isagrcervantes

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

Sometimes I feel that the wof fandom hates imperfect victims. I’ve seen a lot of people express hate towards Anemone, Winter, Flame, Arctic*, etc. (*foot note at bottom)

Like yeah, they can suck sometimes, but like I feel some people only like characters that come from a history of abuse if they’re almost perfect, like the DoD.

And like whenever I hear “I liked Anemone before arc 2” I can’t help but think about how she was still under Coral’s influence (and Blister’s and Whirlpool’s) and how her lashing out is heavily restricted under the threat of being punished by Coral (ie a muzzle for speaking out).

Idk sometimes I think people just don’t like the fact that characters with trauma can do bad things, especially when they have no positive outside influence to help them get out of a harmful mindset.

*Before you ask why I added Arctic or say “he can’t be a victim he just sucked!”, I’d like to say that Arctic was in fact a victim both in the Ice Kingdom and Night Kingdom.

In the Ice Kingdom, he was subjected to a cruel ranking system that constantly put pressure on him (and other icewings) to be “perfect” and his own Mother was very controlling over his life. He, himself, was placed into an arranged marriage he had no choice in.

When he ran away with Foeslayer, he was expecting freedom in a way that the Ice Kingdom couldn’t provide.

However, the Night Kingdom, while providing him a place to stay, did not hold the freedom he craved. Instead, he is constantly pressured by the society around him to do things that he doesn’t want to do (having children asap, fighting Icewings in the war, using his animus magic [Vigilance wanted to use his magic. We learn this later in Darkstalker and based on it, would be likely to try and get Arctic to use his magic to win the war if he had of agreed to work with her or lived in the palace with her]). Most Nightwings hate him in the Night Kingdom as they blame him for the war, and he doesn’t really have any other place to go to destress, not even his home has a place to cool down.

What he does still sucks, and his one truly horrible act of enchanting Whiteout is unforgivable, but tbh I don’t think he was thinking with a clear mind. By the time we actually get to him running away with Whiteout, he is seen to be desperate and paranoid. His wife is gone, he learns more and more terrible things about his son as time goes on.

I think just as how Albatross “snapped,” that point in the story was Arctic’s snapping point. He has no reason to stay, no reason to not flee. Vigilance tried to kill Darkstalker, whose to say she wouldn’t try to kill him as well?

While Arctic is certainly toxic, I think his personality in Darkstalker is often exaggerated in fanon. It’s one of those things where he gets seen as worse than what he actually is.

Also people saying that he pulls the “I sacrificed everything for you” card on Foeslayer, tell me exactly what page. Give me evidence. The worse he does that I remember is accuse her of only caring for his power, which is likely a response from her accusing him of not caring for her and her tribe. And where exactly does he blame her for him killing the Icewings in Runaway? The most he does is snap at her that he isn’t okay and that his soul is none of her concern, which she responds with “your soul is of my concern if I’m going to be with you.”

Also having your wife almost get sentenced for treason and needing to be pardoned must’ve really set the tone of how things were going to go for him.

And Prudence (Foeslayer’s mother) was the one that always looked down on Whiteout and Darkstalker being hybrids.*

.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Sabezra Week, Day 3, "Surprise!" SURPRISE CHAPTER UPDATE!!!!!

summary: sabine and ezra finally share their first kiss. unfortunately, it’s on a broadcast to every rebel cell in the galaxy. chapter word count: 1239 a/n: i decided there was no better way to celebrate "surprise" day in sabezra week than with a surprise chapter update on a sabezra fic i haven't updated since may! shoutout to the friendly and remarkable @kanerallels for betaing! taglist: @laughingphoenixleader@accidental-spice@kanerallels  @piraterefrigerator @jedi-nurse@dootchster  @lucasbridger@redroverrider  @light-umbra   @commander-tech  @jedimandalorian@notanodinarygirl  {if you’d like to be added to or removed from my Sabezra taglist, let me know!}

also on ao3!

Ch. 3 Sabine Thinks She Has Some Of The Worst Friends In The Galaxy

 The Ghost crew had stood by each other in everything, through great triumphs, devastating losses, glorious victories, crushing failures, and ground-breaking successes. The Spectres were more than just a crew, they were a family, a team that always had each other's backs, no matter what.

 So, naturally, when a personal moment between Spectres 5 and 6 was broadcast to every cell in the rebellion, the only natural response from Spectres 3 and 4 was to take advantage of the situation and make things so much worse.

 Over the years, Sabine and Chopper had grown a mutual understanding of each other, a level not only of respect, but, when they had a common enemy, camaraderie. Sabine still hadn't learned binary, but she could usually understand what the astromech was saying anyways, often simply based on inflection and context. That especially rang true now as he rolled up to her and Ezra and beeped along to the tune of a familiar schoolyard taunt, something about her and Ezra, and a Veshok tree, and "Krill-Isk-Senth-Senth-Isk-Nern-Grek."

 Sabine rolled her eyes and sighed, trying to act like Chopper's teasing was childish and pathetic and not like it took great effort on her part to bring to mind that punching the droid in the sensors would do her absolutely no good.

 "I'm a mature adult now," Sabine reminded herself, "childish taunts don't have the same effect they used to. I don't need to be embarrassed that I just kissed my best friend, and that I really enjoyed it, and that, should such an opportunity present itself again...."

 Lest her expression betray her, she cut off that train of thought.

 Her one consolation right now was that at least she was handling the whole ordeal much better than Ezra. His cheeks were flushed with a magnificent sunrise of color as Chopper wheeled back around to him, followed by Zeb giving him a pat on the back that almost knocked him over.

 She quickly turned away from Ezra, afraid that the awkward smile on his face would soon be reflected by one of her own. 

 "Play it cool," she told herself, "play it cool."

 Fortunately, at this point, all of the speeches had been concluded, and the prospect of refreshments being served in the square was apparently more interesting to the crowd gathered below than futile attempts to catch a glimpse at what was surely the hottest rebellion gossip happening on the balcony overhead.

 Which meant that, as the rest of the important rebellion heroes funneled back through the door, Sabine could make her escape and hopefully shut out all interested parties for the next three days or until this whole thing blew over, whichever came last.

 Unfortunately, the most interested party in the entire situation was Ezra, and, as luck would have it, they found themselves next to each other in the crowd.

 "So, Sabine," Ezra said.

 "Don't wanna talk about it now, Bridger," Sabine cut him off. It wasn't that she didn't want to discuss the matter with him, really. Ezra was the first person she wanted to talk to about what was on her mind. It just happened that this time he was also the last person she wanted to talk to about it. She needed time to figure her emotions out for herself, first.

 "Later, then?" Ezra asked.

 "Maybe," Sabine shrugged.

 That "maybe" should've been a "yes," or a "sure," or a "definitely," but "maybe" was easier to say. It was harder. It was stronger. It was safer. Her jaded response was an armor unto itself.

 But since when had she needed armor around Ezra? When was the last time she felt like she needed to keep her guard up around him? His compassion and wit had spent the better half of a decade wearing away at her rough exterior, until somehow she finally felt safe around him.

 Why didn't she feel safe now?

🧡.📱.💜

 Sabine missed when she was a social outcast. It certainly would've made situations like this a lot easier. She wouldn't be obligated to mingle with anyone right now if they all still hated her like they used to.

 Instead, now she had to smile and nod and thank seven dozen people for thanking her for her service to the galaxy, all the while knowing that behind their smiles was the memory of the not-so-private moment she and Ezra had shared. Most of the people in attendance didn't know Sabine well enough to broach the subject with her, of course, but there were a few notable exceptions.

 "You didn't mention there was anything between you and the Loth Rat," Ketsu said, leaning on Sabine's shoulder like an arm rest.

 "It's a recent development," Sabine said, looking away and trying to sound disinterested.

 "Well, don't look now, 'cause here he comes," Ketsu said.

 Sabine looked up and saw Ezra in the distance, shoving something into his pocket. He seemed upset, but when he looked up at her, a smile washed over his face.

 "Oh no," Sabine said, "I'm not talking to him about it yet."

 "Really?" Ketsu asked. "I'd've thought you would've gotten it over with and turned him down already."

 "Why would I do that?" Sabine asked, turning to give her friend the full face of the mandalorian rage coursing her veins, "he's a great guy, and a good friend, and he's funny and cute and kind and…."

 Sabine stopped talking when she noticed the knowing twinkle in her friend's eye. Sure, Ezra was the resident Loth Rat, but Sabine had all too easily fallen for the bait in Ketsu's trap.

 "Looks like he's growing on you," Ketsu said, as she winked and walked away.

 Sabine looked back at Ezra and saw him walking closer, close enough that walking away would be a faux pas, yet still far enough that she had plenty of time to overthink her response as he approached.

 "Hey," Sabine said, as neutrally as she could manage.

 "I know you don't want to talk about, well, you know," Ezra said, "but, uh, we're still chill to hang out, right?"

 "Uh, sure," Sabine said. Since making a slew of mistakes was pretty much keeping in theme with how the day was going, she decided not to waste time trying to stop herself from getting lost in his eyes, letting all the words those rich blue worlds said at once completely envelop her.

  "Good," Ezra said, and Sabine couldn't tell if he was even aware of the effect his tone and expression had on her in that moment, "because no matter what happens to us, I hope we never stop being friends."

 Sabine nodded, trying to find something to say that wasn't "I need you to kiss me again, right now," or anything along the same lines or even worse.

 "Yeah," Sabine smiled, despite her best effort, "me too."

 He opened his mouth as though to say something, but stopped himself, letting out a deep sigh as he did her a horrible favor and turned away from her, breaking the gaze they'd been locked in before either of them did something stupid again.

 "Glad to see we're still cool," Ezra said, scratching the back of his neck and turning away from her as he spoke.

 "Yeah," Sabine said.

 After a silence that was almost long enough to be awkward, Sabine walked away without another foolish word.

[bunji-enthusiast]

Wilt.

just thoughts based on a Daisuke-centric au idea where the crew survives their unfortunate series of events, idk if this will make sense to anyone reading this.

Life in regards to Daisuke tend's to not take it easy on him, he thinks, after that's all said and done. The electrical burns he got from the brunt of things were no help either, that just only made his conscious fear with vents worse. Ranging enough to healthy fear to just about PTSD, as the doctor had told him. Though he had the excuse to brag about having cool-ass scars, he just really wasn't feeling it. It was lucky enough that only then a few hours afterward that him and the rest of the crew was found, and of course he was always worried about them all.

But Jimmy?

Not so much, not really.

After he had found out about the misconstrued abuse, sexual assault and other things he had inflicted on the poor woman, he wasn't sure how he could have worse hatred for anyone else in that very moment he learned the information. Daisuke had his suspicions before knowing, but he just wanted to not believe it at all. Yet knowing it now and then, he couldn't just leave it be, even in the eventual stage of suspicions.

He was glad Anya had survived her attempt, even if better or worse that she had truly intended to-

Nah, he didn't want to remember the look on her face. She was just someone who was trying her damndest, even if it was in poor faults in the face of a dangerous person. She's strong, and moving on in life. She's really becoming someone her own as a career artist in nursing. He really was trying too, but he thinks he shouldn't go back up to space.

Daisuke's had enough of it for the year, he just wanted to stay on solid ground. even with the dangers of bullets, the round of chambers. He keeps thinking about that time with all those capsule bottles, the bottles of painkillers.

Oh, his head won't stop spinning, or maybe it will for another 365 days.

He thinks back to all the times that boss kept commenting about his own youth, the way boss looked, seemingly saddening at the thought of his former youth. Or maybe, he was just nostalgic.

Daisuke knew he was young- or maybe he still is technically?- for being amongst a crew around 30 to 50-year olds. Even with people aged farther in experience, he wasn't stupid. He wasn't some brat, and he wished that perhaps all of them could understand that. Even Curly, Captain Curly.

He couldn't get rid of the habit of calling him that, whoops.

Anyway, he was trying his best. Honest to god, but seriously. That god-forsaken time for an internship really beat him down, all Daisuke just wanted to do was just be alone; It's really how he can feel so unconfined.

"Daisuke?"

That was one of the first times in a long time that he's called him by his actual name.

His head lifted, eyes meeting with Swansea. Daisuke sighed a heavy breath, blinking out the tiredness in his eyes before he spoke. "Uh... yeah, boss?" He replied, setting down the donut he held in his hand, which was noticeably beginning to crumble.

Swansea's features seemed to be lifting in a hesitant grimace at the nickname, as if he knew that Daisuke was attempting to lighten the load of the atmosphere. Which, admittedly, was nice- but he seriously seemed to be exerting to much effort. Even for such a simple little thing.

"Jesus, you sure you can handle goin' to college yet?" Swansea asked, his voice gruff and really rough. Like in a way, a warm reassurance, a fatherly habit. Swansea was probably like that for his kids often, Daisuke guessed.

He nodded, shortly enough that Swansea got the memo; "Yeah, it's fine. I really need something different," The young man says. "my mom seems okay with it too." Daisuke adds.

"How is she?" Swansea asks, and that seemed okay enough to answer.

Daisuke leans back, wanting the couch to simply just take him, bring him back to a dream-land. He shifts for a moment, to make himself feel more comfortable. He crosses his arms, notably feeling the way the muscle mass shifted differently then to what it had before the Tulpar experience.

He tilts his head, "I guess she was pretty shocked to see me." Daisuke grins, almost chuckling. Gesturing with his hands as he continued to speak, "Kinda just cried for a good few minutes within seeing me, then got pretty worried about me the first few days."

Swansea nodded thoughtfully, honestly, anyone would be after hearing the news about how their kid almost nearly died in something that would've been the end of all that was involved. Something you sent your own child too, he certainly wouldn't have been able to live it down.

[reidingandwriting]

1989 (Peter Parker’s Version

Chapter One: Welcome To New York

“Welcome to New York! It’s been waiting for you”

Word Count: 2.2k

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings/Contains: Gender neutral reader (no pronouns, no use of y/n, no descriptors mentioned in this chapter), mild language, likely some OOC moments but whateverrrr

A/N: Going back to my roots and writing some Peter Parker content! I struggled for ages deciding if I wanted to write for Tom’s Peter or Andrew’s and this is based on Tom’s but trust, Andrew’s Peter Parker will get his time in the spotlight. Also for all my Deadpool & Wolverine people, I PROMISE that next installment will be out soon! I’m at 4k words and not even at the Good Part yet so I hope to have her up by the end of this week 🫶🏻

You were lost. So lost it would’ve been comical if it wasn’t your first day of class at Midtown. You clutched the schedule in your hands, looking at door numbers as you passed them. If 305 was right here, 303 across the hall, where in the hell was 304? You turned to look around the hallway, hoping to see someone who could help you and then you saw him.

Warm brown eyes met yours and you set your shoulders back before you walked over. He looked as anxious as you felt, but you hoped he would be able to help. “Hi! I’m so sorry, but I’m so insanely lost right now and you look really nice. Do you know where 304 is? I found 303 and 305 but I can’t find 304.”

“Uh, yeah! Yeah, sorry. Can I see your schedule?” You handed your schedule over to his outstretched hand and tried not to flinch when your fingers brushed his. “We have the same schedule, so you can follow me around today.” A pause. “Only if you want to! But it may be helpful. Having someone you can stick with today.” You watched as his cheeks grew slightly more flushed. He shifted his weight from one leg to another, like he couldn’t help but fidget.

“That would be really nice.” You smiled, hoping you came across as grateful as you felt. He ducked his head but you caught the faintest glimpse of a smile before he looked back at you.

“So, 304 is all the way down the hall. I don’t know why they did that, but.” He shrugged and together, the two of you walked down the hall.

“Thank you,” you trailed off and he introduced himself. Peter Parker, he said. You told Peter your name, feeling yourself smile as he said your name. “I’m glad I found you, Peter.” Nothing else was said as you two walked into class and after a moment of hesitation, you took a seat beside him. A minute later, someone else took a seat on the other side of you. Peter introduced him as Ned, Ned introducing himself as Peter’s best friend, and the three of you made light conversation as you worked on a writing assignment.

“Where did you move from?” Ned asked and you hummed.

“Portland. My mom got a new job at the city hospital, and we moved in a few days ago. Thursday, I think? The days have all blurred together at this point.” You chuckled. Your apartment was a labyrinth of moving boxes, having barely unpacked anything over the weekend. You just barely had all of your school things unpacked before you left for school this morning. “I need to finish unpacking, do some actual exploring. I’ve never been to New York before and now I live here.”

“Trust. Stay with us, you’ll be like a native in no time,” Ned said and you couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“Thanks.” You got through the rest of the day fairly well, even if you felt like a lost puppy trailing behind Peter. You felt lucky to have the same schedule as him, and Ned was pretty cool too. You also met a girl, MJ, who kind of intimidated you in the best way. At the end of the day, you parted ways from Peter and his friends, beginning your own walk home.

Hours later, you sat on your fire escape, sketchbook in your lap until a shadow swung past you. Was that…? There’s no way.

-

Peter didn’t mean to see you on his patrol. He had perched on a rooftop, watching over the people on the street below, and he felt a pair of eyes on him. Peter looked around as if his head was on a swivel, and then he saw you. You had a sketchbook in your lap, now dressed down in a simple t-shirt and black sweatpants, and you offered him a simple wave before you returned to your drawing. Peter found himself watching you for a few moments, watching your focus return to whatever you were drawing.

Come on, Peter, get a move on, Peter thought before he was off. He just missed you looking up, watching him with a curious gaze.

Every day for the next week, Peter saw you while on his patrol route. And every day he passed you, he couldn’t help but pause for a moment. He’d perch on the rooftop across from yours, taking a minute to just breathe and watch you. You spent a lot of time on the fire escape, he noticed. Some days drawing, some days reading. Always doing something. Today, he watched as you taped a piece of paper to your fire escape and he tilted his head. Your eyes met his (well, where his eyes are under the mask) and you tapped the paper and waved before climbing back through your window. A few moments passed before Peter moved and he swung over to your fire escape, landing quietly as he took the paper.

Peter smiled as he studied the drawing. You had drawn him as Spider-Man, perched on the rooftop he frequented. You colored the sky to resemble the setting sun, and the drawing looked as if it was glowing. Peter looked up into your window, frowning when he didn’t see you. With a soft sigh, Peter swung off to tuck the drawing into a safe place and continue his patrol route. Later that night, you noticed a sticky note stuck to your window that simply read ‘thank you’ with a drawing of Spider-Man’s mask on the bottom. The sticky note now lived on the side of your bookshelf, it being the first and last thing you saw every day.

-

You had been in the city just shy of a month before you properly met the web slinging hero. You were walking home from the library, and admittedly, you had gotten distracted and now you had no idea where you were. Everything looked somewhat familiar, but it all blended together into vaguely familiar blurs. You had no idea where you were at this point and you had started to panic when a familiar masked hero landed in front of you. You screamed, jumping back a few feet and Spider-Man frantically waved his hands.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I thought you heard me.” Spider-Man sounded as panicked as you felt and you held your hand to your chest as you willed your racing heart to settle down.

“Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man my ass, almost gave me a heart attack,” your sentence ended in a laugh as you composed yourself. “I drew you such a nice picture a few weeks ago and you repay me by scaring me.”

“In my defense, I kind of rely on my stealthiness. Can’t sneak up on bad guys if I’m noisy,” Spider-Man said and you rolled your eyes, the corner of your lips twitching up.

“What can I do for you, Spidey?” You shifted from one foot to the other, studying him. When he was swinging through the air, fighting off muggers or even worse bad guys that you had seen on YouTube, he held an air of confidence. He came up with quips just as fast as he shot webs, blocked hits, and threw punches of his own. Talking to you though? He seemed fidget-y. He rubbed at the back of his neck and rocked up on the balls of his feet before settling back down. And that voice. That voice was familiar.

“Just happened to be in the area, you looked a little lost. I’m near the end of my patrol route for the day, so I thought I’d see if you wanted an escort home.” You obviously couldn’t see his expression, but he sounded sincere- if not a little amused.

“That would be… really nice, actually. I usually know my way home better, but I went to a different library today and I thought I had only lost focus for a second, but.” You gestured around yourself. “No clue where the hell I am.”

“Welcome to New York,” Spider-Man said as he started to walk the opposite you were going. “Come on, you just missed it by a few blocks.” Together, the two of you walked back to your apartment, and you made conversation as you walked. You talked more than he did, understanding there was a lot he couldn’t share with you without risking his identity being revealed. You talked about your homework, a group project you had, and your mom’s hectic work schedule. Spider-Man spoke a little, talking about things he had seen on patrol today, and asking questions where appropriate as you talked. You thought it would feel awkward, talking to the superhero, but it didn’t feel like you were talking to a stranger. It felt as if you were talking to a friend.

Your apartment came into sight soon enough and you were relieved, but also disappointed. You had enjoyed talking to him and you were sad you had to go inside and do physics homework.

“Thanks for walking me home. I’m sure you have more important things to do, so I really appreciate it,” you said and Spider-Man shook his head.

“Like I said, I wrapped up my patrol a little early today. Got some superhero business to attend to.” He saluted and you couldn’t help but laugh. The eyes of his mask squinted and you tilted your head, surprised by how expressive his mask was. “Need a lift to your window?” Spider-Man made little hand motions, resembling how he shot his webs, and you shook your head.

“Maybe next time,” you said and he nodded. “If you’re ever around and have a minute. You know where my fire escape is. Just knock on the window if I’m not already out there. I’m home alone a lot,” you admitted. Your mom was home as often as she could, but as a doctor who worked in the emergency room, she worked odd hours. You were a pro at being alone at this point and you couldn’t fault her for it. Chasing her dream even after having you, it was commendable.

“I’ll be on the lookout for you.” Spider-Man’s head shifted slightly, looking up as if he heard something. “Duty calls. I’ll see you around.” He waved before he shot a web at a nearby building, then he was off. You couldn’t help but stare at where he stood not too long ago, thinking about the interaction you had, before you walked inside your apartment building. Odd.

-

Peter sat on your couch, working on homework when you scared the absolute shit out of him.

“Can we talk?” It only took three words for his heart to stop and he hoped he didn’t look even half as panicked as he felt.

“Yeah! Yeah. What’s up?” Peter struggled to meet your gaze and you ran your hand through your hair, a nervous habit.

“I’m gonna sound batshit crazy, but it’s been driving me crazy for a while now and I have to ask.” A deep breath. “Are you Spider-Man?”

Many emotions filled Peter at once and he picked panic as the primary emotion to feel. His hands shook and he felt frozen, yet the need to run at the same time. You already knew his secret, what was stopping him from jumping out the window and swinging away? He could probably convince May to let him stay home for a few days, avoid you a little. Instead, Peter let out a shaky breath.

“What- what makes you say that?”

“Your reaction for one. But I noticed some similarities, your behavior mostly and your voice. Come on, Peter, you’ve gotta look into a voice modifier. But what really sold me? Welcome to New York.” Peter thought back on how not even a few days ago, you were talking to him about the almost friendship you had developed with the spider hero.

“Is this normal for people here? Being friendly with superheroes?” Peter had snorted in response and said, “Welcome to New York.” You had paused for the briefest of moments, Peter almost missed it, before you laughed in agreement.

“I think that connected the dots for me,” you finished. “So… are you?”

Seconds, possibly minutes passed, before Peter spoke again. “You know you can’t tell anyone, okay?” You nodded quickly before sitting back into the couch, relaxing against the cushions.

“Thank you.” Peter tilted his head. “For trusting me. I promise, you never have to worry about me saying anything.” The two of you fell into a comfortable silence until you groaned dramatically. “Do you get number nine? Because I keep getting the wrong answer.”

“Come here, let me see.” Peter scooted closer to you and looked at your work. “Right there.” As Peter explained what you were missing, you were grateful nothing felt different between the two of you. As if the conversation never happened. You ordered pizza for dinner later than night before Peter had to go home, and you watched as he swung into the distance, waving him off. Friends with a super hero. Only in New York.

[dykekatana]

As a trans lesbian, I always find it really funny looking at media that are obviously done from a cishet male perspective. Like for example, the game 'Alpha Protocol' (2010). For context, the game refers to itself as "The Espionage RPG". As you can imagine you play as a spy and do all kinds of cool spy stuff like stopping political assassinations, planting bugs and blowing shit up.

The meat of the game however comes from its dialogue system. The various important characters from the game react to the choices you make and particularly what you say to them. This will change what they think of you, and they will react accordingly based on whether they like you, dislike you or are otherwise neutral. I could spend hours discussing the specific intricacies of the system, but you get the gist. Now, the other thing the dialogue choices affects are your romance options.

Like many RPGs these days, Alpha Protocol has multiple romantic interests for you to have your way with. Because it's incredibly cishet and you play a male protagonist, the only options are women unfortunately. Sorry to all the guy lovers out there, Alpha Protocol is not for you. Now, the romantic interest in particular I want to focus on in particular is SIE. SIE is a German mercenary in her 40s. Most characters in the game refer to her in someway as being old, ugly or disgusting. Or all three. Early in the game if you choose to flirt with her, one of the characters says: "If you hear a choking noise, it's me vomiting." Another implies that she smells like "Cat piss and tuna". For the most part the game makes it very clear to you that everyone finds SIE unattractive, and that you should to.

For reference, this is SIE:

Like, am I insane here??? She's so hot!!! And in a stereotypically conventionally attractive way too! She's just muscular and in her 40s. That's it! That's the whole reason the devs decided she was unattractive. During her sex scene your dialogue options are "No way in hell" and "Might as well". "Might as well"??? "MIGHT AS WELL"???!!! Thousands of lesbians would be ON THEIR KNEES begging this chick to bang them. Yet the protagonist is like "eh, I've got nothing better to do". And on top of that, in the sex scene he's annoyed!! She's got him tied to a table and is in lingerie and he's a bit miffed!! He doesn't react that way to any of the other love interests! (Who by the way are all in their 20s and rendered just as conventionally attractive).

Deeply deeply unserious game made by deeply deeply unserious men. Completely baffling to me.

[hauntu4ever]

Neil Gaiman was against the existence of the internet archive up until the most recent ruling against it. He’s made a turn around now that he’s apparently realized how bad this could eventually get for FF writers (due to increasingly litigious copyright restrictions being introduced) but honestly I’m really disappointed in him. He helped push the narrative that Internet Archive is stealing from authors and publishers by acting as a lending library and this turnaround of his is too little too late imo

Sources pls and thx

Also no, it's not too little too late. Unless you would rather that people never admit that they were wrong??

[aalghul]

once again thinking about jason as duke’s robin. he’s ~4 years younger than jason, and that puts him at 8-12 during Jason’s time as robin. that’s prime time to get attached to your local kid vigilante before your own life goes downhill.

and if we try to keep duke’s meeting with bruce in zero year + duke’s age (so he can remember the meeting and hold that conversation with bruce), he has to be around 8. if he starts following batman through the news at that time because of the mess that just happened, the robin he sees is probably jason. I’ve literally connected the dots

[sw4nfire]

so I made the mistake of listening to the character songs sung by the voice actors and it sparked a buggy centric mad max style musician/music au and I cant get it out of my head here is a google doc with all the details and my reasonings

I tried not to change much about one piece's wacky world since I love it so much

[sleepyseals]

[Image Description: A digital painting of a Lego Bionicle Rahkshi facing left and stooped over as if tracking its prey along the ground. The background is black with a bright green vertical shape to contrast the character in front. The Rahkshi is holding its spear in its right limb, propping its body up with it as it holds its face close to the ground. It is rendered as a black metallic material with red eyes. Its hunched shape and angular spines stand out harshly against the green background. End Image Description.]

I got a rahkshi recently and wanted to draw it so here's this - kind of an experiment with studying a real life object and how to pose it into a interesting composition and then replicating the lighting I got tired of rendering this partway through however :P

[aroanthy]

i love how fraught and complicated discourse around various utena characters ‘dying’ is when anthy is literally stabbed to death eternally by a million swords imbued with human hatred. and then utena gets stabbed to death by them also. like. ‘death’ is incredibly interesting in rgu because most of the time it’s this ambiguous figurative thing that has interesting implications re: ohtori as a closed-off world one can escape. we are all trapped in our coffins. mamiya is the only named character with a grave. nemuro memorial hall functions as one all the same. ruka is implied to have died in the hospital— was he dead all along? who was the boy we saw for these two episodes? is this dead boy the same boy, or is this just another coincidence from the shadow girls, cutting like a knife? it’s heavily implied that akio and anthy murder kanae by poisoning her, adding to the previous implication that they were poisoning mr ohtori too, but there are no perceptible consequences of this. kanae’s absence is not felt. she’s fed an apple slice. what happens to the bodies? we know what happened to the 100 boys, but what about everyone else? and so on and so forth. ‘death’ is a tricky thing in utena, i think it’s constantly functioning on figurative and literal levels in very different ways for very different purposes. dios died. dios was dying. dios didn’t die. he grew up. etc etc

[spacebugarts]

I wasn't gonna make an Indigo Park oc but then I started thinking about the theme park I went to as a kid and I got the idea of a beaver running a ride based on water flumes like Logger's Run or Splash Mountain :3

They're also based on wildlife education characters like Smokey the Bear and Ranger Rick!

[flowerakatsuka]

honse.

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 19: Lil' Beethoven (Ride 'Em Cowboy)

First of all, let this very important fact be known: the love I have for all three albums in the Lil' Beethoven trilogy cannot be overstated. I think I can safely call them my favourite pieces of art ever made. You know, when you look forward to something and it not only lives up to all your expectations but it's also just SO SO much more? Something about this neoclassical / dada / deconstruction of pop music / whatever-you-should-even-call-it approach is absolutely PERFECTLY suited for my tastes, and I didn't even know I was looking for something EXACTLY like this until I found it.

I think the circumstances of my first hearing of this album are pretty funny and something I got pretty lucky with actually (I often think about this with Sparks in general, as much as I wish I've known about them sooner I also do feel like they appeared in my life when I needed that the most. But anyway.) I was very eagerly looking forward to hearing it and finally seeing for myself what the genius of this album is all about. But I insisted that I can only do it through a physical format because yesss, let's make it even more *special*! The moment I've been waiting for! So yeah let's gooo, I need to wait until my CD arrives in the mail (that was one of the longest weeks of my life). And then I started to wonder, well, maybe I actually won't like it that much. To hype myself up to this extent and then be severly dissapointed - would have sucked!

Well, I was NOT dissapointed. Instead I was perplexed, confused, but also very intrigued and quite, ok not just quite, *completely* amazed already. That was the initial reaction and I think it's a rare but very beautiful moment when this happens - no need to *fully* grasp it right away, but enough to be all like "oh that was SOMETHING. I need more." As I said after that first listen (and I actually have my whole LIVE reaction to hearing LB written down lmao, that's how much of a big deal this was for me), I felt like it actually has to grow on me a bit still, gradually but surely with each next listen, rather than the 1st listen being THE prime listening experience. And that was very true! But it wasn't even gradual, it was very fast, seriously. And something very important that stood out to me right away too were the melodies - something about them, and that continues into HYL and ECOTD too. It's this classic feeling of: this always existed, or at least it feels like I've known it for years already. And as I listen more and become more familiar with them the magic still grows.

It's of course no coincidence to me that an album that relies so much on extreme levels of repetition is so addicting, even hypnotising. And once upon a time I thought that I couldn't like something that's too repetitive and therefore could be considered monotonous or "predictable". But nothing is predictable about LB actually. (Besides... ok, I'll get to that one bit later). But yeah, it's good for the brain. And it's been said before by others but this music definitely has this certain neurodivergent appeal thanks to all this, and, well, I love that aspect of it so much and I definitely relate to it on some level that goes even deeper than just song topics and instrumentation choices. It's in the structure and the fundaments of it all too.

I legally can't finish this without a dedicated paragraph to the 2004 Live In Stockholm performance because HOLY SHIT. Feeling so lucky again that all three of these albums got this treatment and we have recordings of these half-concert-half-performance-art pieces that we can now marvel at. I will say that like, a pretty big part of the sum of the appeal that LB has as an album is stored in this show and its visual and narrative elaboration on its themes. And also it's just so fun to watch! Sometimes I thought about how this might be an even better introduction to LB / this era of Sparks / Sparks in general than the actual album but well, never had a chance to test that and you know. Maybe shouldn't recommend Sparks with one of the most leftfield things there is to be found from them. Either way, very good, very important, felt like experiencing the power of LB for the first time all over again.

So now, please hear my exact reasonings for why I so deeply love (almost) every single one of these songs......

The Rhythm Thief

NO song made such a big impression on me the first time I heard it as this. I might have gotten more used to it after all this time but man, The Rhythm Thief, you will always be the realest one to me. This is what made me look forward to the whole album so much and convinced me that it would be like nothing else I've heard before. And that turned out to be so very beautifully true!

How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?

I could listen to this one a hundred times in a row over and over and not get sick of it one bit. That's it, idk what else to add, beautiful and ethereal in every way

What Are All These Bands So Angry About?

Mostly I just want to direct everyone's attention to the bridge section, at the 2:26-2:52 time mark, which as far as I can say is the most heavenly piece of music ever made. Feeling like that Winnie The Pooh soul leaving his body gif each time I hear this

I Married Myself

Aromantic anthem, to me. Not that much to say actually but it's just, a very sweet and pretty song even when it might be taken as just this sort of ironic piece, I think it's this situation where a song can be taken more or less literally and it doesn't lose anything, rather the sincerity takes on a new sort of meaning? Because yes, maybe this hyperbolic situation (marrying yourself) COULD be the solution to the heartbreak of failed relationships. Ever thought about that??? Ok, stopping right here and leaving my I Married Myself analysis for another day

Ride 'Em Cowboy

My mind is blank on this one suddenly. But it's so good believe me. I love it a lot. It just has this LB spirit that makes it very addicting to listen to

My Baby's Taking Me Home

This was sort of the first Sparks song I've ever heard, or maybe that I quote-unquote purposefully listened to, and I think that's pretty important considering that it was the moment that ultimately lead to... all this. This song has always been incredibly beautiful and powerful to me, but lately it just makes me emotional to an extent that makes it hard to listen to most of the time. I WOULD sell all my material possessions for even one chance to experience this song live by the way

Your Call Is Very Important To Us. Please Hold

Earns soooo much as a live version, but even without that I think it's genius in the same way as The Rhythm Thief, and maybe the most disquieting piece here overall... If we ignore the next one maybe

Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls

Sitting there hearing the intro of this song all like "huh, this is so chill and calm... too calm..." and then being hit with, well, everything that's going on in this song afterwards was truly THE MOMENT back in the day (and re: the predictability thing. idk though, it's not like, really an issue). Later on I decided that this sort of narrative nature of the song makes it have less replayability value than the rest (???) but I abandoned that opinion soon enough, thank god. I love it how long it took me to realize that this song and the ending of MBTMH are the only times when drums appear on this entire album (I mean no, I'm not very proud of that fact actually, as the self-proclaimed biggest LB fan in my area. And The Rhythm Thief literally saying "say goodbye to the beat"... come on man). So yes, sometimes less is more! I adore this song now it's such a treat I would gladly terrorize my neighbours with it

Suburban Homeboy

Ok, I'm sorry Suburban Homeboy fans but this is the only song here that I'm not a HUGE fan of. I still think it's brilliant and an incredibly fitting ending for the whole thing - the mood whiplash is amazing as this is the only "vaguely happy sounding" song on here, per my words from months back. And what's better than yelling WE ARE THE SUBURBAN HOMEBOYS! (I'm actually awaiting today's Sparks karaoke rating reveal very impatiently lol the reveal happened before I posted this and I'm very happy about it)

One more actually, a quick word on Wunderbar because it gave us two things that we might have not been able to do without: 1) this whole album actually (the fact that LB exists because of Wunderbar giving the Maels the idea to continue meddling with this style. Up there as one of my fav pieces of Sparks trivia) 2) anddddd the 21×21 performance of it of course

[revolvinghearts]

PARANOIA !!

[10hourshift]

Still thinking about Bonnie (tragic)

[hella1975]

ive just rediscovered an old wip of mine and im having so much fun right now. like i havent opened the document since early 2020 and genuinely forgot it existed yet there's 90k words and so much lore and elements of basic concepts that made it to my present writing in far cooler and more complex ways and the writing isn't great but there's potential to it and idk. it's been a while since i wrote something privately and while i hugely prefer the way i do it now where i actually have a community with it and dont hole myself away and act like it's a huge shame thing, there's still something hugely reasuring about knowing this is something ive always done and that actually i was always drawn to it and had potential and that's something to remember for when my writing block gets bad or i convince myself Everything Ive Ever Done Is Awful