#I regret to inform you this is what i've been doing instead of writing the next chapter of the fluffy holiday fic

[midnight-els]

For All Mankind | 4x08 x Pushkin's To ***

Remote in my darkened exile, the days dragged by so slowly, without grace, without inspiration, without life, without tears, without love. Then my spirit woke and you, you appeared again, like a transient vision, like pure beauty’s spirit.

[islandofsages]

HEYY!! I love your writing from what i've read and i was wondering if i could ask for a gn reader (yuu) teaching the housewardens about like classic fandom lore- like imagine them turning into matpat to explain fnaf and undertale!! 😭😭 feel free to not do this and have a good day!! Thanks :D

characters: housewardens x gn!yuu

tags: platonic, fluff, crack kinda, imagines format

warnings: swearing

author's notes: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG also all the fandoms mentioned here are all fandoms ive been in at some point :D fun times mhm

Riddle Rosehearts

He knows you’re very passionate about fandom culture but you never really had the chance to infodump about it to him

Until one day, you drop by Heartslabyul for a leisurely visit, when you see a not-so-clearly distressed Riddle sitting in the lounge

Not-so-clearly meaning he’s holding a teacup in his hand yet not drinking it, eyes closed as if he’s holding in all his emotions

You grow worried at this sight and slide next to him on the couch where he is seated, hoping you can help alleviate some of that stress

He sees you and he allows himself a sigh, then musters up a smile for you. He greets you and you cut straight to the point - can you help him with anything?

He releases a second sigh and shakes his head, telling you he only needs some sort of distraction. He just had a long day and needs to take his mind off things

You take a second to think of things that you can distract him with – that’s when a lightbulb goes off in your head. This is a prime opportunity for you

“Okay, I’m guessing you haven’t heard of Five Nights at Freddy’s since it’s a franchise from my world and all but the lore is crazy. So it starts like this…”

He wasn’t expecting to be paying much attention to the contents of what you’re saying but sooner or later, he ends up leaning towards you with his hand cupping his chin, mouth slightly agape at the story you’re telling

This inspires you to dump even more information about the media somehow at the rate that you’re going

By the end of it, he’s completely forgotten what he was so worried about. His head is full of creepy pizzerias for kids and haunted animatronics

He ends up having some trouble sleeping that night though. He’ll get you for that later.

Leona Kingscholar

He won’t lie, your interest in fandoms is too reminiscent of Idia for him – he doesn’t admit this to you obviously, since he hasn’t had the chance to

But on one particularly boring day, you decide to skip class with him and he lets you tag along for the hell of it

In the span of three seconds, he’s already off in dreamland. Sometimes you wish you had such a skill

Since you have nothing better to do and he’s way too deep in his sleep to even care anyway, you start rambling to yourself and a slumbering Leona

“Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about Undertale lately so I need to dump it all somewhere. So basically you play as this kid…”

Little do you know halfway through his nap, he wakes up from how much you’re talking. At first, he’s annoyed by your yapping but then he grows interest in what you’re saying

He’s almost tempted to try that game for himself and almost disappointed that it’s not available in Twisted Wonderland. Emphasis on almost.

When you’re done rambling, that’s when he stretches his arms over his head and yawn, commenting how noisy you were

You shrug it off. You're used to him complaining about you yapping instead of napping alongside him

…But then he asks you to tell him more about Undertale, if there's any more information you’re keeping from him out of the kindness of your heart

You smile smugly at this and his expression seems to say “don't make me regret asking” but oh, you definitely will make him regret even being friends with you in the first place

Needless to say, regrets were not the only thing he held at the end of that day.

Azul Ashengrotto

Similar to Leona, your fixation on fandom culture reminds him too much of Idia. not that that’s necessarily a bad thing - it’s more of an observation

And he gets more than an observation when you get the chance to show him what you’re made of: useless fandom culture and gaming knowledge

Speaking of Idia, he goes to you as a last resort to ask you to help him understand whatever the hell Idia’s talking about

You don’t know too much about Twisted Wonderland’s fandom culture just yet but when Azul explains the premise of a certain game and its fandom, it gives you an idea

“Sounds pretty similar to Yandere Simulator. Ooh, that one has a lot of history. Let me tell you about it…”

Unfortunately for him, he ended up unlocking your geekiness instead of having you address the things he was confused with

But at least your story makes it a bit easier to understand? He’s yet to decide that really but at least it sounds like you’re taking his lack of slang knowledge into consideration

Your infodump really gripped his attention though - it’s interesting to know another side of human culture, even if it’s not the humans of Twisted Wonderland

He would nod understandingly (or at least, politely) and thank you and your geekiness

He relays your story to Idia and finds it intriguing how similar fandom culture is in both Twisted Wonderland and your world

He would invite you to Board Game Club meetings so that you can rave and find out more about Twisted Wonderland’s fandom culture with Idia

He’d realize that was a big mistake and he may or may not have created the nerdiest pair in the world - but you guys are his nerdiest pair in the world.

Kalim Al-Asim

He’s very curious about fandom culture - he doesn’t know too much about it nor anyone who knows a lot about it so almost all the fandom information in his head are from you

He really wants to know more!!! So of course that warrants a hangout session fabricated as a study session to get Jamil’s stamp of approval

So there you are in his room, books laid out in front of the two of you but most importantly, a laptop

You two watch about a dozen videos on Twisted Wonderland’s fandom culture and as you absorb all the very-much-useful information, you sneak in tidbits from the culture of your world

“This one in particular is reminiscent of Danganronpa. Man, that one was a wild ride…”

It’s exciting to be able to talk about it with someone you trust wholeheartedly, especially Kalim, whom you know wouldn’t be so judging

He only nods in understanding at every point you made, his eyes sparkling with all the curiosity in his body

You were on your thirteenth video when you two are interrupted by a rap on the door and an unfortunately-familiar voice

So obviously you and your bestie hurriedly rush to close all the tabs on your laptop and open up something more academically-inclined

Which is obviously a…dictionary site

Jamil blinks twice at this, says nothing (but probably noting how it makes sense for you guys since you two are bumbling idiots) and walks away

If there’s any dictionary being read that day, it’d be a dictionary of fandom terminology, that’s for sure.

Vil Schoenheit

He doesn’t know too much about it - and doesn’t bother to learn much about it since he has better things to do - but since it’s you, he tries his best to be a good listener

The two of you sit down in the courtyard one day, the chirping of birds and rustling of leaves music to your ears; beauty truly is everywhere around you when you’re next to him

He’s talking about something. You’re not sure what because you’re entranced by the way his hair hangs above his eyes so elegantly. He notices this and calls you out for it

You shrug and excuse how you can’t help it - he’s like a dating simulator love interest in the real. He asks you what you mean by this. Now’s your chance to shine!

“Hmm, you know, something like Mystic Messenger? Hehe, let me tell you a bit about it…”

Unluckily for him, your “a bit” turns out to be a four-hour long ramble about the aforementioned dating simulator a little too reminiscent of Rook for his liking too

Despite his reservations, he really did enjoy hearing you talk so passionately about your interest; it’s a bonus that the topic itself is interesting

He tells you he wouldn’t mind trying out the game or at least finding out more about it though unfortunately it’s not available in Twisted Wonderland

You share his shame - until he says he’ll pitch the concept of the game to some authorities he know and perhaps make it a reality

Sorry, he’s going to what now?

You’re a little shaken. Sometimes you forget he’s a world-class model, despite his looks and mannerisms. You save your nerves for if a Twisted Wonderland version of Mystic Messenger actually ends up happening

He thanks you for enlightening him about fandom and video gaming culture. You use this as a cue to add another four hours of ranting about V’s route in the game.

Idia Shroud

You’re another victim for him to taint… or so he thought. You’re more of an ally than a victim at this point, considering how nerdy you are

He’d dump fandom lore on you and you’d reciprocate it right back. He’s genuinely so impressed with your knowledge, even if they differ by some degree due to being from different worlds

He gets more impressed when you pull up with knowledge about Twisted Wonderland’s fandom culture like damn, you really brushed up on your talking points already

Friendly rivalry aside, he really does enjoy talking about fandom culture with you and hearing about the things from your world - every story you tell adds a little color into his world

One day, the two of you are leaning on each other, on your phones because of course you are, even if you two are friends, talking still isn’t Idia’s strong suit

That’s when you blurt it out–

“Hey, wanna hear about this game called Persona? It’s a turn-based RPG and…”

Regardless of his response to your question, you ended up babbling away either way. It’s how conversations start between the two of you

You’re speaking so fast, he would have mistaken you for a rapper - or a doppelganger of himself even

Consider him entertained - he finds himself smiling by the end of your yapping and intrigued by your story

He then obviously starts to relate it to something from Twisted Wonderland, passing the listener baton to you

You don’t mind – you can stay there for hours and hours, just going back and forth with your fellow nerdy-ass friend.

Malleus Draconia

This man barely knows how to use a smartphone so you had to be a little patient with him when guiding him through the fandom culture trenches

He’s happy that you trust and cherish him enough to talk about your interests with no reservations or shame – and the feeling is mutual

On a certain weekend, the two of you are hanging out as usual. Chatting as friends would do

You don’t know why but the conversation reminded you of a certain fandom

“It’s kinda like Genshin’s community, I guess. They’re a riot, let me tell you that.”

Oh? What’s a Genshin and why is its community a riot?

You’re glad he asked – because you’ve prepared a 100-slide presentation on the history of the game and its fans

He asks you why and how did you find the time to make that. You tell him to shut up and that it doesn’t matter, he just needs to listen to you

You start and it feels like you’ll never stop – there’s just so much to say and Malleus has so much time in the world

Seeing his reactions to certain events makes you crack up and at times, you’d laugh at his shocked expressions (or sigh exhaustively, depending on the event you’re explaining)

When you finally stop, he gives you a one-man standing ovation. You blush a little at the attention and unexpected reaction but you appreciate his sentiment nonetheless. He tells you that your presentation has been very informative for him

You’re relieved to have been able to get that off your chest… and Malleus is more than ecstatic to relay the information to everyone he’s ever known. You obviously pretend that you had no involvement in his sudden investment of a game from another world.

[in3rci4]

Can I Get An Angst With All The Boys, Basically They Never Believed The Reader, And They Get In An Argument Because They Thought Reader Drew Over Gwen's Homework ( I Saw It On TikTok ), And Basically In The End Moose Confesses It Was Him, But It's Too Late, After The Reader Said : " I'd Rather Get Kidnapped By The Grabber, Then Stay With You Assholes, You Think Everything's My Fault ", Reader Gets Kidnapped, And Like I Said, Moose Confesses, But It's Too Late, And They Regret It But It's Too Late? Sorry IF It's Too Much To Ask, You Don't Have To Do It If You Don't Want To, But I've Never Seen Someone Do That, So I Would Love What You Comes Up With ❤️❤️

Jsjskskdkdkk this is gonna be interestingly hard to do , but I appreciate that you trust my writing and sent your request , i really needed so I don't slow back 😭🫶

" IF I ONLY I KNEW , THE LAST TIME WOULD BE DIFFERENT "

PROMPT : Reader is confronted by the The Black Phone boys about something they didn't do , and that would be the last time reader would be seen alive before getting kidnapped killed by The Grabber

Characters included : Finney Blake , Gwendolyn Blake , mention of Susan / Suzanne { Gwendolyn's friend } Bruce Yamada , Amy Yamada , Robin Arellano , mention of the two jackass dudes on Gwen's vision about Vance , Vance hopper , Griffin Stagg , Billy Showalter , Buzz , Matt , Patt , Moose ( idk his last name )

Author's note : I'm really sorry if this isn't what you wanted , but I believed that in some cases it would be practical or better to write in different yet similar situations excluding Gwen's direct participation or writing the exact phrase you told me and changing it instead for every character, hope you like it anyway , I really enjoyed writing this 👍✨

WARNINGS ! : ANGST , DOMESTIC VIOLENCE , MENTION OF KIDNAPPING , DEATH , MINOR ABDUCTION , LONG ASS HEADCANONS , BULLYING , UNFAIR SITUATIONSHIP , RACISM , SLUT / FAT SHAMING , EATING DISORDER ¿? , THREATENING , ANIMAL ABUSE / DEATH , GAS LIGHTING ¿? MANIPULATION ¿? HOMOPHOBIA , MENTION OF SUICIDE , NO USE OF Y/N , PLATONIC / GENDER NEUTRAL READER , POSSIBLE SPELLING MISTAKES , VIOLENCE , BLOOD , ETC

FINNEY BLAKE

His little sister is someone that will share everything with him , her celebrity crushes , her latest gossip , her favorite new book , etc , and he would listen everytime even if he didn't care that much about it

But Finney noticed that she was more quiet lately , but Gwenny would always say she was tired , and that's it .

Until one day she confessed his older brother that she had some of her notebooks pages scratched , tore apart and with really awful drawings and messages , some really gruesome to describe a little girl . Finney was of course mad , because did not only Gwen hide something from him , but there's someone messing with his sister that he knows she didn't mess with first

Gwen defended herself saying that she was trying to find who did it but she couldn't do it , until yesterday , when she asked her classmates once again who did it and they said that someone older enter her classroom when her backpack was still there

Suzanne , her best friend , added new information about the situation : She saw you entering to her classroom with color papers rolled up

He knew you from the mathematics class , so when he saw you escaping trough the empty hallways , he followed you , and decided to confront you

" Stop it , I need to talk with you "

You turned around and saw him grabbing tight his backpack shoulder strap

" You need to stop doing those things to my sister , she's only a 6th grader and didn't do anything to you , it's not ok to draw those disgusting things and write that stuff on Gwen's notebooks , you're older than her , you should know that "

On Finney's perspective , he was in front of a kid of his same age that has been bothering his sister not only in a anonymously way , but in a constant way too , trying , no , decided , to make them back off from her

But in your perspective , you woke up and didn't have the opportunity to eat even an apple as a breakfast because your parents started to bark at each other again and then you , when they couldn't find the keys of the car and saw you existing on your house

Who would guess that the only time you entered on a 6th grade classroom was to put some color papers for the kids by your art's teacher orders ?

You obviously got offended , and started to tell your version of the story , you were not only dealing with your family madness once again , but this too ?

When he saw you not backing off and not telling " the truth " he told you to stop playing the innocent / victim card and just accept what you " did"

You couldn't simple just pretend you didn't call slut shaming names to a child .

His insistence , the way he was talking , gas lighting you like your parents did before , triggered something in you that made you started to blurry your vision and just walk away when your tears started to fall down your face

Not exactly aware where you going , you walked away from school , and sat on the edge of the side walk hiding hour face in your arms and legs

That's when you heard a strange voice say

" Why's the river dear child ? Would magic make those tears disappear ? "

2 weeks after that encounter your missing person poster was all over the town .

One of those days once again , Gwen finds in her notebook a bad quality drawing of you dead with a speech bubble that had " It wasn't me" written on it

Finney was ready to walk home side by side with Gwen but she had a serious expression on her face this time , without saying nothing , she takes her notebook and shows the drawing of you to him

The siblings could never look at your photos again without feeling guilty , 3 days after you went missing the unholy trinity bastards of Buzz , Matt and Patt admitted the fault , making them feel stupid for not thinking about them as suspects of it in the first place

Specially Finney , who can't stop thinking that he was the last person that saw you alive , yet that time he made you cry , he made you go away

He was the one that has the fault for your gone , and he has to live with the feeling . All .His . Life .

BRUCE YAMADA

Coming back from chilling on a friend's house Bruce goes upstairs to change clothes on his bedroom but when he was on the hallway of the second floor he hears quiet sobs coming from his little sister's place

Confused , he puts his ear close the door to hear better and knocks at the girl's door , but there was no answer , she continued crying

Slowly , he opened the door of her bedroom , and found his little sister Amy sitting on the floor with her cheeks all wet from so many tears dropping from her eyes . Bruce had to admit that lately he and his sister weren't close like they used to , him being a teenager and stuff

But even then , he sat next to her and rubbed her back asking what happened and why she was so sad , he was expecting the reason to be a broken toy , a nightmare , a heartbroken from her playground crush , anything

Anything... Except that someone of his class was making fun of her and breaking her favorite school notebooks and pencils , the ones she cherished the most , and threatened her to stay quiet ... The little girl being too scared of even mentioning the names of the responsable... Or responsables...

" Don't worry Amy , I will make sure they stop bothering you , I promise "

The next day when the teacher sat down to look over some papers he asked permission to talk with everyone in the classroom about what happened , and find out who did it

" Y'all probably know I have a little sister , Amy , yesterday when I came back home she told me that someone in this class was mocking her in all possible ways and breaking her stuff like favorite notebook or color pencils . If you have a problem with me , I have all the time of the world to solve however you want to , i don't care , but messing with my sister and 6th grader kid ain't right , you're supposed to know better than that , unless y'all cowards that will stay silent and not tell me the truth in the face "

The teacher was too shocked to speak with the sudden serious attitude of the star student and the people sitting on their desks were unsure to speak or react since they didn't want to messed up more and makes things more difficult more than the situation already is

Until a girl said that he should go and tell the same exact thing to you , the " guilty " one , that has been gone the entire class after asking to go to the bathroom and probably knew he was going to find it out

You in the other hand were going about to have a breakdown and didn't want it to be around everybody that categorized you as the " ugly quiet kid " from the back of the classroom , you wanted some time alone , and went to the bathroom , where you cried over those horrible thoughts in your mind until your eyes were to dry to drop more tears

You washed your face and tried to compose yourself to not look " recently sad " and did your regular breathing exercise in these cases . Now done , you went outside the bathroom , and just in a few steps , you saw Bruce

You tried to give a closed lips smile to give the " I'm ok / friendly " facade , but he didn't return the gesture , he was in fact , not as happy and smiley as the usual Bruce , he was .... Different

" You should've know I would find it out sooner or later , when did I did something wrong to you ? What Amy's had to do with this ? Why involved her ? Why mess with her instead of just , I don't know man , tell ME those things ? "

You were confused and disoriented , you couldn't put the pieces together of why Bruce was being this harsh or what he was talking about , all you did was stare

" You're not gonna say something ? You have nothing to say after breaking her stuff , telling her to die , to stop eating and to leave the country where she was born ? To a innocent little girl instead someone of your age ?"

You tried to defend yourself but it was useless , the entire group blamed you to keep the spot away from them from being guilty and nothing could change Bruce's mind about it , after all , if you were innocent , why you went out of the class on the first place ?

You didn't have the energy to keep arguing or to stay while the principal or teacher called your parents and wait for the worse to happen , for something that you didn't do , so you walked out from school and decided to head straight to your best friend's house , your only safe place

But you never got there .

That night after the Yamada's were done eating dinner , Bruce knocked her sister's door , opened when he got Amy's permission and with a smile , he told her

" Hey Amy , I just wanted to tell you that I already told the bad person to stop bothering you and they promised to stop doing it , you don't have to worry anymore "

But the smile soon fade away when Amy's asked her older brother if he told the boyfriend of the girl to stop too

And then he realized what he done ... His mistake ....

That girl was his rival baseball team pitcher's girlfriend , and since they were afraid to put anything up with Bruce due his popularity , they came for Amy instead

He would ride his bike on the way to school hoping to see you again , to apologize and start over , but he never did , he never had the chance , only your missing posters like a painful reminder of who you were are .

ROBIN ARELLANO

He's used to be called all type of names , he's a dark skin hispanic boy living in the 70's after all , although he doesn't let himself be down for it anymore , and instead he learned to be proud of who he is

So when he would see racist slurs on his desks or papers with written messages on it on his backpack , he would only sigh because how tedious it was to clean those from his desk and sometimes laugh at the creativity of some insults

But the anonymous dutch bag didn't only stayed with him , oh no ...

Not surprised at all , it wasn't Finney who would admit having insulting messages written on papers that had a long list of homophobic slurs hided on his backpack , but Gwen , who told him what was going on with his friend

With a mixed feeling of anger and sadness , he only told his buddy that It'll be over as soon as he found who's the coward behind all this , and thanked the girl with candies

It was harder to find the fucker this time , no face , no voice , no nothing , except one thing , their hand writing

He may not be math's smart , but he's for sure an astute dude . When nobody was looking and the teachers were eating lunch , he entered the classroom and started to check one by one the hand writing of Finney's classmates , comparing them with the last " letter " that they left for him

Unlucky you , your hand writing was almost exactly like the one in the paper , and with your name already known , Robin was ready to clarify some stuff with you

On your way to school you heard someone calling your name , and by your surprise , the one calling you was the second toughest kid in school , and that caught the attention of other students walking on the streets . Walking towards you , calm yet with a serious expression Robin said

" You know my friend Finney , right ? Your classmate ? The one that has to deal with your bullshit every fucking day ?"

Oooooh's were heard from the kids and you honestly started to get scared because the situation felt unreal to you

" I'm getting tired of telling this over and over , you know ? Fuck with Finney again .."

He stops , just a few steps from you

" I'll fuck with you . Get it ?"

You couldn't just stay silent so you spoke your yourself

" Excuse me but I don't have any idea of what are you talking about "

For you he only nodded in silent after you talked , in the other hand , it was taking all of Robin's inner strength to not smack your face for pretending to be clueless about this

" Finney had to deal almost A MONTH with your paper shit that has your hand writing on it , so stop pretending you're innocent , cus you ain't "

You still couldn't believe what was going on , the whispers between the crowd that you didn't know when did it formed started to get louder , but your voice was still stucked in your chest that was pumping from the adrenaline

" Don't believe me ? I'll show you "

Suddenly your arm was grabbed and everyone gasped , Robin takes a paper from his Jean's pocket and shows you a paper that has the message " Better kill yourself like your mother did faggot trash " with yes , an identical copy of your hand writing , now how can you explain yourself at this ?

As soon as the young chorus started to scream for " Fight !" you feared the worst , so unintentionally your eyes started to water up and you plead to be left alone , that it was mistake , that it wasn't you

But he didn't believe you , instead , he started to shake you while keeping the paper close to your face

" If I ever saw your hand writing again on this shitty papers I'll make you read every fucking message you wrote after I beat the shit out of you in front of everybody in school , understood ?"

You tried to explain , you tried to make him understand that it wasn't you who did everything that he said

" I said , UNDERSTOOD !?"

Defeated , you nodded , and he let you go with a disgusted expression . Not being able to handle more eyes staring at you , you walked back to your home hoping your parents were still there and didn't went to work yet , so you could at least have a shoulder to cry on

But you never went back home .

1 week before Moose and Robin's fight and 3 after your disappearance another message was found on Finney's notebook

" your cocksucker friend got the wrong one fairy bitch"

Moose got what he deserved right after , but at what costs ?

You were gone , and everytime Robin walks in the street and sees your photo on the missing posters can't stop wondering why he didn't did the right thing and looked further instead of just blaming you

But nothing that he has to say would bring you back , ever .

BILLY SHOWALTER

Billy would focus only on paying attention in class , do his homework , study and repeated all over again , it was like that since he left the football team , and it wasn't bad either

He was on the middle ground between popular and invisible , and he was thankful for it , because he didn't have to deal with a lot of people or assholes that saw him as inferior to them

But everyone has to taste suffering once in their life , right ?

At first , in his desk he would find the usual vulgar drawings and slurs that were similar as the one written all over the men's bathroom walls . They were easy to erase , no big deal

Then the messages had his name on it , but he didn't felt like a personal attack to him , his name is a common name between boys , no panic

But the messages started to be written on his notebooks and school manuals , and those were harder to erase or ignore like the previous one

Billy was pissed , he didn't had the energy to deal with a bully and his school material ruined after working so hard in keeping it on shape , but his " consolation " was that the one doing this didn't even have the courage to show their face .

They were miserable people with free time on their hands that decided to make him their target , they must be really bored to choose him though . And nothing works better for these type of garbage than ignore them

The last part being ... half true .

When the insults got boring , repetitive and easily forgettable , the no name writer took a more serious turn , took the challenge of making him mad on their own hands

His concern grew up faster when the messages talked about jumping him in the hour of his paper news delivery , writing his house direction repeatedly and scary drawings of dead dogs

Now he couldn't let it slide . Not with his dog , not with his best friend , not with her . He needed to put a stop to this , needed to find who

He packed his stuff more slower this time watching over his shoulder wich classmates were faster to go and who stayed longer to leave

And you , he never noticed before , always were the last one to leave

He went to the cafeteria to buy a snack and time and went back to the classroom , he walked into the classroom and , oh surprise , you were there again

Billy didn't understand why you hated him so much , he doesn't mess with anybody on this god damn school , but now he doesn't have time to listen your reasons , now you will listen to him

" You better stop writing that shit on my notebooks and manuals or I will tell the teacher about your sick messages "

Confused , you tried to come back to reality after you zoned out for so long to understand the situation

" I'm sorry ? What messages ?"

He step closer but never too close to you , frustrated

" Oh come on man , you're the only one that stays after class in this place , the only one that takes a eternity to walk outside the classroom , I'm tired of your fucking bullshit ! I don't fuck with anybody or you in the matter , AND YET , I have to tolerate my notebook and manuals ruined because of you ! "

You tried to speak to clarify the situation but he interrupts you with a much louder voice , you never thought it was possible to see him like this

" I better not see you at the streets or I'll throw a god damn paper new on your face , less than anything to my dog , you better not touch my fucking dog or I'll do worse than that !"

Oh no .... A ... Dog ? .... Like .... The once you had but lost recently ?

Before Billy took his backpack from the chair , he looked at you one last time

" My parents and I work hard to get what I have , you know ? ..."

You felt sorry... This isn't your fault , it's so sad what he's telling you , but-

" I don't care if you insulted me or whatever , but don't fuck with animals , they can't defend themselves... So you better watch out what you do "

That left you with a bad taste in your mouth , someone wanted to hurt his pet , his companion in his daily life an mornings of delivering

School's over , you waited for your parents to pick you up while you were thinking of what Billy told you , you really needed to tell him tomorrow that you ain't the one he's looking for . You only stayed alone on the classroom because you were grieving by your own the death of your dog

But the day tomorrow never came for you .

The same day of your kidnapping , your classmates waited for Billy to throw rocks at him while he was riding his bike , he almost fell down , and Harper almost looses her eye for those bastards

When he came back home and his mother started to patch him up , he couldn't stop thinking that he barked at you for no reason , that he didn't even let you speak for yourself , how stupid he was for letting Harper be hurt by his incompetence

Seeing your photo on the paper news was like a kick on the stomach

" I'm sorry for what I said to you ... "

But it was just a piece of paper , while the real you was buried 3 feet under the ground of that man's basement .

GRIFFIN STAGG

Griffin at first was the perfect target for bullies . Kind , non confronting , quiet , a "weak " book worm that didn't anyone either to stand up for him . With time , the same bullies got bored of him , as if they were expecting a more dramatic reaction from him , but no , he would just let it happen , and that took the " fun " of bullying him they thought

And for for many years , he would be invisible for everybody , he told himself he liked being left alone and have his privacy , but deep down , it was the acceptance to the fact that he didn't have any friends , and nobody wanted befriend him neither , not like he felt he had a lot to offer

But at least he was in peace to study , eat and read whenever he wanted to . At least he has that .

Or well , he had .

He would found his backpack on the trash can , maybe a bully confused his backpack with another poor bastard ?

But It kept happening , so that was not a confusion anymore .

Sometimes his notebooks would be all scratched all over the pages until it was full black , some manuals of his had broken pages as well His mom better not find that out

Different from the past , he tried to make it stop this time . He tried everything , changing places where he kept his things , carrying his backpack whenever he could , even changing locker combination and writing them down on a secluded notebook

But no matter what he did , how he did it and when he did it , his backpack would always have a horrible surprise waiting for Griffin to see

It was almost like some poltergeist was messing with him at this point .

He was already frustrated from so many bullshit going on , but what sent him to the edge of explosion was that the book he got from the library , " The little prince " by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , got dipped in presumptuously dirty toilet water , a book that he needed to return or else the librarian would not allow him to take books anymore

The moment he thrown the book away back into the trash he rushed into the bathroom and cried from anger . Griffin could only ask himself , why ? Why someone wanted to ruined his life so bad ? Why after so long jerks remembered his existence ? Why or why this is happening to him ?

The next day after he had P.E he saw you taking his backpack out of the trash , and since he had so much frustration accumulated inside him , instead of rationalizing you helping him , he saw you as the persecutor of his misery , blaming you without second thought

He grabbed his backpack with disgust and anger and looked at your other arm where you held your books .... And saw the name of his recently bought book " Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury "

" Hey , that's my book , give it back ! "

You put both of your arms in front of the two of the books , the story and the big grammar manual

" What !? no ! it's mine ! I was just trying to get the backpack out of the trash ! "

He dropped his backpack harshly , he was not having it

" Cut me some slack , will ya !? I only wanted to read and do my homework like a normal person in school and you had to make my life a living hell ! The librarian lady don't trust me anymore because of you ! Give me back what it's mine !"

You tried to protect the book with your arms but Griffin with all the strength his body was grabbing your arms and trying to open them , you were really struggling to keep fighting much longer

The moment you dropped the books he took as fast as a light switch the one he was looking for , but you didn't want him to go away with your favorite book , so you both started to pull harder to get it

But the book was teared apart as you both fall into the ground , you with only the half of the cover , and he with the broken book

" Look what you've done ! You ruined another book again ! "

Frustrated at the boy's attitude you got up from the ground and went after the teacher's to call your family because " you started to feel sick " , and lucky you , they were planning on taking you out for lunch

Your family noticed that you were more quiet than usual , but you only said you were tired ... Tired of regretting to help someone and get your stuff stolen so much

Outside the restaurant , you saw trough the window a puppy that started to look around and seemed lost , you tried to tell your family about it , but you couldn't see exactly where did they go

You went outside , it was just a one sec thing .

You called the puppy and put your hand close to it so they could smell you . The puppy started to cry and move it's paws , as soon as you started to pet it they started to lick your hand , tickling your skin and making you giggle

In one sec you got outside to pet that cute little puppy , and in one sec , the bad wolf , the so called The Grabber , took you away .

Griffin wanted to kick himself when he saw the same book that he broke inside his backpack , deciding to tell his mom once for all what was going on so she could help him buy a new version of the book and give it to you

2 days later , your missing posters were all over the school path , making the boy scared of how fast this Grabber was taking kids away , making the boy sad for having two copies of the same book because he didn't checked his backpack first

Later on lunch break he found his backpack once again in the trash , hearing a group of girls giggle behind him

He wishes to go back in time to make things different , but that's something that happens on books stories only .

VANCE HOPPER

There was no doubt Pin Ball Vance Hopper was the toughest kid in school , and he knew it , proud of his status that gives him the ultimate " Don't fuck with me " power

A lot of people had tried to take his title away , many wanted to have the privilege to say they defeated him , but the more time would pass , the more feared he was , because he would win again , and again , and again .

So that being said , nobody wanted to even look at him in the wrong way , walking on eggshells whenever he's around , and that's how he likes it or how he got used to

Now tell me , if everyone in the entire school knew to stay on their fucking places , why the fuck he had his pencils stolen and broken in two ?

Now , he wouldn't wait to find out who , oh hell no , he's not gonna tolerate that shit happening

He started to ask and grab by the shirt any poor idiot that looked at him more than 2 seconds when he demanded explanations , but they would always answer the same thing

" No please , don't hurt me !" " I'm sorry , I don't want any trouble ! " Chill man , I don't know what are you talking about !" " please stop you're hurting me ! " And bla , bla , bla , bla , bla

But it didn't only stayed on messing with his pencils , no , no , no , the motherfucker started to write his locker all over with threats and a colorful variation of insults

But nobody saw who did it , nobody saw nothing , nobody sees shit when you need it , and that made Vance even more cranky than he already was

The no name no face fucker pulled up a move that nobody has dared to do before , touch his drawing notebook .

He couldn't find it anywhere , students were scared for their lives even if they didn't even knew that thing existed when he started to shout like a furious demon , teachers couldn't calm down the problematic student or make him explain calmly the situation

And then he walked out from the class , from school , without saying anything else , only coming back the very next day with a crowbar to open himself every fucking locker until he founded his notebook .

Teachers yelled at him to stop terrified , students were on a distant circle shocked about what they were watching but too nervous to stay close to Vance Hopper with a possible weapon on his hands , you being part of that confused and scared crowd

He opened 9 , 10 , 11 lockers , and no signal of the only drawing notebook that he has , number 12 .... Your locker , it busted open , and it inside had a similar looking notebook of his . He grabbed the notebook , checked the pages , and he confirmed that he got back what he was looking for

But Vance needed an answer , now .

" Whose locker is this , huh !? WHOSE FUCKING LOCKER IS THIS !? WHO STOLE MY FUCKING NOTEBOOK !?"

By your surprise , the people got away from you and kept starting at you in a way of saying " This is the owner of the locker "

He dropped the crowbar and speed walked towards you , and since you knew you wouldn't be able to defend yourself in any way, you started to run away , and so did him

You felt your feet almost slipping away , his angry breathing and foot steps sounds behind you , along with the distant sounds of the students keeping the track to see your public execution

You don't remember how exactly you did it , but you lost him , and got away hiding behind the school block's back place

Tired and with your legs and lungs burning , you lay yourself to the wall and try to compose yourself , never acknowledging that you were on the school's block , yet outside on the street

With your eyes closed and a body that had already gave everything to escape before , it was easy for the bad man to kidnap you inside his van .

The school suspended Vance for a week , nothing new he would say , but this time the police was more rougher than before the time they came for him

The majority of the people thought that the young man Hopper had something to do with your disappearing , and the police did too , but he told them the truth , and said he didn't even knew you were gone if he was on his house all day and that was .... Half true

He saw your missing posters all over the neighborhood , but he didn't care that much , he kept living his life while trying to beat his damn high score , another kid was lost in the town , so what ? He's too strong to be kidnapped anyway .

The police set him free , and he went to the Grab n' Go once again

Inside , Mrs Ellen wasn't there , and his dear pin ball machine had .... Had a crack on the glass of it !?

He looked around to see if somebody was there as well , but nobody was on the sight

If The jungle queen machine could speak , it would cry over the graffitis they made over the tigers on the sides

" Motherfuckers .... "

Two familiar boys entered inside the mall , one with straight brown long hair and other with a black curly hair and a bandage on his right arm

" Remember us dip shit ? We told you were coming for you "

The two had a pocket knife and a thirst for vengeance , vengeance that they should have kept anonymous

Angry like a wild hungry animal , he fought the two kids with his bare hands until carving once again on their arms with those tiny ass knifes whatever shit would come to his mind as if the first time wasn't enough for them

The kids ran away trying to keep the balance on their step , but failed due how fucked up their faces were and the pain on their arms

Vance sat tired on the ground with his hands covered in blood . Him seeing those two dumb shits run remembered him the last time he saw you

We really ain't nothing in this life , isn't ?

He chased you for nothing , and God knows where the fuck you are now , probably dead , never able to see the sun again

The lady of the mall screams in fear to see the blond messy hair kid like that after getting out from the washroom

" ... I would say I'm sorry if I could or if you were still alive , but that wouldn't change shit . What it's done , it's done .... "

The junior Pin Ball wizard thought as he heard moments later the police siren coming for him .

[idiopathicsmile]

10 comebacks to a woman who once told my best friend, then a chicagoan (like i was), "i love coming to chicago because in new york i'm an 8 but in chicago i'm a 10"

"exactly, that's something i love about living here, you know? it's not as surface-oriented and shallow as some other cities. like, the culture's just a little deeper and a little smarter than in places where everyone's only concentrating on looking their best at all times, you know?"

"oh wow, you really said that with your out-loud voice, huh?"

(LAUGHTER) "yeah, you're a ten here. sure you are." (LAUGHTER)

"just wondering: in the moments before that comment left your mouth, did you take a second to imagine how we, a bunch of people who very obviously live in chicago, would react? if no, why not? if yes, what on earth did you see? please write in complete sentences in the booklet provided. you will have thirty minutes."

"my god, do you assign yourself a number comparing your appearance to the appearances of the people around you everywhere you go? you know we have a limited amount of time on this earth, right? you know that after that, we die and death is forever, right?"

"hurrah, i've done it! i've finally met the one human on the planet who is capable of objectively, correctly assessing the relative attractiveness of everyone everywhere on earth. please, oh please pray tell: what number am i? what number is he? what number is she? numbers all around, please!"

"what an exhausting way to live. what a tiring way of interacting with other people. what a dispiriting way to view the world around you, a world teeming with life and strangeness and possibility. serious question: are you alright?"

"i was going to make a crack about new yorkers being looks-obsessed, but in retrospect i have no idea why. i'm sorry. i genuinely have nothing against nyc, a location i have visited only a handful of times, including one trip to see the very person to whom you made your ill-advised remark, lo these years ago, and we had what i would call a magical time. i don't actually understand pitting one city against another. i don't understand the mentality that there must always be a ranking, must always be a competition, must always, always be a winner and a loser. also if you're a ten, everyone else here is a twelve, baby."

"on some level, i do understand that eventually this ceases to be a piece about the irritating thing a friend's work colleague once said, and instead becomes a chronicle of my own deranged inability to let a grudge go—even a petty grudge, even a second-hand grudge, even a grudge which i am again compelled to inform you saw its spark of creation multiple years and several moves ago. (neither the friend nor i live in chicago anymore.) on some level, i understand that this turning point, the moment where any sensible reader went "yikes, jess really hasn't let this go, huh?" might have happened in the very title of this post. i have never met you, woman who maybe five years ago told some chicagoans you worked with that you're an 8 in new york and a 10 in chicago. you could have changed since then. you could have grown and deepened and evolved your thinking. i do believe people are capable of learning. maybe you even remember saying it, and regret it now. maybe not. but to be honest, worse things have been said—to me, to my best friend, to everyone who has been on this planet longer than a few years. life is exhausting and scary and wonderful and we are all going to die some day. you are an adult and that means you have had hard days, hard weeks, hard years even. you have been heartbroken, and sick with worry, and you have known terror, real terror, that animal fear that crawls up the spine and screams in the brain, and yet you found it in yourself to get in a airplane and fly halfway across a large country to be here, for the sake of a job you might not even like. we are all doing the best we can. i have to believe we are all doing the best we can. i could have written this post about anything. there were near-infinite possibilities and i chose this, a mean little caricature, and in trying to paint you, only managed a quick and unflattering sketch of me, a person obsessed with being right and being clever, but who frequently is neither. again, i have never met you, and if i do meet you i will never know it, and i have spent more brain space imagining a tiny, bitter vengeance against this single-sentence quote, relayed to me at a remove, than i have spent trying to learn calculus or teaching myself to garden or volunteering at a soup kitchen. if there ever was a winner or a loser in this bizarre equation it is fully possible that i have lost, simply by trying so hard to win."

"...ok."

[chen-chen-chen-again-chen]

Hi, hello, hola, and happy Stab Caesar Day! Tumblr ate my original draft because, um, I guess its hunger is horrible and insatiable? But here I am for take two. Thank you to @artsyunderstudy, @larkral, and @forabeatofadrum, who tagged me today and who continue to craft delightful things.

Updates on My Good Egg (Good morning, good night, good morning): My plan of posting Chapter 4 today ain't gonna happen. I updated the author's notes, but the next posting date is TBD. I need to focus on my health right now, and then I'll be travelling for a bit (March 24-April 7). But hey, if you've been meaning to read this one, now's a great time to catch up? 🤣

In the meanwhile, I'll share a snippet featuring several of my OCs, Baz's queer, chaotic uni friends. Behind the cut for mild spice. 🌶️

Bunce goes off with Simon so that she can pump the American bartender for information, and as soon as they’re out of earshot, Emma leans forward, her eyes glittering. “Well?”

“Well what.”

“I told Liu and Ramesh you got kidnapped,” Emma says, waving her hand dismissively, “and of course we’re all very worried and hope you’re doing okay and acclimating to regular life again, but have. You. Ridden. That.” 

Baz regrets downing a few rats before they left for the pub, because it means he has enough blood in him to blush. “We’ve been figuring out this kidnapping situation,” he says coolly. “It hasn’t left much time for carnal pursuits.” 

“Baz,” Liu says, aghast. “Why haven’t you fucked that nice himbo? He’s clearly gagging for it - he couldn’t stop staring at your arse in those jeans.” 

“Is he a himbo?” Ramesh says. He pulls out a pen and starts to doodle a triple Venn diagram on a napkin. “He seemed like more of a twunk to me. And he’s got a great bear belly.” 

“Ladies,” Emma says, her hands fluttering in mock-distress, “please don’t objectify that sweet boy before Baz gets to objectify him. Baz will eat his fill of the man-meat and then give us a report.” 

(Please put in the comments/tags if you think Simon Snow is a twunk, a himbo, or something else delightful. 🤣)

Hello tags and tagbacks: @whogaveyoupermission, @cutestkilla, @facewithoutheart, @captain-aralias, @fatalfangirl, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @whogaveyoupermission (THE EDGING CONTINUES), @raenestee, @ileadacharmedlife, @shrekgogurt, @hushed-chorus, @shemakesmeforget, @theimpossibledemon, @imagineacoolusername

More about the hiatus for My Good Egg:

(Warning for some hard stuff, Big Feelings, trauma recovery. Feel free to skip and just bask in Ides of March posts instead!)

Okay, so introspective life/writing blather here... I keep meaning to write a post, at some point, about some of the best practices that I follow when I am writing about material that is heavy, like in Baker boxer teacher grief or the Rosethorn girl universe.

A lot of stuff that works for me is probably self-evident: go slow, be gentle, ground yourself, talk to safe people, have a release valve, be able to walk away, offer yourself a lot of self-care and self-compassion, take care of the soft animal of your body. And don't feel like you have to put everything in - some of what you can write can just be for you, and it can be enough to have written it, and not include it in the finished product.

I honestly didn't expect Good morning, good night, good morning to get me where I live. It is, as I've always maintained, a dumb horny rom com (that somehow developed a plot and backstory and plot TWISTS and OCs but ANYWAY). But there was a line in Chapter 3 that kept rattling around in me:

“You were a kid,” Simon says, his voice low and angry. “You were just a kid.” 

This is not the first time I've been triggered by own fic (and probably won't be the last, LOL!), but this one did me a doozy. I've had to take a few steps back, and just focus on recovering from trauma that's been reactivated in my body. It is wild what the body remembers, and how it holds onto pain.

(There is, at the same time, other stuff happening with my family with grief and estrangement and just a whole mischegoss of hard feelings, so that adds another element into the mix.)

To circle back round to My Good Egg: I'm putting it to the side for now while I tend to my health and just recovering from the past few weeks. It's funny - I don't think it's a particularly angsty story or one that does a super deep dive into trauma, but I need to take some pieces off my plate right now, and this fic is one of them.

I will always keep writing - the WIP game has been a delightful brain refresher, and I have a very fun Six Sentence Sunday post that I'm already excited to share. But for now, My Good Egg is gonna have a li'l nap. When I come back to it, I think I'll switch over to writing the second draft in its entirety, and then posting the chapters weekly, whenever that happens. I'm not putting a timeline on it right now.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk making your way through this personal essay, if you've gotten this far. I am continually blown away and delighted by everyone who engages with the fic, and I am so excited to serve you up some treats in the future.

To end on a lighter note, here is an exchange with my spouse, the inestimable EarlobeGreyTea who continues to offer thoughtful and nuanced feedback on this fic, Exhibit A:

EarlobeGreyTea: Did they fuck in this chapter?

Me: No Me: And they didn't fuck in the previous chapter Me: It's the EROTIC Grope Fest. It doesn't have to have explicit sex (yet) EarlobeGreyTea: Yeah, I guess it isn't the Sloppy Fuck Fest

Love you all. ❤️❤️❤️

[asymmetryestablished]

Fic Spoilers Masterlist

(last updated: 2024-01-25)

I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to make a masterlist explaining the spoiler levels of my various One Piece fics, and I don't have anything better to do right this minute, so here it is.

I'll be trying to keep it updated as I post new things, and I'll do my best to be thorough, but if I've forgotten about any spoilers in anything I've written, please let me know.

Also: I am generous in my definition of what counts as spoilers. This guide is as detailed as I can reasonably make it. At time of writing, I have posted fifty-three One Piece fics so far. There's a lot to take into account.

I'm separating the list into levels by chronological spoiler order (mostly determined by when the fics take place). Under those subheadings, things will be divided by light, medium, and heavy spoilers. If your definition of spoilers is restricted to major plot beats, the light spoilers sections will probably be safe for you, regardless of your story progress; that section is reserved for things like character redesigns, or offhanded references to plot events. Medium spoilers fics will probably not make sense without the appropriate context, or contain characters that haven't been introduced yet, but won't spoil any twists. Heavy spoilers, however, will.

AUs will be marked with an asterisk (*), for ease of navigation. Canon divergence will not. Otherwise, this list contains no character, relationship, content, rating, or word count information. It is just a spoilers list. (Note: more than half of these fics are rated M or higher. Proceed with caution.)

All right! Here we gooooo~

Spoiler Level 0: East Blue

These fics contain no spoilers past entry into the Grand Line (chapter 101 of the manga). Several of them contain no spoilers whatsoever, as long as you've met the first five crew members.

Light Spoilers: Strange Bedfellows (Strange Beds), On Their Altars You Lay Your Heart of Stone*, Good Meat, Duet for Sabre and Musket and its follow-up Coda: Reminiscence (Without Regret), and (to be sung to the tune of Stacy's Mom)* contain no spoilers.

Medium Spoilers: Two Masochists Attempt Wound Aftercare contains minor plot spoilers for the non-canonical film Clockwork Island Adventure. Losing Body Parts to a Goddamn Fish and A Rendezvous at the Baratie contain character and concept spoilers up to the middle of the Baratie arc (and the end note on Rendezvous references minor plot spoilers up to the end of Fishman Island). Familiar, A Chance to Die By The Sword, Pedestal, and Out Of His Depth* contain character and/or relationship spoilers up until the Roguetown arc.

Heavy Spoilers: none

Spoiler Level 1: Water Seven/Enies Lobby

The amount of work it would take to sort my existing fics by spoiler level for every single arc in One Piece does not feel worth it. Instead, I'm going by the most major plot milestones. These are the fics which are spoiler-safe as long as you've finished the Post-Enies Lobby arc.

Light Spoilers: Sanji Bi Panic™ and its sequel, Kitchen Shenanigans, are set during Alabasta and contain a character spoiler, but if you think you know who it is based on the titles, then you've met him.

Medium Spoilers: the thighfucking fic contains character spoilers for the end of the Alabasta arc. One AM in the Galley contains character spoilers for the end of the Enies Lobby arc.

Heavy Spoilers: none

Spoiler Level 2: Marineford

If you have not finished Marineford and the associated arc wrap-up, these fics may contain spoilers.

Light Spoilers: Regret is the Skin You Shed (Just to Make it This Far)*, Revolving Door, and A Study of Negative Space contain minor character spoilers for a character introduced during the Skypiea arc but not expanded upon until the Marineford arc.

Medium Spoilers: The Babygirl Problem* contains character spoilers up to the middle of the Sabaody arc. One More Song contains minor plot spoilers up to the middle of the Sabaody arc. Some Sort of Poisonous Cupcake*, Black and Fuchsia Sugar Roses*, Company Time*, Black Cherry Sangria*, Elsewhere, In a Different Training Montage*, Vain Creatures*, and Sweet, Bloody Porcelain* contain relationship spoilers up to the end of the post-Marineford arc for a character introduced during the Thriller Bark arc. A Study of Grief, I Suppose contains character spoilers up to the end of the Marineford arc.

Heavy Spoilers: Both Hands With a Heart to Hold* and A Treatise on Absence and Loss contain plot spoilers up to the end of the Marineford arc. They Grow Like Flames* and Mismatched* contain plot and character spoilers up to the end of the Marineford arc.

Spoiler Level 3: Fishman Island

These fics may contain spoilers up to the end of Fishman Island.

Light Spoilers: don't ask me who's driving, Just This Once, A Horny Interlude, Partway Through Some Training Montage*, and Horny Interlude II* are set ambiguously post-timeskip, but contain no spoilers. Portrait of an Oncoming Storm contains minor spoilers for the Return to Sabaody arc.

Medium Spoilers: Outlaw Red, An Eye for An Eye (Kuraigana, One Year In), Identical Sets, and Equals contain plot and powerup spoilers for the events during the timeskip. Government Dog contains minor character spoilers for promotions gained during the timeskip.

Heavy Spoilers: none

Spoiler Level 4: Dressrosa

You know the drill. End of Dressrosa.

Light Spoilers: none

Medium Spoilers: The Crocodile Teeth series (A Necklace of Crocodile Teeth, Strings Around His Wrists, and Almost Tame) and A Favour contain character spoilers up to the beginning of the Dressrosa arc.

Heavy Spoilers: Lazy Morning Head, Four Vignettes in Marine Uniform, A Guy With a Pin (to Burst Your Bubble)*, With Every Wall Ablaze Around Us*, Your Restless Dreams (I)*, and And the Devil Answers contain plot and character spoilers up to the end of the Dressrosa arc.

Spoiler Level 5: Whole Cake Island

Light Spoilers: none

Medium Spoilers: Apology on Wood and Canvas contains minor plot spoilers up to the end of the Whole Cake Island arc.

Heavy Spoilers: Pink and Gold and pervert faces [draft] contain major plot spoilers up to the end of the Whole Cake Island arc.

Spoiler Level 6: Wano

Light Spoilers: Smoke and Cherry Blossoms and A Private Moment (a Reunion) contain minor plot spoilers up to the beginning of the Wano arc.

Medium Spoilers: Fucking Pirates and A Particularly Sweet Red contain plot spoilers up until the beginning of Act 3 of the Wano arc. King of Beauty, King of Beasts contains spoilers up until the middle of Act 3 of the Wano arc. Shrimp Cocktail*, Sugar and Spice*, Home*, and The Beast, the Man, and the Princess contain minor plot spoilers up until the end of the Wano arc.

Heavy Spoilers: Insubordinates contains plot spoilers, and Gunpowder Hands contains character spoilers, up until the end of the Wano arc.

SPECIAL Spoiler Level: Chapter 1044/Episode 1071

If you've been completely spoiled for The Thing That Happens In Chapter 1044 Of The Manga/Episode 1071 Of The Anime, the following fic is otherwise spoiler-free:

Bearer of the Sun God's Crown*.

Spoiler Level X: Manga-Only

I'm only loosely keeping tabs on where, precisely, the anime has caught up to at any given time, but I'll try to keep my categories updated. This section may contain spoilers up to the most recent chapter as posted by Shonen Jump on Sundays. Do not come at me with the leaked chapters because I will deck you right through your screen. Thank you.

Light Spoilers: none

Medium Spoilers: none

Heavy Spoilers: none

...and that's all so far! All 53 [at time of original posting] of my published One Piece fics, arranged by spoiler level. I hope some of you find this helpful :) go forth and enjoy!

[ben-talks-art]

My Top 10 Scenes in Manga!

I love manga!

It's probably one of my favorite ways of consuming a story. I love the artworks that express the individual style of each creator, the lack of colors that forces artists to get creative with what they can do with white, black, and shades of grey, the enjoyable pace that allows you to consume it as fast or as slow as you want, unlike Anime where you have to adjust to their pacing instead...

Basically, Manga means a lot to me, so I felt it would be fun to list down my top 10 moments in manga. These are not the best drawn, or best written or anything like that, these are just the ones that hit me the most when I first read it, and to this day still remains fondly in my memories.

So be aware of spoilers and let's start!

The Twins Fighting Together (Claymore)

This is a scene from Claymore where two sisters that were genetically altered in order to fight together serving as each other's anchor to humanity lose their control at the same time.

To put it simply, they have a condition where if they use their full power they risk becoming a mindless monster, so they devised a plan where they connect their minds so that one can transform and if they start losing themselves, one sister can bring the other back.

They keep this back and forth in a fight, turning into monster, then turning normal, then watching their sister turn as well, then bringing her back, and on and on, constantly switching who turns and who brings back who... Until eventually they face an opponent so strong that they both are forced to turn into monsters at the same time out of desire to protect her sister.

And when I saw that, saw both of them sacrificing their humanity for each other I somehow gasped and went "Awww!" at the same time. It was some sort of mix of horror and worry but also somehow touching.

The reason this scene sticks with me is because, this was the first time I've ever seen these characters. They never appeared before, and they never show up after this fight... And the manga still managed to make me both love them and feel bad for them in a matter of seconds.

This is so amazing to me, the fact that a story can make me connect so strongly with characters I barely knew just by knowing exactly how much information they need to give and how they need to transmit it to the reader, it makes me feel the power of good storytelling, the power of getting an emotion out of your audience with the skill of your writing and artwork.

This is a scene that makes me love and appreciate manga!

"Are you afraid?" (Ragna & Crimson)

This is a scene where the main lead of the manga starts rampaging against on of the big bads of the series.

Up until this point the character had been mostly a very calm and collected individual, but when we reach this point it feels like some sort of switch flips inside of him and he just starts attacking the villain relentlessly.

This is one of the biggest beatdowns I've seen in manga (and I've seen a lot!) and it sticks out so much due to how personal it feels. The main character isn't just angry, he's calmly angry, as if he's focusing all his energy and fury into making every move counts.

Like for instance, there's a small scene where he starts attacking, then pauses to tie up his jacket, and then proceeds to attack again. You can tell he's completely focused on making sure every move counts, that he makes no mistakes, no error, no missing blows.

And it all builds up to this line, where you finally understand where he's coming from. He's not angry that the villains are bad, he's angry that the villains don't understand why they're bad. That they can kill innocents without regrets but when someone puts them in danger they just start to despair.

It's such a frustrating and relatable anger that transmits itself so well through the pages. You feel his anger, you feel his adrenaline, you feel his desire to beat up this character with everything you have. It's just so good!

"Yes, we can!" (Heaven's Lost Property)

This is one of the hardest I've ever laughed in my entire life.

Just to be clear, real quick. This is not a good series. It has a lot of shameless fanservice featuring teenage girls in uncomfortable situations, and if possible I'd rather not mention it at all... But I need to talk about this damn scene.

This is a chapter where the main lead takes a pair of robot angel girls on a date (because, of course), and they go to the zoo.

The chapter itself is the usual trope fest where the robots struggle to understand emotions which leads to funny shenanigans and weird situations, mostly funny jokes but nothing you have never seen before.

But then we reach the ending joke, and the joke just keeps building up, and building up, and building up, until it turns into pure insanity.

It starts with the robot girls releasing the animals from the cages and causing them to start chasing after the main lead. Okay, that's already kinda cute and funny...

But then the lead starts losing his clothes because the animals keep slashing him and people start thinking he's a terrorist making the animals rampage, then they start calling the police, but then the police starts feeling like they won't be enough to stop him, so they call the army, and then the marines, and then the soldiers start having an existential crisis wondering when will the battle with evil ever end, and then we cut to (at the time) president Obama for whatever reason to let us know he believes in us!

And it just gets dumber and dumber, until eventually the main guy is arrested with all his classmates giving interviews and talking about how they can't believe he would stood this low and all the while I'm just "What am I reading!!??"

The jump from a date at the zoo to... Whatever this was, was so absurd I couldn't stop laughing.

By far one of the funniest moments in any manga I've ever read.

"Nothing Happened" (One Piece)

This is another scene that only works because of the escalation of events.

Thriller Back is one of my favorite arcs of One Piece, mostly due to how things start so small and then just keep going and never feel like they stop.

At first, the main characters just do their usual routine of stopping at some random piece of land, finding out it's being ruled by some big jerk, and then going out of their way to beat him up and help the locals.

But, again, unlike other arcs with this exact same formula, this one sticks out from just how much things escalate.

We start with the heroes fighting some giant Frankenstein monster with elastic powers, followed by their captain joining the fight and helping them beat the monster, but then the monster stands up again while all the characters are exhausted, so they all need to work together to beat him for good, but then the mad doctor that made the monster shows up and picks up a fight with the heroes again, but this time they're on a time limit and even more exhausted than before, and then they beat him, BUT THEN, another even bigger threat appears to also pick a fight with them, except this time the captain is out for good which leads to all of them getting pulverized, BUT! THEN! one of the heroes offers himself to take the punishment for his Captain, even though he runs a high risk of dying, even though they all have been going through hell that entire night, and then he finally takes it, going through possibly one of the worst pains imaginable...

And then the arc finally ends with the guy just going "Eh... Wasn't a big deal."

It feels like such a rollercoaster where things just kept getting worse and worse for the heroes but they still never showed any fear or hesitation that they would win in the end.

That one line at the end carries so much weight behind it. When I reached it I couldn't believe that THIS was how they were going to end that gigantic non-stop fight.

It was so cool.

"It Didn't Work" (All You Need Is Kill)

This is one of those stories where the main lead is stuck in a time loop.

Throughout the whole series, our guy has been doing all he can to find out what he can do to escape. He's been learning how to fight, learning how to talk to people, how to focus on his tasks, how to use his armor, how to use questions to look for other loopers, using a marker to keep track of how many times he died and went back in time...

You feel his desperation, his mind starting to break, his will starting to give up... But then he finally finds out how to break the cycle.

He finds an answer that can get him out, makes all the necessary preparations to make sure he succeeds, makes sure nothing could go wrong, you see him fighting and struggling for his life as he can practically sense the taste of freedom approaching his fingers...

And then... He starts the loop again. And his body, almost as if moving on its own, grabs the marker to set another day, but when he finishes marking it his hand starts shaking, as if all the frustration finally started to kick in.

This is one moment that makes you go "God, that must suck so much" because you can sense how ready he was to finally be free, but the manga was all "not there yet, my guy."

Very frustrating, but at the same time, very engaging.

"It's Not Trivial" (Even if you don't do it)

God, I love this scene.

This is the part where the main lead is being confronted by the wife of the man she had an affair with and basically asked why did she do it.

She goes on to say how she simply wasn't feeling loved by her own husband anymore, how she was craving for some kind, ANY kind of comfort, of display of affection, of reassurance that she was someone worth being loved... with the wife just going "Is that it?", questioning how she doesn't feel ashamed of resorting to adultery over something so trivial, to which she replies "It's not trivial."

We always think our pain matter more, our pain is bigger, our life is harsher, our problems are more important, we are the bigger victims, we are the ones who deserve justice more... and that causes us to forget that other people struggle too, and not only that, most people struggle more.

I like this because it shows a big, big problem in society today, the struggle to sympathize with the problems of others.

Like, here's this woman who all her life always felt she had no right to complain because she felt her problems were too small and not worth complaining about... And in this moment, she realizes her problems aren't trivial, they aren't too small, they are worth complaining about, because they are your problems, and even if others would not be hurt by them, you are, and you have the right to try to avoid what hurts you.

Yes, the wife is the victim, yes, she's in her right to be antagonistic to our main lead... But that does not mean her pain matters more... or less! All our pains affect us in different ways and in different sizes.

Mind you, I don't think it's anyone's obligation to force yourself to relate to others, to feel sorry for others, to like others, or to forgive others if you don't think you have it in yourself the conditions to do it, but I think it's important to keep in mind that each person's struggles affect us in different ways, and that your pain does not make you matter more than others.

"Chainsaw Man... Doesn't Spit!" (Chainsaw Man)

(Told you there would be spoilers)

This is from the climatic confrontation between Makima and Chainsawman where she, in my opinion, perfectly shows the harm and toxicity that comes from the concept of entitlement.

You force your ideals on others against their will, you go out of your way to manipulate their lives and make decisions that will affect their future without their consent, you bring pain and struggles that they might not be ready to deal with, you ignore the consequences of your actions and refuse to look at the damage you cause, you install this same mentality on others who follow and trust you and motivate them to do the same...

All because you think you're right and they're wrong... And you refuse to let things play out in a path you disagree with.

This scene is so perfect because it's so simple. The big evil bad of the series is just a grown kid who wants things her way or the highway.

"Chainsaw Man doesn't spit, doesn't wear clothes, every action he does should be chaotic..."

It's such a beautifully perfect display of the ugliness of entitlement, and all done with such simple actions and simple lines.

This is what good writing should be. Conveying big impactful messages by making use of effective methods that make it easy to process and digest.

"I don't Know- Pi..." (Takopi's Original Sin)

This the climax of the manga Takopi's Original Sin.

Our little octopus guy with God-like powers is confronted by his best friend with the question of why does she have to suffer? Why couldn't she be happy? What did she do wrong? What should she have done? Why isn't a space alien octopus with a time-traveling camera (this manga was weird...) able to fix all her problems? What's the answer?

And that's just so relatable. We want our pain to have a deeper meaning, to believe we're not suffering in vain, that there's a bigger reason, and that someone out there knows this reason, and that we'll one day find that person and they'll make everything make sense to us.

And he just replies... He doesn't know.

He doesn't know how to fix her life, how to solve her problems, what she should have done... He just doesn't know.

Sometimes life simply has problems that we won't be able to solve and hardships that we won't be able to avoid. We can try our best to avoid it, but the more time, energy, and effort we spend trying to run away from an unescapable pain, more time we lose that could have been used to moving on.

Maybe there is a bigger plan, maybe every struggle we face does have a deeper meaning or has an easy solution that could have solved it all... But who can tell that we will be able to figure it out?

There are some pains that we just need to accept. Sometimes we have a little pet, or friend, or parent that we wish we could keep by our side forever, but we just can't. We have to say goodbye at some point because life goes on.

It's a painful part of life, but it doesn't have to be all there is to life.

"It was my desk" (Silent Voice)

This is the closest I ever got to crying while reading a manga... And I don't know why.

It's the scene where the bully kid from Silent Voice, after weeks of spotting the girl with hearing disability from his class arriving early every day to clean one of the tables of the room because it kept getting filled with awful messages from the other kids, and after her leaving the class, finally notices that the table she was cleaning all this time was actually his.

This was such a whirlwind of emotions.

The realization that the people you trusted were actually betraying you, the realization that the girl you were hurting not only didn't hold any grudge but actually considered you someone dear. Dear enough to be worth going through the trouble of hiding these messages every day.

The realization that the person you thought was weak was in fact so strong, and that you who you assumed were strong was actually so weak.

This is one of the best and one of the biggest reality checks I've seen. Having to accept how small, fragile, vulnerable, and misguided you are, and that the person you believed was so far behind in the race of life was actually miles and miles ahead and you just have so much damn catching up to do.

When people say "coming of age" story, this is what comes to my mind. A kid finally understanding what a real adult is, and the he isn't it, but not only that, understanding that this is what he needs to be. What he WANTS to be.

Learning what it means to be a good person, to be better, and wanting that for yourself as well.

What a powerful scene.

"Stop Faudo, Leo" (Zatch Bell)

And to end things on a lighter note, my all-time favorite scene from Zatch Bell, aka, the one that happens RIGHT AFTER THE ANIME TAKES A DIFFERENT DIRECTION!

For those that don't know, the Zatch Bell author broke his hand during the production of the anime so they had to create an original story to fill up what happens with the conclusion of the arc since they had no manga to adapt... And the filler starts literally before we get to this scene. It's literally the start of chapters that never got adapted, and it is my favorite scene!!

In Dragon Ball terms, this is as if you stopped adapting the manga right before Android# 16 gets killed by Cell and an anime original content is used instead where Gohan wins with the power of friendship or something... Let that sink in.

But anyway, the scene itself...

This is where the heroes get informed that the villains of the arc are gonna use their big FU weapon called Faudo to destroy Japan out of vengeance because the heroes placed a device inside the weapon that will make it vanish in a matter of hours.

The villains capture the heroes and try to force them to turn off the device while the heroes try to force them to turn off the weapon.

And I just love the difference between the ways they talk.

The villains act all sophisticated trying to act polite as if they were closing a business before ordering the waitress for the check so they can go home, while the heroes just act like they are possessed by some sort of entity.

They don't even try to hold a conversation, they just go "Stop the weapon! Stop the weapon!! STOP! THE! DAMN! WEAPON!"

You can feel how in their heads nothing else matters, the entire world around them vanishes, and their only thing they can think about is making sure the people from Japan stay safe.

And this is what I love about the heroes in Zatch Bell, they always put the innocents first.

The big focus of Zatch Bell is the theme of empathy and sympathy. People connect with each other and they feel each other's pain, struggles, goals, wills, fears, and joys.

This is a series that shows the importance of socializing and learning what it means to coexist with other people and the impact that can have on you and you can have on others.

Heck, the big goal of the main character is just to make sure a little girl doesn't have to cry again.

Everything is about understanding how the pain of others also matters and how you can have the power to make a change, and this scene where the heroes are just on autopilot, totally focused on making sure nobody gets hurt again feels like the culmination of that sentiment.

This is why I love this series, why I love these characters, and why I always try to tell myself I'm not the only one that matters in this world, no matter how much I want to sometimes, and that if I can do something for others, then maybe I should.

If you're able to make someone's day better, no matter how little you think you can do for them, always take the chance to risk it and do it, because you never know how big of an impact it might have.

You always have more power and strength than you think you have!

Anyways... That's it for now. Feel free to reblog this with your favorite manga moments that meant something to you if you feel like it.

Have a nice day!

[blacky-nikki-art]

The Minotaur Maze Chapter 1 - The White Light The place of action is between Warmind and Forsaken DLCs, if you're wondering.

Eyy... I found a while to finish it, but IDK when the next chapter will be shared.

Yes, my eng is bad. I decided I don't want to be a perfectionist this time and just have fun...?

I love the design of the cover page for this fanfic. It gonna change the color palette depending on the illustration inside. And yes, I wanted the pic had a different style than the art style in my gallery. I hope I won't regret it...

Feel free to ask if you wanna.

The story under

The European Dead Zone, in short EDZ, was one of Iberis-3's favorite places to spend free time. Spring has already begun in the nearby forests and abandoned villages. Everything was in countless shades of green. Plants were blooming like crazy using almost every color that existed.

It was no different in his greenhouse. The virginia creeper growing on the building turned green and grew even bigger. Plants sown sprouted and grew towards the sun, getting longer each day. Iberis that evening was focused on writing notes in notebooks. The light of the lamp on the old table seemed to illuminate the greenhouse, giving a soothing and calm mood to this place.

Eva watched him from above. She was sitting on one of the shelves between stacked with books, notebooks, and other notes. She followed with her pink eye what her warlock was writing down in the notebook.

“Your handwriting is ugly”.

“I know, but no one will ever read it anyway”.

“Never say no,” Eva mocked at him.

"If they do, they're unlikely to be able to do it again, no matter what." He looked up at Eva, stopping writing.

“You should show this to the other warlocks in the Tower. We'll find out if you're right”.

“No.”

“Oh, c’mon! I dare you”!

“NO,” Iberis sounded pissed here.

“Ok, ok…” Eva rolled her eye.

Iberis stretched in his chair. He looked at the plants on the desk. He stretched out his hand towards one of the buds turning slowly from green to white. Exo's hand glowed with white light. It moved like smoke, rising up and gone to nowhere. It was accompanied by small dots that appeared and disappeared every now and then like glitter. Eva, at the sight, rose from the ledge to be able to see better.

Iberis touched the bud gently with his finger. The light moved onto the plant and was drawn inside. A few moments passed and the flower fully bloomed, revealing a snowy white. “Peony?” Eva asked, flying down to him.

“Yes,” Iberis continued to stare at the plant. “You know I like them.”

Eva turned her gaze to a flower like him. They were silent for a moment.

“I think … I think that if you shared your knowledge with others, maybe they would help you,” the little ghost again tried to continue the previously raised topic.

“I've already looked for information in libraries, if was or is there any guard with similar abilities,” Iberis spoke to her after a moment. “There wasn't a single mention. Most are just about the battles, weapons, and discoveries of the Golden Age. Almost nothing about botany. Anyway, even if…” He fell silent.

“Even if?” Eva flew closer.

“What would I say to them?” He looked at her. "Instead of researching something useful like Asher Mir or Osiris, I spend my time on nonsense."

“Nonsense?”

Iberis sighed, trying to collect his thoughts.

“You know people take it a bit like… A womens hobby or something elders… I don't really want the other guardains to see me as some stupid fantasy fairy either. It does not work like that.”

“You're being dramatic again”.

"No." He looked at her. "Until I understand it better, I'd rather keep it a secret."

"I don't think I can convince you," Eva muttered.

"Not today," he laughed at her.

"And you've been playing around with 'you know'”.

“Oh this…” Iberis grabbed his neck. “‘Being Toph’?” He smiled at her.

“YES!” Eva flew up. “This is great! Think if you did that to a titan on a crucible! THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!”

beris laughed again at this, looking away at a nearby flower pot. Something grew in it, but unfortunately it died. Only potting soil remained.

“Look,” Iberis took the pot in his hand. He raised his free hand above the soil in the flowerpot. The same as before happened. The whole hand glowed with white light. The same thing happened with a clod of soil in a pot. After a moment, a pillar of the compacted ground came out of it. "It takes a lot of energy." Iberis lowered his hand. “I don't know what I'm doing wrong”.

''It can be improved …Slowly.” Eva looked at him. “But that big rock in the garden is great. I'm telling you, once you master it, everyone will be shocked!”

“If I master it…” muttered the warlock and lost his enthusiasm. “I don't know how to say it but … This play with plants and soil is terribly tiring,” he put down the pot. “Even for exo, we feel it less than humans and the awakened…”

“I noticed a long time ago. If you spend too much time on it, you sleep more, and you're generally like… I don't even know how to put it. Physically tired? I guess that's the wrong term…”

"I need to take a break before we get back to the Tower. What am I supposed to tell Zavala? I've been taking care of flowers over the days off and I'm tired now?”

“Well, you know… If you told him what YOU'RE doing here, then…”

“I know what you're up to, but my answer is still no.”

“How would you describe it only to ME and no one else? So far, what have you managed to… find,” Eva didn’t give up easily.

“I don’t know. It’s too much. …but I also don't want to be like Asher and his countless books about Vex from Io. I guess only people obsessed like him read it. He probably wouldn't like the way I take notes and why I do it at all. ‘Will this save our galaxy’? I DON'T KNOW”.

“But what would you say to ME? ME!” She flew closer to him as he arranged the books in a pile. The largest was at the bottom and the smallest at the top.

"That I'm not some stupid fairy or boring-beautiful elf who can do magic. I won’t make a whole oak forest out of one acorn. It doesn't work like that and I doubt it ever will.”

“All right, all right. So… What more would you say? It's a really nice start that explains a lot of things but… What's next?”

Iberis put his hands on the desk so that the wood creaked. After a while he began to say: “The light I use is not like the ones used by the guards. Void, arc and solar. Not fit for combat. It's more of a kind of… Booster, battery, 'fast charging'. I can accelerate the growth of the plant and control its appearance or stage of development to some extent, but there are also great limitations to this. If the environmental factors don't match its requirements, then I don't expect good results…”

“Okay, but now say it that everyone understands,” Eva interrupted him because… She no longer understood him.

Iberis-3 sighed. But then he picked up a pot of peonies on the desk.

“Look, it's a peony, from Latin 'paeonia'. A popular garden flower. The Last City is full of them. Peonies like the soil to be so-called 'acidic', 5-6ph, if I remember correctly… Anyway, if I plant it in a different type of soil, it won't bloom even with my support. I can't make it do what I want without providing the conditions it needs." He put the plant back in its place. “Same with fruiting species. I can get them to bloom but they will never bear fruit. I won't pollinate them. That's what wind and insects are for. However, if this happens, I’ll speed up the development of the fruit to maturity. However, I don't do it because fruits taste like paper or has no flavor. I don't know about the nutritional values and if it's not harmful to ordinary people at all, but you know … I'm a robot and a guardian protected by my light,” he spread his hands. “There are so many other things I could talk about for hours”.

"What you said is a nice start," Eva flew closer to him. “What about ‘be like Toph’? "Uh…" He looked at her slightly confused. "I just visualizes it in my head and… This is actually happening somehow. Probably I need to read about the types of soil ‘cuz maybe it also has some meaning …” he pondered. “It was the same with plants. I had fun at the beginning and then … Somehow it just went,” he spread his hands helplessly. Eva looked up at the patched glass roof of the greenhouse. The first stars were already appearing in the sky.

“Sometimes I'd like to ask the Traveler how it terraformed a planet…” Iberis spoke again. “Maybe that would make it easier for me.”

“Have you had any dreams with it lately?”

“Since it was wounded in the Red War, it has been silent. Ikora has exactly the same as she once mentioned.

“Does she know about your dreams?”

“No, and I don't want her to know.”

“Why?”

“BECAUSE NO”.

Eva jumped back abruptly hearing the annoyed voice of her guardian.

“Sorry," Iberis wiped his face by hands. “It just annoys me for so long. Why did the Traveler give me these powers? Why didn't I ask the Speaker about the Traveler when he was still alive? I feel like I'm just wasting all these… Chances."

"Hey, you've already done a lot yourself already." Eva approached him again. "If there really wasn't someone like you before, I don't think they'd help you. You worked it out yourself and you're still working. Remember that you’re a young guardian. I resurrected you for the first time a few years ago. A lot of warlocks with achievements like Ikora or Asher have been around for a hundred or two hundred years. Please, don't be so hard on yourself.”

“Don't get me wrong…” began the white exo. “Someday I’ll tell others about it, but I don't feel like I'm ready for it now or it would it be a good time. I want to understand it better before I do it. Ok?” "Okay," Eva replied. “I'm just worried about you. What if you'll be never ready according to you? What if it's an endless excuse? Your perfectionism and 'what other people will think' will finish you off one day.”

Iberis fell silent and looked at the floor of the greenhouse. It was a good point.

“Hey BeeBee,” Eva flew up to him, nudging him gently on the head. “Go to sleep. You need to rest. I must have tired you too much with this conversation. You've already been working hard in the garden all day.”

Iberis was silent again.

"I have a mess in my head as hell," he finally said.

“Then what are you waiting for? Go to sleep. Now”

[egg-emperor]

I hate to ask this, but do other eggman enjoyers... Want him not to be evil? I mean this in the most respectful way, but eggman doesn't have a whole lot going on canonically besides being evil. If someone doesn't like that part what part are they into?

I regret to inform you that it's been a very shockingly controversial aspect of his character in recent years, despite him being the main villain of the series and it confuses and frustrates me to no end lol. I think part of it is because of small things outside of the game canon media, where he has vastly different portrayals and isn't anywhere near as evil. Which is all fine and good for them to like of course but then they dislike and can't accept that the original Eggman in the games has always been pure evil without any genuine good morals and traits, and no chance of redemption. And they'll get mad and judge one's character over those who actually like it.

And as a result of them liking those lesser evil versions of him more, they will attempt to ignore or highly misinterpret Eggman's scenes in the actual games, because he's one of the most unpopular versions for actually being a lot more evil and doing so is the only way they can like him there at all. And if someone actually likes that he's evil and chooses to acknowledge and embrace those things and correct the misinformation instead, they will tell them to stop ruining their fun and accuse them of being a bad person for caring. I've unfortunately been a target of this for appreciating his evil and making passionate analysis and writings based on that.

Eggman has become the subject of a lot of tropes based around giving him redeeming qualities that he doesn't have that doesn't make sense for the character he was established to be and has remained consistently so. The most popular fanon Eggman interpretation is vastly different from the game canon and liking him as he appears in the games and expressing that openly gets you alienated. It's at the point where I'm being kicked out of the fandom by newer fans that have only liked him for as long as the nicer versions and fanon of the character has existed and some older fans that latched onto them while ignoring and misinterpreting game canon.

And yeah you're absolutely right and that's especially wild about it, he doesn't have anything going on canonically in the games that doesn't involve his evil in any way at all. Even if people like his charming funny and casual moments, his evil is still a part of everything he does, it defines him, his personality, his actions, his beliefs, even his humor. He was even given the first name "Ivo" because its pronunciation is supposed to sound like "evil"! So his name is literally "evil" and 99% of what he does on screen in the games is evil - yet that's controversial, disliked by Eggman fans, and it gets fans that actually enjoy it shamed. It's so ironic.

I can't imagine that fans of him enjoy actually consuming the game media much when they don't actually like anything he's doing. And I don't know what they actually want him to do, if not be evil because they want him to become a better person despite everything he does coming from the fact he's evil, his entire character is built around it as the villain. In all the games where he doesn't have an active villainous role, he's just sat there doing nothing. If he somehow stopped being the villain after 30 years then he'd barely be used as a character anymore. I don't think that's worth occasional scenes of nice pure wholesome Eggman for people to coo at.

All of the things that make Eggman so charming, entertaining, and lovable all stem from his evil and it's involved and evident in every aspect of his characteristics and actions. He's a very evil and selfish character that will gladly do terrible things to accomplish his just as evil goals in conquering the world, he's motivated solely by that and even finds sadistic enjoyment in it. The way most the games' adventures even begin is by Eggman kicking it off with another evil scheme. It's a very important part of his character at the very core and it's important to the overall plot in most games, nothing would be the same without it, there'd be no conflict and nothing interesting left.

It saddens me that it's something that's so disliked or ignored by fandom but you know people can be when it comes to villains, they don't like it when they're genuinely evil and don't have good redeeming traits so they can have something to be interested in and feel justified in liking them because they don't like his evil and think it's wrong to enjoy it like I do. But I love seeing Eggman being his best true self as a super evil and dangerous threat and all the thrilling badass scenes that come out of it when he's in action and being a real diabolical bastard, which is 99% of the time he's on screen, and I'll always give it the love and appreciation it deserves! 🥰💜💕

[scribbledquillz]

WIP Wednesday

Oooooo it's that time again! Thank you to @greypetrel for tagging me this week, and for being so kind and considerate - you're a lovely person and I hope you find enough cash to buy yourself a nice iced beverage of choice the next time you do laundry. <33 Thankfully this week I've been able to get some work in on the angst fic I mentioned being tempted by here, and lord am I loving regretting every second of it. :' ) Please be sad with me.

It was only when the fire had dwindled to ashy coals and the first threads of pale light began to slip above the horizon that Revka pulled away from him. The grim certainty of the night had settled into the shadows of her face, eyes which once shone brightly as polished obsidian now distant beneath a milk white haze.  "'S time, Zev." Zevran found he suddenly could not speak, his throat bound up in knots of rough spun rope. Instead he only nodded, the creases at the corners of his mouth worn in by years of laughter carved deeper by tightened lips. A hand that felt more a stranger than his own pulled a waiting bottle of brandy and two stout glasses from the bedside table. Then the slim vial he had tucked away in a drawer only the day prior, the pretty blue sheen of its glass in the dim light at odds with the nature of its contents. A voice within his mind - the piece of himself still foolish enough to pray for miracles - shook the bars he had locked it behind at the sight of the horrid, precious thing. They had staved off Death before, had they not? Why not again? The Inquisition had expanded their net of informants and scouts considerably. Avernus still carried on his studies, perhaps soon he might- He shoved the voice down. Drowned it out beneath stone and rubble and willed it to match its prison in silence. Decades of searching had turned up only dead ends and false hope. Whatever cure there was - if such a thing could exist - would not arrive in time for them. The song had become too loud, too alluring. Zevran was a selfish man, yes, but he was not cruel. Not to her. And to speak of such things now would only trouble her further at a time when she could at last begin to set her burdens aside.   Instead he poured them both a heavy measure of the brandy, setting aside his own to take up the vial in its stead. He could feel Revka's eyes on him as he pulled the stopper loose, the sharp scent of the herbs lost quickly to the warmth of the liquor as he poured them into her glass. They mixed together expertly, as he knew they would. The only sign of their presence was the empty vial and a faintly darker hue to the drink.  He forced his hand to offer it to her even as he felt the last of his strength begin to fail him, the steel and leather he had placed about his heart starting to tear and crack against the onslaught of black grief. He ignored that looming threat too, trusting it would hold just long enough to see this through. What came after did not matter.

Tagging: @blarrghe, @heniareth, @siriskulksnerding @oxygenforthewicked, @rosella-writes, @demandthedoodles, @transprincecaspian, @cullenvhenan, @wild-houseplant, @icylook, @bumblewarden, @asaara-writes, @melisusthewee , @m-m-m-myysurana , @shivunin and YOU. <3

[sailorblossoms]

Every time I'm casually reminded that Simon and Agatha had sex I quickly purge my "suddenly I regret learning english" feelings by pointing out details about the way Simon, like me, would rather pretend this never happened, (I'm joking, but I'm also kinda not? Simon's behavior around this is part of why I'm so put off, because unlike Simon I will sit down with it to unpack it and I've spend so much time doing so by this point that my head instantly goes there. A simple joke about it and a bitch needs A Moment)

So here's something about writing from my drafts:

From a writing perspective, it's so much easier to have Simon think "sex with Agatha was underwhelming/dissapointing/unwanted" or "I've sex with Agatha but..." to establish a comparison, but notably, Simon's mind in awtwb can't actually go there, not even when it's unavoidable in order to say something. The one time he talks about it, we're outside of his head, and we see him power through this conversation with great discomfort and difficulty, and challenging assumptions and expectations (I have a draft about expectations, I think too much I tell u).

Simon doesn't say "Baz is cleaner while hunting when we don't talk about me having had sex with Agatha," nope, he goes "when we don't talk about past sexual partners." He purposely removes the concept from memories and from specific people by making it into something more clinical and abstract. It's so removed, that he thinks in plural. He says partners, before correcting himself to partner. This is very intentional, and it's coming from not wanting to associate anything sexual especifically with Agatha, someone who Simon never expresses anything remotely sexual towards (yes, I'm counting the inanimate objects comment, I've made at least 2 post about it. Have i told u i think too much?). The idea makes him uncomfortable. I've seen readers being perplexed and saying "continuity errors" because Simon thinks "I've only been been kissed in the lips" in CO, which is directly contradicted by Agatha in awtwb. But even then, it makes sense within the text when you consider the mental gymnastics he makes to avoid associating Agatha with anything sexual alongside Simon not thinking about it ever. It all tells you that Simon pretends it never happened/has completely pushed out what Agatha describes out of his head.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the paragraph where Simon makes the comparison because he's noting how different it is when you actually want it it's so damn clever. It's brilliant writing. Again, it'd be so much easier to write any variation of "sex with Agatha wasn't like this" but Simon never gets anywhere near to think about "sex" and "Agatha" in a sentence, that's how uncomfortable it is (when it is said we're outside of Simon's head and he's not alone!). Instead, we get that with Baz: he's so turned on, so in love, and he actually wants it. Paragraph structure helps you fill in the blanks: with Agatha, it wasn't like that. He wasn't turned on, he wasn't in love, he didn't actually want it.

Again, we get this information through structure. What Simon actually thinks is "with Agatha—" and immediately and forcefully shuts down that thought. He wants nothing to do with it. He says "never mind, it doesn't matter." He's not only closing the door on that here, he's also telling us that he doesn't embrace this, not even as an experience that's in the past, but rather: he wants to leave the experience behind because he doesn't want it in his head or as any part of his life. It's the completely opposite of a treasured memory or experience that he considers "a part of life" or something like that. He wants it out. He doesn't even want to dedicate it a complete, concrete thought.

[108garys]

House of Ashes/Thedas AU: "orders"

So this has been sitting here since I posted the last part partially because I wanted to write the next part(I wrote, just not that part 💀) and partially because I feel like this isn't as strong as the earlier parts(the first scene was originally from Jason's pov but it wasn't working for me so I rewrote it), just been feeling like I want to throw this one out there already

I think out of all the characters joey is the one I've taken most creative licence with and I do hope my attempt to make Rachel come across as intimidating wasn't too cringe lol(part 1 part 2 part3)

tag list: @kassiekolchek22 @leevila-today @disabledbears @ultrabananapudding @seraphjewel @delurkr

(9:34/Dragon-Orlais)

The Rivaini made his way through the bustling streets of Val Royeaux, he felt at home despite never  visiting the city prior; passers-by payed him no mind. He and three of his fellow grey wardens had received orders to come here and await further instructions and as he chatted with a delightful redhead he got what they were waiting for. 'Meet me at the Grand cathedral at noon' _Seeker King; other than that the note was light on details but it meant their down time over.

“Jason, we got orders!” The Ferelden turned with about a dozen children. “I’m watching this!” He gestured at a puppet show depicting the final battle of the fifth blight. Nick tried to withhold his judgement as he continued, poorly if Jason’s face was anything to go off. “We’ve been assigned to work with a Seeker.” He added holding up the note, at that Jason got up from his seat with a concerned look on his face. “Maker’s balls Nicky! Do you even know what Seekers do?”

“My Gran said a lady Seeker saved the old Divine from a hoard of dragons.” A small girl answered for him beaming at his side, Jason smiled and thanked the child before following the battle mage. Taking the note and reading over it he explained, “Seekers are to Templars what Templars are to mages.” Coming from a former Templar, Nick knew he should take it seriously but instead he rolled his eyes. “No wonder you’re scared, worried the big bad Seeker is coming to lock you in a tower?” As playful as his tone was the, Nick had spent his entire life evading that very fate and of the two of them Jason was the only one who had seen the inside of the circle of Magi and that didn’t end well… “This is serious Nick,” Jason lowered his voice as they passed a group of masked women, “Seekers only show up when something is very wrong and you’d be smart to be cautious too; heard they’d light up the lyrium in folks to get their way, set your fucking blood on fire!”

“Bull shit.” Nick refused to believe that, fortunately Jason’s attempts to argue were cut short as the other two wardens came into view. Merwin was haggling over parts for his traps and Joey was sitting on the ground petting the smallest most pathetic dog he’d ever seen. “I swear to the Maker Joey, if that’s someone’s pet I will uninvoke the right of conscription!”

“You can’t do that, besides it’s not stealing if he likes me better than the Shemlen.” The Dalish elf loved animals and didn’t care for human authority, Joey had been conscripted six months ago after a fight broke out over this very thing and he hadn’t regretted his actions in the slightest. “Don’t mind our former Templar, he’s got his small clothes in a twist over the Seeker.” Nick informed the others. “Seeker? What’s that?” The elf looked up as the Dwarf finally joined the conversation. “They’re the Chantry’s secret army, answerable only to the Divine,” he handed a pair of spectacles to Joey, "Here, these are nicer than your old ones.”

“Ma serannas, Merwin,” the two weren’t officially together but Nick thought Joey made the old man better, softened his edges, “I thought the Templars were the Chantry’s army?”

“See the thing is Templars do their work out in the open, Seeker’s disappear problems, only show up to investigate when things go really wrong, they call themselves the Seekers of Truth ironically.” Nick didn’t like the sound of that and neither did Joey; the elf looked concerned that the human faith had double the military arms he’d thought it had. “So like followers of Dirthamen, keeper of secrets?” he tapped his cheek thoughtfully, Nick supposed his tattoos were related to that elf deity, but his mind was elsewhere. Jason gave a small nod, “Yeah, something like that…”

“Do you think we're in trouble for…?” He could see the homestead burn when he shut his eyes, Maker could Seekers over rule the right of conscription!?- Jason’s hand landed on his shoulder as he spoke. “Nah, Seekers are above that sort of shit but that don’t mean we can relax,” the Ferelden looked each of them in the eye before continuing, “We’re meeting a Seeker within the hour and what do I got? An illicit tourney champion, a Dwarf who’s bared from the harbour without a full accompaniment of guards to keep an eye on him and Joey if you don’t put that thing back where it came from-“

“I thought a Ferelden would be happy with a hound.” the elf defended scooping the little dog in his arms as he stood up. “That’s no Mabari, it’s closer to a cat,” The Ferelden’s face broke into a mischievous grin, “…Unless you wanna keep it as bait.” The former Templar snickered as Joey immediately set the dog down and watched as it scampered away…

“Right, now that that’s sorted time to go meet the Seeker.”

--

“Is this normal?” Joey felt out of place in the large ornate room with its history portrayed in glass murals, tapestries, the gilded face of a woman who reshaped the world staring solemnly down from her pyre; he’d never been inside a chantry before and the quiet was wrong. A human priestess exchanged a few words with Jason before ushering them into a side room, he’d never thought about how the Ferelden was technically part of the Andrastian chantry before joining the order.

“Not once in my decade of service have I ever been set up to meet a Seeker.” Merwin answered already headed to a table with small assorted treats laid out. The small room had altogether too many thick velveteen curtains for the elf’s liking, even areas that couldn’t have contained any windows were draped in the gaudy red fabric. Jason left his shield on one of the chairs and started giving one of his ‘Keeper talks’ as joey called them, the elf was reminded of the paternal lectures his clan would endure on a regular basis. “Now we don’t know anything about this person or what their agenda is so I want yous boys on your best behaviour and pray to the Maker they’re not insane,” joey began to protest but the former Templar cut him off, “No not you Joey, just keep a lid on the dalish stuff until we figure out what they’re after.”    

“Oh man we’re gonna be killed aren’t we!” Nick, the only mage in their group was beginning to understand Jason’s fear. “That depends…” A woman spoke, drawing a dividing curtain; she had a large white eye on the breastplate of her pitch black armour, her blonde hair braided into a neat bun, she continued coolly as she walked among the spooked wardens, “If you cooperate and everything goes smoothly, you just might live.” The Orliesan woman picked up Jason’s shield tracing a finger over the symbol, “An upturned flaming sword, the heraldry of Ferelden’s Templar order…” She returned it asking, “Kolchek, that’s an unusual name for a Ferelden, relatives in the free marches?”

“Yes ma’am.” He stood to attention as the woman got in his personal space, Seekers were already frightening Joey more than expected. “And if I’m not mistaken you served in Kinloch hold?” her black eyes seemed to pierce the man’s soul. “For eight years.” She stepped back from him. “My condolences.” The elf was terrified to ask what she was referring to…

“Nicholas Kay, an apostate,” the woman really seemed to enjoy making grown men squirm, keeping her gaze fixed on Nick she addressed Jason, “Tell me Templar, do your Grey Warden vows take priority over open apostasy?”

“There are no apostates in the wardens, whatever he was before he’s affiliated with our order now ma’am.” She turned as Merwin spoke up before his turn to get chewed out. “Merwin, Surface Dwarf and more specifically of Antiva city,” he held out his hand to her, “I got conscripted about a decade ago when I set fire to three separate Orliesan port authority vessels back in my lyrium smuggling days.” She ignored his hand nodding to him and now it was Joey’s turn. She spoke his true name and the name of his clan, how could she even know that? “I don’t see how a simple pet thief ended up with this crowd and so young.” The elf wanted to argue that it wasn’t a fair assessment of what happened, that the Dalish didn’t really own animals the same way and he wasn’t aware human’s considered them as possessions; he thought it would be more accurate to say his 'crime' was self-defence... “Joey, it’s easier for the shem- for humans to pronounce. I’m good with a bow, Miss Seeker?”

“Rachel King, but you may call me Seeker King, or just Rachel if you prefer but never miss, madam or lady Seeker,” she glanced at Jason, “Ma’am is acceptable if you really can’t help yourself.” The Ferelden averted his eyes, “Getting to the point, I’m tasked with investigating the trail of the Hodgson expedition that vanished into the deep roads at the turning of the age. Recently there’s been other disappearances along their last known route.”

“My task is to find out why and solve the problem if possible, for that I need your particular skills,” She looked at each of them as she spoke, “Our entrance is in Nevarra, we’ll first travel to a fort on the far side of the boarder and there further solidify plans with my associates. We leave in three days, I expect you at the main gate by dawn. Dismissed."

And as abruptly as she’d appeared, the Seeker was gone. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Jason.” Nick looked as if he’d seen a demon and Joey wasn’t sure he hadn’t…

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I've started to write a couple of posts about more substantive things in the Robins/James radio show I've been listening to, posts that talk about the actual quality of the content and the comedy, but I can't think of how to say what I want to in those, so in the mean time, I'd like to instead make a post about this thing John Robins tends to do that keeps me awake at night. It's not important or relevant to the comedy, really. But it does stick in my brain and I'd like to get rid of it, please.

Okay, a big part of John Robins' "thing" as a comedian is talking candidly about shame and regret and generally feeling like an idiot, in ways that range from lighthearted to harrowing. He can be very relatable in talking about feeling ridiculous amounts of guilt over things that objectively weren't all that bad, but you look back at yourself after and wonder what the fuck you were thinking, especially if you happen to be a person who finds things scary when you're sober but who also likes to get drunk a lot and when you're drunk these things seem less scary (and by "these things" I don't mean, like, drunk driving, I mean like talking to someone you don't know well) and then you get sober and look at what you did and absolutely hate yourself for it. The previous sentence would have worked fine if written in the first or the third person so I split the difference and went with second, it's fine, I'm not projecting too hard on to someone's comedy material or anything.

So John Robins can get harrowingly relatable in stories like that, carefully written ones woven into his polished award-winning stand-up hours, and that's great. But every once in a while, on his radio show, he'll drop in a story on the subject that hasn't been carefully polished or planned, it's not stand-up material, it's just sort of casually mentioned and somehow the casual nature of telling it makes it even worse. Forget Peep Show or The Office or Partridge or whatever other cringe comedy is out there - I have never cringed so fucking hard in second-hand horror as when John Robins drops some little story of a time he got drunk and talked too much and too sincerely about something that's way too emotionally important to him to someone whose response is anywhere from vaguely baffled to actively put off by his enthusiasm.

I mean, the first one was rough, but Jesus Christ, that second story. How the fuck do you sleep at night? If I did that I'd never sleep again, it would keep me awake every day forever. At least now, while I am lying awake at night feeling like an idiot for every time I have expressed too much of my disproportionate enthusiasm to people, I can tell myself, at least I didn't email it to any comedians I'm a fan of (I mean I mostly haven't, one time I said something to Mark Watson in a Twitter message when he'd solicited Twitter messages about his mailing address, and I used Twitter for the first time ever to send the requisite mailing address information but I also used the opportunity to add a couple of sentences about how amazing a comedian I thought he was right from the beginning of his career, I then could not look at the website Twitter or at myself in the mirror for about a year, there's also the time I met Josie Long and the time I met Grace Petrie and both times I was genuinely incoherent, but so incoherent that it almost worked in my favour, I probably said something embarrassing but luckily I don't think I of them understood most of what I was saying, aside from getting that I was very excited to meet them, oh also there was the time I emailed Stuart Goldsmith and then I couldn't listen to the Comedian's Comedian podcast for months because it would remind me of what I'd done).

And they're little things, mostly, the stories in those Robins clips. Not as important as the ones that become his stand-up stories. More everyday, but that might be what makes them worse, the way horror hits harder if you can inject it into the mundane. Jesus. We all do this, right? Try to keep a lid on how disproportionately deeply things emotionally affect us and hate ourselves for it every time we lift that lid, especially if there was alcohol involved? Relatable comedy. Comedy-horror.

[franstastic-ideas]

The Pokemon fandom is ridiculously huge, and it often takes years for people to fall into niche circles and for those fans to start posting on their blogs, until then one is left poking around dead blogs trying to poke some life back into them bc at one point the OP cared about this topic and turns out, they still do! They just gave up from the silence of the void. It's also majorly teenagers everywhere. Very talented artists, great ideas, but Dear Lord Are They Opinionated. And nobody wants to feel shamed by a bunch of teenagers bc they're VERY strict on how someone should read characters and their relationships or darker topics/the villains/taxes (which are literally IN the game and spin-off series themselves) I mentioned taxes there bc I for the life of me cannot find that post talking about the men in black suit trying to collect taxes in ORAS. (I love ORAS it's so fun there is SO much going on. I'm very insane about Pokemon Lore across the first 3 Gen they're my playground. It all connects together, ALL OF IT. NPC dialogue my beloved.) All this to say, I am very happy to see someone just doing their thing online. I literally could care less what someone does but some people will burn you at the stake over it. Sending a bouquet of flowers to you and all your awesome mutuals. You've got an ally and future fan of your AU here for sure.

This unfortunately has been an ongoing issue, and not just in the Pokémon fandom either.

Many artists and writers have stated they practically have to beg for positive feedback on the works they've poured all their passion into, and more people have become entirely too comfortable being entitled and rude to creators.

I write the stories I want to read first and foremost, I am my target audience, but it truly can be disheartening when you've poured a countless amount of time and effort into an idea, and then receive either silence (likes are silence) or hatred.

And it is my deepest regret to inform you that it isn't just teenagers who are behaving this way.

I received harassment not long ago from someone in their twenties for shipping Volo with an aged up Akari. They demanded I pair him with a reader insert or OC instead, as though the protagonists aren't essentially player inserts or OCs with a preset design.

I refused to entertain their nonsense, they threw an even bigger tantrum in response, then I blocked them and happily continued to post about Wieldershipping.

On a lighter note, I was just speaking to a friend of mine the other day about Hikari/Akari being an adult woman in Sisterhood ("She does her Pokémon taxes"), and then we were saying how terrible it would be if not even the world of Pokémon were free from taxes.

It's been a few years since I've played ORAS, so the men in black demanding tax money slipped my mind. Now that it's been mentioned though, I have a vague memory of it being rent money they were trying to collect instead?

But thank you so much Talkative and Mysterious Anon for showing such interest in my ideas! I have plenty more.

[willel]

Maybe people get defensive about head canons and theories sometimes because it implies you think that the creators made a mistake to create the story and dynamics that they did. That what we saw on screen as far as character dynamics was a mistake in a way, if that makes sense? Idk. Perhaps, when theorizing about the potential of twins (based on what little we have), it can come across as that you think the show should have done that instead. Not saying you do that but maybe some defensiveness?

To follow up, not trying to say your blog or others dedicated to these characters is trying to do that, but that maybe fandom feels like it can get to a point where you're implying that the show should regret making the first season in a way? Maybe it's because I haven't been in other fandoms and not familiar with pop culture, but I just don't understand imagining what if scenarios, because why engage with the show? It sounds like you think you could do better than what we got with the dynamics.

Mmm, no, that's not the point I'm trying to get across.

When you have long ongoing shows (especially the super duper long ones), they don't plan absolutely everything from the getgo. There are some out there that do else the entire show wouldn't work (that's what I heard about Dark), but Stranger Things is no one of those shows.

Stranger Things is the kind of show that has a few through lines they follow through with every season, but they write majority of each season "on the spot" or as it comes along. Sometimes they have little accidents that work out fantastically. Other times, they make mistakes that don't really line up with everything else or they end up writing themselves into a hole or completely forget to plot out something that was so significant before. These are show writers, not gods after all. They are capable of making oopsies.

Look at Game of Thrones. Never watched that show a day in my life but I'm sure almost every fan can point out the issues it had after a couple of seasons when they had to make up stuff on the spot without source material. (Stranger Things is in a slightly better position because it IS the source material)

When they wrote season 1, I don't believe they already had the Mind Flayer planned out.

When they wrote season 2, I don't believe they had the Mind Flesher all planned out.

When they wrote season 3, I don't believe they had Vecna all planned out.

One of their favorite things to bring up is how accidental it was that Gaten and Steve's actor (sorry can't remember his name right now) happened to have a good onscreen chemistry in season 2. That certainly wasn't planned in season 1 and it's something they've decided to continue writing for season 3 and onward.

It's stuff like that that should inform you, "Yeah, they definitely had the skeleton but all the meat was kinda on the spot."

The terms plot hole, retcon, and other similar verbiage wasn't invented by the Stranger Things fandom. Every single piece of media from cartoons to live action shows deal with issues like this. Even one off movies. The amount of anime I've peeled apart and pointed out the oopsies in.... phew.

As for Will and El's potential, like i stated in a previous post, it's always been there. Do I wish there was more? Yes. But I'm not exactly advocating for all my headcanons to be real. They're "headcanons". It's fanfiction. It's fake. It's for fun. It's a "what if". Every single fanart and fanfiction that isn't a 1:1 to the show is also just headcanon, fake, and for fun.

I dunno. I think anyone getting defensive or up in arms about headcanons, theories, fanart, or playful "WillEl twins!" talk is being weird.

Obviously they aren't actually twins. They're step siblings who care about each other a lot and seem to have some kind of weird bond. I feel like the show has wasted a lot of time skirting around the edges of the supernatural plot (not just willel), time could've been spent exploring these ideas. But it's kind of whatever. We have to accept what's been given to us and fill in the rest with our own ideas, fanart, fanfiction, headcanons, and whatever else we want.

That is what a fandom is. You enjoy a thing. You make stuff because you enjoy a thing. You "fix" stuff because you enjoy a thing. I would hope most people are in this fandom simply because they enjoy the show. I hope they don't believe being part of a fandom means the show is the word of law and wanting anything different or wanting more or making up fan stuff is bad, wrong, and should be stopped at all costs because the showrunners and the show are perfect.

I've been in a many of fandoms and fandoms have always been this way. Well, in the distant past I think it was a lot less toxic because social media didn't exist and everyone was quietly chilling in their own segmented forums.

But fandom has always been about enjoying what you like. Some media only exists because someone thought, "You know what, if the story did things this way, I think it'd be more fun." Just think about how many tv shows, books, and movies have based their plot on a Shakespeare play but "better". Stranger Things itself is extremely derivative of 1970's and 80's movies, all mashed together. It's like a fanfiction of ever classic slasher supernatural horror movie.

Stranger Things is just a tv show. People need to loosen up.

[a-spell-a-rebel-yell]

September

hellooo, on-time this time! hehe i hope everyone is happy and healthy 💙

the end of September marks one month of school and my assignments are finally slowing down (re: there will be more it's just i've finished them for the moment so i can have some relax time). so, i finally got wind of the learning system here, it's student centered learning where we have to write a paper for every subject and do a presentation for every class, the profs are only there to correct us or complete what we left out. sounds exhausting (because it is!) but i think with this method we're 'forced' to gather as much information as possible because in order to do well we need enough knowledge on the topic. not to mention we're also graded from how active/responsive we are during classes. result is most of my 'free time' is spent reading 🙃 not entirely complaining because the major difference from first degree vs post grad school is now everything's more focused on the discipline i'm interested in hehe

most of my class is held online (god bless) and i'm, yet again, the one in charge of our class' Zoom account (which we buy ourselves instead of provided by the campus). i only go to the SaIemba campus once a week for weekly wire bending class. yes, ladies and gentlemen, wire bending is now taking over my bank account and i mean it literally because the pliers i have to buy cost me a loooooooot of money 🙃 i think this month i really exhausted my savings... the only relief provided for me is that for orthodontists we usually only buy these pliers once to be used for years, that's why it's important to buy high quality ones. kinda glad i bought my Coldplay Singapore tickets before this huhu

an update on my medical check-up, i finally got to see the internist and yep he said i have very high metabolism rate (everything i eat gets converted quickly into energy, not fat/body mass and i need to eat more carbs, but sadly i'm more of a beef veggies fruits person sigh) and that for my slightly anemic blood report i need to consume more blood replenishing food/supplements... these days i swear i’ve been eating more than i did years ago but i simply can't gain weight (still ranging around 41-43 kgs and never higher 🤡)

this September the class celebrated two of our members' birthdays! (again, i'm in charge of reminding everyone of someone's bday 😂) for the first one, kak Mandy's, i kinda made a cruel prank i really regret lol with everyone's help i tricked her we have impromptu on the spot zoom with our professor that required us to show our wire bending progress... she believed me and actually stayed up late to finish her work 😭 i swear i got her to stop and go back to sleep at 10 PM 🥺🥺🥺 but the surprise worked and she was actually surprised (& genuinely happy, i checked on her right after haha) to find us singing the hbd song as she entered the meeting room and sent her a lovely cake for her. the second one, kak Putri's, and this one we can no longer use the Zoom tactic again so we pushed back the surprise to our next wire bending class at uni, bought her pizza and coffee (her favs) and i think the best part is: after i checked in on her, she said she's touched by our efforts as she's never really experienced having people do this much for her. that answer stunned me in a way i get reminded again how being remembered is such a privilege, a rare thing, one's life goal? it's one of the best ways to leave no room for doubt that someone truly cares and loves you? seems like a simple gesture but woah. the impact it left? i think i've never felt more happier being able to remember people's bdays/preferences/likings, seeing how happy i can make someone feel? that's what i strive to do even more now 💪🏻

anyway, did i tell you already i'm the youngest in our class? and the oldest is literally 10 (ten) years older than me? so naturally... i'm also in charge of everything technical: starting from running our class' instagram account and teaching everyone efficient ways to use Google Docs and Slides to finish our assignments 😂👍🏻 i love getting treated like everyone’s little sister and calling everyone kakak/abang 🤣 yet somehow i love being the one people are (mostly) depending on? i like having responsibilities and being able to provide help i guess? 😂 and guess what: i actually also become the class' official editor. yep. one of the assignments given from the dean is to write this mini book (yes, book. not a paper) and she appointed me to be the editor! it's a rigorous task i need to be super diligent and attentive while proofreading and correcting the formatting, but yeah i enjoyed it. my editing hobby has leveled up to a semi official thing haha

last week of September my dad's coworkers held farewell parties (yes plural) for my dad as his last day of work in the entirety of 40+ years of career has finally come... it was an emotional night, almost everyone volunteered to give a lil speech for my dad and said how they've lost and will miss my dad dearly, even some of his lab assistants cried. because my dad was stationed on duty at St Regis hotel naturally i was tagging along, and my dad's subordinates arranged me to be the special guest and yeah. i got teary eyed too because i got to witness yet again how loved my dad is. anyways, i highkey will miss the 'side privileges' i'm so used to get for being a child of a Bank lndonesia employee HEHEHE i mean free staycation at five star hotels almost every week? health insurance (which stopped as i turn 25 huhu) and many many many others. oh well. now it's my time taking care of my mum and dad then, my dream to provide the same or even better treatments than what i received 🥺

with my dad entering retirement, now aside from school i’m swamped with packing and boxing. we’re slowly moving things back to the Cibubur house while i prepare some of my stuffs to carry to my cousin’s house. not gonna lie feeling quite sad because the benefits of having a house in the center of South Jakarta scene are endless! 😂 almost everything is within fingertips’ reach and i’m used to living in that part of the city that never sleeps. Cibubur’s pretty quiet and Bendi (my cousin’s house region) though just a few districts away from Blok M isn’t really the life of the party. i will miss Panglima Polim and everything surrounding it 🥹

last note: these days i'm feeling like life is really that unexpected? so many things i didn't even dream ever happening are thrusted onto my hands right now as we speak and they turn out to be all i've ever wanted? i think i've perfected the formula of doing good + be good + trust the timing. a simple example would be me getting back to school (you can tell i’m not done feeling super happy after getting accepted 😂) excited for more to come, major changes or challenges are welcome: bring it on! i'm ready and up for all kinds of surprises hehe

that's it for September! two months and i'll be 26... 9 months fly away just like that huh 😅 a reminder for me and everyone reading this to enjoy time as it goes, make every second count and special. see you next month!