#I usually don’t fandom mix but in this case we have a cast full of robots

[ghoulinfuschia]

(adding sort of onto the typing quirk ask) i jsut realized v replaces w's with vv UR A GENIUS i love that i just had to point that out hehehe :)

Oh my god I can finally talk about this— I’ve been assigning typing quirks MD characters and I need to share.

Uzi: Bookends her dialogue with “︻デ═一 “ and in an ideal font her O’s would look like sniper targets.

V: Replaces her W’s with “VV” and bookends her dialogue with these < >

Khan: [] Every sentence begins and ends with two brackets [] Like this [] You can probably guess why []

Nori: N>ori w>ould type with brackets bef>ore her “o”s. Since “nori” means seaweed” I thought making her o’s look like fish would be funny.

Lizzy: ★彡She overuses emoticons. Like every other ☆ word will have ☆ a star or heart ☆ sandwiches between them ☆ Maybe she even uses faces!! (๑>◡<๑) To convey how she’s feeling at the time :(；ﾞﾟ'ωﾟ'): Draw out words and emphasizes with exclamation points. So laaaaaaame!!!!! ★彡 It becomes a little exhausting to read.

I still have yet to figure out one for N. All the ideas I’ve had for him so far don’t feel cool enough. Same with Doll. Her speech is already unique amongst the cast since she’s the only one to speak Russian. I’d like to figure out quirks for them too though.

Once I do I’ll probably reblog this and update.

[gisachi]

Hi ^^ I know that your requests are now closed but I was thinking that, given you have written jealous Shinichi, I would very much enjoy some jealous Ran! Maybe you can mix it with one of the prompts? Just throwing the idea out there, no pressure. Delete this if you don't feel like it, it's okay really. Thank you for writing these amazing fics, the shinran fandom is in your debt. ❤️

So this is the last (!!!) and longest (!!!) of the kiss prompts, and I dedicate it to multiple-requests Anon and to this Anon. I hope both of you still see this. It took me a while. ^^;;

P.S. Special thanks to @artycreaty for keeping this in check. You are awesome. 🥰

41. Kisses shared under an umbrella. 46. A lingering kiss before a long trip apart. (6,489 words)

.

.

.

Ran keeps telling herself she has no right to be jealous.

She has hundreds of reasons not to. They’re merely childhood best friends. Life would be much easier if she didn’t involve herself in his business twenty-four seven. Shinichi absolutely doesn’t look at her that way. And so forth.

She wonders why they’re even friends in the first place. If their parents hadn’t enrolled them in the same kindergarten, she was certain they wouldn’t even be on speaking terms. He lives in a world of grisly books and crimes, she in a world of martial and visual arts. Their hobbies don’t overlap. They excel in different fields. They enter the same university with completely unrelated majors. The only bond they have in common is their shared history. Literally bonded since they were four, until now at nineteen.

So when she sees him all jolly around his newfound circle who hold the same interest in Holmes or detective work, it shouldn’t surprise her as much. It’s part of university life, it’s normal, they expand their horizons, and Ran understands that it hits much differently when they bond with people who like the same stuff they do. Something she’s aware they cannot share a hundred percent.

She’s proud of him, and she absolutely has no right to feel jealous, especially when she sees him around taller, prettier, more interesting women from his course block. There is no reason for her to look away with a heavy weight in her chest everytime the women get giggly and touchy while he’s absorbed in narrating his stories.

Everytime she does, she reminds herself of how he didn’t seem to mind when she was casted as the protagonist of their high school play and the leading man was the handsome Araide-sensei. Or how he simply shrugged when she fawned over the brother of a classmate because he looked so much like the karate senpai she was crushing on. Or when she secretly caught Sonoko dragging the detective behind gym after P.E. to confront him about his opinion regarding an upperclassman courting Ran and his only response was, ‘She can like whoever she likes, Sonoko. I’m not her boyfriend.’

He never showed her any sign of jealousy, therefore he must not be into her. Simple as that. So it’s unfair for her to be treating him differently. Getting snarky just because he received sixteen new fan mails again, more now that they’re in uni, and two even coming from the popular criminology seniors he is often teased to? Or ignoring him unprecedentedly just because his eyes followed the back of a woman with long chestnut hair and voluptuous curves? There are plenty of fish in the sea, and he’s bound to be attracted to someone else. This is a pill she ought to learn to swallow eventually.

Eventually.

“Shinichi-kun, you never told us about your scariest case yet, tell us about it?”

Kaori closes her notes and so do the other two girls across her, and Shinichi’s eyes twinkle. He truly seems to enjoy study sessions with the little group they made consisting of some of his and Ran’s coursemates because they love listening to his stories.

“At the top of my head is this murderer disguised as a bandaged man, and he targeted us one by one…” and so the detective drones. Ran pauses typing and reminisces quietly. Ah, that one from summer three years ago. I was almost injured by that crazy man during my sleep but Shinichi woke me up in time.

“Ran-san,” Shun, her friend and coursemate, mutters beside her, also stopping his typing to listen to the detective’s story. “It’s ridiculous how popular Kudou-kun is with the girls. He’s full of wild adventures.”

“Yes, he is,” Ran says, smiling. “He’s been a girl magnet ever since high school.”

She watches as Kaori inches closer to Shinichi, listening attentively, chin on her palm and flirtatious smile on her lips as the detective rants on and on.

For the third time that afternoon, Ran looks away.

.

.

Ran keeps telling herself she has no right to be jealous.

She does, everyday, but it’s hard when he smiles at her, cares for her, holds her in a way she’s never seen him do for anyone else. It gives her hope every time the girls cling to him but he never touches them back, whereas he automatically slings his arm over her shoulder because she’s afraid or cold or he simply feels like it.

Then again, maybe she’s giving herself too much credit. Perhaps it’s a free pass for being around him for too long. She even gets to spend time with him during weekends and holidays. It isn’t special because it’s normal.

And that’s all she’ll ever be, a normal girl in his eyes.

“Ran? She’s pretty special.”

Ran reacts to the mention of her name and catches Shinichi looking at her. “She appears quiet but she can kick anyone’s ass without breaking a sweat. It’s bad if you cross her,” Shinichi gloats with a grin.

“Oh my god, really? We can bring her with us then!” Kaori claps her hands in excitement.

“Ah... But she won’t like that,” he follows up, wary. Ran has missed the topic they were talking about and now she’s curious.

“But ghosts aren’t real and Mouri-san can give them a good beating!”

“Gh-Ghosts?” The color in her cheeks drains, eyes freezing at Shinichi who has probably already expected that reaction, for he sports that same look of concern as those times he had expressed whenever she joined him in his way-past-bedtime elementary school adventures.

“We’ll investigate an abandoned house I always pass by walking home,” Kaori explains. “Last night I saw a faint cigarette light at the second floor window. It might be a fugitive or a homeless person or a ghost, who knows?”

“You don’t need to come if you don’t want to, Ran,” Shinichi assures.

Gulping, Ran contemplates whether going with them will do her any good. It’s a nice change, it’s been a while since she last tagged with Shinichi in his cases. But she isn’t exactly proud of shrieking like a little kid in front of serious criminology majors who may feel like she’ll drag their covert investigation down if she joins.

“...I’ll pass,” she answers meekly, and his coursemates sulk except Shinichi, who offers her a smile of understanding.

“Man, I thought we’ll be able to see Mouri-san in action!”

“That’s ok, maybe next time. We still have Shinichi-kun!”

“Shinichi-kun will protect us, ne?”

“Hah. Right. Invite Hakuba too, use him.”

“Oh c’mooon, Shinichi-kun!”

Ran closes her eyes, struggling to zone their voices out.

In her silence, Ran ponders if she has made a wrong choice.

.

.

Ran has no right to be jealous. So it’s unfair for her to be treating him this way.

The following weekend, Shinichi narrates what happened in their late-night investigation. Hakuba wasn’t there so Shinichi was the only available guy as usual. Ran refuses to hear any more details, both of the haunted house and secretly of the girls chancing onto him during the investigation. Shinichi is puzzled.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Nah, just swamped with work.”

“On a Sunday?”

“Yes.”

“Want me to assist?”

“No.”

Her replies are curt from the couch of his house, not looking at Shinichi on the other end as she mindlessly cleans up her digital sketches. She hates how snappy she sounds but her brain is too absorbed with conjuring spiteful imaginations to even think of masking her annoyance.

“Ran, hey. Look at me.”

His low voice freezes her from drawing, and she slowly looks up to meet Shinichi’s serious eyes.

When this happens, she knows he’s reading her. She inwardly chants a prayer because now isn’t a good time. Whatever time isn’t a good time. She doesn’t know what to say when she’s aware everything she’s been feeling is irrational and unfair. She’s being selfish.

“You’re… stressed.”

“No, I’m… Eh?”

He scoots closer, an arm’s length away. “Your dark circles are more prominent now, you need a break.” His eyes turn a soft blue. “Let’s have dinner out? My treat.”

Ran is surprised, to say the least. The last time he invited her out was two weeks ago. She’s become so used to seeing him around others that any initiative from him sounds too good to be true.

“But I need to finish this project by tonight.”

“Let’s have food delivery then!” Shinichi announces, not rattled by Ran’s indirect refusal. “I know exactly what you want. Ramen and shaved ice.”

Her eyes thin at the absurdly goofy expression she knows he makes when he’s being mischievous. “Clearly you’re ordering that ramen for yourself. I only like shaved ice.”

“Damn! Miss Detective gets it.” A mile-wide grin stretches across his face, earning an eye roll from the half-smiling woman. “Let’s eat together on your short break, please?”

He leans within a respectful distance and she sees his smile better, pair of kind eyes locking with her overworked ones. “It’s been a while.”

Her heart throbs for him. So much.

She caves - of course she does - and breathes her acquiescence.

After two long weeks, they have dinner together, just them and Shinichi’s ramen and Ran’s donburi and shaved ice, Shinichi taking a spoonful of dessert from the cup when she isn’t looking and Ran snatching a slurp from his take-out bowl and laughing when he catches her.

With how heartfelt his laughter is in her presence devoid of any mysteries, Ran knows she’s probably giving herself too much credit, but for once she wants to believe she is the cause of why Shinichi’s happy.

Just for that night, she gives it to herself.

She’ll change the dark colors of her digital artwork to brighter ones after they eat.

.

.

Despite everything, Ran finds it difficult to contain her recurring jealousy.

The more she shares precious time with him, the more it gets harder to suppress the selfish emotions. What is so unsatisfying about being the best friend is that she is only the best friend. No more no less. At the end of the day, she isn’t the one he gets to cuddle with, to tease then kiss, to tell ‘I love you’ to, romantically.

“I love you.”

Ran feels her heart about to leap out of her chest.

“But please. Stop. Tearing. The. Cushions!”

The little furball he has scooped underneath a throw pillow wiggle from his grasp. The kitten and detective engage in a brief staring showdown before it jumps away to hide under a farther couch.

Snapping out of reverie, Ran watches her childhood friend slink dejectedly onto the partly scratched furniture. He’s fortunate enough that his mother isn’t around to give him a long lecture on Why Pets Aren’t Allowed in the House 101. She can always take Yukiko-san’s role and reprimand him for it, but as for this and the cat, she finds herself not wanting to intervene.

“Kaori-san sure is taking her time with her parent’s permission. By the time she does, Momo would’ve shredded all the pillows in this house.”

“You named the cat?” Ran asks, amused.

“She did.” He thinks for a moment, then sniggers. “Actually I did. I suggested a random name. She took it.”

Ran merely hums. What can she say? They’re getting close. Close enough to team up as parents to an adopted kitten.

“I’m surprised you also agreed to keep Momo when you never took in animals before.”

“Kaori said she’ll treat me to the latest Detective Samonji movie this weekend if I do. Can’t resist that.”

“Just you two?”

“Yeah.”

A beat. Then he turns to her.

“Wanna join? I can ask her to count you in since you’re kinda helpi—”

“N-no need,” Ran quips, “It’s—It’s fine.”

“No really,” Shinichi insists, “Kaori-san has a lot of money, she—”

“I’m going to Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum with Shun-san this weekend... so... I can’t.”

“Ah.”

Silence.

“It’s, um, for a project,” she bolsters.

“I know.” The faintest smile graces his lips. “It’s your thing. Both of you.”

“Mm.”

He doesn’t say anything else after that.

“Shinichi, you’re a detective, right?” she blurts out of the blue.

“Yeah...and?”

Then deduce what I feel. Here and now.

“Then you’re going to enjoy that movie!” Ran forces a beam, giving Shinichi a thumb of approval. “And you can discuss it with Kaori-san over dinner. I’m sure you two have a lot to say about it.”

Shinichi’s eyes linger on her, reading her like a book, and Ran has her mind reeling again, afraid to be read.

“Yeah, we do,” he finally says, ending the conversation.

Only a few words are uttered the rest of the afternoon.

Momo resurfaces and curls beside Shinichi.

Momo’s purring is loud, but Ran’s shattering heart is louder.

.

.

Ran must not feel jealous. She is not a girlfriend.

Because she isn’t a girlfriend, he’s free to fall for and date anyone else. Who is she to gatekeep him? There are plenty of fish in the sea, and he’s one big catch. Ran believes she’s a big catch, too. With the way she loves dearly, her future boyfriend is going to be very lucky.

Her future boyfriend is not going to be him.

“...mber the required fieldwork in one of my majors I told you? We actually go by batches. The first batch did theirs last month. The second batch was last week… and I— Ran, are you listening?”

“Ah! Yes,” Ran notices they have already reached her station and are now walking two blocks to her apartment. “Your fieldwork, right?”

“...Yeah,” he carries on. “I’m in the last batch... This whole winter break.”

“I see, I understand.” She smiles, getting what he means. No Christmas or New Year’s Eve together. The first time since they’re four. It’s fine, honestly. If it’s a required activity, then there’s really no way to go about it. She isn’t going to lash out just because she can’t be with him in her most favorite time of the year.

“And Hattori-kun and Hakuba-kun will be with you?”

“Hattori did his last month. Hakuba is in the previous batch. I’ll be stuck with the girls.”

Ran’s heart momentarily squeezes. “Where will your fieldwork be?”

“In Akita.”

Her pupils constrict. “That far?”

“Yes... so to cut on expenses, Kaori-san offered her house for me and the others to stay while we’re there—”

Kaori. Again with the tall, beautiful, intelligent Kaori. She bets it’s amazing to spend the holidays doing what he loves and with Kaori beside her, snuggling with him by the fireplace in a romantic snowy night and she might even confess, and it’ll be a great catch for Shinichi, and he’ll return with a girlfriend, and—

“Kaori-san is lucky.” The words flow out of her mouth, unbridled.

Shinichi looks at her. “Lucky?”

Ran remains quiet and keeps walking. It’s dangerous to say anything. She only has one thing in her mind and she doesn’t want to say it out loud. She has no right.

“Ran, hey.”

She doesn’t stop walking.

“Ran.”

She ignores his call.

“Ran… you’re jealous.”

She stops walking.

“Excuse me?”

“...You’re jealous…” Shinichi repeats quietly.

A contrast to his calm tone, his irises beset hers in the cold twilight and Ran attempts to shield herself but her bag and umbrella are in the way. She thinks of turning away but her feet are frigid like icicles, and Shinichi steps closer.

For the third time, he declares, “You’re jealous.”

Hearing her thoughts echo through his words renders her speechless.

It seems to take a moment before Shinichi’s brow arches, lips curl up as his eyes refuse to stray, and she hears a faint exhale even, like he’s exasperated, and suddenly he’s smiling - or is he smirking? sneering? - and...and...

It stings, is her immediate reaction.

For the longest time, she’d wanted him to take a hint. But if she had known this was how he’d react, she’d rather live a life having him oblivious of her emotional struggle. Dealing with that is more tolerable than witnessing him gaze her down in blatant mockery. He sneers as though he’s about to crack a joke and move on and forget such a laughable matter. That’s the last form of acknowledgment she wants for her honest feelings.

Heartbreak and shame and pain build up in her chest like a volcano closing eruption. Water begins to cloud her vision. She clenches her fist tight on her umbrella and Shinichi notices, and he takes another step forward.

“Ran…?”

“I am not, and you’re a fool.”

In a span of a breath, she’s sprinting in the opposite direction, tracing the path where they have walked, ignoring the distant yells of her name behind her. She runs and runs, and as she runs farther, with her thoughts muddy and breath short and dry, she wonders if she may have overreacted.

If he’s done that on purpose, screw him. If not, screw her.

After all, they are merely friends and she has no logical reason to act this way.

“Stop... running... will you!”

She hears heavy footsteps close in. It takes all the energy Ran has to prevent herself from turning her body around but his strong grip overpowers her.

“Let me go!”

“Why are you running?!”

“I can’t...deal with you!”

“Why? Was I right?”

“Right or wrong, it doesn’t matter!”

“Why doesn’t it matter?”

“Because I am your best friend!”

On another occasion, she would’ve successfully jilted away and run farther, but Ran is floored when he yanks her into a one-armed hug, so floored she drops her umbrella to the snowy ground.

“Stop saying that!” he hisses in her ear, frustration apparent.

“What are you— Let me go!”

He hugs her tighter.

“If you don’t let go in three seconds, I will screa—”

“I am happy!”

Ran stops struggling, eyes widening in shock.

Icy huffs tickle her neck as he half shouts, “I’m happy you feel that way!”

“You’re...You’re happy because I’m suffering?”

“What? No! I—”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better? How?” The hurt in her tone is impeccable, prattling muffled against his chest as she spares him no moment to butt in. “You think I wanted to feel this? That I enjoy griping in helpless jealousy? And you’re rejoicing that I am? How full of yourself can you be?!”

“That’s not...You don’t underst—”

“I do understand! I understand that I am so incredibly stupid for catching this disgusting heap of emotions for an obnoxious, stuck-up deduction maniac that is my best friend and maybe it’s better after all that he never, ever sees me the way I see him!”

“Stop saying that, Ran!”

She thinks he has broken away, but he drags her back with an insistent tug, crashing his lips onto hers as she stumbles into his arms.

All willpower rippling through her disintegrates quickly like snow in high heat.

An impatient pop resonates as he separates, eyes slowly opening, breath thick and ragged.

“I know that is not how we explain things, but does that explain anything?”

She hears it. The madness. But more than madness, yearning bleeds through his voice so much that her frustration turns into physical pain. Blinded by an all-consuming ache, she tips her chin and presses her lips back against his, demanding for cure in the wrong place. Shinichi freezes, then relaxes. He moves his hand to her nape, four fingers in her hair, thumb treading her jaw.

They look like a scene in a movie.

Under his umbrella and hidden from view, they communicate through brushing lips and tilting heads. His mouth closing over hers with gentle force, her hands splaying across his chest, heavy with something that makes his heart pound under them.

She is so lost in the chase and his tender embrace that for a second she forgets she is kissing her best friend.

Best friend.

This doesn’t explain anything. It worsens it.

She pulls back, ending what she has so recklessly started. “N-no, I’m— No.”

She pushes him away, gathers the stuff she drops, and runs without looking back.

“Ran!”

He shouts her name. Twice.

On the third call, his footfalls die down. On the fourth, he stops running.

She doesn’t.

.

.

Thirty minutes before midnight, Ran stands outside his gate, boots buried half foot under the snow as she rings his intercom for the second time, thinking to herself how foolish she must be to cut communications with him for a week and then show up his doorstep looking miserable like a stood-up date.

It’s the start of winter break.

He’ll leave for Akita in ten hours.

She needs to give his Christmas present before his departure.

She’s crazy, pathetic, still frustrated, and hurtfully in love.

“Oi. You better have a good explanation for why you’re buzzing at goddamn midnig—”

“Shinichi.”

His surprised gasp is apparent even through the intercom. A rustle follows and with a croaky voice, he responds. “...Ran.”

Surely he isn’t expecting this. Not after the tantrum she threw days ago. He probably thinks she hates him more than ever. But what she truly feels is more overwhelming than all negative emotions combined, and may god grant her all the strength to address it all, tonight.

“May I come in?”

“The house is—The house is a mess I, um. I’m packing my stuff for...”

“I’ll help you.”

“...”

She’ll understand if he decides to turn her down. But the answer that follows the deafening pause is a low and quiet ‘Okay’.

Despite psyching herself hours before she came, courage wanes when he opens the front door and gate in his pullovers. She is welcomed in, and the trip up his room is wordless. Shinichi only talks when he points out that he’s already packed clothes for two days and will need help for two weeks’ worth. He lamely laughs when he instructs her to pick the tops and layers, and he’ll take care of the pants and underwear.

On a normal instance, she would’ve humored him and they would’ve been talking right after. Now she simply pulls an empty smile and then they fall back into silence.

She supposes he’s trying to act unbothered, to treat what happened a week ago as a one-and-done glitch in their friendship, never to be discussed again. She cannot fault him when she’s trying to do the same. But it’s not easy when in the stillness of the night the echo of their altercation howls, raging persistently in their ears.

What has he been thinking of for the past week?

Has he been kept up all night by the words she said and the words he left unspoken?

Are they still friends? Will they still be friends after this?

The kiss... What about the kiss?

So many questions. So little words. So little time.

Ran is seated on the floor, folding shirts and stuffing them neatly in his duffel bag. Her back faces Shinichi who is sorting out bottoms in his cabinet. She senses him sit on the floor, back against her but not touching. Neither dares to speak first.

A ringing phone cuts the silence.

“Mm, still awake. Good for two weeks right? Gotcha. No, I’ll meet you girls at the station, no need to fetch me. Pfft. I can walk. Ok, see you tomorrow.”

If Ran wasn’t so hyperaware of where she is and what she’s done, her mood would’ve shifted to the one she’d been trying to avoid. Now isn’t the time to think about that. Midnight sneaking out to go to his house is something she wouldn’t do even on good days. She scans her bag on the far couch, deliberately bringing a bigger one to hide his gift. Maybe she can just sneak it in his bag and leave once she’s done and he’ll discover it only when he’s prefectures away. Brown has always suited him, and he’ll definitely find the overcoat useful as spare protective gear.

That’s right. She always cares for him like this. She is his best friend first, and... and nothing second.

“Don’t just leave after putting your present in my bag. At this hour, I can’t let you walk home alone,” he says swiftly.

Ran’s eyes fly wide.

“How did you…”

He doesn’t say anything and continues with his business.

Again with the throat-drying silence.

Something in Ran’s gut compels her to speak, but she is surprised when he does first.

“I... I don’t like Kaori-san. If that’s what you’re thinking.”

Ran stiffens, pausing mid-motion from folding. “I’m not…”

He leans his back completely against her and she shudders, voice reverberating through her skin. “Ran, if you could just hear me out.”

Unable to talk and move, she does.

“Kaori-san and the rest... They know I love mysteries. They know I want to build my own private detective agency. They know my favorite Holmes’ story is The Sign of Four. They know how many crimes I solved in Tokyo. All the information about me which anyone can read from the internet and newspaper and from what I told them when they ask, they know. Ran, you know all that. All that and more.”

He angles his head to the ceiling as if he’s talking to someone there. Ran supports his weight, curling to her knees as she silently listens.

“You know of my first ever deduction because Christ, my first deduction was about you. You know of the two cases which haunt me until this day because I watched the culprit die in front of my very eyes. You were with me the nights I locked myself in here thinking about them. You know of the interesting, the boring, the absurd cases, everything, because I told you or you were there. You know of the odd way I play the violin while I ponder over a case. You know I forget to eat when swamped with new books to read. I have three copies of The Sign of Four but the one I keep beside my bed and read almost weekly is the one you gave me on my tenth birthday and that is all I need. You know me for me, Ran. Everything about me that is off the record, the good and the bad, you know all of those. Only you. The same way I do... about you.”

She feels him crane slightly to the side, addressing her.

“Ran.”

“Mm.”

“I love you.”

Ran’s heart almost completely stops beating.

“I love you,” he whispers, “more than I am even supposed to.”

All words seem to have fizzled out of her vocabulary as she sits still, stunned at what she’s hearing.

“I’m happy growing up with you, studying with you, bickering with you, acting stupid with you, investigating with you, eating with you, napping with you, hugging you, holding you, taking care of you, simply... being with you. Before I know it, it’s not the cases or Holmes or mysteries that complete my days, it’s you.

“For you to keep repeating that ‘best friend’ phrase, I…” He lowers his head.

“For who knows how long, I’ve loved you as that and more.”

Someone pinch her because in no way can this be real.

“I was happy thinking you’re jealous because it meant a sliver of chance you feel the same way. We could’ve remedied the misunderstanding easily, Ran. We could’ve talked it over like we always do. But I was stupid and emotions were high and in the end I… kissed you…” he takes another deep breath, “But—but you kissed me back, and my heart couldn’t stay still...”

Pulse drumming loud, Ran tilts her head on the side where he leans, wanting to see the slightest expression he makes as he continues.

“If my deductions are wrong and you’re mad for a different reason, and—and you returned that for a different reason...” she hears the pang of remorse in his tone, “then please forget I ever said anything and I’ll leave myself to die in humiliation once I’m out of your sight.”

He lays one palm flat on the floor and she notices.

“But if my deductions are right and you were indeed jealous, I...” She feels his head swivel enough to feel his warm breath fan across her cheek, before shifting back front and releasing a slow, guttural exhale he’s kept contained within.

“I’ll wait... until you accept it. Accept me.”

Ran may have choked on her throat for how long she’s held her breath.

In spite of herself, she knows she doesn’t need to think of what to say. She had it all in her head before coming here. Yet expressing it out loud is a different matter.

She isn’t ready, but when will she ever be ready? Shinichi undoubtedly isn’t too. Yet here he is, laying the groundwork for her, no holds barred and a stuttering mess at that. How she plans to build from it is the question she asks herself next.

Inhaling as though bracing herself, she places a hand beside him, pinky slightly grazing his.

“I didn’t... You never showed any signs.”

Careful and calm, he extends his little finger over hers. She doesn’t flinch, and both hands crawl closer until two fingers overlap.

“Either I’m a great pretender or you’re incredibly dense.”

“I’m...I’m not dense.”

“I’m a bad actor, then.” He slides his hand further.

“I was trying so hard to be a supportive best friend for you.”

“I sensed that but ignored it because I didn’t want to assume anything.”

“You did though. Now we’re here.”

“Would you rather we aren’t?”

“I would rather we spend the last weeks of this year talking like normal than being stupid idiots before you leave.”

“It’s just two weeks, Ran.”

“Two special weeks I would’ve wanted to spend with my best frien-... with you.”

Without knowing it, his hand has completely nestled atop hers, four fingers curled between her thumb and index finger.

“Ran... You must really hate the idea of falling in love with me.”

“Eh?”

“You’re so wrapped with the thought that we’re simply best friends that you hold your love in chains as though it isn’t permitted to grow.”

“I… I didn’t want to ruin the only connection we have-”

“Two friends falling in love are still friends… They are also more. You cannot ruin an indefeasible connection. Friendship and love may be the only bond we have, but they’re the most important bond of all.”

Ran falls quiet.

“Geez…”

He releases a thick sigh, brushes his thumb across her splayed fingers.

“I have shit art appreciation skills, but I can take you to museums too... as a friend and as a date.” A beat, and a mumble. “Even to better museums than Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.”

She darts her head sideways, realizing something.

“Were you also…?”

“No.”

Ran doesn’t suppress the heartfelt giggle that bubbles out.

“Shun-san has a boyfriend, Shinichi.”

“I—” he pauses. “I wasn’t asking.” Ran giggles more.

“Shinichi.”

“Yes.”

“I love you too.”

The hand above squishes hers all too suddenly like he’s been blown away and is needing something to hold onto.

“I came here to give your present and to apologize for being so shallow and for acting without thinking and for a lot of things actually... but now I feel there’s no need, because then I wouldn’t have...” She looks down at their intertwined hands.

Before she can return his squeeze, he recoils.

“Oh, y-you do apologize. Running away like that.” He coughs, and she can practically hear the tripping in his tone.

“Aren’t you already used to it? I’ve done it many times,” she chides.

“No. Apologize,” he insists. “And look at me while you do.”

Ran’s stomach twists, heart kicking up a step.

It’s easy to talk without eye contact, but to be requested so after confessions are exchanged—

“Face me, Ran.”

The familiar voice of yearning strums her heartstrings, tone sounding a lot like a plea than an order and Ran finds her head instinctively craning at an angle, hand coiling on the floor trying to calm her nervous beating heart. She feels him shift behind as well.

She takes all her time to face him, partly unsure what to do, partly knowing exactly what she wants to do. Despite the deliberate slowness of their movements, it is when they lock eyes that time truly seems to stop.

Shinichi appears so different, so soulful. His blue irises glimmering, fixated on nothing but her as she reveres him with matching intensity. The same guy she treats as her best friend looks at her with tender love in his eyes, darting down her lips and up like no best friend ever would.

“I love you,” he says, breathless. “Make me your boyfriend.”

A wave of emotion sweeps over her, heartbeat fluttering in overdrive as they huddle on the floor, bags and clothes and time forgotten.

“From best friend to... such a shift-”

“Nothing will be different.” He rests his forehead on hers, gaze of soft blue patient though more intimate now, knowing what they share is mutual. “We’ll still do what we do... With exclusive romantic commitment and sweet nothings that translate to ‘I love you’ in more ways than one.”

She attempts a jab on his chest but he catches her fist, soft but jesting beam all too apparent and she does but play along.

“What about when we fight?” she asks.

“Same. But...” he slides a thumb over her quiet lips, parting them slightly, “I can do this once we make up.”

“...Like right now?”

“Like right now.”

A genuine smile is the last thing she sees before delicate pair of lips lands on hers, capping their one-week fight and their last night of the year together in the best and most unexpected way imaginable.

.

.

Ran keeps telling herself she shouldn’t be jealous.

Not because they are simply best friends, because they aren’t. Not because life would be easier if she didn’t involve herself in his business twenty-four seven, because it wouldn’t.

Not because Shinichi doesn’t look at her that way, because he does.

She shouldn’t be jealous because she absolutely has no reason to, is all.

“I haven’t forgotten about your present. I was planning to buy yours in Akita.”

“Stop lying, you totally forgot it.”

“I didn’t. Stop that.” Half-mast eyes rake her side profile, and Ran covers a mirthful grin with her mitted hand holding the umbrella, then yawns. Hours of packing and talking and laughing left them with roughly four hours of sleep. It isn’t like she slept the whole period because while sleeping in his room isn’t new, cuddling while they sleep is. Ran couldn’t simply shut her eyes and heart to that.

“I believe though,” he wraps a hand around her free one, pocketing both of them in his brand new overcoat, “I gave half of my present already.”

“Hnn. That doesn’t count as a gift.” Her hand shifted, coddling his own to a warm fit.

“Really?” A smug smirk pulls up his face. “I believe I am a nice present, Ran. That’s why they—”

“Screw this. You are unbelievable. A humbug. Why do people like you.”

“I know. Why do you like me?” Shinichi laughs as he avoids the swing of her umbrella.

From afar, they see Kaori and the girls at the meet-up point outside Tokyo Station, though they seem unaware of their presence yet. Suddenly feeling conscious, Ran feels the urge to disentangle her hand, but Shinichi holds on, firm.

“Why?” He asks in a low voice.

“I dunno… maybe this isn’t the best time…”

“Isn’t now the best time?” His smile is proud and natural, not one ounce of reluctance visible.

Although she gets what he means, that doesn’t free her of shyness and guilt. Somehow she feels like apologizing to Kaori for… she doesn’t know. She just wants to. Letting her see them like this makes her think that she’s giving her an indirect slap on the face. Shinichi certainly won’t agree because ‘What’s with women and their logic?’, but still, whether or not it’s all in her head, Ran needs more time to prepare for this.

But to her surprise, Shinichi lets go of her hand. They are still a few feet from view when he steps in front of her and turns around. “Maah, fine, I get it,” he huffs, then smiles. “Then, just give me your umbrella.”

The moment she does, Shinichi closes their distance and dips his face onto hers. Ran is given no leeway to gasp as loving lips seal her quiet. It isn’t as long as what they shared a week ago, but the emotions are loaded and full, speaking fond thanks and temporary farewell.

She doesn’t realize she has closed her eyes until he separates, and she’s met with the most tender, most angelic expression he wears only on the rarest occasions. He’s saying without telling that her feelings are valid, she doesn’t have to worry,  and he doesn’t have eyes for anyone but her. Somehow, the snow is the sea and fish are swarming around but neither cares because they have already caught each other.

“You don’t have to, silly.” Three layers of pink blanket Ran’s puffy cheeks.

“But I want to.” Grinning, Shinichi hands her back the umbrella. “You don’t like hand-holding. You don’t like being seen. Don’t you think that’s a great compromise?”

“Idiot, many people saw...”

“No, they didn’t!” Upping the duffel bag slung on his shoulder, he steps back and gives her one last goofy beam. “I’ll see you next year, Ran. I’ll call as often as I can.”

Wordlessly, Ran watches Shinichi’s back as he jogs to his waiting companions, who by then have already had their eyes pinned on the approaching figure.

“That is Shinichi-kun! ...And Mouri-san!”

“Ehhh!!?! You’re a thing!”

So much for being subtle, Ran flushes inwardly as she returns the wave the other girls are giving her. At that moment she really does feel immature for her past conduct. All of them are sweet. Even Kaori.

“I knew it Shinichi-kun! Mouri-san is sooo lucky, I’m so jealous!” Ran hears their banter and sees her jab his bicep before acknowledging her. “We’ll take care of him, Mouri-san!”

The Ran from one week ago would’ve had her heart crushed by such declaration, but now she’s nothing but pleased and the smile that forms across her lips is nothing but honest. “Make sure he doesn’t drag your group into a random dead body, Kaori-san!”

“Hey!” surfaces Shinichi’s shout amidst the mincing laughter of the group and the onlooking passers-by, and Ran bids her last wave before they enter the station.

Smiling to herself, Ran returns home, the lingering promise of his kiss committed to memory, knowing that she doesn’t have to get jealous because she has no reason to. Their indefeasible bond is all the assurance she needs.

.

.

.

[utilitycaster]

Sure! Why is Taz Ethersea validating why a pre-calamity campaign would be a bad idea?

Okay first off I do want to thank you all! I think I probably would have eventually made a post, because opinions are stored in the Tumblr blog but I don't think I would have thought through it beyond the simplest answer of "actual play D&D is uniquely unsuited for a narrative with a foregone conclusion" but I think it goes beyond that and getting these questions led me to think about it much more.

Also: this post will be full of spoilers for prior TAZ and Critical Role campaigns.

That simple answer is still the right one. I'll admit I have many biases - I don't like stories where the ending is total failure, vs. something bittersweet and mixed; I am very picky about my cataclysm/apocalypse narratives; and I like to avoid spoilers and be surprised by endings. But in particular, one of the greatest elements of D&D actual play is that the long shot is possible. You can roll that 5% chance of becoming conscious instead of dying, or 15% chance of divine intervention, or what have you in a desperate situation. You still might fail, but there's a chance.

Which is one of the other great elements of D&D actual play is that the long shot failure is also possible; the 5% chance of dying sooner than expected or fumbling what should be an easy hit (or an enemy succeeding when they shouldn't).

A big part of why I'm struggling with TAZ Ethersea right now isn't actually the forgone conclusion. A big part is the mechanics, which just don't come off as terribly suited for an audio-only medium (even with the shared map, we don't get the images drawn in sync with the podcast which is what you'd need to really follow along properly). But it doesn't help that I know that when the Storm comes, they at least in some capacity make it. A lot of what appeals to me in the Quiet Year is the map-making and description of a small community and the idea of worldbuilding as the end-goal rather than a starting point, but a significant part of the premise is that the community has a year, but does not realize it. They know they have to prepare for winter, but they don't know that winter will be marked by the Frost Giants. And I don't begrudge the McElroys for using this for worldbuilding, for a number of in-game and out-of-game reasons, but the fact that they do know they have a year and that we as listeners know that obviously some kind of undersea society is able to be built after that year due to the premise of the main portion of the campaign has taken out most of the tension.*

We know how the Age of Arcanum ends. We don't know details, but we know what happens. We also know the Calamity is generations long (Halas being both a few generations after Aeor's destruction and also pre-divergence), and ends in the Divergence, and afterwards the world slowly rebuilds.

Any campaign therefore has a couple of options. Either it would have to be long before the Calamity to allow for some degree of freedom of choice in what the players are doing (which is generally not the vibe I'm getting from people interested in a pre-Calamity campaign), and also...I don't really get what that accomplishes that a new relatively unexplored location wouldn't. The other would be that it's either a campaign that never gets to any kind of significant catastrophe aversion goal (which...while I do not believe actual play casts are in any way obligated to cater to the fandom other than general sensitivity towards other people, stopping some kind of large-scale terrible event and/or big bad is a pretty central concept of the genre even when other elements of it are played with), or one that we know fails in that goal (or at least...only succeeds in saving about a third of all people) before it starts.

It's true that usually, we as viewers go into a D&D story expecting some measure of success (I could write a whole separate essay on why TPKs aren't great viewing for a long-running campaign) but CR in particular has made it clear that there is still a capacity for some amount of failure, or mixed success; there is still perma-death, or victory at great cost, or initial failure that has consequences that cannot be avoided even by later success. Something all actual play DM/GMs (and in many cases, regular old home game DM/GMs) have to do is walk that nearly invisible line where truly, success and failure are both options but total all-consuming failure is extremely difficult to achieve while still not making things seem too easy or unearned. A pre-calamity story puts that already monumental balancing act on Extremely Hard Mode because a large amount of failure as well as a small amount of success is inherently built in.

It also makes it much harder for stories like the one we had in C2 about Aeor, or for that matter, C1 about Vecna, to resonate in the same way, since both used the mystery of the pre-Calamity/Calamity eras to tell those stories. I love dramatic irony but there's a limit; there should be some mystery for the audience and players, not just the characters. If a creator puts a huge mysterious cataclysm in the past, there's a reason for that! Ethersea could have just been "it's an underwater society because it's fantasy" and that would have been perfectly fine, but it's not! That's a creative choice! The mystery of the Calamity is almost certainly by design!

In the end the thing that gets me about TAZ Ethersea is that I usually love the worldbuilding/character concept episodes of D&D shows that have them, and the Q&A/talkback episodes...but I'm learning that I want people to talk about those finished products in a big-picture way. I may be guessing here but I think people want pre-Calamity lore, but they would not actually enjoy a full, 100+ episode campaign of pre-Calamity happenings that is both hamstrung by forgone conclusions and may hamstring other stories that are to take place in the future. I think some comics, or a novel, or a small scope EXU mini-series, or like...a really long tweet thread from Matt about some pre-Calamity lore would actual satisfy that curiosity more effectively while also allowing them to preserve the important mysteries. Or, building from previous campaigns, having C3 exist a few decades after C2, where the consequences of the many archaeological expeditions and the return of the Aeormatons are becoming widespread, would similarly give us the ancient lore while still providing the open, unpredictable world actual play is uniquely suited for.

*just to make it clear: I'm complaining about the Ethersea setup epidosdes because I love complaining about things but if I actually found it wholly unenjoyable I would stop listening and skip ahead, completionism be damned. There are plenty of bright spots, mostly when they stop following the rules of the game and introduce specific character beats, and I am excited by the consequences, it's just...almost 5 hours long and still going.

[bbq-hawks-wings]

long ask anon cont Pt 1- lol, I think Tumblr is eating my imgur link of the full ask even after I broke it. Also, thank you guys so much for answering and hitting the issues so well. I love what you and @autumn-foxfire has written so far. Here’s the rest: ...or at the very least, gen stories. The drama and tension between Hawks & Dabi actually gets me hyped & excited. This is a little off-topic but why are there so many trans-Hawks stories that are smut? I have nothing against it or smut but-

-it’s hard finding trans-Hawks/reg-Hawks stories that don’t involve smut. I do acknowledge that his character design is very appealing (ex: reader,ocxHawks mountain) but there’s so much sexual content ppl put Hawks in that it’s hard to find good stories(even smut ones)about his character just interacting w others or dealing w drama,mysteries,etc. I just want good Hawks content to recommend to new fans instead of just smut in case they’re underaged. (Hawks-sensei=Holy Grail)

Anyway, this is my perspective as a fan of Hawks who just got into BNHA for about 4 months & is extremely worried how others will see Hawks when the anime comes back bc of all the currently available fan content for him on Tumblr-AO3-Twitter. I really didn’t mind (even liked) the lov members when I wasn’t in the fandom but w/ how ppl write/draw them in order to bash Hawks, it actually made me want to read more about the main cast/Pro Heroes & Hawks hanging out w/ them instead.

With the Main cast/Pro Heroes, we can at least get a Hawks that gets to have therapy, build healthy (non-guilt) friendships, and the others would be able to learn about the faults of Hero society and the Commission through him.

But for Hawks+lov stories, I now cringe internally when I see the "league as found family" tag even though I would usually love the concept bc if Hawks is involved, he's either really ooc or the lov are. It feels weird to read stories where Hawks lets slip his tragic backstory (accidentally instead of purposely) and the lov openly accepts him or they don't care much since Dabi vouched for him. I think I've seen more interaction between Toga/Mr Compress/Kirigiri with Hawks than Twice even though that's canon (would love it if Twice interacts enough with Hawks to have his own conflicts and tries to convince Hawks from his path rather than just feelings of betrayal) . I would love to read more AU Hawks+lov stories where Hawks interacts w/ the other lov members through Twice and becomes conflicted when he realizes how close they are to Twice and how they should also get a second change or ones w/ tension and grudging acceptance of each others' beliefs so both sides would have to examine themselves if they should change their stance. Sadly, those seem to be a rarity or perhaps, only available in stories where Hawks isn't a central character.

Not gonna lie, even I heard the choir of angels and saw the heavens part when Horikoshi said, "Here, have everything you love about the kids' personalities plus the freedoms and privileges you can have in an adult character - as a treat." It also helps he was the same age I was during his manga debut. Even so, it got old pretty fast to see the sheer amount of smut that flooded the fic scene after the anime aired. Like, it's understandable - and this could just be my own view of sex and relationships talking - but jumping straight to wam, bam, thank you ma'am without the emotional foundation is a little boring at least and annoying when it's everywhere. At least people tag that pretty faithfully.

A faithful look into inter-League dynamics would be appreciated all around, I think. Some of the fan base seems to have this impression there's never anything wrong or abrasive about the relationships in it, but I imagine it's the opposite with what we've seen in canon. If anything, it would do a greater service to the League alone to see these realistic conflicts but explore how and why they stay together anyway. Adding Hawks into the mix is bonus material, in my opinion.

The good news, though, is I hear more and more from new fans that they heard about fanon Hawks for a while outside of fandom only to pick it up for themselves and give a hard side-eye to fanon. At least from a few people I hear about how they don't even begin to understand why fanon is so popular when canon is so much more interesting. It gives me genuine hope for the anime-only crowd because it's going to be even harder to misread his actions when they're put to voice acting, music, and animations - and that's even before well-known anime commentators like Mother's Basement may pick him up as a character essay. (Inosuke was picked up for his "What's in a Waifu" series, and he has a positive view of HeroAca so I'm holding out hope!)

I don't think bad takes and mischaracterization is ever going to go away completely, but it feels like those who preach it are a minority who either have to keep preaching it from the rooftops and drown out other voices to believe it or who are more concerned with being woke (or maybe even just trolling?) than actually just enjoying a series because they like it or dropping it if they don't.

Any additional thoughts, @autumn-foxfire?

[multimetaverse]

HSM:TM:TS 1x01 Review

The Auditions was a great series premiere for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and I’m very excited for all that’s to come. Let’s dig in!

Disney certainly got its money worth with this show. The gorgeous Utah scenery and actual on location filming really helps ground the series with a sense of realism. To that end, I really liked the little details, like the principal not wanting to spend anything on the musical, the kids social media use, and that the kids actually look like regular kids who live in regular houses and go to a regular high school

Such a talented cast! Olivia Rodrigo is a showstopper, what a wonderful rendition of Start of Something New that was and Joshua Bassett seems born to play Ricky. Sofia is an amazing dancer and I’m excited to see some of the productions they put on later in the season 

Miss Jenn reminds me of April Rhodes from Glee and I mean that as a compliment. Her delivery of, ‘’that is so fresh’’ still makes me laugh. I love that she cast Ricky as Troy on a whim for maximum drama and  of course she wants a Ms. Darbus song, she’s an agent of chaos and I’m here for it. I also liked her begging her mom for car loan payment money, you’re not really a millennial if you haven’t lived pay cheque to cheque at some point

Even though we’ve seen them in the trailer, Carlos’ first 15 minutes of both sequels and Broadway lines still made me chuckle

I like the glimpses we get of the kids home lives. Very refreshing to see Nini’s two moms and see that she has a mixed race family and with Andi Mack off of Disney Channel, tonight’s showing of HSMTMTS might be the last time any kind of lgbtq rep is seen on Disney Channel itself for quite a while. Her grandma looks too young to be in a nursing home but it was nice to see her helping Nini with her self-confidence. Poor Ricky with his parents marriage collapsing, that’s gonna be a tearjerker if and when his mom returns from Chicago to officially end things with his dad. Seems like Gina’s mom has high expectations of her which eventually lead to their scene we saw in the promo where Gina breaks down

We dove right into the love triangle at the heart of this season: Nicky vs NJ. As I was watching the first flashback scene between Nini and Ricky, I thought to myself that if they keep writing them scenes like this I just might become Nicky trash, I was trying to stay neutral but after Ricky’s audition I’m definitely team Ricky, that really was the #ultimatecomeback. Ricky singing ‘’I Think I Kind of You Know’’, the song Nini wrote for him was just too sweet; it warmed even my cold, black heart. And that shot of Ricky and EJ lighting Nini with their phones and forming a triangle? Poetic cinema

It really does seem like Nicky is the endgame ship with NJ just an obstacle in its path especially with Nini having been in love with Ricky just six weeks ago and only having met EJ four weeks ago. EJ is very supportive of Nini and I did like how sweet he is with her, that line about her being a cute chorus cow was great. I saw on Disney +’s twitter poll that the fandom is split about 66% team Ricky to 33% team EJ which is an interesting split but also reflects the writing tipping it’s hand, it does want us to like NJ but not at the expense of Nicky

One thing that I don’t like so far is the age gap between Olivia and Matt, she’s 16 and he’s 21 and they both look their age. I’m not saying that all teen roles need to be played by teens but that age gap is significant when they’re playing girlfriend and boyfriend and was an unforced error on the shows part. It reminds me of the problems GMW suffered by casting a much older Peyton Meyer to play Riley’s love interest. Matt Cornett’s age as well as EJ being the only senior of the main cast is another hint that he won’t be playing Nini’s love interest past this season

I do hope that however this love triangle ends that it’s done as cleanly as possible. Love triangles are rarely pulled off well because the show or movie or book will usually tip its hand fairly quickly as to which is the ‘real’ ship but they also usually end up damaging the characters involved. In this case Ricky is not just a rival for Nini’s affections but a would be homewrecker who’s set out to breakup Nini and EJ which if not handled carefully could make Ricky look like a bad guy

As an aside, Nini having a shirtless photo of EJ on her phone and her and Ricky hanging out alone in her bedroom in the flashback is spicy for Disney but does at least gesture more to the reality of teen life than the typical squeaky clean Disney fare

Carlos is the colour guard captain, that was in the original casting notice (back when Carlos was named Vikram) and Tim Federle mentioned in an interview that he based Carlos off of one of his best friends who was also a colour guard captain. I’ve been wondering for a couple of weeks now if Frankie Rodriguez was actually allowed to reveal that Carlos is gay because it hasn’t been talked about in interviews or mentioned in any reviews so far. His line about EJ not knowing who he is, seems like it could potentially be set up for an arc about Carlos trying to make himself known. He knew that Seb wanted to try out for Sharpay rather than Ryan so presumably he already knows him? We know that something is being teased between him and Seb but I won’t hold my breathe for getting very much from Disney, at least this season

Not much to say about the other characters so far. Kourtney is barely a step above the sassy black friend trope but I think some of it has to due with the fact that Tim Federle originally just wanted Kourtney to be a one off supportive friend for Nini but so liked the actress that he decided to make her a main. Ashlyn is supposed to have a powerful duet with Nini in the second ep so that is something to look forward to as is her relationship with her cousin EJ. Big Red is a nice supportive friend and that’s about it. Not much to Mr. Mazara either. It does seem like the dividing line between major and lesser main characters are those who have lead roles in the musical itself

I love that the mockumentary interviews happen even when they make absolutely no sense in universe 

We get some full character names from the cast list: Seb Matthew- Smith, Ricky Bowen, EJ Caswell, Gina Porter, and Nini Salazar-Roberts

Looking Ahead:

I read in reviews that EJ teams up with Gina to take down Ricky while Gina tries to take down Nini. That’s a pretty easy path to villainize EJ and sink NJ eventually while then using EJ’s panic attacks and Gina’s story line with her mom to build them back up. I sincerely hope that they don’t even try to go for one sided Gina and EJ as Sofia is the youngest cast member

Sofia did say that Gina would make things complicated for the love triangle and in a promo clip she said she was ‘intrigued’ by Ricky so we’ll see what happens

Miss Jenn supposedly left New York in unclear circumstances so I wonder where they’ll go with that. My own theory is that she used to be an extra on Law and Order: SVU and was having a torrid affair with Dan Florek before being exposed

I’ll try to have these reviews up Friday evenings but that’s dependent on when I can watch the eps. Because the pilot aired on tv we’ll actually get ratings either Monday or Tuesday which will be the only time we’ll get publicly released data otherwise all we’ll get is what Disney wants us to know and that will often just be spin. I’m very excited for this season and for season two and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead. Until next week wildcats

[muthaz-rapapa]

Happiness Charge was unpopular in Japan because at the time, Frozen was the it franchise for young girls there so it suffered poor toy sales, continuing on with Go Princess' toys. It didn't help even more that New Stage 3 was released in theaters the same day as Frozen.

Ah, that’s right. Frozen. I usually don’t correlate Precure with other franchises but can’t say it wasn’t inevitable that its toy sales would suffer when the Frozen craze hit. Especially so in Japan because Disney has a huge market there.

But please don’t imply that Frozen is the only or major reason why HaCha as a whole didn’t do well because it isn’t. Those two things are not exclusive of one another.

HaCha is not as favored simply because it wasn’t a strong Precure season. Its story wasn’t all that engaging despite the fact it was supposed to be the 10th anniversary season. Reception of the main cast is still rather mixed and how satisfactory their character arcs were handled remains in debate (Yuko didn’t even get one). The pacing was slow at the beginning, it had no concrete theme to work with, the concept of international Cures never reached its full potential. In short, HaCha didn’t live up to the hype assigned to it and had a lot of flaws that pulled it down.

And I’m just talking about what I know of the Precure fandom’s feedback, ok? Nothing else from what’s outside it. I still recall how everyone rejoiced when Go!Pri’s first episode came out, some even commenting that Go!Pri should’ve been the anniversary season instead. While Go!Pri certainly wasn’t perfect, you could already tell back then that it was going fare a lot better than HaCha did. Why? Because the writing for Go!Pri was better. That’s why a lot of fans loved it.

Now, I’m well aware that everybody knows Precure is just one giant commercial for the toys Bandai churns out every year. I’m no marketing expert nor do I have that much interest in the money-making kiddie aspects of the franchise…but it just makes sense to me that you’re more likely to buy stuff of something you really like, y’know? In other words, if a company wants their products to sell, their ad (the TV series) has to be good enough to convince their customers to buy them.

So if you were to ask me why I’m not interested in HaCha merchandise, my response would be because I didn’t like HaCha enough. If you were to ask me why didn’t I like HaCha, I wouldn’t say “it’s because I like Frozen better” because Frozen has nothing to do with what I liked or didn’t like about HaCha. I’d say because HaCha failed to generate any love from me as a viewer.

Of course, I’m not a kid. I’m an older anime fan with my own purchasing power and sometimes unnecessarily complicated thought processes. There’s a big difference there. But I think the same basic logic would apply to children anyway. If they’re not interested, they won’t want it. Even if Frozen wasn’t a factor in this case, sales would still suffer if HaCha couldn’t win over its audience. Probably not as severely without Frozen in the picture…but yea. The TV series is largely responsible for the success of its toys, too.

Finally, figure collecting. (if this is not relevant to your ask, feel free to ignore the rest under the cut. I’m gonna talk about it though cuz it’s the whole reason I have merchandise posts to begin with)

It’s like toy collecting except hellishly more expensive and soul-consuming (so don’t do it).

Unlike toys, however, which will always be made to accompany the broadcasting season, figures are a niche in the otaku community and their releases are largely dependent on how many fans are invested in a series.

Take a very recent example: Kimetsu no Yaiba. There is a truckton of new goods being announced every single month/week ever since the anime adaptation became a massive hit. More love from fans = more demand. So of course, the figure companies would want to jump in on that. It’d be dumb not to.

But then let’s put this in the mahou shoujo genre perspective. Unlike classic juggernauts like Sailor Moon and CCS or a series that was popular enough to bump it up into the mainstream crowd like Nanoha and Madoka Magica, chances for a magical girl series to get the PVC treatment are very slim because they don’t draw as much demand as say the shounen titles do. Yea, I guess we can call Precure “mainstream” at least in the mahou shoujo category because it seems like a lot of people who watch anime in general are aware of its existence (Yukari Tamura’s mom watched it so no more needs to be said there). Even so, that’s still not enough. With Precure being a children’s show and its main target are kids who would probably want the toys more than they want figures, Precure isn’t a sure fire brand that a lot of figure companies are willing to stake it out for. It’s not that there’s a lack of older fans in the Precure fandom (as pixiv can prove to you, oh lord). It’s because there’s less certainty that the majority of these older fans will absolutely buy Precure figures if they were to be released. Especially now with the increased pricing everywhere.

That’s probably why Bandai often skips over old seasons to focus on the newer, popular ones for the S.H. Figuarts. They will only make figures for a particular season that has a good profitable percentage. More recent and favorable ones like KiraPre and Hugtto would sell so those Cures will be prioritized. Older and less popular ones like HaCha and MahoPre are stuck on the waiting list because there’s no way to know how many of their figures can even sell.

And then the figures that didn’t do well at all regardless of which season (Sekai Seifuku Sakusen), those are dropped completely, never to be heard of again.

That’s just the sad reality of it. :(

Again, do keep in mind that I’m just humble collector and these are mostly speculations at best. I’m not an expert on this topic so my words should be taken with several grains of salts.

But overall, I don’t think my reasoning is far off. I mean, it’s just plain common sense. You make things that you can definitely sell. That’s all there is to it.

Why do you think Disney hasn’t stopped throwing Frozen in our faces?

EDIT: I forgot to add that since it seems Bandai still holds the license for producing Sailor Moon figures, then it’s highly likely they’re holding the license for Precure as well. This means that even if other figure companies with better reputations (ex. Good Smile Company, Alter) wanted to make Sailor Moon or Precure figures, they can’t because only Bandai has the rights to distribute products of those brands. That’s why there’s a lack of variety for these two series. Add that to the extremely slow pace Bandai takes in getting their so-so quality figures released, you can clearly see why Precure has such a hard time being relevant in the figure community even though it’s a well-known franchise that has been airing practically non-stop for almost 20 years.

[lamiralami]

TMA Retro 6: Squirm

Raze your flat to the fucking ground. Just trust me on this. And stop scratching, even if you feel your skin start to MAG 6: Squirm

“Statement regarding his sexual encounter” sounds like a line straight out of the porn parody of this podcast

(I bet in the post-MAG 160 world, in between the fleeing and the slaying and the existential dread, there’s a lot of entity-related porn being produced. The Magnus Archives fandom is nothing if not a testament to that.)

never lived in a city big enough to have much of a club scene, but Thursday night at a club just sounds incredibly grim? Thursdays are objectively the worst; it’s close to the weekend so you’re getting tired but still have a whole other damn day to get through.

(I have a personal vendetta against Thursdays because that was fluoride rinse day in school. we had to swish this godawful room temperature pink fluid - that was ostensibly bubblegum flavoured but actually tasted like sugar free cream soda mixed into children’s toothpaste - around in our mouths for a full minute, and then weren’t allowed the rinse the taste out until lunch. in the second grade I fell down the stairs on a Thursday and had to go get my ankle x rayed and I was happy to do it because it meant missing fluoride rinse.)

how many people would have just hurried past Jane Prentiss? doing that thing where, not knowing how to deal with our own helplessness when it comes to the suffering of the homeless, we resort to averting our eyes and pretending we’re not witnessing it? most Londoners, most probably. but Harriet, new to the city, sees a human in need and reaches out.  

there’s a consistent theme in TMA of compassion being weaponized against you. we really, really see it come to a head with Jon, but it’s present elsewhere too. it’s the worst crime of the powers, that they turn the best of human nature into the very means of our destruction.

and to slide slightly to the left and into urban legends again, good god this is the paragon. a young girl from a small town tries to help someone on the street, but this is the Big City where people lose their morality so of course she gets attacked for her trouble. and now, unknowingly to her, she’s been infected and is compelled to spread it to others. by going clubbing and having sex, the most terrible of transgressions for a young woman. this could have been lifted directly from a chain letter in the 90s. where is the entry on Snopes.com

there’s something almost classically vampiric about Harriet being physically repelled from going to the police. it’s like all those depictions of vampires where they burst into flames on entering a church

I am assuming the hospital staff did the usual procedure for young women seeking medical attention and dismissed Harriet’s problems as being all in her head. (you know how emotional we women can get!!! 🙃) but I am wondering if the many thousands of worm eggs presumably incubating in her body at that very moment would have even shown up on any scans?

I suppose I could look into diagnosis of real-life human parasites, but...I don’t...want to do that.

one of the methods of fear cultivation Jane Prentiss employs against Harriet is following her around to make her feel like she’s always watched. Beholding much?

I wonder how much of Harriet seeking out crowds of people was a response to trauma and how much was the growing compulsion of her growing worms

it’s a question that honestly casts the sex into murky light. even beyond what happens after, I mean. you can’t blame Timothy - “are you doing this out of your own free will or because a parasite has warped your thought patterns and behaviour and you feel an insatiable need to pass on your infection? “ was hardly going to factor into his consent checklist. and it’s a hard thing to judge in any case: whether avatars retain personhood and free will remains an open question, and though Harriet was not a fully-fledged avatar she was being affected by the powers. does that render her ability to consent null and void? aside from eldritch infestations, she was clearly traumatized by her encounter. does someone have to have completely positive motives in having sex to fully consent to it? is a desire for comfort enough? her choice ensured she spent her last moments connecting with another human being. was whatever pleasure she derived from it a good thing in and of itself, outside of its ramifications on Timothy?

“I was about to say something or other, but before I could, I felt something move. It’s hard to describe exactly but it wasn’t her shoulder that moved, it was something inside it, under the skin. It squirmed ever so slightly against my cheek.”

I hope Jon got to feel grateful for his asexuality while reading this statement because I am certainly feeling grateful for my own right now.

“[...] an egg being dropped onto a stone floor; a sort of wet, cracking thump.” a great description that makes me feel awful on the inside!!

“I could barely make out anything even remotely human in the pile of pitted and warped flesh that now remained. [...] They covered every surface: the floor, the bed, what used to be Harriet, even the ceiling. A thick, moving carpet of pale, writhing worms.” nope! Nope! Nope nope NoPe NOPE nOPe nopE nope nup nup nop no no nope!!

(I suppose there’s some irony in the worms chief vulnerabilities being both fire and fire suppression systems)

we get our second indication that Jon has information beyond the statements: he’s heard of Jane Prentiss before. he’s not as quick to believe this one as he was one involving a Leitner, but he doesn’t immediately jump on Timothy Hodge’s admitted use of drugs and alcohol on the night as means to dismiss him.

though he doesn’t seem to assume the situation to be necessarily supernatural, since his course of action is alerting the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. bet they’re up there on the list of folks who just love hearing from the Magnus Institute!

“I will say it does link up with the reported disappearance one Harriet Lee, a student at Roehampton who was reported missing shortly after this statement was originally given. She seems to match the description given here. Still, that’s not really what concerns me either, though obviously it’s a tragic loss of life, etcetera, etcetera.”

I am completely on board with the Good Jon Reclamation Train we’ve all been boarding since the finale. but. y’all. let us not erase his hard work and progress with displaying actual human empathy by forgetting where he started: Stone Cold Bastard

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Silhouette Chord of the New Warriors is a Marvel character that I’ve had an interest in for some time, and I finally got around to reading her stuff. And....well, I have an issue with it. I don’t mean to be persnickety and always find problems with how Marvel handled this or that, I don’t want to be THAT kind of fan (fandom complaining about everything exhausts me tbh), but like...I can’t help NOTICING, you know? The problem with how Silhouette is written isn’t really anything that’s done WITH her, it’s more what’s NOT done with her.

Silhouette is nearly always a background character. She never gets an arc or a story focused just on her. She’s usually just Dwayne Taylor/Night Thrasher’s girlfriend. She’s why Dwayne has her evil twin brother Aaron Chord/Midnight’s Fire as his nemesis, because said brother blames Dwayne for her paralysis, yet Aaron never has any interest in interacting with Silhouette herself, only Dwayne, despite this supposedly all being over her. It’s pretty obvious that she’s just a prop by the writers to facilitate their feud, but has no actual importance in her own right. She might as well be an object or pet that the other broke or stole. And like...this is a comic book, when someone has an evil twin brother, traditionally the brother is THEIR nemesis? Normally I like avoiding cliches, but making her brother only care about Dwayne doesn’t seem like a subversion in this case so much as just sexism by shoving him in what I’m pretty sure would be Sil’s role if she were male. Hell, Aaron even calls Dwayne his “mirror brother”, something you would call, you know, your TWIN! Like they’re playing it as if DWAYNE is Aaron’s twin and Sil is just...some girl. And this continues when Sil breaks up with Dwayne and hooks up instead with Donyell, aka Bandit, his half-brother. She continues to just be nothing more than the lead guy’s girlfriend, with nothing in her life besides that, and when Donyell takes on the role of Night Thrasher and gains Midnight’s Fire as a foe, he and Aaron end up as enemies and Silhouette just...doesn’t matter. Even though this is HER brother and he has NO past with Donyell like he did with Dwayne. And when Sil finds her dad, he has more of a relationship with, you guessed it, Dwayne! And when it gets found out that her evil brother has a daughter, and that daughter has to be rescued from him? Well, Dwayne isn’t in that issue...and neither is Silhouette! Nova and Iron Man save her instead! Sil might not know she exists! The biggest slap is the Folding Circle story, though. See, Silhouette and her brother were born with their powers, they don’t know why, they probably assumed they were mutants. In actuality, their father and several other men stumbled upon a secret temple of Cambodia while serving in the Vietnam War. The woman leading the temple, Tai, explained that this temple was built upon a well of mystical energy, and the people here had practiced years of selective breeding to produce children that could harness its magical energies. The last step would be to wed women of this temple with men from the West, and for those children to be raised in the West, so they would be children of both East and West, and thus conquer the world. All but one of them, Dwayne Taylor’s father, agreed to do so and married one of these women. Sil’s father, Andrew Chord, brought his Cambodian bride, Miyami, back to the states. Miyami was in fact Tai’s own daughter, and she knew her mother wanted to use the children of the pact in her own evil schemes. So she faked her death and that of the children, then abandoned the twins in Chinatown where they would grow up with no connection to her that Tai could use to find them. Their father believed them all dead all this time. Except of course Tai eventually realizes they’re alive, she tracks down all the now-adult children of the Pact and tries to fulfill it anyway for her own ends, and meanwhile said adult children have gathered into a group of their own, the Folding Circle, who want this power for themselves instead, and act as both foes to the New Warriors as well as allies to them against Tai. So...this is Silhouette’s origin, this is her lost past she never knew and why she has her powers, it involves her discovering who her father is and what happened to her mother,  this features one of her family as the main villain and another as an enemy-turned-ally for this, and yet...it’s really about Night Thrasher again. And like, there is reason for that--his father is the one who broke the pact and refused to take a Cambodian bride because he was already married, and Dwayne thus should have been a child of the pact like Silhouette and her brother, but was not, which was why Tai forced Sil’s dad to kill Dwayne’s dad and mom, and then went on to become a mentor to Dwayne, the child whose parents he murdered. So this is important for him and his story too. But like...it should also have just as much, if not more, focus on Sil. It’s HER past too, it’s all orchestrated by HER evil grandmother, it involves the sins of HER father, it brings in HER villainous brother, it explains why she has HER powers, why SHE has no parents, and SHE is a child of the pact, unlike Dwayne. But she’s treated as a mere extra in this story almost to the degree that the other New Warriors are. She’s not even inducted into the Folding Circle like the other pact children, her brother is, while Tai just kills her (she survives) because I guess having her brother means she can lose the spare? She gets some focus in that we find out about her mom and what happened to her and of course with Chord being her dad all along, but like...she’s not the focus or the star, Dwayne is by far. Tai and Midnight’s Fire and Left Hand (leader of the Folding Circle) are all focused on Dwayne. Sil is just, yet again, Dwayne’s girlfriend, no matter how much claim she has to greater plot relevance, and she gets very little development in this despite the revelations about her family. So like...she’s been around since 1991, she was a member of this team like anyone else, but she just never seems to get any real development. Maybe I’m not reading closely enough or just don’t understand/perceive it, that’s totally possible, but it seems like she’s a background character whose roles mainly come from which guy she’s with. And like...I feel like so much more could be done with her, given her fascinating family background, discovering her heritage, being brought up on the streets from a young age, her relationship with her brother and her recently discovered niece Julia, not to mention her status as a mixed-race WOC who is very visibly physically disabled as well as perceived as a mutant in most instances. Silhouette has a lot going on, someone just needs to use it, and it’s kinda bogus to me that she’s been neglected this way since she’s NOT actually a background character, she’s a full cast member who is just treated like a background character. It’s...weird and unfortunate, especially considering that she is the only WOC on the team and the only disabled member as well. I’m not prepared to say that’s WHY she’s neglected, just it makes it extra unfortunate and frustrating, especially since she’s SO COOL! I mean come on, SHE FIGHTS CRIME ON CRUTCHES! And when she gets a personality, I really love it, like she seems very hopepunk to me? There’s this one issue of Spider-Man where she says “ I know I can't stop all evil, but I can stop some. You only do what you can---but you HAVE to do that." and told a bad guy "It doesn't take strength to hurt people like you. It takes strength NOT to." which I just LOVE so much. And she’s really developed to personal growth, like she broke up with Dwayne because he was obsessed with grimdark vengeance and being Night Thrasher to the point she felt neither of them was growing...and she also once manipulated and lied to him pretty shittily to facilitate said personal growth. So she’s GOT a personality, and it’s interesting, when it’s paid attention to. Also, for what it’s worth, her disability is never handled badly from what I can tell (note, I am able-bodied so I may not be a good judge of this)---she’s never treated as pitiful OR as inspiring, there’s no “oh poor crippled thing” or “omg she’s so positive she overcomes her disability!”, nor is it forgotten about or ignored, she just uses crutches and that’s that. It’s never EXPLORED deeply in any way, but it’s not mishandled either that I can tell (again, from my privileged POV) And I think some writers are starting to remember she exists and see her potential; towards the end of the “Ironheart” series in 2019, she teams up with Shuri, Riri, and Okoye against her brother, who wants to recruit Riri and make her his heir! It’s awesome!

[can-u-imagine-that]

Title: Battle Scars, part 3;

Fandom: X-Men (crossover with The Avengers, both movie-verse);

Character: Peter Maximoff;

Note: Y/N: Your Name;

Warning: Cursing;

Request: Okay I have a long request, please bear with me (probably could be split into parts). I have been craving for a little crossover imagine between the Avengers and the X-men. Soooo I was thinking that the main OC or the “you” has a relationship with Peter and they are all happy and stuff (idk probably before Dark Phoenix, after Apocalypse) and their mutation is healing… they can easily heal wounds but it hurts them when they do and the Avengers want them to help in the fight with Thanos (1) They feel the pain of the wound and depending of how many wounds they heal it may actually hurt them. They are an old friend of Natasha and Clint. They end up having a fight with Peter because he doesn’t want them to go (I like to think the x-men did their part during the war too, so maybe you could come up with something) but they end up going anyway, without solving things between them and Peter. And of course they disappear in Thanos Snap and Peter grieves and all fast foward (2) the remaining x-men are helping the Avengers fight Thanos in End Game when the Blip happens and boom they are back and reunite with Peter and he matured a lot and was never able to let go of his s/o and fluff happens… sorry for the long request omg, I just got really excited and I really hope you like it and can do it… thank you so so much Author’s Note: It’s quite obvious but I need to clarify that I’m changing a lot of stuff from both Avengers and X-Men movies to fit this request. So this is only part one so it’ll manly focus on Peter and the reader BUT I decided to consider him and Pietro as two different characters since they are from different movie universes theorically and since, well, Pietro barely even existed in the Avenger’s universe unfortunaly.

And now the final part of this imagine, which I must say is one of my favorites. I had so much fun and of course I had to re-watch both Infinity War and End Game which made it even better. I thought about doing a smut, but decided to keep it cute and touching. Let me know if anyone is interested in a part 4.

Hope you all enjoy it!

Click to read part 1

Click to read part 2 (in case you missed it)

Things went havoc when the battle started and you lost Peter from your sight for a long time, but somehow you knew he had you on his all the time. You focused on your main task which was keeping yourself and all the teammates you could help alive.

Instead of depending on the gun all the time you used your powers recklessly. It was dangerous but you’ve never been really fond of battle. You shot enemies around you when needed but your main task was finding and healing everyone that you could. When your powers started to get you too tired you noticed you couldn’t heal them completely, but kept doing your best.

You were breathlessly healing a huge gash on Wanda’s side when Thanos army turned into dust. When the pain from the wound eased you managed to stand up, widening your eyes when you saw Tony Stark.

He looked barely alive. Half of his body was completely black and burned by the use of the Stones.

Automatically your feet took you near him, your hands reaching to touch him to try easing his pain. You didn’t know him, it was true, but just the fact that he sacrificed himself to save everyone was enough for you.

But someone grabbed you before you could.

A tall and slim woman in a blue suit, very similar to Tony’s red one, stared at you with her eyes filled with tears, her lips pressed into a tight line. You remember healing her once during the battle. Her name was Pepper.

“H-He... you...” she whispered, breathing heavily until she finally calmed enough to speak properly to you “You’re just going to kill yourself... in this state... both, your and his... it’s too much... I noticed how your power works... even if you were in full condition, trying to heal him now could get you killed...”

She made you step back from where Tony was. A boy who had introduced himself as Peter was kneeled in front of him, saying something but your attention was focused on Pepper.

“No... I-I... I can... let me try... please... please, Pepper...” you pleaded, shaking her hand off and making your way to Tony again.

“Someone, stop her.”

Before you could understand what was happening you were swept off of your feet and throw into someone’s shoulder. It took you a while to recognize Sam before he spoke to you.

“I’m sorry, Y/N... we can’t lose someone else...” he said, placing you carefully on the ground.

You considered trying to run, but when you looked over Tony again it was too late. You could feel it.

He was gone.

A gush of wind signaled you that Peter stood by yourside again. You had no idea of what happened during that time you disappeared but the pained expression on the silver haired mutant told you a lot.

You allowed yourself to stumble towards his body, wrapping your arms around his waist and burying your face on the crook of his neck. And you had no idea of how much he needed that. Your warmth was all he nedded at the moment. He closed his eyes, squeezing you tightly against his body.

During the next few days, in grief and respect to Iron Man’s sacrifice, the X-Men stayed with the Avengers, attending the funeral and helping them settle down again. Your power was really appreciated after you recovered completely.

You and Peter barely had time to speak to each other, as you came to learn how much the speedster became close to Tony, thus suffering a lot for his lost and as you grieved for Natasha’s death. You also noticed how much he changed. How different he was. In a normal circumstance the new Peter would have been a major turn on for you, after all, technically, physically speaking, now he was the older one in the relationship a place - which obviously you never thought would change - that used to be yours.

It was during a cold night where you woke up from a nightmare that you and him finally started to talk about all that happened.

“Hey, hey... babe... I’m here... it’s okay...” he whispered quietly, staring at your face while his hand drawn small circles in your tear stained cheeks.

“I-I...” still dazed from the dream you sobbed and whimpered, making Peter aware that this was the same nightmare you have had for the least three nights. Only this time was worse and you ended up waking. Usually he’d just cuddle you until you calmed in your sleep “I could... I could have saved him... I could have...”

“Sh, no... you could not. You’d die, Y/N... and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you again... for the third time...” he whispered, kissing your sweaty forehead and when he noticed that your breath was still erratic he sat on the bed, gently lifting you so that you were now sat in front of him “Hey, breath with me... c’mon...”

Peter knew pretty well what you were going through, oh, how he knew. He remembered the first year after the Snap. He would wake up just like that, but he had no one be there for him. So he promised himself that he would be there for you. He helped you ease your breath, staring in your eyes kindly, with only the light of the bedside lamp casting a weak yellow hue on your features.

“I’m... sorry...” you whispered ashamed.

“Hey. You don’t have to apologize...” he said immediately, shifting his body so that his legs were almost crossed with his ankles meeting behind you and your legs were hunched over his thighs “I went through this a lot... but I’m here with you. I’ve got you... I promise.”

Your eyes, still welled with unfallen tears, met his. Peter was dead serious and you couldn’t help a small chuckle.

“It must have been really tough years... this five that went by...” you whispered bitterly “I wish... I wish I could have helped you... when you went through this...”

A small smile found it’s way to his lips.

“You did. You have no idea how much...”

You stared at him confused. Without speaking, he simply tugged at the chain he had around his neck. You wanted to ask him what it was, but didn’t find the right moment before. It was always tucked inside his shirts, but you could see that he wore it all the time. And Peter was never really a fan of accessories.

You gasped when met with the familiar silver glean of the ring he gave you.

“I had this with me all the time... it was my most precious reminder of you. And also a reminder that somehow I had to bring you back because I had really fucked everything up that day.” your breath caught in your throat when you saw his eyes shining “I... spoke with you all the time. When these nightmares happened. I just couldn’t bear the fact that you were gone and I had not even properly said goodbye to you. I hadn’t said how much I loved you... because I was being a fucking brat...”

You hugged him tightly, feeling your shirt getting wet with his tears on your shoulder and suddenly the roles were reversed and he was the one being comforted by you.

“I’m here now...” you whispered sweetly in his ear.

“It was hell...” he kept muttering really fast “It was like hell. Like I was the one dead. And I didn’t even know if dying would allow me to meet you again. I felt useless and weak. I missed you... I missed you so much. Sometimes I’d even see you... except of couse it wasn’t you. But it seemed so real...”

“Peter...”

“And then I had already lost all my hopes Scott came with his idea and... and... I didn’t want to get my hopes to high, but I did. I even managed to get better for a while. For a while I felt like I could be that annoying Peter that everyone knew. Who didn’t give a fuck about a lot of stuff. Nat...” he choked a sob “Nat bet her life on the idea... and she was right... but still hurts so much...”

He was rambling so much that after his words started to mix with sobs that you could barely understand what was the subject again. He started to talk about Natasha and then about Tony and after that about you again.

“Hey, love, look at me...” you said, holding his head between your hands and resting your forehead agains his “You’re the one panicking now... breath...”

Peter snapped out of it, taking a final deep breath before allowing his hand to rest over yours.

“Sorry...” you both smiled a little, wiping tears and breathing softly, just enjoying each other’s company.

After a while his hands trailed towards the chain again, unhooking it and slidding the ring out of it.

“You told me to hold onto this... until you came back...” he said, gazind fondly at it “I didn’t expect it would take you five years...”

Remembering something you furrowed your brow at him.

“Hey... why did you said you couldn’t lose me for the third time? Technically you only did once...”

“For me it was worth two... the first time was after that stupid fight before you left... and the second during the Snap...”

“Silly... I said we would figure out things when I got back... you didn’t lost me that first time...” you said while your arms circled his neck.

“Well, you were about to meet a bunch of Avengers, y’know. That can affect any guy’s self steem...” he arched one brow at you and you giggled.

“Wow, so that means your ego actually wasn’t strong enough at the time?”

“Can we go back to being sweet, please?” he pouted, grabbing your right hand that was resting on his neck and roughly shoving the ring back into your finger.

You actually laughed at his attitude.

“There’s the Peter I know. Really sweet, huh?”

He smirked, but gently got a hold of your hand, approaching it from his face and kissing your knuckles. His eyes closed as he brushed the back of your hand softly against his face, feeling the coolness of the ring mixed with the warmth of your skin. Then his lips drifted to your wrist, peppering your arm with kisses, making you giggle until he finally found your neck earning a small hum from you. Then finally his lips found yours and his breath rigged because, oh my fucking God, how he had missed you.

You allowed him to push you back into the bed, his body glued into yours. You were so close to each other that you could barely understand where your body finished and Peter’s started. The kiss had so much longing into it and his touches seemed to worship you, caressing your sides and face as if you were the purest and most precious gem he could ever find. There was no malice on his touches, you noted, Peter just wanted to actually feel you were there.

“Y’know...” as if on a cue, he whispered against your lips, pulling apart just to talk and dive into your neck slowly “I’m having nightmares too...” your hands tangled into his hair, soflty messing with his silver strands and drifting to caress his neck and back “Sometimes... I dream that I’m waking up and you’re not here again... and then I actually wake up, feeling terrified that I’ll look by my side and find an empty bed... but then...” he pulled away, his dark eyes finding yours and you see nothing but love radiating from them “Then I look at you... and you’re there looking like a freaking angel... and I know that I’m the luckiest man in the world...”

“Aren’t you charming?” you smile and even though you have a light and jokinly tone he knows that what you say afterwards is indeed really serious “I’m glad that I have you with me... because these scars... these fears and dreams... they’re gonna be a hole battle just by themselves...”

Peter laid by yourside now, his thumb caressing your cheek as you looked at him. He pulled you closer, kissing your lips again.

“I know. But we’ll fight this battle together... and this time I’ll make sure we win right on the first try...” you smiled, staring lovingly into his eyes. His words soothing you more than any kind of physical comfort he could give you “But you’ll have to be really strong... it’s a... bumpy road...”

“I promise I will be...”

And this time you would keep your promise to him.

[shefightslikeagirl]

CORSETS AND STRIPED STOCKINGS: OUTFITTING THE ASYLUM FOR WAYWARD VICTORIAN GIRLS by She Fights Like A Girl

These articles are best viewed on desktop, but are mobile friendly. Please excuse any strange formatting on your phone browser or the Tumblr app.

This article was longer than intended and image-heavy, so it’s been split into two parts.

PART V: AN ASYLUM MUSICAL

“And if I end up with blood on my hands, Well, I know that you’ll understand ‘Cause I fight like a girl.” - Fight Like A Girl (2014)

And now we're back to the relatively recent past, when this blog was in its infancy and the fandom couldn't decide whether to stick with the forum or run rampant on Tumblr. Fight Like A Girl (the album) was still being recorded, but Emilie did a few live dates Down Under and decided to feature the title song from the unfinished album.

To my understanding, the Harvest Festival was another one of those concerts where the show was considerably downsized because of the cost of shipping props and set pieces. But where the South American tours hadn’t pulled back in the wardrobe department, the Harvest festival did. Emilie and the Crumpets performed in one costume for the entire set. But to make up for the lack of glam, EA debuted the first costume of the FLAG era.

This costume was worn for the cover art of Fight Like A Girl, and acted as the signature corset for the very first Fight Like A Girl World Tour (2012). 

“Asylum Secrets: All of my costumes over the years have been made to look as though someone had been murdered in them and come back from the dead to enact a fabulous revenge. To achieve this, I have employed techniques from melting fabrics with an industrial strength heat gun to spraying them with solutions that no human should ever breathe. In the case of the corset pictured, I burned it mercilessly with sticks of incense before painting the fabric to make it look moth-eaten.” - EA on the creation of the FLAG corset (June 25, 2018)

Speaking of the 2012 FLAG World Tour! While there were a lot of changes from The Door Tour and Harvest Festival, this tour is probably best remembered as a transition phase between eras. There were new costumes, but… the Rat Queen still introduced the show with 4 o’Clock. There were new set dressings, but… the shadow scrim was still main stage center. The new corset was mixed in with the Rat Queen ensemble and the structure of the show hadn’t changed terribly. New, but… kinda not?

Except for that Warrior Mohawk, of course.

Upper: WVC content / eBay listing photo. Lower: Making of the Warrior Mohawk from Emilie’s Flickr account.

This is the only tour where Emile wore a mohawk for the entirety(-slash-majority) of the show. Later concerts would see her removing it after the third song. There was some slight skepticism in the fandom with its debut, sparking discourse about everything from cultural appropriation to thematic relevance, but EA didn’t make much comment on the criticism.

“[The Warrior Mohawk] signified the transformation from victim to warrior. I feel that it is important for me to let go in order that I may go on to transform yet again and create new bits of wearable magic to surprise you with... This headpiece symbolized the birth of a new era in the Asylum…. This is the headdress of a tribal Queen…” - EA, 2012 eBay auction description.

“The Mohawk headdress represents the tribal, wild element of the sisterhood that formed during the imprisonment of the inmates, and shows that, once we escape and are on the rampage to take down our oppressors, we have indeed transformed from individual, helpless victims into a strong and beautifully terrifying tribal warriors.”  - EA for Natalie’s World, 2013 (x) (x)

Another costume that debuted on this tour was the MC of the Ophelia Gallery, who had his own brand-new number: Girls! Girls! Girls!

And as for its history...

(My best guess is that this photo originated in 2009, based on her hair.)

This character is a hint at the structure of the tour (and album) to come, where it would be less about the mad girls existing inside the Asylum and more about the story of how they got there, and what happened once they were interned. Allow me to stray from the costuming topic for just a moment…

A TANGENT: OF STAGE SHOWS AND ASYLUM CONTINUITY Spoiler filled ramblings of a long-time fan.

I’ve got a running theory that The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, in all its forms, runs in parallel to the concerts. But they match each other in reverse. [Spoilers for the book to follow.]

Emilie’s first concert of the Opheliac brand was in a small venue in Chicago, alongside Lady Joo Hee. In The Asylum… book, Emily-with-a-y’s final days in the Asylum were spent with Sachiko (a character based on and formerly named Joo Hee). 

The Opheliac shows of 2007-2011 were all about the women in an Asylum singing songs and welcoming others home. Cannibals, ballerinas, pyrate captains, nymphomanics -- they all ran rampant with no apparent oversight except from Emilie herself. Rats crept and crawled onstage unbothered; toys, crumpets, and cupcakes were in abundance, often served alongside “tea,” and there isn’t a single cell door in sight.

Especially in the earliest days of the concerts, the set design had an emphasis on appearing hand-made -- not only because it was, but because it should be for these girls. This was the world EA branded for herself: a world of freedom, without judgement, earned by their own hands.

In The Asylum… book, after the Inmates take over and kill the doctors, this is very much what they do: impersonate medical professionals and welcome sick and not-so-sick girls home to protect them, nurture them, and give them the best life that the Victorian Age fails to do. They take over the Asylum and make it their own.

Then in the FLAG performances (2012-2014), the storytelling shifts. EA’s Asylum world is no longer loosely themed with inmates running amok, but adheres to a more rigid storytelling structure, detailing the struggles and despair of the girls locked up in The Asylum(-with-a-capital-T). It mirrors the bulk of the content in The Asylum… book. The carefree, whimsical stage dressings shift to bars -- a representation of the cells and gates in The Asylum. There might be a bear tied to a dreary grey harpsichord; you might even see a single rat scratching about. But they don’t have dominion here. There’s no freedom. Just the story of the girls trapped behind the bars.

And now we’re stalled on both sides of the street. We’ve met in the middle. The concerts started at the end of the book, and ended at the beginning. 

Ok, I’ll put my soapbox away. Let’s get back on track.

BACK TO BUSINESS

Where were we?

Oh, yes: Girls! Girls! Girls! and new costumes.

So let’s jump forward a little more, because there isn’t much else to say about Emilie’s costume style in the 2012 FLAG World Tour. Moving on to the 2013 Fight Like A Girl: North American Tour (and following European and Australian tours), a brand new show was brought to the stage. Full new stage set-up, new costumes, and a full new setlist. 

A costume I’ll be referring to as the “armored corset” replaced the moth-eaten FLAG ensemble in the opening number. Both Maggots and Veronica were given new costumes as well, replacing the costumes they had worn for years. 

Armored Corset, with varying amounts of sparkled (2013)

Maggie Lally; Captain Maggot / Captain Maggots

Veronica Varlow; The Naughty Veronica

The show design of this tour had Emilie in the armored corset with the mohawk for the two opening numbers, Fight Like A Girl and Time for Tea. The mohawk and the armored plates on her chest and hip were removed during the 4 o’Clock Reprise, leaving her without her armor for What Will I Remember? as the narrative moves back to the beginning of the story, before the “Uprising.”

On the subject of the corset: structurally, it was outfitted with snaps to attach the armor and allow for easy removal (see corset detail above, bottom right). The mohawk proved a more difficult challenge to remove, as it was securely clipped, pinned, and secured into EA’s hair. This ended up being corrected in the redesign that produced Mohawk 2.0.

Back to the show! By the time we get to Veronica’s Dominant fan dance, EA has removed the armor corset completely in the interim to prepare for the Girls! Girls! Girls! costume change. After Scavenger, the entire cast changes into Asylum Inmate Rags to perform Gaslight and The Key, and then changes back into full costume for the finale. Emilie wears the full FLAG ensemble from previous tours to close out the show, with varying headdresses. 

But I’m skipping over something important.

The Scavenger.

Inspired by Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal, The Scavenger, a vulture-esque representation of Dr. Greavsely, appeared onstage for Scavenger. 

“This is the start of the original costume @maggotmagpie wears in our show, the one Greavesly wears in #AsylumMusical will be bonkers…” - EA on the Scavenger (February 7, 2016)

EA on Twitter/Twitpic 2012 (x)

The Scavenger was usually worn by Maggots as part of a stilt-walking performance, but if the venue couldn’t or wouldn’t allow for stunts onstage, Emilie would appear alone in the costume for the number. 

Scavenger has plenty of different “shows” (A show, B show, and C show for my theme park friends), with “A Show” being Captain Maggot on stilts.

Note: The Atlanta show featured here is a bit strange, as it uses the Stage Screen and the Asylum Bars during a tour that doesn’t feature the former. Emilie also isn’t in the normal costume for this number, using a personal scarf to cover her bloomers and bra.

“B Show” would be Emilie performing as the Scavenger, due to venue restrictions. This was actually the way Scavenger debuted, until Maggot’s first performance later in the tour. (See pictures and even more info here.)

“C Show” would be Moth’s performance in the final set of Fight Like A Girl tours, as seen below:

(There’s also “D Show,” (ha) which is this random dude performing as The Scavenger. I’ve yet to figure this out, but my guess is it was a technician stepping in at the last moment or a friend of EA from Oakland.)

Last, but not least, are the Asylum Rags. You’d think there wouldn’t be much to say here, but there is. Click on the continue link below to learn more about tattered costumes and the rest of the FLAG era, because Tumblr only allows 10 pictures per post.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE.

Fly back… PART I: Enchant and the Faerie Queene PART II: Drowning Ophelia PART III: Vecona, Seamstress of the Asylum PART IV: Wayward Victorian Girls

Remember to visit Part III and enter our giveaway! Ends 12/1/19.

[SEE ALL CREDITS AND SOURCES HERE.]

[fyrapartnersearch]

lit mlm originals & fandom ocs. high fantasy. pokemon. my hero.

Do you like—? ◆ mlm romance ◆ holistic in–depth character development ◆ two main characters ft. a rich supporting cast  ◆ the flexibility to explore multiple genres, themes, & aus ◆ consistent ooc communication but relaxed ic reply speed

  I’m looking to start some new stories. Usually I look for long term rps with a good slow burn plot, where we spend lots of time brainstorming characters and settings before we start writing. Lately, though, due to my availability and a desire to write more often, I want to shake things up—do something more casual.

I’m still looking for writers who share my love of character development, but I’m hoping to start out with a basic meet-cute / character a x character b style idea that we can jump right into and develop over time. I’m also looking for something with a higher smut to plot ratio, because—since I usually do slow burn and it can take months or years to develop the in character relationships to that point—smut writing is a muscle I haven’t stretched in a while. 

Plus, I’m gonna be on leave from work for the month of April and bored AF. Tons of time to write! 

  Basic compatibility info — what I’m looking for / what i’m offering:

  ◆ literate 2-5 paragraph posts ( i can easily go beyond this – but for sake of reply speed, i’m trying to keep it in this range ) ◆ approx 1-3 post/week frequency ◆ possibility for the occasional back-to-back posts ◆ understanding when breaks are needed, because life yo ◆ passion for character development over time ◆ average character age 21–35 ◆ loves to write romance and smut ◆ okay with non-linear roleplaying – jumping around to explore diff scenes ◆ cool with all male identified characters:  masc, femme, cis, trans ◆ or to quote lizzo:  i like big boys, inner city boys, mississippi boys, inner city boys. i like a big beard, i like a clean face. i don’t discriminate, come and get a taste. 

  Limits —  I don’t do:

◆ noncon ◆ underage ◆ humiliation ◆ watersports  / waste / filth ◆ captor  x slave   or   master  x slave ◆ anything that romanticizes torture, abuse, or rape Most kinks I’m down for as long as the context is consensual between the characters involved.

Premade Ideas —  I’m open to any ideas / plots / pairings,  so feel free to come to me with your ideas!

A tale of two princes  |   high fantasy  ◆ medieval or  modern (  think final fantasy xv  )

Prince A comes from a proud lineage of emperors who have united most of the known realm under common rule, bringing centuries of wars over territories and resources to an end — some say, for the better of all. Prince B is the last remaining heir of his lineage, the final kingdom to fall to the emperor’s conquest. In order to ensure his family’s continued loyalty to their new sovereign, Prince B has been “adopted” into the emperor’s household and given the superficial title of a diplomatic councilmember. On the surface, it appears to be a gesture of good faith — a symbolic appointment to show the empire’s commitment to creating a unified land full of peace and prosperity,  by giving the heirs of conquered kingdoms places of honor, where they might represent their people as diplomats, if not kings and queens. In reality, though, they are hostages: insurance that none of the former kingdoms will revolt. Amidst the political tension, Prince A and Prince B find themselves drawn together by an exciting mix of rivalry, curiosity, and taboo,  to discover a nascent friendship / attraction that is just as delicate as the union of their two kingdoms. 

Roles:   Prince B  | looking for Prince A

  Superheroes  |   inspired by my hero academia   ◆    modern   ◆    rivals  / enemies to lovers

Our Hero is a young rookie, fresh on the scene. In the past two months, the news has been dominated by reports of a new villain who has been involved in a series of break ins and robberies. The rookie hero sees capturing the elusive criminal as his chance to do good and gain recognition from solving a high profile case. Soon, the two are engaged in a thrilling game of cat and mouse — but when our Hero finally discovers the identity of the notorious villain, he realizes it’s a childhood friend. The two used to be close, but they lost touch during our hero’s training. Torn between morality and compassion, our Hero wonders where his friend went wrong, only to discover a curious pattern between the crimes. Could there be a reason behind the villain’s actions— or is he just finding excuses for someone he doesn’t want to see the bad in—?

Roles:   I prefer to play the villain / antihero  — holding out for a hero.

Pokemon league  |  fandom   ◆    modern   ◆    rivals     

Original Characters. More “realism”—more adult anime style handling of the world and its contents. In particular,  I love Sword and Shield’s take on the Pokemon League as a big sports industry. It’s cheesy, but I have a soft spot for the combination of self-indulgent celebrity status / “live your fantasy” tropes where the characters are sports idols, pop stars, etc  and the good ol’ fashion rivalry between two pros from the same field. In this case, two pokemon trainers who compete in the pro league. Character A would be an established pro with a big fan following, while Character B is the new up-and-coming rookie whose ambition and success have captured the audience’s hearts.

Roles:    open to any—!

Contact me:  lucifer#1522  on discord

[laughingpinecone]

Chocobox 2021 letter

I am laughingpineapple on AO3  

Hello dear author! I hope you’ll have fun with our match. Feel free to draw from general or fandom-specific likes, past letters, and/or follow your heart.

All requests are art or fic - for art, the stuff I like is the kind that depicts the characters doing something. I’ll always be happier with a very simple drawing of two characters walking together or sharing a cup of coffee than with an ambitious composition that looks like an Avengers poster. I also enjoy seeing them wear different clothes, getting a feel of what their fashion sense is like beyond their canon outfit(s). Or dressing them up for some outlandish AU!

Likes: worldbuilding, slice of life (especially if the event the fic focuses on is made up but canon-specific), missing moments, 5+1 and similar formats, bonding and emotional support/intimacy, physical intimacy, lingering touches, loyalty, casefic, surrealism, magical realism, established relationships, future fic, hurt/comfort or just comfort from the ample canon hurt, throwing characters into non-canon environments, banter, functional relationships between dysfunctional individuals, unexplained mysteries, bittersweet moods, journal/epistolary fic, dreams and memories and identities, canon-adjacent tropey plots, outsider POV, UST, resolved UST, exploration of secondary bits of canon, leaning on the uniqueness of the canon setting/mood, found families, characters reuniting after a long and/or harrowing time, friends-to-lovers, road trips, maps, mutual pining, cuddling, wintry moods, the feeling of flannel and other fabrics, ridiculous concepts played straight, sensory details, sickfic, places being haunted, people being haunted, the mystery of the woods, small hopes in bleak worlds, electricity, places that don’t quite add up, mismatched memories, caves and deep places, distant city lights at night, emphasis on non-human traits of non-human characters (gen-wise, but also a hearty yes xeno for applicable ships), emphasis on inhuman traits of characters who were human once and have sort of shed it all behind

Cool with: any tense, any pov, any rating, plotty, not plotty, IF, nerdy canon references, unrequested characters popping up.

DNW: non-canonical rape, non-canonical children, focus on children, unrequested ships (background established canon couples are okay, mentions of parents are okay!), canon retellings

Bone

Every once in a while I’m filled with love for this comic and its cast. I’m a sucker for all the dream stuff, dragon stuff, looking at early chapters knowing about latter developments... and cows. I’m good with all readings of the Rose/Lucius situation (who’s still carrying a torch for whom, lowkey couple or still pining, etc).

Cows & Grandma Ben & Lucius: Lucius weighing in on a past Great Cow Race? Something happens to a cow? Cows and messengers between them?

Cows & Thorn: Thorn please make your grandma proud, wrt racing or otherwise. Dreams of cows...

Grandma Ben & Thorn: future fic or any missing moment after the royal reveal?

Lucius & Thorn: I wish we got more about them! Pre-canon moment in Barrelhaven? Any sort of weird thing can happen in the Valley after all, maybe foreshadowing her latter abilities?

Grandma Ben & Great Red Dragon: any other encounter along the lines of what we saw? I love them both but I also understand why they are like that...

Crossovers

What it says on the tin, basically. Peaks and KRZ can so easily blend into each other, Peaks and Piranesi much less so but a friend once said that Piranesi is very much a Coop and when someone’s right they’re right.

Albert Rosenfield & Joseph Wheattree: either during some Blue Rose trip or if Albert ends up stranded after the hot mess that is s3. Being the reasonable one, the one who chooses to remain on the surface while others disappear in the depths...

Carrie Page & Dale Cooper & Joseph Wheattree: I am very fond of |Laura| and |Coop| traveling forever on dark highways after the end and they’re gonna need a gas station at some point!

Donald & Gordon Cole: something something burning hopeless dreams, but also federal interest in Xanadu, and how would that go?

Dale Cooper & Piranesi: oh you know, split selves and the reconciling thereof. Successfully, in Matthew’s case... ...less so in Coop’s, at least last we saw him. I’m interested in seeing them meet at any point in their timelines (and as any part or rejoined part of their selves, Dougie&Piranesi as much as Richard&Matthew or any mix thereof) under either canon’s metaphysical rules! (DNW: Richard being “the real Cooper” - I think he’s the part of Coop who is not quite Mr C but still sent all his warmth and empathy away)

Final Fantasy VI

What I love in this fandom is intra-party interaction. They’re all wonderful and don’t get to speak to each other that much, if at all. I’d love to see scenes and/or little adventures during or after the game! I don’t really have ships here so any unrequested character is welcome to feature too but I would prefer gen.

Celes & chocobo, Sabin & chocobo, Celes & Sabin & chocobo: you get the idea. It’s CHOCOBOx ffs, I’ve been meaning to request chocobos for years and then I always forgot! Full kweh ahead! Hit me with all the chocobo feels, what it’s like to travel with these big fluffy birds for better and for worse, what it’s like for Celes, what it’s like for Sabin (I just picked two faves who also traveled together), all your chocobo headcanons, during the WoR serpent trench leg of the journey or anywhere else!

Edgar & Gogo: in my ongoing quest to throw Gogo at the rest of the cast and see what happens, I thought it’d be neat to have them hang around Edgar since one’s an accomplished mime and the other is perhaps not so accomplished as he’d like to be in putting up a persona. Canon-typical Edgar flirting is a-ok unless it hinges on Gogo being a woman. I use they pronouns for Gogo but I’m good with all options. I’d like for them to continue presenting as inscrutably gendered, however.

Ghost Trick

I am very interested in various characters finding about  the erased timeline, but not getting their memories back, and having to  live with being told about what they did but never remembering it. Exploring the ghost lore is great. All  what-ifs welcome (what if they managed an acceptable happy ending but  didn’t reset the timeline, what if a different party went back to the  past and kept their memories, what if Alma’s ghost stuck around…) Also  open to AUs here, especially for generic fantasy or sci-fi settings or  the Final Fantasy ones I prompted last Yuletide.

For the non-canon sides of Jowd/Alma/Cabanela, please no  infidelity? I’d be good with either setting the fic during the game  timeline or some what-if thereof when the other spouse is dead or  unavailable, or simply keeping them offscreen and not mentioning them  (eg Alma/Cabanela beach day, Jowd/Cabanela precinct shenanigans)

For  Jowd in general, I do love my big boy and enjoy milking that size  difference for all it’s worth. In gen contexts too, it’s neat. him big.

For Cabanela in general, I am prompting scarf shenanigans, gen or shippy! It’s almost 4m of fabric... scarf used in clever ways, scarf getting in the way, scarf wrapped around one’s throat, scarf sticking out on a stakeout...

Alma/Cabanela/Jowd: maybe once Alma and Jowd have figured out he’s smitten and that they do in fact reciprocate... they tease him to death, slowly and deliberately? Is it even a Jowd romance if there’s not an exhausting amount of teasing involved, I ask? (sorry for repeating a prompt I got the perfect fill for last time - ...more teasing but this time with scarf, if that helps? Something with clothes? Clothes swap?)

Alma/Jowd & Cabanela: Cabs’ life is wild; his best friends’ home is a safe haven...

Bailey & Cabanela: Dance dance dance! Cabanela is not much one for _panic_ dances, but maybe other dances passed on in Bailey’s family could interest him?

Cabanela & Jowd & Pigeon Man: either as colleagues or Jowd trying to bring together these two weirdos who ended up meaning a lot to each other in the other timeline and thankfully didn’t get the same reason to bond now

Cabanela & Missile: off they go with their determination. And, critically, dog hair. The cat doesn’t shed for whatever reason but the dog sure does and that may just be the one tragic obstacle preventing an unstoppable partnership

Emma & Memry: oh so you know who ELSE has a penchant for romance cliches?

Jowd & Justice Minister: Did the Justice Minister ever go visit Jowd in the game timeline? How did he come to appreciate him as “the nation’s best detective”? Or in the new timeline, could Jowd’s insight help somewhat?

Jowd & Sissel & Yomiel: Sissel has two dads and they both love that cat very much. I’m all for the usual new timeline Jowd&Yomiel bonding tropes... with cat!

Kentucky Route Zero

I love the ending and I’d love to see its themes and setting explored. I’m all for exploration of any of  the game’s themes and for including any staples from adjacent genres -  wanna go full-on American Gothic? Dip into surrealism? Take a leaf from  Twin Peaks with tulpa / split narratives to explore the characters’  issues? I love AUs so that’s an option too.  Or of course there’s Xanadu at the height of its glory, an infinite  what-ifs generator. Were the requested characters part of it, what were  their digital counterparts up to? A Xanadu narrative would be great! I’d  also love to hear about any new spot along the Zero or the Echo river,  or an expansion of some place that’s only mentioned by Will in HATATE or  only gets a few paragraphs of text. Mostly, I just love all these characters so much and I’m going through the tagset’s options like a hyperactive cat. Any fragment of their lives will make me happy.

For Lula and all the artists in particular (and Cate, depending on your stance on mushroom hunting, I suppose): please do lean into their art if it’s something you enjoy! Exhibitions, concerts, reviews... accidental reenactments of Robert Frost poems... all the discourse on the arts is my jam, if that’s your thing.

Carrington & Clara: will Clara manage to get in one (1) word in between Carrington’s merry infodumping?

Cate & Shannon Márquez & Will: Anything about these three, but I was thinking, postgame Shannon getting somewhere on the Mammoth and reconnecting with Cate and Will...

Cate & Val & Will: Mammoth slice of life pretty please?

Donald/Joseph Wheattree/Lula Chamberlain: so Lula went back to Mexico. Joseph is pensive. Did the events of the night shake up Donald, or what will it take?

Lula Chamberlain & Maya: I Just Think They’re Neat, no real prompts I’d just like to see them interact. Where do their interests intersect? Land art...?

Shannon Márquez & Weaver Márquez: Reunited cousins please. No hard stance on Weaver’s ghostliness from me (what even IS a ghost, feels like we spent half canon debating that), again I Just Think It’s Neat that she’s there sitting on the steps...

Pyre

I feel deeply for all of Pyre’s main themes - literacy, degrees of freedom, the fragile time that is the end of a historical cycle, nobodies rising up to the occasion, the revolutionary spirit that goes toward building a better society, and of course found family, “distance cannot separate our spirits” and all that jazz. Thoughts about finding oneself at  the end of an age, as everything crumbles down to form something new. I love all the themes, the solemnity, the heart  of this game. I adore everyone in that Blackwagon+Dalbert+Celeste, so  if  you want to add a Nightwing or two to any prompt, please do! I also love  all the Scribes and find Erisa a compelling tragic figure. Out of  the other triumvirates, I’m “love to hate them” for Manley, Brighton,  Udmildhe and Deluge and would not like to see them featured in  sympathetic roles. My main interest usually lies in post-canon  exploration when applicable, but I’m also into various adventures during  canon. Pick a location or a place outside the map and see what happens?  As for the ending variables, I’d ask for a peaceful revolution and  Oralech alive, but no preferences for who’s up and who’s down, pick whatever  works best for any given plot bunny.

For any non-humans, if you like, do lean into their non-human traits! Curs gonna cur, saps gonna sap etc, different biology, different cultures...

Conversely, I regrettably do not enjoy an overwhelming majority of canon pairings so for Pyre, DNW unrequested ships period. The only exceptions are Soliam/Gol and Hedwyn/Fikani which I’d be happy to see featured wherever.

Barker & Brighton: it’s the sportsball bromance, you understand. I want to see these wildly incompatible individuals (Archjustice & Literally Exiled Due To Pissing On An Archjustice’s Statue) bond and maybe travel together due to their shared passion for the Rites and for Barker’s eventual invention of straight-up basketball

Big Bertrude & Celeste: who blinks first. They are... certainly two personalities, with primadonna tendencies perhaps (confirmed for Bertrude, but if I try to picture Celeste away from her job...). What if they clashed, is what I’m saying.

Big Bertrude/Pamitha Theyn: Pam returning from her travels, again and again, and finding a home in Bertrude’s lab, finding an understanding there...  Bertrude’s attitude being thorny in a way that’s just what Pam needs to allow herself to open up... also: snake kisses.  

Celeste/Jodariel: if the Heralds make it to the Union to get a shot at living a life of their own, and Tariq already has his friends and his interests in the material world, what’s left for Celeste? Maybe she could find herself unexpectedly close to Jodi, who’s good with distance and silence and also feels like the world doesn’t need her anymore...

Dalbert & Tariq: Any excuse for Tariq to hang out with the Fates for a little while, and treasure and be treasured by dear Dalbert...

Erisa & Volfred: what were they like!! What did Erisa think of this Reader and his Plan with Oralech, how did he approach her... how did they spent their time together...

Ignarius & Oralech: no no no listen, here’s the thing. If Iggy’s clearly got a thing for impressive horns and in general is quite stunned by other demons... ...I need him to see Oralech. Take this as seriously or as crack-treated-seriously as you wish.

Oralech/Tariq: I think there may be something about two individuals who got ultimately screwed by the final steps of the Scribes’ design (Oralech self-evidently; Tariq decides to rebel (!) to the planned end of his and Celeste’s mortal existences and stick around for a while). Learning to carve a niche for themselves...

Oralech/Volfred: waking up and remembering that the mourning that’s set deep in your roots is for someone who never died, waking up and remembering that the bitterness that consumed you had made up a betrayal that never was, finding each other through these crumbling walls... ...and/or Oralech being the government’s checks and balances aka the guy who knows Volfred and knows when to say Volfred _no_

Tariq/Volfred: Volfred’s zodiac sign is Cancer and Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so   there’s that.    I love how they both hold the other in the highest   esteem, especially on Tariq’s part since he’s the immortal Herald of   the Scribes and Volfred is, all in all, a history teacher, but listen to  him and you’d think the roles were inverted. I love my nonviolent canon  but could anything happen to either of them that may require a rescue,  and/or some good old-fashioned h/c? What’s something that could make  Tariq of all people lose it? How’s life 100 years on?  

Oralech/Tariq/Volfred: Volfred has two hands, and sometimes miracles happen twice? How do they balance each other, what’s the Oralech/Tariq side like and what’s Volfred’s perspective on it? Is Tariq a constant part of their lives or does he fade in and out? 

The Silver Case

I‘m all for the surrealism, big things being introduced and never picked up again, Rashomon’ing it up with six explanations for the same thing where no single one can be true, people dying and then popping up again like nbd...  maybe the thing I like the most is characters transcending their humanity and looming over the dystopian world like ominous avatars. Correctness’ first ending had me swooning, that kind of mood is unparalleled. I have played TSC, FSR and 25W so far and have vague memories of K7. I’m aware of the “everything’s connected” readings and they sure seem to check out but that’s not my main interest in these games. For FSR-focused requests, I see Lospass as a real island but also a metaphysical  place of transformation first and foremost, where strange things happen that don’t make sense elsewhere.

Toriko Kusabi & Remy Fawzil: What’s Toriko up to when she’s not chasing Chris? I think it could be fun to throw her at Remy and see the island from their point of view!

Tetsugorou Kusabi/Sumio Kodai: Tetsu picked one hell of a crush, huh! What’s it like in the aftermath of the games, when Sumio is Like That? How does Tetsu grapple with Parade? Is Tetsu an anchor of sorts for Correctness Sumio, who seems (at best) to be existing on a slightly different plane of existence at any given time and could disappear if you blink too hard?

Tetsugorou Kusabi & Shinko Kuroyanagi: I’m joining the “let these two be foulmouthed friends” masses - who’d be more fed up with the other’s nonsense, and in which ways would they be an unstoppable team?

Shinkai Tsuki & Tetsugorou Kusabi: Both of them end their stories in the shadows one way or another, and defending their protégé may have had a hand in their misfortune one way or another. What kind of understanding could they reach? What IS Tsuki up to anyway?

Christina & Catherine: anthro Catherine, as per the Placebo bonus chapter Yami, was unexpectedly charming. What was Chris before reaching Lospass, and did he also have a chat with her on the plane or on the island?

Shinkai Tsuki & Tokio Morishima: not unlike Tsuki&Tetsu, I’m intrigued by their 25W endings and I wonder if they could have a little lowkey, off-the-grid teamup maybe?

Tetsugorou Kusabi & Toriko Kusabi: a sweet father-daughter bonding moment on Lospass perhaps, both orbiting around Sumio’s nonsense in increasingly bizarre ways? What’s their take on the island?

Twin Peaks

Case fic but they  don’t find out jack shit, someone disappears, David Bowie was there,  it’s complicated. Fragmented, shifted, mirrored identities. New Lodge  spaces. The risks of staring into the void for too long. Gentle illusions. Transcendence. The moon. Static buzzing. Any title from the s3 ethereal whooshing compilation used as a prompt, actually. Twin  Peaks is all about the mystery to me, the awe of mystery and  unknowability and the human drive to look beyond and the risks of  getting a peek, and about shared consciousness and trauma taking  physical form in an uncaring  world. Go wild with the ethereal whooshing!  But I also love the human warmth at the heart of it all, and sometimes it’s enough to anchor these characters and let them have a nice day. A fic entirely focused on some instance of coziness against the cold chaotic background of canon would be great too.

Canon-specific DNWs:  any singular Dreamer being the ‘source’ of canon, BOB (let alone Judy)  being forever defeated in the finale, Judy being an active malevolent  presence in the characters’ lives, clear explanations for canonical ambiguities, ‘Odessaverse’ being the reality layer, the Fireman’s house by the sea being the White Lodge, anything that 4 hours Twin Perfect video says is the explanation of Twin Peaks 

Albert & Hawk: I love Hawk’s constant snarkiness in TSHOTP and I think it would work very well with Albert’s, so I’d love to see them either snipe at each other or work together to demolish... idk, Ben or whomever. They also share the peculiar brand of skepticism of someone who has been stewing in supernatural nonsense half their lives and that’s cool too I think

Albert & Windom: speaking of people who should snipe at each other...! Were they forced to work together at some point or did they bark at each other during an office party or? (and when did Gordon start pretending that Windom never even existed, incidentally?)

Albert/Coop: fiery early days? Dream meetings that Albert will inevitably write off as a product of his aching subconscious? Post-finale where Albert has made his peace with Coop not being part of this world and not even deigning to greet him, except one day Coop is back - with apologies? Post-post-finale where they’re peacefully living out their days as best as they can?    

Albert/Harry: did they tragically fall into each other’s arms in the wake of Coop’s disappearance? Did they realize they’re so good for each other, but neither of them was willing to give up their life? And/or was the wound of Coop’s disappearance too fresh for them to try to heal? Do they keep in touch throughout the years? Does Albert resign on the spot with a resounding fuck it after the s3 finale and rush to see Harry? Does he stay this time?    

Coop/Harry: Harry seeing his Coop again… somewhere, somehow. Maybe he perceives him in the woods, maybe Coop isn’t all human now. Monster cuddles very welcome. Could be canon divergence but could very well be post-s3. Harry getting closure for waiting all that time in front of Glastonbury and never giving up on Coop… they can live in the woods together…  

Albert/Coop/Harry: basically the sum of the three sides of this triad… give them peace, given them nice things, give them so much love… Coop finding his place in the world and making up for lost time… give time to these old wounds…    

Bobby/Shelly & James: I am very fond of all three of them and I’d like for James to have friends maybe? Shelly thinks he’s cool! If he and Bobby can get over the decades-old rift due to Laura’s affections...

Cynthia/Tammy: the FBI and USAF supernatural branches meet again after Douglas Milford’s times... what’s their attitude toward it (who’s the Mulder and who’s the Scully......), in what ways does their respective task force’s past inform their views, is there more hope for a new generation who saw the trauma of the past without living it firsthand? LET TAMMY KISS ALL THE GIRLS BUT THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR

Frank & Margaret: extremely bold of Frank to pretend nothing weird whatsoever has ever gone down in his life when he grew up in town and presumably was still around when Margaret became the Log Lady. I’m interested in this clash between his “not my division” attitude and an actual oracle. On the other hand, they may have things in common...

Laura & Monica Bellucci: go wild. I’m good with the wildest theories on what Monica Bellucci actually is/represents. Out of all the people she could interact with, I’m glad Laura was nominated. Lodgey nonsense ahoy!

Margaret’s log & Hawk: reportedly, the log stayed with Hawk and hasn’t said a thing YET. That’s what fanfic’s for, right?

[amandajoyce118]

2020 In Review

I used to end the year with blog posts highlighting 100 things, or 50 things if I wasn’t that ambitious, that I loved about the year. Usually, those things were pop culture things. 2020, however, is a special year, no? I mean, a pandemic, quarantines, political unrest, massive bread lines, natural disasters, refugees seeking better lives, stressful elections, etc. For most people, to make a blanket statement, this year sucked.

Most of the people following me know that I’m a freelance writer, but I have a full time day job as a fresh merchandiser for a food service distributor. That means I never “shut down” or worked from home or any of the other things people have been forced to do. I work a full day pretty much every day with customers who don’t understand why distribution has slowed, why I have “long term outs” of items like cases of hard boiled eggs or fresh ginger, why there are certain days of the week when they just can’t get chicken wings. I have people who refuse to wear masks, employees who forget to disinfect work stations, and a questionnaire I have to fill out before every shift as to whether or not I think I’ve been exposed to covid. And when I’m done there, I escape by writing.

As a result, I haven’t been doing much for fun. Outside of my day job, the media I consume is generally for freelance work, which has made this year really exhausting, no matter how much writing/stories is an escape for me. That’s why, instead of just things I loved this year, I’m going to give you a list of 10 pieces of media I’ve consumed - over and over and over again - that I’ve somehow not gotten sick of when writing listicles about the subjects. I feel like we all need to feel like we’re getting lost in a good story, or with characters we genuinely enjoy, even if, like me, we’re getting lost in those worlds with those characters to be able to write about them.

The Baby-Sitters Club

I was obsessed with the books, the ‘90s show, and the eventual movie as a kid, so it’s no surprise that I was counting down the days until the Netflix adaptation premiered - and I loved it. I’m not going to lie, I’ve watched this show from beginning to end four times this year. It’s such a quick watch and there’s something really great about watching these girls grow up.

Nancy Drew

Again, obsessed with Nancy Drew as a kid. More specifically, obsessed with the ‘80s case files as a kid. I read all of them I could get my hands on. The new television show is a little more Riverdale than the novels are, but it’s an interesting spin on the characters and stories we already know - and the representation of a diverse community on the show is fantastic.

Anne With An E

I’m still holding out hope for a movie to close out this show since there are something like seven books in the original series and the show basically only covered the first one? Where is the justice? But, this is another show I think I’ve watched three times from beginning to end because Anne Shirley Cuthbert is someone you want to be friends with, no matter how old you are. You also want her to come to her senses within about 30 seconds of being introduced to Gilbert Blythe, so you know, it’s a fun and angsty time.

Agents Of SHIELD

One of my favorite Marvel properties ended this year, and… I should probably be more sad about it? Like, I absolutely would have watched more episodes of this show if it had kept going, but I’m also incredibly satisfied with how the show concluded this year, which is rare for me. I’ve gone back and rewatched a handful of episodes for articles, and Agents Of SHIELD feels like a show that I’ll end up rewatching yearly because it’s one of the few shows where I’ve actively engaged in fandom for years and still genuinely love.

Timeless

Yes, I rewatched this gem this year while writing a handful of listicles, and I’m bitter that this didn’t get more seasons. The cast chemistry, the stories of those often overlooked by history, and the twist of a shady organization being closer than you think? It’s pretty perfect. I miss it. It’s a yearly rewatch already.

Pitch Perfect Trilogy

Every so often, I find myself in the mood to hear Anna Kendrick belt out a few songs. Pitch Perfect tends to win out over Into The Woods, and I can’t ever seem to stop at just the first movie. Pitch Perfect is cheesy and not as perfect as its title implies, but it always puts me in a good mood. I want more comedies about a capella groups, please.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

If I had to say where my love of serial storytelling, or my ability to engage in fandom, started, it was with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I had friends who would create their own team of Rangers when I was little, and we’d trade kicks on the playground (which got us in trouble), and yeah, as an adult watching a show made in 1993, this show is ridiculous. Full stop. But it’s also the kind of show that makes you remember that a whole generation was raised on the idea that even if the good guys don’t always win, they keep trying. They never give up. And that’s just as important today as it was then.

Teen Wolf

I recognize that this show is sometimes a mess and that continuity is not always its strong suit. Does that mean I love it any less? Nope. And neither does the rest of the internet since some of my articles still get heavy rotation even though the show has been off the air for years. It’s the kind of show that pulls me in, even when I already know what’s about to happen.

Leverage

Oh, Leverage. How do I possibly explain how excited I am that you’re getting a revival? I don’t think I can. Also, I don’t know why I’m talking to Leverage directly when I haven’t to anything else on this list. Leverage is about a group of criminals who steal from the corrupt to give back to their victims. I mean. It’s Robin Hood for the modern age. It’s a found family. There are love stories. There are redemption arcs. It’s just chock full of greatness. And Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison.

RWBY

I only really got into RWBY last year, and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite anime, though admittedly, I don’t watch a ton of anime. I love the references to fairy tales, mythology, and history mixed into this crazy fantasy world. I love that the villains are as compelling as the heroes. I love that in such a large cast of characters, I want to know more about everyone. It’s a fascinating show and some of the episodes are only five minutes long. 

Sailor Moon

I grew up in the ‘90s era of television, so, of course, I watched Sailor Moon after school. The English dubs because I’m a heathen, what do you want from me? I’ve really enjoyed revisiting the ‘90s series after watching Sailor Moon Crystal because, obviously, the ‘90s anime is not exactly the story that was told in the manga. It has such a rich mythology and fascinating characters not to mention beautiful designs.

Naruto

I’m going to be honest, you guys. I never thought I would be into Naruto. But something about it just hooks you. I got into it because there were always listicle topics that editors created for the show on the sites I write for, and I was curious. Unlike manga purists, I actually really like the filler episodes. I think they add a lot to understanding the characters. Also, there is no anime character I love more than Shikamaru in Naruto Shippuden.

New Girl

Okay. New Girl has really been the saving grace of 2020. I know this show ended a few years ago. I know that people should be ready for other things. But here’s the truth: I’m not really a sitcom person. I was as a teenager, but as an adult, I like my serial storytelling to be completely unrealistic and dramatic, usually. But 2020 has been so heavy that I needed the lightness New Girl provides. 

And I love each and every resident of the loft - even the ones I would never be able to stand hanging out with in real life. I love how much they all grow up over the course of the show. I love the one-liners. I love the running jokes. I love the musical numbers. I love the Nick and Jess of it all. In 2020 alone I have watched the first five episodes of this show about ten times. I’ve watched the show from beginning to end twice in just the last three months of the year. I love it so much I’ve even considered writing fanfiction for it (though I really don’t have the time and haven’t even finished old works over the last year). When this pandemic is behind us all, I’d actually consider playing the (arguably dangerous and would likely give everyone alcohol poisoning) game of True American just to see if my friends and I could get through it. 2020 has been rough, but at least New Girl is still on Netflix.

There you have it, a baker’s dozen of the things that got me through this year - mostly in television format. There’s something I just love about serial storytelling, and when it looks like the world is falling apart, it’s nice to have the comfort of happy endings and stories you can plot out yourself. Here’s hoping 2021 is kinder to all of us, and has plenty more stories for us to get lost in.

[worryinglyinnocent]

Star Force: A Guide To Rumplurians - Part Two of... Who Knows!

Part One, exploring the Rumplurian religion, can be found here

BEFORE WE BEGIN:

====

Rumplurians are a fictional race of aliens found in a fictional TV show, Star Force, as mentioned in my rumbelle fic Friendships and Fandoms, an AU in which the various Once Upon A Time characters were the cast and crew of this fictional TV show. Gold played the Rumplurian chief medical officer, Dr Stiltskin, and Belle was his make-up artist (and also stood in as Stiltskin’s human wife, Lacey, when the actress due to play her had to pull out).

Friendships and Fandoms can be read here and @licieoic and I also wrote a few Star Force screenplays which can be read here.

====

You can all blame @woodelf68 and @ripperblackstaff for this. Thanks to them, I spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about alien anatomy and reproduction and now, well, this happened. 

I need to thank @hedwighood and licieoic for some of the headcanons herein. Licie, I dunno, this might be useful for future Star Force episodes?

Anyway...

Are you all excited to learn more about scaly alien dicks?

I’m gonna take that as a solid yes! Without further ado let’s begin our second lesson in Rumplurians... anatomy and reproduction! As you’ve probably guessed, this post is not safe for work!

Disclaimer: Before we begin I’d like to remind you that this is all completely made up. No similarity to any actual aliens (or any aliens from other franchises like Star Trek etc) is intended. 

I’d really love to illustrate this essay with some naked Rumplurians but 

a) I’m bad at drawing

b) I’m even worse at drawing scaly alien dicks

c) I don’t have a scanner to upload said terrible pictures of scaly alien dicks

So you’re going to have to settle for some suggestive gifs and using your imaginations. 

*puts on David Attenborough documentary style voice*

To all intents and purposes, the Rumplurian doesn’t look all that different to the human, with the exception of the scales. When you look a little bit closer however... 

(I’m sorry I’m having way too much fun with this.)

Rumplurians are scaled all over. Yes, all over. They have no body hair, apart from that on their heads. (And eyebrows, because no eyebrows just looks... weird. We’re not quite sure where the eyebrows and head hair came from, but we think it’s the result of intermarriage with hairy races earlier on in the evolution chain.)

Their scales are not the same texture all over. The scales are generally smooth but will give a slightly rougher texture if rubbed in the wrong direction, with much smoother scales on the palms and soles (necessary for grip) and genitalia (necessary for enjoyable sexual encounters). 

Like a lot of scaled creatures, Rumplurians do shed, generally once a year. They don’t shed their skin all at once like snakes, that would just be creepy.

[Sheesh, I now have visions of Stiltskin shedding his skin on board Aurora while they were stranded and hiding it somewhere for Hook to find and freak out. Onwards because that’s just gross!]

The scales flake off individually, usually a good scrub in the shower with a loofah will get them all off. Their scales get greyer when they’re about to shed and are very itchy, so most Rumplurians like to slough off the shedding scales as quickly as possible. The new scales beneath are very sensitive for the first day after shedding. On the Rumplurian homeworld, it was perfectly acceptable to take sick days when shedding. 

Lacey particularly enjoys having fun with Stiltskin when he’s shedding. Many a happy shower has been shared.

Rumplurian skin is tougher than human skin and it takes slightly more force to puncture it; they tend to heal from scrapes and abrasions slightly quicker. Likewise, Rumplurian finger and toenails are much harder and more claw like. They’re fast-growing and naturally grow into points, and need regular filing, but they don’t like paring them right down like humans do their fingernails because the claws are a part of them and due to the way the nerves work, it can be painful to cut them too short. Mostly they file the tips to make sure they’re not sharp. 

(As has been mentioned in previous Star Force smut fics, Stiltskin keeps his index and middle claws clipped short. This is both for practicality and hygiene when performing complex operations and for Lacey, whose soft human insidey bits would not enjoy being accidentally scratched, and whose soft human insidey bits he likes putting his fingers into...)

(No, Rumplurian women do not have scaly vaginas but their inner walls are a lot tougher.)

(I cannot believe I just wrote the phrase ‘scaly vaginas’. Twice.)

Ahem. Onwards!

Since we’ve already veered into incredibly not safe for work territory, let’s stay here in the gutter! 

Rumplurians have long tongues (not like, chameleon long and prehensile, but longer than a human’s and more dexterous) and are very enthusiastic givers and receivers of oral sex. 

They aren’t cold blooded, they don’t need to sit under heat lamps of a morning to get them going, but their internal thermostat is set lower than a human’s and they come from a very warm planet. If they get too cold, they get sluggish. Which is the opposite of most humans, who get lethargic when it’s too warm. 

Lower core body temperature means... Yes, Licie, Stiltskin has internal balls. Rumplurian testes are kept in a kind of pouch inside the body, nice and protected from being kicked by... anything that might want to kick a Rumplurian dude in the nackers. However, the balls do drop down out of the pouch and hang down beneath the scaly alien dick in a human-like fashion (although they tend to be smaller than humans’ balls) when said Rumplurian is sufficiently aroused. The balls think “aha! time to make baby Rumplurians! let’s get to work, fellas!” and are very eager to get in on the action. So if you really want to successfully kick a Rumplurian in the nackers, wait till he has an erection first. 

*Worry has to go and take a break before she dies of either embarrassment and laughter.*

YES! ONWARDS! LET’S GET TO THE END OF THIS ESSAY BEFORE I DIE OF SHAME!  

Since we’ve got the lowdown on the downstairs bits, let’s move on to the act itself. Good grief, what am I writing here? *Worry takes a moment to question her life choices.*

Ahem. 

As you all know from my Star Force smutty fics (they’re on my masterlist somewhere), Rumplurian Baby Making is not all that different to Human Baby Making. Don’t worry, we’ll get onto the actual babies in a minute. Woodelf mentioned refactory periods and I spent way too much time thinking about them, so I’m going to talk about them. If a Rumplurian guy keeps receiving stimuli after having an orgasm he can be ready to go again fairly quickly - quicker than a human. However, if there’s kissing and cuddling and getting breath back time afterwards and his balls draw back up inside, then it will take him longer to get ready to go again - longer than a human. Rumplurian balls need time to recharge, dammit! 

And now for the Baby Making.

Rumplurian ladies don’t ovulate anywhere near as frequently as human women, generally only about twice or three times a year. They get super horny around this time because they don’t have as much opportunity for conception, but they don’t go mad, like animals in heat do. 

They also don’t menstruate because their womb is constructed differently. If conception is successful, then they’ll start to build up a shell like substance around the baby that grows with it. A full-blood Rumplurian pregnancy lasts five months, the babies are much smaller than human babies when born. When it’s time for birth, the shell shatters and the baby is born in a pretty much human way, although covered in pieces of shell. The rest of the broken shell is delivered as afterbirth, like a human placenta. 

Stiltskin can’t tell when Lacey ovulates, possibly because she doesn’t get as super horny as a Rumplurian lady would. He was amazed to find out that she does it once a month and to be frank he’s incredibly grateful for birth control methods. 

Half-Rumplurian babies are different and depend on DNA, each case is different. They follow gestation and pregnancy patterns of the mother carrying them, so Stiltskin and Lacey’s babies grew and were delivered in a human way, but a Rumplurian lady carrying a baby sired by a human father would have a five month shell pregnancy. 

Rumplurian ladies do breastfeed but their milk is very different to human breastmilk which can cause problems in mixed-race babies. Stiltskin and Lacey’s son Bae was fine with Lacey’s breast milk and it’s generally accepted that the human DNA in him is dominant. Their daughter Nim, however, rejected Lacey’s milk and also rejected Rumplurian formula. They tried a compromise whereby Lacey would express her milk and mix it with formula to create a mashup, but again that didn’t take and poor Lacey was frantic. 

Their Rumplurian friend, Dr Morgana, came up with the solution of giving Lacey some Rumplurian hormone supplements, which did the trick, giving her milk just enough Rumplurian hormones for Nim to be happy with, and my word, once she was happy with it, she was a greedy little girl. Lacey was so relieved!

The supplements made Lacey’s skin very dry and itchy as a side effect (since they’re designed for people with scales), but it was worth it for Nim, and Stiltskin helped by rubbing cream in all over... 

Right, I think I’ve exhausted my knowledge of Rumplurian Bits and Rumplurian Babies. If you have any questions, fire away! If you want to add your own headcanons, go ahead! If you want to write fic based on Star Force, feel free (just tag me in it because I wanna read it)!

If you think I should go away and think very hard about my life choices, don’t worry, I agree!

*Worry hits post and shakes her head*

[grouchycubiclejockey]

Why I’m glad Scandal is ending after Season 7

I have a lot of problems with Scandal. This was originally going to be a rant about the fandom, but I just have so many things to say about the show itself and the cast and crew, that I’m just going to wrap it all into one huge post. And let me preface this by saying that everything I put in this post, on this blog, are just my opinions and feelings. I’m not trying to say this stuff is fact. It’s all just my opinion. So if you don’t agree with me, and dislike what I have to say, then that’s fine. I’m not going to try to argue with you or try to change your mind. That’s not the point. I’m just airing my grievances about this show because this is my blog and I can.

I thought the first two seasons of Scandal were amazing. It grabbed your attention and pulled you into the case-of-the-week storyline. I love shows that have a case-of-the-week format, and this show was amazing at sucking you in within the first few seconds. They had a small, main cast and everyone was fleshed out with their own unique personalities and flaws. We had a believable protagonist, antagonist, (and whether you like Olitz or not, the initial President-having-an-affair-with-the-protagonist storyline was interesting. But I don’t think it “made the show” as so many fans are inclined to believe). It was interesting seeing how the writers weaved Olivia around the major obstacles that came with her being in love with the President of the United States. Her relationship with her team at OPA was dynamic and the team’s interactions with each other were fluid and natural. Back then, Olivia was the top dog and David was the antagonist trying to take her down. And he wasn’t this sinister, evil, stereotypical, cartoonish-villain. He was a believable, smart, down to earth, real-life character. Everyone was believable. You could find something that connected you with all of these characters. Sometimes I was overly-judgey like Abby. Sometimes I strived to come out on top like Olivia, or I felt like I was working against the impossible like David. The plot was far from simple but the show had a way of pulling you in and grabbing your attention, so it made you want to follow along. It made you addicted.

But the Scandal we have now doesn’t do any of those things. Back in the first two seasons, the twists and turns were tightly woven within the plot. They fit. Now, a lot of the surprise hook-ups and twists don’t even fit into the plot for the plot’s sake. It seems like the writers are forcing them in for cheap shock value. Liv’s kidnapping in season 4 didn’t have to be drawn out for 3 entire episodes. David/Liz was just a way for the writers to fit Portia’s character into the plot. The writers dumbed David down more than usual to make Liz look clever/domineering/cunning. She was a character who, in my opinion, should never have been made a regular in the first place. Moving onto Season 6, was anyone surprised Rowan was the one who shot Frankie Vargas? No. Rowan has been behind everything since Season 3. Granted, this time Peus was technically behind it, but Rowan was the one who was forced to pull the trigger, to nobody’s surprise.

Speaking of Rowan, let’s talk about him. I do think his complicated relationship with his daughter is something television needs. There are hardly any shows with complicated black families. So I think TV needs more families like Rowan, Liv, and Maya. Do I like that Rowan treats Olivia like his property? No. I don’t think he really knows how to love her and support her without treating her like an extension of himself. I don’t hate all of his monologues. Some of them, like when he told Olivia she had to be twice as good, and when he called Fitz a spoiled manchild. Those were great. But it got old after three full seasons. The constant, “Big Brother is Always Watching and Knows All,” aspect of his character is my biggest pet peeve. It’s  just gotten old for me. Way too old. I’m sick of it. But again, TV needs a family like the Popes, so I’m not sure which way I lean when it comes to Rowan. I feel like Olivia will never truly be free and happy with him alive, but I also think she will be devastated if something happens to him. So I’m not sure which way I lean on Rowan as a character. I do think he’s one of the few characters on Scandal who has been written consistently over the years, considering the writing took a sharp decline in Season 3 with no hope of ever recovering.

There’s a difference between inconsistent writing and character development. Quinn is one of the few characters who got a lot of positive character development. She went from being young, naive, and inexperienced to the confident character she is today. Abby, despite my dislike for her, has been written pretty consistently over the years. She’s basically a judgy, wannabe Olivia and always has been. Jake’s been written pretty consistently too. He can be nice sometimes and a bully at other times, but that’s inline with his character. That doesn’t mean I like the schoolyard bully aspect of his character. I actually have a huge problem with it, but you can’t say he isn’t written consistently. Marcus hasn’t been the victim of Shonda’s misandrist writing yet, so that’s positive. But other than those characters, inconsistent writing, and at times just plain bad writing, is a major issue on the show. Let’s start with Olivia. Olivia’s development has been ignored since Season 3. Season 3 is when things started going downhill for the show. This was when the focus shifted from OPA to the White House and B613, and it’s never shifted back. The show went from being about cases of the week and Olivia, to being about who’s going to be B613’s next victim? Who’s going to be elected President? Why is Mellie so hurt and sad? Let’s explore Mellie more. Let’s throw a few more regular characters into the mix who have nothing to do with Olivia. Let’s do another election storyline that spans two whole seasons and focuses on characters who aren’t Olivia. Let’s dumb down smart characters like Olivia, David, and Cyrus in order to make Liz North seem clever and relevant to the plot for some reason (cough, free advertising from Ellen, cough). Let’s make Olivia take a backseat to Mellie Grant. Let’s ignore the first two seasons and turn David into a stereotypical, nerdy screw-up who is the show’s designated loser, because average-looking people aren’t allowed to be anything other than jokes on TV. Let’s focus on all these spoiled White House characters and ignore what made the show great in the first place, Olivia and OPA.

And then there’s Shonda’s white feminism. Characters like Abby, Mellie, Liz, and Susan were pushed to the forefront of the show at certain points, and given unnecessary screen time while the writers ignored Olivia and ignored her own backstory and her wants, needs, and desires. Olivia’s story seems to be hurried along while they take time to make Abby, Mellie, and Susan into sympathy cases. But what should I expect from a show runner who had Lena Dunham guest star? Shonda and the rest of the cast need to stop showering that sister molester with praise like she’s someone who deserves to be in the industry instead of a whiny, white feminist who wants attention.

The lack of diversity on this show is another problem. It’s ironic since Shonda considers herself a bastion of “normalizing” television. 11 out of the 12 main characters are straight. The majority of them are white. The one gay character is a power hungry sociopath. That’s it. There are no other LGBT characters besides Cyrus. He’s it. How is that diverse? How is that “normalizing” television? You and your writers spent how many seasons using your black female lead for ship bait and then just sidelined her in favor of a spoiled white woman who called her “whore” for years. Way to normalize television, Shonda Rhimes.

And let’s move on to the real-life issue. The Terry BS that’s plagued the fandom for years. I believe some of the people pushing this fantasy are unhinged and potentially dangerous. They act like they’re privy to Kerry’s private life and make up stories about how they know her and Tony personally. That’s not normal. That’s not harmless. That’s defamation. It’s damaging to her reputation. So it bothers me when Tony and Tom pander to these people. I don’t know how Kerry puts up with it. She shouldn’t have to put up with it. And how can Tony interact with these creeps on Twitter like they’re best buddies when they post nasty things about his wife? The mother of his children? Because of that, I don’t like him. I don’t like Tom either. I don’t like people who dangle a woman’s private life in front of a bunch of creepy fans like it’s a carrot. Their actions help make this fandom the toxic place it is.

[drunkmado-blog]

A conflicted rant on Matsuri’s death.

While I respect everyone’s views on this issue and this is not a negative response to anyone’s, especially since I’ve seen a lot of well thought-out counterpoints to mine, I wanted to add some of my thoughts to the discussion.

I don’t necessarily agree in full with all the harsher critiques about Matsuri’s death scene. I think it was important that he died this arc rather than last to emphasize the transition of power between the main Washuu family line and Furuta/V. Other than the Marude revenge narrative and the toxic love narrative that could have formed between him and Urie, Matsuri had wrapped up his major roles in the story. Would I have liked to see him have more screentime in terms of him coming to grips with losing power? Absolutely. Was Matsuri a well-written character that had great potential that wasn’t fulfilled? You fucking bet.  

I think that Ishida generally has the issue of caring too much about his characters and maybe overdeveloping them for what he intends for their role in the major plot, though. To me, the problem is less that Ishida is being lazy with the plot and is mindlessly killing off characters, and more that Ishida got really into developing these characters’ backstories despite the fact that the development wasn’t necessary for their planned arcs. Which leads me to keep asking the question: how much is it poor writing on Ishida’s part, and how much is it that we as an audience get too attached to these minor characters who are going to die? 

I think it’s a mix of both. Ishida has so many characters within this story that it’s difficult to manage their plots effectively. :re has a cast twice the size of the original series’, and Ishida’s trying to complete all of their narratives within the same timeframe. Because of that, sometimes his well-developed characters have seemed flatter than usual in recent arcs. At the same time, though, I think that we’ve spent so much time as a fandom hyping all of these characters up that we all are disappointed when they don’t meet the level of potential that we want them to. For instance, the Houji vs. Tatara scene didn’t seem like a trainwreck to me; I thought it was a fitting ending for two characters who were more than one-dimensional, had backstories, but didn’t play overwhelming roles/have character arcs within the series. I saw the anticlimactic aspects of the fight as actually better for the story’s themes than if we had a more satisfying/drawn-out fight for either of them. However, we had been thinking about this tension between these two characters since the end of TG. While we anticipated the fight, we would go over in our heads all the amazing and mind-blowing ways their encounter could have gone.

And I see myself get like this all the time with the series. I weirdly feel salty on occasion with Akira’s recent story arc, since it was her taking the stereotypical hit and serving as the damsel-in-distress plot point the past arc and a half. However, when I think more about it, it’s not an inherently bad (although generic) situation that weakens her as a character. In any case, I think Akira needs to be shown in more vulnerable situations to further her character development at this stage, and after she recovers this may be the right gateway to that. Characters need to be able to move the plot forward, and Ishida honestly doesn’t put plot over characters often enough in :re.

I think Matsuri’s a much more difficult situation, because he did have some unresolved feelings before his death, and we didn’t get to see them contemplated. He was built as a bigger minor character that should have gotten that one page or panel of reflection. That is undoubtedly a poor writing decision (although I can’t say that I don’t partially enjoy the dark humor route he took with Matsuri’s death scene).

I think there should also be another frame of mind when examining Matsuri’s death and missed potential outside of this lack of reflection, though. Not all more serious and unresolved aspects of characters essentially need to have entire arcs of development. It’s not essentially bad writing to have character traits introduced that don’t ultimately affect the story. Based on how the story has progressed so far, I can imagine that Matsuri first began as a plot device rather than as a developed character inserted into the plot. The Washuu/CCG plot line is so essential to the series that he was most likely always planned to serve his role as the proper CCG heir and die here. If that is the case, Matsuri could have been a more one-dimensional fodder character, and I’m happy that he is not. Even if it was executed in a flawed manner, I would prefer Ishida’s characterization of Matsuri before this anticlimactic death scene over a flatter Matsuri.