going to say anything.......it got worse. 2/10

5-Shidou Kirisaki T1 Shoes

Uhm...ok grandpa shoes i guess.....still comfy tho. By themselves they don't look bad but with the actual fit- my guy what the fuck where you thinking.... 5/10

T2 Shoes

My guy really looked at Kotoko's T1 shoes and thought they looked cool. Still better than hers but thats for later. What on earth are even these tho, they are like crocs but with normal shoe soles??? He's clearly one of those guys that get dressed by their wives and can't do it by themselves because jesus.... 4/10?

6-Mahiru Shiina T1 Shoes

Ok, nails done, I see you. Grandma shoes mixed with platform shoes.....she's smol so I get it. They actually look comfy but what about winter girl- 7/10 No T2 because.....well....wheelchair (txs Kotoko)

7-Kazui Mukuhara T1 Shoes

What are these shoes, they have belts on the side?? thats a belt right- From the front they look like fisherman boots, what is this man wearing. At least they don't look uncomfortable. 6/10

T2 Shoes

Alright he got comfier, very solid. I'd wear those in prison, 9/10 great upgrade Dad!

8-Amane Momose T1/T2 Shoes (dam girl change a bit)

School shoes same as Yuno but this ones.....I've worn that and god do they fuck up your toes.....Is she ok? 3/10

9-Mikoto Kayano & John T1/ T2 Shoes

Ok my guy Vans i see you, he went for the comfy option but the color....could be better. 8/10 But can we take a moment to talk about how John can't tie shoe laces??

What is that- He's going to trip on that thing and fall face first on the floor. Those look one step away from unlacing.

And finally, the one that started it all,

10-Kotoko Yuzuriha T1 Shoes

(again, what are those socks) I don't even know what these are supposed to be?? Are these a normal version of those beach sandals or something?! They look ugly as hell (god that random ass circle on the side- it looks like a black and white pokeball tho) and uncomfortable too. 1/10 burn these things (you are lucky you are hot)

T2 Shoes

Now we are talking, the biggest glow up ever!! They are literally just military security boots, go off queen, slay (perferably not literally, we've seen that enough) Comfy, fashionable, she can step on me with those- wait what? 9/10

[fandomwe1rd0]

No, because I feel so bad for Morty. Like, let's put ourselves in Morty's shoes for a moment. You've already got all the basic stressors of being 14, insecurity, puberty, etc. Now, imagine having no friends for your whole life, then when you were 14, this random guy crashed into your house and he's apparently your grandpa and is now living here? Then he drags you on dangerous adventures and constantly manhandles and emotionally abuses you, your parents are emotionally neglectful and don't do much to stop this abuse. And he's really your first and only friend. It doesn't help that he always drags you out of school so you can never make any friends your age. Your literal only friend is your 70-year-old grandpa, and you're basically his only real close friend.

We know Rick is Morty's first and only friend with what Beth says in the first episode "Morty was having trouble in school way before my dad moved in, and the only influence I can see Rick having is that for the first time in his life...Morty has a friend." Not only that, but Rick's healing is HEAVILY dependent on Morty, and he relies on Morty to keep him stable (Look at Rickfending your Mort) Having anyone rely on you for their healing and emotional support is already a ridiculous and unfair responsibility to put on an adult, let alone a 14-year-old. And Morty SHOULD break free. Key word should. But it's hard. Rick is literally all he knows. He has emotionally neglectful parents, he never had any friends before Rick, and he and Summer don't really talk all too much, so Rick is really all he knows. And we know that his parents aren't a good example of a healthy relationship. So Rick is all he knows, bunched up with him not having any good frame of reference of what a healthy relationship is, it's gonna be hard to break free from the possibly biggest influence on your life. Imagine how hard it must be hard to even acknowledge that the relationship is unhealthy, much less break free from it. Even when he treats you horribly, even when he straight up says "What we had was abusive, don't you see?" all you can say is "Ok...so...what's the undercut?" Like you don't see the problem with it.

Then he walks out on you, adding a heavy dose of abandonment issues, we see this in the Jerrick Trap with Morty having a stronger reaction than everyone else to Jerricki leaving, everyone else just seemed mildly annoyed, meanwhile, Morty sounded like he was literally about to cry "They are my dad and grandpa! You can't just take them!" Even though you don't even think he cares about you, but you make peace with that. Now you just accept that he may not care about you. All you want is for him to stay by you. Because he's all you know, you place him on a pedestal, seeing him as "A super fucked-up god" (See Rickshank Redemption) So no wonder you see nothing wrong with it? Why would you? As long as he stays by you, everything feels like it will be fine. Giving you some twisted sense of comfort. All you need for him to stay by your side. Need. Not want. Need He needs you too. He relies on you for pretty much everything, here's some examples in the show, ahem, he relies on you to: Keep him stable, get him food, help him with pretty much everything, remind him to shower, help him heal, etc., etc., we could literally be here all day if I listed off all of them, and in the wise words of Jadien Animations, nobody should ever need you. They should want you. But you can't help it. This person is all you know.

Deep down, you probably know it's abusive, that it isn't good or healthy for either of you. But here's the thing.

You don't care.

You need him.

You know deep down that this won't do anyone any good in the long haul. But you don't care.

You need him even though it's damaging to you, like a drug.

It doesn't matter if it stops you from making other friends.

It doesn't matter how much it hurts your mental health.

It doesn't matter how many times he fucks with your mind.

All that matters is that you have him.

No matter what.

[0rb0t]

Don't mind me, just talking about Shadow as being on the autistic spectrum, and how his portrayal in the games and anime (before 2010s era) reflected this even if it was never outright stated.

(TIME FOR A CHARACTER ANALYSIS ABOUT SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG)

    When I was in high school, I struggled a lot in social situations, I'd go completely stiff and just watch people. I had a "resting bitch face", I never really could have conversations and seemed to just fixate on things. I'd make observations that irritated people. I'd ask "why" a lot. (Asking why or even asking 'obvious' questions seemed to make people think I was questioning their judgment, or that I was challenging them. But no, I just didn't understand and wanted clarification. I still run into this a lot and I wish people would stop assuming I have ulterior motives. I just wanna understand stuff better cause it doesn't connect for me. Even if it seems obvious. I'm the genius that asked my mom why she was crying at her dad's funeral when I was 11. It's not that I didn't understand why Grandpa was gone, I knew he passed away, but it hadn't really landed for me, and my brain registered my mom's sadness before it registered the why.)

    I didn't like small talk (still don't) and would rather every interaction have a specific purpose. You'd never catch me at a party and I didn't think drinking or drugs looked fun or interesting. The act of rebelling didn't interest me either. The few interests I did have were something I'd always go back to, and I couldn't function without them. (For me, drawing has always been a huge part of my life and if I didn't have a pencil or pen and paper, then I couldn't hear. I know, very weird. If I were doodling or just even had my sketchbook open, I could study a lot easier. In High school, my teachers started telling me to put the sketchbook away, and my grades plummeted because my attention did, too. Trying to tell them just kind of led to the same old "well everyone else can't doodle so you can't either". I wasn't in any of the special ed stuff because I guess I masked too well.)

    Sonic 06 and Sonic X have the same characterization for Shadow, especially in Japanese, and I think that's honestly the best he'd ever been-- he's quiet, he's reserved, he observes and he doesn't like to "waste time". Not because he's edgy, not because he's a jerk or too serious, but because he struggles in social situations and he's more introverted. He doesn't want to be the centre of attention, he doesn't enjoy any of that. Shadow also behaves like an adult, and I'm sure a ton of us on the spectrum have heard that before, that we're very mature for our age. In reality, we can't relate with our peers and have very fixated interests that don't really expand to other things. Limited interests and we just wanna do stuff tied to that. We know so much about that one thing or those things, but those things won't get you ahead in school. Unless you're LUCKY and your fixation is math, oy vey! (My fixation was etymology. I loved learning and knowing where words came from. Useful for 2 seconds in English class, quickly loses its usefulness in a skill-oriented world.)

    I don't even think he's naturally boastful, at least he wasn't since SA2 (when he was an antagonist), but Sonic brings out a competitive side in him. Sonic brings out the childhood-self that he lost to trauma and being sealed away. Shadow never got to be a normal kid/adult. He has always had expectations placed on him. I think Sonic really brings out a side of him that even surprises himself. It's why he will even say very often "What am I doing?" or "This is such a waste of time!" but he won't STOP… Because he's having fun and doesn't know how to describe his own feelings. Shadow's the type who'll say "I'm fine" no matter what state he's in when you ask if he's okay. My spouse is like this actually-- I can often tell when he's feeling down, but he doesn't know how to describe emotions beyond functional things like "i'm healthy" or "i'm unhealthy", so he'll say he's fine even if he's having a melancholy day. I struggle with understanding my emotional responses, but not necessarily identifying them. A lot of people on the spectrum do struggle with identifying their emotions beyond empirical things. "Do I feel sick? No? then I'm fine" Shadow is exactly like this. And because his expression is so neutral, sometimes intense, he gets mistaken as being angry or too serious. In reality, he's just standing there. He's not gonna expend energy smiling when he's got nothing to smile about. Why force yourself to emote for people? Especially if it feels unnatural.

    Another thing about Shadow being autistic is if he's got nothing to say, then he won't say it. If he wants to leave, he'll leave. Good luck stopping him! But for many actual people it's not an option to leave. We can't just teleport out or skate at lightning speeds like he can, so we have to just sit there and do little coping or self soothing methods to keep ourselves in the moment and calm. We don't often see Shadow stimming in traditionally understood ways, like lip biting or rubbing his arms or fidgeting with his fingers-- but he often stands with his arms crossed. This CAN BE a stim. Feeling the weight of your arms on top of each other, it allows for you to be aware of your own body. I fold my arms a lot in public, because I'm usually playing with the hem of my sleeves, or I'm rubbing my arms or squeezing them. Shadow doesn't seem to do any of that but he's rarely seen without his arms folded.

    When his arms aren't folded, he stands so still and just stares at people. He looks completely out of his element. He doesn't seem to have a relaxed stance--until the anime, where he's shown standing with his hand on his hip. Rouge also does this, leading to the popular headcanons that Shadow is unintentionally imitating Rouge-- his masking leads him to identify the most 'normal' person in the room and copy their behavior in order to blend in better. Unfortunately it rarely, in my experience, leads to people NOT thinking I'm weird. Sometimes I'll even start imitating speech patterns or accents and BOY. I don't even realize I'm doing it until it HAPPENS. So embarrassing. But Shadow absolutely imitates everyone around him. We can see him do this even as far back as Sonic Heroes--that scene where he's nodding or shaking his head to whatever Rouge is saying. The scene where Sonic starts getting competitive and Shadow starts kind of imitating his posture and his way of speaking to become competitive with them-- I don't even think he realizes he's doing it. But it also makes sense with his NAME.

    His name is Shadow. I think of Peter Pan, where Peter's Shadow can sometimes get away from him. Usually it does everything he does, but sometimes it gets away and does its own things, and Peter has to catch it. Wendy sews the shadow back on in Hook. I think Shadow's name is referencing that as well, that just like a shadow, he mimics those around him. He's watching over them, but also copying them. Learning to blend in.

    Another moment I adore is in SA2 (and Sonic X) when Amy Rose hugs him from behind. According to the 2010s era and early IDW, you'd have expected Shadow to push her away or yell DONT TOUCH ME or whatever. But no, he actually just goes REALLY RIGID and doesn't even say anything. It isn't until Amy realizes her mistake that Shadow turns around to look at her, smiling like 'What are you doing???' But in Sonic X, they changed this scene further into autistic territory--

    Shadow doesn't even TURN to her. He goes rigid, yes, and his eyes widen and he just stands there looking towards the audience like 8| He's completely OUT OF HIS ELEMENT. He prepared for the mission, NOT to deal with random people HUGGING HIM. He's probably not been hugged since Maria over 50 years ago. We don't even know if Maria hugged him much because Shadow has always seemed pretty touch-averse. I love GIVING hugs and I love receiving hugs but only from people I'm REALLY close to. I don't even like getting hugs from extended family. My spouse? VERY touch averse. He'll get hugs from me but hugging and touch are just not his thing. Shadow is not a huggy person, but he does tend to hold hands.

    We know he grabbed and held Maria's hand, running with her-- but we never actually saw that until Sonic X (2003) he can be seen running with her away from the military, and he's holding her hand as he leads her. In Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria often grabs Shadow's hand when telling him things. This is also a grounding method to bring the person into the moment. For me, I feel like I can focus better on what my spouse is saying to me when he holds my hand and it's crowded or busy. Even in our home, if he wants to tell me something, I recommend that he hold my hand or touch my arm so I can focus on him better. This happens with Shadow.

    Sonic doesn't tend to hold peoples' hands. In Sonic X he usually just picks people up, but we do see him grab Elise's arm in 06 and run with her. But holding hands? Not really his thing! Shadow does do it more often though. In Sonic X S3, in the episode, Molly's Dream, Shadow's immediate way of leading Molly away from danger is to grab and hold her hand. He even keeps holding her hand until she lets go. It speaks to me the sort of childlike behavior he may still be exhibiting, but not that I'm trying to say that autistic people are more like children. From my experience on the spectrum, I am more childish than my peers. I still react like a kid might to things, and I don't really think like an adult is expected to. I am mentally behind my peers as well, I think my emotional maturity is lower? But it's hard to measure that without a doctor. It's not just about laughing at fart jokes or knowing to pay bills, it's like, how I problem solve is more creatively aligned with kids than it is adults. This is both great and terrible, depending on the situation. A situation that requires math and stuff cannot be solved my way. A situation that involves encouraging kids to try again or be nice to each other, well it's very useful because I can communicate with them on their level (I was a teacher in South Korea for over half a decade, my brain was great for being a teacher but not great for other things).

    I think Shadow really gets misread as a mean guy a lot, but he really isn't. I also don't really enjoy the headcanons that imagine him as very outgoing and whimsical when he was on the ARK, and I especially don't like headcanons that infantilize him-- I really don't like headcanons where people infantilize autistic people. We've seen Shadow when he loses his memories a few times. In Heroes, but also in S3 of Sonic X-- his personality is still the same. He's still reserved, he's still quiet, he still struggles in social situations and prefers getting to the point rather than dilly-dallying. I'd argue that he was exactly like that before the incident on the ARK, too. It's just that the incident caused his inner peace to be destroyed. His precious person, Maria, was no longer around and he lost everything all at once. He doubled down on the one thing that made sense: Revenge. But even after all of that was sorted out, he's not gonna just magically be a different person. He's still reserved, he's still serious, he's still "get to the point". If he played FFXIV, he'd only focus on main quests, and never do side quests. He'd never spend money on cosmetics, probably. He's likely a person who values gameplay over story. If the game is broken or the mechanics aren't utilized well, that's probably more what he'd be fixated on than whether the story was good or not. He'd skip through dialogue because he reads fast, even if the dialogue is voiced (my spouse does this and it drives me nuts. SHADOW I BEG OF YOU PLEASE DO IT FOR ME, DISABLE THE VOICE ACTING IN OPTIONS SO I STOP HEARING THE FIRST UTTERANCE OF A WORD EVERY TIME U MASH THROUGH THE DIALOGUE)

    Trauma affects people in all kinds of ways. I don't think all autistic people are like Shadow, because autism is a spectrum and no two people present exactly the same, although there will be similarities. Shadow's trauma happened at a time where he barely knew himself already, so that's why it was so easy for him to fixate on revenge, and then he'd be content with dying afterwards because he figured he had nothing left to live for. Finding out he was wrong was the best thing that could have happened to him.

    I was really saddened when SEGA decided he was an edgelord who hated everything and had no friends because that's such a horrible read of this nuanced character. In my personal headcanons for Shadow, he's actually very into plants and flowers, because Maria loved the planet so much. And eventually he learns to love the planet because of nature. Shadow's never going to be a people person, in fact he probably still doesn't care much for people as a whole, but that doesn't mean he won't step up when they need his help. Which is why his line in Sonic 06 is still so poignant. "If the world chooses to become my enemy, then I'll fight like I always have." Basically, it really doesn't matter, I've made my choice, I know who I am now and I get to make those decisions. No one else will shake the foundations of who I am.

    And because he knows who he is, he doesn't feel the need to repeat it and boast about himself. He's confident, not arrogant. He can be smug and competitive, but that's playfulness, not cruelty. He's quiet and may just straight up walk away while someone is mid-sentence, but that's not because he's evil or intentionally being a jerk-- it's just how he is. He needs to work on it if he wants to have friends, but his friends already understand him very well. They know that he's like that, and from what we saw in The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, occasionally they forget it's not personal. I'm happy to see them admitting "oh no, I completely misjudged you, I'm so sorry!" because it's been way too long since we've heard the main cast apologize to Shadow for assuming he was a big jerk on purpose.

    Knowing the restrictions on how Shadow is written have been lifted, I'm really hoping we can get more of how he's meant to be, the reserved, socially awkward but well-meaning hedgehog we love. Autistic Shadow FTW!

    

(our experiences and headcanons

may differ, that's okay.)

[gothy-froggy]

JJK SPOILERS

Newest spoilers & silly thought/theory that will never be canon

I’m soooo shocked Yuji and Sukuna are related 😱

SO

Sukuna, ate Jin when they were in the womb because let the strongest baby live, you know. THEN Jin gets reincarnated later on, Kenjaku takes backshots from Jin as a side quest, out comes Yuji.

Yuji is the nephew of Sukuna.

But who was Yuji’s grandpa’s wife? Because if Jin is the twin brother of Sukuna, the either the grandpa or his wife would have to pass that down right?

Now what if, trigger warning because this is lowkey gross and messsyyyy

But what if, Kenjaku was the wife then later on takes Jin’s wife’s body AND THEN had Yuji? Because Kenjaku extracted Jin’s soul and put him back into this world

I think Kenjaku likes this family a little too much. And maybe enough to be Jin’s father’s wife, birth Jin and then COME BACK TO BIRTH YUJI WITH JIN AS HIS DEAD WIFE.

A friendly reminder that this is NOT an actual theory this is a silly joke. This would actually be wild if this was real.

And let’s go even crazier. Because Jin’s father had no relations (that we know of) with Sukuna’s blood or soul and we know nothing about Sukuna & his parents,

Now what if, just WHAT IF

Kenjaku was also Sukuna’s mother.

Bro is actually crazy enough for this. Because just think about it-

….👀

This bitch is MESSY. And is definitely messy enough for this.

So Kenjaku meets a man or a woman back YEARS ago, has Sukuna who ate his twin; Jin Itadori, takes Jin’s soul, dips Sukuna, meets a man, had Jin with his father, dies, becomes Jin’s dead wife, and HAS YUJI ITADORI.

Could you imagine a fucking meet up with this family?

Yuji: So what is this about? How am I Sukuna’s nephew and how are you my mom?

Kenjaku: This is going to be a long story..😅

Wasuke Itadori (I had to look it up): you better start explaining.

Sukuna: 🧍‍♂️

Kenjaku: So when Jin was in the wound as was eaten by Sukuna, I took his soul and later on reincarnated him. I may or may not took over his wife’s dead body and then had you!

Yuji: ok, so how did grandpa have my dad?

Kenjaku: with his wife.

Yuji: ok and who was his wife?

Kenjaku: …🙂

Yuji: No…

Wasuke: you got to be fucking kidding me-

Yuji: WAIT then who was Sukuna’s mom?!

Kenjaku: um..

Yuji: YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

Sukuna: what.

Yuji: That’s sick. That’s actually sick. What is wrong with you?! That’s even worse than what Sukuna does!

Kenjaku: 😁

If this ever becomes canon I’m jumping into the ocean. I’m sorry for this disgusting and disturbing, absolute atrocious theory joke thing.

[secrets-of-everwich]

11-3 Rin’s Final Statement

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies recording]

{Callie}

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Secrets of Everwich. I’m here with Rin again, to get her full statement of the case.

{Rin}

Hi.

{Callie}

Can you start at the beginning, and tell me everything that happened up until now?

{Rin}

Okay, I guess. Start of the month, Emilia didn’t come into school. We had a chemistry test that day, and I knew something was up, because I’ll be damned if Em’s ever missed a chem test. She loves chemistry. I think I called her? I don’t remember at this point, to be honest. Either way, I remember being really worried because she didn’t really talk to me that much that day.

The next day was my birthday. Ash surprised me by calling me over to his house, I thought they needed help with something, but then Xavier and Em were there too, and they’d set up a surprise party for me. It was nice. But Em didn’t really talk to me, or anyone else. We then went round to this place-

{Callie}

For the record, we are currently in Everwich Manor. Sorry, continue.

{Rin}

Yeah. Everwich Manor. We went round to Everwich Manor, to see the show tour, because… I don’t really know why Ash wanted to bring me to it, to be honest.

[Laughter]

We were in the queue, and Em really didn’t say anything, didn’t look at us. I noted that she was looking pale, and she just kind of shrugged and said- Oh what did she say? Something like ‘It’s nothing’, or something. I dunno, whatever she said it felt different.

X and Ash walked off, so it was just me and Em. I have to say, it was… Kinda awkward. She didn’t say anything, barely responded to me. I was getting really worried to be honest. It was interesting- You know, you’re really good at the tours.

Oh… Thank you! Continue, continue!

{Callie}

{Rin}

We got to the end of the tour, and we stood around looking for Ash and X, and Ash appeared from somewhere else. I knew something was up. He’s my best friend, I’ve known them since we were kids, I know when something’s up. But he shrugged, and X appeared, and we left to go back to Ash’s place. Well, just me and Ash. Em just kind of disappeared, and X said he had to do a tour.

The next week or so- Few weeks? I don’t remember at this point. This whole month has been… Weird, to be honest. But, I kept seeing Em acting weird. As I said before, she was in the girl’s bathroom a lot working on some kind of experiment. This one girl, Abby, came up to me and that Em was doing some kinda weird chem experiment in the bathroom. I remember running to see what it was, cause I’d been looking for her anyway. She hadn’t been sat with me, Ash and X. If she’s not sat with me and the others, she’s in the chem lab, or the library. But she wasn’t.

I then went to see my grandfather. Well, my dad and Jamie’s mum made me, and my siblings. Jamie was showing off- What was she showing off? Some awful singing or something, and Grandpa took me to the side to show me his old journal. It wasn’t until he said that he knew something was wrong with the town that I started listening. I had a flick through and got to the page about his friends acting weird. I was really shocked, to be honest. It was the same as how Em had been acting.

So, I called Ash and they said that he would get bored, but to tell you, so, you did, and… Well, you’ve got it on tape how that went. I thought everything was fine. Em was acting normal again. I… I thought it was okay.

Then Ash came running, crying. Saying Em and X were going out. They’d been spending a bit more time together than normal, but… It was weird. Normally it’s me coming to Ash in a moment of crisis. I’d never seen him like that. They were… Really upset. I dunno, even I felt annoyed that Em and X were together. Maybe it’s cause they didn’t tell me. So, I told Ash that I’d always be on his side. It was scary, to be honest. The thought our friend group would split that much so close to our exams.

Ash eventually went home, and I woke up to a phone call.

[Rin’s voice sounds like it’s trembling]

Em had…

{Callie}

It’s okay, I know. You don’t need to say.

{Rin}

No, I- I know she’s okay now. [Sniffing] She’d tried to kill the spider. It had got back on her. I don’t even know how. I thought we’d gotten rid of it. I didn’t know it was the spider though.

I dunno, I don’t remember much of what happened next. I just felt so numb. I couldn’t think properly. Jamie’s mum told me to take her to school, but I didn’t even get as far as the playground. I just left her there. It was like my body was moving without me meaning to.

And then Ash was there, and he grounded me. Told me everything was okay. Told me Em was alive. Told me it was the spider again. God, I don’t know where I’d be without Ash. He told me everyone was in Everwich Manor, and that Jamie was in the playpark, she’d been there all day. I felt awful for just leaving her. And then we came back here.

[Rustling]

{Callie}

Thank you for telling me this. It’s really useful, getting a full picture of the ‘case’. If there’s anything else, just let me know, but in the meantime can you go and get X?

{Rin}

Okay.

[Rustling]

{Callie}

Hey, I like your new hair! It really suits you that short.

{Rin}

Oh. Thanks. It was… An accident. I need to get Ash to help me even it out. God, Jamie’s mum’s gonna have a field day telling me about how I’ve ruined my hair again.

{Callie}

It looks nice.

[A pause]

[Door opening]

[Door closing]

I hope Emilia wakes up soon. I’d like to get a statement from her. I hope she’s okay. In the meantime, I’m going to get a statement from X.

[Click]

[seduceme-lovestruck-thearcana]

Harold Anderson

I know we don’t see much of Harold Anderson (Mika’s grandpa just in case you forgot) but I love him very much and I want to talk about it. It’s just the fact that he cares for his granddaughter heavily despite not being able to see her for practically all her life, and only getting to see her a few times and mainly in her later years. He didn’t get to see the mini Mika as a kid and spoil her like he wished. If I recall correctly, he didn’t get to see her as a child as often as he wished and see her grow into a young woman.

It’s mainly because of his use of magic, and in a realistic sense, I see why Mika’s dad took her away from her grandpa. Imagining someone doing magic and then wanting to be around my child? I would probably take them away too, no matter how loving they were. However, David isn’t in the clear. He didn’t give his daughter a life, really. She was raised to be the CEO and that’s it, while I KNOW her grandfather wouldn’t have made it happen. He wouldn’t have forced it, he would have given her the choice. I can see that David wants the best for his daughter, but he does it terribly. Especially after he slaps her.

That’s why I like to imagine what Harold could be like. We know he saves the boys, gives them a new life and even checks in on them (if I’m recalling correctly). And we learn that he cast a spell on Mika to protect her from hell magic, which is SO caring and protective. He hasn’t seen her most of her life, so in my mind he barely knows anything about her, yet he still loves her with his whole heart and would protect her. I personally feel like if he had lived in SM1 (if Diana didn’t use the portal the boys used), he would’ve taught her about magic (Michaela even said he would) and if SOMEHOW the boys came to the mansion, he’d introduce them so fondly and just like a grandfather would. AND if Malix was a problem, I can imagine him being so angry and protective over her and the boys. Like I can see him as such a good grandpa wanting the best for the people around him! And as far as I know, he doesn’t hate David either, his own son! I know that sounds like a given, but the fact that David had cut off all ties to him (almost all anyways), basically took everything Harold gave to Mika away (the toys she had when she was young), and didn’t speak to him, he still has care for him, too. I know most parents will still love their child no matter what, but he didn’t hold any grudges (I know it’s not in detail but it’s never mentioned either) or treated Mika differently because of her father.

He seems like such a loving person, while also being dangerous obviously from his magic and willingness to protect others (in my mind anyways). I wish we got to see more sides of him, learn more about him and his life, and his abilities. I know we learn he’s a powerful Warlock (thanks to a comment Rabbit made in SM2) but I wish we got to know how he uses them, how he gained them (tho I can guess through the Angel trials), and there’s probably info in the SeduceMeAsk tag that I’ve missed and will definitely reblog what I see. But still. I love him dearly and I wish he had lived, and that the boys and Mika still met though it probably would’ve been impossible.

Mika only moved to the mansion because he died, and the boys only came that way because he died (they felt something off so they went to find him) so it would’ve been highly unlikely that they met, but….in some world if they did…..I feel like it’d be really peaceful and happy.

I ALSO have to talk about Diana and how she put a FLOWER ON HIS GRAVE AND APOLOGIZED BECAUSE SHE JUST WANTED THE BOYS AND DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE HIS LIFE!!! She didn’t know it would happen and neither did he, but it did, and though it is sad it leads to everyone meeting, so I feel like he would’ve been smiling at the knowledge that they met and that Mika fell in love with one of them.

I remember reading a SM fic years ago about how Damien could sense his spirit still in the mansion (before Malix was stopped) and how Harold asked if any of the boys FOUND MIKA PRETTY AND SWEET AND IF THEY LIKED HER LIKE DJWJS. WHAT A GRANDPA THING TO DO!!! I love him dearly, and though he may not be mentioned much in my series, he’s very important and lovely. It’s why I’m giving him much attention in my prequel chapters.

That is all, thanks for coming to my Tedtalk. If I messed up some canon from SM, please forgive me. I haven’t played or watched the game in years (SM1 at least) but I still wanted to talk about Harold since I’m making my own AU series about it all. Anyways, bye until I post the next chapter which may be tonight :).

[transtalesofdoom]

Personal experiences with Gender Roles as an AFAB Transmasc

I know not everyone's big on describing yourself with your assigned gender, but for me, it is a pretty significant part of myself and my upbringing specifically. And that's kinda what this post is about.

Growing up as a nonbinary transmasc, there weren't a lot of opportunities for me to have strong feelings about my gender, whether that'd be dysphoria or euphoria.

Presenting masculine-ish as a girl is pretty easy. It's socially very acceptable. We even have a word for it. Tomboy. If there's a non-derogatory version for feminine-presenting boys, I'm not aware of it. I wasn't a full butch tomboy, I kept my hair long and happily wore dresses to special occasions. I also wasn't exposed to particularly strong gender roles. My godfather wore his hair long. My mom being a single mom meant she had to fill the dad role too. My grandparents were equal to each other, even if my grandma was the housewife and my grandpa was the breadwinner - roles that they mostly wrapped up by the time I came around. My gender expression was never about gender, really. It was about convenience. Pants are comfier and allow free movement. Make-up just takes up time in the morning. Flat sneakers are comfier than anything with heels. I wore quite an amount of pink, not by explicit choice, but because they were convenient hand-me-downs. Wearing a pink sweater was more convenient than having to go shopping. Once I got older, I cut my hair short. Also for convenience, of course. (Spoiler: That one wasn't for convenience.) So I didn't really have an opportunity for an "aha" moment when expressing masculinity for the first time. It was just always kinda happening. And it wasn't particularly special. It wasn't like presenting more feminine bothered me, either. No "aha" moments from that side.

I think it's a little more difficult for transmascs to experience and especially identify gender dysphoria. Because growing up female, you're taught over and over that what makes you female is awful, inconvenient, and shameful. Boobs are heavy, painfully sensitive, they get in the way, and give you back problems. Wearing a bra hurts. Not wearing a bra hurts. Bras are expensive, too, but don't you dare show them in public. They're only acceptable in public when they're on poster advertisement models, looking seductively for some reason. When it comes to boobs, no one actually likes having them, but a lot of people enjoy looking at them. There's thousands of jokes about dicks or dick related masturbation. Middle schoolers draw dicks everywhere. It's the height of comedy. You ever see a vulva drawn somewhere? Know a joke or even a euphemism for masturbation involving a vulva/vagina? No, that's taboo. Periods are awful. There are so, so many things I could say here about menstruation, social stigma, pain, and so on. I'm not going to. You've heard it all before, countless times. Of course you hate your period. No one likes their period. There's another whole section I could write about women's role in society as caregivers, about emotional labor, everyday sexism, but you've heard all that as well and the post is long enough already.

Of course you hate being a woman. Being a woman is miserable.

And within this atmosphere, within this external and internalized misogyny, within this misery, how do you differentiate? How do you tell apart dysphoria and the pain of womanhood you've been told is normal? A lot of terfs use this a talking point. They like to claim that trans men are just women who couldn't cope with the misery of the patriarchy. This post isn't about debunking that, but I'd like to briefly go on record and say that they're full of shit. Trans Men are Men. Trans Women are Women.

As someone who hasn't experienced a lot of gender dysphoria or euphoria, this does leave me with the occasional wave of doubt. Are these really trans feelings? Do I just hate being a woman, the way every woman does?

Then I remember that gender is an entirely fake concept and I can do whatever the fuck I want.

[trollprincess]

Oh, also, a couple of weeks ago my dad went down to North Carolina to see my grandma, who’s living with my aunt and her husband these days and has been starting to show signs of dementia.

Now, just to give a brief background here - my dad is her child from her first marriage with Al, my only living grandpa. They divorced when my dad was really young and my grandma married Frank. Al signed away his parental rights to Frank (it was the 50s, so), then left them alone. Al didn’t connect with us again until forty years later. Ever since Al came back into our lives, Grandma won’t show up for anything he’s at. She didn’t even come to my brother’s wedding. And she was distant from us to begin with. She seemed to like our cousin by our aunt, who’s her daughter with my grandpa Frank, better than us.

Aaaaaaanyway.

My dad goes to see her this month and he’s just sitting there in her room watching “Murder, She Wrote” with her for hours, and she spent God knows how long bitching about how Al left them. (Which … okay, fine, but he’s a good guy and he’s made mistakes and done things he thought were right that in retrospect may not have been. But she’s never said anything worse than he left.) My dad, who got this great new family out of meeting Al and still gets to have a dad after my grandpa Frank passed away, was trying to defend him.

Then my grandma stopped (thankfully) and asked, “So, do you have any kids?”

Now, my mom told me this with the expectation that … I don’t know. I’d be upset? I’m the oldest grandchild on both sides of the family. I’ve been around forty-six years at this point. She remembered my mom. Did not remember me, or my brother, who it should be mentioned was born the same week as our cousin. (This is no slight against my cousin, by the way. My cousin’s great. The fact she’s been the clear favorite for decades doesn’t make her awful.)

I’m just … I’m not upset, I’m not angry, I’m not frustrated or sad. It almost means nothing, because by now that’s the relationship she’s built with me and my brother - nothing. We decided to give Al a chance, and from that moment on we were even more of a pair of pariahs than we already were. That’s not to say she was ever mean to us. Just … if my cousin’s in the room, we don’t exist. She only talks to us about our cousin on the few times we’ve seen her.

I wish I could be sad. Teenage me could have been sad to be forgotten, even if only for a moment. But there was a certain point after college where I realized I was never going to be the grandchild of the husband she actually liked. Neither was my brother. And a lot of what got us to see her was that we got to see our grandpa Frank, who was *amazing*. He and Al would have gotten on like a roof on fire. But because of my grandma, they never got to meet.

And now my grandma is at the point where she’s asking my dad if he has kids. And I’m not shocked she’s asking it now. I’m shocked she wasn’t asking it fifteen years ago or so when she was fine, and just refusing to give a damn about either me or my brother.

[necromaniackat]

Cruel Summer

Chapter 1: So It Begins.

It was the morning you were leaving for Heelshire mansion to begin renovations. It was your dad’s dream to turn the mansion into a bed and breakfast. He said it’s seen enough tragedies for a lifetime, now it’s time for it to see community. Your dad told you that your grandparents would never allow it while alive. Your dad died when you were twelve. That was a brutal hit to you and your mum. Mainly because your dad was a handyman and the epitome of health, yet he dropped of a heart attack at thirty. Then your mum married Adam a couple years later.

This caused a sadness to settle in the pit of your stomach. You couldn’t help but frown as you carried one your suitcases to your crappy little BMW. Hooked in your other arm was Brahms. Since you got the doll a couple days ago you haven’t paid any mind to the doll or the booklet of rules and regulations to follow when caring for Brahms. You were probably going to take it to an antique’s dealer at some point.

You put Brahms in the front seat and buckled him in. You didn’t want to send the doll flying if you slammed on the brakes. That’s at least a hundred pounds that you can put toward your next tattoo fund. Just as you closed the boot to your car a silver Audi pulled up behind you. You smiled when you realized it was your mum and stepdad. You stepped back around to the side of your car.

Your mum looked stunning in simple tie-dye summer dress and black flip-flops. Her bleached blonde hair was twisted up into a messy bun at the top of her head. Your mum always looked like a super model; she was a model at one point. That means growing up she was very much into healthy eating and exercising regularly. Just looking at you and your mum side by side, the regular person wouldn’t be able to tell you were mother daughter. You look more like your dad. You have his dark curly hair and his almost grey-blue eyes whereas your mum is a natural red head and has green eyes. You couldn’t get a tan to save your life, your mum looks like she’s mixed. You’re introverted but you become extraverted when you’re in your element which is usually by yourself while your mum was extraverted and couldn’t keep to herself to save her life. You were so unlike your mum. And sometimes that distance feels extra big.

“You alright, luv?” Your mum asked as she came up to you.

“Yeah, I was just putting my things in the car,” you replied with your hands on your hips.

“Do you have anymore upstairs?” Adam inquired with a smile.

“Of course. I always leave the heavy stuff for you,” you told him with an equally happy smile then tossed him the keys to lock up when he was done. Adam was the definition of golden retriever. He loves to be involved in your life. Which made the transition from mum’s boyfriend to stepdad all that much easier.

“I’ll go get the last of your stuff. You two…... –interact,” Adam said as he wandered up the path to your front door. You understood from his awkwardness your mum had some things to say to you that you’ll probably not like. But what else is new? Since your dad died you and your mum have had a rocky relationship.

You sighed and itched your brow.

“Listen, I know how you feel about them. I feel the same way. But this is a major opportunity for me. If this pans out, then I can quit my dead-end job. I can start living not just surviving paycheck to paycheck,” you argued before she could say anything.

“I don’t like it. That family is messed up, who knows what kinds of trouble you’ll get into because of them,” your mum posed a good point. The Heelshire side of your family are…...–different. Your great aunt was supposedly into the occult and witchcraft. There was a feud between her and your grandpa a long time ago that never got resolved.

“I know you don’t. I don’t either. But I want to do this, for dad,” you told her honestly. If it weren’t for your dad’s dream you’d put it up for sale. And maybe you will. Your memory of Heelshire mansion was a bit fuzzy.

“Jesus have mercy, Evelyn,” she muttered in defeat. Your mum sighed heavily and looked away, peering into the car. Her eyebrows rutted together.

“What’s that?” She questioned, pointing to something in your car. You instantly knew she was talking about Brahms. Your mum has a deep hatred for that doll. After the real Brahms died your grandparents doted on this doll instead of their remaining son. Your dad had to spend his late teens and early adult years living in the shadow of a doll.

“Is that Brahms?!” Your mum exclaimed looking at you like you had done something wrong. You held your hands out in front of you in defense as you tried to gather your words.

“Evelyn Elizabeth,” your mum warned coldly.

“Okay, okay! It is Brahms but I’m taking him to an antique’s dealer next week. He’s not staying,” you explained as though your life depended on it. With how angry your mum looked; it could very well be.

Your mum placed her hands on her lower back and scoffed, shaking her head.

“You’re not following those stupid rules, are you?” She asked, trying to figure out if she should just smash the doll into pieces now or allow you to prove to her that your grandparents hadn’t brainwashed you.

“I haven’t even looked at the terms and conditions book,” you retorted, crossing your arms over your chest. This earned a snort from your mum as she broke out in a fit of giggles. Little to your knowledge this is exactly how your mum reacted when your dad wanted to bring her home for a few days and he had to go over the rules.

“Okay, this is the last of it.” Your stepdad, Adam, declared as he came walking down the small path with your duffle bag of power tools and your last suitcase. You opened the car door so he could unload in your backseat next to the cat carrier with Bandit, your cat, inside. The door closed and Adam handed your keys back to you before bringing you into one of his ‘dad hugs’. They weren’t the same hugs you got from your dad; they were different. But over time Adam’s hugs became something of a comfort to you.

“If you run into any problems at all, call me and I will drive out to help sort it out,” Adam told you as you two broke away from each other. You smiled and gave him a sure nod, telling him you’d do just that. Something you’ve always loved about Adam is he’s willing to help with problems, not solve them but assist. It always gave you a chance to fix it and then to reach out for help if you needed it.

“I guess I should get going,” you murmured. Your mum pursed her lips then opened her arms for a hug. You obliged. Your mum’s arms tightened around you. You can’t remember the last time she hugged you like this. It brought both comfort and a hint of dread.

“Call me when you get there,” she said, pulling away from you. You forced a smile to reassure her as you opened the driver’s side door. Your very full lanyard jingled as you waved awkwardly. Your mum and Adam stood on the sidewalk waving at you. You wondered if this is what it would’ve been like if you decided to go to university like the rest of your peers. That thought left a sour taste in your mouth.

You gave your parents one final wave before hopping into your crappy BMW. You turned the key to bring the car to life before putting on your playlist to listen to on the drive. You never really grew out of your alt phase, at least now you have more refined tastes, so your playlist shows that. And just like that, you were on your way to Heelshire mansion.

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Proximity Alarm! Or, What Even Is Culture? Or, Funny, You Sure Look Jewish...

I've gotta get this out of my head because it's... Well, the thing is, it's NOT weird to me, but I think it would be weird to other people, so I'm just trying to calibrate myself. The following will be tangled brain yarn.

I'm name-checking an old joke, but maybe you never strayed across it. A little old lady on the bus says to a younger man, "Pardon me, are you Jewish?" He says, "No, sorry." But she really won't let up about it, she's asking him if he knows certain families in her neighbourhood and trying to get him to trust her and open up and finally he loses all patience and says, "Okay! You found me out! I am Jewish! Will there be anything else?" And the punchline, of course, is "Funny, you don't look Jewish."

I've strayed across a fellow NB who shares a lot of my intersections, but the European side of their family is Jewish and mine is Catholic, except...

Right away, our roots are in Eastern Europe, so I let them know, Hey, we eat a lot of the same food! Potato pancakes and Manischewitz, right off the bat. I probably could've namechecked kolache and had some recognition too, due to the Slavic countries trading language like Pokémon cards.

But it's not just that. I picked up a lot of stray Yiddish as a kid, either from people who were near or in my family. I try not to use it now, because somebody might get upset when I step on their culture... But if I grew up with it, what do you call it?

I think part of this is because my mom ALMOST married a certified Nice Jewish Boy. He had a delicate old grandmother who would have literally died if she knew he was engaged to a Catholic girl. Mom had to go to synagogue and pass, and prepare to convert. Grandma lived, even if the engagement didn't, so I gotta figure Mom did pass, or Bubbie was smarter than she let on and just let the family pretend. But, all that stuff my mom picked up, on top of the Eastern European background, she kept.

So, my standard, "bounce the fussy baby" song was "Hava Nagila." Mom also taught my cousin Debbie and her kids got bounced to that song! I probably learned how to sing that, phonetically, before I could walk. I had a book with Schlemiel stories in it. I knew how to keep the pastrami and the corned beef Kosher, even if not what to call it. CHEESE? No! We don't put cheese on this meat! Unthinkable! Deli mustard, okay? I didn't have a Reuben with Swiss until I was well into my adult years. I dunno, it just seemed wrong. (I got over it, I like 'em now.)

The result of this is, when I was a kid, I wasn't even trying to pass and I passed. I got a babysitting gig with a Jewish family. I saw the Manischewitz in the pantry with the matzohs and said, "Oh, my mom and Nana love this. Yours too?" The kid couldn't contain herself anymore, and spoke the opening line of that old joke, "Are you JEWISH?" With disbelief. 'Cos I resemble my dad's side of the family too, just with fairer skin. I don't look Jewish.

But I kinda do, too?

And I wonder. I was told my great grandmother on my grandpa's side spoke "Swiss," almost exclusively, such that my mom couldn't understand her. Not Czech, that was different. Well, "Swiss" ain't a language, so what was it? I assumed, because Mom really didn't like Germans, it must've been German. She refused to say "Czech-German," even. She'd say, "Czech-Swiss." That side of the family emigrated from Prague when it was still in Bohemia, well before admitting to Jewish heritage would've gotten you dead in the Holocaust, but there was antisemitism in Eastern Europe at that time too. Kinda always? People got converted by force, and just to blend in. Mom wouldn't have been able to tell between Yiddish and German as a kid. I mean, they're close.

I do know she reprimanded me for saying "schmuck" as a small child. "No, no, that's really rude." "Can I say 'putz'?" "...That's a little better."

And I remember, as she was arranging us in the mirror one day, she told us we had "noble noses." Roman noses. It seemed weird to me, that why I remember. I didn't have a problem with my nose. Why go out of your way to tell me what to call the shape of it? I don't think it even looks particularly "Roman," although it does turn down slightly at the tip. Grandpa's was similar, but more pronounced. Did he go out of his way to tell her it was called that? Did his mom do the same? Is this merely the result of swimming in the bog-standard antisemitism of the past and wanting to differentiate yourself from your Jewish neighbors in the nicest possible way, or are we hiding something?

I'm divorced from my family. I got no one I can ask. But even as a kid, the Pribek family history vanished at Ellis Island somewhere around the turn of the 20th century. We looked for 'em and couldn't find 'em, so a name change may have occurred. My dad had a genealogy hobby and traced the Gonzalez clan all the hell over the place, but Pribek resisted the level of research he was able to do at the time. Joss, my maternal grandma's family, was doable. We found a baseball hall-of-famer! But Pribek? No. I was told, vaguely, that a distant relative had a statue somewhere in Prague, but I don't have a name to look for.

While I was in high school with that babysitting gig, I participated in "Knowledge Bowl" basically a pub quiz, but we'll call it educational and put it on our college applications. The teacher helping us "train" divided up subjects and tried to assign us to learn things we were already familiar with. She was Jewish. She surveyed a pool of mainly Hispanic, white, and South Asian kids and said, "Does anyone know anything about Judaism?" Nope. Nope. Finally, my smartass hand goes up, to be funny. "I've seen Fiddler on the Roof a bunch of times!" I had. We had it on VHS. I got the laugh I wanted, and the teacher said, "Okay, then you learn about Judaism!"

It wasn't much. I memorized some Cliff notes-style information and forgot most of the details, until I took World Religion in college and got reminded. But, broad strokes, I already had most of it. I had the idea of it. Not "obey the law" like Catholicism - Catholics famously do not read the Bible - but know the law, so you can have an argument about it and defend your position. OK, God. I've read your demands. Now let's negotiate!

What the heck do you call growing up so near a thing, but being told over and over again that you're not of it? That's not you. We just do all these very similar things for a different reason. Even if you look a bit similar, it's for a different reason. It's all explainable that way, I guess, but it's still in my brain. So whose culture is it? What even is "culture"?

I honestly don't know, but if you come to my house with latkes, I will steal them and eat them. Seriously, I've done that. I think they were leftovers, but later it occurred to me that my husband's friend may have intended to take them home and eat them himself. I'm so sorry, my dude. You had to put up with your friend's apparently-Mexican spouse screaming, "ARE THOSE LATKES? I LOVE LATKES!" and running for the sour cream and applesauce.

They were really good, though.

[antvnger]

(( any headcanons about Cassie becoming part of the young avengers and Scott’s reactions/involvement/feelings about it? ))

((Interesting question, Anon. I'm sorry it took so long to answer because I know like 2 things about Young Avengers, so I didn't know how to initially answer. And I had to take a break or two on answering so I could think of other things to add.

Edit: I’m sorry! I definitely forgot this in my drafts. Okay okay here we go, sorry it took forever.))

I don't really remember how the Young Avengers came about in the comics, but I do remember that there was an attack on the...not Young Avengers, and I know Scott was killed in the process (*cries*)

So it's possible there were others who perished in the attack too. And the Young Avengers formed because the other Avengers were no longer a thing anymore...something like that.

And I hate that idea. So!...

Like Cassie, there were quite a few of the youngsters who have been watching their heroes/mentors do all the awesome things they do, and they want in.

So they form their own band of avenging vigilantes to handle things when the other Avengers are away.

Cassie hears about this group and seeks them out and joins after she gets her purple suit from good ol' Grandpa.

She really wants to tell her dad about it, especially since she thought she did so well in the Quantum Realm, but he's got the idea that since that was over, she should stay out of the fray until she got more training from him and Hope.

Hope figures out pretty quickly that Cassie is a part of the group, and she tells Cassie she supports her. But she needs to tell her dad the truth.

"I will...when I figure out how to."

Well, she keeps pushing that conversation to the side until it can't be pushed back anymore.

And it can't be pushed back anymore because the Young Avengers ran into an issue where they needed something big, and they had only one person to fit that bill.

And well, there happened to be a news crew nearby and well...

Scott about chokes on his cereal the next morning when the news is broadcasted everywhere.

"Young Avengers gain BIG help: Ant-Man's legacy continues as a giant woman in a purple suit reminiscent of the Ant-Man suit helps the Young Avengers save the day. It is believed Lang's daughter is the woman behind the mask, but that knowledge has yet to be confirmed."

But Scott knows.

"CASSIE!"

He's not mad she's helping the Young Avengers. Not really. He's a bit on edge and nervous by it because he's not sure she's ready. His fear masks itself as anger.

He's her dad and he'll always have a hard time letting her go. He will let her, but he'll struggle some.

But what does bother him so is that she didn't tell him about this, that she kept it from him for who knows how long.

What also bothers him is that Hope knew and didn't give him a heads up either.

"I wanted to tell you, Dad," Cassie admits, "but I know how you feel about all of this, so I didn't know how to tell you."

"So you let The Today Show fill me in instead. Cool."

"...the cameras weren't supposed to be there."

"That's beside the point, Cassie!"

"But nothing bad's happened so far, Dad. I'm okay, and I saved a lot of people last night."

"...behind my back. You didn't give me a chance to support you or anything."

“Would you have? Being so protective of me? Hadn’t I proven myself yet? I can do this, Dad. And I am doing it. I love helping people and doing what you do. It’s what I was born to do. Just like you.” She gives him a soft, pleading look. “Will you let me?”

But Scott’s trust and pride are wounded over being lied to. He never handled being lied to well at all, and this time is no exception.

He shrugs after a moment of silence. “You’ve already made your choice that you will no matter what, so it really doesn’t matter what I say right now, does it. You’re still training with me and Hope and your grades better not suffer. And…” he can’t help but still worry about her. “And you better come home. No matter what, you better come home.”

It’s awkward for a while after that. Scott’s not happy with Cassie or with Hope, and though they’re all willing to work on fixing the issues that have come up in their relationships recently, Scott’s got to work on his own feelings in order to get to that point. He has a hard time getting there sometimes.

But eventually they get past it, and Cassie had him meet the whole Young Avengers crew.

And it takes hardly any time at all before he becomes the crew’s dad. He just is. No one really questions it. It just happens, and they all like it.

Scott’s house becomes a common hangout place for the Young Avengers. They’re always coming in and out of there, and he likes it.

He cooks for them; he gives them advice; he has extra sleeping bags and pillows and stuff for if they ever sleep over. And they all have more than once.

Sometimes they ask him and Hope for help in whatever mission they’re on. They know they can count on Ant-Man and the Wasp.

They all get him Father’s Day gifts, even the Young Avengers who have fathers still.

He’s Ant-Dad in all their phones. Except for Cassie’s of course. He’s just Dad.

Cassie is not surprised that Scott adopted them all, but she’s a bit surprised they all adopted Scott. There are some in the group she never would have guessed would do that. But she loves how wrong she is and she loves how her dad’s accepted the whole team.

One day after a tough mission, they all end up at Scott’s house. He cooked for them, tended to wounds, and turned on a movie for them as they all passed out in his living room.

Except for Cassie. She seeks him out in the kitchen while he’s cleaning up, and she hugs him tightly, still shaky from the mission.

He of course hugs her back. “It’s okay, Peanut. I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

“I’ve never been that scared before,” she admits quietly.

“I get it. I do. It’s okay to be scared and to still feel uneasy. But you’re safe now.”

“I’m tired, Daddy.”

“I know, Peanut. I know. You can rest now.” He kisses the top of her head. “I’m proud of you. You’re going to be okay.”

“Thanks, Dad. I love you.”

“I love you too,” he smiles softly as he rests his head against hers, still hugging her. “So much.”

[kariachi]

This is not what I intended to write, but it's what got written. Some fic featuring the gang chattering about Kevin's mom.

Gwen's got it rough out there.

~~

“If you ask my family,” Kevin chuckled around a hamburger, “I got Dad’s good looks and sense of humor, while all I got from Mom was her attitude problems.” Beside and across from him the Tennysons chuckled into their drinks.

“She seemed perfectly nice to me,” Rook said, face twisting in confusion. The Tennysons’ laughter cut off abruptly, both turning to him with wide eyes.

“You’ve met his mom?”

“She was nice to you?!” Sitting up straight, Kevin fixed Gwendolyn with a glower.

“My mom hasn’t been mean to either of you.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s been nice,” she tossed back with a glower of her own.

“She’s better about it than your mom.”

“My mom doesn’t keep weapons conspicuously around.”

“Hey, she only does that for you.”

“Oh, that’s much better-”

“How the hell did you meet his mom,” Ben asked, ignoring the argument going on across the table- ‘dinner with the in-laws’ had never gone well with either side of that couple- “Gwen had to damn near pull teeth to get Kev to introduce them, and I only met her for the first time because she got invited with Kev to a family thing.” With a curious noise, Rook took a sip of soda.

“And she was mean?”

“She was polite and professional,” Ben said with a shrug. “You could tell it took more effort with some people than others.”

“I did not see any effort,” Rook said, “but she came to the base to speak with Patellidae and seemed polite and professional then as well.”

“Huh.”

“I just don’t know why she hates me,” Gwendolyn all but hissed across the table, drawing attention back in that direction.

“She doesn’t hate you,” Kevin said, rolling his eyes, “she just doesn’t like or trust you.”

“Why the fuck not?! I’m perfectly likable and trustworthy!” There was a glimmer of hurt in her expression, but for the most part it had been subsumed over time with determination to win Ms. Jones’s approval and aggravation at repeated failures. The most the woman had ever given her was that she made Kevin happy, and that until that stopped being the case she wasn’t going to make an issue of it.

“You remind her of your grandpa,” Kevin said like it was the most obvious thing in the world- across the table Ben nodded and slipped a “Grandpa Max took a lot of effort” to Rook- “And after fucking up so bad with Harvey…” Kevin shrugged. “She’s a little protective. She means well.”

“She means well,” Gwendolyn repeated in a mocking tone. “I don’t see her getting uppity about all the trouble you get into.”

“She doesn’t get uppity about you.” Kevin paused. “Well, one time, but Argit’d told her about the thing with Looma, it was a whole fight.” The other gaped for a moment before Ben burst out laughing.

“How the fuck did you breaking Looma’s heart get her salty about Gwen?!”

“Gwendolyn.”

“Gwendolyn?!” Rolling his eyes, Kevin buried himself in his burger like it might save him. When the others continued to watch expectantly, he huffed.

“Was something along the lines of ‘how poorly did I raise you that you chose a Tennyson over a kingdom’,” he said, “and it kinda devolved from there. Was mostly about the Looma situation and how I handled it though.”

“Mm-hm.” Ben looked at him expectantly, taking a sip of smoothie. “And was the emphasis on ‘Tennyson’ actually there?” Hemming a bit, Kevin nodded.

“She actually hates the older Plumbers in your guys’s family. And G’s mom, but that’s a whole other deal. I thought it was because they didn’t eat Dad at his funeral, was real young but I remember people being angry at the dinner, but Kakhul says she hated them with a passion even when he was alive, so…” He shrugged. “Like I said, her problems with G include ‘reminds me of Max’.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s established now,” Gwendolyn said, she and the other two wide-eyed once more, “backup a bit? She’s upset they didn’t eat your dad?” Mouth twisting into a frown, Kevin blinked.

“Yeah? Dad was Savaran, you eat the dead at a Savaran funeral, not doing it’s really fucking rude.” They all gaped for a moment before Ben reached over a clapped a hand on Kevin’s arm.

“Kev, buddy, I’m not eating you.” Raising a brow, Kevin laid a hand over his.

“Benji, buddy, I’m outliving you. G’s the one has to worry about it.” Forcing her mouth shut, Gwendolyn pasted on a smile.

“Joy.” Kevin snorted.

“If you love me, G, you’ll eat me or not show up.” She did not looked convinced, or happy. Across the table, Rook coughed, pasting on a smile of his own and raising his soda.

“May you give her plenty of time to choose.” Laughing, Kevin threw an arm around Gwendolyn’s shoulders and raised his own drink in kind.

“If I’ve got any luck left,” he said. “Hopefully I inherited some of that from Dad too.”